Archive for November, 2010
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
 ORLANDO, FL -Did the Internet feel like a more dangerous place this year? PandaLabs , the Panda Security anti-malware laboratory, reports that one-third of all malware in existence was created in the first 10 months of 2010. The average number of malware threats created every day, including new malware and variants of existing families, has risen from 55,000 in 2009 to 63,000 in 2010 – a rate increase of 14.5 percent.
The research lab also revealed that the average lifespan of 54 percent of malware has been reduced to just 24 hours, compared to a lifespan of several months that was more common in previous years.
We’ve noticed there is a constant, ongoing battle between security providers such as Panda and the malware makers.
Panda’s Collective Intelligence database, which automatically detects, analyzes and classifies 99.4 percent of the threats received, now has identified 134 million separate files, 60 million of which are malware (viruses, worms, Trojans and other threats).
According to PandaLabs, 34 percent of all active malware threats were created in the first ten months of 2010. Approximately 20 million new strains of malware have been created already this year; the same total for the year of 2009 in its entirety.
This shortened lifespan of malware and increased number of variants is proof of a significant shift in the cybercrime landscape: many malware variants are created to infect just a few systems before they disappear.
As antivirus solutions become able to detect new malware more quickly, hackers modify them or create new ones so as to evade detection. The quickly changing malware strains make it incredibly important to have protection technologies such as Collective Intelligence, which can rapidly neutralize new malware and reduce the risk window to which users are exposed during these first 24 hours.
A graph depicting malware growth is available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/panda_security/5198720136/.
“Since 2003, new threats have increased at a rate of 100 percent or more. Yet so far in 2010, purely new malware has increased by only 50 percent, significantly less than the historical norm,” said Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs. “This doesn’t mean that there are fewer threats or that the cyber-crime market is shrinking.
On the contrary, it continues to expand, and by the end of 2010 we will have logged more new threats in Collective Intelligence than in 2009. It seems hackers are applying economies of scale, reusing old malicious code or prioritizing the distribution of existing threats over the creation of new ones.”
Tags: FL, one-third of all malware created in 2010, Orlando, Panda Security
Posted in Florida, Internet/New Media, Security, Studies, surveys, reports | Comments Off
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
 ATLANTA – Southeast BIO (SEBIO) announced the winners of the Fourth Annual SEBIO Awards in a ceremony held at its Twelfth Annual Investor Forum in Atlanta, Georgia.
The awards honored companies in the following categories: Southeast (SE) Deal of the Year: Initial Funding; SE Deal of the Year: Venture Capital Transaction, and SE Deal of the Year: Strategic Transaction. In addition, the organization awarded its SE Leadership Award to an individual or organization that made a notable contribution to the growth of the life sciences industry in the region over the last year. The winners were InVasc Therapeutics Inc., TearScience Inc., Alimera Sciences Inc., and David Day of the University of Florida, respectively.
“Our SEBIO Annual Awards recognize those companies and individuals that are driving the growth of the Southeast region’s life sciences industry,” said former SEBIO Chair Garheng Kong, a General Partner with Sofinnova Ventures. “These success stories show the maturation of the industry in the Southeast and reflect very well on what is happening to those who have an interest in getting to know the region better. The SE Leadership Award, in particular, is a great way to highlight the role of individuals who really distinguish themselves by their unique contribution to our industry.”
InVasc Therapeutics, Inc. won the SE Deal of the Year: Initial Funding Award. InVasc was honored for its $3.15 million financing in July. The financing was led by Trois Investments Industriels Internationaux S.A., headquartered in Luxembourg. InVasc is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing drugs to treat or prevent cardiometabolic disease. The company is currently focused on advancing two lead drugs for chronic kidney disease and atherosclerosis.
TearScience, Inc. won the SE Deal of the Year: Venture Capital Transaction Award. TearScience was honored for its $44.5 million Series C financing in May. New investors participating were Essex Woodlands Health Ventures, Investor Growth Capital, and General Catalyst. The company’s existing investors, De Novo Ventures, Spray Ventures, and Quaker BioVentures, completed the round. TearScience has pioneered diagnostic and treatment devices for evaporative dry eye, providing significant clinical improvement. Of the more than 100 million dry eye sufferers worldwide, approximately 70 percent have evaporative dry eye caused by lipid deficiency of the eye’s natural tear film. TearScience’s integrated, in-office system is the first to enable eye care professionals to address the root cause of evaporative dry eye.
