The Nightmare of Cell Phones on Planes

Anyone who travels very much shudders at the thought of being stuck on a long flight beside a chronic cell phone user. For North America, that has been banned by the authorities because calls on planes could interfere with ground based cell stations. However, newer technologies have changed all that. It is now possible to avoid such interference and it is likely that the bans will come down.

However, the good news is that the airlines need to invest in the technology for their planes and allow voice calls to be made. Many of them are reluctant to do that because of the customer service nightmare that could result.

Cell service is already allowed on planes in various other parts of the world, notably in parts of Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The experience there is that most cell phone users use text and email rather than voice, at least in part and maybe largely because voice calls are treated as international data roaming charges and anyone who has been stuck with an international data roaming cell phone bill knows what that is all about. The rates are scandalously high.

Airlines will be able to allow texting and other data usages of cell phones and block voice communications. There's a pretty good chance that they will do just that. There's a very strong demand for texting, internet and other data usage on flights, but a lot of resistance about voice calls.

So right now we are entering into a time of change and many travellers will be watching what happens with bated breath. Here's a great article on the subject.

Is Privacy Sustainable?

Vint Cerf, acknowledged as one of (perhaps the) father of the Internet, spoke about privacy last week and made some very good points. He was speaking in the context of the Internet of Things, a developing phenomenon under which the coverage of the internet is growing to include the tracking and management of many objects, such as inventories and refrigerator contents.

He pointed out that as internet usage expands, privacy is going to take a beating. More importantly, he pointed out that privacy is a product of urbanization and the industrial revolution; that in small towns, privacy does not exist. A good point. It exists to some extent, but anyone who lives in a small town can tell you that it is much more limited than it is in big cities. Your neighbours know much more about you and what you are doing.

The internet is changing the nature of big city life by making it, in a sociological sense, more like a small town. That's because people willingly put so much of their life out there on social media. That will expand as the internet of things grows.

That means a maintenance of privacy will require a change in behaviour, not stronger laws. Another point that Mr. Cerf made. Here's a write-up on his talk.

It's quite possible that no amount of behaviour change will preserve the post industrial level of privacy. Welcome to the technological small town, or as Marshall McLuhan would have put it - The Global Village.

Why Bitcoin is Going to Fail

There have been numerous attempts to establish a currency that will work on the internet - eCash, eCheque, cashU - You name it. Most of them have failed, usually because they did not have the active support of the governments and/or of the banking system. Some might say Paypal is an exception, but it is not a currency, but rather a bridge to the conventional cash and credit card system.

Bitcoin is really an old idea that has been tried many times before and has most of the characteristics of those that have failed. Check out this article that goes into more detail.

Businesses Continue to Find New Uses for Tablets

Tablets are selling well for consumer purposes, but they are used by business in new and innovative ways. Most common is usage by field staff, who need to move between customers frequently or constantly. They offer the kind of convenience and functionality that business needs. In the example from this linked article, Reliance Home Comfort distributed tablets to their field staff with functions that enabled them to access the programs on the main system that they need to service customers. Previously it was a case of entering data in several different software packages from paper based source documents, which took a lot of clicks and time to complete. With the tablets, interfaces were designed that enabled touch entry to all of them from the same app, which not only reduced the number of clicks, but made it all faster to process. In effect they achieved a simple form of systems integration, that in conventional terms would have cost huge dollars to achieve. Check the article here.

The Coming Era of Mobile Payments

Numerous companies are offering or planning to offer apps that allow payments to be made with smartphones. It may signal the end of plastic. Check out this excellent article on the subject.

Tablets vs Laptops - Who will Win?

Check out these ruminations on the topic.

Social Business Gradually Growing

The use of social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Blogs for business purposes, generally labelled Social Business is achieving growing attention in the business community, but most businesses report that they are really at a very preliminary stage in developing it. This according to a study released by Deloitte and MIT Sloan Management Review. Barriers have been lack of a proven business model, lack of a strategy and other priorities.

Nevertheless, this is destined to change quickly. Social media is a very powerful tool, not only for communicating with stakeholders, but also for interacting with customers and others. In addition, and this is a big factor, social media is a critical source of big data, a phenomenon that is in process of revolutionizing the business landscape. Use of bog data for customer relationship management and strategic analytics is rapidly becoming a competitive necessity.

