Sharon Gaudin, Author at NetworkingNexus.net

Sharon Gaudin

Author Archives: Sharon Gaudin

As the internet turns 50, experts weigh future advances and emerging issues

As the internet turns 50, the technology is only picking up steam and continuing to reinvent many aspects of our lives, from the way we do business, and the way we find dates and jobs, to the way we run for political office. The internet was born when the first Arpanet link was established between the University of California, Los Angeles and the Stanford Research Institute at 22:30 hours on October 29, 1969. UCLA professor Leonard Kleinrock and his student Charley Kline sent the first message to Bill Duval, a programmer at Stanford University. That first communication was the spark that ignited the growth of the internet and everything it has brought with it – email, sharing pictures on Facebook, buying books and toasters on Amazon, watching movies on Netflix, cat videos, mean-spirited memes and election-tampering bots.To read this article in full, please click here

Should your next big hire be a chief A.I. officer?

As companies increasingly turn to artificial intelligence to communicate with customers, make sense of big data and find answers to vexing questions, some say it's time to think about hiring a chief A.I. officer.A chief artificial intelligence Officer – or CAIO -- could round out your C-level execs, sitting at the big table with your CIO, CFO, CTO and CEO.[ For more on A.I. in the workplace, see Computerworld’s Artificial intelligence in the enterprise: It’s on. ] "A.I. is going to be really important to some companies – enough to have top officers who will focus on just that," said Steve Chien, head of the artificial intelligence group for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "And beyond that, you'll want every employee thinking about how A.I. can improve what they do and you'll want a chief A.I. officer overseeing all of that. They should be constantly thinking about how A.I. can improve things."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Five pitfalls to avoid when migrating to the cloud

Mistakes can be costly. They also can be so painful they keep you from venturing any further ahead.Of course, that's true with almost anything tech-related, but IT managers will tell you that there are some common, and potentially damaging, pitfalls that anyone looking at a cloud migration should work to avoid.Migration mistakes can cost the enterprise money and time, and eliminate or reduce any expected increases in agility as well as speed and cost savings.Those stumbles and losses could cause business execs to back off from a bigger cloud migration. It also could cause execs to lose faith in their IT leaders."This is part of the learning curve," said Deepak Mohan, an analyst with IDC. "The negatives are attributed to the cloud and not to these mistakes that need to be corrected... If a company does not realize the cost savings and they fail to see the results they thought they'd get, the result is that there is a drop in faith and a lowering of confidence in your cloud strategy. And that will cause a slowdown in adoption."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A.I. in the driver’s seat with the enterprise

Artificial intelligence will be a critical driver of U.S. economy. This package shows how three companies are using IBM’s Watson A.I. in innovative ways.GlaxoSmithKline is using Watson to better connect with customers. GSK is rolling out a Watson-based question-and-answer feature first for its Theraflu cold and flu medication, enabling customers to ask questions by voice or text through GSK's online ads.Staples is testing a smart assistant device that looks like its Easy Button, but that customers can use to order products, track shipments and help with returns. Staples sees the Watson-fueled service as an aid to office managers by having the device handle the brunt of their ordering and delivery tracking, so they can work on other tasks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Enterprises get to work in the cloud

Enterprises are finding all sorts of reasons to moved their data and business processes to the cloud.Capital One Financial Corp., for instance, is using the cloud as it advances from a financial services provider to a tech company with collaborative workspace, IT workers with new skill sets, fast-paced apps, and a focus on leading with cutting-edge technologies.The American Heart Association is working with Amazon Web Services to set up a cloud-based system where scientists from around the world can store, share and analyze research data. Making that data available in the cloud could accelerate research and lead to a cure for cardiovascular disease, which is the top cause of death worldwide.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Good-bye Internet pioneers. Hello, Oath?

After its acquisition of Yahoo wraps up, Verizon plans to place AOL and Yahoo under the umbrella of a new company, called Oath.AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong on Monday announced the move on Twitter, writing, "Billion+ Consumers, 20+ Brands, Unstoppable Team. #TakeTheOath. Summer 2017."AOL, which owns the Huffington Post, Engadget and TechCrunch, will pool all of the properties with Yahoo under the Oath umbrella, according to Armstrong, in an interview with CNBC."This is a sad thing for everyone who remembers when Yahoo and AOL were riding high," said Dan Olds, an analyst for OrionX. "For many people, AOL was their first experience with the Internet and was probably their first email address. A lot of people's first experience with Internet search, and other services, was probably with Yahoo. Unfortunately, the companies couldn't keep up with the ever-changing competition and fell into the backwaters of the Internet."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

After political Twitter bot revelation, are companies at risk?

With reports of Russia using social media and bots to push fake news to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election, questions are arising over how these same tactics could be used against an enterprise."Twitter bots could absolutely be used against a company," said Dan Olds, an analyst with OrionX. "Someone using bots could manufacture a fake groundswell of opinion against a company or a product."The subject of Twitter bots has made headlines since federal investigations into Russia's interference with the presidential election unearthed evidence that the Kremlin used chatbots, particularly on Twitter, to seed fake news stories in order to confuse discussions and taint certain candidates, especially Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

After political Twitter bot revelation, are companies at risk?

