Archive for June, 2011
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
 GILD, a professional social networking platform that combines social gaming with career advancement, released results of a major international study comparing US and Indian developers in key programming and communication skills.
The study, which examined over 1 million tests taken by nearly 500,000 developers, found Indians outshine US developers in math and logic, two of the core skills desired by US technology companies such as Oracle Salesforce.com and eBay. However, Americans clearly lead the world in web programming skills, valued by companies such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter.
GILD’s tests give technology professionals worldwide a way to rank themselves against their peers by simulating real world coding situations, testing for the application of coding knowledge and experience.
Other findings from the Study include:
- Indian developers outscore US developers on analytical skills like math and logic by 11%
- US programmers slightly outperform Indian programmers on mainstream programming languagesincluding C (US 8% higher), JAVA (9% higher) and SQL (9% higher)
- US professionals score higher on web programming languages: 53% higher scores on advanced PHP; 27% higher on advanced HTML
- US tech professionals are 33% better skilled than Indian counterparts at English communication skills.
According to Sheeroy Desai, CEO of GILD, “GILD’s study of over 1 million skill tests shows the dramatic advances coming out of India, where in some cases engineers are clearly rivaling their counterparts in the US. America still holds a strong lead when it comes to web development, but I suspect the gap will narrow over the next few years.”
He added, “There is currently a shortage of software engineers in the US, especially in Silicon Valley. This is the first study that has hard data on the quality of engineers across the US andIndia and provides a clear guideline for what type of skills companies should outsource to India, and what they should continue to source in the US.”
Tags: GILD, Indian programmer skills, software engineer shortage, U.S. developer skills, U.S. developers behind Indians in math and logic, U.S. developers shine at web programming
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
 When does a little white lie become fraud? Many people use “alternative” identities online for various purposes, but identity manipulation for fraudulent purposes goes far beyond that a new report says.
ID Analytics, Inc., which sells solutions for consumer risk management, says an ID:A Labs study that found an estimated 45 million people in the U.S. have deliberately manipulated their identities in applications for credit, cell phone service, auto loans or other credit transactions. Looking beyond typos and name changes, this study examined deliberate and improper variations of Social Security numbers (SSNs), names and dates of birth (DOBs).
The top three identity manipulators used a total of 417 SSNs. Examples of information on three of the most prolific offenders:
- #1: 165 SSNs, 44 DOBs and 3 different first names; resides in Philadelphia, PA.
- #2: 146 SSNs, 8 DOBs and 8 different first names; resides in Brooklyn, NY.
- #3: 106 SSNs, 12 DOBs and 6 different first names; resides in Cleveland, OH.
“This is the first national study of people who are explicitly manipulating identity information,” said Dr.Stephen Coggeshall, chief technology officer for ID Analytics.
“While there is extensive research on the crime of identity fraud and its victims, there is far less on the actual perpetrators of the crime. Now for the first time, there is a comprehensive view of who identity manipulators are, where they are living and specifically how they are manipulating their personal information.”
The study found multiple patterns of deliberate identity manipulation:
- Multiple Social Security Numbers: Eight million people are using two or more SSNs.
- Multiple Dates of Birth: 16 million people used multiple DOBs.
- Spouses using their partner’s identity: 10 million people manipulated their identities by co-mingling some of their spouse’s information (SSN or DOB) into their own identity.
“Deliberate identity manipulation is far more prevalent than we imagined. We aren’t including people using nicknames or making a typo on a Social Security number or date of birth, but rather repeated and intentional alteration of key identity elements, in some cases by spouses and parents,” said Dr. Coggeshall.
“The study uncovered fraudsters, people manipulating their identity to hide in plain sight, as well as those seeking to avoid poor credit ratings. We’re just beginning to get insight into the range of modes underlying identity manipulation—it is a fruitful area for further research.”
Tags: fraud, ID Analytics, ID manipulation
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
 The United States market has rebounded to first place from third just a year ago, ahead of China and India, as a driver of future revenue growth for the technology industry, according to the results of the annual Technology Industry Business Climate survey by KPMG, the audit, tax, and advisory firm.
Yet, while the senior technology executives surveyed see the U.S. market driving revenue growth – and although they anticipate continued investment in mergers and acquisitions and emerging technologies – they are less optimistic about overall technology industry employment growth and the prospects of a national economic recovery than they were a year ago.
