QR Codes in the US
I had first become familiar with these codes in Oct 2006 (link to my posts: what can we do with them?, About QR Codes).

I finally see some movement in the deployment of this technology here in the US. I just read this article explaining why this technology can be very important for the newspaper industry. A few interesting links

• Link to a pic of a QR code in san jose mercury news
• Google AdWords Print Ads
• 
  

There is a lot of learning to be done:

• NY Times article on an unsuccessful test

I am still bullish about this!

Enterprise Mashups?
It seems all the Enterprise Software vendors are touting Mashup features (Infoworld Article). I fell (and agree with Bill Snyder) that the market is still immature. Here is where I am on this:

• B2C Mashups: (Enterprise App to well known Consumer App (Google, etc.) makes a lot of sense and will show-up in Enterprise products
• B2B Mashups: (Enterprise to Enterprise App) Mashup may make sense for some well know and large Enterprise Service providers
• Enterprise Internal Mashups: Don't make much sense to me

IBM is jumping into the fray with IBM Mashup Center. It is an interesting tool targeted at sophisticated end users.

We will wait and see if this is another tool in the IT Toolbox or do users actually embrace it.

Notes on Google Android
It seems that T-Mobile will be the first telco to ship the first device based on Google Android (news item). The current projection is to get a couple of devices out by the end of the year. This article explains why success is not guaranteed! There are some significant hurdles to cross. However, I do agree that the advent of Android, iPhone SDK, etc will force all mobile platforms to become more open and encourage development of new and innovative mobile apps.

Google's Android Developers Blog

Earth Day 2008: 10 Green Social Networks
Link to an interesting article on GigaOM.

Changed my blog to Green Tones!

SAAS-Y
Having built a SAAS product, I can relate to the thoughts in this article: Bessemer’s Top 10 Laws for Being “SaaS-y”.

Very Insightful and on the money!

Ning worth $560 Million
WOW! Here is the post by Marc Andreessen. They are seeing a 1000 social networks being created per day. Earlier today, I read on Demo.com that there are 70+ products competing in the space. That is a lot of social networks.

The demo article also talked about several products that build social networks around events:

Small World Labs, introNetworks, CrowdVine, Leverage Software, and EventVue are among the ...

I browsed some of the sites. Hope to use one of these products to build an on-line collaboration site for the CTO Roundtable.

Google AppEngine offers free Cloud Computing
Cloud Computing is the future of Infrastructure. Google, having built one of largest and most impressive computing infrastructures, is jumping in with an offer for developers to host their applications for free. Their solution is called AppEngine. The blogosphere is rife with predictions (GigaOm, TechCrunch) that Google will give existing services (Amazon Web Services, etc.) a run for their money. Time will tell if the features offered free will be sufficient.

The Washington Area CTO Roundtable (full disclosure: I am the President of this group) will discuss the topic at a sold out event at the end of this month.

Information Security
It is quite worrisome that the offense is clearly overwhelming the defense. This clearly requires new approaches ... and quickly!

Link to the BW article.

Anonymous blogging gone bad
Interesting article on Business Week on how it ended for a Cisco Lawyer blogging anonymously about Patent Trolling. I believe that you should always attach your name to whatever you post on the web. There is no privacy on the web!

Mobile phones on planes approved in Europe
Link to BBC Article. Once again: We are left behind. Some will argue that it is for the better. However, I am all for "always-on" connectivity.

NYTimes: Blogging can be deadly!
Reports that blogging is a very stressful profession are on the increase. I can relate to that by my personal experience of trying to post my thoughts in a timely manner. Blogging breaking news is all about speed ... and speed Kills.

Here is the link to the NYtimes article.