Entrepreneur Watch

Drive a Plug-In Prius, Ford Focus, Toyota Highlander Fuel Cell Hybrid. $10

If you're in the San Francisco Bay Area Oct. 9, you have a chance to take an early drive in some green cars not yet on the market.

The Green Drive Expo, billed as an "eco-car event" will feature over a dozen alternative-fuel vehicles with free test drives (the $10 is for admission to the Expo.)

Some vehicles you can drive:

Ford Focus, Think City and Mitsubishi iMiEV all-electric vehicles; Toyota Plug-In Prius; Ford Escape Plug-In Hybrid; Toyota Highlander Fuel Cell Hybrid vehicle; Lincoln MKZ Hybrid; and many more including bicycles and electric scooters.

The event also includes "expert panels" and technology presentations about climate legislation, the future of green cars, updates on alternative fuels.

They'll also show off Tesla Roadsters (no, you can't drive one of those) and some home-built eco-cars.

Hey, it's only ten bucks.

When: Oct. 9 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where: Craneway Pavilion

Address: 1414 Harbour Way South, Richmond, CA 94804.

Tickets: $10 for adults; no charge for youths 16 and under. For free passes, go to www.GreenDriveExpo.com. Info: 510-621-7803. 

Faster mobile phones: What is LTE?

LTE, or Long Term Evolution, sounds like a refinement of Darwin's theories to me. But it's the next generation of wireless networks to follow 3G – although,according to Wikipedia, the first implementations may be considered 3.9G rather than 4G.

Plus, I read on Nortel's site, it uses a new modulation technique (OFDM) and a new antenna technology (MIMO) and...

And who cares??

I had a chance to talk with Steve West, VP of Emerging Technology and Media for Alcatel-Lucent, at the GigaOm Mobilize conference last week, and asked him to give me the short version of what's important about LTE.

“In the simplest terms, LTE is the first all-IP mobile network,” he said. “It was designed to be a broadband data network.”

Ah, that's good. It uses Internet Protocol standards, so that it can transmit both voice and data seamlessly, the way the Internet can transmit both data and voice. Mobile networks until now were designed with voice transmission in mind first; data was an add-on. Reverse that and you increase efficiency (the Internet can already do voice.)

Wireless and apps companies can now develop a total package to suit user's needs. Instead of one data plan for the home and one for the phone, it can all come together. “We don't have two separate networks any more,” says West.

And, of course, the network will be fast. “LTE was designed to give the types of bandwidth you would get from fiberoptics to the home,” says West. Theoretically, that means up to 80 megabits per second, both upstream and down.

Right now, the average wired connection speed from the home is 4.7 megabits per second in the U.S. South Korea is fastest, with about 10 megabits per second.

It will take a while to get to that kind of speed. In its LTE tests, Verizon Wireless is getting a maximum of 40 to 50 megabits per second for downloads and 20 to 25 megabits per second for uploads. But in the real world, that will be 5-12 Mbps down and 2-5 Mbps up when it launches, according to FierceWireless.

LTE is barely starting to roll out. Metro PCS just launched its LTE network (it skipped over 3G to get a head start on the competition) in the last couple weeks. Verizon Wireless is aiming for the end of 2010, and AT&T for mid-2011, according to ars technica.

Final advantage to LTE: It's being adopted in both the U.S. and Europe. Take your LTE phone to Europe and it will work.

LTE summary: Internet-compatible, fast, universal. Nuff said. 

Til next time, when I'll talk about what it means for mobile apps.

Can biodiesel gain traction?

The Diesel Technology Forum is sponsoring a free webinar to answer questions you may have about biodiesel. 

September 16, 2010 - 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. (EDT)

Register now .

Discussions will include experiences in Minnesota, Massachusetts and Germainy in trying to implement biodiesel policy, and what the experts feel needs to be done.

Me, I think we need a lot of biodiesel fueling stations. Hard to get that to spread.

Maybe Starbucks can start adding them to their stores. Then we'd have more biodiesel than gas stations.

Live From The Google Search announcement

Wednesday, 9/8/2010

UPDATED, TYPOs CORRECTED 1:30 PM

BASIC INFO AT THIS ANNOUNCMENT: 

GOOGLE INSTANT: Google is trying to shorten the time it takes you to do a search BY USING predictions. Start typing in a search query, it keeps guessing what you are searching for. Click TAB to choose the first selection, or scroll down to choose another, or just keep typing until the right result shows up.

