Top 6 Ways to Get Business Execs and Techs Working Together

GigaOM had a good post over the weekend about the top five ways business executives fail to work effectively with product and engineering execs, and that respect, ethics, determination, discipline and humility can solve the problem. I'd agree with that â€" you don't necessarily need a technical person at the top (though an affinity for technology is a smart thing to seek in a high tech CEO). But I think they missed the boat a bit. In describing the problems, Kevin Fortuna and Marty Abbott were specific, which makes it easier to see a situation for what it is. I think the following six positive habits for executives would be a good counterweight.

• Aug 18, 2008

Cloud Outages: Are Vendors Selling Before They're Ready?

It's official: the media declares that cloud computing is changing the world. For anyone who's made more than one circuit around the high tech block, this sounds like many other bits of jargon -- SaaS, MSP, ASP, web services, thin client, client server, even mainframe timesharing -- and for good reason. The concept of running, from a single location, major computing services for thousands of users is actually an old one. But in their rush to jump aboard the latest fad gravy train, many companies are stumbling and taking their customers with them. As a result, they have tossed the mud that will sully the cloud name and require yet another new term in the future to entice customers now jaded and distrustful.

• Aug 18, 2008

Android Handsets: Why Google Has to Win this Market (UPDATED)

It sounds as though the reports that handsets powered by Google's Android software would be delayed until 2009 are wrong. Well, that is if the New York Times story is right and HTC handsets for T-Mobile are out before Christmas Whether it will be a true rival for the iPhone or Blackberry is impossible to tell yet, but this isn't about one handset versus another. What is happening is a battle, at least on Google's side, for the ability to serve mobile advertising at all. And the company will use every trick to make economics work in its favor. If it does this right, Apple may remain a premium device, but the market will move toward Google and more affordable devices with similar features. And that means Google stays in the ad business.

• Aug 15, 2008

Free and Proprietary Software Groups Applaud Copyright Decision

A court ruling on the Jacobsen v. Katzer case this Wednesday had many declaring it a "win" for open source software. I spoke to a few lawyers about the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) decision for a better understanding of what happened and how it affects software vendors of all stripes, whether in the free or fee camps. Participating were Neil MacBride, vice president of anti-piracy and general council of the Business Software Alliance; James Vasile, legal counsel for the Software Freedom Law Center; and Jeffrey Neuburger, partner and co-chair of the technology, media and communications practice at law firm Proskauer Rose. I've pulled quotes together in a "round table" form for convenience.

• Aug 15, 2008

Chips Are Down for EDA, Semiconductor Companies

Semiconductor design tool vendor Cadence Design Systems has given up on buying rival Mentor Graphics when the price became more than it could afford, or borrow. This isn't an isolated failed deal, but an indicator of the problems that the electronic design assistance (EDA) market has been seeing â€" a flat market, entrenched competition, and nothing new on the horizon making chip designers reach for their wallets.

• Aug 15, 2008

Google Looks to Mobile Advertising -- a Reason for Android?

There is a mania in this country for mobile advertising. Not on the part of consumers at the moment, and not necessarily on the part of advertisers, either. The supporters are the people who want to facilitate the conversation of commerce, and the latest bellying up to the bar was done yesterday by Google's Eric Schmidt in an interview with Jim Cramer. The question is whether that bar is serving Kool-Aid or not, and how much of the company's activities, like the handset operating system Android, may be there to support the mobile message.

• Aug 14, 2008

Satellite Radio Sales to Rise, but Will Customer Satisfaction Follow?

Ever since the FCC blessed the union of Sirius and XM to form one satellite radio company, opinions have run the gamut. At least one analyst firm expects total unit sales to continue rising, but as a long term subscriber to one of the services, I wonder whether some of the inherent limitations I've found, and others that might come up, are going to cap the potential popularity.

• Aug 13, 2008

iPhone Example of Bad Tech Practice: Selling Beta

Apple has been hit with a daunting list of iPhone-related problems that in the new version's first month. The company will probably address a number of these in time, but chances are that nothing fundamental will change with the way it does business now or when the next version comes about. That's because the entire technology industry wants to start in the new film, Selling Beta.

• Aug 13, 2008

Does Apple's iPhone App Killing Open It to Liability?

Apple has confirmed that it can turn off an application already sitting on a user's iPhone. There's been a fair amount of controversy around kill switches, and I suddenly wondered whether, given the specifics of Apple's operations, whether the company was opening itself up to liability. So I asked Mark McCreary, a partner with law firm Fox Rothschild, about it.

• Aug 12, 2008

Company Answers to House Questions on Internet Privacy Unconvincing

On August 1, The House Energy and Commerce Committee sent letters out to 31 major Internet players to ask about whether they track consumer web use to better target advertising. As of Monday, 25 had answered and the House posted the responses. The exercise had been enough to get Yahoo and Google to announce new opt out procedures, understandably The questions were tough and the answers ... interesting. Despite the strongest reassurances, chances are that the House will continue down a path to regulation.

• Aug 12, 2008

Yahoo's Advisory Fees: Maybe Yahoo Should Have Been the Buyer

The New York Times DealBook pointed out that Yahoo spent $36 million on handling Microsoft's takeover offer and the resulting proxy fight. Consider the distraction of the board and management, and the cash is a likely shareholder value pittance in comparison. Ironically, for all the Yahoo trash talk you hear, the company's revenue, profits, and shareholder equity are all on a six month rise compared to last year. So why are people so down on it?

• Aug 12, 2008

Google Growth Needs Organic Diet: Ad Growth May Be Slowing Deceptively Fast

Erick Schonfeld on TechCrunch an interesting analysis of Google's growth. Center of the analysis is examination of organic growth, or the increase in revenue from Google's own pre-existing activities and not acquisitions. What I found interesting was taking his analysis and looking at where Google's revenue originates, because the combination says even more about what might be happening with the company.

• Aug 11, 2008

US Software Companies Behind on IFRS

IFRS -- the international financial reporting standards that have become the accepted approach to accounting in much of the world -- had turned North America into a business island. What separated Canada and the United States from everyone else was GAAP: their versions of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles that companies used in their bookkeeping and financial reporting. But that's changing, which means trouble for many accounting-related software companies.

• Aug 11, 2008

Cliff Harris Q&A: Why Do You Pirate My Games?

Many in the software and entertainment industries hire lawyers and involve the courts in an attempt to stop product piracy. But few ever ask the people who use their products without paying why they do so. Cliff Harris, owner of Positech Games, has actively fought piracy, but started wondering what motivated participants and decided to ask people who had pirated games to email him and honestly explain their reasons. A few days into his experiment, he's received hundreds of emails and comments on his blog and I asked him about his experiment.

• Aug 11, 2008

California State Supreme Court Nixes Employment Non-Competes

California's Supreme Court ruled yesterday that employers in the state cannot keep employees from working for competitors in their next job. This likely eliminates Federal courts from an interpretation of California law that favored some employers.

• Aug 8, 2008

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