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Microsoft's 'Oslo' Becomes SQL Server Modeling

Petri I. Salonen — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:59:00 -0800

Microsoft's 'Oslo' Becomes SQL Server Modeling

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CBS News Mobile Reader story - News Corp. Sites May Disappear from Google

Petri I. Salonen — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:49:00 -0800

I think that this decision from a media company is not going to be a good one as new generations will just turn to other sources for the information. This is the same battle as music producers are fighting and the fight looks like a lost battle. As an author of books, i understand the issue, but what can one do as everything is required to be free...

CBS News Mobile Reader user Petri.Salonen@tellusinternational.com wanted you to see this:

"News Corp. Sites May Disappear from Google"

Rubert Murdoch Accuses Google, Microsoft and Others of "Stealing" his Company's Content

Sci-Tech

Reading this on your BlackBerry? Try the CBS News Mobile Reader now by clicking http://CBSNews.mwap.at.

Comparing Freedom on Maemo and Android: one person's view of these two from a blog

Petri I. Salonen — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:49:00 -0800

I have been tracking the mobility OS war's for a while and it looks like that Android is getting huge exposure from handset makers, excluding Nokia who has decided to continue with Symbian and the Linux-based Maemo. Today (November 10th, 2009) I read that Samsung is also going to release their own mobile OS. I think it is the consumer that is going to loose here.. as developers can't focus on many platforms and the competition of applications will be spread too thin... This is my personal opinion and I think we should be looking beyound the OS as of now and really provide value to the consumers.. When have the mobile OS platforms brought anything really new... besides touch screen....?

cool900: Comparing Freedom on Maemo and Android

Microsoft, Amazon Poised for Cloud Battle -- keep the innovation going

Petri I. Salonen — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:22:00 -0800

The battle of the cloud is going to get very heated... Amazon just released its strategy to include MySQL to its cloud.. and I am sure there is going to be a price war as well going forward. All this, we hope, will benefit the developers and end user organizations. Keep the innovation going!

Microsoft, Amazon Poised for Cloud Battle -- Redmondmag.com

How to Plan Your Cloud Computing Mix - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

Petri I. Salonen — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:20:00 -0800

The market is full of cloud computing and pressure for organizations to consider it. From an ISV perspective, financial models have to be considered as cloud computing will change the overall financial model of an organization and I would also emphasize that end user organization should look at the viability of the software vendor. I expect hybrid models to exist for quite a while.

How to Plan Your Cloud Computing Mix - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

The Book That Contains All Books

Petri I. Salonen — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:44:00 -0700

Kindle rocks, what else can I say. It now also rocks internationally.

"The Book That Contains All Books"

The globally available Kindle could mark as big a shift for reading as the printing press and the codex.

Mea Clouda: SaaS Vendors Can Win Over Customers with Honesty - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

Petri I. Salonen — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:55:00 -0700

I like this article that explains that all SaaS vendors have an opportunity to build trust with their clients by being open and transparent when an outage happens. No IT system is failsafe, and I would even argue that some onpremise solutions do not provide 99.5 or higher uptime. I have not seen one yet.

Mea Clouda: SaaS Vendors Can Win Over Customers with Honesty - CIO.com - Business Technology Leadership

Nigel Pendse Sharply Criticises Traditional BI Providers at the 2009 Palo Open: do you agree with him?

Petri I. Salonen — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:57:00 -0700

Nigel Pendse gave a keynote and gave his opinion about traditional BI vendors. I happened to collaborate with Nigel in the past, he knows his stuff and focuses on the BI field.

Nigel Pendse Sharply Criticises Traditional BI Providers at the 2009 Palo Open

Adobe Eyes the Cloud with ColdFusion 9 - vendors coming out with software tools

Petri I. Salonen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:47:00 -0700

Expect to see lot's of software development tools to be coming out to the cloud platform environment. Here is one annoucement.

Adobe Eyes the Cloud with ColdFusion 9

Is Cloud Computing Secure? Prove It

Petri I. Salonen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:45:00 -0700

This article is a good discussion of issues around cloud computing security and what private clouds can do for an organization. Compliance and other regulatory issues is something that organizations have to think about as well. Read on....

Is Cloud Computing Secure? Prove It

A BlackBerry Storm Is Brewing (And A Bold Stroke May Also Be Imminent)

Petri I. Salonen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:37:00 -0700

The competition on the mobile market is heating up. RIM is coming out with second release of both BlackBerry Storm and BlackBerry Bold. There is still not much information what they have added.. but I am sure this will come out out soon.

A BlackBerry Storm Is Brewing (And A Bold Stroke May Also Be Imminent) | In This Issue | Mobile Enterprise Magazine

Five reasons corporations are failing at social media

Petri I. Salonen — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:32:00 -0700

This is an interesting article to check out... why organizations could fail with social media.

Five reasons corporations are failing at social media

B&N Plans e-Book Reader

Petri I. Salonen — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:47:00 -0700

Yet another eBook reader, now from Barnes&Noble. I hope there will be some type of standardization among the players so we don't end with multiple devices like I do with Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader from the past.

"B&N Plans e-Book Reader"

Barnes & Noble plans to unveil its own brand of electronic-book reader. The company already sells e-books.

