Insight Community

We're looking to get insights into how individuals and the workplace are changing due to an increasingly "mobile" workforce -- thanks to things like widespread laptop and mobile device usage, as well as wireless connectivity. These days, "working" no longer means "being in the office." People and employees have truly become "Digital Nomads." Over the next few weeks and months, we'll be hosting a series of cases exploring different aspects related to this new mobile workforce. Dell is sponsoring the conversations here, and the best results will be placed on a site sponsored by Dell: http://whitepaper.digitalnomads.com/. The content may later also be added to a whitepaper and a wiki on the subject. While Dell is sponsoring the conversation, the content is vendor neutral. Just provide your insights on the question at hand.

While a dispersed workforce has many advantages these days, it also creates some challenges: such as keeping workers on the same page and functioning as a team. There's no more watercooler to gather around, and a lot less informal chitchat over cubicle walls. What strategies have you taken to keep dispersed mobile teams on the same page and working productively as a team, rather than as a group of separate individuals? What strategies work best? Which sounded good but didn't live up to expectations? What other tools would make keeping a nomadic workforce even easier?

In general, as a guideline, answers should be around 500 words. That's not a definitive guideline, but that's about what we're expecting. You don't have to answer all of the questions here, but can pick just the one or two you feel you have the most insight on. Or, if you feel you can answer multiple ones in detail, feel free to write up separate insights.

Entries chosen to go on the site will get a share of the pot. The pot will be split depending on how many insights are chosen.

 

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

While the threat to safety from driving and talking on a cell phone can be debated, there are already several laws around the US that prohibit such actions. However, there is no federal regulation -- just recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board that all states should restrict certain drivers from using cell phones while driving. So which states have enacted the most reasonable regulations against cell phone use while driving? Or (if there aren't any existing laws that you like) what kind of rules should be proposed to encourage common sense in driving? Are hands-free accessories really effective? Will factory-installed systems in the dashboard help? With GPS navigation and other advanced wireless services coming to more phones, what exceptions should be made (if any) to laws against driving while using mobile phones?

While there's been plenty of talk about the move to software-as-a-service, an equally interesting one may be hardware-as-a-service. Certainly, Sun and IBM have pushed for utility computing offerings -- and Amazon has done quite well with its EC2 offering. There's been talk for years that Google could get into the space as well.

However, even with all the ROI support that marketing folks from Sun and IBM throw around, it still seems risky. We're trying to understand if it makes sense for large IT organizations to look seriously at moving over to "on-demand" computing systems, or if it pays to wait. Under what conditions would it make sense and what are the biggest risks involved? If you were a consultant, in charge of making the case for or against a utility computing move to a Fortune 500 company (recognizing that there are different issues involved with every individual company) what key points would you focus on?

Clarification: This is about making the case for the company to *using* utility computing, rather than offering it as a service.

There's been plenty of attention paid to Facebook's new Beacon advertising system -- much of it negative. People became reasonably upset over what they saw as intrusive and unwanted sharing of information concerning things such as purchases. Many brands have since backed away from Beacon. However, Facebook has made a number of changes to the program, making it possible to opt-out entirely and making sure that people clearly had control over what information is posted and what is not.

Now that those changes are in place, does it make sense for a consumer-facing company to sign on to Beacon -- or has the program forever been tarnished? How should we approach using Beacon? In an ideal world, we would like for it to be a way for fans of our products to pass on effective "endorsements" of the product, but we do not want to be seen as doing something intrusive or upsetting. If not Beacon, is there a better way to do this either within Facebook or through a different platform?

The wireless technology landscape is rapidly changing in the US. Verizon Wireless is opening up and moving to LTE. Google is bidding on spectrum and invading the mobile OS business. Apple has become a massive player in the device space. Sprint is searching for a strategy. There are a lot of big changes happening.

Everyone's talking about how this will impact these big players, but we're interested in how this will filter through down the line from a financial perspective. Which suppliers/vendors/customers/retailers/partners are likely to benefit from these changes and how? We're looking for concrete examples (i.e., Lucent will benefit because everyone will need its equipment or Wal-Mart will benefit because it will be able to squeeze even more margins) with backed up explanations.

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular issues here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each challenge issue will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

As mobile phone use in the US grows, so does consumer dissatisfaction with mobile operators and their business practices. Complaints about things like handset locking, long-term contracts with early termination fees (ETFs), poor customer service and billing practices abound. Some states have investigated trying to deal with this by enacting "Cell Phone User Bills of Rights" -- which attempt to enshrine certain consumer protections into law, while various pieces of federal legislation have also been proposed. Many of these proposals -- covering things like disclosing taxes and fees and listing clear contact information -- don't have a large overall impact on consumers, and the "Bills of Rights" are generally left looking like little more than attempts by politicians to curry favor with their constituents by appearing to tackle a problem, rather than making any meaningful changes. Meanwhile, other governmental actions -- such as the Librarian of Congress exempting handset unlocking from the DMCA, and the FCC's statement that it may re-investigate ETFs -- crack away at some of these practices.

Are these sorts of laws necessary, and why or why not? Are there more fundamental problems that these "Bills of Rights" don't, won't or can't address? What would be most beneficial for consumers here -- these sorts of laws, other rules from lawmakers and regulators, or some other type of action?

Mashups have been an integral aspect of web 2.0, since the concept started to emerge, but they've been somewhat limited. For one thing, mashups have typically required some technical knowledge, which cuts off most users. Also, many of them are formulaic, e.g. Craiglist + Flickr or Google Maps plus a list of Starbucks locations. The upshot is that for the typical user, there's been very little ability to develop mashups of one's own liking.

But now a number of companies, both startups and established internet vendors, are trying to expand this area. Yahoo has its Pipes service, and Microsoft has released a similar service, dubbed PopFly. Google is also testing its Google Mashup Editor. Then there are a number of startups focusing on this space specifically, such as Teqlo and Coghead. Former Microsoft exec Charles Simonyi is also working on something in this area, although so far it's been pretty quiet.

Looking down the road, how is this space likely to play out? What can we realistically expect a non-technical amateur to be capable of? What needs to happen, from a technological perspective, before non-technical users are able to create robust software? Or are non-technical users consigned to being only capable of simple, pre-designed mashups? At what point does the emergence of these DIY applications start to have an impact in both the enterprise and on traditional software vendors. If this is going to have an impact on software vendors, what can they do to facilitate and profit from this trend? Don't limit your responses to these questions. Support your predictions with quantitative data, if applicable.

Please rank the following companies' media device strategy on (a) vision and (b) ability to execute: Apple for the iPod, Microsoft for the Zune, Creative for the Zen, Samsung, Archos, Sony. Rank each on a one to ten scale (1 to 10 for vision, and 1 to 10 for ability to execute), with one being the lowest, and ten being the highest. Please provide a short paragraph explaining your rankings.

The computer security game seems like a continuous tug o' war, with security firms reacting to each new trick from malicious hackers. Can there be a better way to design security so that we're not always one step behind?

What features do you feel are missing from the Techdirt Insight Community and should be added? How can we improve the service?