Saturday, November 26, 2011 is Small Business Saturday! A day to celebrate and support small & local businesses in our communities. As a small business, we support other small businesses and acknowledge our collective contribution to the local and global economy. After all, supporting small businesses creates jobs, supports your local communities and creates much more wealth than the other options. In celebration of Small Business Saturday, Evolutionary IT is offering 5% off any Evolutionary IT purchase of services, software or hardware on 11/26/11. Much thanks to AMEX for starting this great idea, now let’s all give it legs!

Open source software is about constant change and innovation. This is true in every space it touches and no less on the desktop. Recent releases of Gnome & Unity have caused quite a stir among new and experienced users alike. Why all the fuss? I think fundamentally we are at a junctural point of operating systems having to play well when pitted against other interface/desktop metaphors like those delivered by mobile computing devices like the smart phones and tablet computing. Don’t get me wrong, I like change, but it has to be change that make for more user friendly computing. In some cases these evolutionary steps in the Linux/BSD/Unix desktop aren’t going in a direction I find currently usable. This isn’t to say things will always be that way or that I condemn a project for bold moves in any current trajectory – I just have my favorites for my clients on the business desktop. Personally and for most of my clients, they just want software that is familiar and easy to use. I have to deliver. Comparing these 3 options below I give my *current* opinion of where we are with these 3 venerable titans of the open source desktop.  

Gnome 3

I’m a long term fan of Gnome 2.x but 3.x takes a lot of getting used to. Truth be told, I could have said the same thing about KDE when 4.0 came out. The lack of minimize or maximize makes me rather perplexed and annoyed. Users lack the configurablity they were used to in Gnome 2.x and I find that a distinct weak point. Additionally I have found users confused with the lack of visual cues as to which applications are running. For these reasons, I’m sticking with Gnome 2.x and not using Gnome 3 for the time being.

Unity

In my personal opinion I’m not a fan of Unity for its general interface over Gnome 2.x, or any other option for that matter. The first version of Unity in 11.04 lacks the overall polish I sought but I would consider it stable and generally usable. The lens functionality doesn’t lend it self very usable. It is supposed to help you get to your applications and yet, it accomplishes quite the opposite. Additionally erroneous assumptions that business users want or need 3d acceleration is comical. Business users don’t want their desktop to be like a video game – they want productivity. In general, customer feedback has been rather good but still most prefer the Gnome 2.x environment over Unity.

KDE

For me personally and for my customers KDE 4 is currently my first choice. It’s well thought out interfaces allow a user to feel at home with little effort. Users of Windows and OSX alike have commented on it polish and ease of use. Business users feel at home in the common desktop metaphor that KDE so beautifully creates. Coupled with its well integrated applications KDE often wows most every business user I’ve presented it to.

Options are GOOD

All 3 of these desktop environments have a long history of laudable contribution to the open source world. We can’t discount any of these amazing projects because tomorrow they could be THE source of the innovation we failed to see. Personally, I started back in the day on Solaris and CDE so, we are certainly progressing. I’m looking forward to seeing the great work that comes out of both Gnome, KDE and Unity projects. In open source innovation is a constant, and we can only expect much more from all 3 of these great projects.

It is often hard to believe and even comical what you can find by reading legal contracts. Unfortunately, this seems especially true in the world of web design and development. Evolutionary IT is involved in creating and maintaining many websites for clients on a variety of open source content management systems such as WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. New clients often come to us frustrated that the web development or web design company they are using often applies egregious terms to their contracts such as the following:

The Customer’s website (including all graphical content and related HTML coding provided by {insert name of illegit web development firm} is the property of {insert name of illegit web development firm} and the Customer has no rights to the website beyond the terms of its subscription.

Really? You have got to be kidding!!! Worse yet are that some web design firms claim ownership of the domain, multimedia and other all created works while you work with them. Can you say illegitimate vendor lock in? Not so with Evolutionary IT. We believe in providing you with the best service and earning your loyalty. We respect you as a customer – so you own your content and IP (Intellectual Property). We only endeavor to gain your loyalty not by any contract or technological/vendor lock-in but by delivering value to you and your organization.