Alimera Sciences, Inc. won the SE Deal of the Year: Strategic Transaction Award for its initial public offering and venture debt raise totaling more than $100 million earlier this year. On April 21, 2010, Alimera (Nasdaq: ALIM) completed its initial public offering of 6.55 million shares of common stock, resulting in net proceeds to Alimera of approximately $68.4 million. In October, 2010, Alimera obtained a $32.5 million senior secured credit facility to help fund its working capital requirements. Alimera is a publically traded biopharmaceutical company that specializes in the research, development, and commercialization of prescription ophthalmic pharmaceuticals. Currently, Alimera’s main focus is on Iluvien, which is being developed for the treatment of diabetic macular edema.
David Day, director of the Office of Technology Licensing and Sid Martin Biotechnology Incubator at the University of Florida, was honored for the SE Leadership Award. David was recognized for his substantial involvement in SEBIO and his leadership in the growth of the life sciences industry in the Southeast. David has played a critical role in strengthening the life sciences industry in Florida and proactively working to attract capital to the region’s emerging companies.
He has served numerous roles within SEBIO, including Chair of the Investor Forum (2008), Chair of SEBIO (2010), and currently, Chair of the Standing SEBIO Investor Forum Committee.“These award winners have achieved outstanding success in 2010 and it’s a pleasure to honor them,” said SEBIO 2010 Awards Committee member Aaron Davidson, Managing Director with H.I.G. BioVentures. “We have high hopes for them in the future and believe that these recipients are an example of the many strong companies we have in the Southeast.”
Tags: Alimera Sciences, David Day, InVasc Therapeutics, SEBIO, TearScience Inc., University of Florida
Posted in Biotech, Events, Florida, Georgia | Comments Off
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
 A screenshot of a 3-D model of the exterior of the Coliseum, Rome, Italy. Credit, Jan-Michael Frahm, UNC-Chapel Hill. Who says Rome wasn’t built in a day?
Computer scientists have invented a technique that automatically creates 3-D models of landmarks and geographical locations, using ordinary two-dimensional pictures available through Internet photo sharing sites like Flickr.
The technique creates the models using millions of images, processing them on a single personal computer in less than a day.
It was devised by a team of researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Swiss university, ETH-Zurich, led by Jan-Michael Frahm, Ph.D., research assistant professor of computer science in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences.
Uses 3 million images of Rome
To demonstrate their technique, the researchers used the 3 million images of Rome available online to reconstruct all of the city’s major landmarks. It took less than 24 hours on a single PC using commodity graphics hardware. They also reconstructed the landmarks of Berlin in the same manner.
Frahm said the process provides a far richer experience and is an improvement of more than a factor of 1,000 over current commercial systems, such as Microsoft PhotoSynth, and alternative techniques developed by other researchers.
“Our technique would be the equivalent of processing a stack of photos as high as the 828-meter Dubai Towers, using a single PC, versus the next best technique, which is the equivalent of processing a stack of photos 42 meters tall – as high as the ceiling of Notre Dame – using 62 PCs,” he said. “This efficiency is essential if one is to fully utilize the billions of user-provided images continuously being uploaded to the Internet.”
One advantage of the 3-D models compared to viewing a video of a landmark is that the Internet photo collections used to construct them show the scene at different times and under different lighting and weather conditions, potentially creating a richer experience for viewers, he said. If video is available, however, the technology can utilize it as well, and using video shortens the processing time needed for reconstruction of the models.
Frahm said eventually the models could be embedded, for example, into common consumer applications such as Google Earth or Bing Maps, allowing users to explore cities from the comfort of their homes. Other applications could prove useful to travelers.
Could lead to disaster response software
“You might be able to take a picture with your cell phone of a monument that would not only give you information about that monument, identifying it from the image, but could also tell you your location more precisely than even GPS,” Frahm said.
