ZDNet Must Read:
Pondering a rogue cloud; Will platform providers cave to business, government interests?
Harvard law professor Jonathan Zittrain plays the contrarian when it comes to cloud computing: Is the cloud really the backbone of the future we want? Do we want to be... Continued »
December 3rd, 2009
TR Dojo: Dual-boot Windows XP and Windows 7
Bill Detwiler explains how to create a dual-boot system that runs both Windows XP and Windows 7. Once you’ve watched this TR Dojo video, you can find a link to the original TechRepublic article and print the tip from our TR Dojo Blog.
December 3rd, 2009
News to know: MS Office; Fake H1N1; AT&T; Dell; Nokia
Here are today’s notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily. For continuous updates see BNET’s around-the-Web tech coverage:
Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft’s latest promotion: Buy Office 2007 now; get Office 2010 for free
- Microsoft: No Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008 R2 until SP3
- Microsoft demonstrates more Bing 2.0 features and shares new user stats
- Microsoft sells off part of its FAST enterprise-search acquisition
Ryan Naraine: Fake H1N1 (Swine Flu) alerts lead to malware
Sam Diaz: AT&T drops Verizon 3G lawsuit but bad publicity lives on
Andrew Nusca: Dell updates thermal algorithms in response to CPU throttling concerns
- Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Dell releases BIOS updates to fix underperforming/overthrottling notebooks
Nokia makes big bet on 2010: Symbian UI milestones, Maemo 6 computer coming
Top 20 tough iPhone cases (right)
Matthew Miller: HP iPAQ Glisten brings an OLED display to a forward QWERTY device
Sam Diaz: Supernova: Can Social Media be the “savior” of privacy?
- Denise Howell: Muddling through privacy and the social Web
- Larry Dignan: Pondering a rogue cloud; Will platform providers cave to business, government interests?
Tech Trader Daily: Apple: Will iPhone Force Carriers To Adopt Metered Data Pricing?
TechRepublic: 10 Linux features Windows should have by default
Heather Clancy: What, two “greenest” data centers in the same week?
- NEC goes LED
Energy displays bring the smart grid home (gallery right)
Yahoo: Update once to share with many on Yahoo! and Facebook
Doug Hanchard: War goes mainstream on the Internet, Facebook and Twitter
Dana Gardner: BriefingsDirect analysts unpack the psychology of project management via ‘Pragmatic Enterprise 2.0′ and SOA
- Upside case study report shows connections between BPM and security best practices
- Forrester: Remote access and virtualization: Not one and the same
- Michael Krigsman: Complexity vs. goodness in IT failure
- Joe McKendrick: Harvard study: for healthcare, IT doesn’t seem to matter
Matthew Miller: Intel Atom Developer’s Program beta SDK now available
- Kingsley-Hughes: New Intel SSD firmware - Trim support without the bugs
- Patch time for FreeBSD users as Zero-Day exploit is published
Dana Blankenhorn: 11 open source business models
Boy Genius Report: Motorola Sholes Tablet gets pictured
Andrew Nusca: 2011 Audi A8 adds handwriting recognition to in-car UI
Podcast: Windows 7 early returns
Smart Planet: The Sustainability Journey: Life in the Yoga House
Jennifer Leggio: New privacy, shmivacy - Facebook photo tagging still a big fail
MIchael Krigsman: IT Failures blog recognition
Christopher Dawson: Admin fired for incompetence, not alien search
Ed Bott: What the “Black screen of death” story says about tech journalism
AppleInsider: Apple tablet rumored to be ‘shockingly’ inexpensive
Steve Case: Time Warner-AOL deal still makes sense (on the white board)
Bloomberg: GameStop Falls Most in S&P 500 After Walmart Cuts Game Prices
Larry Dignan: Zoho integrates Google Docs: A nice strategy
That giant sucking sound: Sun’s server share continues to deteriorate
Google: Search and gated content happy publishers aren’t zero sum
- Nusca: On publishing, paywalls and the information fabric of the Web
- Garrett Rogers: Google takes a deep look at itself in 2009
Sean Portnoy: Wal-Mart extends Cyber Monday deals on 1080p HDTVs
Are manufacturers shifting resources away from GPS navigation devices?
