Open Intelligence / Web 3X (Social + Mobile)

Why should a CIO care? I have long said that the real source of competitive advantage in the future will stem from an organization’s ability to rapidly assemble, disassemble, and reassemble high-performance teams. Collaboration and community will replace rigid structures. Facilitating that kind of agility is the real promise of social media. And we’re missing it.Read more at www.enterpriseefficiency.com 

As part of a Data Privacy Day report, Microsoft commissioned a study of over 1,200 hiring and recruitment managers. In one segment, they asked what kinds of sites they considered in researching applicants online. The short answer: almost everything. As PC World put it—and as Jason detailed in his online identity primer—having a decent-looking personal web site, with blog-like material showing your grasp of topics and general up-to-date skills, is the best defense against anything and everything else a potential employer or contractor might find about you online. Then again, take a look at how many online realms hiring managers peek into when peeking at you. It's reassuring, if you've put time into cleaning up your online image, and perhaps a wake-up call if you've still got LOLcats littering your photo service pages

Social networking is a daily activity for most of us. Anyone paying attention knows that sites like Facebook and Twitter have hundreds of millions of users and are extremely popular. But one thing I think we all forget from time to time is that these social networking sites are businesses. They do have employees and they do have costs. So I ask again, how do social networks make money?The short answer is that they don’t, not on their own at least – at first. There are a few different ways social networking sites earn money, with more on the horizon. This article aims at uncovering a few of these methods and answering the questions that many of us are asking.Read more at www.makeuseof.com 

Colorado, defending Yahoo against attempts by the federal government to obtain the contents of Yahoo Mail messages without first obtaining a warrant. One month earlier, the Justice Department filed a 17-page brief arguing that Yahoo Mail messages do not fall under current statutory protection because, once opened, those messages are not considered to be in “electronic storage.” The privacy coalition—which included Google—came to Yahoo’s defense, arguing that users with e-mail stored in the cloud have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of that e-mail, and should thus be protected from warrantless searches by the government. (Hopefully the irony of Google opposing robust searches is not lost on Google’s attorneys.) Unfortunately, the protections afforded by the warrant requirement have not yet been fully extended to the digital “cloud.” This handy metaphor for the ethereal Internet as a storage and access hub is coming to have other implications: can we really conceal our data inside this cloud, shielding it from government intrusion? Read more at arstechnica.com

Cloud Computing is both an abstract concept which can reffer to every logical grouping of software services provided by one or more companies which may or may not be on the same hardware architectures. ted ar It also stands for the physical architectures involving SOA (services-oriented architecture) systems, server farms and a lot of hardware to provide on demand services 24/24 no matter what may happen. Not matter how one sees it, it’s all about regrouping services and taking responsabilities off from our good old PC or laptop standing on our desk. Not matter how one sees it, it’s all about regrouping services and taking responsabilities off from our good old PC or laptop standing on our desk.  Of course it’s a 2010 buzzword and I am personally seeing some kind of Terminal Server (Mainframes anyone?…) à la sauce New Millenium coupled with web technologies. The thing is… Cloud Computing along with Software Virtualization are really promising.  I put the second one with it because everything is about having almost nothing on the client side. ore.  You just log into the cloud and there you have your account and your services, may they be ga The idea of having every service in the Cloud is to ensure that eveything you need is always available from wherever you are on the planet.  You don’t need your PC or Laptop anymore.  You just log into the cloud and there you have your account and your services, may they be games, movies or any software.  And with the huge Mobile market, you’re about to have any of your services right there in your pocket. Read more at www.gamasutra.com 

IBM is opening a cloud computing laboratory in Singapore to help businesses, government and research institutions and institutes of higher learning to design, adopt and reap benefits of cloud technologies. The new lab housed at Changi business park is part of it’s expansion of its cloud computing capabilities, and puts Singapore and the ASEAN region on the map as the eleventh cloud computing lab. This new addition will be part of the network of labs in Hong Kong, Ireland, Vietnam, China, South Africa, Japan, Brazil, India, Korea and the US.Through briefings, technology deployment and development sessions, the Singapore lab will work closely with businesses, government and research institutions and institutes of higher learning to design and deploy their own cloud environments.Read more at www.info

Use your meetings for decision making and exchange of ideas rather than routine updates. Instead, email or post the updates ahead of time so people can read through them prior to the meetingMeetings should be no longer than 90 minutes.  If meetings are longer than 90 minutes offer your team members a 10 minute breakBe realistic about how many agenda items can be covered in a meetingAt the end of each meeting discuss what worked, what did not work, what could be improvedIf possible, rotate roles-scribe, timekeeper and facilitatorHave multiple presenters. The change of voice and pitch can help keep people engagedAgree to start and end on timeRead more at virtualteambuilders.wordpress.com

It’s Your Problem, So What Are You Going To Do About It” 3 Ways to Communicate More Effectively With Your TeamThe Four Powerful Keys to Virtual Team Success Creating virtual teams is not challenge-free. Why? Imagine trying to communicate effectively with people you have never met and whose personalities you are not familiar with. If this hurdle is not overcome, establishing successful virtual teams can be extremely frustrating.

