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18
Jan

Boeing Points Fingers at Itself, Suppliers For More 787 Dreamliner Delays

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Technology

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Boeing’s starting to sound like a broken record when it comes to its big-ticket 787 Dreamliner and the company’s getting frustrated with itself because of it.

The Chicago-based giant has now entered its third round of delays as Boeing said on Wednesday that it has postponed the 787 Dreamliner schedule yet again. Rather than at the end of this year’s first quarter, Boeing says the first plane now won’t be ready until the end of the second quarter in 2008.

Pat Shanahan, who is responsible on a daily basis for the plane, has admitted that it underestimated would-be issues with its innovative approach to building planes. While the 787 Dreamliner is Boeing’s first new plane in years and it has already accrued a couple dozen orders, supplier problems are hurting the company’s credibility and delays are making people nervous.

By Adam Fendelman

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15
Jan

Upcoming Chicago Technology Events on Jan. 17, 2008

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Technology

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On Tuesday night, the MIT Enterprise Forum in conjunction with the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center (CEC) will co-produce a 2008 technology forecast at the law offices of Drinker Biddle & Reath at 191 N. Wacker.

CEC President David Weinstein will moderate a panel that will include insight form Armando Pauker, a general partner with Apex Venture Partners; Adam Cohen, a deputy associate laboratory director with Argonne; Thomas Lee, a new product manager for U.S. Cellular; and Linette Demers, a senior consultant with research firm Sg2. More information about the program can be found here.

On Thursday night, TiE Midwest will hold its 2008 kick-off networking event at Google’s Chicago offices at 20 West Kinzie. Attendance is limited to the first 100 investors, entrepreneurs and executives searching for new partnerships and business opportunities. For more information, visit here.

Also on Thursday night, the Kaboose network of advertising agencies (which target children and family categories) will be kicking of 2008 with a networking event for advertising executives at English Bar at 444 N. LaSalle. To RSVP, e-mail Ali Benjamin.

By Brad Spirrison

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14
Jan

Air Traffic Controller Exodus Stifling Airline Industry in Chicago, U.S.

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Business, Technology, Transportation

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CHICAGO – On Aug. 26, 2006, 35-year-old airplane captain Jeffery Clay spent the evening dining with his wife and two children. After dinner, he went back to his hotel to catch some needed sleep for his 4:15 a.m. wake-up call. One last time, though, he picked up the phone and spoke to his wife. That call lasted four minutes.

Mrs. Clay would never again speak to her husband. The short evening phone call would be their last.

Captain Clay reported for work at 5:15 a.m., but at 6:07 a.m., he would be killed along with 48 other passengers and crew at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Ky. When Comair flight 5191 ran out of runway, the captain could be heard shouting an expletive. At the same time, the plane’s black-box recorder caught the sound of it hitting an embankment.

The crash occurred because the plane was set to take off from runway 22, but instead, the crew aligned the aircraft at runway 26. It was an unused, unlit and short runway. Though the accident in Lexington was blamed on pilot error, there was only one air traffic controller working the tower that morning.

“The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) didn’t give the controller an error. There were all these extra duties that he shouldn’t have been in charge of,” said Bob Richards, a retired air traffic controller, in an interview.

Richards – a controller at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago for 22 years – says the error may have been caught if another controller had been working in the Lexington tower. His recently released book entitled “Secrets From the Tower” chronicles a behind-the-scenes look into the life of an air traffic controller at O’Hare and details how being a controller affected his personal life.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation of the crash revealed that the controller had cleared the plane for takeoff and then turned his back on the runway to work on administrative duties. The next time he saw Comair flight 5191 was after it had burst into flames following the crash.

Such incidents are on the rise, according to a Washington, D.C.-based Congressional watchdog agency. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on Dec. 5, 2007 concluding that runway incursions are on the rise due to a lack of appropriate technology, poor federal leadership and overworked and understaffed air traffic controllers.