5 security threats to watch in 2010
Dan Kusnetzky: Responding to “Getting started with Virtualization”
Dana Blankenhorn: A modest proposal to transform health care
Oliver Marks: Flip Video WiFi TV Hookup & FlipShare 5.0 Software
Rachel King: FlipShare TV service launches Flip videos to your TV
Acer announces first Google Chrome OS netbook
Diaz: Can a black eye from Consumer Reports harm AT&T, iPhone?
December 2nd, 2009
AT&T drops Verizon 3G lawsuit but bad publicity lives on
Not quite 30 days ago, AT&T did one of the worst things it could do when Verizon Wireless launched an advertising campaign that compared the two companies’ 3G coverage: it sued.
That suit set off a flurry of blog posts (including a few posted by me) and broadly raised the awareness of an advertising campaign that probably could have been overlooked by time-pressed consumers who were busy gearing up for the holiday season.
Now, less that a month later, the lawsuit has been dismissed, which follows a judge’s denial of AT&T’s request to have the commercial pulled. In the meantime, Verizon has taken its “There’s a map for that” campaign into a number of new commercials, including a new one featuring Santa and his reindeer.
AT&T’s biggest mistake was trying to squash the ad on the basis that it was misleading, instead of inaccurate. The company said that consumers were being misled into thinking that those maps represented all of AT&T’s coverage, instead of just its 3G coverage. The problem was that the commercial - and the information in it - was not inaccurate. As Verizon said in its response to the suit, “The truth hurts.”
This whole issue of AT&T’s service has been a public relations nightmare in recent weeks - and it wasn’t all just from the commercial. This week, the blogosphere lit up when a Consumer Reports article gave AT&T’s overall cell phone voice quality a “poor” rating and suggested that consumers might love the iPhone but should expect to be disappointed with the call quality on the AT&T network.
Instead of paying lawyers to file silly lawsuits that end up being dismissed less than 30 days later, AT&T might have been better off launching its own marketing campaign (No, I don’t mean that lame Luke Wilson response) or - better yet - spending some of that lawyer money on beefing up the network. Yes, I realize that AT&T continues to invest in its network - but clearly it’s not enough and it’s definitely not being done fast enough.
Previous coverage:
- Memo to AT&T: When you’re in a hole, stop digging
- AT&T’s 3G upgrade: It’s about time but is it too late?
December 2nd, 2009
Steve Case: Time Warner-AOL deal still makes sense (on the white board)
The synergy fest that was Time Warner-AOL $182 billion merger debacle looked great on paper. The execution stunk.
That’s the message from former AOL CEO Steve Case. Case told CNBC that strategically the Time Warner-AOL deal still makes sense. The comments are comical given Time Warner spins off AOL Dec. 9.
The lesson here: Damn near anything can look good on paper. Here’s the video and Case’s comments about vision vs. execution land about 1 minute in.
December 2nd, 2009
Supernova: Can Social Media be the "savior" of privacy?
There have been plenty of debates over the rise of social networking sites and the impact they have on privacy. In most cases, privacy advocates are quick to warn users of these sites that information posted on the Internet is forever out there, potentially available to anyone with Web connection.
In a session called Privacy and the Social Web at the Supernova conference in San Francisco, it was surprising to hear Jim Dempsey, vice president of public policy for the Center for Democracy and Technology, suggest that the “social networking phenomenon could be the savior of privacy.”
As crazy as it sounds, Dempsey tapped into a thought that popped into my head yesterday when I logged on to Facebook and spotted a big headline about a blog post from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. It was in my face. I couldn’t help but see it. Sure, it was disruptive to my Facebook experience but the company wanted to make sure that its users saw it. Why? Because it pertained to their privacy settings.
Back to Dempsey’s point, the realization that we are putting granular information about ourselves on the Web has become a center-stage topic. And that sort of awareness is incredibly valuable.
