MaSSSoftech

AMR Corp., the parent of American Airlines, said Wednesday that it plans to scrap its computer system for a next-generation version centered around passenger data and built by Hewlett Packard Co.

The new technology will be rolled out over the next four years and will largely replace Sabre, the 50-year-old computer platform at the heart of American's operations.

That early computer reservation system, created by Texas-based American and New York-based IBM Corp. in the 1950s, was largely adopted – or copied – by the rest of the airline industry and eventually spun off into a separate company.

"This is big news," said Henry Harteveldt, travel analyst with Forrester Research Inc. "What American is doing is the equivalent of a brain transplant, heart transplant and a lot of plastic surgery, all simultaneously."

But changing information technology at airlines rarely goes smoothly, given the size and complexity of their operations, noted aviation consultant Robert Mann.

Passengers have suffered myriad problems this decade, from kiosk meltdowns to lost reservations, as airlines tried to upgrade or install new technology.

Adding to the challenge for American: it plans to create a brand-new system with HP rather than install technology from the dozen or so vendors that cater to the airline industry.

Air Canada earlier this month announced that it was suspending work on Polaris, a new reservation system developed by ITA Software that was running about two years behind schedule.

"The track record on large-scale airline systems developed by so-called 'next-gen' vendors has been pretty dismal," Mann said. "It's been late and not-so-great."

American officials are convinced they will change how airlines are run by employing state-of-the-art hardware and software.

The nation's second-largest carrier, like its peers, has separate databases for reservations, frequent-flier programs, fares and operations, Harteveldt said.

But American plans to create a single database for all of its operations, built around passenger information rather than ticket transactions. Doing so will minimize systems crashes. The carrier will be able to use travel patterns as it tailors its marketing to individual customers, or to quickly identify service break-downs that they identify.

To control costs and minimize the shock to its system, American plans to tackle the overhaul in piecemeal fashion, installing one "module" at a time over a four-year stretch, Monte Ford, American's chief information officer told reporters during a conference call Wednesday.

Many of the breakthroughs of the news system -- faster processing speeds, greater flexibility and reliability -- would not be noticeable to customers.

But the new platform would allow American to use social networking tools to help workers coping with massive delays at an airport share information with each other, and with passengers, Ford said.

Ford wouldn't discuss how much American is spending on its new computer system, but analysts think its expenditures could easily run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

"We'll certainly be looking at how capital expenditures change to get some insight into this," Harteveldt said. "But American would not be investing in this if it were not providing tangible benefits to the rest of the company."

jjohnsson@tribune.com

Syracuse University students are very lucky to have an exceptionally comprehensive and helpful Information Technology Services department. But I want to give you a few tips to keep your electronics and personal information safe while getting the most out of the technology Syracuse University offers.

Setting up your Internet connection is the first step. By now, most of you have figured out how to connect a computer to AirOrangeX. If not, give ITS a call at 315-344-2677 or visit their new wiki Web site, answers.syr.edu.

If you ever need to visit ITS there are two locations: the Goldstein Student Center and the Center for Science & Technology in the Life Sciences Complex. When you go, be sure to bring a copy of your computer's operating system on a CD or DVD. If you left it at home, I would suggest having someone living at home mail it to you.

You can visit an ITS center if your hard drive crashes or you lose information at some point for any reason, but, while ITS is always kind and efficient, they can't always retrieve your data. Get a backup hard drive and use it on a daily or weekly basis (120 gigabytes should be enough). To be on the safe side, also be sure you are using some form of antivirus software on your computer - yes, even if you have a Mac.

When it comes to your pictures, be careful which ones you chose to share and with whom. Let me put this easily and frankly: If you wonder whether or not it's a good idea to put it on Facebook, it's probably not. The same applies for any sort of public posts. They are there forever, even if you delete them. Just think twice, and consider utilizing the site's privacy settings.

In orientation they also introduced you to the servers that hold your online information for SU: SUmail, MySlice and Blackboard, all of which use your NetID and password. This is great because students don't have to memorize numerous names and number combinations for all SU Internet applications.

That being said, it is also quite risky to have all your personal information locked with the same code. What that means is never, ever give anyone your password. You wouldn't give anyone your bankcard and pin number, so why give your NetID password? With a single password, people can have access not simply to your classes but also your Bursar account, financial aid and housing. If you ever, for whatever reason, feel that your information may be compromised, contact ITS immediately.

