Newsletters

AT THE CENTER
The electronic newsletter of the
Silicon Valley World Internet Center
Tuesday, January 29, 2002

The Silicon Valley World Internet Center thanks its Sponsors for their continuing support:

EXECUTIVE SPONSORS
• Amdocs, Inc. •• Cable & Wireless •• Deutsche Telekom •• Fujitsu •• IBM Corporation •• SAP •• Sun Microsystems •

KNOWLEDGE NETWORK PARTNERS
•• Halleck ••• IC Growth, Inc. ••• Internet Wire ••

Check out the Center's Web site: http://www.worldinternetcenter.com

Past copies of newsletters and directions to the Center are available on the Web site.

All programs are held at the Center unless otherwise noted.

CABLE & WIRELESS ANNOUNCEMENT: JANUARY 2002
Cable & Wireless eMessaging Solutions.
For more information: (http://www.cw.com/th_03.asp?ID=ems_us).

POST-PUB SUMMARY: THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2001
"Launch Into The New Year!: Welcome Halleck as Center's Newest Knowledge Network Partner"
A list of the answers to the question, "What are your pain points around marketing and branding?" asked during the evening can be found below.

PUB: THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2002
"Just Say It! An Integrated Voice Services Platform"
By Dr. Peter D. Olson, President & Chief Executive Officer, Voice Access Technologies, Inc.
Open to the Public. No fee. 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. Pub Talk at 6:00 p.m.

EXECUTIVE BRIEFING & TECH DEMO: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2002
"IBM's Life Sciences DiscoveryLink Solution & eBusiness: An Overview and Possible Partnering Opportunities with IBM"
By Dr. Prasad Kodali, Worldwide Technical Program Manager of Life Sciences DiscoveryLink Solution, IBM Corporation
Open to the Public. No fee. 4:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Pre-registration highly recommended due to limited seating.

PUB: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2002
"Life Sciences and eBusiness: An IBM Perspective"
By Dr. Prasad Kodali, Worldwide Technical Program Manager of Life Sciences DiscoveryLink Solution, IBM Corporation
Open to the Public. No fee. 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. Pub Talk at 6:00 p.m.

WORKING GROUP MEETING: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2002
"Data to Cash: Feedback Loop for Business Decisions"
First meeting of a Working Group on "Dynamic Information Integration: The Role of the Feedback Loop"
Invitation-only. No fee. 4:00 - 6:30 p.m.

NO PUB: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2002
Due to Valentine's Day, there will NOT be a Pub this week. Happy Valentine's Day! Pub will resume on Thursday, February 21, 2002.

CENTER ANNOUNCEMENT: WINTER 2002
Showcase Your Company at the Center's Thursday Pub
Winter 2002 Company Showcase: Mobility and Information Management: Metaware for 2002 & Beyond
Fee: $1,500. A special time-restricted offer to companies associated with the Center's Community.

CABLE & WIRELESS ANNOUNCEMENT: JANUARY 2002
Cable & Wireless eMessaging Solutions.
For more information: (http://www.cw.com/th_03.asp?ID=ems_us).

Cable & Wireless, an Executive Sponsor of the Center, would like for your business to run more efficiently with eMessaging Solutions provided by Cable & Wireless.

Communicate more effectively via eMail - keep in touch with customers, prospects, shareholders or any other community with Cable & Wireless eMessaging Solutions. Cable & Wireless has the capacity to handle your largest eMail broadcasts by providing personalization tools to create messages that build a one-to-one relationship with your audience as well as having the accountability of the industry's most comprehensive delivery reports, allowing maximum reach with minimum expense.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
For further information, please visit the following:

http://www.cw.com/th_03.asp?ID=ems_us

At the January 24 Pub, the Center announced both a new Knowledge Network Partner, Halleck, and its new corporate identity designed by Halleck. In order to set the mood for the Pub talk Mr. Halleck gave on the importance of branding and marketing, attendees were asked to answer the question upon arrival, "What are your pain points around marketing and branding?" Found below, we would like to share their answers with the Center's online community.

