Unboxing Apps

When folders first came out on iOS I loved 'em. I thought it would help me organize all my apps and bring order to my digital chaos. And to a small extent it did, at first.

But I've found the more apps that I shove into folders, the less I use them. And i really only USE a handful of apps on a daily basis anyways.

So today I'm blowin' up them folders and unboxing apps!

Maybe just by seeing the app icons more readily I'll be spurred into using them more often. It feels so fresh and new already!

Here's what made the first-page cut on my phone:

Are Apple iPhones Misbehaving on Wi-Fi

The latest generation of mobile devices, including the Apple iPhone 4S, may be causing performance degradation on your Wi-Fi network, which could be reported as a Denial of Service (DoS) attack by WIPS (wireless intrusion prevention systems).

One of my blog readers contacted me about a disturbing finding he had and asked for my opinion (thanks Thanh). The finding in question was that the Apple iPhone, iPad, and other mobile devices based on the latest Broadcom chipsets are setting really long Duration values in the range of 10-14ms within Wi-Fi control frames (e.g. RTS/CTS-to-self). This essentially reserves the medium for the device to transmit without a collision. The problem is that this is an excessively long period of time for an 802.11n capable device, and through my packet analysis I have found that no large frame transmission is subsequently occurring. This indicates that a performance problem may exist with the devices, and may be reported as an NAV DoS attack on the network by WIPS systems.

I've also heard anecdotal reports of this being observed on HTC Google Nexus One, Apple iPad 2, iPhone 4, some RIM Blackberrys, and even on a Broadcom evaluation board. So, there is a distinct possibility that this issue lies in the Broadcom chipset used in these devices and is not isolated to Apple devices. However, I have only tested this on my personal iPhone 4S and cannot directly verify those observations. So this post only details what I have actual been able to test and observe directly.

I had a hard time believing this could be true, so I investigated myself. Sure enough, I found the behavior when I tested.

Apple iPhone 4S Large Duration Value

What you see in the figure above is that the iPhone transmits CTS-to-Self frames at regular intervals, around once every second, with an excessively large Duration value. This causes all other Wi-Fi clients to set the NAV (virtual carrier sense) to the specified Duration value and defer transmission. Essentially, my iPhone was causing a blockage of all traffic on my wireless network for 11ms at regular intervals. Definitely not good for performance.

Possible valid explanations for this behavior could be:

1) Frame aggregation with 802.11n. I did see the iPhone using frame aggregation in other instances and using an appropriate Duration value around 4ms in those cases. But I did not see frame aggregation being used after the 11ms Duration control frames.

2) The use of a Transmit Opportunity (TXOP) on a QoS enabled WLAN in order to transmit a burst of packets within a specific QoS traffic class. I double-checked the TXOP values advertised by my access point and they are using the 802.11 default values of 0ms (single frame only) for best effort and background queues, 3.008ms for the video queue, and 1.504ms for the voice queue, which are much lower than the 11ms observed value.

3) A really large frame transmitted at a really low data rate. This is possible if the iPhone needed to transmit a 1,384 byte or larger frame at 1 Mbps to get such a Duration value. But I have all 802.11b rates disabled on my AP and verified in the packet trace that the iPhone was using 24 - 65 Mbps almost all the time, with only a few frames at my lowest available data rate of 6 Mbps.

After analyzing my packet trace I can find no evidence of my iPhone transmitting any data frames immediately after the control frame containing the high Duration value. This essentially rules out all three possible explanations.

Other possible explanations would be a poor client roaming algorithm that wants to halt traffic while it goes off-channel to scan for other APs to which it could roam, or a poorly designed battery saving technique for mobile devices. However, I captured on all three non-overlapping 2.4GHz channels and found no evidence of my iPhone probing on other channels during that 11ms time period. And using this as a battery saving technique doesn't even make a whole lot of sense because clients can already notify the AP of it's power save mode and the AP will buffer traffic until it wakes up, or at worst case send broadcast traffic at the configured DTIM interval, which is usually 102ms which allows for a much longer  sleep period anyways. Regardless, the iPhone indicated that it was staying awake (in active mode) in the control frames, so it appears to have not been putting the radio to sleep.

Frankly, I have no answer to explain this behavior. I don't exactly know what is going on.

