Topic: Business
Social networking can transform communication and build powerful connections, but getting it right in the enterprise takes a special touch. David Bankston shares his experience as a technologist and entrepreneur in this lively discussion of ways in which software-as-service and social media can help businesses manage customer feedback and build brands and communities on line.
Many of the large technology companies are well known for purchasing new, innovative products developed by smaller companies. As part of his work at Yahoo, Bradley Horowitz leads in-house teams trying to advance new ideas from within. He joins Phil and Scott to talk about Yahoo's development plans and how the company hopes to grow the next Flickr internally. He also talks about Yahoo's Hack Yahoo program, where developers are given the opportunity to take ideas from idea to prototype in a very short period.
For many years, only very large businesses could afford to create and deploy innovative voice applications, such as looking up account balances or tying voice applications into their existing business applications. Now, with Asterisk and other open-source applications, the field is wide open for businesses of all different sizes. Jared Smith, Community Relations Manager of Digium, the creator and primary developer of Asterisk, the industry's first open source telephony platform, joins Phil and Scott to discuss the present and future of open source telephony.
Some technology companies founded and headquartered in the United States aren't outsourcing to India and China, but are spreading technology centers around the world instead. Ron Levy, CTO of BEA Systems Inc., explains to Dr. Moira Gunn how BEA is making things work when their staff works in wildly different time zones.
The top software developers are ten times as productive as average developers. You can't afford not to hire them. But if you haven't been reading Joel Spolsky's books or blog, you probably don't know how to find them and make them want to work for you. Joel joins Phil, Scott, and Ben in a discussion of how to recruit and interview technical talent. Joel talks about how to develop a useful intern program and how best to treat employees to make them both happy and productive.
Current mobile phones and handsets bear witness to the the spectacular advances in hardware development of the past twenty years. However, the software within these handsets has not evolved at the same rate and is now a limiting factor in future development. Trolltech's Benoit Schillings issues a call for action to mobile phone developers and explains how open source software can lead to rapid innovation, a quicker route to market, and increased commercial opportunities for handset manufacturers.
In this conversation Jon Udell and Dr. Moira Gunn discuss what it's like for a computer scientist and engineer to venture into the world of biotechnology, why the decade of biotech may finally have arrived, what makes biotech entrepreneurs special, and how we can use Internet media to enlarge the public understanding of science and technology.
Open source continues to grow as a viable alternative for enterprises and Sun Microsystems is a leading proponent of its use. Simon Phipps, Chief Open Source Officer for the company, joins Phil, Scott, and Ben to discuss Sun's activities. Simon first reviews his somewhat unusual job title, talking about how he came into the work. He assesses how open source is growing worldwide and how important it is to nuture these new markets.
There is no such thing as a mobile Internet -- there is just the same Internet for everyone -- no matter how you access it. Nokia has worked to bring proven internet business models to the pockets of the world. Tero Ojanpera, the company's CTO, reviews how the technology is in place to increase the penetration of the internet business from the PC scale (millions) to mobile scale (billions).
Whirlpool Corporation is a global manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances. Sara Ulius-Sabel, Metrics Manager for the company, presents a glimpse into Whirlpool's product development process through the lens of designing "Useful, Usable, and Desirable" products. She presents examples of how the company creates their appliances and describes design metrics as one of the tools that Whirlpool uses to drive their multi-brand portfolio.
