November 25, 2003 | Comments: (0)
The winds of change are blowing through InfoWorld's Editorial Team.
First up, I'm outta here! I'm packing the bags and heading home. After almost three years, tomorrow will be my last day at InfoWorld. I've accepted a fantastic opportunity to head back "Down Under" and reconnect with my former employer, IDG Communications Australia, as Deputy Managing Director. My wife and I now have a three month old girl, so it's also an opportunity for us to move back to be with family.
As a result, I'm pleased to announce that InfoWorld's Associate News Editor, Tom Sullivan, will assume my responsibilities as News Editor for both InfoWorld Magazine, and related content on infoworld.com and TechWatch. It's a great promotion for him, and one that's well deserved.
The final piece of news is that Eric Knorr has "officially" joined InfoWorld as Executive Editor at Large. Knorr's well known in the IT media game, and has actually been working with us for a few months now. He's a real asset to the edit team.
I won't name names because invariably you forget someone. But I've worked with so many talented people, and it's good to know that they will remain friends for a long time.
If all goes well, I'll rejoin the tech media blog conversation at some point in 2004. And if you're in Sydney, please look me up - Tom Sullivan has my contact info.
Thanks for the memories!
(pic source)
Posted by Mark Jones on November 25, 2003 04:58 PM
November 24, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Video blog or not, that is the question
Some interesting reactions to my video blog post - which I deliberately labeled an "experiment" by the way.
Jack Hodgson thinks video in blogs is an interesting idea, adding: "But I'm not sure if just pointing to a video clip in your weblog makes it a "video blog".
And after observing that life would have been simpler if I used a .mac account (hmm, maybe…), a reader commented on Jack's site that he too didn't consider the post a "video blog."
Sure, I'm not the first to add video to a blog, or any web site for that matter. Step one for me was to understand the mechanics of the process. As for exactly what constitutes a "video blog," I think that discussion is wide open. I'd argue a "video blog" is one that primarily uses video as the communication medium. The reality is that "normal" blogs are increasingly using audio, pictures and video as "quotable" sources. It's all about having a broad palette of media tools at your disposal.
Jon Udell writes that he wants to "understand how we might make it easier both to publish and to link into (i.e., quote from) audio and video."
The idea of treating audio and video as quotable text, as it were, is intriguing. Imagine being able to link to a video, but not just take the reader/viewer to the start of that video. In the same way that deep text linking can take readers straight to one portion of text, imagine deep linking to one specific segment of audio or video. Now that would be cool. Calling all Quicktime experts?
UPDATE: Jon Udell sent me an email pointing out that the post I linked above actually demonstrates the scenario I talked about. I'm guilty of not downloading Real Player and watching the clip, but regardless, it's great to realize we can already start treating video in this way.
Posted by Mark Jones on November 24, 2003 12:10 PM
November 21, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Go on, admit it. There's nothing like blowing a monster apart with a machine gun that never runs out of bullets, or flying a WWII-era combat fighter in battle and living to tell the tale.
The difference between "the rest of us" and someone like Francis Mao, Senior VP of Editorial at GamePro Magazine (a sister title to InfoWorld), is that he gets to make a living from producing a magazine that lives and breathes gaming. Since I happened to visiting Francis on Monday, I thought he'd make a good multimedia-savvy subject for TechWatch's first experiment with video blogging. If nothing else, he offers some good Christmas present ideas!
A couple of observations and a note on the technology:
There are two schools of thought on video blogging. You can treat the video as if it were a story, for example, broadcasting short interview which is edited down to tell the news. Or you can use video to illustrate or serve as a companion to a story. In this case, I've gone for the short interview because I'm really comfortable with that format. But ultimately both approaches will work.
My platform of choice is a new 15" Apple PowerBook G4, running OS X version 10.2.8 (no Panther for me just yet.) The G4 is ideal for this sort of project because it simplifies the task of importing and editing video from my JVC digital video camera. Using iMovie, I cut down 3.5 minutes worth of footage to roughly 1.5 minutes in about 2 hours, including on-the-fly iMovie training. Next I exported the final product to an .avi file - iMovie gives you a number of options for compressing the file size.
