By inmedia
Yes, you heard correctly. Just as the world seems to be reaching a general level of acceptance about the link between air pollution and global warming, New Scientist informs us that the blanket of smog that now covers much of India is being credited with reducing the effect of global warming in the region.
“India is losing out on sunshine because a cloud of tiny air-borne particles released by the nation’s industries hovers above the subcontinent, blocking light from reaching the Earth,” states the article. “Maximum temperatures, which occur during the day and are driven by sunshine, have risen by just 0.04°C because of the protective effect of the smog.”
Ah, the irony.
For more, read the full article here.
By Jill Pyle
In preparation for the presentation that Francis and I will be giving at BarCamp on Saturday, November 17, I’ve decided to shed some light on what goes on behind the scenes at inmedialog.com. I won’t be getting into too much detail here; we’ll share more about editorial strategy, implementation and early results on Saturday. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peak. All feedback is welcome.
Design
We wanted our blog to have a professional design that stayed true to the inmedia brand and mirrored the look of our web site. To accomplish this, we worked closely with Blogging Squared to develop a custom WordPress template that incorporated our logo and colours. We’ve received nothing but positive comments on our blog’s design and found the WordPress platform very easy to use.
Editorial
Going into this, we knew we need an editorial strategy that would allow us to consistently offer up quality content. As the blog editor, I tortured my colleagues with a few different processes that didn’t quite work before we settled into our current routine. Though we are continuing to make tweaks, our current editorial schedule is quite simple. inmedia’s participating consultants are required to write one unique feature per week, as well as three or more “rewrite department” posts that direct readers to interesting technology stories. The third stream to our editorial content is guest contributions. So far, Linda Moran and Eliot Burdett have been featured as guest bloggers. If you have an idea for a piece, don’t hesitate to contact us.
Publishing
As the blog editor, I’m responsible for preparing blog posts for publishing. My colleagues can send me their content by email or save drafts in WordPress, whatever works best for them. I then proof the content, insert pictures, select appropriate categories, add Technorati tags, take care of any weird formatting issues and link appropriate publications, news items and blog posts. I also adjust headlines from time to time, making sure they include relevant keywords. We’ve found this process allows contributors to focus on developing quality content rather than worrying about technicalities with which they may not be familiar.
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By inmedia
This morning’s Network World Daily News pointed to a news item “Back up e-mail, judge tells White House” outlining that “The White House must preserve e-mail and maintain copies of millions of backup e-mail messages that were allegedly deleted improperly from servers, according to a temporary restraining order issued Monday by a U.S. judge.” Directives such as this certainly validate the business case for email archiving solutions like those offered by companies like Exclaimer, an inmedia client. Businesses of all sizes can learn from this situation and deploy solutions in advance of the onset of external pressures. Transparency in government and public companies is increasingly in demand; compliance and accountability issues within both private and public organizations will continue to be powerful market drivers for these sorts of solutions.
By Danny Sullivan
Technology industry watchers have long been waiting for India to start competing on a par with the world’s biggest technology nations. And with good reason – the Indian IT market was recently noted to have passed the $50 billion mark, with phenomenal year-on-year growth.
Today’s news that India is now home to the fourth fastest supercomputer in the world is a testament to that growth. As The Times’s Rhys Bailey puts it, “India’s entry into the top flight of high-speed computing comes amid a significant reshuffle among the sector’s elite installations with America’s dominance over the sector coming under challenge.”
By inmedia
The November issue of Baseline features a large piece on business intelligence, “Getting Smarter, But Still Learning.” In the article, Darrell Dun writes about the growing adoption of BI, as well as the obstacles that are keeping it from reaching its full potential. The article includes a list of pain points identified by CIO Insight’s October survey on BI. Here’s a snapshot of what respondents using BI identify as their biggest pain points:
-64% say integration and interoperability with other systems such as customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning pose a problem.
-57% say poor data quality significantly diminishes the value of their BI initiatives.
-67% say spreadsheets are still their most widely used BI tool.
-58% say most users misunderstand or ignore data produced by BI tools because they don’t know how to analyze it.
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The season of lists
November 13, 2007 by inmedia
By inmedia As the calendar year winds down, we begin to see lists, lists and more lists being released by the publications to which we subscribe. Topics for these lists range from assessing the near-term state of the technology nation, to round ups of the “best” technologies, from the greatest products of the year, to […]
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Hello Bridgewater, farewell Cognos
November 12, 2007 by Francis Moran
By Francis Moran The announcement this morning that global computer services company IBM has struck a deal to acquire Ottawa’s Cognos will end months of speculation over who would eventually claim the largest remaining independent business intelligence software company. However, the disappearance from the public markets of Ottawa’s second-largest (after Nortel) publicly traded company is […]
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Reducing IT complexity through consolidation
November 12, 2007 by inmedia
By inmedia Today’s CIO Insider newsletter points to a recent report by Forrester Research that analyzes the current state of IT and improvements that can be made. According to the article, “unnecessary IT complexity adds costs, reduces effectiveness and stalls innovation… the answer lies in strategic and ongoing consolidation.” But won’t this suggested consolidation cost […]
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101 gadgets that changed the world
November 09, 2007 by inmedia
By inmedia Today’s Popgadget newsletter pointed me to a great list, 101 gadgets that changed the world. The list includes many gadgets we’ve come to rely on and others we’ve long since taken for granted. Head on over to the Belfast Telegraph to check it out.
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Fueling our future
November 09, 2007 by inmedia
By inmedia As part of NBC’s Green Week, the Sci Fi Tech blog has published an entry about the top eight fuels of the future. The post highlights up-and-coming fuel sources, including hydrogen, biofuels, solar, wind, batteries, tides, garbage and nuclear fusion. For all the details, click here.
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The perils of business travel
November 09, 2007 by Linda Forrest
By Linda Forrest I’m working from home today, sniffling, coughing and feeling generally miserable. The culprit? Business travel. Francis and I went to Calgary earlier this week for several meetings and to attend a forum on business and sustainability. Unfortunately, as soon as I got back, I started feeling under the weather. Turns out I’m […]
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How much does a kilogram weigh?
November 09, 2007 by Danny Sullivan
By Danny Sullivan Since secondary school physics, I have always been intrigued by the idea of Le Grand K, the original prototype cylinder of platinum that accurately represents a mass of 1kg, which is still used. Surely such an item is simply a historical relic and is largely unimportant in the grand scheme of modern […]
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Glasgow wins Commonwealth bid
November 09, 2007 by Danny Sullivan
By Danny Sullivan Phenomenal news for Glasgow and the whole of Scotland as Glasgow was chosen to host the Commonwealth Games in 2014. The tension was palpable leading up to the announcement this lunchtime, but the celebrations have now begun in earnest. Securing the games is predicted to have a major impact on Glasgow, with […]
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