See the Deloitte/MIT study here.

Speaking in Tweets

How twitter is affecting our language. See this article.

Big Data governance Gains in Urgency

Big data is being collected in growing volumes, and becoming more important to a variety of corporate strategic initiatives. But yet, companies are encountering difficulties in making use of the data because it is coming in on different platforms and in different forms. The old classic problem written large.

New forms of data standardization are needed to make them available and consumable across divergent platforms. We've seen progress in the financial world with XBRL, and in various other arenas with XML, but more needs to be done. Here's a take on the issue.

Electronic Publishing - Here and Now

Electronic publishing is now the dominant form of publishing in many fields. It is soon to eclipse the print form in all fields. Check it out in my article here.

New Concerns About Data Privacy

The past couple of years have seen a tremendous emphasis on big data, with all its potential for business applications and for change. But has some of this come at the expense of privacy concerns? While privacy has been a concern for over a decade, since the internet really got started, there has not been as much space devoted to the implications of big data on privacy. Are people getting complacent about privacy, perhaps thinking that the laws now in place have resolved the issue for ever?

In a recent survey of data scientists, 88% of them said that people should indeed be concerned about the data being collected about them and the uses to which it is put. Moreover, they suggest that laws are not enough - that their nascent profession needs a code of ethics. We should hope that happens soon. For more on this, check this article.

The Time is Right for Standardized Data

See this article on Money.ca.

Facebook Launches a New Payment System

Facebook has announced a new payment system which involves shoppers registering their credit card with Facebook and then using their Facebook login to make purchases without having to enter the additional data required my most vendors. It's not likely to be a serious contender, however. Wait for Isis, coming later this year.  

The Internet of Things - Opportunity and Risk

Check out this article on the opportunities and risks involved with having more appliances and devices connected to the internet. http://money.ca/you_and_your_money/2013/08/14/the-internet-of-things-opportunity-and-risk/

Big Data in Perspective

With all the hype over big data lately, it's good to sit back and look at it in a balanced way, to try to see it in perspective. That's why this article is refreshing. It looks at some common myths about big data, and deals with them decisively. Have a read.

How Organic Search Terms Can Save in Online Advertising Costs

Many organizations purchase their online advertising at costs that are growing rapidly. This company, helped by Deloitte, did extensive data analysis on sales and their customers, demographics, etc and determined that the use of organic or natural search terms would yield results as good as the paid advertising at much less cost.  A valuable lesson for all. Check it out here.

Why Tablets are Outpacing Laptops

Here's a great article on why tablets are so successful. Some of it is obvious, but the world of tablets is changing fast. They are becoming more powerful and are successfully integrating business solutions which will mean a rapid increase in their dominance. Here's the article.

Online Grocery Shopping May be Taking Off

New uses of mobile technology by Peapod and others have triggered an increased interest in online grocery shopping. Certainly there are segments of the population, large ones, who are just waiting for such a service on a large scale. Here's more on this topic.

WiFi Cars are a Reality

Recently GM announced that some of its new cars will roll out with WiFi capability. That raises the possibility of numerous new applications for connecting to the onboard computer systems as well as outside. And yesterday Telus announced a new smartphone app that connects to the onboard computer, making it possible to lock and unlock the doors remotely, start the engine remotely and perform many other activities.

It raises many issues - driver distraction, loss of privacy (because of tracking features), hackers disrupting or disabling cars for fun or profit. And soon. But it's a new wave that is here to stay, and we had better get used to it.

Here's an interesting article on the subject.

Book Publishers are Embracing the Digital Age

While digital books are outpacing paper books in sales, it doesn't mean the age of paper books is over. In fact, the two worlds can work together, particularly in the marketing stage, and in fact that is what's happening. Here's a good article on how that is working.

Why Technology is Forcing Radical Change in Society

Check out this article I wrote for my blog on Money.ca.

Dealing With Illegal IT Usage

Illegal IT usage, such as the use of copyright materials without a license, has been quite common, albeit decidedly illegal. Various attempts have been made to deal with this issue. Most recently there has been a trend to deal with it by using the laws on fair trade. E&Y has a useful set of materials on this topic on its website. It covers the basic trends, gives examples of companies that have employed fair trae based policies, and contains recommendations that companies might consider.