WSJ.com: What's News Technology

Amazon Cuts Kindle Price

Petri I. Salonen — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:41:00 -0700

Now Amazon Kindle will have an international version with wireless access. This seems not to apply to Kindle DX

"Amazon Cuts Kindle Price"

Amazon.com trimmed $40 off the price of its Kindle e-reader and introduced a version of the device with international wireless service.

What's News Technology

'Masters of Light' Share Nobel in Physics

Petri I. Salonen — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:37:00 -0700

Windows 7 is going to be success for Microsoft, no question about it. I am convinced that organizations and consumers will start upgrading from XP that is 8 years old operating system.

"'Masters of Light' Share Nobel in Physics"

Three scientists were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for breakthroughs that led to fiber-optic cables and digital cameras.

WSJ.com: What's News Technology

IBM Faces Justice Antitrust Inquiry

Petri I. Salonen — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:29:00 -0700

Here we go again... if it isn't Microsoft, Google or Intel it is IBM that is seen to have monopolistic behavior. It is not the first time that their mainframe business is thought to have monopolistic character.

WSJ.com Mobile Reader user Petri.Salonen@tellusinternational.com wanted you to see this:

"IBM Faces Justice Antitrust Inquiry"

The Justice Department has begun an inquiry into alleged monopolistic behavior in the mainframe computer market, according to an industry group backed by IBM rivals.

What's News Technology

Reading this on your Blackberry? Try the WSJ.com Mobile Reader now by clicking http://wsjmobilereader.com.

Dell to Build Phone for AT&T

Petri I. Salonen — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:25:00 -0700

Now Dell is coming out with a phone using Google Android operating system. I am not sure whether this makes any sense... time will tell.... but if the large vendors such as Nokia has issues.... why would Dell be able to make money on this....?

WSJ.com Mobile Reader user Petri.Salonen@tellusinternational.com wanted you to see this:

"Dell to Build Phone for AT&T"

Dell expects to launch a smart phone, powered by Google's software, on AT&T's network as early as early 2010. The device would be Dell's first cellphone.

What's News Technology

Reading this on your Blackberry? Try the WSJ.com Mobile Reader now by clicking http://wsjmobilereader.com.

Microsoft, Google Intensify Mobile Push

Petri I. Salonen — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:54:00 -0700

Windows Mobile 6.5 was released yesterday with a bunch of additional announcements such as 30+ new Windows mobile devices before the end of the year. The competition between Apple, Microsoft and Google gets even more heated.

WSJ.com Mobile Reader user Petri.Salonen@tellusinternational.com wanted you to see this:

"Microsoft, Google Intensify Mobile Push"

Microsoft and Google intensified their efforts to supply the software that powers the next generation of mobile phones.

WSJ.com: What's News Technology

Reading this on your Blackberry? Try the WSJ.com Mobile Reader now by clicking http://wsjmobilereader.com.

Cameras With New Views

Petri I. Salonen — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:50:00 -0700

Now we are talking, a digital camera with a projector. This is the way to go!

WSJ.com Mobile Reader user Petri.Salonen@tellusinternational.com wanted you to see this:

"Cameras With New Views"

The Samsung DualView and Nikon Coolpix have new crowd-pleasing features, including a built-in projector and dual LCD screens, writes Katherine Boehret.

Mossberg/The Mossberg Solution

Reading this on your Blackberry? Try the WSJ.com Mobile Reader now by clicking http://wsjmobilereader.com.

AT&T to Allow Internet Phone Apps

Petri I. Salonen — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:48:00 -0700

US operators are trying to do everything to protect their sinking fixed line business and this is a welcome act by AT&T to allow IP apps to work on iPhones.

WSJ.com Mobile Reader user Petri.Salonen@tellusinternational.com wanted you to see this:

"AT&T to Allow Internet Phone Apps"

AT&T reversed course and said that it will allow Internet phone software applications on the iPhone to run on its 3G network.

WSJ.com: What's News Technology

Reading this on your Blackberry? Try the WSJ.com Mobile Reader now by clicking http://wsjmobilereader.com.

Skype Founders File New Suit in eBay Saga

Petri I. Salonen — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:59:00 -0700

The saga and disputes over Skype continue very heated and it is going to be interesting to see if the whole deal will fall apart. Let's see what happens...

WSJ.com Mobile Reader user Petri.Salonen@tellusinternational.com wanted you to see this:

"Skype Founders File New Suit in eBay Saga"

Two companies owned by the founders of Skype have filed another lawsuit that could complicate eBay's $2 billion deal to sell the Internet phone company.

What's News Technology

Reading this on your Blackberry? Try the WSJ.com Mobile Reader now by clicking http://wsjmobilereader.com.

Dirty vendor tricks | Applications - InfoWorld article of software business

Petri I. Salonen — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:42:00 -0700

Having been in the software industry for 20+ years, this article kind of made me laugh.. Is the software industry so desparate, and if it is.. are you one of these vendors...?

Dirty vendor tricks | Applications - InfoWorld

US ISV Developer Evangelism Team : Best Practices for Your Software Available for Free

Petri I. Salonen — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:29:00 -0700

The ISV Developer Community provides free resources for Best Practices

US ISV Developer Evangelism Team : Best Practices for Your Software Available for Free

Palm Unveils Pixi Smart Phone

Petri I. Salonen — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:09:00 -0700

Palm Pixi is the new smartphone from Palm. I can't see them having a chance in these markets... I just can't...

