Posted by
Steve Hamm in
Rob High, CTO, IBM Watson Group
By Rob High
My hometown of Austin, Texas, is food truck heaven. The city boasts more than 1000 trucks serving up an incredible variety of fare—everything from potato-chip-flavored ice cream sandwiches to Japanese deep fried octopus meatballs. When hordes of technorati and live music fans gather here for the annual South By Southwest (SXSW) festival next week, they’ll have plenty of culinary treats to choose from. But we have something really different to bring to the table — IBM’s Watson food truck.
You’ve probably watched Watson compete on TV, but now for the first time you can see, taste and smell the results of its creativity.
The bright orange truck will serve up exotic delicacies including Indian Tumeric Paella, Italian Grilled Lobster and Ecuadorian Strawberry Dessert. Unlike the menus of the other trucks, these dishes were created through a collaboration between Watson, a cognitive computer, and award-winning chefs at New York’s Institute of Culinary Education (ICE). Continue Reading »
Martin Cooper, Chairman and co-founder of incubator, Dyna LLC; inventor of the original mobile phone
By Martin Cooper
After decades of existence, the mobile phone is finally beginning to hint at its potential to address some of society’s most important challenges.
As the mobile industry grows out of its vapid obsession with pixels, apps, and bling, recognition of one of the mobile phone’s higher callings is getting attention. This emerging focus on the phone as a device for transferring personalized health information to and from an individual sets society up for revolutionary improvements in healthcare.
Just imagine a society in which diseases, and the pain and suffering they cause, simply do not exist—in which people are healthy until end-of-life. Such a society is within the realm of scientific possibilities, but only if we change our approaches to healthcare. Smarter use of data, enabled by mobile phones, can help as we switch from curing diseases that have already struck to anticipating and preventing the diseases before they strike. Continue Reading »
Adalio Sanchez, General Manager, IBM x86 and PureSystems Solutions, IBM
By Adalio Sanchez
Forward-thinking academic institutions rely on advanced technology systems to support internal research programs and to improve their own IT operations. Just as importantly, the practical application of these technologies in the academic world plays a critical role in promoting the development and education of students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Throughout my career as a technologist, I’ve witnessed firsthand how the right technology solutions have the power to foster and advance STEM education and make our education systems smarter – from turning ideas into useful knowledge and practical business technologies that can benefit our economy and society, to filling the employment pipeline with workers equipped with the skills necessary to make them competitive and successful. Continue Reading »
Posted by
Steve Hamm in
Stephen Gold, VP, IBM Watson Group
By Stephen Gold
Ever since the early days of personal computing, scientists, sci-fi mavens and movie makers have envisioned a time when people would interact with pocket-sized intelligent digital assistants that would help them organize their lives and get things done.
Like flying cars, those intelligent digital assistants always seem to be off in the future.
Except that’s not so anymore. Today, scientists and engineers at IBM are designing cognitive systems that will ingest vast amounts of information, learn, reason, and interact with people in ways that are more natural to us.
Very soon, you’ll have all of the power of Watson, the Jeopardy-winning computer, delivered in the palm of your hand. In fact, some early adopters are already trying out test versions of the technology.
Many people think of Watson as a room-sized supercomputer. Today’s reality is quite different. The computing power of the original Watson has been squeezed into a space the size of three pizza boxes, and, thanks to the cloud, Watson’s intelligence can be accessed on your smart phone or tablet wherever and whenever you want it.
IBM Watson Avatar
By Steve Hamm
Tired of fiddling with mobile apps that do little more than entertain people with too much slack time on their hands? Here’s a chance to help change the world. IBM today launched the IBM Watson Mobile Developer Challenge, a first-of-its-kind worldwide competition to promote development of mobile consumer and business apps powered by Watson, a cognitive computing breakthrough.
Cognitive computers are smart machines that ingest vast amounts of information, learn, reason and interact with people in ways that are more natural to us. While the original Watson was trained to compete with humans on the TV quiz show Jeopardy!, today’s Watson is designed to provide advice and insights to business leaders, professionals and individuals anywhere and any time—thanks to cloud and mobile computing.
To learn more about IBM’s Mobile Watson strategy, see IBM CEO Ginni Rometty’s keynote speech today at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.Tweet to #IBMWatson and #MWC14 Continue Reading »
Andy Daudelin, Vice President, Security Services, AT&T Business Solutions
By Andy Daudelin
Among the 10 most stressful C-Suite roles of 2014 in business today is the role of chief information security officer (CISO). These IT security leaders set the strategy for the way a company protects itself from constantly evolving cyber threats – and they must implement these strategies without disrupting the speed of the business or its ability to innovate.
