California
Silicon Valley
| The Institute for the Future (IFTF) is an independent nonprofit research group working with organizations of all kinds to help them make better, more informed decisions about the future. IFTF provides the foresight to create insights that lead to action. The Institute is based in California's Silicon Valley, in a community at the crossroads of technological innovation, social experimentation, and global interchange. Founded in 1968 by a group of former RAND Corporation researchers with a grant from the Ford Foundation to take leading-edge research methodologies into the public and business sectors, the IFTF is committed to building the future by understanding it deeply. | |
Podcast
Clean tech
Speakers from oil, high-technology, and venture capital firms discuss the ways in which businesses perceive and respond to the climate challenge, and how government policy and market signals must interact to provide the enormous investment in clean energy required in the decades ahead, especially in developing countries such as China.
The China-U.S. Climate Change Forum was organized by the Berkeley China Initiative, which is forging closer ties between U.C. Berkeley and China by bringing together key experts on important international and bilateral issues. Growing concern over climate change makes this topic an obvious choice for the first of this series of annual events.
This panel will highlight the mutual vulnerability of China and the U.S. to climate change, and the indispensable role of scientific research in understanding the problem and developing solutions. The Forum is co-sponsored by Peking University's College of Environmental Sciences and UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, International and Area Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies, Center for Chinese Studies, Energy and Resources Group, and Berkeley Institute of the Environment. Financial sponsors include the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, the Energy Foundation, and the Hewlett Foundation.
Wired
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View CA 94043
phone: (650) 623-4000
fax: (650) 618-1499
Location: San, United States, Description: Pub de Google pour son recrutement (en anglais). Elle montre des scènes de vies du Google Plex et une interview de Sergey Brin à la fin. Cela fait un peu secte comme style de recrutement non? :)
- Innovation
- 70-20-10 %
- What's coola at Google?
- Flexible hours and the small company feel
- Be passionate about what you are doing
- Work at a high energy level
- A great environment for engineers, innovators and creators
Infrastructure
The big advantages of the Valley is the local business infrastructure (which includes VCs, lawyers, talent pool and proximity to potential US partners/customers) and the huge (and relatively simple) US market. Take a look at Webcasts from Berkley.
The big disadvantage are the limited international know-how, the limited local talent pool, high costs and the initial absolute focus on the US market.
I have been talking about this with a few people because we think there is a need to show about things happening outside the valley. Finland has more to give than Nokia. I'm told that in US, if you’re a geek outside of San Francisco or Redmond, it’s hard to get a job in the industry. That's hard to believe that the industry is so concentrated.
- We have interesting companies in small towns and in the middle of nowhere
What there is a shortage of in Europe, though, is of experienced senior management; and this is one reason why companies sometimes decide to base themselves in the US. The centre of gravity of a company almost always tends to wherever the CEO is based.
On the road
This stretch of highway from Monterey to San Luis Obispo must certainly be one of the most eye-pleasing areas in the world. Take a walk on the park, it is a great place to people watch. Not to mention it has a tremendous view of sunsets over Malibu and some great benches to sit on. Walk down to the pier and take in a concert during the summer and fall months. One of the best places in the world to relax and stare at the ocean.
On a clear day, this front-row seat to the Pacific offers a view all the way from Malibu to Palos Verdes. It's one of the top places in LA to witness the gorgeous, purple-pink West Coast sunsets. The vast stretch of shaded earth has also become a resting ground for Santa Monica's homeless population, but don't let that deter you. People here are friendly and nonconfrontational.
Coastal Highway 101 starts in downtown Los Angeles & bolts up the Central California coast heading straight thru the middle of San Francisco. Passing the wine country it aims for North Coast Redwoods. I suspect this traveling diary will be of most interest to people who are planning on making a simular trip themselves. The essential parts of this diary has been created on the road.
Silicon Valley
We are full of question marks. When a company is already on top of the world, where does it go next? And what kind of world is it that a company such as KK-Net would be on top of?
The SV Junto is an in-person, informal gathering of business and technology professionals in the Silicon Valley to discuss non-business issues and embrace the life of the mind. We believe that breakthrough insights occur at the intersection of ideas and cultures and, as such, it is critical for business and tech folks to exercise the mental muscles of philosophy, sociology, religion, and so forth. Go contribute at our Wiki. That's why the New York firm is practically a living legend. Its innovations, connections, and ambitions helped turn America into Speculation Nation.
- We already have to live with globalization and outsourcing
- Enterprise Web 2.0 can flatten the organizational boundaries
Apple
Apple Computer disclosed Thursday that it had uncovered "irregularities" in how stock options were priced for Chief Executive Steve Jobs and others, making Apple the biggest name in Silicon Valley entangled in the growing controversy over how lucrative stock options were awarded during the technology boom.
- Apple Computer Finland was my first customer 1981 when we started CIS - Corporate Information Systems
- What is the best thing out there now?
- Steve Jobs Keynote
- We have been able to build up a disproportionally good reputation in a short time
- People come up with great ideas every single day
- Apple Fortune
- Apple Market Share
- A lot of people use iTunes as their aggregator
- WMV files won't work
Web 2.0
In Silicon Valley the most polular buzzword today is Web 2.0. Unless you're a techie, figuring out what it means isn't easy. Web 2.0 technologies bear names like wikis, blogs, RSS, AJAX, and mashups. Web 2.0 is projecting a real sea change on the Internet. If Web 2.0 folks weren't so geeky, we might call it the Live Web.
- photo-sharing Flickr Wirby
- reference source Wikipedia
- teen hangout MySpace
- active participation and
- social interaction
- what is web 2.0?
- social software
- Micro Persuasion
Experimenting
Soon we will see how they're starting to experiment with a growing array of collaborative services, such as wikis. Companies are starting to test the use of MySpace, Facebook, and other social-networking services.
The reason: As appealing as that social aspect is
- for teens and
- anyone else who wants to stay in closer touch with friends,
- it's even more useful in business.
After all, businesses in one sense are social networks formed to make or sell something. Corporate-oriented social networks are gaining a toehold. LinkedIn, OpenBC and other online services for people to post career profiles and find prospective employees, clients or partners are the recruiting or prospecting tools of choice for a number of companies.
Wierd or Wired
In 2003, people thought of those services as a weird form of social networking, now they are accepted by large and smaller companies. How can you get started? Companies are starting to test the use of MySpace, Facebook, and other social-networking services.
- Create a MySpace page.
- Open a Flickr account and upload a few photos.
- Write a Wikipedia entry.
- Create a mashup at Ning.com.
Ning is the new free and easy way for you to create your own Social Web Apps - so let the fun begin!
Venture Capital
Hummer Winblad Venture Partners was founded in 1989 as the first venture capital fund to invest exclusively in software companies. Through our history, we’ve had the opportunity to invest in the pioneers and leaders of several generations of software applications, architectures, delivery methods and business models. We’ve helped entrepreneurs build companies in desktop software, embedded systems, client-server, distributed network computing, internet, and software as a service.
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