October 2013

The Top 7 Reasons Why Mobile Ads Don't Work

A new study by Dartmouth marketing professor Praveen Kopalle sheds light on the mobile Web and app users who don't click on ads. Here are the top seven reasons they steer clear of the ads on smartphones and tablets:

The screen is too small, per 72 percent of survey participants.
People are just too busy for ads, according to 70 percent surveyed.
After tapping an ad and going to the landing page, 69 percent of respondents hate it that they cannot easily return to the content they were reading or watching.
Too hard to get online with cell phones, said 60 percent.
Per 54 percent, it's too frustrating when mobile consumption is interrupted.
Ads take too long to load, stated 53 percent.
Consumers are just not in the mood for ads, said 42 percent.

Can the Internet of Things make itself secure?

In the last few years, the government has taken increasing interest in ensuring that technology for both consumers and companies adheres to high standards of security and safety. But how much should it actually be a part of the security equation for cutting edge technology like the Internet of Things?

That was the question Adrian Turner, Founding CEO of Mocana, Steve Bowsher, Executive VP of In-Q-Tel, and Robert Rodriguez, Chairman and Founder of SINET sought to answer at Mobilize 2013. “In terms of policy, five and a half and six years ago, there were zero bills that had cybersecurity in the legislation,” Rodriguez explained, “Now there’s 50.” The government’s increased interest in setting security standards for the Internet of Things is on the rise, but the group agrees that it should be up to the companies themselves to continue to build security through interoperability and communication. “I think that the industry overall understands that sharing information about breaches or threats is good for everybody, but it’s hard to make it happen in reality,” Bowsher said. “Part of it is incentives, part of it is a desire for privacy we all have.”

Lower prices, openness will bring Internet of things to the masses

We hear a lot about the connected home. Well-heeled people in tech enclaves like Silicon Valley have already bought into the notion of controlling their lights, music, video and home security with their phone, computer or other device of choice. Everything’s connected and everything’s controlled. But what will push true, cool internet of things adoption into the mainstream? Affordability and ease of adoption.

Face it, not a lot of middle-class folks will pay $200 for three connectable Philips Hue lightbulbs. Price will come down, George Yianni, head of technology for Philips’ Connected Lighting group, said. The availability of more targeted solutions as opposed to components will also help, he said. Additionally, there are now APIs to help people connect stuff together in the ways that are most useful to them. One trend that could boost adoption of technologies like connectable lightbulbs is better and more ubiquitous wireless connectivity.

Google’s infrastructure spending skyrockets to $2.3B in third quarter

Google spent nearly $2.29 billion on data centers, servers and other infrastructure during its fiscal third quarter, the company reported as part of its earnings statement. That’s up from $1.6 billion last quarter and $872 million in the third quarter of 2012. There’s really not much to say that hasn’t been said before: investing in servers, data centers, fiber optic cables, wind farms and whatever it takes to run a mobile-device business costs money.

Failure of Verizon’s cable partnership kills secretive Nuon content-sharing project

Verizon’s decision to terminate a joint venture with Comcast and other cable companies puts the end to an ambitious project dubbed NUON that included online components as well as dedicated streaming hardware.

Part of the concept was simply to cross-promote services to subscribers, with NUON offering exclusive content to cable subscribers who would link their cable account to their Verizon account, and vice versa. But NUON apparently also involved dedicated hardware. Its boxes were meant to help consumers share content across devices and services. There were also plans to allow subscribers of other cable TV providers, including Time Warner Cable, Cox and Verizon’s own FIOS service, to access the service, but it looks like Comcast may have been Verizon’s strongest partner in this joint-venture effort. Verizon spokesperson said in a statement that all work performed under the NUON brand was confidential. “Since none of the services were ready for launch, we cannot discuss them,” the spokesperson said.

Feds Chronicle First Day Back In Social Media

President Barack Obama signed legislation that ended the 16-day-old government shutdown, averted a default on US government debt and brought thousands of federal employees back to work. As those employees returned to the office, they fired up websites and social media accounts that had been dormant during the two week shutdown.

Many agencies furloughed between 50 and 90 percent of employees during the shutdown, including most or all of the communications staffers that run the government’s information and outreach services via social media. Many of those employees weren’t silent during the shutdown, but they were barred from tweeting or posting anything official on behalf of their agencies.

Telework Now Offered By 88 Percent of Organizations

The latest casualty for telework occurred earlier in October 2013, when tech giant Hewlett Packard followed companies like Yahoo! and Best Buy in a decision to scale back its telework program. While efforts by these companies have certainly been high profile, a new study suggests that that these companies are in the minority.

