06
November
2005
|
19:04 PM
America/Los_Angeles

Coming up: A chat with IBM's chief strategist; more about the Rooster Club; Mossberg and Swisher On Tuesday; and Under the Radar is coming next week...

By Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher


I just got back from a long drive back from Portland, but I wanted to flag a few things coming up this week:


irvingwb.jpg

Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM's vice president for technical strategy and innovation is not a large man but his influence on the IT industry is that of a giant.


He grew up in Cuba, is of Hungarian/Jewish parents and is responsible for leading IBM into the open source world of Linux, open standards and a host of other strategic decisions that have helped the world's largest computer company grow during the toughest years the industry has ever seen.


I remember chatting with Irving a couple of years ago, we were sitting in a very stylish office in the very stylish IBM buildings in Somers, New York, (designed by I.M. Pei of Grand Louvre pyramid fame) and we happened to be talking about blogging.


What do you think about all this interest in blogging, Irving asked me. I said it was a mystery to me and that blogging was done by people with too much time on their hands and read by the same type of person. There is nothing to get excited here, I said, adding a dismissing hand gesture. Irving nodded and agreed and we moved onto something else.


How time flies and how time changes attitudes. We are both blogging now, and I can't wait to swap notes with Irving and tell him why I think blogging represents a class of technologies that is the next big thing.


And it has all the hallmarks of the next big thing (NBT), going through the distinct stages of all important NBT technologies:


--born during a downturn


--it becomes ridiculed and scorned


--it becomes grudgingly accepted


--then it is considered blindingly obvious that it is the next big thing. Think of the PC as an example, but there are many others.


Here is Irving's Blog: http://irvingwb.typepad.com/


The Content versus Index wars is a theme I'll explain a bit more in detail later this week. This is something which is just emerging and I'll tell you why life will get tougher for the search crawlers and scrapers of the internet world. Here is a clue: Servers and software are cheap and getting cheaper. Compelling content creation requires. . .


We will be rolling out the Rooster sign up sheets this week to get the ball rolling on creating a northern silicon valley debate club of sorts-a salon of peers rather than podiums. More on that later this week.


Don't miss the Churchill Club's big SF event of the year, Tuesday November 8, Walter Mossberg and Kara Swisher of Wall Street Journal fame--talking about their favorite digital gizmos and gadgets. BTW, SVW readers get a discount!


Don't forget about the coming Under the Radar VC/startup event that I'll be moderating (for free). Again, another discount for my loyal readers!


Plus more, lots more, so please check back often!