Exploring the impact of broadband and technology on our lives, our businesses, and our communities.
We're losing music and video rights
The National Consumer Council in the UK says consumers are losing their rights to the music and videos they are purchasing. As content publishers try to fight piracy, they are making it more difficult for legitimate purchasers of digital content to actually play and own what they think they are buying. Publishers want restrictions on what machines can play what content (forcing hardware manufacturers to include built in controls), when it can be played, and how often.
The recent mess with Sony, in which the company's music CDs secretly installed software that changed the operating system was cited. It was not bad enough that Sony thought it was okay to alter the property of its customers without permission--the software left a gaping security hole after it was installed.
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Ads from space
Via BoingBoing, some companies are painting the tops of their buildings so they can be viewed from space.
If this elicits a "Huh?" response, keep in mind that tools like Google Earth give everyone on the planet a free satellite view of their neighborhood. Target is doing this, but others are sure to follow. And it makes perfect sense; if someone is trying to find a Target store, a giant Target logo visible from the space view works.
It's a great example of how technology is changing the way we do things (in this case, advertising). And if you have not tried Google Earth, you should, especially if you are involved with economic development. Be assured that most companies considering relocation are already using Google Earth as part of their site assessment prior to a visit.
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Record audio with your iPod
If I were a reporter or a doctor, I'd want one of these. There have been various iPod add-ons that allowed you to record audio, but this one is neatly integrated and provides high fidelity recording.
The really nice thing about this is that you have enormous recording capacity--many hours without changing tapes. And you end up with sound recordings that are digital and computer ready--just plug your iPod into your Windows or Mac computer and the recordings are automatically moved to iTunes, ready for transcription or further processing. No muss, no fuss, and should save a lot of time if you have to record meetings or notes regularly. From iTunes, you can easily email them to someone else, convert them to a podcast, or just listen to them.
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It's official: Computers drive us to drink (and smoking)
I had a hard time figuring out where to put this item...I finally stuck it under "Future Trends." A UK study shows IT problems are the leading cause of stress in England, with a third of respondents reporting that their number one stressor was the computer. Some of those surveys admitted too much stress drove them to drink and smoke more.
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U.S. government converting to Open Source databases
The General Services Administration has signed a contract to use mySQL. The GSA manages bunches of government services and databases, and is only one of the latest Federal agencies to dump proprietary databases for the Open Source database system. The Department of Defense, NASA, the Census Bureau, and Los Alamos National Labs are among current users.
Open Source software protects users to a greater degree from product obsolesence and constant "mandatory" upgrades that typically involve big fees. MySQL AB will provide GSA with service and support of the database system, but the code itself is freely available. Using Open Source is not free; you still have to update and maintain the system, like any commercial product, but code upgrades and security patches are free and allows a company or organization to spend IT dollars differently, and provides more flexibility in decisionmaking.
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The government is not Big Brother...
In yet another example that government is not usually the biggest threat to our privacy, a political blogger just bought the phone records of former presidential candidate Wesley Clark. For $90, the blogger got them from a company called Celltolls.com that has a business selling your phone records to anyone who wants them.
So while we are having a national dialogue about trying to track down a few terrorists using wiretaps and the purely theoretical assault on the privacy of U.S. citizens, meanwhile any snoop in your neighborhood can find out who you are talking to. Or the company you work for, an angry ex-spouse, or a co-worker with a grudge.
We certainly need to make sure the government follows rules that protect the privacy of U.S. citizens, but at least the government has some checks and balances in place and officials who violate the rules can get in serious trouble.
But meanwhile, the phone companies are selling our call information to anyone who wants it. And there are no checks and balances at all on this.
Both issues are important, and both require our attention and vigilance. But right now, I think the more serious threat is coming from private sector companies that take my money as a customer and then turn around and sell my privacy to anyone with a credit card.
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Communities with broadband prosper
One of the problems with community investments in broadband is the lack of data showing the value of such investments. Community leaders are somewhat wary of spending public money on unproven infrastructure. A new study from Carnegia Mellon and MIT shows that communities that have invested in broadband infrastructure are doing better from an economic development perspective than communities that have not.
The research team used extensive government data to analyze these investments and to develop the conclusions--this is not some casual vendor report.
Among the findings are these:
- Increases in employment growth of 1% annually over communities that have not invested in broadband. Over a period of several years, this is extremely significant.
- Property values increase, with rental rates (making rental properties more valuable) were 6% higher.
- A 1/2% higher annual growth rate in businesses; again, aggregated over several years, this is extremely significant.
- Within the IT/high tech business sector, a 1/2% higher annual growth rate in those businesses. Communities with broadband do, in fact, attract more high tech businesses.
In the summary section of the report, here is welcome news for community leaders that have been promoting the benefits of broadband:
"Policy makers who have been spending their time or money promoting broadband should take comfort that their efforts and investments are not in vain.....Broadband is clearly related to economic well-being and is thus a critical componenent of our national communications infrastructure."
In other words, broadband infrastructure investments by the community pay off, by creating jobs and attracting businesses. This is welcome verification, indeed.
Here is the whole article, as a PDF file.
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It's now illegal to be annoying
In yet another vivid demonstration of why scissors and other sharp objects should be kept away from members of Congress, our esteemed lawmakers have passed a bill that *seems* to make being annoying illegal. A bill passed to protect women from sexual harrassment has language in it that was apparently added to address online harrassment as well (e.g. repeated unsolicited email). But according to this article, the language got watered down somewhere along the way and now seems to say just being annoying could be illegal.
Among Internet pundits, this is getting a lot of discussion this morning, and is likely to make a big splash in the mainstream press as well. There are conflicting opinions on the wording of the law, with some arguing that the statute is written narrowly enough not to be problematic. One issue being debated is just how one defines "annoying." I daresay many of us are annoyed whenever we get one of those happy talk emails from the CEO about "synergy" and "convergence of optimized customer relationships," but can we now have our boss arrested? Disclaimer: I'm a CEO, so perhaps I need to be worried.
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Google will sell video content
Google has announced that it will get into the video business. This was not really a surprise to anyone; the company has been trialing its video service for several months.
The announcement confirms that getting our TV via the Internet is not just some fad--it's here to stay. But we're currently in the Betamax-VHS phase, where each company or consortium is using proprietary video formats that require specfic software on your computer and/or a particular portable video player. Apple's video won't play on anything but iPods, and video bought from Google won't play on, well, any portable player. Go figure. And Google apparently does not even have a Mac version of the player needed for video purchased from its store.
All these companies think they are going to somehow lock up marketshare with proprietary formats, encouraged, no doubt, by Apple's success at locking up something like 80% of the portable music/video player market. In the long term, these strategies retard growth of the market--people worry about not being able to watch or listen to something they bought. Eventually, I think even Apple will have to loosen up.
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Search engines are leeches
Jakob Nielsen probably knows more about the psychology of the Web (how people use it) than anybody else in the world. So when he says, "Search engines are leeches," it is a good idea to pay close attention.
Nielsen has actually done the math to show how search engines like Google make more and more money at the expense of the businesses placing ads. In a detailed analysis, he even shows how redesigning your site to improve the user experience and to make the site easier to sell your products or services tends to make Google more money than you.
If you advertise on the search engines, read this article carefully. At the end of it, Nielsen provides some strategies for weaning your company/organization off search engines.
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