Illegal IT Usage and Unfair Competition

Ernst & Young has an interesting report on their Global website that provides an update on the status of illegal software use in business and how it relates to unfair competition legislation. The relationship was not always apparent. However, the US has been insisting in recent years that companies doing business in the US must be complaint with their unfair competition legislation, which includes unfair use of IT, such as software.

Use of unlicensed software has been an issue since IT went mainstream. Over time, legislation has been updated to take it into account, and the unfair competition legislation is a case in point.

The report outlines how companies can use their compliance to improve their competitive position. It also provides three examples of companies that have taken positive steps in this area.

The report is on the E&Y Website.

Learning from Africa about Social Media

A thought leadership series from KPMG points out that there is a lot we can learn from Africa about the use of Social Media. For example, here is a excerpt about Nigeria's largest bank:

"Recognizing the unique needs and demographics of their customers, GTBank’s executives encouraged the bank to go further in leveraging social media to identify ways to make banking easier and more accessible for current and potential customers.

As a result, the Bank now boasts a fully functional online social media ‘customer care’ team (available 24 hours a day, seven days a week) and has launched a Facebook banking application which allows people to open GTBank accounts on Facebook. Future enhancements will customers to securely transfer money, purchase mobile air time, pay bills, and confirm their account balances, all through their Facebook accounts.

In this, GTBank ranks among just a handful of banks around the world that plan to offer this feature; not surprisingly, most are in the developing world (such as India’s ICICI and Brazil’s Bradesco) where traditional bank account opening processes are often considered cumbersome or inaccessible."

A series worth following. Check it out here.

Unlocking the Value of Big Data

An article I wrote on the subject of creating more structured data for investment purposes.
Check it out.

Security Strategy is Becoming More Important than SecurityTechnologies

The annual survey of corporate security by InformationWeek shows that the approach taken has been shifting with the environmental changes taking place. While the approach is previous years seemed to place an emphasis on getting the technology in place to protect the company, now there is more emphasis on employee training and awareness.

The survey covers over 1000 companies and only 13% of them say they are more vulnerable to attacks than last year, a significant decrease. The element of their security structure they feel is least effective is their firewalls. And they are, as one would predict, more concerned than ever about mobility and its effect on corporate security - with good reason.

One possible explanation for the shifting attitudes of companies away from technology and towards strategy seems to be a recognition that increased employee awareness is needed. The technology wars have been increasingly combative and much more difficult to keep up with. Training employees to recognize and deal with threats and actual attacks seems to pay bigger dividends.

For a copy of the survey report, check this link.

Collaborative Shopping is Catching a Wave

The idea of collaborative shopping is very much in tune with our current use of the internet as a sharing tool. The popularity of social media of all kinds confirms this trend. But retailers and other vendors need to adapt their own websites to enable meaningful collaborative shopping for their customers. And they are, but too slowly. Check out this article on the subject.

The Emergence of the Data Scientist

Big data has dominated the news in the business world for the past year. If anyone ever doubts the veracity of those claims that big data is important, consider the emergence of the Data Scientist. This is a new job type that didn't exist only a couple of years ago. But now companies are scrambling to fill their new Data Scientist positions. And they are lucrative. Starting salaries run in the $110,000 to $120,000 range. Universities are adding new courses and even majors. Stanford is planning a new masters track in the field.

The Data Scientist is a new role, but one that will be around for the long term. The internet is making, and will continue to make, more data available to companies and they are learning that a judicious use of those data can increase their opportunities and decrease their risk. Check out this article on the subject.

Bring Your Own Cloud

The phenomenon of "Bring Your Own Device", where companies allow their people to connect their own personal devices to the company networks, is getting to be old hat. More and more companies are making the leap and finding ways to adopt their security policies appropriately.

Now some are touting a "new" trend, although one could argue it just goes along with the BYOD trend. That's the idea of Bringing Your Own Cloud.

BYOC comes from the fact that many people use their personal devices in the cloud. Two examples are iPhones and iPads being used with iCloud. In fact that's the default storage area for them. Ams there are also services like Dropbox, which is very popular for storage as well as backup.

