Wednesday, December 31, 2003

Father of the Web Knighted: Telegraph | Connected | Knighthood for 'father of the web'
Here's an interesting story on major e-business patents. There are some there you might not expect!E-Commerce News: Five Patents That Changed E-Business
The US Internet Fraud Complaint Centre has released new reports at a time when internet fraud is at an all time high. Their Operation Cyber Sweep Report, issued in November, includes an interesting summary of such frauds. Heard of Phishing? Internet Fraud Complaint Center

Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Effective Jan 1/04, WIPO is making it easier to file for international patent protection: WIPO/PR/2003/372: PCT REFORMS KICK IN ON NEW YEAR�S DAY
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada has an e-kit for PIPEDA implementation on their website: PIPED Act E-kit for Businesses - Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Watch for e-mail Blackmail CNN.com - Cyber blackmail targets office workers - Dec. 29, 2003
The new Canadian Privacy Act (PIPEDA) comes into effect on Jan 1, meaning new security will be required for many companies. This excellent article explains: Globetechnology

Monday, December 29, 2003

The Canadian Capital Markets Association has released the final version of Canadian Securities Marketplace Best Practices and Standards for institutional trade processing, entitlements and securities lending. Using the concept of "Straight Through Processing" these standards facilitate the use of electronic means to execute trades. See http://www.ccma-acmc.ca
Experts see rise of enterprise software Globetechnology

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

As further evidence of the growing obsolescence of cash, e-payments have now outstripped cash in the number of payments made for the first timeInformationWeek > E-Payments > Who Needs Cash? > December 22, 2003

Friday, December 19, 2003

CFO Magazine has announced its top 20 technologies that will drive IT Strategies in 2004. Among them, the E-Business topics of collaborative Computing, Wireless/Mobile, E-Payments and XBRL. For the article, see The 20/20 Issue - CFO IT - Winter 2003 - CFO.com

Thursday, December 18, 2003

Here's Bell Canada's overview on VOIPBell > Business Solutions > Voice
Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) promises to significantly change communications, from telephone calls to internet use. The Bell is moving in big time.Globetechnology

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

This recent survey indicates that NewZealand is leading the world in internet usageE-government - GO Survey
The December 4 press release of the Canadian Recording Industry Association is hereCRIA News
The recording industry's latest stance on music file sharing can be found on this page.CRIA News There is no free ride, but they won't be sueing individuals downloading for their own use - at least not yet.

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Wireless is set to take off next year. Here's an excellent summary of the state of that emerging part of the IT industry.Wireless ready for take off
A new small survey by Hackett Group finds that some companies are not including IT management on their Sarbanes Oxley Compliance Teams. This is amazing, given that Sarbanes - the US legislation designed to clean up corporate governance after Enron - requires companies to annually evaluate their reporting control procedures. Section 409 of that legislation also requires companies to disclose certain events on a "rapid" basis (being referred to as "rapid reporting") which is a natural for an IT constructed system to deliver reports directly to the Web.Some IT execs are excluded from Sarbanes-Oxley planning - Computerworld
The eBusiness page at the CICA website has been updated to show current publications and references to other related pages, including the page on privacy and the IT Alliance. The eBusiness page can be found ateBusiness. The Privacy page can also be accessed at www.cica.ca/privacy.

Monday, December 15, 2003

The Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Dr. Kamil Idris, has reaffirmed the Organization’s full support for the African Union (AU) to promote the economic, technological and social development of the continent. WIPO/UPD/2003/214: WIPO Pledges Support for Development Of Africa:

Friday, December 12, 2003

The W3C has issued an Architecture of the World Wide Web, First Edition document for public comment. Comments are due by Mar 5, 2004. It gives specific recognition to new technologies such as XML. The document is at Architecture of the World Wide Web, First Edition

Thursday, December 11, 2003

Effective today, spamming is now a criminal offense in Britain.CNN.com - UK spam ban comes into force - Dec. 11, 2003
Although the Internet has become a major key to economic development, some 90% of the world's population does not have access to it. This digital divide is a major and growing impediment to reducing international economic disparity. On December 10th to the 12th, a UN sponsored summit is taking place in Geneva to address this issue. Details are at:World Summit on the Information Society

