About 10 years ago companies began trying out a “follow the sun” software strategy, which involved placing software development sites across the world so that as an eight-hour shift at one location came to an end, the code could be handed off to the next group -- meaning that development work could go on 24 hours a day. In many cases, this concept met with limited success, but in some circumstances at least, when properly managed, it has worked out reasonably well.

This doesn’t happen often in surveys: Talking to dozens of enterprises earlier this year, an astounding 100 percent told me they were expecting to host networking or IT services on the Internet. The bad news was that over half said they thought there were serious issues to be overcome in these applications, and a full 30 percent reported explicitly bad experiences.

Environmental organization Global Action Plan studies show that carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the information and communications technology industry exceed the carbon output of the entire aviation industry. From this, it’s estimated that the Internet is generating 5.3 percent of world energy consumption. But, though the Internet is a CO2 contributor to greenhouse gases, it also offers energy and carbon emission alternatives that are more attainable than those in other industries.

Let's start with a definition: Metadata is information about information, which can be used to edit, find, and otherwise use the digital content it represents. The digital content can be text, audio, or video, and it can be personal or business information. Metadata helps the user find -- and use -- the original content.

The crazy proliferation of enterprise content management, due in large part to the explosive growth of Microsoft SharePoint, has quickly turned into a Big Brother phenomenon and makes some people very nervous.