I showed this video at the end of my talk at today’s CMMA conference.

Photo credit: Microsoft

Liked the article below by TechRepublic which talks about cloud and utility computing being the future.  Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are investing heavily to get ready.

1. Cloud computing: Applications and services delivered over the Internet
2. Utility computing: On-demand server capacity powered by virtualization and delivered over the Internet

“For governments, large financial institutions, and other high-security environments, outsourcing the data center will probably never make sense. For virtually everyone else, it’s going to become a very attractive option in the next 3-5 years. I suspect that a decade from now running your own data center will be the exception and not the rule, and IT departments will need a strong business case to justify the existence of a private data center.”  >> Read the article

Take a look at this Web Trends Map (~8MB) which lays out the 300 most popular websites in a Tokyo train map type design.  Obviously at the time of this post it is almost 2009 but this is a pretty useful resource.  The below text is from the Information Architects website.

A Closer Look

The map pins down nearly 300 of the most successful and influential websites to the greater Tokyo area train map.  Different train lines correspond to different web trends such as innovation, news, social networks, and so on.

The Forecast

We’ve brought back the weather forecast from version 2 and incorporated it along the main Yamanote train line.

Brand Experience

The bottom layer includes a rating of brand experience analogous to restaurant experience. It illustrates our perception of user experience and brand management of the main stations. We studied the usability, user value, and interface (simplicity, character, and feedback), and rated each site on a scale of eating at various types of Japanese restaurants.

Found this article in my RSS feeds today and thought I would share.  Very interesting idea to allow artisan companies and products to have a presence online when they can’t fit into what traditional grocery stores may allow.

Foodzie Raises $1 Million For Its Specialty Food Marketplace
from TechCrunch by Jason Kincaid

“Foodzie, an online marketplace for high-end artisan food vendors, has raised a seed round of $1 million from noted investor Jeff Clavier of SoftTech VC, First Round Capital, and a number of angel investors. The company, which we were introduced to over the summer as part of the TechStars class of 2008, recently launched to the public with a marketplace of 25 vendors ranging from Vermont and California cheese makers to specialty BBQ sauces from Smokin’ Joe Jones.

Foodzie helps provide a centralized hub for these small food vendors, giving them more exposure than they’d get from their standalone sites and making it easy for food aficionados (or ‘foodies’) to find the products they’re looking for. Foodzie generates revenue by taking a commission on each transaction (around 20%), but vendors still make as much as double what they’d get if their products were sold in traditional specialty food sites. Foodzie can charge a lower commission because it doesn’t warehouse the items it sells – instead it handles all of the transactions (a boon for less tech-savy vendors) and leaves distribution up to the individual stores.

Given the economic downturn, it seems like high-end food would be among the first “cuts” made by consumers in an effort to cut back on spending. However, Foodzie CEO Rob LaFave says that the recession doesn’t seem to be having a major impact on the marketplace. He explains that many of the products on Foodzie are actually cheaper than those in supermarkets, and that many customers come to Foodzie looking for foods they can’t find elsewhere that fulfill special dietary needs (like vegan or gluten-free products).”