RapidGroove: 2015

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Who invented Bitcoin?

Satoshi Nakamoto “outed” twice, but we still may not know.

Truly new forms of currency don’t come along every day. I’m not talking about Apple Pay or Google Wallet, which are payment technologies that serve as convenience abstractions for established currencies. I mean truly new currency systems with their own independent value, and with scale and the ability to be used internationally. Bitcoin is such a new currency. The details of Bitcoin were first published in a 2008 paper by its inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, who calls Bitcoin "digital cash." I first wrote about Bitcoin in 2011 in this blog.

Photo Credit newcriticals.com

Who is Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto? We have a name but cannot yet point to a person with certainty. "Satoshi Nakamoto" has long been a mystery. The name is generally considered to be a pseudonym for one or more cryptographers who developed the Bitcoin technologies, published papers, and released associated software. In an age in which the traditional is often supplanted by the new and digital on the Internet, Bitcoin is certainly of great interest to many. The mystery behind its inventor naturally captivates us.

In a 2014 cover story, Newsweek identified a southern-California engineer named Satoshi Nakamoto (or Dorian Nakamoto) as the Satoshi Nakamoto of Bitcoin fame. That story has since been largely discredited. Early this month, Wired published a piece claiming that an Australian named Craig Steven Wright is the real Satoshi Nakamoto, and presented some evidence to support that claim. Some have questioned that evidence.

Many believe, based on the structure of the bitcoin system and its block chains, that the inventor holds one million bitcoins. As I write this, one million bitcoins would be worth about $444 million US. Perhaps the real Satoshi Nakamoto may eventually be motivated to come forward in order to wield that fortune.

Have you used Bitcoin yourself or at least thought about it? Does the idea of a currency which is private, not tied to the economic fortunes of a particular nation, and whose transactions are fast and inexpensive appeal to you?

Whatever your interest-level in Bitcoin, do you think that it's important that we eventually identify the Bitcoin inventor, or is the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto unimportant as Bitcoin evangelists often claim?

Please leave a comment and let us know what you think.

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Tuesday, October 27, 2015

What is Innovation?

...and are you an innovator?

“Innovation” is a word I hear often. Maybe you do, too. Many of us who work in science and technology fields like to think that in our own work we contribute in innovative ways – at least sometimes. What do we really mean when we use that word? I wanted to step back to think about its meaning and use.

Is “innovation” the same as “invention?” Is innovation the act of discovering the truly unknown?

One view on innovation that I like comes from Professors Christian Terwiesch and Karl Ulrich, both of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In their book Innovation Tournaments[1], they say that innovation is a “new match between a need and a solution so that value is created.” This is an appealing definition, in part because it is easy to understand and in part because embracing it implies that innovation can take place in a broad variety of fields. When we create value through a new match of need and solution, we innovate. This can obviously be the case in science and engineering as well as in medical research and health care practice, but it can also be true in business, social services, sports and recreation, and a broad range of other professions and human activities. This definition also suggests that innovation is not (always) about inventing something brand new. It can involve taking ideas we already have and understand in one context, and then applying them in another – matching solutions to needs and creating value. When it’s a good match, innovation is likely taking place.

Guy Kawasaki, famous for his role in the original Apple Macintosh and who today describes himself as a “Silicon-Valley based author, speaker, entrepreneur, and evangelist,” [2] makes many points in talking about innovation. His first point in his TED Talk innovation video [3] agrees with Terwiesch and Ulrich. Kawasaki advises us to “make meaning” first and notes that in doing so we will “likely make money.” He also advises us to try many paths and to not be afraid to bring forward early versions of new ideas, even though we may know these early versions have flaws (humorously saying, “Don’t worry, be crappy”).

The new Chief Innovation Officer at Internet2, Florence Hudson (who previously served as an IBM VP of Strategy and Chief Technology Officer), has "innovation" right in her title. In her new innovation role with Internet2, she is working within a community of high-tech engineers and software developers who together help to enable the work of some of the nation's most prominent researchers. She talks about working closely with that community to "stimulate the creation of new technologies and services."

I'll end my musings on "innovation" by recalling some of my own experience with the idea. A few years ago I suggested to my then-employer, an IT services organization at a university, that we could likely promote more innovation and boost staff morale by encouraging our staff to surface ideas that mattered to them and then allow them to spend some small amount of their work time in their pursuit. Google famously allowed their engineers up to 20% for innovation time (they’ve since cut back and restructured this program, but it still exists), reportedly with great results. I hoped we could borrow that idea but allocate just a few days a year. We could encourage but not mandate participation and we could encourage sharing experiences and reporting out. If the outcome was some practical ideas worth pursuing, great! If "all" we got was a more energized and engaged staff, that might be a winner in and of itself.

Starting in about 2010, we set aside a few days every year to pursue this idea. To explore and innovate. Members of the organization worked individually and in small teams and learned, explored, and sometimes created value. I believe that they often were re-energized for having spent the time and effort.

