ADVANCE Conference

2011-09-16T11:48:00+02:00

I’m going to be speaking at ADVANCE Conference, which is taking place September 19 & 20 in Cologne, Germany. It looks like a very interesting line-up, great program and speakers - and I’m not just saying this because I’m biased.

I have the great fortune to be joining 3 distinguished speakers talking about visions of the future, and then participating in a panel on copycats. And of course it wouldn’t be the same without fanning the fires just a little.

Web Visions 2015

There are tons of emerging technologies and innovations prompting speculations and science fiction (and buzzword bingo). Four experts draft individual scenarios for future market developments in digital business. Watch loose threads weaved into future visions.

Innovate or imitate? Europe: a continent of copycats?

Of course, there are hundreds of successful European, truly innovative startups out there. But a perceived couple of thousands are – more or less – clones of their respective US-origins. From an individual economic point of view there is nothing wrong with copycats. However, from a macroeconomic perspective the predominant funding of copycats in Europe widens the gap between the two continents in terms of economic power … on a battleground, which is regarded as the fastest growing industry of our time. This panel argues the need for a more balanced climate for funding copycats AND true innovations.

Cloud Rush

2011-09-16T09:35:00+02:00

As today’s news about Facebook and Heroku attests, the cloud application platform wars are heating up. The reason is simple: the real money to be made in a gold rush is not from actually prospecting for gold dust in the river or mining the ground for nuggets, but in selling the picks and sifters and shovels to those chasing the get-rich-quick dream.

With start-ups, there are a number of tools that software start-ups depend on, perhaps the most significant being a place to run those services, the “Cloud” on everyone’s lips. But configuring infrastructure isn’t fun or sexy - at least not for most of us - and so we turn to someone else to provide this service.

In posts to come, I’ll be looking at some of the tools out there and comparing them. I don’t want to spoil it, but if you’re the kind of person who likes to turn to the end of a book to see how it turns out, well, maybe you should take a look at dotCloud.

Isaac Wolkerstorfer

ADVANCE Conference

Web Visions 2015

Innovate or imitate? Europe: a continent of copycats?

Cloud Rush