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The month of June was a busy one at IBM, with technology and solutions annuncements across the board. Here are the announcements made by the company in June. The complete index of prior IBM Happenings is here.
The train station in Zaragoza was quite impressive — modern, clean, well organized, international signage, and easy to read information. There was a security screening station with passport check and luggage scanning just before going down the escalator to board the train. First class assigned seating was just 10% more than eoncomy. The train left exactly on time and the ride was extremely fast and smooth. The food was excellent.
Unfortunately, I have to contrast this with this morning’s train expereince with Amtrak from Washington, DC to Stamford, CT. There was no luggage or bagage security check — none. There was a single agent who was controlling access from the waiting area to the escalator down to the train. Even though the outbound train had been at the station for at least a half hour, all the passengers were queued up in the crowded waiting area. The agent opened the door to the escalator at 10:25 for a 10:30 train. She then called for families with children to board first. Business class was called next but after a few got through the crowded doorway, the agent called for all passengers to board. It was nothing less than chaotic. Not surprisingly, the train left ten minutes late. The conductor collected tickets onboard and asked for photo ID’s – on the train after the train had left the station. The train ride was comfortable but not nearly as smooth as European trains. I would gladly give up some comfort and convenience for better security. The lack of any security was stuning. There was a line of large suitcases at the rear of the railcar and none of them had been scrutinized in any way.
There have no doubt been graduate degrees granted for in-depth studies of the differences between the American and European train systems but I could not find them with casual searching. There is a definite difference in the staffing levels and that seems to account for part of the on-time vs. not-on-time. At least as large a factor was organization — allowing passengers to board as they arrive instead of having them all wait until the last minute is a basic of queuing theory.
The trip from Stamford to Washington is roughly 300 miles. From Zaragoza to Madrid is roughly 150 miles. The fare for CT/DC was $226 for business class — $.75 per mile. The Spanish fare was $210 for first class — $1.40 per mile. Not exactly apples to applies since the Spanish train was first class with full meal and beverage service. The Amtrak service was "business class" and it included free water or coffee. A further adjustment for the weakness of the U.S. dollar would close the gap a bit, but no matter how you look at it, the European rail service cost was quite a bit higher. As far as I can determine, all railroads around the world lose a lot of money.
It would be very interesting to see the financial performance of Amtrak versus the various train systems of Europe in some detail. At a high level, I discovered that the National Railroad Passenger Corporation and Subsidiaries (Amtrak) Financial Statements for
September 30, 2003 showed revenue of $1+B (down 10% from prior year) and a loss of $1+B. Looks staggering — until you compare it with Europe which I read provides annual subsidies to railway systems of $50B.
The bottom line may be political. European politicians see rail service as fundamental to life on their continent whereas the U.S. political leaders may expect Amtrak to operate efficiently and be self-sufficient (+/- a $billion). It may be a chicken-and-egg problem. "Do better and we will invest in you". "We can’t do better because there is inadequate investment in the system — it takes more investment to make faster trains and that can compete with airlines". It is a very complex topic and I don’t claim to have figured it out. Most reports I have read say it is a management problem.
There are quite a few web sites and business processes that could be better — part of an the overall theme here is that we are at the beginning of what the Internet has in store for us. This short story is about the flip side, the positive side — the time in Europe this month reminded me of the many things there that are "the way things should be".
The simple one is the way elevators work — at least at every hotel I have been to in Europe. If you press "1" you go to the first floor. If you press "0" you go to the ground floor. If you press "-1" you go to the basement. This is so logical. In America it seems that the labeling of the buttons is random — sometimes the ground floor is "1", sometimes it is "G", and sometimes it is "L". Sometimes the "G" takes you to the basement or the "L" takes you to the eighth floor (like the Marriott Marquis in New York City.
There has been much written about European trains (see the European Train Enthusiast site) and for good reason. The trains are clean, quiet, fast and have good food and beverages. I have found European flights to be punctual, but the trains — you can set your watch by them.