Because it’s a young company, Facebook is building from the ground up and learning as it goes. Clearly, Facebook has made some blunders in the past - notably the launch of Beacon and the impromptu changes to its terms and services - that prompted backlash from its user base. But Facebook has also learned from those experiences - and it seems that others have learned from them, as well.
Anne Toth, who heads privacy efforts at Yahoo, highlighted the shift toward a more social experience on its properties and detailed some of the challenges that come with being an established site with an established user base that’s suddenly introducing new ways of doing thing.
To a certain extent, Yahoo has watched Facebook slip, fall and pick themselves up after their blunders, she said. Yesterday’s alert of privacy changes was disruptive - but that’s OK. Facebook knew better than to just make changes without alerting its users. Yahoo understands the significance of that, as well.
Privacy and the Internet will continue to be a hot topic of debate. Policies dealing with social media and privacy - whether at the corporate level or government level - cannot be an end-all solution. Keeping people engaged in the privacy discussion is one way to keep them from becoming complacent and comfortable with what they’re putting out there.
Keeping that discussion alive is a good thing.
Also see: Denise Howell: Muddling through privacy and the social web
December 2nd, 2009
On publishing, paywalls and the information fabric of the Web
Google said Tuesday that it will let publishers set a daily limit on the number of articles readers can view for free through its popular search engine.
The change, explained at length in a post on the Google News blog, will let publishers limit readers to five free articles per day.
The reason for this change: content providers, under fire from dropping advertising revenue, are angry that their content spreads around the web for users’ enjoyment — and potentially aggregation sites’ benefit, if those sites run ads against that content — without increasing their own coffers.
In other words: is it preferable to be popular, or wealthy?
December 2nd, 2009
Google: Search and gated content happy publishers aren’t zero sum
Some newspaper publishers—read Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.—think it makes sense to pull their content from Google in the name of subscription revenue. Now Google is updating a policy so these publishers can have their subscription gates and maintain some search juice.
Consider it an olive branch of sorts so newspapers don’t have to find out the hard way whether their traffic will plunge.
In a blog post, Google argues that publishers can have it both ways.
December 2nd, 2009
Zoho integrates Google Docs: A nice strategy
What do you do when you arguably have a better suite than the big dog on the block yet lack the marketing and distribution heft? You integrate.
In a nutshell, that appears to be Zoho’s plan (Techmeme, Zoho overview). Zoho provides an application suite that includes everything from office applications to CRM to other enterprise tools.
A few key points:
- Google Docs is integrated with Zoho Applications - Zoho CRM, Mail, Docs & Projects.
- This integration is an extension of the Google-Zoho sign-on integration.
- Documents from Google can be integrated into Zoho CRM.
- Attachments between Google Docs and Zoho products such as Mail are seamless.
Now let’s ponder the strategy here.
- By integrating with Google Docs, Zoho can pitch a wider audience on its apps.
- This integration is key as Zoho aims for the stack above its office productivity apps—think CRM.
- And at the very least Zoho is put on Google’s radar. I’ve long argued that Google should scoop up Zoho to advance its enterprise apps strategy.
December 2nd, 2009
That giant sucking sound: Sun's server share continues to deteriorate
Global server revenue fell 17.3 percent in the third quarter, but sales were up sequentially for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2008, according to IDC data. However, Sun Microsystems’ sales continued to fall 35 percent as the company lies in limbo as regulators ponder a deal with Oracle.
December 2nd, 2009
Pondering a rogue cloud; Will platform providers cave to business, government interests?
Updated: Harvard law professor Jonathan Zittrain plays the contrarian when it comes to cloud computing: Is the cloud really the backbone of the future we want?
Zittrain’s talk, delivered at the Supernova conference in San Francisco, highlighted one of the biggest rubs with the cloud: We’re all slaves to a tethered device that frankly won’t be worth much without cloud computing. Consumers trade some freedoms and trust vendors to make decisions for us in exchange for ease of use. And sometimes these vendors will cave to demands from governments and other groups.
