Finally, some real action being taken against the spam epidemic

Google Sues 'Rogue' Pharmacies We've all seen spam, mail order medicines on the cheap etc... Finally Google is stepping up to the plate and going toe to toe with these pests of cyberspace.  There is much debate on censorship on the internet and I believe we've yet to see to what extent that goes.  Just looking at the regulation of TV and Films i would suggest it is a reasonable suggestion that the internet will face something similar in the coming years.  Regardless of how or if it happens, at least we have Google on our side!

Google plans to start selling music

Just when I thought google had done everything I find them pursuing yet another avenue; a music service. Report: Google Music To Combine Cloud, Downloads I find myself surprised that google would target such a volitile market.  Music sales have suffered terribly since the advent of digital music.  From p2p illegal downloads, internet radio, or even purchases on itunes or other digital music vendors, the fact remains that customers are no longer willing to pay $20 for an album.  The music industry is being forced to become more efficient. 

Now we hear that google wants to enter into this market and I wonder if it will work or not? They intend to utilize the cloud to store your purchased music, then offer to let you to download it to your hard drive should you desire to.  This has the potential benefit of freeing up bandwidth that is often hogged by file sharing users downloading that same music.  Think of a hybrid pandora/itunes where you pay the songs you want access too but you never need to download them. Will the public accept this?  Do we need yet another vendor in the digital music market?  Itunes is a top dog in this industry but did you know about others such as amazon.com, rapsody.com, napster.com and even mp3.walmart.com also offer the same songs.  On a side note, Barnes and Noble offers music but you have to wait for a CD in the mail (not a good use of technology in my opinion).

With all this in mind, do you think google is barking up the wrong tree, or will google music take over and reduce itunes to a small percentage of the market like rhapsody or napster?  My 2 cents says that google is an ambitious company that has tackled a lot of things, not all have worked out but they do have the advantage of virtually limitless file storage and great access to users .  They have the potential to save users a lot of bandwidth and gigabites of storage.

Do political differences play a role in the IT Industry?

Here's an article that I ran across, French start-up bringing open-source BPM to U.S., that made me question to what degree is IT susceptible to global politics. This article caught my eye because we've just been introduced to BPMs in class.  Here's a real life example only this time, its from France and its not proprietary.  Sounds great doesn't it.  But what kind of barriers exist?  We've learned that IT can enable users to communicate virtually effectively bypassing many cultural hick-ups.  Can it bypass language barriers? Furthermore, what kind of stigma would an american company have from using an open source BPM suite made in France, and not in the US?  Would you care?  What if a free BPM suite were the key to growing your company?  Would you utilize it?  I'd like to think that IT transcends its country of origin and that we are all a part of a globally connected community but is it possible that we aren't really as connected as we think? Let me know what you think.

Ideas for the future of the mobile market

My response comes from Dr. Schwartz's question regarding mobiles.  First I'll argue that our definitions are dated. Second, I'll suggest a utopian proposal for the future finance of these communication devices, and third I'll argue which direction the mobile market is headed.

First I'd like to point out that with the evolution of mobile electronic communication comes all the terminologies.  First came the "car phones" then the "bag phones" etc... The term "cell phone" is no longer suitable.  Just today, I used my Iphone to have a conversation with a friend 500 miles away, check my bank account and my credit cards, check my email, copy a business card, get directions, check my facebook etc...  The iconic "cell phone" has morphed into a portable access point to our virtual world.

Now I'll propose a future means of finance for mobile access points. Through the use of wifi hotspots and tower triangulation, you can trace your location and report it whichever programs you choose to, (think facebook).  This is a rather big brother notion, but what if that technology could allow everyone could have a mobile phone for free?  You could choose to have no phone bill again, the caveat being that network provider could, based upon your location, shopping habits etc... flash an advertisement on your mobile screen.  For those who would prefer their privacy and ad free phones would pay a fee comparable to what they pay now. It's a similar principle used by Pandora and many of the free tools you use on the internet.  What do you think?

Finally, I want to address the android's entry into the mobile market as well as Apple's foray into the world of open source. I am guessing everyone is familiar with the term open source.  If not, google it (this is an IT class after all!) I point out open source because it is rapidly being chosen by consumers in the mobile market and I believe it all comes down to one reason: customization. The android is as you may have known an open source operating system.  This means the android allows the consumer to change their phone however they want to and not be concerned with violating their contract. Has anyone tried jailbreaking their *phone?  Hard as it may be to believe, Apple benefited from open source as well.  This is one of the reasons for the explosion of apple's app market.  The genius of is is that apple makes money selling apps they never paid to create.  Many of the apps creators are paid on commission, this some might argue promotes innovation and creativity. 

To put it all into one idea, the mobile market is trending towards free and customizable devices providing single source access to all of your communication needs.

Intro

Hello and welcome to my blog.  I'm creating this for a class.