Posts Tagged ‘Cio.com’

Online Activism Takes A Giant Step Forward

January 20th, 2012

By now, unless you’ve been living under a rock the past couple of weeks, you know about the highly controversial SOPA/PIPA Acts being pushed in Congress. Many are upset over these proposals and their potential negative impact on the internet. However, in an unprecedented showing of “online activism” Wednesday, it looks like their cries of foul have not fallen on deaf ears. Aside from Wikipedia’s much publicized “Blackout,” other technology giants like Google, Mozilla, and Craigslist joined the fray in their own personal way. Here were some of the results of Wednesday’s actions, according to a CIO.com article:

-4.5 million people signed Google’s anti-SOPA/PIPA petition, according to the Los Angeles Times

-25 Senators now oppose PIPA (the Senate version of SOPA), according to OpenCongress

-Twitter saw more than 2.4 million SOPA-related tweets between midnight and 4 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday

-Two SOPA co-sponsors and several others dropped support for the House bill

-More than 162 million people saw Wikipedia’s protest page

-More than 8 million people used Wikipedia’s search tool to look up their elected representatives’ contact information

While many are calling the protests a success only time will truly tell the story. The plan, as of now, is to move forward with this anti-piracy legislation. The Senate will vote again on PIPA next Tuesday, January 24th.

****Update****

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced he is postponing Tuesday’s PIPA vote.

Does Size Really Matter

August 17th, 2011

Tom Kaneshige, who covers Apple for CIO.com, recently wrote a piece about the iPad. Basically he said with iPad dominating the tablet market, there’s probably not much they need to do to improve the product. Of course with Apple being Apple, they will try to improve the iPad in some way, shape, or form.  With that in mind, Kaneshige believes the next innovations you will see are various screen sizes. The iPad has a 10″ screen at the moment while the Samsung Galaxy tablet has a 7″ screen, which has seemed to find a nice niche market.

The tablet marketplace is exploding right now and consumers love options but the question is: should tablets get bigger or smaller? If Apple decides to go bigger, they could cut into the laptop and PC market even more than they already have, potentially expediting the slow death of PC’s. A larger tablet may also turn some people off though for being too cumbersome to carry. While the Galaxy may be smaller and more compact, thus more convenient in some people’s eyes, if it gets any smaller you’re encroaching upon the smartphone territory. Not to mention it will just be too much of a hassle for your eyes. I’m not sure which way they should go because everybody has their preferences. Some like compact, others want more screen room. For the tablet owners out there, and I know there are a lot of you, are you satisfied with your screen size? Is it too much or too little? Sound off!

The potential for anti-offshoring legislation

March 19th, 2010

When President Obama addressed the nation in his State of the Union, he stressed that tax breaks should be eliminated for American companies who ship work offshore and instead include tax advantages for organizations creating jobs locally. This assertion constructed the idea that the federal government was in pursuit of anti-off shoring legislation.

 

In an article for CIO.com, Stephanie Overby provides insight into how organizations can protect themselves from what she describes as “potential protectionist legislation.” According to Overby, states cannot outright ban offshore outsourcing operations by private companies, but that there are several who are attempting to enact laws that will slow its pace.

 

Overby suggests that organizations can protect themselves from anti-off shoring legislation by making “change in laws” provisions in contracts for compliance purposes. In addition, Overby suggests to include a “benchmark clause” in the event that modifications need to be made to services as prompted by legislation. Overby also recommends for outsourcing clients to work with provides with significant operations in the U.S. in case they are asked to move work onshore.

Do you think legislation will pass that will significantly hinder offshoring operations in the U.S.?
  
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