Three elements: predictive results, real-time interaction as you type, ability to scroll to search. You may never have to use the "Search" button again.

Here's my live blog: 

PR describes this as a state of the union address.

For a list of people resenting, see previous blog post

Schmidt yesterday said 'never underestimate the importance of fast.' Alot of today about speed. 

Marissa Mayer. "Obviously we have a really big announcement."

First some updates on what's already been done this year:

Just passed one billion users a week. Already more than 500 changes this year to ranking system and site. Working on triggering so real time more relevant.

Showing Superbowl commercial. (Watch it online.)

Google bubble logo yesterday because want to be FUN and fast, hint at today's announcment.

Now today's stuff.

"A fundamental change in search"

MAYER IS going through a history of search from the early 1900s. Remember how long it took to find info? By 95 could find info in matter of minutes, but static.

Today: Real-time information. GAVE AN EXAMPLE: search lichtenstein mirror sfmoma, get real time results saying on display today.

takes people nine SECONDS to enter search query. then 15 seconds picking right result. GOOGLE HAS  Been optimizing SEARCH SPEED, DOWN TO 300 millisecond search time. Also been working on connection times, fiber to home project. But a search takes 25 seconds. MOST OF THE TIME IS TAKEN UP BY HUMANS, NOT THE MACHINES. But there's a physical speed for typing and thinking,

Past few months had insight. RESULT IS "Google Instant."

GOOGLE INSTANT LAUNCHES TODAY

Search is interactive as you type. Demo: Start typing SFM, sfmoma APPEARS ON THE PAGE BEFORE YOU'VE FINISHED TYPING. If first prediction is right, hit tab to complete the search.

Tab on SF Moma, keep typing 'Woman". Get six search results about paintings of women at SF MOMaAcan click on search results. Constantly updates.

The video is the best place to see what this is like. 

www.youtube.com/google

Thinks this will cut two seconds from search time.

In a year you save 11 hours per year from each saved second per search.

Available today in U.S., few days overseas.

Johanna and Othar:

Othar types a w, gets weather. (What if he wanted Johanna Wright?) It predicts based on what most people are looking for at the time, rather than (JUST) based on your own past searches.

 If first result isn't one you want, scroll to CORRECT search ITEM. NO NEED TO CLICK ON THE "SEARCH" BUTTON ANY MORE.

THIS FALL: Plan to have this available on mobile, where it will be more useful because typing is slower.

Ben Gomes:

When proposed, some people said can't do it or will be too complex. Showed it to users, plus Larry, Sergey and Eric, and decided must do it.

In user studies, tracked eye movements to see how well it worked. Again, check the video.

Search is now an Ajax application. Doesn't refresh whole screen as YOU type and update. Autocomplete predictions come from Google's servers, back and forth to results page.

Started with one engineer a year ago, staff doubled once every six weeks.

"This is the future direction of search."

[email protected] if you want to send in questions.

Will take few months for this to be integrated into search boxes in the browsers. Including Chrome. so you have to go to the Google home page to get it. That's a shame, I rarely use the home page any more.

Surprise appearance. Sergey Brin is in the lineup of people to answer questions. Ask him something!

'Web history' personalized search the same WAY. They just added the broader predictive capability.

Sergey: I'm embarrassed to admit of a phrase I was playing with, we want to make Google the third half of your brain. Over the past several years based on capability of devices, browsers, etc., a lot of exciting things going on. this is just a piece of a really interesting change in landscape of computing.

I asked Sergey how concerned he is about privacy issues, ESPECIALLY AS PEOPLE SEE THE SEARCH ENGINE START TO PREDICT WHAT THEY'RE LOOKING FOR:

SERGEY: Privacy is something we think a lot about as a company. Most sensitive info is inside your email. we have to be great stewards of that information. make sure secure, have policies around it. Same thing with Google Instant.

OTHER COMMENTS FROM SERGEY, PARAPHRASED:

(DID HE THINK THINGS WOULD GET TO WHERE THEY ARE TODAY?)

This is pretty amazing -- the kinds of things we can do today. Moore's law. Despite things we did to bring down computer [cycles] to make this more efficient, it didn't come down to a factor of one. We have to spend more time on [predictive searches.] even though philosophically i understood x amount of computer power [keeps improving computers] etc, it's quite another thing to see it actually happen. it's quite a tribute to people working on computers everywhere.

