Santiago Jimenez Barrull

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Santiago Jiménez Barrull

Global Business Entrepeneur and Venture Capitalist

maat  International Group

(www.maat-g.com)

  Founder and Executive Chairman
  Corporate Finance - Digital Transformation

Mr Jiménez is the Chairman of maat International (www.maat-g.com), the holding company for one of the most innovative and fast growing privately owned Corporate & Technology& Infrastructure Professional Services (est. 1999). His leadership and business experience accumulated both in Public and Private Sector marked a change in the Corporate Strategy of Professional Services in order to diversify maat International offering into the Corporate Services (Multilateral Agencies, Investment Funds, Private Equities, Development Funds,…); Property Development, Housing,  Energy, Transport Infrastructures, Agriculture and Trading industry in Africa and LATAM and Research & Development in it the Cloud Computing industry. He has been a venture capitalist in various companies and he is a founding member of key Corporate Social Responsibility Programs and Institutions (www.fundacionkaf.org) on a global basis  related to Health, Education, Social Development, and especially Children Empowerment in desfavourable living conditions –orphans, poor, unstructured families,…-

Mr. Jiménez has also developed strategic relationships within the field of mineral resource exploration and trading resulting in his activity in Oil and other mineral resources. One of Mr. Jiménez’s greatest challenges was his support in the development of Latam & Sub-Saharian African´s with headquarters in South Africa and having a strong relationship with a network of some key prominent entrepreneurs and professionals from various African countries, including Prime Ministers, Presidents and First Ladies of those countries. maat International has also operations in MENA.

Mr. Jiménez’s Vision: “To align Corporate Finance with Infrastructures Development and Technology Services to promote Sustainable Communities around the Globe. Promoting from Value Chains to Value Networks as the key source of competitive advantage.”

References

https://www.linkedin.com/in/santiagojb/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ysy76jx-PTU

http://e-volucion.elnortedecastilla.es/encuentros/conferenciantes/santiago-jimenez-barrull.html

TechTour 2007

http://www.techtour.com/events/view.aspx?events_pages_id=2332

PREMIOS COMMERCENET – COMERCIO ELECTRONICO 1999

http://www.pcworld.es/archive/premios-commercenet-a-la-innovacion-en-comercio-electronico

https://www.marketingdirecto.com/digital-general/digital/concedidos-los-premios-commercenet-espanol-a-la-innovacion-en-comercio-electronico

Articulos – El Comercio Electronico como Oportunidad Estrategica – 1997

http://bddoc.csic.es:8080/detalles.html;jsessionid=6D26BBB611E51CBED2AC898467DC2A65?id=324900&bd=ISOC&tabla=docu

Pagina 9 – Funcionario Comunidad Autonoma Murcia

http://hermes.asambleamurcia.es/documentos/pdfs/boar/Boar.01/851204.143.pdf

* Relación a la escisión parcial empresa: ESCISIÓN DE EMPRESAS (BORME 186 de 27/9/2010)

MAATG NOZZLE, S.L.
(SOCIEDAD ESCINDIDA) 
MAATG TECHNOLOGY, S.L. 
(SOCIEDAD BENEFICIARIA)

http://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BORME-C-2010-28578

* Subdirector general del IMPI: Resolución de 1 de febrero de 1995, de la Secretaría de Estado de Industria, por la que se dispone el nombramiento de don Santiago Jiménez Barrull, como Subdirector general en el Gabinete de Estudios y Centro de Información del Instituto de la Pequeña y Mediana Empresa Industrial.

http://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-1995-3418

RESOLUCION de 1 de febrera de 1995. de /a Secretana de Estado de lndustria, por la que se dispone el nombramiento de don Santiago Jimenez Barru". como Subdirector general en el Gabinete de Estudios y Centro de In/ormaei6n del Instituto de la Pequefıa y Mediana Empresa Industrial.