Survey respondents expect the U.S. market to provide the highest percentage of revenue growth and employment growth over the next 12 months. China, Brazil and India follow the U.S. in revenue, while Indiaand China are second and third in employment.
U.S. ranked third in 2010
In the 2010 KPMG survey, the U.S. market was ranked third in expected revenue growth and fourth in employment growth. In addition, tech leaders this year predict the U.S. also will have the industry’s greatest percentage of research and development investment growth, followed by India and China.
“Technology executives clearly see a sustained recovery and a strong appetite for technology related purchases by U.S. companies and consumers, which helped raise the position of the U.S. market. Coupled with demand from emerging market countries, this combined opportunity bodes well for the industry,” said Gary Matuszak, partner, global chair and U.S. leader for KPMG’s Technology, Communications & Entertainment practice. “They also intend to take advantage of their strong liquidity and cash positions by investing in emerging technologies and new business models, like Cloud, and new products and services, as well as M&A to drive revenue.”
The tech industry executives also may be buoyed by information technology spending in the banking and retail industries. Executives in KPMG business climate surveys in both of those sectors identified technology as the number one area for investment.
In looking at revenue, many of the technology industry survey respondents (77 percent) expect the overall revenue at their companies to be higher one year from now. Technology executives again this year said their biggest revenue driver over the next three years will be cloud computing. In fact, KPMG’s surveyresults show 65 percent ranked cloud computing as the top driver, a sharp jump from the 54 percent in last year’s survey. The second and third ranked revenue drivers in this year’s survey were mobile applications and advanced data analytics.
M&A Still Hot
More than 8 out of 10 technology executives believe their companies will be involved in a merger or acquisition during the next two years with 68 percent likely involved as a buyer and 15 percent as a seller. Those surveyed also said that access to new technology and products (69 percent), and product synergies (50 percent) will be the most important drivers of alliances, mergers and acquisitions over the next 12 months. This is consistent with the executives’ expectation that their companies will increase spending the most over the next year in new products, R&D, and acquisitions.
“The industry has seen the rise of many innovative companies in the past few years. However, this is somewhat tempered by an overhang of the U.S. downturn, as technology leaders now project the U.S. economic recovery to take hold in 2013 or beyond, indicating full economic recovery remains at least two years away,” said Matuszak. “There clearly is a continuing delay in their view of the U.S. economic recovery. Last year, the survey respondents predicted that the overall U.S. recovery would take hold in 2012 while in our 2009 survey executives believed it would begin to take hold in 2011.”
Less Optimism about Headcount
In the 2011 survey, 49 percent of the tech leaders anticipate their companies’ headcount increasing over the next year compared to 42 percent who actually increased headcount in the last year. In the 2010 survey, 72 percent of executives anticipated increases in headcount over the next year. Also, while 27 percent of the tech executives said their headcount already has reached or exceeded pre-recession levels, 42 percent said their companies’ headcount would return to pre-recession levels over the next 18 months, and 21 percent said headcount will never return to those levels.
KPMG Technology Industry Business Climate Survey
The KPMG survey was conducted in the U.S. in May-June – 2011 and reflects the respoU.nses of 102 primarily C-level and senior executives in the hardware and software computer industry. Of the 102 respondents, 71 are in companies with revenues exceeding $1 billion and 31 are companies with revenues in the $100 million-$1 billion range.
Tags: employment, KPMG, M&A, tech jobs, U.S. business climate survey, U.S. leads tech market growth
Posted in Internet/New Media, IT, Studies, surveys, reports, TechJobs | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
 Online advertising saw strong spend growth in the second quarter, according to a report released today by IgnitionOne, a provider of performance marketing technology and services, managing more than $1 billion in online advertising for some of the world’s largest brands and their agencies.
The second quarter saw year-over-year spend growth increases across all three major online media channels (Paid Search, Display and Facebook), despite continuing uncertainties from the economy and higher gasoline prices.
US paid search spend grew a steady 12 percent year-over-year and Facebook advertising was particularly strong, up 22 percent on a same-client-basis and up 280% across all advertisers. However, paid search declined in June, painting an uncertain picture for the third quarter.
Key findings in the report:
Paid search advertising sees steady growth YOY, but dips in June
US paid search spend grew a steady 12% year-over-year in Q2, and was flat compared with Q1 growth. The quarter began strong, but dipped in June to nearly flat growth on a YOY basis.
