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In a recent Forrester report - Develop Your Service Management And Automation Balanced Scorecard - I highlight some of the common mistakes made when designing and implementing Infrastructure & Operations (I&O) metrics. This metric "inappropriateness" is a common issue but there are still many I&O organizations that don't realize that they potentially have the wrong set of metrics. So, consider the following:

Akamai's globally distributed network of servers allows us to gather massive amounts of  information on many metrics, including connection speeds, attack traffic, and network  connectivity/availability/latency problems, as well as traffic patterns on leading Web sites.  Each quarter, Akamai publishes a "State of the Internet" report. This report includes data  gathered from across Akamai's Intelligent Platform during the third quarter of 2011 about attack  traffic, broadband adoption, and mobile connectivity, as well as trends seen in this data  over time. In addition, this quarter's report also includes insight into SSL, the state of IPv6  adoption, and observations from Akamai partner Ericsson regarding the impact that mobile  data plans have on usage. 

The report presents the ICT Development Index (IDI), which ranks countries' performance  with regard to ICT infrastructure and uptake, and the ICT Price Basket (IPB), a unique metric  that tracks and compares the cost and affordability of ICT services. This edition also features  new data series and analyses concerning revenue and investment in the ICT sector, and  proposes a new methodology using non-conventional data, to measure the world's  telecommunication capacity.  The past year has seen continued and almost universal growth in ICT uptake. Much of this enhanced connectivity is due to  the rapid uptake - a 40 per cent rise in 2011 - of mobile-broadband subscriptions, to the point where there are now twice  as many mobile-broadband as fixed-broadband subscriptions. The surge in numbers of mobile-broadband subscriptions  in developing countries has brought the Internet to a multitude of new users. The report nevertheless notes that the prices  for ICT services remain very high in many low-income countries. For mobile broadband to replicate the mobile-cellular  miracle, 3G network coverage has to be extended, and prices have to go down further.

Anyone can now track his or her citations via Google Scholar. The free citation service is "a simple way for authors to compute their citation metrics and track them over time," the company said in an announcement yesterday on the Google Scholar blog. Google announced a limited-release test of the service in July.

n 1921, psychologist Carl Jung changed the fundamentals of his field. By distributing a psychometric test called the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to patients, Jung claimed he could accurately boil down the psychological types of humans into 16 major categories. Still in use today, the metrics determine whether test takers tend toward certain character traits, such as introversion (I) vs. extroversion (E) or thinking (T) vs. feeling (F). Once taken, test results produce an acronym per individual. For example, "ISTJ" is for an Introvert-Sensing-Thinking-Judging person.

The Internet significantly affects OECD economies at different levels and in numerous different / impact areas. In particular the Internet impacts firms in various sectors, individuals and governments. It / also has some observable general macro-economic effects. /  At the firm level, the restructuring of business models in association with use of the Internet has / led to improved efficiencies./ 1/  The impact of the Internet can also be seen in the rapid growth of new firms / founding their businesses on the Internet. The Internet's enhanced communication capabilities are affecting / nearly all sectors of the economy in ways that may be as subtle as making previously hard-to-find data / available online or as profound as transforming an entire market such as is occurring with music, video, / software, books and news.  /  The Internet is reshaping the way individuals live. It brings benefits of higher consumer welfare / (through a larger variety of digital goods and services, lower prices, improved information gathering, more / distribution channels and so forth). In addition, individuals benefit from a more efficient labour market/ 2/ and, on a broader level, from positive impacts on the environment/ 3/  and in education. /  For governments, Internet development enables better communication with citizens, industry and / other organisations. The Internet has also helped governments run more efficiently via improved / information sharing, increased transparency and the automation of various resource-intensive services.  /  The impacts of the Internet on the individual, firm and government level can be also observed at / the aggregated, macroeconomic scale. Existing empirical studies, including ongoing OECD work, suggest / a positive link between increasing Internet adoption and use and economic growth. Even though the / aggregated effects are still preliminary, the relationship between Internet development and economic / growth, as well as microeconomic ev