patrickWeb

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Amazon and the iPad

Amazon's profit for the fourth quarter of 2009 was $384 million on revenue of $9.52 billion. That is more than $10 million of products shipped each and every day. Retail sales in total in the U.S. was roughly one trillion dollars in the third quarter of 2009. Just 3.5% of that -- $35 billion -- was e-commerce, but of that $35 billion, Amazon was more than $5 billion. Amazon is truly the emerging juggernaut of retail. Of the millions of retailers one of them represented 15% of retail e-commerce. Many stories here on patrickWeb as to why this is the case. What are the threats that Amazon faces? In particular, will the iPad dethrone the Kindle?

I don't claim to have the answer but I may have clues. There are more than 40 e-book readers out there. Apple may be the largest threat to the Kindle among them, but it is not a slam dunk. I am quite enthusiastic about the iPad and can't wait to get my hands on one but I do not see it as a Kindle killer. I read a lot of books and I don't buy any that are not available on the Kindle. I am Kindlzed. The 5 once device never burdens the wrist and it fits nicely on holders I made for the elliptical trainer and treadmill. I tried the nook but was happy to sell it on eBay after a month. The nook is very nice, as I have written previously, one of the issues is that it is heavy compared to the Kindle.

Will potential new Kindle buyers turn instead to the iPad? Many will for sure but I think there are a couple of inhibitors for people who read a lot of books. The iPad is just one and a half pounds -- not a lot compared to a laptop or even a netbook -- but compared to the 5 once Kindle it is almost five times as heavy. If you spend a lot of time reading you may develop a need for a wrist brace. The other thing is the lighting. The Kindle uses e-ink -- it is reflective -- like paper. The more light the better. Reading by a good light or in the sunlight is better than trying to read in the dark. The iPad has back-lighting. I am sure the color screen is brilliant and for movies and pictures and magazines and newspapers it will no doubt be great. The demo by the New York Times at Steve Jobs' keynote was quite impressive. But, for an hour or two of reading I have my doubts about how easy it may be on the eyes. We don't need color to read a novel. The journalists that got to see the iPad in person reported that the room was dim. Why would that be? I suspect because good lighting makes the backlit screen harder to read.

On a positive note, I think the iPad will find very large adoption -- tens of millions for sure -- and will make a big dent in PC's. The netbooks have been very successful but they are basically PC's with Windows. Their only redeeming feature is their low price. That is a good thing but it is not innovative and who needs another copy of Windows? PC desktops and laptops are already in decline and the iPad is going to accelerate the trend.

Some people are saying the iPad is just a big iPhone. Yes! I can't wait and it is much more than an iPhone. It has applications galore. On day one it will run 140,000 iPhone applications plus significant upgrades to calendar, contacts, mapping, and email. There will also be advanced word processor, spreadsheet and presentation apps. The creative juices of software developers around the world will introduce hundreds of thousands of new and exciting apps that the large multi-touch color screen makes possible.

I see the iPad lightening the load in briefcases when travelling. It will also take up a lot less space on the kitchen counter and while resting there in the new iPad case it will double as a picture viewer. In the family room it will be the controller for movies and music. With the keyboard dock or wireless keyboard I suspect it will become my tool for writing. With most of our data in the cloud why would anyone need a PC or laptop? Many of us will still have a PC and a big flat panel for certain things -- like Quicken -- but more and more of my time will be with the iPad.

We don't need color to read a novel but there is no doubt authors and publishers will develop books with color pictures and video in them. Publishers really really don't like Amazon's $9.99 eBook model. A big war is taking shape. Amazon is offering enhanced royalties but only if the publisher keeps the price low. Apple is telling the publishers to charge whatever they want. The problem for the publishers is that Kindle on the iPhone -- which most readers don't use -- will work on the iPad on day one. I do use the iPhone to read Kindle books when I am in line at the supermarket or a waiting room. I love how the "bookmark" keeps track of where I left off on the Kindle or on my iPhone and soon on the iPad. Will there be two versions of the same book on the iPad? One with the Kindle reader and one with the iBook reader? Maybe. Some books may come in black & white and "enhanced" versions with color and embedded video.

