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Historian Lord Blake Dies at Age 86
: "Tue Sep 23,12:46 PM ET
Tue Sep 23,12:46 PM ET
LONDON - Lord Blake, a historian and acclaimed biographer of Benjamin Disraeli, has died at the age of 86, his daughter said Tuesday.
Blake died Sept. 20 at home in Brundall, eastern England, Letitia Blake said. The cause of death was not disclosed.
Blake's biography of Disraeli, who was prime minister in 1868 and 1874-80, took 10 years to write. It was an unusually frank portrayal of a genius who could also be unprincipled, devious and a sexual adventurer.
In 1942, while serving with the 124th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, he was captured outside Tobruk in north Africa and spent 15 months as a prisoner of war in Italy.
He and four companions eventually escaped, and Blake spent the rest of the war working for the British intelligence service, MI6.
From 1947-68, he taught politics at Oxford's Christ Church College; his first major literary assignment was to edit "The Private Papers of Douglas Haig" (1952), followed by a biography of Andrew Bonar Law, the Canadian-born Scot who led the Conservative Party to power in 1922 and died in office after eight months.
From 1950-55, Blake was dean of Christ Church College and from 1959-60 was senior proctor, becoming provost of Queen's College in 1968. From 1971-87 he was Oxford's pro-vice-chancellor. For 10 years was joint editor of Oxford University Press' "Dictionary of National Biography."
He was appointed to the House of Lords in 1971.
His wife, Patricia, died in 1995; he is survived by their three daughters.
September 30, 2003 at 07:57 PM in World Affairs | Permalink | TrackBack (66) | Top of page | Blog Home
Nico Macdonald puts Weblogging in the context of the history of online publishing, explaining its novelty and value, and indicating where it needs to innovate. He concludes with a proposal encouraging publishers to properly embrace the Weblogging model. "
The Future of Weblogging - Nico MacDonald
September 30, 2003 at 07:55 PM in Blogging & feeds | Permalink | TrackBack (4) | Top of page | Blog Home
TIME.com: How to Go Legit -- Sep. 22, 2003
The music industry's legal actions have had an effect on peoples music habits, but I still think the industry have a long awy to go before they make it a positive experience based on a well thought through custoemr experience, vs using legal action.
How to Go Legit
TIME.com: TIME Magazine -- How to Go Legit
Pay for music online? It used to be square, but the crackdown on pirates is giving legal sites new life
By LISA TAKEUCHI CULLEN
Jamie Partida is facing the music. Like many of her fellow music fans across the country, the University of Michigan senior visits the file-sharing website Kazaa and occasionally downloads a few songs free. The sports-management major, 21, knows it's wrong. "It's unfair to the artist because you're not paying for it," she admits. But the price of CDs is such that she never considered quitting. Until last week, that is, when hundreds of file-sharing consumers found themselves slammed with lawsuits from the recording industry. "Now I'm a bit scared," says Partida. "I know they're targeting the big users, but you never know. I just don't feel that innocent about it anymore." And the pay-per-tune sites don't look so bad. "Ninety-nine cents per song — that's pretty cheap," she says.
If Partida and others like her decide to go legit, that could signal the long-awaited dawn of a potentially huge industry: the sale of digital music online. A gaggle of companies has struggled for years to create such a market, hampered first by uncooperative record labels and then by free file-sharing alternatives. But change is coming fast. The overnight success of Apple's 99¢-per-song iTunes Music Store — it sold its 10 millionth song this month — has awakened consumers to legal downloading options. Iconic acts like the Rolling Stones and the Eagles have begun allowing their songs to be sold online. With the digital-music industry expected to grow in revenues from $77 million this year to $1.5 billion in 2008, according to Jupiter Research, marquee players, including Microsoft, Amazon and Yahoo, are revving up to rush the stage.
No one needs the new sales outlets more than the recording industry does. Sales for the industry fell 14% from their 1999 peak, to $11.6 billion in 2002, as consumers who were turned off by hefty CD prices and lame products embraced the digital black market instead. Forrester Research estimates that the migration costs the business at least $700 million in lost CD sales annually. Worse, record labels tripped up the progress toward a legal Internet music market by quibbling over rights and hoarding their artists. They spent hundreds of millions on their own online services, alienating consumers by forcing them to seek out artists by label. Luring back those disgruntled music lovers from file sharing is difficult but vital, says Doug Morris, chairman of Universal Music Group, which slashed CD prices this month. "If you had Coke coming out of the kitchen faucet," he says, "what would you pay for a bottle?"
A dollar, wagers Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple — or 99¢, to be exact. When Apple introduced its pay-per-song service last spring, many doubted the computer maker could succeed where so many had failed. But the straightforward concept and uncomplicated design of iTunes immediately hit a chord with consumers, who downloaded 1 million songs in its debut week. The service's popularity underscored Jobs' argument: free file sharing can be a pain in the neck. Once you square yourself with breaking the law, there's also the virus-ridden software, the porn links, the cumbersome downloads. "We're all about competing with piracy," says Jobs. The record industry gets it. "If the business could have done one thing differently over the past few years," laments Andrew Lack, CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, "it would have been to find a smoother, faster path to iTunes and the other services."
Even though iTunes' reach is limited to the 3% of computer users on Macintoshes (a PC version is due by year's end), Apple's success has left the others playing catch-up. Many Internet music services require monthly subscriptions to listen to songs over the computer or extra fees for downloading them (often with complicated and varying stipulations). Some services, like Listen.com's Rhapsody, plan to stick with the subscription format, but Rhapsody also plans to offer an a la carte option for nonsubscribers.
Business is picking up at Listen.com, where the number of songs "streamed," or played as if the customer were listening to the radio, has doubled to more than 500,000 a day since April. But competition from illegal downloading services has put the legit pioneers through a lot of corporate turmoil. Listen.com was bought this summer by RealNetworks; Pressplay, the service begun by record labels Universal and Sony, is now owned by softwaremaker Roxio, which also bought the rights to the defunct Napster brand; MusicNet, begun by the three other big labels, is now offered by America Online (which, like TIME, is owned by AOL Time Warner). Yet the growing business potential brings ever more newcomers. At least 10 new services plan to go live in coming months. Roxio expects to launch a made-over Napster before the end of the year; CEO Chris Gorog says 1 million potential customers have requested e-mail updates. MusicMatch plans to introduce a pay-per-song music store in weeks.
The problem so far with the pay-per-song model from a business perspective is profits — or the lack thereof. With as much as 70% of each sale going to the record label and the rest eaten up by surprisingly high costs for things like infrastructure and credit-card fees, sales volume must but doesn't yet compensate. "It's not a way to make a lot of money," acknowledges Jobs. No, it's a way to help sell iPods. Apple says sales of the music-storing, high-profit-margin palm-size gadgets almost quadrupled between the quarters before and after iTunes' launch. Apple's approach borrows from a proven business tactic. "Westinghouse created radio shows to sell radios," notes Lee Black, an analyst with Jupiter Research. AOL Music takes a cut from songs sold through MusicNet, but its ka-ching comes from the 16 million visitors it delivers each month to advertisers like Coca-Cola.
Believers in legit downloading think they can win over citizens to a new law-abiding habit. "Somebody in your neighborhood will always have pirated cable," says Rob Glaser, CEO of RealNetworks. "But the social norm is, if you want cable, you pay for it." Yet freeloaders won't necessarily go quietly. LaTisha Knowles, 19, a Florida A&M sophomore and former avid file sharer, still refuses to buy CDs. "It's a waste of money," she says. Karen Keenan, 26, a copywriter in Chicago, downloads regularly from iTunes — but also from free file sharer LimeWire. "I have the same moral problem with sharing digital music that I have with public libraries — i.e., none," she says. The future of digital-music sales may rest in the hands of those who, to borrow from the Talking Heads, have developed a healthy fear of music — free music. Says Kyu-Heong Kim, a junior majoring in biology at the University of Texas in Austin: "Who wants to be put in jail or pay some huge fine because you downloaded Justin Timberlake's newest song? It's just too big of a risk."
With reporting by Stefanie Friedhoff/Ann Arbor, Avery Holton/Austin, Naeemah Khabir/Tallahassee, Jessica Reaves/Chicago and Chris Taylor/San Francisco
September 28, 2003 at 04:42 PM in Business Models | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
TIME.com: Playing In The Dark -- Sep. 29, 2003
Darknets are similar to corporate extranets - collections of private indivuduals sharing something. The difference is that its probably illegal music or file sharing!
TIME.com: Playing In The Dark -- Sep. 29, 2003
The heat is on, and music swappers are taking their business underground
By ANITA HAMILTON
Muffin man has more than 2,000 songs on his hard drive, and he's happy to share them. He's a big fan of bands like Pearl Jam and the White Stripes, so there's plenty of hard rock in his collection.
But chances are you'll never get to it. The 21-year-old pizza cook, who asked to be identified by his online nickname, makes his songs available only through private file-sharing networks known as darknets. Unlike such public networks as Kazaa or Morpheus, which let you share songs with anyone, private networks operate more like underground nightclubs or secret societies. To gain access, you need to know the name of the group and a password. And the only way to get that information is from another member who invites you in. Some darknets even encrypt files and mask your identity within a group to keep eavesdroppers from finding out who you are and what you are sharing.
It's a handy invention now that the recording industry has taken to suing kids who share music online. But darknets are not just for digital music files. Carving out a bit of privacy online has wide appeal; students, community groups and even political dissidents can use these hidden networks to share projects, papers and information. One part of the allure is anonymity; the other is exclusivity. Since participation is limited, file searches don't turn up a lot of junk or pornography. Darknets offer the convenience of the Web without a lot of the bad stuff.
You need special software to start a darknet of your own. The two most popular programs are Direct Connect by NeoModus (at neomodus.com) and an open-source variation of it called DC++, available at sourceforge.net. More than 800,000 copies of DC++ have been downloaded since mid-July. A third program, called Waste (also at sourceforge.net), automatically encrypts files but is much harder to use.
