Watson Draws Attention
June 1, 2013
From a game show win to being inundated with “Watson pitches”, IBM is doing its best to make Watson more successful than Sherlock Holmes. I read “IBM Inundated with Watson Pitches as It Prepares to Offer Service to Developers.” The headline certainly suggests that for search and content processing, Watson is going like gangbusters.
At the last two search and content processing shows I attended, I heard nothing about Watson. I suppose that specialist conferences are not the place for IBM, which has larger designs on the market. However, there were some developers on the programs at these conferences, and I don’t recall hearing a direct reference to IBM. I think I mentioned Hewlett Packard once.
The write up seeks to set me straight on the powerful pull IBM Watson is exerting on the those involved in building search related applications:
IBM is receiving hundreds of ideas from developers wanting to use its Watson supercomputing technology, which will be made available to anyone wanting to build applications on top of its capabilities.
The information comes from John Gordon who is IBM’s vice president for Watson Solutions. I associate him with the phrase “data is the new oil,” but I have mixed up which “expert” drew the word picture in my mind. A biographical profile of Mr. Gordon is available on Yatedo. According to an item appearing on the University of Texas’ Web site here, he “is the director of Strategy and Product Management for IBM’s new Watson Solutions Division. He is responsible for developing end-to-end business models for transforming the innovations created by IBM Watson into a strategic set of industry solutions.” Another University of Texas Web page here pointed out
Prior to this [Watson] role Gordon held a number of executive strategy, market management, and business development positions within IBM. He joined the IT industry more than 17 years ago and has consistently helped global clients enhance their performance and results by leveraging innovative technology. John holds undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and Computer Applications from the University of Notre Dame and has an M.B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin. Additionally, John is a certified SOA architect with a foundational certification in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) standards, and is a co-author of a Harvard Business School case on value-in-use solution pricing.
I think I know the magnitude of the developer stampede. Programmers are really into public relations and MBA analyses.
Stephen E Arnold, June 1, 2013
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