Businesses are all too familiar with potential privacy exposures that can result from misuse of technology, but technology also plays an important role in protecting privacy—via advanced encryption algorithms, for instance. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which is a leading advocate for stronger privacy protections, is concerned that legislation is not keeping up with evolving technology and is asking developers to create solutions that people can use to safeguard their private information. Examples of privacy vulnerabilities cited by the EFF include tracking individuals via GPS, which generally doesn’t require a search warrant, exposure of data on laptops at border checkpoints, and law enforcement access to email messages stored online.
As part of the economic stimulus package, the federal government plans to invest $7.2 billion in an effort to extend high-speed Internet access to all U.S. households. However, experts warn that the actual cost may be in excess of $60 billion. Meanwhile, companies are scrambling for a share of the $7.2 billion as well as fees from subscribers eager for cost-effective broadband solutions.
Concerns about a dearth of qualified engineers is a recurring theme in the United States, making it easy to assume that even those students who initially enroll in engineering programs often end up transferring to other fields. Similarly, it’s commonly believed that women are more likely to drop out of engineering programs than men. However, the reality is that engineering students—both male and female—stick with their initial major about as frequently as students in other fields. Researchers, who examined a database that tracked about 70,000 engineering students for 17 years, found a wide variance in retention rates between institutions. In addition, compared to other majors, very few students transferred into engineering programs—93 percent of graduating engineers started their college educations as engineering majors. Therefore, educators interested in increasing the number of trained engineers need to understand the differences between engineering programs and why some have better retention rates than others. They also need to focus on increasing initial enrollments and making it more attractive for students to transfer to engineering from other disciplines.
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The discussion of net neutrality has been around practically as long as the Internet has been a real force in business, but the definitions can sometimes be hazy. Broadly speaking, net neutrality focuses on the question of whether an ISP can give precedence to its own content or services over content and services provided by others—usually competitors. The latest bill under discussion in Congress broadly defines the requirements for net neutrality but leaves the details up to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
It’s hard to argue with Silicon Valley as the number one location for technology in the world. However you may find some of the other places included in this, admittedly subjective, list of the top ten places for technology surprising. The list is decidedly international including Bangalore India, Zhongguancun China and the countries of Japan, Romania, Taiwan, and Finland. Boston gets a mention at number ten due to the technology leaders who were educated at Harvard and MIT. Fort Meade, Maryland (where?), home of the National Security Agency, also makes the list, as does San Francisco.
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Sharon L. Hoffman [shoffman@systeminetwork.com] is a System iNEWS senior technical editor. She began working with IBM midrange systems in 1981, and her background includes extensive application development as well as creation and delivery of technical education.
Links:
[1] http://systeminetwork.com/author/sharon-l-hoffman
[2] http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9136316/EFF_Technology_can_help_in_absence_of_privacy_laws
[3] http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2009/tc2009083_226117.htm
[4] http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/trends/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=219100494
[5] http://news.uns.purdue.edu/x/2009b/090804OhlandEngineering.html
[6] http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/08/the-war-over-network-neutrality.ars
[7] http://www.v3.co.uk/vnunet/news/2238938/top-locations
[8] http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2245801/government-honours-veterans