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Forbes writes in an article that Intel Chairman Craig Barrett [wiki] dismisses the $100 laptop of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) association as a gadget.

The laptop, which will feature a wind-up power supply, is still not in production and has been described as follows by the association: “This rugged laptop will be WiFi-enabled and have USB ports galore. Its current specifications are: 500MHz, 1GB, 1 Megapixel.”

OLPC plans to start shipping the laptops in late 2006 or early 2007 with the goal of equipping 200 million of the world’s poorest children. Initial test markets include China, Brazil, Thailand, Egypt and South Africa. It is intended for distribution through Ministries of Education of developing countries and minimum orders will be one million units.

I think Barrett is missing the point. This is not about a computer, it is about enabling education and learning. And to produce a really low-cost computer you have to make some choices. While this $100 computer may not be a big hit in developed countries, a market for which it is not intended, I’m sure it will work quite well other places. In fact, I probably could use it myself as a back-up option for places where power supply is limited.

It’s easy to get blind-sided when you focus on specifications and not the intended usage. Bill Gates is reported to have said, back in 1981, referring to computer memory, that “640K ought to be enough for anybody”. I remember thinking 128K was high.

Personal computers and their applications have changed the way we communicate, the way we learn and how we spend our days. While the PC of yesterday is slow and lack features compared to many of today’s high performance machines, it was still able to impact our lives.

Gadget or not, this is an opportunity to help change lives. It will also create business opportunities here and in developing countries too. After all, we’re looking at - to start with - 200 million people with some kind of computer knowledge.

Since Barrett doesn’t like this gadget, maybe he can help produce something better?

And, as an afterthought, I understand it takes quite a while to prepare computers for space travel - I wonder what they have reached for specifications at this point? Are they at Pentium 4’s yet??

roar at roarweb dot com

Sometimes you wonder about the results you get back when performing a web search.

Some search engines are better than others in finding relevant content. Even so, most people accepts the results that Google returns as the ultimate answers. I use Google as my home page, but still like to double-check their results with other search engines. And I do find additional information other places.

Tonight I’ve come across two situations where Search (in an expanded way) did not return the expected results.

Troy Angrignon describes some of the “long tail [wiki]” of search phrases used to guide readers to his site. Troy, who describes himself as an Adventure Capitalist, has had search phrases like “ some photos for hairy females armpit“ lead searchers to his site.

For those that wonder, Troy’s site is not about the female armpit. A more typical post would be Web 2.0: When do you use a forum, a blog, Jotspot, Writely, a wiki, or a full web 2.0 platform. My guess is the searcher did not find what he or she was looking for.

The second result was my own profile on zoominfo.com. In the right column ZoomInfo lists what they call “Colleague & Associates” This service is currently in a Beta. On the expanded “Colleagues” page it reads:

Colleagues lists are compiled automatically by ZoomInfo using natural language processing technology to determine relationships. For example, individuals we have found on the public Web who have served on the same management team can be labeled as colleagues by ZoomInfo.

Additionally, Colleagues are marked with icons as either “verified” or “unverified”. By default, all colleagues that ZoomInfo creates are unverified.

It’s Beta allright. Just as a poorly designed search phrase in Google is unlikely to return what was really searched for, so has the rule of “same management team” resulted in ZoomInfo filling my list with people I do not know. While they may have been with the same organizations(s), they were not there at the same time as me and thus I would not label them Colleagues.

While I understand that Beta stage services often have “room for improvement”, companies like ZoomInfo must consider how using such services on a “major page” (my profile!) impacts the customer experience. Now that I know some of their search results is gar… let’s say not that good, I have to take this into consideration when looking at their service in general.

To me, any customer interface must be seen as a part of the customer experience. In ZoomInfo’s case the result is a lowering of my trust in their results.

For many companies the problem with search engines are that they actually work, that they allow people to find their company site. It’s a problem if your site is not up to date, or the information found is incorrect. A company web site is, at least for me, an image of the company. I once suggested to a software developer that a few linking errors on their otherwise nicely done web site should be fixed. A few days later I was told off by a senior manager from the company - my unsolicited comments had upset his development team. I learned something about giving advice that day, but I still think that a software developer that does not care about easy to fix coding errors on their web site may be a developer to leave off your list of potential suppliers.

