Starter Project: May 2009

IDC: Biggest quarterly drop in 12 years for servers

Posted by Sinlung

First-quarter server revenue dropped by 24.5 percent year-over-year, as economic turmoil bit ever deeper into companies' IT budgets, according to IDC.

Worldwide revenue in the first three months of 2009 fell to US$9.9 billion, according to figures released by the market-research firm last week. The totals mark the third consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue decline, and the lowest quarterly server revenue since IDC began tracking the market on a quarterly basis 12 years ago, IDC said.

In the same period, server-unit shipments decreased by 26.5 percent year-over-year, compared with a 12 percent fall in the fourth quarter of 2008. The quarterly total is the lowest in five years, and represents the largest ever year-on-year drop in quarterly server unit shipments recorded by the firm.
Shipments fell in all geographic regions, as buyers of all sizes pulled back both on new strategic IT projects and on refreshing existing infrastructure, according to IDC.

However, the research firm believes demand will begin to improve in the second half of this year.

"Most enterprise organizations are deferring new IT procurements and instead focusing on extending server lifecycles and improving existing asset utilization," Matt Eastwood, IDC group vice president of enterprise platforms, said in a statement. "IDC believes that while these strategies are effective in the near term, server demand will begin to improve in the second half of the year, as customers begin to rebuild their IT capabilities in advance of a meaningful economic recovery in 2010."

Volume systems showed the sharpest decrease, with year-over-year revenue down 30.5 percent. The x86 server segment specifically dropped 28.8 percent, to US$5.1 billion on shipments of 1.4 million servers.

IDC noted that x86 servers have historically driven the growth of the overall server market, and the company expects this trend to return.

"While it may be easier for IT departments to suspend purchases of commodity boxes as opposed to more mission-critical RISC- or CISC-based servers, IDC expects x86 systems to rebound faster than the overall market in the coming quarters," analyst Dan Harrington said in a statement.

Midrange servers dropped by 13.6 percent, while the high-end enterprise segment fell by 19.5 percent.
IDC noted that this is the second consecutive quarter, and only the second time since 2002, that all three server segments experienced a year-over-year revenue decline in the same quarter.

Overall, HP and IBM tied for the top position in the market, each holding 29.3 percent of overall revenue, with IBM's sales driven by System z and System p sales. These vendors were followed by Sun and Dell in joint third place, with Dell taking an 11 percent revenue share and Sun taking 10.3 percent. Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens held the fifth place in revenue, with 6.7 percent.

Unix servers decreased by 17.5 percent in revenue terms, compared with the same quarter a year earlier. However, the company showed resilience in the midrange enterprise segment and increased its share of overall revenue, IDC noted. IBM led this segment.

Windows server revenue stood at US$3.7 billion, down 28.9 percent and comprising 37.3 percent of all server revenue in the quarter. Linux revenues fell 24.8 percent to US$1.4 billion, making up 13.8 percent of all revenue.

The relatively new blade server segment showed its first decline, with revenues down 14.4 percent year on year and shipments down 18.1 percent. However, the segment still increased its share of revenue in the overall server market, IDC said.

"Customers are seeking IT solutions that reduce expenses and improve efficiencies. The integrated nature of the blade platforms is adept to deliver a dynamic IT infrastructure," analyst Jed Scaramella said in a statement.

Dell unfazed by Acer's 'elasticity play'

Posted by Sinlung

Dismissing Acer's market gains as "elasticity play" and limited in reach and effectiveness, Dell Computer says its aim to be Asia's No. 1 PC vendor remains in sight.

During a call with regional journalists Friday to announce the company's fiscal first-quarter results, Stephen Felice, president for Dell's small and medium business (SMB) and former Asia-Pacific president, noted that the PC maker has chosen not to go down the path of lowering prices--as Acer has taken.

Dell's Taiwanese rival, in recent months, has made steady gains in unit sales and is poised to snatch the No. 2 crown from the U.S. PC maker.

"[Looking at] the way Acer went over the last quarter, [it] shipped a lot of units but didn't make investors very happy," Felice said. "We've chosen to go a different path--we're not going to sacrifice earnings in order to gain share."

"I don't believe that share is necessarily loyal or sticky. This is an elasticity play [that] only [addresses] the truly price-sensitive side of the market, and those customers can be won over in the future with better products and better services," he said.

Dell's Asia-Pacific business, including Japan, was "better than average" during its fiscal first quarter, according to Felice. The region recorded US$2 billion in revenues, falling 20 percent year-on-year.

However, this value remained largely consistent across the last several quarters, he said.

The consumer segment reported a slight decline in revenue, despite a "very strong" unit growth over last year. The SMB and public sectors outperformed Dell's average across the regions, although the large enterprise business was hard-hit by the downturn.

Despite the competitive and economic pressures, Dell is still optimistic about becoming Asia's No. 1 PC maker within the next three years, Felice told ZDNet Asia. "[Last year], I thought we could get there within a three-year horizon. I still think we can get there within [a three-year period]--it's just maybe stalled for now because of the economic situation," he said.

Regardless, the company is cautious of the current climate, said Felice.

"We feel that right now is not the time to be trying to search demand, because it is not there. You see some of our competitors try to do that--you look at the issues with both Lenovo and with Acer…trying to push demand where it's not there, and having a significant negative impact on earnings," he said.

"While my desire would be to try to accelerate growth, there has to be a receptive market for that.

And we don't feel like that's a prudent thing to do right now, so we've been more focused on a healthy balance of growth and profitability, and that I'm very satisfied with," he noted.

Malaysia keeps lofty spot for global services

Posted by Sinlung

Though Malaysia maintained its position as third-most preferred location for global services, after India and China, in AT Kearney's 2009 Global Services Location Index (GSLI), the country must remain wary of up-and-coming regional rivals, said a government official.
In the latest rankings, Thailand maintained its fourth place, Indonesia moved up one spot to fifth while the Philippines climbed up a notch to seventh. The biggest Asian mover was Vietnam, which catapulted into 10th position from 19 in 2007. Jordan entered the Top 10 at ninth, up from 14 in the previous index.
The GSLI analyses and ranks the top 50 locations for outsourcing activities, including IT services and support, contact centers and backoffice support. The index was last updated in 2007.
While India, China and Malaysia retained the top three spots they have occupied since the inception of the GSLI in 2004, a fundamental shift in the index has taken place, where once-strong Central European countries have now yielded ground to countries in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
Established Central European countries including Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, were once among the premier offshoring destinations for Western European companies, but have fallen in favor significantly due to a rapid increase in costs driven by wage inflation and currency appreciation against the U.S. dollar, said AT Kearney.
Joon Ooi, a partner with AT Kearney and managing director of the firm's Southeast Asia unit, said: "Meanwhile, low-cost countries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East made significant gains this year as the quality and availability of their labor forces improved. Egypt, Jordan and Vietnam ranked in the GSLI's top 10 for the first time ever."
The top three countries--India, China and Malaysia--continue to lead the index by a wide margin through a unique combination of high-skills people, favorable business environment and low cost, Ooi said during a media briefing here Thursday.
Malaysia, which provides "outstanding value" coupled with a stable environment and availability of good human capital, has made good improvements in its score on people skills and availability since 2004, Ooi said at a press conference here Thursday.
Its neighbor, Singapore, did not fare as well, dropping to 35 from its previous 11th placing. The drop was primarily the result of rising costs due to the strengthening Singapore dollar, compared to other regional currencies, Ooi said.
Providing attraction to MNCs
Malaysia's Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC) CEO Badlisham Ghazali said MSC Malaysia has always been strategically positioned to offer the best to attract multinational companies into the country.
Formerly dubbed Multimedia Super Corridor, MSC Malaysia is a government-designated zone that houses technology companies--much like Silicon Valley in the United States.
Badlisham said the availability of skilled workers, competitive cost and ideal business environment, are incentives for companies to choose Malaysia for their shared services and outsourcing (SSO), as well as offshoring activities.
However, he said Malaysia cannot afford to rest on its laurels.
"Obviously our goal is to move up to the No. 2 spot, but we must also be conscious of those below us [in the rankings] that are trying to catch up with us," he noted. "We need to move up the SSO value chain in order not to be overtaken by other lower-cost countries."
Badlisham said the outsourcing industry was the biggest contributor to revenue generated by companies in MSC Malaysia, accounting for some 5.34 billion ringgit (US$1.52 billion), or 31.27 percent of total revenue in 2007.
There are 179 SSO companies that were awarded MSC-status, 163 of which remain operational today.
MSC-status companies employ a total of 79,000 knowledge workers, and this number is expected to increase to 100,000 by 2010. The SSO sector is the biggest source of employment in MSC Malaysia, accounting for 32,500 jobs, said the MDeC, which oversees the ICT hub.

