Siegfried Reich

Archive for June, 2007

Successful viva on the “graphic novel”

… by Andreas Strasser. “Going Graphic – History of the American Graphic Novel from a Cultural History Perspective”, a great piece of work. Congratulations, Andreas! Well done.

See also the entry on Wikipedia on graphic novels. Or, ask Andreas for a copy of his thesis.

Add comment June 15th, 2007

2n IT-Businesstalk

… Frau Landeshauptfrau was giveb a domain for herself (landeshauptfrau.at) by Richard Wein and Sigi Reich.

Excellent event in an excellent location (Loft Salzburg). Themese were convergence/business models and IP-telephony; social web and user participation; location-based services.

Presentations see IT-Businesstalk.at.

Add comment June 14th, 2007

Make knowledge the fifth community freedom …

… says Commissioner Janez Potocnik in CORDIS focus, newsletter 278.

Potocnik is referring to the four freedoms establised already, those of free movelemen of goods, services, capital, and labour. More specifically, Potocnik thinks of a European social security system for researchers; and participation of countries associated to the EU’s framework programme to participate in ERA.

Add comment June 12th, 2007

FYI, The Economist: Rise and Fall of Corporate R&D

the March issue of The Economist has an article “Out of the dusty labs” on the rise and fall of corporate R&D. Quite interesting to see how V. Bush’s initial idea (of separating research and development) blurs in today’s economy.

The “fusion of research and development” helps in addressing a fundamental issue in Bush’s separation: how do (good) ideas get into marketable products?

At IBM “technology transfer” is even considered a bad phrase: there should not be a need for a handoff anyway.

The success of Dell and also Apple’s iPod are good examples that basic research is not a necessity for having success in the IT sector: (new) business models get more important, again, the classic way (basic research, development, marketing, etc.) is not true any more.

And finally: Mr. Brown (formerly running PARC) is cited the following way: “When I started out running PARC, I thought 99% of the work was creating the innovation, and then throwing it over the transom for dumb marketers to figure out how to market it. ” And now I realise that there is at least as much creativity on finding ways to take the idea to market as coming up with the idea in the first place. I would have spent my time differently if I had figured out that early on.”

Add comment June 3rd, 2007

FYI: Mac Plus (1986) vs AMD dual core (2007)

Excellent article and discussion about the development of end-user software in the past 20 years at hubpages.com. Metrics include load time of OS and applications, size of applications, etc.

The picture of the 86 Mac above (running OS 6.0.8) reminds me of my student days at the University of Linz.

Also good discussion!

Add comment June 1st, 2007

High-Tech needs High Potentials – Unternehmenschance Frauen

An event organised within the FEMTECH initiative to discuss about women in technological domains/businesses.

Opening by Landeshauptfrau Gabriele Burgstaller and Forschungsstaatssekretärin Christa Kranzl
Best Practices Dialogue: Siegfried Reich, Salzburg Research; Silvia Buchinger, Hewlett-Packard
Vocational training as chance: Alexandra Kreuzeder, Projektleiterin ditact_women´s IT summer studies, ICT&S Center
Best Practices Dialogue: Dorly Holzer-Harringer, Skidata AG; Sophie Poppenreiter, Liebherr;
Recruiting of experts: Irma Brazda, IVENTA

moderated by Anita Zieher, Theatre Works

Some key findings:

Flexibility in working hours is key to success
During maternity/paternity leave you should try and aim to stay connected with your employer
Role models are important (especially for the younger ones when choosing their career paths)
There was a good argument by HP for diversity: creativity is important as it helps fostering new ideas. If there is diversity in people (women/men, different cultures, etc.) this creates creativity and therefore supports innovation which helps staying competetive (says at least HP but I would personally by into this argument).