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Somehow traditionalists still perceive technology as outside the sphere of reality. It wouldn’t be likely that any advanced technology would impact any historical event, all the more a sporting event. It must have been an eye-opener for these people of the bygone era when lately the International Olympic Committee and the Chinese government agreed to block the Internet access of reporters who will cover the Olympics on sites considered as politically sensitive.

This move is considered another step taken by the Chinese government reneging on their agreement made seven years ago when the Olympic games was granted to Beijing, China, to give international reporters unhampered access to the Web.

Reporter without Borders, a Paris-based advocacy group, has released a work-around guide for these reporters by using the proxy servers. The guide also includes a warning asking the reporters to monitor their emails and phone lines cause these may be monitored by Chinese security. The said guide is also blocked, however.

Some of these sites mentioned are those run by Amnesty International, the spiritual movement Falun Gong, Tibet Independent Sympathizers, and other human rights groups hostile to the Chinese Communist Party. The censorship equipment controlled by the Chinese Public Security Bureau is backed up by around 30, 000 monitors.

The spokesman for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, Sun Weide, commented at a news conference that the Chinese government would make sure that reporters could cover the event spontaneously and that those banned sites are not in any way relevant to the sporting event coverage.

There have been complaints from the 5,000 reporters housed at the main press center that they can’t access the Amnesty International report Monday which criticizes Chinese human rights up to the Olympic Games. At Beijing International Media Center, reporters have access to Wikipedia’s home page but can’t access the whole site and British Broadcasting Corp.’s Chinese-language site is also inaccessible.

With this extensive filtering of Internet access, the Internet has been really slow, particularly in areas which are heavily monitored.

White House Asian Affairs Director Dennis Wilder has expressed disappointment on this Internet clamp down at Beijing.

China has avowed its interest to turn in its society into the modern world. To keep its communication lines open is one way of adhering to the principles of modernity. Looking at the bright side of things, they had already discovered the social impact Internet technology has.

Source:

http://www.washingtonpost.com

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It has been a while since internal social networking has been infiltrating big companies in the US. Crisscrossing boundaries from banking, manufacturing to retail and information technology industries, the companies are building networks behind the company's firewall. In this way, employees can create profiles and store them in a database and connect with one another in such applications like LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace.

Cross-division communication has made internal transactions smoother and internal processes more efficient. People don't just chat; they connect with people and end up talking about things that have an impact on the business," says Amy Shuen, author of Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide. (O'Reilly Media, 2008).

These companies are using these software applications for IBM's Lotus Connections, Microsoft's SharePoint, Awareness Inc.'s Enterprise Social Media, and Jive Software's Clearspace. The following are three companies that have reaped benefits from these programs:

Deloitte LLP: D Street

The D Street came about primarily because of the Deloitte's aim to make the large loose company organization into a tighter, more compact network. Having applied this commercial-based system like Facebook has helped the company in its battle for talents with average employees from 28 years.

The system allows Deloitte's employees to log their basic information: name, job title, contact information. The employees can personalize their profiles with photographs, work and community affiliations, resumes, and former employers. They can write blogs in D Street and also leave comments for their colleagues in a functionality called "guest book."

A senior consultant, Avinash Jhangiani, has been singing praises for the system, saying that he has widened his contacts in the company and he was sighted by their community service group, which allowed him to express his passion for humanitarian service.

"Make sure support is there throughout the organization," Patricia Romeo, the leader of D Street, says. Once the platform begins filling with valuable content, she adds, "it's really about viral adoption."

IBM: Beehive

The first application IBM used was BluePages. It was a web-based corporate directory. Later on, IBM created Beehive whose codes were based on old BluePages which is based on Lotus Connections. Beehive is conceptualized and designed as a platform for collaboration that allows IBM employees to display their photos, trophies and awards, and chat about the latest updates in their personal lives. This is sort of an emulation of the physical environment.  

According to Jeff Schick, vice president of social software, it has created a “water cooler effect” for its people, which enables them to build tighter bonds in the workplace and consequently creates a more effective organization.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com

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It's believed that the next IT hub is UK's outsourcing destination near the shore, Scotland. Andrew Rigby, a lawyer specializing in outsourcing contracts for nearly 20 years, says that scotland has become famous for its call center support services but that it's a wrong field to concentrate on.

Rigby further said that Scotland's strength is on software development and that it could be a more lucrative place to send out outsource processes to Scotland rather than in India.

There have been high-profile business organizations in Scotland that can be tapped for outsourcing: Trade Association for Technology in Scotland and the Scottish Development International and the Chartered Institute for Bankers in Scotland.

The initiative is to mainly target outsourcing buyers in England, Singapore, Hong Kong, canada, and the US, in that order.

Rigby said that there is no reason for UK not to provide outsourcing services to Canada.

Edinburgh has ranked sixth in the world for asset management. Scotland holds excellent technology expertise, specifically the skills of its pool of graduates.

Source:
http://www.sourcingmag.com

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The new Firefox browser had just innovated itself again; it seems like there’s no end to these innovative changes. Yes, it just went mobile. For the first time you have an open source browser on your mobile phone, and it’s ready for future major changes that will allow more conveniences for mobile users.

Mitchell Baker, chairman of Mozilla, maker of the Firefox browser, announced it last year. The Firefox mobile browser will be available late this year. When asked about what makes the browser different than the Internet Explorer and Safari, Baker replied that being open source means more room for innovation and business for software developers and more options for features and other stuffs for mobile users. He further said that this will be a good avenue for an explosion of innovations to come.

Moreover, he mentioned that through traveling, you will find a lot of opportunities for creation and development of the mobile browser and its functionalities in places outside of the United States. Having stringent rules in mobile carriers, Baker pointed out that he doesn’t see the US as a leading nation when it comes to mobile development and innovation. He said that when you show them what’s possible, they will understand and soon demand will follow.

Firefox has the idea for change and improvement, which is pretty much difficult when it comes to technology; but one can’t hold back one’s self from thinking of the idea’s nobility, as it allows ingenuity to flourish.

Source: http://www.technologyreview.com