bill

BOSTON--Bill Bradley cannot possibly be running for president.

The former senator did not sugarcoat any of his opinions at a keynote address that took place as a question-and-answer session led by AMR Research CEO Tony Friscia at the Executive Leadership Conference 2007 in Boston on Tuesday.

Friscia questioned Bradley's ideas put forth in his book, The New American Story and its message of collectiveness and necessary sacrifice if the U.S. is going to stay on top.

The topics discussed--while grounded in effects on technology companies globally--took many unusual turns. Bradley waned, waxed and warned on the sorry state … Read more

BOSTON--Emerging markets will be found in BRIC. That's Brazil, Russia, India, and China.

And unless companies start thinking and operating more collectively and less individualistically, they will not survive--let alone thrive on-- this change.

That was the message given on Tuesday to a group of CIOs, CEOs, and other executives at AMR Research's Executive Leadership Conference 2007.

Major challenges facing companies in the emerging BRIC-driven world economy will include how to manage data and how to mobilize a skilled workforce from one currently made up of aging skilled workers getting ready to retire and young unskilled workers.

AMR … Read more

Former President Bill Clinton was at Microsoft's campus Friday as part of the company's celebration of the end of its charitable giving campaign. The effort brought in $72 million in individual and company donations (including software), a total that Clinton praised.

Clinton, who just authored a book on giving, noted the role the Internet has played in making it easier to do charitable work, saying it "has changed the landscape of potential for private citizens doing public good."

He urged more individuals to tackle the world's big problems.

"Don't you think that because … Read more

WASHINGTON--Federal consumer protection authorities say they want nothing more than to put the financial hurt on deceptive spyware purveyors. The trouble, they say, is that the law still doesn't let them.

Sure, the Federal Trade Commission has the ability to go after spyware purveyors now, and it has done so a dozen or so times. So can state attorneys general and the U.S. Department of Justice.

But currently, the FTC can only force an offending company to turn over ill-gotten profits or to pay a finite amount to affected consumers--"consumer redress," as it's known … Read more

Phew, what a busy week it was. Unfortunately, it was busy for me in a way that meant I didn't get to see as much of the World Design Congress as I had hoped. The plan for blogging during it also didn't work out as expected. Tim got to see a lot more than I did, and his post does a masterful job of capturing the highlights and trends.

From my more limited perspective I would tend to agree with the key points of his post. The highlight for me, as I think it was for many, was … Read more

Anyone who has ever used an instant-messaging program has seen the basic idea of presence. That little status bar that says "available," "away," "out to lunch" or "cursing the Mets" is your presence--the computer's understanding of how and under what means you are available.

Today, that information is stored on the computer, but is mostly acted on by other people. Perhaps you see that someone's status is busy, so you send them an e-mail asking them to call rather than pestering them with an IM. Or, you see that someone … Read more