E-Textbooks - The Time is Now
by Gerald Trites

E-readers have been on the market for a while now and have been slowly growing in popularity. The biggest thing holding them back from a runaway market has been price. At $400 plus, they can't compete with traditional paperbacks. However, in the college textbook market, the situation is very different. University students have been paying prices in the range of $100 - $150 for traditional hard cover textbooks for years. Multiply that by five courses and two semesters and you have a lot of money.

Admittedly, the traditional textbooks are expensive to produce, but the cost is simply more than some students can bear. So they often try to go without, or share their books. This hurts their education, because you cannot become educated without reading, even in this digital age.

E-Book readers have the potential to change all that. There are different ways to get readers into the hands of the students without bankrupting them - through university bookstores, renting programs and used markets. Also, the price of the readers, like all new technologies, will be coming down over the next few years.

The textbook publishers need to give some serious consideration as to how they will proceed with this area. One thing they should not do is to each adopt their own unique protocol for the books. They need to be compatible across publishers. Students always have to purchase books from different publishers, and can't be expected to acquire six or seven different readers. So there needs to be standardization.

Also, the University Bookstores need to be empowered to sell the content. Not just for convenience, but for support.

In addition, the readers need to be compatible with other major readers, such as the Kindle, so the students can access other readings when they wish.

Use of e-readers by students could bring on a new wave of reading among young people. This is critical to education. A win-win-win for the publishers, the students and their professors. For an article on this emerging world of readers, see this article in Computerworld.

The Google World of Books
Gerald Trites

When Google announced a couple of years ago that they were going to digitize the world's books, a few eyebrows were raised. They began with all the books whose copyright had expired. Copyright laws vary, but in most countries, copyrights expire after a period of time, like 50 years, at which time they become part of the public domain. There can be exceptions, but this depends on the actions of the individual authors, if still alive, or their estates, or other interested people. So digitizing the books in the public domain is not really a big deal.

Then Google extended their realm to obtain the specific permission of copyright holders for books not in the public domain. Again, this was not too big a deal because it at least respected the rights of the authors.

A big change took place, when they proposed to digitize all books, and pay the authors part of the proceeds, with the provision that the authors could opt out if they wish. This was a significant change, because it put the onus on the authors to opt out rather than seeking their permission. It was a negative assurance approach to copyright law.

Although some groups support the idea because of the perceived advantages of having digitized books, many opposed it. One of the main arguments against it has been the fact that Google is essentially claiming full digital rights to these books, thus taking away a significant part of the copyright benefits of authors and publishers.

Of course it has been challenged in the courts and in a class action suit settlement last year, Google was granted the rights to digitize all out-of-print books, which covers many not in the public domain. The settlement essentially gives Google a monomoly over the digitization of books and tramples over the rights of authors, their heirs and traditional publishers. The US Department of Justice, which monitors things like concentration of economic power and monopolies, is concerned and has launched hearings. Most recently the head of the copyright division in the US has voiced opposition to the settlement.

This is a vastly important case. The attempts of Google to corner the market for digital books needs to be curtailed. The field needs to be left open to competition and competitive market forces. This is in the long run interests of everyone.

Information wants to be free. The internet makes that possible to a greater extent than ever before, but it must be recognized it will never all be free. Free market forces remain relevant. Placing a significant chunk of that information under the control of one large company is the absolute wrong way to go.

More on this in E-Commerce News.

The Virtual Workplace

There is nothing new about employees working from home. It's been a growing element of the business world for years. New younger employees expect it. And it saves costs of such expensive accoutrements as office space and furniture. Some companies have gone to "hotelling" where no employees have fixed offices assigned to them, but reserve space when they need it.

Of course technology makes all this possible, especially high speed internet.

But the challenges remain and need to be addressed by companies. Since employees can't be supervised, they need to be managed by output. How is the output of employees measured? That's still a big issue for some employers. And then there is the question of security. How should the company-owned computer systems be configured to minimize risk of data leakage and hacking? Employees may be working at home or even in internet cafes on unprotected or poorly protected wireless networks. There is a need for policies and controls here. And likely encryption policies as well as Data Leakage solutions.

An excellent article on this topic, together with relevant links to helpful resources can be found on the E-Commerce Times Site.

The 3-D Web

Want to have a business meeting without having to pay for travel? It happens all the time, you say. How about if I add that all the participants - in virtual form - can be there around the virtual table. They can talk to each other and look at each other as they interact. It sure beats a teleconference, where you miss all the body language.

Something similar has been done with expensive teleconferencing systems in the past, where you can sit people at a meeting table, and then interact with others on a screen at the end of the room who are actually in a different room in another part of the world.

