Feed: Technoracle (a.k.a. "Duane's World") - AggScore: 57.1

MEAP's are going to be the new *aaS.  If you don't understand that statement, consider yourself blessed.  Understanding technology industry analysts and acronyms is a difficult task. A relatively new category of Gartner Magic Quadrants have emerged one one in particular is a category that we think deserves a lot of attention.  Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms are not typical software like your daddy used to buy.  MEAP's are collections of services and components (including frameworks, profiles, libraries and more) that facilitate the types of functionality required to develop and maintain applications running on wireless devices (aka mobile devices).

Now I don't subscribe to hype and BS and neither should you.  As the former chair of the OASIS Service Oriented Architecture Technical Committee, the group that produced the standard reference model for SOA, I never anticipated that people would run with this and start all these (INSERT ANY CAPITAL LETTER FROM THE ALPHABET HERE)aaS.  Software as a Service (SaaS) is not really that different from hosted solutions is it?  If you disagree, you'd better hurry and claim one while there are still letters left for acronyms.  I think XaaS is not used yet.

When I see value though, I want to point it out.  MEAP is one of those rare acronyms that seems to be vastly underestimated by the majority of the industry.  The term itself seems to have come from Analyst firm Gartner in a paper published in April 2011 (Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms, Michael J. King, William Clark). I believe I read somewhere that Gartner believes over 95% of the technology industry will use some form of MEAP by 2012.  When I try to research this topic on Google, very little information comes up.  Regardless of the title, let's explore what a MEAP is and what it does.

In their paper, "The rule of three" is used as a quantifier for identifying when this functionality might be of interest.   Quoting from Gartner (via Wikipedia):

The Rule of Three refers to a concept developed by analyst firm Gartner, whereby companies are encouraged to consider the MEAP approach to mobility when they need their mobile solutions to:

• Support three or more mobile applications 

• Support three or more mobile operating systems (OS)

• Integrate with at least three back-end data sources

According to Gartner, using a common mobility platform, like a MEAP, brings considerable savings and strategic advantages in this situation.

This helps frame the problem that MEAP's are trying to solve.  The ability to support these patterns requires a common set of "things". These "things" enable several common patterns of enterprise architecture to mobile device communication.  Some of the more common patterns are:

• Mobile Device Management (MDM) - manages, monitors and secures distrubuted mobile environments. 
• Multiple Message Exchange Patterns such as Push Notifications that are respect end users data plans and battery life.
• Advanced Security Features such as remote session management and data wipes.  These are sometimes viewed as part of MDM.
• Mobile Payment Gateway Services - services that can access a Merchant Processing Account and extend that functionality via the MEAP to the mobile environment.
• Analytics of user interactions.
• Temporal-Spatial Capabilities - the ability to work with geocoded and location graphs
• User Administration and management
• Data Synchronization when mobile devices become re-connected to networks.
• Data Transformations to facilitate existing data being marshaled into formats that are optimized for mobile such as JSON or even HTML5 for mobile websites.
• Data Persistence usually on both the mobile device and the server side.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of items.  Uberity will be writing some more about this topic in coming weeks. It is clear to use that some, if not all of these components, will be of interest to a large number of customers.

One last word.  I don't want to ever see someone pitching "MEAPaaS" but sadly I know it will probably happen.

At the risk of being sued myself, I find I have to really speak out about this news story.  Found on SlashDot and after some research, it appears that Michael Doyle and Eola Technologies are suing what will inevitably be any one who uses the internet or deploys a networked coputer product. He is seeking royalties for the use of just about every modern interactive Internet technology, like watching videos or suggesting instant search results.

Michael and his company formerly sued Microsoft and won a $521 million lawsuit after successfully claiming that their Internet Explorer browser infringed one of his patents.    Hey Michael!  Guess what?  No one likes patent trolls.  On top of that, I am pretty sure that the DarpaNet founders as well as Tim Berners Lee may have something to say about this.  In fact, I would be totally willing to testify about a pre-IP/TCP program I wrote back in around 1980 that enabled two computers to communicate using 600 baud modems, 7 stop bits and half duplex.

