Internet Evolution's Alison Diana describes how her daughter and friends are using social media to stay connected with a girl in their social group who's battling leukemia.
Increasingly, companies are using videoconferencing technology to help employees collaborate with co-workers, partners, and customers. As a result, demand for technicians is rising, and companies are finding it difficult to retain their quality workers.
YouTube's move to a partial pay-for-view model could help relieve a dearth of good new content but it could also complicate debates in many parts of the world over payment by content providers for delivery of their material to customers.
That's what Larry Page said on Google's earnings call, referring to the conjunction of mobile and the cloud. Well, let's chart it then! We need to be thinking about an Internet where 90% of our traffic goes to 70 destinations within 40 miles of us.
Software-defined networks, which deliver virtualization functions to enterprise networks, have the potential to dramatically change network design and significantly reduce costs and maintenance.
Facebook's Graph Search may face some profound challenges and risks, first, because Facebook users haven't been thinking of their posts as product reviews; and second, because Facebook will now have to contend with the social-network equivalent of SEO "gaming" of results.
Companies need to take advantage of new technologies to simplify interfaces, improve capabilities, and enhance back-office processes. But they can't upgrade their Websites too often.
EU operators are considering joining up to create a pan-European network to reduce competitive overbuild and cost. This might lower costs and focus operators on higher-level, more interesting services.
Wells Fargo uses social software to replace email chains and help its sales team collaborate more effectively to land deals, according to Kelli Carlson-Jagersma, VP Collaboration Strategy for Wells Fargo. Mitch Wagner spoke with Carlson-Jagersma at the E2Innovate conference
Apple may want to do a TV offering, but to meet its goal it would have to address three specific issues that have been exposed by earlier attempts to make Internet TV work.
Many enterprises view high-speed broadband connections as ubiquitous. Yet in about 20 percent of the country, businesses and their employees do not have access to even DSL connections. This shortcoming diminishes enterprises' ability to support their employees.
Congress is considering a bill to extend a moratorium on Internet regulation changes for two years. But with issues like service quality, cloud performance, and privacy looming, we risk contaminating the Internet with fraud.
The risk of the ITU taking over the Internet is overblown. First, it's almost certain its goals are simply to create orderly interconnect and settlement. Second, how good a job has ICANN done anyway? If we don't like international control we should clean up our own processes in both governance and interconnect!
Walk into the Coastal Federal Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C., and something is missing. Rather than human tellers, customers face videoconferencing ATM machines. Is this the future of branch banking?
The new UltraViolet online DRM model has people upset, but the question we should ask ourselves is whether we want a flexible model to harmonize content owner and content consumer rights, or a one-takes-all model that probably results in less online content.
A survey by JD Powers found that customer interest in product features is lessening as phones evolve. Rather than features, price is driving purchases, and that change could have a dramatic impact on how IT departments secure these devices.
The Fraunhofer Institute found that videoconferencing technology improves team spirit, meeting productivity, decision-making, and employee concentration. Enterprises may benefit by pushing the technology down into small workgroups.
Multi-tenant clouds assure security for clients, but not necessarily for their ideas. Here's one thing you should discuss with your cloud provider before you sign on.
By 2015, according to ABI Research, seven out of every ten smartphones will support the emerging 802.11ac standard, allowing users to stream HD video and support other high-bandwidth mobile apps.
Project management and marketing don't generally work well together, but now the cloud delivers PM software that is more compatible with marketing's creative and spontaneous nature.
The iPad Mini is the latest iteration of the exploding tablet category. Because most tablets are WiFi-only, they create a new kind of mobile network. The problem is that we don't have issues like roaming and security defined for this new world.
Trying to reinvigorate their market position, suppliers added significant enhancements to their enterprise video collaboration tools, including enhanced support for mobile systems, virtualization, and cloud solutions.
The new Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) initiative of operators is being run out of Europe's ETSI and not here in the United States, even though the issues have been here for five years. The US needs to step up; otherwise, it's surrendering leadership.
A recent release of the popular TweetDeck app for Twitter power-users gives new life to software that had previously taken a wrong turn. Here's a quick walk-through of the new TweetDeck, to show you why it should be at the top of your Twitter toolkit.
