The world today is more plugged in than ever before. The question now is: Are there still new frontiers that can benefit from added connectivity? We pulled aside a few tech industry leaders who spoke at the GigaOM RoadMap 2011 conference to find out.
It’s understandable for people to think that Spotify, the popular new kid on the online music industry block, as a competitor to Internet radio pioneer Pandora. But according to Pandora’s CTO and executive vice president of product Tom Conrad, the companies are actually friends, not foes.
Those who think the IPO market is in the pits have short memories. Data from the last 20 years shows the bubble of the late 1990s was the exception, not the rule, when it comes to IPOs. That’s why they called it a bubble.
With 45 million users, Dropbox is a popular cloud storage service. Consumers use it for photos, documents and other material so they can access it from PCs, phones or other devices. But it’s much more than that, said Drew Houston, founder and CEO of the company.
Updated. WordPress now hosts more than 60 million blogs, CEO Matt Mullenweg confirmed Thursday. But according to him, this is just the beginning: WordPress’ developments on the social and mobile fronts are on track to drive even bigger growth in the months ahead.
It might sound like science fiction, but Jawbone Founder and CEO Hosain Rahman says we’re headed to an era where our bodies can be connected to everything in our worlds, including our air conditioners. But it all starts with gathering data and understanding what it means.
Inexpensive rented data center capacity and cheap but powerful open-source toolsets have completely changed the game for tech entrepreneurs, says Silicon Valley legend Andy Bechtolsheim. In short, you would have to be nuts to build, rather than rent, a data center.
The Nest burst onto the scene recently, making waves unlike any seen for a product you’d never guess anyone would care about: the home thermostat. Fadell talked about how his team is rethinking a 50-year-old industry with lessons from his days at Apple.
In the super connected world in which we live now, people often lament about the downfall of old-fashioned face-to-face interaction. But according to Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter and Square, technology done right can actually make us more human and empathetic, not less.
Don’t listen to the naysayers. The time to jump into healthcare IT is now, said Frank Moss, director of the new media medicine at MIT’s Media Lab. Creative technologists working in mobility, social networking, nano devices, should seek health IT opportunities. Now.