The Secret to Being an Effective Virtual Team How do you foster communication and collaboration when project members are geographically dispersed? An effective starting point is the creation of a team operating agreement. Virtual Teams Generate Real Sales: How To Save Money And Generate Revenue Without Leaving Your ChairBusiness Continuity in a Crisis Environment Is your business capable of surviving a crisis situation? Will you be able to manage your staff for an effective return to “business as usual”? With some foresight and careful planning, the worst storm can be weathered. “Virtual teams” offer a compelling way to offset potential risks.

Read more at www.virtualteambuilders.com

The world of work for knowledge and information workers has seen enormous shifts over the past decade, and it is something that impacts a disproportionate number of entrepreneurs.  According to the 2006 US Census, 49% of US businesses were based out of the home.  While these ranks used to be dominated by the trades (e.g. construction, electricians, plumbers, etc.), advances in technology have swelled the ranks of the home-based knowledge worker (e.g. consultants, web designers, developers, writers, etc.).This creates a whole new set of challenges when it comes to getting work done.  Because information-based work is almost never done in a vacuum, most of us work in teams.  And a large percentage of those teams can go weeks — if ever — without seeing each other face-to-face.  Making this work well sounds like it should be easy given all of today’s technology: email, Skype, ooVoo, Twitter, etc.  But, as usual, the issue that requires the most management is not the technology, it’s the people.This creates a whole new set of challenges when it comes to getting work done.  Because information-based work is almost never done in a vacuum, most of us work in teams.  And a large percentage of those teams can go weeks — if ever — without seeing each other face-to-face.  Making this work well sounds like it should be easy given all of

today’s technology: email, Skype, ooVoo, Twitter, etc.  But, as usual, the issue that requires the most management is not the technology, it’s the people.Becky McCray of SmallBizSurvival recently posted an article on MyVenturePad discussing this very thing.  In “6 Tips for managing a distributed workforce,” she discussed several valuable tips in successfully leading a team that is all working remotely (presumably from their homes).  In addition to some of her great tips — ranging from reading The One Minute Manager to explicitly declaring the weekend off — here are a couple more items that I’ve recently been reminded are critical to the success of a virtual team.Clarifying priorities.Rules of engagement.

Roles and responsibilities.Talk through assumptions.Ask, Then DecideRead more at www.workingpoint.com 

Just when I thought Twitter could not possibly become any more ridiculous or meaningless, someone had to go and figure out a way.The people over at the Critical Media Lab in the University of Waterloo have gone somewhat loony and teamed up with a local Ontario dairy farmer to give 12 cows twitter accounts.Mad Cow strikes againThe bovines (sounds like a cool band name), with names like Jerry J Lo, Freeride Speedy, and Attention Please, have been given the chance to broadcast the ins and outs of their lactation cycles in 140 characters or less. So it may be more accurate and, ehem, a-moo-sing to say their teats have been given the tweets.

Read more at www.rcrwireless.com

AirStrip Technologies is setting your doctor free. The Texas based company is developing a suite of hardware/software solutions that allow physicians and nurses to monitor important vital signs from their smart phone. Now, your doctor can use her iPhone to keep track of heartbeats, nurse’s notes, exams results, and drug doses even when she is out of the hospital. AirStrip already has their obstetrician application (AirStrip OB) up and running in facilities across the US, and they’re working on similar Apps for critical care, cardiology, imaging, and lab work. By extending their virtual presence, doctors may be able to provide better healthcare 24/7. This may also be a sign that virtual diagnosis, monitoring, and expert support are poised to revolutionize medical practice. You can check out a free demo of AirStrip OB at the App Store, or watch a local news segment on the program in the video below.Read more at singularityhub.com

Face.com has launched the alpha of their new API. Now, almost any site could find faces on photos.Face.com, the company responsible for Facebook applications Photo Tagger and Photo Finder, lets you take any photo and quickly identify who is in it and where they are in the photo. This facial recognition is a boon to those tagging photos, and now Face.com is ready to bring a similar capability to the rest of the internet. May 3rd saw the launch of their new open API capable of scanning images and rapidly identifying the location, orientation, and identity of human faces. The API platform is meant for web designers who want to include a facial recognition feature on their own website. With this API, any company could let you upload a photo of yourself and find other photos of you in their database. Now in alpha testing, registering to try the API is free and very quick. Face.com, operated by Israel-based Vizi Labs, is looking to share the API with the developer community to see if the next killer application for facial recognition will arise organically. Eventually, platforms like this one may help your face become an access point to all the digital data about you on the web.