Intel's numbers say the PC is at risk, and Microsoft's Windows 8 interface is an attempt to make Windows relevant in the tablet age. But Microsoft could be betting too much. A dramatic transformation to cloud-and-appliance would mean a big change for our industry.
Marissa Mayer at Yahoo has come out with her strategy on turning the company around: culture, company, calibration, and compensation. But Yahoo needs to have a technical approach to the mobile cloud opportunity, not a management theory lesson.
Women are less comfortable using videoconferencing in the workplace than men. That was one of the findings in a recent survey about how employees view and use videoconferencing systems.
On the occasion of Internet Evolution's 5th anniversary, Editor in Chief Mitch Wagner and Editor in Chief Emeritus Nicole Ferraro reminisce about how business on the Internet has changed over five years. Also, Mitch tries to remember what "Enterprise 2.0" means.
Twitter's changes are clearly aimed at being more Facebook-like, and this is because both companies are vying to serve the mobile social network market. But can that market work for anybody, given how difficult it is to push ads to social-update readers?
The decision could discourage innovators looking to the past, and require companies to build from the ground up, leading to a new generation of stagnation in the IT world.
Recently, Amazon was recognized for its customer satisfaction excellence. It has made no secret that being customer-centric is a primary goal. This should be the goal of every e-tailer that wants to build market share.
Employees can now use their home TVs to hold videoconferences with their colleagues. Logitech has introduced a new Webcam that plugs into a TV and does not need a local PC to hold a videoconference.
What do Apple TV, Google TV, Netflix, and Apple's tossing YouTube from iOS have in common? They prove that streaming video success is dependent on two things, a solid linkage to TV and an ecosystem surrounding the video to mine margins and profits for the provider.
Netflix seemed to be a threat to all of TV, but with the current quarterly earnings report, it sure doesn't look as if that's true now. Netflix really proves that even Internet viewing of video isn't immune to profit and other business issues. This is a lesson we need to learn if we want a viable online video model.
Healthcare providers have been moving to telemedicine treatments, where the patient and doctor can meet online, but insurance carriers are not required to pay for such treatments. This may change, though, as Maryland recently passed a law mandating that insurers pay up.
Guess who wants to be a streaming video player? The telcos! And they're taking control of their own destiny by launching their own projects or investing in startups, rather than going with vendor solutions.
Elizabeth Pizzinato, SVP of marketing and communications at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, calls content marketing "the new black" and explains how her brand engages its target audience.
Amanda Richman, president of digital at MediaVest, cites the rise of the 'empowered consumer' as one of the most significant changes in digital marketing today.
Alison Lewis, senior vice president of marketing at Coca-Cola, discusses Coca-Cola's marketing strategy and the company's take on social media marketing.
If your friends and relatives can't manage to make it to an event with you, never fear: Researchers at Yamagata University are developing a miniature, wearable robot that uses telepresence to let you carry your loved ones around on your shoulder!
With the advent of low-cost Web cameras and broadband network connections, home security systems have become a hot business. In addition to traditional security suppliers, like ADT, the market is attracting telcos, cable companies, and energy providers, thereby creating an area of increasing competition.
Since the early days of television, Nielsen has reigned supreme in the ratings business. With the advent of the Internet, ComScore has emerged as a legitimate competitor. So, game on.
Blackhole 1.2.3, the latest version of the most popular black-market exploit kit, apparently has already been used by Brazilian fraudsters to try to perpetrate a scam. The new kit, released at the end of March, can bypass sandboxes in Java, and the Brazilians used it to try to convince accountants they were about to lose licenses.
Videoconferencing systems now are quite static. Users set up a camera, and it stays focused on the target regardless of whether or not the user moves during the presentation. NTT is developing a system that moves with the speaker, providing a feel similar to a face-to-face conversation.
Are you ready for your next videoconference? Do you remember the dial-in number? Do you wait on hold for one of the key speakers? LoopUp has found that meeting minutiae (calling the right number, seeing who is on the conference, making sure all the systems work) are taking up about 20 percent of the time on each call.
Some say that exposure to violence in gaming, online video, etc., is creating a violent culture. Tom says it's not that straightforward. Rather than regulate violence, we should understand it better.
