Dean Landsman

Ambition in Technology

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Ambition in tech often quickly evolves into a maze.  Technology has a way of opening mysterious doors.  Those are doors one never expected to be there, much less to find, or to be the gateway to a world of new thought, commerce or opportunity.  Digital Strategy often requires ambitious pursuits.

Let’s look at one such case in point, Flickr. The story of how Flickr came to be is a perfect example of surprise, agility, and unanticipated consequences.  The developers were working on the beta test stage of a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) that had a photosharing tool they’d previously begun work on a few years before.  The tool turned out to be far more popular than the game, so the...

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Digital Strategy in Energy and Computing

Early stage computers, government projects, were designed to calculate arithmetic functions at a more rapid speed than humans could perform on paper or in their heads, save for a few savants with amazing math skills.  Computations at rapid pace, thus the name computers. The first US Government computer was an acronym, ENIAC.  Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. 


DIGITAL DESTINY

Digital Destiny is a vast topic. On a personal level it can be the devices one uses, the connectivity to one’s home, office, phone, tablet, TV or Roku, Alexa, and the various Internet of Things contraptions that permeate one’s life. Digital as part of destiny, or as the emerging reality, also plays a role in health, entertainment, education, sports, finance, art, and commerce.  Arguably, this means everything.


Startups and Digital Strategy

Startups are all the rage in the tech business press. Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley write endless columns about the Next Big Thing.  Entrepreneurs are celebrated, written about, and there’s both an HBO and an Amazon series about them.  VCs (Venture Capitalists) look for the next Unicorn. What’s that? It’s a startup they invest in early, raise a few million up to $10 or $20, maybe even $30 million, that will then grow to Billion Dollar value.  Yes, that was Billion with a B.  Maybe to get there, in VC money-speak, it will take a few more rounds, an A, BC, even a D round, raising many millions, tens of millions, to get there.  Usually this requires stellar success, revenues and growth. 

But not always.


Hello, I’m the robot repair person

Who was the most influential person in the last half-century?  Who made so big an impact, a difference that his or her accomplishments gave direction for years to come?  In this, the Digital Strategy column, the answer is obvious: Steve Jobs.  He put a powerful computer in the pocket, pocketbook or on the belt of nearly everyone on the planet.  His music player got absorbed into those pocket computers.  The iPhone was the gateway to those powerful computers.  Computers that enable music and photography functionality and voice communication would have been unimaginable 50 years ago.

His surname was Jobs.  How prophetic.  The industries he triggered and the acceptance and adoption of connectivity and automated machinery helped propel a Digital Revolution. Jobs (Steve) created all sorts of new jobs (employment) and job categories that occurred, as a result of his efforts.


Minimizing Digital Risk

Technology has introduced numerous wonderful inventions and opportunities. That paradigm changes have occurred as a result is an understatement.  People wear smart watches, carry smart phones, tablets, medical devices and some even drive smart cars. There are cars smart enough to drive themselves.  We live in a society where computing is part of our everyday life.

With technology comes responsibility.  With responsibility comes...