Artificial Intelligence Added to Medloom Clinical Decision Support System
Junction City, Kansas
Lead Horse Technologies has announced the addition of artificial intelligence (AI) technology to its Medloom clinical decision support system. Medloom runs on the InterSystems CACHE high-performance object database platform. CACHE provides the high performance, rapid development environment and advanced features needed for the real-time decision support that characterizes the Medloom system, according to John M. Armstrong, Ph.D., Lead Horse Technologies Chairman and CEO.

Dubbed Ardvarc, the new patent-pending AI software is already viewed by some industry experts as a potential leap forward in drug safety. "Lead Horse Technologies is unique. They've developed terrifically novel software that, in my opinion, would give valuable early signals about drug safety issues... signals that just haven't been available until now," said Charles L. Bennett, MD, Ph.D. and the Center of Economic Excellence Endowed Chair in Medication Safety and Efficacy at the South Carolina College of Pharmacy.

"There is no more important issue than pharmaceutical safety, but many people don't really pay attention to it," Bennett continued. "Most clinicians assume that drugs are vetted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the pharmaceutical manufacturer. Simply stated, the manufacturer has a difficult time and, while the FDA tries its hardest, there just aren't enough people to do the work completely."
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New Online Tool Helps Hospitals Calculate Health IT Stimulus Dollars Available to Fund EHR
San Diego, California
Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading provider of open-source healthcare IT solutions, today unveiled a new Stimulus ROI Calculator designed to help hospitals make more informed, financially sound health IT decisions.

"This online Calculator," explained Medsphere President and CEO Mike Doyle, "demonstrates the ability of most hospitals to leverage federal stimulus dollars and totally fund a proven and comprehensive electronic health record solution, specifically, Medsphere's OpenVista® EHR. Moreover, our rapid six-to-nine-month implementation process assures OpenVista hospitals that they will be enabled to achieve meaningful use in time to qualify for maximum stimulus dollars. And to let hospitals know how committed we are to helping them achieve meaningful health IT use and thereby meet federal stimulus requirements, we put one-third of our subscription fees at risk."

This automated ROI Calculator uses Medicare and Medicaid discharge information to calculate the estimated federal stimulus dollars a hospital can qualify for by achieving meaningful use as defined by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The federal government is using ARRA, in part, to impel healthcare organizations to deploy and meaningfully use the health IT necessary to manage costs and improve patient care. The tool helps hospitals estimate five-year subscription fees for Medsphere's OpenVista EHR solution based on the data they enter (exact figures available upon request). The Calculator then automatically correlates the two estimates -- EHR fees and ARRA stimulus -- to show hospital executives approximately how long it will take to recoup their EHR investment via ARRA.

"As hospitals ponder meaningful use of EHRs and meeting federal ARRA guidelines, they need straight answers from vendors on pricing, time to implementation, achievement of meaningful use and other key issues," said Doyle. "A general lack of vendor openness has made many hospitals reluctant to proceed though they may be leaving millions of sorely needed stimulus dollars on the table.
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Dr. Deepak Chopra Releases "Stress Free" for the iPhone: a Coaching Program That Helps People Lead Stress Free, Happier, and Healthier Lives
Pleasantville, New York
Ready to live a life without stress? Dr. Deepak Chopra is putting the keys to a stress-free life right in our pockets. The bestselling author and world-renowned authority in the field of mind-body medicine has created the first mobile step by step program to becoming stress free. The new stress reduction program has been developed specifically for the iPhone/iPod Touch. It features videos of Dr. Chopra as a personal stress relief coach guiding users through a series of daily journaling exercises, guided meditations, music therapy and yoga exercises.

Stress Free is the first in a series of iPhone applications and mobile programs from Deepak Chopra. It also represents the first time such a program is being released directly in an interactive mobile format, without first being released in a book. With his new series of personalized mobile applications, Dr. Chopra intends to provide people with the opportunity of making significant life changes by following daily habit-changing exercises on the go and throughout the day.

The new application combines evidence-based psychology research with traditional Vedic principles. The self-guided program walks users through a set of stress-reduction activities and skills. Throughout each step in the program, users are personally coached by Dr. Chopra in a series of activity-specific videos. Activities include self-reflective interactive exercises relating to one's body, self/ego, relationships and emotions, as well as journaling, questionnaires, music therapy, meditations, yoga exercises and personal nutrition tips based on the concepts of Ayurveda.

"We know that stress is a major contributor to the serious epidemics of our time such as heart disease and cancer; finding ways to combat stress is critical to our health and well being," said Deepak Chopra. "What's so exciting about 'Stress Free' is for the first time, people can access the guidance and tools they need right when they need them most. By following simple daily activities on their phone, individuals can positively change their life perspective and psychological well being."
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Independent Study Indicates That Enterprises View Collaboration, Ease of Use as More Important Than Security When Choosing a Cloud Vendor
Palo Alto, California
CloudShare today announced the results of an independent survey that examines the perception and adoption of cloud computing solutions. The survey sheds light on "What Matters Most in the Cloud" and indicates that ease of use, an all-inclusive business model, and support for existing IT architecture outweighs security as the most important factors for enterprises moving, or considering a move, to the cloud.

The evaluation, conducted by an independent market research firm, issued surveys to representatives from 2,500 enterprises, asking respondents to cite factors driving their particular organization's move towards cloud-based services. The study reveals that while security continues to be an area of consideration for cloud adoption, it is no longer regarded as the number one concern for selecting a cloud provider.
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Pet Health Insurance Market Expected to Reach Over $650 Million by 2010
Jericho, New York
Social Media Ventures, Inc. has announced that its social networking site for pet enthusiasts, PetsPlaces.com  will now offer pet health insurance, one of the fastest growing services in the booming pet industry. Americans currently spend $51 billion annually on their pets as reported in a BusinessWeek story. Veterinary Care ranks as one of the largest expenses, which the American Veterinary Association reports costs pet owners more than $18 billion annually. In addition, The American Animal Hospital Association reported that 73 percent of pet owners are willing to go into debt to pay for their pet's medical expenses.

Pet insurance is an increasingly popular way for pet owners to mitigate these medical expenses. According to a CNBC report, Pet health insurance is the third most requested employee benefit. To meet this growing demand, major corporations like Home Depot and Blockbuster Video now offer employees pet health insurance. "Pet health insurance is one of the fastest growing subsets of the booming pet market," said Robert W. Thayer, CEO of Social Media Ventures, Inc. "We are very excited to now offer pet health insurance to our social networking site for pet enthusiasts, PetsPlaces.com." The pet health insurance is made available through an affiliate program provided to Social Media Ventures for PetPlaces.com.
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Medline Launches New 'Generation Pink Exam Glove Featuring Patented 3G Technology With Greater Flexibility and Protection
Mundelein, Ilinois
As part of its ongoing campaign to raise breast cancer awareness, Medline Industries, Inc., the nation's largest privately held manufacturer and distributor of medical supplies, today announced the launch of its "Generation Pink" powder-free synthetic exam glove. To aide the awareness effort, Medline will donate $1.00 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for each case of the new pink glove purchased during the month of October, national Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The new Generation Pink exam glove features Medline's patented third generation technology, an advanced polymer formulation that offers outstanding sensitivity with a unique softness and flexibility. "The new Generation Pink glove is not only a tangible symbol of our ongoing commitment to breast cancer awareness and research, but our customers will also be showing their support every time they wear them," said Tripp Amdur, president of Medline's Glove Division. "At the same time, Generation Pink's patented third generation synthetic technology provides healthcare workers with the tactile sensitivity, fit and barrier protection that enables facilities to go latex-free."
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New Study Shows Coaching to Patient Activation Levels Improves Disease Management Outcomes
Irvine, California
People with chronic health conditions who receive coaching tailored to their level of health activation showed significant improvements in clinical outcomes, and experienced fewer hospitalizations and visits to the emergency room than those coached using traditional methods, according to a study published in the June issue of The American Journal of Managed Care. The study, led by Judith Hibbard, Ph.D. and colleagues at the University of Oregon, compared the behaviors of patients receiving standard telephone disease management (DM) coaching with those who received more tailored coaching based on their "activation level" as part of a DM program offered by the health improvement company LifeMasters Supported SelfCare, Inc. Activation levels are determined by the Patient Activation Measure, a survey tool developed by Hibbard and colleagues to assess an individual's knowledge, skills and confidence in playing a role in one's own health and healthcare.

"LifeMasters is continually implementing new methodologies and tools to improve outcomes," said Mary Jane Osmick, M.D., Vice President and Medical Director. "We have learned that deploying targeted interventions rather than using a 'one size fits all' approach is a critical success factor. Our nurses and coaches are the first in the DM industry to provide individual patient support by applying a fully integrated coaching model that includes the PAM. The findings reinforce our understanding that improved activation is an overarching measure of success that leads to significant clinical improvement and financial savings. "

The quasi-experimental research, which was conducted in a real-life DM setting, included an intervention group and a control group of nurse coaches and their patients in geographically separate call centers, which were selected based on the similarity of their nurse coaches' tenure and years of experience. The findings show those who received coaching with the PAM experienced a 33% decline in hospital admissions compared to the control group, which remained flat, and a 22% decline in emergency room visits compared with an increase of 20% in the control group. The PAM group also experienced statistically significant improvements in diastolic blood pressure and in LDL cholesterol levels relative to the control group, and increased their adherence to recommended immunization and drug regimens, including the influenza vaccine. The PAM score intervention group showed fewer hospital stays, which translated into a savings of $145 per person per month for the intervention population. A similar decline was seen in visits to the emergency room among this group, which equates to an $11 per person per month savings. "The PAM is unique among social science-based assessments in that it measures an individual's underlying health belief structure. This structure reflects the degree to which the person feels in charge of his or her own health and healthcare, and is the basis for a whole spectrum of health behaviors. This creates a more holistic view of the individual, one which is essential to providing effective support," said Dr. Hibbard.
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The US is Poised to Overtake Japan in Manufacture of Robotics Used for In-Home Medical Monitoring
Conyers, Georgia
GeckoSystems is a dynamic leader in the emerging mobile robotics industry revolutionizing their development and usage with "Mobile Robot Solutions for Safety, Security and Service." Many in the U.S. may mistakenly believe that the Japanese are world leaders in personal robot development. However, this is not the case. In the last ten years, the Japanese government has granted over $100M in R&D funding amongst their leading international manufacturers for the development of eldercare personal companion robots, but still have no viable products developed. An excellent illustration of this is Matsushita's recent failure when they attempted to sell their "Wakamaru" personal companion robot. Many observers believe it lacked sufficient cost effective utility that prevented it from being perceived as a "value" by the Japanese consumer. It has been taken off the market.

