LagrangePoint - Brad Howarth

ANZA Bridge to the US program returns to Australia

For much of the past decade I've been attending the ANZA Technology Network conference and showcase in Silicon Valley. They've been a great opportunity to see a small group of Australian and New Zealand emerging exporters gathered together in one place. Over the years the program has expanded its reach, and later this month ANZA will be hosting a series of events around Australia and New Zealand to introduce aspiring exporters to its programs. If you want to find out more, click here.

It's amost time to get Emotiv

I've written a few articles (here and here) on the Aussie tech start-up Emotiv, which has found a way to read your brainwaves and turn them into instructions that can be used by a PC or games console. The company is finally at the point where it can take the covers off what it is doing, and so it was great to see it getting some attention from the Australian press (check here and here). There are few technologies out there that I think will change the industries that spawned them, but this could be one of them ....

Inside Film #109 - MoSTV makes most of online video boom

While on the theme of online video (see this post below), the latest edition of Inside Film magazine features my interview with Assia Grazioli-Venier. Assia was the driving force behind the creation of UK nightclub and music label Ministry of Sound's online video channel, and now consults across industry through her own company, FLYPAPER.TV. You can read what she had to say in this scan from the magazine here (although I really would urge you to go out and buy it ...): Download assia_graziolivenier.jpg

Next - A man with a vision

I've no doubt that in the future the difference between a website and a television channel will be practically indistinguishable. Television is becoming more interactive (witness the slow evolution of Foxtel through its IQ device, or the rapid evolution of online video through portals such as Bebo). If there is anything out there that's close to the way of the future, it's Current, which is both a cable TV station and a website, with 30 percent of its content created by its consumers. Vice president Ezra Cooperstein was recently in Australia as a guest of Portable Content, and you can read my interview with him in this story from Next.

Quiz time - mobile phone technology

Am in the final stages of writing a feature on mobile phone technology for Next, and am trying to lock down some key dates in the history of mobile handsets.If anyone knows the answer to the following, please let me know (and preferably by the end of Wednesday, April 30).

- What was the first mobile phone to feature a colour screen, and when was it released?
- What was the first mobile phone to feature a built-in camera, and when was it released?
- Which was the first phone to feature an MP3 (or equivalent player), and when was it released?
- And what was the first mobile phone with integrated WiFi, and when was it released?

BusinessWeek: Sinosteel Presses Takeover in Australia

While it's Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton that are getting the headlines when it comes to China's insatiable appetite for Australian mineral products, there is a huge amount of activity happening right throughout Australia's mining sector. China is keen to secure access to resources, and is increasingly showing an appetite for direct investment, as demonstrated in my latest article for the BusinessWeek website.

Dynamic Business: Automating your business

Some concepts in information technology are so fundamental that we almost lose sight of them in the desire to make systems ever more complex. Such as the fact that IT was meant to automate business processes and free up time for more meaningful pursuits ... rather than absorbing said time managing the IT. Anyway, it was automation that was the topic for my most recent feature for Dynamic Business magazine, and you can read about it here.

The Diplomat: Format C[CCP] drive

Further to my investigations of the Russian software industry in Australian Anthill (see this post below) I also had the chance to explore the topic in more depth for this story for The Diplomat. It's a magazine that is new to my roster, but is hopefully one that I'll be contributing to regularly this year. The story is locked behind the paywall, but I'd urge you to pick it up from your newsstand now - it's an interesting magazine.

Australian Anthill: Not just for kids - social networks just grew up

Another topic that caught my interest in 2007 was online social networks. While there is no doubt that the hype has exceeded the short-term reality, it would be unwise to underestimate the long-term possibilities that tools such as Facebook, Bebo, MySpace and their successors will hold from a marketing perspective. After all, just about anything that attracts an audience can become a platform for advertising ... and few platforms provide such an effective means of interacting with that audience. It's a topic that I explored for this feature in Australian Anthill, and you can check out my article here (well, part of it at least - you'll need to be a subscriber to see the whole thing).

Australian Anthill: The Russians aren't coming - yet

For a market that is as big as it is, it's long fascinated me as to why Russia hasn't taken a leadership position in in the IT industry in the same way that countries such as Israel and India have. Last year I had a chance to visit one of the few shining lights of the Russian software industry, Moscow-based software security company Kaspersky Lab, and discuss this issue with some of its senior staff. You can read my findings in this editorial from Australian Anthill here. The comparisons to Australia are at times startling - and not just through a mutual liking for alcohol ....