Confused about long forms and short forms? Well, this year, face-to-face help may be only a few clicks away. The IRS, as well as tax preparation agencies like TurboTax, have introduced new video conferencing services, designed to make it easier for individuals to get the help they need.
Ever get that feeling where you don’t want to go to the office but have physical tasks that need to be done there? Well, help is on the way. Japanese researchers have developed Telesar V, a robot that can function in the place of a person. Unlike other virtual connections, this one comes with a 3D body suit, so the bot can mimic your motions and you can stay home.
Video conferencing is becoming much more common in business today, but it introduces new security issues. For instance, intruders may be able to tap into your sessions and learn trade secrets. Here are steps companies can take to ensure their sessions are secure.
Corporations have been gradually creating more video content, but in many cases they lack the tools to easily find that video information later. Companies like Meditrxstream and VMIX have been delivering products to help with that process.
We're getting wrapped around the wrong issues with SOPA. The problem isn't in how it's enforced. It's the fact that the basic concept is a violation of due process.
The drive to stream TV directly to HD sets, to tablets, or to PCs in the home may create a broader demand for streaming, and this could create a major new source of traffic pressure on mobile networks, mobile pricing, and mobile service policies.
Reporting from "overnight duty" (hmm…) at Internet Evolution, Kim Davis gives an update on the day Wikipedia, Reddit, and BoingBoing went dark to protest SOPA.
The Internet is offering addicts new treatment options in the form of virtual programs from companies like egetgoing.com and Lionrock Recovery. These programs present benefits as well as drawbacks.
Verizon has made the Xbox into a basic set-top box, so does that mean streaming video will replace TV after all? That's complicated. It turns out there are three different video models and three different futures for them.
Virtual communications is impacting the job market in a new way, with companies increasingly conducting job interviews via video conferences rather than face-to-face. Applicants need to make sure they are ready for this change.
Today's infants quickly move from the womb to a touchscreen. A survey by Common Sense Media found that half of children under eight years old access a mobile device like a smartphone, a video iPod, or a tablet; and experts are mulling the ramifications of this.
Netflix lost more customers than the Street expected, because people are upset about price increases, but are users inevitably facing even higher costs for streaming video in the future? The portal players are in a squeeze, and consumers will likely pay in the end.
Skype recently acquired GroupMe, a startup developing tools to make mobile communications simpler. The move underscores dramatic changes in that market, ones that will change how executives communicate.
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has been removed, and the question is whether the company can succeed under ANY leadership. It has two problems: its Internet startup culture and its unwillingness to take advantage of potential partnerships with telcos and cable companies.
Google+ has gained a lot of ground since its launch, but to be a winner it needs to be quickly opened up to the full market. Google also has to think about how to expand its video hangout capability to make it into something that will provide enduring differentiation from Facebook/Skype.
Maybe Google+ will be competitive and maybe it won't, but it's likely to introduce video calling and OTT communications as a replacement for standard telephony. There will be major consequences to this, and we don't have an FCC or political framework capable of coping.
Hulu is supposed to be up for sale. Some say the business model is bad, some it may be too good. Whatever it is, it makes more sense for Hulu's owners to work out a position for OTT video than to sell off the venture and let someone else do that.
Google is rumored to be prepping a channelized streaming TV offering out of YouTube. It may prove that streaming video programming can strike the balance between paid and ad-sponsored and still deliver content we're willing to watch.
Comcast's deal with Skype for on-TV videoconferencing seems illogical on its face: It encourages the worst kind of traffic for cable broadband providers. So could they have a deeper strategy to monetize this, one that might test neutrality rules yet again?
With Alcatel-Lucent's Immersive Communications technology, companies can change backgrounds during videoconferencing sessions. Is it the next big wave in video conferencing?
LinkedIn's IPO will open the door for some insight on how social net insiders think their own market space will fare. If LinkedIn now starts plucking up social startups it means it believes in its core business. If it grabs peripheral plays, it means the company thinks the opportunity for social networking may be fleeting.
Microsoft's buy of Skype could revitalize Phone 7, give Microsoft a social, gaming, and collaborative strategy, and spell the end for old-fashioned telco voice. It will also certainly give Google a headache in its Voice, Chat, and even Android strategy!
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M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