Time Warner to spin off AOL

Posted by Sinlung

Media giant Time Warner announced Thursday morning that it will cast off its AOL division to become a standalone company.
Before that separation can take place, Time Warner will buy the 5 percent of AOL owned by Google so that it will have 100 percent control of AOL. Time Warner expects the transaction with Google to take place in the third quarter and the final AOL spinoff around the end of the year.
As an independent, publicly traded company, AOL will focus on growing its Web brands and services, as well as its advertising business, according to Time Warner.
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said in a statement:

We believe that a separation will be the best outcome for both Time Warner and AOL. The separation will be another critical step in the reshaping of Time Warner that we started at the beginning of last year, enabling us to focus to an even greater degree on our core content businesses. The separation will also provide both companies with greater operational and strategic flexibility. We believe AOL will then have a better opportunity to achieve its full potential as a leading independent Internet company.

The separation of AOL from Time Warner will put a final nail in the coffin of one of the emblematic mergers of the dot-com boom and bust. Brimming with the abundant funds and hyper-optimism of the Web's go-go years, AOL--then known as America Online--acquired Time Warner in January 2001 to create the world's largest media company. Within a year, however, it was already apparent that the union of new and old media was not as "supercharged" as its backers had promised.
By September 2003, things had gone so poorly with the merger, and specifically with AOL's dwindling dominance as an online portal, that AOL Time Warner dropped "AOL" from its name, and became just Time Warner.
In subsequent years, AOL has continued to struggle. Consumers have dropped their dial-up subscriptions in droves as broadband access became more widely available and they became more comfortable navigating the Internet on their own.
The first quarter of 2009, like other quarters before it, showed just how much of a burden AOL had become on Time Warner. For that three-month period, AOL's revenue dropped 23 percent from the year-earlier quarter, and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes emphasized at the time that the company was seeking "the right ownership structure for AOL."
In March, several weeks ahead of that earnings announcement, Time Warner appointed a new chief executive for AOL, Tim Armstrong, calling him "the right executive to move AOL into the next phase of its evolution." Armstrong had previously been a leader of Google's advertising sales operations.
Time Warner shares began trading up slightly Thursday morning following the AOL news, starting the day at US$23.34 after closing Wednesday at US$23.

Greenpeace: IT companies weak on climate change

Posted by Sinlung

Having issued a middling report card to consumer electronics companies earlier this year, environmental watchdog Greenpeace is now targeting big IT companies which it says are not pulling their weight when it comes to tackling climate change.
With its Cool IT Challenge, Greenpeace on Wednesday created a scorecard for the CEOs of the largest IT companies that shows how they rate on climate leadership. Overall, Greenpeace doesn't look on them kindly.
It gives IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano relatively high marks for disclosing the company's emissions reduction targets and spearheading its "Smarter Planet" initiative to make transportation and the utility industry more efficient through IT. Toshiba scored only 2 out of 100 because it needs to improve its emissions reductions and use of renewable energy, according to Greenpeace.
Greenpeace has kind words for Sun Microsystems for developing energy-efficient servers and undertaking a company-wide sustainable program.
Overall, Greenpeace argues that these powerful business people should be taking a more active role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, both in their own operations and by lobbying politicians.
"The majority of IT companies talk big about 'going green' rather than giving tangible evidence of how their software and hardware solutions actually reduce emissions. These companies must show case studies of climate savings based on sound metrics in areas such as smarter transport, building energy efficiency and smart grids," Greenpeace International campaigner Casey Harrell said in a statement.
It is estimated that data centers consume about 2 percent of the energy use in the world, making IT one of the most energy-intensive industries.
Some IT executives talk about the "other 98 percent," referring to the many ways that IT can be used to improve the state of the environment.
The most obvious area of crossover into energy is smart-grid technologies, where a combination of computing and communications gear are expected to play a major role in upgrading the power grid. Some large companies, including IBM, Google, and Intel, have initiatives or spin-out companies focused directly on solar.
Greenpeace's tough talk on IT companies mirrors the pressure it seeks to apply on consumer electronics firms. It does a regular report grading how well consumer electronics companies do on reducing toxic chemicals in products and, starting this year, activities around energy use and climate change.

Sophos: Mind your software defaults

Posted by Sinlung

Organizations need to pay attention to software configurations and control them appropriately, or risk compromising their security posture, industry experts have warned.
Users can be better protected if more thought was given to the default product configuration, Fraser Howard, principal virus researcher at SophosLabs, pointed out in a recent blog post.
One case in point was Adobe Reader, which runs embedded JavaScript by default. That leaves an open door to the attacker, as seen in recent PDF-based attacks. "Given the growth in malware using PDFs as a point of entry, why do we accept the decision to enable such functionality by default?" Howard questioned.
Elaborating on Howard's argument, Paul Ducklin, Sophos' Asia-Pacific head of technology, said software and hardware vendors are sometimes too keen to show off the functionalities available in their products. "They turn that functionality on because it is there, rather than because it is necessary or important."
Default settings, he noted, are not a new problem. About a decade ago, the main vehicles for malware infection were macro viruses or Trojans in Microsoft Office files. This was partly due to "full-blown macro programming functionality" in every Office installation--a feature a user couldn't turn off even if that person wanted to, Ducklin pointed out.
"Presumably, Microsoft was afraid that if they allowed people consensually to [disable] Office's macro-handling capacity, some users might begin to think that macros weren't possible at all in Office, which might reduce the overall appeal of the product, or lead to bad reviews, or end up in unfavorable comparisons with competing products which did obviously have such a feature. So, in Office history, features won out over security for some years," said Ducklin.
"Eventually, Microsoft began to add operational restrictions to the macro system so that it retained almost all of its usefulness in real life, whilst breaking some key behaviors on which malware authors had relied," he continued. "Macro viruses then began to wither and die out. These days, they are rarely seen."
Firewalls and routers, added Ducklin, also come with default settings that make them easier to deploy but could be reconfigured by malware authors before the automatic settings are changed. "For example...default accounts and passwords on systems such as new routers and firewalls should work only for the purpose of setting non-default passwords, and the device shouldn't begin to function as a router or firewall until such changes have been made."
Rohit Dhamankar, director of security research at TippingPoint's DVLabs, pointed out in an e-mail that vulnerabilities that are due to misconfiguration or default settings make up a small 2 percent of the total discovered pool. TippingPoint routinely discovers and publishes advisories of vulnerabilities in software through its Zero Day Initiative.
"However, depending on the install base of the product, the effects can be extreme," he noted. "For instance, a network router vulnerable to default password or SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) community string can allow an attacker to control an organization's network."
According to Sophos' Ducklin, features and ease-of-use or ease-of-deployment may often triumph over security, but prevention is nonetheless better than cure. Vendors should turn "possibly dangerous features off by default" and monitor closely what happens when well-informed early adopters opt to activate those features, he advised.

