Tuesday, October 1, 2002

Are Business Schools Really Important "Crucibles of Leadership?"

The new book Geeks and Geezers by Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas, argues that all the leaders they studied, whether "geeks" (under thirty) or "geezers" (over seventy), have the ability to engage others in shared meaning; a distinctive and compelling voice; a sense of integrity; and "neoteny," a trait that makes them "addicted to life" and able to recruit protectors, nurturers, and believers through a long and productive leadership career.
5:56:02 PM    comment   

When Will the Telecom Depression End?

The telecom crisis is reminiscent of a classic scene in The African Queen. Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, desperate and lost on the Ulonga-Bora River, rip pieces of wood off the little steamer and use them to fuel the vessel's engine. Today's telecom companies, struggling to survive one of the greatest busts in business history, are slashing prices below cost and selling precious assets. "Neither one is a long-term survival strategy," says Stephan Beckert, research director at TeleGeography Inc., a Washington consultant. More than a cyclical downturn, what they're experiencing is a full-blown industrial depression. "This is an unprecedented period," says Lucent Chief Executive Pat Russo.
5:50:43 PM    comment   

Vodafone to offer "own brand" cell phones

Vodaphone, along with other European cell-phone operators, is thought to have become increasingly frustrated by the arrogant attitude demonstrated by the traditional European cell-phone manufacturers. Vodaphone is said to have turned to Far Eastern developers, possibly including Panasonic and Sharp, for a new range of color terminals. Vodafone has also insisted that, along with only its brand appearing on the device, it would have control of the user interfaceósomething that its established suppliers have been reluctant to offer. If Vodafone is successful in this move, financial analysts claim that it could seriously damage the well-proven business models of the better-known handset makers and provide the impetus for other mobile operators to overthrow the constraints imposed upon them by their established suppliers.
5:47:07 PM    comment   



Internet World: CA CTO gives recipe for extended enterprise. Yogesh Gupta details factors that will 'make or break' IT shops [InfoWorld: Top News]
5:40:04 PM    comment   

A billion cellphones? Deductive reasoning says not a chance

Japan is cited as a wireless utopia. With a large and wealthy population, always eager to buy new expensive phones and pay for services and features, it was the poster-child for every Nokia and Ericsson marketing executive. Not only would Japan provide a great early market for new products, but they were a leading indicator of global demand. It was, in fact, by looking at Japanese and Nordic cellphone adoption rates that we had estimates of cellphone unit sales that looked like the slopes of Mount Fuji. Some of the more chipper (and possibly drug-addled) wireless analysts suggested that unit shipments could reach one billion per year by 2006. Don't those numbers seem a little high to you?
5:32:03 PM    comment   

3G cellular service fails to get folks talking

Japan got its first taste of third-generation cellular phone services a year ago with the launch of NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s FOMA service, but the technology has failed to get people talking. In fact, as of the end of August, the high-speed data transmission technology had drawn fewer than 2.2 million subscribers, accounting for less than 3 percent of the nation's roughly 71.6 million mobile phone users, according to industry group Telecommunications Carriers Association. But in spite of the relatively bleak showing, the nation's three carriers -- DoCoMo, KDDI Corp. and J-Phone Co. -- remain confident the service will prevail. Gartner Japan forecasts that 3G mobile phone services in Japan will begin expanding drastically sometime between the end of 2004 and the first half of 2005, with 3G users growing to around 48 million by the end of 2006.
5:28:19 PM    comment   



InfoWorld.  My take on this article is very similar to Dave's.  I would entitle the article:  "Microsoft fiddles while Rome burns"  Basically, Microsoft is focusing all their attention on enterprise computing, which is a major dog right now (and likely to remain so for years to come), while the market for PC's falters due to a lack of innovation.  With O/S release cycles now stretching to 4 years, there needs to be a change in strategy. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
2:47:04 PM    comment   



Dual-band Reaches the Laptop. Major players are gearing up to put PC Cards capable of 802.11a and 802.11b in the hands of users for less than $150 per card. [allNetDevices Wireless News]
2:43:02 PM    comment   



Enterprise Class Device Management and Control Available. The Radia Mobile Management Suite from Novadigm enables IT depts. and service providers to remotely manage applications and content on WinCE and PocketPC devices. [allNetDevices Wireless News]
2:35:24 PM    comment   



Internet World: Web services boosting business processes. Microsoft exec Charles Fitzgerald touts changing nature of business processes [InfoWorld: Top News]
2:33:08 PM    comment   



eWEEK: ePeriodicals: Microsoft's Killer App for Tablet PC? Microsoft Corp. thinks it's found a killer app for its Tablet PC: as a home for a new breed of electronic magazines. The software giant is prepping an end-to-end electronic publishing solution, known as ePeriodicals, which it will introduce at its Tablet PC launch in New York City on Nov. 7, according to sources. [Tomalak's Realm]
2:31:26 PM    comment   



Another angle on the same subject. Yesterday on NPR's All Things Considered, a report on a college town in the state of Georgia that's installing WiFi over the whole downtown district. The college is paying for it (only $85K). Of course this is a great idea, it'll make the college much more attractive and the town more useful. But they totally have the wrong idea about what it will be used for (or ATC asked the wrong people). It will be used for email, instant messaging, reading news, and blogging (and probably porn too). It's not just about finding out what's happening in the town or at the college -- it's about what's happening in the world, and creating stuff that's part of the world. People still think of the Internet as something like TV, so by extrapolation of course town-level WiFi must be like local TV, but geez folks, get a clue -- the Internet is two-way not one-way. [Scripting News]
12:47:17 PM    comment   



A picture named clippy.gifReading this article about Microsoft's strategy for Web Services, something clicked. What if the telephone had been positioned by Microsoft as a tool for business process automation. It would be hard to argue that it wasn't that. But is that all it is? Of course not! (And what's so weird about this is that Microsoft made the most money selling productivity tools, and OSes to run the tools, unless I missed something in the last twenty-five years or so.) [Scripting News]
12:46:54 PM    comment   



Handspring speeds up Treo software. The company releases an upgrade for its handheld devices in Europe and Asia that will speed up services such as e-mail and Web access. [CNET News.com]
12:46:16 PM    comment   



Cell phones seek data unity [IDG InfoWorld]
9:24:39 AM    comment   



Server-based Solution Simplifies Voice-Activated Dialing. Solution for mobile phones works with MS Outlook, entirely server-based with auto-updating features for all contact information [allNetDevices Wireless News]
9:13:21 AM    comment   



Apple Ripens iSync with Public Beta. Syncs PIM info between Macs and Bluetooth-enabled GPRS mobile phones, iPods and Palm OS-compatible devices [allNetDevices Wireless News]
9:08:02 AM    comment   



Delphi Brings Multimedia, Telematics to Fleet Vehicles. New system provides audio, navigation, personal productivity and Web browsing functions. [allNetDevices Wireless News]
9:06:10 AM    comment   



802.11g explicated in great detail: This piece gives tremendous insight into the 802.11g timeline, including how we got to where we're at, the realistic market for the gear, and when we might see real g-based devices.

[80211b News]
9:05:01 AM    comment   



PointServers.org is a new website covering the next wave of small device computing. [The Bluetooth Weblog]
9:02:28 AM    comment   



David P. Reed: Open Spectrum in the Wall St. Journal today. Lee says it will probably take 5-10 years before we realize these ideas fully in the marketplace. I'm hoping for sooner, but these new ideas threaten some very entrenched interests in limiting and controlling communications. [Tomalak's Realm]
8:57:26 AM    comment   

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