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By GreenerComputing Staff - GreenerComputing Staff

This report, from the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, explores the ways that South Korea is embracing green IT strategies, and how the U.S. and other countries can benefit from their experiences.

From the report:

Just as information technology (IT) has contributed significantly to economic growth and quality of life, IT has an important role to play in creating a green economy.

Our world is in the midst of a period of digital transformation where every sector, from health care to energy and from transportation to education, is being fundamentally altered and improved by IT. This period of digital transformation not only entails significant benefits from increases in productivity and quality, but it has the potential to create significant environmental benefits.

Other nations are aggressively pursuing green technology including South Korea, Japan and Denmark. South Korea is poised to become the world leader in green technology, through a wide array of government policies supporting green technology, strong executive leadership and a substantial commitment of public funding for this effort.

If the United States expects to similarly reap these green benefits, it should look to the South Korean example as it develops its own national green IT strategy.

Some Terminated Employees Work Hard To Keep Up Appearance of Having a Job

At a breakfast for job seekers at Vienna Presbyterian Church, Jay Train of Centreville reads a flier about a job center. On the left is Ken Workman of Herndon, co-coordinator of the networking group, who is also seeking employment.
At a breakfast for job seekers at Vienna Presbyterian Church, Jay Train of Centreville reads a flier about a job center. On the left is Ken Workman of Herndon, co-coordinator of the networking group, who is also seeking employment. (By Sarah L. Voisin -- The Washington Post)
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Clinton Cole has had offers of help.
Clinton Cole has had offers of help. (Sarah L. Voisin - The Washington Post)
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By Annie Gowen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 12, 2009

For weeks after he was laid off, Clinton Cole would rise at the usual time, shower, shave, don one of his Jos. A. Bank suits and head out the door of his Vienna home -- to a job that no longer existed.
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Lying Low After a Layoff
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Half a Tank: Along Recession Road

He was careful to stay away until 5 p.m., whiling away the hours at the library or on a park bench in a wireless Internet hot spot. If he had to stay home, he stashed the car in the garage.

When he lost his job as a business development manager with General Dynamics Information Technology in February, Cole was too ashamed to tell anyone except his wife and family what had happened. It made no difference that 1,200 other workers were pink-slipped at the same time. He felt as if he had done something wrong, even though he knew he hadn't.

"In this area, in the shadow of our nation's capital, so much is about appearances," said Cole, a carefully spoken man of medium height with thinning brown hair and tortoise-shell glasses, which he removes for photographs. "There was fear that other kids wouldn't play with your kids. You won't be invited to parties or be ostracized. Or that others would distance themselves from you because you might need help they won't be able to provide. All those thoughts race through your mind."

After about two months, Cole tired of the charade, and now he thinks that talking about it publicly could help him find employment and inspire others. He realized that those he once thought would shun him often reached out to help. Perhaps they saw a bit of themselves in his anxious eyes -- just one severance check away from disaster.

Even as the ranks of unemployed and underemployed have grown, career counselors, therapists and other experts say a certain segment is determined to suffer in silence, keeping details of job losses and financial pressure secret from all but close family and friends. The problem is particularly acute in affluent neighborhoods in the Washington region, experts say, where the self-worth of high-achieving professionals is deeply intertwined with their jobs. There might be 14 million unemployed people in this country, but in this town -- with its A-types and status seekers -- failure still is not an option.
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Current at the Club

"I have people who are not working and laid off who still pay their country club memberships. Then they're not sleeping at night and fighting with their spouses or children," said Cynthia Turner, a licensed clinical social worker who practices in Loudoun and Fairfax counties. "Still, there's shame. What I see is people willing to talk about the stock market but not willing to talk about . . . losing a job, being furloughed or laid off."

Feelings of disgrace and fear are natural for laid-off workers, experts say, but going to extremes to mask the truth is more prevalent in other cultures, such as some in Asia. During the recession of the 1990s, some Japanese "salarymen" committed suicide rather that admit to their families that they had lost their jobs; an online poll this spring of 440 dismissed Korean workers showed that one in five hid the news from their families. Stories such as Cole's are becoming more common here in this recession, because the downturn has hit more middle-class and affluent families than usual.

When Henry Brinton, the pastor of Fairfax Presbyterian Church, set up a support group for unemployed executives this year, he modeled it on anonymous self-help groups. With those rules, a dozen congregants have felt free to tell their stories.

"I didn't want anyone to come to this group feeling as though they were going to be embarrassed or gossiped about," Brinton said.

And so a District lawyer recently bumped from equity partner to counsel says little but worries about how he's going to pay the mortgage on his freshly built dream home. And in Silver Spring, a 39-year-old journalist who can't find a TV job still goes out for dinner with friends who don't know how poor she is, pretending all the while that she's doing just fine. She orders water and a $4 side salad, then drives her (paid-for) Jaguar to whichever grocery store has Lean Cuisine on sale. (These two and others interviewed did not want their names used for the same reason that they are keeping the information from their friends.)