Philippines not banking on virtual currency yet

Posted by Sinlung

MANILA--The e-commerce landscape in the Philippines can be likened to the country's geographic nature: a vast but disparate archipelago with different regions speaking their own languages.
While local sites have sprouted recently to stake a claim on the burgeoning e-commerce industry, each online venture has created its own online currency or virtual money. The result is a mix of online currencies with no single or dominant unit that links consumers and traders together.
Virtual money has been touted as an enabler of e-commerce, an important tool that bridges online users with companies offering e-commerce services. However, the Philippines appears not to be in a hurry to plug this lack of standardization.
Elaine Uy, chief marketing officer of business portal and e-commerce site Yehey, said: "If you look at the online users in the country, everyone is already selling something on the Internet. But, there's no payment gateway or medium by which they could perform their transactions."
Uy said in a phone interview that buyers and sellers usually just meet up in person to complete their online deals. This, she said, is inhibiting the growth of e-commerce beyond the realm of consumer-to-consumer (C2C) transactions, into business-to-consumer (B2C).
Yehey has its own virtual money called "Bretas", which is a combination of two words--"bre" meaning addition and "tas" for multiplication--adopted from an old language in Bohol, a province in central Philippines.
Although Bretas serves as a rewards system that gives users points they can redeem for prizes, or to participate in various activities, Uy said the Web traffic and number of consumers using the online currency have not been impressive.
"I guess it will take a lot of convincing to make users comfortable with virtual money," she said, adding that consumers are still wary of the security threats that plague activities conducted via the Internet.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the government body tasked to regulate the country's financial sector, has not yet issued a circular governing the use of online currency or virtual money.
What it sought to regulate recently was "electronic money" (e-money), which are funds transferred or remitted through instruments such as cashcards and e-wallets accessible via mobile phones. The e-money, however, is not the same as the online currency or virtual money mostly used in Internet commerce.
According to Auction.ph, a Korean-controlled online bidding site that promotes online currency called e-money, virtual currencies are "naturally feasible when it is integrated into a payment system, rewards system or subscription system".
Credit cards still popular
Angelo Hernandez, public relations manager of Auction.ph, noted that while virtual currencies have their advantages, they cannot replace credit cards as the preferred choice of payment.
"Banking institutions are very quick in terms of integrating their systems online, and since people are more familiar with these systems and have a history of trust with these institutions, people tend to adapt to these systems more openly," Hernandez said in an e-mail interview.
"Web developers also tend to integrate the credit card systems into their Web sites because it's easier, and it saves you the trouble of educating users and earning their trust, which is more challenging," he added.
Thus, Hernandez said, even if Auction.ph offers its own virtual currency, supporting credit card as a payment option is still a major priority for the company. "Our research says that integrating credit card payments will significantly increase our transactions," he said.
Research firm IDC agrees with Hernandez's assertion that virtual currency must be measured in actual value by consumers.
Michael Araneta, senior consulting and research manager at IDC's Financial Insights, said: "In considering the prospects of wider use of online money, you need to obviously consider how it can be a substitute for 'real money'--what we are using now. Online money has to be a real, legal tender for transactions online as well as in the real world."
Singapore-based Araneta said in an e-mail, online currencies should be "used beyond the Web site that originally brought it to light, meaning, it has to be widely acceptable for online purchases".
However, the analyst noted that porting online money to the real world would be a very difficult task.
"For now, I think card-based payments have established their foothold in the virtual world and it would be quite difficult to for another alternative to gain critical mass. Cards have credibly resolved issues like security, fraud and even fees--so frankly, alternatives would have great difficulty in scaling up," said Araneta.
But, one industry that has successfully made virtual money a vital part of its system is the online games sector. The model has been so successful that it has spawned an underground economy where players sell their virtual money for actual cash.
Games companies have tapped the potential of virtual money by initially luring players with "free" online games. If the players are keen to go on to another level or purchase in-game weapons and merchandise, they will then be required to buy virtual money in order to conduct these transactions.
Gil Edeza, COO of IP e-Games, the online games subsidiary of tech conglomerate IPVG, said the company is using virtual currency to enhance the gamers' experience.
Under IP e-Games' system, one "e-Point" equals 1 peso (US$0.02). Players can buy top-up cards and use these to purchase in-game items such as armors, weapons, fashion items and mounts.
Because of the established distribution network for prepaid cards in the Philippines, Edeza said virtual money has the potential to rival the credit card system. Virtual money, he said in an e-mail interview, gives consumers an alternative means to make purchases without owning a credit card.
"Is it pervasive? Yes. But, is it mainstream? We're not there yet," Edeza said. Unlike the e-commerce sector, there is a thriving virtual economy bustling inside the world of games, he added.

Does Microsoft's new limited liability company point to search deal?

Posted by Sinlung

Microsoft last week registered a limited liability company (LLC) in Delaware, stoking speculation that it is planning an acquisition or joint venture. If true, Microsoft may be planning a little bit more than a demo of its search engine and a big ad campaign to promote it.
In a research report, Jeffries analyst Katherine Egbert wrote:

The software giant registered an LLC Corp. in Delaware last week, a move often made a week or two in advance of acquisitions or joint ventures. The registration gave rise to widespread speculation that Microsoft would acquire Citrix. While that's possible, the timing of the registration and recent debt raise indicate to us that it might be more likely Microsoft uses the LLC to form a partnership to boost the amount of traffic flowing through its search engine. It makes sense to us that Microsoft would want to address both the passive and active search markets simultaneously.

For what it's worth, an acquisition of Citrix would make much more business sense, but Microsoft's LLC move is likely to lead to a deal with Yahoo.
Regarding Egbert's passive comment:

Passive searches are performed via search toolbars embedded on popular sites, such as Yahoo's homepage or MSN, while active searches come via a user typing the search provider's URL into a browser e.g. google.com.

Egbert adds that a search engine move--perhaps that long-awaited deal with Yaho--would make sense. After all, Microsoft is going to blow US$80 million to US$100 million on advertising its "Bing" search engine in an attempt to garner users. It wouldn't hurt to pump some traffic through Bing to get things rolling.

First-time project managers need failures

Posted by Sinlung

One of the greatest impediments to first-time project managers' success is their need to succeed. There are three things they really need--and early success isn't one of them.

Nothing succeeds like success, except in project management where nothing succeeds like failure.
Managing an IT project is very difficult, especially the first time you try it. The project manager's days and nights are filled with stress, worry, dreams, aspirations, and fear. Some first timers are overwhelmed by their newfound power, while some are weighed down by the responsibility.
But for most, the overriding concern is to avoid both personal and project failure.
This fear is often instilled and/or reinforced by the project manager's supervisor. The new assignment is often initiated with comments like, "Don't screw this up." "This is your big chance to shine.” Or, "don’t make me look bad and regret giving you this opportunity." Trust me, those sorts of comments really help first timers succeed.
For the project manager, this sort of fear is not only counterproductive, but also misplaced. In fact, I think that every first time project manager desperately needs to fail. That's right. I'm not just saying that it's ok to fail; I’m saying that if they don't fail, they may never learn to be effective project managers. In fact, complete success may set their management careers back by years.
As a manager, consultant, trainer, and coach, I've had the opportunity to work with hundreds of first-time project managers, and I've become convinced that one of the greatest impediments to their success is their need to succeed. If against all odds they do manage to succeed, they fall prey to the twin career killers, arrogance and self-confidence, depriving them of the opportunity to grow and learn.
Project management is such a complex discipline that it is completely impossible for a first timer to have mastered all the subtleties of task, people and risk management. In fact, it's impossible for anyone, no matter how experienced, to have mastered it all. The successful first timer is invariably lulled into a false sense of security that they know much more than they really do. They become convinced that they are now fully-fledged managers and can take on anything.
What's more dangerous is that they get brain freeze. They stop learning. Why learn when you have mastered a topic?
It can take two or three failed projects to undo the career damage inflicted by early success before a new project manager reclaims the humility and open-mindedness that they started with. Unfortunately, by that time, their careers have probably absorbed major damage. It is one thing to be seen as making a few mistakes as a first timer; it's another to have demonstrated a pattern of failure. Both the manager's image and self-image have been irretrievably damaged.
So what does the first timer need?