As my own project a few years ago, I challenged myself to create a short movie on "innovation." My goal was to "crowd source" the content, asking colleagues to tell me about innovation. I would collect their input and also learn some basic tools to assemble the media, and I would do the entire thing in 24 hours. I ended up using Garage Band for the music, PowerPoint for the still images, and iMovie for the video editing. I managed to pull something together in 36 hours, and got some real satisfaction in the doing and in the product. That movie, available on YouTube, appears below:

So do you innovate? Do your colleagues innovate?

Think about what you do day-to-day. Think about problems you’ve solved in the last month. What does the word "innovation" mean to you? Are you an innovator? Leave a comment and let us know how.

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Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Thoughts on the New Apple TV

Are “apps” the future of TV?

Early this month Apple announced new products, software, and operating systems. Among the announcements were new iPhones (the 6s and 6s Plus, as expected), improvements to the Apple Watch line, a new and larger member of the iPad family, and an update to the Apple TV. It’s this last announcement, the Apple TV (http://www.apple.com/apple-events/september-2015/ - timepoint 51:50), that I want to write about today.

Photo Credit: Apple.com

Apple talked about the television experience as not having changed in decades, and Apple is betting that we’ll want the experience to evolve in ways that are consistent with the ways in which we use smartphone and tablet technology today. “The future of television is apps,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook, noting that we already access television shows through Netflix, Hulu, HBO and other apps on smartphones and tablets as well as on the current Apple TV. Apple has decided to double down on this idea, introducing significantly upgraded Apple TV hardware and emphasizing apps by creating an App Store for the Apple TV. Apple will be opening up app development for the Apple TV to 3^rd party developers, a move long anticipated.

Beyond new hardware and the promise of a new app economy, Apple introduced an advanced remote with a touch interface and the ability to interact through voice using Siri. Saying “Skip ahead seven minutes” to the remote while watching content does the obvious. Saying “Who stars in this?” gives the answer in the lower third, and saying “what did she say?” causes the show being watched to be skipped back by 15 seconds and then re-played with closed-captioning turned on. I can certainly see myself using that feature!

Saying “Show me action movies” allows a user to search simultaneously across multiple content apps (currently iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Showtime, and more expected to be added), and then saying “just James Bond movies” refines the search. What Apple seems to have done is to bring advanced search to the multiple-app television experience. Using the new AppleTV and its Siri-enabled remote, we can now do advanced, cross-app searching, which is a big improvement over cumbersome searches done separately in each of the content apps.

In addition to higher-end hardware and a Siri-savvy remote, the Apple TV will have a clean new on-screen user interface. It’s support for apps will include games, allowing the Apple TV to also serve as a family gaming device in the living room, though the selection of games is not expected to compete with the major consoles.

What we didn’t hear about Apple TV

Two widely expected developments did not seem to come along with this version of the product. First, many had expected the new Apple TV to have an additional role as a central hub for home automation tools and products, allowing users to control elements of their home such as next-gen network-enabled lighting, thermostats and security cameras from the Apple TV. This capability did not seem to materialize in this release of the product. Second, many had speculated that Apple had been working hard to establish content deals with television and movie studios to make a broader range of content available in an a la carte, subscription-based way. This would have positioned the Apple TV as an attractive option for "cord cutters" (see my blog post TV a la Carte from October 2014), but the deals still seem to elude Apple, with many speculating that the television and movie content creators are reluctant to give up too much to Apple.

Getting a closer look

9 to 5 mac published an unboxing of the new Apple TV at http://9to5mac.com/2015/09/21/apple-tv-4th-gen-unboxing-exclusive-in-depth-hands-on-guide-video/

The 9to5mac unboxing video appears on YouTube and is provided here. [Credit http://9to5mac.com/].

9to5Mac's time with the device reveals some welcome details, such as support for Bluetooth headphones and Bluetooth speakers. Bluetooth could be a handy way for one family member to enjoy Apple TV vieweing or gaming without disturbing others in the house who are otherwise occupied and prefer not to hear the audio.

Final thoughts

One thing I continue to wonder about is the bet Apple is placing on apps. I don't deny the value of apps, and in fact I'm a big user of the content apps they named in the announcement. But in a day and age in which we may often watch shows on iPhone and iPad apps by ourselves, the time we choose to spend in front of the big living room TV is often still a very different watching experience. It's communal. And in that setting I'm not sure how playing around with apps will work out. Family members seem to already get annoyed when one person dominates the standard television remote, and that’s only to change channels. Are people really going to be patient while one person in the collected watching group is fooling around with apps while the rest sit by and wait? Time will tell.

Nevertheless, I'll certainly be getting a new Apple TV. The current generation works well for me and the new generation seems to bring many good new features. I'm placing my order as soon as I can. What about you? Will you be buying an Apple TV? Leave a comment and let us know why or why not.

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