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I found this article to be very interesting, especially relating to the comparison of the U.S. and Chinese patent system. China is increasing it's supply of patents, hoping to stimulate innovation and start-up inventions in the country. China is starting to heavily invest in 4G telecommunication. Wadhwa is offering a different perspective on this issue and ultimately plays down the hype of this story. He asks for the U.S. to concentrate on being a leader in innovation, rather than patents, which seem like nuclear weapons in an everlasting tech arms race that doesn't seem to allow for revision.

""There's way too much made of a couple of acquisitions to make our market seem uncompetitive," said Gene Austin, CEO of Convio in Austin, Texas. "We are all competing in a very healthy way, in a way that fosters innovation and better things for the clients," he said. He pointed to as examples Kintera and Blackbaud, as well as other "small yet emerging organizations that will also bring innovation and competition to the marketplace."

Consolidation in the sector will continue to some degree as the firms move toward Software as a Service (SaaS). Major mergers will dictate the direction of cloud computing...

Even though I knew e-books were emerging on the market during the last few years to compete with paperbacks, I was shocked to read this news that e-books sold more than paperbacks last February. This shift from paperbacks to e-books marks a monumental shift in literacy and education in our society. This could also be a huge shift for education non-profits and public schools, especially well-off universities that have the money to use kindles and alike products. The next two years will see the biggest surge according to Barnes and Noble exec Marc Parrish. No doubt, this will change the way people and organizations read and get their information.

With so many organizations out there competing for attention and money, having a solid social media strategy is going to be paramount to success in the future. This Webinar looks pretty interesting, and should help to sort out some of those issues for NPOs of any size. I would be really interested to hear Brooke McMillan talk about managing the Livestrong presence online, and how they look at Social Media as a fundraising tool.

Watson, the computer that has recently been competing on Jeopardy, could eventually hold a position in Government. Technology like the such that is used in Watson could eventually help government municipalities with garnering and analyzing data and information and regurgitating back to people who need it. For instance, a person looking to gain a building license could tell the computer what it is planning on building, and instead of having to sift through possibly thousands of pages of information, the computer could simply return a checklist to the person.

This site shows government technology solutions for local and state governments. I was particularly drawn in by the article of about Watson, the Jeopardy game show computer contestant, and how this type of technology could be beneficial to government programs.