The iPhone will continue to be an important part of my life -- for calls and picture taking. And if I am in a location where there is no WiFi for the iPad, the iPhone will be my backup to the Internet. I do not plan to get the 3G model and sign up for another AT&T data plan. WiFi is available at most everywhere I go and the trend of expansion of WiFi will only accelerate. The iPad demo is great -- the Apple team really has their act together. The iPad is not perfect. It does not support Flash movies, for example. If you read the WSJ and click on a video you will get a message saying that you need the Adobe Flash player. Apple has chosen not to make Flash available on their products. Adobe Flash is proprietary and although nearly all computers support it, the web standards people are developing an open standard for video. Apple seems to be betting that this will happen soon. Apple is also quite proprietary -- more so than Microsoft was in the 1990's and IBM in the 1980's.

The $499 entry price is aggressive but by the time you add the extra storage -- which is the smart thing to do -- plus an extra dock or keyboard or case or car charger plus the three new iWorks apps @ $9.99 each plus 3G if you need it plus plus, you end up spending $1,000 or more. The netbook I bought my wife for Christmas was $249. So the iPad is expensive and although for millions of people it will be their only computer, for many of us it will be one of several. I suspect I will keep my Kindle too. There will be many naysayers and critics of the iPad but I am certain it will be a smashing success and a long-term game changer for personal computing. It will become so pervasive in our lives that even though it is a very powerful computer, it will not be thought of as a computer. It is at the crossroads between technology and the arts.

Gadgets , Internet Technology , Media January 31, 2010 03:39 PM

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Brain Analytics

IBM says that the hottest growth area for the company is analytics. Putting their money where their mouth is, IBM has has invested $12 billion in analytics since 2005 and one of the major focus areas of the analytics thrust is healthcare. The strategy may not only make money for IBM but likely will also save lives.

IBM has been collaborating with the Mayo Clinic for many years. The latest of many breakthroughs by the two is an important advance in the early detection of brain aneurysms -- a lethal condition that is not so uncommon. The technique they have devised combines the latest brain scan technology with analytics to catch a critical condition far sooner than previously possible. The joint project has examined more than 15 million images from thousands of patients.

Traditionally, a patient suspected of having a brain aneurysm due to a stroke or traumatic injury would undergo an invasive test using a catheter that injects dye into the body -- a technique which itself has non-trivial risks. The new IBM - Mayo process uses non-invasive MRI angiography to create "automatic reads" that run detection algorithms immediately following a scan.

The instant the MRI images are acquired, they are automatically routed to servers in the Mayo - IBM Medical Imaging Informatics Innovation Center where supercomputer algorithms analyze the images to locate and mark potential aneurysms so that specially trained radiologists can conduct a further and final analysis. The automated aneurysm detection can be done in three to five minutes -- a potentially life saving difference from the traditional approach.

Other patrickWeb healthcare related stories

Healthcare , IBM January 27, 2010 07:00 PM

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Genesys XVI

People at a conference The 16th Annual Genesys Partners Venture Dinner -- Gen XVI-- Monday night at the Union League Club in New York attracted more than 100 venture capitalists, investors, journalists, entrepreneurs, and industry executives. As always, Jim Kollegger -- CEO of Genesys Partners and one of the pioneers of the information industry -- was an elegant master of ceremonies. He introduced the various sponsors, next day panelists for the SIIA Conference, several startup CEO's, and a few of us who have been around the block a few times, each to make some comments.

Like a broken record, I offered the normal upbeat view of the future of the Internet but prefaced my remarks by asserting that we are only 5% of the way there. In other words, of all the things that could be done on the Internet that would save us time and make our lives better, only 5% of them are there. It may sound low but consider retail e-commerce. Although there has been continuous and steady growth of retail e-commerce it still represents just 3.5% of total retail (as of the end of October). Why isn't it 25% or more? Much written about that here at patrickWeb but the short version is that there are still a lot of lame web sites. "Click here for the location of our nearest dealer where you can visit or call to buy the product you just found" or "Click here to download this form and fax it to us". And of course there are the ubiquitous clipboards at doctor offices where we take a pen and provide a lot of information information that they already have.

