Youth Olympics: Major IT milestones to date 'met'

IT plans for the inaugural Youth Olympic Games (YOG) to be held here this year have made progress and on track with scheduled deadlines, according to Atos Origin, the company responsible for building and operating IT infrastructure and systems at the...

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M'sia govt touts 95 percent OSS adoption

Some 95 percent of Malaysia's government agencies have adopted open source software (OSS), but the remaining 5 percent have not warmed to the concept--and is unlikely to anytime soon, according to a government official. During her presentation at the...

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Secure data between multiple mobile OSes

As people increasingly use their personal mobile devices such as laptops and smartphones for work, IT administrators have to look into protecting their enterprise networks from the perspective of securing the data, rather than the system. According...

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Tech can 'smarten' up cities, planet

Cities are "microcosms" or miniature examples of the major challenges and opportunities facing the planet today, and can lead the way to a smarter planet by leveraging information and communications technology, said IBM executive. At a media roundtable...

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'Coopetition' the new norm in tech

With IT vendors looking for new revenue sources and expanding their business portfolio, "coopetition"--a mix of cooperation and competition--has now become the new norm in the tech landscape, notes an analyst. Stuart Williams, senior analyst for enterprise...

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Microsoft eyes clean break with WinMo 7

Microsoft's long and winding road toward regaining lost ground in the cell phone business will reach an important milestone in Barcelona next month. At the annual Mobile World Congress event, Microsoft will at long last show off will arrive in 2010...

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Yahoo ends Bartz's first year on up note

Yahoo continued to ease its way back to financial respectability in its fourth quarter, beating estimates from both itself and Wall Street despite a decline in revenue. In a press release Tuesday, Yahoo said it took in US$1.73 billion in revenue during...

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More regulation to clarify rising tech's biz models

Companies should expect to see more regulations introduced and increased government intervention take place as emerging technology gets deployed in the enterprise sphere, according to an analyst. Steve Prentice, Gartner's fellow and vice president,...

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AMD readies Fusion for 'new form factors'

AMD is set to release next year a new platform targeting "new form factors" under the ultrathin notebook category, an executive based in the island-state said Tuesday. Codenamed Brazos, the platform will include Ontario, an APU (accelerated processing...

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Juniper, Polycom forge alliance

Juniper Networks and Polycom have teamed on a joint telepresence and videoconferencing offering that's designed to serve as a counterweight to Cisco Systems and its recent acquisition of Tandberg. In a statement Monday, Juniper and Polycom said they...

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StopBadware goes nonprofit with funding

StopBadware, the antimalware effort run out of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, is spinning off to become a separate nonprofit with funding from Google, PayPal, and Mozilla, the organization was set to announce on Monday. StopBadware...

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White House puts companies on notice in Chin

U.S. Internet companies might soon need to find a new strategy for dealing with China. In announcing that it is now U.S. policy to advocate a free and open Internet around the world, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday essentially...

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Facebook's 'Dashboard' will clean up apps soon

A post Thursday on the Facebook developer blog announced that in a few weeks, the social network will be launching its "Dashboard" for third-party applications built on its platform. Right now, developers are allowed access to a "sandbox" where they...

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Street View patent doesn't bar competitors

Google's bid to patent ads within its Street View application will not bar other maps providers from selling ads within their online maps, says a lawyer. The search giant earlier this month was granted a patent protecting the process of displaying...

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China denies role in Google cyberattacks

After warning of strained U.S.-China relations, China's government has issued a statement denying any state involvement in the cyber attacks on Google and some 30 other companies. The statement, issued Monday Beijing time by China's Ministry of Industry...

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Twitter may be the most popular microblogging service, but its competitors are targeting a different audience as well as finding markets in other countries through affiliation. Jeffrey Mann, Gartner's research vice president for collaboration and social software, told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail interview that although being a first mover in the microblogging world has benefited Twitter and the site has seen adoption worldwide, its market dominance is concentrated in Europe and North America. In Asia, Plurk has done well because it made support for local languages a priority, said Mann, adding that Me2Day is popular in Korea, while Zuosa is gaining mindshare in China. He noted that affiliation with other social networks in each country also plays a part in the popularity of microblogging services, although language and character set support are still "big factors". He said developing games that use virtual currency on the microblogging platform is also a way to gain popularity in Asia. Springboard Research's senior services research analyst, Sanchit Vir Gogia, told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail interview that for microblogging sites, which are also social networking Web sites, to be successful, an important strategy would be their integration with other players in the space. "It's important to remember that while people are craving to communicate their thoughts and ideas with the world at large, it is both tedious and time consuming for them to maintain a plethora of such accounts and separately update them," Gogia explained. Affiliation with other social networks worked for Twitter, too. According to the Springboard analyst, Twitter picked up real pace after linking up with Facebook and LinkedIn. "This [tie-up] has allowed users to air the same view at once across these social networking sites, it also allows them to better manage their posts," he said. Other factors that can help drive adoption are unique services available on the microblogging sites and the richness of features provided, that is, whether the features integrate with third-party apps or allow the integration of pictures, videos and files for real-time information exchange, Gogia said. Microblogging for enterprise Asked if a single microblogging platform will emerge as the sole market leader, Mann said it was unlikely because local differences will remain. He pointed out that there is already a thriving business for enterprise microblogging services, provided by market players such as Yammer, Present.ly, Socialtext and Blogtronix, which are aimed for internal use within a corporate environment. Phil Spitzer, spokesperson from Yammer, told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail interview that the company's service is different from other microblogging services because it operates within a private network. "While services like Twitter are about being as public as possible, Yammer is about being as private and secure as possible," Spitzer said. "Because privacy and security are two cornerstones of Yammer, it's a great solution for enterprises." He explained that Yammer acts as a central platform for users to connect through communication channels such as e-mail, desktop clients and mobile clients. It provides threaded messages and attachments, and stores the information in the cloud with search capabilities, he said. According to Springboard Research's Gogia, as enterprise microblogging services target a niche market, they might never reach the critical mass as seen by Twitter, and will have to work with bigger players such as Twitter and other social networks, to increase user adoption. Despite the popularity of dedicated microblogging services, Gartner's Mann said the concept does not seem to have caught on in Japan. "A big reason is that the Japanese have been blogging for years from their mobile phones," he said. "These blog posts are often [already] very short, so that they don't see the point of a dedicated microblogging service."