WHAT ARE YOUR PAIN POINTS AROUND MARKETING AND BRANDING?
• Who is the customer?
• A brand must be managed! Too many amateurs who don't manage the brand
• Only when it does not work!
• Cost and time to market
• Target-market value proposition
• Finding a unique value proposition
• We have no budget for either!
• We do not have any money for it!
• No money or focus
• Finding a message that resonates
• Too much jargon
• When you brand something really well and bad customer service messes it up
• Cost/recall value
• Defining appropriate metrics for ROI measurement
• Selling ROI to upper management
• Customers/clients are deluged more than ever with so much information that is difficult to break through the clutter and stand out
• COMDEX!
• Lack of focus
• Not enough clients with budget
• Getting your money's worth -- more good customers at a reasonable cost
• Cost efficiency -- ROI
• Identifying niche
• Know which part of a comprehensive marketing and branding campaign actually works
• Brand loyalty
• Research is important and many do not spend time and money to back up intuition
• Naive expectations
• Small budget
• Do not know how
• No money
• Clients think branding is just a tag line
• Distinguishing clearly your offering from your competitors' (not too technical; not too fluffy)
• Lack of international audience
• Details
• Slow dissemination rates and a crowded market
• Integrating products from various divisions for better customer outcomes
• No appreciation for the bottom-line value of branding and marketing by the top guys
• How to measure the financial value of a brand
• Few marketers know what they are doing
• Delivering the message in a simple format
• The cost of creating a brand
• Hard to get busy peoples' attention
• No-name outfits could not afford it

NOTE: Also, At the Pub last week, Halleck had several examples of their work on display at the Center. If you took the large books accidently that were on display, we would appreciate it if you could return them to the Center.

At this Pub, come hear how Voice Access Technologies has created a standards-based open environment for deploying next generation telephony applications, enabling integrated speech-recognition capability from any communications device. The company's integrated voice platform contains core application modules for voice dialing, auto attendant, voice grams, voice driven email, and text messaging that can be customized solutions for industry specific applications.

ABOUT PETER D. OLSON
Veteran entrepreneur, investor, and technologist Dr. Peter D. Olson brings more than a quarter century of experience in the technology industry to Voice Access Technologies as its Chief Executive Officer. He combines deep, first-hand knowledge of voice-data technologies with entrepreneurial savvy. Over the past 30 years, Dr. Olson has founded four profitable technology companies-System Industries, Octel Communications, Flycast Communications, and Telocity. At Octel, he was instrumental in developing the technology that enabled voice applications and opened the market for service providers to offer enhanced voice services. Dr. Olson worked with co-founder Bob Cohn to build Octel into the industry leader of voice messaging systems in the enterprise and service provider markets with annual sales of more than $600 million. The Company was acquired by Lucent in 1997 for $1.8 billion. As founding investor at Flycast (now Engage), he helped formulate the business and technology strategy that led to the marketing solutions company's rapid growth and acquisition by CMGI. for $1.8 billion in 1999. A Telocity co-founder, Dr. Olson was the high-speed DSL provider's CEO during the first two years of successful growth. After recruiting Patti Hart, former COO of Sprint Long Distance, to take over the CEO role, Olson continued to lead Telocity's technology strategy as EVP and CTO. Telocity was acquired by GM Hughes/DirecTV for $179 million in 2000. Dr. Olson holds a Ph.D. in operations research from Stanford University and has been an instructor at the Stanford Business School.

ABOUT VOICE ACCESS TECHNOLGIES, INC.
Voice Access Technologies (http://www.voice-access.com) has developed a carrier class, standards-based voice application networking platform. This integrated voice services platform supports multimodal delivery of voice activated applications aimed at cost reduction and operational efficiency in enterprise and service provider environments. These include integrated messaging applications initiated through verbal commands and interactive voice response systems used in customer call center environments. "Just Say It!" is an integrated voice platform that contains core application modules for voice dialing, auto attendant, voice grams, voice driven email, and text messaging that can be customized for industry specific applications.

FURTHER INFORMATON
For further information on Voice Access Technologies, please contact:

Dr. Peter D. Olson
President & Chief Executive Officer
Voice Access Technologies, Inc.
170 Knowles Drive, Suite 200
Los Gatos, CA 95032
T: 408.866.1048 ext. 166
F: 408.866.1049
Em: mailto:polson@voice-access.com

At this Executive Briefing and Tech Demo, Dr. Kodali will give an overview of IBM's Life Sciences DiscoveryLink Solution and explain how your company can benefit from such a solution. Also, come learn about strategic partner opportunities with IBM Life Sciences, dedicated to rapidly bringing leading-edge technology out of the laboratory and into the marketplace for customers and business partners in the fields of pharmaceutical research, biotechnology, genomics, proteomics, health care, and academic research.