In order to do a great job in search we have to have a lot of great content out there. Adsense creates a lot of the content out there. (pays for it.) blogger. content authoring tools. Gogole Docs. Many other great places where people generate content. Why we're excited to provide funding for those sites.

(Local news?) Stay tuned for improvements in that area.

Sergey is wearing Vibrams. Probably closest he could get to going barefoot in SFMOMA

Google's search announcement today, live online

For those of you not attending Google's announcement today, which does seem to be focused on search technology, it will be webcast, so you can watch it yourself.

Details are available on the official Google channel on YouTube:

www.youtube.com/google.

Can Gaming Technology Help Medical Research?

The year is 2020. A massive contamination of a neurological disease is spreading rapidly and may affect up to 100 million U.S. citizens. Government leaders have convened a panel to try and stop the disease. You have 24 hours to find a cure. Go.

This is only a game, but one that three research organization hope will come up with new ideas for speeding up the rate of medical research.

They're hoping for 600 gamers, including university scientists, business leaders, healthcare innovators, biopharma executives and R&D professionals, government regulators, entrepreneurs, patients and the general public.

Actually, there will be two online games that will go live for 24 hours this Fall. One on Oct. 7-8, the other on Nov. 9-10. Anyone can play. 

The games are being offered as "idea sourcing" events. They're being sponsored by the Myelin Repair Foundation, with a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Institute for the Future (IFTF) is designing the game.

Aren't medical breakthroughs coming quickly enough? The sponsors think not. Their concern is that, while there are substantial scientific discoveries these days, life-saving new treatments are not keeping pace. 

The game will try to embody a sense of urgency to solve a medical crisis, and see what innovations people come up with. Says IFTF game designer Jane McGonigal: 

“Those who play games have a sense of urgency and abandon when they are engaged in a game scenario. We have seen these behaviors in corporate strategic game play where there are real stakes. The game we are building for the MRF is designed to generate that sort of urgency and unleash creative ideas for finding ways to speed medical research.”

You can see the game scenario at http://info.breakthroughstocures.org/

There's a press release here.

Registration begins Sept. 3 if you want to play.

Good luck, and live long and prosper.

What is Google announcing on Wednesday?

The Google Search Team sent out some press invitations today:

"We invite you to join us on Wednesday September 8 to share our latest technological innovation and to get an inside look at the evolution of Google search."

Pretty vague. Does that mean a new device (our latest technological innovation?) that includes a new type of search?

Sounds reasonably significant. Neither Larry Page nor Sergey Brin nor Eric Schmidt will be there, so it's not likely to be a major new product. But the invitations call it "an event you won't want to miss" and it will take place at the San Francisco Museum Of Modern Art, not at Google's campus.

Probably too much to hope that it's about Google TV or its tablet computer to compete with the iPad.

Although I did notice that the URL for the invitation ended with the string  /searchmtv/2010.

Search MTV? Finding music videos? Or the search engine for Google TV? Or just a random string that I'm too stupid to realize is meaningless?

The event is headlined by Marissa Mayer and includes Johanna Wright, Director of Product Management; Ben Gomes, Distinguished Engineer; and Othar Hansson, Senior Staff Software Engineer. These are software folks.

Wright is product manager for Web search. She was included in a recent article in SearchengineLand.

In an article in the San Jose Mercury News, Mayer described Gomes as the company's "search czar."

In May 2009, O'Reilly Radar did an interview with Hansson, who described himself as part of Google's search user interface group, and head of a project on search microformat data. OK, that's essentially data -- like product reviews, product prices and information -- that Webmasters can provide in a specific format so that Google can improve search results when you want to find, say, a printer with certain features and good reviews in a specific price range.

I think. That interview was hard to follow.

Why SFMOMA? Maybe it's a Steve Jobs type of touch. Give the announcement some class.

Nobody seems to know much yet. 

SearchEngineLand thinks it's probably a general update on things Google is doing in search.

I think it may be bigger and more specific -- the "latest technological innovation." Some specific addition to search.

I just hope it's not about parsing microformat data.

iPhone kickbacks?

Apple employee accused of accepting $1 million in kickbacks from iPhone suppliers. Wonder if fixing this will lower iPhone prices?

