b.cognosco

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2002, Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property, 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time in 2141 Rayburn House Office Building, Oversight hearing on “Piracy Of Intellectual Property On Peer-to-Peer Networks.” Live Audio Feed - only available during meeting [ Source: Ray Ozzie's Weblog]

Geoffrey Moore Online Seminar

9:08:24 PM

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Rick Klau points to a free online presentation by Geoffrey Moore.

Find the Leaky Pipes.
If you're in the tech business (whether you sell into it, work in it, or represent it) and you haven't read Crossing the Chasm, stop reading right now and buy a copy. It's one of the books that really defines the space - so much so that Geoffrey Moore (the author) created a consulting group based on the book's themes (The Chasm Group).[...]
[...]The focus of Moore's presentation was the current economic climate and provided a detailed look at how to successfully sell technology solutions in that climate.
I won't try to summarize his presentation. It's remarkably lucid, very substantive, and well worth the hour or so it'll take to watch it. Placeware has the archive available online - definitely check it out. [ Source: tins ::: Rick Klau's weblog]

Another conference for the futures list. I need a client in Montreal. The price for these intranet things is steep -- I'm not used to having to pay for conferences. In my industry I either went only to the expo (because I'd heard all the speakers many times) or I was invited to be on some panel that got me in free. At least this one is in $CDN which means about a 40% discount in $US.

Intracom 2002 etc.. There will be a short break from blogging as I am just off to the Intracom 2002 conference in Montreal. At the end of last week the organisers told me that they had almost 200 delegates for the event, which does not surprise me given the quality of the speakers.... Source: [Intranet Focus Blog]

American InAudible

2:07:46 AM

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I hate to hear (I guess I should say read) this. I'm looking forward to getting caught up on AI while I get my exercise every morning.

Help!
Well, the audio project is not going smoothly. Not at all. I sat down this evening and made a list of unresolved issues. Anyone see what I'm doing wrong? [...] [ Source: American Invisible, Inc.]

Open Source Intranet Portals

1:48:22 AM

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I really like what Brent is doing here, and admire his fortitude for taking an Open Source solution into a BigCo, even if it didn't work out like he hoped.

Open Source, Closed Minds. I've been pitching web collaboration via Open Source tools lately. I'm trying to generate interest in having people contract me in to supply them with a working Open Source based collaboration portal and to provide advice and development in those areas.
Specifically, I'm demoing to companies a full-featured Open Source based intranet site with news items, comments, forums, downloads, weblinks, etc and comparing its features to more extensive (and expensive) solutions such as Microsoft's SharePoint. A really good example of such a comparison is the case study of the Government of Hawaii's portal.
Last week I was in a gigantic multinational company. The presentation went well - they were impressed by the scope, manageability, extendibility and feel of the demo site. They liked the idea of saving bucketloads of dough. Everything was going smoothly.
Then they remembered that the previous week they had received an internal memo declaring that Open Source software was not to be used in the company unless a commercial solution did not exist... [ Source: brentashley]

Still, this is the type of entrepreneurial activity I admire. I liked it so much I went to Brent's business site to check out other stuff he's done. I learned he's in Toronto. I just signed up a client in Toronto and will likely be traveling there 1-2 times a month for the rest of the year. I would love to check out what Brent has put together and see if there are opportunities for it in the US market.

Legitimate P2P

1:03:09 AM

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I'm tired of the dogma and rhetoric and shrill, outlandish claims. Why can't someone find a good, legitimate use for P2P to shut these lawyers up? I can't be the only person that sees the value of making local storage available as a company resource.

There must be a market for small, decentralized collaborative editing and document management systems. Using a shared network, rather than a monolithic client/server, would seem to be a better, lower-cost approach for small- to mid-size companies.

If Berman and his ilk ever get into the "War on Drugs" they'll be trying to shut down the Interstate highway system because roads are rampant channels for the transport of contraband.

Berman has become a serious public nuisance.

Political News from Wired News - P2P Pugilists Put Up Their Dukes.
In a panel discussion steeped in dogma, adherents on both sides of the Internet peer-to-peer (P2P) debate accused each other of everything from aiding thieves to destroying the Internet.
[ ... ]Panelists at a Cato Institute lunch last week focused mostly on H.R. 5211, a bill introduced in July by Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), whose Los Angeles district covers northeast San Fernando Valley, including the Hollywood Freeway corridor.
Berman's bill would give copyright owners the legal right to disrupt the unauthorized use of their copyrighted works on P2P networks using as-yet-undefined tactics and technology.
The House subcommittee on courts, the Internet and intellectual property, of which Berman is the ranking member, will hold a hearing Thursday to explore the alleged piracy of intellectual property over P2P networks. [ Source: Privacy Digest]

GPS Everywhere

12:31:51 AM

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Great, now I'll never be able to hide.

CNET NEWS.COM - Motorola: New chip will bring GPS to all.
Motorola is unveiling a global positioning system chip it says is the first GPS satellite sensor small enough and hence cheap enough for practical use in consumer-electronics devices such as cell phones and notebook computers.
The Instant GPS chip will give users of such devices the ability to tap into a satellite system and pinpoint their geographic location. Measuring only 49 square millimeters, or less than half the area of a Pentium 4 processor, the chip will sell for roughly $10 in volume quantities, said Tim McCarthy, business director for GPS at Motorola's Automotive Group's Telematics Division. That should let device makers add GPS for about a quarter of the cost of current multiple chipsets, which run about $40.
"All of a sudden, starting 10 or 15 years ago, every electronics device had a clock," McCarthy said. "I see position awareness going down that same path. It's just a question of how long it takes." [ Source: Privacy Digest]

Can You Afford To Do It?

12:25:14 AM

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It's not whether you can do it, but whether you can afford to do it. As soon as Apple reaches economic parity with Windoze, I'm in.

Flirting with Mac OS X. "UNIX is for servers, Windows is for desktops. Right? No, wrong. Turns out nowadays you don't need to use that ugly W word to have a decent desktop and office environment. Enter Mac OS X." [ranchero.com] [ Source: Ye Olde Phart]

Explaining the Patent Policy of the W3C

12:19:17 AM

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Danny Weitzner chairs the working group charged with deciding the W3C's policy on patented technologies. In this interview he tries to shed light on how W3c is trying to address the current patent fiasco and find a solution that makes all 490 consortium members happy. Sounds like herding cats.

Standards chief caught in patent storm. ZDNet Sep 24 2002 3:10PM ET
[...]What happens to your work once you decide about the exception? When a working group has developed a proposed recommendation, that proposal goes to the advisory committee, which consists of one representative of every single of the consortium's 490-odd member organizations. The director (Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee) looks at the comments and decides whether the thing should become a recommendation or not.[...more]
[ Source: Moreover - IP and patents news]