Record
Category Archive

Wave’s Death Could be Preparation for a Rebirth

By Joshua Chalifour, 4 August 2010

Google announced that it would not continue developing Google Wave. At first read I thought this was an awful decision–Google Wave is a truly incredible product, which although it takes some getting used to, has huge potential. I thought Wave was one of the most important developments on the Internet since the Web. I was [...]

New Way of News: OpenFile

By Joshua Chalifour, 11 May 2010

OpenFile (openfile.ca) opened its public beta today. It’s attempting to develop a new means for news reporting. I discovered it from a colleague’s Twitter post and was quickly fascinated by the OpenFile model, which I think might have found a sweet way to conjoin citizen media with professional news reporting.

First Take on the Public Domain Manifesto

By Joshua Chalifour, 26 January 2010

Communia published its Public Domain Manifesto. The manifesto identifies the public domain concept with respect to historical development and more urgently, its relevance to culture today. I think it makes an important statement, in terms of offering a level, common understanding that could be used widely across society, government, and business. Early in the manifesto, [...]

Start the Wave: Disintermediating Social

By Joshua Chalifour, 4 January 2010

Ad hoc social networks: right now that’s what I’m calling the disruption Google Wave will wreak. I’m looking forward to it leaving the invite-only preview. It’ll be like kudzu sprouting everywhere, from its quiet persistance in the nooks and crannies of the Web, right on through to the most popular gathering spots. Google Wave, or [...]

Ephemera and the National Memory

By Joshua Chalifour, 27 January 2009

I continue to be concerned with what I once called digital cultural amnesia. Though in reflecting on the word “amnesia” I no longer think it’s the best way to express the problem. Lynne Brindley, chief executive of the British Library, writes about the phenomenon in The Observer. Too many of us suffer from a condition [...]

TEC’s Blog is Born!

By Joshua Chalifour, 18 October 2007

The TEC Blog went live today. It’s been quite a while in the works but finally TEC is publishing its own analysis and corporate blog. My TEC colleagues and I will use it to regularly discuss enterprise software and selection issues, and augment the other research/articles we publish. Although I’ll continue to blog here at [...]

Fronting Prim and Proper Research

By Joshua Chalifour, 17 October 2007

A long running debate at TEC, is it a good idea or bad idea to enable public visitor comments on our research? I’m not referring to blogs, which by their very nature are intended to enable commentary. I’m thinking in the context of analyst firm research. I think there is a lot of room here [...]

Redesign of TEC

By Joshua Chalifour, 15 February 2007

Finally. TEC (the company I work) for launched its redesigned web site. Sometimes a web site redesign can be such a breath of fresh air. In spite of many people’s best and sincere efforts our old site didn’t seem to convey the services the company offered. Of course part of that is that businesses evolve [...]

RFI Collection Days Begin

By Joshua Chalifour, 19 September 2006

Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) has been working on a very large software selection project for an electric utility. We only take on a few specific projects a year (though lots of people/companies use our analysis tools and data for their software selection projects). After our team mapped the utility’s business processes, quite diligently, to 6654 [...]

GPLv3 and Corporate Contrarian Hype

By Joshua Chalifour, 4 August 2006

The latest draft of the third GPL version is provoking a lot of argument, posturing, and controversy. I’m glad its careful drafting process is taking the amount of time it is. I think it’s useful to widen the sphere of public awareness on the issues the license addresses. Some of the most controversial issues, such [...]

Reference Site Visits, the Evidence

By Joshua Chalifour, 27 July 2006

Yesterday I was editing a document for a project in which we’re helping an organization select its ERP system. The document covered practical reasons that the organization’s selection steering committee should take part in reference site visits. In other words (and this is a regular practice our company recommends) while evaluating the right system, the [...]

Net Neutrality and Future Legacies

By Joshua Chalifour, 26 June 2006

I’d like to comment quickly on the net neutrality issue. The Web thus far is a system–that from the beginning–essentially anyone could access in a like manner. A few companies have a strong interest in changing that though, in making, what I understand, are something like tiers of accessibility. Considering the life and social changes [...]