The issue of course is security. There's a widespread assumption, not without merit, that it is more difficult to establish an adequate measure of security over the cloud than over internal servers. Certainly it raises additional issues, which in turn raises the cost of security.

Here's an article on the subject.

Home Tweet Home

The internet is entering the home in so many ways these days. One major app is security systems, which have been connecting web cams for years now. But security companies are now getting into it big time. In this article, there is an excellent summary of many of the other apps out there. Linking to your thermostats, house locks, lights, heating, washing machines, refrigerator, dishwashers, motion sensors etc. And using Twitter to communicate. Adds a whole new dimension to home management. Here's the article.

An Important Advancement in Mobile Payments.

Square is a company that has introduced important innovations for mobile payments in the past. One has been their dongle that attaches to an iPhone and enables the reading of credit cards. Most recently, the company has introduced the Square Stand, a small unit that attaches to a counter and holds an iPad which can be used to process sales. It can handle sales in cash, debit card and credit card and also provides a POS system as well as customer data for analytics. It costs $299.

In other words, for a small business, it provides an option for small business to implement a POS and CRM system and replace their cash register all for a very affordable amount.

It's an important innovation and another one of many that are starting to utilize the utility and adaptability of the ubiquitous iPad. Another spreading use involves hotel receptions, where an iPad is provided to guests (for the duration of their stay) containing useful information about the hotel and the community. Checkout and other financial apps are just around the corner for these iPads.

For a more on the Square Stand, check out this review.

Data Monetization

Data is being monetized and commodified with increasing frequency, thus providing an economic framework for the collection and use of big data. Here's an article I recently published on this topic.

Selling on eBay the Business Way

eBay was one of the major early eBusiness success stories. It still is a success story and offers up a retail outlet for a variety of business that wish to grow their online activity. eBay provides the facility to list a business and have it's own website within the greater eBay environment. In addition, it offers many practical aids to help you present your business to the world. It isn't for everyone, but it can be an effective way to get into or expand your online selling. Here's an article with a few useful suggestions on how to make best use of eBay.

Data Sharing - Is Anything Private Anymore?

The attitudes of people using the internet, particularly younger people, about data on the net are well known. Generally there is the point of view that all data should be free. And while numerous businesses, such as the conventional newspapers have been trying to fight this view, they have not succeeded very well.

A second aspect of the new attitudes is that all data is available to be shared. In other words, if it is free, then there is no problem with sharing it with anyone who is interested in it.

Multiply there attitudes with the use of social media and you have a situation in which it becomes increasingly difficult for any company to shield its information from public dissemination. It's very difficult to keep information confidential.

This is a major social upheaval, since data confidentiality has been one of the cornerposts of corporate strategy since time began. Essentially it is a cornerpost of any strategy. Determining when and how to release information is always a fundamental part of a strategy.

We haven't seen the full impact of this trend yet, because there has not been enough time for it to develop and, in addition, the younger people who hold most strongly to the free information concept have not yet reached the levels of corporate hierarchies where they are privy to a lot of sensitive strategic information.

One likely outcome is an increased emphasis by corporate management on "controlling the message". by implementing tighter controls over release of information, speaking with one voice and establishing much more severe sanctions over the people who breach these rules. We already see some governments moving in this direction.

We can expect considerable movement of companies into this space over the next few years. For a take on part of this issue, check out this article.

Selling on Mobiles Now a Necessity

The incredible growth of mobile unit usage has been well documented, with smartphones and tablets now dominating aspects of the market. It's a clear sign that retailers need to make sure their websites render on mobile devices not only well, but in a compelling way.

Tablets like the iPad are very good at showing websites. However, they do not run flash, which is used on many websites, which can kill the user experience. There is a need to make sure that the technologies being used on your retail websites are compatible with mobile devices.

With smartphones the problem is even deeper. Not only is there the same issue with technologies, there is the issue of extreme small screen sizes, which call for a complete rethink of the site design. With so many people now using smartphones for their browsing and purchasing, this can be a killer.

For more on this important issue, check out this article.

Why Canada is a Player but not a Leader in e-Commerce

Canada has been said to be a player but not a leader n e-Commerce. A recent survey by ePath Consulting looked into this paradox and came up with some interesting conclusions. For my article on their survey and the findings, click this link.

