The US Agency is hoping to cut operating costs to the tune of $500 million by replacing their current internal systems with Google Apps for Government. The total contract is stated to be about $35 million spread over a 7 year period.

You can read more on  the official release here.

The way businesses are organized has changed as technology has grown. We regularly see companies reorganizing their teams into virtual teams, often known as geographically dispersed teams (GDT). This allows people in different countries to collaborate on a single project. Like most things in life, there are advantages and disadvantages to this style of team and it is not for every business. Is it right for yours?

In the past, it was thought that efficiency had a direct connection with proximity. The thought was held that the more face-time a manager was able to give their team the more productive they would be. Managers are realizing that this may not be true, and that building a team out of people that work well together and have very targeted skill sets can yield a much more significant result. Another strong factor impacting productivity can be the mentality of the individuals the group consists of. Many people are encouraged by their personal desire to learn more so as to further their careers; this self-motivation is a trait that works well in a virtual team environment. People who are motivated by social interactions or by the desire to avoid negative feedback may not be a good fit for a virtual team.

For some businesses, it is practical make use of virtual teams.  Many companies, large and small, have embraced this innovative organizational technique. Obviously businesses that require people to physically interact to perform a task, such as construction, aren’t candidates for virtual teams. If you think implementing virtual teams as an enterprise wide strategy or smaller capacity is a good fit for your company, here are a few items to think about.
 
Advantages

• Recruitment based on competence not proximity
• Team members can work during the times when they perform most efficiently
• Teams consist of members who are self-motivated and self-driven
• More accommodation for team members’ personal and professional lives
• No commuting time or cost
• Reduced overhead, because there is no physical location
• IT expenses are lowered as most teams use web-based tools for collaboration
• Managers can better examine the team’s overall performance because there are less social pressures

Disadvantages

• Less social interaction, which can be a demotivator for many people
• Loss of trust among team members if there is not guarantee that everyone is pulling their own weight
• Creativity could be stifled, because the physical dynamics are lost
• Team members may overwork themselves as managers can not physically see the length of time each task takes
• Managers may lose track of the team’s progress, i.e. out of site out of mind

Online technology is the primary way that virtual teams interface with one another, including email, audio conferencing, and file sharing programs. Here is a list of a few websites and products that support teams that interact virtually.

• Go to meetings – an economical way to have remote meetings
• Yammer – a private social network for businesses that enables quick communication and interaction
• Drop Box – a free way to share files
• Second Life – allows for interactive meetings with the use of avatars

If you would like more information on virtual teams in action, look at the articles below: 
http://www.theanywhereoffice.com/mobile-work/telework-viritual-teams-midmarket-companies.htm
http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/19/virtual-teams-meetings-leadership-managing-cooperation.html
http://www.openforum.com/articles/7-effective-tools-for-managing-a-virtual-team

If you go to Google News and enter a search for ‘tech bubble,’ you’ll obtain a dozen fresh articles debating this question: Are technology stocks, particularly social media companies, overvalued?

The mother of all tech bubbles occurred in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when half-baked business ventures got armloads of cash just for fixing a .com to their name.

When the market regained its senses, in 2000, the bubble burst and buyers wound up with dot nothing. The question du jour: Does today’s market possess any of the attributes of the dot-com-era market?

The answer:  Yes and no.

In the yes column, you have businesses with huge stock prices without much in the way of, say, profits. Think about some recent and awaited IPOs: LinkedIn.com, Pandora.com, and Groupon.com. Two of these have yet to turn a profit. (LinkedIn logged its first profitable year in 2010.) Twitter is expected to fetch a huge share price when it goes public this year, but the company has yet to iron out its moneymaking strategy. (Minor detail, right?)

The no column, there’s a huge quantitative and qualitative difference between 1999 and 2011. As Mashable columnist Jolie O’Dell notes, in 1999 308 tech companies filed for IPO. So far, there have been 25 in 2011. What’s more, it’s easier to see the worth of an Internet company today, when nearly 80 percent of adults and above 90 percent of teenagers are online. In the late 1990s, lower than 40 percent of adults used the Internet, according research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

In other words, the market has matured significantly in the last decade or so. And the players are more mature too. LinkedIn is no Webvan.

Regardless of the differences between 2011 and 1999, there’s still cause for concern. Stock market bubbles are like extremophiles — they find a way to grow in even the most hostile environments. (Which is why you see such huge stock values in an otherwise dismal economy.)

If we’re heading for market correction, I suspect it won’t be as severe as the one in 2000. But if Facebook starts running Superbowl ads featuring sockpuppet, it’s time to panic. 