WSJ.com Mobile Reader user Petri.Salonen@tellusinternational.com wanted you to see this:

"Palm Unveils Pixi Smart Phone"

Palm unveiled a thinner, smaller smart phone model called the Pixi, part of its effort to turn itself around.

US: Business News

Reading this on your Blackberry? Try the WSJ.com Mobile Reader now by clicking http://wsjmobilereader.com.

Tools for researching topics and keeping track on things: Microsoft OneNote and MindJet MindManager for Web - ISV Community - Network for people in the software industry

Petri I. Salonen — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:57:00 -0700

As a researcher, I am constantly struggling on how to manage all of the information that is available to me. I rely heavily on Mindjet's MindManager and Microsoft OneNote connected to Microsoft SharePoint. Check out, and let me know if you agree on this.

Tools for researching topics and keeping track on things: Microsoft OneNote and MindJet MindManager for Web - ISV Community - Network for people in the software industry

State of the Economy - August

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:06:20 -0700

It’s been a while since I wrote down my thoughts on the economy. In my last State of the Economy I wrote that I believed in a double dip. I am not so sure anymore. The reality is that home values are not on the rise yet, unemployment is still high, the number of foreclosures and credit card defaults are up, and worst of all consumer sentiment has not improved linearly with the stock market.

We have seen some good results from companies that are now reporting the effects of their first half cost cutting, but I don’t that many can claim that their sales are up. Most analysts believe in a weak rebound, which clear since it will take a long time to fix home equity values and unemployment giving consumers again the comfort to spend. So if sales will only grow marginally and companies can only cut so much, I believe that companies cannot keep meeting investor expectations and we will see a secondary dip. It wont be as bad as the first… more of a reality check than a dip.

Read: http://www.cnbc.com/id/32505016

Then again I do not make my living off making stock predictions and analysis corporate financial reports. It could be that the stock markets have anticipated what is to come and the slow rebound is already built in to the numbers. Even if they aren’t we will all be ok is we all believe that they are.

Now I wrote in the spring about the Asia market bubble and how those economies are so dependent on the west for growth that it is logical that they will only rebound in a second wave. Just today I read that the Chine’s economy will grow 8.5% in the third quarter, which is dismal in comparison the the last few wild years, but still good growth.

But read this: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/JubaksJournal/chinas-recovery-is-it-for-real.aspx.

The Chine’s economy is a bit like a Ponzy scheme (bad example, but you get the idea). It requires an ever increasing momentum to sustain the growth. If the western rebound remains weak the momentum wont be there and the economic growth cycle cannot sustain itself.

I still believe that the traditional economic power houses will rebound first (G8). The US rebound has lost focus with the HealthCare debate. Health care is fundamentally an economic issue and must be resolved on the long term, but was 2009 really the year to do it?

I have to admit I am not as well versed on the debate as I should be, but let’s not let the fact stop me from commenting… it doesn’t seem to bother others either. I believe there needs to be a public option, but creating another entitlement that we cannot afford is not fiscally responsible. The public option should cover basic healthcare and leave premium options optional. The public option might not be (read: will not be) on par with the current average policy, but it would be a lot better than nothing at all. I think the public option should be subsidized by a corporate healthcare tax. Assuming that current policies would become cheaper due to the base package being heavily discounted for all policies, companies should be able to pay the delta back as a health care tax without a hit on their operating costs. Through a public option’s shear purchasing power we should be able to source a basic universal package from the private sector in the sense of free market economy (which I personally believe has the potential to be more efficient than a state run system), which subsidized by a corporate health care tax equal to the savings delta should be able to subsidize health care to most of the currently uninsured 8.9% that require subsidies. The health insurance industry would have to get with the program. The pharmaceutical industry already seems to be with the program. Subsidized doesn’t mean free. Also the currently uninsured would have to contribute, but at least there would be a subsidized option that is attainable for all.

The base package should be mandated federally to every policy. The few percent that cannot afford even a subsidized offering need to be funded with an increase in the federal tax percentage (which should be balanced by cutting from somewhere else). Let’s call it a social responsibility tax. Providing basic preventive care to all should reduce overall cost of healthcare to the tax payer and not increase it.

Technorati Tags: economy,healthcare,obamacare,stock market,recession,rebound,china

Future of Mobile Value Added Services

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:10:35 -0700

I have been recently researching what value added services exist in the mobile space and I have to say that I am not very impressed… I am almost disappointed. I am not talking about music, backgrounds, games or such. I am talking about services.

I looked into Mobile TV and seems that the options are to stream or you need a receiver. Streaming with current bandwidths doesn’t sound like a cool idea. I tried to see if there were any Java applets that could decode a received signal, but all seem to require a chip or SD card, which in my opinion is killing the opportunity. What percentage of even higher end cell phones have inbuilt TV receivers today? Couldn’t the phones inbuilt GSM (or CDMA) receiver be used to receive the transmission and then have an Java applet decode it off the SIM card utilizing the phones CPU. This would be device agnostic and what a market opportunity!

SMS just seems so boring when we could be using SIM Browser based services. They are still the same SMS based, but menu driven so you do not need to remember phone numbers or what the exact message needed to be for the server end to understand your request. How many of you even know half of the SMS based services your operator provides today?