There are no good estimates of how many people use darknets. Lowtec, a college sophomore studying computer engineering, figures that 10% of the students at his school (which he declined to name) share files through Direct Connect. "It's much faster than Kazaa," he says. That's because private networks typically link small, close-knit communities in which all members have superfast connections.
The recording industry so far hasn't put much effort into combatting the secret networks, but its neglect might not last long. If networks like Kazaa become too risky, darknets could quickly rise to take their place. And if that happens, the music industry could find itself chasing users who are that much harder to catch.
September 28, 2003 at 04:37 PM in Internet evolution | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
E-paper takes a step forward.
"A dramatically simple idea may finally make 'electronic paper' displays a realistic prospect. If so, animated versions of a newspaper could, one day, be unfurled like a roller-blind on a flexible wireless display."
September 24, 2003 at 10:00 PM in Internet evolution | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
Internet is now mainstream, and building websites is a core part of the operation in large companies. The days of unusual people behind locked doors coding furiously has been replaced with a disciplined and sustainable business approach. Such approaches need a framework, and this article lays out the parts of the puzzle as pillars.
The nine pillars of successful web teams
adaptive path - the nine pillars of successful web teams
by Jesse James Garrett
July 9, 2003
Every Web team has its own take on dividing up roles and responsibilities and implementing processes for design and development. Formal titles, job descriptions, and reporting structures can vary widely. But the best teams I’ve encountered have one important thing in common: their team structure and processes cover a full range of distinct competencies necessary for success.
I’ve come to think of these competencies as the Nine Pillars. In a successful team, we can quickly and clearly identify which team members have which of these nine competencies, and where these competencies come into play in the design and development processes. When the system seems to be breaking down, it’s often because one of the pillars is missing, either from the team structure or from the process.
Pillar By Pillar
Here’s a diagram showing the Nine Pillars and how they interrelate. The Pillars range from strategic competencies needed to develop broad-ranging, long-term approaches to tactical competencies needed to address the immediate, practical details of execution. Let’s look at the Pillars one by one, from the most strategic to the most tactical.
1. User Research: User-centered design means understanding what your users need, how they think, and how they behave — and incorporating that understanding into every aspect of your process. User research provides the raw observations that fuel this insight into the people your site must serve.
2. Site Strategy: Defining your own goals for the site can be surprisingly tricky. Arriving at a common understanding of the site’s purpose for your organization, how you’ll prioritize the site’s various goals, and the means by which you’ll measure the site’s success are all matters of site strategy.
3. Technology Strategy: Web sites are technologically complex, and getting more intricate all the time. Identifying the technology strategy for the site — platforms, standards, technologies, and how they can all interoperate — is essential to avoiding costly mistakes.
4. Content Strategy: Content is often the reason users come to your site. But what content can you offer to meet your users’ expectations? How much content is appropriate, and what form should it take? What style or tone should it have? Before you can produce that content, you need to answer fundamental content strategy questions such as these.
5. Abstract Design: Information architecture and interaction design translate strategic objectives into a conceptual framework for the final user experience. These emerging disciplines addressing abstract design are increasingly recognized for their value in the Web development process.
6. Technology Implementation: Building technical systems involves a lot of hard work and specialized knowledge: languages and protocols, coding and debugging, testing and refactoring. The more complex your site, the more important a competency in technology implementation becomes.
7. Content Production: Knowing what content you need isn’t enough. You also need to know how you’ll produce it. Gathering raw information, writing and editing, and defining editorial workflows and approvals are all part of content production.
8. Concrete Design: Before the abstract design can become a fully realized user experience, you must determine the specific details of interfaces, navigation, information design, and visual design. This realm of concrete design is essential to creating the final product.
9. Project Management: The hub that binds all the tactical competencies together as well as the engine that drives the project forward to completion, project management requires a highly specialized set of skills all its own. Neglecting this area often results in missed deadlines and cost overruns.
Putting the Pillars Into Practice
Does this mean that every Web team has to have at least nine people on it? Not necessarily. It’s very common to have team members with multiple competencies.
This is especially true for the strategic competencies, which are often paired with complementary tactical competencies. For example, someone with a strong grounding in technology implementation frequently takes on technology strategy as well, and many concrete designers also have an aptitude for abstract design. On the other hand, many organizations find they need several team members to fill out a single competency (especially in the case of the more tactical pillars).
How you end up structuring your team and your process will depend largely on the specific circumstances of your organization. But by building your practices on the Nine Pillars, you can be assured that you aren’t missing any competencies that are essential to your site’s success.
Jesse James Garrett is a Partner at Adaptive Path. His latest book is The Elements of User Experience. Jesse will be covering the Nine Pillars in more detail during Adaptive Path’s User Experience Week in Washington, D.C., August 18-21.
September 24, 2003 at 07:23 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
An excellent article which impacts all web designers in big web shops. Today we are all determining how our sites work based on which browsers we support. The article argues that its time to transition fully to XHTML and CSS as the standard. These standards, published by W3C are robust and accepted. Most broswers are compliant nowadays, (and if they aren't, too bad).
By building to the standard, a validator is used to test the code and ensure its correctness. Testing and correction become much more binary and thus development effort is reduced and simplified.
The business value of web standards
adaptive path » the business value of web standards
by Jeffrey Veen
September 18, 2003
I’ve been involved in the Web standards community almost as long as I’ve been working on the Web, and I’ve long felt that designing to W3C recommendations is the Right Thing To Do. When it came time to redesign the adaptivepath.com site, my partners agreed that we should approach the project from a standards perspective. But before we started, we discussed whether the effort — and it was a lot of effort — was really worth it.
Certainly, the redesign increased our credibility with Web-standards aficionados. But industry accolades aside, how important is standardization to an individual business like ours? Do Web standards give organizations a return on investment? Does the transition to XHTML and CSS make financial sense? The answer to those questions is yes.
Speed Development
Though the sheer ease of creating HTML pages has clearly been beneficial to the Web’s growth, it’s also been a curse. Because they’re so forgiving, Web browsers have facilitated a system of pseudo-code that breaks countless best practices in the programming world.
So many of our clients have been building multiple versions of their sites, attempting to present a perfect design for as many users as possible. For our company, we wanted one set of HTML pages, one stylesheet, and far less development work. With over 95 percent of Adaptive Path’s audience now visiting our site with standards-compliant browsers, we knew it was time to make the switch.
Web standards force you to error check. Simply declaring which version of HTML (or, for that matter, XML) you’re using will let you validate your pages against those specifications. Validation turns HTML into something like a scripting language.
Running your pages through a validator shows you exactly where your errors are. This reduces the time developers spend on QA, and gives your site incredible consistency between browsers. While current browsers still have rendering bugs, they are far less severe than they were five years ago.
Simplify Maintenance, Increase Opportunity
For years, the standards community has been extolling the virtues of keeping visual design separate from content, but logically linked to each page. This means your HTML becomes ridiculously simple. Most XHTML pages are little more than a collection of semantically rich >div> and >p> tags, with a pointer to a powerful CSS file.
This clean separation makes it much easier for you to develop and maintain your pages, primarily because the division corresponds to most teams’ distinctions between design and editorial work.
Recently, we hosted a CSS file for a client on our development server while they began production on content and backend systems. As we continued to iterate the design, we were able to simply edit the file without having to integrate with their versioning and release system. By working in parallel, we dramatically reduced the time to market.
Speeding development is a competitive and financial advantage. Shorter development times not only reduce costs, but free resources sooner, thereby increasing opportunity.
Open Up Access Options
Clean code pays even more dividends. Browsers that don’t offer compliant CSS implementations can now simply skip the style. In other words, semantic XHTML markup can be rendered in any browser — including non-traditional clients like mobile phones, PDAs, voice interfaces and screen readers, and anything else that supports the most basic tag set.
A standards-compliant site that is coded for simplicity solves problems with mobile access, Section 508 accessibility, and past-version browser compatibility.
So you get all that and it’s easier to develop and maintain? Indeed. You can even eliminate some hard costs in the process.
Reduce Bandwidth Costs
When we stripped away the fonts, tables, and little images used as design elements on our home page, we reduced the size of the code from 20.9K to 9.2K. Now, this may not seem like a lot, but it would aggregate to quite a bit if our site generated heavy traffic.
Our 56 percent reduction in bandwidth usage is hardly relevant to a site that gets a few thousand page views a day, but large commercial sites get that much traffic in a minute or two. The most popular sites often get tens of millions of page views a day.
Saving 30K to 40K from each page view — plus a cached stylesheet that never needs to be downloaded again — can save you thousands of dollars per month. Ever see an IT guy get excited about a new design? You will.
Improve User Experience
Cold, hard cash is easy to quantify, but there are additional benefits to slimming down code. It’s no secret that a faster, more lively site will nearly always translate to a better overall user experience.
Huge interfaces squeezed through plodding modem connections have been a plague since the Web’s inception. The increasing dominance of broadband has only helped a bit. A hotel phone line plugged into a business traveler’s laptop may be the only tenuous link you’ve got to a new customer. Adopting clean, standardized code gives users a shortcut to accomplishing their goals at your site.
Justifying the Switch
These aren’t formulas for determining the ROI of migrating to standards, but they are some pretty good financial justifications. “It’s what all the cool sites are doing” shouldn’t be your only point when arguing for a switch to XHTML and CSS.
The economic benefits of standardization are tangible. Once we can quantify them, businesses will begin realize the true promise of the Web — interoperable content freely shared.
Jeffrey Veen is a Partner at Adaptive Path. He specializes in innovative Web design techniques. You can learn more about Jeff at his personal site, Veen.com.
September 24, 2003 at 07:09 AM in Business Models | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
BBC NEWS | Technology | MSN shuts down its chatrooms
Microsoft are shutting down their chat rooms worldwide (Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and most of Asia from 14 October) because they are a breeding ground for paedophiles and sexual predators. Any remaining chatrooms will be moderated.
This is another landmark move for internet as it grows up and becomes mainstream and must take on its responsibilities.