Due to the sufficiency and cost effective robustness of GeckoSystems' first product, the CareBot™, near term in home evaluation trials have been recently announced. "In the U.S. we project the available market size in dollars for cost effective, utilitarian, multitasking eldercare personal companion robots in 2010 to be $74.0B, in 2011 to be $77B, in 2012 to be $80B, in 2013 to be $83.3B, and in 2014 to be $86.6B. With market penetrations of 0.03% in 2010, 0.06% in 2011, 0.22% in 2012, 0.53% in 2013, and 0.81% in 2014, we will anticipate sales, from this consumer market segment only, of $22.0M, $44.0M, $176M, $440.2M, and $704.3M, respectively. We expect these sales despite and perhaps because of the present recession due to pent up demand for significant cost reduction in eldercare expenses," concluded Spencer.
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PDX-Rx.com Works With Microsoft HealthVault to Make Prescription Data Available to Patients
Fort Worth, Texas
PDX and Rx.com have entered into a strategic agreement with Microsoft to make prescription data, which Rx.com manages for multiple chain and independent pharmacy clients, available to Microsoft HealthVault users by accessing a single site with aggregated prescription data. The agreement enables any pharmacy using the Rx.com Electronic Pharmacy Record (EPR) to export their patients' prescription history into HealthVault. Each PDX pharmacy client will have their own independent relationship with Microsoft, while PDX serves to technically integrate the pharmacy's data with the HealthVault platform. Meijer, Inc. is the first PDX client to start integration with HealthVault.

HealthVault helps people collect and store health information from many sources in one location, so that it is always organized and available to them online. HealthVault is working with doctors, hospitals, employers, pharmacies, insurance providers and manufacturers of health devices--blood pressure monitors, heart rate monitors, and more--to make it easy for people to add information electronically to their HealthVault records. Users can then share information electronically with family members and providers as they choose.

"PDX and Rx.com connecting with HealthVault helps put consumers in control of managing their own care and the care of extended family members - children, a spouse or an aging parent," said David Cerino, general manager of the Consumer Health Solutions Group at Microsoft. "Customers from thousands of pharmacies across the country will be able to integrate their prescription history into HealthVault, which will provide them with a more complete picture of their health, and allow them to make better healthcare decisions."
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"Where the Other You Lives," U.S. Forest Service and Ad Council Launch National Campaign to Re-connect Children with Nature
New York, New York
Children in the U.S. spend fifty percent less time outdoors than they did twenty years ago, according to the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. In an effort to encourage children and their parents to re-connect with nature, the U.S. Forest Service has joined the Ad Council to launch a national multimedia public service advertising campaign. U.S. Forest Service. 

The campaign primarily aims to reach "tweens" (children aged 8-12) and their parents. The goal is to encourage children to get outside and experience nature first-hand, instilling a life-long love for nature by fostering a connection with urban and national forests. Children spend less time outdoors due to safety concerns, an increase in the number of working parents and the development of new technologies that capture free time indoors. As a result of this limited interaction with the outdoors, many children are unaware of the benefits that nature provides, including improving their physical and mental health and emotional well-being. Research shows that children who play outside have lower stress levels and more active imaginations, become fitter and leaner, develop stronger immune systems and have greater respect for themselves and for others.

Furthermore, those who spend their childhood in nature are more likely to become environmentally conscious in the future. "People, especially kids, need a direct connection to both forests and nature for their health and personal growth--and for the future of conservation," said Chief Kimbell. "It's wonderful to expand our efforts to reach kids through this partnership. The Ad Council has been helping us accomplish the Forest Service mission for over 60 years."
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Data Loss Prevention Solution Simplifies Identification and Remediation of Privacy and Security Issues Affecting Electronic Health Records
Sunnyvale, California
Code Green Networks, the leader in comprehensive data loss prevention solutions that can be deployed quickly and cost-effectively, has announced its new TrueDL for Healthcare solution, an industry-specific security system that ensures the privacy and protection of sensitive healthcare data.

"Given the nationwide push to digitize healthcare records, healthcare IT professionals should adopt appropriate tools to identify and secure sensitive data moving over their networks, especially via non-secure channels such as web mail and public health networks," said Eric Ogren, principal analyst at the Ogren Group. "Content inspection solutions like Code Green's are an essential tool for identifying and securing data vulnerabilities."

Combining patent-pending detection and protection against loss of Electronic Health Record (EHR) data, Health Insurance Portability & Accountability (HIPAA) code set information, and prevention of unauthorized healthcare Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) transmissions, the Code Green solution enables healthcare organizations to strongly defend themselves against the inadvertent loss or intentional theft of sensitive patient information over any outbound network communications.
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Healthcare Identity Management Is Necessary First Step to Electronic Health Record Interchange, Says Smart Card Alliance Healthcare Council
Princeton Junction, New Jersey
Government policy makers are looking carefully at the best ways to improve the efficiency of information systems in the healthcare industry. But current plans that emphasize electronic health record exchange are putting the cart before the horse, according to a new brief for government policy makers and other healthcare stakeholders from Healthcare Council industry experts at the Smart Card Alliance.

"Dependably accurate identification and authentication of patients seems like something that should already exist in healthcare, but studies show it is a major problem," said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. "And if we are aiming for wider interchange of information, there must be a way to uniquely and securely authenticate that person across the healthcare system, including over the Internet, in a secure and privacy sensitive way."

Efforts to reduce medical errors caused by mistaken identities, modernize data exchange, reduce redundant testing and lower administrative costs must start with accurately linking patients with their personal medical information, while at the same time protecting their privacy according to a new brief from the Smart Card Alliance. "Effective Healthcare Identity Management: A Necessary First Step for Improving U.S. Healthcare Information Systems" is a one-page, plain-speak brief that explains the current problems with identity management in healthcare and its costs. It also proposes solutions without reinventing the wheel by leveraging existing standards developed for other federal identity programs, including the FIPS 201 Personal Identity Verification of Federal Employees and Contractors standard now being used for federal employee identity programs.
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New Criteria to Help Facilitate EHR Adoption in Small, Ambulatory Physician Practices
Schaumburg, Illinois
The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT), the federally recognized body for testing and certifying electronic health records (EHRs), has announced it will develop dermatology-specific functionality criteria beginning in 2009. The CCHIT's decision was in part a response to an application from the American Academy of Dermatology with support from the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery, the American Telemedicine Association, the Medical Dermatology Society, and the Society for Investigative Dermatology as well as overwhelming support from the dermatology community and other key stakeholders.

"Beginning in 2006, CCHIT has placed a 'seal of approval' on physician office-based EHR products to indicate that the system has met rigorous functionality, interoperability and security criteria for primary care, child health, and cardiology. The American Academy of Dermatology is pleased that the unique needs of dermatologists who use digital images and body mapping to track patient health will be recognized," said dermatologist C. William Hanke, MD, MPH, FAAD, president of the American Academy of Dermatology. "This will be a service to the health care community as it continues to transition to a system that relies on electronic health records and the smooth and secure interchange of data. Dermatologists are committed to helping create functional criteria and technical elements that also will help many different physician specialties."
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Use of Technology from BitGravity, Facebook and Twitter Enabled an Exclusive Executive Conference to Reach and Engage a Global Community
Framingham, Massachusetts
After concluding the DEMO 09 conference with a bang on March 3, 2009, the final numbers are in on the global reach and virtual participation generated through the event's live broadcast. Utilizing technology from BitGravity and Facebook, the conference logged close to a quarter million player streams from viewers in 80 countries through the DEMO 09 Live video broadcast and witnessed 4,000 Facebook status updates via the new Facebook Live Feed widget.

DEMO 09 marks the first multidimensional conference experience to leverage Facebook's Live Feed to provide content, community and conversations to a worldwide audience "In today's challenging economic climate, conferences like DEMO have to be creative and rethink the ways in which they operate to reach the broadest audience in order to have the greatest impact," said Neal Silverman, Executive Vice President of Network World and DEMO. "By leveraging leading edge technology like BitGravity and social community-building services like Facebook and Twitter, we were able to offer our demonstrators, our live attendees and our virtual audience a world class experience like never before."

Whether watching the stream online or as one of the 500 people attending the conference in Palm Desert, users updated their Facebook status directly from the DEMO 09 Live player and could also see and comment on status updates posted by friends and other Facebook users tuning in to the broadcast. Status updates posted on the Live Feed were published in the user's Facebook News Feed with a link tagged back to the DEMO 09 Live stream, so friends could click the tag and watch the stream while participating in the conversation. This activity led to a viral explosion in viewership around the world as interested friends clicked back into the DEMO broadcast after seeing comments left by friends who were already watching.
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-- 20% of people 45 and older reported health problems due to financial stress
-- About one fifth, 22%, have delayed seeing a doctor due to cost
-- 16% had to use retirement savings or other savings to pay for medical care
-- 21% have cut back on other expenses in order to afford their medical care
-- One in six, 16%, are not confident they will be able to afford health care in the coming year.
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Healthcare Costs Prevented Nearly 40 Million Americans From Filling Their Prescriptions in 2008
New York, New York
The Internet becomes an increasingly important health resource for consumers curbing their spending on doctor's visits and medications.  Nearly 40 million U.S. adults decided not to fill a prescription medication from a doctor in the past year because of the cost, according to pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research's Cybercitizen Health consumer study and strategic advisory service. The study found that women and patients with neurological and mental health conditions were the most likely to give up their medication due to cost.

For those struggling to afford healthcare, online channels have become increasingly important resources. Over 145 million consumers are online for health, and this year's Cybercitizen Health study saw the Internet surpass doctors as the top source for obtaining health and medical information.

