Irving Wladawsky-Berger

The IBM Internet Division

In my long career at IBM I have held a number of interesting positions, perhaps none more interesting than general manager of the Internet Division.  The Internet Division was created ten years ago right around this time, so I have been reflecting on what those times were like for me personally, and more generally, what their impact was on me and IBM as a whole.

Business Process Innovation and Social Networks

A couple of weeks ago I participated in a breakfast roundtable in Palo Alto on Social Media and Web 2.0 hosted by Tony Perkins, founder and former editor-in-chief of Red Herring, who now leads AlwaysOn, an interactive online network.

We were in the middle of a very stimulating discussion on social networking and how ideas and technologies coming from the consumer Internet space were beginning to have a big impact in the business world.  We got around to talking about business processes and I mentioned that the culture of standards that surrounds the Internet and has enabled the increased integration of the IT infrastructure keeps going up the stack.  I observed  that with the emergence of Service-Oriented Architectures, Web  Services and similar capabilities we can now tackle the standardization and integration of business processes and truly contemplate building globally integrated businesses, industries and economies.

Tapping into the Wisdom of Communities

During the Golden Age of Athens around the 5th century BC, its citizens are said to have gathered in the agora to discuss and make decisions about issues important to their community.  On December 1 - 3, we will see the 21st century version of such a community dialogue, as Habitat Jam brings together tens of thousands of people around the world in a global conversation about the future of our cities to discuss issues and recommend solutions for our rapidly urbanizing planet.

Social Networks - Knowledge Management Done Right

Last week IBM held a small social networking event in Cambridge, Mass.  Social networks have emerged as a major force giving rise to communities of all sorts, as evidenced by the success of blogs and wikis, as well as web sites like Friendster, MySpace, Craigslist and others.  At this event, we wanted to explore how social networking can help drive productivity and collaboration in the business world, and in addition demo a number of social networking tools coming out of our labs.

Supporting Innovation in Open Communities

In a recent blog I wrote about the emergence of collaborative innovation among people working together in open communities.  I referenced the work of Professor Yochai Benkler from the Yale Law School who in a famous paper commonly known as "Coase's Penguin" observed that this collaboration by self-organizing groups is giving rise to a serious mode of economic production complementing the work done in classic, hierarchically organized firms or enterprises.

The IBM Academy of Technology

The IBM Academy of Technology comprises our most accomplished technologists from around the world who work across the spectrum of IBM's technical activities.  The key missions of the Academy are to investigate technical issues affecting the future of the IT industry, to affect the technical strategy of the company, and to promote communications and close working relationships across IBM's global technical community.

Energy - the Single Most Important Problem Facing Humanity

In the Fall of 2002 I attended a lecture by Richard Smalley, Professor of Chemistry at Rice University, in which he identified energy as the single most important issue we all face in the 21st century.  I was inspired by his lecture to learn more about energy issues and their potential solutions.  So, I followed closely a major report that was just released by a committee chartered by the US National Academies titled "Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future."