September 23, 2003 at 11:44 PM in Business Models, Internet evolution, Microsoft | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
Study - Net Piracy Has Five More Years of Growth
Yahoo! News - Study: Net Piracy Has Five More Years of Growth
By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - The ever-expanding market for pirated music will continue to haunt music executives for at least another five years, outstripping growth for the industry's own fledgling online businesses, a new study said on Monday.
The report by Informa Media said global Internet music sales, which includes sales of CDs from retail Web sites such as Amazon.com and song downloads from services such as Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes, will reach $3.9 billion by 2008, up from $1.1 billion in 2002.
But the value of lost sales due to CD-burning and downloading free songs off so-called peer-to-peer networks such as Grokster and Kazaa will rise to $4.7 billion in the same period from $2.4 billion this year, the British research firm said.
"The reason we're so downbeat is we think the peer-to-peer problem is going to only get worse. In 2008, broadband will be prevalent around the world," said Simon Dyson, the report's author.
The roll-out of faster broadband connections has made it more convenient for Internet users to download free music off the Web. Millions of Internet users around the globe regularly log on to the peer-to-peer network to obtain all manners of copyright-protected materials from Eminem (news - web sites) songs to films.
The industry has responded with fee-based download services of its own, but consumer uptake has been slow.
This one-step-forward-two-steps-back scenario is hardly comforting for the major music labels which blame Net piracy for triggering a sharp decline in global music sales in the past three years.
Dyson said a host of Internet file-sharing services are now beginning to appear in languages such as Russian and Chinese, potentially dashing the industry's hopes of building a loyal customer base in these emerging markets.
"This is where the industry's growth is supposed to come from," Dyson said.
On a positive note, online sales will account for nearly 12 percent of the entire global music market by 2008, up from 4.5 percent this year. The larger share is due to the industry's recent push to make more products available for download.
It's a rare bit of promising news for an industry that's been ravaged by new technologies.
The music trade body, the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI), reported in July the sale of pirated compact discs -- a problem that has dogged the industry for the past decade -- has more than doubled in the past three years as costs of CD-burning devices plummet.
The IFPI represents scores of independent and major music labels including EMI, Sony Music, Warner Music, Universal Music, and Bertelsmann's BMG.
September 23, 2003 at 08:18 PM in Internet evolution, Online crime, Security | Permalink | TrackBack (227) | Top of page | Blog Home
Ipsos is pleased to present Global Powers in Changing Times, a one-of-a-kind sophisticated and concise report on public opinion in ten countries that helps businesses, governments and others understand the linkages between changing global realities and public opinion.
Ipsos Public Affairs - GLOBAL POWERS IN CHANGING TIMES
A Limited Syndicated Quarterly Report Of Public Opinion In Ten Countries
What Is It?
Ipsos is pleased to present Global Powers in Changing Times, a one-of-a-kind sophisticated and concise report on public opinion in ten countries that helps businesses, governments and others understand the linkages between changing global realities and public opinion.
The "Ten Powers" consist of the G7 nations - the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, plus Russia, Mexico and Spain. Collectively, these ten countries are among the world's wealthiest nations, greatest military mights, and most formidable opinion leaders. They exert power as individual states and/or through membership in international organizations, such as the European Union, CIS, NAFTA, APEC, NATO, the United Nations Security Council, IMF, and World Bank. The ten countries' combined GDP accounts for almost 70% of the world's economy. They are pivotal in the process of globalization and expansion of international trade. As democratic countries, it is citizen opinion that shapes the changing policies and practices of the Ten Powers.
In March 2003, Ipsos benchmarked public opinion in the "global powers" countries. We asked the public about some of the most important issues of the day. Their answers are fundamental for business, governments and those concerned with the world as events transpire. The questions are then re-asked every quarter to help you monitor stability and change in an unpredictable world.
Report Content
Perspective: Powers and Peoples. A high level overview of the forces and events that are shaping our world and shifting the configuration of power.
The Public Agenda: Worries and Concerns. What's on the public's mind? Which countries are most worried about terrorism? Where is unemployment the key issue?
Confidence in Government. This section explores the public's confidence in the government to tackle the public issues facing their country. It also identifies the key drivers of overall attitudes towards the government.
Country Reputation; Brand Attributes. Increasingly, countries, not just companies, have to consider their reputations in the global marketplace. Tourism, foreign investment, and exports of goods, services and agri-food products are all affected by a country's reputation.
Confidence in the Economy. How confident are citizens in what lays ahead for themselves and their families? How optimistic - or pessimistic - are they about their country's social and economic future?
Business Environment. This section explores a range of attitudes towards corporations that affect the climate for both domestic and foreign firms. In which countries are consumers most welcoming of foreign firms?
Corporate Reputation; Brand Awareness. With more than a decade of rapid economic globalization and trade liberalization behind us, how global are the global brands? Which brands are consumers most aware of? Which ones do they most respect?
Breaking Issues and Special Topics. How are nations and peoples responding to major global events and power plays?
September 23, 2003 at 08:13 PM in World Affairs | Permalink | TrackBack (9) | Top of page | Blog Home
From Dave Winer - Boston.
At Berkman we're studying weblogs, how they're used, and what they are. Rather than saying "I know it when I see it" I wanted to list all the known features of weblog software, but more important, get to the heart of what a weblog is, and how a weblog is different from a Wiki, or a news site managed with software like Vignette or Interwoven. I draw from my experience developing and using weblog software (Manila, Radio UserLand) and using competitive products such as Blogger and Movable Type. This piece is being published along with my keynotes at OSCOM and the Jupiter weblogs conference. And a disclaimer: This is a work in progress. There may be subsequent versions as the art and market for weblog software develops. Dave Winer, June 2003, Cambridge MA.
What makes a weblog a weblog?
Fri, May 23, 2003; by Dave Winer.
At Berkman we're studying weblogs, how they're used, and what they are. Rather than saying "I know it when I see it" I wanted to list all the known features of weblog software, but more important, get to the heart of what a weblog is, and how a weblog is different from a Wiki, or a news site managed with software like Vignette or Interwoven. I draw from my experience developing and using weblog software (Manila, Radio UserLand) and using competitive products such as Blogger and Movable Type. This piece is being published along with my keynotes at OSCOM and the Jupiter weblogs conference. And a disclaimer: This is a work in progress. There may be subsequent versions as the art and market for weblog software develops. Dave Winer, June 2003, Cambridge MA.
The unedited voice of a person
During the war in Iraq I came across a page on the BBC website that claimed to be a weblog. Have a look, give it some thought, and then come back.
It's missing most of the technical features common to weblogs. I can't point to an individual bit of writing because it doesn't have permalinks. It doesn't have a calendar, and there's no link to a bio page for each of the authors. There's another problem -- it's not for one person, it's a group weblog; and they're pros, not amateurs.
On the other hand, they are writing about their own experience. And if there's editing it hasn't interfered with the style of the writing. The personalities of the writers come through. That is the essential element of weblog writing, and almost all the other elements can be missing, and the rules can be violated, imho, as long as the voice of a person comes through, it's a weblog.
So, I think the BBC page is a weblog.
Vignette and Wikis
There's been a lot of discussion about the similarities between Wikis and weblogs, but no definitions to allow us to compare them. Assuming a Wiki is a weblog-like system that allows anyone to edit anything (I know some don't) then a Wiki represents an interesting amalgam of many voices, not the unedited voice of a single person.
Similarly, a high-end system like Vignette is designed toward the same end, to make sure the voice of a greater entity, often a corporation or a publication, comes through. The workflow of the high end systems makes sure that individual voices serve the needs of encompassing entity.
Key point: On my weblog no one can change what I wrote. In contrast, having written for professional publications, pros have to prepare for their writing being interfered with. Sometimes you submit right at the copy-edit deadline. Or you write exactly the required number of words so nothing can be cut. But in the end, the words that appear are an amalgam of what your organization thought should be said on the subject you're addressing.
Weblogs are unique in that only a weblog gives you a publication where your ideas can stand alone without interference. It gives the public writer a kind of relaxation not available in other forms. That might mean that in some sense the "quality" of the writing is different, but I would not say lower, assuming the purpose of writing is to inform, not to impress. I would choose a few spelling or grammatical errors over factual errors. Like the child's game of telephone, stories that are passed from department to department in a professional organization can morph into something that bears no resemblance to the facts, or to the original author's point of view. The same is probably true, in some situations, with Wikis.
Technically, what is a weblog?
Now on to the technical features and a definition only a mathematician could love.
A weblog is a hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an HTML browser.
There's a little more to say. The center of the hierarchy, in some sense, is a sequence of weblog "posts" -- explained below -- that forms the index of the weblog, that link to all the content in sequence.
What is a weblog post?
A weblog post has three basic attributes: title, link and description. All are optional. Some weblogs only have descriptions. Others always have all three. On my own weblog, Scripting News, all items have descriptions, a few have titles, and most have links, some have several links. Generally, a title cannot contain markup, but the description can.
Most weblog tools require titles. Manila is fairly unique in not requiring them. The tradeoff is simplicity vs flexibility. It's simpler from a user interface standpoint to require the presence of all three basic attributes, but writers can find this limiting.
If one of the basic attributes is optional it's the link. In that case the title of the post is often linked to a permalink for the item (see below).
Most weblog posts are short, a paragraph or two. Some weblog tools provide for longer articles or stories, often by including a place for a summary in the form for a weblog post. If available, there should also be an option for only including the summary in the RSS feed for the weblog.
Archives and permalinks. The home page of the weblog displays the current items, as configured by the editor. The posts scroll through the home page. Some weblogs show you the last 15 posts or the last 7 days; no matter what, eventually the item will scroll off the home page, but it will be permanently stored on an archive page. When people point to a specific post, they link to the archived version, the permanent one, using a permalink. The permalink is often displayed as a pound sign (#); sometimes it's the link from the time of a post. It tells others how to point to the item. It's a good idea to include a permalink if you want others to be able to point to your posts.
