Philly Area IT consultant's post on Forbes creates controversy



Gene Marks, a resident of the Philly suburbs who runs a consulting firm focused on CRM for small businesses
and has been a long time blogger and contributor to several publications, got quite a reaction with this piece he contributed to Forbes: "If I Were A Poor Black Kid". It has created a bit of an uproar on the Web. While no doubt Marks' intentions were good (though perhaps self-promoting; as a Forbes contributor he gets paid by the click), the article to some reflected a presumptuous, out of touch attitude and a lack of understanding of the practical difficulties inner city kids might face.

His commentary has provoked a number of responses, both satirical and reflective, of which some of the best are linked to below:

If I Were A White, Male Middle Aged Forbes Columnist… (Color Lines)

If I Were A Poor Black Kid (Modeled Behavior)

A Muscular Empathy (The Atlantic)

If I were the 99% I'd try to be the 1% (The Economist)

Trolling The Internet With 'If I Were A Poor Black Kid' (Forbes)



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Daily Links 12/16/2011: Salesforce makes HCM acquisition; will rename SuccessForce



Salesforce Makes A Rypple With New Acquisition (Wall Street Journal: Digits)

Salesforce snubs SAP with Rypple flip (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet Blogs)

SAP Sees No Further Big Cloud Buys After SuccessFactors - Report (Dow Jones via NASDAQ.com)

Dell Resurrects Venture Capital Arm (Wall Street Journal: Digits)
Something to keep an eye on, given Boomi's central role in Dell's emerging Cloud strategy.

Revenue Cycle Management: Healthcare's Next Frontier?
NextGen parent QSI acquires small claims processor ViaTrack to bolster position in burgeoning RCM market.
(Information Week)
NextGen Healthcare is based in Horsham.

Xfinity rebranding raises doubts among experts (Philadelphia Inquirer)

FTC hits Comcast CEO Brian Roberts with $500,000 fine (LA Times: Company Town)
Apparently just a technical oversight, and anyway, what's $500,000 when you rule the world?

Cablevision Stock Hits 52-Week Low After COO Resignation (Hollywood Reporter)

What's Next for Cablevision? (Light Reading Cable)
Some suggest Comcast could be interested in Jersey, Connecticut pieces of Cablevision if it were to be put up for sale, but most doubt that will happen any time soon.

Cox To Sell Wireless Licenses To Verizon Wireless For $315 Million
MSO and Wireless Carrier Will Resell Each Other's Residential and Commercial Products
(Multichannel News)

Penn State receives $10 million commitment to engineering research (Penn State Live)
Some good news on another difficult day for the University.



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Philly Area IT Execs named to Computerworld's "Premier 100" IT Leaders for 2012



Computerworld recently named its "Premier 100" IT Leaders for 2012. Computerworld usually represents the interests of the corporate CIO/CTO community, and these selections are reflective of that.

Those from the Philadelphia business community recognized are David Ballai, CIO and vice president of commercial solutions, Reed Technology & Information Services Inc. of Horsham (a LexisNexis company); Carol J. Dow, Chief technology officer and principal of global investment systems, Vanguard, Valley Forge; John South, Chief security officer, Heartland Payment Systems, Princeton; and Jimmy Z. Wang, Vice president and CIO, Teva Pharmaceuticals - Americas, North Wales.

Also named were Michael F. Fabiano, Vice president, strategic initiatives, NBC News, NBC Universal (Comcast); and Walt Oswald, Corporate vice president and CIO, Motorola Mobility, which has its cable tech business based in Horsham.

They will be honored at IDG's Premier 100 IT Leaders Conference, being held in March in Phoenix.




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Daily Links 12/15/2011: Comcast's priorities: Philly Live! now Xfinity Live!



Philly Fed Manufacturers See Improvement in Business Activity (Business Wire)
Outlook suggests modest expansion, but growing cost/pricing pressures.

Philadelphia-Area Manufacturing Increased to 10.3 in December (Bloomberg)

Philly Live!? No, Xfinity Live!
(Philly.com: The Insider)

NFL signs TV rights deals with Fox, NBC and CBS
The broadcast networks will pay a total of nearly $28 billion in fees over nine years under the new contracts, which take effect after the NFL's 2013 season.
(LA Times)

mHealth: Seemingly Stuck in Neutral (Chilmark Research)

Microsoft Bows Out of the Clinical Market (Chilmark Research)

SAP Business ByDesign takes on two-tier ERP (SearchSAP)

University accuses Oracle of extortion, lies, 'rigged' demo in lawsuit
Montclair State has elaborated on its case against Oracle over an ERP project gone wrong
(Techworld)

First Take: IBM Acquires Emptoris (Spend Matters)


FinTech 2012 (A VC)
Could be of interest to some Philly area FinTech people.

SAY Media Acquires Tech Blog ReadWriteWeb Dan Frommer joins as editor (Ad Week)
First Round Capital owns a stake in SAY Media.

