Spark Minute » Products

Cool home automation videos with technology powered by Z-Wave

David Spark — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 17:00:05 +0000

Here’s some of my coverage from the 2011 CES show. I was covering the event for Sigma Designs, the owners of Z-Wave home automation technology.

Oh the arduous task of flicking a light switch, or locking your front door. Wouldn’t it be great if you could do that from your TV remote or via your iPhone even when you’re not home? Such is the promise of Z-Wave, a technology that’s being used by an endless array of companies for a whole series of home automation solutions. Anything that can turn on and off and have some type of electronic control can be managed via Z-Wave. At CES, reporting for Sigma Designs, the owners of Z-Wave, I interviewed 19 companies showing off their Z-Wave-enabled products. I also interviewed a Sigma Designs rep showing off high-speed networking over powerline or coaxial cables.

To get an idea of how powerful home automation with Z-Wave is, watch the first video with the Schlage representative. Then dig in deeper to the other videos. I’ve spotlighted my five favorite videos and then included 15 more below.

My 5 favorite Z-Wave home automation videos

	Remote-Control Access to Your Home, The Schlage Way
	Control Your Home From Your Phone
	Retrofit Your House for Home Automation with Z-Wave
	Lock and Unlock Your Doors from Your Phone
	Control Access to Your Home From Afar

15 more great Z-Wave videos (and one on high-speed networking over coaxial and powerline)

	Automatically Shut Off Electrical Appliances to Save Money
	Control Your Home Without Leaving Your Couch
	Auto-Opening Window Shades
	Everything You Need to Automate Your Home
	Secure Your Home — And Automate It Too!
	One Remote to Control Your TV and Your House
	Track Your Home’s Energy Consumption with Z-Wave
	Use Your TV to Control Your Home
	Monitor Your Home with Z-Wave Cameras
	Controlling Your Home and Your Home Theater At the Same Time
	Monitor & Manage Your Energy Use With Z-Wave
	One Box, Unlimited Home Automation Potential
	Control Every Connected Item in Your Home From Your Couch
	Z-Wave: The Premier Home-Automation Technology
	High-Speed Networking Over Powerlines or Coaxial Cables

Four solutions for taking collaborative meeting notes

David Spark — Fri, 06 May 2011 23:32:14 +0000

In general, I find the way people approach meeting notes to be a giant failure. Here’s why:

Attendees take notes and don’t share them with their colleagues.
Notes are often written on paper and never make it to a digital form to be searched and shared.
In some cases, paper notes do make it to digital form, but that requires the wasted and unnecessary effort of recopying the notes.
Sometimes notetakers email the notes, thus requiring each recipient to save the notes on their own system. Essentially repeating a task that could be done once for everyone.
Notes are often not produced and shared in a format that can be searched among any employee, especially after employees leave an organization.
Meeting notes are redundant. If ten people are in the room taking notes, they’re all doing the same activity.
Meeting notes are rarely shared.
Meeting notes are never appended to or discussed after the fact.
People take meeting notes often just to look busy.

Taking notes and never sharing them is the worst problem (Read: 10 Ways Meetings Suck and How to Fix Them). Meeting notes can be more valuable for your organization if you extend the effort to make them collaborative and live on for the entire organization, especially after employees leave your organization.

Here are four solutions for collaborating with meeting notes. Three of the tools offer real-time collaboration.

Google Docs – Collaborate in real-time with your colleagues: One of the fairly new features within Google Docs is the ability to take notes with your colleagues synchronized in real time. This was part of the promise of Google Wave which failed miserably. As you’re typing in the document, you can see each other person typing along with you.

ADVANTAGES:

No redundant notetaking – If you see another colleague writing something down that you were going to write down, now you don’t have to do it.
Catch everything – Often we miss things as we’re taking notes. Don’t worry, your colleague will pick up the slack.
Different perspectives – Your viewpoint may be different than another colleague’s viewpoint. Now you get to see each individual’s perspectives in real time.
Follow up information – People will often reference something in a meeting. Users can look up the reference in real time and publish it to the document with the source link.
Meeting notes are done immediately – When the meeting is over, the notes are immediately available and searchable for all.

