Sri Lanka takes steps to legalise e-Transactions

Sri Lankan parliamentarians have
unanimously passed a new law that
strengthens the legal validity of electronic
transactions thus paving the way for safer
e-Commerce in the country. In bringing
the law to parliament, the ICT Agency –
a state agency established to promote the
use of information and communications
technology in Sri Lanka, played a
prominent role.
Jayantha Fernando, legal advisor of the
ICT Agency of Sri Lanka, said, “While we
initiate efforts to focus on technological
developments, the importance of ensuring
parallel developments in the Legal
framework is essential. Electronic
commerce has considerable potential for
developing countries, but the positive
impact expected from it would be
reduced if users were confronted with
doubts as to the legal value of electronic
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commercial transactions after conducting
costly modernisation of communication
systems,” and added, “The law would
provide a firm foundation for e-commerce
transactions and give formal recognition
to e-mail communications. It also gives
recognition to electronic signatures, and
provides a structure to be established for
rules to be laid down in the future.”
It may be noted that entrepreneurs had
so far been refraining from high value
business to business transactions due to
uncertainty surrounding e-Transactions,
which resulted in the slow growth of e-
Government activities. “Most countries
including India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Korea
and Singapore have introduced e-
Transaction legislation to recognise this
activity based on the United Nations
Commission on International Trade Law
(UNCITRAL) Model Law on e-Commerce
of 1996 and the Model Law on e-
Signatures (2001),” Fernando pointed out.

Facebook For Business: 5 Lessons Learned

Generating value from social networking requires more effort than merely launching a Facebook page. Get started with these guidelines.
Shortly after Google fessed up to being caught flat-footed when it came to business profiles (or lack thereof) on Google+, Facebook rolled out a guide to Facebook for Business. Coincidence? Probably not, but Facebook for Business provides some useful advice about not only using Facebook in the corporate world but also smart use of social networking in general. Here are five lessons learned from Facebook for Business.
1. Develop a strategy
Facebook for Business provides some basic tips for setting up Pages (use an eye-catching, recognizable image for your company; write a short blub that clearly describes what the business is; and so on). But it also recommends creating a Page strategy. Doing so might seem like a no-brainer, but too many companies just hang a social shingle without knowing what they want their presence to accomplish. Will your social networking presence be used to disseminate information, provide a level of customer support, or engage interactively with customers? All or none of the above? Before deciding which image to use or writing that pithy company statement, make sure that your organization has clear goals in mind, along with benchmarks for measuring success.

2. Don't just sit there--share

If you build it they may come, but if you don't feed it they will leave. Facebook for Business states what is probably obvious to most business users--that updates, videos, and links added to a company Wall will show up in the News Feed, "where your fans and their friends can comment and share." Facebook for Business goes further by encouraging organizations to think of their Pages like well-planned magazines, including targeted and exclusive content. If thinking of Pages like a magazine--never mind a well-planned one--seems a bit overwhelming, just think of it in terms of providing the kind of content that is true to your brand, that your audience will find appealing and, if possible, that your audience won't be able to find anywhere else.
3. Don't leave community to chance
Facebook for Business offers some very good advice for building community--a task that is typically harder than companies think it will be. In addition to providing engaging, relevant content, you need to interact with users when they talk back to you. No comment, compliment, question, or complaint should be left hanging--it looks bad not only to the one person who posted, but to everyone else who sees that your company has not responded. Even if you have to "take it offline," make sure the community sees that you are taking some kind of action. Facebook for Business recommends not only dedicating staff to the task of communicating with users on Facebook, but also creating a calendar and setting aside a certain amount of time a day for interaction. They don't call it social for nothing.
4. Build awareness
People are becoming accustomed to searching for company information on Facebook and other social networks, as they have on traditional websites for years. But it doesn't hurt to promote your company's social presence everywhere and in any way that you can. Facebook for Business recommends adding the Facebook Like button to your website and in newsletters, as well as encouraging customers to "Find us on Facebook" on physical signage and the like. The same goes, of course, for promoting your organization's presence on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Google+.
5. Use data to inform strategy
As you build out your social networking presence, it's important to use analytics to assess performance. Facebook's built-in analytics will let organizations know, for example, how many fans and likes you have, how often people comment, and whether certain days of the week are more active than others. For many organizations, however, third-party data analysis tools such as Web analytics platforms will be necessary and may already be in use in your organization.

Author : Debra Donston-Miller
Source : informationweeks.com

Facebook and Public Relations: Making the Link

It is no trade secret that integrating social media’s networking technologies and processes to a business or organization’s operations is a commonplace. Now widely acknowledged to be as important as the essential business and software strategies, social networking sites are an essential tool for establishing global online presence that ultimately help businesses achieve their objectives.

