Cyberposium @HBS Keynote

Cyberposium is the premier MBA technology conference in the world. Held annually at Harvard Business School, Cyberposium facilitates an interactive network of current and future business leaders to engage in a provocative dialog about technology and its impact on business and society.

Here is a wrapup of the 2 keynotes for the day:

The day started with Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of Research In Motion speaking about BlackBerry market share and future strategy. However, throughout the keynote he alluded at taking names of any of the rivals. The following stats were talked about:

BlackBerry has 32M subscribers, 200K developers, 500 carriers.

Blackberry moves about 4 petabytes of data per day, compared to 8 petabytes moved on the internet.

6 out of 10 cellphones best seller phones in North America are BlackBerry.

He continued with the message that RIM is fundamentally a services middleware company in an enabling role. The 2 things he repeatedly talked about were constructive alignment with the ecosystem and deep rich application integration. He reinforced that RIM is not just an app company but it's core competency is the enabling role. The focus is on a transformative and contextualized user experience. Balsillie framed wireless and mobility as an multivariant scarcity optimization model. The strategy is that the seamless intersection between applications and core should be delivered as a managed service. This essentially helps provide a transformative and contextualized user experience.

His best quote I liked: "I make radios for 100 bucks and sell them for 200 bucks"


Chad Hurley followed it after lunch. Here are some stats which came up during his talk:

YouTube serves 1 billion videos a day.

It went from 67 to 600 people after the Google acquisition which helped them grow to where they are today

A YouTube video that gets shared gets 7 times more views

Only 3 countries are blocking YouTube today - Iran, Turkey, and China

The conversation with HBS Prof. continued discussing YouTube's mantra of Find,Follow,Feed Chad mentioned how the integration of WiFi with TV will change the industry whereas set-top boxes are short term fix. He gave the example of how in future buying a TV without WiFi will be the equivalent of someone buying a laptop today without wireless capabilities. Also, YouTube will be providing transaction capabilities to any partner - big or small. Implementing this transaction model for will help earn revenue for partners. He mentioned that in future, everything will be on-demand/IPTV and Hulu won't see real traction until it's connected to the TV.

Focus on audience, build better tools, create ad solutions: 3 things we do ~ Chad

Advice to entrepreneurs: Don't start with PowerPoint or an organizational chart but start with a whiteboard and go to the product.

And finally the best quote from Chad that I liked: "Start building something before you start pitching."

Social Media Explained

Social media opens up unimaginable possibilities for the individual and the organization both alike. Here are 2 interesting links which explain the concept.

Social Media Marketing - zero to educated in minutes.

View more presentations from shannonboudjema.

Social Media and Pharma

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently held a public hearing to provide an opportunity for broad public participation and comment on promotion of FDA-regulated medical products (including prescription drugs for humans and animals, prescription biologics, and medical devices) using the Internet and social media tools. The two day hearing - which was live cast and Tweeted - wass intended to help guide the FDA's policy decisions, especially in the areas of social media tools and search.

FDA is seeking participation in the public hearing and written comments from all interested parties, including, but not limited to, consumers, patients, caregivers, health care professionals, patient groups, Internet vendors, advertising agencies, and the regulated industry. This meeting and written comments are intended to help guide FDA in making policy decisions on the promotion of human and animal prescription drugs and biologics and medical devices using the Internet and social media tools. You can submit your comments on the FDA website here.

Here is an intresting background article to read:
Why Pharma Stays Stuck in the Web's Past

And if you missed #fdasm? Here is the complete twitter transcript for the 2 days: http://bit.ly/2p6Vvr

FDA will likely issue a draft guidance document following the comment period for the public hearing.

Google FDA Public Hearing

Complete coverage of the FDA public hearings on internet and social media

.. and some more related articles from Reuters and HBR.
FDA tackles gray area of social media

The FDA, Big Pharma, and Social Media: What's the Right Rx?

Seeding innovation in the water sector

The Ripple Effect project is a collaboration between IDEO, Acumen Fund, and organizations in India and Kenya to improve access to safe drinking water for over 500,000 of the world's poorest and underserved people. This 7-minute video shows the Ripple Effect project in India, working with 5 Indian organizations to pilot new product, service, and business ideas.

The Ripple Effect in India, by IDEO and Acumen Fund from IDEO on Vimeo.

Read more about it here on IDEO.

Mass Innovation November

Mass Innovation Nights connect Massachusetts-based innovators with the marketplace using social media. I got a chance and time to visit this event and it was totally worth it.

Here is a rough synopsis about the companies that were represented and I visited today evening.

The Risk-Wise Investor
They were selling this book about understanding and managing investment uncertainty and risk.

Conversion Associates
First impression - something similar to Google Analytics although had different functionality.

Implementation Factory, Inc.
Document sharing and online collaboration tool.

Lime Design, Inc.
It is a handheld drink rimmer, Yes, that's right! After all, it was a Mass Innovation Night! You press a button and the device dispenses your spice (5 flavors) to rim your cocktail your way.

