Insights into how technology and the outsourcing of R&D are changing the software industry

Well I’m back from vacation and I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend.  So what happened last week? Let’s see:

1. The big news of the week is that finally, Google buys ITA Software for $700M. Here’s some “expert analysis” via Tnooz that somehow includes me.
2. Rumored last week, a new airline standards group called OpenAxis emerges, rallying around Farelogix messages. As they are also proposing XML-based messaging schema, I’m not quite sure how technically this will differ from OpenTravel. They say that perhaps they will be more agile and move more quickly than OpenTravel, but it’s easy to say when you have only a few founding members. Let’s see if they create traction and whether they can remain agile once they reach any sort of scale as an organization. As an aside, and maybe I’m dating myself, but any group that has “Axis” as part of their title makes me feel uneasy (see WWII). I’m not making any comparisons, I’m just sayin’ I might have chosen a different name. Perhaps Valyn will license the Captain America imagery for OTA
   

   Image Credit: Marvel Comics

3. If you’re going Cloud, having a billing engine that supports granular metering, pricing and billing is critical.
4. RockCheetah founder, Robert Cole’s presentation on Mobile Distribution from the HITEC conference.  Other than a few quibbles on slide 18 (in my view the walled garden on searchability is more about security of personal information than control, e.g. Facebook; Apple doesn’t block AdMob ads, just collection of personal information), a very good overview of the intersection of travel and mobile.
5. Via Tnooz, 4 Vital Social Media Tips for the Travel Industry. The most important thing to note is that the 4 steps happen in exact opposite order for the buyer versus the seller.
6. Not only does it appear that the Google-ITA Software deal has hit a snag, it seems that other potential suitors have coming knocking on the doors in Cambridge [Update see article #1. Always hard to prognosticate].
7. YouTube says that it still sees Flash as an important part of their distribution, but unlike how it’s been reported in some places, it’s not because of the video CODEC, but because of the granularity of control that the player provides.
8. Timothy O’Neil-Dunne tells us what we already know – travel websites leave a lot to be desired by the consumer – but gives some good context as to why. The question is whether the people who run the travel websites will ever do anything about it.
9. Good post on CloudAve about the disservice that many engaged in the Public v. Private Cloud debate are doing for the industry. I’ve commented on the post itself.  Take the time to watch the embedded video of Amazon Web Services CTO, Werner Vogels’ keynote at last week’s Structure 2010 conference put on by GigaOM.
10. Great article, bad news. Harvard Business Review talks about the problems being faced by the VC community (and by extension entrepreneurs) and the coming VC shakeout