Archive for December, 2005

CNN.com - NSA inadvertently uses banned ‘cookies’ - Dec 29, 2005

CNN.com - NSA inadvertently uses banned ‘cookies’ - Dec 29, 2005

These files, known as “cookies,” disappeared after a privacy activist complained and The Associated Press made inquiries this week, and agency officials acknowledged Wednesday they had made a mistake.

Hummm….persistent cookies that don’t expire until 2035….it is great to see that one of the top “spy” agencies uses something as simple as a cookie, but if they don’t adhere to the “rules” why should companies? Can’t companies also say “oops”…

29 December, 2005 | No comments

What men, women want on the Web - Dec 29, 2005

CNN.com - What men, women want on the Web - Dec 29, 2005

“Once you get past the commonalities, men tend to be attracted to online activities that are far more action-oriented, while women tend to value things involving relationships or human connections,” said Deborah Fallows, a research fellow at Pew and author of the report.

Neat study. I am sure many could have pointed this out based on simple observation, but it is nice to confirm that even with web usage, men and women are different

29 December, 2005 | No comments

Peter Quinn Resigns

Consortiuminfo.org Standards Blog

I’m very sorry to report that Peter Quinn, the CIO of Massachusetts who has been at the center of a controversy relating to his efforts at the Information Technology Division (ITD) to adopt the OpenDocument format for the use of the Commonwealth’s Executive Agencies, has resigned, effective January 9, 2006.

You might ask what does the resignation of Peter Quinn have to do with Digital Stakeholders? Well honestly a lot. He is correct in saying that he has been a lightning rod. He has been pushing for the state of Mass to move to the Open Document standard (away from proprietary MS standards). By pushing this he has made quite a few people angry and has been under a lot of scrutiny. Is moving to the Open Document standard the right thing to do? I certainly think so as it removes the MS costs from access for all stakeholders involved. Yet the change is coming with quite a bit of resistance. Why? Well people have offered reasons why the state should stay with MS, but the right thing to do is to change and Peter’s resignation is a sad day. He was/is a visionary who can see beyond corporate greed and control. It will be interesting to continue to watch this play out.

28 December, 2005 | No comments

Top 10 tech trends for 2006

MercuryNews.com | 12/26/2005 | Top 10 tech trends for 2006

Blogging or more appropriately Vlogging makes the top 10, but there are other technologies that impact the digital stakeholder relationship.

28 December, 2005 | No comments

Mobile Phones to Announce ‘You’ve Been Indicted’

Mobile Phones to Announce ‘You’ve Been Indicted’

SEOUL (Reuters)—South Koreans may look at their mobile phones with some trepidation in the new year because prosecutors will start telling people they have been indicted via text messages, an official said Monday.

This would be interesting in the US as many people pay to receive text messages. I guess the IRS could work out a deal with the cell phone companies, but still, this digital stakeholder prefers that traditional paper method… on second thought just leave me out all together

27 December, 2005 | No comments

‘Internet-illiterate parent’ fights downloading lawsuit

CNN.com - ‘Internet-illiterate parent’ fights downloading lawsuit - Dec 27, 2005

Santangelo said her biggest issue is with Kazaa for allowing children to download music without parental permission. “I should have gotten at least an e-mail or something notifying me,” she said. Telephone and e-mail messages seeking comment from the Australia-based owner of Kazaa, Sharman Networks Ltd., were not returned.

This is an interesting devlopment on several levels. First the concept that an internet illiterate would not be held liable and second the fact that children can access all kinds of illegal “stuff” through the P2P networks without concent. Why have we not seen this before? Sure there is the problem of piracy, but if kids can’t get the stuff from Walmart without parental concent why don’t they just go to Kazaa? Hummm….

27 December, 2005 | No comments

CNN.com - Age of information overload - Dec 26, 2005

CNN.com - Age of information overload - Dec 26, 2005

Will all this instantly accessible information make us much smarter, or simply more stressed? When can we break to think, absorb and ponder all this data?

I suspect that we will not become smater. But lazier. I have read several stories recently which point out that despite higher levels of “education” fewer people can actually think. Just because more “information” is available doesn’t mean it is truly information. For most it will simply be data and have no meaning.

26 December, 2005 | 2 comments

Web Creator Tim Berners-Lee Starts Blogging

FOXNews.com - Technology - Web Creator Tim Berners-Lee Starts Blogging

NEW YORK — World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee has started a blog just in time for the 15th anniversary of his invention.

In his first entry, Berners-Lee remarked on how the Web took off as a publishing medium rather than one in which visitors not only read but also contributed information.

This is one blog I will definitely be following and it is interesting how blogging is actually an extension of what the WWW was created to address. Blogging just makes it easier.