The effect on a home network is likely to be small, since 11ms out of every 1 second is only about 1% of available airtime. However, in a corporate environment where mobile devices are being introduced into the environment at a staggering rate, the compound effect could be a serious reduction in Wi-Fi network performance and capacity! Think of having 30 students in a single classroom all connected with their mobile devices, 200 in a university lecture hall, or 500 at a trade show or conference. This is increasingly likely as smartphone and mobile device penetration is over 50% in the U.S. and other countries already, and consumers are typically carrying 2-3 Wi-Fi enabled devices with them at all time. The worst-case result in these environments would be so much reserved airtime that almost no network capacity would be left for actual user traffic. Just what we need trying to support tons of mobile devices on enterprise networks, huh.

If I uncover more details, I will update this post accordingly.

Thanks,
Andrew vonNagy

Wi-Fi Mobility Symposium, Live 25-Jan-2012

The Wi-Fi Mobility Symposium will take place on Jan. 25th, 2012 in San Jose, CA live and streaming on-line at the Tech Field Day website.

This one day event will bring together panelists from industry vendors developing the latest Wi-Fi technology with the larger community to discuss emerging solutions and provide a vision for the future. Stay tuned for a full list of panelists as they are announced prior to the event. Organized by the Gestalt IT crew of Stephen Foskett and Matt Simmons, and will be moderated by independent industry experts Marcus Burton and myself.

Tickets for free attendance will be available through EventBrite. Be sure to join the conversation on Twitter by following @TechFieldDay, @SFoskett, @standaloneSA, @MarcusBurton, @RevolutionWiFi, and the rest of the Wireless Field Day 2 delegate and sponsor participants.

Topics of discussion will include:

• Mobile Devices & BYOD - The appeal of the latest generation of smartphones and tablets is undeniable. Consumers are buying mobile devices in record quantities, replacing sales of traditional PCs and laptops, and becoming more tech-savvy than ever. And now they want that flexibility and ease-of-use in the workplace too. The industry is calling this trend the "consumerization of IT" and one thing is clear, enterprise IT departments have little say in the matter due to executive level sponsorship. Symposium panelists will present the challenges and opportunities with mobile devices in the workplace, and discuss solutions that allow IT departments to effectively enable workforce mobility without compromising corporate data security.
  
  
• Hotspot 2.0 - Public Wi-Fi hotspots are predicted to grow at an astounding rate, quadrupling in number from 1.3M to 5.8M between now ant 2015 according to the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA). Due in large part to the growing demand for mobile data by consumers and the lack of available capacity on cellular data networks (even after LTE upgrades), Wi-Fi offload has become a key strategy for most mobile network operators. Recognizing this need, the Wi-Fi Alliance and WBA teamed up to create the new Wi-Fi Certified Hotspot program which promises to provide a cellular-like user experience by streamlining Wi-Fi network selection and access. Hotspot operators will also be able to leverage cellular or 3rd party credential providers to facilitate network access and to provide data security. Symposium panelists will present the business drivers for the next generation of Wi-Fi hotspots, and discuss progress made by industry participants to bring Hotspot 2.0 solutions to market.
  
  
• Gigabit Wi-Fi - Speed is king. The desire for in-home video and multimedia distribution is growing as consumers increasingly adopt more dynamic time-shifted and location-shifted media consumption behaviors. Wireless networking is the preferred method due to its ease-of-use, ubiquity, and low-cost compared to wired network installation. Two separate standards are being developed to enable higher capacity and support for multiple high-def video streams: 802.11ac provides gigabit speeds for multi-room access and ensures backward compatibility with existing Wi-Fi equipment in the 5GHz frequency band, while 802.11ad provides multi-gigabit speeds at much shorter ranges but does not provide compatibility due to operation in the much higher 60GHz frequency range. Symposium panelists will present the benefits and development progress for both standards, and discuss use-cases within the home as well as enterprise environments.

Community discussion will be facilitated through live attendance as well as Twitter for those not able to attend in-person.

Supplemental material will also be provided through support from the Packet Pushers Podcast and the brand-new No Strings Attached podcast for Wi-Fi professionals!

We hope you will join us for this informative event on the future of the Wi-Fi industry!


Cheers,
Andrew vonNagy


P.S. - For a feel of what the Symposium is all about, check out the previous OpenFlow Symposium organized by Tech Field Day!