Google commands majority of market share in search, display
Google was again the standout performer showing gains in YOY search spend and significant market share traction for its AdEx display platform. Google grew to 81% share of all US search advertising spend and 51% share of US RTB display spend in Q2.
Facebook sees dramatic growth from new advertisers
Facebook advertising spend is up 22 percent year over year on a same-client-basis. However, Facebook has experienced high rates of growth from new marketer adoption in the past year, contributing a 280 percent increase in advertising spend across all clients. Spending patterns within an advertiser’s campaign lifecycle show marked growth declines after the first few months, suggesting advertisers are still in a “test and learn” phase with the new and immature ad platform.
“Overall it was a very good quarter for online advertising, but it wasn’t a slam dunk,” said Roger Barnette, President of IgnitionOne. “The paid search spending slowdown in June did not have a significant impact on the quarter overall, although it could be an indicator of future months’ performance, and we’re cautiously optimistic heading into Q3.”
IgnitionOne’s complete Q2 report can be downloaded here.
This report is the latest in a series of reports from IgnitionOne reviewing trends across the online advertising landscape. Dowload Previous quarterly reports.
Tags: display ads, Facebook advertising up, Ignition One, online advertising Q2 2011, paid search, reports
Posted in Internet/New Media, Marketing, Studies, surveys, reports | Comments Off
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
 At a time when many small businesses are trying to cut expenses, far too many are resorting to using large, impersonal online printing services, or well-meaning friends and family members for their graphic design needs. Atlanta-based Now What? Studio is out to prove that small businesses can in fact receive graphic design that is creative, measurable and affordable for their small business marketing campaigns.
Studies have found that one of the main reasons many small businesses do not hire a graphic design firm or a marketing agency is that they simply do not know what to look for when evaluating prospective companies. They fear that they will waste precious time and marketing dollars by hiring the wrong people, or selecting the wrong designer.
Free book offered
This dilemma was the inspiration for Now What? Studio’s latest publication, “The Insider’s Guide to Finding the Right Marketing Company”. This book was was written to address these very issues and give small businesses the tools they need to help find the company that will be the right fit for them and their budget.
“The Insider’s Guide to Finding the Right Marketing Company” identifies the specific questions that business owners and executives should ask their prospective marketing companies; and clarifies just what makes a good marketing or graphic design agency in the first place. For example, the book reveals:
- What you should ask a prospective marketing company to do when meeting them for the first time. and what to look out for in their answers.
- Why you should be wary if a marketing and/or graphic design company tells you that they never encounter problems with the projects they work on.
- What is the single most reliable indicator that a marketing company or graphic design company is truly interested in your business vs. just making“Marketing and graphic design is far too important to the growth of any business to be left to chance” says William Colvard, co-founder of Now What? Studio. “We put this guide together not as an advertisement for our company but as an objective resource for confused business owners who want a marketing strategy that works for them but just do not know how to get it.
“Small businesses are crucial to the success of our economy, especially in Atlanta,” adds Now What? Studio co-founder Ken Morris. “No matter which company they ultimately decide to work with, it is in the best interest of the entire business community that we all continue to thrive and grow. Choosing the right marketing company is an important part of making that goal a reality”
Download a copy of “The Insider’s Guide to Finding the Right Marketing Company” for free.
Tags: Atalanta, free small business guide to finding the right marketing firm, Now What?
Posted in Georgia, Internet/New Media, Marketing | Comments Off
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
 Game-maker Zynga is expected to file for an initial public offering of stock this week, possibly Wednesday, according to CNBC.
Zynga, already profitable, unlike some of the other digital media companies that have launched IPOs, such as Pandora, recently rasied $250 million at a $7 to $10 billion valuation, according to reports.
The company is expected to have a valuation of between 15 billion and 20 billion and will raise between $1.5 and $2 billion in its IPO, according to Kelly.
Zynga’s investors include Google, DST, Reid Hoffman, Tiger Global, Kevin Rose, Kleiner Perkins, Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Peter Thiel, Foundry Group and IVP.
Among other games, Zynga makes Farmville and Mafia Wars, two of the most popular Facebook games.
Tags: CNBC, Farmville, IPOs, Kate Kelly, Mafia Wars, Zynga
Posted in Facebook, Farmville, Internet/New Media, IPOs, Mafia Wars, Zynga | Comments Off
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
 Palo Alto-based- Impermium has nabbed a $1 million seed financing round, which will enable the company to accelerate development of the world’s first service to deliver “anti-spam for the social web.”