According to WSJ, he sold them "confidential information that would let (the suppliers) negotiate favorable contracts with Apple ... including sales volume forecasts, product specs, competitors' target prices and bids."

Apple apparently found out through the employee's gmail and hotmail accounts. 

This is a lesson that there is often less privacy online than we would care to believe. And sometimes that lack of privacy is useful in tracking down criminal activity.

"Preditors": The decline of journalism in a Twitter world

One of my wife's cousins, Mort Rosenblum, was a long-time AP reporter, coving wars, disasters and political news around the world. A few years ago he took a buyout from a declining AP.

At this point, he's given up on trying to be a journalist any more. Except for my friends at the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, almost every journalist either of us knows has done the same.

Personally, I'm trying to get back into full-time journalism.

Mort just sent me a rant that illustrates the trend of journalism in a Twitter world. Online recruiters for the Tribune Company are creating a new TV morning news show. Is the organization looking for seasoned reporters?

As the kid sarcastically replied to the journalism professor who insisted, 'In English, two negatives make a positive, but two positives never make a negative' : 

"Yeah, right."

Here's what the Tribune thinks of reporters for its "morning news/Infotainment" site:

"Don't sell us on your solid newsroom experience. We don't care. Or your exclusive, breaking news coverage. We'll pass. Or your excellence at writing readable copy for plastic anchorpeople. Not interested." 

What DOES the Tribune want? They want you, if...

"You're an earbud wearing, app downloading, rss reading, podcast playing, text messaging, flip-flop wearing professional . . . with a real-world education" and "'You 'Get It'." (Punctuation as written.) 

Oh, and: "Your greatest communication tool is a keyboard, your writing is 'bleeding edge', and you realize that when it comes to the written word, less is more."

I always though less was less.

Mort finished his note with a quote from his forthcoming book about journalism and the ways to gain a better understanding of the world, "Little Bunch of Madmen":

"In 2010, Peter Tague tried an experiment with his Georgetown law students. He told them Chief Justice John Roberts was about to resign, but he would not reveal his source. And he asked them to keep the news confidential. By the time he explained he was messing with them to make a point, half an hour later, the story was everywhere.

"Radar Online, a gossip site, picked up a student's Twitter alert and reported an "exclusive." It gave no reason but speculated on Roberts' health. Later, instead of retracting the report, it said Roberts had changed his mind. Meantime, Fox News and other major outlets had broadcast the story."  

All I can say is, "Yeah, right."

New Ideas For Online Journalism: Social Media

One of the things that online journalism lacks these days is a good component of social media. As journalism makes the difficult transition to a largely online model, this should be a strong component of anything we do.

Most online publications stick to the old print model: People can write letters to comment on an article.

What's needed is a way to get the audience more engaged in the process.

Editorial

First, there should essentially be two publications on the site: One written by professional journalists and experts, another written by readers who have a topic that interests them. 

Readers can also apply to the editors to have their articles posted in the "professional" publication. If approved by an editor, they can become regular, paid contributors and join the moderated discussion.

Discussions and commentary

We should create online discussions between journalists writing the articles, experts in the field, and readers. This needs to be give-and-take, not just random postings and back-and-forth rants from readers.

I've long felt that there should be a combination of moderated and unmoderated discussions. 

The editor(s) should invite qualified people to write commentaries and carry on debates. Some of them may be related to articles that were published on the site. Once someone is invited in, they will have the ability to comment on any article, or any other commentary in the stream.

Others may apply for authorization to comment on the moderated discussions.

Alongside the moderated discussions should be unmoderated discussions to which anyone can contribute. Yes, those are often rants. But to encourage thoughtful discussions and add to the talent pool of good commentators, anyone who shows an ability to make a positive contribution to the discussions can be invited to become an authorized contributor and join the moderated groups.

The two commentary streams could run side-by-side, so readers can compare and choose which discussions most interest them. Commentators in both streams can also incorporate ideas from the other in their own discussions.

Perhaps this requires a three-column approach: The original article on the left, the moderated discussion in center, and the unmoderated discussion to the right.

How can all this be funded? By the only effective revenue source for publications online and off: Advertising. You can read my views on this topic in my previous posting.

When this is done, online publications will take advantage of the capabilities available online, rather than just being old media published in a new place.

And isn't that what "new media" is all about?