Category Archives: Live event

Barcamp 2 – more from Friday night

Gave my talk on branding for startups.   Discussed the Three R’s of branding and some of the particular issues of note for a young company trying to get established in an Internet driven economy.

Then I went late to a talk on the Erlang programming language.  It was standing room only so live-blogging wasn’t practical.   Cool talk though.   The big idea here:  Erlang is massively scalable!  The rest was over my head 🙂

Now I’m in a talk on Bayesian algorithms for filtering – two groups combined for this talk, one interested in Bayesian analysis the other in AI and cognition (with a futurist spin).  Thought this would be a more philosophical discussion because of the AI, but the Bayesians have numbers on their side so the talk is getting into logic and algorithms.   Spam filtering is a popular problem for applying the power of Bayesian.  Basically by recognizing user behaviors and aggregating  behaviors across users and then create probabilities for saving and for scrubbing any particular message.   So Bayesian calculations get the probablities that score likelihood of scrub and likelihood of save.   Then another algorithm has to look at the balance between the scores to determine the final save/scrub decision.  The goal is to have a system that continues to learn over time to get better over time.  Surprise issue – you don’t want the system to learn too fast!  If it does the system can develop biases that might move you away from desirable result.   Learning at the right pace allows the system to aggregate enough scores to have more relevant outcomes.

What does this have to do with branding?   As I mentioned an hour or so ago, I’m indulging my nerdy roots and hanging out at Barcamp Atlanta.   The technology is driving everything these days.  And I believe in the long run these technologies will influence marketing and buying behaviors, just like the web has.

Moderating is discussing filtering large data sets – question now about qualifying market data as another use case.  Bayesian is good at putting info into buckets.  Not as good for mathematical evaluation.

Could you use Bayesian to create real estate recomendations? Start learning behavior for a home buyer? Could the home buyer train the system fast enough to make it useful infiltering a databse of 100000 homes?  (questions from Alan Pinstein)  The experts say yes, this is a good application for Bayesian approach.

Conversation is moving to relevance engines, but it is 10pm so time to change rooms.

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Barcamp 2 – the sequel

I can’t believe it has been a year since the first Atlanta Barcamp!  And for you folks saying “What’s Barcamp?”  You’ll just have to bear with me for a little while.  Yes, i’m a branding guy now, but I have nerdy roots and Barcamp is a wonderfully nerdy event.

Right now we are in the ATDC space at Ga Tech.  We’ve been fed some BBQ, sodas and beer and now the evening sessions are beginning.   The format is “unconference” or more appropriately ad hoc conference.  People sign up on a sheet to give presentations, and other people sign up to attend presentations.  The topics vary widely.  From heavy-duty coding topics, to business issues for developers and entrepreneurs, to fun things like demos with liquid nitrogen.   I’m sitting in on a session on pricing for independent consultants – generally meaning programmers for hire, but I’m sure much of it will be applicable for any consultant.

Brad Gilreath of Mapicurious.com is presenting.   Right now he is giving some of the nitty-gritty of a consultants life. Short and long projects, realities of working stamina, finding a balance, hiring help etc.

Oh and in case you haven’t noticed, I’m live-blogging this, meaning I’m writing on the fly while Brad talks, so the style of this post migt be a bit rough ’round the edges than my usual fare — and may get a bit techier.  As I said before, indulge me.

Big point – consultants need sleep too!   Even though the fear of not having a steady gig can turn you into a workaholic.   How much of your day is really usable, billable?

Uh oh, he’s showing a spreadsheet – my eyes are too old and tired for that.  It is a calculator for types of activities and projects.   Discussing pressure applied by clients to make your work appear to be a commodity to drive prices down.

Spreadsheet buld “product factors” to trap client requirements.  Clarify scope, details and particulars. Map payment cycles – build in adjustments for lengthier payment cycles – cost of sitting waiting for your money should be figured into your pricing.