A few big mistakes
Permission to make those mistakes
Coaching and introspection to learn from them

If you are a first-time project manager, be prepared for some problems along the way. Relax and enjoy the ride. No one will lose respect for you.
If you are the manager of a first timer, give them permission to make mistakes. When they do, make sure that they learn from them and don't make the same ones again. Coach them about the sources of problems and the meaning of their failures. It's normal for them to have difficulties, but make sure that you view them as training investments and not as screw-ups. Your job is to ensure that you get the maximum return on investment for the training that mistakes offer.
Becoming a project manager is hard work, but a little failure will help make the transition from individual producer to manager more successful.

Seven (nasty) truths about IT spending

Posted by Sinlung

An article discusses harsh realities associated with out-of-control IT costs. While cost containment is integral to reducing failed IT projects, Draconian inflexibility is not the way to go.

An article in the March issue of Harvard Business Review, written by former CIO Susan Cramm, discusses harsh realities associated with out-of-control IT costs.
Although cost containment is integral to reducing failed IT projects, the article suggests a certain Draconian inflexibility that just doesn't make sense.
The article includes a sidebar called "The Seven Truths", reflecting Cramm's position that, "companies overspend on IT because they are unwilling to say no to frontline managers."
Here are the seven truths (reformatted from original):

Enhancements often don't deliver results commensurate with their costs. Establish a fixed budget for IT enhancements for each function or division, in line with the goals they are expected to achieve. Do not extend funds. When they run out, they run out.
Projects are often too big and take too long, partly because unnecessary functionality is built into applications. Require leaders to commit to delivering measurable value for application functions before granting them project approval and before allowing them to maintain funding at each stage. Tie executive compensation to realization of value.
Previously purchased applications and infrastructure technology are often underutilized. Use what you have before investing in new technology. Require IT to counterbalance the added cost of new infrastructure investments with sensible reductions in the cost of maintaining the basics.
Project failure rates are too high. Minimize the duration of project stages. (Limiting scope makes projects less risky and more likely to succeed. That, in turn, increases buy-in for subsequent stages.) Establish "kill switch" rules for projects (for example, "Kill project if initial budget has been modified twice and beta deployment still has not occurred").
Tech teams do not have sufficient incentive to achieve high quality, and quality is often not measured. Make sure development and applications support teams are accountable for the operational costs associated with defects, including emergency change requests and help desk calls.
Managers don't know enough about the systems that support their areas. Follow Intuit's lead and charge units for "helpless" help desk calls.
IT is too risk averse. "No one ever got fired for buying IBM or Microsoft." Require IT to examine the costs and benefits of extending refresh cycles, delaying upgrades, discontinuing maintenance agreements, and using open source platforms and applications.

The project failures analysis
Many organizations lack sufficient discipline and control around IT spending and execution. However, relying on Draconian guiding principles that ignore realities on the ground is no solution.
For example, in point one Cramm recommends blindly killing projects when funds run out. While that sounds nice, some successful projects run over budget for legitimate reasons, often because unexpected opportunities to add value show up as work proceeds. Former CIO and project portfolio management analyst, Lewis Cardin, believes some project course corrections are valuable and he warns us against falling prey to "first number syndrome."
On point four, discussing failure rates, Cramm suggests establishing a rule-based kill switch. I agree with this to an extent, but again, her perspective is overly mechanical. For example, should an organization automatically terminate a critical strategic initiative because the IT execution component is flawed?
Cramm's HBR article is on the right track, but I'd prefer to see her advice tempered with greater nuance and flexibility. These complex issues have no simple answers, but rigidity is definitely not the right path forward.

Confirmed: Apple tablet in 2010

Posted by Sinlung

A source familiar with Apple's product plans says that the company plans to introduce a tablet-based device in early 2010. This is consistent with the report from Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster.

Here's the body of Munster's note:

Signs pointing to a new mobile device: Between indications from our component contacts in Asia, recent patents relating to multi-touch sensitivity for more complex computing devices, comments from Tim Cook on the Apr. 22 conference call, and Apple's acquisition of P.A. Semi along with other recent chip-related hires, it is increasingly clear that Apple is investing more in its mobile computing franchise.
Specifically, we expect this to result in a larger (7- to 10-inch) touchscreen tablet that will launch in 1H CY10.
Additionally, Apple's consistent message that it refuses to launch a "cheap" portable netbook, and its desire to differentiate itself in a maturing market before it's too late (similar to the timing of iPod and iPhone), plus its gradual addition of multi-touch technology to all of its core products (iPhones, iPods and Macs) leads us to conclude this product will be a touchscreen tablet (not a netbook). No netbook on the Horizon; Tablet a CY10 event: We expect Apple to fill the gap between the iPod touch and the MacBook with a new tablet device (not a netbook) priced at about US$500 to US$700.
Apple will likely leverage its multi-touch patents to differentiate its product from the typical netbook. We are anticipating a new category of Apple products with an operating system more robust than the iPhone's but optimized for multi-touch, unlike Mac OS X.
The device's OS could bear a close resemblance to Apple's mobile OS and run App Store apps, or it could be a modified version of Mac OS X.
We expect the development of such an OS to be underway currently, but its complexity, along with our conversations with a key company in the mobile space, leads us to believe it will not launch until CY10.
Apple's timing in entering new markets: Apple launched the first iPod in October 2001, three years after the first portable MP3 player was on the market. Likewise, the iPhone debuted in June 2007, five years after the first BlackBerry with e-mail and mobile phone capabilities.
With both products, Apple designed devices that were differentiated enough to gain significant market share despite its later entrance into the markets. We believe Apple is observing the netbook market in a similar way, and will eventually enter with a tablet, a premium mobile computing device.

Munster's analysis sounds extremely convincing. Despite rumors of an impending launch of lower-end mid-sized devices, Apple is still doing well enough in its businesses--both in terms of market share, and certainly from a margin point of view--that it is likely loath to simply give in to the pressure to throw some cheap netbook knock-off out on the market.
If current economic conditions are anywhere near as bad as they are going to get, it seems Apple is powering through just fine.
Why take the risk of cannibalizing more profitable product lines in the future, with a product that Steve & Co. wouldn't be "proud of", as they say whenever asked about netbooks by Wall Street analysts.
But taking the time to craft yet another consumer category-making product makes total sense. Until now, all the talk of mid-sized devices that are smaller than a laptop and larger than a cellphone sound like wishful thinking by vendors.
But who really needs one, and for what?
But if Apple comes out with a slick multi-touch-equipped device of that size, able to run thousands of Apps tuned for the form factor (not to mention play movies, or help you create your own), that's a different story. And probably a very profitable one.