He also noted that the technology could be a building block for disaster response software. For example, an aircraft could be sent to take video of the aftermath of a hurricane, and the resulting 3-D model could be used to assess damage from a remote location, saving time and money.
Frahm collaborated on the project with Marc Pollefeys, professor of computer science at ETH-Zurich and an adjunct professor at UNC, and Svetlana Lazebnik, assistant professor of computer science at UNC. They recently presented a paper on their research titled “Building Rome on a Cloudless Day” at the 11th European Conference on Computer Vision.
Video of the 3-D models and the processing technique: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cEQZreQ2zQ
Video highlight: Rome landmarks (The Coliseum, Trevi Fountain and the Pieta): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cEQZreQ2zQ#t=0m56s
Video highlight: Berlin landmarks (Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Cathedral, Ishtar Gate): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cEQZreQ2zQ#t=2m36s
Project website: www.cs.unc.edu/~jmf/rome_on_a_cloudless_day
Tags: 3D images from online databases, Jan-Michael Frahm, Rome, UNC Chapel Hill
Posted in Carolinas, Internet/New Media, North Carolina, University Tech | Comments Off
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
 LEXINGTON, KY – EnergyOne Technologies Inc., a provider of renewable energy solutions and next generation technologies, has appointed co-founder Michael Jones as its president and co-founder Michael Van Steenburg as its Chief Technology Officer.
Jones comes from the electric utility industry with over 30 years of experience and has an extensive background in renewable energy, risk management, regulatory administration, power contracts, utility finance, and engineering and construction. In 2008, Jones founded Pacific Bluegrass Solar and served as CEO until its merger with EnergyOne in 2010.
In 2002, Jones founded Phoenix Motorcars, a manufacturer of full size, freeway speed Electric Vehicles and raised over $40 million in private equity investments. In 2007, Phoenix Motorcars was invited to the White House to meet with former President George Bush to discuss electric vehicle technologies, with the President test driving the all electric sport utility truck. Phoenix Motorcars was awarded the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Innovators Award for 2008. Mr. Jones holds a Degree in Business Management from Pepperdine University.
Van Steenburg is a veteran technology expert who has managed several technology companies and led teams of engineers on all types of advanced technology development programs over the past 20 years. He has created and developed a substantial amount of intellectual property in the green technology area, ranging from structurally insulated panel systems to advanced electric motor drive systems for electric vehicles.
Van Steenburg’s previous companies have been suppliers to many Fortune 500 companies and currently have development contracts with large OEMs. He holds a Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at San Antonio and is in the process of completing his MBA.
Tags: KY, Lexington, Michael Jones, Michael Van Steenburg
Posted in Energy, Kentucky, Other SE, People | Comments Off
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
 RESTON, VA – For the holiday season-to-date, $9.01 billion has been spent online, marking a 13-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year. So says a new report from digital media measurement firm, comScore. The report also notes that consumers say they are seeing more online promotions this year, with free shipping the most common.
“The beginning of the online holiday shopping season has gotten off to an extremely positive start, outperforming our earlier expectations,” said comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni.
“Despite continued high unemployment rates and other economic concerns, consumers seem to be more willing to open up their wallets this holiday season than last. While this early spending surge reflects, in part, heavy promotional activity on the part of retailers occurring earlier this season, it is nevertheless a very encouraging sign.”
The comScore figures bear out report we’ve heard from Southeast tech companies working with online retailers, such as NC-based ChannelAdvisor. ChannelAdvisor CEO Scot Wingo forecast an uptick in online holiday spending in an interview here about a month ago prior to Tech Media’s Internet Summit.
comScore 2010 Holiday Online Retail Spending Forecast
The official comScore 2009 holiday season forecast is that online retail spending for the November – December period will reach $32.4 billion, representing an 11-percent gain versus year ago. This strong growth rate represents an improvement compared to last season’s 4-percent increase.