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02
Jan

2008 Forecast From Six Chicago Technology Professionals

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Business, Technology

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CHICAGO – Heading into 2008, Chicago Internet and technology entrepreneurs are shrugging off the vibes of an uncertain economy. The pace of innovation doesn’t correlate with fluctuating business cycles. Heading into 2008, a fidgety U.S. economy isn’t impacting the outlook of Chicago Internet and technology entrepreneurs.

In 2008, macroeconomics will play no role into anticipated advancements in micro particle research. Any overbuild in custom homes will not effect how customized content is delivered and consumed. Short-circuited financial networks will have no bearing on the expansion of online social networks.

Serial entrepreneur and venture capital investor Mark Achler believes “2008 will be the coming of age for social networking” and utilities for online communities are equally as important as e-mail, search engines and Internet browsers.

A former executive with Apple, Achler has founded and funded companies in the gaming, video animation and online payroll processing industries.

His most recent venture – Free Lunch, Inc. – develops applications for Facebook and other online social networks. He added: “All the major platform providers [including] Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! will be offering social networking functionality baked into their offerings.”

In 2008, the newspaper and broadcasting industries will continue to lose market share to digital upstarts that allow individuals to consume media on their own terms, according to Blagica Stefanovski of CondoPerks.com and the Chicago Interactive Marketing Association (CIMA).

“The adoption of RSS feeds and podcasts is still low,” Stefanovski said. “The uptick will turn more people away from mainstream media sources and advertising.”

Stefanovski’s company helps condominium associations shop online. She added: “Condominium and home buyers won’t be turning to their realtors for advice. They will instead pick and choose from blogs, articles and resources they feel match their buying habits.”

The most significant advancement in the coming year may not revolve around a computer chip, according to former Argonne National Laboratory director Alan Schriesheim. In 2007, he founded the Chicago Council for Science & Technology (C2ST). Schriesheim is bullish on nanotechnology and believes “breakthroughs are more apt to occur in the biotech arena than in software [and related] areas”.

He says while there will eventually be advances to conserve the energy supply through methods like converting saw grass to biofuels, we shouldn’t expect anything meaningful in 2008 partly due to work force issues. He founded the C2ST to promote the role of technology in public life and its teaching in Chicago Public Schools.

Doing More With Less

As energy and other costs of doing business rise, companies will be forced to do more with less, according to Fred Hoch of the Illinois Information Technology Association (ITA). (Disclosure: The ITA is a partner with MidwestBusiness.com)

“Companies are becoming more efficient while at the same time they will be more green,” Hoch said. “Virtualization will cut down on data center power, software services will cut down on in-house IT staff and customer-facing technologies will save time in product development.”

Venture capital historically has been a scarce resource for Chicago technology companies. Long seen as an Achilles’ heel, the lack of easy funding has contributed to more disciplined business models that are being noticed by coastal investors.

“I know a few successful west coast angel investors who are looking to put money into Chicago start-ups,” said Matt Maloney, a co-founder of GrubHub.com, which processes restaurant delivery orders over the Internet. GrubHub recently raised $1.1 million from Chicago and San Francisco-area investors.

He added: “We have to prove our models more than what’s required to take funding in San Francisco.”

David Weinstein of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center says that – in the event of an economic slowdown – embedded austerity and “capital-efficient business models” also help Chicago start-ups that have already raised venture capital. He added: “Many companies that raised money locally did so with realistic valuations. You won’t see too many down rounds.”

As for yours truly, 2008 should be the year when so-called “mainstream media” begin to find footing and deliver a counterpunch to upstart grave dancers.

While it looks to be pretty bloody in the near-term, newspapers and radio and television stations will learn out of necessity how to make more money off their digital offspring. The analog media properties themselves will eventually become loss-leading enterprises and exist as promotional platforms for a myriad of profitable niche services that are best consumed online.

