SAP CEO Leo Apotheker has resigned and two of his former lieutenants---Bill McDermott, head of sales and Jim Hagemann Snabe, head of product development---have become co-CEOs. Are these two executives... Continued »
It was a last minute invitation from Google - a minor inconvenience for us press types but an effective way of minimizing the hype that the company would otherwise have to live up to.
10:00 am: People are still trickling in - and the traffic was pretty heavy getting into Mountain View this morning - so we’re still a few minutes from our start.
10:15 am: Here we go… Bradley Horowitz, VP of product management, takes the stage. He says he has something exciting to share - which means we’re going to talk about sharing. He thanks us for “being here” this morning - which means we’ll talk about real time. He said Google PR team got “exactly the right audience here” but that it was a lot of work. He says Google can hep minimize hard work in reaching right people. He thanked us for our time and says there are tools to help us pay better attention to what’s important.
10:18 am: A bit of history about search and how tough it was to get it right. But then came Google - something fundamentally different that helped us rethink relevance. Here’s comes the chatter about social. There’s a lot of noise out there - too much information and a lot of sharing. Keeping up with 5,000 friends - people I’m socially connected to - is no easy task. It’s not unreasonable to think that managing that amount of information is tough.
10:20 am: It’s called Google Buzz. A Google way of sharing. Here comes Todd Jackson, Product manage for Google Buzz.
10:22 am: We’re looking at how Gmail has evolved with new tools over the years - chat, video, etc. Buzz is “like an entirely new world in Gmail. There is now auto-following - seeing content from people they follow. It offers a rich, fast-sharing experience. It supports both public and private sharing - easy to broadcast to everyone or privately to select people. Google Buzz also brings inbox integration. And finally - it brings “just the good stuff.” More details coming.
10:25 am: Google Buzz is coming today when users sign in. There’s a new buzz tab right below the inbox link. The first thing you see is the people you’re automatically following you. It’s pulling in activity about your friends from other web sites, too. It also pays special attention to media - video, photos and links - and they appear directly in the buzz window. Yes, they’re thumbnails but the company also built a custom viewer that overtakes the screen without navigating away.
10:27 am: Now we’re talking about links. You copy a link, go into buzz and paste it in. But what you get is headlines and images, too. That’s the rich sharing Todd is talking about. But it’s also fast, he says, because Google has added quick keyboard shortcuts to “like” or “reply” to the post.
10: 29 am: Public sharing and private sharing. Public stuff obviously goes public for anyone to see. But users can also post privately to individuals or groups within Gmail - family members, co-workers, etc. The fourth feature is called inbox integration. Any item in Buzz can become a conversation. But how can you know when someone commented. Sure, they could send an email and they kind of do - but it’s not just a static e-mail but a “live object” where the text, links, images reside for users to interact. But does all Buzz go to the inbox and overload it? No. There are three ways to get a Buzz into the inbox - someone posts comments, you engage in the conversation and @-replies. It makes sure that the intended user sees when they’ve been mentioned.
10: 32 am: Now the other fun stuff. There are recommendations of Buzz chatter from friends and friends of friends - but this is still a work in progress. Some posts are worthy of your time; some aren’t. You get to see more and teach the system how to react to Buzz posts that are streaming in.
10:34 am: We’re going to talk mobile now. It’s not just moving the desktop stuff to the mobile device. Vic Gundotra, VP of engineering, is on stage now.
10:36 am: There’s a lot of noise out there but how can Google algorithmically help determine what’s important and relevant? Location is important to drive relevance. Where are you? At work? On road? In a meeting? Conversations and relevance are unlocked by locations. In mobile, there is GPS data today and there are many tools to help us understand location. Three new product experiences being announced today. You can go directly to Google’s main page. On Android and iPhone, you can also go to buzz.google.com. New Google Maps app for Symbian, Windows Mobile, Android and others (not iPhone) but more coming soon.
10:44 am: Looking at the Buzz app for iPhone and Android (Vic is using a Nexus One on stage) There’s a Following button and a Nearby button. You might not just want to see the most interesting buzzes based on who you’re following. Let’s say you’re walking down the street and want to see all of the buzz that’s close to you - people who are maybe at the same concert or are in your neighborhood. Of course, all of the posts are geo-tagged. And now, in maps, you can see an icon to see that people there are “buzzing” and you can read them.