DISADVANTAGES:

Everyone has to be invited to the document – You have to plan ahead and extend email invitations to all the people who will be collaborating on the document.
Have to organize the document in a file structure – Information would be structured more logically and seamlessly searchable and discoverable if it were published in a wiki.

Typewith.me – Take advantage of the wisdom of the crowd in real time: If you don’t actually know all the people that you want to collaborate with, you can utilize this service to publicly publish a link to an open document, thus allowing anybody to collaborate. All input is synchronized in real time just like with Google Docs.

ADVANTAGES:

One click to launch a collaborative document – Fastest way to start collaborating.
No need to register to participate – You just need the link to participate. Although you can type your name to identify yourself as you’re writing.
Publish the link and anyone can participate – Great way to get anyone to join in on a collaborative document. Appropriate for conferences and open meetings.

DISADVANTAGES:

No archiving – Need to export or copy/paste to another location, ideally a wiki.
Contributors can be anonymous – Since registration is not necessary, people often can contribute without identifying themselves.

Wikis – Searchable history for all of your meetings: There are tons of wiki applications out there. I won’t begin to list the wiki providers, but a wiki is great tool for asymmetrical collaboration and searching through past meetings. It’s often good to combine the use of a real time document tool with a wiki, such as those shown above. Simply have your meeting in real time and then copy and paste it into the wiki for archiving and simpler navigation and searching.

ADVANTAGES:

Can create a logical structure for archiving – Makes more sense than just shoving files in folders.
Easy to navigate through content – Create links within content to take you to other documents.
Archive valuable information as employees come and go – The data lives and grows with your company and doesn’t leave as your employees leave.
Designed to be a living document that is constantly edited – Although online documents aren’t static either, the purpose of a wiki is to be a living document so people treat it as such.

DISADVANTAGES:

Can’t actually see collaboration in real time – Although content can be saved in real time.
There’s a learning curve – Takes a while to feel comfortable with the architecture of building and contributing to a wiki.

Zoho Chat – Chat in real-time around a document: If you want to keep a main document pristine, but you do want a free form discussion around the document, then Zoho Chat is a good solution. There are tons of chat applications out there, but Zoho Chat integrates conversation with the view of your document, and the discussion is automatically saved as an adjunct to the document.

(DISCLOSURE: Zoho is a client of Spark Media Solutions).

ADVANTAGES:

Write in an unstructured free form environment – If you’re writing a document there’s a need to constantly be editing and being reserved with your words. With chat you can just type and type.
Create meta content for your document – The chat log is the support and back story of the creation or commentary on the document.
Real time document collaboration is not for all – Some people just can’t handle formally collaborating on a document and chat is the most comfortable way for them to get their ideas out.

DISADVANTAGES:

Chat is a mishmash of valuable and non-valuable data – You can’t read through this like a normal document. You’ll need to scan and search through chat logs.
It’s not in a format you’ll want to publish – When it’s done, it’s not going to look pretty to anyone but you and your group.

Stock photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

VIDEO: Andy Ihnatko’s take on Apple’s iPad 2 launch

David Spark — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:35:28 +0000

After doing a ton of coverage of the Game Developer’s Conference, and completely ignoring the iPad 2 launch, I connected with long time tech journalist friend and one-time fellow junior high school classmate, Andy Ihnatko, who is also a technology columnist for the Chicago Sun Times.

I asked Andy what he thought of Apple’s iPad 2 announcement and he gave me his take. Watch.

Have you ever bought a product you wish you’d tested first?

David Spark — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 17:18:08 +0000

Here’s one of the interview compilations I produced last week at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference reporting for Yammer.
At TechCrunch Disrupt I asked attendees, presenters, and exhibitors if they’ve ever bought a product they wished they tested first. Who hasn’t? We’ve all had buyer’s remorse. Here are their tales. This is one of my favorite videos from TechCrunch disrupt. Some really funny answers.

Can downloadable applications survive?