https://www.boe.es/boe/dias/1995/02/09/pdfs/A04334-04335.pdf

GERENTE UNED

RESOLUCION de 11 de julio de 1990, de lo Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, por la que se nombra a don Santiago Jiménez Barrull, Gerente de esta Universi~ dad

http://81.89.32.211/boe/dias/1990/07/19/pdfs/A21010-21010.pdf

PRÓLOGO LIBRO MARCIAL PONS DERECHO LOCAL

https://www.marcialpons.es/static/pdf/100791704.pdf

PRESIDENTE DE MAAT GREEN. Pág. 8

http://www.camarazaragoza.com/docs/Especial_energia_17857.pdf

health-E child: proyecto VK

http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/105287_en.html

http://www.elconfidencial.com/archivo/2009/02/14/90_conectaran_bases_datos_hospitales_europeos_agilizar.html

http://www.pta.es/es/noticia.cfm?id=3885#.WQndO0Xyimw

LIDERAZGO DE LA TECNOLOGÍA GRID EN ESPAÑA

http://www.europapress.es/castilla-lamancha/innova-00234/noticia-innova-maat-gknowledge-participada-caja-rural-toledo-lidera-desarrollo-tecnologia-grid-espana-20080916184805.html

PREMIO GARTNER  DIARÍO EXPANSIÓN

http://www.expansion.com/2008/05/30/empresas/tecnologia/1129760.html

CITA EN LIBRO A LA EMPRESA:

https://books.google.es/books?id=9ZujyED41EMC&pg=PA312&lpg=PA312&dq=cern+maat&source=bl&ots=K3uwrzkJgM&sig=IYGoUKu649XERHTeHv8p5C5eCwo&hl=es&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJ4djD6tPTAhWJ1RQKHXHXDm44ChDoAQg8MAg#v=onepage&q=cern%20maat&f=false

CERN MAMOGRID

https://press.cern/press-releases/2007/04/cern-guest-honour-international-inventions-exhibition

Maat G knowledge in Association with

-University of  the West of England, Bristol, CIEMAT y CERN

Hospitals in Cambrigde, Udine

Infanta Cristina

Merida

San Bernito en Extremadura

PRESIDENCIA TRIBUNAL CALIFICADOR UNED

http://www.boe.es/diario_boe/txt.php?id=BOE-A-1995-1813

https://www.boe.es/boe/dias/1995/01/23/pdfs/A02163-02167.pdf

NOTICAS REVISTA DE NEGOCIOS CV SANTIAGO

http://e-volucion.elnortedecastilla.es/encuentros/conferenciantes/santiago-jimenez-barrull.html

CURSOS VERANO

https://www.televisiondigital.electronicafacil.net/Article7541.html

https://es.slideshare.net/ratienza/ucm-televisin-digital-santiago-jimnez-barrull-julio-2007

http://www.alcazardesanjuan.es/portal/contenedor_not.jsp?codMenu=66&codMenuPN=59&codResi=1&contenido=1167&language=es&layout=contenedor_not.jsp&nivel=1400&seccion=s_fnot_d4_v1.jsp&tipo=8

CONFERENCIAS

http://v2.uclm.es/buscador.aspx?p=29&b=&serie=1&campus=1&centro=43

http://slidehot.com/resources/ucm-television-digital-santiago-jimenez-barrull-julio-2007.457271/

ADEMA

http://www.soriaymas.com/ver.asp?tipo=articulo&id=1122

PROYECTO CON MARTIN CRIADO

http://www.eleconomista.es/andalucia/noticias/6913786/08/15/Martin-Criado-y-Jimenez-Barrull-desarrollaran-proyectos-juntos.html

SISTEMAS BANCARIOS - ABC

http://biblioteca2.uclm.es/biblioteca/ceclm/ARTREVISTAS/ABCECO/ABC_405.pdf

desarrollo rural
http://www.mapama.gob.es/Desarrollo/pags/RedRural/presentacion_unidad/Programa_Almazan.pdf

TELEFONICA
http://www.computerworld.es/archive/santiago-jimenez-director-de-marketing-de-telefonica-servicios-avanzados-de-informacion-internet-esta-obligando-a-todas-las-empresas-a-cambiar-sus-procesos-de-gestion

http://www.elmundo.es/navegante/97/septiembre/24/nnetscape.html

(JIM CLARCK)

UNION EUROPEA
http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/86419_en.html

Periodistas - FAPE
http://www.expansion.com/2008/01/16/empresas/medios/1078815.html


http://studylib.es/doc/3620850/periodistas-----fape

FUNDACION TOLEDO
http://docplayer.es/8473716-Fundacion-caja-rural-de-toledo-la-fundacion.html

