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2 CW@50: The changing face of thedatacentre over the past 50 years

If the digital economy was a living,breathing thing, the datacentrewould undoubtedly fulfil the role ofits nervous system. Every time a

user stimulates a device or app, news of this

action invariably passes to a datacentre to bringabout a timely and appropriate response.

For example, whenever someone logs into onlinebanking, scans their Oyster card or simply reactsto something a friend has written on Facebook, adatacentre will be actively involved.

Each one of these interactions is transmitted,along a neuron-like high-speed networking cable,to a server in a datacentre somewhere, where itis swiftly processed so the initiator can quicklycheck their bank balance, use the publictransport network, cultivate their online social lifeor – in short – get on with the rest of their day.

News of the server ’s response, meanwhile, willpass to the storage part – or the brain – of thedatacentre equation, ensuring details of this brief,yet essential, process have been logged,bringing an end to a chain of events that hastaken milliseconds to perform.

Billions, if not trillions, of these types oftransactions occur across the globe each day, asour reliance on internet-connected devices andcloud services rises.

In line with this, the world’s datacentre footprintcontinues to grow, with technology firms

embarking on new builds or expansions to theirexisting facilities to ensure user demands – froma performance and expectations perspective –are met.

Running an efficient and resilient facility is ofutmost importance to every 21 st centurydatacentre operator.

But, were it not for the experimentation andresearch efforts of a slew of techies over the pastfive decades, many of the design concepts andtechnologies now considered part and parcel ofrunning a modern datacentre might not existtoday.

2016-04-17 16:49 Caroline Donnelly

3 Kyocera unveils $99 waterproofHydro REACH Android phone forBoost Mobile and Virgin USA

When buying a smartphone, there are manythings to consider. Should you get Android oriOS? How much should you spend? Which carrierwill you use? It can be very confusing.

If you are on a budget, however, Android is thebest option -- Apple does not offer truly

affordable off-contractphones. Choosing avalue-focused, pre-paidcarrier -- such as BoostMobile or Virgin USA --can be another way tosave money. Today,Kyocera announces anaffordable waterproofAndroid handset forthose aforementioned carriers. Just howaffordable is it? $99!

"The Hydro REACH features the Android 5.1'Lollipop' operating system and comes ready withGoogle Mobile services including Google Play,Google Hangout, Gmail, and more. The phonealso is equipped with a 5MP rear-facing cameracapable of 720p video capture at 30fps, a 2MPfront-facing camera, Stereo Bluetooth (4.1 +LE/EDR) wireless technology support, as well asvoice recognition and hearing-aid compatibility. Itincludes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.1GHz Quad-core CPU, along with 8GB ROM/1GB RAM and amicroSD memory card slot for additional memory.Hydro REACH has a long-lasting 2,160mAhLithium ion (Li-ion) battery and includesKyocera’s Eco Mode and MaxiMZR applicationsfor enhanced power management", says

Kyocera.

Chuck Becher, vice president and generalmanager of sales and marketing at KyoceraCommunications explains, "The Hydro REACH isthe newest addition to our successful HydroSeries of waterproof phones and provides userswith a rich smartphone experience without theprice tag or worry that comes with more-expensive, less durable devices. Hydro REACHprovides peace of mind when it comes to liquidexposure, one of the leading causes ofsmartphone failures. It’s a great alternative tomore expensive smartphones that can't keep upwith people's active lifestyles".

The Hydro REACH is both IPX5 and IPX7certtified, meaning it can be submerged in ameter of water for up to 30 minutes. This is ratherimpressive for such an inexpensive phone. Thecompany even brags that the touchscreen will stillfunction whie submerged. Very cool.

If you are interested in purchasing the budget-friendly Hydro REACH, you can get it on BoostMobile here or Virgin USA here .

2016-04-17 11:56 By Brian

4 Google set to improve transparencyand privacy for Chrome extensions

Google is looking to takesteps that will enablesChrome users to makemore informed decisionsabout the extensions theyinstall. Specifically,developers will have toprovide more information

about data collections in the interests oftransparency.

In addition, developers will have to produce aprivacy policy for their extensions, and must askfor permission before collecting data about users.Google's new User Data Policy introduces theseextra requirements in the wake of increaseddemands from users for more information aboutwhat is going on in the background.

Google is introducing some restrictions as a wellas new requirements. If the collection of data isnot integral to the functioning of an extension, itwill be prohibited. The new User Data Policycomes into force from July 14, and after this dateGoogle will purge from the Web Store any non-compliant extensions.