Business and software strategies require merchants not only to be aware of the evolving consumer trends, but to be open to those changes themselves and ride with the tide, so to speak. While the online social networking phenomenon definitely did not start with Facebook, the omnipresent, giant social networking site is, without question, helping entrepreneurs scale up the marketing and public relation facets of their businesses.
Facebook statistics reveal that as of June 2011, the juggernaut social medium has over 500 million users to date, of which 50% log on at any given day. Deemed appropriate for local, national and international business marketing, Facebook is a lucrative venue for spreading pertinent information about a product or service.
Social media is believed to take the public relations component of businesses to greater heights. Facebook, in particular, can help maintain a healthy online image to provide overall business boost. Presently, big and small companies exploit Facebook, as the leader in the social media networking pack, in order to tap huge consumer bases with its inexpensive, albeit rich features.
Arguably the online medium with the most extensive reach, Facebook makes international business consulting a breeze with 70% of its users comprising the global audience. Language barriers do not exist on Facebook, with more than 70 translations available on the website.
Evidently, Facebook has totally changed the way organizations manage their businesses, almost completely eliminating the otherwise limited, partial relay of marketing and advertising publicities of the enterprise. Through Facebook, companies achieve effective branding for their product or service, as it offers “viral advertising,” which businesses gain from social media campaigns. Some 2.5 million websites that have integrated with Facebook, along with 10,000 others linking with it every day, can attest to this truth.
Activities of Facebook users occur 24/7, giving the website more than 700 billion user minutes a month worldwide. This makes the social media platform a highly effective medium for businesses to strengthen their efforts in international business marketing and public relations arena. By the same token, Facebook makes an ideal tool for countering negative press, and in turn, building a healthy identity online. When a certain organization has a healthy online presence, it entices prospective customers and keeps avid clients coming back.
The truth of the matter is that while business and software strategies are necessary to keep the core business alive amongst customers – which is why organizations take on innovative tools and new technologies – social media strategies cannot be shrugged off. There’s no denying that when it comes to Facebook, the opportunities for business growth are virtually limitless, with the benefits of customer connection, public relations and constant availability it offers, that are all inexpensive to implement.

Author : Lucien Moons
Source : businessandsoftwarestrategyforglobalisation.com

Leveraging Social Networking Sites to Generate Business

Stepping into the conference room, I realize that I'm headed into an appointment with very little information on what's about to happen or with whom I'll be meeting. I know the names of the participants, but would not recognize them if I passed them on the street. Nonetheless, I'm pleased with the opportunity and eager about what may materialize from this gathering. Now here's the punchline: this entire in-person meeting was arranged online with the assistance of "web introductions," through the business networking service LinkedIn.
Anonymous or "blind" meetings may be a common occurrence for a single adult who frequents dating websites, but it is an experience I had yet to embrace - especially in the business sector. For those who haven't joined one of the ever-growing list of online business networking sites, these services are specifically tailored to facilitate communication and referrals for professional purposes. You submit your contacts, invite friends and colleagues to be part of an "inner circle" of business or personal associates, then use the system to seek "friends of friends" or business contacts of your associates. Soon, this inner circle of contacts expands as individuals are contacted directly or as introductions are made by mutual friends and associates.
Where services such as Friendster, MySpace and Connexion have been successful bringing singles and groups together based on affinity and mutual interests, business-networking services are now offering a parallel experience in the professional world. Along with LinkedIn are such offerings as Ryze and Tribe.net. My take? This use of online, friend/associate-based networking will prove to be one of the most valuable business tools the Internet has yet provided.
Although the number of these services available to entrepreneurs and businesspeople is growing, LinkedIn strikes me as the easiest to embrace, and the most effective. Typically, each service has formal sign-up steps that assist you in creating your online identity. This may include information relating to your current job, previous positions, and general interests. Some business networking sites enable you to publish you own "blog," or join specific community discussion groups.
Often, the key to using a business network successfully involves the creation of your personal friends — or business connections — group. The registration process is similar across the various social networking websites but LinkedIn boasts one of the simplest methods of inviting and maintaining your social network. By simply uploading an exported file from your contact manager, LinkedIn can immediately tell which friends of yours are members of the service. This method of contact maintenance and connection group development makes LinkedIn a breeze to start with, immediately enabling you to gain access to your contacts, without having to laboriously enter emails to discover if associates are already there.
With your account set up and contacts entered, a small but growing network of individuals can now easily search your personal network for relevant business contacts. This may be as simple as entering a name of an individual you're seeking, or specifying a broad search for contacts within a specific industry. This ease of creating personal contacts and developing online business events makes the service much more efficient than the traditional (and often stilted) network mixer.
Although most online business networks are currently free, the model will soon change to a subscription basis, and just as many IM users have AOL and MSN accounts, those in the business world will need to join and maintain accounts on multiple services, until bridges are built to connect them all. The pay-for-network service model is familiar to most businesses. Offline business networking events are rarely free, and even high-priced events rarely allow people to find who they need. By contrast, online business networks enable members to seek a confident introduction through a friend, to a much-needed business contact - clearly, a valuable capability. Although my "blind" meeting went well, and my new business contact is now part of my personal business network, it's not much of a stretch to imagine a time when the in-person meeting itself will be all but obsolete. With the growing array of Web-based live communication tools, an online business networking site can offer a meeting environment where professionals can converse, face to face, through the site's own technologies.
The natural next step beyond assisting with the network meeting process is to provide an online application facilitating rich, real-time communication. Just as in the online dating world competition for members depends on expanding feature sets, leaders in the emerging online business networking space will separate themselves by implementing new applications that support better methods of business collaboration online. Forward-thinking entrepreneurs will do well to begin getting comfortable with online audio and video technology, so that they can be among the early adopters as these services become available.