5 Retail Trends Driving Wi-Fi

Mobile shopping often requires in-store Wi-Fi

Retail Wi-Fi networks have long been dominated by inventory management applications and services that enabled a more productive workforce and leaner operations. However, brick-and-mortar retail is being disrupted due to the explosive growth from pure e-commerce competitors offering [often] lower prices and a more personalized shopping experience. In addition, the e-commerce sales channel offers deeper product information, community reviews, and greater levels of localization and customization that resonate with consumers.

Brick and mortar retail must adapt to compete in this new environment. A key component of this adaptation is delivering new IT solutions while leveraging the physical assets of the storefront, mixing the benefits of in-store product "touch-and-feel" with the personalization of e-commerce shopping. Merging these two worlds together will create an enhanced shopping experience through the use of mobile Internet devices, often connected through Wi-Fi networks.

Here are 5 retail trends that are driving Wi-Fi growth and new capabilities in retail organizations.

1. Consumer Interaction and Business Analytics
   Physical retailers have the most influence over consumer purchase decisions in the store, when they are standing in front of the product they are weighing whether or not to buy. Historically, this has been through in-aisle marketing and signage. However, customers are increasingly equipped with mobile Internet access and turning to external sources of information in real-time while within a retail store. This has been coined the emergence of the "smart shopper". These external sources of information are much more comprehensive than what the retailer can provide through traditional in-aisle marketing and signage, and this leaves the physical retailer at a big disadvantage.
   
   Physical retailers are turning to multi-channel initiatives to enable in-aisle consumer interaction on mobile devices. Multi-channel is the broad alignment of in-store, online, and mobile retail channels into a cohesive experience and set of services for the consumer. It can also include mail-order, catalog, and telephone channels as well. This is accomplished through cross channel integration of back-end systems for product information, inventory, pricing, promotions, order fulfillment, and unified CRM (customer relationship management) systems for a complete view of the customer across all channels. It provides conveniences and benefits for the consumer such as consistent pricing, ship-to-store, ship-to-home, expanded assortment, unified checkout (in-store and online product), list and gift/wedding registry management, and more.



The emergence of the "smart shopper"

Guest Wi-Fi is a key enabler of in-store multi-channel initiatives to interaction with consumers on mobile devices. It enables the retailer to provide guests with an avenue for Internet access, product research, and broader access to the retailer's website and mobile applications, which can often be richer and more personalized than what can be offered in-store. Cellular connections can also provide this access, but coverage is typically poor inside most retail stores. Wi-Fi is preferred over cellular because it is owned and operated by the retailer, and provides reporting insight into consumer behavior and rich business analytics including mobile platform usage, web destinations, and product research. These analytics allow retailers to better understand consumer desires, tailor in-store product assortments, focus marketing campaigns by location, personalize marketing and promotions to individual shoppers, and quickly identify changing consumer and market trends to allow faster adaptation.




Digital wallets can improve retailer
"wallet share" and brand loyalty


Mobile payment and digital wallets can also be provided to allow consumers flexibility in payment options at point of sale. In lieu of a large hardware investment by retailers in touch-to-pay (contactless payment) solutions at the register, mobile payments can leverage mobile applications and guest Wi-Fi data connections to provide similar services at a fraction of the cost. And digital wallet solutions allow retailers to maintain "wallet share" for brand loyalty cards. How many times have you signed up for a retailers rewards card, only to find your wallet too thick, remove cards to save space, and end up without the card when making a purchase?

Imagine walking into a store, automatically connecting to Wi-Fi to easily research products, pricing, and availability, receiving personalized shopping offers on your phone tailored to your shopping history (if you're a loyalty customer) as well as tailored to your location within the store (leveraging location based services). Or perhaps you've scanned a 2D/3D barcode on a product to retrieve additional information on the website and being presented with a coupon in real-time for that very product. Retailers are betting that consumers will be interested in these types of services, which may sound invasive to privacy today, but may become normal in the not-too-distant future. Retailers will need to strike the appropriate balance between privacy concerns, use of consumer opt-in (not opt-out), appropriate use of data, and appropriate levels of consumer interaction to be successful.

There is often a fear that allowing competitive research that will negatively affect retail sales. However, consumer research and analyst predictions have shown that retailers do not need to have the lowest price as long as they are competitively priced or convenient:


Deloitte predicts that in 2011, 25 percent of North American big box and anchor tenant retailers will begin offering free in-store Wi-Fi access to shoppers... [and] cellular signals can be highly variable: weak signals and low speeds are common, especially deep inside a store. Without Wi-Fi, the in-store online experience is often frustrating and dissatisfying… When shoppers do in-store online comparison shopping, preliminary and anecdotal evidence suggests the likelihood of purchasing appears to go up, not down. A common reason why shoppers do not make a purchase is that they are paralyzed by the lack of knowledge: “is this item available elsewhere for a much better price?” When an online search reveals that competitor’s prices are similar, many shoppers proceed with the purchase at the store they are in, rather than drive around just to save a few dollars.