Developers will be expected to:

Google explains the reason for the changes:

Photo credit: Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock2016-04-17 11:32 By Mark

5 Microsoft helps friends and familiesof Japanese earthquake victims withfree Skype calls

While many people worryabout terrorism as athreat to human lives,and understandably so,mother nature can bequite destructive too.Between natural disasterssuch as hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes,nature can be downright scary.

Speaking of earthquakes, Japan has beendealing with many of them lately in Kyushu,causing death, injuries, and destruction. If youhave friends or family in that country, and you areworried about them, Microsoft is here to help. It iscurrently offering free calls to Japan through its

Skype communication service.

The Skype Team says the following.

How long this offer from the Windows-maker willlast is unknown. The company explains that it cansuspend the freebie at any time. Regardless ofhow long it lasts, Microsoft deserves major kudosfor helping humanity with its technology.

Have you been impacted by the Japaneseearthquakes? Tell me in the comments.

Photo credit: Coosbayx / Shutterstock2016-04-17 11:15 By Brian

6 Working with Android ViewAnimation in Apps - Developer.com

Do you want to build transitioneffects in your application? If yes,read on. Android has first classsupport for animation thatdevelopers can leverage in their

applications.

Animations in Android come in two flavors: viewanimation and property animation. View

Animation can be applied on a single view onlyand, at the end of the animation, the effects arelost. Property animation , on the other hand, canbe applied to various kinds of objects and theeffect persists after the animation is over.

Tween animations are useful when you want toperform one or more transformations to a singleview. The available transformations are rotation,scaling, translation, and fading.

There are two ways to implement Viewanimations:

Animation XML files can support the followingelements:

can be used to group multiple animationelements.

For each animation effect, there are propertiessuch as animation start time, duration, andwhether the animation is a sequential orsimultaneous animation.

Fire up Android Studio and Start a new AndroidStudio Project

Figure 1: Opening Android Studio

Provide ViewAnimationDemo as the ApplicationName and Click Next.

Figure 2: Naming the application

On the next screen, leave the default values andclick Next.

Figure 3: Leaving the default values in place

On the "Add an activity to Mobile" page, choose"Blank Activity. " This creates an application witha single activity.

Figure 4: Choosing a blank activity

We are then prompted to customize the activity.We will leave the default values unchanged.

Figure 5: Again, leaving the default values inplace

Click Finish to create the project files.

We will then proceed to create the animation files.Right-click the res folder and select New ->Android Resource file.

Figure 6: Selecting a new Android resource file

Choose Animation as the resource type andalpha_animation as the file name.

Edit the default contents of the file to whatfollows:

We will similarly add another animation file forrotation effects.

Figure 7: Adding another animation file

Edit the default contexts of the file to match whatfollows:

Now, we will build the logic to exercise theseanimations. We will add two buttons on whoseclick events we will invoke the animations. Wealso will add an ImageView that will contain theimage on which we will conduct these animations.

The layout file will be as shown in the followingcode segment.

Finally, we will wire up the event handlers for theclick event on the buttons. First, we will declarelocal variables for the two buttons and theImageView control.

Next, we will instantiate the imageView variable.

Finally, we implement the click event handlers.

Our application is now complete. When we runour application and click the buttons, you willnotice the animation kick in.

In this article, we learned how to create simpleanimation effects in your application. I hope youfound the information useful. You can downloadthe sample code from here.

Vipul Patel is a technology geek based in Seattle.He can be reached at vipul.patel@hotmail.com.You can visit his LinkedIn profile athttps://www.linkedin.com/pub/vipul-patel/6/675/508 .

2016-04-17 00:00 Vipul Patel

7

Getting Gamers into the Flow:Leveraging Mobile GameplayAnalytics and User Psychology toDrive Retention and Conversions -Developer.com

By Aprenita Co-Founder SergeiKovalenko.

Ever since Apple introduced its App

Store in 2008, game developers have been liningup for their share of the now almost $50 billionindustry. However, designing games that standout from the rest of the crowd can be extremelydifficult and is now just as much art as it science.

With over 2,000 new apps being added to theApp Store and Google Play daily, developersmust optimize every aspect of their game to notonly entice people to download it the first time,but, more importantly, to retain the player longterm with the hopes of converting them into apaying customer.

To that, game design today is deeply linked topsychology, and using game analytics allowsdevelopers to study players' behaviors using dataand statistics to fix gameplay issues, improveengagement and immersion, and drive revenue.As such, game analytics provides the opportunityto understand players beyond simple subjectiveinterpretation.

Major areas for gameplay adjustments align withthe following aspects of addictive playerspsychology:

Understanding the aspects that influence whethera game will become addictive allows developersto pay attention to the vital gameplay analytics

metrics and thus enables them to:

Fortunately, you don't need a dedicated serverand data guru to set up analytics. There areplenty of free tools that handle the processingand monitoring, including Flurry, GameAnalytics,Soomla, Unity, deltaDNA, and many more.

Although there are seemingly endless numbers totrack, if developers simply have a grasp on someof the basic metrics—and then take actionagainst those insights—they can ensure that theirgame will be on the charts, and profitable, for thelong haul. To get started here are the top metricsto be familiar with:

Although there is no magic recipe for gameanalytics, the metrics given here are standards toget started with and establish benchmarksaround. Once you understand how your usersbehave, you can design, tweak, or improve thegame's performance to improve conversions,revenue, and retention in one fell swoop.

2016-04-17 00:00 www.developer

8 What Is Amazon RedShift? -Developer.com

Amazon RedShift is a data warehouse offering inthe cloud by Amazon AWS. It'soffered under the umbrella of AWSdatabase services. Amazon RedShift

is a relational, fast, and petabyte scale datawarehouse. It's a low cost, high performant datawarehouse that integrates with most of theavailable BI tools. In this article, we will discussthe RedShift architecture and its benefits.

What is Amazon RedShift? As defined earlier, it'sa data warehouse offering in the cloud which iscost effective, scalable, fully managed and highlyperformant. It is cost effective because there areno upfront costs and is charged based on theresources provisioned.

It's a fully managed data warehouse in thatsystem provisioning, OS upgrade, and softwarepatches are all done by Amazon RedShift. Itconstantly monitors the health of the system andreplaces failed nodes when detected. All the datais backed up to the Amazon S3 storage.

The data is secured over the wire by enablingSSL for communication and the data stored ondisk can be secured by enabling encryption.When data is enabled for encryption, the data inthe nodes and the backed up data both are

encrypted.

The main component of Amazon RedShift is thecluster. One or more compute nodes form acluster. If a cluster has more than one computenodes, a 'leader node' also is provisioned.

Figure 1: The Amazon RedShift cluster

If a leader node exists, it's the leader node thatcommunicates with the external systems. Theclient BI tools interact only with the Leader node.The leader node serves as an endpoint to whichthe client communicates. The leader nodegenerates the query plan when it receives aquery request. It then distributes the requestamong the compute nodes and co-ordinates thequery execution.

Each compute node has its own CPU, memory,and disk. They execute the query assigned tothem by the Leader node and send the resultback to the Leader node. The Leader nodeconsolidates the results from all the computenodes. The query is distributed and executed inparallel in the compute nodes. Each computenode is further divided into slices that have someportion of the memory and the CPU allocated.The number of slices in a node is generallydetermined by the number of CPUs allotted to the

node. For example, if a dense compute nodedc1.large has 2 CPUs, the slice per node is 2.Similarly, if dc1.8xlarge has 32 CPUs, the slicesper node is 32.

RedShift stores columnar data instead of rowdata. The column data is stored in blocks with minand max values. In a table, we define sort keys toenable faster retrieval of data. There are multipletypes to sort keys. For example, say there is atable named employee without any order. Theemployee number is not sorted; when a queryoperation is performed, it has to scan the entiretable. Let's assume the Employee table is nowsorted on Employee number. Now, RedShiftarranges the Employee number in blocks. Oneblock in RedShift is 1MB in size. The employeenumbers are stored in a block, like 1..100 in block1, 101..200 in block 2. Every block has a min andmax value defined. There is no overlapping ofdata between blocks. When there is a queryrequest to search an employee with employeenumber 150, the query engine can skip all otherblocks and search only in block 2. This enhancesthe query performance.

The sort keys are of two types: compound or aninterleaved sort key. A compound sort key is acombination of multiple columns, one primary

column and also secondary columns. Acompound sort key helps with joins and whereconditions; however, the performance dropswhen the query is only on secondary columnswithout the primary column. A compound sort keyis the default sort type.

An interleaved sort key is helpful when multiplequeries use different columns as filters (in awhere condition) against the same data. Aninterleaved sort key is beneficial for large tables.In an interleaved sort, each column is given equalweight. Both compound and interleaved require are-index to keep the query performance levelhigh.

To easiest way to import data from SQL Server toRedShift is to first create the required tables inRedShift. Extract the data from SQL in a text filewith some delimiter and upload to the AWS S3storage. Once the data is stored in S3, use thecopy command to import the data in Redshift.The syntax is:

Tableau has an option to connect to RedShiftdirectly from its left hand pane. After keying in theconnection information—in other words, theserver name, database name, and thecredentials—it connects to the RedShift live data.

