Tuesday, September 28, 2010

International E-Business

There are many issues that arise in doing international e-business that don't arise in domestic markets. Of course, the obvious ones revolve around culture, but there are very different laws about handling money and making sales as well. An interview published in e-Commerce Times, titled "A World-Wise View of E-Commerce: Q&A With Asknet CEO Michael Scheib," provides an interesting quick overview of some of the issues in various countries. It's worth a look at this link.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Facebook now Meets Canadian Privacy Requirements

Last year, Canada's Privacy Commissioner reported that Facebook fell short of privacy requirements because it was collecting information that was available to others without making this clear to the users. Since then, Facebook has made a number of changes to its privacy procedures, basically providing the users the option to choose who the information can be made available to. last week, the Privacy Commissioner announced that Facebook now meets the requirements. For an outline of the announcement and its background, check out this article.  

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Social Media and CRM

A new trend is taking place in the CRM world, in which companies are using social media to augment their CRM systems. It makes a lot of sense, because their customers can discuss issues, new events can be exposed to them, and their support people can participate. Different from the traditional chat rooms, social media facilitates getting to know the customers better and encourages better participation. Some companies are using this approach successfully. For an article on this topic, please see this link.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Online Privacy - Is There Such a Thing?

Many people assume that if they don't explicitly identify themselves on the internet, then their actions on it are anonymous. However, this isn't necessarily so. Standard logins can reveal more information about a person than many realize. For example, everyone has an IP Address, point of entry, domain, etc. and these are not hard to find and to track. Indeed many companies plant cookies to follow the users and determine their interests, desires, and habits.

Of course, many people are aware of the existence of cookies and often/sometimes(?) employ software to disable them. But by then it's too late to stop them from identifying a person, or coming very close. And the sophistication of identification techniques on the internet is growing.

Many business will tell you that they don;t need to identify an individual - that they only want to identify what their commercial interests in order to be able to make product information available to them at timely moments. A lot of research and effort is going into this effort. And that's generally true. But the real danger is that unscrupulous people, such as criminals may indeed want to identify you, and then there is a real problem.

Some safeguards can be taken - cookie software, wiping our browser files after each use, shielding IP addresses, etc. But a lot of people don't do these things, and in any event, the technology for identification is getting more sophisticated. it could mean the end of privacy for good. for more on this theme, see this article.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Android Moving up in the World

Google's Android operating system for smartphones has been one of the major success stories of recent years. Google bought Android Inc, as a start-up, two years ago and since them developers have flocked to it to the extent of hundreds of thousands of new apps, some say as much as a million new apps. Android is based on the Linux system, which makes it pretty much open for developers, something that works in the technology world and that Apple should have learned many years ago when it lost market share to IBM and its clones by keeping their Apples closed.

Now, Android is positioned as the front-runner in the smartphone world, and predictions are that its star will continue to rise. For example, see this article.

Thursday, September 09, 2010

Journalism - An Industry in Flux

It is obvious to everyone by now that the world of news and news media is changing rapidly and irrevocably. Digital media is providing new and different channels of distribution, new avenues for reader interaction, and even new types of content.

The industry was the focus of a panel discussion held last week in Toronto, which involved a number of experts from media companies, and some of the digital companies like Facebook. One of the discussions pointed to the advantages of having news comments placed through Facebook, rather than as anonymous comments on news sites. There was the thought that this might raise the level of the online discussions in traditional media sites. Anyone who has read some of the comments one sees in traditional media sites would relate to the need for finding some way to raise the level at least up to kindergarten level!

The advances in mobility were also discussed, with recognition that it is important and will become more so, but that the problem now is that there does not seem to be a good means of providing advertising content, which is necessary from the industry viewpoint.

A summary of the discussion is at this site.

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

IT Support Needs to Change

The trends in technology over the past few years have highlighted a growing sophistication in the use of technology. At one time, the only experts in the company were the IT support staff. That's still true in some ways but in many ways it isn't. Nevertheless, IT support personnel need to recognize what has changed.

The big thing that has changed is that the employees, especially those coming on stream now, are very used to technology and are good at using it for many purposes in their daily lives. This ranges from social networking to numerous apps to mobile uses like texting. While they may not be cognizant of the risks associated with some of these activities, all that does is tend to make the work of the IS support people harder, because they end up having to say "no" - and it only takes a certain number of "no's" before they are regarded as Neanderthals.

So there is a significant management problem that needs to be addressed. Couple this with the growing trend of companies to adopt a policy of allowing employees to use their own computers, and the whole issue is ramped up into the stratosphere.

It seems clear that what needs to happen is for the IT departments to release a lot of control. To be more responsive to new technologies coming up out of the field, and to support as best they can the employees who way to use their own technology in a way that they are used to doing, which should add efficiency. In the end, the technology will cost the company a lot less and while there might be additional risk, this is something that can be dealt with.

InformationWeek Analytics recently released a survey - End user 2.0 - that bears out these broad conclusions and also brings in some new considerations. Worth thinking about. The long term credibility of IT support functions everywhere is at stake.

Friday, September 03, 2010

Buy Your Starbucks With Blackberry

In an illustration of the growing use of smart phones for purchasing on the road, Blackberry has announced a new application for the Blackberry. Customers can manage their Starbucks points accounts and buy their coffee using their Blackberry at Starbucks stores. there already are similar services for iPhones.

We can expect to see more of this and eventually smart phones may well become the payment method of choice. For a report on the announcement, check out this article.

Thursday, September 02, 2010

The Wireless Wars

Wireless broadband capacity has become an important basic resource for our economy and indeed our society. Ultimately it may rank up there almost with water and air. That's because so many of our important communications devices and countless applications in business and government are going wireless.

We are all aware of the growth of mobile phones and other wireless devices. But that's only the tip of the iceburg. The movement of important applications, such as power grid monitoring to wireless platforms adds an important new perspective to the situation.

Presently, broadband access is controlled by the telephone and cable companies. But this arrangement does not take into account the movement of broadband usage from those devices to important applications. It does not take into account the tremendous importance of broadband to our society. In short, the most relevant question is can the control of broadband be left to the phone and cable companies, or should it be placed in broader hands - hands that will need to be more accountable.

There are, of course, regulatory bodies to mitigate said control. In the US its the FCC and in Canada the CRTC. Both agencies have been struggling to keep up with the rapid change taking place in communications technology and its changing role in society. With mixed results. In Canada the very existence and/or structure of the CRTC needs to be rethought. There are other government bodies with powers in this space as well, but then we are into an uncoordinated set of policies and practices. Change is needed.

The FCC, in its efforts to keep up, is currently examining the direction its policies should take with regard to broadband. Needless to say, they are facing extreme lobbying pressure from the cable and telephone companies. It's time for the whole governance structure of broadband policy to be re-thought.