Archive page URLs. The Web addresses for archive pages, if properly constructed, can form a user interface for the weblog. For example, if the addresses are in this form: YYYY/MM/DD, one can easily type in a URL for a specific day without navigating. For example, here's a link to an archive page on this site.
Comments. A post might link to a popup window containing reader comments and responses from the author. Three bits of information are generally requested from each commenter, and are optionally retained in a cookie sent back to the reader but not generally retained by the weblog software: name, email address, and website url (usually a weblog).
Calendar. The home page and each archive page of the weblog usually displays a calendar, in the familiar format, that allows the reader to easily locate the archive pages by time. All dates but the one currently being viewed are linked; the current page is displayed in bold, or a different color, basically with some visual attribute that makes it stand out. Movable Type has a way of displaying a calendar in full-screen mode where you can see the titles of the individual posts on each day.
Categories. A post can be categorized or placed in a department. There's a way to view all the posts in a given category, and the RSS rendering indicates what categories a post is in using the category element.
Edit This Page button. When you're looking at a bit of text that needs to be changed, assuming you have editorial permission to edit it, how many steps do you have to take to edit it, and how much memorization is required? Some weblog software makes this trivially simple, every bit of editable text has a button nearby that allows the author to modify it in three steps, click the button, make the changes, save the changes.
Rendering
Templates. The posts are rendered through a set of templates where the designer (often the same person as the writer) decides how the standard item elements are to be rendered on the page. There may be a post-level template, a day-level template, an overall template for the page, a template for the home page, or other templates. The rendering features, the separation of content from presentation, are the core of what makes a weblog system a content management system.
Static rendering. This is an area of great variability among the different tools. Most tools only do static rendering, e.g. Movable Type and Blogger. Radio does static rendering by default, but if you run the Radio app on a server it can be a fully dynamically rendered (a little-known feature). Manila is fully dynamic, by default, but it supports static rendering (Scripting News is a statically rendered Manila site).
Infrastructure
Syndication. An RSS feed is available for the weblog, so people who use news aggregators can subscribe to the weblog. If the weblog has categories or departments each has its own RSS feed.
Pings. When the weblog updates, the weblog system automatically pings Weblogs.Com, subject to a preference. Some weblog software can be configured to ping other change-aggregators such as blo.gs.
Trackback. When a post links to a post on another weblog that supports Trackback it can ping the other weblog to notify it that it has been referred to. In this way each post can serve as a collection point for posts on a given topic.
Notification via email or IM. Some weblog software can automatically notify editors or community members if new posts, pictures, media objects, articles, or comments have been posted. To date no software can do this over instant messaging, although it would be relatively easy to implement.
Plug-in architecture. Some weblog tools define a way for developers to add plug-ins. Movable Type allows plug-ins written in Perl, Manila allows plug-ins written in UserTalk; Radio allows "tools" written in UserTalk.
API Support. Many weblog tools implement some kind of programming interface, making it possible for external tools written in any programming or scripting language to automate repetitive operations, or to integrate the weblog tool with other software, or to provide rich editing tools for creating and editing weblog posts. Most of these APIs are available in XML-RPC, some are also available in SOAP 1.1.
Mailto. It's possible to send an email message to to the author of a post without knowing the email address of the user.
Bulletins. Manila has a feature that allows editors to send bulletins via email to members who have chosen to receive them. Bulletins can be previewed before sending, and the list of members who will receive the bulletin can be browsed before-hand. This flow should also be available through IM.
Referrer tracking. Some weblog software automatically tracks the client browser's referer attribute so that authors can easily see where the hits are coming from.
Rankings. Communities of weblogs love to see who's getting the most traffic and who's pointing to whom. Various rankings are available in some weblog tools to provide this information.
Content types
Stories. Consider a weblog that includes longer articles (like this one) linked into the home page. There are two ways to accomplish this, by adding a summary field to the weblog post (Movable Type), or with a story list, manually linked to from a post (UserLand). The next release of Manila will have the same ability to summarize a post as MT.
Pictures. The Web can display text and pictures, so good weblog software not only can store and display pictures for you but has convenient facilities for combining them into sequences and to display them for readers of the site.
Media objects include various Microsoft file formats (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), Macromedia and Apple movies, PDF, downloadable applications -- basically any type of data that might be included with a weblog post, or as an RSS enclosure.
Shortcuts. A shortcut is a quick way to link to a page without having to use HTML, a highly valued feature for non-technical users. In UserLand weblog tools a shortcut is invoked by embedding the name in "double quotes". If something is unintentially hotted-up because of this, the author can override shortcut replacement with a backslash.
Editorial system
Membership. More sophisticated weblog tools have the concept of site membership, to allow editorial roles as below. A user registers with the site, provides a configurable set of information that may be customized by the editors of the site, and receives back a cookie that identifies her as a member of the site. Members can decide if they want to receive bulletins, and if the bulletins should be formatted in HTML or plain text.
Editorial roles determine which members have permission to create new posts, write stories, edit the navigation structure of the site, or edit the templates. In Manila there are five levels in increasing priviledge: non-member, member, contributing editor, content editor, managing editor.
Author information page. Each member can have a page where information gathered about the user is displayed. The editors of the site can decide which information is displayed.
Discussion group. Some weblog software comes with a complete threaded discussion group. All posts have a dual existence, in the form that's viewed by readers of the site, and as a DG for the editorial team.
Group aggregator. RSS-based aggregators can be part of a weblog. Manila recently was updated to include a simple version of the aggregator in Radio UserLand.
Outlines
Blogroll. Weblogs often have a blogroll, linking to sites that the author thinks are interesting, informative, or useful. The blogroll is where you can see the political relationships between this weblog and other elements of the weblog community. Blogrolls are often stored and shared in OPML, and edited with an outliner.
Hierarchy browser. Using OPML as the format for describing hierarchies, Manila and compatible tools make it possible to author Yahoo-like directories with a compatible outliner.
Slide shows. Similar to the Hierarchy browser feature, but for displaying PowerPoint-like presentations.
Comments and suggestions
Here's a place to note errors, omissions, or kudos on this piece. Please remember this is a work in progress. Your help is appreciated.
Bibliography
The Good, The Bad, and the Blogly, Glenn Reynolds, Tech Central Station, June 18, 2003.
Business is Toying With a Web Tool, Amy Cortese, New York Times, May 19, 2003.
What We're Doing When We Blog, Meg Hourihan, O'Reilly Network, June 13, 2002.
What Is A Weblog?, Russ Lipton, June 11, 2002.
What Are Weblogs, Dave Winer, Weblogs.Com, 2001.
Integrity in Web-writing, Dave Winer, June 18, 2001.
The History of Weblogs, Dave Winer, Weblogs.Com, 1999.
What is Wiki, Ward Cunningham et al, ???.
September 23, 2003 at 08:11 PM in Blogging & feeds | Permalink | TrackBack (71) | Top of page | Blog Home
MIS | Magazine > Innovate or die
There is an unseen and misunderstood power within internet which was quite well captured in the Cluetrain Manifesto when they said "markets are conversations". It was an obtuse statement at the time, but blogs are starting to bring home the truth in it now.
Companies like AMP are starting small things which will begin to create payback if they do it right.
Some of the highlights of their efforts:
- CIO as champion of the innovation practice
- Close tie in with Employee Communication and Knowledge Sharing function
- Internal "Intrapreneurs" who mentor/champion change in business
- An internally developed intranet-based capture and tracking tool, as a forum for ideas and suggestions
- ‘conversation cafes’ to act as brainstorming forums to generate new ideas
- A Reward program focusing on intrinsic (public praise, exposure to new opportunities, career growth), rather than extrinsic (ie cash) rewards
Innovate or die
MIS | Magazine > Innovate or die
By Helene Zampetakis
Troubled AMP finds the pursuit of innovation pays dividends in improved staff engagement. Unleash the ‘intrapreneur’ and boot up the ‘conversation cafes’.
There has been precious little good news for embattled Aussie icon AMP of late. Its share price plummeted from a high of more than A$19 in March 2001 to now hover around the A$5 mark.
AMP’s story is not unique. Rather, it has joined a long list of Australian corporations undone by failed global growth strategies. The company is now de-merging from its under performing UK operations, now called Henderson, aiming to raise A$2 billion and write down A$2.6b in assets in the process. But earnings outlooks from CEO Andrew Mohl remain bleak.
While these corporate strategies are being played out in boardrooms and regulators’ offices in the UK and Australia, at the coalface here, AMP is following through on an innovation initiative instigated by former CEO Paul Batchelor.
Sparks of genius are random and unpredictable, yet many organisations seek a formula for innovation to help them stand out from their competitors. For most, applying a formula is as far as they go but while many companies pay lip service to innovation, a few have gone a step further to create a culture of innovation. They include Carter Holt Harvey in New Zealand, Hydro Tasmania, TAFE in the Hunter Valley and AMP Financial Services (AMP).
Early last year, AMP began putting together the ingredients for creative thinking in a move that has already demonstrated some promising results. Among them is an estimated 100 per cent return on investment, a staff engagement of 25 per cent and a coveted finalist’s position in the MIS Innovations Awards 2003.
Considering the payback, AMP’s move to become more innovative was timely. The company’s innovation program has injected an upbeat mood during a period of unsurpassed anxiety in the workplace.
Head of innovation Annalie Killian says the project had a slow beginning because of this.
“There was a lot of fear and worry around that created a lot of noise, so it was hard to engage people often,” she says, although she adds that change is hard to implement even in boom times.
“Getting the innovation wheel cranking is damn hard. Many organisations run this only as part of research and development,” says Killian. “Here we are trying to get it as part of the organisational culture – and this is fairly new in Australia.”
CIO as champion
The project began when former chief executive Paul Batchelor asked a team of senior executives to examine best practice in innovation around the world. AMP’s CIO Lee Barnett was one of the team and became its champion.
“I decided innovation was important – not just the ideas but what it does to enhance a culture and foster collaboration and staff engagement, especially when that culture is risk averse,” she says.