Investors participating in the self-led funding round include Accel Partners, AOL Ventures, Charles River Ventures, Freestyle Capital, Greylock Discovery Fund and Morado Ventures. Angel groups Archimedes Capital and Embarcadero Ventures also contributed to the round.
Impermium was founded by former Yahoo! “Spam Czar” Mark Risher, Vish Ramarao, and Naveen Jamal. Prior to Impermium, the co-founders led the anti-spam and security group at Yahoo! Mail, where they drastically reduced spam and fraud for Yahoo! customers through sophisticated detection algorithms and machine-learning technologies.
The Impermium social spam and abuse defense platform is now available in limited beta. The company is working with numerous publishers across the social web, defending against attacks in the areas of spammy user-generated content, fraudulent registrations, account hacking, stolen passwords, and related forms of abuse.
Grotech only sold a minority of LivingSocial Shares
Dan Primack reports in his Fortune.com Term Sheet that the shares of LivingSocial that Virginia-based Grotech sold are just a minority of its holdings in the daily local deals firm. LivingSocial, which just purchased three foreign local deals companies, is giving Chicago-based Groupon a run for its money in the highly competitive space.
Primack notes that VentureWire says buyers of the Grotech LivingSocial shares included Lightspeed Venture Partners and T. Rowe Price.
New York-based RealDirect grabs $2M for homeowner marketing platform
RealDirect. a company with an online marketing platform for homeowners selling their property has raised a $2 million first round led by GSA Venture Partenrs with participation from Bendigo Partners and High Peaks Venture Partners.
Tags: Accel Partners, AOL Ventures, Archimedes Capital, CA, Charles River Ventues, Embarcadero Ventures, financings, Freestyle Capital, Greylock Discovery Fund, Grotech, Imperium, Lightspeed, LIvingSocial, Mark Risher, Naveen Jamal, New York, Palo Alto, RealDirect, ventue funding, Vish Ramarao, Yahoo Mail
Posted in Internet/New Media, IT, Money, Uncategorized | Comments Off
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
 The Internet hacker organization called the “A-Team,” has published a document published on Pastebin disclosing the names of alleged members of the LulzSec hacker group that claimed responsibility for cyber attacks on Sony, Gawker, the CIA, FBI, U.S. Senate, Fox, PBS, Nintendo, and other web sites since May.
The document exposes the names and other information about seven alleged members.
The A-Team claims the group evolved from the hacking culture on the 4chan.com web site, which relies on anonymity. The A-Team document, however, says “The Internet by definition is not anonymous. Computers have to have attribution. If you trace something back far enough, you can find its origins.”
LulzSec, which claimed it disbanded over last weekend following 50 days of hacking, has not responded.
With a little luck, exposures such as this, assuming they are correct, and some security experts say the A-Team document correlates with other information about LulzSec members, may discourage hackers from such disruptive large scale actions.
But what is really necessary is for large technology driven companies to be pro-active in protecting user data. There is really no excuse for a company such as Sony or Nintendo (or CitiGroup) to have lax cyber security.
Tags: CIA, cybersecurity, FBI, Fox, Gawker, hackers, LulzSec member names disclosed, Nintendo, Pastebin document names LulzSec members, PBS, Sony
Posted in Government/Defense, Internet/New Media, IT, Security | Comments Off
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
 Blue Chip Patient Recruitment, a division of global, full-service marketing agency Blue Chip Marketing Worldwide, has authored a white paper advising patient recruitment specialists on how to effectively implement social media into their recruitment strategies.
The white paper, titled, “Patient Recruitment and the E-patient: A Survey Analysis,” is available at www.bluechipww.com/healthcare. It summarizes the results of a market research survey Blue Chip conducted of 179 adults from February through April 2011 and offers 11 key takeaways for recruitment specialists to consider when interacting with the E-Patient population (actively-engaged members of health-related social media networks). These include:
- Engage a Physician: Credibility continues to be one of the biggest obstacles for E-Patients when considering participating in a clinical trial. Eighty percent of survey respondents prefer to receive clinical trial information online from a physician, indicating that physicians need to play an active role in online communities. Only 19% of respondents were comfortable receiving information through a Facebook wall and 14% comfortable receiving it via a Twitter profile.