QR codes have been appearing in more and more environments of late. Maybe you’ve seen them on the side of buses, on posters, in magazines, or even on business cards.  These sophisticated bar codes were first implemented to track car parts, but have lately been valuable in generating brand awareness and loyalty.

What is a QR Code?

    A QR, or Quick Response code, is a multi dimensional version of the common barcode. Much like the common barcode, a QR code is readable by a scanning device.  As smartphones are able to scan these codes, QR codes have become an invaluable tool for interactive and very targeted advertising.

    When you scan a QR code using your smartphone, the web-enabled information that is embedded within the code is triggered, allowing your phone to then navigate to the information intended by the code’s generator. It’s the same technology as a barcode at a grocery store, except the QR code is complex enough to carry much more information.

How are QR Codes used in Business?  

    Generating a QR code is simple. All you have to do is enter the information you wish to be accessed into a QR generator. There are several free generators on the Internet.  A good one to start with, if you’re considering making your own code, is the Kaywa generator.

    Once you have the QR code, you can publish it on any print media or online. Making a QR code available allows a person with a smartphone to scan it and access the information stored within.

Why it works

    QR codes are a great way to build brand loyalty because it adds a special value to the data, making accessing a fun experience for the user. Although QR codes are a new marketing technique in the Western World, they have been used to develop business for over a decade in Japan. If you’re looking for a fun and easy way to create interest in your business, consider giving QR codes a try.

Technology has advanced to a place that allows for constant connectivity. Getting a hold of someone is as easy (and as impersonal) as sending a simple text message.   Regardless of where we go, as long as we have a smartphone in our pocket, we are within reach. This has been a beneficial change in many respects, but what are the negative effects of growing up in the age of connectivity? Communication is developing digitally; aspects of this will be positive where others will be negative. In this blog we will take a look at a few of the pros and cons of staying connected digitally.

The Pros

• Being connected means improved safety. No mater what emergency you face; contacting the right help is no longer a serious concern. Through increased technology, cell phone range is greater than ever. Car accidents and unforeseen accidents and illnesses even in remote locations can be quickly relayed to emergency help services.
• Connectivity makes it simple to stay in touch. Relationships can be managed remotely. With webcams, email, and texting you can stay in contact with loved ones, even at a distance. Consider the gain felt by a soldier serving over seas by seeing their loved ones via Skype video chatting.
• Technology has made offices portable. We all know at times the travel to work can be challenging. Thanks to telecommuting, working from home while sick or on personal leave is as simple as opening up your laptop.

The Cons

• Connectivity is hard to turn off. We all enjoy being in touch, but sometimes we need alone time. Being continuously accessible makes disconnecting extremely difficult. This adversely affects our ability to stop and smell the roses and appreciate our surroundings.
• Always being connected encourages over-working. While telecommuting helps redefine your workspace, it also blurs the line between private and professional life. It’s important to know when to disconnect, so having your entire office available on a laptop can make that decision a challenging one.
• Constant connectivity may make us seem faraway to those near to us. Keeping in contact with a far-away friend is easy to do through text messages, but that communication can be a hindrance to personal face-to-face conversations. Increased connectivity can, ironically, make it more difficult to connect.

The age of connectivity has changed the way we communicate. The key to keeping ourselves in check is remembering to interact with these new experiences with moderation. We all have to strike the balance between too little and too much connectivity.

For more information on connectivity, as well as an interesting look at unplugging yourself from technology, take a look at this article. 

After years of expectation and premature announcements, the tablet revolution is finally here. And it’s maturing: the groundbreaking fervor is now sweeping business.

That’s right, business. It turns out that these gadgets are more than just shiny toys for wasting time. Large and small organizations in nearly every industry have hopped on the tablet bandwagon. Now you can see these devices in hospitals, archaeological sites, police patrol cars, and even theaters of war.

In July, Infoweek ran an interesting story about how a prestigious New York City law firm deployed hundreds of iPads to its team of lawyers. The firm, Proskauer Rose LLP, presents a good case study on the benefits and difficulties associated with handheld computing in a business environment.

“Rolling out the iPad actually turned out to be quite a significant investment in time, much more than I would have thought,” said Steven Kayman, chair of Proskauer’s technology committee, in an interview with Infoworld. “There’s just a hundred decisions that have to be made along the way.”

Breaking trail is always exciting but rarely easy. Proskauer’s technology leaders had to address thorny concerns that were completely new, such as how (and how much) to standardize the app menu on each device; how much control to give to users; and how to prepare for the impact on their network, particularly its security position. (Whenever you add hundreds of new endpoints to a network, you add hundreds of potential entry points for hackers and malicious code.)