Acuerdos con INDRA
http://www.computing.es/siteresources/files/0/45.pdf

http://www.indracompany.com/es/indra/alianzas

Asociacion XBRL

http://www.xbrl.es/downloads/libros/Memoria%20XBRL%202006.pdf

http://www.europapress.es/castilla-lamancha/innova-00234/noticia-innova-indra-maat-gknowledge-ofreceran-soluciones-salud-basadas-tecnologia-grid-tdt-20081112193857.html

https://www.estrategiasdeinversion.com/actualidad/noticias/bolsa-espana/indra-firma-acuerdo-con-maat-gknowledge-para-desarrollar-n-59022

http://www.elconfidencial.com/mercados/2007-08-16/indra-y-maat-desarrollan-una-plataforma-bancaria-para-caja-rural-de-toledo_874486/

http://www.eleconomistaamerica.co/mercados-cotizaciones/noticias/327657/12/07/Economia-Empresas-Indra-y-Maat-Gknowledge-crean-un-centro-de-servicios-bancarios-multicliente-e-internacional.html

CERN
https://indico.cern.ch/event/32220/contributions/1703536/attachments/623024/857311/MAAT_HealthcareICT_DM_v3.3.pdf

LIBRO  - From Physics to Daily Life
https://books.google.es/books?id=jPBWDgAAQBAJ&pg=PR15&lpg=PR15&dq=maatg+knowledge+CERN&source=bl&ots=aAOCKv6JhD&sig=VXanOv145DbKy9z68mQ0frZXTDU&hl=es&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjVyOz27tPTAhWEXhQKHcmDCp0Q6AEIOzAE#v=onepage&q=maatg%20knowledge%20CERN&f=false

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9783527687039.fmatter/pdf


https://books.google.es/books?id=9ZujyED41EMC&pg=PA312&lpg=PA312&dq=maatg+knowledge+CERN&source=bl&ots=K3uwrzlLeO&sig=0J_9Si9lvM7DBhe8moconO9tAsU&hl=es&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjVyOz27tPTAhWEXhQKHcmDCp0Q6AEIUTAI#v=onepage&q=maatg%20knowledge%20CERN&f=false

http://ippog.org/members/totem-collaboration

EXPANSION - CERN

http://www.expansion.com/2008/05/30/empresas/tecnologia/1129760.html

https://sciencenode.org/feature/isgtw-feature-health-e-child-prepares-deployment.php

http://cordis.europa.eu/docs/projects/cnect/9/027749/080/publishing/readmore/020707-Brochure.pdf

CATEDRA UNIVERSIDAD GRANADA

http://canal.ugr.es/prensa-y-comunicacion/medios-digitales/universia-espana/creada-la-catedra-maat-de-economia-publica-y-la-sociedad-de-la-informacion/

MEXICO
http://www.toledo.es/el-presidente-de-la-asociacion-de-municipios-de-mexico-visita-el-ayuntamiento-de-toledo/

MEDIA

http://www.actv.info/fichanoticia.php?ID=9959

COOPERATIVISMO AGRARIO

http://www.agro-alimentarias.coop/ficheros/doc/01271.pdf

Knowledge is Power. The role of the cities

Just 10 years ago, cities were seen as vital contributors to the global economy. That's no longer true. Today, cities are the global economy. More than 50% of the world's population live in cities and the 40 largest cities, or mega-regions, account for two thirds of the world's output,according Professor Richard Florida, an urban studies theorist at the University of Toronto.

A report published by the independent research consultancy, the Work Foundation, at its Ideopolis conference in July, says the last 10 years of economic growth in the UK tell a story of the knowledge economy, and one which has played out in our cities. With every new job in other industries being matched by 12 new jobs in knowledge-intensive industries between 1995 and 2005, the cities attracting these industries are the ones that have boomed.

In our Future of cities web special, we aim to explain how the expansion in cities of knowledge-intensive industries, from financial services to hi-tech manufacturing, has reshaped the UK economy. We show how successful cities have attracted skilled workers, affluent consumers and thriving cultural centres. And we demonstrate the importance of political mechanisms in providing strong but measured city leadership.