Don’t buy it? Consider:
- Christopher Soghoian, a graduate student at Indiana University, has caused a stir. Why? He reckons that “the shift to cloud computing needlessly exposes users to privacy invasion and fraud by hackers.” He also notes that Sprint has handed received 8 million law enforcement GPS requests in a year.
- The Kindle is a tethered appliance that delivers what Amazon wants you to see. And Amazon will cave to publishers on a text-to-speak feature.
- Who can forget that 1984 incident on the Kindle? Simply put, Amazon can tweak your content. (Zittrain based his presentation on Amazon as CTO Werner Vogels sat and listened).
- Apple tells you which apps are good for you. An Android eye application? Nope. How about app called Freedom Time that mocked George W. Bush? Nope. The list goes on and on.
- The FBI can go to OnStar and force the company to put a microphone in the back of a car on to track a suspected perp.
“More and more, your reality is contingent on the cloud and features that are dictated by business judgments,” said Zittrain.
Zittrain said the biggest risk here is that the government can pressure platform providers. “You hit the platform providers and they cave for business reasons,” added Zittrain. “Smart devices can be bent toward law enforcement. As a society we have to grapple with new set of worries called civic worries.”
Google’s Bradley Horowitz, vice president of product management, said companies have to be “clueful and principled,” but noted there are a lot of new waters to navigate regarding cloud computing, privacy and other issues. Horowitz added that Google management “cares passionately about these issues.”
Wharton legal studies professor Kevin Werbach asked: “Can we afford to rely on good management? People and leadership changes? Anything in design principles to avoid this?”
Horowitz said a strong cloud computing community and groups to keep giants honest will be critical. “It’s important that there are people that keep us on our toes,” he said.
Listening to this back and forth was interesting, but Zittrain has a point. Governments and other groups could pressure cloud providers into making a lot of decisions that consumers wouldn’t make on their own. What’s the answer? For now, it’s Horowitz’s clueful management approach, but it’s unclear whether that’ll always work in the future.
More from Supernova: Amazon CTO Vogels: Cloud computing an option for disaster recovery
December 2nd, 2009
Podcast: Windows 7 early returns
In this episode of The Big Question, Jason and I ponder the meaning of early reviews of Windows 7. Do early adopters provide much of an indicator?
The Big Question is a joint production from ZDNet and TechRepublic that I co-host with ZDNet Editor in Chief Larry Dignan.
You can play this 12-minute episode from the Flash-based player at the top of the page or:
If you enjoy this podcast, please go to to our iTunes page to rate it and leave a short review.
Stories discussed in this episode:
- The State of Windows 7 Satisfaction (Technologizer)
- Windows 7 sales outshine Vista (CNET News)
- Ballmer: So far, Windows 7 sales are “fantastic” (ZDNet)
- Windows 7 Sales Beat Mac OS X Market Share (PC World)
- Demand for Windows 7, Xbox lifts Microsoft earnings; more losses online (ZDNet)
December 2nd, 2009
Facebook hits 350 million user mark; Nukes regions
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg delivered an open letter to his customers, noting that the company was officially going to ditch regional networks. Facebook also has 350 million people using it.
The move to ditch regional networks is long overdue. Why? A lot of folks are multi-regional. Why do I have to pick the Princeton area when I could do Hoboken. Or New York. Or Philly. Or Delaware. You get the idea. You move around a bit and regional networks just get silly.
The big upshot is that users will have to update their privacy settings under a “simpler model for privacy control.”
However, if you really want to know what Zuckerberg was saying I’ll send you to Caroline McCarthy at CNet News. She has a really handy translation.
December 2nd, 2009
Can a black eye from Consumer Reports harm AT&T, iPhone?
The blogosphere lit up yesterday when news of Consumer Reports’ cell phone satisfaction survey hit the Internet and AT&T - and, indirectly, Apple - received the blackest of black eyes by the magazine.
It wasn’t enough that Consumer Reports ranked AT&T dead last with an overall ranking of “poor” for service but it also noted that “if you’re readying to buy Apple’s iPhone, prepare for possible disappointment with its service.” The real kicker comes a bit later in the section: “On the fence about an iPhone? Our smart phone Ratings recommend a number of fine alternatives.”
