Archive for B2X

Teamwork, But Less Technology

Teamwork, But Less Technology

Mid-tier firms don’t use collaboration tools as much as larger companies do. Is that wise?

Small and growing businesses are not technology laggards. Mid-tier companies are more likely than large companies to be early and midstream technology adopters, and they are increasing IT spending faster, according to past CIO Insight surveys.

Fascinating article which looks at the differences in IT use between large and small/medium firms. If you look at the chart there are differences across the board, but the largest differences appear to be in specific collaborative technologies. The article speculates why this might be the case, but it would be useful to dig a bit deeper into how the large companies are using these technologies. What are the demographics that are different? Are the companies more productive or less when they use these technologies. On chart is particularly interesting:

25 March, 2008 | No comments

The online book: team authors, and its never finished

The online book: team authors, and its never finished | csmonitor.com

A cutting-edge online author in New York, Mr. Wark invites perfect strangers to interrupt his ideas with their own scribbling in the digital margins.If they make a good point, Wark amends his book. In the spring, the evolving text will be published on paper, weaving in the Web comments. Then, the author plans the ultimate surrender: Anyone will be allowed into the online version to dabble and delete at will.

Wark may be offering a glimpse into the future, where books - particularly nonfiction - become destinations for discussion rather than dog-eared possessions, and authors take on a more gregarious role akin to Oprah Winfrey or Terry Gross.

Very cool. Sort of wikis on steroids, but will it take hold?

20 October, 2006 | No comments

Words of Wisdom vs. Words From Our Sponsor

Words of Wisdom vs. Words From Our Sponsor - New York Times

A $4 billion-a-year business cannot change fundamentally overnight; the shift from printed to electronic textbook will take years. In the meantime, a small publisher of college textbooks, Freeload Press of St. Paul, seeks to take advantage of this flux with a new concept: providing free e-textbooks to students. The catch? Ads are inserted within the text.

You may need a username and password to access this NYT article, but you should have one anyway My kids talk about Channel 1 all the time, so there is no doubt that given time this model could work.

17 October, 2006 | No comments

The Unmaking of a Senator: How Bloggers Pulled It Off

TIME.com: The Unmaking of a Senator: How Bloggers Pulled It Off — Page 1

The much-hyped Internet activists of the Howard Dean presidential campaign, liberal blogs like Daily Kos and activist groups like MoveOn.org had generated lots of buzz, but few results at the ballot box until now. But in Tuesday’s Democratic primary, the bloggers didn’t just get a win, but a victory no one could have expected even four months ago. Joe Lieberman wasn’t just a three-term Connecticut Senator, he was only a few thousand votes from being the vice-president in a Democratic administration six years ago. And despite almost the entire Democratic establishment supporting his run against a virtually unknown businessman named Ned Lamont, including former President Clinton campaigning for him in Connecticut, the bloggers and Connecticut voters have essentially kicked Joe Lieberman out of the Democratic Party.

The power of the blog? Is it that simple? Blogs do offer perspective outside of the mainstream media. The key is that they are perceipved as to me more conversational than media, which adds a different level of trust.

9 August, 2006 | No comments

Open government meets IT

Open government meets IT | InfoWorld | Column | 2006-06-28 | By Jon Udell

One of the speakers at InfoWorld’s SOA Executive Forum in New York last fall was Dan Thomas, director of the DCStat program in Washingon’s Office of the CTO. Earlier this month, he alerted me to a remarkable development. Starting in mid-June, the District of Columbia would begin releasing operational data from a variety of city agencies to the Internet in several XML formats, including RSS and Atom.

Very, very cool development. As more organizations (like government) start usings the Web 2.0 technologies, more people will see the merits and perhaps we will see more “free” exchange of ideas. Which is what the internet was supposed to be about in the first place.

28 June, 2006 | No comments

D.C. Conference Suggests Government Is Ready for Web 2.0

Intelligent Enterprise Magazine: In Focus: D.C. Conference Suggests Government Is Ready for Web 2.0

Is Web 2.0 in government an oxymoron? It would seem that Uncle Sam in particular could easily fall out of step with a “new” Web of blogs, wikis, podcasts and RSS. Yet last week’s “Gilbane Conference on Content Technologies in Government” in Washington, DC, suggests that federal Web managers are indeed exploring Web 2.0 technologies.

The cool part of this article is how the US Government is looking at using technolgies like Blogs, Wikis, and RSS feed. However the really interesting part is how the government is having governance issues of its own in relation to its websites.