I described one man's view of the evolution of the Internet including the seven characteristics below. This parsed way of looking at the Internet has served me well for quite a few years. The things going on under each area continuously change and Jim asks me once a year to do a thumbnail sketch of my latest thinking.

Fast
Broadband in the U.S. is not a pretty story compared to other parts of the world. The problem is that there are too many lobbyists and the FCC is a political organization. The new FCC head is a very smart guy with venture and business experience. He totally gets it. The only problem is that AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon have more lawyers than he does. Meanwhile France is racing at full speed to offer 100 megabit access and WiFi throughout the country. Thanks to the telco lobby, many states have banned the offering of WiFi by municipal entities.

Always On

WiFi is part of the fabric of the world. The big shift is streaming of data -- not just tweets, but data from *things*. Bridges, toll booths, traffic lights and sensors, buildings, cars, and health monitoring devices attached to people. Hospital physicians will be able s will soon be adjusting the drip rate on infusion pumps in the hospital from their office based on real-time data from the patient. The WiFi infusion pumps enable hospital administrators to know where the pumps are (they never have enough of them) and which ones need maintenance. WiMax continues to struggle. Some believe it will replace WiFi. My bet is on WiFi and in a two years or less we will have WiGig -- gigabit wireless.

Everywhere
Cloud computing has become the mainstay for me and for millions. Whether it is gmail or MobileMe the convenience and reliability of the clouds is compelling. The next big wave is enterprise cloud computing. Virtualization is making enterprise servers more scalable, reliable, and efficient than ever. AJAX is enabling applications to run in any browser on any kind of computer including mobile. Especially mobile. There are hundreds of millions of PC's but there are billions of mobile devices. Today most of them are dumb. In a few years most of them will be smart. Opera sofware is enabling even the dumb phones to have web access.

Natural
Social networking may not be a business model in and unto itself but it has become fundamental to all aspects of our economy and society. Integration of social networking with a full range of web applications will evolve to become the primary means of collaboration. The emerging issue is that many people are a bit liberal with sharing their every movement -- what they are eating, listening to, where they are headed, their current latitude and longitude, and where they slept last night. They are not thinking that some day they may run for office or interview for a job.

Intelligent
The Semantic Web is the next big turn of the crank but the crank is moving slowly. Most web pages have links but do not have context. In other words the words on the page do not necessarily mean anything -- but they could. If a web page said "Join us for a concert by The Eagles at Kimmel Center in Philadelphia next Tuesday" that set of words could have a lot of context. Clicking on it could add the concert to your calendar, knowing what "next Tuesday" means. It would also know exactly where the Kimmel Center is and that The Eagles is a performing group that performs a particular genre and your music player would receive a list of suggestions of music they have recorded or links to live concerts under way at the moment. This is the tip of the iceberg. The semantic web will lead us to a point where most of the interactions of web pages will be between computers not between computers and people. The biggest growth of intelligence is occurring in the field of analytics. Exabytes of data are being stored. Analytics will enable businesses to make sense of it, model their business and continuously adapt to what is going on.

Easy
Technology isn't the easiest thing at times. There are many dimensions to "easy" but one good example is the Nintendo Wii. At a local senior center, members find the Wii to be their exercise coach. It is not just for kids! The iPhone has shown how easy it can be to get applications on a handheld computer. Amazon has done the same with the Kindle. Apple may do it again with a rumored tablet. Most companies still don't get the idea that the Internet is about power to the people. If you can't make it simple, people won't buy it.