After that's a matter of uploading the file into Movable Type. And as an aside, for those of you reading TechWatch via RSS, you'll notice I posted this story on Wednesday and subsequently took it down because the movie didn't actually work.
As it turns out, Movable Type wasn't configured to upload a 2MB file. So with the help of InfoWorld's CTO Chad Dickerson we found a work around. Chad used the Unix Terminal in OS X to securely upload the movie file via the command line to InfoWorld's web servers using scp (secure copy). Naturally I'm hoping we won't need to be so geeky in the future once we get the process smoother.
And speaking of hoping things will get smoother, I've been experimenting with Apple's iChat AV video conferencing software with the intent of streaming a conversation to the web. After confirming with Apple execs that iChat AV does not offer recording capabilities, I can only hope this will feature of future releases.
My parting thought: MT and Unix command line complexities aside, there's nothing too complicated about introducing video to weblogs. We're still in experimental stages here of course, but blogs promise to become significantly richer sources of content as video inevitably becomes more established.
Check out my short interview with Francis here.
Posted by Mark Jones on November 21, 2003 04:38 PM
November 20, 2003 | Comments: (0)
In doing research for a future column, see December 8th issue of IW, I had the opportunity to interview Miguel de Icaza, co-founder and CTO of Ximian, about Ximian's Mono project.
Ximian develops Linux cross platform solutions for servers and desktops. The Mono project intends to take the .Net platform and create a runtime open source version of the .Net CLR, a C# compiler and class libraries for Linux.
One of the questions asked in my column was "will Microsoft sit still for this or will they throw a monkey wrench into the project?" If you recall, Sun was able to stop Microsoft from modifying its JVM so in theory couldn't Microsoft prevent Ximian, acquired by Novell last August, from tampering with the CLR?
But so far, De Icaza tells me Microsoft has been nothing but supportive. de Icaza emphasized to me that what Microsoft will eventually do is pure speculation. All he knows is that so far the engineers have been extremely helpful. "They are helping us to understand the specs," de Icaza told me.
Even the business people he has spoken to seem very positive, de Icaza said.
Basically what Ximian is after is a better development environment for Linux.
"Is .Net better," I asked?
"Absolutely," de Icaza said. "Once we have that piece [Mono] people can migrate to Linux. You can write in .Net for Linux and deploy it on cheap Linux servers and workstations."
But will Microsoft sit still for this? My guess is that Novell and the rest of the world won't know Microsoft's true intentions until Mono becomes a commercial product.
Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on November 20, 2003 10:41 AM
November 17, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Comdex looks to shed T-Rex image
A quick stroll of the show floor revealed what most already know: Comdex is in rebuilding mode. Like a struggling professional sports franchise with a string of losing seasons, Comdex is starting over. The show has new management, is shedding cost, and is moving away from the one thing that once brought them success, but is now a burden- a consumer focus.
The span of this years' show floor is equal to about a football field - 120 yards, with end zones. Of course the most recognizable names have the biggest booths. Microsoft has built a fortress, populated by partners, in one corner of the show floor. That booth is flanked by other large properties from Dell, the United States Postal Service (USPS), AT&T Wireless, Siebel, QLogic and Nexsan Technologies (All pale in comparison to MSFT's). About the only other recognizable names outside of those housed in the Microsoft complex are Sprint and Symbol Technologies (I'm not exaggerating).
Comdex is expecting 50,000 attendees and the biggest crowds this morning have been at the Microsoft booth, the registration area, and the area right outside of registration. Another area of interest is the show's new Innovation Centers. I plan on sitting in on one tomorrow, but right now they seem to be popular with attendees with sore legs and no desire to take a seat on the floor. The innovation centers include the Wireless and Mobility Innovation Center, the Open Source and Linux Innovation Center, the Web Services Innovation Center, the Security Innovation Center, and the Digital Enterprise Innovation Center.
Getting around the show floor is manageable and I've only seen two cars. One is a giant white Hummer in the booth of SAFLINK, a biometrics company, where people are lining up to take a spin on a slot machine for a chance to win the car, I'm guessing. The other car is in the USPS booth. I still have no idea why they are here. I will ask though.
