Comcast exec downplays Baker backlash (The Hill)

The Fastest Growing Industry in the Country? It's Digital Voice (The Atlantic)

Wharton Start-Up, Chattersource, Helps Students Find Housing, Haircuts (Forbes: The Startup Economy)

[Baltimore-based] Millennial Media Is Said to Talk With Banks About IPO (Bloomberg)

News and Views from SAP's SAPPHIRE Now: 5/18/2011

SAP Certifies Amazon Cloud as Production-Ready (Gigaom)

Microsoft chases Amazon in taking SAP to the cloud (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP launching in-memory computing cloud
Partners will build applications that use SAP's HANA in-memory compute engine (Network World)

Exclusive: SAP-Oracle Tussle Alters Hana Appliance Plan (Information Week)

SAP Forecasts $7 Billion Revenue From New Units (Bloomberg)

Can SAP see the win-win-win pot of gold that is Sybase? (ZDNet Blogs)

The Long Retreat Up Market (Enterprise Irregulars)

News and Views from SAP's SAPPHIRE Now: 5/17/2011

SAP: In-memory to hit all applications; Collaboration, mobility in focus (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP Revs up Mobile Application Strategy (PC World)

SAP Goes After Oracle's Database With ASE (PC World)

ByDesign Follows a Familiar Path to the Large Enterprise (Feeding the SAP Ecosystem)

SAP Calls Itself an Innovation Company and Compares Itself to Apple (ReadWrite Enterprise)

SAP may appeal U.S. $345 mln Versata patent ruling (Reuters)

Daily Links 5/17/2011: Seeking "savoir-faire," Publicis buys Rosetta for $575 million

Publicis to Acquire Rosetta for $575M (ClickZ)
How will Princeton-based digital shop work with Philly-based Publicis units Digitas Health and Razorfish Health in Pharma/Med/Life Sciences, where Rosetta has a strong presence?

Seeking "savoir-faire," Publicis buys Rosetta for $575 million (Medical Marketing & Media)

Publicis Groupe to Acquire Digital Shop Rosetta for $575 Million
Marks Change of Heart for Fiercely Independent CEO Kuenne (Ad Age)

Ben Franklin group announces investments of $2M (Philadelphia Business Journal)

HP: We Underinvested In Services, Says Apotheker (Barron's: Tech Trader Daily)

InterDigital Opens San Diego Outpost in Quest to Ease “Bandwidth Crunch” (Xconomy San Diego)

Philadelphia To Roll Out EHR From eClinicalWorks (Information Week)

Netflix Now The Largest Single Source of Internet Traffic In North America (TechCrunch)

Meet DOCSIS, Part 2: the jump from 2.0 to 3.0 (Ars Technica)

Daily Show mocks FCC's Baker for taking Comcast job (Ars Technica)

The Top 7 U.S. Cities To Find An IT Job Right Now (Forbes: CIO Central)
Philadelphia, Edison NJ are two of them, report says.

Philadelphia Must Catch Up on Open Government, Councilman Says (Government Technology)

Universal Business Payment Solutions Acquisition Corporation Announces Closing of its Initial Public Offering (Business Wire)



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News and Views from SAP's SAPPHIRE Now

SAP, Dell Partner on In-memory and the Cloud (PC World)

What's coming at SAPPHIRE Now? (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP Upgrades Performance Management Suite (Information Week)

HP Moves Earnings Report Forward As Leaked Memo Blasts Stock (Silicon Alley Insider)
I doubt Leo is going to be showing up at SAPPHIRE.



ASUG Partners with Conshohocken's vcopious to Launch New Virtual Platform at Annual Conference (Business Wire)

Daily Links 5/16/2011: SunGard CEO Cristobal Conde steps down

SunGard Announces Chief Executive Officer Transition (Business Wire)
SunGard emphasizes that this is a long-planned transition for Cristobal Conde which has nothing to do with the company's sluggish performance in recent years. Some speculate, though, that it might be a step towards preparing for an exit (IPO or split-up?) for the PE firms involved.

City of Philadelphia Selects eClinicalWorks for Electronic Health Records (Business Wire)

Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2011 Greater Philadelphia finalists announced (Business Wire)

WSJ: data caps keep Netflix from "swamping the network" (Ars Technica)

Dish Network CEO Resigns (Light Reading Cable)
Charlie Ergen will remain as Chairman.