- Develop Approved Responses in Advance: Of even greater concern than credibility is clinical trial safety, as clinical trials in general have adopted a negative stigma within society. Forty-one percent of surveyed individuals expressed most concern with trial safety, as compared with only 36 percent who were more concerned about trial credibility. The white paper recommends developing a variety of approved responses prior to launching social campaigns, which can address an E-Patient’s concern about drug safety and other frequently asked questions.
- Be Relevant to the Audience: While the goal is to recruit patients for the trial, it is important to first establish a role in the community. If the communication via online message forums is solely about the trial, the representatives will most likely be seen as intruders and message pushers. They can build credibility by posting relevant content, being attentive to the tenor of the dialogue, being consistent with the frequency of their interactions and being timely with responses.
“Social media has the potential to connect hundreds of thousands of interested participants to clinical trials immediately,” said Stanton Kawer, CEO of Blue Chip Marketing Worldwide. “This white paper sheds new light on what these individuals are looking for when they consider enrolling in a clinical trial, and illustrates how Blue Chip Patient Recruitment is effectively using social media to assist our pharmaceutical clients with recruitment solutions.”
The white paper also cited a huge untapped population of potential clinical trial participants among E-Patients. Eighty-one percent of those surveyed said they were interested in participating in clinical trials, but of that group, only 16 percent have done so.
A key reason for this could be a serious lack of awareness about participation opportunities. Only 30 percent of respondents said that they were aware of such major patient recruitment sites as ClinicalTrials.gov, CenterWatch.com and CISCRP.org, suggesting there is tremendous opportunity to educate E-Patients and build awareness. More targeted social media strategies can help recruitment specialists disperse this information where it is needed most.
Improving the efficiency of clinical trials through social media communication can have huge implications for the healthcare industry. An estimated 85 percent of clinical trials experience delays in patient recruitment. According to Life Science Leader, one month of delays can account for $40 million in lost sales for a newly-approved prescription drug.
Tags: best practices, Blue Chip Marketing, Patient Recruitment and E-Patient Survey Analysis, social media as clinical trial recruitment tool, white paper
Posted in Healthcare, Internet/New Media, IT, Pharma, social media | Comments Off
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
 Personal computers, once the hallmark of efficiency and corporate growth, have become so complex that enterprises and consumers alike are seeking alternatives, says Wyse Technology, which sells cloud client computing solutions and enterprise client devices.
As PC market growth continues to decline, with 2011 worldwide PC shipments now expected to grow by only 4.2 percent, enterprises and consumers are purchasing a whole host of connected devices that offer greater mobility and ease of use, combined with lower maintenance and complexity. As cloud computing and virtualization continue to take hold with businesses and consumers, it begs the need for a simpler endpoint device.
Based on its own market growth and global momentum, Wyse believes that endpoint device is increasingly a thin, zero or cloud PC client.
“PCs haven’t quite gone the way of the typewriter yet, but the writing is on the wall. Cloud computing and virtualization have removed the need for complexity at the endpoint, and thin, zero and cloud PC clients have rushed to the breach,” according to Jeff McNaught, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Wyse Technology.
“Today, 90 percent of individuals are accessing their computing infrastructure via PCs and 10 percent (and growing) are accessing via a widely dispersed combination of virtual desktops, cloud PCs, zero clients and more. In less than 10 years, I expect that ratio to be reversed.”
The Pew Internet in American Life Project says in its recent study of device adoption marked the first time that laptop computers were as popular as desktop computers among U.S. adults. In November of last year, desktop ownership outpaced laptop ownership by 8 percentage points, 61 percent to 53 percent.
This changing pattern is the result of both a steady decline in the popularity of desktops and a steady increase in the popularity of laptops over time. Laptops have already overtaken desktops in popularity among adults under age 30, and appear poised to do the same among older adults.
For those of us work in cyberspace on a daily basis, mobile devices let us take our office anywhere. But I am attached to my desktop for work. Dual monitors, six gigs of RAM, a full-sized keyboard and direct connection to my modem provide speed, efficiency and comfort just not possible with a laptop, netbook, tablet or other mobile device. I feel the way about my desktop set-up that people in the National Rifle Association feel about guns.
Tags: are desktops going extinct?, cloud computing, cloud PC clients, desktops vs. mobile, PC market shrinking, thin clients, Wyse
Posted in Hardware, Internet/New Media, Mobile | Comments Off
|
|
|
