Is technology moving too fast for the law? April 30, 2012
Posted by Mark Hillary in Current Affairs, Internet, Software.Tags: celebrity, ched evans, court, jury, justice, law, media, police, rape, sheffield, social media, social networking, swansea, technology, twitter
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Three people have been arrested by police recently as part of the investigation into the alleged naming of Sheffield United footballer Ched Evans’ rape victim on Twitter.
The right to victims of rape and sexual assault to remain anonymous is an area of the law that faces an enormous challenge in this era of information freedom. Many victims would not go to the police if they knew that their name would be splashed across the newspapers – whether a celebrity is involved or not – and traditional newspapers and broadcasters have always respected the law in this respect.
But now there is Twitter. It takes just one tweet from somebody with inside knowledge of a case and the victim details are published and cannot be erased. Those wanting to avoid detection can easily create a new Twitter account in a different name within minutes.
The implication is clear. Technology can be used by people with inside knowledge of a subject to broadcast it to the media and general public, with very little fear of recrimination.
This affects many areas of life where sensitive information is managed. Jurors tweeting their opinion as a trial proceeds are already disrupting court proceedings. Medical professionals are tweeting about celebrities receiving treatment – and assuming that they can go to a hospital without news of their condition being broadcast to the world.
In technological terms, the genie has already escaped. We cannot turn back the clock to an age before Twitter so it appears that the approach to this problem can only be the improved education of professionals who deal with sensitive information and greater measures – such as immediate dismissal – for medical or legal professionals who misuse social networks. It is not ideal, but then the world has changed forever.
Photo by Andrew Middleton licensed under Creative Commons
Staying alive – retaining innovation in IT September 22, 2011
Posted by Mark Hillary in Internet, IT Services, Software.Tags: apple, commodore, dos, excel, google, ibm, imagine, innovation, ipad, IT, microsoft, nokia, office, operating system, pr1me, tablet, technology, wang, windows, word
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The history of information technology is littered with the names of companies that were once great and fell on hard times. Whatever happened to Imagine Software, Wang, Pr1me, Commodore, and many others?
Of course one of the greatest success stories in IT, and possibly in any business environment, is Microsoft. They grew from small roots, and a fortunate licensing deal to install their operating system on IBM PCs, and the rest is history. Now, almost all new PC-based computers come with Windows pre-installed.
But the world is changing. Microsoft has been talking publicly about their ideas for Windows 8 and it does not seem clear whether the world is listening any longer.
Almost 4m people in the UK use a tablet-based device and the dominant operating systems are from Apple and Google – with their Android system that is also becoming the key smart-phone operating system.
It would be wrong to suggest that Microsoft is finished because they don’t seem to be able to compete in the tablet and telephone market, but the entire computing market is changing. For years Microsoft has enjoyed the twin cash cows of Windows and their Office platform of office automation software – Word, Excel, and so on.
Windows is clearly becoming less relevant and valuable, but so too is the shrink-wrapped software market. Office automation tools are available free, in the cloud, from people like Google and at a low cost from other suppliers.
How do once dominant companies react to such changes in the market? If anyone can do it then Microsoft can. They have cash, intelligent people, and an attitude that focuses on innovation.
But do they have the will to entirely change the company? One only has to look at a company like Nokia to see that ignoring a changing technology market can bring industry giants to their knees. For the sake of the industry, let’s hope that Windows 8 really is as revolutionary as the Microsoft bosses suggest.
Who is the customer? February 24, 2011
Posted by Mark Hillary in IT Services, Outsourcing.Tags: bpo, buyer, cio, customer, hr, information, IT, manager, purchaser, reboot, technology
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Possibly the most important discussion I had at the Nasscom event in India recently was around the changing role of the CIO, and how this changes the whole relationship between the client and the service supplier.
The CIO is an evolving role. It is becoming more strategically significant and is focusing more purely on information use and flow – which means that there is less emphasis on the purchase of IT systems.
At the same time, services are getting easier to buy. Companies are offering complete solutions that can be delivered using a web browser so absolutely no infrastructure or software is required – beyond Internet access.
So business heads are getting far more involved in specifying what they need and even going to the market and purchasing it without any involvement from the IT department. In fact, if there is no IT infrastructure requirement then why would the IT department need to know what is being purchased or used by the business?
This has always been the case in BPO. The person buying a new HR system was the HR director – not the CIO. They might purchase a system in communication with the CIO, but ultimately the decision was that of the business line head.
Now the same is applicable for a wider variety of systems – even technical systems that would previously have needed agreement from the CIO.
Does it make the CIO redundant as a function? I don’t think so as there still needs to be a strategy around infrastructure and security, but this does signal a complete change in the way companies use IT. The business user not only has the budget, but the power to buy, install, and maintain their own systems without any IT department interference.