The number of college-educated workers who are unemployed is rising; in the Washington area, those collecting unemployment benefits who have college or postgraduate degrees more than doubled from July 2008 to last month, up to 6,227 from 2,652. But for some, the sheer numbers of unemployed in this "jobless recovery" provide little comfort and do not lessen the stigma.

We're swimming in it. Or maybe downing is a better term. Whatever the correct label, the digital supply of financial and economic data, information and analysis is exploding. We can't get enough of it. Or are we getting too much? More to the point, Is it helping?

The question for strategic-minded investors is whether the growing amount of information is enhancing our investment results? This is a critical question, in part because the information revolution has only just begun. As David Leinweber notes in his fascinating new book Nerds on Wall Street: Math, Machines and Wired Markets, "We are just beginning to see the decentralized use of information technology in this industry."

The future, then, is sure to be one of even more financial and economic information. But is more really better when it comes to investing?

Back in the good old days, when your editor was a staff writer at Bloomberg, there was a brief, shining moment when I thought the financial world was my oyster. In the early days of the job, I was awed by the apparent possibilities that arose from sitting in front of a Bloomberg terminal, which was made available to all employees. The array of data, news and analysis at my fingertips was overwhelming, but I was determined to become proficient at leveraging this amazing machine for not only my day job but for my personal investments as well.

As it turned out, access to a Bloomberg terminal isn't a short cut to big profits. Don't misunderstand: It's a great resource, but simply having one doesn't necessarily make you a better investor, although not having one may put you at a disadvantage. But whether it's a Bloomberg terminal or the Internet, technology by itself doesn't automatically elevate returns. One reason is that hundreds of thousands of other people on the planet have access to the same information. Fighting a war with nuclear weapons, so to speak, is a clear advantage if your enemy is using bow and arrow. But if everyone has a large supply of ICBMs, the game is something of a standoff.

Some of the challenge is no doubt tied to my own limitations. Surely there are countless investors who are smarter, and so they're better prepared to make use of the digital revolution. But that's not an entirely satisfying answer. As one example, consider the long-run history of the equity mutual fund business. Looking at the grand sweep of performance for this lot offers precious little evidence that results are improving.

Industry veteran, John Weisel, to lead group in helping financial services firms manage IT strategy amid sweeping economic and regulatory change

EXETER — Exeter Health Resources has been named one of the nation's most wired small and rural hospitals for its use of information technology for the second year in a row.

The local health care organization was named Most Wired in the Small and Rural category, according to the 2009 Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study released in the July issue of Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. The 100 Most Wired hospitals show better outcomes in patient satisfaction, risk-adjusted mortality rates and other key quality measures through the use of information technology, according to a new analysis.

Core Physicians is in the process of introducing electronic prescribing, or "e-prescribing," which aims to streamline communication between retail pharmacy and Core provider offices.

PARIS--(Marketwire - August 12, 2009) - TIBCO Software Inc. (NASDAQ: TIBX) today announced that Chronopost -- the leading French firm for express delivery of parcels up to 70 pounds to businesses and individuals -- has chosen TIBCO's software to enhance the company's agility and operational efficiency through an open, scalable enterprise exchange platform that supports the sharing and reuse of data across all of Chronopost's applications and platforms. This project is part of the "Phoenix" program, which redefines the information system as outlined in Chronopost's three-year plan.

Chronopost's primary objectives behind the Phoenix program are to deliver a proprietary method for accessing information, develop a custom user interface, provide information traffic management and share information between different processes, all while taking a business approach to information systems.

Head of Infrastructure Jean-Philippe Hertzog commented on the partnership stating: "One of our objectives is to increase customer satisfaction, in particular by improving pro-activity in tracking each parcel. Up-to-the-minute, accurate information on each parcel from collection through delivery should be available at all times throughout the shipping process. We chose TIBCO's solutions because they are easy to integrate and operate, meeting all our connectivity requirements."

As well as improving customer satisfaction, the exchange platform will contribute to a faster time to market of new customer services through automated process capabilities and the rapid creation and maintenance of data flows across various applications. The exchange platform will also ensure the flow of data between 120 specialized, heterogeneous applications deployed across more than 80 sites on 300 RedHat Linux servers using a VMWare virtualization layer. The new exchange platform, which will leverage TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks™, TIBCO iProcess™ Suite, and TIBCO BusinessEvents™, will process and monitor in real-time more than 10 million exchange messages per day.

"We are pleased to have the opportunity to help Chronopost transform its enterprise IT environment to drive new value creation for its customer base," said Fabio Pulidori, senior vice president, EMEA Field Operations, TIBCO. "The establishment of an open, scalable, exchange platform as part of their Phoenix project will serve as an important competitive differentiator for long-term growth and agility."

