Commentary

A Doctrine for Change - Lawrence Lessig Again

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:00:00 EST

I was again reading and reviewing Lawrence Lessig's work tonight. The man is so very articulate and his observations so compelling. If you haven't become a student of his work, please take my advice and give it a try here.

At the 2002 Open Source Convention Lessig challenged the audience to get involved in the political process. A tireless advocate for open source, Lessig shared some basic concepts that are a solution to most of the barriers preventing our soceity from overcoming the major challenges of the time. A complete transcript of Lawrence's keynote presentation made on July 24, 2002 is available here. In summation his logical findings were as follows.

Creativity and innovation always builds on the past.

The past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it.

Free societies enable the future by limiting this power of the past.

Ours is less and less a free society.

Watch the video from Big Thinkers wherein Lessig explains his views on freedom our culture and creativity.

What Does Internet Routing in Space Mean for the CTO?

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST

Yesterday, 23 November 2009, an Atlas V rocket from the United Launch Alliance successfully launched the Intelsat 14 satellite (IS-14). Liftoff of the Atlas V occurred at 1:55am ET. The satellite separated successfully two hours later. Today we received word that the satellite’s solar panels have deployed and all is well. Great launch! There is something [...] Related posts:

When the Crowd is Racist at Google

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:30:00 EST

If you search Google Images for "Michelle Obama" (no quotes), the first image you'll see is a poorly photoshopped picture of her as an ape. You'll also see a Google Ad on that page that links to Google's explanation of why such a blatantly racist photo is the top-ranked one at ...

To Take Advantage of Cloud Computing You Must Unlearn, Luke

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:15:00 EST

One of the benefits of cloud computing is supposed to be efficiency, particularly in the utilization of compute resources. Over-provisioning of compute resources has long been one way in which IT combats the need for scalability and availability of applications but this often leaves a large percentage of compute resources unused. The utilization rule once employed as a means to ensure availability and performance of applications, i.e. no device or server should utilize more than X% of its resources at any time, is no longer acceptable as it wastes resources which in turn eats away at the bottom line.

Mobile SOA with Tuscany Android

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:30:00 EST

In Apache Tuscany, we have been experimenting with Google Android Platform to build Mobile SOA Applications, and we now have couple Android based samples that demonstrate a Android mobile application consuming SCA services available on the cloud. Store-android: A front end to our "Store Getting Started Guide" that consumes the catalog and shopping cart services and allow you to shop for fruits and vegetables. SCATour-android: A front end to the "SCA Tour" scenario that allows you to search for trips direct from your Android phone.

The Mobile Web: It's About Footprint

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:40:00 EST

The mobile web's momentum continues unabated with Google's acquisition of AdMob and Apple's Shocking Numbers for iPhone app usage. The whole thing is reminiscent of the introduction of the IBM PC back in 1981(?). Brief memory lane diversion: I sold my first PC system in 1982 and it ran a company's whole accounting system off a single 5.25 inch floppy drive. But reminiscent only in a far-off, Stewart McKienoreply@blogger.com0

How to Extract Your Contacts from LinkedIn and Facebook

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:00:00 EDT

If you have spent any time online using social networks like LinkedIn or Facebook, you know they can be difficult to grow your network and add contacts. But even harder is the ability to extract your contacts once you have built up a reasonably sized network. None of the social networks makes it very easy to get this information.

Opinion: The Real Cost of Acquisitions - the Zimbra Story

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:00:00 EDT

There are reports that Yahoo has put Zimbra on the block. Honestly, this came as no surprise at all to us at Zoho. I remember scratching my head when the acquisition was made; I didn't see how an enterprise/business focused open source offering like Zimbra fit with Yahoo, as a technology, as a business or strategically. Zimbra is an open source installable product offering primarily intended to be installed within medium to large organizations. Yahoo has never made an installed product in its history and is mainly focused on consumers, with an occasional foray to sell those consumer-focused applications to small businesses. Zimbra's service provider offerings made no strategic sense to Yahoo either, because Yahoo, being a service provider itself, has no interest in selling technology to other service providers like Comcast. Finally, we have been on both sides of the product vs. web-service divide, and I can assert with confidence that it is not easy to take a product and make it into a scalable web service; in fact, the main reason Zoho Mail got delayed was that it was originally written as an installable product, much like Zimbra, and we essentially rewrote it to be a web service.