The whole idea here is to have a solid tool for building estimates for projects.   Understanding components and details help guide the discussion for more accurate pricing and heading off potential points of confusion before they become issues or disputes.

This approach could be used as a job auction tool.  Also potential for branding the tool for particular clients.   Weighted average factor pricing could be made tighter with input from accountant/economist.

It could also automatically build documentation for the statement of work.

Guideline – don’t get greedy!

Cool job Brad!

OK – now, depending on how many people signed up, I’m going to give a 1/2 hour on branding for startups.

Can’t blog and talk though 🙂

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Art party at Solstice Cafe – Oct 14

Art party at Solstice Cafe

Art party at Solstice Cafe

If you’re in the Atlanta area and enjoy art, I would like to cordially invite you to a one night only art exhibit at Solstice Cafe on the evening of October 14th. I’ll be displaying a few of my paintings alongside works by Visibleman and wood sculptor Greg Smith. I hope you can make it, and if you do please introduce yourself to the big fuzzy guy with glasses 🙂

-David

Art Party at Solstice Cafe
October 14, 2008
8pm
562 Boulevard SE (across from Grant Park)
Atlanta, GA 30312
404-622-1976
Art by: David Cohen, Visibleman, and Greg Smith
DJ: Rob Babylon
One night only

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Interviewed by Bev Ann Bonds

Just a quick announcement.  I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Bev Ann Bonds and her esteemed colleague, Lee Kantor.  Bev Ann has a regular podcast called Georgia Business Coaches Radio, which is part of the RadioX family of podcasts. Bev Ann made me feel right at home and we had a great conversation about branding for small businesses.

Georgia Business Coaches Radio Show Interview with David Cohen of Equation Arts

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Steven Kloeblen to speak at TAG Enterprise 2.0

As you may know I’m on the committee for the Technology Association of Georgia’s Enterprise 2.0 Society, so I thought I would plug our next event:

This will be our biggest Enterprise 2.0 event to date. If you haven’t registered yet, it is not too late. Our very special guest speaker for September 3rd is Steve Kloeblen, IBM’s VP of Business Development for their World Development Initiative. He is doing some amazing work across the globe and has previously spoken at Wharton and Harvard Business School. Here’s the summary info:

TAG Enterprise 2.0
Date: September 3, 2008 Time: 7:30am – 9:30am
TAG Enterprise 2.0 Speaker Series: IBM – Steve Kloeblen, New Growth Platforms
Steve Kloeblen, VP Business Development – World Development Initiative, will be discussing proactive approaches to business transformation.

Special Location: GTRI Conference Center, 250 14th Street, NW, Atlanta,
Georgia 30318, Phone: 404-407-6017
http://www.gtri.gatech.edu/conference-center
To Register: https://www.123signup.com/event?id=tcttg
TAG Enterprise 2.0 Society info: http://www.tagonline.org/tag_enterprise_20.php

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Stars in our eyes – Ideablob award to Atlanta entrepreneur

Thanks to my friend, Mike Schinkel, I spent last Friday evening at a cool little awards ceremony hosted at the Fernbank Science Center.   The event was a special gathering to recognize a local entrepreneur and PhD candidate, Jessica Hammock, and to present her with a photo-op-ready oversized check for $10,000 to help her lauch her new business idea.   Jessica is developing a business, called Project Epiphany, to help urban kids learn about astronomy and give them a chance to do real field observations with professional equipment and far enough outside the city lights to be able to actually see something in the night sky.   Sounds like a great idea, and it is one of many businesses receiving funding through an innovative program inspired and funded by Advanta, called Ideablob.   In their own words:

Ideablob.com is a community of small business owners and entrepreneurs who bounce ideas off each other. They give feedback, advice and much-needed encouragement. Every month, the community votes on the best idea. The winner gets $10,000 to help their idea grow.

Check out their site and join in to congratulate and support Jessica Hammock, our local winner.

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