Mr Doyle's lawsuit is rumoured to claim he created a program to view embryos online.  He furthermore claims this was actually the very first program which allowed users to interact with images inside a browser window.  In my opinion, if you abstract "browser" to a "graphical rendering tool that parses and interprets bytes into one or more interactive graphic user elements", then I also did this (albeit prior to streaming video) in about 1984 using GWBasic.    This also passed very rudimentary images over a network and changed the images at a rate of about 3 per second, creating the illusion of a crude video.

If Michael wins, I will certainly be calling up my old Computer Science professor  Mr. Langston and a few former friend who can document this.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2098415/Patent-troll-sues-worlds-biggest-internet-firms-600m-claiming-ownership-interactive-web.html#ixzz1lqEmmLil

Today Uberity Technology Corporation officially opened the doors for business and launched it's website. Since leaving Adobe, I have been blessed to get back together with the best developers and engineering staff I have ever worked with and start building the technology we think will help enterprises transition to extend their IT systems to the mobile space.  Uberity's mission is to help's it's customers to define, develop, deploy and support the technology that can make or break their business.



One of the first offerings we are releasing is a free White Paper on Enterprise Mobile Application  Development Strategies.  This is a pragmatic look at the challenges facing executives and managers who are responsible for their companies long term mobile development strategies.  Most of the content of this white paper comes from learning the hard way what does and does not work for mobile application development strategies.  There are plenty of options from cross compiling to running through an intermediate interpretation layer to developing natively for each stack.  This White Paper explores the key considerations along with the strengths and benefits of each approach.  More will be written on this topic later.

Another area we are working within is Adobe LiveCycle ES and Data Services.  Uberity employs several former Senior Adobe Engineering staff who worked on the core LiveCycle platform.  Along with myself, we feel we have a team that is skilled and capable to take on any LiveCycle work.  Uberity has recently successfully completed some LiveCycle Professional Services work and is open for business to hear your needs.  With a combined experience of over 32 years of LiveCycle expertise, our team is ready to take on new challenges.  If interested, contact duane at uberity dot com.

Another area we are building out is a health care solution based on using Neo4J as a graphDB back end to integrate mobile functionality.  This project is built using our modular approach to enterprise architecture and the core patterns we have implemented can be used for other verticals as well.

On a personal note, this is the most exciting thing I have done in technology for years. We've already closed a lot of business and are hungry for more.

For anyone who feels maybe they got behind and the world is moving too fast, take a look at the data below.  If you're reading this blog, chances are you are ahead of 90% of the rest of the world.  The graphic below was done by searching real search keyword inventory Feb 2, 2012.    My favorite is "What day is it?".

We've written lots about Cloud Computing and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Virtualization, defined as when the logical network topography no longer aligns with the physical topography, has been a trend in recent years.  With the advent of SOA, many businesses were easily lead down the path of "who cares how long the wire is" and "does it really matter where my data is physically located".  The mainstream media regards the movement as "Cloud Computing" and the tech industry has been very quick to push this as a solution on many who have not fully understood the potential consequences.

This month, a nightmare scenario has surfaced that may have lasting repercussions for cloud users.  As reported from Associated Press, American prosecutors blocked access to Megaupload and charged seven men alleging the site was a catalyst for allowing illegal downloads of copy written material.   When you visit the MegaUpload website, a rather ominous graphic greets you.



So why is this an issue for those who use Cloud Computing?  The Federal prosecutors do not distinguish legitimate users of MegaUpload from illegitimate.  The same prosecutors stated that data from users of Megaupload may be erased beginning later this week.  Those users have no path to get any of their data.  Furthermore, it is unclear if Federal Prosecutors will also be seizing data not directly related to the injunction.   Small companies who used the services as a data backup are currently blocked from access.  From the AP/CBS article:

"A letter filed in the case Friday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said storage companies Carpathia Hosting Inc. and Cogent Communications Group Inc. may begin deleting data Thursday. Spokespersons for the two companies and for the U.S. Attorney's Office did not respond to messages Sunday night."

This should have been easy to avoid, correct?  Much like the derivatives market though, several users of the services might not have even understood what they were getting into.  The business model used by MegaUpload includes hiring third parties to store the data for a fee so perhaps some data is safe?  Unfortunately, as reported by Associated Press, the same government prosecutors have frozen MegaUploads finances.  If they cannot pay the third parties, it is seriously likely that data may get deleted, depending of course on the EULA used.  According to the same sources, millions of users who use this site to store data may be affected.

