Category: TechRepublic

The American Society of Business Publication Editors handed out its 2009 Digital Azbee Awards on Friday in San Francisco. The ASBPE gave out awards (gold, silver, and bronze) in 26 categories for U.S. business-to-business publications.

I’m happy to report that TechRepublic won 10 awards, including six first place awards, the most of any publication. Here are the winners, listed with the category, the award level, and the winning TechRepublic entry:

• Integrated Social Media Community (Gold) TechRepublic Community
• Blog - General Excellence (Gold) Career Management
• Blog - Analysis/Commentary (Gold) Career Management
• Blog - Analysis/Commentary (Silver) Tech Sanity Check
• Blog - How-To/Tips/Service (Gold) Microsoft Windows
• E-Newsletter - General Excellence (Gold) 10 Things newsletter
• E-newsletter - Tips/How-To/Service Journalism (Silver) Microsoft Office newsletter
• Slide Show (Silver) Cracking Open the Apple iPhone 3G
• Video - Step-by-Step/How To (Gold) Find and delete hidden Windows Vista and XP device drivers

TechRepublic was also one of four finalists (along with BusinessWeek, CIO, and InfoWorld) for the big prize, the 2009 Website of the Year award. BusinessWeek was the ultimate winner, and the rest of us were awarded Honorable Mentions as finalists.

Congratulations to BusinessWeek for its well-deserved honor and to all of the 2009 Digital Azbee winners. The judges for these awards are B2B editors from publications across the country, and it’s always very gratifying to be singled out by your peers for outstanding work.

I also have to send thanks and congratulations to all of the TechRepublic editors. I’m thrilled to see that the industry has recognized them for the outstanding work they do every day to produce some the Web’s most useful tips, tutorials, and advice for IT professionals.

Last but certainly not least, I must give a shout-out to the loyal members of the TechRepublic community. The fact that you show up and engage the TechRepublic staff, contributors, and the IT world in quality conversations is what makes TechRepublic so valuable.

TechRepublic and its sister site ZDNet are jointly launching a new podcast called “The Big Question.” Each week we’ll do a deep dive on one of the hottest issues in the technology world. We’ll be tackling one big question a week. While other podcasts recap the news, this one offers valuable analysis on some of the most important topics in tech.

I’ll be co-hosting the podcast with ZDNet Editor in Chief Larry Dignan, and each week we’ll also be bringing in a guest to join the discussion. You’ll be hearing from a lot of the editors and bloggers from both TechRepublic and ZDNet, and we’ll be bringing in other technology thought leaders as well.

Each episode will be about the time of the average U.S. commute: 20-25 minutes. If you give us just one leg of your commute every week, we’ll make you smarter about one important topic in tech.

The first episode will publish on Wednesday, September 30. Each week I will post the episode here in the Tech Sanity Check blog and Larry will post it in ZDNet’s Between the Lines blog. We’ll also make an MP3 file of each episode available for free download and we’ll publish an RSS feed.

Over the next few weeks we’ll also be making the show available through iTunes and the Zune Marketplace.

I hope you’ll join us. It’s going to be fun.

UPDATE: Here are the links to subscribe:

• Subscribe via iTunes
• Subscribe via RSS

When Leo Laporte won my mock election for President of the Internet, my first thought was, “If Leo were the President of the Internet, who would be in his cabinet?” Thus, I gave the iPres a call and within 30 minutes we had fleshed out the full mythical cabinet. Now it’s time to announce his selections.

Remember that in my original post about this mock election I said Leo would “be the best at setting up an Abraham Lincoln-like ‘team of rivals’ because that’s what he does every week on TWiT, and he has shown a remarkable ability to bring together a lot of strong personalities and engage them in a constructive dialog about the direction of the technology world.”

His cabinet selections reinforce that opinion, as Leo has rounded out his cabinet with not only his friends but also his three rivals in the election and even his most notorious “enemy.”