I though about looking into cell tower triangulation and if there was a Java applet that could fit on a Java Card (device agnostic). You would think that such a positioning solution would be cool for those who do not have a GPS enabled phone, but no… hey! please correct me if you know of such an applet.

Well, at the end of the day there is only so much you can stuff on a SIM card. Why not just have G&D and/or Gemalto chip a GPS and digital TV receiver on the SIM card? Now how cool would that be?

I’ve found a number of cool applications, but the problem is that they are always client based and only work on a limited number of handsets… “there is app for that”, but only if you use a certain device. What about MAaaS (Mobile Applications as a Service)? Why are micro web browsers still so sad? Why can’t the top 1000 web sites automatically query your screen size and optimize content so you do not have scroll across the page to see the right side of it? There are more WAP enabled phones than there are Smart Phones that run rich client applications.

Software vendors… you need a sales channel. You can either give the device manufacturers or the operators a slice of the pie. I’d go with the operators and not have to deal with multiple device support issues.

I believe that the cell phone, as we know it today, will disappear. Have you seen Samsung’s wrist watch that is also a cell phone? Why couldn’t we just have a voice enabled phone built into a headset? A bit into the future, why not just implant the phone? Why not inject a biological ‘thing’ into your wrist that glows the time through your skin… biological clock? We are already building DNA Computing is here today… how long will it take to create a biological cell phone implant?

http://www.officelabs.com/projects/futurevisionmontage/Pages/default.aspx

Check out Microsoft’s future vision montage. Look at their vision of tablet PC’s (handhelds… smart phones). Now that is the future of smart phones… I just personally envision the phone being split off from the ‘smart’. Laptops themselves will become ultra-slim netbooks… yeah, sorry I believe in cloud computing and SaaS.

Technorati Tags: SaaS,netbooks,smart phones,handhelds,java card,sim,sim browser,wib,s@t,gsm,cdma,sd card,dvb-h,mobile tv,java applet,vas,mobile value added services,gemalto,G&D

Microsoft Partner Network

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:03:45 -0700

Microsoft announced last week the upgrade partner portal now called the Partner Network. The new portal will have more social elements enabling partners to interact with each other. This is a great step forward for Microsoft, but does not match IBM’s addition of Lotus Live into it’s partner program. Facilitating partner activity is all well and good, but what then? ‘Partner networks’ need collaboration tools to allow partners to engage on opportunities. IBM, Google and Microsoft have the ‘live’ offerings to enable this.

Now that vendors are starting to see the value of P2P interaction within their ecosystems, and seeing the ecosystem more as a network rather than a hub and spoke model, the under lying partner management framework also needs to evolve. How PAMs (Partner Account Managers) are assigned to partners based on partner size and geography are irrelevant… hub and spoke thinking. We should rather focus on a new breed of Partner Portfolio Managers (PPMs). The role of a PPM is to manage a group of synergistic partners and actively fostering P2P activity. This would also support the notion on vertical solution maps.

Partner management should not be regional. The fact that it is, derives from revenue recognition and how people are commissioned. I see small partners with cutting edge technology, top 3 local references in their home territory and no support on a global level. A huge amount of innovation and competitive differentiation is being left to the road side, because we cannot figure out a global model for revenue recognition. The gap between local account management and being a globally managed partner is huge. This favors partners that are from large domestic markets and have the ability to achieve critical mass locally with Microsoft’s support.

If we do bring collaboration tools from the Live portfolio into the Partner Network, should we also consider optimizing the solution for ISVs, integrators, hosting partners, etc.? The problem with Live offerings, regardless of the vendor, is that they are too generic. They are not optimized to support a best practice work flow different groups, such as software vendors, large account resellers, resellers, integrators, hosting companies, etc. Also let’s consider the opportunity to link systems and share information across P2P boundaries. A unified platform would support also business planning, forecasting, etc. After all the alpha vendor, as a PPM, is always one node in micro community or group of synergistic partners.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Partner Network,Live,P2P,PAM,PPM,Lotus Live,IBM

Intel is working with Google on Chrome OS

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:26:59 -0700

Google's announcement of Chrome OS got a fair bit of attention. Now Intel is committing to work with Google in optimizing their Atom chip for Chrome OS. ASUS, HP, ACER and Lenovo have already made a commitment towards Chrome OS.

Now Chrome OS has the potential to be a great OS for Netbooks, which fall in neatly with the concept of cloud computing, where the netbook is basically a terminal for accessing SaaS offering within the cloud. Now Google already has a cloud play and they are continuing to build.

This will be definitely an interesting play to watch.

Technorati Tags: Intel,Google,Chrome OS,SaaS,cloud computing,netbooks,Atom

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Intel is working with Google on Chrome OS | The Industry Standard

Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo among Google Chrome OS partners

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:42:21 -0700

Is Google Chrome the ultimate cloud OS... light and super charged for the web?

As the cloud competition intensifies we will see alliances and offerings emerge. Most clouds are on the IaaS level today and portfolios of SaaS offering are still weak. With Chrome OS on light laptops Google is definitely upping its game.