Trusted
This is the big one. Will we trust the Internet? Security technology is available to achieve much higher levels of security than presently deployed both at enterprise and consumer levels. The bigger issue will be privacy. Banks have our personal information and they are using it. Healthcare insurers have more information about our health than our doctors do. Nevertheless, there is much to be optimistic about when it comes to electronic medical records. Maybe 5% of doctors and hospitals use them but this will likely rise fast and the result will be better care, better outcomes, and fewer errors. And, fewer clipboards.

Other patrickWeb conference related stories

Conferences , Internet Technology , Media January 26, 2010 01:10 PM

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Books

While e-book technology is racing forward, the publishers are stuck in the past. Several of them have announced that they will make new best sellers available on e-books only after the physical book has been for sale for at least several months. They think that if a hot new book comes out you will go to a store or online and buy the physical book. It may have been true when there were only a relative handful of e-books to choose from. Amazon now has more than 400,000. Barnes & Noble claims more than one million. With more than two dozen e-book formats (not a good thing) there likely are millions of e-books available. The publishers don't understand or are in denial about how passionate e-book readers are.

Many Kindle owners are so hooked (or nooked) that they will only purchase a book if it is an e-book. Friends and family know better than to give them a "book" for a gift, although at some point receiving a real book will be very desirable (and expensive) as a collector item to cherish. The publishers say if books "deteriorate" to being sold for $9.99 (or less) as e-books that the result will be that consumers will end up with fewer new books to choose from. Their logic is that at the lower prices, publishers will have fewer resources available to assist authors and therefore there will be fewer authors. One would think that after seeing what (predictably) happened to music that publishers would embrace e-books in a major way rather than wait wait wait.

With regard to the music business, more musicians are realizing that even reviled file sharing may not be evil after all. According to techdirt, Shakira, Norah Jones, and Nelly Furtado say "it's ok". The posting says that these well known singers are saying that the industry is overreacting to the issue of file sharing. Sky News talked to three top female singers and found they all recognized that it was pretty much the natural state of the market, and it helped gain more exposure. Techdirt quoted Shakira as saying, "I like what's going on because I feel closer to the fans and the people who appreciate the music. It's the democratization of music in a way, and music is a gift. That's what it should be, a gift." And Norah Jones? "If people hear it I'm happy. I'm not going to say go and steal my album, but you know I think its great that young people who don't have a lot of money can listen to music and be exposed to new things."

Has digital music resulted in fewer musicians? I doubt it. I don't know how many there are -- many tens to hundreds of thousands. And that's people who get paid (though some don't get much). According to the National Association of Music Merchants there were a total of 62 million amateur musicians in the U. S. in 1996. The advent of services such as Pandora makes it possible for "amateurs" to get their music exposed and some of them go on to be famous. Might the same thing happen when aspiring bloggers can avoid the high cost and complexity of "publishing" a book and introduce their creativity via an e'book? The old saying remains -- "everybody has a book in them". Not sure where I got that but I believe it.

e-book readers are here to stay and they will get better and better. The e-textbook is emerging also, but not fast enough for me. I hate to see my grandchildren carry tens of pounds of books in their backpacks and have to bend over to carry the weight. When they tell their children about this it will seem very strange.

Gadgets , Media January 24, 2010 03:39 PM

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

IBM Happenings: November December 2009

The months of November and December were busy ones at IBM with a flurry of announcements in hardware, software, services, acquisitions, and strategic alliances. See the list of the current press releases in the extended part of this posting and an index for prior months here. As part of the major focus on a "smarter planet", IBM is heavily engaged in healthcare both as an information technology and business solutions company and also as an employer.

One project at IBM, announced in November, I found quite interesting. IBM scientists at the company's Zurich Research Laboratory have created a one-step point-of-care-diagnostic test, based on an innovative silicon chip, that requires a very small sample of blood, is significantly faster, portable, easy to use, and can test for many diseases, including one of the world's leading causes of death, cardiovascular disease. The quick results can provide a doctor with more time that could be the difference between life and death.