The lessons learned here?   We would aver that legal rulings such as the one made need to account for the impact of seizure.  The whole notion of locking down a complete system due to an alleged illegal activity may have a serious and lasting impact on legitimate users.  A path to recovery of legitimate data should be part of the any such future actions and by blocking access, those who do so incur a large responsibility to all users of that site to ensure no losses are suffered.  Unfortunately, in cases like this, it seems no impact assessment had been done or accounted for in the contingency plans and it is akin to throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

I just finished reading Akweli Parkers article entitled "Ten Concept Car Success Stories: The Ones that Made it to the Production Line"

"Ever since legendary automotive designer Harley Earl created what was arguably the first concept car in 1938, the public has been enthralled to witness the ever-expanding limits of technology combined with auto designers' unrestricted imaginations.

Traditionally, concept cars were usually extreme flights of fancy. With exaggerated bodywork and wildly impractical technology (on-board nuclear generator, anyone?), concept cars of the past boldly tossed reason out the window while pointing the way to a more fun motoring future."

See the rest of his great article here.

I just finished reading Akweli Parkers article entitled "Ten Concept Car Success Stories: The Ones that Made it to the Production Line"

This is notes from a recent dialog I had with an Big company representative who utterly failed to comprehend that she lost her employer money by not escalating this.  To be fair to them, I got on the phone and a person stayed with me until they solved the issue.  Their phone service is awesome.  I guess you could say that every barrel has its' 'bad apples'.  Private info is blacked out.

**************FIRST MESSAGE FROM ME********

Hi:

For some reason, I cannot retrieve my password for duanexxx. I no
longer seem to be able to get access to emails at nickull@XXX.com or
duanexxxx@XXXXXXXXXX.com which are listed as the emails that the password
reset goes to.

Can you please reset the password for duanexxxxxxx and send it to
duane@XXXX.XXX?

I am trying to buy software.

Duane

**************MESSAGE BACK***********
Hello Duane,

It's me again, Grace. I apologize for the delay in response, I just got back from my two days off. Thanks for your understanding.

Sorry to hear about that, Duane. However, I still wanna thank you that you have been an  customer. Should you have other concerns, please let us know. Cheers!

Sincerely,

Grace
Please Note: I work Mon-Fri, 8:00AM-5:00PM CT
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to assist you.

**THIS IS THEIR RESPONSE WITH MY SECOND MESSAGE INLINE***
 Inline:

On 12-01-18 1:38 PM, wrote:

Hi Duane,

Thanks for contacting Support again. This is Grace and I'm
taking over on Gagan's behalf. Glad to assist you today.

I understand that you need assistance in resetting your password for
"duanexxxx". I realize your eagerness to have this taken care of,
and I'd be happy to help.

Duane, I can reset the password for you. Before I can do this, I
require that you provide at least one of the following, for your
security:

- the order number of one of your purchases
DN: #120020XXXXXXX

- the last four digits of the credit card used for your account
DN: MasterCard .... XXXX

- the answer to one of your security questions

And two items from this list:

- your birth date
DN: April XX,XXXX

- the billing address listed on the account
DN: XXXX West Xth Avenue, Vancouver, BC XXXXXXX

- the phone number on the account
DN: One of these
604 XXX XXXX
604 XXX XXXX
604 XXX XXXX

Upon receiving your response, we will verify your billing address,
reset your password, and send you an email with your new password.

Take care and have a good one, Duane!

Sincerely,

Grace
Please Note: I work Mon-Fri, 8:00AM-5:00PM CT
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to assist you.


*****THE MESSAGE I GOT BACK A DAY LATER****

On 12-01-18 2:49 PM, wrote:

Hi Duane,

Thank you for providing the information that was requested, Duane.
However, the credit card number and order number you provided did not
match our records. Now to have this sorted out, please respond to this
email and provide other credit card numbers you used on the account
that you are trying to access. Or, provide an order number that you recall
you made on the account "duanxxxxxx".

Thanks for your patience, Duane. Hope to hear back from you. :)

Sincerely,

Grace
Please Note: I work Mon-Fri, 8:00AM-5:00PM CT
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to assist you.


*************MY RESPONSE*****************

At this point I sent her several emails showing orders made from the specific account in question
and using the credit card.  All these orders were labelled with all the data she had requested.