27 June, 2006 | No comments

Judge: Surfing Web at Work No Big Deal

FOXNews.com - Judge: Surfing Web at Work No Big Deal - Science And Technology News | News On Technology

“It should be observed that the Internet has become the modern equivalent of a telephone or a daily newspaper, providing a combination of communication and information that most employees use as frequently in their personal lives as for their work,”

Interesting ruling and I agree with it. Although one might argue that surfing the internet uses corporate resource. Well so does playing solitair on the computer and if one reads the newspaper and then leaves it laying around a cleaning person has to discard it, which also technically uses corporate resources. A colleague at Auburn once gave a good piece of advice… don’t do anything on the internet you would not do in real life. Would you look at ESPN the magazine in your office? Then espn.com is acceptable. Would you place a personal phone call? Then chatting with a friend or e-mail a friend is acceptable. I think the judge got it right.

24 April, 2006 | No comments

Writely Blog - Acquired by Google

Writely Blog

Yes, we’ve been acquired by Google, and we’re really excited about this for many, many reasons. But I can hear you saying, “I don’t care why YOU’RE excited - I want to know how this change will impact ME!”

I just saw this and thought, wow, this will have a profound impact on how we compute. With wiki-based spreadsheets and now web-enabled word processing why will the average person need a software package? For the average user these technologies might just do the trick. It will be interesting to watch these technologies emerge and to see how they change digistal stakeholder relations.

13 March, 2006 | No comments

FOXNews.com - Health News - Cyber Sex: A Threat to Real Life Intimacy?

FOXNews.com - Health News - Cyber Sex: A Threat to Real Life Intimacy?

With its easy access comes an increasing number of people who are pointing and clicking their way to electronic sexual satisfaction. A survey of Canadian college students found that 87 percent of more than 2,500 respondents ‘fessed up to using technology like instant message, webcams, and text message for sexual purposes.

I must say I never thought I would make s post like this, but it appears that the internet could be impacting and creating some digital stakeholder relationships that one never dreamed possible. This has some very serious implications. Not for corporations directly, but individuals and families.

6 March, 2006 | No comments

To: Professor@University.edu Subject: Why It’s All About Me

To: Professor@University.edu Subject: Why It’s All About Me - New York Times
At colleges and universities nationwide, e-mail has made professors much more approachable. But many say it has made them too accessible, erasing boundaries that traditionally kept students at a healthy distance.

Here is a pretty interesting article about how e-mail is changing the student - professor relationship. Some of it is for the good and some if it not so good. I personally remember one experience, years ago, with a student who was having some issues during the semester. I worked and worked with the student, but class requirements can’t be changed. In frustration the student sent me a nasty e-mail claiming that I was insensitive…I simply replied, let me think about your e-mail and get back with you. This caused the student to think about what they said, they quickly apologized. It seems that I was one of the few professors working with them through this tough time and a problem with another professor caused them to strike at me. I had more than 70 e-mails from this student at this point in the semester, so I knew that I was doing all that I could, but e-mail enabled the student to strike before thinking.

We all need to spend more time thinking about what we write in e-mails…I know I do.

24 February, 2006 | No comments

One if By Land Two if By Blog

One if By Land Two if By Blog

Google has come out swinging, defending their stance in the DOJ search data matter.However, they did not issue a press release. Rather they went with a blog post by Nicole Wong, Associate General Counsel.

Now that is pretty interesting. If anyone has any ideas how one might measure the number of press releases let me know. I would be interested in looking into this question.

21 February, 2006 | No comments

Bloggers give view of House Web hearing

Chicago Tribune | Bloggers give view of House Web hearing

Allowing bloggers in “challenges the traditional views about what constitutes `the media,’” said Sam Stratman, communications director for Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill). Hyde is chairman of the International Relations Committee, which held the hearing.

Bloggers continue to challenge “traditional media” and in this instance take a huge step forward.

17 February, 2006 | No comments

Internet Advertising Gains at Newspapers’ Expense

Internet Advertising Gains at Newspapers’ Expense - New York Times

“The Internet’s relevance in the 18-30 year age group has reached critical mass and is completely reconfiguring how car companies need to reach out to first-time buyers,” said Lonnie Miller, managing director for the Polk Center for Automotive Studies. “Generation Y is tuning out traditional advertising, and watching what they want, when they want.”

Wow, it looks like newspapers have more than just blogs to worry about.

2 February, 2006 | 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

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

� Next entries