As a result, Barnett set up a small unit to spearhead innovation within the IT department, with the blessing of AMP’s managing director, Craig Dunn. It is seen as a test-bed for other departments, although Barnett says AMP is unlikely to consider expanding the initiative before early next year.
Although it was simply fortuitous that the innovation program was seeded in the IT department, Barnett says it offers a great value proposition for technology.
“In AMP, IT has been through an enormous amount of change in the past few years,” she says. “The IT investment bubble has burst so people have to be smarter and cleverer about the way you work at the front end, to manage with a lower budget.”
AMP has also experienced significant headcount reduction due to reduced project spend in IT.
Tight unit
Against this background, Barnett set up the unit with a budget of just A$50,000 and a staff of two – head of the unit, Annalie Killian, and a full-time engagement officer. Killian was appointed to the role alongside her responsibility for employee communication and also recently inherited the Knowledge Sharing function.
“There is a logical fit and overlap among these functions – they are complementary,” she says. “It’s really about how we return greater value from our intellectual assets, both people and systems.”
Despite the financial constraints, working on the smell of an oily rag had some benefits. Killian says if she had been allocated a “fat” budget she would have taken a different route that may not have been sustainable during lean times.
“It has been constraining but it has forced us to think differently,” says Killian. “Because we didn’t have a huge budget, we were forced to be innovative to get more mileage and that resulted in us being more sustainable.
“I’ve worked before in organisations that employed in-house consultants for special projects and as soon as the business contracted, the whole project imploded,” she says. “What we really needed was to drive this through people’s normal day jobs.”
Essentially, Killian aimed to engender a culture that was by nature innovative so that it didn’t have to be shored up by costly coaches and other third parties.
“I saw my brief as making innovation top of mind and systemic for AMP to the point that it penetrates the consciousness of everyone and gives them an opportunity to innovate in their everyday jobs in a way that’s woven into their daily activities.”
She took suggestions from a report put out initially by the executive team that identified common traits and drivers for innovation around the world, with pointers to how it may be implemented in AMP.
A key recommendation was ‘intrapreneurship’ or the creation of mentors who would champion change in the business. These are volunteers who offer to undertake the role of mentor on top of their normal jobs.
Most are selected from middle management because they have the benefit of both practical skills and a big picture view of the business, says Killian.
Volunteers are given special training in creativity once a fortnight that includes programs from thinking skills specialists such as Edward de Bono, Mind Mapping and Zing.
Innovation evolution
Aside from this, the program has evolved rather than followed a roadmap, according to Barnett. “It has been something of a journey – there is no instant answer,” she says.
Killian began the evolution by turning the wheel of ideas.
“Innovation is very random and unpredictable. You can’t bottle it or create a recipe for it,” she says. “But one of the ways of letting innovation happen organically is to get people from different disciplines to spark one another off. A logical starting point is to create mechanisms for ideas to be heard and acted upon.”
A critical aspect for success is the forums should provide a safe environment to air new ideas.
“Trust is fundamental because there is a huge element of personal risk taking and failure involved,” says Killian.
To start with, AMP’s Web development team created an intranet-based capture and tracking tool, which was called Circul8, as a forum for ideas and suggestions.
Killian then stipulated a proviso for posting ideas: each suggestion must be accompanied by a quick one-page business case and the author has to take responsibility for pushing it through to its conclusion. “That focuses people on thinking the idea through,” she says.
Once accepted, the author is assigned an intrapreneur because, says Killian, “we recognise it is hard to implement new ideas and cut across bureaucracy”.
AMP also set up ‘conversation cafes’ to act as brainstorming forums to generate new ideas. This is how they work: the unit advertises discussion of a particular topic on the intranet. On the assigned day, interested people from across the business form groups of four to six around a table to discuss the topic and record their ideas on paper tablecloths or butchers’ paper.
After 10 to 15 minutes, they rotate, leaving one person as an anchor to provide continuity, and the new group drills down further on the topic. Outcomes are published on the intranet. “This has spread like wildfire,” says Killian.
Both these forums have generated a slew of good initiatives. Some are simple but smart – such as the idea to reduce the font on printed-paper so that two screens can fit into a single page, thus saving paper costs.
Others need to be taken further, such as to reduce the default calendar time on Lotus Notes from 60 minutes to 30 minutes in order to reduce time spent in meetings.
Although they spring from the IT department, some initiatives cut across the entire organisation, such as the no-email day, which was designed to remind people of other forms of communicating internally.
Ideas with far reaching implications must be endorsed at top level: the author of the idea presents a five-minute business case to directors at AMP’s executive meetings and it is ratified or rejected on the spot. Line managers then fund the new initiatives. Killian says the value proposition is usually clear to them.
Another key advance has been to introduce a mechanism to monitor and reduce the IT infrastructure expenditure.
The initiative, which cut costs by 10 per cent in 2002, saw AMP gain a finalist position in the Outsourcing category at the MIS Innovation Awards 2003.
As well as generating new ideas, the unit seeks ways to look at problems as opportunities through a newly launched initiative called Program Unexpected Value.
Rewarding system
An important aspect of fostering an innovative culture is to reward innovative behaviour. Given its tight budget, the Innovation Program does not offer material rewards for participation but instead it celebrates innovators and the group of intrapreneurs who act as innovation evangelists across the teams.
“For example, these people were all publicly praised at an all-employee event last week and they are getting exposure to many other opportunities, which supports their career growth,” says Killian.
The effort has started to pay off, but only just recently. During the past three months, the pace of ideas has accelerated. “We now have about 25 per cent of our IT employees involved. We’re now averaging an idea per day on Circul8 and it’s increasing.”
So much so that Killian now wonders whether the model she created can support current growth.
By the end of this year, Killian plans to have undertaken a cost benefit on the unit’s ROI, although she believes the cost of the unit has already been “more than twice” returned.
Nevertheless, she stresses cost savings are not the only drivers of the program.
“Operational results overall are improving and innovation will play a big role but to make a linear connection would be difficult,” she says.
CIO Barnett adds it’s too early to declare the initiative an unqualified success although, she says, “it is certainly looking healthy”.
“We have just about got our momentum,” she says.
September 23, 2003 at 02:11 PM in Business Models, Cluetrain | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
Blogs have really taken hold in law fims. Two general types -
- general news
- subject area specific
Tom Mighell That's a two-parter. As for Web logs in general, I see a big push towards mobile blogging, or "moblogging." As technology improves and people can automatically update their Web logs with a web-enabled PDA, you'll see Web loggers become more like journalists, with the ability to instantly publish news on the Internet (add a camera to that PDA and you'll be able to tell the full story!)
For law-related Web logs, or "blawgs," I am really a fan of single-issue blawgs. Sites like the Trademark Blawg and How Appealing take a specific area of law and provide something of specific value to their readers. A Web log on a specific area of practice provides a lawyer with something they are not likely to find anywhere else for free: daily news and case law updates on their particular area of interest.
I also think blawgs can serve a great purpose within large and medium-sized law firms. Here's how it could work; a lawyer in the commercial litigation section of a largish-firm has an interest in Web logs – a Web log could be created on the firm's intranet, allowing that lawyer to post frequent updates on issues of interest to other commercial litigators in the firm. Lawyers could receive daily updates on new commercial lit opinions, evidentiary issues coming up at trial, news about a particular case, or just about anything that might be important to their practice. Some Web logs like these have cropped up here and there, but we're still a long way from them becoming common in law firms.
September 23, 2003 at 01:16 PM in Corporate Blogging | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
- freedom of thought
- simplicity
- introvert finally gets an outlet
- human desire to be heard
- its cool
September 22, 2003 at 05:12 PM in Blogging & feeds | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
These things are being regarded as synonymous, and yet they are all different and not necessarily dependent on each other. The confusion is further compounded because newsreaders = Outlook Express = Usenet in many folks minds. So I tried to lend my own definition here, and sort out which matters to whom.
Blogs - easily updated website using tools such as Blogger Pro, or Moveable Type. The key here is the simplicity with which you can create and update the web site. People used to maintain diaries, online thoughts and views pre 1999 but each page had to be hand coded using html. Blogs are as simple as a right click (Blogger Pro) and viola there is the input screen into which a person types their post, hits publish and that's it. Using FTP in the background the post is automatically added to the website, archived, and the web site re-ordered. It makes a mockery of sophisticated content management systems like Vignette, or Broadvision. While those tools have their place, the simplicity for simple changes is awe-inspiring.
Posts - A post is simply an entry into a blog. In this respect the best traditional coparison to a blog is a diary, or a journal. Key point is that each post is marked with a permanent and unique numerical identifier which becomes the URL for that post. So you can deep link to a post anywhere in your web site. Sounds complicated but its transparent to the user, and so simple.
Permalink - the permanent link to a post. The unique numerical identifier referred to under post.
Syndication - a new use for an old word. A web site can be "syndicated" to a news reader. The news reader will automatically "pull in" the content from the site as it is updated. It finds the content in a special file written in XML which is located on the syndicators web site. The link to blogs, is that the blog tool creates this special file automatically. This file is kept alongside your blog website. The newsreader checks to see if the file is updated and if so pulls in the content. Its as simple as that. It pulls it in a specific and consistent format, so it doesn't matter if the syndicator is the New York Times or me, the format is Title, Short description, and URL.
So in my newsreader I get other peoples blogs as well as News from BBC, NY Times, Guardian etc. News companies are a natural for using syndication because their content is continually being updated.
This is the latest iteration in "push technology" which as raved about in 1997 and PointCast was the leader then. But it died due to difficulties with format & standards, and duplication of work in building content. Syndication requires no additional work because the tools automatically generate the XML syndication file.
RSS- Official definition from webreference.com - "Rich Site Summary (RSS) is a lightweight XML format designed for sharing headlines and other Web content." This is the file format, based on XML which is used for syndication. The user doesn't need to know anything about it. I just configure my Blog tool to automatically generate an RSS output, and send it to my website.
