Slow
Quick update: I’m back for the week in my hometown bouncing around the periphery of SXSW. Interesting enough event, but more importantly, cool people.
National Innovation Spending Wasted
Forrester says –
National investments in innovation are largely wasted and technology studies confirm the political and social biases of their sponsors instead of presenting the truth.
The U.S. spent almost $300 billion in public and private money on R&D in 2003, about half of all R&D spending by the 30 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). America can claim 35% of all patents filed in Europe, Japan, and at home. But such spending doesn’t create jobs or boost the number of goods and services produced by a country — also known as the gross domestic product (GDP).
ROTC Decline
This post at IntelDump covers the decline of Army ROTC units in urban areas.
Strategy + IT + Building
CIO also covers the pairing of IT and physical office space –
Today, however, as tech demands grow ever more complex and more important to the bottom line, CIOs are finding that it pays to be actively involved in corporate real estate decisions from the very beginning. By doing so, they not only have the opportunity to tailor the design of a new facility to meet their company’s current and future technology needs, they also are able to do so at a time when it is relatively easy to make changes: on paper and before construction has started.
And if you do it right from the beginning, you don’t have to worry about this –
Once the decision was made to move, says Novak, the first step was understanding in a comprehensive way the firm’s current and future tech needs. This led to an intensive multiyear program, wherein just about every aspect of the firm’s tech operations was subjected to a rigorous analysis in order to establish optimum benchmarks for a new building.
But now that the effort is underway it looks like they’ve got the right idea in mind – flexibility, resiliency and efficiency. The article is littered with interesting specifics.
Linking Telecom Networks
CIO – In reaction to earthquakes and the resulting tsunamis –
Japan and Russia plan to link their telecommunications networks via a new undersea fiber optic cable, they said late Tuesday. The cable, which is expected to be in place by the end of this year, avoids the area south of Taiwan in which many cables suffered damage after a powerful earthquake last year.
It will be able to carry up to 640Gbps of data and will be the shortest uninterrupted route from Japan to Europe. As it avoids Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean region, it will also serve as a backup should another earthquake disrupt communications.