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The Five Most Disruptive Innovations At CES 2015
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bigbangdisruption/2015/01/09/the-five-most-disruptive-innovations-at-ces-2015/
This year was the Consumer Electronics Show 2015 (CES) filled with big bang disruptors. There were disruptors from incumbents and start-ups with the likelihood to cause big changes. The five most disruptive innovations were:
1) Transportation – Autonomous Vehicles
2) Health and Fitness – The Quantified Self
3) Manufacturing – 3D Printing and Robotics
4) The Internet of Things
5) Augmented Reality
I found this article very interesting because the top five most disruptive innovations at the CES were covered in our class through our case analysis. Two of the five disruptive innovations I found amusing were the autonomous vehicle and 3D printing. I would have never thought in a million years we would have a self-driving car. When I listened to the presentation in class I was very fascinated with the information. My case analysis was on 3D printing which I also thought was interesting because I never knew much about the product. After reading this article, I learned a lot more about 3D printing and the new features. If technology is this advanced in 2015, I can only imagine how advanced technology will be 30 years from now.
The disruptive innovations at the CES fall in the “early market experiment stage of big bang disruptions.” According to Forbes, “Some–perhaps most of them–will never make it to mainstream success. But even those that don’t succeed send a strong signal to incumbents of imminent disruption when some entrepreneur hits on the right combination of new technologies and business models.”
What are your thoughts on this years Consumer Electronic Show? Do you think the innovations listed in this article and what we discussed in class will make it to mainstream success? Why or why not?
Apple’s New Macbook
Last week, Apple announced its new Macbook, which is a huge game changer and disrupter in not only the world of laptops, but in tablets as well. The iPad has been a long time rivalry with the Microsoft Surface, with the argument that more can be done on the surface since it is running Windows and the iPad runs iOS. In my opinion, with the MacBook’s new features it seems to be disrupting its own product line since the incumbent was the iPad (vs. the surface). Do you think the new MacBook is disrupting its own industry?
http://www.wired.com/2015/03/apple-new-macbook/
7 Disruptive Innovations That Turned Their Markets Upside Down
I feel this infographic within this article is a great example of products in the past that have been proven disrupters in their given markets. Since it has been such a focus in class, I think this article gives some great real world examples of modern disruptive products that we are familiar with and can relate to. Let me know what everyone thinks!
http://mashable.com/2011/10/09/7-disruptive-innovations/
Cloud Computing Is The Future
Last week we briefly talked about Amazon Web Services (AWS) which is a collection of remote computing services that make up a cloud computing platform by Amazon.com. I came across an article that talks about cloud computing being the future because most people and business use cloud computing. Cloud computing is cheap, fast, and easy to maintain. As technology is evolving and becoming a lot more popular, there may be security risks associated with cloud computing. There was a survey done that showed 80% of people were skeptical about cloud computing due to security concerns. According to the article “Amazon Web Services is a prominent cloud computing provider in the industry. The department is the fastest growing department of Amazon. However, in Oct. 2012, services failed for a while.” As cloud computing becomes more and more popular, experts are going to have to address security issues.
Do you think cloud computing can be high risk when it comes to security? Why or why not? Do you think people and business will still use cloud computing if security concerns increase? Why?
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/8449/20140615/cloud-computing-is-the-future-but-not-if-security-problems-persist.htm
Uber’s Business Model Could Change Your Work
On Thursday we briefly talked about Uber’s business model. I find Uber an interesting and smart start up that is becoming very popular. I came across an article that talks about the “Uberization of work may soon be coming to your chosen profession.” a range of companies are trying follow Uber’s business model in order fields from grocery shopping, legal services, to even medicine. The benefit of Uberization is that technology can make your work life more flexible because it will allow you to fit multiple jobs around your schedule. An economist at the University of California stated, “this on-demand economy means a work life that is unpredictable, doesn’t pay very well and is terribly insecure.” Most people would rather have good, well-paying, regular jobs. Uber is a growing company and there are always new opportunities for employment.
What do you think about Uber’s business model? Do you think other fields that follow this business model will be successful? Would you want to work for a company like Uber? Why or why not?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/29/technology/personaltech/uber-a-rising-business-model.html
So you have a great tech idea, where to start?
The convention has always been you get a new idea, you write a proposal, request funding, assemble a team, build it, perfection it and implement it then hope that it would work. Or if you’re an entrepreneur, you write your business plan, you seek funding build your idea, launch it and hope that it would work.