Those who attend this program are invited to stay at the Center for the weekly Pub to talk with Dr. Kodali and network with those in attendance from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

ABOUT IBM LIFE SCIENCES SOLUTIONS
The IBM Life Sciences Solutions Business Unit (http://www-3.ibm.com/solutions/lifesciences/about.html) provides the IT infrastructure that researchers in biotechnology, pharmaceutical research, genomics, proteomics, and healthcare need to turn data into scientific discovery and new treatments for disease. Backed by a world-class research team, IBM offers integrated solutions for the laboratory in the areas of:

• Scalable, high-performance computing
• Flexible, fast-recovery storage
• Data integration tools that permit single-query access across multiple data sources
• Knowledge management products and services
• Secure, open-architecture, scalable eBusiness infrastructure

REGISTRATION
Due to limited seating, pre-registration is highly recommended, but not required. To register for this program, send your name, title, company name, telephone number, and email to:

Ms. Glenda Garcia
Operations Assistant
Em: mailto:garcia@worldinternetcenter.com

PUB: THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2002
"Life Sciences and eBusiness: An IBM Perspective"
By Dr. Prasad Kodali, Worldwide Technical Program Manager of Life Sciences DiscoveryLink SolutionS, IBM Corporation
Open to the Public. No fee. 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. Pub Talk at 6:00 p.m.

Dr. Kodali's talk will provide an look into the IBM Life Sciences Solutions Business Unit which is rapidly bringing leading-edge technology out of the laboratory and into the marketplace for customers and business partners in the fields of pharmaceutical research, biotechnology, genomics, proteomics, health care and academic research.

As a result of a series of programs last fall, the Center is hosting a Working Group this winter and spring on "Dynamic Information Integration: The Role of the Feedback Loop." A group of 12 invited participants will analyze and discuss various aspects of dynamic information integration over the next several months, including:

• The role and importance of explicit models
• How to achieve a working feedback loop
• Existing technologies and components
• Relevant standards

FIRST WORKING GROUP MEETING
The first Working Group meeting on February 14 will focus on "Data to Cash: Feedback Loop for Business Decisions." So far decision support systems do not have a well-defined feedback loop about the success or failure and the impact of a business decision. These and other questions will be discussed, over wine and light hors d'oeuvres:

• How can we integrate this feedback loop of results and impact of business decisions into the systems to optimize future decision process?
• Is this just another data source we have to integrate or do we have to go step by step back along the line knowledge to information to data?
• How can we describe the success of business decisions?
• In which way can we handle the dynamic nature of the result of a business decision (a decision can be successful in the short term but may have a negative long-term impact)?

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
For further information on this program, please contact:

Dr. Venilde Jeronimo
Senior Director of Client Services
Em: mailto:venilde@worldinternetcenter.com

CENTER ANNOUNCEMENT: WINTER 2002
Showcase Your Company at the Center's Thursday Pub
Winter 2002 Company Showcase: Mobility and Information Management: Metaware for 2002 & Beyond
Fee: $1,500. A special time-restricted offer to companies associated with the Center's Community.

The Silicon Valley World Internet Center is offering metaware-related companies (those with applications, tools, and frameworks that attack the complexity of enterprise information management) the opportunity to showcase themselves during Winter 2002 at the Center's Thursday Pub -- a serious, weekly networking event for mid- to high-level executives, technologists, and investors in the bay area. The fee of $1,500 includes promotional activities on behalf of the company and other benefits. This is a special, time-restricted offer, reduced from the normal Pub Talk fee of $2,500. There is LIMITED availability for a few companies to present their metaware.

Companies with an interest should submit an executive summary with contact information to:

Dr. Venilde Jeronimo
Senior Director of Client Services
Em: mailto:venilde@worldinternetcenter.com

SHOWCASE FOCUS
Chief Information Officers have a tough time these days managing an enterprise's information infrastructure as information needs grow increasingly complex.

For one thing, the velocity of information has increased with new software packages and business processes being implemented to offer realtime data availability. The challenge of maintaining such realtime information -- that is complete, current, and consistent across different IT systems -- is significant. It requires a major overhaul of an enterprise's information infrastructure. At the same time, the "walls" of enterprises are falling; that is, software-enabled intra-enterprise collaboration cuts across functional silos. Business partners, vendors, and customers are allowed selective access to and control over the enterprise's resources, linked by collaborative commerce, supply-chain optimization, and other applications. Furthermore, handheld and mobile devices are proliferating with most of us depending on cell phones, personal digital assistants, or other "smart" gadgets to keep us plugged in. Taken together, these developments add up to some major headaches for the IT department.