“After a year in which we already saw growth rates return to solid positive territory, the recent strength in holiday spending has led us to raise our official forecast to 11 percent from the 7 to 9 percent we were initially expecting,” added Fulgoni. “We are seeing online spending surpass the totals we saw in 2007 prior to the recession and expect sales this holiday season to be the highest on record with more than $32 billion being spent during the November and December period.”
comScore 2010 Holiday Shopping Survey
Alongside its reporting of behaviorally monitored e-commerce spending, comScore is also conducting weekly surveys of approximately 500 consumers to determine attitudes and sentiment in regard to the holiday shopping season.
In the most recent survey, conducted on November 11-15, 2010, consumers indicated that they believe retailers’ promotional activity for the early part of the season has increased in relation to last year. Specifically, 36 percent of respondents indicated that they are seeing more discounts, sales and promotions vs. last year compared to just 11 percent who said there were fewer.
One of the more prominent promotions for online purchases is free shipping. When asked how important free shipping is for making an online purchase this holiday season, more than three-quarters (77 percent) of consumers indicated it was important. Recent comScore behavioral data indicated that 41 percent of retail e-commerce purchases in Q3 2010 included free shipping.
Tags: comScore, free shipping, Gian Fulgoni, online retail holiday shopping up 13 percent, Reston, VA
Posted in Internet/New Media, Potomac, Virginia | Comments Off
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010
 In the face of tough economic times, fear and courage are two sides of the same coin to Randall Hatcher.
“Too many times companies and company executives make decisions out of fear instead of courage, and as a result, they make key mistakes that hurt them in the long term,” said Hatcher, president of a human resources firm and author of The Birth of a New Workforce.
“Many executives fear losing power to a third party, or they fear that a third party cannot do it better and they could lose their job, or it could mess up their distribution system, their product flow, etc. The HR/finance/logistics/purchasing leaders could fear losing their jobs or losing resources under their control. Everybody holds onto a sacred cow. So, to create and sustain success in our current business climate, leaders must be willing to terminate full-time employees – even those at the top.”
Hatcher doesn’t believe that time is money. He believes that time is everything.
“Large companies are very distracted because they are still keeping their hands on too many of their non-core processes,” he said. “This diverts their time and resources, which if redirected, could help them improve their innovation, efficiency, mergers and acquisitions, and in general, their focus on what is most important in growing and staying competitive for the next 20 years.”
He adds, “We compete in a very complex business model where large companies admit they don’t have the solutions. Why not narrow your focus on that complexity to enterprise critical directives instead of wasting time on minutiae?”
In the cult movie Office Space, a company manager constantly harasses his employees for busywork daily reports; meanwhile the same workers were secretly using a computer algorithm to siphon hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company, right under the manager’s nose. This is an exaggerated example, but typical of the myopia that faces many companies today.
Hatcher believes that managers need to be looking for solutions, or start looking for a new job. His tips for companies and their employees to avoid the latter include:
- Focus on Time — Time is precious, limited, and valuable, so don’t waste it. Keep focused on mission critical functions, and leave secondary job functions for later.
- Every Day Matters — What you focus on every day determines your and your company’s future success. Don’t let a whole day go by without ensuring you are doing something that ensures that success.
- Refocus Resources — Key executives will concentrate the majority of time and resources on building and sustaining a competitive edge through managing every part of their organization with excellence. There are no mulligans in business, and every ounce of resources your company commits to getting the right jobs done counts. Every ounce that is wasted doesn’t.
- Never Waste A Crisis — Crises are opportunities to refocus and learn about what not to do in the future. Don’t waste them just running around trying to bail water out of the boat. Retrace your steps and figure out WHY the crisis came about, and take steps to prevent it in the future.
- Outsource Wisely — Here’s an easy way to distinguish between what you should outsource and what you should keep in-house. Increase your company’s time and resources it spends on what it does well. Entrust everything else to your outsourced labor, and ensure that their expertise picks up where yours leaves off.
Randall Hatcher is the president of MAU Workforce Solutions, a diversified human resource, staffing and outsourcing company, and author of The Birth of a New Workforce (www.thebirthofanewworkforce.com).
Tags: best practices, Birth of a New Workforce, Randall Hatcher, Viewpoint
Posted in Business advice, Viewpoint | Comments Off
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
 BETHESDA, MD – GroupFlier, a startup launching the beta release of its free group text messaging service, has received $500,000 in seed funding from Novak Biddle and Phil Bonner.