26 December, 2005 | No comments

Instant messaging joins police emergency arsenal

Instant messaging joins police emergency arsenal - Business - The Washington Times, America’s Newspaper

Instant messaging helped police respond to recent emergencies on opposite sides of the country, and law-enforcement agencies are figuring out how to embrace the popular real-time communication tool.
Earlier this month, a couple and their teenage son were home in Bangor, Maine, when three men forced their way inside. The intruders locked the mother and son in a bedroom and assaulted the father in an attempt to steal prescription drugs, said Sgt. Paul Kenison, a 13-year veteran detective of the Bangor Police Department.
The bedroom did not have a telephone, Sgt. Kenison said, but the teenager used the computer to send a four-line instant message to his girlfriend.

And with IM being built right into cell phones I am sure we will see more stories like this in the future.

26 December, 2005 | No comments

Colleges using blogs to attract students

Colleges using blogs to attract students

And then they put this information, from what they had for lunch to the size of the envelopes, into their Web logs, or blogs, which are read by thousands of prospective applicants and their parents.

The great thing about Blogs, as this article points out indirectly is that they can enhance stakeholder relationships and becasue they are digital they are cost effective. Students can read them and feel more connected to the admission process which has impacts all across the board…or stakeholder relationship.

25 December, 2005 | No comments

Jews for Jesus Sues Google over Blog

Jews for Jesus Sues Google over Blog

SAN FRANCISCO—Christian evangelical group Jews for Jesus is suing Google Inc., saying a Weblog hosted through the Internet search leader’s Blogspot service infringes its trademark.

Interesting, I have read where Google has responded to violations of copyright etc. quickly in the past, why so slow this time? On the other side, will other blogs which are critical of other organizations be forced to close their doors? This has bigger implications than it seems on the surface. Digital Stakeholder relations will be impacted one way or another.

23 December, 2005 | No comments

NYTimes Sunday Business or Bloggers. Who has higher standards ?

NYTimes Sunday Business or Bloggers. Who has higher standards ? - Blog Maverick - www.blogmaverick.com _

Given the admitted rush job by Randall Stross for the Sunday NY Times Business column that I discussed in my last blog entry, along with my previous experiences with that paper, i dont think it is preposterous any longer.

Great post and a valid question. I think as a rule newspapers should have higher standards because they have stakeholders that pay them to get the facts straight. But as we have seen the media is clearly biased so there is no longer a need to get the facts straight, just aligned with the left or right biad. But the newspapers want us to believe they are unbiased and people don’t believe them. That’s what makes blogs great. In one place you can get someone’s thoughts on issues. So when I read Blog Maverick I expect to get Mark Cuban’s thoughts and if it is in relationship to business or technology those are pretty solid thoughts as he is an expert in those fields. The great thing about his Blog is he tells you what he thinks and accepts it as that. You can’t find that in a newspaper. Newspapers are paid to be right….or left.

Check out BlogMaverick for other people’s thoughts as well.

21 December, 2005 | No comments

Yahoo’s hosting clients get blogging software

Yahoo’s hosting clients get blogging software | InfoWorld | News | 2005-12-20 | By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service

The deal is similar to one Yahoo struck last week with Six Apart Ltd., maker of Moveable Type, and is intended to broaden the blogging software options accessible to individuals and companies that use Yahoo to host their Web sites.

Blogging in and of itself is easy. But now that more companies are making it even easier to install and maintain the software we should see blogging come closer to being ubiquitous.

20 December, 2005 | No comments

Online entrepreneurship becomes a new way of life / Internet selling presents surprising career for many

Online entrepreneurship becomes a new way of life / Internet selling presents surprising career for many

Internet users have been turning themselves into Internet merchants since eBay began in 1995. Ten years later, according to a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 17 percent of Internet users — 25 million people — sell goods and services online. Online auction giant eBay’s numbers are even more startling: In 2002, the company reported 24.5 million active users of its Web site; in the third quarter of 2005 that number rose to 68 million.

The numbers and facts are simply amazing. There’s a ton of info in this article.

19 December, 2005 | No comments

Wikipedia as accurate as Britannica - Dec 15, 2005

CNN.com - Journal: Wikipedia as accurate as Britannica - Dec 15, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) — Wikipedia, the encyclopedia that relies on volunteers to pen nearly 4 million articles, is about as accurate in covering scientific topics as Encyclopedia Britannica, the journal Nature wrote in an online article published Wednesday.

Wow, this is interesting, just becasue something is in print doesn’t mean it is right and just becasue something is on the internet doesn’t mean it is wrong….I guess we are expected to think for ourselves

15 December, 2005 | No comments

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