- Source: Deloitte (also see this video presentation)

Digital interaction with the consumer through mobile platforms enables retailers to remain competitive and continue to influence purchase decisions where they matter most, in-store. Multi-channel initiatives blend the personalization and convenience of shopping online with the touch and feel of physical products in the store; it allows the retailer to leverage their physical assets most effectively. Wi-Fi will be at the epicenter of this change.


2. Empowering Sales Associates
Given the increasingly connected and smart shopper, consumers now have more product information than in-store sales associates in many cases. Yet sales staff are key to providing a great consumer experience in-store. Retailers need to empower sales associates with the depth of product information that consumers have, and to provide additional tools that facilitate existing and new services offered by the retailer.

Historically, only a fraction of retail sales associates have been provided with mobile devices, and those devices have enabled only a limited set of  capabilities such as stocking, inventory management and product availability. One reason for this is the high cost of ruggedized mobile devices for use in retail. A typical high-speed scanner PDA can cost well over $1,200 each. In order to provide every sales associate with more information to help consumers, retailers are adopting lower-cost, feature-rich, smart mobile devices that provide more robust capabilities than specialized scanners. Mobile platforms built by Apple, Android, and third-party manufacturers are enabling this shift, along with a retail IT focus on enabling business processes in a more flexible, consistent, and re-usable fashion.





Smart mobile devices and apps can empower sales associates


Leveraging these smart mobile devices, retailers are rolling out new services such as expanded-aisle and mobile POS (point-of-sale). Expanded-aisle capabilities allow sales associates to easily retrieve additional product and assortment information for consumers from the retailer's back-end systems, show consumers rich media content such as videos and product demonstrations, send the consumer more information to their mobile phone or email in real-time, and seamlessly integrate with the retailer's e-commerce website to facilitate checkout and payment activities. Mobile POS capabilities allow the retailer to provide a better customer checkout experience in many situations. These include faster checkout for small basket sizes, flexible checkout locations throughout the store, easier checkout for large bulky items (e.g. furniture, appliances), electronic receipts, and relief of line congestion during peak hours without dedicating floor space to more register lanes.

Empowering sales associates with smart mobile devices on a larger scale than before will require a robust, well-designed Wi-Fi network that can handle greater capacity and is highly reliable. Like the old political slogan "a chicken in every pot," retail is adopting "a mobile device in every hand!"


3. The In-Store Digital Experience
   The in-store experience is critical to connecting and engaging customers with relevant merchandise and marketing information to capture their attention and turn browsers into buyers. Increasingly this means replacement of printed signage with one-way or interactive digital solutions that provide real-time, dynamically updated content that can be roll out in minutes or hours, instead of days or weeks.
   
   Retailers are deploying one-way digital signage and electronic shelf labels in aisles and on end-caps, which can be updated immediately once changes have been decided by corporate staff, replacing long lead times for printing and distribution of paper signage materials. Digital signage is expensive, cannot be placed at every desired location, and locations requirements will change seasonally with product. Therefore, these systems will require portability. Running Ethernet cabling to every possible location is also not financially attractive, so these systems will rely on Wi-Fi networks for management, monitoring, and content retrieval. Interactive digital kiosks are migrating from fixed location solutions to mobile solutions as well.
   
   

   

   Connected electronics require Wi-Fi for
   product demonstrations and consumer interaction

   
   Connected electronics allow retailers to showcase Internet-connected consumer electronics capabilities and increase sales. Consumer devices such as televisions, DVD/Blu-Ray players, gaming systems, music systems, computers, tablets, and smartphones are integrating more digital content and streaming services as core product features which drive differentiation and purchase decisions. Retailers will need to connect these devices to in-store Wi-Fi to demonstrate these capabilities to consumers to enhance the shopping experience. At the same time, provisioning and management of these devices will be challenging due to their lack of enterprise features, high churn rate (as product assortments change), and necessity for well-developed in-store processes and staff training.


