NMC Campus Observer

Yes, Big Blue Was Jamming At NMC Campus

CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine) : Sep 28, 2006 03:05pm

It was not announced anywhere, but if you were wandering around NMC Campus on September 12, you may have caught a flurry of activity at the Gonick Ampitheater. We were hosting visitors from IBM, as part of their three day Global Innovation Jam:

Coverage of the Innovation Jam and location on NMC Campus from Business Communicators of Second Life

This Jam is a modern day version of those old meetings (prior even to Web 1.0) where thousands of ideas were tossed onto flip chart paper.

But now it is wikis, forums, and other modern technologies IBM uses internally with all of their employees and select customers to flesh out the next wave of emerging technologies. In phase one, held in July, some 37,000 ideas were suggested:

This past July, thousands of IBMers — including their family members — collaborated with employees from select IBM clients and business partners to identify the next breakthrough products, services, processes and new business models that will transform industry and society and in the process shape the future of our organizations. Together, participants explored exciting intersections between emerging technologies and business insight to create meaningful new capabilities. More than 53,000 people from 70 countries contributed 37,000 comments in 72 hours.

And these were focused in 4 broad areas that IBM considered “ripe”: healthcare, travel & transportation, the environment, and finance & commerce.

Phase 2, held in early September, was meant to refine these piles, to clarify which “1) will create the greatest business value 2) will have the greatest societal impact and 3) are the most market-ready.” Read more about this from Vice President of Technical Strategy and Innovation Irving Wladawsky-Berger (Hey, a VP who blogs!) in Transforming Business through Virtual Worlds Capabilities – it’s Déjà Vu All Over Again.

IBM has been very active in virtual worlds, and doing some incredible innovation in Second Life (check out the eightbar blog, like Wimbledon in Second Life). And IBM has been a close collaborator of NMC (Jacob Hall is named for former NMC Board member from IBM, Jean Paul Jacob). So we were excited when they asked to hold one of several SL events they ran as part of the “JAM” right here in NMC Campus.

We apologize we were not able to publcize this in advance, given the potential for way too many avatars to be on campus during the panel session. This reporter too missed out, being delayed in RL in the Atlanta airport right before the event and on a plane during it.

I hope one of those jammed ideas was free wireless on planes. And more leg room

Story filed under: What's Happening

See all stories by CDB Barkley (aka Alan Levine)