Ouch.
Yes, the magazine notes that the iPhone’s popularity is off the charts and that customers love it enough to hold on to it, despite the poor service quality. And, in a response to All Things Digital’s Digital Daily blog, the company points to its low churn rate as “the surest indication of customer satisfaction.”
OK, that’s all fine and dandy for AT&T. But if you’re Steve Jobs and Apple, I can’t imagine that you’re happy about Consumer Reports suggesting that folks on the fence about the iPhone are better off choosing from “a number of fine alternatives.”
Now that I’m really becoming attached to a Motorola Droid, it’s getting easier for me to say that I don’t care which carrier lands the iPhone next. I had been holding out for an iPhone on Verizon next year, but there are no guarantees that that will happen. Now, an analyst is suggesting that T-Mobile is more likely than Verizon to be the iPhone’s No. 2 carrier in the U.S.
That’s even more reason for me - and many others like me, I’m sure - to stick with the better network and buy “one of those fine alternatives.” I did it - and, while I still have a bit of iPhone envy, my experience with Droid is taking away a lot of that. It looks like AT&T’s poor service is costing Apple some customers.
Now that Consumer Reports has given the equivalent of a thumbs-down to AT&T, I wonder if the service problems will cost Apple even more customers.
December 2nd, 2009
News to know: GE-Comcast; AT&T ranking; Vogels; Psystar settlement; Storm 2; Nokia
Here are today’s notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily. For continuous updates see BNET’s around-the-Web tech coverage:
Sam Diaz: CNBC: GE, Comcast in final stages of NBC Universal deal
Jason D. O’Grady: Consumer Reports ranks AT&T last among U.S. wireless carriers
Larry Dignan: Amazon CTO Vogels: Cloud computing an option for disaster recovery
Sam Diaz: Report: Apple, Psystar reach partial settlement
Jason Perlow: Storm 2: The Misfit BlackBerry
Sam Diaz: Nokia sues Samsung, LG over LCD price fixing
Heather Clancy: Power management software vendor 1E gets tacit thumbs-up from Microsoft
Jason D. O’Grady: MacHeads streamed online for free
Harry Fuller: East Anglia hacking: one down, how many to go?
Amazon CTO: Cloud’s advantage [video]
Sam Diaz: Comcast keeps promise, launches data usage meter
Larry Dignan: Chris Anderson goes analog; We all can be manufacturers
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: UPDATED - “Black Screen of Death” problems seem to be little more than scattered cases
Larry Dignan: IBM’s Tivoli heads to Amazon Web Services
Sam Diaz: Report: Bright outlook for IT jobs
Ars Technica: Steve Jobs intervenes, approves Knocking streaming video app
Media Memo: Is YouTube Ready for Primetime? Google Wants to Stream TV, for a fee
Harry Fuller: Most of us use a lot of oil without ever driving a car
CNET: Fake swine flu e-mails lead to computer virus
Facebook blog: An Open Letter from Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg
ZDNet UK: India blocks millions of cell phones
Larry Dignan: Smart cities, sensors and their potential side effects
Heather Clancy: Echelon ships new energy management appliance
Ryan Naraine: Beware of rigged PDF files on BlackBerry
Doug Hanchard: Can hackers have a disease and be absolved from a crime? Maybe…
paidContent: Huffington To Murdoch: Stop ‘Pointing Fingers’
Mary Jo Foley: Ruby on Rails becomes latest open-source offering to run on Microsoft’s Azure cloud
December 1st, 2009
Chris Anderson goes analog; We all can be manufacturers
Chris Anderson, best known a big thinker and an author that chronicles the digital revolution, is going decidedly analog.
That’s the gist of a talk the Wired editor-in-chief gave at the Supernova conference in 
San Francisco. I must admit it’s odd to hear Anderson get so wound up about physical stuff. But he got into manufacturing—without any infrastructure mind you—via his DIY Drones venture (right). “This could be the future of manufacturing and the future of the U.S. economy,” he said.