10:47 am: Bradley is back - and now we’re watching the official Google Buzz explainer video.
10:49 am: But wait. There’s more. Google likes the Enterprise, of course. So, coming soon: an Enterprise product of Buzz that they think will change the way co-workers communicate with each other. It’s also open-source - they want it to play nice with everyone. The rollouts of Google Buzz in Gmal starts in about 10 minutes (11 am PT) and it will take a few days to reach everyone. Finally, Bradley says this is not a finished product. Google is just getting started - and while they think it’s “compelling,” they’re definitely looking for feedback.
10:51 am: It’s Q&A time
10:52 am: Question 1 is about privacy and security and the short answer is that the company has built in tools to allow people to send both public and private messages and control who is interacting. Next question is about Wave and the integration - and Bradley says it’s on the short list of integrations it can do. There’s a question about Latitude. Vic says things will be tightly integrated later but that they will work together in Mobile maps.
10:56 am: How does it integrate with Facebook and other social networking. Those are public updates - but does it link with Facebook Connect? There’s no announcement about that today. What about integration with other Google properties like Google Voice? They’re still looking at that, specifically the idea of phoning in the Buzz post, but that’s not happening yet. There are privacy issues that need to be addressed but it seems to be something that they’re interested in.
10: 58 am: How come Google’s previous attempts at social haven’t taken off. Sergey Brin, who has joined the panel, says past services focused on simply friends and entertainment - the purely social side - but Sergey said the experience of using Buzz as a productivity tool is very good and highly useful. There’s Sergey’s push for the Enterprise.
11:01 am: What about Twitter? Is this just new Google Buzz noise? In Buzz, you can integrate a Twitter tweet into Buzz, Bradley says. Currently, you can’t write back to Twitter from Buzz but you can pull in from Twitter. That’s something they’re still working on.
Seagate on Tuesday launched a new 600GB enterprise drive that runs at 10,000 RPM in a 2.5-inch package. The drives are designed for data centers.
According to the company, the drive, dubbed the Savvio 10K.4, doubles the capacity of previous drives and is designed to deliver 2 million hours Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) reliability (Techmeme). MBTF is the average time a component works without failure. It is the hours of observation divided by the number of failures.
Research in Motion’s BlackBerry platform has a comfortable lead in U.S. smartphone market share with Apple’s iPhone a solid No. 2, according to comScore data. Microsoft’s Windows Mobile comes in third place.
The comScore data is notable as a contrast to the buzz-o-meter. For instance, RIM, which is sometimes portrayed as a has-been set to get pummeled by the iPhone, holds 41.6 percent of the smartphone market in the U.S. based on platform. Apple has 25.3 percent.
On February 3, TechRepublic polled its 100-member panel of U.S. IT executives and asked, “Is there a business case to be made for the iPad and other slate PCs?” The jury, made up of the first 12 respondents, came through with seven “Yes” votes and five “No” votes.
Donna Trivison, Director of IT for Ursuline College, said, “Yes, there is a business case which can be made for iPad or other convenient, easy to use tablet computers. The iPod Touch /iPad is instant on, instant off, and instant load. This aspect alone makes a compelling business case. Time is money. Though I’m not sure if that would be considered a function of tablet per se. It is more a function of iPhone operating system and multi-touch user interface, push one button, touch one icon. App loads and performs flawlessly. All apps (a.k.a., software) have a standardized look and feel… Elegant, functional, revolutionary.”
While there is some concern about Research in Motion’s roadmap for its BlackBerry device, sales appear to be chugging along at a healthy clip, according to an analyst.
Piper Jaffray analyst T. Michael Walkley said RIM is delivering solid sales of its Bold and Tour phones in North American while the 8520 (Curve) is selling well internationally.
Walkley’s said RIM’s February quarter is shaping up well. Wall Street is expecting RIM to report fiscal fourth quarter earnings of $1.27 a share on revenue of $4.28 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.
Here’s a look at Walkley’s findings based on his channel checks:
Verizon: Aggressive pricing for BlackBerries as well as buy-one-get-one-free promotions are propping up sales. Walkley writes that:
The Blackberry Tour (right) and the Motorola Droid were the two top selling devices in January at Verizon. Further, Storm sales remained steady with continued positive feedback from customers.