Virtual worlds an inroad to new generation

Posted by Sinlung

Virtual worlds aren't dead--they're enjoying a re-awakening, as marketers learn to connect both the real and virtual, say observers.
Mary Ellen Gordon of Market Truths, a U.S.-based research firm specializing in virtual worlds, said in an interview with ZDNet Asia, companies expressing interest in virtual worlds such as Second Life are compelled to learn the media-consumption habits of the new generation.
This marks a contrast against the initial wave of companies which flocked to Second Life for mostly publicity, and also "during which at least some companies did not seem to take the time to really understand virtual worlds or to think about how to use them to contribute to their overall business objectives", said Gordon.
She named some of these business needs as saving time and costs related to traveling, by using virtual platforms to carry out Web conferences.
But it is virtual worlds' ability to cut across real-world boundaries--geographic, social, financial, to name a few--that is attracting companies and users alike, said Gordon.
"Virtual [worlds] give people the chance to meet more people across these barriers, and are not constrained by circumstances [such as] physical location, family responsibilities, lack of financial resources and disabilities," she said.
Companies, too, hope to cut across these boundaries. Singaporean retailer, Tangs, which opened a virtual outlet in March this year, allows visitors to browse and purchase items with virtual currency to dress up their avatars.
Lin Pei Hua, assistant vice president of marketing and communications, Tangs, told ZDNet Asia the company hopes to meld both real and virtual worlds: digital purchases of items within Tangs' Second Life store gives users a 15 percent discount off the same item in the real world.
On crossing geographical boundaries, Lin said the virtual store gives Tangs the "opportunity to introduce the store and our private fashion labels to shoppers from around the world".
The retailer has plans to launch an e-commerce service within the world, which will allow for Second Life purchases to be shipped to consumers in the real world, she said.
There are other companies which are relying on their presence within Second Life to create brand awareness and immerse new employees in company culture.
According to a 2008 Market Truths survey of some 500 Second Life, 60 percent of respondents perceived the presence of real life commercial brands in Second Life as "mostly positive or at least more positive than negative".
Respondents also named IBM most frequently, as the brand seen within the virtual world. The next most-mentioned brand was Nike.
Ari Fishkind, public affairs manager for IBM Research, said in an interview the computer giant's presence in Second Life has broadened from publicity vehicle to that of an "informal" meeting place. Fishkind cited examples of IBM's higher-profile researchers using the platform to meet and greet visitors, as well as its recent hosting of an Arts festival.
"You'll continue to see an IBM presence that performs an ambassadorial type of role for the company, and reflects our participation in both the commercial and non-commercial communities," he said.
The company is also using Second Life to hold internal meetings. Last year, a virtual meeting which was held in place of its annual conference of computer scientists, called the IBM Academy of Technology, saved the company "hundreds of thousands of dollars in travel expenses [and] helped participants get a real sense of community, collaboration and camaraderie--and let them get back to their daily responsibilities that much faster", said Fishkind.
Gordon said the number of Second Life users has been growing "fairly steadily" since 2006, where the count stood at less than 10,000. There are now about 70,000 to 80,000 users concurrently now, she said.
A virtual "wall" to write on
One social networking site has its eye on its own virtual world, but it intends for its world to resemble social networks more than real life.
Hi5's vice president of products and user experience and design, Anil Dharni, told ZDNet Asia in a phone interview the site is not building a full-blown virtual world such as Second Life, but intends to "blend" the typical social networking experience with virtual aspects.
Where "Version one" of the virtual world movement required users install a separate client, advances in Web technology such as Flash and Erlang makes "Version two" possible, where sites can come to life within a browser more easily, said Dharni.
"There is a movement around making the Web more real-time... We're starting to see static Web pages become more dynamic, and you don't need downloads to make them more immersive these days," he said.
And this "seamless integration" of virtual worlds is key to user acceptance. "We're not going to make users turn [the virtual world] on or off. The more immersive, the more user engagement is expected," said Dharni.
When Hi5's virtual features launch, users will be able to carry out their typical interactions such as writing on friends' "walls", but with added gestures such as an avatar giving another a high-five along with the message, explained Dharni.
Market Truths' Gordon said: "A lot of people value the ability to interact with anyone anywhere in real time in a way that feels more direct and spontaneous than the text-based parts of the Web."
She said new media consumers who are attracted to virtual worlds tend to consume traditional media such as TV, newspapers and magazines less than the general population.
Reaching users through virtual worlds can provide companies an inroad to capturing the attention of the younger "digital natives", Gordon explained.

Clickjacking: Hijacking clicks on the Internet

Posted by Sinlung

What if you reached to grab a newspaper out of a news stand and you found a rock in your hand instead? How about opening the front door to a grocery store and ending up on a boat?
This sounds like a Matrix movie, but the virtual equivalent of this is real and poses one of the most serious new risks on the Internet, according to Jeremiah Grossman, chief technology officer and co-founder of Whitehat Security.
"Most exploits (like worms and attacks that take advantage of holes in software) can be patched, but clickjacking is a design flaw in the way the Web is supposed to work," Grossman said. "The bad guy is superimposing an invisible button over something the user wants to click on...It can be any button on any Web page on any Web site."
The technique was used in a series of prank attacks launched on Twitter in February. In that case, users clicked on links next to tweets that said "Don't Click" and then clicked on a button that said "Don't Click" on a separate Web page. That second click distributed the original tweet to all of the Twitter user's followers, thus propagating itself rather quickly.
At the time, Grossman called it a "harmless experiment", but the potential for harm by an attacker who isn't just having fun is huge.
In a demo at the offices of ZDNet Asia's sister site CNET News.com on Thursday, Grossman showed how someone could launch a clickjacking attack using Flash to spy on someone by getting them to turn on their computer Web cam without knowing it.
Like the name suggests, clickjacking is the hijacking of your click, unbeknownst to you. A victim may not even know that the click has been redirected, which means there could be clickjacking attacks going on that no one knows about yet.
Clickjacking attacks are accomplished by creating something called an iFrame that allows a browser window to be split into segments so that different items can be shown on each. This code is inserted into the target Web page and is invisible to the end user. When the end user's cursor clicks on the section of the page where the malicious iFrame is hiding, the attack is launched to do whatever the attacker desires.
An attacker could hide an iFrame under any innocent link on any Web page--a headline on the New York Times or a "digg this" button on Digg, for instance--and when the victim clicks on the link, the cursor is actually clicking on the hidden iFrame.
In the Web cam demo, the iFrame created contains a Flash pop-up window that asks the user to grant permission to have the Web cam turned on. When the victim clicks the link, the Web cam is turned on and secretly begins recording everything the user does in front of the computer.
One of the scariest things about clickjacking is the potential for abuse. An attacker could spy on you by turning on your Web cam or microphone, direct you to a Web page with malicious content that is downloaded onto your computer, or even rig it up so you end up clicking "buy" instead of "cancel" on an e-commerce site.
Another thing that makes clickjacking so serious is that there really is very little that end users can do to protect themselves, Grossman said.
In the Web cam scenario, the best defense is probably to put a post-it note or other item over the Web cam lens and to disable the microphone in the software, he said. Flash Player 10 provides some protection by preventing anything from obscuring the security permissions dialogue box, he said.
Web site owners optimizing their sites for Internet Explorer 8 have the ability to prevent pages from being framed in, which means visitors to their site will be safe, only on that site and only if they are using IE8, Grossman said.
People using Windows and IE should disable JavaScript to help protect against clickjacking, he said. Firefox is safer; the NoScript add-on for Firefox not only lets people selectively block scripts, but it has a ClearClick feature designed specifically to protect against clickjacking, he added.
People should also log out of Web sites, like Facebook and Twitter, when they are done using them for the time being. "You can't be forced to do something on the site if you are not logged in," Grossman said.
More details are in a white paper on the technique, written by Grossman and Robert Hansen of SecTheory and published in September 2008. Grossman and Hansen coined the term in that document.
The authors cancelled their talk on the subject at the OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) conference that month at Adobe's request because their proof of concept revealed a bug in Adobe's software, according to IDG News Service.

