Are you tired of meaningless white papers? Would you like to read something that could really change your IT reality and its perception? Do you remember the first time you found out Santa, the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy were actually your parents? It’s one of the many epiphany moments that we have in our childhood. As we grow older those moments seem to get further and further apart. Well this past weekend I had one again. I was sitting in the living room reading the MIT Sloan Management Review on my new iPad (no this is not a solicitation from Apple, I’m sure Steve Jobs will be showing back up with the iPad once that tiny antenna issue is resolved) and found that one of my driving principles as an IT leader has been accepted and is in print. To be clear, this article is written to a target audience of Fortune 500 executives and IT leaders. While large corporations can learn much from this article, I believe those of us in the small to medium-size industries can as well. How often have you heard that “the IT department stands directly in the way of creativity and innovation”? And for so many years we in IT have been driving security, homogenization, and productivity without much thought towards new ways foster creativity.
Stephen Gordon and Monideepa Tarafdar spell out the necessary changes in a recipe that is sure to open some eyes. They provide a checklist, a software shopping list, and specific lessons for creative leaders, IT managers, and chief executives.
If you’ve always wanted to change your IT department’s persona this is a great opportunity to begin the process.
MIT Sloan Management Review – Innovation & IT
Posted in Information Technology
We all have our own favorite search tool. Regardless of your favorite, it’s likely that you have used the Google search engine at one time or another. Are you aware of the many useful tools built into the Google search engine? These tools are available, via smart phone or PC, using your favorite browser. They do not require an APP download and they are free to use.
Below are a few of these tools. Try them out and see if you can find others
A conversion tool for currency, weights and measures
On the Google search bar try typing in the following and notice the screen as you type in your conversion:
A time zone conversion tool
Try the following examples on the Google Search bar:
Current Weather conditions
Type some of the following examples in the Google Search bar:
A Calculator
Type in standard or advanced equations and see what comes up:
Flight Status
No need to go to the airline’s site if you know the airline and flight number:
Stock Quotes
If you know the stock ticker type the words “Stock Quote” followed by the ticker symbol:
Definitions
Type “Define:” (with a colon) then the word that you want defined:
Spell Checker
You may have noticed corrections being offered when you typed in searched for definitions above:
Movie Show Times
Type “Movies” and your zip code or ype “Movies” and the name of the movie you want to see:
These are a few of the many functions that Google can help you perform. There are many other functions including, maps and directions, foreign language translations, phonebook lookups, and shipment status. Try these out and see what others you can find for yourself.
Posted in Google
The PCI Security Standards Council created a fun and useful video that can help anyone get a quick understanding of the things that need to be done in order to keep credit card information safe.
The short video covers, on a high level, the 12 requirements that need to be implemented in order to secure credit card information. It’s a great way to communicate the need for security without having to read through the whole standard.
https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/about/pcidss_rocks_video.shtml
Posted in Security
Check out this video. See how the city of Jacksonville saved money, increased employee mobility and efficiency and increased their infrastructure’s reliability by moving to a virtualized desktop environment.
Posted in Citrix
Title: Product Architect, K-12 Education
Hometown: Mt Pleasant, SC
Twitter Account: I’m twitter-free, but have a blog: http://mhoop.wordpress.com/
Areas of expertise: Product development and design, program management, K-12 public education
What certifications have you recently obtained?: MBA from USC, April 2009
One technology you can’t live without: Smart phone with internet capabilities.
Unknown fact about me: I like to write music.
Posted in VC3
The deadline for submissions has passed, so what is Google’s next step? According to Google, over 1,100 community responses were received and over 194,000 responses from individuals. Communities have gone to great lengths to be recognized. Cities have renamed themselves, coordinated public rallies and Facebook pages have sprouted up all over the place with local communities building awareness and support for the high-tech Google experiment.
Google states that the over the next several months, they will be reviewing responses, narrowing down choices, visiting local communities and meeting with local officials. The lucky community or communities will be announced by the end of the year. Won’t that be a nice Christmas present for town or city?
Google’s experiment of building an ultra high-speed broadband network hopes to reach at least 50,000 individuals and potentially up to 500,000. According to the 2000 census, the population of the City of Columbia was 116,278. 2008 estimates put the population at 127,029. Kind of nice how these numbers are within the Google range, huh?
I know I’m kind of partial here but Columbia would be an excellent choice for this project. Columbia is a great place to live and raise a family. We’re not too big, yet big enough. We are a college town w/a thriving arts community. We not only have a local municipality presence with the City of Columbia, but we also have a State Government presence with our legislators at the the Capitol. The k-12 students as well as our local university and colleges would benefit greatly!
With South Carolina currently having one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, the boom that Columbia could get could be limitless. This Google intiative could help give Columbia a fabulous boost that we need. By choosing Columbia as the test bed, Google could begin to then build their network out to other communities throughout the State! Not to mention that we’re home of the Gamecocks! That’s a reason to come here, in and of itself, right?
So, we’ll stay on top of this story and see how Columbia fares.
Posted in Broadband
Google has created a wave of excitement with its Community Fiber project announcement that has exceeded the buzz about the federal broadband stimulus program. This most likely happened because municipalities realized that the federal broadband stimulus programs that were part of the Recovery Act were primarily focused on regional and statewide projects.
Cities such as Columbia, SC; Greenville, SC; Greensboro, NC; Decatur, GA; Topeka, KS; Palo Alto, CA; Grand Rapids, MI and dozens of other cities have assembled groups of volunteers, assigned city staff and even hired marketing experts to assemble their “Google pitch”. The competition is intense, but these cities know the benefit that it will bring to their communities in terms of economic development and delivery of next-generation applications and content if they are selected.
Why is Google doing this? Is this the first step in their aim to become a national broadband provider? I don’t think so. Rather, it is a chance to show to the FCC and others at the federal level that open access broadband networks at 1 Gbps speeds, much higher than the incumbents are proposing, can be built and operated in such a way that multiple service providers can provide service over the same “pipe” and still make money. Google has lobbied the FCC in support of network openness but this principle is a glaring omission in the recently released National Broadband Plan. Thus, the Community Fiber project may be a “test case” for network openness at Gigabit speeds. As municipalities complete their Community Fiber applications this week, they should keep in mind that there are other options besides Google. Several communities in North Carolina have funded their community fiber networks through a financing vehicle called a “Certificate of Participation”. In addition, there are private equity firms that are actively reviewing business plans. Thus, consider the work that you have done preparing your Community Fiber application as laying the ground work to explore other options if you are not one of the “chosen few”.
Posted in Wireless
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The opinions expressed here are the personal opinions of VC3 employees.Content published here is not read or approved by VC3 before it is postedand does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of VC3.