David Spark — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:58:15 +0000

It seemed that after the advent of Web 2.0 programming technologies, such as AJAX, that there was no more need for downloadable applications since any web page could now be a live application. With webware applications, each action would behave like a desktop application could. No need to reload a page every time you click a button, and more importantly, no need to download and install an application onto your computer.

On first look it appears that webware programs have usurped the need for downloadable applications.

But web-based programs have one very critical limitation. They require you to be on the web to use them. Webware programs can’t run all the time on your computer. They won’t shrink down into your Windows System tray.

As a result of webware’s limitations, there is still a strong market for downloadable applications. Looking at the history of popular downloadable programs, here are the three most successful categories:

Communications applications – VoIP and video chat programs like Skype and all the instant messenger applications have always been popular. Many Adobe Air applications, e.g., TweetDeck, fall into this category.
Anti-virus and spyware – Everyone MUST have these programs on their computer. Many people aren’t willing to shell out the bucks for McAfee or Norton, so they opt for one of the free solutions.
Multimedia applications – Even though you can watch videos and listen to music online, downloadable desktop programs like iTunes and Windows Media Player remain popular.

All three of these categories have stayed consistently successful even with the amazing proliferation of webware applications.

And this is where itiBiti has found its comfortable and successful niche. DISCLAIMER: itiBiti is one of Spark Media Solutions’ clients.

Instead of trying to compete with any one of these categories, itiBiti is actually a mashup of a communication and a multimedia application, two proven and consistently successful categories of downloadable apps.

These downloadable applications succeed in one of the following three ways:

They maintain a consistent connection with a brand that generates revenue through advertising (e.g., AOL with AOL Instant Messenger or Yahoo! with Yahoo! Messenger).
They operate under a freemium model. Basic service is free but additional services cost money (e.g., Skype with Skype Out and Anti-Virus software with further scanning abilities).
They operate a marketplace that sells content (e.g., iTunes with sales of songs, movies, and applications).

Given all these above described options, here’s the combination itiBiti offers:

Always-on communications (text, voice, and soon video)
Multimedia content (video, real-time news, web content)
Branded application (white labeled so anyone can brand the application)

Since so many downloadable applications have failed since the advent of webware, it’s often a common belief that all downloadable applications are doomed. But if you look and realize that there are still many vibrant and highly demanded categories of downloadable apps, it’s easy to realize that there’s still a very strong marketplace. itiBiti aims to build success on a hybrid of already proven downloadable applications.

Want to know more? Interested in getting your brand on the itiBiti platform? Contact Brad Parry (bparry@intertainmentmedia.com).

Roundup of SFMusicTech new technology demos

David Spark — Mon, 17 May 2010 21:06:53 +0000

At the SFMusicTech music technology conference, I sat for a really cool session of new product and technology demos. Here’s a round up of all the organizations and products that presented.

Pledge Music – Tools to let your fans to get involved with your music through its creation while also raising money for charity. Fans pledge money towards the process of the production of your album, tour, or whatever. The site’s creator, Benji Rogers, says not to ever put your hand out for money. Tell your fans why it is they should get involved in your pledge campaign. Explain that it will be the best experience for them to get connected to your music. Rogers said that the charity angle really helps relationships with fans to prosper. The average fan spends $92 on the site. Rogers knows it’s a competitive environment. If people can get your music for free you have to inspire people to get involved with your music.

Creative Allies – A social network that connects musicians and bands to connect with aspiring artists and graphic design students. It’s a form of contesting to get their work shown in a portfolio on a major artists’ album, concert poster, or t-shirt.

Extension.FM – Pull music from anywhere on the Internet to this Web-based player. And if there’s music you like and a blog you’re following gets updated, your music library is updated as well.

Music Hack Day – All hacking gone music. At the end of this weekend of hacking something is actually shipped. Had one in San Francisco and created 35 music hacks. Here are some of the hacks that came out of that weekend.