By Brad Spirrison

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18
Dec

For Chicago-Based ProofSpace, Proof is in the Data

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Technology

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CHICAGO – Nearly a decade ago, Paul Doyle set out to raise millions to fund digital encryption start-up ProofSpace. Among Doyle’s challenges back then was to explain to prospective investors the importance of not allowing electronically transmitted information to be manipulated or tampered with at a later point in time.

“We were ahead of the market and then the market corrected,” said Doyle, 42, who grew up in Roseland and Beverly in Chicago. After raising approximately $3 million in venture capital, ProofSpace nearly imploded during the technology crash in late 2000.

Doyle was forced to lay off his staff and put a fork in the company’s original business model. Still, he remained committed to his belief that corporations would be willing to pay a premium for the ability to track the authenticity of digital information over time. He added: “We worked very hard to better understand the market need and the timing of its formation.”

In 2006, Doyle reacquired the company’s assets. Earlier in 2007, he raised money from angel investors and recently opened up an office at the TechNexus facility at 200 S. Wacker. ProofSpace is currently marketing data security products to broker dealers and health care companies. Doyle says the company will generate more than $1 million in revenue in 2008.

ProofSpace was spun off from Chicago-based Eolas Development Corp. in 1999. Eolas, which was founded by Paul Doyle’s brother, Mike, was awarded $521 million in a lawsuit against Microsoft in 2003. Eolas was credited with inventing an application to embed images within Internet browsers (a process later used by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer).

After Microsoft successfully appealed the ruling, the two sides agreed to settle for an undisclosed amount in Sept. 2007.

By Brad Spirrison

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10
Dec

GetFave.com Targets Chicago With First Neighborhood Search Engine

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Technology

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CHICAGO – On Sept. 1, 2005, Jeff Seymour was able to convince his identical twin brother, Jon, to jump on board with his idea for a local search engine.

Jeff Seymour owned a small orthodontist practice in Tampa for 10 years. As the Internet became mainstream, he wanted to harness the advertising possibilities it promised through Google’s pay-per-click model. As one of the first orthodontists in Tampa to use Invisalign braces, he advertised information online and quickly became frustrated.

Seymour ended up paying for clicks from people who weren’t his target audience. He added: “It was wasteful and frustrating not only receiving patients that weren’t mine but the local people weren’t targeted enough.”

He turned to his brother – an entrepreneur and technology executive – with his problem. Jeff Seymour wanted a new way to localize Internet advertising. He asked: “How can we make it possible to target a neighborhood and price market?” The thought process became the underlying principle that led to the development of Chicago’s first localized search engine: GetFave.com.

In Sept. 2005, Jon Seymour locked himself up for about a year and wrote the original GetFave.com software. It was launched in Chicago on Oct. 8, 2007.

So why use GetFave.com instead of or in addition to Google or other popular search engines? While Jeff Seymour says the big companies can afford to sometimes waste their advertising budget using pay-per-click advertising, it’s not affordable for the local business. When you search through Google results, it still may take pages before you find the relevant listing you really want.

“GetFave.com will never show an ad the user didn’t specifically request,” Jon Seymour said. “You will never see an ad for a florist unless you are looking for a florist.”

Along with being able to find desired area searches, businesses also have the ability to control the information pertaining to their business. GetFave.com does its best to log as many local businesses as possible. Jeff Seymour added: “We feel it’s our commitment to develop the finest database of local data. It doesn’t take long to see content is king in terms of video and information.”

Along with licensing data from local databases, companies can register for a free feature to determine whether or not their business is already in the database. If the business is already listed, they can then update all content found on the site. Businesses can choose to pinpoint their location on a map, categorize it into a function group for optimal search, allow for free keywords and upload multimedia.

Another unique aspect of GetFave.com is its ability to offer local businesses with small advertising budgets the ability to air their own commercials. In this YouTube day and age, local businesses in the Chicagoland area have embraced the content and have been able to successfully appeal to their target audiences.

Since its launch, the Seymour brothers say they have seen hundreds of businesses register with GetFave.com. They have also seen high numbers of return traffic. They say the search engine will continue to change to fit the needs of its users. Local business information is updated frequently and full product updates are on a fairly regular release schedule.