The dashboards can be generated by using theRedShift table schema and published to theTableau server. The published report can beviewed from different browsers.

In this article, we saw the advantages of usingRedShift; these include scalability, performance,cost, and its integration with the client BI tools. It'sa completely managed solution where theapplication patches and OS upgrade are allmanaged by Amazon. We also saw how thearchitecture of Leader nodes and compute nodeshelp in faster computing. The advantages ofinterleaved key and possible scenarios is toconfigure them.

http://docs.aws.amazon.com/redshift2016-04-17 00:00 Uma Narayanan

9 Python Study Guide: Your NewHome: Python IDLE - Developer.com

Now that you've downloaded andinstalled Python , it's time tocontinue your studies. You canprogram in Python using anyeditor/development environment your like. But, aquite capable IDE comes with Python, Python

IDLE. Here, you'll find out what IDLE does andhow you can integrate it into your developmentworkflow.

On Windows and on the Mac, the installer forPython automatically installs idle. To launch inWindows, tap the Windows key and type idle. OnMac, use Cmd+Space and type idle.

With Linux, you may or may not have to install itseparately, depending on how you install it andthe package source. Once you've got it, just typeidle to run it.

Figure 1: The IDLE opening screen

As you can see, this is not an editor where youbegin typing your application. This is the PythonInteractive Interpreter, a shell where you canenter commands and immediately see the results.For example, type this line and press Enter.

Now, type this and press Enter.

The value you assigned to a is displayed. Thisinteractive Python shell is a quick and easy wayto try out new code or to hammer out anunfamiliar syntax, whenever you need to.

You'll often see example code shown, as the

previous two lines, with the >>> preceding. Thissuggests that you type in these examples with theInteractive Interpreter.

To open the editor, open the File menu andchoose New File. A very simple looking editorappears.

Figure 2: The editor's window

Don't let the simple window fool you, though. Theeditor provides a host of features to make yourdevelopment life easier. Among them are:

We haven't yet talked about Python's commandsor syntax, but go ahead and type the followingprogram into the editor window.

Now, open the File menu and choose Save As….Save the file to your hard drive and name itgreeting.py.

Figure 3: The greeting.py code, colored to assistyou

As you can see, the editor automatically coloreddifferent parts of your program in different ways.This is syntax highlighting and it makes readingcode much easier—especially when there's a lotof it.

To run your program, open the Run menu andchoose Run Module (note the shortcut key soyou can use that later, rather than navigating themenus each time). A new window will open wherethe application runs. Oblige the good man andtype your name, and press Enter.

Figure 4: Entering your name and getting aresponse

Works like a charm. Go back to the editor andadd this line after the others.

Now, run the program again. You may beprompted to save the modified program.

Figure 5: Notice the name change and the newresponse

The updated program runs in the same shellwindow, but it's easy to distinguish one run fromthe next.

You've discovered the IDLE editor, seen some ofits features, and walked through the simpleprocedure for entering running and modifyingprograms. Congratulations—you're now ready todive into the Python language!

2016-04-17 00:00 Bill Hatfield

10 GoDadddy CTO and cloud VPheads to Google

GoDaddy’s chieftechnology officer —amid a time when thecompany is expanding itscloud-computing

operations — is departing, according to aregulatory filing.

Elissa Murphy will be leaving the company later inMay. Her departure comes as GoDaddy hasbegun building out cloud infrastructure , helping itevolve from a simple hosting service to somethingmore robust. These kinds of tools help convincesmall businesses to stick around with GoDaddyservices, rather than just register and host adomain.

To be sure, executive departures happen —especially as companies grow and go public. Butit’s still an interesting time for her to leave giventhe company’s expansion into cloud services.

According to a statement provided to Fortune ,Murphy is joining Google. Chief information andinfrastructure officer Arne Josefberg will take

over, according to Fortune — giving him a prettyimportant job for the recently-public company thathas to find ways to expand its core business.There are no hints as to what she’ll be doing atGoogle, but Google too has been winning bigclients for its cloud service, including recentlySpotify.

GoDaddy has had somewhat of a rocky year,share-wise. But so far, on the year shares are uparound 20% — signaling that, whatever thecompany is doing, it seems to be working andgrowing. Revenue for the company was up 14%in the fourth quarter year-over-year, and lastquarter beat analyst expectations.

Still, if the company is going to continue growing,it has to find new lines of business — whichmeans expanding into new areas that give smallbusinesses tools that make them want to stickwith GoDaddy, rather than moving to otherservices.

2016-04-16 20:16 Matthew Lynley

11 Making sense of enterprisesecurity

Until recently, I knew nothing about enterprise

security beyond some ofthe more widelypublicized breaches inthe United States.