I also asked her to please expedite this as we are trying to make a decision to go with a competitor.

*******MY (SEMI RUDE) RESPONSE**********
So screw you. We decided to buy (A competitor) instead. As I told you
yesterday, we were trying to buy software from [you]. I am
responsible for IT buying in my company and you made the decision easy.
We will now use [someone else's software] as the standard.

I am really angry at the fact I have provided you everything you asked
for below and you don't even phone me or respond.

You just lost your company $$$

GoodBye!

***AND YET ANOTHER DAY LATER I GET A CHEERFUL BUT USELESS REPLY***

On 12-01-19 10:18 AM,  wrote:

Hello Duane,

I'm sorry to hear about that. It's really a pain for me as an
advisor to loose a valued customer like you. But please, allow me to
explain the other side of this issue.

If you feel that way because I am unable to reset your password right
after 30 minutes, and I am unable to phone you, I admit that it is my
complete mistake as I haven't given you a heads up. Please note that we
are receiving volume of emails and there are tendencies that we
overlooked replies. Further, [our company] does not provide
assistance via phone call so we are doing our best to provide you with assistance
through email.

Duane, please don't get me wrong about this, as much as possible I would
not want to be the reason of loosing a valued customer, so I apologize
about what happened.

Thanks for bearing with me. Have yourself a wonderful day!

Sincerely,

Grace
Please Note: I work Mon-Fri, 8:00AM-5:00PM CT
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to assist you.


**************NOTES*************


OK.  At this point I am now completely pissed off.  WTF is she talking about 30 minutes???  I gladly would have loved if it had been done in twice that time.  The "Have a wonderful day" quote is about as stupid a thing you can say to a pissed off customer.  The last line "Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to assist you." should perhaps only be used when the customer service rep actually does something.  What about not being allowed to use a phone to sort this out????

But wait - there is more...

*********MY RESPONSE*************


So are you giving me access to my account or not? I sent you all orders
I have copies of, answered every question you asked etc. I also waited 24
hours now, not just 30 minutes, which would be okay. I haven't bought [your competitors software] yet so if you can do this in the next hour, maybe we will stay as customers.

Reset the duanxxxx password and or change the email account used to
retrieve the password to duane@xxx.xxx or duane.xxx@xxxx so I
can do it myself.

If not, not only will you lose a customer, I will seek any legal remedies
that are available to me against you for denying me access to my
account and previous purchases.

Since I have given you everything you asked for, you should just do this
right now. I should not suffer anymore because your company does not
allow you to pick up a phone to verify me.

Duane Nickull


************HER RESPONSE*************


Hi Duane,

Thanks for your response again. As you have requested, I reset the
password for "xxxxxx". This is the password: xxxxxxxx.

Please let me know if it still does not work. Thank you!

Sincerely,

Grace
Please Note: I work Mon-Fri, 8:00AM-5:00PM CT
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to assist you.


************NOTES*************


Guess what?  It did not work!!  I sent another barrage of emails explaining politely that it did not work.  This is where I decided to call and got a smart, capable  rep who fixed the issue.


*********HER REPSONSE (24 hours later)**********


Hi Duane,

Thanks for letting me know about that. I checked your account and found
that "xxxxxxxxx" is renamed to "xxxxxxxxx". This is why
you're still unable to access the account.

Now, please sign in with "xxxxxxx" using the password I
provided. If you still can't, I will have to reset the password again for
you.

Thanks for your patience.

Sincerely,

Grace
Please Note: I work Mon-Fri, 8:00AM-5:00PM CT
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to assist you.


*********NOTES*********


So at this point I had the issue solved by the very capable and heroic guy from their help telephone desk.  I tried her advice again and once again, it did not work.  This prompted me to send yet another email back saying "It doesn't work"


**********HER RESPONSE (A DAY LATER)********


On 12-01-20 3:41 PM,  wrote:

Follow-Up: 173662775

Hello again,

I wanted to send a quick note to see if you are still experiencing any
difficulties with the  Store. Resolving your issue is important to
me, so please don't hesitate to reply if you need any further assistance.

Sincerely,

Grace
Please Note: I work Mon-Fri, 8:00AM-5:00PM CT
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to assist you.