The bottom line is that Search returns results. These results are often not be what we expected. And this impacts the Customer Experience.

• It impacts the experience of using the search tool, often leading to a reduced trust in the results (which may be good as we should judge what we find).
• It also impacts the customer experience when a company cannot be found (either because they do not have a web site or because other companies has done a better job in content development and in search listing under specific keywords).

Even what we find impacts our experience. A web site is a part of the customer experience that helps us develop an image of a company and what to expect in “real, off-line life”. What do people find when they search for your company?

roar at roarweb dot com

Do you trust everything you see on the Internet? I hope not!

The University of New Brunsvik (UNB) library offers some suggestions on “Judging What You Find”.

UNB suggest you look at Accuracy, Authority, Objectivity, Currency and Use.

Being careful is always a good idea when judging what you find. But what if you are the publisher? How do you develop your reputation?

In the Internet 2.0 world there will be thousands of small web sites, the “long tail” of sites. This blog is one of them. How do we, as publishers, develop our reputation?

Dick Hardt has suggested that Sxip’s Sxore product may be a part of the solution. By using a common login ID on many sites you can develop a reputation that follows your ID. As they say it on their site: Get a reputable peer-generated digital identity. By the way, for each of your personalities you can have a different Sxore ID.

Sxore is currently holding a private alpha test of a WordPress plugin. It’s by invitation only. For those interested, they will soon expand their alpha program.

Sxore is a two-in-one solution. While allowing you to build your reputation when you comment on others work, it can also be used to moderate comments to your own blog,

So, are we all going to end up with a digital reputation, maybe something similar to ebay’s “member reputation“?

Probably not. We already have services helping you bypass registration on sites, bugmenot.com being one of them. Privacy issues, real or perceived, will probably stop many from adopting an online identity.

Applications like Sxore will help building a reputation based on comments left on other blogs. Maybe what Sxore does is to make it easier to build a reputation. Accuracy, Authority, Objectivity, Currency and Use, the UNB’s “tags”, are still needed - with or without Sxore. If you keep these “commandments” in mind, and add consistent use of login names and e-mail addresses or web site URLs, then, when you publish anything, you’ll should be well on the way to develop a digital reputation.

I guess it boils down to being relevant, honest and consistent - in addition to present. ebay members do not earn a powerseller reputation by good products and fast shipping alone. They also need to provide a high volume of interesting items to sell.

This brings me to a side of your “online identity” that you might not think about that often - your “offline world”. To be able to develop a good online reputation you need to be able to organize your offline life such that you are able to live up to the promises , and hopefully a positive image, you have given/developed online.

roar at roarweb dot com

liveplasma music, movies, search engine and discovery engine

While I was touching on music I thought I would mention liveplasma.

What a great site. Type in the name of a band and you’ll get to see similar bands and “how popular they are”. Great transitions from search to search too.

Their database still has lots of room for improvement though. Many of the artists I search on could not be found. And some of the “popularity” results was a bit surprising to me. As a follow up to an earlier posting I decided to search on Rolling Stones. I was surprised to see Neil Young [wiki] being so much more popular. Maybe he is or maybe it reflects a North-American view of the world? Something to think about anyway if you’re not from this part of the world.

roar at roarweb dot com

Note: This post moved from Blogger on December 6, 2005

Gerald Bauer, organizer of the Vancouver Blogger Meetup Group and o-organizer of the Vancouver Web 2.0 Forum (Van2) told subscribers to the Van2 e-mail(!)list about a Boris Mann post to the Bryght Blog. Under the heading of “Web 2.0 and
Personal Brand Development Presentation” Boris passes on some good advice to the people at Sunaptic Solutions.

Boris writes: My take on Personal Brand Development? A respected, well-know employee is a credit to their employer, just as working for a high-profile company reflects well on the employee. Forward thinking companies should encourage and reward personal brand development.