Newsreaders - The only other tool required. Its a piece of software which pulls your syndicated choices in and displays them for you. If you have a smart one, it can display them as a "newspaper" format. I can skim the worlds news in a few minutes, and then leave or drill down on any one story - my choice. I use FeedDemon written by Nick Bradbury. There are others, listed here, at the Guardian in an article on this topic.
No you cannot use Outlook Express News function for RSS. No doubt Microsoft are working on that, but right now you cannot.
September 22, 2003 at 07:29 AM in Blogging & feeds, Corporate Blogging | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
For the Information Technology (IT) industry, last year may well be described as a FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) year with decisions being taken with a great degree of trepidation.
Pradeep Gupta, July 25, 2003
Internet will continue to be a key driver of growth
For the Information Technology (IT) industry, last year may well be described as a FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) year with decisions being taken with a great degree of trepidation.
Pradeep Gupta, July 25, 2003
For the Information Technology (IT) industry, last year may well be described as a FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) year with decisions being taken with a great degree of trepidation. The industry cratered with IT spending growth rate declining from 10.8 percent in 1999 to - 4.1 percent in 2002. The dotcom crash; the slide of the US economy; and the telecom capacity glut was further affected by the events of September 11 in the previous year (2001) and its aftermath. And that resulted in the FUD year.
Enough has been said and written about the political and economic events of the last two years. And therefore, this article focuses on the IT business cycle pattern, which was indicating a retardation of growth following the boom years. The cyclical pattern projects a three-phase approach new technology initiating a new paradigm thereby creating a speculative bubble; post this phase, reality strikes triggering a temporary slowdown; and this eventually leads to evolution of a new technology.
In the context of the year gone by, the rebound has started. IDC's research shows that in 2003, the IT spending growth rate is expected to revive and grow at 3.7 percent. A start has been made for the next wave. Every new wave creates new leaders as well as changes in the market share. The outlook vis-a-vis IT spend forecast is that of cautious optimism with IT growth expected to rebound.
Going forward, all of us are going to have to adjust to the new landscape. The double-digit growth of yesteryears is past. The new reality, as IDC sees it, is that worldwide IT spending will rise to 6-7 percent in the next three years. In this new landscape, opportunity will be a little harder to find and market share will be a little harder to preserve.
Clearly these times call for different strategies. The new mandate is detailed market profiling and understanding the buying cycle and patterns. Containing costs will be the key and simplicity will continue to be a driver. It will be critical to accurately segment the market and deliver the right message to the desired audience.
So what are the key drivers of the IT business in the near future? Firstly, the need for IT. The shift from 'Must have Latest Technology' to 'Return on Investment' has already happened. Buyers are looking at IT for internal process improvements.
Also increasingly, IT purchase decisions are becoming broad-based with committees comprising various functional experts besides the chief information officer evaluating them. Top managers like the chief executive officer and chief financial officer are still involved in taking the final decisions thus necessitating multiple constituency management.
A key concern for IT companies has been to control costs. Interestingly, IT companies have worked on a wiser allocation of costs rather than drastic reduction of costs.
As an example, IDC's chief marketing officer, advisory service research, shows that 70 percent of IT companies have level-funded or expanded marketing budgets. But there has been a shift in priorities. Marketing costs have been diverted to direct marketing instead of the traditional advertisement and event spends.
Industry specific solutions is another area that will ensure opportunities for IT vendors. An IDC study indicates that 10-30 percent of the buyers had indicated industry-specific applications as their top investment priority. Particularly bullish are the healthcare, utilities, transportation, telecommunications, consumer services and banking sectors.
Also, within the industry a mix of solutions comprising integrated suites and best-of-breed solutions will form the investment pattern followed by the best-of-breed component solutions. Going forward, IDC believes that the Internet will continue to be a key driver of growth, despite the obituaries written. More and more organisations are continuing to adopt it and e-commerce continues to grow, albeit at a lower pace than what was believed during the heady days of the dotcom boom. Consequently, firms need integrated applicationsthat tie their back-end applications with the front-end web interface and this will be a key driver in the future.
IDC sees growth opportunities in web services, application integration, middleware, outsourcing, supply chain automation and private exchanges. Also, with 50 percent of telecom revenues coming from wireless, this segment will be a key growth area. Equipment and software to enable VoIP, IP telephony, messaging, content management, etc will show good growth rates.
The market for handheld devices, including PDAs and "converged devices" that have telephone and PDA functionality, will grow. Growth in the mobile and wireless sectors creates opportunities for billing, location-aware applications, telematics, 802.11b interconnect, content redeployment, remote access management and gaming.
Another area of opportunity is clearly created by political concerns. In the present volatile situation, security and continuity will continue to occupy top-of-the-mind recall and is a key concern area. This would push growth in areas like intrusion detection support, hazmat (hazardous materials) services, biometrics, real time back-up, wireless continuity and infrastructure management.
Globalisation will change the paradigms of the IT sector with new emerging markets like China and India providing stimuli to services like offshore, outsourcing, partnering and logistics management, translation software, collaboration tools, etc. To take advantage of the new reality where opportunity is a little more concealed and market share is a little harder to preserve, one must embrace the mandates.
Source: The Financial Express
September 21, 2003 at 08:30 PM in Internet evolution, eCommerce | Permalink | TrackBack (15) | Top of page | Blog Home
WASHINGTON, June 6 (UPI) -- In the recent debate over the Federal Communications Commission decision to relax rules governing media consolidation, opponents argued that such a move would hurt the diversity of news and information sources.
Analysis: How the blogs changed The Times
- The Washington Times: United Press International
By P. Mitchell Prothero
WASHINGTON, June 6 (UPI) -- In the recent debate over the Federal Communications Commission decision to relax rules governing media consolidation, opponents argued that such a move would hurt the diversity of news and information sources.
But regardless of whether every local and national television station -- and thus every news division as well -- ends up owned by Rupert Murdoch, the Internet-based alternative media today wields extraordinary power.
In less than a year, individuals posting news and opinions to personal Web logs, or blogs, have played critical roles in two major media events: statements by then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott apparently lauding Strom Thurmond's segregationist past, and the very recent scandals at The New York Times, which this week led to the resignations of Executive Editor Howell Raines and Managing Editor Gerald Boyd.
One year ago, blogs by pundits such as Andrew Sullivan, Mickey Kaus and Eric Alterman were considered by many to be vanity projects, a chance for anyone with a modem to send opinions out into the world unfettered by editors and unencumbered by printing costs.
Today, blogs can claim the scalps of one of the most powerful political figures in the nation and the leadership of the most important newspaper in the nation, if not the world.
In December, Lott's comments went almost unnoticed and unreported by almost every major media outlet -- except UPI and National Public Radio -- but the outrage percolating among bloggers kept the story alive for a week as the rest of the media caught up. The eventual outcry led the White House to repudiate the statements, followed by an internal coup by the GOP that replaced Lott as majority leader.
The revelations that Jayson Blair, a young reporter at the Times, had been flat-out making up stories on the front page of the most powerful newspaper caught fire in the major media, but it was the personal blogs of Kaus, Sullivan and others that kept the story alive as a newsroom revolt at the Times forced the resignation of the top two editors.
Adding to the situation was the Web presence of traditional publications, most importantly the Web site of Newsweek, where reporter Seth Mnookin was able to file immediate updates to the story without waiting for the print issue. Mnookin was also able to spend additional time and space on his reporting that would otherwise be truncated by space constraints in the actual issue.
Mickey Kaus says the effect of both the blogs and the media Web sites was tremendous for its immediacy and thoroughness.
"The ability to instantly post updates kept this story alive," he said in an interview. "And publications like Newsweek were able to stay on the story without the normal limits. (Mnookin) was able to stay on this story without killing trees (for the paper in the print issue.)"
Sullivan -- who did not respond to requests for an interview -- used his blog to note the power of the online pundits to monitor and criticize the overall performance of Raines and company as editors at the Times. Even before the scandal involving Blair -- and a mini-scandal involving star writer Rick Bragg -- online pundits had been howling about Howell's management. This set up the editor for a fall when a scandal brought his performance to the attention of the rest of the media.
"Only, say, five years ago, the editors of the New York Times had much more power than they have today," writes Sullivan, who had been a contributor to the New York Times Sunday Magazine. "If they screwed up, no one would notice much. A small correction would be buried days, sometimes weeks, later. They could spin stories with gentle liberal bias and only a few eyes would roll. Certainly no critical mass of protest could manage to foment reform at the paper. And the kind of deference that always existed toward the Times, and the secretive, Vatican-like mystique of its inner workings kept criticism at bay. But the Internet changed all that. Suddenly, criticism could be voiced in a way that the editors of the Times simply couldn't ignore. Bloggs - originally smartertimes.com, then this blog, kausfiles.com and then Timeswatch.com and dozens and dozens of others - began noting errors and bias on a daily, even hourly basis. The blogosphere in general created a growing chorus of criticism that helped create public awareness of exactly what Raines was up to. Uber-bloggers like Drudge were able to take that to the mainstream media; and reporter-bloggers like Seth Mnookin picked up the baton."
But besides the ability to keep a story alive when few people in the media seemed to care, Kaus also points to the ability of the Web to help outraged reporters at The Times to add their opinions to the fray, anonymously through semi-blogs like Jim Romenesko's media news site at www.poynter.org.
Throughout the scandal, reporters at The Times had the ability to leak internal documents, anonymously voice opinions and do so immediately to a wide audience of their reporter-geek colleagues who monitor the site regularly. This, Kaus says, allowed them to reflect the widespread outrage at Raines' handling of the Blair scandal, not to mention the widespread dissatisfaction with his management style, particularly in the paper's Washington Bureau, which reportedly led the revolt against its management.
Not a bad result for vanity projects.
September 21, 2003 at 08:29 PM in Blogging & feeds, Business Models, Corporate Blogging | Permalink | TrackBack (289) | Top of page | Blog Home
Interesting fact for web design. Average time on a web page - 55 seconds. Its an average, which presumably includes a bunch of pages which are not read at all, but directionally interesting.