Pirate Bay: In search of an unbiased judge

Posted by Sinlung

The search for unbiased judges in the high-profile Pirate Bay case in Sweden seems never-ending.
Finding legal authorities who are not connected to the people involved in the case is apparently difficult in a country that counts only 9 million inhabitants.
Shortly after the verdict was delivered in mid-April, sentencing the four defendants to jail for one year for having assisted in making 33 copyright-protected files available for distribution, Judge Tomas Norström was accused of having a conflict of interest.
The accusations were based on his membership in organizations such as the Swedish Copyright Association, which counts among its members: Henrik Pontén, Peter Danowsky and Monique Wadsted. All three are lawyers who represented the plaintiffs during the Pirate Bay trial.
Conflict-of-interest accusations were filed by all the four defendants, together with their appeal of the verdict to the High Court of Justice.
Court President Fredrik Wersäll appointed Judge Ulrika Ihrfeldt to investigate the conflict of interest. But shortly afterward, Ihrfeldt revealed that she also had been a member of the Swedish Copyright Association and was removed from the case.
Wersäll then moved the conflict-of-interest investigation to another part of the court system not involved in the main appeal of the verdict.
Judge Anders Eka was appointed to lead the investigation. But the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter revealed this week that Eka is connected to the Stockholm Center for Commercial Law, a research center at Stockholm University, where lawyers Monique Wadsted and Peter Danowsky also are involved.
Eka told the Dagens Nyheter that he is not a personal friend of the plaintiffs' lawyers and that he has no background in copyright law. Still, he acknowledges that an investigation of him for potential bias could be possible.
Wersäll told the national news agency TT that the investigation of Norström's potential conflict of interest is a high priority and should be finished within a few weeks.
If Norström is found biased, the case will be sent back to the district court. Otherwise, the High Court of Justice will look at the main appeal of the verdict and possibly decide to hold a new trial.
A few days ago, four record companies involved in the case--Universal Music, EMI Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music--solicited the district court to order the defendants and their Internet provider to stop operating Thepiratebay.org, Swedish media reports.
The Web site has been essentially unaffected by the verdict. The four record companies have verified that the site is still helping distribute copyright-protected files and asks the district court to order its closure and impose a fine if it is not closed.

Windows server has Linux in crosshairs

Posted by Sinlung

Microsoft's new entry-level server edition, Windows Server 2008 Foundation, is aimed squarely at Linux, and the software giant says its "simplicity" is expected to give it the edge over Linux as the choice server OS for the small business segment.
By competing with Linux on a lower price point and touting Windows' familiar interface, Microsoft said it hopes to make both servers and its server OS an easy choice for small businesses looking to deploy a server. Each server, preloaded with the OS, will cost below S$1,500 (US$1,029).
Haresh Khoobchandani, senior director, business and marketing organisation, Microsoft Singapore, spoke to ZDNet Asia on Friday's local launch of Windows Server 2008 Foundation.
Part of Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 product line, this edition is aimed at single-processor servers with fewer than 15 users.
Khoobchandani said small businesses in Asia are taking their IT deployments more seriously, which has created demand for a lower-priced entry-level server offering.
Microsoft hopes its partnering with manufacturers Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Dell to preload the OS on their hardware for the roll-out, will help make it simpler for small businesses to get started with the product.
"There's a big saving on cost, because businesses won't have to worry about bringing in technical expertise to deploy the OS," said Khoobchandani.
On competition posed by Linux, he said the familiarity of the "established" Windows experience is also expected to "take away the complexity of how to use a server".
Additionally, Microsoft is also looking to its independent software vendor (ISV) ecosystem for the edge over Linux. For its Singapore launch, it has partnered with two local ISVs to come out with a legal and HR application, available to SMBs on the platform for separate licenses issued by the ISVs.
Linux offers more advanced features such as virtualization for free, but Khoobchandani said a small company with below 25 seats is not likely to look into virtualization yet.
Microsoft estimates the small business segment in the Asia-Pacific region to span some 6 million such companies with an average of 25 PCs, and is worth about 38 percent of the region's total server market.
Khoobchandani said Microsoft estimates there to be about 100,000 small businesses in the island state. Globally, it estimates there are 32 million small businesses, 70 percent of which do not own a server.
Liow Poh Leong, System x and BladeCenter product line manager at IBM, told ZDNet Asia, the company expects the product to appeal to businesses that have so far been purchasing "home user type" PCs for their IT needs.
"This group of customers are extremely cost-conscious and the IT adoption rate is fairly low."
Adeline Soh, business director, Industry Standard Servers, HP Singapore, said SMBs in the region tend to be smaller than their global counterparts.
Quoting a recent HP survey, she said 75 percent of businesses in general, recognize the importance of aligning technology and business goals. "Increasingly, we see SMBs turning to technology to enable better business outcomes."

Singapore govt needs holistic Web approach

Posted by Sinlung

The Singapore government will need to adopt a whole new mindset and holistic strategy, in its efforts to engage its citizens via the Internet and other new media platforms, say industry watchers.
The local government has in recent months indicated a desire to engage Singaporeans on a new level, in cyber space, to be in sync with an increasingly tech-savvy population.
Raphael Phang, vice president of IDC's Government Insights Asia-Pacific, said Web 2.0 and other new media tools are at the forefront of the transformation of how governments interact with their people.

The hope is, over time, the transparency of the Internet will become a force for more open and transparent government generally. But, of course, this is a pretty simple and naïve view, given the complexities of politics.

