David Jacobson's External Insights

Our networked world

One of 2007's key technology trends is collaboration and communities.

We are able to work on a project online with colleagues  and meet friends online.

We multitask a range of devices.

Forbes magazine's latest issue features Networks.

Sonme of the articles worth reading include:

• Seth Godin Your product, your customer (marketing in a networked world)

• John Chambers Guts and Glory (the technology revolution)

• Sherry Turkle Can you hear me now?  (what sort of people does technology turn us into)

Australia's Global Information Technology Ranking

Australia's ranking in The Global Information Technology Report 2006-2007 has sparked a political debate about Australia's broadband network (both coverage and speed).

For the 2nd year in a row Australia is ranked 15th.

The Report uses the Networked Readiness Index (NRI) to measure the degree of preparation of a nation or community to participate in and benefit from ICT developments. The NRI is composed of three component indexes which assess:
- environment for ICT offered by a country or community
- readiness of the community's key stakeholders (individuals, business and governments)
- usage of ICT among these stakeholders.

See Business Week analysis.

Web 2.0 and wikis for business

If you're still wondering what web 2.0 means for business and whether there is an opportunity for you then it's worth reading some recent articles: PC Authority has a cover story on web 2.0 (including blogging, podcasting, social networking and wikis) and Business Week has recent stories on The Wiki Workplace and wikis for collaboration.

Business Week also has a video interview with Arun Sundararajan, Professor at NYU's Stern School of Business, about how wikis are changing businesses.

Online business models: banking case study

The internet has changed the way businesses communicate with customers and the way customers talk with each other about businesses they deal with.

The internet has been described as "disruptive": new business models cut out the traditional "middleman".  Businesses have to find out what customers want and how to deliver it.

In a recent presentation at the LIFT Conference in Geneva, Colin Henderson spoke about how banks are changing. He begins the presentation with an excellent overview of the issues affecting all businesses attempting to cope with the new technologies and then gives examples of how some banks and credit unions have responded to the challenge of  "open source banking". 

View it here.

Internet round-up: Blawg Review #100

One of the best ways to catch up with internet reading is to follow a "carnival" which rounds up a "Best of" in your interest area each week.

This week Blawg Review celebrates its 100th edition: there's a great range of reading and you're sure to find something of interest.

Business and Corporate Blogging

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation and the Queensland University of Technology will host the Australian Blogging Conference on Thursday 8 March 2007 at the State Library of Queensland in Brisbane.

The program includes a session on business and corporate blogging. Registration is free so if you're wondering how blogging can affect your business, come along.

More

UPDATE 4 February: Conference postponed

Are You the Person of the Year? And how does that affect your business?

TIME  has named "YOU" as the Person of the Year for 2006, provided YOU are a participant in the internet or create content for it: through blogs, wikis, podcasts, videos or any other form by which you share information and knowledge with others.

But, you say, I run a business, what's that got to do with me?

What TIME has recognised is that web users (including your customers, employees and competitors) have evolved from being an audience to being participants.

And that change is affecting a range of industries, not just media.

Web users tell stories to each other. They make recommendations about products and companies. They share productivity information and "life hacks".

They share videos, photos, music, anything that can be digitised. And then they modify it and share that. And news about all of this is sent automatically by RSS feeds.

Businesses use web applications to automate processes and get customer and employee feedback and share knowledge.

Some businesses are afraid of this new era of interactivity. Others will take advantage of it.

If you are interested but don't know where to start or how it will help you , give me a call and I'll discuss it with you for no charge. I'll even arrange a RSS feed reader with a set of blog feeds to start you off.

Or you can browse through the following links.

LINKS

• Top web apps in Australia
• Tom Peters' short video Brawl With No Rules (top of right hand column of linked page)
• Ross Dawson's video presentation on Web 2.0
• The Corporate Blogging Book
• Deploying a corporate wiki
• Why and how does explicit knowledge sharing make a difference?

Want to know more ? The Australian Blogging Conference will be held in March 2007.

Identity theft

The charging of the former chair of Hewlett Packard and 4 others with identity theft and wrongful use of computer data has turned a corporate ethics case study in respect of corporate spying and investigations of boardroom leaks into a reminder of the growth of identity theft in a digital world.

Identity theft is part of identity fraud, and specifically refers to the theft and use of personal identifying information of a person, as opposed to the use of a fictitious identity. This includes the theft and use of personal information of persons either living or dead.

So here are some resources for learning about protecting your identity and personal information:

• Dick Hardt's terrific video on Identity 2.0;
• Jon Udell and Phil Windley's audio conversation (podcast) on identity;
• How to prevent and respond to identity theft: a kit from the Australian National Crime Prevention Programme.

Corporate ethics: HP case study

While the Cole Inquiry was adjourned, I monitored the growing furore in the USA over Hewlett Packard's spying operation on its own directors, journalists and others, meant to identify the source of leaks of confidential information to the news media.

The company's investigation, aimed at tracing leaks to the news media from the company's board in 2005 and early 2006, came into public view three weeks ago as a result of deep divisions in the boardroom. It is also the subject of federal and state criminal investigations.

So far the chairwoman, general counsel, the manager of global investigations and the senior counsel and director of ethics have left HP and a Congressional hearing has been convened.

The investigations focus on the use of deception to obtain private phone records of directors and employees suspected of leaking information. Essentially impostors were able to gain online access to records of individual's phone accounts, a practice called "pretexting".

An account of how the investigation was conducted has emerged from the documents, which include memos, e-mails and handwritten notes from people with knowledge of the investigation.

The story contains revelations of spying, misstating legal advice received and boardroom divisions.

Technology risks: controlling USB connections

With the rapid acceptance of iPods, mp3 players, digital cameras, flash drives and portable hard drives (all with substantial memory capacity) there are a whole range of new devices with USB connections which could connect to a business's network through any PC USB connection and pose risks for that business. And that's not allowing for someone who really intends to copy files by using a File Transfer Cable.

I recently read that some businesses are supergluing their computers' USB ports to prevent access by such devices. But that shouldn't be necessary with USB security software such as Device Lock.

Rather than trying to regulate the type of device that could be attached to a computer network, it is more helpful to identify the risks that a business faces by allowing any uncontrolled device in its premises and to then manage those risks.

Why should businesses be concerned about devices which connect to their network to either gain access to their internal systems?

The risks include:

• unlawful use of a third party's intellectual property ,

• privacy breach ,

• misuse of company resources,

• breach of information and data security, and

• breach of confidentiality.

Do you have a policy on how your business deals with these risks?