Just returned from a very unique gathering, held by IBM HRL (Haifa Research Labs) and IBM GTU (Global Technology Unit). The 2 divisions teamed up and invited local bloggers (~25) to an evening of technology and innovation, coupled with food & wine of course. The purpose of the event was to expose some of the work HRL researchers are doing at the various locations in Israel and what applications and services have been deployed internally, towards a future IBM Product or Service.


Coming from Big Blue I was no stranger to the innovative thinking and the endless possibilities HRL researchers posses. No wonder IBM invests $6B annually in R&D. The presentations were more like short pitches, 10-15min each, covering 3 topics:

• Do smarter people make smarter search engines?
• Is it all about context?
• Shouldn't non-techies be able to create online applications?

The crowd was very involved in the pitch, questioning possible applications and services, how metadata is gathered and filtered, and more. As a research facility, HRL are quite lucky to have a testing population of some 350,000 employees - which definitely helps shorten development cycles.Obviously I felt a strong connection to the 1st topic, being an advocate for corporate collaboration and knowledge management (E2.0). I think my 1,000+ social bookmarks are still part of IBM's internal knowledge base (Dogear), available at the company's intranet (w3).

In short, great event, interesting discussions and awesome people to brainstorm with.