Six minutes to DEMO (and failing prof.)

Give me six minutes and I'll give you IT Blogwatch, in which DEMOfall alternately bores and excites. Not to mention the ever-failing professor...

Frank "+++ATH" Hayes is covering the DEMO conference for us:

This time it's controversial ...Or anyhow, that's what DEMO producer Chris Shipley is aiming for with some of the 67 products and services at this year's DEMOfall conference in San Diego. And by the end of the morning session, she'd delivered with several products that are going to make some people really, REALLY unhappy at lawsuit time. For those who've never been to a DEMO conference, it consists of a seemingly endless series of six-minute pitches for IT products. This isn't as bad as it might sound; even the least interesting presentation is blessedly short, and it's rare that they're truly dreadful. [Here's an IT-centric selection of Frank's finds]

• RingCube has clever virtualization software called Mojopac that lets users carry their complete desktop around on a USB thumb drive or other device. Yeah, the idea isn't new, but this implementation is slick.
• System One demoed a system that automatically builds Wikis (automatic Wiki-building is big at DEMOfall this year). This one searches local files and the Web for content and then supports collaboration.
• ThinkFree has a Web-based office suite whose big claim to fame is round-trip compatibility with Microsoft Office -- no loss of formatting, spreadsheet formulas, or other data. Documents reside on ThinkFree's servers.
• Genius.com showed an "IT free" system that lets sales people chase prospects across e-mail, websites and live online chats. Complicated to explain, but basically it's Web analytics focused on ... sales prospects.
• Koral demoed a content-management and collaboration system that lets information be automatically uploaded, indexed and tagged, then supports searching documents based on both relevance and popularity.
• MindTouch has an appliance called DekiBox ... The company claims 85% of corporate knowledge is stored in e-mail, and this is a Wiki builder in a box that searches for that data.
• Serebrum showed Axon, another Wiki builder, this one trying to break out of the document paradigm
• Pinger showed a store-and-forward voice-mail system that can receive voice messages on phone or as e-mail attachments.
• Flurry demoed a service to turn an ordinary cell phone into a smartphone, so you can receive e-mail and news on your phone.
• Moixa Energy showed USBcell, a rechargeable battery that can be recharged by plugging into a USB port. Standard AA battery size. Pop off the top, plug it into the USB port. Very simple idea. Yeah, I want one too.
• W5 Networks showed electronic shelf labels for grocery stores that can communicate with a wireless network. LCD displays, under $5 per unit, and they can also monitor temperatures for freezer cases.
• Trend Micro showed its InterCloud Security Services, an appliance and service for fighting botnet infections.
• Data Security Systems Solutions demoed a one-time private key encryption system. The idea is to eliminate the need for archiving PKI signatures in situations where you don't really need encryption.
• Trigence had a system that virtualizes applications by taking a known-good instance of an application, identifying and isolating all the necessary files, then packaging them into an "application capsule."
• PostPath demoed a drop-in replacement for Microsoft Exchange, running on Linux.
• Teneros was at DEMOfall last year with its appliance that keeps e-mail available for Microsoft Exchange users if the server dies (I wrote about it here). This year it's been scaled up to an end-to-end disaster recovery appliance for use on wide-area networks.
• BriteSoft Corp. showed BriteWorks, a code-free application environment. Yes, yet another code-free application environment.

Techdirt's Mike warbles:

I must admit that I'm disappointed that the pigeon has received such little coverage. Throughout the day, yesterday, there was a pigeon that somehow found its way into the rafters above the stage, and spent the entire conference flying around, occasionally heading out into the audience, but almost never sitting still ... I found it to be a good barometer of how interesting a presentation was based on whether or not I spent it watching the pigeon's flight, or focused in more on the demo itself.
...
The good news from DEMO is that there definitely are some really new ideas here. There are, also, some rehashes of old ideas (sometimes without a clear recognition of why it didn't work before, or even a realization that the idea isn't that new). However, it is always fun to see a bunch of entrepreneurs who are really thinking up some new ideas.
...
Overall, it's good to see companies attacking some interesting challenges (with some attacking not so interesting challenges) with some creative and different solutions.

Jim Forbes nurses his ADD at his 14th DEMO:

Chris Shipley’s opening remarks have always been one of the highlights of any Demo event. Several of the points she made in her opener are spot on and highlighting the state of the current economy

• First there are huge differences between today’s environment and the dot com bubble world
• Liquidity events in today’s economy are elusive.
• There is substantially less venture money in play and venture capitalists are more careful with their investments today than they were during the bubble.
• Entrepreneurs are more focused on building viable businesses than they were in the 1990’s.
• The most precious resource that consumer and enterprise start-ups vie for today is time.
•  because of this new technologies are based on simplified design that mask rich features, diverse capabilities and accordingly offer more choices in achieving a specified objective.
• There is fundamental change in new Consumer and enterprise technologies. Consumer technologies are becoming more powerful and enterprise technology has the potential to turn IT managers into "applications specifiers".

Ms. Shipley uses her annual keynotes to spot and predict trends. She has a track record that’s excellent and while some of the companies that have been picked for Demo have come and gone, the important technologies today’s mainstream.

Keith Shaw feels old:

During the "Express Yourself" portion of the show, which all involved consumer-generated content applications (aka "Web 2.0" stuff), I came to the painful conclusion that I'm officially old. In several of the demos during this session, all of the new stuff they were showing off were Web apps, plug-ins or other Web stuff that all involved integrating into social networking or other Web sites like MySpace, or creating new content through a Web site and sharing it with my 'network' of friends.
...
It also became apparent that if you're in the under-25 set (which most of these products are geared to), you're going to be so busy creating new content that you're not going to have much time to leave the computer and your house.
...
Yep, I'm old. Pass the Geritol (I'm so old I even know that reference).

Marshall Kirkpatrick proffers some prominent themes:

Some clear trends are emerging among the 67 exclusively selected companies presenting. Many of the products are just launched and still less developed than they could be, but they are exciting none the less. The following are some of the most prominent themes of the conference
...
Lots of companies presenting are focused on making data and online objects more granular for portability and user manipulation.
...
Personalization is a key goal for Web 2.0 and a number of companies are making it easier than ever for content providers to make it happen.
...
Some of the most interesting companies are launching services that will enable communication beyond previous limitations.
...
All of the companies selected to present at DEMO are worth a look - here’s the list and videos. Excitement is in the air here and the innovation is tangible.

Buffer overflow:

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Around Computerworld

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• Robert L. Mitchell: Eating Raul the Web 2.0 Way: Will Jeff Bezos reveal what's really in your food?
• Jeff Boles: HP Technology Forum 2006 - in review, maybe the one place to be for industry conferences
• Preston Gralla: A look at the FCC's broadband lies
• Jeff Boles: BI - back to the basics, it's all about service, yours and your customer's
• Sharky: Shark Tank: But, but ... I made it myself!
• Jeff Boles: NAC, NAP, whatever
• Jeff Boles: Virtualization in the Fabric... coming to market, and just around the corner, Incipient iNSP
• Douglas Schweitzer: When botnets attack !

And finally... Professor March-Air fails again [you're fired -ed.]

Richi Jennings is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk.