Recently in Business Technology Category

As a sometime podjockey (see TMCnet's podcast page for some of our attempts), I was interested to see this announcement on the TMCnet news feeds, coming from Audible:

Audible Unveils Audible Wordcast at Podcasting & Portable Media Expo; For the First Time, Content Creators Large and Small Will Be Able to Build Audit-Ready Advertising-Based and Subscription-Based Podcasting Businesses

For several years, Audible has been in the business of selling downloads of audio books and other content in digital format. I used their monthly Audible Listener subscription service to keep my digital audio player stocked with audio books, which I listen to while driving and walking for exercise.

Audible's new web-based service allows podcasters to "build multiple revenue streams around capabilities such as advertising management, dynamic ad-insertion, underwriting and secured transactions."

AB -- 11/11/05

I just wanted to call attention to this announcement that came across the TMCnet news feeds today:

The University of North Carolina, with Support from Red Hat, to Host Symposium for Intellectual Property, Creativity, and the Innovation Process

Aside from my connections to the Triangle area and UNC (born there, went to school there), my interest in this item has to do with the topics of intellectual property (the other IP) and innovation.

Linux developer Red Hat is sponsoring the "UNC Symposium for Intellectual Property, Creativity, and the Innovation Process" Nov. 1-2, 2005, in Chapel Hill, N.C. The symposium will examine issues of copyright, open source software, patents, public domain, P2P and others. Today's announcement says that the UNC law school plans to develop a "specialized center" as an outgrowth of the symposium, created to "reflect the best thinking of the best minds on intellectual property, creativity, and the innovation process."

AB -- 11/1/05

Products announced by Kintera and LexisNexis today seem designed according to a related theme. Both of these "target the bad guys" releases appeared through our TMCnet news feeds:

Friend or Foe: Kintera Launches Features for Quality Online Advocacy Communications; Information-Driven Tool Empowers Activists to Send Timely, Targeted Messages to 'Friends' and 'Foes'

LexisNexis Negative News Search Helps Identify People Or Organizations With Negative Affiliations Such As Criminal Acts, Bankruptcies Or Illicit Behavior; Searches Over 13,000 News Sources For Negative News Content

The Kintera release adds a "Friend or Foe" feature to its Kintera Advocacy product created for political and advocacy groups. It allows the user to identify whether a legislator is a friend or not, based on voting records and other criteria, then direct customized messages based on the decision-maker's stance. Might be fun to see what kinds of messages get directed to the foes.

The LexisNexis release announces a new "Negative News" search feature to its Anti-Money Laundering, Risk Management and RiskWise applications. The release describes the capabilities of the new feature like this:

"Users only need to input the name of a person or business, and Negative News automatically builds a powerful search that identifies articles in which the name of the person or business appears in close proximity to mentions of criminal acts, bankruptcies or illicit behavior. Examples of terms that Negative News looks for in the text of articles include: 'bribe,' 'drug,' 'felony,' 'misconduct,' 'negligence,' and 'theft.'"

Just please don't search on my name for "hitch-hiking arrests Arkansas 1971."

AB -- 10/13/05

Around 2001 I did extensive research into e-learning tools in connection with a consulting engagement for a client who wanted to publish a series of online courses. At the time, Blackboard and WebCT were two of the providers I investigated. In fact, I had actually used WebCT to create an online course even earlier, back in about 1999.

So I was intrigued today when our TMCnet news feeds received the announcement of the merger of Blackboard and WebCT.

Reading the release, I was astonished at the figures involved in this transaction, indicating impressive growth in the e-learning industry. Blackboard is paying $189 million for WebCT. The two companies together will boast a client base of 3,700 institutions globally. Blackboard, a public company (Nasdaq: BBBB), has a market cap of $620.5 million, a P/E ratio of 17.33 and a stock price of about $23, trending upward from about $14 throughout 2005. I'm no financial analyst, but this sounds like a good situation.

Briefly checking the two companies' web sites, I was also impressed at the level of professionalism and marketing savvy developed over the years by both outfits, especially Blackboard. I remember when I was research e-learning providers just four years ago I was appalled at the poor communications skills exhibited by companies across the board in the e-learning space.

But now, checking the Blackboard and WebCT web sites, I see strong, detailed, benefit-oriented presentations -- and, one of the most important elements in software marketing, visuals that actually show what the product looks like, how it works, and what the user experience is like. To their detriment, this basic visual element is missing on many technology-company web sites.

I'm also impressed by the degree to which Blackboard and WebCT have developed their products into broad, sophisticated platforms for online learning, community and collaboration -- along with integrated e-commerce. Only about six years ago, I remember as a user being discouraged by WebCT's rudimentary capabilities for designing an online course.

Obviously, things have changed radically in the e-learning space, with important implications for the technology-enablement of institutions of higher education, K-12 and corporate training programs. Congratulations to Blackboard and WebCT on their merger and for their amazing progress.

AB -- 10/13/05

This news item came across our TMCnet news feeds today, and I took note of it solely for the beauty of the headline:

ESO Uranium Corp Contracts Fugro Airborne For Megatem II Survey On Cluff Project

Others have argued for filtering out "irrelevant" news from our site -- but just look what kinds of items we would miss out on!

This release is really about uranium mining in the Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan in Canada. As I understand it, ESO Uranium Corp., a mining outfit, is commissioning a survey to locate uranium resources. I believe Megatem II is a technology used for aerial survey to locate underground resources. This excerpt describes something about how the technology will be used in this project:

"The Megatem II system has substantially greater power and depth penetration than systems used in the past and uses advanced data processing capable of defining conductor locations and conductivity parameters. The survey will fly nearly perpendicular to the known conductors axis, and will consist of 2,000 line kilometers flown on 400 meter line spacings. It will cover the Cluff basement structure which will provide information on areas associated with three groups of uranium mineralized boulders containing up to 19.3% U3O8 and 2.9 g/t gold."