AT&T: The Bold 9700 is the second beast selling device at AT&T behind the iPhone. AT&T has been cutting prices of the Bold too.
T-Mobile: The Bold is the only BlackBerry at T-Mobile, which has cut off the Curve 8900, Pearl Flip and older-model Curve.
Globally, the low-end 8520 Curve is selling well in Western Europe and Latin America. Inventory levels remain low.
Simply put, RIM sales appear on track and Walkley expects a new browser and a 3G Pearl to be announced shortly.
Google has dropped its “equipment recovery fee” for the Nexus One smartphone from $350 down to $150, a move that follows a government inquiry into the fees that are imposed on consumers who break their wireless contracts early, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
That’s nice - but I don’t think it changes anything about the perceptions surrounding those fees.
The fact is that consumers still face two separate fees. Google imposes one fee - now $150. And T-Mobile charges a $200 for breaking its service contract early. In a post last month, I argued that Google really should stick to making the Android technology better and leave the retail sales - and support - of this device to a carrier partner. I still think that’s true.
From an accounting standpoint, the fees make perfect sense. They’re in place to ensure that customers stick around long enough to essentially pay back - by staying on the customer roll for at least two years - the subsidy that allowed them to buy an expensive device at a discounted price.
But Google is going to stifle the adoption of devices running the Android OS - and that’s a shame because has a real winner here. If anything is going to challenge the mighty iPhone and keep Apple on its innovative toes, it’s going to be Android.
Yet, if consumers starting getting wind of this double-whammy on early termination fees, there’s a big chance that they’ll go another route when it comes time to buy, maybe Palm or Blackberry or, yes, even the iPhone.
I spent a month playing with the Nexus One and I had been really excited about getting one on Verizon when it’s released this Spring. But, now I’m thinking twice. If there were an option, I’d go directly to Verizon to buy this phone and re-up on my service contract. But if I’m forced to go to Google’s Web site to do this, it just might be enough to force me to rethink the purchase altogether.
Google is getting ready to unveil a new social feature to Gmail, unlocking the ability for users to share media and update their status messages the same way they do on Facebook or Twitter, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
Moments after the Journal posted its report. citing unnamed sources, I received an invitation to a press event on the Google campus tomorrow morning where the company will showcase “some innovations in two of our most popular products.”
I’m glad there’s still some element of surprise left to Google’s news tomorrow. Too much hype before a news event can lead to disappointment when the announcement can’t live up to the build-up (as was the case with Apple’s iPad.)
With that said, I’m not big on the whole concept of putting status updates in every Web property I visit - and so many are trying to do just that these days. Still, I recognize that this is about more than just status updates. This is about changing the way we communicate with each other over the Internet.
A while back, I argued that e-mail was such an old school - and ineffective - way of handling communications. My argument was out there a day before Google introduced a new collaboration property called Wave. That service is still largely a work-in-progress and hasn’t gone mainstream yet.
But I point it out because I see this step of bringing a social network element to Gmail as the next in a shift away from e-mail and closer to a full-fledged communications suite that includes mail, instant message, real-time collaboration and, of course, sharing of media and status updates.
It may not look like that when Google unveils whatever it’s unveiling tomorrow but I’ll keep telling myself that this is just another step toward the holy grail of communications.
Intel today highlighted another Moore’s Law update in computing power, unveiling the Intanium 9300 processor - which had been codenamed “Tukwila” - touting its increased performance, scalability and reliability for enterprise-level computing.
The announcement, which was delivered with partner HP standing on stage with Intel, comes as the server wars heat up today. This morning, IBM kicked things off with a rollout of its latest Power 7 systems, which are designed to power everything from smart grids to analytics. In a Webcast presentation today, Intel touted the performance bullet points:
Twice as many cores as its predecessor - four versus two
Eight threads per processor (through enhanced Intel Hyper-Threading Technology)
More cache
Up to 800 percent the interconnect bandwidth
Up to 500 percent the memory bandwidth
Up to 700 percent the memory capacity using-industry standard DDR3 components
The company also said the processor’s advanced machine-check architecture manages errors through the hardware, firmware and OS, enabling recovery from otherwise fatal errors. The processor uses the next generation of the company’s Virtualization technology to improve performance.