IBM has a track record of improving heatlhcare over many years but with the company's leadership in nanotechnology there are even more significant breakthroughs likely. The one-step point-of-care-diagnostic test uses a silicon chip roughly 3/4 of a square inch to analyze a tiny sample -- 2% of a drop -- and determine what "genetic markers" associated with a particular disease the patient may be carrying.

The new diagnostic test that uses capillary forces to analyze tiny blood samples The capillary action of the IBM chip is similar to what happens when dipping a paper towel in a cup of water - the microstructures in the paper fiber enable the towel to absorb the water. The tiny chip contains sets of micrometer wide channels where the test sample flows through in approximately 15 seconds, several times faster then traditional tests.

A company in Begium -- Coris BioConcept -- believes the microfluidic chip is the next step in the evolution of point of care devices and they are collaborating closely with with the scientists at IBM Research - Zurich to take the innovation to the next level. More details about the project are here.

Complete index of IBM Happenings

IBM opens analytics center in Washington, D.C.
The new IBM Analytics Solution Center in Washington, D.C. is dedicated
to helping federal agencies and other public sector organizations extract
actionable insights from their data.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28787.wss

IBM introduces new offerings for software development
IBM Rational Software Delivery Services for Cloud Computing include a set
of ready-to-use application lifecycle management tools for developing
and testing in the IBM Cloud.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28760.wss

New IBM software enriches online shopping
IBM is introducing WebSphere Commerce 7, a new release of its
industry-leading e-commerce software that enhances the shopping
experience for mobile consumers.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28795.wss

IBM to build green data centre for Slovak Telekom
The data centre will enable Slovak Telekom to meet increasing demand
for data centre services from technology hosting, through business continuity
to disaster recovery.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28762.wss

IBM launches analytics center in India
The new IBM Business Analytics Center of Competency in Bangalore
will focus on a number of core areas vital to successfully applying analytics
to industry problems.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28765.wss

BM tackles smarter water management in Europe
IBM has established a Center of Excellence for Water Management to use
high performance computing to monitor and forecast the impact of climate
change and severe weather conditions on water resources.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28858.wss

IBM introduces new software for System z
IBM announced 10 new software products to help companies lower application
management costs by optimizing the System z mainframe for more workloads.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28864.wss

IBM closer to creating computer that simulates the brain
IBM announced significant progress toward creating a computer system that
simulates and emulates the brain's abilities for sensation, perception, action,
interaction and cognition.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28842.wss

IBM launches consulting service for sustainable assets
Sustainable Asset Analytics is designed to help clients manage real estate,
supplier performance, carbon data collection and analysis and asset
lifecycle maintenance.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28836.wss

IBM scientists reinvent medical diagnostic testing
IBM scientists have created a one-step point-of-care-diagnostic test that
is significantly faster, portable and can test for many diseases, including
cardiovascular disease.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28825.wss

IBM acquires Guardium
IBM has acquired Guardium, a market leader in real-time enterprise
database monitoring and protection.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28889.wss

IBM launches London Analytics Solution Center
Leveraging its London location and IBM's deep industry expertise,
the centre's initial mission will be to focus on the UK financial services
sector.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28932.wss

IBM opens Innovation Center in Manila
The Manila IBM Innovation Center will help support new opportunities
by providing technical experts and hands-on support to test and validate
users' software technologies.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28954.wss

Syracuse University, IBM launch green data center
IBM, Syracuse University, with partners celebrated the construction
of its new Green Data Center, a showcase of world-class innovations
in advanced energy-efficient information technology.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28946.wss

India recognizes IBM for technology that assists the disabled
IBM has received several prestigious awards in India on World Disability
Day, recognizing the company's work to improve the lives of those
with disabilities.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28955.wss

IBM study addresses the business impact of analytics
Entitled "Breaking away with business analytics and optimization,"
the study is thought to be the first major worldwide inquiry into the actual
business impact of analytics.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/29005.wss

IBM introduces new System z Linux solutions
The new IBM Enterprise Linux Server provides a full array of
components to help organizations consolidate hundreds of Linux
virtual servers on a single server using z/VM.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/29006.wss