But the firm has seen big benefits, and it doesn’t appear to be looking back. Infoworld:

“Today, more than 500 Proskauer lawyers use iPads to create superslick PowerPoint slides, Excel spreadsheets filled with sky-high figures, and verbose Word documents. Lawyers pass this electronic paperwork back and forth among clients. They even present information on their iPads to judges.”

The iPad is the clear leader in the tablet realm, but tech watchers expect Android devices and others to gradually gain market share, as they have done in the mobile phone space. New entrants are expected to drive prices down, further encouraging business to join the action. A March 2011 study from AMI-Partners predicts that tablet adoption will grow 1000 percent by 2015, with 1 in 3 SMBs eventually using them on a daily basis.

I guess tablets are easy pills to swallow…

Spammers made lots of money during the early days of the Internet. However, if some tech-savvy delinquent thought to earn some extra money via spam on today’s Internet, they might want to think about a new line of work. The truth is, since the all time high of spamming assaults in 1997, spam filters have become too good. Basic mathematics make spamming an un-profitable business, thanks to the increasing amount of hardware and time needed to spam effectively. In fact, spam is currently at its all time lowest levels since 2008. The question is, why has spamming decreased, and how will spamming accommodate new Internet changes?

Profitability

    There were a few high profile arrests in 2010 that made a recognizable dent in the spamming industry. However, more than increased monitoring, spammers have noticed a decline in benefit. For a time, with each increase in spam filters, spammers would also increase the number of sites attacked. Though with increased efforts, the amount of money that can be made through spamming is at record low levels. It’s just not worth it for most professional spammers.

    Though spamming is now a money-losing business, spammers are known for adapting to new security updates. How can we expect spamming to evolve along with the changes being made to the Internet?

Smart Spam

    Spammers are getting crafty. Instead of overloading an inbox with traditional spam messages, personal email accounts are being hacked, allowing spam messages to be sent from more reputable accounts. The same can be said for social media mediums like Facebook and Twitter. A short while ago, actor Simon Pegg had his twitter account hacked. Spammers then sent a link to spyware to over 1 million of his followers. Spammers have combined their skills with hacking in order to overcome a more secure Internet.

    To protect yourself, remember to always be wary of odd-looking links, even if they are sent from friends. Being diligent of suspicious activity will help keep you safe in a future of more subversive spamming. For more information, take a look at this article.

Sometimes the most basic questions are the hardest to answer.

For example: What is the Internet?

Um … it’s that thing we can’t imagine living without. It’s how we work, buy stuff, watch videos, communicate, share memories, conduct research, tell jokes, catch up with friends, etc.

In 1995, 15 percent of adults were online. Now, it’s above 75 percent, and for certain demographics (adolescents, educated adults, rich folk), the percentage is over 95 percent, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.  

We’re all on Internet. But what IS it exactly?

Lucky for us, learning about the Internet is just a quick Internet search away. But before you go down the Wikipedia wormhole, we suggest starting with Business Insider’s handy guide: ‘What The Heck Is The Internet?’

Or, since remixing information is a hallmark of the Internet age, you can just stay here and read our synopsis of Business Insider’s (BI) primer on the Internet. Ready? Okay!

The Internet in a nutshell, according to Business Insider (BI):

• The Internet is an interconnected network, or network of networks.
• The Internet is the aggregate of the computers (servers, desktops, laptops, etc.) that share information via telephone wires and satellite links; these computers are all connected by a common software standard called Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP).
• Most us connect to the Internet via an Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) network. The three largest ISPs in the U.S. are AT&T, Comcast, and Road Runner. BI: “When you connect to an ISP, your computer becomes a part of its network. That network is already connected to another larger network, and that network is connected to yet another network, and so on and so forth across the globe.”
• The two basic aspects of the Internet are servers and clients. Servers are machines that provide services (get it?) to other machines. Clients (desktops, laptops, smartphones, etc.) use these services. BI: “So when you sign online at work, your computer becomes a client that’s accessing a Web server.”
• Every device that connects to the Internet has a unique numerical IP address
• The World Wide Web, or web, is just one ‘layer’ of the Internet. There are other layers. For example, POP and IMAP are distinct layers that govern the transmission of email across the Internet. The web layer (officially known as HTTP) of the Internet was invented in the late 1980s by American Tim Berners-Lee. BI: “The net is all the pages that can be accessed using Web browsers [e.g. Explorer, Firefox].” Often used interchangeably, the Internet and the Web aren’t the same thing. The web is a small slice of the larger Internet pie.
• All domain names have a corresponding numerical IP address. Example (courtesy of Wikipedia): the domain name www.example.com translates to the IP address 192.0.32.10. The Domain Name System was created to make the Internet more user-friendly (domain names are easier to remember than long strings of numbers).