4. Expanding Branch Office Services
   In order to remain competitive, retail organizations must deliver better customer service in their physical stores. This is accomplished by migrating away from traditional lean-branch operational models focused on cost reduction to a more sophisticated service-rich operational model within the store. Deploying integrated and context-aware services into the store for both sales associate and customer use will translate into a better shopping experience, return visits, and brand loyalty.
   
   New services such as robust wireless telephony solutions can enable better availability and improve responsiveness of sales associates for customer assistance by tying service desks to every associate in real-time, as well as provide push-to-talk integration for integrated in-store communications. Digital video services over wireless enable increased security by providing real-time video feeds to in-store security personnel, and can enable videoconferencing for merchandise planning and collaboration with headquarters staff. Location based services allow retailers to provide relevant services to customers, such as targeted promotions that appeal to today's cost-conscious consumer or in-store navigation (wayfinding) to improve the customer shopping experience. Location services will also require the Wi-Fi network to be deeply integrated with back-end marketing systems, making it more integral to core retail business operation.
   
   Traditionally, these types of services were only available within campus networks due to the cost of deployment into highly distributed branch offices. However, virtualization and deeper integration between network and application architectures are making these services available for branch offices at more reasonable costs.
   
   Increasingly, retail Wi-Fi networks are providing more intelligent capabilities rather than serving as a basic network access mechanism. As a rich source of real-time and context-aware data, retailers are exposing Wi-Fi network information through APIs for consumption by broader enterprise services and applications. Wi-Fi networks are becoming highly-integrated with core business systems.


5. High Availability
   The modern retail branch Wi-Fi network must be highly available, even more so than the wide-area network (WAN) circuits back to the main office or data centers. This requires site survivability without loss of functionality. Survivability of historically centralized services such as directory, RADIUS, DHCP, and DNS will need to be to in place to prevent failure of local network connections and applications, service outages, loss of business functionality, and impact to core retail business operations.
   
   High availability can be accomplished either through deployment of centralized services down to each branch or by installation of an intelligent wireless network. Deployment of services to each branch can be a very expensive undertaking, requiring physical or virtual server deployment, licensing, maintenance, data replication, higher WAN bandwidth, and extensive growth of management and monitoring tools for these distributed services. Alternatively, an intelligent Wi-Fi network can dynamically adjust for the loss of central services and provide site survivability for a period of time until those services can be restored. It can accomplish this through a robust software feature set that integrates RADIUS, provides credential caching with directory services, and dynamically monitors central services to intelligently transition to local network survivability when required. What's better is that this functionality is built into the network and doesn't require deployment of additional hardware, software, or management tools.

Revolution or Evolution? – Andrew’s Take
Modern retail branch wireless networks must provide a high capacity, performance-rich, distributed, scalable, highly available, and stable architecture that also provides intelligent, context-aware services that integrate directly into back-office merchandising, marketing, and analytics systems. Wi-Fi networks are migrating from a best effort inventory focused service, to a core retail business enabler that demands much higher performance and service levels. Along with this shift, business partners and key stakeholders will take a much more involved and active role in determining network requirements to support core business capabilities. IT organizations must understand and navigate this change effectively to be considered business partners rather than an inflexible organization the business teams will seek to bypass.

Cheers,
Andrew vonNagy

This article originally appeared on the Cisco Mobility blog as a 3-part series (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3).

Focus Enterprise Mobility on Building Organizational Value

Mobile devices are here to stay. Period.

A recent IDC survey highlighted the growth of mobile device use within the enterprise, as well as the burgeoning immaturity of corporate IT departments to take advantage of this trend with innovative use-cases and application development. Indeed, every organization that I have spoken with seems to be struggling with the mobile device trend in one fashion or another. Decisions abound from which platforms to support for corporate access, corporate liable versus personal liable ownership (and control), requirements definition, provisioning and management capabilities, and in-house application development versus outsourced (or none at all). Whew, what a lot for an organization to think about!

Given all of this work to be completed, how can organizations successfully embrace the emergence of mobile devices?

Focus on Business Strategy and Adding Value with Mobility
Organizations must remain focused on adopting mobile platforms for the correct reasons, namely to add value to the organization and drive competitive advantage. Work to identify existing business processes that can be improved through the use of mobile technologies and drive innovation into new capabilities and experiences for both employees and customers that disrupt current market dynamics. This can only be accomplished through collaboration across the organization, involving forward-thinking leaders from both core business teams and IT departments.