About Chronopost

Founded in 1985, Chronopost has become the leading French firm for express deliveries of parcels up to 70 pounds to businesses and individuals, anywhere in the world. A subsidiary of GeoPost, the holding company of La Poste Group's Express Parcels, Chronopost has 3500 employees, handles 250,000 parcels each day and had a turnover of EUR 637 million in 2008. In France, Chronopost has a network of 76 operational sites, including 6 hubs. Chronopost serves more than 230 countries throughout Europe and the world. www.chronopost.fr

About TIBCO Software

TIBCO technology digitized Wall Street in the '80s with its event-driven "Information Bus" solution. Today, TIBCO's infrastructure solutions give companies the means to innovate by connecting applications and data in a service-oriented architecture, streamlining activities through business process management, and giving people the information they need to make faster and smarter decisions, what we call The Power of Now®. TIBCO serves more than 3000 customers around the world with a presence in more than 20 countries and a network of over 200 partners. Learn more at: www.tibco.com.

TIBCO, TIBCO ActiveMatrix BusinessWorks, TIBCO iProcess Suite, TIBCO BusinessEvents, The Power of Now, and TIBCO Software are trademarks or registered trademarks of TIBCO Software Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. All other product and company names and trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only.

Posted August 12th, 2009 by theStockMasters...

The growing consensus on the Street is that large cap and solid technology companies are going to benefit from business and consumer spending, if that's the case, its time to review the ETFs that can help you benefit from the tech stocks making a comeback in 2009 including Vanguard Information Technology (ETF) (NYSE:VGT) and the widely held PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1 (ETF) (NASDAQ:QQQQ).

The technology sector is the one area that via new and existing applications can help companies of all sizes increase productivity, improve their profitability and help to ease day to day activies during this difficult Recession. The big tech companies such as Oracle (ORCL), Microsoft (MSFT), and IBM have the advantage of strong balance sheets with tons of cash to spend on make acquisitions or share buybacks, something that many sectors are missing right now.

Forget picking stocks for once, your weapons of choice for betting on a tech sector comeback are the following ETFs, thus going long on each of the following securities:

Tickers Alone: QQQQ XLK IYW VGT

Keep Reading - Click Here>>

SOURCE: http://wallstnation.com/tech-stocks-08112009-2

John C. Dvorak, who is an columnist and broadcaster in the areas of technology and computing has written a column making some pretty serious allegations about Vivek Kundra, new US CIO and ex-DC CTO, well known locally for DC's first Apps for Democracy (which was later picked up by New York, San Francisco and others).

Dvorak has questioned Kundra's degree, the area he got the degree in, the school he went to, and the statement he made on his DC CTO page about being the CEO at Creostar (apparently he was the only employee there). Dvorak also brings up older stories such as Kundra's 1997 bust for stealing shirts from JC Penny’s (which Kundra has been quite open about, and said was a youthful mistake) and the later bust of his former staff by the FBI at the DC office during a bribery investigation. Dvorak has said in his blog:

Is US Chief Information Officer (CIO) Vivek Kundra a Phony?

This is the sort of question you might ask after trying to actually verify his supposed MS in Information Technology from the University of Maryland, College Park campus. The registrar has no record of it".


After Dvorak's report came out, bloggers and others started investigating the matter and Nextgov.com writer Gautham Nagesh said that


However, after a few phone calls I was able to verify that Kundra did receive a Master's degree in Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland University College in 2001. That seems to conform with his official bio, where it states he "holds a MS in Information Technology from the University of Maryland."

Although UMUC is different from UMD, as other bloggers have pointed out, this is a much smaller charge than trumping up an entire degree. There is no news on whether he did have a Bachelors degree in biology, although people did find proof of a degree in psychology, as Kundra had stated he possessed on his DC CTO page.

Another writer Om Malik says,


Dvorak is just flat-out wrong — or at least that was the gist of the conversation I just had with Kundra. He called back and said that it was clear that “someone was spinning partial truths.” He welcomed anyone to check with University of Maryland’s University College and said they will find that not only did he graduate from the University College, but also that he was adjunct faculty member.

Om also called the White House, and a spokesman said, the article as “a gross smear” on Kundra and called it “highly inaccurate.” With the active blogosphere and media we have, I suspect we will have the whole truth very soon.



Tech Policy and Happenings: You may be interested in the reasons behind a recent Twitter outage, how we can track criminal activity on the Web (George Sodini video), Teens and Twitter, the use of social networking in the military, American Innovation in Crisis , Why Government keeps getting Technology Wrong , Yahoo and Microsoft vs. Google , a recent look at consumer satisfaction with federal websites, Cybersecurity: an interview with Dan Risacher at DOD - Part 1 and Part 2, and Cloud Computing with Pete Tseronis

Lighter Side of Tech: For some more lighter tech stories, check out the abs and butt discussion between Andy Roddick and Serena, Palin's absence from Twitter, her Facebook statement, and how her hairdresser is speaking up for Palin, the Twitter prediction for "So you think you can dance", adorable online cat stories, the $50,000 Tweet, modern day hero:the libertarian Facebook pig, which still on the lam., interviews with Twilight stars at Com Con, the Top Ten Fight Scenes and Top Free Movies on on YouTube, Bill Clinton's video with JFK and his status updates on Facebook, best of Hulu, and the top 10 creepiest vintage ads.