Technorati Tags: Acer,Asus,HP,Lenovo,Google Chrome,OSS,IaaS,SaaS,cloud

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Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo among Google Chrome OS partners

German Recession May Have Ended in Second Quarter

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:28:02 -0700

This is a 'may have', but it is still good news for the Euro region. What happened? The US economy was supposed to be first in first out.

We are seeing the number of newly unemployed being cut as most companies have made extensive layoffs in the first half. If we see a turn the second half should not see massive layoffs. We are waiting for Q2 results from a number indicative companies... some have already posted better than expected results. There is talk of a second stimulus (which in my opinion is not needed and would be a waste). We should see some effects of the Recovery Act stimulus funds in the 2HFY09.

The Q2 results are pivotal for the stock market. Will we see a second dip as I fear? If the results are good and outlook projections positive, then we should be past a double dip, but this also requires consumers to spend as well in the fall.

The problem is still massive unemployment and the spiraling loss of home equity. These are making people save rather than spend and without the consumer purchasing engine in high gear we will not grow. As schools start in August we should see a spike in retail spending. Additionally we are starting to move into the fall Christmas sales season.

Timing... we must also consider the impact of returning troops from Iraq and what that will do to unemployment.

Technorati Tags: economy,stimulus,recovery act,euro

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German Recession May Have Ended in Second Quarter - Germany * Europe * News * Story - CNBC.com

More Government Money Won't Stimulate Stocks, Experts Say

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 01:51:00 -0700

I have to say that I agree with the experts. I also agreed that the first stimulus round was needed, but we will have not used it fully and are still waiting for the effect from the first round. A second round would not change the situation at all and would be total waste. The market will just have to figure it out on its own. We will see a second drop in August. Unemployment will continue to rise for a few more months. It will take years to get back to a normal level.

The only thing that a responsible administration can do is invest into infrasructure for future growth.

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Second Stimulus: More Government Money Won't Stimulate Stocks, Experts Say - Markets * US * News * S

What is the Social Cloud?

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:55:51 -0700

Google’s Kevin Marks talks about the Social Cloud. This is not to be confused with Cloud Computing. The World Wide Web (WWW) in essence is a cloud and this is what Kevin refers to. In the www-cloud we use standards like TCP-IP and HTML. He talks about new standards for making social data in the WWW-cloud standard. When we standardize social data it becomes interchangeable between social media platforms and also enables us to build a mind maps of our social profiles. It enables us to visualize our social networks, the tools we use and the content we generate. This opens up a new opportunities for social analytics.

The social cloud will require incorporation of an electronic social identity… universal sign on. I’ve written on this topic in the past. How do you allow separate systems to share your social profile and access your network data? The example Kevin uses is why can’t a user just transfer their network from a Facebook into a Myspace. A lot of apps exist, but they always require you to key in your account user name and password for the site you are transferring from and your account credentials are unique for each system.

It will be interesting to see what Google comes up with to solve this issue.

Technorati Tags: social cloud,social networking,social analytics,Kevin Marks,Google,WWW,Facebook,MySpace

Timeline for Introduction on Mainstream Social Sites

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:19:29 -0700

Source: Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship, by Danah Boyd and Nicole Ellison in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.

Visionaries see U.S. high speed rail

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:29:14 -0700

Yeah!!! This is what I am talking about!

Now where is a similar plan for national e-government portal that will cover all federal, state and local services reducing complexity and increasing efficiencies?

Where is that energy bill that will kick start all those nuclear power plants, solar/wind farms and geothermal plants that will power all the electric cars that will come to market in the next few years?

Where is the comprehensive national strategy on wireless networks making this nation a leader in high-speed communications? In the 2008 Global Broadband Household Penetration Rankings USA ranks 20th. Broadband and mobile broadband are the backbone to an information society.

Technorati Tags: high speed rail,alternative energy,nuclear power,broadband,e-government

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Visionaries see U.S. high speed rail; critics see subsidies - Jul. 2, 2009

Stocks slammed by jobs report

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:15:14 -0700

CNN money writes about DOW loosing over 200 points due to worse than expected jobs report. The President comments that the figures are... "sobering".

I've written on this issue a number of times. The number one enemy of a recovery is UNEMPLOYMENT. Now you can argue that unemployment is the results of a number of other factors and those need to be fixed before unemployment can be reduced. The reality is that it is not about the lack of lending... no one is buying. People are not buying, because they are saving... because they are either unemployed or waiting to be unemployed.

Health care reform is important, but why are we not looking at the funds that have been allocated for the Recovery Act. I recently looked at a visualization of stimulus spending from the New York Times (http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-STIMULUS0903.html). There are so many line items across so many states that I am just wondering what portion of those funds are being used, what their employment effect is and how much waste there is? How much of the infrastructure spending will leave something behind that will make us more competitive in the years to come? We will have the most modern network of emergency shelters in the world, which will require maintenance and but will not generate a single dime after they have been built. Where are high speed rail lines, the next generation high-speed wireless networks, the new nuclear power stations, the national e-government platforms, etc. These are all initiatives that will make the nation more efficient and more competitive for years to come. They will also generate jobs today and put money back in the pockets of consumers? Where are the bold initiatives that will shape the nation for generations?

Technorati Tags: CNN,economy,DOW,NYT,unemployment

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CNNMoney.com Market Report - Jul. 2, 2009

What is Cloud Computing?