A more unexpected but pleasant thing happened while in a taxi in Zaragoza with Mike Sigal on the way to Dan Bricklin‘s public lecture (Dan is a friend of mine and inventor of the spreadsheet). I was trying to make a mobile phone call from Zaragoza to Oslo on the P910a. For some reason it would not work. I could call the U.S. or other numbers in Spain, but not to Norway. It was probably something to do with the agreement (or lack of agreement) between AT&T Wireless and the local Spanish mobile operator. Mike loaned me his mobile phone — he had purchased a SIM card from a local telco. I had my phone in my lap while I was using Mike’s phone, when all of a sudden we were at the destination and we jumped out of the taxi and, you guessed it, I left my phone on the seat. It was not until ten minutes or so later, while sitting in the auditorium listening to Dan’s lecture, that I realized the phone was not on my belt holder. I had a sunken feeling — what would I do in Oslo, and then later in the trip in San Francisco. All of it is backed up on the ThinkPad but there are thousands of contacts, calendar, tasks, documents, messages, etc. that I would not want to have in someone else’s hands. As I sat there thinking about what I would do next, a gentleman tapped me on the shoulder and handed me the P910. The taxi driver had driven back to the building and took the phone inside to the receptionist. Not sure this would have happened in many cities of the world. If only I had a way to contact the driver to thank him.
The next day I boarded the Iberia Airline flight from Madrid to Berlin, en route to Oslo. As usual in Europe, the flight was all set to go on time but something arose with air traffic control which delayed the takeoff by forty minutes. The connecting flight from Berlin to Oslo was scheduled to leave 40 minutes after arrival of the flight from Berlin — in other words, I would have no way of making the connection. After we reached altitude I asked one of the flight attendants if she thought it was possible to make the connection. The last time I asked a U.S. flight attendant that question, I was told there was no way of knowing and that she could not bother the crew with the question and a bit of an "attitude" that I shouldn’t have asked the question. The Iberia flight attendant said she would talk to the Captain! Five minutes later the Captain of the plane was at my seat with a smile. He said they were forty minutes late but that he was adding some speed and the winds were favorable. Being a pilot myself, the approach seemed faster than normal. The plane landed at 12:05 and we got to the gate at 12:10. I had fifteen minutes to get through security again and run a dozen or so gates. Fortunately, Berlin is not a large airport and I made the connection. Unfortunately, I can not say the same for my luggage, which arrived at the Refsnes Gods Hotel on the Oslofjord near Moss, Norway 24 hours later.
All in all, Europe is a really great place. My only career regret is that I have never worked and lived there, although I have been fortunate to have made visits.
There are now some pictures from Zaragoza, Spain where I attended the Innovate Europe conference two weeks ago. I put the pictures in Flickr instead of in my photo gallery. I decided to give Flickr a try and I can already see why so many people are enthusiastic about it. (Some of the pictures don’t belong in the Innovate Europe "set" but I could not figure out how to remove them).
Zaragoza has 620,000 people and is the fourth largest city in Spain. It was founded more than 2,000 years ago by Emperor Augusto and is one of the great monumental cities in Europe. The baroque buildings are quite impressive. The food was in small bites (aka Tapas) and was excellent and there were many bites!. Lunch was typically in mid-afternoon and dinner as late as 11 PM.
With the great food, beautiful city, and a new high-speed train, Zaragoza is the ideal place for international events. The city will host Expo 2008 which is going to be a cultural celebration of the relationship between water and human communities. It has the nickname ZH2O and some extensive projects are being planned to wow large numbers of people who are expected to visit from around the world.