Top Condition Groups Who Report Not Filling a Prescription Because of the Cost:  1. Fibromyalgia, 2. Inflammatory Bowel Disease, 3. Generalized Anxiety Disorder, 4. Chronic Bronchitis, 5. Chronic Pain, 6. Acute Pain, 7. Adult ADHD, 8. Anxiety Disorder/Social Phobia, 9. Bipolar Disorder, 10. Depression.
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First Authoritative, Comprehensive, Free, and Ad-Free Resource for the World's Health Care Providers
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Health Sciences Online (http://www.hso.info) is the only site where anyone can search for and find more than 50,000 courses, references, guidelines, and other expert-reviewed, high-quality, current, cost-free, and ad-free health sciences resources. Free and accessible to anyone, the up-to-date, authoritative information is aimed primarily at health care practitioners and public health providers, enabling their training, continuing education, and delivery of effective treatments to patients. The information is delivered by powerful search technology from Vivisimo, Inc., which allows users to easily see comprehensive search results and quickly find the answers they need with an intuitively navigated graphic interface. Through integration with Google Translator, users can search and read materials in 22 languages.

Former CDC Director Dr. Jeff Koplan calls Health Sciences Online (HSO) "a visionary undertaking" and the World Bank heralds it as "globally democratizing health science knowledge." HSO is expected by the World Health Organization (WHO) "to make a considerable contribution to the advancement of e-learning worldwide." HSO is a portal that includes more than 50,000 world-class health-sciences resources, selected by knowledgeable staff from already-existing, reliable, professional sources and resource collections. These include medical specialty societies, accredited continuing education organizations, governments, and universities such as Cambridge, Columbia, Harvard, Hopkins, McGill, MIT, Penn, Stanford, and Yale. Founding collaborators for this site include CDC, World Bank, the American College of Preventive Medicine, and the University of British Columbia, and financial support has come from WHO, the NATO Science for Peace Program, the Canadian government, the Annenberg Physician Training Program, and many volunteers.
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One Small Step for Man, One Giant Leap for Medical Research: Cognition Launches Semantic Medline
Los Angeles, California
Cognition Technologies, a next-generation Semantic Natural Language Processing company, announces a quantum improvement in the application of NLP technology with the introduction of Semantic MEDLINE -- the 18 million article abstract database of complex health information published by the National Library of Medicine. This new free service at www.SemanticMEDLINE.com enables complex health and life science material to be rapidly and efficiently discovered with greater precision and completeness. This marks the first time that users can employ a natural, conversational sentence structure to find the most complex studies within the MEDLINE dataset.

SemanticMEDLINE is powered by Cognition's Semantic NLP technology, which incorporates word and phrase knowledge to comprehend the meaning and nuances of the English language. Cognition's Semantic Map, the most complete and comprehensive available today, enables the Search process to be based on meaning, rather than statistical word pattern matching, and therefore returns more complete and relevant results.

"Cognition's Semantic NLP is the first and only technology to combine all of the key linguistic elements to unravel the complexity of language and optimize semantic understanding of ambiguous content. The foundation behind this capability is our comprehensive Semantic Map of the English language," said Scott Jarus, CEO of Cognition Technologies. "SemanticMEDLINE's results are far more comprehensive and thorough when compared with Pubmed's native Search results because of two unique capabilities: an understanding of synonymy and the ability to understand meaning and context reasoning."

With traditional keyword search engines, such as those used by Google, Yahoo! and others, finding the best medical research document within complex datasets, such as MEDLINE, is very difficult to obtain without the use of complex Boolean equations and a deep understanding of the many permutations of technical synonymy. Cognition's Semantic MEDLINE has the ability to target and locate these types of data that are otherwise hidden in masses of information because of its comprehensive Semantic Map (particularly deep within the health sciences discipline) and its unique ability to "understand" the meaning behind words, phrases and idioms.
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Bloggers Can Now Upload, Import and Edit Videos in Any Blog Post, and Allow Their Readers to Post Video Comments and Participate in Collaborative Videos
New York, New York
Kaltura, Inc., developer of the first open source video platform for video management, creation, interaction, and collaboration, announced today that it has released version 1.0 of its Interactive Video Plugin for WordPress. The open source plugin, which can be downloaded at http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/kaltura-interactive-video/, is designed to enable both basic and advanced video capabilities on any WordPress blog (using version 2.5 and higher) -- from simple video posting and playing to video commenting and collaborative video editing.

"Kaltura's open source strategy is already proving itself -- the community has warmly embraced our MediaWiki extension, and the beta version of the new WordPress plugin is already being used by many bloggers and has received enthusiastic reviews so far. We're looking forward to seeing more and more blogs using interactive videos with the release of this first official version," said Ron Yekutiel, Kaltura Chairman and CEO. "Video is becoming an inseparable part of the blogging world. Our plugin enables bloggers not only to easily upload and display videos, but they can also create mixes and slideshows, and engage their users in a real and compelling conversation."

Kaltura's Interactive Video plugin allows bloggers to enhance their WordPress blog with a full video experience. Following the short and simple plugin installation, bloggers can: -- Upload, and import videos directly to their blog post; -- Edit and remix videos using Kaltura's online full-featured video editor; -- Easily import video and other forms of rich-media from other sites and social networks, and; -- Allow readers and subscribers to add video and audio comments, and to participate in collaborative videos.
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Real Life and Digital Simulation Will Merge by 2011
Irvine, California
Real life and digital simulation will merge by 2011, producing a mixed-reality environment that will change the way consumers communicate, interact and conduct commerce, according to futurist Dan Lejerskar, chairman of EON Reality Inc., the world's leading interactive 3D software provider. "What once was imagined soon will be experienced," Lejerskar explained. "The technology convergence of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, Web and search, and digital content means that people can experience more in their daily lives by blurring the distinction between their physical existence and digital reality."

As evidence of this trend, he points to the realization of commercially viable applications for 3D interactive virtual reality technology -- as well as the position of industry thought leaders championing the advancement of such experiences. Heavyweights Google and Microsoft are pushing this trend toward the manifestation of the 3D Internet, while computer and video game developers are whetting consumers' appetites for 3D experiences with new technologies, such as Nintendo's Wii. Hollywood studios and amusement parks also are incorporating 3D interactive virtual reality elements into their offerings.

"We're witnessing the creation of an environment in which visualization companies, industry, academia and the public sector can meet and exchange knowledge, experiences and ideas," Lejerskar said. "Within three to four years, we'll see radical changes in how we shop, learn and communicate with business associates, friends and family. Consumers crave user-generated experiences that combine virtual reality technology with physical location-based events to produce totally immersive 3D interactive experiences."

This convergence of technology already is enabling exponential growth in e-commerce, thanks in part to improved search engines that allow Web surfers to find products quickly. What's next, Lejerskar points out, is the ultimate in customization. The next generation of the Internet, Web 3.0, will allow customers to become the driving force behind e-commerce. Rather than walking into a retail store to try on a pair of jeans, for example, shoppers will be able to select clothes with the correct fit using an online 3D body scan image. This virtual see, try and buy approach will become the dominate way to shop.
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Healthcare Tech and the World: A New Perspective on Innovation in Healthcare
Plano, Texas
Perot Systems continues its series of podcasts with a forward-looking discussion about the increasing role Information Technology will play in the transformation of healthcare. In this episode, Dr. Kevin Fickenscher discusses with Dr. Jack Lord the innovations taking place across the healthcare industry, as well as what the future holds for healthcare providers.

The following quotes from Dr. Lord are highlights of the podcast that is now available for download:

Regarding the purpose of Humana's, 'Innovation Center': " ... We decided very clearly to break out of what was a traditional casting of the HMO and move both the clinical and product activities into a spot that would be forward looking ... every year has been a little bit different, we've added new features, we've grown because of talent and I think by virtue of having an innovation center, it's really created an opportunity for us to bring talent in from all over the world."

Regarding enhancing the quality of healthcare for individuals: " ... Health is something that is co-created ... by the person ... and with the healthcare system. So that ... says that the expert around health becomes (the patient) as opposed to the doctor or with the legacy expert system. I think a second piece is moving out of a world that we refer to as the world of sickness and death to a world of life and happiness. The traditional healthcare delivery system has constantly focused on things that fall into the repair shop type of mode and it's taken us down a path of insatiable economic utilization of services."
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Survey Reveals Most Drivers See Hands-Free Law Having Little Effect on Cell Phone Usage
Southfield, Michigan
A survey of licensed drivers in California and Washington shows overwhelming support for the coming hands-free law which took effect July 1, but that it will have little effect on the cell phone usage of drivers. The survey also documents a great deal of confusion as to when the law actually takes effect, what the cost of the traffic fines are in their respective states, whether it's a primary or secondary law, and what kinds of devices can be used to comply with the new law.

The survey shows that 75 percent of drivers (California, 76 percent; Washington, 71 percent) support the law, while only 10% oppose it. It also shows that 75% of drivers consider cell phone use while driving to be dangerous -- yet 63 percent of respondents use their cell phone while driving on average about an hour a day, one quarter of their daily drive time, and primarily for non-urgent matters. Interestingly, key factors driving the purchase of a hands-free device by respondents were "obeying the law" and "safety" at 51 and 50 percent, respectively. The study also revealed that 47 percent of drivers already use some type of hands-free device, whether it's a headset, the speaker of their cell phone, or a portable or installed hands-free car kit.
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Next 10 Years Will Be the 'Second Digital Decade' with Pragmatic Advances in Technology Innovation
Herndon, Virginia
At the Titans Breakfast, hosted by the Northern Virginia Technology Council, the largest technology council in the nation, Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation, said the next 10 years will mark a "second digital decade" involving pragmatic advances in technology innovation. The incredible advances of the past decade, in terms of software development and the growth of the Internet laid the foundation for these profound changes that will dramatically impact the way individuals work, live and learn and will empower the end user like never before, Gates said.