But the new 3D Web will make virtual conferencing possible for anyone with a web browser to participate. To create a 3D image of themselves and place it at the meeting table. To see and interact with the images of the others at the meeting.

Live Virtual meetings are just one aspect of the 3D Web soon to come our way. It will change the way we interact with each other, It will usher in a new Web and perhaps a new world. Read more in this article on Computerworld.

Basics of Starting an Online Business

Here's a basic but useful primer on what is needed to start an online business. It covers the technology end in an ioverview fashiopn. Of course there are lots of other matters to consider in starting any business, including things like form of organization - corporation of proprietorship - methods of recordkeeping and accounting, income tax consideration, and so on.
Ecom Primer: What You Need to Set Up Shop Online — eCommerce-Guide.com

E-Commerce in Canada

Statistics Canada periodically reports on the state of e-commerce in Canada, with its last report issued in April, 2008 presenting stats on 2007. That report shows that e-commerce has continued to grow at double digit rates since the surveys began in 2003. It also shows that e-commerce is still a relatively small part of overall economic activity. The growth, however, will have its eventual impact. There is no question that e-commerce is a critical part of the activities of many, perhaps most, companies. Even if their core business is not internet based, their internet presence is often important. In fact, its a fair bet that the statistics issued by Statscan actually understate the situation. They take into account transactions consummated over the internet, but do not cover transactions started by the internet, through the use of websites for shopping and pre-buying research. That is an important aspect of e-commerce too. The Statscan reports can be found on Statscan's website.

Facebook Remodels its Business Model

Ever since the advent of the internet and the consequent growth of eBusiness, business models have been built, re-worked, scrapped and shaken up. Some internet startups began without a viable business model, forgetting that the old rules of bringing in more money than you spend still apply to internet based business.

Amazon is the major example of a company that has shaped and reshaped its business model with considerable success.

Now, Facebook is at it. Using its established Gift Shop, Facebook is expanding the range of goods available in its gift shop to the point of including real world gifts as well as the virtual gifts, like electronic logos and decals, it has handled all along. It has taken to selling its virtual gifts - icons - by having them sponsoered by celebrities, in this case Britney Spears.

Facebook also has its own currency, Facebook Credits, which can be used to buy gifts. The company is also going into the "banking" business, by encouraging the use of its "currency" to buy goods on other sites. It is expected that the new remodelled gift shop will generate an additional half million this year. Not a bad start.

Read more in this report on the new Facebook.

Television - A Dying Medium

A recent survey has found that online viewing of videos has doubled in the last three years, outstriping the growth in social media usage and reflecting the growth in availability of broadband internet in homes.

There is a trend, mentioned in the report on this survey, that people are starting to watch television programs online more often. While online availablility of programs is not yet to the point that TV can be replaced among the general population, nevertheless, it is a trend that is not going away. And will be a reality sooner rather than later.

Already some people have cancelled their cable subscriptions (I know this anecdotally but haven't seen a study on it yet)and are using their computers to view their favourite programming. Many of the networks are archiving their programs and of course they can be viewed at any time. CBC, for example, archives The National, and various of its other programs. National Geographic and Discovery channels, as examples, contain a lot of archived material. Archiving sonds like real old stuff, but in reality the archiving is often done the next day, and sometimes even in real time.

Numerous websites are popping up that offer TV viewing, such as Hulu and TV Anywhere. These are backed by TV Networks, meaning the networks see the writing on the wall.

Since the beginning of the internet revolution, we have been predicting a convergence of technologies. Convergence of TV and the internet is the next big step. IT's interesting to speculate whether what comes out the other end will look more like TVs or computers. The survey is reported on in Internetnews.com.

Pointless Babble on Twitter

A recent study carried out on Twitter tweets carried out by Pear Analytics, reports that 40% of the tweets on Twitter are pointless babble, where they tell people illuminations such as "I'm eating a sandwich now" Only 9% of the tweets were categorized as having pass-along value.

Hear! Hear!

Twitter can be a valuable source of information, but it can be difficult to wade through all the babble to find it. Hopefully this evolves. Here's a good report on the Study.

Why SOA Projects Fail

There have been a number of SOA projects that have run into implementation issues. Recent research seems to indicate that the main issues are around people. This is no surprise. The main stumbling block for all major types of IT project over the years has been people. The problems that companies ran into with ERP implementations have mostly all involved people problems - lack of involvement at the outset, lack of proper training, resistance to change, poor management buy-in or control, fear of job losses. All of those are factors being mentioned with SOA projects. No surprise there. See this article in IT World.

