Pointers: Recommended reading 10-27-08

Source: Information technology bigwigs, concerned about the United States’ ability to compete in the global market, urge the next administration to invest more money in long-term research. Ed Lazowska, professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Washington, calls for the federal government to double its investment in fundamental research during a 10-year period.alked to eight other high-tech luminaries, including Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf, who suggested increased funding for weather data collection, analysis and prediction to cope with effects of global warming.Source: Government agencies seeking to deploy mobile technology should heed their employees’ personal preferences, according to a report from the Center for Technology in Government. new laptop computers will not necessarily make employees more productive if they live or frequently work in areas with unreliable connectivity, the report states. And employees who ride crowded trains or buses to work might not feel comfortable using expensive equipment.“Taking into consideration individualities when selecting a technology can also help with buy-in and acceptance,” Source: The people of Redbridge, a borough of London, have spoken: Online beats paper when it comes to communicating with government.Earlier this year, the Redbridge Council invited people to share their thoughts about the council’s spending priorities. The council created an online budget simulator for people to use but also sent a paper form to every house., a London-based blog, approximately 3,200 people went online to give feedback, compared to 1,900 people who returned the paper form. Source: The blog is not the distinct medium it once was, according to the State of the Blogosphere 2008, recently published by As “the Blogosphere grows in size and influence, the lines between what is a blog and what is a mainstream media site become less clear,” . “Larger blogs are taking on more characteristics of mainstream sites and mainstream sites are incorporating styles and formats from the Blogosphere.”found that the most popular blog topic was news, with music and video a distant second and third. The report also offers up this little factoid: “Sarah Palin had more tagged posts than Obama or McCain after her speech at the Republican National Convention.”