*********MY FINAL RESPONSE************


???

You didn't think it was important enough to fix when I asked yesterday so
we went with [competitor] instead. We will not buy your products for our
office.

Duane

************FINAL NOTES**********

Ok - I got mad.  I acted a bit unprofessional but honestly, this sort of thing should be a lesson for anyone doing customer service.

1.  Don't wait 24 hours each time.  Note the entire thread took place over 6 days.
2.  Escalate things if you can't figure them out.  I don't claim to know everything and will gladly escalate stuff to whomever can help.
3.  Don't be condescending to the customer with crap like "Have a wonderful day" when you know they're frustrated at you.

and lastly...

Grace - you are an idiot!!!!

Funny thing about SOPA is that it keep my awake at night.  I actually took the time to read the bill to understand it better and it seems that around 2:45 AM my brain makes random connections as to why the Stop Online Piracy Act might pose threats to people who don't event know about it.

Today a colleague wrote a post also outlining some additional thoughts entitled "10 Reasons Lots of Websites Violate SOPA and Don’t Know It".  Now according to several news sources, SOPA has been shelved so no one is actualy violating it as it is not in effect.  Nevertheless, it is worth thinking about from a perspective of false positives and what could happen.  On the InternetServiceProviders.org blog I found the following arguments.  I've reposted a few to share here but urge interested parties to go to the source to leave any comments or read the rest.  These are five of the ten reasons.

"1. Vague Language – Though House supporters have claimed that SOPA is designed to protect the intellectual property of Americans from foreign profiteers that illegally distribute content in exchange for advertising and membership revenue, the vague wording of the bill makes it difficult to understand exactly what constitutes a violation and certainly doesn’t offer immunity to inadvertently-offending American sites."

My take on this is that there is certainly ambiguity and penalties in the forms of takedown notices.  The innocent ones here who might be the most liable are the ad servers themselves. If the bill was put into effect as written, it is not clear how some of the enforcement mechanisms might be implemented.  My stance is that most of the illegal copyright and trademark infringement has actionable paths under existing laws, many of which are not enforced.  If existing laws are not enforced, who amongst us believes a new, untested bill will stop this.  Not me.

2. User-Submitted Content – If a site allows any sort of user-submitted content to be posted as part of their business model, they could very easily find themselves in violation of the Stop Online Piracy Act. Under the current language of the proposed law, the owner of the site that hosts the content, the user that posts a link to the content and the website that allows the user to submit that link could all potentially be charged with violating the bill.

Our gut feeling on this is true, but once again, this is illegal under existing laws.  Why do we need a new law to stop someone from selling fake merchandise over eBay?  Use existing laws.

3. The “Friend-of-a-Friend” Effect – Do you remember when you were a kid, and the friend of a friend did something that got you all in trouble? Maybe you weren’t directly involved, and maybe you didn’t even like that person very much, but your mom still said that you were “guilty by association.” Under SOPA, the same principal applies: even if a link to legitimate and legal content housed on another site is shared, the site that posts the link could be punished if the hosting site is found to house illegal content as well.

Not quite correct.  According to the SOPA act, as written today, a takedown notice would be issued.  This would still have the effect of creating a lot of work for webmasters.  Even the odds that the Technoracle blogroll points at a site that might contain an ad that is subject to SOPA laws is very high.

4. The Comments Section – One of the quickest ways to lose faith in humanity and the education system is to take a look at the comments section of a YouTube video or comedy article; comments are almost universally inflammatory and poorly spelled, but that’s still legal. Should SOPA pass and one trolling user posts copyrighted material in the comments section, the site would be in violation and could face blacklisting, blocking of revenue and DNS blocking.

This is not how I interpreted the SOPA Act but in such cases  take down notices would be issued.  What I am curious about is how the government intends to patrol all these comments.  Even as we contemplate this today, I would argue our NTi ( an index of collective content production vs content consumption) is reaching the point where most people create more than they consume.  Bots using RSS feeds and aggregators add to this menace.  To enforce SOPA, one would have to patrol the web with a virtual army of police to scour all such comments.

It is more likely that peer to peer interactions are going to be more effective against such comments.  I've deleted some spam from this site on numerous occasions.  Google also once in a while let's me know if there is a comment up here violating the Blogger terms (which I take down).  I would not voluntarily censor anything for SOPA if it was not directly violating someone's copyright or trademark against the true copyright owners will.