The company, in it announcement, also highlighted “common platform ingredients” to spur innovation and add value. In its news release, the company wrote:
The Itanium® 9300 processor series and the future Intel Xeon processor, codenamed “Nehalem EX,” share several platform ingredients, including the Intel QuickPath Interconnect, the Intel Scalable Memory Interconnect, the Intel 7500 Scalable Memory Buffer (to take advantage of industry standard DDR3 memory), and I/O hub (Intel 7500 chipset). The common elements foster shared innovation, design synergy, and manufacturing efficiency across Intel Xeon® and Itanium processor families, and flexibility for customers.
Finally, the company also addressed what it called intelligent energy efficiency using an enhanced form of Demand-Based Switching to lower power consumption when utilization is low. The Turbo Boost technology kicks into gear to deliver a performance boost when it’s needed but then scales down to conserve power when it’s not.
IBM on Monday rolled out its latest Power7 systems, which are designed to power everything from smart grids to analytics, but the real story may be Big Blue’s attempt to punch Oracle and its Sun Microsystems-powered hardware systems in the mouth via Facebook and YouTube.
SAP chairman Hasso Plattner started with contrition and signaled that product development will lead the rebound in the company. Plattner’s task: Rebuild employee and customer trust.
The processor is a big step for IBM, integrating eight processing cores in one chip package, with each core capable of executing four tasks–called “threads”–turning an individual chip into a virtual 32-core processor. As a yardstick, Intel’s high-end Xeon processors–systems that Power7 will compete with–typically have two threads per processing core.
IBM’s Power7 systems will have up to 64 Power7 cores with better energy efficiency. There is one system with 32 Power7 cores.
Through the third quarter, IBM and HP were neck-and-neck for the most server market share, according to IDC. Both IBM and HP have been beating up on Oracle’s Sun Microsystems.
Big Blue’s Power7 launch front runs Intel and HP’s latest Itanium effort. Intel and HP at 12:30 p.m. ET will walk reporters through the latest Itanium. Details are sparse at the moment, but rest assured the Unix server battle is just warming up.
Xerox has closed the purchase of ACS and the deal transforms the company from a document management outfit into one that extends into business process outsourcing. The big question is what comes next.
Xerox announced the acquisition of ACS in September and initially the deal raised a few eyebrows. However, the two companies argue that together they will have the technology and know-how to become a leading business process outsourcing (BPO) company with unique capabilities.
I spoke to Jim Firestone, president of corporate operations at Xerox, and Lynn Blodgett, CEO of ACS, on the closing of the deal, the short-term and long-term plans and what the customer will see.
On the 100-day plan:
NASA scientist Chris McKay takes his work to the far reaches of planet Earth, studying extreme conditions in order to find life on other planets. Through the collection and study of various Earth minerals and organic content, he hopes to understand how life can exist on other planets. He is also researching climate change and how we can better manage our own planet.
SAP CEO Leo Apotheker has resigned and two of his former lieutenants—Bill McDermott, head of sales and Jim Hagemann Snabe, head of product development— have become co-CEOs. Are these two executives the answer or does SAP need some outside intervention?
Dennis Howlett, Vinnie Mirchandani and Michael Krigsman have the hits, runs and errors. Apotheker created SAP’s sales juggernaut and goes out in a terse statement. Apotheker’s departure—voluntary or otherwise—has been rumored for months. He raised prices in a downturn and never quite bridged the sales-technology gap. Oracle has out-executed SAP in many cases.
Job one for McDermott and Snabe: Hug the customers so they feel good about paying maintenance fees and innovate.
Mirchandani summed up the elephant in the enterprise software market:
Microsoft and Facebook have revised their search pact into a global deal where the social networking giant will sell its own ads and get more of Bing’s features on its Web results.
Facebook users will get the full-featured version of Bing beyond links for the site’s Web search;
The deal becomes a global pact that will bring Bing to Facebook users abroad;
And Facebook will sell its own display ads.
The revised deal makes a lot of sense on many fronts. First, Facebook should be selling its own display ads so it can work on better targeting—the ads do seem to be getting better in recent weeks—and control its revenue destiny.