That said, after spendingmost of 2016 immersed in the space, I’ve come toappreciate just how challenging and broad anissue security has become to enterprises.

I’ve also come to believe that our best hope forsolving security is by understanding humans —the perpetrators and victims of cyberattacks —and, as a result, I’m convinced that security isfundamentally a human identity problem.

Human beings have a tendency to do things withtechnology that go beyond original intent, andthis inclination should be celebrated. After all,technology continues to drive radical innovation,whether in the form of new applications, usecases or platforms.

Unfortunately, it’s also this type of behavior thatmakes security such a difficult problem. Asindividuals and organizations leveragetechnology for intended and unintended uses, itbecomes virtually impossible to foresee all threatsand vulnerabilities that surface in the process. Inother words, the issue with enterprise security is

that, by nature, it’s reactive. No system or assetcan ever be fully secure.

Economic theory also highlights why security hasbecome so problematic, as it explains bothmarket and buyer/seller dynamics.

An obvious takeaway from RSA 2016 is that themarket has become incredibly saturated andfragmented. Enterprise security companies —incumbents and challengers alike — claim to offernearly identical solutions, and collectively crowdaround a handful of themes (e.g. “endpointsecurity leveraging machine learning”). Moreover,buyers base decisions on an established set of“signals” — most of which do more to satisfycompliance checklists than address underlyingsecurity vulnerabilities.

The saturation, fragmentation and herd-likeactivity is symptomatic of the uncertainty thatgoverns market forces in security, which I thinkleads to irrational buying and selling behavior. Aslew of offerings for practically every marketsegment exists because we’re still nowhere nearto figuring out how best to protect enterprises.

Buyers are still willing to pay for ineffectivesolutions in the midst of massive breaches, andsellers continue to champion product infallibility in

their marketing brochures, even though they, too,are unsure of their products’ ultimate value.

So while it’s abundantly clear that there isn’t asingle silver bullet in enterprise security, we’vereached a point where, taken in aggregate, thereare apparently hundreds, if not thousands, ofdistinct silver bullets. Though unusual, economicssuggests that this occurs when buyers andsellers operate within an environment of extremeuncertainty.

Cloud and IoT further complicate the issue,namely by altering and expanding the totalenterprise attack surface.

On cloud. The traditional (and clearly outdated)approach to security involves a single enterprisefirewall that encompasses the entirety of anorganization’s IT infrastructure. This approachhas been made largely obsolete as companiesembrace the cloud, with assets no longercentrally housed and structurally isolated.

Not only that, but with increased adoption ofcloud applications, companies faceunprecedented levels of IP, data and identitysprawl beyond the enterprise firewall. What isfrequently touted by cloud evangelists (i.e.distribution of IT assets) creates a nightmare

scenario for security professionals.

On IoT. An influx of connected devices enteringthe IoT ecosystem exponentially increases (1) thenumber of entry points exposed to breaches and(2) the permutation of paths attackers can exploitto arrive at targeted assets.

The notion that existing endpoint securitysolutions can effectively mitigate IoT-borne risksis hard to accept, as connected “things” are bydesign very different from desktop and mobiledevices. IoT hardware and software come inmany more shapes and sizes than those oftraditional endpoints, and the absence ofstandardized protocols in deployment todaymakes it difficult to secure all assets within the IoTecosystem. A shift toward verticalized applicationsand use cases suggests that even if standardsare put into place, they will be somewhatfederated and industry-specific.

Also, because IoT devices face limited systemresources, they are incompatible with mostendpoint and antivirus solutions in the market.And even if they are compatible with existingofferings, security professionals must deal withthe lion’s share of devices that currently run onlegacy operating systems unable to support

cutting-edge technologies,

Yet what makes IoT the single biggest securityrisk of our generation is that attacks are nolonger constrained to IT assets. Because thefoundational value of IoT lies in bridging thephysical-digital divide, attackers can now targetoperational technology (OT) to cause actualphysical damage.

Again, because humans have an inclination to dothings with technology that go beyond originalintent, the possibilities are endless for hackers.Recent attacks targeting control systems andphysical assets (e.g. vehicles , power grids ,HVAC systems , dams , steel mills ) only scratchthe surface — it’s very possible to see how futureattacks can be carried out by organized crimegroups to exact injury and even death.

None of this should come as news to securityprofessionals, who know much more about thespace that I do (and probably ever will). Still, I’veobserved that in most organizations, security isdefined as a largely operational function, which inturn leads to reactive, incohesive decision-making.