Oh, I almost forgot - show news. Ummmm, I'm still looking for that. I'm starting to think maybe Comdex forbade it from this year's show. Actually, I have a number of meetings with smaller storage companies, including one with the aforementioned Nexsan. Last year, if I recall, Diamond Lauffin, senior executive vice president of Nexsan, said Comdex has been a huge success for the company; which would make sense considering the size of its booth. Nexsan makes the InfiniSAN ATAboy2 storage system, a product we reviewed earlier this year.
From Scott Tyler Shafer at Comdex.
Posted by Paul Krill on November 17, 2003 03:34 PM
November 17, 2003 | Comments: (0)
During Scott McNealy's keynote he announced that Sun Microsystems has struck a partnership with AMD to support the 64-bit AMD Opteron processors. Joined on stage by Hector Ruiz, president and CEO of AMD, McNealy briefly showed off two servers, 1U and 2U in height, which allegedly contained multiple Opteron processors. The two CEOs provided precious few details, but did say they'll ship beta units to customers later this year and expect volume shipment in the first half of next year.
Other than that bit, there wasn't much news. McNealy looked very fit and from time to time relied on flashcards, which was uncharacteristic for him. He made many Microsoft quips, and displayed his humor with a top ten We need another terabyte of storage fro the MP3 server. A colleague at IDG News Service is filing a more complete story on the keynote soon, so check our homepage for the full story. -- Scott Tyler Shafer
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 17, 2003 11:57 AM
November 17, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Siegfried and Roy may be gone, as is the old Treasure Island show, but Comdex isn't.
After more than a two hour delay leaving SFO, due to weather and security breaches, I arrived in Vegas last night long after Bill Gates opened the show. I'm told I didn't miss much. On stage he introduced SmartScreen, an anti-spam technology that will be embedded into various Microsoft products and will be able to better recognize junk email. He also talked about new software created to improve network security, which will be available to beta customers in January.
Thirty minutes before Scott McNealy, president and CEO of Sun Microsystems, takes the stage, the press room is beginning to fill up. It is expected McNealy will discuss his Linux aspirations as well as its ongoing 64 bit Solaris activities. I'm off to the keynote now and will take my first perusal of the show floor looking for more security, storage and networking news. -- Scott Tyler Shafer, posted by Tom Sullivan.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 17, 2003 10:32 AM
November 13, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Two companies have responsed to my call for more PR-related RSS feeds.
First up, Cape Clear offers press releases via RSS. There are other vendors offering a similar service. For example, Oracle has embraced RSS in a big way for all types of content.
Then we have PR company Albrycht McClure & Partners, who emailed to say they've created a number of feeds, based on topic areas. Interestingly, the offer both RSS feeds and blogs for each of their topic areas: IT security, Mobility, IT service & Support, and Business Strategy & Operations. That's smart because it allows them to "cross-pollinate" the news feeds based on the news offered by each vendor client. And the blogs themselves have the potential to create conversations, which of course is what blogging is all about.
The kicker is really cool. The company's MD Elizabeth Albrycht said: "Let me know which feeds you subscribe to, and I will remove you from our email databases. I too, look forward to the day we don't have to blast email to journalists."
Hurrah!
Send me more vendor or PR-related RSS feeds and we will start compiling a reference list.
Posted by Mark Jones on November 13, 2003 12:25 PM
November 11, 2003 | Comments: (0)
I'm blogging live from Salesforce.com's inaugural Dreamforce User Conference at the Westin St Francis in San Francisco. Yes, they offer Wi-Fi in the keynote hall and that's a wonderful thing.
It's particularly appropriate given the panel discussion I just finished hosting. The subject was "the ultimate clients for utility computing," and as you can imagine much of our discussion focused on the wireless delivery of utility-style applications.
First, what's interesting about the utility computing paradigm is that until recently we've spent the majority of our time talking about infrastructure issues: Web services, provisioning, scheduling, virtualization and server consolidation are the typical buzzwords.
As Ernie Cormier, VP of Business Solutions at Nextel argued on the panel, Web services are already here in the form of a range of third party Java applications already deployed on anything from cell phones to PDAs. Yes, we still can't expect blanket coverage from wireless carrier's infrastructure, but the applications are available.
David Vaskevich, SVP & CTO at Microsoft (who, by the way, reports to Bill Gates), argued that once we have this ubiquitous network it will allow us to access everything from pictures of our kids, our favorite music and corporate data on an Internet terminal in our car.