Bragging Rights – Determine which of you heard of a band first by checking who streamed the song first on Last.fm.
Six Degrees of Black Sabbath – Like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, but for music.
Profoundilizer (aka The Ira Glassifier) – iPad app creates interstitial music that sounds like you’re on “This American Life” with Ira Glass.
The Swinger – A bit of code you put on any song that turns any song into a swing version of the song.
iSticks – Turns your iPad into a steel drum.
Artikulator – Multi-touch, multi-player, finger painting composition for the iPad/iPhone.

Alcatel-Lucent – Aggregating analytics from multiple different places. Create optimism around it, and send alerts. Completely free. Disclosure: Alcatel-Lucent is a client of Spark Media Solutions.

Redg Snodgrass, Alcatel-Lucent

Who needs a 200 GB drive in their car?

David Spark — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 16:21:30 +0000

This week on Cranky Geeks with John C. Dvorak, Sebastian Rupley, and Andrew Eisner of Retrevo we discussed a lot of Apple stuff (what’s new) such as the iPad (can’t get away from it) and the new found iPhone (Was it a stunt? Is it real? Do you care?). Plus, we debated whether we’re actually in the middle of a tech boom (lot of companies are hiring right after they laid off a bunch of people) and we discussed whether anyone needs a 200 GB drive in their car (we force fed a few Toyota jokes in there). Watch the 30 minute show.

My ten favorite videos from SXSW

David Spark — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:25:53 +0000

I just got back from an exhausting few days at SXSW in Austin. It was my first time ever, and I must say it was great, but I got to see just a sliver of what was going on because I was producing a ton of videos for Tweetshare, which is a service that allows you to follow Twitter conversations around content. While I did some blogging and took a few photos, my focus was videos. In total I produced 47 videos. That’s a lot to consume, so below are my top ten favorites. I have links to all the other videos below. Check them out, and if you like any, please leave a comment on Tweetshare which will automatically send out a tweet to all your followers.

Click on each thumbnail to watch the video. To leave a comment on Tweetshare you’ll need to log in with your Twitter ID and password.

My top ten favorite videos from SXSW (that I shot)

	Video blogger extraordinaire, Steve Garfield, and author of Get Seen offers some great tips on shooting quick videos at a live event.
	Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg on motivating people around the world to take action for social good. And watch my appearance in her “Rock Band” video.
	Absolutely fantastic rant from Jeff Pulver on real-time information changing the way we live. Read my report “Real-time search and discovery of the social web.”
	Mashable’s Pete Cashmore on when the wisdom of crowds falls apart.
	Joe Jaffe on how people can be motivated through challenges to achieve a better social good.
	Interview with Leo Laporte @leolaporte right after he crowd surfed at the Digg party while streaming live. Includes video of him crowd surfing.
	Brian Brushwood, magician and host of Revision3′s “Scam School” on how his show has developed with audience feedback.
	Investor and Master of 500 Hats, Dave McClure on techniques to engage super users.
	Diggnation co-host, Alex Albrecht, and his mom with some embarassing stories about his childhood.
	Brian Brushwood, host of Revision3′s “Scam School”, initiating the hoax that Conan O’Brien was going to join Revision3.