Author : Michael Jones, President of Userplane
Source : about.com

Intel Ponders Netbook Strategy With Tablet Rise

After initial success, Intel's netbook strategy is at a crossroads as demand for tablets and low-cost laptops with larger screens rises, a company executive said this week.

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Buyers don't want the cheapest PCs anymore, but desire snappy performance and better features on their computing devices, said Greg Welch, segment director for mobile client platforms at Intel. Netbooks' early success was partly due to low prices, but now performance is high on the list of buyers' priorities.
"There was some disappointment on some of the experience side, it maybe didn't keep up with the pace of innovation. Now we're trying to reinvigorate that. We're trying to go in and integrate more technologies and we'll see... if it has a role to fill in the market place between an ultrabook on one hand and pure tablet experience on the other," Welch said.
Intel's Atom chip goes into most netbooks, the market for which has been hurt by the growing appetite for tablets. While worldwide PC sales grew by 2.6 percent during the second quarter this year compared to the same quarter a year ago, according to IDC, the share of netbooks as part of overall PC sales plunged to 12 percent from 22 percent.
Intel has also introduced Atom chips for tablets and smartphones, markets in which it has virtually no presence. Intel is challenging ARM, whose processors are in most tablets and smartphones. Intel is also trying to boost interest in PCs through "ultrabooks," which are thin-and-light laptops with tablet features. Chip analysts have predicted ARM will unseat Intel's dominance in the laptop market with its low-power chips.
Intel is looking at the Atom architecture comprehensively, and will make netbook chips until there is clarity in what consumers really want, Welch said. Many devices are being envisioned and Atom designs will be good for a range of them -- be they handheld or PC -- that are not based on Core processors, which are used in mainstream laptops and desktops.
"Whether the form factor is a netbook or a tablet, we don't know. We'll take a tablet, put a keyboard on it, it would be a netbook to a certain degree," Welch said.
Close to 80 percent of laptops worldwide use Intel chips, but analysts have said that ARM could challenge Intel with more power-efficient processors that could help laptop makers build devices with tablet-like features. Microsoft has already said its upcoming OS, Windows 8, will work on both the x86 and ARM architectures.
Welch contended that ARM CPUs may beat Intel's chips when it comes to power consumption, but are slower.
"As they start aspiring to get into clamshells, what makes anyone think that they have the performance to create the experience that people expect in that form factor? That's going to be their challenge," Welch said.
If ARM enters the PC market, it could face some challenges that Intel now faces with its netbook chips.
"We've seen this with... netbooks. Looks like a laptop, smells like a laptop, walks like a laptop. You took it home and go 'it's sort of like my laptop from 5 years ago.' The snappiness, the response, the ability to do media wasn't there to the same degree."
However, ARM's emergence is helping Intel focus heavily on power efficiency, Welch said. Intel earlier this year introduced 3D transistors that could make its future chips faster and less power hungry. The chips will be made using the 22-nanometer manufacturing process, and reach PCs early next year.
"It's good because it's motivating us to respond," Welch said.

Author : Agam Shah

Source : pcworld.com

Former Microsoft exec to become U.S. Chief Info Officer

Former Microsoft executive Steven VanRoekel will become the next chief information officer for the federal government, according to a White House announcement Thursday.
As federal chief information officer, he is expected to oversee how the government uses information technology, with an eye toward efficiency and transparency.

VanRoekel currently is a director within the U.S. Agency for International Development and formerly served as managing director of the Federal Communications Commission, He also led the FCC's efforts to introduce new technology and social media into the agency, according to the White House news release.
VanRoekel worked at Microsoft from 1994 to 2009, most recently as the senior director for the Windows Server and Tools Division. He also worked at Microsoft as director of web services, as speech and strategy assistant to Bill Gates, and as a support and presales technical advisor, according to his LinkedIn profile.
"We congratulate Steven VanRoekel on this appointment. Steven is a well respected member of the tech community and he is well positioned to carry on the great work started by Vivek Kundra," a Microsoft spokesperson said. "Given the transformative power of new technologies and the challenges CIOs are facing to meld consumer and enterprise technologies, it is a great time to be stepping into this critically strategic role."
VanRoekel succeeds the nation's first federal chief information officer, Vivek Kundra, who is going to Harvard to take a joint appointment at the Kennedy School of Government and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the law school, according to The New York Times.

Author : Janet I. Tu
Source : theseattlestimes.nwsource.com