A chance to shine: Show-off your mobile app at Impact 2014
Do you have a mobile app solution? If so, the IBM Mobile App Throwdown at Impact 2014 is for you!
We're inviting developers and our IBM Business Partners to get up on stage and demonstrate new solutions that use the IBM MobileFirst portfolio or our newly announced IBM BlueMix.
The App Throwdown at Impact 2014 will be a fun, interactive event where we will feature you, your mobile app solution, and how it integrates on any one of our IBM products. This puts you front and center at a major IBM event where you'll have the chance to demonstrate your solution live! The audience of clients, IBM Business Partners, and IBM sellers will select their favorite mobile app solution to win.
Will it be you? This is a great opportunity! Don't miss it!
Listen to what past App Throwdown winner, My Menu, said about their experience!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rm6tkJ7yvQ&w=560&h=315]
The deadline for the App Throwdown is April 21st. IBM Impact 2014 is April 27th to May 1st.
Don't delay!Register now!!!
SXSW Interactive at the BlueMix Blast!!!
For the last 5 years I've had the opportunity to attend SXSW in Austin, Texas.
More than 60,000 people annually attend the conference, which is consistently an overwhelmingly impressive display of up-and-coming technologies and inspirational industry thought leaders. This year, the two biggest highlights of the conference were enjoying creative culinary delights such as a burrito cooked by the Institute of Culinary Education chefs at the Watson Food Truck and having an opportunity to spend so much time with developers.
If you had a chance to interact with more than 10,000 developers at once what would you ask them? I spoke with hundreds of developers and asked them to tell me about how they are using cloud, mobile, big data and analytics to innovate, address business pain points or create the next big consumer app. For example, wearable technology such as clothing that uses, sensors to help better manage an individual's health.
During SXSW I first met with designers and front-end developers at our BlueMix Blast! See this amazing team below!
In 2013, IBM unveiled a product design studio in Austin, which has brought together hundreds of designers and front-end developers to focus on how software is designed, developed and consumed by organizations around the globe. Next, I attended IBM's BlueMix Party along with more than 400 developers looking for an opportunity to learn about BlueMix, IBM's new platform-as-service (PaaS) that combines the strength of IBM software, third-party and open technologies.
What is BlueMix?
BlueMix is an open-standards, cloud-based platform for building, managing and running apps of all types (web, mobile, big data, new smart devices). Capabilities include Java, mobile backend development, application monitoring, as well as capabilities from ecosystem partners and open source — all through an as-a-service model in the cloud. When thinking about BlueMix, imagine tapping into DevOps in the cloud -- an open, integrated development experience that scales, helping developers, independent firms and enterprise teams get started to build enterprise applications more quickly and effectively.
If you are curious about how BlueMix can help a business, check out this video conversation I recently had with Michael Garel, CEO and Founder of eyeQ, about customer engagement and how BlueMix allowed them to simplify and improve their development process:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7_UT02jVfQ
During my conversation with developers at SXSW three key points on the future of the developer and cloud ecosystem stood out to me:
1. It's all about the tools.
Developers today are always on the look-out to tap into systems and tools that simplify and reduce the time needed to create an application and to provision it so that they can focus on what they do best—innovating and developing top quality applications. By using the right tools that eliminate complexity, developers can quickly turn their ideas into shipped products fast and lower their time-to-market by cutting application development and deployment times from months to days and hours.
2. Keep an open mind when it comes to open standards.
An open, flexible cloud environment connecting the enterprise and born-on-the-web developers using their choice of tools in a scalable model prevents vendor lock-in, accelerates innovation and fosters growth.
3. The developer community keeps growing in size and creativity.
According to Evans Data, there are more than 18 million software developers worldwide yet less than 25 percent are developing for the cloud today. The developer population is expected to grow to 26.4M by 2016 and the parentage of developers expected to develop in the cloud will grow by 44% to 12.5M by 2019.
