featured

The “channel blending” (vs. multitasking) phenomenon — and opportunities

24 February 2012 | Ellen Isaacs

A little while ago we did some exciting research with Sony using a novel approach to studying mobile communication. We identified small groups of friends and family who like to stay connected and video-recorded them for a half-day as they went about their activities -- we were able to capture each person's point of view as they connected, engaged, and disconnected with one another, sometimes through technology and sometimes face-to-face. (Some folks at CSCW 2012 commented that this looked like stalking!) Through this study, PARC identified a phenomenon we call "channel blending", which, in contrast to multi-tasking, is the blending together of interactions and content across multiple channels, devices, and places into a single, coherent conversation. We identified a gap in current communication technology and opportunities for addressing it.

Keynote speech at ARPA-E Energy Summit 2012

8 March 2012 | Editor, on behalf of Guest Contributor

[guest contributor] This is a short version of the keynote speech delivered by Xerox Chairman and CEO Ursula Burns at the recent ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit 2012. Other keynote speakers at this event included Steven Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy; Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States; Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft Arun Majumdar, Director, Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy; and others. PARC, which has participated in every ARPA-E Summit including this year’s event, presented its latest cleantech work at the ARPA-E Technology Showcase.

PARC Innovations Update (2012 #1)

29 February 2012 | Editor

[e-newsletter archive ~January-February 2012] The Power of 10; industry award; "channel blending" phenomenon 

The Future of Cleantech Innovation

19 January 2012 | Scott Elrod

[contributed article to State of Green Business Report 2012] Technology adoption doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Someone at PARC once famously quoted, "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." When that concept is applied to cleantech – where the future is focused on deploying solutions at a massive scale, and where there is no Moore's Law for PV – I'd say the best way to predict the future is to "innovate" it.

Videos you can watch anywhere: Experts on a variety of topics

21 December 2011 | Editor

PARC Forum is our invited expert speaker series -- and public platform -- for exchanging insights and building relationships with leading experts in a variety of areas. An amazing variety of speakers including Nobel Prize laureates, CEOs, industry-leading thought leaders and other personalities have spoken in the series since 1977. You can watch recent videos on our website at www.parc.com/forum and on our Slideshare channel (in HTML5 and mobile viewable on iPads, iPhones, Android devices).

The wastewaters of innovation (literally!)

30 November 2011 | Leon Wong

Billing itself as the world’s largest annual water quality exhibition, the 84th Annual Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) draws 20,000 people from all over the world and has almost 1000 exhibitors. Because the show provided an opportunity to meet with a wide spectrum of wastewater players -- from utilities, corporations, manufacturer reps, and consultants to investors, analysts, and non-profits -- I wanted to share some of what I heard while showcasing our hydrodynamic separation (HDS) technology platform. Especially because I think the comments reflect the nature of innovation in the wastewater industry today.

To tweak or not to tweak… that is (not!) the question

15 November 2011 | Editor

Forbes has some interesting commentary on Steve Jobs and whether Malcolm Gladwell (yes, him again) is wrong in calling Steve a "tweaker" and therefore less of a visionary or "true" inventor. Obviously, we believe there's more to all of this. Given our experiences, here are some of our thoughts...

Digitized Decision Making and the Hidden Second Economy

9 November 2011 | Stephen Hoover

[contributed post to Forbes Techonomy] "There’s something big happening right now. I’m not referring to any of the popular technology memes per se – big data, social, cloud, mobile, augmented reality, context, post-PC devices, consumerization, 3-D printing, etc. I’m referring to something behind, and beyond, all of these technologies: the digitization of decision making. This increasing trend is creating a 'second economy' underneath and alongside the physical economy we know so well, and on a revolutionary scale… What will be the role of R&D and innovation organizations in this new global innovation landscape?

PARC Innovations Update (2011 #6)

9 November 2011 | Editor

[e-newsletter archive ~October-December 2011] Things, The Economist video, and a bit of a sneak peek

The second economy

24 October 2011 | W. Brian Arthur, guest contributor

Digitization is creating a second economy that’s vast, automatic, and invisible – thereby bringing the biggest change since the Industrial Revolution. Deep changes like this are not unusual. Every so often – every 60 years or so – a body of technology comes along and over several decades, quietly, almost unnoticeably, transforms the economy: it brings new social classes to the fore and creates a different world for business. Can such a transformation – deep and slow and silent – be happening today?

categories

• business of breakthroughs
• cleantech
• e-newsletter archive
• electronic materials & systems
• ethnography
• glossary (our definitions)
• guest contributors
• human computer interaction (HCI)
• networking
• other
• our culture & processes
• our milestones
• PARC folklore
• PARC Forum
• parc.com
• security & privacy
• social & enterprise computing
• ubiquitous computing
• uncategorized
• virtual worlds (PlayOn)

tags

ambient intelligence AR augmented reality authentication batteries brainstorming business of innovation CHI cleantech collaboration collective intelligence competitive edge computer vision context-aware computing contextual intelligence crowdsourcing curation data centers decision making disruptive innovation electric vehicles email energy energy efficiency epic conference ethnography ethnography in industry ethnomethodology ev everyware field of use government green HCI information overload innovation innovation culture innovation strategy intellectual property IP IT kiffets licensing lithium-ion location based services long tail malware materials minimum viable product mobile computing mobile devices & interfaces mobile security MVP natural language processing news NSF open innovation opportunity discovery organic electronics Pasteur's Quadrant personal information management pervasive computing phishing photovoltaics portfolio management printed electronics privacy QR codes recommendation systems research methodology responsive mirror SaaS search smart environment smart grid