Cabinet of the iPres

Vice President - Molly Wood

In the first several U.S. Presidential elections, the runner-up in the polls was automatically installed as the vice president. That led to some bitter working arrangements between rivals. However, in this case, Laporte thinks Wood both earned the position and is the perfect choice. That makes her the iVeep.

Secretary of Justice - John C Dvorak

This post demands an independent-thinking curmudgeon who won’t be swayed by the fleeting whims of the populace.

Secretary of Conspiracies - Adam Curry

All good governments (and most bad ones) are embroiled in wild conspiracy theories. Laporte thinks it wise to get ahead of the game and set up a whole department of conspiracies to respond to allegations, and with Curry in charge this government can even start a few of its own.

Secretary of the Treasury (and Poker) - Jason Calacanis

Calacanis deeply understands the economics of the Internet and has a track record of anticipating future trends. He is also a card shark who would organize all cabinet poker games.

Secretary of Defense - Steve Gibson

The Internet version of this post requires an IT security guru with a healthy dose of paranoia.

Secretary of War - Michael Arrington

The U.S. Department of Defense was called the “Department of War” until 1947. Laporte wants to have both departments simultaneously, and who on the Internet is more combative than Michael Arrington. In fact, Laporte and Arrington have even had a famously combative relationship at times.

Attorney General - Larry Lessig

The Stanford law professor is an outspoken commentator on transforming law to meet the needs of the Information Age.

Secretary of Commerce - Jeff Bezos

The king of e-commerce deserves this post.

Undersecretary of Commerce (and Shoes) - Tony Hsieh

Since Amazon just bought Zappos, this makes perfect sense.

Undersecretaries of Commerce, Churro Committee - Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld

If you don’t know the connection here, Google it.

Secretary of Energy - Chris Pirillo

Laporte says no one has more energy than Chris.

Secretary of Education - Steve Wozniak

Since leaving Apple, Woz has dedicated much of his career to using computers to help educate children.

Secretary of Labor - Patrick Norton

At TechTV, the executives used to say that Patrick was “for the lunchbox set.”

Secretary of Infrastructure - Tim Berners-Lee

Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Wide. He is well-qualified to help solve the growth challenges of Internet in the years ahead.

Privacy Czar - Scott McNealy

McNealy famously once said, “Privacy is dead. Get over it.” So who better to help the people of the Internet get their privacy back?

Ambassador to the United Nations - Amber MacArthur

She knows her way around the Internet. Plus, she’s from Canada, the Switzerland of North America

Digital Copyright Czar - Cory Doctorow

Doctorow is an advocate of Creative Commons and an opponent of DRM. He wants to inject simplicity and common sense into international copyright laws. Good luck with that.

Gadget Czar - Veronica Belmont

The Goddess of Gadgets will advocate for Internet devices that are both uber-geeky and highly-usable.

Cloud Computing Czar - Marc Andreessen

The father of the Web browser will now be a catalyst for shepherding the world’s software applications into the browser.

Commissioner of Fantasy Sports - Tom Merritt

Sports, like everything else, will soon be moving online. Real world athletes will be replaced by gamers. Stadiums will be replaced by Internet-enabled TVs and premium online networks such as Xbox Live. Someone has to help make sense of it all during the transition. Merritt has been involved with electronic sports since Microleague Baseball in the 1980s.

Social Media Czar - Robert Scoble

The media is one many institutions being transformed by the Information Revolution. It is becoming much more democratic and much more social and Robert Scoble is a flag-bearer of the movement.

Chief Vacuity Officer - Ashton Kutcher

The Internet isn’t just about work and someone needs to represent the people who goof-off online.

Aesthetics Czar - Steve Jobs

Every organization needs a forceful critic with impeccable taste to call people “bozos” when they do imperfect work.