Immutable Service Containers on Amazon EC2

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 07:00:00 EDT

Back in June, we released the very first security hardened virtual machine images for the Amazon Web Services Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) environment. These original images were based upon the OpenSolaris 2008.11 release and were configured in accordance with the guidelines published by Sun the Center for Internet Security. Since its initial release, we have provided an update to offer this image in the European Region. In August, we took another step forward with the release of a security-enhanced image based upon the OpenSolaris 2009.06 release.

Perhaps SOA is More Strategy Than Architecture

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:00:00 EDT

On Thursday, September 10th, 2009, I moderated a panel at the 1105 Group’s Enterprise Architecture Conference in Washington, DC entitled, “SOA Goes Mainstream – An Industry and Government Roadmap.” On the panel we had two Federal government agency representatives and two industry representatives, with one of the industry representatives providing a FedEx case study as the basis for their SOA experiences.

Is Hobbes the Inevitable Outcome of the Internet?

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 17:00:00 EDT

First, there are reasons to think that the raw exposure of sins and self-embarrassments at Facebook and other such sites won’t have a directly proportional effect on the quotient of nastiness. It will certainly provide a greater trove for those who are intent in wreaking havoc on people, such as political operatives doing opposition research. But, society has a tradition of drawing lines of privacy based not on what we can physically perceive but on what we’re allowed to notice. In polite society, you can’t say “Who cut one?” no matter how bad the smell, and there are actual laws against peering into windows even when the shades are left open. So, we can expect that as we get used to the new opportunities for invading privacy, we’ll develop norms that rope off some areas and some topics so that even if we happen to have looked down the social media blouse of the woman next to us, we’re not allowed to comment on what we saw.

Growing Adoption of Web 2.0: Are Enterprises Ready?

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:15:00 EDT

According to a new report by Forrester Research, despite a long-term future marked by commoditization, enterprise spending on Web 2.0 technologies will surge over the next five years, growing 43 percent each year to reach $4.6 billion globally by 2013. The 5-year enterprise Web 2.0 forecast includes technologies such as social networking, RSS, blogs, wikis, mashups, podcasting, and widgets.

The Perfect "Innovation" Storm

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 13:00:00 EDT

Another storm? Didn't we just have one in the financial and credit markets you say? Well, yes, and no. Yes, we did have a storm, though it wasn't one of innovation, unless we count the complex and innovative derivative instruments created by Wall St. in which banks, investment firms, and insurance companies participated, creating global instability, [...]

David Eaves Talks About Vancouver’s Open Data Initiative

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:34:00 EDT

As more and more data become available as a matter of course, the examples set by organisations such as MySociety become increasingly attainable for us all. Other than ensuring that it is ‘open,’ do we need to be asking for more from those making data available? And once it’s there, will its use and scrutiny move beyond the enthusiasts and activists to encompass the population at large? David shares his views on these and other questions during our conversation. Back in May, ReadWriteWeb reported on a Motion put before legislators in the Canadian city of Vancouver. Duly passed, the Motion commits the city to three closely related ‘open’ agendas; the City of Vancouver will move as quickly as possible to adopt prevailing open standards for data, documents, maps, and other formats of media; the [...]

Small Business PPC

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 11:30:00 EDT

The search engines such as Google and Yahoo! provide millions of potential customers every year for most industries. Taking advantage of this is a must for any budding online business. But what if you just service a small local area? Can the search engines be of advantage to you? Of course they can.

