Emerging Technologies

Washington Post columnist Leslie Walker was online with Chris Shipley , executive producer of DEMO '06, to discuss the products and services launched at this year's conference.

You can read Leslie's blog from demo here .

A transcript follows.

Read Leslie's .com archive .

_______________________

Leslie Walker: Hello everyone. This was my sixth year attending DEMO, a showcase of futuristic products, many of which will be hitting the market this year and a few of which have already been released. I just got back from Arizona last night. In addition to offering a peek at what's coming down the pike, the show provides an an insightful look at trends in early-stage technology innovation. That's because producer Chris Shipley pre-screens a lot of companies and picks a sample reflecting the best among both consumer and business products. Her focus tends to be on early-stage startups, some still funded out of their founders' pockets.That gives her a broad view of what's happening in technology. Take advantage of her knowledge and send in your questions. Chris will be with us live from California this afternoon at 1 p.m. ET to answer them. So go ahead, click the "submit" button now and send us your thoughts, comments, questions.

_______________________

Leslie Walker: Welcome, Chris, and thanks for answering questions from our readers again this year. I thought this was another great conference--lots of interesting products and companies.

Let's start with the big-picture view. You talked on stage about the need for more simplicity and quoted Henry David Thoreau. You even said personal computing was reaching "the brink of diminishing returns."

Can you elaborate?

Chris Shipley: Thanks, Leslie. I'm delighted to be here answering your readers' questions again.

I look at technology from the perspective of the user of that technology. How is this product going to make my work/life better in some fashion? And I just think that technology is getting too complex, too cumbersome, too feature-overloaded.

When it takes days to learn to do something designed to save minutes . . . that's diminishing returns.

Technology developers need to simplify. They need to focus on usability. That will pull technollgy from the brink of diminishing returns.

_______________________

Leslie Walker: I'm curious, did anything about the company presentations--or the way they were received and covered by venture capitalists and the media--surprise you?

Any particular firms or products you thought were under-appreciated by your audience?

Chris Shipley: Hmm. That's a tough one . . . Frankly, the surprise for me was how the audience was able to get their heads around some of the more esoteric products. A product like Panoratio, for example, that is really all about sophistocated data analysis of giant data sets . . . not something easily understood, and yet the company was tremendously well received.

I suppose that speaks to the sophistocation of the audience that comes to DEMO.

_______________________

VA: Hello. anything for deaf people, like instant live captioning or voice-into-text at the same time?

Chris Shipley: Generally, I would assert that the technology industry as a whole has done a fairly poor job of addressing the needs of differently-abled individuals.

Your question is humbling, as it reminds me that I need to do a better job looking for these kinds of solutions.

While there was not any product at DEMO 06 that specifically addressed the needs of the hearing impaired, I would suspect that some of the publishing platforms and perhaps even the Vsee video technology would be very useful to that community. Vsee has paid particular attention to the quality of video so as to accurately capture facial expression. This finally might offer a quality of video -- at a very low cost - that allows for lip reading, as well as text chat.

_______________________

Odessa, Florida: Any comments or solutions that stood out that either of you felt were viable security solutions? Were there any virtualization security solutions presented and if so, any comments or concerns?

Chris Shipley: We focused a great deal on security at this conference, much of it around securing personal identity in online environments.

I'd recommend you visit www.demo.com and check out the presentations by GuardID, Mi5, StrikeForce, Tested Technologies, and others that presented during our Wednesday afternoon session.

_______________________

Phoenix, AZ: What is the best product to do VOIP calling on your cell phone? Any suggestions?

Chris Shipley: Take a look at EQO (pronounced ECHO) Communications which extends Skype capabilities to the mobile phone. Very interesting technology. I'd also suggest you look at Iotum which offers pretty sophistocated call management technology.

_______________________

Potomac, MD: How many of these startups have received funding or brought their products to market yet? How many do you expect will succeed?

Chris Shipley: I expect they will ALL succeed. But then, I sort of have to have that kind of confidence.

Interestingly, about half of these companies are self- or seed-funded. Many of these told me they had great feedback from the venture community at the conference.

But, increasingly, tech startups are choosing to by-pass venture funding. In today's market, it really doesn't take as much capital to get a company off the ground. So many are choosing to grow organically and from customer revenues.

_______________________

Centreville, VA: Which vendors do you think are positioned to offer the best Cell phone/camera/PDA combo/web browser combo gadget? I've seen some good products in 2005 but usually only 2 or 3 functions work well while the rest of the functions are below par.

Leslie Walker: Hi Centreville. I think you said it just right--usually only a couple of functions work well in one device. I'm not a big believer in all-in-one devices. I carry a BlackBerry because email matters a lot to me, and I've been testing the new Treo 700 pda/phone, which I like. But our consumer tech guru Rob Pegoraro still swears the Treo 650 is still the best combo pda/phone he's seen.Chris, what do you think?

Chris Shipley: I agree with Leslie . . . I'm not a big fan of one device trying to do everything and not doing much of it very well. I use a Motorola MPX 220 with Microsoft's SmartPhone platform and I find it to be a very unsatisfying user experience.