Crowdfunding Moves On

The idea of raising money over the internet for new business startups and charities has gained considerable prominence over the past two years. A leading website - Kickstart.com - has continued to flourish and is now accompanied by numerous others.

There has been controversy in the regulatory field, with initial resistance from the major securities regulators. However, the SEC blazed a path with new legislation - the JOBS Act - that has been followed by similar proposals from the Ontario Securities Commission.

The National Crowdfunding Association has a very informative website where it is pointed out that the industry was expected to grow 2.6 billion for 2012. Over 800 million was raised in North America.

Crowdfunding is now a legitimate means of fund raising, and one that is proving useful for countless business startups and charities. while it does require the involvement of legal advice for business startups in particular, nevertheless the potential for raising capital is tremendous.

Identity Management

Identify theft has been a major and growing problem in the cyber age. Identity management is a new and comprehensive answer. But is it enough? Read on at this entry in my Money.ca Blog.

Cloud Security is an Ongoing concern

A recent survey shows that companies have moved more than 25% of their processes to the cloud. But another survey shows that almost 40% of the companies feel their existing security is not adequate to meet the security risks of the cloud. Most of them retain the responsibility for security over the cloud rather than their provider. This indicates that companies can outsource most processes, they cannot outsource responsibility for security. This has been the case to date, but a better solution needs to be found, if they are to make best use of the cloud. One good approach would be to ramp up the role played by systems assurance. The major accounting bodies, such as CPA Canada and the AICPA have had Trust Services standards in place for years that could be used for this purpose. These services could be used much more effectively in the Cloud. For a summary of the surveys, follow this link.

SEC Supports Social Media for Corporate Disclosure

In a ground-breaking move, the SEC has released a report in which it allows companies the use of Social Media, like Facebook and Twitter, for corporate disclosures. The move came after an investigation was launched into a disclosure by Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, on his personal Facebook page, that Netflix had exceeded 1 billion hours in streaming time during the month for the first time. That announcement precipitated a rise in Netflix's shares the next day. As a result, the SEC launched an investigation into whether that disclosure was in conformity with Reg FD, the groundwork rule that seeks to ensure all investors have equal access to information being disclosed.

Over the past several years, it's been a struggle for the SEC to keep up with rapid changes in the use of technology for corporate reporting - first the web, then blogs, now social media, among other things.

In this case, the investigation concluded that the use of social media would conform with Reg FD provided that companies alert investors that announcements will be coming over a particular source.

That sounds good and progressive, and it is, but it is going to create some issues both for the regulator and for investors. It's likely we will see further rules down the road in this area. Facebook, for example, provides users with a tool to post their status, and such announcements would presumably come through the status postings.However, previous status announcements quickly get buried in other postings and to find particular items requires scrolling back through everything on the site. Many investors are not going to monitor the Facebook sites of all their investments on a regular basis - along with the websites, blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, other social media and traditional news sources. With all this richness of media, it may be that the vehicles available for investors are becoming too diverse and cumbersome. Time will tell.

For the SEC report, check out the SEC site here.

Will it be BYOD or CYOD?

While many businesses are grappling with the idea of adopting a policy of allowing employees to use their own mobile devices for company purposes (BYOD) not all of them taking this approach to the issue. Some are starting to look at the idea of listing some alternatives for employees to choose from, a Choose Your Own Device (CYOD)approach.

CYOD involves screening out devices that cannot meet the security requirements of the company and/or cannot integrate with the corporate systems, but allows the employees some flexibility in the devices they use for corporate purposes.It's a compromise. Here's more on the topic.

Tablets and Smartphones - An Opportunity

Tablets and smartphone driven sales in the e-commerce world are growing rapidly. And this past year saw tablet sales outdistance phone based sales, although this may change again next year. Both are growing faster than PC driven sales. It is clear that one of the key drivers of tablet and phone usage is the existence of good apps. People like to go straight to an app rather than browse the web on their mobile devices, especially on their phones.

That means there is an opportunity for creative app developers in the e-commerce area. It's gearing up for a major growth cycle and largely in the mobile area. More in this article.