There are six more comments on the original article - a good read at http://www.internetserviceproviders.org/blog/2012/10-reasons-lots-of-websites-violate-sopa-and-dont-know-it/

I wrote some of my thoughts about SOPA down in this earlier log post.  Now it appears that common sense has prevailed.  After a good discussion on the O'Reilly Foo Campers Alumni list, some of the participants of which were asked to get opinions, it seems that the DNS provisions of SOPA are being dropped.  This was just reported on SlashDot http://politics.slashdot.org/story/12/01/13/2222203/dns-provision-pulled-from-sopa .

The Republican Chairman Mr. Lamar Smith has historically been one of the biggest backers of the so called Stop Online Piracy Act.  CNET ran the story and claimed Mr. Smith announced that he plans to remove the Domain Name System or DNS-blocking provision.

"After consultation with industry groups across the country," Smith said in a statement released by his office, "I feel we should remove DNS-blocking from the Stop Online Piracy Act so that the [U.S. House Judiciary] Committee can further examine the issues surrounding this provision"

Read more at CNET

Several people have recently asked for an opinion on the US proposed legislation to stop online piracy of intellectual property.  Rather than read the opinions of others, I decided to read the actual proposed legislation itself.  For the record, the version I read is at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c112:1:./temp/~c112UufGtF::   There are many worries about limitations on freedom of speech and costs that will be born to internet service providers (ISP's) including potential legal actions to recover damages from those who find themselves participants in such transactions.

DISCLAIMER:  I am not a lawyer, nor am I am US citizen.  I am a musician and have a vested interest in enforcement of IPR laws.

Contributed to Technoracle by Amielle Lake (CEO of Tagga)

We have been friends with Amielle for years and watched her take on some tough challenges in the mobile markets.  She wrote this great article and agreed to let us share it with you here on Technoracle.

Tagga was launched just months before the first iPhone hit the market. Over the last four years, we have witnessed the life-transforming impact that mobile devices have in our everyday lives. Yet, brand budgets for mobile are still surprisingly small. As we leap into another year, I am optimistic that things are improving for us mobile marketers. I might even be so cliché as to say that the year of mobile is here or at least near! While brand adoption may not have been as rapid as the industry might have earlier predicted, warp speed growth is definitely in store. Here are 5 reasons why we have reached the tipping point.

1. Smartphone adoption in the US has neared almost 50% Smartphone adoption marches on, with 44% of mobile phone users owning a smartphone, compared with 18% in 2009, according to Nielsen. For more, PCWorld - Adults Now Spend More Time With Mobile Devices Than With Print Media 2. Adults read more news on their mobile than print: eMarketer released a report that found the “average adult consumer spends 65 minutes a day on their mobile device, while they spend only 44 minutes with print media--26 minutes with newspapers, and 18 minutes with magazines.” For more, USA today - Smartphone adoption means more text, less talk 3. Global brands issuing RFPs for Mobile Agency of Record: Perhaps this is a less observed trend, as it certainly isn’t something that industry analysts follow. However, Tagga has been party to and witnessed several formal RFP calls for Mobile Agencies of Record. If this is not a definitive sign of commitment to mobile by marketers, then I don’t know what is. Smaller brands will follow suit. In fact, Agencies are now clamoring to improve their capability-set to demonstrate a robust mobile foundation – many opening up mobile divisions. Top brands as of late signing up “MAORs” (Mobile Agency of Record) include American Cancer Society, Proctor and Gamble, Kraft Foods and a host of others. 4. Global brands are changing their DNA to launch truly integrated campaigns: Tagga had the pleasure of participating and speaking at a conference where the Chief Marketing Officers of Visa, Citigroup North American and Samsung (LATAM) participated. Each presenter spoke of dissolving their siloed digital and traditional teams in order to combine them into a single group. Why? To effectively launch truly integrated multi-channel campaigns. These thought-leaders clearly saw mobile and social as mechanisms to add more value to their traditional media initiatives. By breaking down marketing silos, brands will be able to harness the true power of mobile - engaging with a consumer wherever they are and giving them what they want, whenever they want it. 5. Social Media is Mobile: With social media and mobile on the scene, marketers often grappled with the notion of how the two mediums play together. Facebook CEO best settled the debate by pronouncing Facebook as on path to becoming a mobile company. According to a recent CNET article, “Facebook has more than 350 million mobile users (out of 800 million total), and that the proportion will swing to more than 50 percent within the next year. Most of Facebook's users in India, Southeast Asia, and Africa, are via mobile devices.” As the lines between social and mobile become increasingly blurry, marketers will drive towards an approach that integrates technologies that leverage all capabilities of the mobile device, from foursquare to augmented reality. With the rapid adoption of mobile devices, in particular smartphones, the challenge of the marketer has shifted. Consumers are channel agnostic, and want to be communicated to in a relevant, transparent and timely manner - whether they are on the go or not, offline or online. With the convergence of these trends, it is not hard to see why marketers will turn to mobile to drive results. To quote Frost & Sullivan, it is not hard to see why mobile marketing will become “the most important vehicle of all time” (Frost & Sullivan, 2010).