These dynamics have become institutionalized toa point where there are now established

“religions” in security, which include:

Relying entirely on the “religions” above tosecure enterprises is dangerous, not leastbecause attackers and threats are constantlyevolving. Tactical decision-making is effectiveonly to the extent that it’s guided by anoverarching, unified enterprise security strategy.

So how should companies think aboutapproaching security at a broader strategic level?To address this question, it’s worth re-emphasizing that:

The recurring theme in all this is that there arecountless moving parts in enterprise security. Anatural corollary to this point is that because thechallenge is so dynamic, committingtechnological, organizational and financialresources to a specific tactic is counterproductive— and bound to fail. It’ll only be a matter of timebefore the next major breach renders anapproach ineffective.

There is, however, an element that remainsconsistent throughout — that despite theuncertainty that governs market forces andrecent advances in IT/OT infrastructure, humanbeings have been, and will always be, the onescarrying out cyberattacks.

Notwithstanding the varying motives andapproaches pursued, attackers — whether theybe rogue actors, corporate insiders, industrycompetitors, organized crime groups or nationstates — can only operate within the constraintsdictated by human tendencies and behavior.

With that said, I’d like to argue that security isreally about understanding human beings. Whilethere’s no shortage of attention aroundincorporating the most advanced technology intosecurity solutions, I’m bullish on innovation for thesake of innovation. I feel strongly that advancesare only helpful to the extent that they shed lighton who the attackers are, and how they behaveboth inside and outside the enterprise.

This means that when addressing potentialinsider threats, a company needs full visibility intoevery employee, contractor and customer withaccess to its underlying assets. Growingmindshare around Identity and AccessManagement (IAM) is an encouraging trend, as itgoes beyond solutions that are focusedexclusively on the application layer.

Because identity is no longer abstracted from ITinfrastructure and networking components,enterprises are able to achieve full visibility and

provision, assign and manage privileges in aseamless (and hopefully automated) fashionthroughout the entire stack.

To more effectively address external threats, thismeans that enterprises shouldn’t rely solely on ablacklist of attackers and vulnerabilities — whichis as reactive as it gets — but also shouldproactively scour the entire threat landscape toidentity attackers and their recognized patterns ofbehavior. Threat Intelligence is starting toaddress this challenge, and I’m optimistic aboutsolutions that systematically profile andcontextualize attackers with a level of detail andgranularity that has never been achieved before.

While my role in enterprise security is to invest inthe most promising products and technologies,my biggest takeaway over the last few monthshas been that security, as technical a space as itmay be, is about better profiling andunderstanding the attackers, thus making theproblem fundamentally about human identity.

A special thanks to Dan Ahn, Anirban Banerjee,Alan Boehme, Taher Elgamal and Mark Hooverfor their insights, feedback and inspiration.

2016-04-16 20:16 Tom Seo

12 MediaXchange, U. S. newspapers’biggest industry event, will be anecho chamber without solutions

The Newspaper Association ofAmerica’s annualMediaXchange conference isthis weekend. And while I won’tbe at this year’s event, I’ve beena “member”, attendee andsponsor in the past, andwill attend again in the future.

Like the 17th iteration ofGroundhog Day, sessions will focus on digitalissues newspapers continue to face. (Advice: ifyou want to live, don’t play a drinking game atMediaXchange where the sip trigger is someonesaying “In the new digital world…” It was the “newworld” 20 yearsago. Now it’s just the world.)

By now we all know the problem. U. S.newspapers are losing a billion dollars in revenuea year. Many have gone out of business andthose that remain have 40% smaller staffs thanthey did in 1989.

The most frustrating part of newspapers’downward spiral is that it’s happening while they

have the greatest competitive advantage in thecrowded “new digital world.” (Drink.) In ourcluttered digital landscape consumers are lesstrusting and more cynical than ever before,making strong brands hard to build and harderstill to sustain. Digital native publishers would killto have the brand awareness and trust thatnewspapers have cultivated over decades. Evenif they’ve cancelled their subscription, people stillhave an attachment to their local newspaper thatthe Huffington Posts of the world can’t replicate.

The idea of newspaper brand trust isn’t all thatnovel and won’t be overlooked at MediaXchange.

According to David Chavern, NAA’s new CEO:“Legacy newspapers actually have a hugeadvantage [because] if you have high-valuebranded content with growing engagement byvalued consumers, then your ad inventory is bothscarce and valuable.”

The problem, which I think newspapers would bethe first admit, is that they have barely begunto leverage this advantage.

Trust is everything if you want to make money.Blue chip brands only work with and paypremiums to trusted blue chip content creators.