The problem with this approach is that no amount of surveys or data analytics can predict that your audience will actually use your new product; so you deplete a considerable amount of resources then hope that the end it didn’t all go to waste.
The cure for this problem is the new lean methodology approach. The concept is borrowed from manufacturing and applied to tech. It was made famous by Eric Ries in his book, The Lean Startup.
The ida is to seek validation before investing or building anything significant. The following article does a great job introducing the methodology.
This is related to what we discussed in class about the risk that comes with investing in big IT projects. If big organizations learn from startups and find a way to accurately test the validity of their ventures, they would reduce their risks to a more reasonable level.
Do you guys think that this method would be effective?
Is there any industries where this method wouldn’t apply?
Is It a Good Business Model to Pay People to Use Less Electricity?
The Internet of Anything: The System That Pays You to Use Electricity
I found this article about Ohmconnect, a sustainable energy management company. What’s interesting about this company is their business model: they will pay you to use less electricity. Ohmconnect partners up with ISO, the organization that manages California’s electrical grid, and gets user authorization to access the user’s home smart meter and any supported internet-connected devices. It can then track the user’s energy consumption and alert the user of energy spikes, asking you to cut back on power consumption. Based on the user’s baseline energy consumption, as set by the ISO, Ohmconnect can determine the reduced electricity consumption and the amount of money you will be paid. The money saved is split between the energy companies, Ohmconnect, and the user.
This is a unique business model that benefits all parties: the user gets paid for less energy consumption, energy companies save money, Ohmconnect makes money, and the carbon footprint is reduced. With this in mind, can you guys think of any other companies or industries that would benefit from a business model like this? Do you think that there is a better business model that Ohmconnect could be using instead? I personally think this is an effective business model for Ohmconnect to use. I would think that cutting back on your electric bill would be enough to reduce energy consumption, but getting paid to do so would certainly be a good incentive for most people to reduce their consumption. What do you guys think?
Facebook Builds Platform For Companies To Share Cybersecurity Threat data
Facebook launched “ThreatExchange” which is an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows companies to share information with each other about cyber attacks. A few companies including Facebook were demanding to stop a bonnet that was abusing their services to send spam. A manager of the Threat Infrastructure team at Facebook stated, “We quickly learned that sharing with one another was key to beating the botnet because parts of it were hosted on our respective services and none of us had the complete picture.” ThreatExchange is built on Facebook’s infrastructure and the information includes domain names, malware samples, and other indicators of compromise. The platform allows companies to share certain information that share similar issues. The goal of this platform is for organizations to learn from each other and make their systems safer. “That’s the beauty of working together on security. When one company gets stronger, so do the rest of us.”
Do you think ThreatExchange is a good way for companies to share their information regarding systems and hacking? Do you think only social media sites are going to use this platform? Or do you think other industries will also use this platform? Why?
http://www.cio.com/article/2883034/facebook-builds-platform-for-companies-to-share-cybersecurity-threat-data.html
“Cyberattacks” Is our information really secure?
Debate Deepens Over Response to Cyberattacks – WSJ
I ran into this article shortly after reading Jessica’s topic regarding information security. I see information security as one of the greatest concerns for businesses today; especially, ones that collect client/customer information, which in this day and age most companies do. I know it may not seem like a huge deal that hackers obtained control over government social media accounts, but is this a risk management red flag that should be taken much more seriously? It makes me think about BP oil company, or Sony. If hackers can breach government firewalls, and security protocols what makes Amazon, Facebook, or any other company that collects our personal information safe?
Why do you think there is a sudden increase in company security breaches? Are companies getting lazy with IT security, or are hackers just getting smarter?
Why Information Security Is Everybody’s Business Now
Information security is very important especially in an organization. I found this article very interesting because it discussed how many CIO’s are worried a major cyber attack may happen. According to Masserini,”Every day CISOs wake up and worry, ‘is today going to be THE Day?” It’s not about when they are going to get attacked but more of ‘when’ they are going to see something dramatic happen to their organization. The article also stated that security never ends, it’s an ongoing cycle.
How do you feel about Information security? Do you think its something thats going to get better or worse in the future?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/sungardas/2015/02/05/why-information-security-is-everybodys-business-now/?sr_source=lift_polar
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