DCI Texas: News

San Antonio technology event a good opportunity to learn more about south Texas technology opportunities

2008-02-01T03:02:00.000-08:00

Rare is the event in this part of Texas that brings two different technology events events together with one trade show. If you are someone who wants to expand your network within San Antonio, the Innotech event (see press release below) is an excellent opportunity to meet some potential business prospects.

With the help of two local south Texas organizations, the March 6 Innotech trade show should have a program or event for every technology business leader or advocate. The event will be held at both the Norris Conference Center, located within the CrossRoads Mall, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the San Antonio Technology Center, 3463 Magic Drive.

“We are fortunate to have the help of the North San Antonio chamber and the Technology Connexus Association working with us to promote the growth of technology within the San Antonio region,” said Sean Lowery, the executive director of Innotech.

The event begins at 8:30 a.m. with the opening of the exhibit hall, and the first sessions begin at 9 a.m. Program includes: eMail Marketing, Search Engine Marketing Building Blocks, Virtualizations, Managing a Virtualized Environment, The National Security Cyber Threat and Maneuvering PCI DSS Compliance.

The North San Antonio Chamber CIO Panel will begin at 11:30 a.m. The panel features Gary McKnight, chief information officer at Frost, Tom McDonnell, executive vice president, Business Banking Administration, Frost Bank, Eddie Cuellar, CIO, Methodist Healthcare Cystem, Dean Alexander, chief executive officer, Methodist Stone Oak Hospital and Boerne Medical Center, Jerome Charleston, Director of IT, Time Warner Cable, and Jon Gary Herrera, vice president of government and public affairs, Time Warner Cable.

The last sessions for Innotech start at 3:30 p.m., and the exhibit hall closes at 4:30 p.m. The Second annual Technology Connexus Association Technology Showcase and Hi-Tech Mixer starts afterwards at the San Antonio Technology Center.

Program information is available at www.innotechsan.com.

(Note: Innotech has retained my firm as their local public relatons firm, but I believe this event is noteworthy in helping expand the growth of technology along the DCI corridor.)

The Soul of a New Instrument - WSJ.com

2007-12-09T10:29:00.000-08:00

DCI has known about Jim Plamondon and his new musical instrument, the Thummer, since we talked about bringing him to SXSW from his then-home in Australia in 2005. He couldn't make that trip, but since then he's moved to Austin, hoping to find interested musicians in the "live music capital of the world." The Thummer was featured in Friday's Wall Street Journal.

The idea for the Thummer began when his wife and daughter both quit piano lessons after only six months. His wife, Patti, complained that learning to play separate lines on each hand "was like reading Spanish with one eye and French with the other," she recalls.

The Thummer doesn't make any noise on its own. It must be plugged into a computer or synthesizer, which uses software to mimic other instruments. To adjust volume and pitch, players thumb a pair of joysticks mounted on the side -- hence the instrument's name. Like the Nintendo Wii controller, it has an internal motion sensor, so players can also adjust the sound by moving the instrument around as they play it.

Marc Rossi, a synthesizer specialist and professor of piano and jazz composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, says the Thummer sounds like a good-quality synthesizer. He says the internal motion sensor is what's truly innovative: "That could be a whole new world."

San Antonio Express-News: "Texas producing more of the digital games people play"

2007-11-28T13:12:00.000-08:00

BattleZone, Luxor, Quake, Aeon Flux, First Strike and other games that people like to play on their computers and video game consoles create big business in Texas.

The state's computer and video game industry was worth $395 million in 2006, up 17 percent from a year earlier, according to a study released Tuesday by the Entertainment Software Association.

More at MySA.com: Business

Why having cyber warriors in Texas is good for the DCI

2007-08-04T17:43:00.000-07:00

If you are a cyber warrior, the Air Force is looking for you. San Antonio is considered one of the finalists for a new Cyber Command that could be located at Lackland AFB. While the Express News article that announced it doesn't mention these facts, here's some thoughts on why Texas should get this:

1) The AFCERT was created in San Antonio in 1990.
2) Much of the intellectual capital that created companies like SecureInfo and SecureLogix stayed in Texas.
3) The Center for Infrastructure Assurance Studies is up and running at UTSA
4) UT has a lot of intellectual talent in the mathematics and computer science needed to help grow this command.

It's not one bright star but many others as well.....