Steve Hodgkinson, Ovum

Citing U.S. President Barack Obama's use of new media during last year's U.S. presidential elections and YouTube videos showing G20 meetings in the United Kingdom, Phang said such forms of engagement are already evident across the globe. The IDC analyst added that politicians in the region, including Malaysia, Singapore and Australia, have also started blogs.
More recently, the U.S. White House held an online town hall meeting and accepted questions submitted via the Web. The Obama administration received over 104,000 questions sent by 90,000 people.
Phang said in an e-mail interview: "One key lesson that can be learnt from these examples is that the Internet and new media can, and is having, a significant impact on the way citizens view their government--whether the government participates, or does not participate in its usage."
The general population is already embracing new media, regardless of whether governments do likewise, he said. Given the adoption and impact of such platforms, he noted that it is important that governments become proactive users as well.
During his National Day address in August 2008, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, spoke at length about new media and its impact on the island-state. Over 80 percent of households in the country have broadband, and there are some 6 million mobile phones in a population of 4.5 million.
"The young people are totally immersed in this [new] medium," Lee said in his speech. "People are writing their own content, sharing it with others, organizing interest groups... All this has changed the way the government works." He added that his administration is communicating and engaging with Singaporeans online.
And at the forefront of such efforts is Reach, he said, referring to the government portal set up in October 2006, as a platform for citizens to submit feedback and discuss government policies online.
Holistic approach, new skills needed
Steve Hodgkinson, research director for public sector at Ovum, said in an e-mail: "Use of the Internet as a one- and two-way communications channel is now pretty much expected of democratic governments, so Singapore is playing catch-up on this one. The government will need to be mindful of the fact that new media is more about participation than it is about managing or controlling."
As such, ministers and senior government officials will need to acquire new skills, as well as adopt a new culture and mindset, Hodgkinson said. Participating in new media using "old media skills" will not produce the results the Singapore government seeks. For instance, putting a ban on online content will only serve to attract attention to it, he said.
The challenge is that it takes time and experience to learn these new skills, and participate effectively in the new media environment, he noted. On top of that, mistakes are very public, he added.
"The government will need to work out ways to proceed in a measured manner while it gains these skills to avoid embarrassing mistakes that could lead to a reversal of enthusiasms for more open communication," Hodgkinson said. "It would be wise to engage some advisors who are very experienced in the use of social media in the public sector context."
The Singapore government needs to recognize that the younger generation is very different from previous generations, said Ang Peng Hwa, a professor at Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University.
The tone and method of communication that worked during the era of the country's former prime minister and founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, is unlikely to work today, Ang told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail. "This generation wants to engage with government and politics on their own terms--on issues they care about," he said. And in terms of the quality of inputs and diversity of views, he noted that the results of this engagement may also not be what government officials want.
There are also costs involved in managing Web 2.0 communications if the government intends to be responsive, he added. Users expect a 24-hour turnaround and these new communication platforms need to be attended by two people, on a work shift, even during holidays, he said.
Regardless, Ang said these forms of engagement are necessary and governments will need to deploy whichever new channels of communication the populace is moving toward. These include SMS, Twitter and instant messaging, he said.
Phang explained: "Unlike traditional media, blogs and other Web 2.0 technologies represent a more accessible medium that citizens can use to interact with the government, and with other citizens.
"It is also important to remember that because new generations of citizens are educated in the Internet-enabled age, they will expect to operate in a similar environment that they have been used to when they enter the workforce. The same can be said for those joining the civil service as government officials," he noted.
Governments then need to understand each media platform and the objectives of using that channel of communication, he said. They should approach this in the same way they do with traditional media such as newspapers, television and radio.
Online media, Hodgkinson said, are typically more relaxed and "uncontrolled" with regard to the types of topics discussed and views expressed. He added that it is up to any democratically-elected government to decide what it deems appropriate, and not appropriate, especially in dealing with sensitive issues such as religion and race, which can be socially divisive.
While the Internet is intrinsically more open and participative, enabling greater freedom of expression and transparency, governments can still decide how much freedom and transparency they to allow, he said.
"The hope is, over time, the transparency of the Internet will become a force for more open and transparent government generally. But, of course, this is a pretty simple and naïve view given the complexities of politics."
High-level official blogging
Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo was the first, and one of the few, ministers in the country to blog. The Cabinet minister began blogging in 2006 and co-hosts two blogs, covering a wide range of issues including his memories of Star Trek, Singapore President S. R. Nathan's recent visit to Japan's Hiroshima Peace Memorial, and last month's ministerial evacuation at the Asean Summit in Pattaya, Thailand. His blog also features photos of the minister making official visits to Washington D.C., for example, where he met U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
When contacted, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to respond to questions on whether Yeo is provided a set of guidelines on issues he blogs about, as well as how he manages his online profile.
According to Siew Kum Hong, currently employed as a legal counsel at a tech company, most--if not all--major companies today have codes of conduct for employees who blog or have online profiles. However, the Singapore-based lawyer is not aware of similar codes established specifically for government officials in the island-state.
Siew is also one of the country's Nominated Members of Parliament (NMPs), who are unelected MPs first introduced in 1990 as an avenue to allow citizens with no political party affiliation to participate in Singapore's parliamentary debates.
"I doubt if the Instruction Manual covers blogging," he said in an e-mail interview, referring to the administrative handbook all local government officers refer to as a guideline for their daily operations and duties. "In terms of legal boundaries, the only significant difference between government and companies would be that the former is covered by the Official Secrets Act. Otherwise, the usual laws will apply to both equally."
According to Ang, Yeo strikes an appropriate balance between his role as a Cabinet minister and online personality. Government officials including ministers, have to "toe the official line" even if they personally disagree with it, he noted.
As a minister, Yeo does this well in his blog, while at the same time reflecting views and insights that are personal, Ang said.
He added that new, Web-based form of engagement with the public should be embraced by government officials, though there are some caveats and cautions. "But, such engagement is necessary. Singapore is now among the leading pack in its use of IT, and we should aim to continue to be among the leaders," he said. "Such forms of engagement will teach us to be more inclusive of groups and views."
Yeo had been quoted in local news reports to say that his participation in new media platforms, which also includes a Facebook account, keeps him in touch with the younger generation.
He had referred to Obama's use of new media as an important vehicle behind his victory in last year's presidential elections, reaching pockets of Americans who might otherwise have stayed away from the mainstream process.
Ultimately, Siew said, the Internet is just another platform and avenue for the Singapore government to reach out and engage citizens. Improving its interaction with the population will require a fundamental review of "its philosophical approach to engagement", he said. For example, the proposal by the AIMS to allow civil servants to comment on government policies was rejected, in line with an overarching government policy that applies both online and offline.
The AIMS was an advisory council, established in April 2007, to assess how new media is impacting the local society and recommend ways the government can address such impact.
The government accepted, and rejected, some of the council's recommendations. For instance, it now allows individuals to participate in online advertising for elections by blogging or posting election materials, though some safeguards will be implemented to ensure accountability. However, it dismissed the AIMS' recommendation to allow civil servants to voice personal opinions on government policies, noting that this would "compromise the performance of their duty".
Siew said: "Once the government develops a philosophy and strategy, then Internet-specific measures can be implemented to execute that strategy."
Engagement requires some guidelines
Phang cautioned that blogs, unlike official press statements that are vetted, are typically more informal. However, citizens will not view such information any differently, he said, adding that blogs written by government officials should be managed sensibly.
"The content will be no different from what is put out in other media, and the guidelines governing this information is the same as any made public, where there is the element of taking responsibility for what you say," he noted. "The Internet can be viewed as a vast open network in which information can quickly be turned into dis-information."
Hodgkinson said: "Government officials and ministers should definitely not be encouraged to blog or set up an online profile without knowing what they are getting themselves into, or without being trained in how to blog, being supported by appropriate guidelines and support teams, and having 'disaster' plans in place to deal with undesirable events--without just resorting to turning a blog off in a panic."
The Ovum analyst suggested that a clear distinction must be made between political blogs that reflect a minister's personal views on policy issues, and blogs used by the government to communicate policies and related issues. The latter should avoid any political discussions, he said.
Politicians and government officials who do blog should do so on a government-hosted, rather than public, platform to ensure posts are authentic, Hodgkinson said. Content should not be overly sanitized or politically correct or the blogger will lose credibility, he added.
"Be open to debate and criticism, and deal with it transparently with facts and logic, rather than rhetoric," he said.
Some Singapore government officials, however, seem unprepared for negative comments that may emerge from the blogosphere.
Earlier this year, now-Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, Lui Tuck Yew, described the Internet as an ineffective self-regulated environment. He noted that the online community did not do enough to quell "unkind" remarks made by local bloggers, that were targeted at a local politician. Lui, as quoted in local news reports, said: "Many of those responses were not rebutted nor answered, And, I think it is not healthy for some of those to remain on the Net unchallenged, unquestioned, and unanswered."

Iran blocks access to Facebook: report

Posted by Sinlung

Gulf News Archive

Facebook is a social networking website that allows users to communicate and share information on the internet.

Tehran: Social networking site Facebook is now blocked in Iran after the government ordered a ban ahead of the June 12 presidential elections.

The Iranian Labour News Agency reported that the Masadiq Committee ordered the ban to avoid political jockeying.

The website ban came after presidential candidate Hossein Mousavi created a Facebook page for his campaign that has more than 5,000 supporters on the site.

The challengers of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are increasingly turning to the internet to spread their campaign.

Facebook, in a statement, regretted the ban, saying they were "disappointed" that users in Iran have no access to the internet for information about election candidates.

"We believe that people around the world should be able to use Facebook to communicate and share information with their friends, family and co-workers. It is always a shame when a country's cultural and political concerns lead to limits being placed on the opportunity for sharing and expression that the Internet provides," a Facebook spokesman said.

How Facebook, MySpace and YouTube Killed eBay

Posted by Sinlung

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Keith Rabois, vice president of strategy and business development for Slide, the social entertainment company. Prior to Slide, Keith was a VP at LinkedIn and an EVP at PayPal in charge of among other things, competitive strategy vis-à-vis eBay. He also worked at eBay for three weeks following its acquisition of PayPal. Keith currently serves on the Board of Directors of Yelp, Vendio, Xoom and FanIQ.