Founded in 2010 by Morris Panner and Geoffrey Crawshaw, the company’s technology is makes it possible to send email or texts to multiple people from mobile phones.
CEO Panner says that without GroupFlier, it is difficult to text or email a group form a mobile phone unless everyone on the same service.In a blog post, Panner wrote, “We call the experience “social texting.” It doesn’t matter what kind of phone or device you have or what service plan you have, you can use GroupFlier to message friends clearly and easily.”
It is marketing the service as useful to friends, family, roommates and other groups.
Users get a unique group number. The company says it plans to add a geolocation feature that will allow group members to track where the other group members are.
In an interview on a local news program, Panner talks about what he thinks would help small businesses, entrepreneurs and startups from a government policy standpoint, noting that regulations mean a startup such as his has to spend more on administrative, legal and accounting fees than on its technology infrastructure and hiring people.
Tags: funding, Geoffrey Crawshaw, group texting service, GroupFlier, Morris Panner, Novak Biddle, Phil Bonner
Posted in Internet/New Media, IT, Maryland, Money, Potomac | Comments Off
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
 PALO ALTO, CA – Facebook investor Accel Partners has sold 17 percent of its stake in the company for $516 million, which values the social networking phenomenon at $35 billion, according to Vator.tv. The Accel sale leaves Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies the major shareholder in the company.
A report from Experian Hitwise this week says that one of every four web pages viewed last week were on Facebook. The service accounted for 24.27 percent of all U.S. pageviews, while runner-up YouTube.com had 6.93 percent.
Security software seller BitDefender says statistics from its Safego Facebook app that monitors their vulnerbility to malware, says that 20 percent of Facebook users are exposed to malicious posts in their news feeds that lead to their accounts being hacked. The figures come from Safego’s analysis of news feed items seen by 14,000 Facebook users.
Facebook feeds may contain malware
More than 60 percent of the malcious attacks come from third-party applications using Facebook’s developer platform. Many offer to perform a task otherwise impossible on Facebook, such as see who has viewed your profile. Other malware offers bogus items for Facebook apps such as Farmville or offer allegedly free gifts such as games or cell phones, the report says.
Other attacks come from viruses such as Koobface or links to videos.
Tags: Accel Partners, BitDefender, CA, facebook, Hitwise, malware, Palo Alto, traffic, valuation
Posted in Internet/New Media, Studies, surveys, reports | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
 By Allan Maurer
RESEARCH TRIANGLE, NC – North Carolina consumers and businesses would pay more for slower Internet access if communities are preempted from building broadband infrastructure according to a new analysis released today by the Institute for Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project.
Since the new speaker of the North Carolina House, Thom Tillis of Mecklenburg, supported banning community broadband service, “It would boggle my mind if Time Warner took its lobbyists and went home now,” says Christopher Mitchell, Director of ILSR’s Telecommunications as Commons Initiative.
“Many communities are looking at the success of these networks and want to duplicate them,” he says.
Recent years have seen attempts in the General Assembly to ban or limit community networks and a new bill in 2011 is inevitable. The bill could derail North Carolina’s goal to be a hotbed for innovation and technology and harm the economy by hurting small businesses. This analysis shows that community fiber networks are faster and cheaper than incumbent cable and telephone networks in North Carolina.
“North Carolina would harm its economic future if it decides to limit broadband competition,” says Mitchell. “Communities should have the freedom to build their own networks. Time after time they’ve proven better for subscribers.”
Price and service comparison favors community systems
The New Rules Project’s latest analysis compared the Internet service options and prices available to residents of both Charlotte and the Raleigh-Durham area to those available to residents of Salisbury and Wilson.
Salisbury and Wilson because both built community fiber networks that offer faster connections to residents and businesses at more affordable prices. They offer 100mbs speeds and higher that dwarf most offerings from commercial providers.
New Rules Project analysts are concerned that banning community networks would hit North Carolina small businesses—both in major metro areas and in rural areas—especially hard. Internet speed, cost, and reliability are already drivers of business location—and can only be expected to increase in importance. Upstream and downstream speeds impact the effectiveness of digital age business necessities that increasingly depend on “the cloud.”