2007-07-29T18:01:00.000-07:00

One of the best technology writers and bloggers in San Antonio is L.A. Lorek. I usually like the information that she puts in her blog, but I felt that her comment on how California is discovering San Antonio is shortsighted. Yes, our cost of living is a little lower than Austin, but we at the DCI have to help writers like her to see the big picture. It's not an Austin versus San Antonio issue, but one that helps the entire region prosper. We in this part of Texas need to see the benefits of colloboration. I liken it to a galaxy of stars. Right now, Austin is a bright star, while San Antonio is a developing one. But if we can help businesses see the beauty of working in San Antonio, Seguin, San Marcos, Waco and others, it will help us the truly innovative see the galaxy of technology stars in our region.

Why everyone in the DCI will win if San Antonio wins DHS bioresearch contract

2007-07-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

With the recent news that San Antonio is one of the finalists for the Department of Homeland Security National Bio and Agro Defense Facility, the possibility that the Alamo City may get this major research facility is a major opportunity for all of us in the I-35 corridor. San Antonio has the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, Brooks City Base and the UT Health Science Center with current research in biomedical terror prevention programs. However, we in San Antonio have to realize that by teaming with Austin with the University of Texas and its major research capabilities that we could be the community to win this $500 million facility. It's time for everyone along the corridor to truly embrace the possiblity that if San Antonio wins this, so will the folks in Austin, Waco and other outlying communities. If you're reading this and want to help, take the time to write your Congressman. Both Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson and John Cornyn will support this, but we need to get our voice out as a corridor and not rely on just the San Antonio congressional delegation.

Matt Scherer
DCI Media Relations Chair

Helping to close the gap between Austin and San Antonio

2007-07-19T15:30:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a family trip to Washington D.C. over the Fourth of July holiday. My son, Pete, wanted to visit the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress as his graduation present from high school. While there, I helped a New York engineer get a ride to a local Target so he could replace a batter for his car’s key fob. During our drive, I mentioned that I was from San Antonio working as a publicist in the technology sector. His first comments were typical: “I didn’t know there was technology in San Antonio, but I knew there was a bunch of it in Austin.” That’s one of the reasons why I volunteered to work as the volunteer press officer for the DCI aka the Digital Convergence Initiative. Not only do I want to strengthen the relationship of San Antonio’s growing tech presence in the region outside of Texas, but I want to also build the relationship between Austin and San Antonio. I once lived in Austin while assigned to the public affairs office at Bergstrom AFB, Texas (Note: Both Hunter S. Thompson and I edited the base paper, the Jet Gazette), and like all other residents, I considered San Antonio as a nice place for a weekend getaway. It wasn’t until I got assigned to San Antonio, and I retired from here, that I noticed the difference again in the two cities. San Antonio is a combination of retired military, conservative German and Hispanics. Compared to Austin, it has a different attitude, and driving through San Antonio is a lot easier than Austin. After leaving Bergstrom in 1982, I knew Austin had grown into a technopolitan community. Whenever I get to Austin, I feel a different kind of vibe. Yet, even though we are somewhat different, both communities can become the base for a growing convergence of technology. In San Antonio, we have some of the top cryptologists in the world as well as some of the leading biomedical research facilities. And, it’s not just these two industries. There’s a growing expansion of other technologies. BroadRamp, a client of mine, has some major deals for its streaming media services. Rackspace is one of the largest content delivery storage facilities in the world, and my friends at Bauhaus have launched an animation sharing site. I hope to learn about the growing technologies in Austin and to help strengthen the relationship between both communities. Sloan Foster, DCI’s new president and another SA resident, asked me to serve on the board, and I am willing to volunteer time to bring the two communities as well as others together. Already, I know where the good pit stops are on I-35. (Note: While I love the Longhorn Café in San Antonio, you can’t get a better milk shake at the Steak n Shake at Exit 227 near Austin.) I am hoping that through my work on the board, that I will help bring convergence to our two communities and hopefully get a free shake or two from the Steak ‘n’ Shake frequent customer card.

Matt Scherer
DCI Press Officer

Apple in the digital living room

2007-01-25T04:24:00.000-08:00

From Wharton's Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Apple is focusing on the "digital living room." It's no longer a computer company, but a convergence company.A

Experts at Wharton note that Apple's new moniker makes official a business strategy that has been underway since the iPod was launched in 2001. That strategy: Create devices that will form the hub of the digital living room, where audio and visual content will be available on demand and can be networked seamlessly across multiple devices. But just as it did in the PC industry, Apple faces tough competition. The same week that Apple introduced its iPhone, Microsoft -- which also has designs on the digital home -- unveiled the Home Server, a device that will back up digital content throughout one's house. Apple also faces other rivals such as Sony, which has delivered living room electronics for years.

Meanwhile, Apple has to walk a fine line between locking customers into its platform to boost profits while also making sure that its products work easily with other electronic devices.