A report released by WorldatWork, in conjunction with National Flex Day and National Work and Family Month, found that telework in some form is currently offered by 88 percent of organizations. Only 3 percent of companies -- including Yahoo! and HP -- have actually canceled telework programs over the past two years, the analysis found. There are differences in the ways organizations and employees use telework, however. Telework on an ad-hoc basis, for example, was the most common (83 percent), while telework on a full-time basis was only offered by 34 percent of organizations. Just more than half of organizations offer the flexible work option on a regular monthly (56 percent) or weekly (52 percent) basis. Most organizations also continue to believe telework and flexible work options like flex time and part-time schedules are yielding positive results, particularly in areas like employee satisfaction (73 percent), employee motivation (65 percent) and employee engagement (64 percent).

The Key To Solving The Science And Math Talent Shortage? Women

It’s long been known that women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math fields. But there are some steps both women and society can take to help mitigate this trend and balance out the future workforce.

A shortage of qualified, skilled workers in STEM fields already exists in the US, but key to improving this talent gap will be inspiring and encouraging more women to enter STEM fields, said Karen Purcell, founder, owner and president of an award-winning electrical engineering, design and consulting firm and author of the book Unlocking Your Brilliance: Smart Strategies for Women to Thrive in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. While women currently make up nearly half of the American workforce, only 23 percent of workers in STEM-related jobs are women. The first key to bucking this trend is overcoming the lack of exposure of women to STEM fields starting in middle school and high school, Purcell said. This can come in the form of science camps and math camps as well as encouragement from parents, teachers and guidance counselors about the opportunities and earnings potential in STEM fields.

Why Facebook wants teens to go public

Before today, Facebook users under 18 could only share their posts with friends or friends of friends. But not anymore. For all of our teenage readers, you now have the option of making your posts public -- including to a whole bunch of companies who are dying to sell you stuff. Facebook hopes the policy change can lure teens back to the social networking site, who are heading to other social media outlets.

One reason for the exodus: Everyone and their mom has a Facebook account. Posting something your whole family can see isn't ideal for some teens. And there lies a conundrum, teens want privacy on one hand, but they also want to be heard, according to Jay Baer, author of "Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help Not Hype." The problem with Facebook's old privacy policy was that teens could only get likes and comments from friends and friends of friends. "It's much more interesting, certainly for my children and other teens, when they get likes and shares and comments and interactions from people that they don't know," says Baer. It's those strangers interacting with teens on Facebook that worry Dr. Wendy Patrick, a business ethics lecturer and sex crimes prosecutor. "Everything from cyber bullies, to cyber stalkers, to cyber predators can now view personal information of teenagers," Patrick says. She worries that the privacy changes could make teenagers more vulnerable on the web. But for Facebook, the privacy changes could produce a flood of data for marketers looking to get a share of teen spending, which according to the research firm TRU is worth more than $800 billion worldwide.

Why Your Phone Bill Keeps Increasing -- And The Information You Need To Stop The Bleeding

You may be under the impression that the relationship between the telecommunications industry and its regulators is tough-minded and adversarial. The truth, however, is the relationship between the regulators and the regulated can sometimes get downright cozy.

There’s empathy. Understanding. And a soft-hearted desire to lend a helping hand when a corporate behemoth hits a rocky patch by increasing prices on consumers and businesses. To see how this works, let’s look at the relationship between Verizon’s New York subsidiary and the New York State Public Service Commission. There’s a long and mind-numbing history of Verizon requesting and receiving rate increases. You might have expected state regulators to deny Verizon’s tariff revision request with the Federal Communications Commission in July 2006. Instead, the commission offered a compromise. In order to justify allowing a ten-percent rate increase for services to businesses, the commission cited Verizon’s reportedly precarious financial health. The practice of relying on Verizon’s assertions about the critical condition of its New York business to justify rate increases for both residential and business customers would become a hallmark of the commission’s response to a stream of Verizon requests to increase its charges. An investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deterioration of Fire Island’s phone system after Hurricane Sandy could cause real problems for Verizon. In a filing with the commission, public interest groups in New York assert that Verizon was contriving to transfer customers from the wireline to the wireless division by asking the New York Public Service Commission to provide terms under which the company could discontinue landline service to the resort community, when the company proposed to replace the copper wireline with a wireless service called Voice Link.

Bruce Kushnick, Executive Director of New Networks, an advocacy group that has just published a new report on the issues of cross subsidies between Verizon’s wireline and wireless businesses, said Verizon could do more to counter the civic groups’ allegations of “systematic and long-term diversion of monies needed for copper system maintenance to the FIOS system” by releasing the data of its expenditures for wireline maintenance and records that showed the source of funding for wireless network buildouts. “But Verizon isn’t going to release the data,” Kushnick predicted. “My feeling is if we had this data, it could lead to a divestiture”—the wireline company would separate from the wireless company once and for all. For the public, a divestiture could put the kibosh on rate increases and lead to lower bills overall. But the chances of that happening, realistically, seem slim.

Benton

Search