Summit Notebook
Exclusive outtakes from industry leaders
from MediaFile:
Tech Summit Q&A, day 3: “Unsexy” tech companies
The third day of the 2011 Reuters Global Technology Summit saw a lot of discussion about the valuation and potential of "sexy" social networks and lesser known startups.
Saad Khan, Partner at CMEA Capital, talked about investing in LiveOps and Pixazza, two companies the former which he called "unsexy", and how they "stitch together the world's labor force."
One could say that Real Networks Chairman Rob Glaser, who saw his company's Real Player go from being the standard used in streaming media on the Web to a bit-player, is familiar with what is and isn't "sexy". Here he is talking about revamping his company around phenomena:
And Google Ventures Managing Partner Bill Maris questioned the value of social media startups:
"Are our smartest people working on our most difficult problems?"
from MediaFile:
Tech Summit Q&A, day 2: Symantec CEO talks privacy
Online security was a theme on day two of the 2011 Reuters Global Technology Summit.
Enrique Salem, the CEO of software security maker Symantec, suggested ways consumers can protect their privacy:
Tech M&A was also on the table.
Neil Rimer of Index Ventures gave his two cents on Microsoft buying Skype.
Reuters: "Does the Microsoft-Skype deal make sense?"
Rimer: "Yes, I think so. I think it is a phenomenal property that still is relatively underexploited. And a lot of the most promising plans that we had when we were investors in Skype still haven’t been carried out, so I still think there is a ton of opportunities ahead"
from MediaFile:
Tech Summit Q&A, day 1: AOL’s Tim Armstrong, Arianna Huffington
AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and Editor in Chief of The Huffington Post Arianna Huffington joined us Monday for the premiere of the 2011 Reuters Global Technology Summit.
Here's a clip of Tim Armstrong answering why he thinks the expansion of AOL's local news service Patch is a sound investment.
And another clip of Tim Armstrong, this time talking about one of two Tech CEOs he admires:
Who's the other one? Jeff Boyd from Priceline.com.
"He doesn't get brought up much but he's one of the best leaders in the Internet space. Very quiet but outstanding results," Armstrong said of Boyd.
Senator Reed sees need for speed to chase bad guys
Ann Saphir takes a look at Senator Jack Reed’s comments on cars and trading.
With traders buying and selling at dizzying speeds these days, underfunded U.S. regulators can’t hope to keep up unless they get more funding, better resources, and faster technology — think cars, Democratic Senator Jack Reed says.
Reed, who drives a 1991 Ford Escort, says he loves his car for city driving.
But if he had to take on a race car, he’d need to upgrade – and the same goes for the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which are stuck using outdated technology even as their policing obligations pile up after Dodd-Frank financial reform.
House Republicans have moved to block funding increases for the regulators, saying they don’t want to add to the federal deficit.
“If I’ve got a 1991 SEC, CFTC trying to catch high frequency traders, it’s never going to happen,” Reed told the Reuters Futures Face of Finance Summit. “We’ve got to get them, maybe not up to Ferrari level, but at least up to a Fusion.”
But is that fast enough?
So how plugged in is the SEC chair? (technologically speaking)
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro says her agency has its work cut out to compete with the massive amounts of money that private firms, policed by the SEC, pour into the latest technology.
“Can we keep up with Wall Street? I think we have a fighting chance. We’ll never have, under any circumstances, the kind of budgets that would allow us to spend a billion dollars a year on technology as some firms do, I mean that’s just not going to happen, and I totally understand that,” she said at the Reuters Future Face of Finance Summit.
“If we can build a forensics lab for our enforcement people to be able to download data off of iPhones and iPads and other instruments, then we will be a lot better able to pursue insider trading potentially and other securities law violations,” she said.
So how technologically plugged in is the SEC chair personally?
“I have an iPad,” Schapiro said.
“No I don’t do Twitter, I don’t have a Facebook page. You know, in my position it would be complicated,” she said with a laugh. “So maybe I’m kind of middling in terms of technology.”
Her agency has a Twitter feed and a Facebook page in development.
The SEC is at least ten years behind Wall Street. They have nowhere near the resources that Wall Street can bring to bear on manipulation of markets. By the time they catch up to the bad actors, either the statutes of limitations are already expired, or the thieves have taken their loot and disappeared to South America.
from MediaFile:
GlobalMedia-iPad cautionary tale: What not to watch, up close
Media executives love to go on about their love of the Apple's iPad. But the tablet isn't suited for everything. Walt Disney's Anne Sweeney relayed her recent experience catching up on an ABC TV show using the popular tablet.