Mobile 2.0

2007-01-23T04:50:00.000-08:00

Last November, Daniel Appelquist made a post that described an extension of "Web 2.0" thinking into the world of mobile devices - "Mobile 2.0." [Link]

When I traveled to Spain on business last month, I took pictures with my camera phone which were automatically uploaded to a photo sharing service as I took them using a photo upload application that I had downloaded over the mobile Web. My beautiful wife and kids were able to track my trip in pictures by checking back with the photo sharing site as I traveled and no PC was involved on my end. A downloaded mapping application on my phone allowed me to easily find my way from the city of Gigón to Bilbao, and I was able to access Wikipedia entries on cities I visited to find background information when I needed it. A downloaded mobile IM client embedded on my email device allowed me to keep in touch with colleagues and friends. Mobile 2.0 is not “the Future.” it is services that already exist all around us. These services are maturing at an amazing rate and what they are doing is effectively knitting together Web 2.0 with the mobile platform to create something new: a new class of services that leverage mobility but are as easy to use and ubiquitous as the Web is today. These services point the way forward for the mobile data industry.

MashPit OpenID: Austin

2006-12-20T00:17:00.000-08:00

Tom Brown of Stuffopolis has organized an OpenID Mashpit Wednesday, January 17th, 2007 - 4pm at Cafe Caffeine.

OpenID is an emerging standard for doing identity on the Internet; single sign-on, one username, one password for the sites you visit. Putting this together with a Mash Pit we now have an event that people can come to and hack on OpenID and figure out how to make it work for their sites or applications.
We'll do a very brief introduction on OpenID and then break out into small groups to help people actually dig into the "doing" of OpenID enabling their site. The goal? More hacking, less talking.

DCI planning for 2007

2006-12-15T12:48:00.000-08:00

The Digital Convergence Initiative's Board of Directors have been meeting to plan 2007 DCI activities, which include finalization of collaborative planning, programs to clarify DCI focus and goals, new web development, and DCI sessions at SXSW Interactive in March.

Photos: DCI Board Meeting. David Smith, Sloan Foster, Alex Cavalli, Jerry Keys, Danny Sharon.

ioko, Sun Microsystems and Vignette join forces to launch converged digital content delivery platform

2006-10-07T06:32:00.000-07:00

ioko, a specialist in digital and on-demand media, Sun Microsystems, a leading global provider of hardware, software and services, and [Austin's own] Vignette, the enterprise content management software provider, today announced a partnership agreement to provide a consolidated solution that will enable telco operators, internet service providers, and media and entertainment companies in Northern Europe to exploit digital convergence across a number of channels, via a single comprehensive delivery platform.

Until now, companies looking to take advantage of emerging convergence technologies to create and deliver multimedia content to customers have done so in a piecemeal fashion and crucially, have not been able to use their existing website infrastructures. The ioko, Vignette and Sun Microsystems partnership will allow the transformation of multimedia content so that it can be distributed via multiple channels and devices such as PC, digital set-top boxes, mobile phones and other portable devices. Full story at Streamingmedia.com.

Google Earth pushing great new featured content

2006-09-28T10:58:00.001-07:00

As reported on LifeHacker and Arstechnica Google Earth has a new treasure trove of featured content online now to play with. One of the standouts is the real-time reporting and monitoring of earthquakes around the globe. The ability to zoom in on quakes around the globe is great. It's amazing to see how many quakes take place in a given week...more than I probably care to know about.

The CBS Seismic project shows the effects of the 6.0 quake that hit 260 miles of the coast of Florida a few weeks back (read about it here and here) even allowing for overlays of the shake maps.

The project which is a partnership between Google Earth, CBS News, the United States Geological Survey USGS, and Neopolitan Networks shows the potential for using Google Earth is some very unique and engaging ways.

If you have google earth installed then give the KML try.

3-D TV That Actually Works

2006-08-24T06:07:00.000-07:00

Philips has developed a 3D television system that doesn't require special glasses to view. [Link]

Sony's new wireless communication handheld

2006-08-09T04:36:00.000-07:00

"Hoping to tap into the growth of wireless networks across college campuses, other public spaces and within homes, Sony Corp. will announce Tuesday a new pocket-sized gadget for instant messaging and other Internet-based communications.

"The Sony mylo, slated for availability in September at a retail price of about $350 (euro270), is a first-of-its-kind product that uses Wi-Fi networks, analysts say. It is not a cellular phone and thus does not carry monthly service fees. And though it could handle Web-based e-mail services, it does not support corporate e-mail programs." [Complete article at MIT Technology Review]

Mashup = convergence

2006-04-12T07:30:00.000-07:00

I was reading through my daily feeds and stumbled on what can only be described as pure mind candy. This is something that as DCI'ers we need to seriously be considering for our annual conference. A mind meld sort of layout discussing the implications of just these sorts of issues. Mashup's are meetings where people get together to talk about things like what happends when you combine goggle map API and jogging, why is it important, and how do you make a living do it. Very very top notch idea in my book...