The newest Treo is a great product, I think. I much better UI than SmartPhone. But I don't love its form factor.

_______________________

Blacksburg, VA: Hey Leslie and Chris, thanks for taking my question.

I wanted to know what was at the show with regards to hardware and technology coming out for the computer industry. What latest video cards or processors are coming out to push things to the next level? Is everything just pushing more and more towards dual/multiple everything to get more power? What alternatives are coming out besides throwing down the extra cash for say a dual video card set-up or multiple core processors?

Thanks again, Avid Professional Gamer

Chris Shipley: First, I invite everybody to go to www.demo.com and take a look at the video of the demonstrators' presentations.

I'm not seeing a lot of new hardware at the moment, but as an avid gamer, you ought to take a look at The Multiverse Network which will enable MMOGs to be developed more quickly and much more less expensively -- should put a lot more content into the market.

_______________________

herndon, VA: Do either of you use Skype or another Internet phone provider? which do you recommend--how much do you save?

Leslie Walker: I am not a Skype user but I bet Chris is....

Chris Shipley: I travel and work in Europe a great deal and Skype saves me a whole lot of money. I find it works exceptionally well, is very low cost, and . . . one of my favorite uses: I can call U.S. 800 #s when I'm in Europe, which I can't do on my mobile.

I've been using Skype on my laptop with the Jawbone USB headset, by the way, and it works extremely well. I can be in a noisy coffee shop to have WiFi internet access and the headset cuts out the background noise so that I have a perfectly clear conversation over VoIP.

_______________________

Leslie Walker: I had to miss the closing "Demo God" awards this year. But I read about the winners later and saw most of the 10 were business, not consumer-focused. (The list: Network Streaming, Panoratio Database Images, VSee Labs, Iotum, Ugobe, Riya, Krugle, Kosmix, Front Porch and Sprout Systems.)

So Chris, tell us how you choose your "Demo God winners." Is it more for on-stage presence, quality of their products -- or both?

Chris Shipley: DEMOgods reward the best on-stage presentations - with a little nod to the product and the people in the company.

The fact is that ALL the companies at DEMO are "winners" in that these are selected from the 700 or so companies I meet with each year. The DEMO companies really are the very best in their own right.

_______________________

Phoenix, AZ: I read the blog and don't get why an ice cream machine is at a technology conference. What's so special about a machine making ice cream--was that a joke?

Chris Shipley: I have to admit: that was my first reaction when MooBella was presented to me. How can ice cream be a technology product?

The fact is that there is more technology in that ice cream machine than in a lot of the other products at the conference. First, there is the technology that runs the ice-cream-making process itself. Then, there is a great UI on the machine that guides customers through selecting the product, etc. There is a second-level UI for the person who services the machine, which means there is a lot of technology that goes into sensing when the machine needs maintenance and what maintenance it needs.

All of that is pretty interesting, but the thing that clinched it for me was the fact that this machine is networked (IP-addressable) and has a layer of technology that supports inventory management, performance, and other business metrics required to optimize the profitability of each machine.

So, no joke at all. I remarkable use of technology to make a great bowl of ice cream.

_______________________

Florida: Chris, How does a start up get invited or be allowed to participate in a DEMO event?

Chris Shipley: The start up creates a great product.

Seriously, I spend my time looking for great products, companies, and people. I'm always eager to learn about new ideas and inventions.

If you'd like to learn more about what I do, go to www.guidewiregroup.com. If you have a product that I ought to know about, click on "Request a Meeting" and complete the form. I'll absolutely respond.

_______________________

potomac,md: Hi...Just curious--any dc-area companies at demo this year?

Leslie Walker: MP3Car.com is partly based in Maryland. Its CEO lives here, so the company has offices in both California and Maryland. It showed a hardware/software combo box at DEMO that provides every kind of computing you can think of in your car. Co-developed with Intel, the "StreetDeck" provides audio and FM receivers, satellite radio, Bluetooth mobile phone integration, video camera links and other features. too.Chris, what was your geographic distribution this year? Mostly California presenters?

Chris Shipley: Of course, AOL is local to Washington. A month before the conference, AOL acquired Truveo - a startup I'd invited to DEMO.

Another company in proximity to DC included Azos AI (Haymarket, VA)

While the Silicon Valley/SF Bay Area are still the dominant area for technology development, the very interesting trend is that companies no longer need to be in the Valley to get traction in the tech market. We had companies at this conference from Poughkieepsie; Grass Valley, CA (The Sierra foothills); Ottawa, Canada; Birmingham, AL; Portland, OR; Cary, NC; Edison, NJ; St. Louis; Suwannee, GA; Sydney, Australia; and Singapore.

One company, Sprout Systems, was founded by 3 Americans who decided to go to Prague for a year to write the code.

_______________________

Alexandria, Va.: Social networking software seemed like it got a good deal of attention at the conference. Is there really a market for all these Web sites that ask you to fork over everything about yourself-- just to stay in touch with 500 of your best friends you never met?