For more insights on technology and business, follow my Twitter stream: @JasonHiner

On June 26-27, TechRepublic celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a gathering of its loyal community members in Louisville, Kentucky, where TechRepublic first launched as a startup in 1999. We have posted a  full photo gallery of the event with a combination of submitted photos from various TechRepublic staffers and community members.

The photo below of me setting up my laptop before the event is just one of the 98 photos in the set.

See also:

• Video: How TechRepublic went from long-shot startup to one of world’s biggest tech sites
• Download: Full video of TechRepublic’s 10-Year Anniversary Community Event

TechRepublic’s mock election for “President of the Internet” has concluded and the winner with over 40% of the vote, and a decisive victory margin of over nine percentage points, is veteran technology commentator Leo Laporte. Here are the official results:

• Leo Laporte 40.7% (3773 votes)
• Molly Wood 31.5% (2926 votes)
• Mark Andreessen 23.8% (2212 votes)
• Jason Calacanis 4.0% (369 votes)

Second place finisher Molly Wood closed a lot of ground in the final days of the election. At the mid-point of the election, she was a distant second, trailing Laporte by over 25 percentage points. However, her fans rallied to her support. One fan produced a campaign Web site for Molly and others produced YouTube videos showing their support. That enabled her to close Laporte’s final victory margin to single digits (9.2%).

The leading vote-getter among the write-in candidates with 32 votes was Tim Berners-Lee, the MIT professor who is most often credited with founding the World Wide Web and remains one of the preeminent thought-leaders for both the Internet and the Web.

Of course, now the question is, “If Leo Laporte were actually elected President of the Internet, what would his cabinet look like?” Look for more on that issue over the next week.

At the TechRepublic 10th Anniversary Event on June 26, I told the story of how TechRepublic evolved from a long-shot startup in Louisville, Kentucky to become one of the world’s largest technology Web sites.

Here is the video of my 15-minute talk, which shares some of the early aphorisms that our team used as we built a new kind of trade publication and social network for IT professionals, and how we quickly realized that we had created something pretty special with the help of the TechRepublic community.

You can also get the full video of the TechRepublic 10th Anniversary event as a download.

On Friday, TechRepublic celebrates its 10th anniversary with a community event in Louisville, Kentucky, where TechRepublic first launched on May 3, 1999 and where its editorial headquarters is still located today.

TechRepublic was founded as an online trade publication and peer-to-peer network (or a social network, before it was called a “social network”) for IT professionals. As such, we’ve invited our community members to Louisville to join us for the celebration at 2:00 PM Eastern on Friday.

For those who can’t able to make it to Louisville, we’ll also be live-streaming the event today over Ustream and Stickham and we will offer an on-demand video of the two-hour program afterward. Here are the links to the live streams (which will begin at 2:00 PM EST):

• TechRepublic on Ustream
• TechRepublic on Stickham

Joe Rosberg, a long-time member and a blogger in TechRepublic’s User Support section, has published a post on his thoughts about the history of TR and what makes it a unique community. Other members have added their thoughts and stories about TechRepublic in the discussion and we invite others to join in.

For those involved in the event — both live and online — who Twitter about it today, please include the following Twtter tag: #TR10.

At EMC World in Orlando this week, I did an interview with EMC’s Len Devanna in the ZDNet Blogger Lounge. We talked about a few of the highlights of the event and its forward-looking approach to the data center.

We also talked about the fact that I spend time at these events inviting product managers and engineers from technology vendors like EMC to join the discussion of these hot topics on TechRepublic. I often point to a TechRepublic poll from March in which 90% of TechRepublic respondents said vendors should be part of the discussion.

Here is the three-minute interview:

For those who want a smartphone with a full keyboard, the BlackBerry Bold and the Nokia E71 are two of the best choices on the market. CNET TV’s Prizefight did a no-holds-barred comparison of the two.

My colleague Bill Detwiler has been testing the Nokia E71 and I’ve been testing the BlackBerry Bold, so we’ve informally compared these two a number of times. I’m happy to say that CNET got it right in its evaluation.

