Yesterday, at the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council's Mobile Summit, panelists and audience members eagerly discussed and debated developing for the often volatile ecosystem of mobile. The summit general session, "Content is King" featured panelists Phil Costa, Director of Product Management at Brightcove; Jeff Moriarty, VP of Digital Products at the Boston Globe; and Sanjay Vakil, Director of Mobile Product at TripAdvisor. The panel — which was moderated by Phuc Truong, Managing Director of Mobext, US — tackled questions on everything from the death of QR codes to the importance and difficulty of making mobile content findable to the developers' dilemma of native applications vs. HTML5.

Dealing with Mobile Platform Fragmentation
It's clear that the current divergence of mobile devices and operating systems is only just the beginning. While iOS has perhaps 8 different flavors of device / OS combinations in use, Android has hundreds; and, if you'd like to add Windows Phone to the mix, the total picture becomes chaotic quickly. There's no doubt that a certain amount of agility and flexibility is required to operate as a mobile content provider in this environment.

Involution client Segterra is doing its part to prepare US athletes for the upcoming 2012 Olympic Summer Games in London. Segterra's innovative software product, Inside Tracker, is being used by champion track cyclist Sarah Hammer and triathletes Jarrod Shoemaker and Sarah Haskins to learn about nutritional deficiencies and excesses via bloodwork analytics and optimize and boost performance based on diet recommendations. When training for the Olympics, every advantage, no matter how small, can make a difference; and InsideTracker provides data and analysis that many athletes have, up to this point, had access to only on the occasions when they interacted with their physicians.

Today, Microsoft fired a significant salvo in the war for a Unified User Experience, with the debut of its Surface tablet. Taking a page from the Apple playbook, Microsoft is creating both the hardware and software for the Surface, a strategy it once executed successfully, with the Xbox 360 gaming console; and twice not so successfully, with the Zune MP3 player and Kin smart phone going down in flames.

Last year, Internet luminary and entrepreneur Marc Andreessen wrote a significant essay in the Wall Street Journal, outlining the many ways in which software has become absolutely vital to our world. Software allows us to extend our reach even further than we did before, automating processes, accelerating the rate of change, and providing the sinews between people and data. It seems only natural then, that software has come to the forefront of business technology.

We're at the very beginnings of a significant evolution in the way we work — not just in from a technical perspective, although that's a significant driver — but in the culture and nature of work and organizational relationships. The way we work today is markedly different from the way our parents worked, and even more distant from the way their parents worked. The shift is so pronounced in part because knowledge work requires that we manipulate digital objects — be they words, videos, designs, figures, models, or code — rather than physical ones, and that these digital objects represent our production. However, for knowledge workers — designers, engineers, architects, scientists, writers, etc. — while the tools of the trade may have become digital decades ago, the process of working with others, the structure and the framework of engagement, is still catching up. And all the while, the technology continues to race forward.

While digital communication and production tools have made it possible that we no longer need be in the same physical location to collaborate, from a human interaction perspective, it still helps to meet face-to-face, read body language around the table, and share a meal. So, now we exist in a hybrid space where colleagues from across the world can meet up to kick off a project, and then continue working separately, only to meet again at critical moments in the process. Into this new digital world of possibilities, we step with the baggage of the industrial age, whether it's organizational structure, or contract language, or work culture. We're still finding our way and inventing new ways to work together to produce new things.


CodeRyte, a healthcare industry leader in clinical Natural Language Processing (NLP) and computer-assisted coding, was acquired by 3M for an undisclosed amount last week. CodeRyte helps physicians and coders deliver fast, accurate, and complete coding information immediately through its advanced NLP technology. Its products include CodeAssist, CodeComplete, DataScout, and Health System Coding.

At the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center last Wednesday evening, software innovators came together for a series of presentations and conversation about the opportunity for technology and design to effect positive change in healthcare.

For Immediate Release
BETHESDA, Maryland (U.S.) - March 30, 2012 - CodeRyte, the leading and fastest growing Natural Language Processing (NLP) and computer-assisted coding supplier in healthcare, is partnering with Involution Studios for the user experience design of its ground breaking health system coding software. CodeRyte’s sophisticated NLP technology streamlines the coding process and identifies clinically relevant information about medical records. The highly innovative, end-to-end health system solution offers a full picture of patient care over the lifecycle of treatment. CodeRyte recently extended its long-term collaboration with Involution, so that the software design consultancy can remain on board through the product launch and beyond.

"Working with Involution as our design partner, we are completely re-imagining the Health System Coding product, and taking a fresh look at how it can be extended to get the most out of its substantial vision. Involution's experience in cutting edge technology and healthcare software design makes them the perfect choice for CodeRyte. Their team has been absolutely integral to our efforts to create a highly usable, useful, and robust experience," said George Moon, CodeRyte Vice President.

At Involution, as a part of our commitment to learning and growing as a company, we conduct semi-regular studio critiques. This kind of critique is important to our ongoing evolution as an organization and helps everyone, from leadership to staff, understand the broad vision and values of the studio. As a part of that ongoing discussion, we're drafting a set of principles that we believe apply to great companies, especially great design companies. Some of these principles are inspired by "Achieving Excellence in Your Design Practice" by Stuart Rose. While the book was first written in 1987 for architectural firms, the principles within it apply to modern design practices in the digital and software realms, as well. Here, then, are nine principles we believe are characteristic of great companies.

A few hours ago GigaOm published an article declaring "Marketing is the next big money sector in technology". In the first paragraph, the author, Ajay Agarwal of Bain Capital Ventures, sets up the future of the industry this way: "For the first time in history, businesses can leverage big data for the benefit of driving marketing insights. We are at the very beginning of this wave, but this fundamental shift will create several multi-billion dollar winners. And a set of technology companies will emerge as the marketing equivalents of Salesforce and SAP."