Magic Toob
Innovative idea to hold the bulb.

Teenlife
It is a way for parents and middle/high school students to find opportunities beyond school. They aggregate volunteer and community service opportunities, summer programs, teen events, etc.

Textaurant
Web based application for restaurants that sends (SMS) updates on the wait time and notifies customers when the table is ready.

Think Flood They had the RedEye system which they call the personal remote. It allowes the iPhone and iPod touch to control nearly any TV/DVD and other device that receive standard infrared signals. The way it works: iPhone/iPod acts as the controller and the RedEye device acts as the Wi-Fi to infrared bridge.

uTest
It is crowdsourced software testing. They have a community of 20000+ testers for everything form web apps to desktop/gaming apps.

V.i. Labs
It combines piracy business intelligence and software protection technology to prevent theft of software intellectual property, recover sales revenue and avert reputation damage.


Looking forward to December 9th for the next round to meet innovative companies and entrepreneurs.

Seth Goldman - Honest Tea

Seth Goldman, TeaEO of Honest Tea spoke at a Net Impact event for Babson, Olin, and Wellesley College students on September 23, 2009

World-Changing Business-Plan Competitions

1) The Imagine H2O Prize Competition

The inaugural Imagine H2O Prize competition is now open for submissions. The competition offers prizes of $70,000 in cash and in-kind services, which will be awarded to the business plans which promise the greatest breakthroughs in the efficient use and supply of water.

The Imagine H2O Prize is designed to encourage the competitive and ambitious spirits of entrepreneurs, investors, experts, inventors and academics around the world to focus on water issues. This inaugural business plan challenge focuses on solutions to improve water efficiency in agriculture, commercial, industrial or residential applications, such as water demand reduction, improved water use, water recycling and/or reuse.
Deadline: November 16th. Details: www.imagineh2o.org

2) William James Foundation Socially Responsible Business Plan Competition

The William James Foundation supports entrepreneurs who are starting for-profit businesses with defined social and/or environmental goals. We can best help entrepreneurs who are passionate about their expertise (e.g. renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, moving people out of poverty, etc.) but are new to starting their own for-profit business. These entrepreneurs come from all over the world, and range from teenagers starting a community business to PhDs with multi-million dollar ideas for renewable energy.

We provide this help through a Socially Responsible Business Plan Competition. Entrants start by submitting a short executive summary (no more than five pages) by December 4th, 2009. Almost all entrants will receive an average of ten pages of constructive feedback per plan per round. This feedback comes from our pool of hundreds of experts from the worlds of finance, academia, in-the-field practice, and other entrepreneurs. This is an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs to learn from those who have successfully combined their passion for a better world with the rigor of financial sustainability. The top entrants will also have a shot at dozens of prizes that are together worth more than $100,000. Please visit www.williamjamesfoundation.org/criteria to see who can enter and how to do so.
Deadline: December 4th

3) Park Street Church Social Change Competition

The objective of the Social Change Competition (SCC) is to harness the high-powered education of New England students to engage them in missions that will create new initiatives and propel advanced thinking. The proposals should address the problems of this world as they relate to poverty and immoral and unjust practices in specific areas of the world, particularly in places that have the least amount of exposure to the good news of Jesus Christ. Proposals can also address detrimental environmental issues and offer new ideas to create renewable energy. By relating the good news of Jesus to these issues, it is hoped that a new strategy of missions will emerge that may concentrate on the poor, the disadvantaged, and the environment.

Deadline: Intent to submit: Oct 20th (but hopefully if you’re interested you can submit this part late). Final proposal due Dec. 1st http://www.parkstreet.org/parkstreet200k


4) LEEDS Net Impact Case Competition- February 19-20

The Leeds Net Impact Case Competition is the premier case format competition built around businesses facing sustainability challenges, while succeeding financially. This competition brings the top rated business schools and future industry leaders to Boulder, Colorado for a two-day event. The competition is an opportunity to bring together students, executives and businesses who share a common commitment to sustainable business practices and financial returns.

Some of this year's benefits include:

1. $10,000 in prize money
2. Great networking opportunity
3. Discounted lodging in historic Downtown Boulder, Colorado
4. More to come....

Deadline: Register by November 16th Details: http://leeds.colorado.edu/MBA/interior.aspx?id=9042&ekmensel=c580fa7b_154_602_btnlink

5) Social Impact Exchange Business Plan Competition
(Social Impact Exchange is a collaboration between Duke University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The Scaling Social Impact Competition is a business plan competition that identifies social sector scaling initiatives with demonstrated impact and readiness to grow – and supports them with up to $100,000 of financial and consulting awards. The Competition helps develop a strong pipeline of growth ready organizations and provides them with the resources to successfully take the next steps in their growth trajectory.

Deadline: December 18th Details: http://www.socialimpactexchange.org/bpc_overview.cfm