The only things we would add are that the Bold doesn’t have very good battery life and the E71 doesn’t allow you to access any of the inbox subfolders in your Exchange mailbox.

I regularly talk to product managers at technology companies and I often encourage them to follow the discussions and participate in the TechRepublic forums when we write about their products. Since they know their products so well — and usually have in-depth knowledge about whatever niche their product covers — I think these product professionals can often add valuable perspectives to the discussion.

I don’t even mind when product managers respond to criticisms by defending their products, as long as they’re honest about it and don’t copy-and-paste from marketing brochures. I simply ask them to identify themselves as official representatives of their companies. In many cases, they can help clear up confusion about their products, explain product features (and missing features), and share information about future developments.

For all of those reasons, I think vendors can add important information to the discussions and I’d like to encourage more of it. However, I’m interested to see if TechRepublic members agree with my perspective on this subject. Take the two polls below to share your opinion.

 Loading ...

 Loading ...

As you can see, we’ve put a fresh coat of paint on TechRepublic and rearranged some of the furniture. However, the original foundation remains. This is still the same home for IT professionals.

In addition to simply making the site more visually compelling and more consistent with TechRepublic’s sister sites, ZDNet and BNET, on the TechRepublic home page we’ve also chosen to shine the spotlight on the four central themes that define TechRepublic:

• IT Leadership
• Decision Support
• Problem Solving
• Member Activity

As you may have noticed, the new feature box at the top of the TechRepublic home page offers content dedicated to each of these four categories. The IT Leadership, Decision Support, and Problem Solving slots feature original content produced by the TechRepublic editorial department and our international network of IT writers.

The Member Activity box provides a barometer for the flurry of activity that is always happening in the TechRepublic Forums, including a list of the most active discussions at that moment.

Another new feature that you’ll find on the TechRepublic home page is a new right-column unit that I like to call “the scoreboard.” It provides a window into the vast library of resources that we have available from many of the top vendors in the IT industry. At launch, this shows a count of the vendors that have the most white papers in our directory. In the future, you will also see the scoreboard show the vendors with the most white papers in a specific subject, such as virtualization, storage, networking, etc.

The left column of the home page, underneath the main feature box, remains the same. It shows the river of “Most Recent” content published on TechRepublic. The alternate tab, “Community Recommends,” shows the content that TechRepublic members have had the most interaction with during the past week. In other words, it’s a community-powered “Most Popular” feed.

The other thing that doesn’t change with this redesign is that TechRepublic is still about providing great content — blogs, downloads, videos, forums, and more — to help you develop better strategies, make better decisions, and do your IT job better — or move up to a better job.

I recently published my list of the 10 best technology podcasts and the 10 best video podcasts on technology. As I mentioned in the first article, I’ve found that podcasts are a great way to catch up on current events and trends in technology. The best part for me is that I can multi-task while I’m listening to podcasts.

Also, keep in mind that you don’t need an iPod to listen to podcasts. You can listen to them directly from your computer with iTunes, Juice, Zune, and a variety of other software. I’d like to know if you listen to any tech podcasts. Take the poll and join the discussion.

 Loading ...

Because of the breakneck pace of change in the technology world, there is so much information that most of us need to keep up with on a daily basis. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough time to read as much as I would like. As a result, podcasts are one of the most valuable tools that I use to stay current in tech, because of the fact that I can multi-task while I’m listening to podcasts.

I listen to podcasts while I drive to work. I listen to podcasts while I work out. I listen to podcasts on airplanes. I listen to podcasts when checking my e-mail. I listen to podcasts when I’m doing the dishes. If it weren’t for podcasts, I simply wouldn’t be able to keep up with as much news, information, commentary, and perspectives on technology and the IT industry.