Before the audience of 1,100 technology executives, Gates also addressed a range of topics, including the future of technology in the workplace and issues facing U.S. education, immigration and workforce challenges. Businesses will operate in a "hybrid" technology environment- some operations will remain local while others will transition to the Internet or "be in the cloud," through a combination of software plus services, according to Gates. Moving data operations to an Internet-based architecture will decrease IT costs as less onsite expertise will be required. The way businesses will view data will change as "software will do 90 percent of what we do manually today," he said. Important to this evolution, Gates noted, is that organizations will likely require a mixed environment that offers the best blend of local computing power while also taking advantage of the flexibility offered by Internet-based architectures.

Some of the revolutionary workforce technologies-for instance intelligent surfaces-also will have applicability in home and business environments, Gates said. Microsoft is currently testing a new product, Microsoft Surface, that once launched will not require expensive new hardware-only "software and a camera," and, one day, "will be a standard in the home and in businesses." Gates said Microsoft looks forward to its business partners taking this idea and "running with it" to create new and bigger applications than currently envisioned, including, to just begin with, those in the retail and hospitality industries.
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Hawaii's Premier Physician Management Company Selects Electronic Health Record for Statewide Deployment
Honolulu, Hawaii
Allscripts, the leading provider of clinical software, connectivity and information solutions that physicians use to improve healthcare has announced that TeamPraxis, a physician management services organization that provides technology and support services to more than 1,000 physicians in Hawaii, has purchased a statewide license for the Allscripts Electronic Health Record (EHR). The agreement enables TeamPraxis to provide the Allscripts solution to physicians across Hawaii. 

"Most of us can't imagine going to the bank or having our financial records kept on paper, so why should we accept having our medical records on paper?" asked Creighton Arita, President and Chief Executive Officer of TeamPraxis. "Our partnership with Allscripts helps us fulfill our vision of serving and empowering Hawaii's physicians with real-time information at the point of care, helping to curb rising costs and to improve the quality of patient care."

Over the last few years, Allscripts and TeamPraxis have worked together with the Hawaii Medical Service Association (HMSA), the state's largest health insurer, to provide electronic prescribing to more than 700 Hawaii physicians who are now well positioned to migrate to the full electronic health record. HMSA recently announced that it would provide $20 million in grants for physicians to acquire electronic health records. Under the initiative, 1,000 Hawaii physicians will each be eligible to receive up to $20,000 towards a new EHR.
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Radiologists Self-Edit Reports, Reduce Turnaround Time
Mount Laurel, New Jersey
Provena Mercy Medical Center, a 356-bed community-based hospital in Aurora, Illinois, has achieved new levels of efficiency and physician satisfaction using SpeechQ for Radiology, the award-winning front-end interactive speech recognition solution from MedQuist. Radiologists in Provena Mercy's Imaging department are self-editing 90 percent of their reports, and report turnaround time (TAT) has been reduced by more than half since the implementation of SpeechQ.

The Imaging department at Provena Mercy performed more than 80,000 exams in 2007. In the past, all reports were dictated and then outsourced to a transcription company. Once transcribed, these reports were then returned to the appropriate radiologist for review and signature. With SpeechQ, average report turnaround time has been reduced from 61/2 hours to 3 hours, and TAT for STAT and ED reports is now five minutes.

Dr. James Studlo, medical director of Imaging Services and chief of the medical staff at Provena Mercy, comments, "When using a traditional dictation system, I often had to rewind and listen to what I had said to confirm that my conclusion was complete. With SpeechQ, it is much easier and faster for me to read what I have dictated and to sign off on a report while the images are displayed." The ED physicians and medical staff at Provena Mercy also appreciate receiving a typed, legible final report within minutes after their patients have had an imaging procedure.

David Angel, administrative director of Medical Imaging and Laboratory Services, adds, "Our success is measured by providing high-quality diagnostic reports to our referring physicians and their patients in a cost-effective and timely manner. Many of the hospital's medical staff have commented on the improved reporting from the Radiology department, and both the imaging staff and the radiologists have noticed a decrease in the amount of phone calls from physicians' offices requesting reports."
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Personalized Health Care Tracking to the Next Level with Innovative Free Online Tools
New York, New York
By merging ordinary technology such as cell phones and personal computers with sophisticated web-based applications, Mosaic Health Solutions has created a breakthrough online health tracking system that allows users to more effectively and efficiently manage their personal health. Called Healthy Footsteps, the interactive program requires just minutes a day, but generates a lifetime of benefits including better medication compliance, accurate tracking of symptoms, ongoing reminders of physician treatment recommendations, weekly printouts for physicians that help improve communication and increase effectiveness of office visits, big picture reports that allow participants to view progress over time, and much more.

Currently, Healthy Footsteps is available for people coping with diagnoses that particularly benefit from daily tracking: depression, anxiety, panic attacks and diabetes. In addition, the Healthy Footsteps-MedNotices program provides daily medications reminders. Other conditions that will soon become part of the www.healthyfootsteps.com family include stress, insomnia, heart health, nutrition and wellness, fertility, chronic fatigue syndrome, allergies, osteoporosis, HIV and weight loss. Under development are specialty Healthy Footsteps programs for kids, teens and seniors that address conditions and issues reflecting their individual life stages. All programs are free, easily accessible on the Web, and privacy protected.
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New Web 2.0 Site Brings World's Artists to Your HDTV
Laguna Beach, California
A revolutionary new website is poised to forever change the way people find and enjoy artwork. The site, www.AmbianceVisuals.com, utilizes artist submissions and professional curation to bring talented photographers, painters and video artists from around the world direct to your flat screen television in stunning High-Definition clarity.

As the world increasingly moves away from traditional canvas-and-frame art display and embraces the infinite flexibility of digital display, AmbianceVisuals.com has become a leading provider of "Art for Your Television" content. "Our new Web 2.0 site brings artists from across the globe straight to your fingertips," says Director of Production, Justin Thomas Ostensen. "Finding quality artwork for your home or office used to entail hours of searching galleries and significant expense. AmbianceVisuals.com allows you to explore a wide range of great artwork from the comfort of your home, then easily display it on your HDTV while you're relaxing or entertaining guests."

AmbianceVisuals.com offers a broad selection of "Art for Your Television" content, including DVDs, downloads and even a "Create Your Own Custom DVD" feature where you can curate your own art DVD. It's all part of the company's goal to make enjoying art easier and more flexible. "It's virtually impossible to fit all the art you love into one house or apartment," Ostensen says, "but with AmbianceVisuals.com, you can create DVDs with dozens of great artwork. Or you can download art and create Art Playlists on your favorite media player, which are just like Music Playlists, and allow you to enjoy ever-changing artwork for hours."
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Free Report Guides Businesses on World of "Web 2.0"
Culver City, California
Venice Consulting Group, a leading software development and consulting firm based in Culver City California, today announced a new how-to guide for businesses on "Web 2.0" technology, describing terms in easy-to-understand language and including practical steps for implementing Web 2.0. The free report, titled "Everything Businesses Want to Know About Web 2.0 (but are afraid to ask)," tackles one of the most discussed topic that businesses face.

Web 2.0 has received much press in the last few years as the Internet continues to develop and mature. While the concept of Web 2.0 came out of the technology industry, it has assumed an important place in the business world. All businesses, from the home office to the large enterprise, will eventually be touched by the Web 2.0 phenomenon and understanding its basic tenets is an important first step before adopting the technology that underpins it.
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IBM Initiative to Move Web 2.0 to Center Stage
Boston, Massachusetts
IBM has announced "Web 2.0 Goes to Work," an IBM initiative to help organizations bring the value of Web 2.0 -- such as easy access to information, rich, browser-based applications, and social networking and collaboration software -- into the enterprise in a security-rich, reliable way. Web 2.0 is about combining content, collaboration and rich user experiences that are transforming the Internet from static Web pages into a dynamic platform for social interaction, while enabling the creation of powerful, Web-based applications.

"IBM is uniquely positioned to develop an information ecosystem to meet the needs of organizations as they adopt Web 2.0 principles and technologies," said Steve Mills, senior vice president and group executive, IBM Software Group. "We're combining the collective experience, resources and expertise from across the company to help our customers realize the value of Web 2.0 in the enterprise." As companies embrace this more dynamic, social Internet, they realize the benefits of having a service oriented architecture (SOA). While SOA helps build a flexible computing infrastructure, Web 2.0 arms users and communities with software assets needed to create a new class of rich, lightweight and easily deployed software solutions. "Our goal is to make today's consumer-based technologies relevant to businesses by building offerings that deliver a highly-productive and integrated entry into Web 2.0-based solutions," said Jim Deters, president of Ascendant Technology, an IBM Business Partner. "Businesses who do not take advantage of these technologies will be ultimately forced by users into this new computing era or will face significant growth hurdles."
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Integrated IBM Storage, Server and Services Solution Provides Enterprise Archiving, Storage Virtualization and Data Protection to Hospital and Research Networks
Nashville, Tennessee
IBM has announced its new Grid Medical Archive Solution, a cross-IBM offering comprised of storage, software, servers and services. The GMAS solution provides hospitals, clinics, research institutions and pharmaceutical companies with a multi-tier, multi-application and multi-site enterprise storage archive for delivering medical images, patient records and other critical healthcare reference information on demand.

The need to retain massive volumes of business-critical fixed-content data for long periods of time is presenting new data and storage management challenges for health care organizations. Users continue to demand fast performance as well as higher and broader availability of patient records and medical images. Massive data volumes combined with long retention periods require storage administrators to deliver a cost-effective storage strategy that meets the users' needs, protects valuable data, scales on demand, simplifies data migration and automates recovery for both planned and unplanned downtime.

"With mounting advances in medicine coupled with a longer-living population, healthcare organizations are increasingly embracing new technology that puts the patient in the center of the delivery model and drives innovation to increase the quality of patient care," said Hernan Vega, Vice President, Healthcare and Life Sciences, IBM Systems and Technology Group. "IBM GMAS is a great example of how advanced storage technologies, virtualization and grid computing can improve the way hospitals access, store and manage their critical patient data over time."
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Social Networking and Social Commerce Offers a New Way for People and Businesses to Connect
Delray Beach, Florida
The question had become where do adults go to socialize online when they feel too old for MySpace or Facebook but are too young for Eons? Despite marketing targeted at teens and twenty- something's, over half of the visitors to social networking websites like MySpace, Facebook, Flickr and Live Journal are now 35 and older, according to recent industry reports. With the popularity of these online communities growing with no end in site, the time is ripe for a social networking service -- which is what Vois.com (pronounced "Voice") a community for users age 30-to-50, is positioned to provide. 

