Media companies are placing big bets on virtual reality (VR) programming. NextVR, the Laguna Beach-based VR technology company, has been testing unprecedented immersive experiences in live 3D sporting and entertainment events. The company just announced media titan Peter Guber will lead its new advisory board, further establishing VR’s importance in the future of entertainment.

Your business could be so much more successful than it is now. You may be a great owner, but you probably haven’t tried all the simple ways to make your business better. Simple doesn’t mean easy. These tips require a lot of hard work and effort on your part. But if you follow these eight tips, you will certainly make your business leaner and meaner.

There’s a lot of concern about whether or not organizations will feel the effects of an IT talent shortage over the coming years. I wish I could offer a glimmer of hope, but unfortunately, many are already feeling these effects. In fact, there’s been a talent shortage in the IT field for quite some time. Even back in 2012, Ben Rooney of the Wall Street Journal wrote on the small number of workers within the field of big data. That hasn’t changed, and isn’t exclusive to big data analytics.

Where do you go online? What sites do you jump to and what does it say about you? Do you even know what metadata is? The Canadian documentary filmmaker Brett Gaylor wants to educate you on just how much the web knows about you in his informative seven-part interactive docu-series Do Not Track that debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival as part of the transmedia Storyscapes showcase.

Incentive, the Venice-based enterprise social collaboration tool, takes the pain out of information sharing by consolidating and standardizing existing content, apps and tools into a central location, to declutter workflows. The startup is gaining momentum with $3.5 million in seed round funding – and big name clients like NATO. All content – whether a wiki,…continue reading.

Nestled between a quiet residential neighborhood and industrial space on Centinela Blvd. a few blocks shy of Santa Monica, is the Westside’s new coworking hotspot called Hatch Studios. Built around the idea of convergence between creativity, serenity and design, the boutique studio launched in April 2015 to serve as gathering spot for freelancers, tech types and entertainment…continue reading.

I am always looking for ways to speed up our design and development process and to include as many people and teams working on the project. These teams are usually: business, design, frontend, development, and quality assurance. This can be a real challenge since a lot of the tools that are used by the different teams can take a lot of time to learn and/or setup. Not everyone on all the teams is necessarily a designer or a developer, but I am going to mention free (free features vary by tool), with paid versions, of online tools that I have found to cut down the department silos and work together to get the best possible projects.

Prominent tech bloggers, hackers, crackers and even government officials are warning that the warfare of the 21st century won’t take place on the battlefield, but on the servers and mainframes of corporations, banks and governments around the world. The expenditures reported by the Pentagon have seen continual increases in budgets to protect against cyber warfare attacks. In 2013, the Pentagon had a budget of $3.9 billion. In 2014, the budget grew to $4.7 billion. Now finally, in 2015, the budget is estimated at $5.1 billion.

The rate at which technology increases is sometimes frustrating. Of course, it’s nice to have new things that work better and faster, but it seems like the moment we finally understand one technology, it’s replaced by something else. We’re constantly having to learn and further our understanding.

As far as business trends go, few have had as big of an impact as big data. Thanks to recent advances in big data analytics, companies of all sizes now have the same opportunity to gather data, study it, and figure out the best ways to use it for growing their businesses. As a result, more companies than ever before are using big data, but as exciting as this prospect is, the results have been mixed.