In another project, the "Digital Mile", the Zaragoza government has acquired a long stretch of land formerly used by the railroad and plans to use it to construct a new one million square meter city. The digital mile will include 10,000 e-citizens, a museum of the future, an advanced information center, a digital library, laboratories, start-up companies, drop-in help centers, houses, schools, healthcare facilities, and public services. The mayor and his administration are hoping to create a model for a knowledge based community with "high quality urbanism" and a "singular architecture". The dream is to have a public space of the 21st century with fiber to the home at 100 megabits and biometric authentication for security and commerce. One building in the concept drawing looked like the Guggenheim Museum. Collaborators include the MIT Smart Cities Research Group and the University of Zaragoza. One of the goals of the project is to create 4,000 knowledge-based jobs. (Also see Jeff Clavier’s blog for more comments about the Digital Mile).
I would highly recommend Zaragoza as a city to visit for anyone going to Europe. The service was excellent, the city is clean and beautiful, and the people are very friendly. Brush up on your Spanish first.
Other patrickWeb stories about conferences
Supernova 2005 was athought provoking conference and I learned a lot — more on that to come. The technology industry is a constant thrill to be part of. John Furrier and I got to reflect on this for fifteen minutes during one of his podcasts. John is a young but seasoned entrepreneur who has taken podcasting to heart. He did quite a number of interviews during Supernova — he is a very good interviewer with a strong technical and business background. Visit the homepage at podtech.net to see (and hear) them all. Click here to listen to our conversation.
Other patrickWeb stories about conferences
It is very nice to be home after eleven days on the road being in eleven cities including home, New York, Madrid, Zaragoza, Berlin, Oslo, Frankfurt, Denver, Laramie, San Francisco, and Berkeley.
There is much more to write about the conferences I attended and the things I learned, but it will be hard to capture it all — it was one of the most intensive periods of learning for me since e-tirement began three and a half years ago. There will be some more postings about all this in the days ahead. I decided to add a new category to patrickWeb — "Conferences" — and have re-categorized a number of stories from the past few years.
Other patrickWeb stories about conferences
The train ride from Madrid to Zaragoza was very enjoyable even after an overnight flight from New York (I will be posting something about Zaragoza and getting some pictures in the gallery later). The purpose of the trip was to participate in the Innovate!Europe: A Catalyst for Change conference. Innovate!Europe has brought together European investors, entrepreneurs, technology executives, researchers, public administrators, and various people who ae key players in the global technology industry.
The conference was organized by Guidewire Group (where I serve on the board of advisors). The entire agenda is here. After welcome messages from the Minister of Science & Technology and the Mayor of Zaragoza,
Chris Shipley – Executive Producer of Innovate!Europe gave an opening talk about the origins and goals of the conference. She is passionate about the potential for technology companies in Europe and i have no doubt that she will be running conferences there again. Then
Sven Ingjaerde from Vision Capital gave a professional and comprehensive presentation about the status of venture capital investments in Europe and about why there is a big opportunity but yet relatively few successful technology company startups there. He pointed out the many strengths of Europe and also the shortcomings — most of which are cultural in nature and none that can not be overcome.
One point I saw slightly differently than what Sven presented
was about the size of the market that should be addressed by a startup. In my experience, too many startups focus on a target market which is everywhere/everybody/global/everything. I believe a more proven method is to be highly focused and address a market segment that can be addressed and dominated — and then branch out from there to more segments, dominating one at a time. I have posted this thought to the Innovate Europe wiki which you can find here.
Next was a panel called "Working Capital: Empowering Europe’s Investment Community" moderated by Jeff Clavier from SoftTech Venture Consulting (a fine Frenchman who loaned me a nice tie for dinner) did a deep dive on venture capital issues and ideas for Europe. It was everyone’s day to beat up on the French for perceived attitudinal issues. Ironically, Bruno Uzzan, CEO of Total Immersion — a French technology startup — totally blew away the audience with his demonstration of augmented virtual reality. He showed a heliopter flying around the auditorium on the screen. Needless to say, there was no helicopter in the room — but it looked like there was. You had to be there to believe it.