Boris also points us to a post on “Personal vs. Professional Identity” by Francois Nonnenmacher who concludes: “The message: Guard your identity and don’t mix it up with your company’s identity. Otherwise, you risk being “disappeared” if you leave your job or get fired.“.

Both Boris and Francois have some good points. For an individual it is very important to keep a focus on your professional brand. Having a brand makes it much easier to make employment changes when you like. It also helps should you prefer to become a self-employed “consultant”.

Their analysis is not complete though. If you are THE BRAND, then any company you start might die with you. Since you are the only valuable element, you’ll have nothing to pass on, nothing to sell should you so wish to. While I have not read the E-Myth book I believe one of their conclusions is that you need to work ON your business, not only IN it.

Developing a personal brand is important for those that want to better control their careers. It is important though, for most entrepreneurs that one day would like to retire and see an ongoing return on their investment, that the Corporate Brand is developed as well.

Boris goes on and lists some good advice about getting domain names (I’ve been happy with MyDomain) and hosted blogging services (I’m still using Blogger and are very ready to move on. I want a tool where I can use categories for my postings!).

I’d like to add another piece of advice to the Sunaptic folks: To make me believe you know what is going on you will need to keep your corporate web site up to date! January 2004 news should not be your latest piece now in November of 2005!!

In fairness, it’s easy to end up as Sunatic with old content. My old web site, which has not been updated since I shut my consulting practise down to take “a job”, currently shows 2004 news as latest entry as well. I must update it one of these days. Funny, in my first go as a blogger I wrote an article on keeping your image up to date.

roar at roarweb dot com

Note: This post moved from Blogger on Decemebr 6, 2005

RED HERRING: The state of Texas sued Sony BMG Music Entertainment on Monday for allegedly installing spyware through its copyright protection software on music CDS, making it the first state to bring legal action against the music giant in the month-old controversy.

In a previous article RED HERRING reported that Computer Associates (CA) had discovered that Sony installed - without the user permission - a rootkit on the users computers.

I’m glad the State of Texas are joining those that sues Sony. It is not that I want to limit Sony’s right to protect its copyrighted products, rather I believe it is important that full disclosure takes place BEFORE the purchase.

With disclosure, we, as consumers, can then decide if we want to purchase the product or not.

Over the years I have enjoyed making my own music mix tapes and CDs from materials I have purchased. I’d probably change my music buying habits if I’ll have to pay every time I make a new mix. I’d probably download just a few songs - with the likely result that the performers (and their record companies) would get less exposure and less royalties.

This is about more than digital rights though. In a Internet 2.0 world information spreads through communities at a blazing speed. We already see how blogs are starting to influence public opinion - or at least bring issues to light. For any company to be successful in this environment they will have to be honest and open about their product offerings - “side effects” and all.

It doesn’t matter if you sell a digital product or physical products such as cars, vacuum cleaners or clothing. Honesty is required - shady business practices will surly be exposed.

In my November 10 posting (Security vs. Productivity) I wrote about Paul Wing’s Risk definition: “Risk is … not consistently meeting business objectives and there being an adverse impact”. I guess Sony misjudged this one. And messing up the uninstaller kit didn’t help.

Will we ever learn? Maybe, with governments getting involved the stakes are higher and we’re more likely to see companies “think twice” before embarking on similar adventures.

roar at roarweb dot com

Blog while you jog: People run to new My Opera Community:

Maybe old news for many, but still interesting. Opera has also hired a prefessional blogger.

Oslo, Norway - October 19, 2005

“Opera Software today invites everyone on the Web to experience the new My Opera Community. The new site extends the reach of today’s social Web by allowing members to blog and upload photos directly from their mobile phones.”

roar at roarweb dot com

Note: This post moved from Blogger to WordPress on December 6, 2005

I occasionally read the e-mails I receive from the Ziff Davis Web Buyer’s Guide. The Skype headline caught my eye and I decided to take a closer look.

Skype End User Licence Agreement
Article 4 Permission to Utilize
4.1 Permission to utilize Your computer. In order to receive the benefits provided by the Skype Software, You hereby grant permission for the Skype Software to utilize the processor and bandwidth of Your computer for the limited purpose of facilitating the communication between Skype Software users.
4.2 Protection of Your computer (resources). You understand that the Skype Software will use its commercially reasonable efforts to protect the privacy and integrity of Your computer resources and Your communication, however, You acknowledge and agree that Skype cannot give any warranties in this respect.”