I’ve put together a list of what I consider to be the top 10, based on podcasts that are informative, concise, and not boring. Of course, I’m also biased toward stuff that has relevance for IT and business technology, and not just consumer tech and gadgets. I’ve also limited this list to audio-only podcasts. Next week, I’ll cover video podcasts.

Note: This list is also available as a PDF download.

10. TechnologyIQ

I’m sure that 99% of you have never heard of this podcast. It’s done by Douglas Welch, an IT consultant in Southern California. He provides some short tips for IT pros based on anecdotes from his work with clients. He also includes recordings from an Internet Seminar he does at his local library — those episodes are safe to skip. However, this guy provides a nice perspective of an IT professional working in the trenches. I should hire this guy to write and do podcasts for TechRepublic.

9. Security Now!

Steve Gibson — a legend in IT security and host of grc.com — teams up with former TechTV host Leo Laporte for this weekly podcast that includes security updates, security tips and best practices, and a spotlight on various security technologies. Steve does a regular question-and-answer session based on submissions from listeners.

8. The Real Deal

This CNET.com podcast (CNET.com and TechRepublic.com are both part of CNET Networks) is aimed at cutting through FUD, hype, and marketing-speak and providing real world information about technology. Some of their recent topics have included a look at how OpenID works and an episode on understanding bandwidth.

7. MarketWatch’s Take on Tech

As you’d expect, this MarketWatch podcast looks at the most recent news and developments in technology through the filter of the stock market and the financial sector. As such, it mostly reports on news that relates to public tech companies. It’s also a great source of news on business technology.

6. The Microsoft IT Manager Podcast

Sponsored by Microsoft Canada, this monthly podcast does a deep dive into the current issues, trends, and practices that IT managers can use to improve their IT strategy and operations. Since this comes from Microsoft, it focuses on business technologies and solutions that are related to Microsoft products, but it still contains a lot of generally useful information.

5. BusinessWeek - Technology & You

BusinessWeek columnist Steve Wildstrom is an excellent technology writer who has made a solid transition to multimedia. In this brief weekly podcast, Steve provides color commentary on a specific product or technology. This tends to be very consumer-focused, but there’s still a lot of stuff that will be of interest to IT pros, professionally and personally.

4. Wall Street Journal Tech News Briefing

Delivered twice a day, this podcast provides a great stream of tech news in about 5-15 minutes each in the morning and evening. While you would assume this is strongly focused on business technology since it comes from The Wall Street Journal, it actually includes a fair share of news about general technology. This one is hard to beat in terms of frequency and a quick peak at the top tech stories.

3. Tech5

“The most important five minutes of your day” is the tagline that John Dvorak uses for his quick survey of tech news that he does on an almost-daily basis. I don’t think it’s that important, but I do think it’s the best quick summary of tech news, because Dvorak does a great job of selecting stories plus he adds some commentary, something you won’t find in most news surveys this short. Plus, he has a lot of fun with the sound effects.

2. TWiT

Officially “this WEEK in TECH” is one of the most popular podcasts in the world. It’s hosted by Leo Laporte and regularly features some of Leo’s former TechTV cohorts. Its panelists also include a regular carousel of colorful characters and talking heads such John Dvorak, Patrick Norton, Jason Calacanis, and Kevin Rose. The best episodes are the ones where several guests vehemently disagree. The show tends to run a little long for my taste — often over an hour — but the strength of the commentary often makes it worth it.

1. Buzz Out Loud

I haven’t missed an episode of BOL in about six months. That’s why I consider it the clear No.1 for this list. Hosted by CNET.com’s Molly Wood and Tom Merritt, this daily podcast does a great job at highlighting the most important stories, providing great commentary, and regularly including audience feedback. Tom is Mr. Gadget and Molly is technology’s Queen of Rant, and the on-air banter between them always keeps it interesting. While this 30-45 minute podcast is primarily focused on consumer technology, it covers enough general tech topics to make it worthwhile for IT pros.

What are your favorite tech podcasts? Join the discussion.