On Monday afternoon, I was speaking on a panel at the Social Graph Symposium when the moderator asked me what eBay could do to revitalize its marketplace by leveraging the social graph. Dave McClure,

like many pundits, presumes the social graph could be a great boost for eBay, if not an outright panacea. I replied, “nothing.”
It’s actually the social graph and similar products that have placed a stake in eBay.com. Most often, people blame eBay’s decay on factors like the weakening economy, the rise of Amazon, as well as eBay’s own inefficient search functionality. But the real and simple reason is eBay is no longer fun. Over the years, it has lost online ground and eyeballs to pure entertainment destinations such as YouTube and social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.
Do It eBay

Although it was always classified as an e-commerce destination, the quirkiness of the eBay marketplace was once a major source of entertainment on the Web. It was where people sought and bought everything from the first broken laser pointer to Beanie Babies to Bob Dylan’s boyhood home

. While the catch—anything from an antique clock to a Gulfstream II—was rewarding for the buyer, it was generally the entertainment and excitement of the chase that brought a buyer to eBay in the first place.
When eBay launched its first U.S. advertising campaign in 2000, eBay spokesman Kevin Pursglove stated, “We hope they [the ads] reflect the fun that people have when they come to our site.” According to USA Today,

“the fun aspect of eBay seems to have struck a chord with consumers.” At that time, eBay was downright addictive and when you won an auction, it was thrilling. That delight kept people coming back for more, whether or not they actually prevailed with their bids.

Almost half the U.S. Internet population
Let’s rewind to 2004, just a short five years ago. In January 2004, almost 50 percent of the entire U.S. Internet population visited eBay each month. If people were bored at work, chances are they were surfing the pages of eBay and unearthing eccentric auction items they never even knew existed. This was the height of the eBay heyday.

So what happened?
With the fun factor driving eBay usage, what really stole eBay’s limelight was the rise of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook and the likes of YouTube. In December 2006, almost half of the U.S. Internet population was still visiting eBay. But when you examine the total amount of time spent online, 11.9 percent was spent on MySpace versus 3.7 percent on eBay (according to Compete.com). By then, people were already devoting more of their online time to pimping out their MySpace profiles or snacking on YouTube’s videos.

To add further insult to injury, in early 2007, Facebook opened up its platform and ushered in a flood of new applications. The result was the introduction of even more entertainment options to consume your online hours. People began to swap the enjoyment of serendipitously discovering knick-knacks on eBay for watching people run into trees on YouTube or SuperPoking friends on Facebook. The eBay addiction was replaced with other, more entertaining addictions.
eBay strips out the fun
This was not lost on all of eBay. As early as 2006, several executives championed an internal effort dubbed “eBay 3.0.” The new vision for eBay was to resurrect the “fun” of auctions. An ad campaign labeled “Windorphins”

was meant to remind consumers of the endorphin rush experienced when winning an auction. The purchase of StumbleUpon even had a rationale in this model. The ideals fueling eBay 3.0 eventually fizzled.
By the time John Donahoe took the helm of eBay in Q1 2008, he opted to “aggressively change our product, our customer approach and our business model.” In a futile effort to compete with Amazon and Google, eBay leadership essentially stripped whatever remaining fun existed out of its marketplace. In December 2008, eBay’s visitors accounted for only 1.5 percent of total minutes spent online (according to comScore Media Metrix). The leader board for top online properties showed Google, home of YouTube.com, and Fox Interactive Media, which includes MySpace.com, in the top five. EBay ranked sixth in total unique visitors, but was also the only property on the top 10 list to see a decline from 2007.

Where did all the fun go?
Ironically, at one point right after it bought PayPal, eBay had the leading actors of most of this entertainment revolution sitting in its offices. Chad Hurley and Steve Chen of YouTube fame, Peter Thiel (Facebook), Jeremy Stoppelman (Yelp), Max Levchin (Slide), David Sacks (Geni and Yammer), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn, board member of Zynga) and others, myself included, were all too alienated by eBay’s bureaucratic and political MBA culture. So we decided to create our own fun elsewhere instead.

Microsoft patents means of limiting software

Posted by Sinlung

Microsoft on Tuesday was granted a patent for a way of limiting access to certain features of an operating system depending on whether a user has paid for those features.

The patent, titled "Restricted software and hardware usage on a computer", covers a means by which it can offer software that has features either enabled or not enabled depending on which edition a user has purchased. It's a concept already in use at the company.

Microsoft has already said it will offer all versions of Windows 7 on a single disc, with a particular product key unlocking the features that come with that edition. Users will be able to upgrade to a higher-end version of Windows 7 just by purchasing a new product key, Microsoft has said.

It is not clear that the patented technology is used for this, although the two sound very similar to me. One piece of the application deals with the scenario in which "a consumer initially purchases a computer with restricted functionality at a price that is less than the price that would be charged for a computer with full functionality".

"Subsequently, the user can, at an additional cost, acquire a digital key that allows the restrictions to be removed, upgrading the computer to full functionality," Microsoft said.

Although Microsoft has long touted the general-purpose nature of Windows, it notes in its patent applications the need to offer different versions with different features.

"One problem inherent in open architecture systems is they are generally licensed with complete use rights and/or functionality that may be beyond the need or desire of the system purchaser," Microsoft said. "Consequentially, the purchase price of these systems being indifferent to usage scenarios means users with limited needs pay the same rate for these systems as those with universal needs."

With Windows, there have long been home and professional versions. During its long life span, Windows XP also added the Starter, Media Center, and Tablet PC editions.

With Vista, Microsoft added the Home Premium, Enterprise, and Ultimate versions. In that case, users could also move from one version to another, although it required the use of a separate disk.
The awarding of the patent was noted earlier on Wednesday on Slashdot.

Online payment security gets APAC nod

Posted by Sinlung

Three in five online shoppers in the Asia-Pacific region are satisfied with current levels of online payment security, but more can be done, a new study has revealed.

The study found that 61 percent of online shoppers in the region deemed online payment security as satisfactory, Visa said in a statement Thursday. Through market research firm Ipsos, the payment card company surveyed over 9,100 Internet users in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea and Singapore who went online at least once a week. The study was conducted between April and December last year.

When asked what made them confident enough to complete their online transactions, 76 percent of online shoppers indicated the detection of good security on a Web site. Seventy-four percent opted for the availability of a merchant-sponsored return policy as well as proof of consumer protection from online fraud.

Disclosure of personal information as well as misuse of payment card details by retailers, were the most commonly cited concerns among the region's users--49 percent of them indicated they fretted over such scenarios. Disclosure of payment card number was also a cause for worry for 47 percent of online shoppers, while 46 percent were concerned over retailer databases being hacked or breached.

Mohamad Hafidz, Visa's Asia-Pacific head for e-commerce, said in the statement: "It does not require complicated procedures or heavy investment in security to help boost consumer confidence in online shopping. Our findings from this survey show that simple measures like displaying the logo of the type of secure payment platform online merchants offer, such as Verified by Visa, can translate into greater confidence for consumers to spend on their Web site."

The study also found that Internet users in the Asia-Pacific region believe that online payment security is a joint effort between merchants and payment processing service providers. Nearly half (48 percent) indicated that having a bank guarantee the transaction would boost e-commerce consumer confidence. Forty-five percent felt that the guarantee should be provided by the payment card company.

Some 43 percent of online shoppers also pointed out that Web sites should state they have a secure payment method in place.

Hafiz added: "Preventing cardholder data compromise is indeed a shared responsibility between merchants and payment processing service providers. As part of their secure payment strategy, Visa strongly recommends merchants adopt a multi-layered approach to online security which includes being compliant with the PCI (Payment Card Industry) Data Security Standard, to help make consumers feel more confident in using their payment cards online."

"Besides offering liability protection through Visa's zero-liability program, incorporating secure payment platforms such as two-factor authentication can further protect consumers by making it harder for criminals to conduct unauthorized transactions," he added.

Data from Visa showed that 82 percent of the region's online users are likely to make purchases over the Internet in the next six months.

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