Yet cities are similar to any industry that globalises: they create winners and losers. At the same conference, the foundation published a league table of the productivity of 56 UK cities revealing wide and growing disparities between "resurgent" cities and those that appear to be "stuck".

So we also examine the challenges and opportunities facing our cities, carry competing Labour and Conservative visions for the future of our cities, and ask urban experts how cities can compete but also collaborate so as to thrive in the global economy.

The Oil&Gas Industry Players Game

La situación del mercado de Petroleo y Gas        Adaptado de un articulo de McKinsey Quarterly (Tim Fitzgibbon and others)

Capturing margin opportunities in oil and gas refining

Downstream oil and gas industry players are used to market shifts. The key is taking advantage when they occur.

External market shifts are not new to the downstream oil and gas industry. Changes in environmental regulations, fluctuating natural gas prices, and the recent sharp decline in crude oil prices have caused ripple effects for downstream players. These external shifts can generate major new opportunities, but require refiners to be nimble and proactive as they re-optimize to the “new normal.”
Consider how incentives have altered in the US gasoline and distillate markets during the past decade. These markets traditionally were well balanced with relatively similar gasoline and diesel pricing, with only seasonal swings toward one or the other being at a premium. However, in the past five years, the market has seen a structural shift, with diesel now significantly and consistently out-pricing gasoline. This change is part of a global adjustment driven by two primary factors:

• Accelerating diesel demand growth in developing markets. As global oil demand growth has shifted to developing economies in Asia and Latin America, it has biased growth toward distillates. Developing economies have a higher share of commercial (trucking demand), which tends to bias demand and demand growth toward diesel.
• Decreasing gasoline demand in developed markets. In developed markets, demand has been declining in the light-duty passenger sector due to increasing vehicle efficiency (largely driven by stricter fuel efficiency regulations) and growing penetration of alternative fuels. These trends have disproportionately hit gasoline demand since it is traditionally favored in the light-duty vehicle sector. This structural shift has caused refineries to focus year-round on optimizing for diesel and jet-fuel production at the expense of gasoline and naphtha. In addition, capital projects that capitalize on this price spread—which may not have made sense five to ten years ago—could be highly profitable in this new distillate market.

“Time is money” as the market shifts: our experiences suggest that refineries that are able to react and optimize its production kit even two to three months faster than its peers can capture significant incremental margin (often $10+ million).

Exhibit 1

Incentives and opportunities can be large

While market shifts are not a surprise to refiners, finding the specific “margin levers” to capitalize on changes can be a challenge. For instance, a complex refinery may have 10 to 20 significant processing units, but typically we see the largest value created in crude units, FCCUs, hydrocrackers, and delayed cokers. For example, Exhibit 2 shows a hydrocracker unit that is running sub-optimally as a result of market shifts.

Exhibit 2

So what can be done? In this example, we identified three main sources of value:

1. The fractionator system was not fully optimized for diesel production. The unit experienced excessive low-value naphtha production due to its overhead temperature not being truly minimized, as well as higher-than-expected unconverted oil production due to a loss of feed preheat. Both of these factors caused sub-optimal diesel yields.
2. Several streams of Vacuum Gasoil (VGO) feed were incorrectly routed to the FCCU instead of the hydrocracker. Given FCCU yields favor gasoline and hydrocracker yields favor diesel, this was indirectly overproducing gasoline at the expense of diesel.
3. No ability existed to blend low value naphtha into diesel product. A simple “jump-over” piping project was identified years ago, when diesel margins were relatively low, and had not been re-evaluated since. Armed with updated margins and operating guidelines from the workshop, the company’s engineering staff followed a structured root-cause analysis to debottleneck diesel production in the three opportunity areas above to increase diesel production by 10 to 20 percent, and drive significant margin uplift.

Optimizing operations to capture and sustain value

In our experience, adopting a structured approach to delivering operations improvement means employing a series of rigorous margin-capture workshops to identify and size the full suite of margin opportunities in each of the main processing units.