More for you to look at:)

Proposed Sessions

Nature on the Future of Computing

2006-03-25T08:18:00.000-08:00

The current issue of the journal Nature has a feature section on the future of computing, summarized at WorldChanging.com by Jamais Cascio. All the articles in the special section are available for free here, sponsored by Microsoft Research. According to Jamais, "only one of the eight feature articles talks about how future computers might operate; the rest look more at the evolution of how we use computers."

Play Music By Driving on a Virtual Road

2006-03-23T04:57:00.000-08:00

"Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have designed an interface for non-musicians to play music. This interface, part of the Expression Synthesis Project (ESP), is based on the fact that more people know how to drive a car than an orchestra. In 'Baby, you can drive my song,' the researchers explain how they converted real musical scores into digital virtual roads. Then using a steering wheel and foot pedals, you 'drive' on this road to interpret the piece of music, becoming a real maestro. Such a system should be demonstrated in a public exhibit by 2008 and become available to everyone in the same time frame." [Full story at Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends]

Roomba Frogger at SXSW Interactive

2006-03-16T06:44:00.000-08:00

Philip Torrone from Make Magazine and Limor Fried, intern at Eyebeam R&D, were playing physpace Frogger with a modified remote-control Roomba during SXSW Interactive. Philip and Limor were on the "Consumer is Producer" session that was part of the Digital Convergence track organized by DCI. [Link]

2006-03-06T15:32:00.000-08:00

@Hire spreads the good word for MCF up north

2006-03-03T13:53:00.000-08:00

@HIRE is MCF's exclusive Recruiting Media Sponsor. @HIRE's clients include mobile computing and wireless mobility internet companies in the areas of m-tertainment, mobile content, messaging and software applications who are making "everything wireless" - from service providers, to retailers to developers or manufacturers. It's becoming a wireless world. Join in and marvel in the mobile content festival and all it has to offer.

check them out

San Antonio Business Journal: Digital Convergence Initiative spreads wings along I-35 corridor - 2006-02-27

2006-03-02T19:54:00.000-08:00

The Digital Convergence Initiative (DCI) is helping to organize a slate of experts for the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in March as part of the group's ongoing efforts to put Central and South Texas on the map as an epicenter of innovation.

[Continued at the San Antonio Business Journal web site.]

Canada Vidfest coming up

2006-02-13T13:04:00.000-08:00

Our friends in Canada were kind enough to help the DCI spead the word about our Mobile Content Festival. It's only fitting that we return the favor. They are doing some really great stuff up north and we can wait to go visit!

VIDFEST CALL FOR ENTRIES

Canada's biggest digital content event, VIDFEST (Vancouver International Digital Festival), is looking for the best, most innovative digital film and Web site material to screen or exhibit. With a growing reputation for bringing independent producers together with big name digital entertainment and media companies like EA, Nokia, ABC, Warner and Disney, VIDFEST is a premium venue to show off your digital deftness. Selected entrants will have full access to all the conference sessions, events and parties, providing a tremendous opportunity to make connections. Entrants can submit in two
areas: Digital Short (including music videos, game sequences, animation, digital video) and Interactive Design (meaning original, highly usable and innovative websites in the categories of Business, Education, Entertainment and Experimental/Art). The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2006. For more details, and to enter, visit the Web site.

www.vidfest.com

"Bubble 2.0 Is a Bubble in Media"

2006-01-30T04:20:00.000-08:00

Digital Convergence creates confusion about the future of media; many smart people are trying to grasp what's changed, and what those changes mean. Scott Karp at Publishing 2.0 aggregates the thinking of several "2.x" usual suspects, and finds some of the best insights in Umair Haque's theory of media economics (link to PowerPoint).

The idea that we’re living in an “attention economy” is nothing new. But unless the media/technology industry starts listening to Umair and focuses on creating new ways to help people efficiently allocate their attention in a world of infinite options, the bubble will pop. And it won’t be pretty.

So let’s focus on the user. What the user needs is help allocating a finite amount of attention. And the solution needs to be personal — perfectly tailored to each user’s needs. The user needs a personal killer app.

Analog cameras fading

2006-01-16T06:53:00.000-08:00

Technology Review reports that Nikon is discontinuing most film cameras and focusing on digital. [Link]