Android Central is buzzing with news of Wug's new root application.  Specifically, Wug's Galaxy Nexus Root Toolkit contains all the files requires to both unlock (aka "root") your nexus and also to restore it to factory settings with the OEM lock.  The kit contains the necessary drivers and SDK that will also install the latest samsung drivers,  extract the latest android SDK to your %HOMEDRIVE% and more.



For developers, you will also be able to update your systems "Path" environmental variable to include adb and fastboot locations however the entire Toolkit appears to only run on Windows.   The Toolkit can push su.zip (Superuser.apk) to your Nexus's SD card and flash the clockwork mod.  The device itself will walk you through the rest of the process via on screen instructions.

Read the full feature set here.

The reality is that it seems to be pointless for handset providers to lock devices.  The average time until someone can root a particular device is nearing the point where root toolkits are sometimes available before the actual device is on the market.

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Google's search engine ranking algorithms have always been a moving target.  Two significant updates occurred in 2011 that have both raised and lowered rankings of many sites.  Around February 2011, engineers tweaked the system, in what became known as the "Panda update".  The first update was focused on the North American markets however the changes were rolled out worldwide.  So why did this update matter so much?  It is very simple.  Having your page show up on page one of the results is critical.  Studies have been done that generally indicate around nine out of every ten clicks are on sites ranked one through ten, although I have never seen a perfect study.

The penalty is simple.  Panda penalized sites with poor quality content.  Google has been fairly warning SEO firms that content is king and we agree.  As written on our previous posts, original, relevant and timely content always beats black hat SEO tricks in the long run, nevertheless, so many people still try to land in the top ten spot with a site that has very little content of use to the searcher.  This does not help anyone over the long term other than the SEO company that made a few bucks.

As noted by the Google webmasters:

"Almost the whole year of 2011 was a series of several updates related to content. Initially observed closely by SEO practitioners talking about the decrease of ranking of various sites and asking each other in forums if there was an observed algorithmic change and was dubbed as the Farmer Update which I believe the name probably came from Webmaster World where most group named algorithm updates come from. The changes were too evident already that when Google decided to talk about it already, they said they already have a name for the update and it was the Panda Update. And then this is were the series of updates came in."

Google's Matt Cutts, an anti SEO webspam policeman, noted that in the initial rollout, only around two percent of Search Engine Ranking Pages (SERP's) were affected.  Apparently many of those affected have simply been scraping content from other pages.  This happens a lot with Technoracle posts.

A second update went after content farms and pages with large amounts of advertisements compared to content.  This is often done in conjunction with the scraping.  A good example of this can be found here:

http://www.seofacts.biz/flash-seo-more-secrets-from-technoracle/

This site takes content from Technoracle, adds tons of ads and publishes.  Such pages will never beat the original page in terms of rankings unless some additional content is interpreted as useful.

Panda has been criticized, largely by those who feel their sites were unfairly ranked lower.  Since the original Panda release, an update has shown promise to fight perceptions of false positive rates (FPR's).
Barry Schwartz reported that some sites actually recovered after the 2.2. rollout.

Google’s Panda update runs for all languages worldwide except for Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

The big take away from all of this?  Simple.  Like in real estate (Location, Location, Location), in SEO land the mantra is Content, Content, Content.    Focus on good, unique content and interested parties will come.