It's not simply your personal information that needs to be protected; your computer does, too. Though I wouldn't say robbery is a major problem on campus, you can never be too safe. With that in mind, don't leave your computer unattended anywhere. Or if you are going to leave it, be sure to lock it up with a security cable that can be purchased at the SU Bookstore. Furthermore, if you want to be extremely safe, get another one for your TV and, if you have one, your video game system. Also, always lock your dorm door.

Have a great year and be safe both on and offline.



Ben Tepfer is a sophomore television, radio and film major and the technology columinst . His column appears every Tuesday. He can be reached bstepfer@syr.edu.

Venture capitalists invested more in health care than information technology last quarter for the first time in a quarter this decade. That shift is likely to correct itself as the economy improves, but there is a trend that does have legs: emerging opportunity at the intersection of both fields.

IBM’s Anatomic Symbolic Mapper Engine, which allows doctors to visualize patient medical records.

New efforts to overhaul the health care system is creating opportunity for a new generation of health care-IT hybrids. The federal stimulus law, which allocates $19 billion to health care-IT, combined with Congress’s efforts to provide health insurance to the uninsured, is enticing entrepreneurs and investors alike. “I have seen a marked increase in deal flow to capture the $19 billion in stimulus spending,” said Michael Greeley, general partner of Flybridge Capital Partners.

In the second quarter, venture firms injected $90 million into 19 financing rounds for medical software companies, up from $63 million in 15 rounds in the first quarter, according to VentureSource, which, like this newsletter, is owned by Dow Jones & Co. While this investment area is still small relative to the entire health care sector, the uptick signals a shift in VCs’ view of health care-IT, historically a minefield for small companies, which have struggled with the long sales cycles of hospitals, insurers and other big clients.

Part of the shift can be traced to the success of athenahealth Inc., a provider of physician-billing and practice-management services that went public in 2007 and is now valued at $1.3 billion. Bryan Roberts, a partner with athenahealth backer Venrock, said health-IT is starting to draw VCs who haven’t invested in the field before.

“I’ve gotten calls from a variety of venture firms, saying, ‘Hey, we’re really interested in this area, will you come talk to us about it?’” he said. One Venrock medical-IT start-up has received 10 term sheets in three weeks for a Series B round, at a material step-up in valuation, he said.

The stimulus law provides financial incentives for physicians to exchange paper health records for electronic ones, which creates opportunity for providers of solutions to store and share sensitive patient data. Technologies for monitoring patients remotely, and keep them out of the hospital, will also be in demand because of their ability to hold down health care spending, some investors contend.

But any start-up seeking to sell a medical-IT business idea to venture firms must show that its product improves cash flow, said Venrock’s Roberts. “The real hitch has been whether the product is a nice–to-have or a have-to-have,” he said. “If you’re a have-to-have, the sales cycle is tolerable; if you’re a nice-to-have, it’s awful.”

Hospitals aren’t the only potential targets for health-IT tools. Consumers are increasingly being called upon to manage their own health care, and will need tools to do so. That opportunity is drawing firms such Atlas Venture and Ignition Partners, which are bankrolling a stealthy San Francisco start-up, Keas Inc., which plans to provide patients with custom action plans to improve their health.

At the sweet spot where information technology, joint forces and industry intersects lies perhaps the most important strategy in a new era of warfare: the coalition of capabilities, said the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright, at the Air Force’s annual IT conference Monday.

The “tremendous advantages in networking organizations” available to today’s warfighter is a valuable tool that will be necessary to conquer an enemy constantly on the move, Cartright said, according to reported remarks. Cartwright made his remarks during a keynote address at the Air Force Information Technology Conference in Montgomery, Ala.

While advanced IT may be the AK-47 of modern warfare, military and government will need to move faster to leverage any lead U.S. forces may have over the adversary. Such a move will require a cultural shift that incorporates a willingness to take risks, Cartwright said.

“There are no laws against moving faster. There are policies against moving faster – policies we wrote. Policies are things we can control, if we can move the culture with us,” Cartwright said, according to a report from the American Forces Press Service.

IT’s rapid development presents a major hurdle for a military procurement timeline that typically requires several years from design to deployment of new capabilities, he said.

Richard Lombardi, director of the 554th Electronic Systems Wing, agreed with Cartwright, the Air Force News Service noted. Faster evolution of the Air Force and Defense Department as a whole relies on three key tenets: rapid acquisition, operability at the core and the ability to fight through a cyber attack, Lombardi said.