Exhibit 3

This margin tree approach quickly distills the highest priority areas to focus on and drive capital or operational improvements within weeks. To capture these opportunities, refineries can launch a series of “grade the shift” optimization cycles that utilize visual management and strong engagement from console and outside operators to drive hour-by-hour optimization across the refinery.
Optimizing at the front line requires a tailored approach to ensure good engagement from operators. Our experience is that refiners typically struggle to deeply engage operators on short-term optimization decisions, while hourly operations staff are also usually surprised and excited to be so explicitly involved in capturing margin every shift. There are several success factors to make “grade the shift” successful:

1. Select a manageable, but real, list of margin drivers to optimize. There will typically be three to six margin drivers for a large process unit that are dynamic throughout a shift and provide a console operator the opportunity to (safely) deliver superior margin performance. For each driver, show the “size of the prize” in $/bbl margin uplift, and discuss with the unit managers how the number was calculated.
2. Install clear visual management. Experience shows that white boards are superior to complex electronic displays, especially at the beginning of the journey. Anyone who enters the unit should know, from looking at the board, how much uplift/bbl is available for each driver, and how successful the last few shifts have been in capturing available margin.
3. Create an atmosphere of friendly competition. With clear process safety guidelines, operators who believe they have the ability to impact the unit’s margin contribution can produce consistent, positive results. One operator at a recent engagement texted the transformation team “I just made $80,000 last shift! Can shift three match it?” This structured approach was recently employed with a USGC refiner and delivered over $2/bbl margin improvement on each barrel of crude over a six-month period.

To test if a good margin program is in place, refiners should ask themselves eight questions:

• Do we have a clear view of the highest margin products, with a conversation on the “top five barriers” to increase production in a daily meeting?
• Are daily margin performance dialogues around clear KPIs being used at each unit, each shift?
• How many unit operators could rattle off the current margins for each major product stream on their unit, and what their constraint is?
• Could every employee at the refinery tell whether we “won or lost” each day on margin, in simple financial terms?
• Does our leadership team have simplified yet detailed margin trees and schematics that are used on a daily basis to remove constraints?
• Is our LP updated weekly with current price sets, and does it clearly tie product streams and transfer prices across our refineries?
• Does the speed of execution (idea to on line) of our capital projects process allow us to react nimbly to the market?
• Does our refinery reliability program focus its efforts on the highest margin units?

If you answered “no,” “maybe,” or “I don’t know” to any of these questions, there is likely substantial value being left on the table.

Towards the Human Economy...

Our old, solid, familiar frameworks are in a state of flux. The biggest social outlets are now the platforms of multi-billion dollar companies. Business and society have fused, and we cannot separate them. The same technology that connects us has bound us together. The world has been reshaped and is now entirely and irreversibly interdependent. Today, when so few can affect so many so far away, we rise and fall together. The position of leaders—especially those who rely on their titles and old ways of thinking—is more volatile than it’s ever been. It’s our responsibility to recognize that the world has changed. It operates in different ways.
In economic terms, we’ve gone from an Industrial Economy – where we hired hands — to a Knowledge Economy – where we hired heads — to what is now a Global Human Economy – where we hire hearts.

(Adapted from Dov Seidman)

La Fragilidad de la Economía Española

Inosostenibilidad e ineficiencia del Modelo Productivo.
Las claves de la crisis hay que buscarla en buena medida en las decisiones de los últimos años de inversiones en Infraestructuras caras e infrautilizadas -carreteras, ferroviarias, energeticas, telecomunicaciones...-
Decisiones y extraordinaria influencia en la regulación del Gobierno por parte de tres sectores clave de la economía -financiero, infraestructuras, energético,..- Aeropuertos sin aviones, Autovias sin coches -con menos de 3.000 vehiculos diarios con tasas de rentabilidad negativas-; y AVE sin pasajeros;
Las políticas energéticas se han basado más en las necesidades de las  empresas energeticas que en las necesidades económicas del país -deficit tarifario versus venta de electricidad procedente de instalaciones amortizadas al mismo precio que la tecnología más cara-.
No regulación de las remuneraciones en el sector financiero ni de los sueldos de los directivos en muchos casos asociadas al riesgo.
Riesgo que se asume por el conjunto de la sociedad, socializando las perdidas siendo precedida por una privatización de las ganancias.
Los antiguos piromanos de la crisis ahora se convierten en su bomberos (Goldman Sachs,...)
Petit "El estado tiene el poder, precisamente, para que evitar que unos fuertes tomen como subditos a unos debiles".
Transparencia, control e independencia de la política respecto al Sector Financiero, grandes constructoras o el sector energético se ha convertido en una garantía de la supervivencia de la democracia y mejora económica del conjunto de la sociedad.