Deloitte Trends for 2013

Deloitte has released its report on Tech Trends for 2013. Central to its thesis in this report is that we have entered a post digital era, comparable to the post industrial era, where the forces of the identified era have become the mainstream drivers of the new age. The report heralds a role for the CIO in organizations being raised to new strategic heights. And it emphasizes the ubiquity of mobility as well as a reinvention of ERP. There are ten trends identified and explained on the Deloitte website, complete with supporting videos and case histories exemplifying the various trends. It makes an interesting read.

The Transformation of Payments Systems

Payments in the financial services industry have been undergoing a transformation over recent months/years. PArt of it has involved a significant shift to the east, where the new technologies are centered. KPMG has been tracking these changes and writing about them The results appear on the KPMG website and make a tremendous resource for anyone interested in researching this area.

As the site says: "While many in the financial services industry may have historically viewed payments as being somewhat boring, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, given the rapid pace of change, innovation and growth now underway in the sector, it seems increasingly clear that payments is actually one of the most exciting – and potentially valuable – parts of our current financial system."

And about the shift to Asia: "Amidst all of this disruptive change, one development in particular – while somewhat slower to play out – will change the very dynamics of the sector: the shift East. The facts are undeniable: in 2010 alone, Asia’s share of global payment transaction volumes on general purchasing cards increased from 26 percent to 31 percent. By 2015, Asia’s purchasing volume is expected to be double that of the United States’."

There is a lot of good material there and worth investigating because the next year will see a huge change in payments methodologies around the world, including and perhaps most strikingly in North America. Check out the KPMG site.

No Metrics for Mobile Advertising?

Metrics are an important driver for advertising. That's because advertising is expensive and advertisers need to know that their money is being spent productively. Good metrics can tell them whether people are responding to the advertising by actually buying the products.

The problem that they are experiencing with mobile advertising is that the means to obtain the data for metrics - cookies - are not effective for mobile units, and in fact mobile phones do not contain the capacity for cookies. In addition, users often switch between different devices, phones, tablets, PC's, to do their transactions. So it's hard for the advertisers to track their activities. In any event, there are growing constraints on tracking mobile users because of privacy laws.

Intuitively, there is a strong feeling that mobile advertising should pay dividends despite some apparent resistance from mobile users, and the advertisers are going to have to come up with ways to measure the results. This will require some innovation, but should be possible. Check out this article for more.

Mobility - A Pathway to Growth

While mobility is an important element of growth, placing more emphasis on it raises some management issues that need to be addressed. Chief among these is the question of whether the company will adopt a BYOD policy. "Bring Your Own Device" has definite advantages, including more choice by employees and greater buy-in, but also raises the need for a formal policy to guide the use of those devices. In particular this policy must address the increased security risk that comes with allowing a variety of mobile devices to carry and transmit corporate data.

Grant Thornton has released a useful white paper on this topic, which can be downloaded at their site.

Hints of Change in Reporting Requirements at the SEC

The appointment of Mary Jo White as Chair of the powerful SEC may lead to some important changes in  their reporting requirements. Check out my article on Money.ca.

Maintain that Opt-in List

Marketing by email requires that recipients have the choice to opt in or out. Marketing by IM even more so. But maintaining an opt-in list requires much more than just keeping a list of names up to date. it requires feeding the list with good content, maintaining the interest. This approach requires research and dedicated resources to do properly. There's more here.

E-Textbooks in the Cloud - Long Overdue

Various movements have been taking place towards electronic textbooks. At present, most students bear the burden of paying extravagant prices for their books, often as much as $300 each, almost always at least half that.

It's a big price to pay, despite the fact that in most areas, there is a pretty good used book market, where students can unload their books after they completing their courses and new students can avoid the high prices of new books.

However, in this digital age, the publishers could do a lot better. In the book market for fiction and non-fiction, which has been undergoing a revolution, most books are now made available electronically, especially for e-book readers and tablets at prices far below the traditional prices for paper books. The fact is the preparation and distribution costs are a lot lower and the savings can be passed along to the consumer.

There have also been some calls for open source books, which could be offered for free. However, whether this would work is an open question. Quality is a big issue, and to control for that requires a mechanism to monitor and edit any content. This is the norm for established open source vehicles, such as Wikipedia. It isn't likely that skilled professionals and academics will be willing to devote much time to such efforts, if they were either not paid or not given recognition in their world of academic credits, which at present they would not.