Today more than 56 percent of visitors to MySpace now are over 35, according to industry expert comScore and about 41 percent of visitors to the college-targeted Facebook are now over the age of 35. There's a similar demographic at youth-oriented networking sites Friendster and Xanga -- yet the common misconception that exists is that these services are predominantly used by just teenagers. In reality, these services are now immensely popular with Baby Boomers and so-called Gen X'ers, many of whom have been members of online communities since the bulletin board system (BBS) Internet forums that debuted in the 1980's, through the early years of AOL's instant messaging and Usenet discussion groups.
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Internet Television Pioneers Partner to Provide Video-on-Demand Programming From Around the World on Joost
Toronto, Ontario
JumpTV Inc., the world's leading broadcaster of ethnic television over the Internet, has partnered with Joost, the world's first broadcast-quality, free-to-air Internet television service, to make a significant portion of JumpTV's library of video-on-demand television content available on a series of exclusive JumpTV-branded ethnic television vertical "channels" on the Joost platform. JumpTV currently broadcasts live over the Internet thousands of popular television programs, news, music and sporting events from 270 channels from over 70 countries around the world on a subscription and advertising supported basis. The initial JumpTV offering on Joost will feature programming regularly gathered from JumpTV's digitally rights compliant international television roster. The first JumpTV "channels" on Joost will feature popular Spanish-language series from Colombia, Chile and Peru, in addition to Arabic-language comedy, drama and news programs from some of the leading broadcasters in the Middle East. JumpTV will be adding new programming on a daily or weekly basis, and intends to launch several more channels on Joost in other languages, including but not limited to Romanian, Turkish, Russian and Bengali. Commenting on the partnership, Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, president and chief executive officer of JumpTV International stated, "We see Joost as a unique and important distribution/programming partner. Like us, the Joost team innately understands the power of viral, high-affinity long-tail content -- for example, JumpTV's ethnic TV programming. Given the track record of the Joost founders, we believe that the Joost platform could be as transformational for online television as their previous ventures have been."
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Experts Predict Economic Boom from Nanotechnology
Greensboro, North Carolina
North Carolina could experience the same economic returns from nanotechnology as it has in the past 30 years from biotechnology investments if the state capitalizes on its strengths in emerging technologies with support that leads to commercialization of its innovations, according to leading experts in science, education, and business who spoke at the second annual NC Nanotech Conference at the Grandover Resort and Conference in Greensboro in March.

The conference is designed for entrepreneurs, executives and investors from across the region who have an interest in the wide-range of opportunities associated with nanotechnology and its commercial applications. "Thirty years ago North Carolina did not have a biotechnology cluster," said Robert McMahan, Ph.D., Senior Advisor to the Governor of North Carolina for Science and Technology. "Now it is the third largest biotechnology state with more than 350 bioscience companies. North Carolina was successful in recognizing that investments in technology could be a driver for the economy. Today, such strategic and patient investments in nanotechnology capability and capacity at the 48 nanotech companies throughout the state can replicate the biotechnology success."
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Managing Without Walls: Maximize Success with Virtual, Global, and Cross-Cultural Teams
Tampa, Florida
Millions of Americans do it every workday -- head to their home office instead of their car to start their day. While the benefits of telecommuting or working from remote locations are numerous, so are the pitfalls. Especially for the manager who faces the daunting task of building a cohesive team of employees when not everyone is on-site. So how can a manager successfully lead a team of workers who might never meet face to face?

The secret lies in understanding the dynamics of building and leading a virtual team. Successful virtual managers realize that they can't just cut and paste the skill set for 'traditional management' to lead a virtual team according to international project manager and author of "Managing Without Walls" (MCPress, 2006), Colleen Garton, who has over 20 years experience in traditional and virtual management in the financial, technology, analytics, and multimedia industries. "Today many virtual and outsourced projects are failing due to managers' lack of expertise in virtual management," says Garton. "The successful virtual manager has developed the knowledge and expertise needed to overcome the unique challenges of working together while the team is physically apart."

The telecommuting trend shows no signs of slowing. The International Telework Association and Council in Washington estimates that 20 million Americans now telecommute. That's why it is increasingly crucial for managers to develop and polish their virtual leadership skills. Garton draws a clear and concise picture of the tools virtual managers need to successfully lead their team. Garton also outlines the challenges posed by a virtual team; where personality clashes and office politics can still take a detrimental toll. "Managers need to understand how virtual communication differs from traditional communication and how to effectively communicate to build a team," says Garton.
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Z-Wave Enters 2007 Leading the Wireless Home Control and Automation Industry
Las Vegas, Nevada
As we enter 2007, Z-Wave continues to lead the wireless home control and automation market. "We're entering 2007 with more than 100 products shipping with the Z-Wave logo," said Mark Walters, vice president of the Z-Wave Alliance. "We continue to meet our goals and anticipate significant growth in 2007 as products offering the best of the Z-Wave technology such as meta-data transfer and reliable two-way communication, continue to find their way to market and consumers start realizing that wireless home control is not just for the wealthy new home buyer."

In November 2006, Zensys launched the third generation Z-Wave chip, creating the lowest cost and lowest power consumption chip on the market. The third generation Z-Wave chip also is the first to support battery-to-battery networks, which extend the range of home control applications and makes it possible to have entire networks of battery-operated devices. All Z-Wave certified products will be fully interoperable with the new chip, enabling homeowners to easily and affordably expand their wireless home control networks.
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eHealth Initiative Applauds Federal Move to Link National Standards to State and Local Health Information Exchange Efforts
Washington, D.C.
The Department of Health and Human Services' plan to support trial implementations for the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) in 2007 is a laudable next step towards fulfilling the vision of secure electronic health information exchange through an interconnected "network of networks" that reaches across the country.

"We applaud the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology for guiding efforts through to this important next step," said Janet Marchibroda, chief executive officer of the eHealth Initiative (eHI). "HHS's linkage of its work related to the harmonization and adoption of standards and the development of prototype architectures to state and local initiatives will help to facilitate electronic information mobility among national, regional and local actors, as well as public and private sector efforts -- all of which need to connect to improve our nation's healthcare system."

HHS announced that details of the procurement process for the trial implementations would be released in spring 2007. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) will solicit proposals to create the trial implementations and work toward integrating them with its broader Nationwide Health Information Network initiative.
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Job Opportunities for Injured Veterans and Military Spouses Will Be Greatly Increased by Alliance Between Telework Coalition and CORA, Inc.
Washington, DC
The Telework Coalition (TelCoa), the only non-profit membership organization dedicated to promoting virtual, mobile, and distributed work through education, technology, and legislation has formed a Strategic Alliance with CORA, Inc. (CORA). CORA, which stands for "Creating Opportunities - Recognizing Abilities," is dedicated to providing Work@Home opportunities for disabled veterans, military spouses and special needs workers.

The New Freedom Initiative Award annually recognizes non-profits, small businesses, corporations, and individuals that have demonstrated exemplary and innovative efforts in furthering the employment and workplace environment for people with disabilities, a goal of President Bush's New Freedom Initiative. Ilene Morris-Sambur, Founder and CEO of CORA, received the Award today in the Individual Category from Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. TelCoa and many of the members of its Advisory Board have substantial experience and expertise in making the business case for Telework and helping organizations set up and manage Work@Homeprograms. Together the alliance will provide employers with the knowledge and resources needed to be able to incorporate CORA trained personnel into either new Work@Home strategies or existing Work@Home programs.

"The CORA program makes possible an accessible, barrier-free workplace, flexible scheduling and the elimination of disability related bias or discrimination," said Chuck Wilsker, TelCoa's President, CEO, and Co-Founder. "Incorporating the Work@Home model into a call center and customer service strategy also enhances organizational resiliency against unexpected disruptions such as a pandemic, terrorist attack, or weather related disasters," he concluded.
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Joint Venture Provide World's First 100 Percent Secure and Private Network for Healthcare and Telemedicine
Los Angeles, California
eNotes Systems, Inc. has announced a joint venture that will introduce to the healthcare industry the world's first 100% secure, private network (including seamless integration with existing enterprise LANs and WANs) that will allow for the safe transmission of critical medical data, as well as secure, real-time, interactive video consultations between healthcare professionals and doctors and patients. eNotes' new joint venture partner is Jump Communications, a company formed by the principals of Advanced Telecommunications Technologies, Inc. a communications technology development company whose renowned client list includes the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Navy, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Justice, CNN, Newsweek, Cox Communications, RoseTel Systems, and the Association of California School Administrators, among many others. The announcement was made today by Mr. Jeff Flammang, President and CEO of eNotes Systems, Inc.

This joint venture will enable the introduction of the world's foremost technology to the telemedicine sector and is characterized by its proprietary hardware-based video compression algorithms, the simultaneous delivery and receipt of video at a constant 30 frames per second (true television quality), a full color palette, full audio/video-synch (lip-synch), and no perceptible latency. eNotes will offer a private network to clients that ensures absolute secured transmissions with a guarantee of all-time availability of private bandwidth.
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Advantages of Greater Speed and Accuracy to Promote Adoption of Smart Card Applications by Healthcare Sector
London, England
The European telemedicine market is experiencing rapid growth. The ability to provide effective care for chronic and acute conditions in a cost-effective manner is enabling telemedicine to penetrate new markets.

Frost & Sullivan finds that the European Telemedicine Market earned revenues of $87.48 million in 2005 and estimates this to reach $690.2 million in 2012.

