Pay cut for work freedom
“Worldwide Workplace: The Web Commuting Imperative,” is a new report from Citrix Online available from (www.workshifting.com) that shows how people are moving away from working in traditional office spaces. The report compares and contrasts attitudes of workers and owners of small businesses in the United States, the UK and Australia. Among the findings:
• Nearly 75 percent of all workers want the freedom to work remotely from home or somewhere else away from the office, yet most workers don’t have the option. This desire is so strong that 1 in 5 workers are willing to relinquish five percent of their salary to work offsite 1–2 days a week.
• Flexible hours are deemed most essential to having a successful business in the future, and rated higher by a significant margin than health insurance benefits.
• Small business owners are more than four times as likely as others to be able to work remotely “all the time.” But more than 25 percent still believe job duties demand that employees be in the office.
• While many bosses still don’t like the idea of employees working offsite, approximately one-third of bosses in the US are receptive to having employees participate virtually by phoning in to meetings.
• Freedom from rigid office hours by having more control over schedules is what employers and employees like most about Web commuting — even more than saving time and money on transportation.
• Female entrepreneurs are 50 percent more likely to allow Web commuting from home compared to their male counterparts — perhaps themselves recognizing the need for work/life equilibrium.
Predicting the American Idol winner
For the last three weeks, Biz360 a provider of media and market intelligence solutions correctly predicted the contestants that would be voted off the American Idol program. The predictions were made using Biz360’s Community Insights solution which aggregates and analyzes social media conversations — including blogs, message boards, forums, micro-blogs, online news media and social networks.
Biz360 analyzed the near real-time content and tonality — positive, neutral or negative — of the American Idol social media conversations following the show’s Tuesday evening performances and preceding the results show for the same week.
“While it has been an extremely tight race and challenging to forecast, social media conversation has proven to be a reliable predictor thus far. The analysis demonstrates the power that social media measurement offers companies, brands and products today,” said Tony Priore, Biz360’s CMO. “We are looking forward to predicting the finale. While this is a fun and entertaining exercise it underscores the value of listening and analyzing public conversations to quickly understand what people want.”
Biz360 will issue their finale prediction after tonight’s American Idol performance show and before the results show airs tomorrow — www.biz360.com.
GlobalFoundries moves ahead
The $4.2bn GlobalFoundries joint venture between Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) and Advanced Technology Investment Co. (ATIC), a unit of Mubadala Development Co., has begun construction on its manufacturing facility coming up in Saratoga County, New York, which is expected to be operational by 2011.
The company has also appointed Subramani Kengeri as vice president of design solutions. Kengeri was most recently at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), where he was senior director of design and technology platform and head of the North America Design Center. Kengeri has been issued 24 US patents. He holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and a certificate in executive management from AeA/Stanford University.
Consumers consider NAS
Computer users today save more data than ever before. The phenomenal growth of digital photography, audio and video have focused consumers’ minds on the secure storage of their precious pictures, music, and movies, raising the profile of backup and media server solutions.
Although most consumers still rely on single-computer backup scenarios, a small but growing number are opting for Network Attached Storage (NAS). While the market is still relatively small, consumer NAS is expected to deliver more than $1.25 billion in revenues by 2011.
“In order to move the consumer NAS market forward,” said ABI Research senior analyst Jason Blackwell, “vendors need to educate and inform consumers about NAS’s advantages.”
Consumer NAS equipment falls into three groups:
• Integrated NAS drives, which include the necessary networking software.
• Network storage enclosures, for those who wish to add the hard disk themselves.
• Storage routers and bridges, which allow attachment of hard drives to a network.
Integrated NAS drives comprise the lion’s share of the market, but, said Blackwell, “Storage routers and bridges offer vendors the greatest growth opportunity.”
Challenges in this market have traditionally included consumers’ relative indifference to data security: backups have always been considered a bore. So marketing and customer education will be key to success. Cost has been an issue too: while prices continue to fall, they still pose a barrier to adoption.
The rise of the home media server market is creating interest in NAS devices that can act as media servers. “The fact that NAS devices are becoming more like media servers will certainly help them penetrate the digital home network,” noted Blackwell. “Vendors are making a concerted effort to market NAS for these more exciting purposes rather than simply for backup.”
