We are proud to announce the winners in the iRise “Visualize the Prize” Video Commercial Contest. The 15 semi-finalists received more than 4,500 votes during the two weeks of voting that ended on June 20th, and it was a pretty tight race.
The winning entry was “iRise Recipe” submitted by Brian Palatucci of Santa Monica, California. Brian wins $15,000 for his video which depicts a man preparing dinner for his girlfriend while asking the question, “What if there was a way to learn from your mistakes without ever having to make one?”
There were 2 runners-up entries that each claimed a prize of $2,500.
“Foresight is 20/20” by Michael Beeson of Great Falls, Montana – This video looked at iRise from the perspective of a spectacle manufacturer which lost its focus before trying iRise. “It’s made painful hindsight a thing of the past because thanks to iRise, foresight is now 20/20.”
“A Celebration of iRise” by Ron Rogers of Healdsburg, California – This video compared the process of developing company Web sites to the wine industry which doesn’t reveal the finished product until the very end. “Now that calls for a celebration!”
Carey started out her post by wondering which of the vendors she covers have had a broad-reaching impact on changing the way development works:
Forget which vendor’s tool has the best bells and whistles. Which vendor has really made the most difference? Which vendor has delivered products or services that have really improved project outcomes? Or resulted in worse project outcomes? Not just a single project outcome, but hundreds or even thousands of project outcomes.
iRise was nominated by Carey for:
Waking the market up to the limitations of textual requirements and providing an accessible and effective alternative.
In addition to mentioning iRise partner IBM Rational, Carey also nominated Sun (Java Platform), Junit (test-driven development) and Thoughtworks (agile practices pioneer) as game-changing vendors.
This is a reminder that there is just 1 week left to vote for your favorite videos in the iRise “Visualize the Prize” video commercial contest. There are 15 semi-finalists and you may vote once per day.
The voting period for the iRise $20k Visualize the Prize Video Commercial contest starts today and runs through Friday June 20th at Midnight.
Help us select the overall winner and two runners-up by going over to the Official Voting page and casting your vote for your favorite video. You may vote once per day, so make sure to visit and vote often. The winner will be the video that captures the most votes over the next two weeks and will take home $15,000. The two runners-up will each get $2,500.
We ended up with 44 entries in the contest, and the iRise panel of judges selected 15 semi-finalists for the public voting part of the contest. There are some very good videos left in the competition and we expect to see an extremely tight race.
We will announce the winners before the end of June. All of the entries are still available for viewing on the iRise Video Contest Entries page.
Thank you to everyone who sent in a video submission, and best of luck to the 15 semi-finalists.
We are very pleased to announce that the first annual iRise “Visualize the Prize” Commercial Contest starts today and has a total cash prize of $20,000.
Why are we doing this? According to chief marketing officer, Mitch Bishop, “We know we have passionate and creative users, and we want to let them share their passion with us and the broader iRise User community”.
So, what does it take to win? Are you passionate about iRise? Has iRise changed your life or the way you do business? Are you creative? Do you have a great idea for telling the world about the power of visualization? Do you have a great way to motivate others to buy iRise? Help us tell the world by creating a 30 to 60 second commercial about iRise and you could win $15,000.
Make us laugh, make us cry, make us think, make us say “wow, we didn’t think of that!” or “whoa, we didn’t think of that”. You have total creative control to write, cast, direct and shoot your commercial.
We encourage you to tell us how you have used visualization and iRise to create something special. Did you speed time to market, increase innovation, improve user experience or reduce costs? Note that 30% of the judging criteria will be based on the liklihood to motivitate people to buy or try iRise.
What are the contest details? A summary of the contest information has been copied below and is available from the contest website at www.irisevideo.com. Please bookmark the website so you can check back frequently for new video submissions - and don’t forget to vote for your favorites during the voting period in June.
Prizes:
The 1st place winner will receive $15,000
Two Runner-up winners will receive $2,500 each
Dates:
Contest starts Tuesday April 8, 2008
Contest ends Wednesday June 4, 2008
Top 10 semifinalists selected on June 6, 2008
Voting period runs from Friday June 6, 2008 to Friday June 20, 2008
Contest Process:
Create a completely original commercial – 30 to 60 seconds long
Do you know any IT Leaders who have made a positive impact on their organization through technology?
Premier 100 IT Leaders are known for:
Promoting an IT vision that supports the company’s business strategy
Tying technology and innovation to specific business needs and goals
Using technology to gain a competitive advantage
Being viewed as a leader by executive, IT staff and others in the industry
Computerworld has launched its annual search for technology professionals who have demonstrated leadership in their organizations through the use of IT and have the strategic vision to align technology with business goals.