Privacy activist wants to unveil lawmakers’ browser histories

After Congress on Tuesday approved a resolution that would toss out significant online privacy protections, one Internet user decided to do something about it.Adam McElhaney, who calls himself a privacy activist and net neutrality advocate, created a website and a GoFundMe page to raise money to buy the internet histories of the legislators who backed the resolution so he can make them available and easily searchable.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Privacy activist wants to unveil lawmakers’ browser histories

Coders and librarians team up to save scientific data

On a windy, snowy night in Dover, N.H., about 15 people gathered in an old converted mill, staring at computer screens and furiously tapping at their keyboards.The group – some students, some programmers, and at least one part-time dishwasher and data entry clerk – were braving the snowstorm and volunteering their time to try to keep scientific data from being lost.It was one of dozens of data rescue events spread out in cities from Toronto to Los Angeles, and Houston to Chicago. These events, many on university campuses, have been going on since December, bringing together software programmers, librarians and other volunteers who are trying to safely archive scientific data from government websites.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

After rocky tenure, Mayer to leave Yahoo ‘tarnished’

After nearly five rocky years as CEO of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer will be leaving her post with something of a tarnished image.As Yahoo continued to struggle under her tenure, so did Mayer's reputation as someone who could run a top-tier company. And that is likely to affect the jobs she'll look at taking on next."I think she'll end up on the boards of directors of several companies, but probably will not receive an offer to head up a top company anytime soon," said Dan Olds, an analyst with OrionX. "Her tenure at Yahoo has tarnished her brand, and it will need to be rehabilitated a bit before she gets another shot at the top slot in another tech firm."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IT leaders say it’s hard to keep the cloud safe

IT managers are finding it difficult to keep their applications and data safe in the cloud, and many are slowing cloud adoption because of it.That was one of the findings of an Intel cloud security report that surveyed 2,000 IT professionals in different countries and industries last fall.The issue isn't with the cloud itself, since trust outnumbers distrust for public clouds by more than two to one, according to Intel's survey.IT professionals told Intel that shadow IT and a shortage of cybersecurity skills are causing the most problems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IT leaders say it’s hard to keep the cloud safe

DARPA: We’re on cusp of merging human and machine

We are at the point where computers and machines are no longer going to be simply tools. Computers are becoming, literally, part of us."There are a couple of very interesting things happening as we speak facilitating humans and machines working together in a very different way," said Justin Sanchez, director of the Biological Technologies Office at DARPA.Smart exoskeletons help people with paralysis walk again, give soldiers extra strength and endurance, and implanted computer chips help the blind see again or help others feel a sense of touch in a prosthetic foot.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Facebook shareholders would have uphill climb ousting Zuckerberg from board

A move by a watchdog group and a small group of shareholders to oust Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg from his post as chairman would be an uphill battle that would be unlikely to succeed and could hurt the company, analysts said.It would completely destabilize Facebook," said Patrick Moorhead, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy. "Zuckerberg still makes most of the key decisions and without him it would be a major risk… I don't see a single piece of upside in removing Zuckerberg from the board."It's also unclear whether Zuckerberg could even be removed as chairman, since any shareholder vote would be advisory only.The proposal is being led by Facebook shareholders who are members of SumOfUs, an international consumer watchdog group focused on "curbing the growing power of corporations."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tech stance against immigration ban aims to protect employees

The 97 tech firms who have joined forces to oppose President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration say they are looking to protect their employees as well as their business interests."The order makes it more difficult and expensive for U.S. companies to recruit, hire, and retain some of the world's best employees," the court brief reads. "It disrupts ongoing business operations. And it threatens companies' ability to attract talent, business, and investment to the United States."INSIDER 12 habits of successful tech CEO The list of firms who signed onto the friend-of-the-court brief includes Airbnb, Apple, Facebook, GitHub, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Netflix, Twitter and Yelp. The move comes in response to the executive order signed on Jan. 27 that temporarily bars citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, as well as all refugees, from entering the United States.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Amazon commits to hiring 100,000 U.S. workers

Over the next 18 months, Amazon expects to add 100,000 full-time jobs in the U.S.While many of the jobs will be in warehouses, Amazon said the company will be looking for engineers and software developers in such areas as cloud computing and machine learning.[To comment on this article, visit Computerworld's Facebook page.]“Innovation is one of our guiding principles at Amazon, and it’s created hundreds of thousands of American jobs,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, in a statement. “These jobs are not just in our Seattle headquarters or in Silicon Valley. They’re in our customer service network, fulfillment centers and other facilities in local communities throughout the country.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DARPA wants to create secure data-sharing tech

DARPA is kicking off a project to create a new way to enable U.S. troops working in remote areas around the world to securely send and receive sensitive information on their devices.The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research arm of the Department of Defense, said it's working on a project that would use software and networking technology to securely share information on unsecured commercial and military networks.NEWSLETTERS: Get the latest tech news sent directly to your in-box The agency scheduled a Proposer's Day for Jan. 31 to provide more information on the project.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

DARPA wants to create secure data-sharing tech

1 2 3 4 Next »