The Old Joining Dots Blog

Please note this site has been retired and is no longer updated.
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01 March 2010

This blog has moved...

This blog has moved to http://joiningdots.com  Please update your bookmarks. All blog posts have been migrated to the new site and no new content will be published here.

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posted by Joining Dots.

25 February 2010

Did the clouds just get darker?


In February 2010 three Google executives were convicted of a privacy violation in an Italian court and received suspended prison sentences. The reason for the trial and conviction: they allowed people to upload a video to Google Video showing someone being bullied. It was two hours before the video was removed following complaints.
"It is like prosecuting the post office for hate mail that is sent in the post"
The BBC covers the story in more detail here.

The trial sets an interesting precedent and could have far-reaching consequences for social media and cloud computing services. In particular the costs to provide such services if content is supposed to be pre-screened and the viability for organisations to use them for business data. Will Internet Service Providers be held to the same level of account if an employee complains about data an organisation stores using online business services? China is not the only country with a government wielding local power to disrupt global Internet services. And although Italy is singled out in this example, Australia has been planning to introduce strict filtering controls that could restrict access to social networking sites. The UK is exploring how to prevent illegal downloads and considering blocking broadband access for those accused. The list goes on... Providers of online 'cloud computing' services will find more turbulence as they cross political borders.

References:
Image courtesy of freefoto.com licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License

posted by Joining Dots.

15 February 2010

SharePoint and Windows Mobile 7

Source: Gizmodo
Welcome to the new Office hub

Today, Microsoft finally unveiled Windows Mobile 7. To find out all about it, take your pick of the headlines on Techmeme.

Why am I blogging about it?  Just one line matters (well, a few others are also quite interesting but this is the one SharePoint customers have been waiting for):
"You can access any document from your Sharepoint server with editing and creation functionalities on your phone."
- Source: Know Your Mobile
About flamin' time :-)
More details will be published on the Internet over the next few days now that the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) period is over. For now, headlines are focused on the toys and technical specs (good and bad: not much backwards compatibility - if you have a current Windows Mobile device, you'll need a new one to access all this stuff). But finally, Windows Mobile is added to the range of Microsoft's client devices and apps configured 'out of the box' to access SharePoint, albeit starting from SharePoint 2010...
Here's Microsoft's promotional video:

References:

posted by Joining Dots.