Sweeney missed the season finale Grey's Anatomy and, while traveling, decided to watch the show in her hotel room. The episode was particularly gory -- several characters were picked off by a aggrieved man who held the hospital at gunpoint.
"It was a massacre," Sweeney said at the Reuters Global Media Summit. "There's nothing like seeing that on your pillow. There are some things you might not want to watch that close on your iPad."
(Photo: Reuters)
from MediaFile:
GlobalMedia-3D? After some thought, News Corp COO likes its future
To our surprise, News Corp President and Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey, whose studio released the highest grossing movie of all time in 3D, hesitated when asked about the future of that technology.
Carey, speaking at the Reuters Global Media Summit in New York, was asked whether he rated a series of technologies "long" or "short" and raced through most of the list without hesitating until faced with 3D.
"Ummm ... (pause) ... long, but long with limits," Carey said of 3D. "I don't think it's (high definition), so those who sort of think it's the second coming of HD, I think it is an event medium that's for films, for sports events."
Twentieth Century Fox film studio released "Avatar" last year with new 3D technology, grossing $2.8 billion globally. However, clunky 3D glasses are one thing many believe will hold back the technology's acceptance in the home.
"(3D) will be out there, but until you've tackled the glasses thing I think people aren't popping home at 7 o'clock at night, 8 o'clock at night and popping on (3D) glasses to watch TV," Carey added. "The richness of that experience is real, but I think as long as it's got the glasses it becomes an event, so somewhere where it becomes more seamless without the glasses so we should probably just say long."
For the record, Carey, who addressed the future of MySpace, was also long on tablets, social media and apps. Meanwhile, he was short on gesture interfaces like Microsoft's Kinect, physical media like Blu-ray DVDs and bypassing cable or pay-TV subscriptions by watching everything on the Internet.
(Reuters photo)
More or less fun in a recession? It’s a tough call
Still unsure whether economic recession is good or bad for video-games sales, more than a year in? If so, you’re in good company — neither does the world’s biggest games publisher. Electronic Arts’ head of European publishing says the company still hasn’t figured out whether people cut spending on big items like housing and cars first, or whether those kinds of decisions are just too hard.
“We really wonder, hmm, in economically difficult times would people in order to have SOME fun actually play more games or less games, and then, would they spend more or less? It’s really, it’s impossible to say,” Jens-Uwe Intat told the Reuters Global Technology Summit in Paris.
at a difficult economic time, people’s mind work faster alternatives to tide over or resolve such issues to compatible ones for self and their nations
Watch out school kids, big brother will soon be watching you
By Paul Sandle
Sit back a minute and think back to your school days — doing homework on the bus, skipping double physics on a Friday afternoon…nice, huh? Well, no more if Pearson prevails.
The reluctant student skulking at the back of the class, copying homework at the last minute or taking a day off, like Ferris Bueller, could find school a lot tougher if his college starts using the publisher’s latest education products.
Pearson, number one among educational publishers, which already complements its textbooks with online learning and testing tools, has developed applications to monitor attendance, punctuality and every other aspect of a student’s school record.
“There’s quite scary technology that we’ve got: scary for the student but great for the parent,” Chief Financial Officer Robin Freestone said at Reuters Media Summit in London.
“We’ll send you by the hour how late Johnny was for his first lesson this morning and how he’s done in his test in French. It’s scary to be a student these days.”
No carefree days for students but an early introduction to the rat race.
Is Rupert Murdoch toast?
Rupert Murdoch may have a sprawling empire and may be one the media industry’s last moguls but sometimes a small trust-owned outfit can show the big guys how it’s done. And what does that say about the future? Read for yourself. “The Guardian has been a fanastic innovator online, absolutely amazing innovator,” said David Levin, Chief Executive of United Business Media UBM at the Reuters Media Summit.”The big debate is how does Rupert Murdoch’s approach, saying I’m going to try and come off the search engines play, contrast with what the Guardian may or may not do. The Guardian is at the other end of the spectrum. So, you got people who are webcentric and those who say well, ooh, I don’t like that web thing, I will somehow go off line…they’re toast.” Rupert Murdoch take heed.
