Ouch, but true! I parked my other project for AutoIQ.co because it fit the “x sux, we fix w/y&z” equation so well.
Last night while hacking on LayerVault, I had put on Paul Graham’s Office Hours at TC Disrupt. After watching the six or so guys chat with him, I am ashamed to call myself a software developer. The kids on stage did not succeed in doing much, other than convincing me that no one should ever…
Tippr is about getting customers in the door for local businesses as a white label offer daily deals. AutoIQ.co solves that problem for auto repair shops by solving another problem for drivers. What does my car really need?
That quote came from Martin Tobias of Tippr on TWiST #167, http://bit.ly/oN2qD6. I’ve heard similar sentiment before and used a similar gut-check to guide earlier product development decisions. This episode #TWIST was really good and if you get the time, check it out.
(Source: bit.ly)
With the race to the bottom in progress, how long until the campus markets see this kind of disruption. Micros? Blackboard? Cbord? Heartland? Enjoy those service contracts because your transaction systems are about to be bypassed.
This is like “Square” all grown up. Square is very disruptive based on it’s cost structure for the mag stripe device. Doing the same for “chip+pin” payments is inherently more expensive. I’ll dig into this and post more on the cost structure. Of course, this all becomes moot when NFC hits but it’s about the disruptive land. If I was an incumbent in the card/identity/payments space whose revenue was dependent on the hardware sale and transcation fees, Square and iZettle would make me very nervous
If you’ve followed biometrics and facial recognition, a crowd sourced effort like this was only a matter of time. Remember the SuperBowl trial a few years back?
Hmmm, when you learn on mobile and your identity is mobile, how much other computing do you need?
As soon as #Blackboard announced they were the target of a hostile takeover, my phone started ringing with the question “who do you think it is?” I was at a Microsoft event at the time and one of their product managers told me they were going to be aggressively building and buying solutions that added “greater layers of value on our infrastructure”. We were specifically discussing their dynamics suite but when I asked which areas of value he immediately offered up “education & training” among other areas.
A friend forwarded this post from Motley Fool that seems to echo this sentiment.
“Microsoft’s target markets include small businesses with 25 or fewer employees. This is clearly not an individual user solution. But Mr. Softy will also be looking at the educational markets, with slightly different plans for faculty, staff, and students. Perhaps the company intends to make a more aggressive run at academic powerhouses like Blackboard (Nasdaq: BBBB ) and others.”
Hot on the heels on Pearson making an acquisition in the space, it seems like Blackboard’s suite of offerings might make a nice addition to Microsoft’s portfolio. Blackboard faces a tough battle for more organic growth in their curent markets but coupled with the Microsoft mothership it could see dramatic growth. It also positions Microsoft with a product suite that moves deeper into the day to day business of customers than their core server offerings. Finally, both businesses are used to having targets on their backs and hot/cold relationships with their users.
Of course, all of the above holds true with Oracle as the suitor. Blackboard may want to stay independent but with all the anxious capital moving back into the market, my bet is that we’ll seen that product suite with a different logo before the end of the year. Which logo that is could have a dramatic impact on the effective Higher Ed identity & transaction duopoly of Blackboard/Cbord. Let me know your thoughts and I’ll keep you posted on what I hear.
(Source: fool.com)
It’s Thursday and I’m still not in California but the work at #IIW, is tearing right along. Much of the work done there is “behind the scenes” for most consumers but this one has a very big impact. The Microsoft team members in attendance announced their support of OAuth 2.0 for Windows Live developer platform, Messenger Connect.
Kim Cameron (check out his Laws of Identity), Microsoft’s former identity architect, did some great work bringing that organization in line with the emerging identity standards for the “open web”. Microsoft, and Windows Live, uniquely straddles both the “org-centric” and “user-centric” identity spaces. Bringing their dev tools into closer alignment with OAuth acknowledges and protects the value generated by common frameworks for information exchange.
With the emergence of other tech titans like Google, Apple & Facebook, it’s easy to forget how pervasive and useful Microsoft’s platforms can be. Good job and I look forward to working with those tools.
IIW should generate several weeks worth of commentary, but Practical Identity covers identity for security, sales & service in both the physical and digital space. I promise a post next week on how Microsoft tools are growing to have a very unexpected impact on the physical security space.
#IIW is the best identity discussion. Period. If you’re interested in identity, you shouldn’t. Info links at the end of the post.
It’s Tuesday and IIW 12 has been underway for a few hours and I’m still in sunny Florida, not Mountainview, CA. IIW, or Identity Workshop, consistently hosts the most productive identity-centric discussions. For the first time in six years I was really looking forward to talking without my ASSA ABLOY filter.
A last minute series of commitments/entanglements means I might only catch Thursday, which is focused on the business models that might emerge from the personal data economy. It sounds a little nerdy, but trust me, this is going to have a major impact on how we lead our lives. In the meantime, I’m following #IIW while I write code and chase down other startup tasks. At IIW 11 I called it the “Switzerland” of the identity space because generally opposing organizations (Microsoft/Google/Facebook, etc…) can settle down and get some work done.
The genius of IIW is that host Phil Windley, Doc Searls and Kaliya Hamlin have treated it not like an “event” but curated it more like a salon discussion between highly knowledgeable and interested guests. The unconference format and physical space of the Computer History Museum both play a tremendous role in making this the one event I really try not to miss. That stands in strong contrast to another event I missed for the first time since the late 90’s, NACCU. More posts on that to follow. If you follow identity and are in the Bay area, I strongly encourage you to attend IIW this week.