After the break, Simon Brown from Microsoft gave a presentation about independent software vendors in Europe and how Microsoft hoped to help them use the Windows platform. A
Q & A session was then led by José Cervera. José opened up with blazing guns asking Simon why Microsoft doesn’t acknowledge open Internet standards and open source software. Dan Bricklin — inventor of the spreadsheet — asked why Microsoft was able to grow from nothing to the biggest software company in the world with virtually no patents. I have to admit, some of Simon’s responses sounded like IBM in the 1970′s when asked about OEM peripheral attachments to IBM mainframes.
Then it was my turn. My task was to lead a panel discussion about innovation issues in Europe — the panel was the audience — or as they say in Europe, the delegates. Here is the outline I used to make my opening comments.
I got a call from New York this morning. The documents that were overnighted and subject of the comedy of errors were delivered at 9:50 AM in the morning.
While the shipping company web sites and customer service have a long way to go, their shipping infrastructure is nothing short of amazing. Once you engage them, which sometimes can be difficult using their web sites, they truly execute as On Demand businesses.
We sometimes take "overnight" shipping for granted but when you think about a package being dropped in a truck at Dunkin Donuts at 6PM and then being on someone’s desk in New York City (if could just have easily been San Francisco) at 9 AM the next morning for less than $20, it is truly remarkable.
Other patrickWeb stories about On Demand
The overnight shipping business is extremely competitive and in the end the winner will be the one that does the best job of building an easy to use on demand web site. The overnight companies are all trying hard and have made much progress but, as in all industries, there is quite a hill yet to climb for them to become On Demand businesses.
I receive overnight packages fairly often but don’t have much occasion to send things overnight. When board documents need to be "faxed or overnighted", I instead use a digital signature with Adobe Acrobat. It works quite well and more importantly, the auditors and attorneys are satisfied with the approach too. Today I had the need to send some original documents to New York. I was actually in New York almost all day, but as I headed for the train station very early this morning, I left the envelope containing the documents on the kitchen counter. That was just the beginning of a comedy of errors. (read more)
Toronto is a beautiful city and home of the world’s tallest building. I am fortunate to be there today for the second time in eight months. The flight arrived at 8:15 AM and there was zero wait to get through customs and immigration — quite unlike my prior visit. The occasion is to attend the annual conference of the Special Libraries Association (SLA).
The SLA was founded in 1909 and represents the interests of thousands of information professionals in over eighty countries worldwide. We have all known at least one librarian in our lives, but the SLA consists of "special" librarians. What makes them special is that they are professionally trained to collect, analyze, evaluate, package, and disseminate information to help other professionals, managers, and executives make better decisions. They operate in corporate, academic, and government settings. See the conference blog to get a flavor of the conference and the attendees.
Don Tapscott gave the opening keynote this morning and it was outstanding. I have known Don for a dozen years or so and always found him to be way ahead of the curve. He is widely credited with coining the term "paradigm shift" and he wrote a book about it in 1994 called Paradigm Shift: The New Promise of Information Technology. Don’s newest book is called The Naked Corporation : How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business, and that was the subject of his keynote.
His basic point was that the organizations have no place to hide these days. They can, and should become much more open and they will benefit as a result. Don cited four major factors which are causing transparency. First of course is technology, primarily the Internet. I call it the "pervasive Internet". Don called it the "hypernet". The second factor is economic shifts, including outsourcing (I call it outflanking). Third is a set of demographic changes — mainly that the current generation of kids is the first to grow up digital. The last factor he talked about is a shift in socio-political capabilities whereby people see what is going on, tell others about it, and form organizations to do something about it. Don then reviewed some of the major impacts on the various stakeholders including employees who know more than ever, partners who are figuring out that if they share more they can can do more together, customers who are empowering themselves with information, shareholders who have access to almost everything, and communities which are forming stakeholder webs. He wrapped up with a discussion of the values that organizations need to embrace: honesty, consideration, accountability, and openness. I think his new book will be a very interesting read.
Tonight, I will be part of a gathering of Knovel Corporation‘s customers and guests. As usual, I will focus on the Future of the Internet.