When I signed up for Skype I was a bit concerned about this. The agreement did not limit the use of my computer to my own use of Skype. I still signed up. The computer I use for Skype is not a part of an enterprise network and thus a limited security risk.

I can see the issue on an enterprise level though.

It also brings to mind other “enterprise” issues. A few years (late 1990s) ago I was researching chat and message boards for use in communicating with a distribution network of financial advisors. The research did not take very long - the corporate IT department had shut down any access to chat forums and I was not about to take them on to get access to such tools for the marketing and sales departments. Maybe I should have, but with limited resources you have to “pick your fights”. The bottom line is that IT ended up deciding on my communication strategy - without discussing the impact with me as a user

roar at roarweb dot com

Note: This post moved from Blogger December 6, 2005

Yesterday I took some time to attend the Transend Security and Privacy Symposium 2005. Transend is using this symposium as an opportunity to present itself to the local (Westcoast) IT community. I’m not sure if they felt the event was a success - the number of empty seats seemed very high to me.

Anyway, the symposium had some interesting speakers. Bob Hansmann of Trend Micro told us how it now takes less than 4 days from a patch is released until a new virus attacking the specific security issue can be found. That is less time than it takes most companies to install a new patch. He also mentioned that the challenge is one of security vs. productivity. Speaking to secuirt practitioners he said: “Your job is not to keep a virus from spreading, but to keep productivity up”.

Dick Hardt of Vancouver based Sxip Identity Corporation presented his Identity 2.0 presentation. Well worth a look if you have not seen it already. If you are a blogger, check out their Sxore product.

Dina Palozzi of Bank Of Montreal discussed the importance of the KISS principle when it comes to collecting data. She suggested that understanding the information is critical from a privacy and security perspective. She felt we needed to look at:
- What is collected?
- How is it used?
- Who is responsible
- Where is the information stored

She also said that information must be managed according to business objectives, customer expectations and legal requirements. She furthermore pointed out that accountability for protecting information cannot be outsourced.

Micael Milligan of Kasten Chase brought us from the information itself to the business consequences of poor information management. He suggested 20% of customers has terminated relations with a company with security breaches.

Representatives from the BC and Alberta Privacy Commissioners/Offices mentioned that 95% of all security breaches are due to human breaches. The Albertans also name names when it comes to judgements and orders from the commissioner.

There was other interesting presenters as well. For me, with a background in financial services marketing, it was interesting to note the Risk definition from Paul Wing of Great-West Life: “Risk is … not consistently meeting business objectives and there being an adverse impact“. Thus risk is more than IT/S risk - we also need to take into account all processes that are impacting how we perform compared to our business objectives.

roar at roarweb dot com

Note: This pos moved from Blogger December 6, 2005

Vancouver Sun: “Canadian software companies bullish”

Expectations are for increased IT spending by business, doubling revenues

This is great news for Canadian businesses. We’re seeing the same trend in Vancouver as well, technology companies are busy hiring and securing new office space.

“What we are seeing is an interest on behalf of the ISVs [independent software vendors] to be able to capitalize on IT as a strategic asset,” said Dixon. “They are developing solutions for customers so those customers can get more out of their IT today.

“It is about making innovative new investments in IT to realize new business opportunities.”

Basic business lesson?
1) New investments should help realize new business opportunities! (Makes sense to me. Applies to both customers and vendors)
2) Customer focus is a good thing! (Amazing how much more willing people are to buy something that actually solves their problems or helps them gain an advantage. Let us never forget this!)

“…Canadian companies are finally following their American neighbours and becoming more aggressive in using new technology to gain a competitive advantage, improve efficiencies and bolster the bottom line.”

Did you notice “finally”?

In any case …
[928 companies * $12.2 million/ea] => a nice increase over 3 years. And with customer focus and solutions that actually solve strategic challenges we might even see the growth continue.

roar at roarweb dot com