Web Activist Carl Malamud Seeks To Be Government Information Czar

February 27, 2009

Carl Malamud, an activist campaigning for government information to open and available online, has launched a bid to become head of the government printing office.

Federal hearing rooms should give access to You Tube, says Carl Malamud

Federal hearing rooms should give access to You Tube, says Carl Malamud

His campaign, which has drawn the support of tech luminaries such as publisher Tim O’Reilly, professor Lawrence Lessig and blogger Cory Doctorow, calls for dramatic changes in the way government information is distributed.

Dubbed “Yes We Scan,” his platform conceives of the US government becoming one of the top 10 destinations on the Internet, with all legal materials readily available to the public, according to details available on his Web site.

The government printing office is in charge of providing access to documents and information generated by all three branches of the federal government, including the Supreme Court and the White House.

Malamud simultaneously urges all federal hearing rooms provide live, broadcast quality video to sites such as You Tube and CNN.com.

He would need to be nominated by President Obama and approved by Congress.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Facebook Targets 200 Million Members; Is This A Joke?

February 27, 2009

As founder Mark Zuckerberg discussed the democratization of his brainchild, Facebook, on Thursday, he casually dropped a company goal for 2009 – 200 million members.

Facebook grew by 5 million users a week in January, so 200 million could be just around the corner

Facebook grew by 5 million users a week in January, so 200 million could be just around the corner

Hopefully the social-networking site will pass the mark this year, he said, as he announced that current members will be able to comment and vote on privacy and other “terms of service” guidelines.

But this is hardly a leap of faith – or much of a leap of any sort.

As of Feb. 17, Facebook had more than 175 million members, with growth of 5 million members a week in January. If that growth pace continues, Facebook will reach the 200 million mark by the end of March.

If growth falls to half that pace, 200 million members will have signed up by early May.

So what will Mark and company do for the rest of the year?

A December goal of 400 million members would be much more impressive. Or should we expect Facebook’s blistering growth to slow considerably as the year wears on?

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Posted by Mark Boslet

UK Telecoms Said To Be Fuming At Nokia For Adding Skype To Phones

February 27, 2009

Two mobile service providers in the U.K. are apparently smoking mad over Nokia’s decision to install Skype on its flagship Nseries phones.

Mobile operator Orange said to be turning red over Nokia decision

Mobile operator Orange said to be turning red over Nokia decision

Nokia said earlier this month the N97 would be the first handset out the door with the Internet calling software in the third quarter.

Several published stories, including one on Mobile Today in the U.K., said mobile carriers Orange and O2 may refuse to stock the phones.

Service providers fear users will favor making free calls over the Internet with Skype, which is owned by eBay, instead of paid calls on the cellular network.

“This is another example of them trying to build an ecosystem that is all about Nokia and reduced the operator to a dumb pipe,” according to one anonymous source.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Analyst: H-P Is No Direct Competitor To IBM

February 27, 2009
Roger Kay, President, Endpoint Technologies

Roger Kay, President, Endpoint Technologies

Quite often these days, people compare the results and business models of IBM and Hewlett-Packard (H-P) as if they were direct competitors. In truth, they do compete in several key areas, notably enterprise hardware and services. But in other ways, they are very different beasts.

Services help smooth IBM revenues, profits

Under Sam Palmisano, IBM has transformed itself into an enterprise services-led company, with that
division accounting for $39.3 billion or 38% of the company’s $103.6 billion revenue in 2008.

By contrast, H-P, even with the EDS acquisition, derived only $22.4 billion or 18.9% of its $118.3 billion fiscal
2008 revenue from services.

In many cases, IBM’s services division pulls the company’s other groups along in its slipstream. When an IBM services sales team wins an enterprise customer with a complex set of requirements, it is often able to bring the hardware, software, and financing divisions along as well.

Services have a way of smoothing out a company’s revenue picture.  Long-term signings create a huge pile of deferred revenue, which comes in handy during lean years like this one.  IBM’s financials reflect the steadying nature of its large services business.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by TechPulse 360

The Secrets Of The IPhone App Store

February 27, 2009

Making it big as an iPhone app is no easy task.

Users quickly lose interest in the applications they download and just as quickly spend less time with the apps they like.

This insight comes from Pinch Media, an iPhone advertising and analytic tools company.

Long term users often amount to 1% of app downloads, Pinch Media says

Long term users often amount to 1% of app downloads, Pinch Media says

According to a presentation recently posted on the company’s Web site, an application that appears on the App Store’s top-100 list can expect 2.3 times more daily new users. Getting on Apple’s top-10 or top-25 lists has better results (an observation that is rather obvious).

But even then, users stop using applications pretty quickly. Long-term audiences usually amount to 1 percent of total downloads, Pinch Media says. Even paid applications see steep drops in long-term use.

(Note: sports-related apps are better at retaining short-term interest while entertainment-related apps hold users better over the long term.)

Equally disconcerting is that the time spent with applications declines rapidly. Usage declines by nearly a third in the first month to just under 5 minutes.

And should you want to make money from advertising…think again. Less than 5 percent of applications are suitable for advertising. The better rule of thumb is to charge for the software, says Pinch Media.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Yahoo Cleans Up Top Management; Appoints New CMO, Mobile, U.S. And Products Chiefs

February 27, 2009

As expected earlier this week, Yahoo started another major management shake up.