IBM opens cloud computing lab in Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Cloud Computing Laboratory will serve as a world
class development facility for Web 2.0, cloud mail and collaboration
for businesses of all sizes around the globe.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/29013.wss

IBM, City of Chesapeake build a smarter city
IBM and the City of Chesapeake, VA, announced a partnership
to build more intelligent systems to better serve its residents as part
of a city-wide capital improvement project.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28981.wss

New service helps companies monitor data center health
IBM Tivoli Live Monitoring Services, delivered on the IBM cloud, helps
companies manage the health and performance of their I.T. resources.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28993.wss

Fordham, IBM launch analytics curriculum
Fordham University and IBM are collaborating on a new business analytics
curriculum to help prepare college students for careers in key industries.
http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28994.wss

Healthcare , IBM January 20, 2010 05:53 PM

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Solar

Alternative energy -- sources that have no undesired consequences unlike fossil fuels or nuclear energy -- are renewable and are often thought of as "free". There are billions of dollars being spent on alternative energy but there clearly are benefits compared to conventional energy sources. The alternative sources include biomass, wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric the tides and other things. There is controversy over how much of the world's total energy needs can be met by the collective output of alternative energy sources but I had thought there was general agreement that even if it is 10% or even less that it was a good thing. I had written a story about wind turbines and much to my surprise there was a lot of pushback about whether it was a good thing at all.

It is reasonable to assume that all the various alternatives have their pluses and minuses, but of them all, it seems to me that solar is the ultimate solution. It may take a long time but solar has the potential to be the dominant -- maybe the only -- source of energy in the long run for the entire world. IBM says that energy saving solar technology will be built into asphalt, paint and windows. There could be huge savings by having solar heat embedded in our sidewalks, driveways, siding, paint, rooftops, and windows. The cost of solar is going to drop with the creation of "thin-film" solar cells that can be 100 times thinner than today's materials. The new material can be "printed" and arranged on a flexible backing, suitable for not only the tops but also the sides of buildings.

I had a catch-up call last week with my friend James Marlow -- founder of a solar startup based in Atlanta called Radiance Energies where he is focusing on solar thermal hot water systems for commercial customers. James sees great potential for solar energy. "Solar is not the only solution for our energy challenges but it is a serious part of the solution", he says. We compared notes on the government role in solar and agreed that there is a hodgepodge at the state level. In Connecticut there is an incentive to install solar but the assistance has an income cutoff level. People who could afford significant systems are not eligible for the assistance. People who are eligible often still can't afford the systems. Go figure.

Energy , Home Automation , On Demand , Public Policy January 19, 2010 10:00 AM

Sunday, January 17, 2010

e-philanthropy

There are so many ways to help those in need. I wrote a story called e-philanthroy just over ten years ago -- posted below. The number of developments on the Internet since then would have been unfathomable back then. I remember Mary Meeker from Morgan Stanley giving a presentation about eBay back then and have to admit more than skepticism at the time. Needless to say she was right -- results for 2009 not final yet but the year before eBay had revenue of $8.5 billion and net profit after tax of $1.8 billion. My nook auction has 38 followers and 18 bids with the high bidder at $270. Rather than wait, there is $1,000 on the way to Americares for Haiti.

There are many high quality charities but I like to support those that have low administrative costs. FoundationSource posted a list of the ones they recommend. Americares has the highest percentage of funding to programs -- 98.7%. One of the most innovative approaches -- that would be unheard of back in 1999 -- is mobile donations. Just send a text message to 90999 with the message "haiti" and $10 will be sent to the Red Cross -- and the $10 will be placed on your cell phone bill. Not inconceibable that tens of millions of people will do this.