Read more at singularityhub.com

When I go to your website (or blog, or twitter page, or facebook page), what do you want me to do? What do you REALLY want me to do? Don’t answer that right away or glibly. What do you want me to do on your site? How do you want me to feed into your systems?This is what I want to give you: a few questions to consider, from the same side of the fence as your prospective customer/visitor/reader/member whatever. Remember, these questions are not from your side of the fence. They’re from the other side, the important side. Answer These Questions for Your AudienceWho do you want me to be? How will I know that I belong? What do you want to show/tell me? What do you want me to do?How will we keep this relationship going? How shall I talk of you to my friends?Read more at www.chrisbrogan.com

Ever since Amazon released the Kindle, it now sells more e-books than it sells physical books: Amazon reported that it sold 115 e-books for every 100 physical books it sold in 2011. Unfortunately, e-books are still very much the same as physical books: they are static, their content is not updated nor does it include videos or interactive infographics.

If you have an iPhone/iPad/iPod, we highly recommend downloading “Our Choise”. Not only is it an intelligent and interesting book, its format is the first peek into what your book experience will become in the next few years. It might be time to kiss those physical books goodbye after all.  If you’re not convinced, check out the great demo given at TED:

*Theory mashup of AR and cyborgs.

http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2011/05/09/cyborgs-and-the-augmented-reality-they-inhabit/

*Actually, it’s more of an argument about the definition of Augmented Reality and the definition of Cyborgs, until you can get ‘em to click together like puzzle pieces. But so much debris is left on the floor when they’re done with the theory tin-shears, that the debris looks more interesting than the remainder.

“I heard a great story recently, I love telling it, of a little girl who was in a drawing lesson, she was 6 and she was at the back, drawing, and the teacher said this little girl hardly paid attention, and in this drawing lesson she did. The teacher was fascinated and she went over to her and she said, "What are you drawing?" and the girl said, "I'm drawing a picture of God." And the teacher said, "But nobody knows what God looks like." And the girl said, "They will in a minute.""

We’ve already told you about Juniper Research’s bullish forecasts of the augmented reality services. According to latest figures we have from the research company, the market for mobile enterprise applications featuring augmented reality elements is expected to exceed $300 million by 2015. Among the deployments that will help this grow, Juniper points to areas as diverse as corporate utility, surgery and counter-terrorism.

A company called Logica is already working with the UK government on a project that could identify current and future AR capabilities, whilst evaluating them against various security and counter terrorism scenarios.

According to the report author Dr Windsor Holden, “It is highly likely that AR apps which would also incorporate location awareness will soon be developed for security service handhelds – if they are not already in development.”

InMobi SmartPay™ will enable app developers, game companies, and content providers in the US $200bn mobile content and virtual goods space to expand their business and monetize their users quickly and easily into new markets by providing a one-time, no-cost, single point of integration across multiple countries.

The solution offers consumers a seamless, pure mobile checkout experience using secure, direct to carrier billing to start, but expanding to all forms of mobile payment methods including credit cards, PayPal, and local mobile wallets by the end of 2011.

†The new solution already offers reach to over one billion consumers in seven countries, including the US, UK, Germany, India, Indonesia, South Africa, and Malaysia, with huge growth plans to expand to over three billion consumers in 30 countries by the end of the year.

Lately, an unofficial Google News Regional app popped up in the Android Market. Now, Google has introduced a location-based content filter for Google News on mobile devices, called “News near you”. Google News for mobile will enable you to keep up with the latest local news, wherever you are.  The new feature in the U.S. English edition will be called “News near you” and seeks to provide you with news relevant to the city you are in and the nearby areas. Back in 2008, Google made the location-based news first available in Google News, and today there is already a local section for just about any city, state or country in the world with coverage from many sources. Google News does their local news a bit differently from others. They employ machine learning to analyse each word in an individual story to understand what location the news is about and where the source is situated. Thanks to Google News’ new feature, you can now find local news on your smartphone.

Apple has informed iPhone/iPod Touch application developers that they can't include location-based advertising within their apps. The move has intensified rumors that Apple is planning to launch its own mobile advertising network. Google clearly seems to be the target here. Google recently acquired AdMob, one of the most popular mobile ad networks. Will Google "retaliate" by closing down options for Android developers? It doesn't seem like that type of policy would match their m.o. What's more, by owning AdMob, it's difficult to see why they would feel threatened by other competitors. Apple's move seems to be a step in the wrong direction. Developers who put out free apps generally try to get revenue from in-app advertising. Location-based advertising, while still in its infancy, is truly the key to mobile ads. If a company can know that you're in the vicinity, they could send you a coupon incentivizing you to visit their store and make a purchase. Of course, location-based advertising should always include an opt-in or opt-out policy, but privacy doesn't appear to be Apple's main concern here. Apple did acquire mobile ad network Quattro Wireless recently.