The iPhone SDK event isn’t the only live blogging event today (though it did successfully bully HP Labs out of a morning timeslot), CG is live at a big event held at HP Labs, one of the biggest research organizations in the world. Looks like what’s on the docket is a big re-organization: with focus going towards more products and fewer blue sky efforts. But we’ll see.
2:57pm: Q&A over. Now to see some demos!
2:55pm: What ideas are going to get killed? 150 down to 20-30 — HP is not saying which. Currently reviewing which to get the axe.
2:48pm: How much research is productized? Some examples of things that have come out: Inkjet printer. Dynamic smart cooling. Data compression technology. Large digital printers. “With these changes, we hope to see a lot more, and a lot quicker.” Setting up an internal review board for funding and betting. Sounds scary.
2:45pm: Q&A starting. First question: any cost-cutting? They say no. Just a refocus. Second question: Why less blue sky? Aren’t they afraid of throwing out the next XEROX? They say they’re still focusing on publishing.
2:45pm: David Letterman routine over. Conclusions: 1) Build a low cost infrastructure — or perish. 2) IT is the business. 3) Speed is everything.
2:42pm: 1) A merger is taking place between business intelligence and the web. Not just for CEOs and teams of analysts anymore. Example: predicting price of DRAM. Used BRAIN (system they wrote, presumably open) to predict price. No idea what’s going on with this.
2:37pm: 2) crowd-sourcing is going mainstream — changing the rules of the game forever. exponentially lower cost. reputation systems ensure quality. implication for numerous industries. Look for Fortune 100 adoption of crowd-sourcing. Letterman would be so proud at this point. Entire value chain, from idea to product, is now delivered via the internet. all the engineers, attorneys, graphic designers (aka their crowd-sourced Logoworks site they bought a year ago), will be sourced from the internet. Hopefully not Bloggers.
2:35pm: 3) 1+ billion users now have the tools to produce all types of media. Foodsville is the example. Talking about how foodies can get really old books with BookPrep (sp?)
2:34pm: 4) Connectivity-centric computing has come. Content will sit in the cloud. Hard drive becomes temporary storage. Devices are “fungible”. I don’t believe that’s a word. Services you care about will come to you.
2:33pm: 5) location + persona + timing == richer, more dynamic experiences.
2:32pm: David Letterman Top Five. Let me say that again: he’s doing a David Letterman Top Five list for EaaS. Says international crowd won’t get it.
2:31pm: Cloud Service examples: Snapfish, Tabblo, HP Upline, Cloudprint, Logoworks, Cloudview, SaaS for BTO
2:31pm: Foundations for EaaS (everything as a service): Smarter devices. More intelligent networks. Next-Gen Data Centers. Software
2:29pm: HP wants a seamless experience across all devices. Searching needs to be done for you, not by you. Not sure if this means search engines, but just assumptions should be made about you to tailor things for you.
2:28pm: Robison: Then: assume computers are pervasive. Today: assume that the internet is pervasive. A huge mosaic of Web 2.0 icons floating on screen.
2:25pm: CTO Shane Robison is on. Talking about “Then and Now Challenges”. Then: connecting devices. Now: connecting users to good services. Then: I.T. is about productivity. Now: Collaboration. Then: CIO maintain control. Now: end users control the reins. Era of “Everything as a Service”
2:20pm: Prith Banerjee hands off to CEO Mark Hurd. “We do R&D. Most others just do D.” Making few, bigger bets. “We’ve got a great team. Total HP team effort, not just Labs. We’ll be a lot more transparent about the research we do. ”
2:19pm: “The plan sharpens the focus of labs.”
2:15pm: Technology Transfer office also launches today, aka an internal Start Up Incubator. Basically, this takes their lab nerds, adds on some product managers, and bring in some management, and then try to make it like an internal startup incubator.
2:14pm: IdeaLab.com launches today. Website that will allow researchers and customers to take a peek at all HP Labs research. Live right now. They want developers to add onto their stuff. Customers to download and give feedback. Apparently trying to get some integration their StumbleUpon, MySpace stuff seen.
2:13pm: All the partnerships, work is all focused on the five areas before. Funding students’ summer research who will hopefully be channeled into HP Labs.
2:12pm: HP Labs is renewing in investment in partnerships: VC, startups, universities, government agencies, and other companies. “We realize that not all the smart people work for HP Labs”. Three aspects: HP Labs research program with unis, enterprenuer-in-residence program, and HP IdeaLab (website).
2:11pm: Sustainability. Dynamic power cooling. Brief mention here. Led by a thermo-something researcher.
2:10pm: Intelligent Infrastructure. Missed this one. Taking a photo.
2:09pm: Content transformation: “Transforming content – from analog to digital, from device to device, from digital to physical product”. Aka, giant awesome printers. Apparently we saw one in the lobby. I didn’t.
2:06pm: Dynamic Cloud Services: “Developing services that are dynamically personalized – based on your location, prefernces, caldendar, and communities”. Example: take a picture, put it on a cloud, access it anywhere on the mobile. CloudView, I think it’s called.
2:05pm: Information explosion: “Developing a better way to acquire, analyze, and deliver information so it can be acted on.” FaceBubble, here in PaloAlto, is one. I’ll be able to check that out after the conference.
2:04pm: Five New Themes: Information explosion. Dynamic cloud services. Content transformation. Intelligent infrastructure. Sustainibility. All labs to be led by technical people. Lab rats. Nerds. NEERDS.
2:02pm: High-impact research. Open Innovation. Technology transfer. That’s what’s on the screen right now! (Don’t ask me what it means).
2:00pm: 600 researchers in 7 locations. Bristol, Japan, China, India, and Russia. Hundreds of Phds, thousands of patents. Touting how sick nasty their researchers are…. This new plan regroups into about 23 newly formed labs.
1:59pm: Changing to about 1/3 blue sky, 1/3 applied, 1/3 advanced product research. Less Blue Sky.
1:59pm: “We’re going to re-focus our efforts into 20-30 big, big projects.” “Big Bets”. Down from about ~150 small projects.
1:57pm: Prith Banerjee takes the field, six-months onto the job, director of HP Labs.
1:55pm: “Only a handful of companies today that are dedicated to having a research arm in-house.” None can address issues all the way from Moms to CEOs. “That’s what differentiates us.”
1:55pm: “We’re going to address some of the most challenging issues facing consumers.”
1:52pm: They’re going to show us some of actual stuff today post-conference, hands-on. Lots of photos then.
1:50: Still jumping around in the video showing off what’s going on in each of their labs. Pretty well-produced video. Looks like it’s wrapping up now. “We’re not just seeing the future… we’re making the future.”
1:48: Press release says that HP today is ‘sharpening’ focus with the Labs.
1:45: Starts on the dot. Pretty HD video projection going on with lab rats talking about data centers.
1:43: Sitting down. Press conference starts in 2 minutes.
