Detroit – While I was away..

TEDxDetroit bootleg.

Poetry Slam champion and award winning singer/songwriter D Blair brought the house to its feet in a standing ovation. His poem ‘Detroit (While I Was Away)’ was awe-inspiring.

Looking forward to TEDxDetroit!

The area’s leading creators, catalysts, entrepreneurs, artists, technologists, designers, scientists, thinkers and doers will gather on Wednesday, October 21st to share what they are most passionate about — positive ideas for the world from Detroit.  For more info, visit: http://www.tedxdetroit.com/

TED is an annual event where the top minds in the world share, connect and inspire. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design — three subjects that, collectively, shape our future. The event draws CEOs, scientists, creatives, philanthropists and extraordinary speakers including Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Frank Gehry, Sir Richard Branson, Philippe Starck and Bono.

You can view hundreds of other interesting an engaging TEDtalks from extraordinary speakers like Al Gore, Jill Bolte Taylor, Seth Godin, Elizabeth Gilbert and Tony Robbins at TED.com.

Are CIOs Suffering from Technology Presbyopia?

I had the honor of seeing Andre’s presentation in person a couple weeks back at the CIO Executive Summit | Detroit (in Dearborn.)  If you are remotely interested in technology and the increasing speed of innovation, this talk is worth it’s weight in gold – very “TED” esq.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.   http://www.bycios.com/posts/view/id/5116

Abstract:

Every recession of the past few decades has spawned massive restructuring of technology and an abundance of opportunity when the inevitable rebound occurs. Special Olympics International Global CIO André Mendes sees a veritable maelstrom of change sweeping us into the next generation of innovation, with life-changing consequences for people worldwide. In this inspirational keynote, Mendes envisions a near future where culture, business and technology are tightly intertwined and virtually indistinguishable; where societies are forever altered and where technology serves as a guidepost for a “higher level of reality” in the fast-evolving world of the 21st century.

Cloud Computing in Plain English

rPath put together a brief, informative and entertaining overview of cloud computing in the video “Cloud Computing in Plain English”. Take five, and watch the video below.

CIOs are Rethinking Their Software Strategies

There’s been a change of thinking among CIOs, a new openness to alternative software models such as Google’s online e-mail and productivity suite. That’s the idea behind this week’s InformationWeek cover story. This rethinking is driven by new capabilities in the cloud, but even more so by the grinding recession of the past year, which made the tradeoffs of online software more palatable.

That opens the door for Google. But Google needs to prove once and for all that it’s deadly serious about enterprise IT business. It’s time for one of the company’s founders, Sergey Brin or Larry Page, to take personal responsibility for the enterprise business. One of these leaders needs to lash his incredible intelligence and creativity and passion and personal credibility inextricably to making Google Enterprise a multi-billion dollar business.

Google can be an effective service provider to businesses without this level of leadership commitment. Or, with it, it could become a strategic partner to businesses, one of the four or five vendors that IT works hand-in-hand to solve entirely new problems. To be that strategic partner, the world’s largest CIOs want to know someone like Brin or Page is right there with them, that his future is tied just as firmly to this effort as the CIO’s.

Click here for the full story.

A Dozen Uses for Social Media

This article outlines a dozen ways that companies can use social media. For the full twelve, head over to this article. It’s little wonder so many companies are hiring full-time social media folks.

Here are some of the favorites:

1. Listen to your consumers.

2. Talk to your consumers face-to-face.

3. Respond to customer service issues.

4. Creative massive conversations about your brand.

5. Collect data with custom apps.