Nozzle Innovation

Nozzle Innovation

TV Melting Media

MULTISCREEN TV – A NEW ERA OF CONNECTED DEVICES

Using the network efficiently to deliver a unified multiscreen TV experience. Just a few days earlier he answered a few questions about Ericsson’s position within TV and this year’s IP&TV World Forum 2011.

It shuld be say that we have the broadest and most comprehensive portfolio of solutions as a supplier in the TV industry. Because of this we can be a true partner to our customers and leverage on innovation and technologies across all of our different customer segments which include, not only IPTV and mobile TV with Telco’s but cable, satellite and terrestrial broadcasters and other media companies.

We’ve uniquely positioned ourselves in the TV supplier space with the work we’ve done with Consumer Labs, looking at what consumers really want from TV services both now and in the future and this makes us very unique in terms of the supplier role as we are not just looking at technology, we are looking at, fundamentally, what consumers want from TV services.

What do consumers really want when it comes to TV services?

Consumers want a rich user experience. One that allows them to find the content they want and watch it when they choose. This time and place shifting is what is most important. Being able to schedule TV, go forward and backwards in the schedule and access the content when out of the living room, such as on lap top and phone, is driving consumer satisfaction.

What’s on the agenda at the 2011 IP&TV World Forum?

This anytime, anywhere TV has put pressure on the networks, which are used to deliver the content to the consumers. So at the IP&TV World Forum 2011 I’ll talk about new innovations like media delivery networks, which are trying to address key issues for operators in terms of how to cope with this explosion in content and consumption. Over the next three-four years, 90 percent of traffic carried over the fixed and mobile network is expected to be video.
Other than multiscreen user experience and access to multi devices, hybrid TV will also be in focus. Hybrid TV is the ability to deliver services both on satellite and on IPTV simultaneously on a single set top box.

There are two advantages to this – if you’re coming from the satellite space adding IPTV gives you the ability to deliver the advanced additional services like VOD and time shift TV, and if you’re coming from the Telco side, adding the satellite will give you instant access to preexisting content deals, which is really important. The third theme will be relatively new this year – and concentrates on cable companies moving to a more IPTV delivery and the usage of IPTV solutions over cable infrastructure and Telco infrastructure.

Business Model Innovation

Business Lab: Success today does not guarantee success tomorrow.

Day-to-day Operations vs imagine your industry in five, 10 or 20 years

Forces of change your industry faces

- Technology
- Customer Demographics
- Regulation
- Globalization,...

Manage the Present - Preservation / selectively forget the past - Destruction / Create the Future - Creation

Creative Models
- strategy graffiti walls
-knowledge caffes
-jam sessions
-speed-geeking

Fast-paced roundtable meetings in which each participant has just one minute to give an imprompty response to key and provocative questions?


Optimize the way individuals collaborate.

Job specification
Organizational designs
Work processes

Nozzle Innovation. Cloud&Embedded Systems

New Business Architectures for Networked Organizations.

IBM - The New Next Five in Five - United States

IBM - The New Next Five in Five - United States

At the end of each year, IBM examines market and societal trends expected to transform our lives, as well as emerging technologies from IBM's global labs, to develop a multi-year forecast called The Next 5 in 5.

IBM predicts that technology innovations will change our lives in the following ways:

You won't need to be a scientist to save the planet

While you may not be a scientist, you are a walking sensor. In five years, sensors in your phone, your car, your wallet and even your tweets will collect data that will give scientists a real-time picture of your environment. You'll be able to volunteer to contribute this data to fight global warming, save endangered species or track invasive plants or animals that threaten ecosystems around the world. In the next five years, a whole class of citizen scientists will emerge, using simple sensors that already exist to create massive data sets for research.

Simple observations—when the first thaw occurs in your town, when the mosquitoes first appear, if there's no water running where a stream should be—contain valuable data that scientists don't currently have in large sets. If connected to a network of other computers, your laptop can even be used to help map out the aftermath of an earthquake, speeding up the work of emergency responders and potentially saving lives.