Here are the latest appointments made by Yahoo CEO, Carol Bartz:

  1. Yahoo’s chief technology officer, Aristotle Balogh, is now executive vice president for products;
  2. Elisa Steele is Yahoo’s new chief marketing officer;
  3. Hilary Schneider, who ran advertising, publishing and audience groups in the U.S. is now executive vice president for North America;
  4. Yahoo will also hire a leader for its international unit as well as a CFO;
  5. David Ko becomes Yahoo’s mobile chief after the departure of executive vice president, Marco Boerries;
  6. David Dibble will become senior vice president of the newly created “Service Engineering & Operations”;
  7. Joel Jones will serve as vice president of corporate strategy and Bartz’s chief of staff (sic!).

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Dell Posts Decent 2008 Earnings; Generates $2.4 Billion In Profits

February 26, 2009

In 2008, Dell trimmed its global workforce by 11%

In 2008, Dell trimmed its global workforce by 11%


Unlike most, I don’t think Dell’s financial results were that catastrophic.

For the whole year 2008, the world’s second-largest personal-computer maker posted $61.1 billion in revenue – flat from 2008 – and a net income of $2.4 billion, compare to $2.9 billion last year (a 16 per cent decline).

The Texas company managed to generate nearly $2 billion in free cash flow during the period. Hardly a struggling company a-la Nortel or TomTom, with a strong balance sheet: $9.5 billion in the bank and only $100 million in debts.

Yes, for its latest quarterly results, Dell experienced an overall decline in revenues, profits and units shipped in desktops, laptops, servers, services and peripherals. But who didn’t?

Storage was the only bright spot with a year-over-year revenue increase of 7% at $692 million.

Looking ahead, Dell expects a difficult start in 2009 and is focused on cutting more costs and probably staff, as well as outsourcing production to contract manufacturers and ODMs.

“We cannot predict how deep or long this slowdown will be, though we are planning for it to be protracted so we will continue to focus on what we can control which is satisfying customers and rapidly adjusting our cost structure to the realities of industry demand,” said Dell during its presentation to financial analysts.

Prior to the call with investors, Dell said that it will raise its cost-reduction target to $4 billion by the end of next year, up $1 billion from its previous plan announced last March.

“In fact, we now have a clear view to additional opportunities,” confirmed Brian Gladden, Dell’s chief financial officer.

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Posted by TechPulse 360

Yahoo Promises New Management Structure, Speedier Decisions And A New CFO

February 26, 2009

In her first blog post since arriving as Yahoo CEO in January, Carol Bartz promised a simpler management structure, speedier decisions and a new CFO.

Plenty has bogged the company down, says Carol Bartz

Plenty has bogged the company down, says Carol Bartz

“There’s…plenty that has bogged this company down,” she wrote. “For starters, you’d be amazed at how complicated some things are here.”

The new management structure she outlined, but didn’t detail, will allow for quicker decision-making and eliminate the “notorious silos” that exist within the company. It also will bring in a new CFO. Blake Jorgensen will leave when a replacement is found.

Bartz, who replaced co-founder Jerry Yang, also said she has created a customer advocacy group to better listen to comments and complaints from users and customers.

“After getting a lot of angry calls at my office from frustrated customers, I realized we could do a better job of listening to and supporting you,” she wrote.

Look for this company’s brand to “kick ass again,” Bartz said.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

Facebook Unveils Its Bill Of Rights; But Is No Democracy

February 26, 2009
Facebook probably got its inspiration for it's 10 Principles from the U.S. 10 amendments

Facebook was probably inspired by the U.S. Constitution's first 10 amendments, also known as the Bill of Rights for its own 10 principles

Alongside with its new terms of service – now called a Statement of Rights and Responsibilities – Facebook released “10 Principles” described as “the foundation of the rights and responsibilities”.

These include the “Freedom to Share and Connect”, “Fundamental Equality” of people on Facebook, and “Ownership and Control of Information.” Achieving these Principles should be constrained only by limitations of law, technology, and evolving social norms about sharing, said Facebook.

Akin to the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights, the Facebook Principles is a “set of values that will guide the development of the service.”

“The Facebook Principles are derived from the belief that certain values should guide the company’s efforts to achieve its mission of making the world more open and connected,” said the Palo Alto, Calif.-company in a statement.

However, while Facebook products must be consistent with the Principles and in compliance with the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, they will not be subject to the notice and comment or voting requirements. A big difference from a real democracy – which Facebook is not – even if it tries to behave like one.

Finally, as for its terms of service, Facebook users will have until March 29th to comment, give their feedback and vote on those 10 principles.

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Posted by TechPulse 360

New Facebook Statement Of Rights Preserves User Privacy

February 26, 2009

Facebook’s new terms of service – now called a Statement of Rights and Responsibilities – preserves the user privacy the company had sough to amend a few weeks ago.

In the six page document, reduced from nearly 40 pages of legalese, the company backs away from the claim it can use a member’s personal content as it sees fit.

The new Statement of Rights and Responsibilities is written in English, not legelese

The new Statement of Rights and Responsibilities is written in English, not legelese

Facebook had tried to impose these conditions earlier this month with the altered terms of service. The changes were met with an outcry from privacy groups.

In the new Statement of Rights and Responsibilities posted on Thursday, “we make it clear that users own all of their content,” the company said in a post on its site. “Second, we removed the terms “perpetual” and “irrevocable” from the license grant” for personal content.

The new document similarly limits Facebook’s use of personal data by saying it is subject to a member’s privacy settings, a further enhancement of privacy rights.

It also resolved a final controversy. When a member leaves Facebook, his or her content is eventually deleted from the site, the new statement says.

“When we did (the earlier changes) we made a few mistakes,” says site founder mark Zuckerberg. “Being as transparent as possible is a really valuable thing.”

Facebook members are able to comment and vote on the new policy before it is adopted.

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Posted by Mark Boslet

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