There is no reason why they couldn't still be published in the cloud - online, thereby avoiding even more of the publication costs. But having said that, straight e-publishing along the lines of the rest of the industry is likely the most sustainable and economically viable route for textbook publishing. The educational publishers have been terribly slow to act in this area, and it's time they did. For more on this subject, check out this.

Social Media on Websites

As the usage and value of business interaction with social media grows, so does the value of traditional websites decline. People (customers and potential customers) are looking to social media to gain understanding of a brand or to have their questions answered. That means companies who do not make effective use of social media, and more importantly make it clear on their websites, are missing the boat. So how does a business enhance their website to include social media. There are several important ways we are seeing. First and most obvious, include social media icons on a prominent place on the website. Certainly on the lead page and on other pages where it makes strategic sense. But that's not enough. Include the ability of users to like the page, or to like, share and tweet particular entries. Also, to join a discussion on LinkedIn. Where there are logins, allow users to log in using their Facebook or other social media logins. The website needs to be fully integrated with the social media presence of the business. So the social media strategy and the overall web presence need to be a unified strategy. For some ideas on how to integrate websites with social media, check out this article

The Impact of Technology on Reading

No, technology has not led to the demise of reading, as many have predicted. In fact it has increased the importance of both reading and writing. People with poor grammatical and general writing skills stand out for all the world to see on Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, and even on Twitter. Technology, however, is having a major impact on the way people read, and that change can be expected to intensify. To continue reading,click this link.

Coursera Almost Doubles its Participating Universities

The online educational phenomenon, Coursera, has announced that it has almost doubled its participating universities by adding 29 of them to its fold, including some of the world's major universities. Coursera is the world's largest MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses). It offers courses for free and attracts as many as 40,000 students per course.

MOOCs are seen by many as a possible answer to the growing pressures on the educational system to deliver mass education at a reasonable cost. For a summary of the latest initiatives of Coursera, check out this article.

Mobile Payment Systems for Business

Accepting mobile payments is a lot more feasible now after the advent of new systems that allow card readers to be attached to smartphones and iPads to process sales transactions. There are several such systems out there now. For a summary of their strategic implications, check this article.

Convergence of Social Media, Mobility, SOA and BPM

Oracle Corp released an interesting white paper in January which, while proprietary, provides a good overview of the current use of social media in Business Process management. The paper points out the usefulness of social media as a part of business processes, from the research to the roll-out stage. Incorporating such media as Facebook and Twitter, it says, helps to break down the barriers between the decision makers and others and encourages interaction at each step of the way. The white paper can be obtained at the Oracle Website.

The Obsolete Work/Play Divide

Where does work end and play begin, or vice versa. This is the issue of the modern age of technology, particularly that of mobile technology. Work follows us everywhere. And while we are supposed to be working, we sneak some time on Facebook, and even some games. Certainly the traditional idea of going to the office and devoting that time to work is becoming obsolete - for many it's totally obsolete already. While the idea of being able to work at home started the trend, now the ubiquitous Blackberries and iPhones have cemented it. For an interesting article on this subject, check out this article.

The Boundary Free Enterprise

A new movement has emerged out of the increased use of mobile devices, cloud computing and social media. It is is the boundary free enterprise (BFE), which envisages a freeing up of enterprise information resources beyond traditional boundaries - a wide ranging sort of thinking outside the box. Besides embracing the BYOD movement, BFE also includes elements like moving beyond individual cloud solutions, moving beyond organizational boundaries to communities of interest and moving beyond structured transactional data (a big one). For a summary of BFE, click this link.

Deloitte Predictions for 2013

Deloitte has released their 2013 report on trends in technology, media and telecommunications. Covering a wide range of topics, from the state of PCs to the BYOD trend, to the pending release of 4D television. For more on this report, and for the link to the report, follow this link.

The Changing Game in IT Security

Late last year, PricewaterhouseCoopers released a report on an annual survey they had carried out online earlier in the year. The report, entitled "Changing the Game - Key Finding From the Global State of Information Security Survey 2013" followed from the responses of more than 9300 C-Suite executives from around the world.