The most powerful part of the Internet that has developed since 1999 has been the social networks. In countless cases this has been the way that friends and family have been able to communicate to and from Haiti. Even though the terrestrial phone systems were mostly wiped out, the satellite-based Internet connectivity was preserved. NetHope and Inveneo are setting up a satellite and WiFi link in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas and Cisco is providing the various relief agencies with WebEx which will enable emergency response conference calls and collaboration. e-philanthropy will grow in importance in the years ahead.

e-philanthropy

October 5, 1999
(edited January 17, 2010)

I think we are all aware of how well the economy has been doing in recent years. The unprecedented growth has resulted in prosperity for many people beyond what they may have imagined was possible. For many people the amassing of a million dollars of net worth was a dream they didn't really expect to happen. Now many of those same people likely dream of $10 million. Those with $10 million dream of $100 million and those with $100 million dream of being billionaires! Much is being written about the wealth of so many. At the same time there are much larger numbers of people who have not been so fortunate. There are many people who go to bed hungry. Even in "affluent" communities there are long lists of people waiting to gain access to barely habitable Federal housing. For reasons of health, location, skills, misfortune, or disadvantage there are large numbers of people in need.

Who is responsible? The government or those who are more fortunate? Many would agree it is at least in part the latter? What can be done? A lot. For those of us who have been fortunate there is a range of ways to help out. Basically, there are so many ways to help that there are no excuses for not doing so. The means to help follow a hierarchy as do so many things. At the base of the pyramid of helping is giving money anonymously. This can be done through the United Way, churches or synagogues, private foundations, various national appeals, or directly to pinpointed charities. Web sites abound. A few links can be found here.

A second level up the pyramid is to not be anonymous; to directly support causes that are meaningful or important to you or your friends and family. A couple of years ago I attended a reception of the Society of Alexis de Toqueville, a group of contributors to the United Way who exceed a threshold of $10,000 in giving per year. At the reception I was astounded both at how many people were there and how many people were not there. It was initially impressive to see a group of 150 or so in the room. Some quick arithmetic suggested that the giving represented was probably greater than $2 million. On the other hand seeing that there were just a very few people (literally) from any one of the major companies represented (GE, IBM, Merrill Lynch, Chase Manhattan, Texaco, etc.) made it painfully clear how small the participation really was. Given that the stocks of all these companies (and many more) has appreciated so much and the additional fact that these companies all provide a corporate match of the employee gift shows how much potential there really is. Suppose, for example, an employee had options to buy company stock at $25 per share and the current price of the stock was $50 per share. A gift of just 100 shares of stock would be worth $5,000. The company match would make the gift worth $10,000 and establish the employee as an Alexis de Toqueville giver. The cost of the donation to the employee would be $2,500 to exercise the options plus a capital gains tax (assuming the donated shares had been held sufficiently) of roughly $750 minus a tax savings of $2,000 (assuming a 40% tax bracket) or a net cost of $1,250. The leverage of the gift: 8 to 1!

A further extrapolation of the leveraged giving idea is the formation of a private foundation. On October 21, 1998 the Senate passed a bill which made permanent the section 170(e)(5) about charitable deduction for gifts of appreciated stock to private foundations. This means that any person can establish a private foundation and use appreciated stock to do so. This can be a very useful way to reduce tax obligations in the event of a bonus payment, retirement payout of restricted stock, or any "spike" in income. At the same time the foundation can be used to provide charitable donations for subsequent gifting or even to receive and distribute charitable donations from others . There are a few catches but they are reasonable. One is that your foundation must give away at least 5% of it's average net assets per year. Another is that you have to file a tax return for the foundation. If all this is too daunting, you can donate to an existing foundation that someone else has established. Some links to resources can be found at http://www.jcdowning.org/ An example of a simple private foundation and links to the tax forms can be found at http://patrickfoundation.org

At the Alexis de Toqueville reception, hosted by Jane Pauley (NBC) and Bob Wright (GE), I was quite impressed with the brief comments made by Jane. She talked about the positive impact people can have by publicly revealing the amount of their contributions. Put modesty aside, she said, and let others know. It will challenge them and spur larger gifts. I think she is right. As the United Way and others publish their gold/silver/platinum giver lists the top categories seem to be growing.