The world of social media is often a double edged sword: It can be tremendously powerful tool for business but also a very risky and dangerous place in terms of information security. According to security firm Sophos malware and spam rose 70 percent on social networks in the last 12 months and 57 percent of users report they have been spammed via social networking sites. While it is clear that cybercriminals have long known and exploited the world of social networking to propagate their crimeware, gather competitive intelligence, and even conduct espionage – it doesn’t have to be this way. Truth be told; your organization doesn’t have to be easy pray. Fundamentally, I see it as all about planning and implementing solutions on multiple fronts – technology, end user and management training, policies & procedures to name a few. Of these I see social media security training to be the most lacking. Users simply don’t understand the risks and harms that could befall your company or enterprise as a result of their actions. It is up to us as Information Security professionals to change this.

Of all the remediation efforts I’ve seen in social media security space, I am surprised to see how few medium to large business have made any effort to address end users/management training in Social Media Security. Technology is no band-aid or panacea but only part of the larger security picture. Your users can be the weakest link, unless they know better. This can only happen with proper training. What does your social media security plan look like?

When a disaster comes is your business ready? Hurricane Irene recently caused severe damage to parts of New England totaling over >$15 billion in damages. Many businesses were not ready, had no comprehensive disaster plan, and no real way to recover business operations. Would your customers, clients or partners be assured you have done your due diligence and prepared a proper disaster recovery plan? My customers always have one.

Seems like every time we near a disaster I get a influx of calls and emails to address these issues with new customers. If you aren’t currently working with a provider who is equipping you with a proper up-to-date and tested disaster recovery plan – its time to consider a change. Disaster planning isn’t optional or frivolous expenditure; its vital to the survival of your business. What’s your plan?

Google’s recent announcement of its yet to be publically unveiled social networking site Google + is a welcome addition to the social networking space. Primarily focused on clawing back from the competitive pressures of the success of Facebook, Google realizes it need to establish itself in social networking/social media space as one of the fundamentals it must address in this ever evolving marketplace.

As some one who works in search engine marketing & social media marketing there are a few things I’d like to see Google accomplish that will clearly differentiate it from Facebook.

Create an environment that encourages sharing

The main reason Facebook is so successful is that it has created a platform and environment for bounteous sharing. Recall that according to StarCom MediaVest Group and Rubicom Partners, nearly half of all content sharing happening in Facebook. Quite a feat! Google should move in the same direction with its terms of: creation of an atmosphere that is sharing positive, is very easy of use and is noticeably integrated with other Google services.

Offer enhanced & integrated social media marketing options

Coupling together Google’s suite of marketing & advertising solutions from AdWords PPC, to Youtube, to Google Buzz, Google Picasa, Google Blogger allow Google a powerful set of options to anyone looking to market through search engine marketing or social media. Envisioning them integrated and enhanced can only prove to be an ever more powerful platform.

Offer users better privacy options

It would be hard to do worse than Facebook on the issue of privacy. With numerous onerous incidents Facebook has shown it will not address the privacy issues in any salient way. Personally, I see this as a great opportunity for Google + to do just the opposite. As current press indicates Google plans to do just that but I’d like to see it take leadership in the market in this space.

Give users control of IP (Intellectual Property)

Many websites like Facebook directly or indirectly take ownership of user generated content. Users are generally unaware of these issues of the potential consequences. For example if you take a look at Facebook terms of service you will read the following excerpt from the Facebook Terms of Service: “you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (“IP License”).”

User generated content is the mainstay of these social sites and drives their revenues by targeted advertisements based upon it. But shouldn’t users have a choice as to how their content is treated and the type of license it might use? YouTube just went in this direction with the addition of Creative Commons and I think it would be a smart direction for Google +. Users will share even more if they feel their rights and choices are respected rather than scorned. Users should be able to choose how they share their content (what every key license they see fit) and control their own IP (Intellectual Property). Giving users this choice doesn’t conflict with its business model so its a win for consumers and a win for Google.

Opportunity Knocks

With the departure of the venerable Eric Schmidt as CEO there was an admission of a lack of focus on the social opportunity at Google. Perhaps this is the beginning of a new era of Google & social networking. Google + could turn out to be a very good thing.

Evolutionary IT would like to thank everyone who gave to the ACC in support of our running team. Our team ran well and enjoyed our experience but most importantly we made a difference. We raised nearly $1000 to help the MA AIDS Action Committee to provide for programs and services for those suffering with HIV/AIDS. All of your help is deeply appreciated!!! Our team was fantastic and should be commended for their efforts. We will be running again next year and look forward it whole heartedly.