Greenblatt: NBC Will Add New Brian Williams Show to Schedule as 'Soon as It's Ready' (Hollywood Reporter)

The Uncertain Future of '30 Rock' (The Atlantic Wire)

Report: Comcast Wants Ron Meyer to Stay at Universal -- For Now (The Wrap)

Comcast Aims Metro Ethernet At Midsize Business
Services Portfolio Provides Capacity Up to 10 Gbps (Multichannel News)

RCR Wireless News global tour set for Philadelphia (RCR Wireless News)

One Small Start-Up’s Plan To Get Customers To Notice: An IPO
(Wall Street Journal: Venture Capital Dispatch)
Israel-based WhiteSmoke, maker of English grammar software with US headquarters in Wilmington, plans IPO on the NASDAQ.

India owner sells Blue Bell software firm to Cerberus for $137M (Philly.com: Philly Deals)


Temple Opens Vault on Hybrid System (HPCwire)



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SAP annual conference kicks off in Orlando today

SAP's big annual confab, SAPPIRE NOW 2011 AND THE ASUG ANNUAL CONFERENCE, kicks off today in Orlando and runs through the 18th. Although it is not in as turbulent environment as last year's conference, which followed in the wake of CEO-level changes (Leo Apotheker out, Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe in) and occurred in the immediate aftermath of the Sybase acquisition, there are several key issues industry analysts will be watching closely:



One year after the Sybase acquisition, where does SAP's mobile strategy stand?

What tangible progress can SAP show for its Business ByDesign SaaS product line?

The positioning of other SaaS offerings such as Sales on Demand, which are intended to work in tandem with its on-premise ERP systems. Also, any indication of management direction in this area in the wake of John Wookey's recent departure.

Offering a more complete explanation of its strategy for its HANA in-memory database analytics technology.

How will SAP position the relational database technology it acquired through the Sybase acquisition?

An update on SAP's software maintenance strategy and related plans for "key performance indicators".

Observers will also be watching closely to see how in-sync top management team members appear to be with each other.



Another anticipated highlight will be Sting's live performance on Wednesday night.

Philly Tech People News 5/15/2011

NFTE Philadelphia to Honor Michael G. Rubin at Annual Visionary Gala on November 17th (Business Wire)

NBCU Ups Dunleavy, Rosenbloom (Multichannel News)

Veeva Systems Hires Paul Shawah as Vice President of Multichannel Strategy (Business Wire)
Joins Veeva from SAP.

CRF Health Appoints John Larson as Chief Operating Officer (Business Wire)

Leading Social Journalist Steve Buttry Joins Journal Register Company (Journal Register Press Release)

Marc Keller Joins Advanced Call Center Technologies as Chief Compliance Officer (Business Wire)

Comcast is king of its empire (Cherry Hill Courier-Post)
A couple of newsworthy quotes from Comcast EVP David Cohen's South Jersey speech. Perhaps an NBC-type version of "60 Minutes"is coming.

Pac-12 TV deal: The ESPN-Fox partnership (San Jose Mercury News)
How they kept Comcast locked out.

3 Things to Expect From Hulu’s New Content Deals (Gigaom: NewTeeVee)

Daily Links 5/13/2011: SAP Told to Pay $345 Million for Infringing Versata Patent

SAP’s Plattner Courts Coca-Cola With Data-Analysis Software (Bloomberg)

SAP North American President Bob Courteau on Teamwork and Technology (ASUG News)

SAP Told to Pay $345 Million for Infringing Versata Patent (Bloomberg)

NetSuite under the microscope (ZDNet Blogs)

Aria Systems Announces Connector SuiteApp For NetSuite's SuiteCloud Computing Platform
Greater Configurability and Billing Sophistication Now Available for NetSuite Customers (Business Wire)

FCC’s Meredith Baker goes on the defensive (Washington Post: Post Tech)
Responds to criticisms over move to Comcast.

Netflix: ISPs Kill Web Freedom, Suck All Profits (Gigaom)

Verizon chief sees 3 big wireless firms in future (Tampa Tribune)
Lengthy, informative interview with incoming CEO Lowell McAdam.

Motorola Mobility Buys SunUp Digital Systems
Fourth Acquisition Since December 2010 (Multichannel News)

Tough Questions To Ask Cloud Service Providers (Information Week)



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The Pirate Bay Blocked by Comcast? ISP Says 'No' (PC World)

Philly Fed's Plosser Says Federal Reserve Should Tighten in ‘Not-Too-Distant Future’ (Bloomberg)


Case Study: Saving Money by Analyzing Trends (MIT Technology Review)
Highlights one organization's use of QlikTech's QlikView.

Cloud computing pioneer Martin Odersky takes wraps off his new company Typesafe (San Jose Mercury News)
Startup to support Scala programming language.

Pace Snatches Moto's Set-Top Crown (Light Reading Cable)

Clearwire Shares Getting Pounded on Intel Sales (Wall Street Journal: Deal Journal)

Managing software hairballs NetSuite style (ZDNet Blogs)