United States: Average Web Usage
Week ending September14, 2003
September 21, 2003 at 12:59 PM in Web lifestyle | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
Internet will continue to be a key driver of growth
"IDC sees growth opportunities in web services, application integration, middleware, outsourcing, supply chain automation and private exchanges. Also, with 50 percent of telecom revenues coming from wireless, this segment will be a key growth area. Equipment and software to enable VoIP, IP telephony, messaging, content management, etc will show good growth rates."
Internet will continue to be a key driver of growth
Internet will continue to be a key driver of growth
For the Information Technology (IT) industry, last year may well be described as a FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) year with decisions being taken with a great degree of trepidation.
Pradeep Gupta, July 25, 2003
For the Information Technology (IT) industry, last year may well be described as a FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) year with decisions being taken with a great degree of trepidation. The industry cratered with IT spending growth rate declining from 10.8 percent in 1999 to - 4.1 percent in 2002. The dotcom crash; the slide of the US economy; and the telecom capacity glut was further affected by the events of September 11 in the previous year (2001) and its aftermath. And that resulted in the FUD year.
Enough has been said and written about the political and economic events of the last two years. And therefore, this article focuses on the IT business cycle pattern, which was indicating a retardation of growth following the boom years. The cyclical pattern projects a three-phase approach new technology initiating a new paradigm thereby creating a speculative bubble; post this phase, reality strikes triggering a temporary slowdown; and this eventually leads to evolution of a new technology.
In the context of the year gone by, the rebound has started. IDC's research shows that in 2003, the IT spending growth rate is expected to revive and grow at 3.7 percent. A start has been made for the next wave. Every new wave creates new leaders as well as changes in the market share. The outlook vis-a-vis IT spend forecast is that of cautious optimism with IT growth expected to rebound.
Going forward, all of us are going to have to adjust to the new landscape. The double-digit growth of yesteryears is past. The new reality, as IDC sees it, is that worldwide IT spending will rise to 6-7 percent in the next three years. In this new landscape, opportunity will be a little harder to find and market share will be a little harder to preserve.
Clearly these times call for different strategies. The new mandate is detailed market profiling and understanding the buying cycle and patterns. Containing costs will be the key and simplicity will continue to be a driver. It will be critical to accurately segment the market and deliver the right message to the desired audience.
So what are the key drivers of the IT business in the near future? Firstly, the need for IT. The shift from 'Must have Latest Technology' to 'Return on Investment' has already happened. Buyers are looking at IT for internal process improvements.
Also increasingly, IT purchase decisions are becoming broad-based with committees comprising various functional experts besides the chief information officer evaluating them. Top managers like the chief executive officer and chief financial officer are still involved in taking the final decisions thus necessitating multiple constituency management.
A key concern for IT companies has been to control costs. Interestingly, IT companies have worked on a wiser allocation of costs rather than drastic reduction of costs.
As an example, IDC's chief marketing officer, advisory service research, shows that 70 percent of IT companies have level-funded or expanded marketing budgets. But there has been a shift in priorities. Marketing costs have been diverted to direct marketing instead of the traditional advertisement and event spends.
Industry specific solutions is another area that will ensure opportunities for IT vendors. An IDC study indicates that 10-30 percent of the buyers had indicated industry-specific applications as their top investment priority. Particularly bullish are the healthcare, utilities, transportation, telecommunications, consumer services and banking sectors.
Also, within the industry a mix of solutions comprising integrated suites and best-of-breed solutions will form the investment pattern followed by the best-of-breed component solutions. Going forward, IDC believes that the Internet will continue to be a key driver of growth, despite the obituaries written. More and more organisations are continuing to adopt it and e-commerce continues to grow, albeit at a lower pace than what was believed during the heady days of the dotcom boom. Consequently, firms need integrated applicationsthat tie their back-end applications with the front-end web interface and this will be a key driver in the future.
IDC sees growth opportunities in web services, application integration, middleware, outsourcing, supply chain automation and private exchanges. Also, with 50 percent of telecom revenues coming from wireless, this segment will be a key growth area. Equipment and software to enable VoIP, IP telephony, messaging, content management, etc will show good growth rates.
The market for handheld devices, including PDAs and "converged devices" that have telephone and PDA functionality, will grow. Growth in the mobile and wireless sectors creates opportunities for billing, location-aware applications, telematics, 802.11b interconnect, content redeployment, remote access management and gaming.
Another area of opportunity is clearly created by political concerns. In the present volatile situation, security and continuity will continue to occupy top-of-the-mind recall and is a key concern area. This would push growth in areas like intrusion detection support, hazmat (hazardous materials) services, biometrics, real time back-up, wireless continuity and infrastructure management.
Globalisation will change the paradigms of the IT sector with new emerging markets like China and India providing stimuli to services like offshore, outsourcing, partnering and logistics management, translation software, collaboration tools, etc. To take advantage of the new reality where opportunity is a little more concealed and market share is a little harder to preserve, one must embrace the mandates.
Source: The Financial Express
September 21, 2003 at 12:28 PM in Internet evolution | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
The Register: "According to the stats, DSL makes up 47.6 million lines, while cable modems account for 30.3 million broadband connections.
Seems that Rogers are doing a good job at bucking a worldwide trend to DSL for Hi-Speed internet connection. Personally I think the world has this right, and I have lesss faith in cable connectivity because its inherently less reliable and secure, and becomes more so as more people use it.
But that's not the case everywhere. Of all the leading broadband nations, only the US and Canada have substantially more cable modems than DSL lines.
And only in North America is cable broadband growing faster than DSL, at 18.2 per cent rather than 15.5 per cent. "
DSL growth outstrips demand for cable
T: "By Tim Richardson
Posted: 19/09/2003 at 11:22 GMT
Take-up of DSL is outstripping demand for cable broadband services, according to research from Point Topic.
Its latest tot-up of global demand for high speed Internet services puts the total number of broadband lines in the world at 77 million at the end of June - up 24 per cent from 62 million lines at the end of December.
Leading the charge was DSL, with demand shooting ahead at 30 per cent during the first six months of the year, compared to 16.5 per cent take up for cable.
According to the stats, DSL makes up 47.6 million lines, while cable modems account for 30.3 million broadband connections.
But that's not the case everywhere. Of all the leading broadband nations, only the US and Canada have substantially more cable modems than DSL lines.
And only in North America is cable broadband growing faster than DSL, at 18.2 per cent rather than 15.5 per cent.
Overall, the USA is by far the largest broadband market with more than 20 million broadband lines. South Korea and Japan account for 10.9 million and 10.4 million lines respectively.
Earlier this week the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) reported that one in ten Net users in the world has a broadband connection.
Its figures showed that at the end of 2002, the number of broadband users had jumped 72 per cent to 62 million punters. ®"
September 21, 2003 at 12:16 PM in Web lifestyle | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
“IT will provide over twice the productivity in the next 10 years as it did in the last 10 years.”
— Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft
“The next wave of the Internet is going to be huge, and the companies that create products that work together will be the winners.”
— Nobuyuki Idei, Chairman, Sony Corporation
September 20, 2003 at 09:49 PM in Business Models, Internet evolution, Web lifestyle, Web/Tech | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
This from a study released by The National Cyber Security Alliance, a coalition of dozens of online companies and government agencies dedicated to online computer safety. It includes AOL.
While each statement is true, the overall positioning is somewhat alarmist. And it provides the platform for the new AOL strategy which essentially positions them as a firewall!
Note to self ... got to get off this AOL thing!!
Study summary:
91% of Broadband Users Have Spyware Lurking on Home Computers
97% of Broadband Parents Do Not Use Parental Controls
67% of Users Do Not Have Properly and Securely Configured Firewalls
62% Do Not Regularly Update Anti-Virus Software
Despite Vulnerabilities, 86% Keep Sensitive Information on Home Computer
Study on Broadband security.pdf
September 20, 2003 at 09:40 PM in Web lifestyle | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
TheStar.com - CN takes Canadian from name
The story here isn't in the title, which is a perfectly sane and normal corporate branding play to get consistency. No the story is in the Government reaction, which first of all they ought not to be allowed to react, and secondly the Transport Minister, Collenette saying "it is not only totally unacceptable, it is obscene". The only obscene thing is his reaction - de facto he is telling CN to abandon their name, and consider themselves part of the government or part of the country? CN is a company for pete's sake, and they won't sell much unless they are viewed as such. Rant over!
September 20, 2003 at 04:39 PM in Business Models | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
Yahoo! News - UK Politicians to Join Capitol Hill Spam Debate
I like the EU approach to spam control - opt in. Advertisers wll not be able to send you an email unless you have agreed in advance. The US model is opt out - meaning spammers can send to you until you opt out, but of course that has no chance of working.
Yahoo! News - UK Politicians to Join Capitol Hill Spam Debate
Fri Sep 19, 1:29 PM ET
By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - A team of British lawmakers will head to Washington D.C. next month to try and resolve the EU-U.S. disagreement on how to tackle the deluge of e-mail spam plaguing consumers and clogging the Internet.
"There seems to be some sort of philosophical issue here. We just want to understand why they see things differently," said British MP Derek Wyatt.
Anti-spam advocates have called for tough laws, particularly in the U.S. where most spam originates, that would entail criminal penalties to combat the flood of unsolicited e-mail messages promoting everything from pornographic Web sites to low-interest home mortgages.
By some industry estimates, spam accounts for nearly 60 percent of global e-mail. Politicians agree that anti-spam laws should be harmonized across national borders, making it easier to prosecute spammers who target in-boxes across the planet.
But the U.S. and Europe are taking different paths. At the crux of the matter is the issue of consent. An EU anti-spam directive calls for an "opt-in" approach, which means a company must first obtain a user's permission before sending a message.
U.S. politicians have devised more advertiser-friendly draft legislation that would place the onus on the user to stop the flow of unsolicited e-mail promotions. Until the user requests that the messages cease, a spammer could continue to send unsolicited e-mail.
A series of anti-spam bills are under consideration on Capital Hill at the moment.
