Social Media Strategies Conference

I know the folks at the Silicon Valley Web Guild and they happen to be putting together the Social Media Strategies Conference in San Francisco, October 29-30. They’ve got quite a line up of social media experts from Jive, Beeline Labs, Intuit, Microsoft and Intel participating in the event and it looks like the list is growing. If you’re wondering how to leverage social media, you’re a strategist, a marketer or a Web professional, this may be worth checking out.

In search of early adopters

I talk a lot about early adopters but it’s a term that’s hard to define in some ways. To a great extent, it’s a self-defining group that changes for any particular technological innovation. But the most interesting thing about early adopters is that, in reality, there are very few of them. Fewer than we might like to admit.

A well-known diffusion theory by Everett Rogers places early adopters on the adoption curve between innovators and mass adoption (early majority, late majority and laggards). We frequently refer to this curve to define the majority of alphaWorks users who:

• Explore and experiment with the latest innovations
• Tolerate bugs and alpha releases to test out early implementations
• Impact the design and development of technology through feedback
• Impact mainstream adoption of ideas and products

While I’m continually reviewing business cases for unproven technologies to be offered to early-adopter communities on alphaWorks, this knowledge doesn’t always make me an early adopter. It’s true that I frequently know about new artists and songs before my friends. But in other things, perhaps like many of us, I fall into the early majority.

I’ve known colleagues who thought up ideas long ago that today are being implemented by someone else. And friends addicted to new technology, who constantly accumulate a plethora of tools and gadgets… willing to give things at least one shot for the sake of innovation or novelty. They are the Early Adopters. Technoholics. Technologically promiscuous. The labels go on… but these are the kind of people that we rely on at alphaWorks for our business model to succeed.

So, where do you sit on the adoption curve?

Recruiting techs from emerging markets

Like much of the tech industry, alphaWorks looks to emerging and growth markets to source technology. While many of our strategic techs come from primary labs in the U.S. like Almaden and T.J. Watson Research Centers, we’re also seeing many come from international labs in China, India and one that I have a particular interest in — the Haifa Research Lab.

Outside of the U.S., Israel is a hub of venture capital and investment growth, as well as entrepreneurial activity. Local as well as heavy international VC funds are helping to fuel startup development especially in telecom and wireless technology.

Historically, we’ve showcased innovative projects from Israel including one of our top downloads of all time, the IBM Toolkit for MPEG-4, which was a joint development between Haifa and T.J. Watson.

This year, I’m excited about a SaaS offering from Haifa/Almaden called PHIAD, an on-demand system that enables the public health industry to integrate and share data from public health institutions across proprietary systems and political boundaries. If adopted widely, this service has the potential to impact the management of global health information.

And there’s more in the pipeline from Silicon Wadi.

The reincarnation of Muxtape

I love music. And when I discovered Muxtape earlier this year, I fell in love immediately. It was a great evolution of the classic mixtape idea. Now, instead of burning CDs of my favorite mixes for friends, I could share them online, letting people simply and easily stream my favorite songs. Of course, no sooner had I discovered it, I also knew that the site was too good to be true…. And for the last couple of months, Muxtape has been down, caught in unfruitful legal discussions with the RIAA, leading to its demise in its current form.

I was sad to see Muxtape go — the model provided an ease and simplicity that many music sites out there today lack. And it was a good example of the web’s capacity to allow individual expression through a collective experience. I was exposed to fantastic new songs through other people’s playlists that I might otherwise have never discovered. Justin Oullette, creator of Muxtape recently issued a letter on his site recounting his experiences over the past few weeks, and his hopes for a new Muxtape. It will be interesting to see what a reincarnation of this music service will look like, Here’s hoping…

Profile of a marketing guru: Seth Godin

Here’s a great profile of Seth Godin, marketing guru and blogger supreme, whose books, including the popular Permission Marketing, The Dip and Small is the New Big help companies — big and small — navigate and succeed in the new marketing landscape.

The open innovation marketplace

I know you’re probably tired of hearing about marketplaces — an overused term right up there with ecosystems — but they’re a popular model, especially those that bring together ’seekers’ and ’solvers’ to collaborate on business problems for financial incentives. Apple, American Express and other large companies are already using variations on this model to source development talent and related services.

Innocentive is a good example of an open innovation marketplace with a broad focus on business and not-for-profit goals, allowing individuals and companies to connect on everything from life sciences to business development to game theory. If you’re up for another marketplace, Innocentive is worth a look.

A collaborative approach to Web accessibility

On my last visit to IBM’s Tokyo Research Lab, I had the pleasure of meeting Chieko Asakawa, lead researcher behind many of IBM’s breakthroughs in accessibility technology. She was also inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame a few years ago.

The latest in her string of projects on alphaWorks is the Social Accessibility Project — a service that gathers feedback from the community to make Web pages more accessible to people with disabilities. This project is gaining in popularity and getting a lot of media attention because of its collaborative approach to addressing accessibility using features such as comments, discussions, measurements, and incentives to get the community involved. Definitely worth checking out.

Free business resources from Caltech

I’m lucky to live a block away from the picturesque campus of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech is a powerhouse research school and boasts close relationships with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and many engineering firms clustered nearby.

The beautiful campus, where Einstein also once taught, is more like a park. I’ve had the opportunity to take executive-level courses at Caltech that have been valuable for my work. And, on an ongoing basis, I like to take advantage of the free webcasts and workshops that Caltech offers on topics ranging from intellectual property to technology management to innovation through acquisition.

Business Innovation Factory

More organizations of this nature are popping up: a model that allows the private and public sector to collaborate on new projects that may not have been possible if pursued alone. I highlight the Business Innovation Factory in particular because it’s really a great place to learn about new business models, and creative new approaches to doing business. They also have events like the Collaborative Innovation Summit coming up next month in Rhode Island.

Global Innovation Outlook: The future of water

I frequently keep tabs on the Global Innovation Outlook. If you’re not familiar with the GIO, its an IBM-led consortium that brings together innovators across industry and discipline to tackle urgent global problems. The topics span technological and social problems, for example, the continuing challenges affecting the continent of Africa. The most recent topic invites creative thinking about our impact on another urgent problem: the future of water and the oceans.