Bill Gates on Watching Globetrotters & Physics Lectures

Bill Gates was on the D stage last night. He was interviewed in a fireside chat-like format by WSJ's Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. Check my follow up post for details on his thoughts, fears, ideas and for a shot of his shoes.

The latter is quite possibly related to my obsession with the way geeks dress. There's evidence of improvement in recent years.

I will also include a few shots of their demo, which showed a dramatically different UI (positive I think).

Aside from the above (TBP -to be posted), I learned some fascinating news. Bill watches the Harlem Globe Trotters and physics lectures on YouTube. A direct reflection of his personality perhaps? You decide.

Sharpcast to Unveil at D4

Client Sharpcast will be on the D4 stage this week. They were one of only five companies selected by Mossberg and Swisher to present new technology on stage.

Sharpcast's CEO Gibu Thomas will be showing their first public preview of their next-generation photo sync service. Their instant synchronization platform dramatically simplifies sharing, accessing and backing up digital photos.

Sharpcast Photos eliminates the complexities of accessing, sharing and backing up digital photos by keeping a person’s desktop photo collection automatically synchronized with the web, and optionally with a mobile phone. Based on a Sharpcast’s new patent-pending synchronization platform, Sharpcast Photos enables a person to always have fast, easy access to their photo collection from any PC, the web or their phone, organized the same way everywhere. Any change made in one place, even while offline, is automatically made everywhere else.

The preview version of Sharpcast Photos is free at www.sharpcast.com.

Key features and highlights:

• Sharing without uploading: simply drag and drop albums onto a name in a buddy list to share them with others, so you never have to wait around for uploads

• Desktop delivery of shared albums: albums shared with you are delivered right into your desktop application, so you never have to go to the web to see shared photos

• Instant Web Publishing: with a simple drag and drop of albums into Sharpcast Photos on the desktop, they are arranged into online albums instantly

• Transparent back-up: photos kept in Sharpcast Photos are always backed up online automatically, along with all of the metadata (captions, album titles etc.)

• One-step recovery and migration: to recreate your entire collection on a secondary or new PC, simply log into Sharpcast Photos on the new PC – the entire collection will be created exactly as it was last organized

• Automatic mobile syncing: an entire photo collection can be viewed on a mobile phone, even when out of coverage. Photos taken on the mobile phone are instantaneously synced to your desktop PC and the web.

• Full offline capability: Continue to manage or share your photos even if you are not online. All changes are synchronized seamlessly everywhere, including on the web.

The company also announced that industry veteran Bud Colligan, co-founder and former chairman and CEO of Macromedia, has joined the company’s board of directors as an independent director.

Stay tuned for more from southern California.

Tag: D4
Tag: Sharpcast

Wireless Sensors

On June 5 from 6-8 pm, Sun Labs is having an Open House at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View CA: Wireless Sensors: Inventing the Future with D. K. Arvind, Roger Meike, and Richard Newton.

The possibilities for wireless sensors have excited scientists and researchers, the business community, military and government officials, and consumers alike for many years. The potential applications for wireless sensors and transducers (sensors combined with actuator mechanisms) are limited only by the imagination. Sensing alone is not enough for many applications-the ability to act on the sensory data is also required.

Richard Newton, D.K. Arvind, and Roger Meike are all heavily involved in the design, production, programming and utilization/deployment of wireless sensors. In a three-way discussion, they each will offer their own perspectives and experience in this rapidly evolving technology arena.

Mission Street People Watching, Harrison Street Dancing

A few fabulous shots taken at this weekend's Carnival Parade and Festival. Sample favorites below. For the full photo album of the event, click here.

Tag: Carnival 2006

More of the Martian Mobile

More of Howard Rheingold and friends' Martian Mobile. It's a fabulous creation.

Jams....and Dances...

The same fabulous band gets the crowd moving - salsa, mamba, free form, a variation of swing, and lots of hand clapping and foot stomping.

Tag: Carnival 2006

San Francisco Jams

San Francisco State had some energy on one of Howard Street's main stages at this weekend's Carnival Festival. Click play and turn up the volume.

Tag: Carnival 2006

EastWest Eats

Join a dinner scholarship fundraiser at the San Francisco Ferry Building for the Asian American Journalists Association on Thursday June 1, where the proceeds go to college and high school scholarships.

The food will be fabulous: Charles Phan of the Slanted Door, Hung Le of Three Seasons, and chefs from Straits Cafe, Butterfly, and Ana Mandara will be cooking, and wine will be donated from various local vineyards.

You can purchase online, as well as buy tickets (limited number only) for a VIP pre-event reception of wine and appetizers hosted by Charles Phan of Slanted Door.

Making Podcasting Work For You

ClickZ's Heidi Cohen on how to make podcasting work for you.

Says Heidi on what's unique about podcasting is that it "allows users to time-shift audio content in an efficient, location-independent fashion to the device of their choice." Yet, less than 1 percent of Americans listen to podcasts today. Forrester projects podcasting will reach 12.3 million households by 2010.

From her piece, a few great takeaways:
As podcasting ramps up, marketers must figure out how to both support podcasting and fit it into a marketing mix. Current podcast listeners tend to be early technology adopters who are well-educated males with high average income. This will change.

Podcasting is another marketing tool that's great at reaching and engaging niche consumer segments. As a marketer, you can either create your own media outlet or advertise with an established content company that provides content compatible with your brand.

You can now add a new media outlet to extend a media company's reach and facilitate internal marketing communications with sales, distributors, business partners, and employees.

Podcasting can also be used to humanize investor relations.

She notes various factors to consider when developing a marketing plan where podcasting is part of the mix:

* Business objectives. Consider what goals you want the podcasts to achieve.

* Creative strategy. Think about the podcast's content and format. John Federico of Audible advises hiring a PR or advertising agency to ensure professional quality.

* Editorial calendar. Develop a calendar of upcoming shows. Schedule content topics and frequency just as you would any traditional media outlet.

* Building an audience for your podcasts.

She also points to some metrics:

Downloads. At a minimum, monitor the number of times a podcast is downloaded.

Direct response tool. To increase podcast measurability, incorporate a call to action that gets listeners to visit your Web site or call a toll-free number.

Branding. If your goal is to augment your brand, consider using branding metrics.

Listener input. As another way to determine the impact on consumers, solicit listener input about podcasts.

Podcast costs include content creation or repurposing, marketing, servers, and bandwidth.

It's a great read overall and summarizes a lot of points to consider from a marketing, branding and cost perspective.

Tag: podcasting

Martian Mobile

This is TOO good not to share. Howard Rheingold and friends to his left designed this martian mobile for Burning Man. Watch for it in the Mill Valley Memorial Day Parade on Monday.