Big Data in Boston

16.Feb.12
by Jon Follett

The Mass Technology Leadership Council held its annual Big Data Summit yesterday at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center in Cambridge, MA. The sold out event was attended by a broad cross-section of the Boston tech community with engineers, designers, venture capitalists and business managers all coming together to discuss the future of Big Data in the Bay State. Massachusetts is well positioned to take advantage of the coming boom in big data according to a recent MassTLC white paper that reviews both the current lay of the land and future opportunities.

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Topics: Design, big data, ibm, infovis, MassTLC, Ideas, EMC, analytics, Blog, UX, ui

Wearable Health Tech, Beautiful Subway Stations, and Democratizing Data Analysis

27.Aug.11
by Jon Follett

Here’s what we’re reading online, this week at Involution, on design, tech, and the digital life, in our links round up.

Health Tech: Wearing Your Heart on Your Sleeve (or Maybe Your Arm)
It won't be long before the walk-in medical clinic gives way to the walking medical clinic. Wearable medical technology that can monitor heart rate, blood glucose levels, and brain activity, and even administer treatments is on its way. The Economist has a great feature on smart contact lenses that can diagnose and monitor diseases, like glaucoma and diabetes; deliver drugs; and even potentially display information to the patient. An LA Times article highlights electronic patches that can be adhered to skin like a temporary tattoo and monitor your heart.

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Topics: wearable health tech, apple, ibm, Analysis, Blog, robots

The Rise of Google, Part I: A history lesson

12.Jan.10
by Dirk Knemeyer

This is part one of a three-part series that will detail Google’s rise to becoming the dominant company in the computing industry. Part one will review the history of IBM and Microsoft, Google’s predecessors in this position; part two will take a close look at the last decade in computing and particularly at Google’s; and part three will look into the future and help you understand what’s to come for Google and the rest of the industry.

Depending on which gushing analyst you listen to, Google’s release last week of the Nexus One “superphone” is going to change the computing industry. Some are pointing to the phone itself and the fact that Google is now officially a hardware company. Others are pointing to the Google ecommerce store and approach to selling the phone and calling that the true harbinger of future dominance. Wrapped up in much of this excitement is a sense of surprise, as if Google’s doing these things wasn’t something that—at the very least—should be seen as a predictable result of Google’s expanded impact in the industry over the past decade. This very short-sighted breathlessness makes me wonder if the people who are telling us what to think really know what they are talking about.

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Topics: apple, ibm, microsoft, Analysis, Blog, google