Monday, December 08, 2003

A big international meeting is convening this week in Geneva to discuss whether the UN should take more control over the management of the Internet, which to date has been largely managed by US interests. The meeting starts a series of formal discussions that will conclude in 2005. It could have major long run implications.Technology News: U.N. Summit To Focus on Internet: "Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)"
PDAs, or perhaps more accurately, Handheld Personal Computers, such as the Palm Pilot and Blackberry, are becoming important parts of enterprise networks. This raises issues like compatibility, capability and security. Microsoft is now a major player in this once niche market. For an interesting comparison, take a look at Mobile Pipeline

Friday, December 05, 2003

XBRL Canada has released a Canadian GAAP taxonomy for the Primary Financial Statements of commercial and industrial companies as a Public Working Draft. Comments are due by January 13, 2004. The taxonomy is available on the interim test XBRL CA website at:North America Financial Reporting Primary Terms
A very significant announcement was recently made by Microsoft under which it will include a powerful XBRL capability in its OFFICE product. Called MOSAX (for Microsoft Office Solution Accelerator for XBRL) it will, when activated, add an XBRL Menu item to the standard Office components, like Excel and Word to make the preparation and reading of XBRL Instance Documents a user friendly exercise. The fact it will be available in Microsoft Office, means it will be on the desktop of many millions of people around the world. This is one of the strongest indications yet that XBRL has hit the mainstream. It is such that it will revolutionize the way in which financial information is reported, facilitating a shift away from standardized reports to selected data needed for a decision of the moment and also customized reports and analysis. A brief summary can be found on the Microsoft site:Office Solution Accelerators

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

On January 1, 2004, new privacy legislation comes into force, with major ramifications for business. One of the best resources on the implications of this new legislation and how to cope with it is the website of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, whose privacy website is available at Privacy
KPMG has a publication out that provides some useful guidance on how businesses can prepare themselves against CyberCrime.KPMG [Forensic and Litigation] [E-Commerce and Cyber Crime in Canada] A very timely publication.

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

Sandia National Laboratories, which is operated for the US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, has released a new study "An Introduction to Information Control Models" which provides an interesting comparison of BS7799, Cobit, CoCo, COSO, FISCAM, GAPP, GASSP, ITCG, SSAG, SSE-CMM and SysTrust. It can be ordered from Ordering Methods or by e-mailing to orders@ntis.fedworld.gov It covers more control models than any other study of its type of which I am aware.
Bob Jensen who has an incredibly informative website, issues bookmarks from time to time which deal with various technology related issues and other not so technology related issues. His latest bookmarks can be found at:Bob Jensen's New Bookmarks They're always worth a read.
The new "CAN-SPAM" act passed in the US Congress last week by a very large margin. Some people question its likely effectiveness, but most agree that it is needed, and moves in the right direction. The bill can be viewed through the site of the US Congress:Congress.org Spam is much more than an annoyance. It costs big dollars in terms of system support, use of system resources and waste of employee time.

Monday, December 01, 2003

The traditional security for WiFi Wireless Networks is Wired Equivalency Protocol (WEP), which has been criticized for its failings. It can be broken into by using easily available tools, partly and perhaps largely because of its use of static, shared encryption keys. It's successor is Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) which is intended to address the shortcomings of WEP. However, a web-published paper by expert Bob Moskowitz points out that the new system has a serious flaw. It allows the use of simple passkeys that are subject to conventional dictionary attacks. EPWi-Fi Networking News: Weakness in Passphrase Choice in WPA Interface
There have been several attempts to start up micropayment systems in the past, mostly abortive. However, Visa is now considering it, and that could be significant. Micropayments are designed to be useful for paying for little bits of content on the internet, such as music and articles. If they take off, it could mean new opportunities for Internet-based business. On the other hand, it would mean that web surfers would increasingly encounter sites where they must pay for content.Globetechnology
XBRL has issued a draft document on the design of taxonomies for financial reporting, which sets out a Financial Reporting Taxonomies Architecture (FRTA). The purpose of FRTA is to provide a framework for the preparation of taxonomies that are developed to enable XBRL statements to be prepared in accordance with a specific set of GAAP. Taxonomies on US GAAP and International GAAP have already been released. The Canadian GAAP taxonomy is currently being developed. The FRTA document can be downloaded from :: XBRL :::