Bill Detwiler, Shawn Morton, and I are all in Las Vegas this week for the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show. We jumpstarted TechRepublic’s CES 2008 coverage with a pre-show video clip. We explain our strategy for covering the more than 2,700 vendors, discuss the impact Warner Bros. decision to end support for HD DVD will have on CES events, examine the conspicuous absence of several wireless telecom carriers, and share our insights on the technologies, gadgets and devices that we can’t wait to see, try, and learn more about this week.

As part of our year-end coverage, TechRepublic is doing a series of “Best of 2007″ wrap-ups, including the top 10 from each of our weekly franchises. As you may know, Tech Sanity Check is the featured franchise every Monday and here is the list of the top 10 for 2007:

1.) Sanity check: 10 dirty little secrets you should know about working in IT

TechRepublic spills the beans on some of the most nefarious aspects of working in IT. From bursting the bubble of newbies wanting to play with cutting edge gear to explaining how techies cover their butts by confounding business managers with technical jargon, this piece provides the tell-all.

2.) Sanity check: The truth about Windows Vista adoption in 2007

In October, Microsoft reported strong revenue from Windows Vista sales, but in September Microsoft quietly agreed to allow vendors to downgrade Vista PCs to Windows XP. This column cuts through the mixed messages and spin to uncover the truth of Vista adoption in 2007.

3.) Sanity check: The six consumer technologies that are destroying traditional IT

If you believe the Gartner Group, consumer technology and IT departments are in the midst of an all-out civil war. Here are the six consumer technologies that are causing the most havoc for IT departments. In confronting this challenge, IT can choose to sink to swim.

4.) Sanity check: How Microsoft beat Linux in China and what it means for freedom, justice, and the price of software

Learn how Microsoft reversed course, rebuffed a challenge from Red Flag Linux, and won over the Chinese government and the Chinese people with Windows and Microsoft Office in this examination of Microsoft’s victory in China and it’s implications.

5.) Sanity check: Did The Wall Street Journal sabotage businesses by publishing tips on how to circumvent IT?

I characterized the The Wall Street Journal’s tips for circumventing IT as dangerous and irresponsible and write that many of them could have very negative consequences for businesses, IT departments, and users.

6.) Sanity check: Can tiny Zoho beat Microsoft and Google in online office apps?

Google admitted that it is officially launching a bid to compete with Microsoft Office. However, the biggest threat to Microsoft Office may be from tiny startup Zoho, which has an online office suite with better features than Google and more Web savvy than Microsoft. See whether Zoho’s challenge can succeed where IBM, Sun, and open source have failed.

7.) Sanity check: The 10 biggest technology belly flops of 2007

While 2007 gave us some fantastic technological innovations, it also brought the usual spate of bungles, miscues, and faux pas. In the spirit of learning from our mistakes, here is the Tech Sanity Check list of the biggest belly flops in technology in 2007.

8.) Sanity check: Will WiMAX be a 3G killer, or is it vice versa?

The broad deployment of IP-based WiMAX networks for mobile Internet access could open the door for wireless VoIP phones and usurp cellular carriers. However, the cellular giants are ramping up 3G for mobile Internet to try to beat WiMAX to the punch. This Tech Sanity Check sorts out the fight and predicts the results.

9.) Sanity Check: Is IT still a profession worth recommending to the next generation?

After I wrote about the split between IT strategy and operations, several IT pros suggested that IT may not be worth recommending as a career to the next generation. See why I disagree and which segments of IT I think will have a bright future.

10.) Sanity check: Will Microsoft be your next phone company?

On October 16, Bill Gates proclaimed that the business phone has been stuck in a time warp and that the moment has arrived to bring it into the digital age and revolutionize business communications in the process. This edition of Tech Sanity Check examines Microsoft’s broad ambitions in unified communications and how it could impact IT.

Which Tech Sanity Check piece do you think should be No. 1 on the list? Join the discussion.