Technological growth is now motivated by consumer trends. Companies like Apple, Google and Microsoft are all growing because of the innovations being made in line with consumer demands. These consumer-based technologies are providing fantastic advancements and creating deeper levels of practical implication. A wonderful example of this is the Google search engine. At the core of Google’s success is its ability to develop technology in response to consumer trends. It is obvious that most modern technology is consumer-based, but how has this trend affected technology as a whole? Here are some good examples:

User-Generated Content

Creating content, like apps, to work with more complex pieces of technology, like the iPhone, is now a process that has been opened up to independent developers. While independent programing has always been available, recent consumer-based technology has created a greater need for more specialized content. Because of this, you no longer have to look to big companies like Microsoft or Apple if you’re in the market for a new app. User-generated content is a valuable aspect of technology because there is a consumer need for it.

User-Friendly Applications

Because consumers drive the technological market, technology has been developed with user friendliness in mind. Remember Windows 97? Had Microsoft not updated each version of its operating system with more user-friendly features, they may not have maintained their status as a leading OS developer. Consumer-based technology has motivated developers to design easy-to-use products, which has affected the direction of technological innovation.

User Involvement

With recent generations growing up with advanced technology, current consumers now want to interact on deeper levels with their technologies. Those products that allow greater interaction between user and device are quickly becoming the most successful. For example, the Xbox Kinect is a gaming system that allows the user to move independently of a handheld device in order to interact with the game.  As demand increases, Microsoft has already found more innovative applications for this. With a wave of a hand you can browse movies on Netflix, send a message by email, and navigate the web.

As for most things in this world, a big motivation for technological advancement is profit. The profitability of any technology is dependent on the consumer, and as such, we have seen a tremendous uptick in consumer-based technology. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as these advancements have amazing possibilities. Doctors could one day customize a program to accurately diagnose diseases from patient to patient; program code could soon be so user friendly that anyone could become a web developer; and the technology behind user involvement could lead to all kinds of advanced motion capturing devices. The value inherit to natural technological evolution is vast and important for society as a whole.

To see some specific ways consumer technology is being implemented practically, take a look at this article.

A resume is not a medium in which creativity is widely expressed. It’s usually just a document containing important information such as work history, awards gained or practical skills. More often than not, it’s a page or two of white stock paper covered in 12 point Times New Roman. This tradition is born from general professionalism, but as the professional world evolves with social trends and technology, this format has some room to grow. When formatted for a job that requires any amount of creativity, it makes sense that a resume should reflect the creativity of the candidate. This means stepping outside of the pre-accepted resume boundaries and allowing artistic flare a place to be expressed. Qualified applicants are creating some wildly inventive resumes that present not only relevant information but also their ability to think abstractly. Here are a few things to remember when either creating or reviewing a creative resume.

When Creating a Resume

Be sure to have a resume that is fun but also professional. Let your skills be represented in inventive ways without being so inventive that your talent is lost on your future employers. If you turn in a resume to be an accountant, for example, a classic style resume is most likely your best bet. However, if the job you are applying for is dependent on creativity, make sure to express your artistic side. If the person reviewing your resume doesn’t appreciate the added flair, you probably don’t want to work for them anyways. Here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Be graphic. An infographic is a great design choice when applying for any creative position. They are intriguing, factual, and will set you apart from most other applicants. Take a look at this example. Infographic
2. Match your style to your personality. If you work best under deadlines, work that in to the visual aesthetic of your resume. If you work better in an open schedule, represent that in the same way. Here is a great example to consider. Design and style
3. Utilize flair. If you are able to turn your resume in as a PDF, don’t be afraid to add specialized components to give a bit of flair to your application. This shows off both your creativity and your talent. Take a look at this example. Flair

When Reading a Creative Resume

If you’re in the position of reading resumes, especially at a small business, be open to accepting those that are creative and not just a simple list of talent and accomplishment.  A creatively designed resume may seem silly and unprofessional, but it tells you a lot about the applicant. It shows that they have the ability to think outside the box, aren’t afraid of taking risks and are clever. These qualities are ones that might be left unrepresented in a classic resume but are also paramount to the success of any business, large or small. Keep in mind that if someone submits a creatively designed resume, they could be an invaluable asset.

As technology advances, job seekers will find more and more creative ways of expressing their talents in the hope of setting themselves apart in any applicant pool. Having an open mind when reviewing these creative resumes will allow your business to find the most creative and adept candidate for the job.