Open Letter to YouTube (and Google)

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:15:00 EDT

YouTube's Health channel has several flaws from a user experience perspective. These flaws are contributing to the bleeding of cash at YouTube and fixing it can be one of the ways to turn around its profit picture.

In Defence of Joel Spolsky

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 08:01:00 EST

Responding to an article accusing Joel Spolsky that since his business has only 25 employees, Joel is not a successful businessman.

The Top 250 Players in the Cloud Computing Ecosystem

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:45:00 EST

A robust ecosystem of solutions providers is emerging around cloud computing. Here, SYS-CON's Cloud Computing Journal expands its list of most active players in the fast-emerging Cloud Ecosystem, from the 'mere' 100 we identified back in January of this year, to 250 - testimony, if any further were needed, to the fierce and continuing growth of the "Elastic IT" paradigm throughout the world of enterprise computing.

Will Combined Search and Business Intelligence Go Mainstream?

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:30:00 EST

My seven-year-old daughter thinks that there is a knowledge genie that her teacher 'Googles' for answers. While cute, the anecdote also exemplifies how much Google's obsession with simplicity has helped build brand awareness, making their name literally synonymous with search. I can foresee generations X and Y being followed by generation S - one that will rely on search to accomplish almost any task.

Google's OpenSocial: A Technical Overview and Critique

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 02:45:00 EST

One of the Google folks working on OpenSocial sent me a message via Facebook asking what I thought about the technical details of the recent announcements. Since my day job is working on social networking platforms for Web properties at Microsoft and I'm deeply interested in RESTful protocols, this is something I definitely have some thoughts about. Below is what started off as a private message but ended up being long enough to be its own article.

Fifty Million Facebook Users Don't Care About Google's OpenSocial APIs

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 02:30:00 EST

There are 50 million Facebook users who don't know what OpenSocial APIs are...and don't care. There are about 5,000 tech bloggers and developers who think it is a revolution that will 'Checkmate' Facebook and leave them with no moves. TechMeme has over 100 stories saying that OpenSocial is awesome and Facebook is dead. MySpace joins Google on OpenSocial initiative. OK, surely that settles it, Facebook is toast. Nope, not in my opinion.

Which Is More Important - Saddam Hussein or Google?

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 15:00:00 EST

The year 2006 in which YouTube became culturally ubiquitous, Flash video became the de facto Internet video standard of the Web, Microsoft beta-launched Vista, and the Wii entered our lives - was also memorable for one or two other real-world events such as the hanging of Saddam Hussein, prompting the obvious question: Is the progress of i-Technology front-runners like Google and eBay more, or less, important than the trial and execution of Saddam.

Is the Rise of Google the End of the Game for Everyone Else?

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 12:00:00 EST

As I write this, the stock price of Google, Inc. just exceeded $500 for the first time in the company's still-brief (two-year) history as a public company. That gives the search colossus a market cap of $150 billion, many times in excess of its physical assets - currently valued at $10.2 billion.

As Google's SaaS Assault Begins, Move Over Microsoft Office?

Wed, 30 Aug 2006 06:00:00 EDT

Does the arrival of 'Google Apps for your Domain' sound the death-knell for Redmond's world domination? That is the question sweeping the industry this week as the owner of the world's most-used search engine released a set of hosted applications 'for organizations that want to provide high-quality communications tools to their users without the hassle of installing and maintaining software or hardware.'

i-Technology Blog: Is There Life Beyond Google?

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 07:30:00 EDT

What comes after Google? Where will the Web, the Internet, the whole nexus of telecommunications, i-Technology, and the quest for a better world, take us?

i-Technology Blog: Google Trends on Java, McNealy, AJAX, and SOA Give Pause For Thought

Fri, 12 May 2006 09:15:00 EDT

Like so many of the ideas that tumble out of the Googleplex into the public domain, Google Trends is irresistible. Jeremy Geelan puts the application, newly taken out of beta and now available to all cyberspace from the Google main page, through its paces by taking it out for a giddy spin around the i-Technology world. The results are surprising...