Milestone: Can we Antitrust Microsoft?

No matter what one studies at GSPIA (Graduate School of Public & International Affairs), at the University of Pittsburgh, proficiency in policy analysis is necessary. When referring to governance, as it relates to public and international affairs, policy synthesis and analysis are essential.

So, I was naturally drawn to G. David Garson’s chapter on Regulation and Taxation Issues. Regulation implies guidelines. Guidelines are found in policies. The policy of interest in this chapter is the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. This law (policy) states that it is illegal for corporations to engage in monopolistic conduct, come to price-fixing agreements, or otherwise act in restraint of trade. This is a policy that would seem to have been made for IT companies, despite the fact it was made decades before any significant IT company was formed. There would seem to be natural tendency of IT companies to become monopolies in the course of the development of technology. In the pursuit of the most efficient and effective technology, one looks to design the technology that eliminates the need for additional technology or the use of a substitute technology.

Garson lists IBM and Microsoft as the primary targets of the Antitrust Act. My focus will be on Microsoft. Microsoft was sued by the government as well as 20 states in 1998. It should also be noted that a parallel lawsuit would be filed by the European Union; it would eventually be settled. The domestic lawsuit was advocated by competitors of Microsoft who publish their own operating systems. The lawsuit was a response to  Microsoft’s decision to bundle Internet Explorer (IE) with their Windows operating system.  Considering that it is estimated that 90% of PC’s are equipped with Windows operating system, competition would have been effectively eliminated. Hence, a monopoly would have been created. Microsoft would claim that their bundling was innovative rather than anticompetitive.

U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson would rule against Microsoft and order that the company be broken into two separate companies. Microsoft would appeal the ruling and win. However, Microsoft would have to make many concessions that would allow the competition to be able to function on a Widows platform.

Let’s fast forward to the anticipated release of Vista, the new operating system from Microsoft. There has been an official complaint filed by the European Union. The claim is that Microsoft violated the settlement that was made in 2004. It would appear that there are those who believe that Microsoft is attempting the unprecedented move of monopolizing the Internet. The markup language in Vista (XAML) is believed to be the replacement for HTML which, of course, is an industry standard used for publishing material online. This replacement would make the world dependent on this new operating system in order to utilize the Internet. Again this would be unprecedented dominance. Microsoft declined comment on the claims and complaints.

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Nugget: Will Anything Remain Untouched?

InfoTech continues to reach ever-increasing heights and questionable areas.  I’m  definitely an advocate for the advancement of InfoTech. It connects people globally. This connection creates a global community. InfoTech is, without a doubt, a tool for understanding and uniting people with common interests.

As excited as I am to hear about advancements in technology, I was surprised when Autonet Mobile announced the development of Wi-Fi for automobiles. This service will initially be available to Avis customers. According to a New York Times  article, the announcement of the agreement with Avis could be made as soon as this week. Motorists will actually be issued a notebook device to access the Internet. This notebook will plug directly into the car’s power source.

For many professionals, this is a huge announcement and one that will allow them and an assistant to review a powerpoint before an important meeting, type up notes for a speech to be given, check email for important messages before giving a presentation as well as many other Internet-related tasks. I’m not sure if I’m as excited as these business professionals. The problem is not the creativity involved or utility of this advancement but rather it’s the potential social effect on the users. Ideally one would have an assistant or friend in the car browsing the Internet while another is driving. However, in a world where careers hinge on making deadlines, it is highly likely that someone will attempt to drive and check email or complete a powerpoint. My concern is that technology of this nature will actually endanger people who are in a high stress job situation.

The development and subsequent utilization of technology is absolutely necessary for the advancement of society. However, technology does not develop human lives it facilitates tasks that will ultmately make life easier. In other words, we cannot rely on technology to resolve issues that are social in nature…we as a society must solve those issues.

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Milestone: How Does It Do All Those Wonderful Things?

Many of us have thought about the inner workings and operations of computers. Some of us have even marveled aloud at the feats of our computers. Then the reality of algorithms, encoding and many other mathematical terms hits like a sledgehammer. I’m a social worker so the prospect of learning the mathematical equations associated with the operation of computers is not very appealing. However, wouldn’t it make sense to have a basic understanding of how your computer and relevant technology work? With this basic understanding, one could possibly discern the root of an issue with the computer. Fluency serves this purpose; fluency doesn’t make you an InfoTech geek but it allows you to hold an intelligent conversation about technology with a geek.

If you’re like me, I thought the computer (hardware) was pretty much all you needed to really run a computer. I knew that some software was necessary for specialized tasks but for the most part the computer handled the interaction between the software and the hardware. I was very wrong. Essentially, computers are dependent on software for even the most basic tasks such as starting up. There is software that acts as the intermediary between the hardware of a computer and any other software other than a web browser. That software is the operating system (OS). Snyder considers the three most popular to be Windows, MacOSX, and Unix which has several variations.