“The reliance on big national phone and cable companies isn’t working. They are too reluctant to invest in the broadband infrastructure we
need to remain competitive, which is why we have seen communities step up to build their own faster, more reliable, and less expensive broadband networks,” says Mitchell.
The commercial providers and their allies in state government claim that municipalities have unfair advantages in the commercial realm and claim their attempts to halt, limit or forbid community networks is merely an effort to “level the playing field.”
They also argued that the bill proposed last year would grandfather in already existing networks, but Mitchell says a close reading of the bill suggests that’s only true if “They never spend another dime on the system.” That means they could not upgrade, improve, or fix their networks, essentially, he says.
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) proposes a set of new rules that builds community by supporting humanly scaled politics and economics.
The rules call for: Decisions made by those impacted communities accepting responsibility for the welfare of their members and the next generation. Households and communities possessing or owning sufficient productive capacity to generate real wealth. NewRules.org discusses the importance of rules and catalogs the best. We make the rules and the rules make us.”
For more information see:
Tags: Charlotte, community broadband faster and cheaper, NC, New Rules project, Raleigh Durham, Salisbury, Wilson
Posted in Internet/New Media, Studies, surveys, reports, Viewpoint | Comments Off
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
 MEMPHIS, TN – Companies are using social media to change the way they communicate with their employees and customers, indicating a convergence of external and internal communications, according to an in-depth study of more than 60 of the world’s most recognized companies.
The study, conducted jointly by FedEx and Ketchum, also found that generating word-of-mouth advocacy and addressing customer care issues are among the most common objectives for corporations’ social media use.
The study examined social media programming, team structure and budgeting in regulated and non-regulated industries. Participants in the study fell into three distinct categories based on the sophistication of their social media approaches: leadership, participation and observation.
“We’ve gained tremendous knowledge about which companies aspire to a leadership role in the social media space, as well as the structural changes being made within organizations to respond to the unique challenges and requirements of being active in social media,” said Bill Margaritis, senior VP, Global Communications and Investor Relations, FedEx Corporation.
“The discussions with participants provided interesting perspectives on whether leadership should be the gold standard for all companies in the space or if, in some cases, being a participant is more appropriate.”
Margaritis continued: “As we heard from one interviewee, ‘Sometimes it’s okay to be a close follower. It all depends on what you’re trying to achieve.’”
If part one of the corporate social media revolution focused on connecting with customers and influencers, then part two may center on engaging employee audiences according to study participants. In fact, half of the participants plan to redesign their intranets in the next one to two years to include greater social media capabilities.
“As social media increasingly dominates the way people communicate outside of the workplace, it makes sense that workplace communications should follow suit,” said David Rockland, Ph.D., Partner and managing director of Global Research at Ketchum. “FedEx and Ketchum Pleon Change found that organizations are quickly mobilizing to better facilitate knowledge management, innovation, and culture building via internal social media applications.”
The study also reveals other trends among leading companies and identifies key learnings for others such as the seven steps to developing a social media program; tips for companies in regulated industries; ideas for building stronger blogger relationships; and considerations for building a social media policy.
Insight into budgeting process
Study participants also provided insight into the budgeting process, with most estimating that they spend between five and 15 percent of their overall external communications budgets on social media. Not surprisingly, most also predict budget increases for social media in 2011, although some programming budgets may be offset by investment in talent with specific social media roles.
One area of social media that continues to present challenges for study participants is measurement. While most monitor for online mentions and activity, participants generally agreed that there is no consistent, reliable approach to measuring ROI and that looking at metrics like “followers,” “friends,” or “views” is not sufficient.
“This study provides a behind-the-scenes look at how some of the most renowned global brands are approaching their participation in social media, organizing their corporations to respond to opportunities and issues, and allocating budgets,” said Rockland. “It also reaffirms the desire companies have to improve the way they assess quality of online interaction, level of user engagement and ultimately business impact.”
Interviews occurred between August and October 2010. The study may be found at www.2010socialmediastudy.com.
Posted in Other SE, Studies, surveys, reports, Tennessee | Comments Off
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