Anti-spam advocates say the so-called "opt-out" rule favored by American lawmakers shields unscrupulous spammers, who can mask their identity and send e-mails with impunity.
Wyatt said he and Andrew Pinder, Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)'s appointed e-envoy, are scheduled to appear before a Congressional hearing in October, at which they will urge U.S. lawmakers to adopt a tough anti-spam law that more closely reflects recent European legislation.
"Of course this is the sort of discussion we intend to have. Otherwise, what's the point of going," Wyatt said.
Wyatt, chairman of the Associate Party Internet Group, a coalition of UK lawmakers that have pushed for Internet reforms, said members of the group will meet with American congressmen, senators, officials from the Federal Trade Commission and business executives in a three-day tour between October 14-16
September 19, 2003 at 09:09 PM in Spam | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
Yahoo! News - Zagat Guide Lists Top Wireless Internet Hotspots
Still no-one has found a business model for wireless hotspots. The more they are promoted and become entrenched is probably a good thing, because either people make money from having wireless users frequent their location, or the implemenetation costs will push providers to cut them.
September 19, 2003 at 09:02 PM in Wireless | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
Yahoo! News - Deluged Telecoms Boss Bans Staff E-Mails
Rather interesting response to a productivity problem by eliminating staff to staff email, which I presume were personal in nature.
LONDON (Reuters) - The owner of one of Britain's biggest mobile phone chains has declared war on e-mail, banning staff from sending electronic missives to co-workers in a move he says will save the company millions of pounds each year.
"We have e-mail paralysis," John Caudwell, the owner of the high street retailer Phones4U, told Reuters on Friday. "If you have a cancer you have to cut it out. That's what I've done."
Caudwell, who described himself as a slow typer who has yet to send an e-mail on his own, introduced the measure this week because staff were spending too much time with internal e-mails rather than dealing with customers.
He calculated three hours per day off e-mail multiplied by the number of staff affected by the ban (600-700) multiplied by the average employee wage will translate to monthly savings of 1 million pounds ($1.63 million).
"The policy came from me. The staff was initially slightly shocked that I should make such a revolutionary move," he said.
September 19, 2003 at 08:58 PM in email | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
The banking and financial services sectors are always looking to improve profits margins, and a new study says this will lead to a hike in IT spending over the next few years.
IDC said it expects the U.S. banking industry to reach $60 billion by 2007.
Finance: Banks Projected to Boost IT Spending
By Mark Berniker
The banking and financial services sectors are always looking to improve profits margins, and a new study says this will lead to a hike in IT spending over the next few years.
IDC said it expects the U.S. banking industry to reach $60 billion by 2007.
"Forward-thinking banks will turn to technology to meet their strategic priorities as well as to create greater operational efficiency," said Jessica Goepfert, program manager, U.S. IT Opportunity: Financial Services at IDC, in a statement.
Earlier this year, IDC said it conducted a survey of 27 banks asking them what role IT will play in addressing their top strategic priorities. The research found that "meeting regulatory requirements, managing the customer relationship, managing risk, reducing costs and attracting new customers" were the most important factors to bank managers.
"With these priorities in mind, IDC expects overall IT spending by U.S. banks to grow by more than 5 percent between 2002 and 2007, reaching more than $60 billion in 2007. Delivery channels will continue to grab the largest share of IT spending, while back office functions will be the fastest growing area and will vie for the largest share of functional IT spending by 2007. IT spending on retail and wholesale products will remain balanced and grow at a slower rate throughout the forecast period," IDC said.
The report looks at IT spending estimates by U.S. banks, and five specific areas: retail products, wholesale products, capital markets, back office and delivery channels.
The IDC research follows on similar trends observed by TowerGroup that said financial services firms continue to put a premium on technology spending. TowerGroup expects worldwide IT spending to top $337 billion in 2003, a 2.3 percent increase over 2002. The study found that the biggest increase will be in the United States where a 2.8 percent increase is expected, while a 1.1 percent decrease is expected in European IT spending.
As consolidation continues in the financial services industry, there are questions what impact the spate of deals is having on IT professionals. TowerGroup tracked 20 banking deals worth at least $1 billion over the past year, and found there was some outsourcing for network operations. The research also found that costly software development projects are being sent offshore to both India and China.
Of the $337 billion TowerGroup forecasts to be spent worldwide on IT, close to $250 billion will likely go towards maintenance and upgrades to existing hardware and software, including mainframe systems.
While there is some optimism for IT spending in the financial services sector, there are signs the overall IT picture is still somewhat bleak.
Gartner said its overall IT Demand Index retreated to 81 after holding steady at above 90 from May through July, perhaps signaling a pullback in investments in recent months. The index is compiled based on a polling of 20,000 IT decision-makers, a rating of 100 means that businesses are spending exactly what they had budgeted for the month.
Gartner also found that the demand index for large businesses fell to 85 in August 2003 from 89 in July. The research also found that the small business IT Demand Index dropped to 72 from 79. Mid-sized business showed the most promising signs, as spending remained strong over the past few months moving from 95 to 97 on the IT Demand Index.
And while there are some promising corners of the IT sector, there are concerns about the future of IT jobs in the U.S. The Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology (CPST) said it has found that unemployment in the U.S. IT sector has risen to an average of six percent in the first half of 2003.
One of the main factors behind the technology jobs slump is the move by many companies to move towards outsourced contracts and hiring IT staff overseas for lower labor rates than U.S. workers.
The CPST said that over the past decade, the share of foreign-born IT workers has doubled, while the outsourcing of IT work overseas quadrupled to more than $1.2 billion in 2001. Another factor putting pressure on the IT job market, the fact the number of computer science graduates has jumped over 40 percent in just the past few years.
September 19, 2003
September 19, 2003 at 08:32 PM in Business Models, Financial Services, Internet evolution, eCommerce | Permalink | TrackBack (43) | Top of page | Blog Home
Yahoo! News - Age, Not Wealth, Determines Internet Use--UK Study
An astounding 98% of students in the UK use internet!
Age, Not Wealth, Determines Internet Use--UK Study
Yahoo! News - Age, Not Wealth, Determines Internet Use--UK Study: "Thu Sep 18, 1:37 PM ETAdd Technology - Reuters Internet Report to My Yahoo!
By Bernhard Warner, European Internet Correspondent
LONDON (Reuters) - Age, not money, is the primary factor determining Internet usage patterns in developed Western countries, research published on Thursday said. "
No less than 98 percent of students in Britain regularly use the Internet while only 22 percent of British retirees surf the Web, according to the findings of a new survey by Oxford University's Internet Institute.
"All youngsters, whether or not they are numerate or literate, appear able to click on the Internet," the study said.
The research calls into question the prevailing notion of the "digital divide," a term coined to describe the disparity between Internet uptake in rich and poor communities.
The idea worried British politicians, who feared wealth would create a gulf between the computer literate and the rest, depriving the poor of a skill crucial for landing better-paid jobs in an increasingly technical world.
But Professor Richard Rose, the lead researcher on the project which surveyed 2,030 British citizens above the age 14 this summer, said the idea of a wealth-based divide was wrong.
"It's all about age. It's not so much about (social) class," he said.
The pattern of Internet usage was similar across western Europe and, increasingly, in developing economies too, he said.
Russians under 30, for example, were 10 times more likely to surf the Web regularly than Russians over 60.
The Oxford survey findings show that the Internet, already a fundamental part of life for the younger generation in the wealthiest nations, could become as familiar to this age group as television.
September 18, 2003 at 06:00 PM in Web lifestyle | Permalink | Top of page | Blog Home
Broadband Behavior: I Want My Info Now! :: AO
Broadband and home networking, especially wireless networking transform the internet experience. The sheer accessibility and speed eliminate a lot of the aspects of internet which many find annoying (World Wide Wait). Layer in the plus four years tenure online and behaviours really shift.
Television and newspapers are the biggest losers, because the sites and tools to collect and view news quickly and easily are prevalent.
Broadband Behavior: I Want My Info Now! :: AO
Tenure online has a profound impact on behavior. The longer you’re online, the more your behavior changes, the more you adapt, the more likely you are to be in an always-on environment and the more likely that will accelerate the change in your behavior. According to a UCLA study that AOL participated in, 50% of online users in the United States have been online for four years or more; 27% six years or more. That is a line of demarcation. Behavior starts to really change after four years. Our research says that tenure and an always-on environment go hand in hand. The environment mirrors the tenure effect, and they both affect user behavior.
At AOL we did research with over 25,000 consumers to develop a picture of the always-on lifestyle, what it means for our consumers. First of all, always-on users just plain use the Internet a whole lot more. 43% of broadband subscribers have multiple sessions a day, versus 19% of narrow band users. They spend twice as much time online. This year at AOL, for the first time, 52% of our users said they consider the Internet a necessity, a must-have part of their lives.
Broadband users communicate more online. There are 88% more e-mail sessions among broadband users than narrow band users, and almost 40% more instant messaging. A broadband household is three times more likely to have a PDA than the average U.S. household. Again, all of the forms of communication and staying connected accelerate with tenure and accelerate in an always-on environment.
Broadband users also consume more media. Almost half—48%—of broadband households listen to Internet music or radio daily. At AOL, our highly-tenured members (four years plus), are four times more likely to download music; 55% watch video clips every day. The role of online content is important, and growing.
There is an impact on TV. 40% of our highly-tenured members watch six hours a week less television than narrow band users. That’s a big number; and as the tenure increases, and the always-on environment grows, that will have ramifications for the television industry. It won’t end the television industry, but it will begin to have a meaningful effect on TV usage and viewing patterns.
There is a significant difference between how narrow band and broadband users allot time on the computer. Narrow band use is batched. A narrow band user tends to say, "Okay, I have a couple of things I’ve got to do today. I’ve got to get a movie time, go to the yellow pages to find the nearest dry cleaner, write an e-mail." So they batch those activities. They go online, do their tasks all at once, and then go offline.
But because with broadband the Internet is always there, users in the always-on environment go to it more often, and use it just to grab quick bits of information. Maybe they just want to know a