But what's missing right now is that we need to offer users the seamless transition of data between, for example, a car's computer and a variety of handheld devices. "We need to break down the seams," he said. The dream is that applications will intelligently populate the device you're using with relevant data based on your location, such as driving directions while you are in the car.
Chris Thomas, Chief E-Strategist at Intel agreed, adding that e-forms and the like will help revolutionize how enterprise applications are developed and delivered. We have started moving away from a Web browser-centric UI to a series of shared application components assembled on the fly.
That's not a new message, but what is new is the fact that utility-style applications are now being delivered. It's a challenge that my other fellow panelist, Jim Balsillie, Chairman and Co-CEO at RIM, attempted to tackle. RIM built its business on always on wireless email. But now the company is all about providing a platform for developing and delivering all manner of pre-built and distributed applications. RIM's Blackberry, for one, is certainly not browser centric.
And so that turns my thoughts to Salesforce.com. In case you missed yesterday's news, the company unveiled an upgrade to its Sforce development platform. The company actually calls Sforce a hosted application server. So if you think about it, Salesforce.com is arguing that your applications don't need to run on your own servers. In addition, Salesforce.com can deliver your application - complete with integrated CRM - to any device, anywhere.
When Salesforce.com's latest upgrades go live in a couple of weeks, it affirms the fact that we need to move from talking about "when" to "how" utility-style applications of any type (not just CRM) now work. Web services deployments are a reality.
My final thought is this: Salesforce.com is planning to roll out ERP-style func-tionality in subsequent releases. The big message here is that the company believes it doesn't actually matter what applications are delivered in a hosted fashion. In short, Salesforce.com is stealing pages from Amazon.com and eBay's playbook. It's not about hosted-CRM anymore. Salesforce.com's business is finally becoming what CEO Marc Benioff always said it would be - a utility that sits on the Internet delivering companies any application on demand.
Update: the hotel's Internet connection is not letting my VPN create a tunnel, so Ephraim is posting this for me. Frustratingly, VPN support is something many conference venues are yet to accommodate.
- Mark Jones
Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on November 11, 2003 04:24 PM
November 06, 2003 | Comments: (0)
Java guru James Gosling, who has held the title of Sun Fellow at Sun Microsystems, is moving up the corporate ladder.
Gosling is to be appointed next week as CTO for the recently formed Sun Developer Platforms group, which is responsible for tools products at Sun.
The position is a new one, according to Sun officials. Gosling is largely credited as a founder of Java.
Posted by Paul Krill on November 6, 2003 02:11 PM
November 05, 2003 | Comments: (0)
If you're not a PR or marketing person, bear with me for a moment. Dan Gillmor this morning notes that PR company G2B Group is using RSS to pitch IT journalists and editors.
Dan's right in that we, the media, would love to see more PR people publish product and company news via RSS. Ultimately I'd like to see PR companies offer RSS feeds for specific technology categories. For example, Scott Tyler Shafer could use an RSS news reader to subscribe to networking, storage and processor press releases from the PR firms he knows. Ephraim Schwartz would do the same thing for wireless and enterprise applications, Paul Krill for app dev news, and so on through the reporting ranks.
The big message that marketing folks are just beginning to realize is that RSS helps people (including journalists) cut through the messaging overload. Speaking for myself, less than 5 percent of the 400+ emails I get every day actually contain relevant, targeting pitches from PR professionals. And interestingly enough, those "good" pitches also tend to come from PR people I know. The rest of my mail, btw, is mostly spam, email newsletters, irrelevant pitches and internal company memos - it's all very deletable.
So, when it comes to digesting RSS feeds through a news aggregator - I currently use Bloglines because it's completely web-based - I have a list of carefully chosen sources of information. I don't have to sort through spam and irrelevant messages. I don't have to politely turn down the many PR people who don't understand InfoWorld's technology news-focussed mission. It's efficient, targeted, and from the PR person's point of view, there's a very low chance I will delete or overlook the message (unlike email).
PR folks - let me know if you're developing technology-focussed RSS feeds. It's time to leave the email pitching mess behind.
Posted by Mark Jones on November 5, 2003 12:15 PM
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