DEMO 07 - Josh Bernoff of Forrester live blogging

Over at Palm Desert, CA for the last couple of days, around 60 or 70 companies have been presenting their wares at DEMO 07.  DEMO is a regular event aimed at keeping you on top of the latest emerging technologies.  It’s where start ups and some of the best silicone valley firms unveil new and sometimes groundbreaking technologies.   If, like me, you haven’t managed to get there,  Josh Bernoff of Forrestor, who co-authors things with Charlene Li, is doing a sterling job, pretty much live blogging many of the demos - 33 companies across 4 posts.  For example:

CircleUp (2:34) — I like this idea since it solves a problem we all have (and so many of the ideas here don’t). Namely — you need to communicate with a group, like a little league team, a bunch of friends travelling, a volunteer organization — and assemble answers to questions, address lists, stuff like that. Sort of like eVite for every question you might have of your group. We all have deal with sending out these sorts of emails and getting a blizzard of uncoordinated responses back, so this just makes sense. There’s more to it than this, maps, pictures, etc — that leads me to believe they’re doing this right, and going to get better.

Qtech (9:12am) — “Reqall” — use your phone as a dictaphone. Leave yourself a message. Can create text transcripts and deliver to you by email.  Needs some tagging features, but could be great for nearly-50-somethings like me who are always forgetting!

WHISHER (8:52am) — Social networking meets WiFi. Users mark WiFi hotspots virtually with info about the signal so other users can get access to it. (This used to be called “warchalking” but now it’s online.) Users also share files with others on same WiFi — and see who they are. This is a community they should have success building on — people will get value out of being a part of this club.