Jon Tinter, general manager of Bing, said:
Given the kinds of advertisements that make sense within a product as unique as Facebook, it just made more sense for them to take the lead on this part of their advertising strategy. Microsoft will continue to provide search advertisements to Facebook.
The other parts of the pact also seem to work out for both parties. Bing gets to show off enhancements via its exclusive Web search results on Facebook, which is gaining more clout and scale each month.
Meanwhile, the international partnership could be a big win for Microsoft as it seeks market share for Bing.
Tinter added:
Bing has been very focused on helping customers make important decisions. We believe that counsel from family and friends can be a big part of that process. Going deeper in web search experiences with Facebook, in addition to the collaboration we announced last October about bringing public data from Facebook’s API into the search experience, will enable us to do great things together for our customers.
These changes are supposed to start appearing in the weeks and months ahead. Financial terms weren’t revealed.
Amazon continues to joust with book publishers over the price of e-books. The skirmish started a week ago with a showdown with Macmillan, spread to Harper Collins and now includes Hachette. These battles boil down to one question: Does content trump distribution or vice versa?
First, the background.
As noted earlier in the week, the Macmillan battle—Amazon pulled Macmillan books from the Kindle store and then capitulated on pricing—just invited other publishers to play hard ball. The battle boils down like this:
Amazon was pricing e-books at $9.99 under a wholesale model;
Publishers wanted an “agency” model where they dictate prices and give the distributor a cut;
Publishers want new digital releases priced at $12.99 to $14.99 and Apple obliged with its iPad and book store;
Now Amazon has a real problem and has to cave.
Simply put, Apple set off a lot of disruption in Amazon’s model. Macmillan has ads bashing Amazon, which is kind of silly when Macmillan CEO John Sargent then pens a letter with passages like this:
Over the last few years we have been deeply concerned about the pricing of electronic books. That pricing, combined with the traditional business model we were using, was creating a market that we believe was fundamentally unbalanced. In the last three weeks, from a standing start we have moved to a new business model. We will make less money on the sale of e books, but we will have a stable and rational market…
A word about Amazon. This has been a very difficult time. Many of you are wondering what has taken so long for Amazon and Macmillan to reach a conclusion. I want to assure you that Amazon has been working very, very hard and always in good faith to find a way forward with us. Though we do not always agree, I remain full of admiration and respect for them. Both of us look forward to being back in business as usual.
Harper Collins is one of the world’s leading publishing houses with much improved profitability. There is no doubt we have been at the forefront of the global debate about the value of content. At times that debate has been intense but that was essential when the stakes were so high. Far too many content companies were passive in the face of predatory behavior and self-serving [sophistry]. Passivity and meekness are not characteristics of our company. A year ago our criticism was thought heretical. But somehow the profane has become profound and the content clan has gathered around our ideas.
As I said earlier, the value of content is now clear. Instead of the existential debate about value now we are merely haggling over valuations. Consumers want content to be delivered immediately and on a ray of devices that suit their needs and they are willing to pay to be entertained and informed.
Without content the ever larger and flatter screens, the tablets, e-readers and the increasingly sophisticated mobile phones would be lifeless. Without content these ingenious and wonderful devices would be unloved and unsold.
And then there’s the email from Hachette Book Group USA CEO David Young via Media Bistro:
There are many advantages to the agency model, for our authors, retailers, consumers, and publishers. It allows Hachette to make pricing decisions that are rational and reflect the value of our authors’ works.
Add it up and publishing houses want a “rational market” according to them. This rational market is the same one that music companies wanted—and lost to Apple’s pricing model. Content companies learned from that and don’t want Amazon to make $9.99 the e-book template.
What side of the equation should dictate pricing: Content or distribution? The tug-of-war over this question flares up repeatedly. Content companies slug it out with cable distributors over fees. NBC Universal pulled its content from Apple’s iTunes for a bit—only to return and cook up Hulu. Google is duking it out with the Associated Press. Now we get the Amazon skirmish.
Simply put, content and distribution need each other. However, distribution has won the day throughout the Internet age. After all, you buy Google and Amazon shares and not newspaper stocks like Gannett and the New York Times. We’ve been told for years—by media titans—that content is king, but I’ve seen little evidence that backs the statement up.
