The role that IT plays is transforming. Thus, the skills, roles, and tools for CIOs have to transform too. Why? If the trend toward cloud-based services continues, then the role of the CIO will shift from being a builder/technologist to becoming an integrator/vendor-manager. Read more »
The leading social media platforms’ latest campaign efforts could turn out to be more effective politically than traditional lobbying. Rather than acting simply as one voice among many asking for legislative favors or regulatory forbearance, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are providing tools that politicians can ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
After going it alone with a proprietary version of Hadoop, MapR has rejoined the open source community via Apache Drill, an open source initiative to re-engineer Google Dremel. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
As the market for solar in Europe has been hammered by rollbacks in subsidies, from Germany to Italy, many on the domestic front have noted that at the end of 2016, the 30 percent tax credit on residential solar installations will expire. Sure, that’s over four ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Last week, Facebook and Twitter generated consternation within their respective ecosystems. These uproars illustrate key differences in the two dominant social media platforms. Facebook APIs channel data and technology services, but Twitter’s all about the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Apple and Microsoft are up to no good says antitrust lawyer David Balto. Dropping even the pretense of fairness and competition, the unlikely team have enlisted one of the most aggressive patent trolls to go after the Kodak patent portfolio. Read more »
Although the networks have complained in recent years about the high costs of rights for major sporting events, to say nothing of the impact those high costs have on the carriage fees the networks demand from pay-TV distributors, nothing in NBC’s experience with the London Games ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Community-owned broadband gets a significant boost with the Google fiber announcement, even though Kansas City doesn’t own the network. The trick is understanding which Google tactics can be replicated by community projects and how to use gigabit envy to get municipal networks built. Read more »
Amazon Web Services is hyping the growth of its app marketplace, but behind the scenes it’s pretty slow and it’s unclear if AWS cloud users will necessarily use it to buy apps. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
When the Commerce Department levied substantial tariffs on Chinese solar panels makers a few months back, GigaOM contributor Ucilia Wang noted that there would be negligible impacts on American consumers because solar panels made up a small part of the actual cost of putting in a ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Last Thursday, Facebook did its first earnings call as a public company. Though it showed a solid 32 percent revenue growth to $1.2 billion, reactions were mixed at best and the stock suffered. Unrealistic expectations are causing people to overlook Facebook’s fitful progress in online advertising, ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
How do data-center-dependent companies like Google or Facebook reduce their power bills and carbon footprints? The server itself could be designed to use less power. With that possibility now looming, a number of players are jumping in, from startups to established chip makers like Intel. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The Wholesale Application Community (WAC) will go down in mobile history as one of the most ambitious, but failed, attempts at collaboration by our dear telco friends. Locaid’s CEO Rip Gerber explains why these powerful carriers — all facing common threats — couldn’t get their WAC together. Read more »
These days, agility is all the rage, particularly in information technology circles, but our understanding of the word is shallow. Consequently, we have little idea how we might increase it systematically. A strategy developed by a fighter pilot can help us break through the mental logjam. Read more »
The thrust of the Justice Department’s two recent antitrust investigations is the same in each: to see whether incumbent media providers are abusing their dominant positions within traditional distribution chains to squelch competition arising from new, digital distribution ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Facebook and, to a lesser extent, Google, continued to dominate social and online media in the second quarter. Activity in the social-enterprise space picked up as well, while Google’s social initiatives have garnered mixed results at best. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
New CEO appears to have the savvy and the experience to help Yahoo regain its status as a major player in mobile. Here are a few things I think the company should focus on as it tries to find its way out of the ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
VMware shakes up its cloud strategy with spinouts rumored and a reshuffle at the top. Paul Maritz is out, Pat Gelsinger is in as CEO. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Mobile operator profits have more than doubled in the last 10 years. But operators can’t rest on their laurels. As voice, texting, and data revenues fall over time, operators must step up to take up the role of becoming an over the top provider. Read more »
It seems that the last six months has brought an increasing focus on Apple’s conscience as everything from its labor practices in Asia to it its sourcing of power for its to data centers to how recyclable its computers are has been scrutinized. Apple has actually ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Cleantech continues to be a diverse market of opportunities. In the second quarter of 2012 companies from Tesla to car-sharing service RelayRides and a pack of solar players worked to monetize strategies to leverage consumer and corporate interest in going green. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Travel search company Kayak Software filed an updated S-1 last week, implying that it will finally make its long-delayed IPO sometime this week. A successful offering would bode well for the overall startup environment and as a proof of concept for vertical search. But Kayak also ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The discussion of wired and wireless broadband often resembles a holy war. Devotees of each camp are adamant that theirs is the only true religion in the national effort to get broadband everywhere it needs to be. But they will have to work together. Read more »