MediaXchange will again look to leverage that big“S” in their SWOT discussions (they won’t call itSWOT because that’s lame but they’ll have thediscussion). Unfortunately, what will then ensue isa massive ad-tech and social media echochamber — copied, pasted, repackagedamalgams of the same intransigent formulas froma playbook that’s been dusted off, recycled andsold for more than it was initially worth.

This dynamic isn’t happening because of industryor management incompetence. I’ve workedwith hundreds of newspapers and they are anincredibly smart group. So why are newspapersfailing to right the ship? It can be boiled down totwo problems.

Pew Research Center ’s Project for Excellence inJournalism did a study not too long ago calledThe Search for a New Business Model. Inexchange for anonymity, newspaper executivesgave startlingly candid commentary.

More than three-quarters said their single biggestchallenge was their newspaper’s internal culture.One said, “You can change CEOs, executiveVPs, digital VPs. You can wave this magic wandall you want. But at the end of the day, the troopsin the field hunker down.”

After years of being pitched seven-minute-abideas from the young smooth talking “new media”and reading how bad things are, who wouldn’tlose some mojo and freeze a bit?

I’d like to hear more ideas that are completelynew models for newspapers rather than attemptsto better optimize what they’re already doing. Forinstance:

There is tons of competition in flash sales, dailydeals, subscription fashion boxes and other e-commerce plays. All the funding in the space hasresulted in robust API’s and players with theresources to create interesting partnerships.Sites like Shopify, Zulily and Gilt should bejumping at the opportunity to partner withnewspapers.

Conversion rates are directly proportional toconsumer’s level of trust. According to PewResearch, customers terminate 70% of onlinepurchases because of a lack of trust. If only therewas an industry group with 100+ years of built-inbrand equity!

Mobile proliferation works in newspapers’ favortoo. Mobile commerce is growing nearly 3 timesfaster than all other e-commerce. 50% of allmobile searches are conducted in hopes of

finding local results, and 61% of those searchesresult in some sort of purchase. (Search EngineWatch). According to NAA, half of the 180 millionunique newspaper visitors use a mobile deviceexclusively. Hmmm….

Don’t do this halfway though…

Dipping their toes in e-commerce isn’t acompletely foreign idea to newspapers. Okanjo, astart-up that allows for Facebook style “Buy-it-now” buttons in ads, was selected as a winner inNAA’s Accelerator Pitch program in 2015. While agood start, this is still following the leader.“Facebook is doing what? Can we do that?”

Giving readers the ability to purchase a halfsecond after seeing an ad has been around foryears. Buy-it-now buttons inside ad real estateprovides a more storefront feel, givingnewspapers the hope that they can capture moreof the shared economics of a purchase. Buteffective RPM (Revenue perthousand impressions) data proves that it’snothing more than ads repackaged with someinteractivity. The pitch is appealing but at the endof the day all it will do is shift business to adifferent ad-tech startup, only marginallyimproving ad revenue for newspapers.

Ideas like this are still “inside-the-box” thinking.Not metaphorically, I mean literally inside thesame div or iframe ad-box where newspaperscurrently mine the majority of their insufficientdigital revenue.

Remember, their cheese was moved to Mars;looking under the seat cushion in the living roomisn’t going to uncover a transformative revenuestream.

It needs to be deeper. With the rightpartnerships digital papers can be a destination.They don’t need to be just another distributionchannel for e-commerce companies.

Consumers have to be nurtured through eachpart of the buying funnel and be made awarethat newspapers are now their trusted source tofor products and deals. Inform your users (overand over) that you are supporting yourcommunity by finding and partnering with the bestdeals and products, with the best service, fromthe best companies. You’re opening a SeattleTimes store!

Instead of hoping your users buy a hoverboardwhile they’re reading about city council initiatives,you’ll have branded yourself has a place to go fordeals and potentially even general online

shopping down the road. You should even have aseparate Curated Deals app.

Then you’re not just catching up to Facebook,you’re leveraging an asset Facebook doesn’thave.

Facebook’s only similar market option is relyingon its users to market products to their friends.They can’t be a trusted commerce brandbecause they lack that whole, you know, trustpart.

Fewer than 20% of people ages 25-34 read thenewspaper daily, down from 41% in 2003.Incredibly though – defying the laws of everything– while newspapers are in a freefall, applicationsto journalism schools are skyrocketing. This willleave millions of writers so starved to be printedthat they’ll likely give their content away toDemand Media. Wait, this is already happening.

Who do you think young journalists who speakmillennia would rather have on their resume –Demand Media or the Los Angeles Times?

You don’t even have to wait until they graduateand need to make a real salary. Give them beatgigs and brand them “Ground Troops.” It will be aprestigious position. And don’t take applications:

organize a contest where you select a few foreach section of your paper.