Beam your friends up in 3-D

In the next five years science fiction won't be so fiction anymore, as 3-D interfaces like those in the movies let you interact with 3-D holograms of your friends in real time. Movies and TVs are already moving to 3-D, and as 3-D and holographic cameras get more sophisticated and miniaturized to fit into cell phones, we'll be able to interact with our photos, browse the Web and chat with our friends in entirely new ways.

Scientists are working to improve video chat to become holography chat or 3-D telepresence. The technique uses light beams scattered from objects and reconstructs a picture of that object, a similar technique to the one our eyes use to visualize our surroundings.

IBM researchers are also working on new ways to visualize 3-D data, working on technology that would allow engineers to step inside of a designs of anything from buildings to software programs, running simulations of how diseases spread across an interactive 3-D globes, and visualizing Twitter trends that are happening around the world—all in real time and with little to no data distortion.

Batteries will breathe air to power our devices

Ever wish you could make your laptop battery last all day without needing a charge? Or what about a mobile device that charges itself while you carry it in your pocket?

In the next five years, scientific advances in transistors and battery technology will allow your devices to last about 10 times longer than they currently do. Scientists are working on batteries that use the air we breathe to react with energy-dense metal, leading to longer lasting batteries. If successful, the result will be a lightweight, powerful and rechargeable battery capable of powering for everything from electric cars to mobile devices.

Or, better yet, batteries may disappear altogether in smaller devices. The European Union is betting $5.5 million that we can do that by rethinking the basic building block of electronic devices—the transistor. The goal is simple—reduce the amount of energy per transistor to less than 0.5 volts. With energy demands that low, we might be able to eliminate the batteries in some devices.

The result would be battery-free electronic devices that can be charged using a technique called energy scavenging. Some wristwatches use this now—they do not require winding and charge based on the movement of the wearer's arm. The same concept could be used to charge mobile phones, for example—just shake and dial.

Computers will help energize your city

Innovations allow computers and data centers to do things like heat buildings in the winter and power air conditioners in the summer with the excessive heat and energy that they give off. Can you imagine if the energy poured into the world's data centers could, in turn, be recycled for a city's use?

Up to 50 percent of the energy consumed by a modern data center goes toward cooling the air. Most of the heat is then wasted because it is dumped into the atmosphere. Using new technologies, such as on-chip water-cooling systems developed by IBM, the thermal energy from a cluster of computer processors can be efficiently recycled to provide hot water for an office or a house.

A pilot project that involves a computer system fitted with the technology is expected to save up to 30 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, the equivalent of an 85 percent carbon footprint reduction. A novel network of microfluidic capillaries inside a heat sink is attached to the surface of each chip in the computer cluster, which allows water to be piped to within microns of the semiconductor material itself. By having water flow so close to each chip, heat can be removed more efficiently. Water heated to 60§ C is then passed through a heat exchanger to provide heat that is delivered elsewhere.

Your commute will be personalized

Imagine your commute with no jam-packed highways, no crowded subways and no construction delays. In the next five years, advanced analytics technologies will provide personalized recommendations that get commuters where they need to go in the fastest time. Adaptive traffic systems will intuitively learn traveler patterns and behavior to provide more dynamic travel safety and route information to travelers than is currently available.

IBM researchers are developing new models that will provide information that goes well beyond traditional traffic reports, after-the fact information that only indicates where you are already located in a traffic jam.

Using new mathematical models and IBM's predictive analytics technologies, researchers will analyze and combine multiple possible scenarios that can affect commuters to deliver the best routes for daily travel, including traffic accidents, road construction, most traveled days of the week, expected work start times, local events that may affect traffic, alternate options of transportation such as rail or ferries, parking availability and weather.

Combining these predictive analytics with real-time information about current travel congestion from sensors and other data, the system could recommend better ways to get to a destination, such as how to get to a nearby mass transit hub, whether the train is predicted to be on time, and whether parking is predicted to be available at the train station. New systems can learn from regular travel patterns where you are likely to go and then integrate all available data and prediction models to pinpoint the best route.

For Apps, Profit Focus Is Blurry - WSJ.com

For Apps, Profit Focus Is Blurry - WSJ.com

Companies in recent months have launched a slew of photography applications for the iPhone and other smartphones, but many of these start-ups are still trying to figure out the best way to profit from their software programs.