AB -- 10/05/05

This item from today's TMCnet news feeds highlights the expanding role of wikis in enterprise knowledge management (KM) and collaboration:

SAP Invests in Socialtext; Investment Comes at Time of Significant Growth for Enterprise Wiki Market

Often I find that when I mention wikis to people (assuming they have any idea what I'm talking about), they immediately launch into a lecture about how unreliable Wikipedia is. However, to me it seems like the value of the wiki is more as an enterprise tool for KM than as a way to produce a public collaborative encyclopedia -- although I think there's a lot of value in that application as well.

Socialtext describes itself as a provider of "simple group productivity solutions." Today's release describes the company's market penetration: "More than 200 businesses around the globe -- including Nokia, Symantec, JM Family and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein -- are using Socialtext to meet numerous business challenges with simple group collaboration."

Besides an enterprise version of its product, Socialtext also offers a hosted version that could work nicely for a smaller organization or as a way to test it out. The starter package is $495 for a one-year five-user license, $245 for non-profits.

Unfortunately, like many, many technology companies, their web site does not seem to provide any screen shots to give the potential customer (or curious journalist) a way to find out what the product's user experience is like. A mysterious practice, hiding your product. Here's an example of a workspace created with Socialtext:

http://www.socialtext.net/brightgreen/index.cgi

Today's release announces an investment of $850,000 from SAP Ventures as part of a round of funding totaling $4 million.

AB -- 9/30/05

TMCnet's technology and communications podcast for the week of Sept. 5-9, 2005, is now available from TMCnet's podcast page.

This week's podcast featured Executive Editor Robert Liu, Assistant Editor Ted Glanzer, Online Channels Editor Michelle Pasquerello, and me (Editorial Director Al Bredenberg). Topics covered in this week's program included:

+ Communications and Katrina -- TMCnet's podjockeys wonder, Does the U.S. need a cabinet-level Communications Czar?

+ Texas IPTV Franchise Bill -- Texas' governor signs a law that will allow telcos to bypass the local TV franchise process for rolling out IP entertainment services, such as Verizon's FiOS and SBC's Lightspeed. Next: On to New Jersey?

+ Skype and Vonage News -- Rumors circulate about a possible acquisition of Skype by eBay. Vonage reports that it has signed its one-millionth VoIP line.

+ Motorola and Apple Release the ROKR -- But does the iTunes music phone really rock that much?

So to get this week's top news stories from the world of communications, please visit TMCnet's podcast page to listen to today's MP3 or subscribe to our podcast feed.

AB -- 9/9/05

This morning I received some interesting commentary and statistics from SITA, a provider of IT and communications solutions for air transport and related industries. Their release was issued in connection with a webcast scheduled for 2:00 PM BST today (Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005 -- 9 AM US Eastern time). The webcast is titled "The Future of 21st Century Air Travel."

Today SITA is releasing its annual Airline IT Trends Survey. The survey especially highlights the trend toward increasing electronic self-service as a business model for airline customer communications. Following are some figures quoted from today's release:

• Over 70% of the world's airlines now sell tickets through the Internet

• E-tickets now make up 30% of all tickets issued by airlines, up from 19% in 2004

• 60% of airlines will be using bar-coded boarding passes by the end of 2007, giving travelers the convenience of printing the passes out at home or in the office 

SITA's study does warn against a growing gap between airline companies that are making good use of IT and those that are falling behind. The announcement quotes SITA President Peter Buecking: "There is the spectre of a two-speed industry, with weaker airlines losing competitive advantage because of a lack of technology investment."

The release also says that forward-thinking airlines are moving rapidly to IP communications: "The pace-setting airlines are embracing new Internet Protocol (IP) and wireless-based technologies that underpin applications, such as e-ticketing and self-service kiosks."

SITA also says that their study "underscores deep regional differences" in IT strategies in the industry: "Lack-lustre North American performances contrast sharply with a vibrant Asia-Pacific region, where dynamic passenger growth is driving plans to deploy innovative in-flight passenger communications services.Europe is a mixed bag, with some leaders and some laggards."

AB -- 9/1/05

Dialogic Communication Corporation (DCC) is announcing today that Avaya Inc. has chosen DCC's Communicator! NXT web-based software, which distributes messages in such situations as power and network problems, bad weather, office closures and disasters. Messages can go out via multiple devices, including phone, pager and Blackberry. The system is also able to track responses and produce reports.

DCC already had a relationship with Avaya as a member of the Avaya DeveloperConnection Program. DCC's announcement today emphasizes that its Communicator! NXT software interoperates with Avaya's own technologies, working "seamlessly with Avaya Communications Manager." This means that the DCC solution can also be used by other Avaya customers for their emergency notification and business continuity programs.

AB -- 8/19/05

I just received Radicati Market Stats and Industry Commentary, published by Radicati Group. This organization tracks trends in messaging and desktop security. I found the following stats interesting:

+ Radicati says that this year 61% of email traffic to European consumers is spam and that by 2009 that figure will rise to 76%.

+ Email fraud, the group says, is 3% of spam. This includes "messages and advertisements for non-existent products/services." Sounds low to me. That would mean 97% of spam is for real products?

+ Radicati believes that email messages sent and received by corporate users will average 125/day this year, rising to 1,164/day in 2009. Ouch -- that's a lot of email to manage!

+ The firm foresees the market for corporate desktop anti-spyware growing from 5.5 million clients in 2005 to 290 million clients in 2009.

AB -- 8/17/05