"The focus of the telemedicine market has shifted from curing to prevention", notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst C.R.Hema Varshika "The need for efficient disease management together with the trend towards home care management will have a significant impact on the future of the European telemedicine market."
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EnvironmentStocks.com Discusses Corporate Mandates of Top Global Enterprises Going Green and Exploring Sustainability
Point Roberts, Washington
An investor and industry news portal for the environmental sector, is pleased to offer a new online resource for investors, following the 'Green technology revolution' led by Internet visionaries such as Bill Gates, Steve Case and Scott McNealy. Last year when Gates invested $84 million in a California company focusing on ethanol bio-refineries, he set the bar for higher level investment in Green technology. Steve Case was also quoted in the Washington Post as saying that, "The green, sustainability movement is going mainstream.. we want to ride that wave."

As global economies such as China and India continue to experience fast paced growth and rapid industrialization, environmental impacts are now directly being linked to the financial bottom line. Environmental damage and the costs to repairs can negate growth in terms of cost if they are not managed.

World Bank Chief Scientist Robert Watson recently announced, "It's quite clear we have a number of technologies but the private sector has walked away." He furthered, "The problem is to induce investment. We are coming to see a growing interest in Green solutions."

Top level companies such as Intel and Nokia will be speaking out this summer at an event sponsored by Ethical Corporation, on their own strategies for going Green. According to Intel Corporation's last Global Citizenship Report, the company "Recycled 63% of chemical waste generated worldwide," and "reduced 19% absolute PFC emissions from 2003 levels -- remain on track to meet 2010 goal."

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IT Employment Strong in May Despite Weak Overall Jobs Report
Alexandria, Virginia
Employment of IT workers has accelerated despite a recent weak overall jobs report.  In May 2006, employment of IT workers increased 24,900 from the previous month to 3,653,200, which was up 5.6% from May 2005. For the previous 12 months, employment of information technology (IT) workers increased by an average of about 16,250 per month, according to the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses (NACCB).

"Although there was strong employment growth in sectors that are most commonly associated with IT employment such as computer system design and services as well as with search engine and related technology, IT employment was also up in the health care and financial services sectors," said Mark Roberts, NACCB CEO.

Strong demand is leading to shortages of IT professionals with certain skillsets in some geographic areas. Consequently, IT staffing companies who can find the right talent on a just-in-time basis for their clients are reporting that business is brisk.
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TranStar Communications Orders 100 Seamless Next Gen Mobile Computing Devices
Las Vegas, Nevada
Seamless Wi-Fi, Inc. subsidiary, Seamless Internet Inc., announced that TranStar Communications Systems of LaVerne, CA has ordered one hundred Seamless Internet Next Generation Mobile Computing Devices. TranStar is a leader in applying communications and display technology to in-flight aviation applications and has placed an initial order for a variation of the Next Gen Mobile Device specially modified for in-flight computing and entertainment use.

"The Seamless Internet Device is the ideal form factor for future airline entertainment and communications systems," said Dick Bertagna, President of TranStar Communications Systems. "With the recent awards of broadband air-to-ground frequencies the timing for the launch of this device is fortuitous for our purposes of providing passenger access to one of the most advanced and versatile communications and entertainment devices with a richer feature set than anything on the market." Mr. Bertagna and TranStar principles have decades of experience in the aerospace communications industry, including running Hughes Avicom, which was sold to Rockwell International.

Seamless has redesigned the Next Gen Device, which won a Consumer Electronics Show "Best of Innovations" award, as a robust portable business computer measuring only 5" x 4" x 2" and weighing less than 12 ounces that offers a full-fledged computing platform with communications and entertainment functionality and a very functional fold-out mid-sized keyboard with superior tactile and response characteristics.

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Web-Based Telepathology Application Uses Internet Microscopy to Improve Service to Patients and Doctors
Irvine, California
Trestle Holdings Inc., a supplier of digital imaging and telemedicine applications, announced that Kaiser Permanente's department of pathology in Colorado has implemented Trestle's internet-accessible slide-viewing solution, MedMicro, to enable its pathologists to share information and review each other's diagnoses from the network's three facilities, which are scattered across the state.

MedMicro converts patients' specimens in real time from their original glass-slide format into high-quality digital images, which can be viewed via the Internet from any standard PC. Users can also move the slides under the microscope, control lighting and use whiteboard-like techniques to collaborate with each other. "Our quality assurance system at Kaiser Permanente requires that a diagnosis of cancer be reviewed and signed off by two pathologists," explained Dr. Richard Spurlock, chief of pathology at Kaiser Permanente in Colorado. "Because our facilities are spread out and our ten pathologists are located in different parts of the state, we are looking at ways to more quickly and efficiently diagnose conditions, and to improve service to our doctors and patients."
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CG2 to Develop Innovative Game-Style 2D/3D Command and Control Applications for Joint and Coalition Forces for Multiple Mobile and Embedded Platforms Using Human Machine Interface
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
CG2, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Quantum3D, Inc., announced at AUSA Winter Symposium the award of a Phase II contract from the U.S. Army CERDEC, Ft. Monmouth, NJ under the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program. They develop software and hardware components to support the insertion of high performance collaborative 2D/3D user interfaces with live video feeds into multi-echelon Command and Control (C2) applications. The graphical rendering engine used for the application is based on the Quantum3D cross-platform IData COTS Human Machine Interface (HMI) suite, including IData3D integrated realtime 3D scene manager, and IDataMP Digital Map components, running under OpenGL ES. Quantum3D embedded visual computers will be used to deploy these capabilities and demonstrate them in joint and coalition C2 exercises.

The goal of the research is to develop and commercialize user interface technology and APIs that leverages advances in mobile gaming to deliver a collaborative, interactive shared view of the net-centric battle space to the operational commander at multiple echelons, from the platoon and company level upward. CG2 will accomplish this using common HMIs running on deployable platforms ranging from lightweight handheld systems to portable, man-wearable visual computing platforms to desktop workstations. The intended user interface will include a number of innovative concepts such as user interaction in a shared 3D space, correlation between multiple views of data, and collaborative data sharing between asymmetric networked systems. Key technologies CG2 will apply include mobile 2D/3D graphics, cross-platform non-traditional user interfaces, lightweight rendering and game engines, emerging standards for cross-platform OpenGL ES based applications, data interfaces to common coalition C2 collaboration models, and systems expertise in portable 3D systems including COTS OpenGL ES ARM-based handheld systems and man-wearable systems such as the Quantum3D THERMITE Tactical Visual Computer.
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FCC Backs Down on VoIP 911 Regulations Despite Existing Solution
Dallas, Texas
When you call 911, how sure are you that help really is on the way? If you have a VoIP-enabled phone service, don't get too comfortable. The latest decision by the FCC does not require Internet phone service providers to cut off service to customers who don't have reliable 911 emergency call services, so it may be some time before VoIP customers can effectively dial 911. Internet phone providers aren't helping either. While providers should be spending resources finding ways to keep their customers safe, many simply are spending their time fighting the FCC regulations.

In the FCC's original decision, providers of Internet-based phone calls had to certify that their customers would be able to reach an emergency dispatcher when they called 911. Dispatchers also must be able to identify the caller's phone number and location. Providers had until Nov. 28 to comply with this regulation or they would be required to cut off service to customers. But the FCC's newest decree only necessitates that providers stop taking on new customers, and they are expected to discontinue marketing Internet call services.
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VoIP, Inc. and TCS Join Forces for VoIP E911
Annapolis, Maryland and Fort Lauderdale, Florida
VoIP, Inc., a global provider of advanced communications services utilizing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as its core technology, and TeleCommunication Systems, Inc., a leading provider of mission critical wireless communications, announced today that they have partnered for the reliable delivery of E911 services for VoIP Service Providers (VSPs).

VoIP, Inc.'s CTO Shawn Lewis commented, "We chose to work with TCS for our VoIP E911 service, because they are proven experts in the industry for the maintenance of critical data required for the delivery of E911 calls. Coupled with our private, high quality-of-service network and direct connections to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs), we are able to provide successful delivery of critical E911 calls from VoIP subscribers."
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World's First System-on-Chip Solution With Location Estimation Capability Targeting ZigBee(TM)
Oslo, Norway and Schaumburg, Illinois
Chipcon AS, the world's leading provider of low system cost, low power RF chipsets and networking software, has announced the availability of the CC2431, a true System-on-Chip (SoC) IEEE 802.15.4 low power wireless sensor networking solution, also targeting ZigBee(TM) solutions. The new SoC solution from Chipcon includes a licensed location detection hardware core from Motorola. The solution is based on the world's first available SoC in this field, the CC2430 (launched by Chipcon in September 2005), and Motorola's IEEE 802.15.4 standards based radiolocation solution, all in one single silicon die.

The CC2431 includes the industry leading CC2420 IEEE 802.15.4 & ZigBee-compliant RF transceiver core, 128 kByte flash memory, a high performance 8051 microcontroller core and a radiolocation hardware core. The part comes in a 7x7 mm package, is fully pin to pin compatible with the existing CC2430 SoC and is available with the market leading Z-Stack(TM) ZigBee protocol software from Figure 8 Wireless, a Chipcon company. The CC2431 will enable OEMs to seamlessly develop compact, high performance and reliable wireless networking products using the chip as the only active device in the system, thus reducing time-to-market, and keeping production and test costs to a minimum.
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Unlicensed Mobile Access Opening Up Residential Telephone Market to Mobile Carriers
Dallas, Texas
Deployment of Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology will enable mobile phone carriers to accelerate residential telephone fixed-to-wireless substitution while increasing ARPU and decreasing churn. This convergence of Wi-Fi and cellular networks will generate an estimated $1.6 billion in new revenues for these carriers by 2010 in the U.S. alone. Dual mode subscribers are forecasted to reach 55 million by 2010. These are some of the key findings from a new research report: "UMA and Beyond: Mobile Operators Benefit from Wi-Fi and Cellular Convergence," now available from Alexander Resources, a leading research, consulting and education firm specializing in wireless communications.