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:15:12 -0700

Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the "cloud" that supports them.

The concept generally incorporates combinations of the following:

–infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

–platform as a service (PaaS)

–software as a service (SaaS)

Other recent (ca. 2007–2009) technologies that rely on the Internet to satisfy the computing needs of users. Cloud computing services often provide common business applications online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on the servers.

(Source: Wikipedia)

In summary: The major difference between traditional solutions and cloud solutions is that solutions developed for the cloud support multiple tenants within a virtual architecture. Traditional solutions only support multiple accounts or user within a single tenant.

Macro versus Micro

An example of a Macro Cloud is Microsoft’s Azure. As an analogy, it is a wide open field with a single set of construction guide lines. We can add as many houses from the same mold in the field as we like and charge the tenants a monthly fee. They can furnish their home to their liking, but not alter the layout of their home.

In the future Macro Clouds could support a large ecosystem of Micro Clouds. Continuing the same analogy, the field could be carved up into zones with family homes, town homes and condos. Now the tenant can choose from a list of available floor plans to fit their needs.

Virtualization enables multiple solutions to inhabit a single server. If these solutions support multiple tenants, we can build Micro Clouds that are uniquely tailored to a specific group. In terms of the analogy, we can now tailor our home layout exactly to our needs without having to wait for the zoning to happen.

Creating a Micro Cloud for just one tenant doesn’t make sense, but when we have a small group with synergistic needs, then we can achieve significant benefits. Micro Clouds enable us to customize applications for small groups of tenants that have common highly unique needs… vertical needs. When the tenants in a Micro Cloud interact and share data Partner-To-Partner (P2P) we can multiply the returns of the cloud.

Technorati Tags: Cloud computing,micro cloud,macro cloud,IaaS,PaaS,SaaS,tenant,Azure

20 Promising Open Source PHP Content Management Systems(CMS)

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:54:07 -0700

This is a great article about open source CMS's.

I have friends using Drupal with great success. I have used DotNetNuke a lot and it has been great. I also used Mambo and Joomla, but they are full of security holes... like Swiss cheese.

Enjoy...

Technorati Tags: Drupal,DNN,Joomla,Mambo,OpenSource,CMS,PHP

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20 Promising Open Source PHP Content Management Systems(CMS)

Social Media Monitoring Solutions

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:54:25 -0700

I recently looked through the available social media monitoring tools.

Here is a list:

Trackur
Filtrbox
Scoutlabs
Visible Technologies
Collective Intellect
Spiral 16
Radian 6
Techrigy
TMS Symphony

These split into RSS feed and screen scrape based. In general I found most of the solutions wanting in terms of their scope of search. There is no substitute for having a professional analyst help you out. None of the solutions had true multi-language support, which makes geographic filters a bit difficult. Most either have or are coming out with sentiment algorithms, but again those are only 75% accurate and only work with the English language.

Radian 6 had a nice way to track persons of interest. Collective Intellect had nice demographic data. Spiral 16 was the furthest ahead in visualizing influencers and social networks.

Pricing ranged from free to a seat fee and an additional search fee on top of that. Paid services start from $250 per month and range to $100 per seat plus $500 per search topic.

If you are serious and willing to pay I have to say I was the most impressed with Radian 6.

Another great blog on the topic is by Lisa Whelan: http://socializemobilize.com/2009/05/21/avoid-selective-hearing-with-20-top-social-media-monitoring-tools/

Technorati Tags: Trackur,Filtrbox,Scoutlabs,Visible Technologies,Collective Intellect,Spiral 16,Radian 6,Techrigy,TMS Symphony

State of the Economy - June

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:53:17 -0700

It is time again to summarize the sentiment and the stream of economic news. The Fed yesterday kept rates down. The risk of inflation has been widely commented on and Dr. Doom has stated his worries about super inflation in a few years time. This may be the case, but for now massive unemployment is keeping inflation in check.

Unemployment is still rising and the White House has been the weakest on this front. Where is the money from the American Recovery act? This week I read an article about the revival of plans to build a high speed train system to tie together urbanized America. This is the smartest thing I’ve read in a long time. Massive infrastructure projects that will generate jobs and invigorate local economies with longevity. If you could jump on a bullet train in San Francisco and be in LA in under three hours, would you even consider taking a plane?

Healthcare is a major issue, especially on the long term, but I would urge the President to take strong and definitive action on unemployment and the loss of home equity for majority of America. The idea of a $15k tax rebate for any home buyer is a good start. The rebate should start a buying frenzy if banks were out to lend. This would deplete to pool of low cost foreclosed homes in stable metro areas and start driving up prices. There should also be a rebate on some home improvements… kitchen, bathrooms, heating systems, etc. These all add back to home values reducing the gap between mortgages and true values. Generating jobs… clear national infrastructure projects: high speed trains through urbanized America, new nuclear power plants to provide power for a generation of electric cars, revival of public transportation in major metro areas that are under served (e.g. Atlanta).

I have come to believe that regardless of the green shoots we will have a double dip in this recession. We will see a major hit after the summer, but I still believe in 2009 recovery time line. Unless unemployment becomes the number one focus the growth curve will be very poor.

