Technologies – Page 37 – Public Intelligence Blog

Google Ugly: Google “broccoli casserole” and make the first recipe you find. I guarantee it will be disappointing. The world needs fewer opinions and more thoughtful expertise — the kind that comes from real experience. Contrast with Gourmet to All That and the death of expertise in the public interest.

Google Bad: The above image is accurate. Google is one of 75+ search engines, and barely scratches the surface. Worse, Google now offers results based on who pays for what you see, not on what you need or wish to see.

Continue reading “Journal: Google Good, Bad, & Ugly”

2009/10/082009/10/08

Journal: Mis-Managing Spectrum

Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice, Mobile, Policies, Technologies

Full Story Online

Warning on surge in wireless traffic

By Joseph Menn in San Francisco and Chris Nuttall in San Diego

October 7 2009

The head of the US Federal Communications Commission warned on Wednesday that there is not enough room in the airwaves for the “explosion” in wireless data traffic, setting the stage for a big realignment of spectrum usage as the government tries to help mobile carriers keep up with consumer demand.

“The biggest threat to the future of mobile in America is the looming spectrum crisis,” said Julius Genachowski, the Obama administration appointee who took over as head of the five-member FCC in late June.

Phi Beta Iota: Top-down management of bottom-up needs and capabilities does not work. Open Spectrum is the only possible solution and has been proven in South Korea among other places. It's time to stop selling spectrum and start demanding smart devices and intelligent sharing of the commonwealth.

2009/10/072009/10/07

Journal: Director of National Intelligence Reverses Progress–Time to Rethink Everything

Government, Methods & Process, Reform, Technologies, Tools

Shutdown Of Intelligence Community E-mail Network Sparks E-Rebellion

The Atlantic POLITICS

Marc Ambinder

Oct 6 2009

The intelligence community's innovative uGov e-mail domain, one of its earliest efforts at cross-agency collaboration, will be shut down because of security concerns, government officials said. The decision, announced internally last Friday to the hundreds of analysts who use the system, drew immediate protests from intelligence agency employees and led to anxiety that other experimental collaborative platforms, like the popular Intellipedia website, are also in the target sights of managers.

It follows reports that another popular analytic platform called “Bridge,” which allows analysts with security clearances to collaborate with people outside the government who have relevant expertise but no clearances, is being killed, and indications that funding for another transformational capability, the DoDIIS Trusted Workstation, which allows analysts to look at information at a variety of clearance levels — Secret, Top Secret, Law Enforcement Sensitive– is being curtailed.

2009/09/252009/09/25

Reference: Cloud Computing 1.0 25 Sep 09

Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, Ethics, Key Players, Methods & Process, Mobile, Policies, Policy, Real Time, Reform, Strategy, Technologies, Threats, Tools, True Cost

There are at least two organized gangs in cloud computing, with several more emerging in the wings. This is a first cut at what we have in play.

Below the fold are a list of members of the Infrastructure 2.0 Gang and the Cloud Connect Gang, followed by a number of headlines from 2007 to date that comprise a rapid read-in.

As with the origin of computers, when librarians were not consulted, the focus on these gangs is on technical connectivity and related issues (e.g. authentication, security), and NOT on information-sharing and sense-making as the ultimate objective.

Continue reading “Reference: Cloud Computing 1.0 25 Sep 09”

2009/09/252009/10/02

Journal: The Cloud Bubbas (Two Bubbettes) Met on 3 September and You Were Not Invited

Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, InfoOps (IO), Key Players, Methods & Process, Mobile, Policies, Technologies, Threats, Tools

Cloud of Clouds is the new new meme, burying Semantic Web. You can see Vint Cerf in his traditional vest. We've asked for the names of all those attending, perhaps that will come out soon.

In the meantime, we see Google and CISCO-Nokia going head to head, whle Amazon and IBM fritter on the sides, HP brings out SkyRoom, and China creates its own Google killer. What India might be up to is a mystery–if we were in their shoes we'd be putting a Nokia factory in EACH province, and demanding that all computers sold in india be wireless equipped and capable of creating ad hoc neighborhood clouds that can survive the Obama Administration's shutting down of the Internet in the USA.

Of possible interest:

Robert Steele's Briefing on Real Time Information

IBM's White Paper on Creating a Dynamic Infrastructure Through Virtualization

IBM's Short Video New Intelligence Toward a Smarter Planet

IBM's Short Video Dynamic Infrastructure for a Smarter Planet

Phi Beta Iota: We need an MCC equivalent for the whole enchilada from analog data capture to desktop decision-support.

2009/09/22

Worth a Look: HP Builds Collaboration Tool Into Workstations

Technologies, Tools, Worth A Look

Full Story Online

Hewlett-Packard is building collaboration software with video, application-sharing and 3-D graphics support into several of its workstation models, giving the high-definition conferencing market an option well below the cost and scale of telepresence.

SkyRoom is available worldwide as a free, preinstalled feature of HP Z800, Z600, Z400 and xw4600 workstations. Some premium business PCs and laptops coming from HP in the next few months will offer the software on a 90-day trial basis.

The software is also available for purchase for an estimated U.S. street price of US$149 and can be used on workstations and PCs from Dell, Lenovo and Sun, HP said. In addition to the Core 2 Duo or equivalent processor, those systems will need at least 2GB of RAM, a webcam and XP or Vista. HP is also offering the HP SkyRoom Accessory Kit, which includes a high-resolution webcam and headphones or speakers, for $119.

2009/09/12

Journal: Microsoft Creates Open Source Software Foundation

Commerce, Reform, Strategy, Technologies

September 11, 2009 7:10 AM PDT

Microsoft sets up open-source foundation

Microsoft has created the nonprofit CodePlex Foundation to target increased communication between open-source communities and software companies.

Citing an under-representation of commercial software companies and their employees in open source, the CodePlex Foundation aims to work with particular projects to bridge the gap between the open-source and commercial worlds.

The Redmond giant has contributed $1 million to the foundation and has filled out its board and advisory panel with many Microsoft staffers, including Sam Ramji, who is leaving Microsoft as its open-source point man but is also becoming CodePlex Foundation's interim president.

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