Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Pat Toole, CIO Of IBM (Part 4)

By Sramana Mitra and guest authors Pablo Chacin and Saurabh Mallik

SM: Okay, let’s now switch the discussion to what you see from where you sit – what would you say are open problems in cloud computing where entrepreneurs can zero in and build businesses to solve problems?

PT: Well, I was going to say, you have a lot of great views on entrepreneurship.

SM: I have a view on entrepreneurship, true. But you have the view on the direct problem. Since I am not running a very large IT organization, and I do not deal with the various touchpoints – that’s a view I don’t have. >>>

Can You Do It All? Eventbrite Cofounder And Mother Julia Hartz (Part 10)

SM: It is incredibly challenging to have a career, let alone be an entrepreneur, and have a baby.

JH: I feel very strongly that I can create an environment where women who have a skill and are talented and driven are welcomed at our company. I just hired a head of customer experience who had a baby eight months ago. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Pat Toole, CIO Of IBM (Part 3)

By Sramana Mitra and guest authors Pablo Chacin and Saurabh Mallik

SM: Why don’t we go through the six towers? This would just be a small exercise in validating that.

PT: Sure. So for business analytics, obviously it’s based on Cognos, based on the Linux on System z platform. For collaboration, we are using LotusLive – that is the software group’s offering – and for desktop cloud we are using GTS – that’s the virtual desktop where we have a thin client. >>>

Can You Do It All? Eventbrite Cofounder And Mother Julia Hartz (Part 9)

SM: How do you feel about your overall situation? Have you made the right choices?

JH: I feel really good about it. I have had very little doubt. I am now terrified to see how we could include another child. Kevin is ready and I am sitting here going, “Hold on,” because I just don’t see how it will scale nicely and have it all go as well as it does now. >>>

Thought Leaders In Cloud Computing: Pat Toole, CIO Of IBM (Part 2)

By Sramana Mitra and guest authors Pablo Chacin and Saurabh Mallik

SM: We talked with several CIOs last year, and they all highlighted collaboration as one of their primary areas of focus. In fact, they’ve stressed video conferencing and telepresence as key areas within collaboration. What else? >>>

Roundtable Recap: July 29 – Startups In Malaysia

This week’s roundtable was organized in collaboration with our partner MAD Incubator, a technology incubator in Malaysia that is dedicated to giving technopreneurs a chance to succeed and make a difference.

First up was Max Teoh presenting GetToDo, a real-time, vicinity-based sales and promotions solution for the Malaysian lifestyle market. It enables retailers and brands to promote their products to consumers interested in lifestyle products through Internet and mobile channels. In terms of target audience, the company targets trend-conscious Internet-savvy consumers in the teenagers to working adult segments. Max came with a few specific questions around pricing and content strategy. On pricing, his assumption is that retailers and brands will be paying for promotions, and he has checked with about 100 retailers and brands to validate this assumption. However, the pricing model he suggested – 1 cent per minute of promotion highlight – doesn’t sit well with me. Elsewhere in the world, promotions pricing models generally revolve around CPM, CPC, CPA, and similar metrics. I have not seen a time-based promotion metric. Even though Max wants to undercut the price points of Google and Facebook, which may be a fine strategy, I just don’t feel comfortable about this cost per minute metric that I have not seen before. Readers, if any of you have seen it, please let me know. If not, then I would advise Max to stay within industry-standard pricing models like CPM, CPC, and CPA. Max also had questions about his user generated content strategy, and how to ensure that UGC quality is maintained at a high level. Well, to that, my advice is to introduce a layer of human moderation.
>>>

July 29 Roundtable Recording

In case you missed it, here is the recording:

Roundtable Starting In 30 Minutes

Today’s roundtable is starting in 30 minutes, at 6 a.m. PST/9 a.m. EST/6:30 p.m. IST. Click here to join.