The threat landscape today is fraught with risk. IBM’s most recent Cyber Security Intelligence Index confirms that the average company faces 1.57 million security events per week, with 1,400 of those identified as actual attacks. And earlier this year, I discussed how new security threats and regulations will make 2014 a critical year for compliance and audit demands, and organizations need to be better prepared.
Cloud and mobile technologies are an excellent example of the balance CISOs must strike as they strive to protect the IT infrastructure while incorporating emerging technologies. Many companies are finding cloud an ideal platform for emerging business applications and are integrating those cloud-based services with their traditional technology platforms. It’s the CISO’s mission to secure all of this – and its underlying data – as a single seamless service. Continue Reading »
Posted by
Steve Hamm in
Robert LeBlanc, Sr. Vice President, IBM
By Robert LeBlanc
As companies evolve, they sometimes struggle with lagging perceptions. Their customers and the public think of them as one thing long after they have morphed into something else. There are some who still think of IBM as purely a computer hardware company even though, for many years, it has been steadily building a broad portfolio of software and services. Now it’s time for yet another reassessment: IBM as a cloud company.
This shift to cloud– where hardware, software, and services meld into one, represents the most significant change in IBM’s go-to-market strategy since it built a large blue-suited sales force to cater to businesses in the 1950s and ‘60s. It’s a fundamental reinvention of the company—how IBM operates and how it delivers value to clients and society.
The shift has been underway for several years. IBM has built up a large array of cloud services and software applications delivered via the cloud. It’s already the global leader in making cloud services available to large businesses. Today, however, marks a major advance. We’re announcing a set of initiatives that signal the emergence of an expanded cloud strategy. Put simply, we’re offering “IBM as a Service.” Continue Reading »
Rob van den Dam, Global Telecommunications Industry Leader, IBM
By Rob van den Dam
The way we communicate has changed dramatically. Traditional telco providers are increasingly challenged by open Internet platforms that meet diverse, rapidly changing user wants and needs. Specialized communications apps like Skype are increasingly siphoning conventional messaging and voice calls away from telcos.
A new IBM study of 22,000 consumers in 35 countries out today shows just how disruptive these new kids on the block are to telcos. Fifty three percent of respondents use specific apps like WhatsApp daily to communicate with others. At the same time, almost a third have or will cut traditional voice calling. Nearly the same number have or will reduce their usage of direct SMS text messaging. Continue Reading »
Rich Esposito, General Manager, Mobility Services, IBM Global Technology Services
By Rich Esposito
Keeping pace with the latest consumer technologies is hardly a new challenge for business. Not too long ago, business leaders were scratching their heads over the idea of selling stuff over the Internet.
But if we step back from the latest gadget-of-the-month discussion and look at how companies have evolved their mobile strategies, we find many still don’t have a strategy at all. Instead, they’re taking a tactical, often siloed or reactive approach to mobile computing, rushing to build a new app without a bigger picture of how the platform can provide opportunities to generate real business value.
What’s needed is a comprehensive mobile strategy and roadmap. In fact, an IBM study of mobile leaders found that organizations that are both prioritizing mobile technology initiatives and implementing a mobile strategy are twice as likely to receive IT budget increases and experience revenue growth of 10 percent or more. Continue Reading »
Dr. Michael Weiner, DO, Director, Healthcare Strategic Solutions, IBM
By Dr. Michael Weiner
It’s been 53 years since IBM created the first electronic health record (EHR) for Akron Children’s Hospital, built on IBM’s Ramac 305. In those days, we could never have dreamed of the advances that would soon unfold for the modern EHR. From the amount of data they collect and store to the ability to access them remotely on mobile devices, EHRs have truly transformed medicine over the past few decades.
EHRs have also begun to transform our healthcare ecosystem. As a physician, I can attest to the value of an EHR to help improve the quality of care we deliver to our patients.
Akron Children’s Hospital, IBM RAMAK 305, 1961.
EHR’s can also facilitate care coordination between clinicians and help achieve greater administrative efficiencies.But as we look to the future of EHRs and to the requirements of Stage 3 meaningful use in the U.S., we continue to ask ourselves how to integrate structured and unstructured clinical data. Many of us have often wondered: When will the technology be able to read our notes? Continue Reading »