These ground troopers will be writing with nothingto lose, and everything to gain from making asplash.

If you pick the right ones, they’ll bring themillennials to you. Millennials who buy things andinfluence others.

They’ll also bring a contagious new energy andchallenge the old guard to step up. Growing up,every time our family dog would get old we’d buya puppy. Guess what? Damn it if that old dogdidn’t get a second wind! He sure did. What I’msaying is, buy your family a new pup. He’ll beannoying and you’ll have to potty train him buthe’ll also be amazing.

Give them podcast and videocast platforms too.The number of annual podcast downloads is over3 billion now and growing by more than 50% peryear. You don’t have to create the next Serial.These are low risk, high return investments, sothrow a bunch of them on the wall and see whatsticks. The only reason newspaper content hasbeen exclusively article-based the last 100 yearsis because delivering tape recorders onsubscriber ’s lawns every morning wasn’t a cost

effective distribution strategy.

According to intense research I did scanningheadshots on the NAA’s Board of Directorswebpage they don’t have one member under theage of 45. As boards go, this is common andgenerally there’s nothing wrong with it. But ifattracting youth is your greatest problem thisseems like low hanging fruit. I would go so far asto elect 2-3 university student representatives ona rolling basis.

The NAA should allow all journalism schoolsaccredited by the ACEJMC to elect a studentrepresentative to attend MediaXchange for freeeach year. That’s fewer than 150 students. Allowthem all to apply to be on a new student panel atMediaXchange as well.

The board should have every director pick anexhibitor they’ve never met to have coffee or abeer with at MediaXchange. You can call it“Spicoli meets Mr. Hand” (working title). Thoseexhibitors are the people trying to solvenewspaper problems. 90% of them are digitalmonetization and engagement people, right?Sounds like a good opportunity to me. The NAAboard members could hold an internal draft everyyear to decide who gets to meet with which each

exhibitor.

Newspapers will never enjoy an oligopoly again.We live in a world where the series finales ofBreaking Bad, Mad Men and The Officecombined had fewer viewers than the seriesfinale of Alf. As Chris Rock says, “people are onlyas faithful as their options.” Consumers are stillinto you, newspapers, but big, sweeping changeshave to happen now.

Newspapers are reaching a critical point. Theirbrands are on the precipice of significant valueand opportunity loss. When the tail-end of themillennials who don’t have fond memories of theirparents reading the paper enter their 30’s andcontrol the most coveted brand demographic, itwill be over.

Nobody has a stopwatch on exactly when that willhappen but I do know the needle needs tostart moving faster now.

2016-04-16 20:16 Matt Mitchell

13 Epic Systems wins $940 mln U. S.jury verdict in Tata trade secretcase

April 16 (Reuters) - A jury in Wisconsin hasawarded medical softwarecompany Epic Systems$940 million in damagesin a trade secret lawsuitagainst Indian informationtechnology provider Tata Consultancies, believedto one of the largest trade-secrets verdicts onrecord.

Epic sued Tata in 2015 with allegations that itillicitly downloading software it had been hired tohelp install at Kaiser Foundation Hospitals,accusing the Indian company of "brazenlystealing" confidential information and tradesecrets in order to help its competing healthcaresoftware provider, Med Mantra, according tocourt documents.

The jury in federal court in Wisconsin on Fridayfound in Epic's favor on seven claims includingbreach of contract, misappropriation of tradesecrets, unfair competition and unfair enrichment.It awarded $240 million in compensatorydamages and $700 million in punitive damages,court documents said.

An Epic spokesman declined to comment.

Tata did not immediately respond to a request for

comment. The Indian edition of the InternationalBusiness Times quoted the company as saying ina statement:

"The jury's verdict on liability and damages wasunexpected as the company believes they areunsupported by the evidence presented duringthe trial. The company did not misuse or deriveany benefit from downloaded documents fromEpic System's user-web portal. "

The statement said Tata would appeal.

Epic, a privately held company based in Verona,Wisconsin, is the leading provider of medicalrecords systems used in hospitals and otherhealthcare facilities throughout the United States.Tata Consultancies, part of the sprawling Tataconglomerate, is one of the largest globalproviders of information technology software andservices, with 324,000 employees worldwide,according to the company's Website.

The case is Epic Systems Corporation vs. TataConsultancy Services Limited and Tata AmericaInternational Corporation, Western District ofWisconsin, case number 14-cv-748-wmc.

(Reporting by Jonathan Weber; editing by GrantMcCool)

2016-04-16 18:27 CNBC

Total 13 articles. Generated at 2016-04-1718:01