Here are all the other videos

VIDEO: A new blog for mini social media case studies. Love it. My interview w/ Scott Perry @mktgideas on the tales.
VIDEO: Breakdancing at the @rackspace party.
VIDEO: How do you take great photos? Photographer of the social media stars @wmmarc explains portrait taking secrets.
VIDEO: Is it raining inside of the Austin Sheraton? 5th floor sprung a leak.
VIDEO: On way to LBJ Library, cab driver tells NSFW tales of LBJ in the White House.
VIDEO: In Austin for sxsw, cab driver tells us tales of his life before driving a cab. It’s always fascinating.
VIDEO: Watch President LBJ as a stand up comedian!
VIDEO: Are social media challenges for Latinos different? @ketye & @juliediazasper run Latinos in Social Media.
VIDEO: Interview with fellow Traveling Geek, @fredericl of @readwriteweb on solutions for security with location based apps.
VIDEO: CEO of MOG @mogdotcom on their new mobile service. Unlimited download and streaming to iPhone or Android $10/mo
VIDEO: Mike Melanson @rwwmike on why Wikipedia needs to be a trusted source of information.
VIDEO: Paul Kane of BSkyB on techniques to build innovation. Great advice.
VIDEO: Panel comment from @petecashmore @mashable on blogging behavior and correcting mistakes and who cares.
VIDEO: Panel comment from @petecashmore @mashable on journalists’ new role.
VIDEO: Jeremy Porter @journalistics on how PR should approach journalists. Build relationships.
VIDEO: Interview w/ @prsarahevans on being a super user. Finding and being.
VIDEO: Interview w/ @problogger Darren Rouse about making money from blogging. No quick fixes, so don’t try.
VIDEO: Interview w/ stars of @revision3 show “Web Zero” @nickcomardo @ianfreeze.
VIDEO: Interview w/ Deb Schultz @debs about changes at SXSW. Interactive is now the communication architecture for all industries.
VIDEO: Interview w/ @pistachio on Twitter fostering developers in the Twitter ecosystem.
VIDEO: Where can I get a Vanilla Coke in Madagascar and other questions for @cocacola. @pfasano interview.
VIDEO: My interview w/ @revision3 CEO @jlouderb about rabid fans.
VIDEO: My interview with Gary Vaynerchuk @garyvee on interacting with rabid fans.
VIDEO: David Hale @lostonroute66 has a great story about battling state legal restrictions to get his own personal genome
VIDEO: Andrew @Mager of ZDNet gives the lowdown on what’s happening at SXSW
VIDEO: Squeezing health issues into SXSW when they won’t let you. Interview with Chia Hwu @chiah.
VIDEO: Interview with Michael Tchong @ubercool, founder of the upcoming Trendshow: Trends and Innovation.
VIDEO: Interview with @mashable ‘s @adamostrow on garnering support to win the Pepsi Refresh challenge. $50K prize.
VIDEO: Vid of the Diggnation beer guzzle challenge @alexalbrecht @kevinrose @dlprager.
VIDEO: Watch my interview w/ Digg CEO @JayAdelson as he discusses NEWEST changes in Digg.
VIDEO: Brian Brushwood of @revision3 Scam School @shwood eating FIRE.
VIDEO: Diggnation crowd goes crazy just for fuzzy dice @alexalbrecht @kevinrose.
VIDEO: Know that cool app, Bump? Find out what’s coming next in this vid w/ founder @bumptech
VIDEO: Video of world record of licking fingers clean of barbecue sauce at Diggnation party.
VIDEO: Vid of Brian Brushwood @shwood does a cool cup trick on stage at Diggnation party.
VIDEO: Brian Brushwood’s @shwood card trick last night at Diggnation party.

http://fuze.me/21h

Interview with Leo Laporte after he crowd surfs at SXSW Diggnation show

David Spark — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:04:59 +0000

Long time tech media guru Leo Laporte made history Friday night when he crowd surfed the 2500+ audience that attending the live performance of Diggnation at SXSW. He streamed it live as he was doing it. I caught Leo right after he made his legendary journey with a complete wireless streaming backpack. We talked about his one in a lifetime crowd surfing experience which was also probably the first time anyone has ever done it while streaming live over the Internet. We also talked about the gear.

Here’s his actual crowd surf. It’s Hysterical.

And watch my interview with him right afterwards over on Tweetshare. This is one of many videos I’ve been shooting for Tweetshare at SXSW. Browse through the entire SXSW collection.

Summary of Tripwire’s coverage at 2010 RSA Conference

David Spark — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:21:56 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I attended the RSA conference in San Francisco. It’s a huge conference on IT security and I covered the event blogging and shooting video for my new client, Tripwire. They’re a log management company that also offers file integrity services.

What makes Tripwire’s product so unique as compared to other log management companies is that they sync log events with changes made on your network. Having that synced clarity to changes is extremely valuable as log files by themselves can spit out a mountain of erroneous information. You’ll learn more watching the videos, especially with the staff from Tripwire.

Please peruse the articles and videos. In total, I produced 35 articles of which 27 include videos.

Here’s a summary of all my coverage of the event: