The overall results of the evaluation on a ten point scale are shown in the next graph.
From May 11 - 21 1997, the (Swiss) Silicon Valley Association conducted
the seventh study tour to Silicon Valley. The tour comprised 10 company,
and one academic visit. All these visits were evaluated by the 10 of the
14 participants. The participants represented 10 nations: 8 Information
technologists from several Swiss Universities and companies, 2 University
faculty members, 3 full-time undergrad students and one graduate student.
This report represents the observations of the participants after the visits
with their personal comments.
| Date | Day | Company | Speakers | Topics |
| 12 May | Monday | IDEO Product Development Palo Alto |
Alex Kazaks Clifford Jue Maureen Rathjens |
Product Design guided tour |
| Very good visit, would have liked more time to discuss with the designers. Very interesting and creative environment. It was a melting pot of new creative objects. | ||||
| Harmonic Lightwaves Sunnyvale |
Anthony Ley, president & CEO Joseph Berger, Founder Hugo Vifian, VP Robin N. Dickson, CFO |
Introduction to Harmonic Starting a company... Businesss Development & Strategy, Manufacturing Starting up in Silicon Valley | ||
| Very good visit, specially the CFO presentation. It was great to meet the founder of the company. | ||||
| 13 May | Tuesday | DIGITAL Network Systems Laboratory |
Dr. Brian Reid, Director Dr. Kourosh Gharachorloo Dr. Mark Manasse Sarah Baker |
Network Vision Scalable computing Millicent overview Gateway tour |
| Perfect visit: Technical content and insight interesting. Very interesting presentation on networking. | ||||
UNISYS
|
Bill Johnson Mario Domino Ed Wagner Jerry Kerr |
Executive Welcome & Coffee Guided Factory tour Strategy & Future Direction Vendor Relationships, Internet/Intranet Strategy Dinner at Mac Arthurs park | ||
| Interesting visit, a bit too Microsoft centric. Very interesting factory visit . | ||||
| 14 May | Wednesday | Stanford University Stanford |
Ms Lisa Burns Dr. Charles Petrie, Research Associate Dr. Larry Leifer, Director |
Center for Distance learning Center for Design Research Luncheon at the Faculty club |
| Very interesting visit. The global "teaching", distance learning
and collaborative research created very interesting discussions. SVA apoligizes for the missed visit to the Center for Telecommunications . | ||||
| 15 May | Thursday | WebTV Palo Alto |
Bill Yundt, VP Networking | Product and service Demonstration Marketplace. Microsoft & future |
| Interesting "surprise" visit. A bit dangerous product. Big brother makes the choice for you! | ||||
| CISCO Systems San Jose |
Peter Clarke Kacey Carpenter |
Executive Welcome/Corporate overview Cisco End-to-End Solutions Strategy | ||
A presentation of the product portfolio was missing. It would have been nice to visit the campus. Very professional. | ||||
| 16 May | Friday | Netschools Mountain View |
Tom Grieves, CEO | Company & product presentation, product direction |
| Interesting discussions.Very interesting teaching tool. No future for this system. Education is not a business. The project makes no sense. | ||||
| 19 May | Monday | ADOBE Systems San Jose |
John Leddy, Sr. Product Marketing Manager Marc Eaman, Program Manager Kevin L. Wandryk, Director, Products Division |
Executive Welcome/Corporate overview Global Sales Tools Internet Products |
| Very interesting and professional. The demo of the products was too short. Visit too short. Too many products were presented. | ||||
APPLE Computer, Cupertino |
John Parenica, Product Line Manager, Software Technologies N. Rao Machiraju, Manager, Learning Communities Cal Seid, Design Manager, Industrial Design Group David Kay, Porduct Manager, WebObjects Scott Ryder, Product Line Manager, Interactive Media,Internet & Networking Guy Kawasaki, Apple Fellow & Chief Evangelist |
Apple Technology Directions/Rhapsody Update
Advanced Technology Group Focus on Learning Tour of the Industrial Design Group
WebObjects
Interactive Media Strategy
Keynote speaker
Dinner at the Santa Barbara Grill in Cupertino | ||
| Excellent visit! They could be more objective. Excellent program. | ||||
| 20 May | Tuesday | Be Inc Mountain View |
William Adams, Technical Evangelist. | Presentation and demonstration of the BE operating system. |
| Interesting. Visit was difficult to organize. We did not meet Gassée and did not have a chance to talk about the BE experience. | ||||
The overall results of the evaluation on a ten point scale are shown
in the next graph.
Several special events were also on the program: a tour of the Stanford
campus, a visit to Fry's electronics, the largest electronic supermarket
in the world, a visit to the oldest winery in California and last but not
least a gvisit to the world famous aquarium in Montery. Unisys and Apple
Computer invited the group for dinner in the evening. The Bay-to-Breakers
race in San Francisco attracted five of us and was a lot of fun.
The results of the tour evaluation on a ten point scale are shown in the next graph.