The vision is to leverage the broad and powerful capabilities of feature-rich mobile devices through nimble and innovative application development (in-house, outsourced, or purchased) that empower users to be more productive and have access to the full suite of business capabilities literally in the palm of their hands at all times, in an intuitive, integrated, and natural way. It's not simply enough to migrate existing processes into a mobile environment; organizations must re-invent core processes to take full advantage of mobile capabilities. The nirvana of this vision is to align business capabilities, ease-of-use, and mobility into one package with the resulting synergy creating powerful market disruption and competitive advantage.

Organizations should develop a comprehensive business strategy to incorporate mobilility by identifying core capabilities and processes that can benefit from mobile platforms. Building a parallel enterprise mobility strategy outside of the larger business context is the wrong approach and will ultimately result in mis-aligned capabilities that must be shoe-horned to fit business processes, deteriorating the value proposition.

It's also too easy to fall into the trap of adopting mobile platforms for the wrong reasons, such as consumer market trends, generic employee request, or executive fashion. It's actually interesting how many corporate mobile device initiatives begin at the executive level. How time's have changed from corporate IT forcing change to on an unwilling employee base, to employees and executives demanding support for the latest cool consumer gadget!

Different Scenarios Require Different Approaches
Organizations will need to build a framework of business processes, capabilities, and tools to meet various objectives, and deploy solutions as dictated by user role and responsibilities, if they have not done so already. Varying user roles will require unique workflows, interactions, and content which leverage various and mobile platforms and applications. Organizations must acknowledge and understand these variances, and be prepared to tailor solution requirements accordingly.

Here are a few examples:

• Office users may require access to mobile email, calendaring, document collaboration, and eventually unified services such as voice and video collaboration.
• Knowledge workers on the other hand may require more advanced capabilities to conduct in-depth research, prepare subject-matter design documents, view rich media content, and collaborate more broadly inside and outside the organization.
• IT staff will benefit from access to networked systems for on-demand provisioning, maintenance and support, especially given the shortage of skilled IT workers within many enterprises. Allowing greater mobile and remote access will provide organizations flexibility to leverage workers with specialized skill sets more effectively.
• Manual workers may require access to only a few, well designed applications that allow execution of well-defined tasks. For instance retail associates may require application functions to perform product lookup, inventory management (both in-store and online), transaction processing, and two-way radio communications.
• Educational institutions may require unique workflows tailored to classroom use, allowing teachers and administrators to easily and intuitively control student mobile devices to enhance, rather than detract, the learning experience. Immersive and rich digital content are best suited for tablets to engage students.

No "one-size fits all" strategy will exist, and organizations should develop a broad ecosystem of platforms, capabilities, and applications tailored to fit varying user roles and processes. Strategies surrounding native versus web apps and in-house development versus sourced packages will need to be determined to meet varying business purposes, but the fact remains that mobile platforms should enable an immersive experience that is intuitive to the user. This also means that many organizations will have to settle on a hybrid device adoptance model, supporting both corporate-liable and personal-liable devices.

Additionally, capabilities and solutions will need to evolve to meet changing demands. This should be fluid throughout the organization, from business strategy, tactical planning, application development, provisioning, support, and troubleshooting. For instacne, while office workers may be requesting simple email and calendar integration today, tommorrow will bring a new set of requirements. Are your organizational processes able to quickly adapt to support document collaboration, video conferencing, or voice on mobile devices? If not, how will you get there? Being able to deliver new capabilities fast and efficiently will be required in this fast-paced environment and will be a point of differentiation.

Non-Functional Requirements
But many may be wondering, "what about security concerns to control data access and prevent information theft?" Let me go out on a limb here and say that while mobile device security is part of the overall consideration, it should not be the focus of enterprise mobility. Organizations should focus on incorporating enterprise mobility into the broader business strategy, identifying and prioritizing business areas where integration makes the most sense.

Don't Overreact About Mobile Device Security

A level-headed approach to determining non-functional requirements, including security, should be sought. Many organizations fear the unknown and the information security personnel are quick to point out the risks of supporting mobile devices. Although security is a key consideration for mobile device adoption, it should not overshadow the potential business value. Organizations that are quick to dismiss enterprise mobility due to security concerns will suffer a comparitive disadvantage versus competitors, and will likely work just as hard to enforce draconian constraints. These efforts would be better utilized by identifying gaps and architecting a multi-layered security strategy to minimize risk.

