Lifting the Lid on Velodyne's Lidar

In my search for innovation, I tend to look at high-tech startups rather than media companies like Google or Facebook. Robert Scoble has managed to track down an audio company which has made a classical pivot into a sensing company. Velodyne make the spinning sensors on top of the Google self-driving car.

Where to Next? - Vint Cerf shares a vision - and concerns

The Guardian has just published a keynote discussion from their "Activate London Summit 2013". Its a conversation between Vint Cerf, vice president and chief Internet evangelist at Google and Jeff Jarvis, professor, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. After a brief introduction, Jeff steers the conversation in the direction of online privacy, the internet of things, Google Glass, and the future of libraries. I have met and talked with Vint at several conferences. He is such a wise man and very approachable. He promised to follow-up on a suggestion I gave at LIFT in Geneva, and within days he had done just that, bringing me into contact with exactly the organisations I was looking for. So I find his thoughts and visions on what could happen next to be more than relevant when the media is all buzzing about privacy, Edward Snowden and his NSA revelations, and whether we can trust the cloud. For some reason the Guardian Media Network has not released this video for embedding, so you have to watch it on the Guardian site. It is here. Well worth the 18 minutes.

Vint Cerf also offers his perspective on re-imagining the media and government. May be the interview will encourage you to rediscover what Vint has said elsewhere recently. I also include the LIFT conference video where I first came into contact with the great man. 

Note how he stimulates you to think about what still needs to be done. The companies in Silicon Valley are still very much focussed on social and communications (mainly tablets and phones). What excites me about other places in the world, like Eindhoven. is what they are doing with the Internet of Things. As Vint explains in the Guardian interview. Passive Products are becoming active services. And the high-tech startups are the people really moving the boundaries. That's why I have become involved with Startupbootcamp HightechXL. It is clearly where both science and finance are converging. 



Because VC's are always searching for scalable ideas, in the one-billion dollar range, those teams working with both hardware as well as software solutions has a distinct advantage. Yes, the initial risk is higher. But so are the rewards. 

Google Take Downs & Malware Warnings

Caught a curious article about the number of official takedown requests in the UK. Curious, because it seems rather low. And the item is talking about this time last year...so why is it really news?

During the six months of 2012, the number of requests rose by 98% The UK government and police have requested removal of 124 videos and advertisements in 2012. 

According to a new Transparency Report by the internet giant, majority of requests involved the removal of YouTube videos that were believed to violate national security and hate speech laws, while Google rejected about half of the requests. The number of requests excludes court orders for offence and copyright infringement. During the initial six months of 2012, the number of requests for the removal rose by 98% compared with the corresponding period in 2011. 

Google said in its report that it received a request from a Member of Parliament to remove a blog post for suggesting that he advised businesses while serving in government.

I'm more concerned that Google has made it rather difficult for websites to complain and restore access to their websites if the Google algorithm decides the site contains malware or is using copyrighted material to which the owners object. This has happened to some clients of mine. Google offers people very useful services. But if you somehow violate the terms and conditions, starting a conversation is almost impossible. Played around with Google Adwords once. Not a fun experience...

I note that John C Dvorak's popular blog (on which NoAgendaShow.com relies for donations) has been erroneously flagged by my Chrome browser as containing malware. In fact there is nothing wrong, as you can see if you use (heaven forbid) Internet Explorer. But it is worrying if your business depends on web access - which almost all media businesses do.

Marconi Inspired Google Gmail Tap

I love well constructed April Fool's Jokes. 

I'd like to think that today's Gmail Tap feature was actually born at the Marconi Conference Center in Marshall, Northern California. Been there a couple of times on retreats and always felt inspired by the sheer history of the place. It was part of the Marconi telegraph network - in this case linking the US with the Pacific. All those messages were sent in Morse Code. If you want to hear about why Morse was so important, then have a listen to a programme I made in Scheveningen Radio in the days when Morse Code was still important for maritime communications. The programme about Kootwijk Radio also comes to mind. In both cases, Morse Code was a lifeline rather than a good joke.

Getting Curious about Google Schemer

This is far more intriguing than Pinterest. Especially when you discover the huge article on Wikipedia about the Ukrainian Bandura. Looks like a way of inviting people to do stuff in real life. Like a nature walk. Or a visit to a Soviet jamming station.

Great Google Insights

I cannot understand why Powerpoint has not improved over the years. Integration with video clips is still a nightmare and you can tell if someone is using Keynote on a Mac instead. Today, at Web 2.0 in San Francisco, John Battelle , who has authored books on Google, interviewed the CEO, Eric Schmidt in a keynote conversation. Eric is prompted to talk about the acquisition of Double-Click and the on-line office suite to rival Microsoft. It includes an announcement that Google is working on adding presentation-sharing capabilities to Google Docs & Spreadsheets. Eric has a goofy way of announcing the product too.

Update: Paul Van Veenendaal of the excellent Dutch site Marketingfacts has been digging further on the official Google channel in Youtube. He found vintage talks by Eric at the Economic Club of Chicago (64 minutes; 6 April 2006), also at the SIEPR Economic Summit 2006 (37 minutes; 3 March 2006), Conde Nast's Portfolio business magazine (25 minutes; 15 June 2006) and at the US National Venture Capital Association (61 minutes; 26 April 2006).