The survey delved into a variety of issues around IT Security, including the state of security in the companies, the scope of spending, the importance of IT Security in various projects and current trends. The findings of this annual survey are always interesting. As might be expected, one point the survey made was that, as the result of mobility, the cloud and social media, IT itself is changing faster than Security, making it difficult to keep up. The report can be obtained here.

IT Communications Technology Reduces Greenhouse Gases

A study released by Boston Consulting Group in December revealed that increased use of information and communication technology (ICT) such as video conferencing and smart building management could cut global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 16.5 percent by 2020, amounting to USD1.9 trillion in gross energy and fuel savings. The study shows that concerted action by policy makers to encourage the use of ICT can save 9.1 gigatons carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) of harmful greenhouse gases from being emitted—more than the current annual CO2 emissions of the U.S. For the study, click here.http://www.bcg.com/media/PressReleaseDetails.aspx?id=tcm:12-122847

Targeted Attacks

Is your security good enough? Are you safe from targeted attacks? Check out this video to see what you're up against.

Are We Running Out of Room on the Internet?

There is concern in the Internet Technology circle that, with the phenomenal growth of mobile units, all of which utilize the internet, the system is going to run out of capacity in the future. In addition, the internet was originally designed as a client-server model which involves establishing a relationship between two people or organizations who then transfer data in the form of packets through fixed routes and between fixed stations. However, the profile of internet usage currently does not fit this model. Rather, with the growth in the number of mobile units, very little is fixed, certainly not routes and targets.

The result is that, not only is the need for additional broadband growing very fast, the basic model is out of touch with the current reality. The use of mobile units has gone from being a peripheral element of the internet to the predominant usage. This calls for a rethink of the architecture of the internet.

Currently there are major studies under way in this area. For a summary and some interesting links, check out this article.

The Ethics of Big Data

As the world careens towards more collection and analysis of data about - well, almost everything - there is growing evidence that the major issue with big data is that of ethics. Something that a lot of companies have difficulty grasping and therefore requires action by the people through legislation.

Already as a result of big data, existing privacy laws are badly out of date. That;s because they were written before the advent of big data, and therefore could not have anticipate the issues that are arising.

Companies are using big data to profile their customers, employees and anyone else they encounter. One of the difficulties about profiling is that it is often done with reference to a group rather than to an individual. A good example of profiling is categorization based on race. Thankfully, legislation has pretty well made such profiling illegal.

However, there are other inappropriate kinds of profiling to watch for. For example, American Express has been reported to have limited credit limits on people who shop at certain stores, on the basis that people who shop at those stores often have bad credit ratings. Clearly, Amex did some serious digging into the buying habits of certain people and then classified them

Profiling is well established in certain industries, insurance being a prime example. If you are a member of a certain demographic, such as teens, you will pay more for insurance. We've come to accept this, but then we know that some teens are very responsible and others not so. Little effort is expended to differentiate between them. We've come to accept this state of affairs, despite the inherent unfairness. And that's the trouble with profiling. The more it happens with different kinds of business, the more unfairness will creep into the system. One of the reasons for this historically has been the lack of data to support differentiation.

And yet, big data offers up the opportunity to differentiate - to do the profiling on a more individual basis. Lets not let business and governments take the easy route and generate more unfairness. Lets update the privacy laws to place greater control over the way data is being used, and make sure it is used fairly.

Failure in the Cloud

The recent Christmas Eve failure of Netflix pointed to a widely under-touted feature of cloud applications that companies need to concern themselves about. True, there has been much press about the security risks of the cloud, but this failure had nothing to do with security. The origin of the problem rested in the fact that Netflix relies on Amazon for its server base. And on Christmas Eve, Amazon's load balancing process failed, sending several servers down and making Netflix unable to access its movies.

So the customers at home who might have wanted to watch their favourite Christmas flick were jarred into the reality of depending on a cloud service.

For business, this is a serious lesson to consider. The reliability of most established cloud services is quite good, but the fact remains that the operational consistency and reliability of a particular service remains outside the control of the users. Any company considering outsourcing its critical applications to the cloud needs to consider this fact of life.For more on the Netflix issue, check this article.