The new report assesses the technology and market potential of UMA and other Wi-Fi and cellular convergence solutions in the residential, enterprise, and hotspot market. It includes an extensive forecast of worldwide demand and revenues for converged Wi-Fi and cellular services, and an in-depth analysis of the effect that Wi-Fi and cellular convergence will have on traffic over fixed and cellular lines.
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Eight Countries Represented in International Nanotechnology Business Idea Competition
Cleveland, Ohio
Organizers of the second annual International and North Coast Nanotechnology Business Idea Competitions today announced they have received more than 40 entries from the United States and seven other countries, including Canada, China, India, Italy, Romania and the Ukraine. The entries will be judged here October 20-21 during NANO Week. "The international representation we've attracted indicates the growing global interest in nanotechnology along with recognition of Ohio as an emerging leader in this area," said Gary Wnek, co-director of The Institute for Management and Engineering (TiME) at Case Western Reserve University.
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Neah Power Systems Announces Achievement of Micro Fuel Cell Technical Milestone
Washington, D.C.
Neah Power Systems, Inc., an emerging leader in micro fuel cell technology, today announced the achievement of a major technical milestone. A fully integrated, multi-cell "stack," functioning as the core engine of the fuel cell, was recently demonstrated at the company's laboratory. The results support the exciting potential of Neah Power's silicon-based, patented architecture. Compared to currently announced competitive technologies, this architecture is expected to set a new standard in micro fuel cell technology by scaling to higher power densities and improving operating efficiencies, leading to smaller physical form factors. Neah Power Systems is developing a silicon-based direct-methanol fuel cell (DMFC) aimed at providing longer-lasting power solutions for mobile and remote applications, such as military communications devices, notebook PCs, and other advanced electronics products.
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Company Previews Mobion(TM) Technology for Military Applications and Reiterates Market Entry for a Military Product in 2006
Washington, D.C.
Dr. Shimshon Gottesfeld, Chief Technology Officer of MTI MicroFuel Cells, the developer of the award-winning Mobion(TM) micro fuel cell technology for handheld electronic devices, demonstrated at the 7th Annual Small Fuel Cells for Portable Applications Conference how Mobion(TM) technology could be deployed to power future military sensor applications. Military sensors are becoming increasingly important for military operations; they can be placed in strategic locations and networked together to detect, record, and send intelligent information to a central location. Applications can range from surveillance and monitoring of U.S. borders for homeland defense to deploying sensors in enemy territory for combat operations.
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Nanosys and Sharp to Collaborate on Nanotechnology-Enabled Fuel
Palo Alto, California
Nanosys, Inc. announced it entered into a collaborative agreement with Sharp Corporation of Osaka, Japan, to develop nanotechnology-enabled fuel cells incorporating Nanosys' proprietary nanostructure technology. Under the terms of the agreement, Nanosys will collaborate with Sharp to utilize its nanostructure technology to help develop high performance fuel cells for use in portable consumer electronics such as laptop computers, cell phones and cameras. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. "Sharp's expertise and success in the development and commercialization of portable electronics and renewable energy products makes them an excellent collaborator for Nanosys," said Calvin Chow, Nanosys' Chief Executive Officer. "We are excited about the opportunity to apply our nanostructure technology with Sharp to address the numerous opportunities in the rapidly growing multi-billion dollar portable power market."
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ibex Healthdata Systems Releases Latest Emergency Department Mobile Computing Technology
Rosemont, Illinois
Patient safety and satisfaction, plus physician satisfaction and convenience, are considered high priorities in every busy hospital emergency department across the country. These priorities depend on providing Emergency Physicians the flexibility to order tests, review results and write prescriptions while giving them real time access to medical information as they move around the emergency department. Accomplishing that, up to now has been next to impossible. ibex Healthdata Systems of Rosemont, Illinois, the premier provider of innovative Web browser-based emergency department information solutions to the healthcare industry, has recently released the healthcare IT industry’s most innovative emergency medicine features solution specifically designed for hand held computers.
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Web-Based E-Learning Systems Offer Productivity Tool...Particularly In Healthcare Industry
Dallas, Texas
Electronic-learning, which is increasingly used as a productivity tool by small to medium-size businesses (SMBs), has become a $4 billion industry growing at 10-15 percent yearly, reported the Information Technology Solution Providers Alliance (ITSPA), a national, non-profit group that helps SMBs understand how technology and local technology providers can help them succeed. "The implications of the e-learning phenomenon are enormous for SMBs, particularly as they look for ways to go head-to-head with large corporations," said ITSPA President Russell Morgan. "Driving the growth of e-learning are SMB decision makers who understand that online employee education offers many advantages that traditional training simply can't match. "In healthcare, for instance, smaller clinics and hospitals are using e-learning systems to help doctors, nurses, technicians and administrators learn about new medical advances, earn healthcare certifications, and sharpen their skills without leaving the office."
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High-End IPv6 Training & Integration Services Readies Military and Fortune 500 Companies for Next Generation Internet
Seattle, Washington
Native6, Inc., the leader in professional services for IPv6 education and integration, announced a comprehensive update to the popular course, Building IPv6 Networks, the completion of a major IPv6 training program for Cisco Systems, the IPv6 Accelerate Program, and the availability of a new Native6 course, IPv6 for Programmers. A key leader in the IPv6 community, Native6 delivers high-end IPv6 training and provides critical integration services to help some of the largest IT and government organizations complete a smooth and cost effective transition to IPv6, the next generation Internet protocol.

"Native6 provided a premium training experience that played a significant role in helping us in educating Navy program personnel who have requirements for transitioning to IPv6, and did so at a competitive price," said Mark Evans, IPv6 Transition Lead, and Navy IPv6 Project Office. "In particular, Native6's ability to provide professional IPv6 experts and engineering talent as well as high quality instructor staff to deliver educational content at our facility was instrumental in the success of our recent training initiative."
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IPv6 Vendors Test Voice, Wireless and Firewalls on the Moonv6 Next-Generation Internet Network
Durham, New Hampshire
A new round of tests on the Moonv6 network stretching from New Hampshire to California has pushed IPv6 testing into new territory by venturing into voice, wireless, firewalls and a host of advanced network and application-layer tests, the North American IPv6 Task Force (NAv6TF) and the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) have announced.

Moonv6 represents the most aggressive multi-vendor test and demonstration of products being developed for the next-generation Internet protocol, IPv6. The latest round of testing began at the UNH-IOL on Oct. 30 and wrapped up at the U.S. Defense Department's Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) in Fort Huachuca, Ariz. on Nov. 12. Test areas included interoperability in pure IPv6 as well as mixed v6 and IPv4 networks, IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs, voice over IP (VoIP), firewalls and IPsec (IP Security), dual-stack routing, Internet protocols such as DHCP, DNS and various applications and transition mechanisms.
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ThoughtWorks Author Highlights the Five Business Value Commandments for Successful Software Delivery
Chicago, Illinois
Many organizations struggle to realize the business value of their IT projects, often leading to dissatisfied business users. ThoughtWorks' Business Coach Chris Matts and Andy Pols, an independent consultant, provide business and IT project managers with a series of five tips to achieve business value. "IT professionals and project managers want what is best for the business," explains Matts, "however, oftentimes many managers end up focusing on the process, the documentation, or the software, rather than delivering value to the business."
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Market Metrics Measure IT Spending Expectations and Foreshadow Future IT Growth
Framingham, Massachussetts
Market intelligence and advisory firm, IDC, has announced the launch of FutureScan, a set of market metrics that measure supply and demand in the IT industry based on leading indicators and customer surveys. Values reflect expectations of future growth, with an index value of 1000 indicating zero growth and each 10 points representing roughly 1% of expected growth or contraction. For September, the FutureScan Buyer Intent is 1085 with the Market Indicators at 1032.

Designed to reflect market demand for IT products and services, the Buyer Intent indicator is based on monthly surveys, conducted by IDC's Quantitative Research Group, which ask CIOs and line-of-business executives their expectations for IT spending growth over a 12-month period. The Market Indicators number combines inputs from economic and IT industry supply-side indicators, including the stock market, interest rates, and profit forecasts. IDC combines and weights these inputs using information developed in its Leading IT Indicators program on the relationship of macroeconomic trends to IT spending.
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Critical Performance Measures Show Gap Between World-Class and Median Continues to Widen
Atlanta, Georgia
The gap between world-class performers and median companies continues to widen across a range of critical performance measures including costs and staffing, according to 2004 Book of Numbers research into world-class performance from The Hackett Group, a business advisory firm and an Answerthink company. This gap should be seen as a potential danger sign for companies that allow themselves to lag behind, according to Hackett.

The Hackett Group's 2004 Book of Numbers series, "Performance Metrics and Best Practices of World-Class Companies," provides executive-level insights into how world-class organizations continue to find ways to spend less and reduce headcount while improving overall effectiveness by leveraging best practices across functions such as finance, IT, HR, procurement, and other areas. Hackett's research also highlighted five of the most common traits and techniques shared by world-class companies: an overall focus on operational excellence; more effective sourcing strategies; enhanced quality and access to information; standardization and simplification; and improved business alignment.
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Global Hotspots to Generate More Than $11 Billion in 2009
San Diego, California
There will be more than 700,000 hotspots worldwide by 2009 and these will generate $11.4 billion in both subscriber and hotspot driven venue oriented revenues at this time, according to recent research by emerging wireless research firm, ON World Inc. While hotspot deployments are accelerating worldwide, there are key differences among geographical regions.
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Outdoor Wireless Mesh Router to Enable Instant Networks in All Environments
Los Gatos, California
Firetide, a leader in mesh networking for quickly, easily and affordably deploying large wireless networks, has announced the HotPoint 1000R wireless mesh router designed for outdoor network deployments. Firetide, a Best of Show finalist for wireless networking, demonstrated the product at the NetWorld+Interop conference in Las Vegas May 11-13.
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Whitebook Opportunities Lie in Mid-market