The Aging Facebook Community

If anyone ever doubted that older people (55+) - lets call them the boomers - are becoming a greater part of the Facebook community, the latest statistics from IStrategyLabs should remove that doubt. While there are questions about the numbers and some issues around the data,(for example, missing data if it is left out by the users)nevertheless, it confirms a growth in the 55+ group. An increase of 24.9 % among US Facebook users during the past month alone. Previous surveys have also shown notable increases. This trend, if sustained, will have a major impact on the nature of Facebook. Will it scare the young ones away? Time will tell. See the survey at the Businessweek site.

Denial of Service Attacks

Recently, Twitter experienced a denial of service attack that seriously impeded its service. DofS attackes have been one of the most common malicious attacks by hackers for years. For a brief bu cogent description of what they are and how they work, see this article in Technology Review. Also, it's useful to check out this article in Wikipedia.

Canadian Copyright Law
by Gerald Trites

The Copyright Act, last amended in 1997, is hopelessly out of debate. The world has changed since then, and has especially changed with regard to the way information is handled and, more importantly, the way people view it. A saying that came out of the information revolution says that "Information wants to be free". Many people, especially those of the younger generation, feel strongly about this. And yet we have new companies, like Google, making billions of dollars on selling information or otherwise building business models that profit from it.

Many traditional industries have been fighting for their lives, notably the music industry and latterly the Movie video industry. The book industry is heading into a revolution of its own, not to mention the newspaper industry. All of these industries need to change their business models to adapt to these new social attitudes about information and still stay in business. Indeed, without some kind of copyright protection, some and perhaps a good deal of, the information products these industries produce would disappear because there would be no profit motive for the preparers, like the artists, musicians and writers.

Reforming the copyright will not be an easy job. Some of the new attidutes are legitimate and endowed with the force of new technologies. Others are not. But is is a job that needs to be done. An article in the Globe and Mail points to some of the issues.

Spot SPAM Before it Hits the Mail Server?

"New software developed at the Georgia Institute for Technology can identify spam before it hits the mail server. The system, known as SNARE (Spatio-temporal Network-level Automatic Reputation Engine), scores each incoming e-mail based on a variety of new criteria that can be gleaned from a single packet of data. The researchers involved say the automated system puts less of a strain on the network and minimizes the need for human intervention while achieving the same accuracy as traditional spam filters." Read more on Technology Review. Spam continues to be a major problem, and there needs to be found a new and better way to control it. This approach, while it might not be the final solution, may be heading in the right direction.

Twits and Twitter
by Gerald Trites

Twitter, that upstart microblogging service, that allows short messages of 140 characters, has been both praised and derided since its inception. Some say it is the new wave of internet based communications and others say it is a waste of time and we don't need to know when someone is going to brush their teeth.

There is no doubt that some people misuse twitter by posting every little irrelevant detail of their lives, just as some do with other social media like Facebook. However, Twitter is beginning to find its place in the eBusiness world, and it may be a permanent and useful place.

Twitter has just released a new book called Twitter 101, which outlines the main benefits of Twitter. One of them is for customer relations, and they recount some stories where Twitter has played a role in converting prospects to sales. Dell is one of the companies cited, and in fact Dell has been a leader in the use of Twitter. One of their interesting uses has been in the Investor Relations area, where Twitter is being used for such events as the announcement of quarterly earnings. It's not a prime vehicle for such news, but a useful adjunct.

Social media is becoming a staple for companies to communicate and interact with their stakeholders. While there will continue to be experimentation, as there was with the internet in the beginning, some very useful and perhaps profitable, applications are almost certain to emerge. You can download Twitter 101 by going to this site.

Web Analytics

There is a great article on web analytics in the E-Commerce News which explains how analytics has boosted and perhaps made possible the survival of e-commerce by making advertising more effective than traditional print ads. Read it here.

The Internet Wars, Stage One
by Gerald Trites

There is a war starting that is going to change the way companies use the internet, or, more accurately, the way they allow their employees to use the internet.

A young generation is entering the workforce who has used the internet from the time they could talk. It is such a part of their life it is pretty much an extension of their personna. They use social network sites and other sites, yes, even news sites, like they breathe, talk and walk.

A great many companies and other organizations, on the other hand, have for years placed tight restrictions on the use of the internet, some would say unnecessary, even draconian restrictions. This is done in the name of security and safety, and in the name of keeping people's nose to the grindstone and not allowing them to goof off on the net during working hours.

The clash has been predicted by several writers and thinkers - Tapscott and others. But it is now a reality that is shaking up the established order.

