Technology Columns

January 13, 2009

An Agenda for Obama's CTO

President-elect Barack Obama has promised to appoint the world's first governmental Chief Technology Officer (CTO). On its transition Web site, www.change.gov, the ...

January 9, 2009

Open, Schmopen: Wireless Networks Are Still Closed

Over the past year, there's been a lot of lip service in the mobile-phone industry about making our wireless networks "open." The idea, consumer and open network ...

January 6, 2009

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Web Sites

A few months ago I was at a technology conference and things were abuzz. The results of a recent survey had just been announced and—gasp—it found that an ...

December 30, 2008

A Modest Blogging Proposal

It all started with a simple question from Forrester Research (FORR) analyst Jeremiah Owyang late in the afternoon on Friday, Dec. 12. A few days earlier, blogger ...

December 25, 2008

Why Obama Can't Ignore Education Tech

For his book Grown Up Digital, author Don Tapscott surveyed or interviewed 10,000 young people from 10 countries about their reliance on technology. "I came to the ...

December 24, 2008

Bring Open Source into Hedge Funds

I read closely BusinessWeek.com's recent special section for CEOs about open-source software, and I wanted to offer some modest suggestions about what open source ...

December 24, 2008

Why Online Ads Are Weathering the Recession

It hardly matters what sector of the economy you're in—it's none too soon for 2008 to be over. In the advertising business, the pain has proved especially acute,...

December 22, 2008

The Net Generation Takes the Lead

Editor's note: This is the eighth in an eight-part series of Viewpoints by author Don Tapscott, who draws on the $4 million research project that inspired his new ...

December 20, 2008

What Online Community?

The recent tragic incident involving 19-year-old college student, Abraham Biggs, has unwrapped a host of social, moral, ethical, and legal issues. This American ...

December 17, 2008

Message to Yahoo: Merge with Adobe

Microsoft is no longer interested in buying Yahoo! but remains open to acquiring the company's search business, according to press reports and statements from ...

December 15, 2008

Focus On the Net Gen Family

Editor's note: This is the seventh in an eight-part series of Viewpoints by author Don Tapscott, who draws on the $4 million research project that inspired his new ...

December 9, 2008

Cloud Computing Is No Pipe Dream

Tech pundits and practitioners alike have spilled lots of ink to hype cloud computing. They'll encourage you to think of it as IT infrastructure on demand—like ...

December 8, 2008

Supervising Net Gen

Editor's note: This is the sixth in an eight-part series (BusinessWeek.com, 11/30/08) of Viewpoints by author Don Tapscott, who draws on the $4 million research ...

December 2, 2008

The Technology Tipping Point

Earlier this year I discovered a little sippy cup stuffed under one of the backseats of our family minivan. It had some kind of black cottage cheese in it. My kids ...

November 30, 2008

How to Teach and Manage 'Generation Net'

Editor's note: This is the fifth in an eight-part series (BusinessWeek.com, 11/17/08) of Viewpoints by author Don Tapscott—who draws on the $4 million research ...

November 22, 2008

How to Hire the Net Generation

Editor's note: This is the fourth in an eight-part series (BusinessWeek.com, 11/17/08) of Viewpoints by author Don Tapscott, who draws on the $4 million research ...

November 19, 2008

How Health Sites Can Reach Youth

Young people are flocking to the Web for information on health and wellness—but what they find there is sometimes anything but helpful. The Internet offers a ...

November 17, 2008

Net Gen Transforms Marketing

Editor's note: This is the third in an eight-part series (BusinessWeek.com, 11/10/08) of Viewpoints by author Don Tapscott, who draws on the $4 million research ...

November 14, 2008

Engineering: Suddenly Sexy for College Grads

Early in his college career, Tyler Bosmeny assumed that after graduating, he would do what hundreds of other self-respecting Harvard University engineering, math, and ...

November 11, 2008

Patent Office Stifles Innovation

Information Age innovators need not apply. At least that's the implied message being stretched like police tape across the door of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office ...

November 10, 2008

How Digital Technology Has Changed the Brain

Editor's note: This is the second in an eight-part series (BusinessWeek.com, 11/3/08) of Viewpoints by author Don Tapscott, who draws on the $4 million research ...

November 7, 2008

What the Market Crash Taught Me About Tech

O.K., so the market crashed, and we're in a recession. There's also some good news to go around. Warren Buffett's buying. The elections are finally over. The Phillies ...

November 4, 2008

Startups: When Cutting Costs Won't Cut It

In just about every Silicon Valley boardroom the conversation inevitably turns to cutting costs. Once the pleasantries are exchanged and election handicapping ...

November 3, 2008

Net Geners Come of Age

(Editor's Note: This is the first in an eight-part series of Viewpoints by author Don Tapscott, who will draw on the $4 million research project that inspired his new ...

October 27, 2008

Can Anything Derail Google's Growth Engine?

You probably won't get rich betting against Google (GOOG). Every quarter, cynics predict a stumble. Most of the time, they're wrong. Even when Google misses analysts' ...