CardioNet, Inc. Reaches Preliminary Agreement on Shareholders Litigation (Business Wire)

CardioNet, Inc. Announces the Launch of its Next Generation MCOT™ Device (Business Wire)



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SAP: We'll Be No. 2 Database Player By 2015 (Information Week)

What a Large Enterprise CIO Would Think of the SAP Cloud Position (ZDNet Blogs)

SAP Influencer Summit: a qualified success (ZDNet Blogs)

Comcast expands IPv6 services into four more states (Network World)

NFL signs TV deals worth billions with Fox, NBC and CBS (LA Times: Company Town)

TaskRabbit Raises $17.8 Million, Brings in Eisner as Adviser (All Things Digital)
First Round Capital was early backer.


Daily Links 12/13/2011: Comcast in deal to distribute BBC



BBC strikes 'breakthrough' US news deal with cable giant Comcast (The Guardian)

Jive Software Raises $161.3 Million in Initial Public Offering (Bloomberg)

SAP promises innovation will help it compete in cloud space (v3.co.uk)

Making its Case: SAP HANA Coming to TIBCO, Tableau and Jive Software (Silicon Angle)

Gartner Has First Ever IaaS Magic Quadrant Report (ReadWriteCloud)

Philadelphia Technology Park Partners with Sunesys to Expand Connectivity Network in Southeastern Pennsylvania Region (Business Wire)
Sunesys is based in Warrington.

CDI to cut 200 jobs, narrow outsourcing services (MarketWatch)


Falcone’s LightSquared Said to Disrupt 75% of GPS in Tests (Bloomberg)

Dish May Partner With T-Mobile If AT&T Acquisition Fails (Bloomberg)

Verizon Said Not to Have Talked Netflix Offer (Bloomberg)


The Five Stages of Telecom Transition (Werblog)
By Wharton Prof and Telecom policy analyst Kevin Werbach.

Motorola Mobility Licenses FourthWall's EBIF, Mobile Device Software
Motorola Package Interactive TV Technology With Medios Service Management Suite
(Multichannel News)

ChoozOn Named Newcomer of the Year by TechFlash
The World’s First Personal Shopper for Deals Brings Brands and Consumers Together
(TechFlash)
I wrote about ChoozOn's King of Prussia operations in August.

GSI spinoff’s family values on display at office: Slideshow (Philadelphia Business Journal)



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Daily Links 12/12/2011: Report: Planned Comcast, TWC, Bright House & Verizon Wireless “innovation-technology joint venture”would be based in Philadelphia




Mobile Mashup
Cable operators can’t be true wireless carriers. Will a patchwork of partnerships and Wi-Fi cover their bases?

(Multichannel News)
Comcast, TWC, Bright House & Verizon Wireless “innovation-technology joint venture” will be based in Philadelphia, article says.

Comcast Has A Huge New Venture Fund, And This Woman Is Running It (Silicon Alley Insider)
On Amy Banse.


SAP taps NetBase for deep social media analytics (Gigaom)


More Acquisitions in Software? Aaron Levie Believes So.
(Forbes)
Interview with founder of Box.

BI visualisation is just "eye candy": Pentaho (Computer Business Review)
Takes a poke at QlikTech.

IT services firm Epam eyes U.S. IPO in first quarter: sources (Reuters)
Although most of its operations are in Eastern Europe, Epam is based in Newtown, Bucks County.

Quality Systems, Inc. Acquires ViaTrack Systems
Acquisition Expands Electronic Data Interchange Services for Inpatient Market
(Business Wire)
Quality Systems' principal business unit is NextGen Healthcare of Horsham.


3 New Digital Solutions For Capturing and Sharing Content (Mashable)
Mashable covers DreamIt Ventures Philly Demo Day.

Cross Atlantic Capital Partners Leads Series A Funding for Sagence Group (Business Wire)



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Cheaper way to deal with the waste heat at data centers? (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Sanford C. Bernstein & Co analyst Craig Moffett on Verizon/Cable deal (Bloomberg Radio)
A definite listen if you follow the business.

Can Comcast Be As Mighty As Google? (Philadelphia Magazine)

Notable quotes about SAP's $3.4 billion acquisition of SuccessFactors (Sandhill)




Netsuite's Zach Nelson: SAP was forced to make SuccessFactors cloud move
Who wants to start a multiyear project in this climate, asks combative CEO
(Computerworld UK)

SAP gets colorful cloud exec by buying valley company (San Jose Mercury News)

SAP delays launch of new community - provides no insights (Dennis Howlett/ZDNet Blogs)


New Jersey map irks some, amuses others



Joe Steinfield, a 22 year old Rutgers grad from Westfield, NJ, posted this themed, descriptive map of New Jersey on Reddit early this week, and it quickly went viral on the Web. (Click twice on it to expand).


While a case can be made that the map is biting, politically incorrect and perhaps insensitive to some, I think it on the whole is an excellent piece of satire. Having never resided in New Jersey but at both ends of it, I have traveled most of its highways and byways and find the map an insightful and accurate portrayal, in a stereotypical kind of way. Also, it highlights the fact that New Jersey is a much more diverse place than many who hardly ever get off the Turnpike or Parkway realize it is.

Steinfield, who works as a part-time research assistant at Rutgers, says he really didn't want all the attention the map has generated.



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