The companies need to change their ways. For one thing, the internet is not as unsafe as they make it out to be. Lots of measures are now available to reasonably protect from the obvious threats, like viruses and hackers. For another thing, people can be more productive if given a little leeway as to how they use their time. And - and this is important - they can have more fun in the process.

The internet generation doesn't necessarily have the same time split between work time and personal time either. Word is they are willing to work all hours - and play all hours too. They want some freedom on how they use their time.

Every generation brings its own perspective to the table and sometimes changes the world - they always have that potential. The internet generation, not surprisingly, has a perspective on internet usage that the employers are going to have to listen to. And its high time they made a few changes in their outdated and repressive technology policies.

Two articles in today's news highlight this developing war. One, in Technology Review, tells of the experience of a twenties something, who found his new employer so out of touch, he moved on to a newer one. The other is an article reported on in the Globe and Mail published originally by Morgan Stanley authored by a 15 year old intern they hired for the summer that explains a teen's take on technology use. An article that does not contain a lot of revelation but is nevertheless attracting a lot of attention because it represents a voice of the new generation.

Listen up, corporate technology bosses!

Mobile Business Models
by Gerald Trites

Smart phones like iPhones and advanced models of the Blackberry have become common. The mobile internet is a reality and soon to become the norm. The question that arises is what exactly will it be used for over the next few years and how can the carriers and others make money on it?

To date, the carriers have made money on internet usage and email by heavy, sometimes exorbitant charges for data downloading. However, this approach has been wearing thin with consumers, prompting the carriers to initiate programs like unlimited email. As data usage increases, they are going to have to eliminate this approach altogether because people are not going to pay through the nose for their data when they can get it for free on the regular internet.

New applications for smart phones are coming out almost daily. They include a lot of social media usage, including facebook, twitter, Google talk, Yahoo and Youtube. This might be expected, since text messaging has been one of the most popular uses of cell phones for years and most social media is based on social interaction.

Again, people are used to using social media for free, which means there is no reason to expect they would be happy paying for it on the mobile internet. So carriers are in a bind, they can't charge heavily for the data transmissions and they can't charge for the usage either. That leaves advertising revenue as the most viable business model. Advertisers will be/are keen to get in on it too, adding to the viability.

The referenced article in the Globe and Mail explores this issue, and points out that Google is well positioned in this area, since they have been so good at developing advertising based models on the internet. Chalk up another one for the big G

The Kindle or Paper
by Gerald Trites

It seems the sales of Amazon's Kindle are not exactly taking the world by storm. This despite the fact many people are accustomed to reading electronic print, and the Kindle really does make it easier on the eyes than normal computer monitors. What's the problem, then?

Likely, its the price = $359 each, now reduced to $299. Readers are faced with a decision when they want a book to read. They can buy the book off the stand in their local bookstore for, say $20 or they can order up a Kindle from Amazon and hope that they will then be able to download the book for a further price. Big expenditure plus uncertainty equals not buying.

Add to that the fact that people are comfortable with reading paper books, that we are in a recession where an unnecessary expenditure of $300 matters, and you have a further disincentive to buy. Add to that the fact that people know from experience that new technologies usually go down in price, often quite radically. Why buy today at $300 when in a matter of months it may be possible to buy for $50?

What should Amazon do? Should they reduce their price further, tough it out until the recession ends or revise their business model?

Probably the latter is in order. The idea of selling a device like the Kindle for a profit is a tough one. They need to consider alternatives around pricing packages that include various books and effectively sell the device with content that will appeal to people. After all, its the content that people are interested in, not the device itself. People don't go to the grocery store to buy an empty bag. It's the groceries in the bag they want.

Cutting prices probably won't be enough.

Building a Small Business Website
by Gerald Trites, FCA

It has long been a problem for small business. Website construction often has required technical expertise that many small business entrepreneurs don't have. Its just that their skills lie in other areas and they don't have the time to deal with the complexities and technicalities involved.

There are tools out there that can make it easier, and a number of Content Management Tools in particular, but even these tend to be expensive and require specialized expertise to implement.

There are, however, some newer tool suites available that are specifically designed to address this issue. They still require some time to work with, but they can work with less effort than most other previous stategies.

A notable one is an offering by Microsoft, called Office Live for Small Business. This site offers website design, custom domain names, email and document storage, mostly for free. Charges for the services that are not free are minimal.

Another site called Yola, (formerly Synthasite) offers up tools for free website design and some related services.

Other useful services for small business involve document management and lead generation software and those are coming available in forms that are increasingly easy to use and inexpensive. There is more in this article from E-Commerce News.