Strong Opinions @marksbirch

nyetm:

Join fellow technologists, entrepreneurs, and investors for the NY Enterprise Technology Meetup’s (NYETM) January meetup on Tuesday 1/15/13 from 6:45pm-9:00pm!  Register here.

For our January meetup we have some exciting companies demoing their technologies, including:

• eZ Systems - eZ Systems s a globally recognized commercial open source content management software (CMS) provider.  eZ’s leading and innovative approach takes  your organization beyond traditional web content management into creating a true digital experience with systematic optimization capabilities. The eZ Publish platform sets new standards for digital lifecycle management, including recommendations and smart web analytics functionality, coupled with an application market place of certified extensions.
• Pursway - Pursway develops Big Data algorithms and technologies to identify not just the social network of your customers, but who influences whom to purchase.  They deliver significant increases in targeted marketing ROI by identifying purchase influencers (people whose purchases drive those of their peers), measuring the collective value of their influence, and enabling clients to target influencers.  Influencers can be activated to leverage the underutilized Word-of-Mouth channel with outsized returns - typically the top 10% of influencers account for more than 50% of total revenues.
• MemSQL -  MemSQL is a distributed, in-memory database for real-time analytics. Founded in 2011 by former Facebook engineers, MemSQL enables engineering teams to combine transactional and analytical applications on the same data set for transformative impact.
• Visual Revenue - Visual Revenue helps media organizations set the best possible front page right now, based on their current (up-to-the-minute) content and layout.  Their Front Page Recommendation Platform provides Editors with actionable, real-time recommendations on what content to place in what position right now and for how long. Their predictive analytics technology allows media organizations to proactively manage the cost of exposing a piece of content on a front page, whilst maximizing the return they expect from promoting it.

Always worth attending the NY Enterprise Tech Meetup.  If you have not gone, I highly recommend it as one of the better tech meetups in New York City.

thegongshow:

But, in 3-5 years mobile-first will not be a choice.  It will be an IQ test.  By 2015, its predicted that global internet penetration will rise from 30% -> 60% worldwide.  And the next billion internet users will skip the PC generation of the web and will only know a mobile-delivered internet.  

And in developed markets, I don’t have to look much further than my own behavior.  When I have down time between meeting in my office or on the road, I often find myself sitting in a desk chair in front of my black-screened, sleeping laptop, consuming the web on my phone.  Despite a richer, full-featured web experience with a QWERTY force-feedback keyboard and 8X the screen real-estate sitting 18-inches from my hands, I can’t be bothered to turn it on because consuming (and now even creating) internet on my phone is simply a preferable experience.

I would be wary of assumptions based largely on over-hyped macro trends or one’s own behavior.  What is being described above is a consumer mindset.  When you visit actual businesses (not VC offices), you have a different story entirely about the use of mobile in the workplace.  I have said this before, mobile-first is probably the right move when it comes to consumer.  Enterprise tech however is simply not ready yet for that transition for very good reasons.