Outsourcing
TechWeb, 7/11/03: IT Execs Mull Outsourcing
IT execs at two large companies say they're considering farming out some computer operations to service providers.
By Paul McDougall
Executives at two large companies said in separate interviews Friday that they are considering farming out at least some computing operations to service providers--an indication that companies that have yet to jump on the outsourcing bandwagon are at least giving it serious thought.
Bill White, director of IT operations and planning at energy provider Emera, says he's reviewing requests for information from a number of major service providers as part of a sourcing review at the Halifax, Nova Scotia, company. And Andy Miller, VP of technical architecture at Corporate Express, a $5 billion supplier of office products in Broomfield, Colo., says he's in the process of determining which of the company's IT operations may be candidates for outsourcing.
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IT Management
TechWeb, 7/14/03: Forrester: Weak IT Budgets Change More Than Just Dollars and Cents
By Gregg Keizer, TechWeb News
Weak IT budgets haven't just put a crimp on spending. According to a recently released report from Forrester Research, the economic downturn has resulted in significant changes in how IT handles projects, how they're funded, and how much oversight IT labors under.
One result, said Tom Pohlmann, research director for Forrester and the author of “How Companies Govern Their IT Spending” report, is that just five percent of IT spending is really up for grabs for new technology investments. The rest, he said, is already accounted for. That leaves both new in-house initiatives, and the vendors that hope to sell their newest wares, scrambling for a very small piece of the pie.
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Mobile
The New York Times, 7/14/03: Happy to Share Wi-Fi, for a Fee
By SAUL HANSELL
Arive through any affluent neighborhood with a laptop that can receive wireless Internet connections, or Wi-Fi, and you will not go far before finding a signal that will enable you to go online.
Many Wi-Fi users do not put in place the security protections on their transmitters, known as access points. Some go further and encourage neighbors and visitors to share their high-speed Internet connections, usually over the objection of their Internet service provider.
Now Speakeasy, a midsize Internet service provider based in Seattle, wants to turn these wireless socialists into neighborhood capitalists. It will allow its customers to charge their neighbors $20 to $100 a month for Wi-Fi access to their broadband connections.
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The New York Times, 7/14/03: Eating Out and Logging On
By BOB TEDESCHI
SINCE the dot-com bust, selling goods and services through wireless Internet connections has been considered little more than a blue-sky vision trotted out in Internet business plans. But in recent months, the concept seems to be gaining some relevance.
Last week, McDonald's began offering wireless Internet connections — through the Wi-Fi radio technology format — in 75 of its restaurants in the San Francisco Bay area, and will add hundreds more in Chicago and New York by the end of the year. McDonald's tested its wireless services in 10 New York restaurants earlier this year.
The number of wireless "hot spots" is still tiny compared with the Internet connections wired to homes and offices. But mainstream companies are beginning to pay attention to wireless initiatives as one way to reach more of their traditional customers. Their hopes are, of course, dependent on whether the number of public wireless Internet connections will grow fast enough to push usage beyond computer geek circles.
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The New York Times, 7/14/03: Led by Intel, True Believers in Wi-Fi Say It Will Endure
By JOHN MARKOFF
SUN VALLEY, Idaho, July 11 — Is the Wi-Fi boom about to bust? Even though that has lately become the fashionable view, the answer is probably no.
Critics argue that there are too many competitors trying to deliver high-speed wireless connections to the Internet. Prices for most commercial Wi-Fi services are too high, they say, and free or subsidized operations abound, including those like the one McDonald's started rolling out last week at its fast food restaurants in San Francisco.
All this will make it practically impossible, the skeptics insist, for anyone to build a profitable business in Wi-Fi, a short-range wireless radio technology that frees personal computers from their physical tethers to the Internet.
But a number of true believers in Wi-Fi were present at this mountain resort during an annual conference, organized by the investment banker Herbert Allen, that brings together technology, media and entertainment industry leaders. The Intel Corporation in particular is betting a lot of money on Wi-Fi. And that may be exactly what the new technology needs to succeed.
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c|net, 7/14/03: Good reaches out to more devices
By Richard Shim
Good Technology is releasing new messaging software and adding partners as it looks to attract more enterprise customers by broadening the device and network compatibility of its software.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based start-up said that version 2.0 of its GoodLink software is immediately available and that it has partnerships with cellular network carrier Cingular Wireless and device maker Handspring. Good's software allows corporate workers to access company data, such as e-mail and other files on a network, wirelessly on portable devices. Synchronization with company data can be performed wirelessly, a significant feature for the software developer.
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Security
The New York Times, 7/13/03: Walk-By Hacking
By ERIK SHERMAN
We've got 12 . . . wait, 13. Another just came in!''
On the hunt for 30 seconds, Gary Morse is jazzed. We've walked about 45 feet down Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan, and he has been counting the number of chirrups coming from the speaker of his hand-held computer. Each represents potential prey: wireless networks in the offices and apartments above us. So far, we have had more than a dozen chances to sneak Internet access, reap user ID's and passwords and otherwise peer into the private affairs of individuals and businesses.
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The New York Times, 7/13/03: New Kind of Snooping Arrives at the Office
By MARCI ALBOHER NUSBAUM
Corporate executives are becoming increasingly aggressive about spying on their employees, and with good reason: now, in addition to job shirkers and office-supply thieves, they have to worry about being held accountable for the misconduct of their subordinates.
Even one offensive e-mail message circulated around the office by a single employee can pose a liability risk for a company. Not only that, but a wave of laws — including the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 and the anticorruption and corporate-governance Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 — have imposed new record-keeping and investigative burdens on companies. Not complying with some laws can result in the personal liability of officers and directors.
As a result, employers have stepped up their surveillance of employees, often using stealth techniques to peer deep into their computer use. As of 2001, more than a third of all American workers with access to computers, or 14 million in all, were being monitored in one way or another, according to the Privacy Foundation, a Denver research group; with added pressure on executives to oversee their employees' electronic activities, experts predict that those numbers will grow.
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