Heads of top U.S. companies snub blogs, Facebook

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:50:52 -0700

A study by UberCEO.com found that not one Fortune 100 CEO has a blog. Only three CEOs have a personal page in mainstream social media sites. This is a huge opportunity for public relations agencies to help executives beef up their communications strategies.

I am personally not a big fan of Twitter, even though it would lend itself nicely to known CEOs. The rapid fire nature of micro blogging is not great when you have legal liabilities and your words can have immediate effect on stock prices. Blogging however offers a means of providing transparency for mainstreet USA into the thinking behind actions of major corporations. Executives should use this avenue to provide information. Some times you have to make unpopular decisions and not everyone might agree, but atleast people will undestand your motives and the net effect will always be positive.

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Heads of top U.S. companies snub blogs, Facebook: study - News Wires - CNBC.com

List of Social Networking Sites

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:58:14 -0700

A: Advogato—free community dedicated to open-source software development
B: Blogger—popular blogging website (owned by Google)
C: Classmates.com—helps members keep in touch with classmates from school, college and military service
D: del.icio.us—a website dedicated to managing bookmarks through storing, sharing and discovering
E: Ecademy—online networking for business, offline networking events and global networking groups
F: Facebook—site once limited to connecting only college students has expanded to include the general public
G: GuildCafe—community for computer and video game players (funded by IDG Ventures)
H: Hi5—personal global social networking site that focuses on membership of young people
I: IMVU—instant-messenging software using customized 3-D avatars
J: Jobster—social networking intersects with job searching
K: Kwout—a way to quote a part of a webpage as an image with an image map
L: LinkedIn—site dedicated to strengthening your business contacts and professional network
M: MySpace—originally focused on musicians, this general social networking site has mass appeal
N: Nexopia—formerly known as Facebox, this Belgian site is popular among young Europeans
O: Orkut—known for its easy-to-create discussion forums, this is one of the most popular sites in Brazil (owned by Google)
P: Plaxo—online platform that allows auto updates of business address book information
Q: Quotiki—a social quotes site that lets you quickly find and enjoy quotes
R: Ryze—site designed to connect entrepreneurs and other business professionals
S: Second Life—a 3-D virtual world where users can use voice and text chat to socialize, connect and create
T: Twitter—micro-blogging service focused on connecting friends, family and coworkers
U: Utterz—allows users to update their blog via short-message service (SMS) and multimedia message service (MMS)
V: Vox—blog platform built with extensive permission settings
W: Windows Live Spaces—(also known as MSN Spaces) this is Microsoft's social networking platform
X: Xing—(formerly known as Open/BC—Open Business Club) displays how each member is connected together, creating an "it's a small world" network for professionals
Y: Yahoo 360—Yahoo's social networking platform
Z: Ziggs—allows users to professionally market themselves online

Insurance exchange, subsidies could cost $1 trillion

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:53:13 -0700

As both parties pitch plans on how to remodel the healthcare industry the price tag keeps getting higher.

The pharmaceutical industry is making profits... well yes, it is a 'for profit' type of business. The question is, if they are making too much? Should they give some back and lower the cost of medication? With every tenth pill a counterfeit the pharmaceutical companies need to recoup their huge R&D investments some how. This places the burden on the 9/10 pills that are not fake. Fix drug counterfeit and the cost of medicine can come down.

Is the health insurance industry making too much... again they are for profit. If you don't want companies to make profit, then nationalize the sector. Build a self sustaining system of national healthcare by running it the same way that private companies do... Freddie Mack and Fannie May of health insurance. Pass on all margin to the consumer and at the same time mandate universal healthcare. If the cost of health insurance is cut down, then employers can afford to insure more workers. The private sector can make their money by building premium packages on top of the base national package. Now the private sector can always compete with government base package if they are mor efficient... typically the private sector is.

And what about hospitals.The base care package should have a mandated base fee structure. The government is buying services from private companies in massive volumes... they should get a volume discount and a fixed fee frame agreement. Hospitals that can provide the base care package more efficiently can keep the margin. With an electronic patient records system we can monitor for anomalies like in the credit card industry and do quality checks. If a hospital doesn't meet base guidelines they will loose their license.

And what about doctors? Are they being paid too much? The hours they work and the investment they have made into their education has earned them the right to a big pay check. At the end of the day would you o to $100k doctor versus a $300k doctor if you had the choice?

In summary...

Most countries with universal healthcare have a national network of hospitals. However, is this the only way to achieve the same goal? Can't we have universal healthcare by having the goverment pool all their citizens basic health care needs into a massive group policy and going to the private sector to bid on the best deal? Now that is negotiating power! I beleive that for those who want more there needs to be options. There needs to be the option to 'super size' a meal, as they say, but I can imagine that life really sucks if you don't have a meal at all.

The big question is well who will pay for this? With national debt mounting I dont think that answer is the government. After all if the government pays, then it needs to be borrowed and/or taxed. Neither of these options sound good. If the government can negoatiate the fees down for basic healthcare, which shooting off the hip is probably 80% of the pie, we can dramatically cut the cost of health insurance that will enable more people to be insured under the current framework without increasing the overall cost.

And finally the cost of premium packages will soar. Well, not necessarily. We are now focusing on the 20% that isn't covered by basic health care. The equation becomes different. Also with legistlation we can enable individuals to join groups and give groups the power to negotiate better rates.