And then there is the most important gift of all -- personal involvement. Your time is your most scarce resource and giving even a small amount of it is often very difficult. In the end however this is the greatest gift and the greatest leverage. An hour of time to a board or committee can be as valuable as the 8 to 1 leverage of a financial gift.

How can we get more people thinking about all this? One idea is e-philanthropy. It is not just "click here to donate". It is a larger idea. Creating a local community of interest, a charity portal, that can enable charities to make their needs known and where those with resources can make their abilities known whether it is an anonymous gift, targeted visible funding, or volunteer time. If the idea were to spread it might mean enabling people to contribute to charities where they grew up, went to school, or have a vacation home. It might also be a resource to help people set up their own private foundations or contribute to existing ones. It might also be a way for the smallest of charities with no executive director, corporate sponsors, nor advertising budgets to make themselves visible.

The bottom line is simple. Incomes and assets are up. So is the need of those less fortunate. Let's give e-philanthropy a chance.

An interesting article about e-philanthropy can be found at http://www.greenstar.org/e-philanthropy/

Gadgets , Media , People January 17, 2010 10:39 PM

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Nook Epilogue

I got "Kindlized" in March 2008. Two years later I got "nooked". The "e-book" idea -- replacing the paper book with something electronic -- has been around for three decades but it is really taking hold now. Over the years there have been various "e-book readers" introduced and now we are seeing a flood of them. The nook is an excellent product but I put in on eBay last week. I suspect that if I had the nook two years ago and then the Kindle came along that I would stick with the nook.

The two products are very similar but also different. The nook is a more attractive product but the Kindle is a little bit lighter. The nook has more functionality but the Kindle is a bit more intuitive. The nook has a very nice color screen which is used to display book covers and to provide navigable menus. The Kindle does not have that. A very nice feature of the nook is that you can "lend" a copy of a book you have read to a friend. The friend has two weeks to read it or they may decide to buy their own copy. The nook is also quite nice if you are a visitor to Barnes & Noble stores. While there you get free WiFi access and some free reading material too.

The auction currently has 32 people following it. There have been twelve bids with the high bid at $152.50. With the sporty Jack Spade case I suspect it will bring at least $250. The auction ends on Monday evening. Whatever the final proceeds are, they will be tripled and sent to Americares for Haiti.

Gadgets , Media January 16, 2010 03:39 PM

Thursday, January 14, 2010

OCLC - Part 2

I continue to learn a lot about libraries from my board service at OCLC. No grass is growing under their feet at OCLC as they continue to look for new ways to connect the world's libraries. Mobile devices are fast becoming the medium of choice for access to information for more and more of us. OCLC has been aggressive on this front and has just partnered with RedLaser to introduce an innovative iPhone app which puts information about books from thousands of libraries at your fingertips.

RedLaser, developed by Occipital, of Boulder, Colorado, turns the iPhone camera into a barcode scanner. Just aim the camera at the barcode on a book and the app captures the information. You then tap on it and the app uses a connection to OCLC's WorldCat to deliver localized U.S. library results based on the your geolocation and it provides a list of libraries that have the book plus the library locations, contacts and map information. There is a very good interview Mike Teets of OCLC and a demo here.

OCLC has opened up the interfaces to WorldCat not only for RedLaser but to anyone interested in creating non-commercial mash-ups or mobile apps that utilize library data. The WorldCat iPhone app can also be used separately. A version of the WorldCat Mobile app also works on Android phones, including the Motorola Droid and the new Google Nexus One.

I have to admit that I had never heard of WorldCat until I got involved at OCLC. Quite impressive that it is the world's largest database of bibliographic information. Institutions around the world share the records, using them to create local catalogs, arrange interlibrary loans and conduct reference work. There are now more than 165 million records in WorldCat spanning five millennia of recorded knowledge. Like the knowledge it describes, WorldCat grows steadily. Every second, OCLC and its member libraries add seven records to WorldCat.

OCLC Homepage

WorldCat

Internet Technology , Media , Public Policy January 14, 2010 03:39 PM

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