A little philosophy for breakfast........

As we put the finishing touches on the launch of the Technology Intelligence Group, I thought it fitting to give you a brief explanation of who we are and what we are all about.

The concept behind TIG is to apply the open-innovation and dis-intermediation concepts we are all so familiar with in daily technology and apply those to emerging technology analysis.  The traditional model of technology analysis held that a firm had a proprietary cadre of analysts (some junior, some senior) that wrote reams of research to customers that payed for access to the site.  In our opinion, there is room for improvement in this model on multiple levels.

The first level is that these junior and senior analysts typically receive their insights from the customers and vendors themselves, and aggregate and process these into their result.  In addition, there is little attention paid to emerging technologies, being proactive, until the demand and customer case-studies are sufficient for the large firms to cover them.  This is also inherently 'lossy', in the translation from original source through all of the corporate filters.

We believe that the best people to provide emerging technology insight are the people in the trenches themselves, the people experimenting and pioneering.  Rather than receive the insight second or third-handed, the pioneers themselves are the contributors and analysts behind TIG.  This has not only the benefit of direct connection to subject matter experts, but allows us to reach far and wide across the emerging technology spectrum for new technologies and insight.  Open innovation applied via an open pool of emerging technology experts that are not proprietary but known experts in their fields.

The idea of 'No Technology Religion'  is burnt into the DNA of the Technology Intelligence Group.  Rather than take a hard line on one particular technology vs. another competing technology, expect to see two contributors arguing against each other's position.  Justice Louis Brandeis once created the 'Brandeis Brief', which was an amalgam of the available facts (pro and con) on a case before making a Supreme Court decision.  In reading through the initial series of contributions for the Technology Intelligence Group, I am amazed at the difference of position across the contributor spectrum.  The end result is you will receive unvarnished analysis that represents a strong opinion from people 'in the know'.

Another innovation you will see is that we will not be following the traditional industry practice of corporate sponsorships.  We believe that all of our analysis has to be independent and free of any vendor bias.  If someone is positive or negative on a vendor or technology, you can rest assured that it isn't because our company or the expert is receiving consulting dollars from a vendor to evangelize their technology vs. a competitor.  Any vendor issues will be disclosed and you should expect contributors to recuse themselves in the event of a potential conflict.  If you want marketing fluff, go to the vendors directly...it's more efficient.

Finally, we believe that the model of static research produced quarterly is too rigid and artificial, and does not apply to emerging technology.  There is a definite need for reasoned analysis and insight, that is more timely than a book and more substantial than a blogpost.  This view stands between the two camps of 'pay for static research' on the side of the traditional analyst firms, and 'information wants to be free' on the other.  We will be blogging regularly with insights and opinion, but if someone has experience gained from painful experimentation or early technology deployment, and wishes to contribute deep analysis to others in the form of best-practices or other insight, we believe that experience has tangible value and they should be paid for it. 

This is why we are pursuing a social-hybrid model for the analysis provided by the Technology Intelligence Group.  In addition to deep insight and analysis, we will also be providing regular updates to the research in the form of written updates, audio updates, video updates, forums and virtual roundtables.  Rather than get one snapshot in time, you have the opportunity to engage in a group of fellow subscribers with the subject matter expert for ongoing insight as the technology develops and matures.  Its a conversation between yourself and your peers and the experts themselves.

I will be blogging more frequently as we get closer to launch, so please click on the 'Subscribe to this blogs feed' button in the top right corner of the blog for more updates soon.

Comments

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