By Stacy Jeziorowski

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26
Nov

Will Chicago Have Most Advanced Wireless Broadband Network on Planet in 2008?

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Technology

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We recently interviewed Motorola WiMAX business development director Tom Mitoraj on the growth of WiMAX over Wi-Fi. Some highlights follow.

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With Sprint, Chicago is very likely to have the most advanced wireless broadband network on the planet in the next year. With Sprint’s network, that can be in Chicago’s favor.

Chicago will be the marquis city. That can only work to the city’s advantage. The Olympic organization should catch wind of that. That’s one more element that will add to the mix.

Coming to Motorola 15 years ago in the cellular business, there was a tremendous amount of growth internationally.

I got involved in global business with an emphasis on Latin America in the middle of the 1990s. We built CDMA networks in Venezuela, Mexico, Argentina and Peru when CDMA was replacing analog.

It was gratifying to see those systems go live. We built a system with Sprint in Chicago in 1996. The ability to go back to Latin America to build things that revolutionize access to broadband is very exciting.

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19
Oct

Al Gore Speaks to Thousands of Chicago Leaders on Climate Change, Internet

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Environment, Technology

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CHICAGO – Fresh from the honors of winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his relentless efforts to combat global warming, former vice president Al Gore continued his campaign as he spoke to 2,000 Chicago-area business leaders on Wednesday.

In one of his first major appearances since winning the coveted prize, Gore praised Chicago’s role in paving the way for environmentally friendly practices in major cities. He cited the Chicago Climate Exchange and rooftop gardens as examples.

“Resist short-term gratification. This is being thrown at us from every direction,” he said during his Wednesday address to the Economic Club of Chicago at the Hyatt Regency. He used the speech as an opportunity to send a message to the Chicago business community.

Continue reading this article on MidwestBusiness.com by Sara Robertson…

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19
Oct

ComEd in Chicago Pushes For 8 Percent Hike; Would Be Second in 2007

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Technology, Utilities

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CHICAGO – ComEd announced on Wednesday that it plans to increase customer rates by nearly 8 percent to help fund a lagging infrastructure and to adjust for fast-growing collar counties. According to estimates, this could raise monthly bills $6 for every $75 in charges.

ComEd is asking for $361 million from the Illinois Commerce Commission to cover distribution charges. This would be the second fare hike imposed in 2007 as utility consumer bills jumped by at least 24 percent in Jan. 2007.

Continue reading this article on MidwestBusiness.com by Stephanie Huls…

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29
Jun

Rabid Appleheads Sleep Overnight at Michigan Avenue Store For iPhone

Author: Adam Fendelman, Category: Photography, Technology

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CHICAGO – Some people don’t just want this gadget. They say they need it – almost like they need to breathe.

In anticipation of Friday’s release of the iPhone, we spotted the more rabid zealots camping out on Thursday in front of the Apple store on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue. The first two people in line set up shop Thursday afternoon.

“We’ve been working in shifts since 2 p.m. on Thursday,” said Chicagoan Tyler Tessman. “At that time, there was [only one other person]: a lady sitting by the flowers about 10 feet away. She said she worked for Apple’s public relations department and did not speak with us further.”

“We wanted to be part of the excitement,” said Chicagoan Nicholas Haubrich, who came with Tessman. “This phone will change technology.”

On Sept. 26, 2002, MidwestBusiness.com (then ePrairie.com) published what is widely believed to be the first concept image of the Apple iPhone. At the time, it was a rendering from an artist not employed by the company. It was believed that Apple wouldn’t enter into the mobile phone market.

It wasn’t until Jan. 2007 that the iPhone was confirmed publicly. Fierce Wireless, a daily monitor for the wireless industry, published on Dec. 18, 2006 a timeline of the then-rumored iPhone.

Note: This article was originally published at MidwestBusiness.com and is being reprinted here with permission.

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