The OS has become a crucial part of the computer in that the efficiency of the OS effects the ability of the computer to perform correctly or in some cases, timely. Snyder doesn’t consider any OS to be superior. While all of the OS’s mentioned have their respective technological prowess, they all have bugs that prevent maximization of efficiency for the computer.

It should be noted that despite the problems, OS’s are the key to the development of software and hardware. OS’s facilitate software’s interaction with hardware and it also allows the software to perform it’s designated task.

The knowledge in this blog by no means makes me a geek. However, my level of fluency could potentially effect the way a computer user looks at the selection and installation of newer versions of OS’s. I continually check the blogs to look for bugs and weaknesses in the OS that I’m currently using. I also check Microsoft, monthly, for OS updates.

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Nugget: Person of the Year

One of my favorite magazines is Time. Nowadays with graduate school, job, and parental duties, it’s hard to keep up with the current issue of my favorite periodical…especially since they come out every week.

Earlier this week, while picking up a friend at the airport, the latest issue of caught my attention. It was Time’s annual issue dedicated to the person of the year. I’m a big fan of Time‘s “Person of the Year” issue. I don’t always agree with the selection (i.e. George W. Bush, 2004) but the articles are usually excellent and make for good conversation. The current “Person of the Year” issue is no different. There wasn’t an individual on the cover but rather a piece of reflective Mylar. The message was simple, yet profound. We, the people of the world, are collectively the person of the year.

There were many votes for candidates who definitely deserved consideration: Al Gore, the YouTube guys (i.e. Chad Hurley & Steve Chen), and Donald Rumsfeld. I would have a hard time seeing Rumsfeld as the “Person of the Year” but to each his own.

Time is so very effective at picking a relevant candidate for “Person of the Year” if not an accurate one because they study the events that have had the greatest impact over the past year. Those events lead them to the individual who might be the “Person of the Year”. Many times that individual will be the one who stood out as a major factor in the way the masses interpreted the events that were occurring or had occurred. Or in the case of the latest “Person of the Year” – us – the individual/group is a major factor in the development of some issue or event.

Time considers us to be the “Person of the Year” because of our contribution to the development of the Information Age. Information Technology is the key to the Information Age because it is the primary facilitator of communication, which is the essence of the Information Age. Without the advanced ability to transmit information quickly and efficiently via communication the Information Age would be nonexistent.  The advanced ability to transmit information is found in Information Technology.

Credit should be given to the great minds who have developed innovative InfoTech (e.g. myspace,YouTube, BeBo). However, would these websites have reached the level of popularity that they now enjoy without the creative input of the web users? Time would say, “no”. What makes these sites great is not only the owners but the creativity and vision of the users. So we are, collectively the “Person of the Year” because we have contributed heavily to the development of the Information Age, which is ongoing.

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Nugget: Bloggers become Assets

Blogs have allowed those of us who have access to a computer, and a fair amount of InfoTech fluency, to express their opinions on a wide range of topics. Blogs have gone from what many considered to be a fad to an important source of information that has captured the attention of web users. Before his death, Peter Jennings, considered to be one of the best television journalist ever, usually checked the blogs that were related to the stories he was broadcasting. He recognized that blogs can be a legitimate and credible source of information. He also recognized that blogs can be a way to gauge public opinion.

Jennings was not the only web user who became fascinated with blogs. Web users in general have become enamored with blogs. Regardless of the actual reasoning, many more web users are reading blogs.

But the reasoning is an area of interest to many who find the escalated viewings of blogs an enigma. One of the more obvious reasons for increasing blog viewing is the increased level of expertise among bloggers. In other words, some of these guys actually know what they’re talking about. So, now there are electronic editorials by credible authors in a forum that wasn’t always considered credible. However, the presence of these credible authors lends credibility to blog spaces.

This increased inspection of blog spaces has led some corporations to utilize the appeal for advertising purposes. Microsoft was, once again, the center of controversy. Microsoft had given away, to random bloggers, laptops which were “pre-loaded with Windows Vista and AMD Turion.” This was obviously a ploy by Microsoft to curry favor among the more prominent bloggers in order to maximize knowledge of their new OS. This was seen by many in the Technology world as a blatant attempt at bribery.

In the advertising world, word of mouth is an excellent means of free advertising but it’s limitation lies in the number of people an individual chooses to contact or actually can contact. Whereas a blogger whose blog is normally viewed by thousands everyday is a much more appealing medium for word of mouth advertising.

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