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Insurance exchange, subsidies could cost $1 trillion - Jun. 15, 2009

When Cloud Computing and Social Software Merge

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:51:25 -0700

I recently read an article about IBM offering portal for clients with Domino Connections and social functionality. The P2P gains have been tremendous. This is exactly the finding that IDC has had while studying the IAMCP ecosystem. Partners that engage in P2P activity are 20% more prosperous. I have been speaking on this topic since mid 2008.

A lot of people are writing about social media usage in a B2B context. The community sites like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn are great for one-on-one networking. Groups can be effective in establishing thought leadership around specific themes. Twitter can be great again for thought leadership when used by established influencers and to promote brands that are already strong. All of these strategies are hub and spoke model geared at building and strengthening one-to-one connections between an alpha brand or influencer and a community, but the future is not hub and spoke… it is a mesh. What I would question is the level of P2P interaction that these strategies promote.

If we look at B2B communities like PartnerPedia and PartnerPoint we see two things. With PartnerPedia the hook is in offering a digitized work flow for partnering and post partnering collaboration. With PartnerPoint there is a huge effort on part of the administrator to offer services and facilitate P2P activity. I believe that both are on the right track. The problem with PartnerPedia is that it is a closed proprietary community. A PartnerPedia can never compete with a Google on cloud computing, a Facebook on social software and Microsoft/IBM on collaboration tools. The role of an ecosystem like PartnerPedia is exactly what PartnerPoint is offering… services and facilitation. The problem with PartnerPoint is that is stuck in the discussion forum age and doesn’t offer an infrastructure to partner and execute in a mesh configuration. Ecosystems should use market leading cloud platforms for a wider range of collaboration capabilities and for higher degree of interoperability and connectivity to internal systems.

Just offering the infrastructure for collaboration is not enough. You need the social software to provide that social glue and ability for people form social bonds. Social bonds reduce barriers to communication, which increases P2P activity and productivity. Imagine that as with PartnerPedia and LinkedIn we create professional profiles for ourselves and our companies. Now imagine that the platform had the intelligence to match needs and interests an automatically broker optimal introductions. Imagine that when we navigate discussion forums and we mouse-over a person, with who’s trail of thought we agree, we see a tag cloud, which is a summary of their profile and all the user generated content that they have produced. We can automate and induce/encourage social interaction with technology, but we also need ‘social analysts’ to serve as a ‘licensee of trust’ and a social broker.

We are also talking about Service Orientated Architectures (SOA). How do we build mashups of information… customized dashboards. How do we inject provide access to our back end systems in a secure fashion, essentially integrating our business with the ecosystem cloud. How do we build whole supply chains within the cloud fused with social glue? Securing these next generation ecosystems calls for a next generation claims based authentication and access management architecture.

One interesting question is what role can and will Open Source Software (OSS) play in this? Also how mobile will the networks be? Will these ecosystems be open to all or exclusive to companies that partner with a brand like UPS or belong to a frequent flyer program like Delta’s Sky Miles? Will we see brands build strategic alliances by integration their ecosystems?

Technorati Tags: SOA,UGC,IBM,Microsoft,Google,Amazon,cloud computing,social software,LinkedIn,Facebook,MySpace,Twitter,B2B,P2P,PartnerPedia,PartnerPoint,OSS

In Recovery Race, US Looks to Outstrip Europe

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:50:43 -0700

Today's stories paint an interesting picture. 10 major banks are allowed to pay back their TARP money to the federal government, which should off-set atleast some of the dept that has been accumulated. The White House promisses to expediate starting new projects that should put 600k people to work. This is money that has been allocated already in the beginning of the year, but not used yet. The effects are yet to be seen.

It is very clear that USA will come out of this recession faster than Europe. As my brother wrote in one of his blogs, Europe will end up paying same, but de to indicision and half measures their rebound will be in late 2010. With a weak (and weakening) dollar now is a perfect time for European technology companies to expand into the US market and get on the next growth wave that will start in the second half of the year.

Some articles state that the banks are still underfunded and that the unemployment rate has exceeded worst case estimates. Well true... the administration did fumble on getting the massive injction into the economy in a timely fashion to counter the loss of jobs. It's being done now, but why not months ago. The reasonsare probably on the agency and state level and mostly due to the fact that the plan has been poory written.

The GOP is proposing an alternative energy bill with a call for a 100 new nuclear reactors. I've studied nuclear engineering in college and I a all for this plan. It would be the equivalent to the Apollo program. A massive project with a clear mission and a huge employment effect. It would drasticly change US energy policy for the future and pave a way for a new auto industry based on electric cars. We need to explore green resource, like wind, solar and geo thermal. The fact of it is that wind power just cannot compete with nuclear. Solar should be used in a building by building level. Some states should mandate that all water is heated by solar power.

My greatest concern about usin money to jump start the economy is that is used on small projects that have no long lasting impact and no clear return for generations to come. Keeping police and teacher jobs is great. Fixing an intersection will improve traffic, commerce, etc. These are all great things that will have a definate ROI, but they are not things that we can easily point to in ten years time and say "well that is what we got". The government will be trillions in dept... we will have to layoff the teachers we kept and the intersection will need new paving.

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In Recovery Race, US Looks to Outstrip Europe - General * US * News * Story - CNBC.com