The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) announced today the winners of this year’s Anita Borg Social Impact and Technical Leadership Awards and the Denice Denton Emerging Leader Award. The winners will be honored for their accomplishments and contributions to women in technology at an awards ceremony on October 1, 2009, during ABI’s 9th Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) in Tucson, Arizona.

The Anita Borg Social Impact Award honors an individual or team that has caused technology to have a positive impact on the lives of women and society or has caused women to have a significant impact on the design and use of technology. The 2009 award winner is Ekaterina Fedotova. Ekaterina Fedotova is the IDEA (Information and Dissemination & Equal Access) Project Director, a community-based network providing basic and job-related computer skills training to increase employability among underserved, disadvantaged populations in 51 cities across Russia's 22 regions. As Director of the IDEA project, she has motivated social change and empowerment through technology and opened the minds of generations of women and the broader community, to how they can use technology to improve their lives. The Anita Borg Social Impact Award is underwritten by Microsoft.

The Anita Borg Technical Leadership Award is given to a woman who has inspired the women’s technology community through outstanding technological and social contributions. This year’s winner, Ruzena Bajcsy is Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley where she is also Director Emerita of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), Over the past four decades Bajcsy has had an astounding impact in the fields of active vision, computer vision algorithms for medical imaging and telepresence. Dr. Bajcsy has pioneered new research fields, guided national policy regarding and lead the computing community in addressing social issues. She has broken barriers and opened up access for women as a role model, mentor and advocate. The Anita Borg Technical Leadership Award is underwritten by Cisco.

The Denice Denton Emerging Leader Award is given each year to a junior non-tenured faculty member under the age of 40 at an academic or research institution pursuing high-quality research in any field of engineering or physical sciences while contributing significantly to promoting diversity in his/her environment. The 2009 Denice Denton Award winner is Nadya Mason, Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Mason's research focuses on electron behavior in low-dimensional, correlated materials, where enhanced novel interactions are expected to give novel results. In addition to her research, Dr. Mason is a spokesperson for increasing diversity in physics and for creating a climate in academia that embraces and supports minorities and women. The Denice Denton Award is underwritten by Microsoft.
The world’s largest gathering of women in computing in industry, academia, and government, GHC is a four-day technical conference designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Conference registration is open until September 25, 2009. For more information, go to www.gracehopper.org.

About the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI)

The Anita Borg Institute provides resources and programs to help industry, academia, and government recruit, retain, and develop women leaders in high-tech fields, resulting in higher levels of technological innovation. ABI programs serve high-tech women by creating a community and providing tools to help them develop their careers. ABI is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. ABI Partners include: Google, Microsoft, HP, Cisco, Intel, National Science Foundation, NetApp, SAP, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Thomson Reuters, CA, Intuit, Amazon, Facebook, Raytheon, and Genentech. For more information, visit www.anitaborg.org.

The US Department of Homeland Security and the Information Technology Sector Coordinating Council (IT SCC) have released the ‘IT Sector Baseline Risk Assessment’ (ITSRA) to identify and prioritize national-level risks to critical sector-wide IT functions while outlining strategies to mitigate those risks and enhance national and economic security.

The ITSRA validates the resiliency of key elements of IT sector infrastructure while providing a process by which public and private sector owners and operators can continually update their risk management programs. The assessment links security measures to concrete data to provide a basis for meaningful infrastructure protection metrics.

“The IT Sector Baseline Risk Assessment is an example of what can happen when public and private sector partners work together and represents a major step forward in mitigating risks to critical infrastructure functions that are essential to both homeland and economic security,” said DHS Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity and Communications Gregory Schaffer. “While elements of the assessment have already been adopted, the establishment of this iterative platform for assessing IT sector risk will also enable us to address ever more sophisticated threats.”

“Private sector owners and operators of this nation’s critical infrastructure manage risk on behalf of their customers and their internal operations every day, and the risk assessment validates the overall resiliency of that infrastructure. Industry and government, however, need to understand the risk across the entire IT Sector,” said IT SCC chairman Bob Dix. “This dynamic process and its tangible results provide an opportunity to collectively manage risk at the national level, and we are already working on applying the findings of the IT Sector Baseline Risk Assessment to better mitigate risk, making the IT sector and the nation more resilient and secure.”

The ITSRA also identified overarching areas for additional study that will further enhance the sector’s resiliency, including further evaluation of the risks to the identity management function; analysis of the risks of manmade unintentional threats; and evaluation of the feasibility of establishing a national-level testing and simulation risk assessment capability.