For the London Free Press – June 9, 2008

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New figures released by Statistics Canada reveal a lack of response from public- and private-sector enterprises to the increasing demands for electronic commerce and technology.

The figures in the 2007 Survey of Electronic Commerce and Technology — available online at statscan.ca — show online sales have increased while the proportion of enterprises that sell goods and services online has remained relatively stable. In 2007, online sales by both the private and public sector increased by 26 per cent from the previous year, totalling an estimated $62.7 billion.

Though there has been an increase in online internet sales for six consecutive years, only 16 per cent of public-sector organizations and eight per cent of private-sector companies sold goods and services online in 2007.

While those numbers seem high, online sales made up an insignificant percentage of the total operating revenue in the private sector. Online sales accounted for only two per cent of total operating revenue in the private sector, up one percentage point from 2002.

Private- and public-sector enterprises are themselves participating in online transactions, but as consumers — not providers. According to the 2007 figures, public- and private-sector enterprises were more likely to buy goods or services online than they were to sell them online.

In 2007, 48 per cent of private-sector enterprises and 82 per cent of public-sector enterprises reported using the Internet to buy goods or services. In the same year, only eight per cent of the private-sector enterprises and 16 per cent of the public-sector enterprises reported using the Internet to sell online.

This trend has changed very little over the last four years, despite the continued growth in online sales. The most significant change has been in the percentage of public-sector enterprises, using the Internet to buy goods or services online, up 14 per cent from 2003.

One should not conclude from these figures that information and communications technologies are not popular among the public or private sector. In fact, most of the private sector reported using e-mail (81 per cent), wireless communications (77 per cent) and the Internet (87 per cent). Additionally, all public-sector enterprises surveyed reported using e-mail and the Internet (100 per cent) and nearly all — 91 per cent — reported using wireless communications.

It’s noteworthy that though more than three-quarters of the private-sector enterprises reported using some sort of information and communications technologies, less than half of them reported having a website (41 per cent). In contrast, 93 per cent of the public-sector enterprises reported having a website.

Essentially, private-sector enterprises are making use of information and communications technologies but not using them as much to facilitate online sales or to provide information about themselves and their products online.

This trend is surprising when only 10 per cent of the private-sector enterprises reported they perceived no benefits to doing business over the Internet. The most common perceived benefits by private-sector enterprises were lower costs (30 per cent), reaching new customers (36 per cent), and better co-ordination with suppliers, customers or partners (36 per cent).

Law.com has an article entitled Open Source Software Shows Its Muscle that talks about the perils of using open source software that uses the GPL3 license.

If one just uses some open source software with the GPL3 license on its own, it’s not an issue. The problem arises when it is tied in to other software, especially if one’s own product needs to work with some GPL3 software. Depending on how they interact, it can compromise the IP rights of your own product.

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For the London Free Press – June 2, 2008

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Check out the video

A common refrain when talking about people contributing to online pursuits such as writing Wikipedia articles is, “Where do people find the time?”

Author, consultant and New York University professor Clay Shirky, (shirky.com) says that time comes from the “cognitive surplus” that the sitcom has been hiding.

He explains this concept in a fascinating presentation that can be found by searching his name on blip.tv.

Shirky believes the social phenomenon known as “spare time” is being transformed and used for the creation of useful social outputs as the generation that spent hours every evening idly watching TV becomes extinct.

The thought behind Shirky’s analysis becomes clearer from an historical illustration. In the post-Industrial Revolution 18th century, society used gin to soothe the fear of idle time. Once people realized drinking gin was not a valuable use of time, the modern social welfare state was born.

In the post-Second World War era, society used TV to fill a similar void.

The activities which people generally participate in to fill time spent away from work, household chores and other responsibilities, have changed drastically over the last 50 years.

His point is that it takes time for a cognitive surplus to be seen as an asset, not a crisis. In other words, it takes time for people to experiment to discover how to manage free time. Once they do, it transforms society.

Society has now begun to fill the void with a new social phenomenon — “the architecture of participation” — best illustrated by the creation of Wikipedia by thousands of individuals without monetary compensation.

Shirky terms the superfluous time facing society as the “cognitive surplus.” Though this surplus has existed for years, only now is society slowly becoming aware of the advantages for growth, knowledge and education that can be created when the cognitive surplus is actively engaged. And of course, the Internet has made all this possible.

Shirky points out that perhaps as society realizes that idly watching TV is not a valuable use of time, the potential impact that Wikipedia and its Internet counterparts present will become more apparent, and we will be able to harness the advantages and generate valuable social outputs. Generally, society views doing something as better than doing nothing, especially when doing something can create positive productivity.

He is not suggesting that everyone should or will abandon pure entertainment pursuits such as TV. To put his theory into perspective, Shirky works out that the creation of Wikipedia has taken about 100 million hours of human thought. That’s a minor amount of time compared to the staggering one trillion hours that are spent watching TV worldwide each year.

That time has the potential to create 10,000 Wikipedia projects a year. The cognitive surplus is so enormous that even the smallest change can generate huge ramifications for society.

Shirky’s closing anecdote perhaps best captures his thinking. Even four year olds are aware of this new social phenomenon and are aware that “a screen that ships without a mouse ships broken.” If four year olds realize that media is no longer only a mindless one-way activity, shouldn’t the rest of us?

It takes time for a cognitive surplus to be seen as an asset, not a crisis.