In the annals of innovation, inspiration can emerge from frustration.  For David Barrett, it came a few years ago after the “scarring experience” of a clash with vexing, outdated back-office software. He had just joined Akami after it acquired a startup he had formed with Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, and Barrett had to use an […]

Nicholas Negroponte became famous as a futurist with his book “Being Digital,” published in 1995. A few years later, a cub reporter at The Wall Street Journal asked him what would be next for the Net. “Things,” Negroponte answered. “Things that think want to link.” Soon, he foretold, the Internet would link everything from household […]

Silicon Valley doesn’t really matter anymore.  A high-tech CEO posed that provocation to me recently, though he had founded his company in Europe and had just relocated it to the valley that made innovation famous. It was a move made mainly for appearances, the CEO maintained, for these days innovation happens everywhere, far beyond the […]