Category: Web 2.0 (Page 17 of 35)

Fluid at NRF! Check out their Watson Retail Solution!

January 14, 2014 / sandraanncarter / 7 Comments

At NRF, Ginni Rometty discussed the use of cognitive for Retailers. On the Main Event, she talked about an application that our IBM Partner Fluid has built to take advantage of this use of cognitive in the retail space. I had the great pleasure of meeting with them on Monday!

Fluid, which builds online shopping experiences for retail businesses to drive customer engagement and conversion, is developing the Fluid Expert Personal Shopper(sm) powered by IBM Watson. The app calls upon Watson’s ability to understand the nuances of human language and uncover answers from Big Data. Consumers who use Fluid’s app will interact with rich media and dialogue with Watson, as their newfound “cognitive, expert personal shopper.” The Fluid app incorporates the information users share and questions they ask to help them make smart, satisfying purchases by putting a knowledgeable sales associate in the hands of consumers, on demand!

On stage, she mentioned David Jones leveraging this new paradigm!

See how cognitive can assist Retail in this use of data in a cognitive way!

Answering some of your WATSON questions! Summary of Watson Announcements

January 13, 2014 / sandraanncarter / 1 Comment

Happy Monday! Yes I am at NRF today but see the breadth of questions coming in from IBM’s announcements last week on Watson so I would like to summarize in a blog post!

With the introduction of the new Watson group comes a host of supporting activity including a new headquarters in Silicon Alley section of New York, over 2500 professionals staffing and over a Billion dollars in funding.

•We’ve added two new offerings also announced today further expand our cognitive portfolio:
1. The IBM Watson Discovery Advisor will discover connections within Big Data to help organizations speed up research and bring new innovations to market.
2. IBM Watson Analytics will revolutionize how business users—from C-level to front-line—discover, visualize and share Big Data insights.

•We’re continuing investment in research to push the boundaries of cognitive systems

•And we’re continuing to push the Ecosystem initiative forward with direct investment in partnerships and moving toward additional partners within the program!

I'm at NRF – It's all about Omnichannel!

January 13, 2014 / sandraanncarter / 0 Comments

I am live at NRF. We saw Bush in the morning and Ginni Rometty, our IBM CEO is coming up in the afternoon!

Here’s what I think is the one of the most important elements in 2014 for retailers: Omnichannel.

My favorite Infographic of the Week! What does Success look like for a Mobile App Startup!

January 11, 2014 / sandraanncarter / 0 Comments

I now get to manage IBM’s Global Entrepreneur program. I love learning about the new start-up business models and that’s why this Infographic made my top of the list for this week!

Fascinating facts:

Top performers spent 14% of their time on marketing but did you know that less than 52% of start-ups save any money for Marketing?
Did you know that 68% earned less than $5K on their first successful app?

January 10, 2014 / sandraanncarter / 0 Comments

Watson Hot News !!! $1B, $100B, 51

January 9, 2014 / sandraanncarter / 1 Comment

Today IBM unveiled its plans to embark on a bold new direction with Watson by launching the IBM Watson Group, a new business unit dedicated solely to the development and commercialization of cloud delivered cognitive innovations. This is a strategic shift by IBM to accelerate into the marketplace a new class of software, services and apps that think, improve by learning, and discover answers and insights to complex questions from massive amounts of disparate data.

I am here in the room in downtown NYC at this announcement Event!

Through the IBM Watson Group, IBM will continue to provide our academic partners with the types of tools and resources needed to help students build the T-shaped skills (discipline depth and cross-industry breadth) needed to succeed in the era of cognitive systems. This includes new workshops and seminars at its headquarters on topics such as development skills and techniques, as well as networking opportunities for students, academics and professionals.

Following are key details about today’s announcement:

IBM will invest more than $1 billion into the Watson Group, focusing on development and research and bringing cloud-delivered cognitive applications and services to market.
This will include commitments of $100 million in venture investments to support IBM’s recently launched ecosystem of start-ups and businesses that are building a new class of cognitive apps powered by Watson, in the IBM Watson Developers Cloud.
The IBM Watson Group will have a new headquarters at 51 Astor Place in New York City’s “Silicon Alley” technology hub, leveraging the talents of approximately 2,000 professionals, whose goal is to design, develop and accelerate the adoption of Watson cognitive technologies.

There are several other ways in the near future that you can learn more about the new IBM Watson Group and the way that cognitive systems will transform how we live, learn and conduct business:

Register for a virtual conversation on Jan. 17 with Katharine Frase, IBM vice president and chief technology officer, global public sector and Chalapathy Neti, IBM director of education transformation research about the role of cognitive computing in education.
Attend IBM Global Entrepreneur Week virtually or in person, Feb. 3-7, for online and in person venture and startup focused events including a presentation from Fluid, a startup using Watson technology to transform the retail industry.

As always, please reach out to us with any questions, ideas or opinions about the IBM Watson Group. We invite you, your students, colleagues and network to join us in the ongoing conversations about IBM Watson via social media using #IBMWatson. You can also watch this video series that brings the IBM Watson story to life.

Girl with a blog in 2014!

January 8, 2014 / sandraanncarter / 2 Comments

I have been reading all the 2014 trends for social! One thing I found interesting was the number of articles that included blogging coming back — I just share a few here!

The blog is back!

•Changes in the Google algorithm this year and the growth in Flipboard and mobile curation services are promoting renewed interest in the blogging medium.

And from Social Media Today,

Blogging Will Remain The #1 Way To Generate New Business
Creating great content on a regular basis and driving traffic back to your site is going to remain the number #1 way to generate new leads. This means as a small business, if you don’t have a blog yet, it’s time to start one.

From Europe Trend report:

Blogging Rocks!

The blog content will be top of mind again in 2014. Companies who do not blog will be left behind!

Here are 4 reasons you need to blog:

Drive traffic to your website
Increase your SEO!
Position your brand as an industry leader and showcase your POV!
Develop better customer relationships

Social Business is all about People! In 2014, 3 Big Priorities!

January 7, 2014 / sandraanncarter / 2 Comments

Social Business is about 3 things:

1. Empowering People to activate a digital ecosystem!

2. Trusting People to create an authentic, and effective way of working!

3. Understanding people through actionable analytics

To be a strategic Social Business, start with Empowerment! It is a great way to start in 2014! Empowerment starts at home — with your workforce — and then extends to partners and clients.