Eastman Kodak is suing Apple and Research In Motion, claiming their camera-enabled smartphones infringe on its patents and asking for US imports of the handsets to be stopped. The camera maker has filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission...

READ MORE - Twitter may be the most popular microblogging service, but its competitors are targeting a different audience as well as finding markets in other countries through affiliation. Jeffrey Mann, Gartner's research vice president for collaboration and social software, told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail interview that although being a first mover in the microblogging world has benefited Twitter and the site has seen adoption worldwide, its market dominance is concentrated in Europe and North America. In Asia, Plurk has done well because it made support for local languages a priority, said Mann, adding that Me2Day is popular in Korea, while Zuosa is gaining mindshare in China. He noted that affiliation with other social networks in each country also plays a part in the popularity of microblogging services, although language and character set support are still "big factors". He said developing games that use virtual currency on the microblogging platform is also a way to gain popularity in Asia. Springboard Research's senior services research analyst, Sanchit Vir Gogia, told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail interview that for microblogging sites, which are also social networking Web sites, to be successful, an important strategy would be their integration with other players in the space. "It's important to remember that while people are craving to communicate their thoughts and ideas with the world at large, it is both tedious and time consuming for them to maintain a plethora of such accounts and separately update them," Gogia explained. Affiliation with other social networks worked for Twitter, too. According to the Springboard analyst, Twitter picked up real pace after linking up with Facebook and LinkedIn. "This [tie-up] has allowed users to air the same view at once across these social networking sites, it also allows them to better manage their posts," he said. Other factors that can help drive adoption are unique services available on the microblogging sites and the richness of features provided, that is, whether the features integrate with third-party apps or allow the integration of pictures, videos and files for real-time information exchange, Gogia said. Microblogging for enterprise Asked if a single microblogging platform will emerge as the sole market leader, Mann said it was unlikely because local differences will remain. He pointed out that there is already a thriving business for enterprise microblogging services, provided by market players such as Yammer, Present.ly, Socialtext and Blogtronix, which are aimed for internal use within a corporate environment. Phil Spitzer, spokesperson from Yammer, told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail interview that the company's service is different from other microblogging services because it operates within a private network. "While services like Twitter are about being as public as possible, Yammer is about being as private and secure as possible," Spitzer said. "Because privacy and security are two cornerstones of Yammer, it's a great solution for enterprises." He explained that Yammer acts as a central platform for users to connect through communication channels such as e-mail, desktop clients and mobile clients. It provides threaded messages and attachments, and stores the information in the cloud with search capabilities, he said. According to Springboard Research's Gogia, as enterprise microblogging services target a niche market, they might never reach the critical mass as seen by Twitter, and will have to work with bigger players such as Twitter and other social networks, to increase user adoption. Despite the popularity of dedicated microblogging services, Gartner's Mann said the concept does not seem to have caught on in Japan. "A big reason is that the Japanese have been blogging for years from their mobile phones," he said. "These blog posts are often [already] very short, so that they don't see the point of a dedicated microblogging service."

Niche, integrated support to benefit Twitter rivals

Twitter may be the most popular microblogging service, but its competitors are targeting a different audience as well as finding markets in other countries through affiliation. Jeffrey Mann, Gartner's research vice president for collaboration and social...

READ MORE - Niche, integrated support to benefit Twitter rivals

Report: New York Times to charge online readers

The New York Times is reportedly getting ready to charge readers for access to the venerable newspaper's online content. The newspaper is expected to announce in coming weeks that it will institute a metered pay plan in which readers would have access...

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Enterprise demands consumer-style search

Enterprise search needs to take into consideration more parameters than consumer Web search, and yet present it in a consumer-friendly wrapping for business users, say industry voices. With business users more accustomed to hopping on the Web and performing...

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5 must-haves in patch management

Despite the emergence of high-profile hacks and a narrowing window for vulnerabilities to be exploited, not all computers have the latest security patches, allowing cybercriminals to create havoc on systems that are not kept up-to-date. The Conficker...

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Data leakage prevention still lacks bite

Despite the proliferation of security products, the quantity and magnitude of high-profile data leaks continue to rise. With this increase in information leakage comes a higher data breach cost. According to a 2009 Ponemon Institute study, data breach...

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Social media comes of age, profitability

It may be all of only 140 characters, but microblogging site Twitter took off to greater heights last year, alongside another social network bigwig Facebook. The past 12 months also saw smartphones soaking in the limelight as the segment bucked...

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