As notebook penetration catches up to desktops in the enterprise space, a solid market is developing for whitebook manufacturers to cash in on this 'new' opportunity. This opportunity isn't enormous, yet, but it's growing, and becoming more pervasive in areas that used to be the exclusive domain of the desktop or OEM notebooks. David Daoud, senior analyst for IDC, said channel partners would have to fine-tune their service offerings in order to experience true success. He said players in the white box market need to discover new form factors, particularly with laptops, as that's the segment that will drive desktop growth in 2004. According to research from META, only 45 per cent of corporate users will rely on desktops by 2006. Notebooks will have a 40 per cent market share by then, the company said. META said a key factor in the growth of notebooks and the like is the increased number of appliances the average corporate user is equipped with now.
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Program Marks First Public/Private Partnership to Encourage Telecommuting
Washington D.C.
At a joint press conference, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) and the Greater Washington Board of Trade (BOT) announced a new effort to encourage 50,000 more commuters to telecommute by 2005. The program, which is aimed at large employers and federal agencies includes free customized training programs and free trials at telecommuting or "telework" centers, marks the first time that public and private organizations in the metropolitan Washington area have come together to promote telecommuting.
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Telework Consortium Announces Technology Partnership
Redwood City, CA
First Virtual Communications, a premier provider of infrastructure and solutions for real time rich media communications, has announced they have entered into a technology partnership with the Telework Consortium, a non-profit organization chartered with accelerating and expanding the adoption of telework by building and communicating the business case for telework. Telework Consortium technology partners help conduct research, expand pilot programs and promote and evaluate communications and collaboration technologies.
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Leading Work-Life Companies Announce New Telecommuting e-Courses
Minneapolis, MN
Work & Family Connection, Inc., the nation’s only work-life information clearinghouse, has announced an alliance with Gil Gordon Associates, leading telecommuting consultant, to produce the world’s only web-based e-learning courses on how to telecommute, and manage telecommuters, successfully.
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Despite Signs Of Economic Recovery, Caution Characterizes 2004 IT Spending Plans
Cambridge, Mass.
Forrester Research, Inc. estimates that IT spending will grow 4 percent in 2004. Despite the improving economic picture, 2004 IT budgets remain conservative -- CIOs expecting, on average, a modest 1.7 percent budget increase from 2003. Forrester anticipates that an improving economy could unlock budget reserves in the latter half of 2004. Forrester's November survey of more than 800 technology decision-makers at North American firms reveals that the top budget priorities in 2004 include risk mitigation strategies that entail upgrades to security and disaster-recovery systems. Additionally, consumer sectors, eCommerce initiatives, and pent-up demand for servers and PCs will lead the way in IT spending for most firms.
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Comprehensive Report Reveals Worker Trends and Plans
Chicago, Ill.
Nearly one-in-four workers say they are currently dissatisfied with their jobs, a 20 percent increase over 2001. Six-in-ten workers say they plan to leave their jobs for other pursuits in the next two years. These statistics and others can be found in CareerBuilder.com's new report on worker trends and aspirations titled "At Work 2003: Past, Present, and Future." The in-depth report compares workers' attitudes and opinions between 2001 and 2003, discusses trends in select industries and job functions, and explores gender differences in perceptions of work.
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Road Warriors Worldwide Say Wireless Computing Technology is Becoming Crucial to Business
Santa Clara, California
Business travelers view wireless computing technology as a business necessity only a year after "hotspots" -- places where people can tap into a wireless Internet connection with their notebook PCs -- became available in cafes, hotels and airports. Today, there are approximately 20,000 hotspots worldwide, a number expected to grow sixfold by 2005.

According to an international survey of business travelers released on September 9 by Intel Corporation, 71 percent of road warriors are convinced that Wi-Fi -- short for wireless fidelity -- will enable business travelers to seize a communications advantage over their competition. While only one in ten road warriors has tried Wi-Fi, nearly 90 percent see wireless computing in their future. A third of Asian road warriors said they plan to try Wi-Fi within the next three to six months.
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Analysts Project More Than 71,000 Public Wireless LAN Hot Spots in 2003
Stamford, Connecticut
The number of public wireless LAN (WLAN) hot spots has risen from just over 1,200 in 2001 to more than 71,000 in 2003, but there are still not enough hot spot locations to meet user needs, according to Gartner Inc. (NYSE: IT and ITB). The number of WLAN hot spot users is forecast to reach 9.3 million users worldwide in 2003, up from 2.5 million users in 2002. North America will account for 4.7 million users in 2003, followed by Asia/Pacific with 2.7 million users and Europe with 1.7 million WLAN hot spot users.
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Global WLAN Service Revenues to Reach $4.75 Billion by 2007
Boston, Massachussets
Amidst all the turmoil over the past few years in the telecom industry, one segment has continued to thrive and show promise in the wireless industry, specifically wireless local area networks (WLANs) and Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi). 802.11b or Wi-Fi as it's more commonly known has been gaining acceptance in three specific segments, namely the enterprise, public and home networking markets. Pioneer Consulting believes that Wi-Fi technology will continue to increase its market share over its wired counterparts due to an ever-increasing mobile workforce along with the continued growth of hot spots as end-user demand for unwired Internet connectivity increases worldwide.
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Government Figures Show Catastrophic Loss of Manufacturing Jobs Undermining Entire U.S. Economy
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The release of rising unemployment numbers for April revealed that a 3-month erosion of U.S. manufacturing employment has reached catastrophic proportions and is now undermining the entire American economy, the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) said in May. Citing a release by the Bureau of Labor statistics (BLS), which revealed that a steep increase in manufacturing job losses pushed the overall unemployment rate to 7 percent in April, the union called for immediate, concrete measures to reduce the now skyrocketing trade deficit and create targeted incentives to increse investment in American manufacturing.
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Global Gray Market Threatens Brand Integrity and Erodes Profits for Information Technology Manufacturers
Silicon Valley, California
The Anti-Gray Market Alliance (AGMA) announced in February the information technology industry is losing an estimated $5 billion in lost profits annually, according to the findings of a recent KPMG survey. The staggering results show billions of dollars in lost profits due to the sale of gray market products -- branded products diverted from authorized distribution channels or imported into another country without a manufacturer's consent.
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PortablePower2003 - to Address Future of Wireless and Portable Computing
Cambridge, Mass
TIAX LLC, IDG World Expo, HP, Sanyo Energy Corp., Texas Instruments, and other leading players in the portable power industry announced the creation of PortablePower2003, a conference that will bring together key decision makers from across the fast-growing spectrum of technology that powers wireless communications and portable computing.

The conference, to be held September 21-24, 2003 at San Francisco's Moscone Center, will focus on the innovations, standards, market challenges, and strategies of the portable power marketplace. As consumer demand rises for increased sophistication of cell phones, PDAs, and notebook computers, so does the need for adequate power sources. PortablePower2003 will explore the opportunities and issues associated with these next-generation products and the power solutions that are necessary to ensure the success of future products. In addition, the conference will release original research that details how business users and consumers are currently using device power sources.
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'Big Brother' is No Longer a Fiction, ACLU Warns in New Report
San Francisco
The United States has now reached the point where a total "surveillance society" has become a realistic possibility, the American Civil Liberties Union warned in a report being released today. "Many people still do not grasp that Big Brother surveillance is no longer the stuff of books and movies," said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program and a co-author of the report.

"Given the capabilities of today's technology, the only thing protecting us from a full-fledged surveillance society are the legal and political institutions we have inherited as Americans," he added. "Unfortunately, the September 11 attacks have led some to embrace the fallacy that weakening the Constitution will strengthen America."
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North American Tech Employees' Commitment to Their Organizations At All-Time High
Chicago and Toronto
Two Aon studies released in January show that technology workers throughout the United States and Canada continue to increase their commitment level to their organizations. Aon Consulting's High-Technology @Work studies, which measure workforce commitment separately in each country through a series of questions in the areas of productivity, pride and retention, found technology workforce commitment in both countries at all-time highs.
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Gov Online Learning Center Selects Plateau Systems to Join Federal e-Training Intitiative
Arlington, Virginia
Plateau Systems, a provider of enterprise software that manages all of an organization's learning and knowledge, announced today that the Gov Online Learning Center (http://www.golesrn.gov) - one of the major e-Gov initiatives in the federal government - has selected Plateau 4 Learning Management System (LMS) to help manage the e-learning tools, products and services of multiple federal agencies and as many as 1.8 million federal workers. Managed by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) in partnership with the Department of Transportation and other federal agencies, the Gov Online Learning Center (GOLC) provides one-stop access to e-Learning resources that help employees perform their jobs and enhance their careers.
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Positive Change in Economic Climate: Five Harbingers of Improvement Identified
Seattle, Washington
International technology analyst Mark Anderson says there are an increasing number of events and trends that portend a positive change in economic news.  In his Strategic News Service newsletter, Anderson identifies five indicators.  Five distant lights, if you will, that may be the harbingers of a long-term, if low-key, improvement in business conditions. 
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FCC to Review Media Ownership Rules
Washington, DC
Federal regulators launched a broad review of media ownership rules Thursday September 12 that could lead to major changes for newspapers and radio and television stations. The Federal Communications Commission voted 4-0 to begin reviewing a half-dozen rules to make them more consistent and able to survive legal challenges. FCC Chairman Michael Powell called the examination "the most comprehensive undertaking in the area of media ownership in the commission's history."
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Managers Need Better Way to Deal with Spam
Minneapolis
When it comes to today's escalating problem of "spam" email, two things are clear: businesses anticipate and substantially fear a significant rise in spam in the coming year; and they need a smarter way to manage the problem as current solutions are proving ineffective, reports a new survey conducted by email security company MessageLabs. The survey reveals that while companies see the spam problem as a nuisance, the bigger problem is determining what constitutes spam.  This often leads to an "all or nothing" approach to its prevention that fails to recognize the varying interests and needs of recipients.
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Are we ready for Itanium 2?

The Itanium 2 processor marks a significant step in Intel's strategy to penetrate the upper echelons of the computing market. But analysts and others are asking whether it will thrive in the current economic ice age. The chip, once code-named McKinley, will be touted in benchmark studies, product releases and analyst reports all this week as part of its debut. Executives at Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel say a major redesign of the chip and improvements to the accompanying software and hardware will provide far better performance than the original Itanium, which was a major disappointment for the company.
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Even an IT Recession Can't Stop Innovation
New York
Geek in the Big City 2002: Report from TechX NY There's probably a metaphor for the PC industry in the crowds who braved Manhattan heat and humidity to attend this week's June 27 TechX NY -- wilted but undaunted. To be sure, neither the audience nor exhibit space at the show formerly and still usually called PC Expo came near the high-water marks of 1999 or 2000, and conventional, commoditized PCs claimed very little of the show floor. But there were new technologies and signs of life to be seen.
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