Anderson’s speech, which he used to try out new material that will most likely wind up in another book, made the following points:
- The Web revolution is hitting the real world. “We are entering a new manufacturing age,” said Anderson. “I’ve been thinking about being analog and the world of manufacturing.”
- Manufacturing businesses are utilizing a lot of the techniques pioneered on the Web.
- Tools of production are being democratized. Exhibit A: 3D printers will now run you $750. Anderson has one in his basement. Laser cutters and circuit boards can all be designed in your basement using world class industrial technologies.
- If you want scale, a Chinese factory will work with you where ever you are. “I can click a button and make robots in a Chinese factory move,” said Anderson. “These factories want to work with smaller companies because there’s the flexibility to do so and higher margins. You have access to the same factory as Sony.”
- Anderson chronicled Local Motors, which walks you through designing and building a car. Can this business scale?
The list goes on. Anderson’s big point is that the barriers to manufacturing are falling away. In fact, we may all be manufacturers down the road. Consider it the long tail of physical stuff.
Related: Free is not a business model
Freemium: The first business model of the 21st century
Wired’s Editor Chris Anderson bans words “journalism” and “media”
December 1st, 2009
Amazon CTO: Cloud's advantage [video]
At the Supernova Conference in San Francisco, Amazon Chief Technology Officer Werner Vogels broadly outlines the benefits of a cloud-based infrastructure. He says Web services offer businesses the ability to lower costs, increase agility, and run a more secure platform within their organizations.
December 1st, 2009
CNBC: GE, Comcast in final stages of NBC Universal deal
A deal between Comcast and General Electric, which would give the cable giant a majority stake in NBC Universal, appears close to being finalized, CNBC is reporting. The deal would give Comcast 51 percent and GE 49 percent of NBC Universal, which is valued at about $30 billion. (Techmeme)
The deal would put Comcast right up there with Disney as one of the nation’s largest entertainment companies, giving it control over NBCU’s cable channels, such as Bravo and CNBC, but also the NBC and Telemundo networks as well as Universal’s movie studio and theme parks.
It’s a bold move for Comcast, given that the competitive landscape in broadband services and content distribution are in the midst of a major transformation that had the potential to leave a company like Comcast out in the cold over time.
As video content continues to transition to Internet platforms. the value behind cable television programming becomes diminished. Likewise, as wireless carriers continue to expand their broadband offerings for the mobile world, the cable broadband providers will have to fend off new competitors.
With this approach, Comcast could help drive the way viewers transition from traditional television to Web-based video content -something that would allow it to put its experience as a cable provider to work while also keeping its broadband service out of the “dumb pipe” category that offers nothing but connectivity.
It’s also worth noting that there’s also a nice little Web element to this transaction, something that Larry Dignan detailed in a previous post.
CNBC’s source tells it that the only thing left to do to make this deal happen is to “process paperwork” - oh, and gain regulatory approval. The early speculation is that it could take more than a year to gain approval from the FCC but that it will eventually get that blessing.
Previous coverage: WSJ: NBC Universal valued at $30 billion; Stage set for Comcast-GE deal this week?
December 1st, 2009
Amazon CTO Vogels: Cloud computing an option for disaster recovery
Amazon CTO Werner Vogels said Tuesday that enterprises are increasingly using Amazon Web Services for disaster recovery.
Vogels, speaking at the Supernova conference in San Francisco (follow on Twitter), made the remarks during a cloud computing 101 talk.
While Vogels covered a lot of well covered ground—at least for folks that cover cloud computing regularly—his disaster recovery statement stuck out from an IT management perspective.
“Enterprises are writing enormous checks to disaster recovery companies,” said Vogels.
It’s a point well taken. Disaster recovery is a huge business that really took off after the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. If Amazon Web Services becomes a viable disaster recovery option it could be very disruptive.
Other odds and ends:
- Vogels walked through a few more use cases. Marketing campaigns are using Amazon to scale up at launches.
- Netflix is using Amazon Web Services to reach peak streaming demand.