• To manage this complexity, what infrastructure, applications, tools, and frameworks -- "metaware" -- exist that will restore order and remove some of the complexity?

• What metaware needs to be developed?

• "Simplicity" and "integration" are hot concepts for 2002. How are these concepts being incorporated with metaware?

• Are Web Services and Extensible Markup Language (XML) enabling the distribution of intelligence across the network?

Recent market developments are targeting such questions. Companies like Ipedo with its XML database and XML cache are achieving performance improvement over relational database approaches in achieving dynamic, personalized content across the network. KnowNow and Kenamea are creating "application routers" for a world in which Web services are the default mechanism for business-to-business (B2B) collaboration. Centerpost, a metaware company addressing the application layer by hiding the complexity involved in managing heterogeneous devices or transport layers, lets customers manage customer relationships easily across platforms by defining the interaction and the expected actions and letting Centerpost worry about the rest of it. Not surprising, Microsoft is trying to become a standard fixture of the XML Web services infrastructure through its .Net and HailStorm initiatives while Sun Microsystems is focusingon Sun ONE (Open Net Environment).

SHOWCASE BENEFITS & DELIVERABLES
The market is wide open. How is your company addressing the above-related questions? By introducing your metaware-related application, tool, or framework that attacks the complexity of enterprise information management, to the Center's community, your company will benefit from the following:

• Promote Pub Talk in the Center's eNewsletter for three weeks. Listing includes, title, summary, name and bio of presenter, and information on the company (including a link to the company's URL), and any company contact information. Newsletter goes out to 5,500+ individuals.

• Promote of Pub Talk on Center's Website. Pub Talk will be posted for three weeks on the home page and from then on archived in the Programs section on the Center's Web site, accessible to anyone viewing Center past programs.

• Promote company collaterals and materials, including powerpoint presentation delivered at the Pub Talk in PDF format, on Center's Website alongside the Pub Talk announcement.

• Promote Pub Talk two weeks prior to the Pub date at the Center's weekly Pub.

• Company presentation at the Center, delivered to 80-100 key executives, technologists, and investors from Silicon Valley (and from elsewhere).

• Q&A with and feedback from those in attendance.

• Marketing collaterals distributed during the evening.

• Attendance by company representatives, networking the crowd during the two hours to generate leads for business opportunities.

• Invitations from the Center to companies from the Pub company's database to attend, if appropriate.

• Wine and non-alcoholic beverages as well as finger foods served during the evening.

• Set-up and cleaning fees.

JOIN US FOR OUR WEEKLY PUB
Come join us for our weekly Pub every Thursday from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.

The Pub Talk begins at 6 p.m. The Pub gathers 80-100 mid- to high-level executives every week and, as always, is a great place to come and meet people from the Silicon Valley and all over the world. Representatives from small start-ups and major companies to venture capital and academic join in the exchange at the Center's Pub. It's...

--- The best reason to take off work early on Thursdays ---

For directions, please visit http://www.worldinternetcenter.com and click on directions.

The dress is casual and there is no fee to attend. Just bring your good ideas!

Companies with an interest in giving a Pub Talk should contact
Venilde Jeronimo, Senior Director of Client Services (mailto:venilde@worldinternetcenter.com).

For inquiries about upcoming Center programs, send an email to mailto:venilde@worldinternetcenter.com

To unsubscribe from this eNewsletter, contact Ms. Glenda Garcia at mailto:garcia@worldinternetcenter.com

For further information on the Center's Sponsors and Knowledge Network Partners, visit their Web sites:

EXECUTIVE SPONSORS
• Amdocs, Inc. http://www.amdocs.com
• Cable & Wireless http://www.cw.com
• Deutsche Telekom http://www.dtag.de/english/index.htm
• Fujitsu http://www.fujitsu.com
• IBM Corporation http://www.ibm.com
• SAP http://www.mysap.com
• Sun Microsystems http://www.sun.com

KNOWLEDGE NETWORK PARTNERS
• Halleck http://www.halleck.com
• IC Growth, Inc. http://www.icgrowth.com
• Internet Wire http://www.internetwire.com

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