The nomination form is available from this link and the deadline for submitting a nomination form is June 30, 2008.
The CIO of CompuCredit gave a compelling talk this week on how to drive ‘disciplined innovation’ at the annual Computerworld Premier 100 conference in Orlando, FL. Dr. Guido Sacchi was honored at the conference as one of the top 100 CIOs in the country and is one of those CIOs that could easily be a COO or CEO in any company. He has that unusual ‘right brain - left brain’ combination that is powerful stuff in a business leader. According to Dr. Sacchi, ‘disciplined innovation’ is characterized by companies that have a high degree of execution skill, along with a high attitude for risk - another unusual combination of (corporate) skill sets. In his lively talk he spoke about the challenges that many CIOs face today: governance, too many ideas with too little execution and long cycle times; all of which tend to mire innovation in the mud of good intentions.
At CompuCredit they’ve solved these problems with leadership, focused execution of innovative new ideas and leveraging visualization as a strategy to dramatically reduce cycle times. CompuCredit has established an ‘innovation council’ made up of senior executives and other people in the company. They’ve also launched an ‘Idea Factory;’an internal Website that gives employees a platform to voice new ideas.
Using iRise to visualize applications during rapid, iterative and collaborative definition phases allows CompuCredit to “fail cheaply and fail fast,” according to Dr. Sacchi. And visualization is allowing the company to create “iPod equivalents;” applications that are so intuitive they require no training nor user manuals. Dr. Sacchi noted that iRise is also helping the IT organization drive higher quality applications to market faster, along with giving the company sourcing options that would not otherwise be available.
If you’re interested in learning more about CompuCredit’s approach, watch this video of Dr. Sacchi speaking at the iRise user conference in October.
What are some of the unique things your organization is doing to drive innovation? Any additional tips you can share?
I really enjoy seeing companies you work with almost every day
(in my case, alliance partners), take a leadership position to embrace
what you have been evangelizing to the market. Last month, Capgeminiannounced the launch of the Rapid Design & Visualization (RDV) Lab. Though the Lab is now available nationwide through all their Accelerated Solutions Environments (ASEs), the RDV Lab has been in place for several year and iRise has been actively working with and a primary solution in the practice with many joint customers. The announcement was made at SOA World, an appropriate place since visualization is critical to understanding what business stakeholders want that can be enabled in a SOA environment (but more on that in a later post…).
The RDV Lab continues to expand Capgemini’s work in the field of simulation by using a methodology that combines the latest simulation and communication tools with new research on how people create complex software. Capgemini estimates that 60 percent of such programs – including ERP (SAP, Oracle, etc.), Web 2.0 and SOA initiatives – encounter rework following misunderstandings between project managers who write the specifications, and the engineers who build the programs. The announcement states, “The RDV is designed to help all parties get the software right the first time” - sound familiar? Absolutely, because Capgemini and iRise both believe that people, process and technology are required to really bring the full benefits of getting software right the first time.
Corey Glickman, the national leader for the Capgemini RDV Lab,
has been a champion for simulation and visualization for years
and an iRise user, speaking on different aspects at iRise User Conferences and interviews. Corey recently stated, “The RDV lets designers substitute images for nouns, animation for verbs, and a full–blown simulation for a phone book of instructions.” Is visualization really is the new language for designing software? I think Corey hit it right on the mark.
Capgemini has really taken the lead among global system integrators in piloting this effort years ago and now launching capabilities nationwide. For example, last year I presented Capgemini with the iRise Alliance Advantage Partner of the Year award for its substantial work (among other things) with one of our large manufacturing customers. Though the market for simulation is still young and in the evangelism stage, with the help of Capgemini, more companies will experience the benefits of visualization and share their success.
I look forward to sharing more examples of iRise alliance partners adopting the new language for designing software.
For the second year in a row, iRise has been named to Deloitte’s prestigious Technology Fast 50 Program for Los Angeles, a ranking of the 50 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications and life sciences companies in the area by Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, one of the nation’s leading professional services organizations.
iRise came in at number 22 on the list, with revenue growth of over 300% the last 5 years.
Rankings are based on the percentage revenue growth over five years from 2002–2006. To qualify, companies must have had operating revenues of at least $50,000 in 2000 and $5 million in 2006. Making this list is based purely on financials and not editorial opinion. The award is well-regarded in business and technology circles, and reinforces the momentum that iRise is achieving as a company.
This is a reminder that there is just 1 week left to vote for your favorite videos in the iRise “Visualize the Prize” video commercial contest. There are 15 semi-finalists and you may vote once per day.
Computerworld
simulation and visualization for years