- Intuit uses Amazon to scale up during tax season.
- And Eli Lilly is a big Amazon Web Services customer. The Eli Lilly case was also presented at a recent Gartner conference.
The common thread: Companies are looking to manage uncertainty. “New uncertainties (in business and IT) require new resource models,” said Vogels.
December 1st, 2009
Smart cities, sensors and their potential side effects
Your future city will be networked to the hilt with sensors that will enable new “urban actors”—think bridges, bricks and traffic signals—that will communicate with its inhabitants. But as cities become more networked there are risks to their evolution.
That’s the message from Adam Greenfield, head of design direction Nokia for user interface and services at Nokia. Greenfield, speaking at the Supernova conference (follow on Twitter) in San Francisco, paints a picture that is exciting yet threatens the purpose of cities. Civic responsibilities and norms will change as these “networked information technologies increasingly condition cities,” said Greenfield.
The argument: Cities have evolved because they provide the opportunity for reinvention and ability to be anonymous. A networked city fabric is a threat. To wit: Do you really want to know everything about your neighbor? If you did know your neighbor’s religion, thoughts and social circle you may know too much. Simply put, sensor-laden cities may become decidedly less comfortable. Greenfield’s talk highlighted how cities evolved with neighborhoods, landmarks and “legibility.” If technologies—think RFID—remove those boundaries it’s hard to model a city.
Greenfield’s point is that the sensor laden cities of the future will morph and that may not be such a good thing.
As IPv6, the latest version of Internet Protocol, is adopted every “grain of sand can have an Internet address,” said Greenfield. “We’re entering a time where every brick and every window and traffic signal an addressable object,” he added.
Within a city communication will go beyond people-to-people conversation to the actual fabric of the city. And the future isn’t really that far away: London’s Tower Bridge has a Twitter account.
Is all this tracking worth it? Cities have been an opportunity to reinvent yourself. Technology like social networking means you can’t escape your past. Reinvention goes away. What happens when every sensor tracks you and there’s no escaping your past? Does the city still hold its appeal?
The fix: Greenfield argues that we need new city residents that can explain these technologies to the masses. Regulation, open data and law will all play a part. The problem: Sensor issues and the side effects from networked cities aren’t on anyone’s radar.
Perhaps we need to think about the design of network through a bit more and start the conversation.
December 1st, 2009
Report: Bright outlook for IT jobs
A new hiring report for the IT industry is offering a glimmer of hope, even the short term gains are relatively small. Yet, the optimism among CIOs that good times are coming soon is relatively high.
The data comes from the first-quarter Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report, which was released today. (Statement)
It found that 7 percent of technology executives said they anticipate adding IT workers in the first quarter while 4 percent plan workforce reductions. Eighty-nine percent said they will maintain current staffing levels. In a statement, Dave Willmer, executive director of Robert Half Technology, said:
After months of slow hiring activity, managers are beginning the year with new budgets and appear ready to carefully expand their IT departments. Many firms are investing in technologies that improve efficiency and competitiveness, and there has been demand for additional professionals to implement these projects. The health services sector, for instance, needs IT talent to manage the conversion to electronic medical records.
Technology executives said they struggle most to find skilled professionals in networking, security and app development. Network administration, desktop support and Windows administration were the technical skills most in demand.
Sam Diaz is a senior editor at ZDNet. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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White Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads
- Healthcare CommunI.T. CDW Help build a stronger Healthcare CommunI.T. with technology from CDW ... Download Now
- Dell IT Cuts Energy Costs by Up to 40 Percent With a New Power Management Plan Dell Energy conservation is an increasingly important issue for organizations ... Download Now
- Using NIC Teaming to Achieve High Availability on Linux Platforms Dell Network interface card (NIC) teaming is one method for providing high ... Download Now
SmartPlanet
- 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
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- How to Drive Better Business Outcomes with Exceptional Web Experiences Download the eBook
- Driving Business Agility through SOA Connectivity & Integration Read the White Paper from IBM
- Linking Decisions and Information for Organizational Performance Read the Tom Davenport study