Chris Shipley: I would say there is a limited market for companies that do what you suggest . . . but there is a great opportunity for companies creating "social software" -- applications and services that enable individuals to work together; share information, media, and ideas; and also to benefit from the contributions of others to the site or service.

Kaboodle is one good example of this type of social site.

_______________________

Leslie Walker: Chris, you gave away some Genography DNA kits at the conference and presented a panel on computational biology. Can you tell our readers about this Genographic project?

Also, what is the Web address where anyone who wants to get their DNA tested in the Genography project can order a kit?

Chris Shipley: National Geographic, in conjunction with IBM and the Waitt Family Foundation, has undertaken a "landmark study of the human journey," called the Genographic Project.

The goal is to identify the geographic routes taken as early humans migrated from North East Africa across the continents. Each of us has DNA markers that establish our "deep ancestry." By matching those markers to the markers of many indigenous peoples around the world, The Genographic Project has been able to idenfity the primary routes of human migration.

The public is invited to participate in the study. The kits are available for about $100 (covering the cost of the testing; any profit from the kits is used to fund the research trips to collect samples from indigenous cultures). Go to www.natinalgeograpic.com/genographic for more information.

_______________________

Ahsun Jilani from Dulles, VA: What in your opinion are some "disruptive technologies" that you observed this year? What should the big guns (Sony, MS, Apple, etc.) be worried about?

Chris Shipley: The "big guns" should most be worried that consumers are feeling -- and are -- extremely empowered, and our expectations are changing.

We want products to just work together.

We want a lot of value for a little money.

We want reliable connectivity everywhere, and -- again -- we don't want to pay a lot for it.

We want software as a service.

We want content to be great . . . and very inexpensive, if not free. And we want to create our own content and have that content be recognized and easily shared.

The "big guns" are going to need to do a lot of listening to the market if they are going to develop products that the market wants to buy. And that will require a BIG behavior change for a lot of companies.

_______________________

Washington, DC: What new services and end-user equipment are being developed to take advantage of the end-to-end functionality enabled by IPv6?

Chris Shipley: Quite honestly, I'm not seeing a lot -- yet. But I expect more this will change soon.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: Any predictions for hits likely to emerge from the conference?

Leslie Walker: The $200 toy dinosaur robot strikes me as a serious hit contender. Called the Pleo, he'll be in stores this summer. (www.ugobe.com)I also think consumers will love the Booksmart self-publishing system for producing inexpensive hardbound books. It will be released in public beta in March. (www.blurb.com)I don't know if Chris will play favorites with her technology children, but would love to hear her thoughts.

Chris Shipley: It's hard to pick favorites, but I think Leslie's choices are good ones.

I'll add that GuardID will sell pallets-full of its identity theft prevention device. I think Yahoo's photo service is terrific, as is Plum's content collection software and site.

In-car computing will be very big and MP3car will be a player there.

I began to type a list of the products that I plan to use -- Accomplice Software, Zingee, GarageBand, Plum, Vsee, Iotum, . . . and realized that I'd have typed in most of the companies that were at the conference . . .

Overall, I think all these companies will be quite successful with their offerings.

_______________________

Levitttown,Long Island.: Dear Shipley/Walker: Can you tell us anything about what significant changes will be in 5 years, 10 years?

Leslie Walker: I have a hard enough time guessing what's going to happen THIS YEAR in technology, much less five or 10 years!How about you, Chris. Can you give us the long view?

Chris Shipley: In 10 years . . . my guess is that much of what we think of as computers and computing today will be invisible. Computer technology and software will be built into many of the things we use.

Packaged software as we know it today will be dead; all the applications we use will live on a server or be a part of the operating environment.

And -- let's hope -- interfaces to technology will be much better; voice control, sensors, and the like will make technology so easy to use that we likely won't think of it as technology . . . just as the reader today thought that an ice cream machine wasn't technology, when in fact, it is a tremendous technical achievement.

_______________________

Vienna, VA: What cool new cell phone software have you seen?

Leslie Walker: Boy, there was a lot this year. Tiny Pictures showed a nice service that lets people create "photo channels" on their phones and share them with pals. Vizrea showed a service that helps people sync their photos between their phones, desktop computers and other portable devices. And Azos AI, a Virginia company, showed two software products--GetMeNow and Smart Emergency Alert. Both are about alerts delivered on mobile phones.

Chris Shipley: To that list I'd also add Iotum and EQO. Very cool apps for managing presence and phone interuptions.

_______________________

Leslie Walker

Our time has run out, but I want to thank Chris Shipley for coming online and chatting with us today.

We hope to have her back again next year. We also look forward to seeing what she comes up with in her fall DEMO show and --this is new--her upcoming conference in China.Thanks again, Chris!

Chris Shipley: It's always great chatting with your readers. Thanks for inviting me to join you today.

_______________________

Editor's Note: washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions. washingtonpost.com is not responsible for any content posted by third parties.