The apps, many of which are free to download, let users apply special effects to photos they snap with their phones. The apps also make it easy to share photos on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The apps have garnered millions of downloads in the past year, but building a business model has proved trickier. Some of the app makers are charging users for extra features; others plan to sell advertising or even prints of the snapshots. At least one start-up is exploring the idea of alerting a cellphone user to nearby advertisers once the person has snapped a photo.

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Bloomberg News

New apps for smartphones let users apply special effects to pictures or share photos on social media sites.

"It's hard to monetize the apps right now because there are so many especially in the photography space," said Thomas McLeod, president of app maker Imaginary Feet LLC. "It's hard not to get lost in the oversaturation of the other apps."

Apps have to generate enough interest and not get lost in the pile. According to AppleInc., there are now more than 300,000 apps in its store alone, compared with 140,000 last January.

Currently, 28% of people in the U.S. have smartphones, according to ABI Research. Sales this holiday season indicate that an even larger percentage of Americans will have them in 2011, says Neil Strother, an analyst with ABI Research.

More and more smartphone consumers are using the devices as their primary camera. And as Dow Jones Newswires's Roger Cheng reports, app developers are getting in on the trend. He gives you his take on some of the mobile photo editing tools and sharing programs that have been cropping up.

Since smartphones have built-in cameras but little in the way of photo-editing tools, a crop of companies have stepped into the void. The latest notable entrant: Foursquare introduced a photo-sharing capability in December to its location-based service. Now, as Foursquare's five million users "check in" at a location, they'll have the ability to share a picture of where they are, and their friends can comment on it.

Foursquare isn't planning to make money off the photo feature directly, but hopes it's an added lure for people to use the main app, says Alex Rainert, head of product of Foursquare.

Another offering, the free Instagr.am app, has been downloaded more than one million times since it was released in October. Users can snap photos, tweak them with filters and then share them with followers, much like users share text and links on Twitter.

Kevin Systrom, chief executive of Burbn Inc., the start-up behind Instagr.am, says he is considering adding local advertising. Under one scenario, users might take a picture and would then see a "nearby" tab listing local businesses such as bars and restaurants. Those businesses would pay for placement.

However, Mr. Systrom says such ideas will have to wait until the company has enough users to attract advertisers. "Our goal is to grow as big as possible. Any ad firms want to buy in the millions of users," he says.

PicPlz is a similar free app created by Mixed Media Labs Inc. It first became available in June, and has been downloaded 200,000 times and has 100,000 registered users on its website, says Dalton Caldwell, founder of Mixed Media Labs. But the company hasn't made money from the app yet.

Mr. Caldwell recently received $5 million of venture capital from Andreessen Horowitz as the seven-person company develops its business model. He says he will use the funds in part to hire an ad sales team.

Imaginary Feet makes SpyPic, a $1.99 iPhone app that allows users to surreptitiously take photos by suppressing flash and other tactics. It has been downloaded more than 120,000 times since its August launch, but only 10,000 of those downloads were paid, Mr. McLeod says. The others were downloaded free as part of regular promotions.

A large number of photo apps have cropped up that allow you to tweak pictures, add filters, tag on information about subject and location, and post them on social-networking sites. But what's the business model behind the increasingly popular free apps? Roger Cheng reports.

Mr. McLeod says the app is profitable, but that monetizing apps of any sort is difficult. The company doesn't do any advertising inside the app.

One firm that has gotten traction with its business model is Synthetic Corp., a San Francisco-based maker of photo apps including Hipstamatic.

Since Hipstamatic's launch in December 2009, the $1.99 app has been downloaded more than 1.7 million times. The app allows users to choose different lenses, films and flashes. The firm charges 99 cents for a package of add-ons such as infrared.

The company generates a third of its revenue from those extras, says CEO Lucas Buick, and is profitable. In September, it launched a service where users can send in photos and pay a fee for printed copies.

Some bigger players are getting into the photo app game, but often to drive sales of products rather than generate app revenue. Eastman Kodak Co.'s Pic Flick app allows users to print mobile photos to their Kodak wireless printers.

Since November 2009, the free app has been downloaded more than 40,000 times. "It drives revenue and more use of printing," so people need to buy more Kodak ink, says Tom Hoehn, director of interactive marketing for Kodak.