With new tools, ideas and processes being brought to the table every day, it's an incredibly exciting time for developers to jump into the sandbox of their choice and start creating! To start experimenting with Bluemix today visit: https://www.ibmdw.net/bluemix/
Live from the Watson food truck: video set of key takeaways from SXSW part 2!
The journey into the heart of innovation continues here at SXSW! Let me share with you what has been trending here in Austin.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zbzCEYaTUY&w=560&h=315]
I'd love to hear your feedback!
Innovate like a startup: What Goliath can learn from David! Pulse it UP!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsFbWzuqUOU&feature=youtu.be]
Not Seven of Nine - Eight of Nine! IBM Clear Leader in Social Business according to Experton
Back in 2011, I told you about my trip to Germany and what I learned about German companies adopting social business principles at great rate, companies like Bayer and Sennheiser. Even GAD as on stage to tell their Social Business Success at IBM Connect!
And just today, other amazing news has arrived from Germany! It’s about IBM and about our service and product offering being assessed by an external research, advisory and consulting company alongside over 90 other vendors.
Experton, the European Analyst firm, did this extensive vendor benchmark on Social Business for the German market. They are – at least to my knowledge – the first ones collecting data from Social Business Services up to different software components playing into the Social Business space. Just published early 2014 their study shows 9 different quadrants.
And the results remind me of Star Trek Voyager -- 7 of 9. Why? IBM is in the leader quadrant in 8 of 9 quadrants. The only quadrant not listing IBM as leader is the one for Social CRM. And that’s just because IBM doesn't have an offer in this space...
This is an outstanding and impressive achievement and shows the companies commitment in the Social Business space. You can find more information on the results here including some impressive numbers for the social business market in general.
According to Experton, the market for social business for communication & collaboration (SB4CC) even outpaces cloud computing as IT and business driver with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50% by 2016!
You want to get a summary of the study? Send a note to Stefan.Pfeiffer@de.ibm.com. He will make sure, that you get the PDF as soon as it’s available.
Happy Valentines! Digital tip of the week –– Organize your Twitter stream by creating lists
When you follow a high number of profiles on Twitter, it is sometimes difficult to get to know the important and useful tweets in between the “noise” of your timeline. Twitter Lists come in handy to keep up with the best tweets from the people you follow and cut the noise in your stream. You can have different categories of lists eg “customers”, “partners” etc to help you sort the content and you can make your lists public or private. Plus, lists are a form of appreciation on Twitter, a gesture of gratitude. And you might get listed back too.
Learn how to create Twitter lists here.
https://support.twitter.com/articles/76460-how-to-use-twitter-lists
Come THROWDOWN your APP!!! Get Exposure at IBM Pulse!
We’re taking the App Throwdown to IBM Pulse 2014!
Calling all IBM Business Partners! Come and join us for IBM Pulse (Our Premier CLOUD event!) where we'll be holding an App Throwdown! Compete with your best solution and be highlighted in front of Clients and IBM Sales teams during qualifying rounds. The winner will be on main stage on Day 3 in front of over 8,000 Re-sellers, Clients, and IBM Sellers - giving you the opportunity to reach a new and broad audience!
In addition to sharing your solution with the conference audience, we will be leveraging Mutual Minds to magnify the reach of your company and your solution. For example, during the main stage session of the AppThrowdown at our recent IBM Connect event, social impressions totalled over 21.7M! (read more about it here) and the winner already has more leads than they can handle!
The Details:
Is my solution eligible? Your need to demonstrate your solution's use of our Cloud Solution show how your solution runs on SoftLayer or IBM BlueMix. OR integration with IBM Security or Smarter Infrastructure products.
What do I need to do to apply? Submit a 2-5 minute video demonstration of an application that you have built integrating with the solutions above.
How do I register? Click here to fill out this brief form. We're waiting for your submissions!
Please join me there live!!
We have a winner - IBM's 2014 Global Entrepreneur of the YEAR! Coriell Life Sciences
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Zt9QkiTT1k&feature=youtu.be]