This distribution vs. content discussion came up on the Enterprise Irregular email list. The consensus seemed to be that distribution still wins and book publishers are reacting to a shift in power away from them—just like the music industry and Hollywood. Others noted that book publishers would be better off adopting innovative models such as Tim O’Reilly’s.
Is it different this time? Probably not, Amazon’s distribution power may have taken a hit, but it’s just a matter of time before digital content starts dictating time to market and book publishers have to speed up their publishing models. Vinnie Mirchandani, who is publishing a book, is stunned by how long it takes to bring a completed product to market. The book supply chain is a mess. Content companies can fight all they want to preserve their current models—and maybe even notch a few victories—but their ways of doing business will be disrupted by new distribution vehicles in the end.
There’s an interesting survey being released today by Glassdoor.com, a site that tracks and compares salaries by job type, industry and geography. Sure, it offers up some statistics and such but it also points out how the recession also adjusted salaries. In different times, it seems that some people were a bit more open about their salaries, sharing and comparing with others in their offices or professions.
But now, in an age of layoffs, pay cuts, bonus eliminations and forced work furloughs, employees aren’t so eager to talk about their paychecks - maybe because it’s depressing or embarrassing or simply a subject that’s just too sensitive to even discuss.
The folks at Glassdoor say that there’s a “new normal” when it comes to salaries and, without some comparisons, it’s harder for co-workers to know if their salaries are on track, below average or - dare I say - above average.
When it comes to talking about salaries, 17 percent of the survey respondents said they are not comfortable talking about their salaries with anyone, up from 11 percent a year ago. Those who are comfortable talking about it actually prefer to talk to family or friends about it, instead of someone who has the ability to make salary adjustments, such as a boss. Among employees willing to talk money, 33 percent said they’ll do so with a friend while only 25 percent will talk to the boss and 18 percent will talk to an HR rep. Glassdoor.com career and workplace expert Rusty Rueff said, in a statement:
IBM Research on Friday will announce that it has demonstrated a radio-frequency graphene transistor with the highest frequency (100 GigaHertz) so far.
Graphene is a special form of graphite, consisting of a layer of carbon atoms packed in honeycomb lattice. In a nutshell, graphene is like “atomic scale chick wire.” Graphene’s properties could lead to faster transistors.
IBM’s paper, which will be published in Science, details how the latest graphene breakthrough could enable new communications devices and electronics. The paper was penned by Phaedon Avouris, IBM Fellow and manager of the company’s nanometer scale science and technology research team.
Big Blue along with DARPA is looking to develop carbon electronics.
The graphene transistor IBM demonstrated is already faster than the state-of-the-art transistors today, which have a cut off of 40 Ghz using the same architecture.
Here’s an excerpt from IBM’s paper:
The high carrier mobility in graphene makes it a promising candidate for high-speed electronic devices. As the thinnest possible electronic material of merely one atom thick, graphene offers great potential to create the smallest and fastest transistors among all semiconductor materials (1). Proof-of-concept demonstration of graphene-based electronics has been provided by demonstrating DC operation of field-effect transistors (FETs) – the fundamental building block of modern microelectronics – using graphene flakes extracted from natural graphite (2), and more recently, graphene films produced by decomposition of the surface of silicon carbide (SiC) substrates (3) or by chemical vapor deposition of hydrocarbons on catalytic metal surfaces (4). In spite of the high hopes and claims for the debut of the era of carbon electronics over the last decade, the missing critical tests for evaluating the viability of this new material for practical applications lie in the challenges of demonstrating high-speed (radio frequency, RF), high-performance graphene devices, and their compatibility with wafer-scale fabrication that would enable complex circuit integration.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Smart Planet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Thought-provoking progressive ideas on diverse topics that intersect with technology, business, and life, and matter to the world at large.
Visit SmartPlanet
More from IBM
How to Drive Better Business Outcomes with Exceptional Web Experiences
Download the eBook
On February 3, TechRepublic polled its 100-member panel of U.S. IT executives and asked, “Is there a business case to be made for the iPad and other slate PCs?” The jury, made up of the first 12 respondents, came through with seven “Yes” votes and five “No” votes.
Verizon: Aggressive pricing for BlackBerries as well as buy-one-get-one-free promotions are propping up sales. Walkley writes that:
Matthew Miller: 
Rachel King: 
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Smart Planet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his 
