Energy is the industry that IT forgot — or at least until recently. While sectors as varied as finance and healthcare, entertainment and communications have roared ahead with digitization, automation, and analytics, the energy industry has not evolved as rapidly. Despite this fact, it's clear that the future of energy lies in software. In both conservation and sustainability, software offers great possibilities for innovation — enabling companies to understand consumption trends, make better decisions about energy usage, and improve efficiency and performance over time.

Last week, at the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council seminar "New Tools for the Energy Challenge", panelists discussed the opportunities and challenges facing the fledgling energy software space. The panel, moderated by Gabe Cole, SVP Transformation Services at technology consulting firm Telwares, included: Badri Raghaven, CTO of FirstFuel; Ganesan Ravishanker, CIO of Wellesley College; Lillian Smith, Principal User Experience Designer at Autodesk; and Kevin Johnson, CEO of Outsmart Power Systems.

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.

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."

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

The Internet of Things Will Rise in Boston
With the advent of the mobile revolution, we're now living connected lives, where our day-to-day activities are closely tied to the digital products and services that we carry with us everywhere on our smart phones. The future vision of smart devices networked via an Internet of Things takes this connectedness one step further, to a place where not only our phones, but our cars, our homes, the appliances within them, and any number of other objects can communicate with each other and us. This connected vision may be closer to reality than we realize.

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.

Is the age of ubiquitous computing is upon us? We may not be living yet in William Gibson's plugged-in future, but there's no doubt that we're absolutely dependent on the digital realm. From tablets to smart phones to laptops to car navigation systems, we always seem to be connected. The digital life is everywhere we go, and software is our intermediary between physical reality and the bits and bytes. Over the past two years, the massive rise in popularity of mobile devices has changed the frequency, duration, and level of engagement of our digital existence. No longer is digital interaction reserved for those specific times when we huddle around the glow of desktop monitors. Mobile has made software integral to and embedded within people's lives, but the convenience and pervasiveness of mobile computing is only part of the story.

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

If You Make Sure You're Kinected, the Xbox is on the Wall
Last week, Microsoft's Kinect turned one year old, and the Redmond giant celebrated the "Kinect Effect" with a video highlighting future applications of the technology from healthcare to music to education.

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

Lion Roars
Apple launched the latest version of their ground breaking OS X operating system today with a host of UI innovations culled from their iOS mobile platform. As might be expected, these innovations were met with both cheers and jeers.

At Involution, when we design software, we draw upon a process akin to industrial design, where—after we engage in an initial product architecture to understand the feature grouping, flow, and functionality—the next step is often sketching.

If you haven't done it before, sketching concepts for a software user experience may seem like a daunting task located in foreign territory: Aren't we creating for the digital realm? Am I a good enough artist to do this? Where do I begin? However, the benefits to sketching can be great and change your overall design process for the better. So, here are five reasons to give it a try.

Last week Involution Studios celebrated seven years in business. We've had a bunch of highs, a handful of lows, and a whole lot of fun in that time. We've had amazing employees, partners and clients, and even as another recession seems to be looming we are going strong and showing no signs of slowing down. Here are the seven most important moments for the company, one for each year, even if not evenly distributed, in chronological order.