The new challenge for IT and for enterprise application owners will not be around technology and standards -- setting limits and narrowing choice -- but around helping manage this new hybrid infrastructure and in providing guidance to the business on the optimal deployment models for application productivity. IT is truly moving from a custodian role of setting standards and constraints to a far more strategic, trusted advisory role helping to guide key technology, policy and business-related considerations.

- Nicholas Evans, ComputerWorld

Enterprise mobile environment management and controls have been discussed ad-nauseum by various sources. Therefore, I will only outline the capabilities that should be considered and what functionality each provides.

• Information Security Policies define data classifications and controls that form the framework that guides conduct and appropriate use of corporate information. These policies should be in place and updated to protect information based on context including data classification, user role, location, date/time, and device/platform.
  
  
• Mobile Device Management enables corporate IT departments to effectively manage corporate-liable devices for provisioning and maintenance. This includes device inventory, settings, firmware updates, locking, and wiping. Many organizations inaccurately confuse MDM with mobile security, but the two are distinctly seperate. Although MDM may incorporate a subset of security capabilities, such as locking and wiping, it's core function is ... get this ... management of those devices. Not device security or data security. The confusion stems from MDM market vendors realizing the concerns over mobile device security and playing the tune to customers' ears. Overall, the MDM market is fairly robust, if not quite mature.
  
  
• Mobile Application Management will provide methods for organizations to deploy and manage corporate and 3rd party applications on mobile devices. This includes both corporate and personal liable devices. Application management should form the tactical focus for IT since this capability is core to enabling enterprise mobility. Enterprises should also pay close attention to how public application storefronts handle volume purchasing and distribution since these processes today are immature and often times too prohibitive.
  
  Another core feature is application security and data security. Due to the dual-purpose nature of almost all mobile devices, separating personal data from corporate data on mobile devices is becoming a mounting concern. This topic has been covered by The Enterprise Mobility Forum in their article on Personal Clouds Vs. Remote Device Wiping, and Douglas Haider in his ComputerWorld articles on The App Internet and Mobile Environment Management.
  
  Enterprise mobile application management is definitely immature today, look for advancements over the next 3 years to provide solutions in this space.
  
  
• Network Access Controls enable the organization to enforce information security policies through context-aware access enforcement throughout a corporate network. Solutions are emerging by network vendors that redefine network access controls to enable dynamic policy enforcement by closely matching policy. Example solutions include Cisco ISE/TrustSec, Aruba MOVE, and Aerohive Cooperative Control architecture. This goes beyond firewall and NAC capabilities, to provide true user and device identification, profiling, centralized policy management, edge policy enforcement, and comprehensive visibility.

Overall, it's important to understand that no single vendor provides comprehensive device, application, and data segmentation capabilities. Organizations will have to research and analyze solutions to meet their needs.

Combined together with the right approach, these capabilities will enable comprehensive mobile environment management without detracting from the the main objective of building organizational value through the strategic use of mobile technologies.

Revolution or Evolution? - Andrew's Take
Organizations are rushing to adopt mobile technologies, often without taking time to plan a strategic approach. Instead, organizations can build greater value by focusing these initiatives on strategically incorporating mobile capabilities into key business processes, tailoring the experience to the situation and the user, adopting a nimble and responsive application development and delivery framework, and taking a level-headed approach to meeting non-functional requirements.

Enterprise mobility is here to stay, spurred on by the advancements in mobile device platforms that are transforming our economy and culture. Mobile applications represent a disruptive shift in how consumers and users want to interact with the broader world.

Don't be left looking like grandpa!

Dilbert

Cheers,
Andrew

Hotspot Advancements Signal Wi-Fi Evolution

Multiple announcements of advanced Wi-Fi hotspot capability have been announced in the past week during the lead up to Mobile World Congress 2011. These announcements signify a significant effort to provide Wi-Fi hotspots that are easier to use, provide advanced capabilities, and can integrate with broader cellular mobile networks.

Cisco announced their MOVE Strategic Framework, which incorporates Service Provider Wi-Fi. Ruckus announced a Wireless Services Gateway for integration of back-end Wi-Fi and Cellular management and billing. Earlier this week, Nokia announced Smart WLAN, a software package aimed at automating roaming between cell and Wi-Fi networks. And finally, the IEEE 802.11u amendment is scheduled for final approval this month to provide standards-based advanced hotspot capabilities and inter-working with external networks.

I've written numerous times about the proliferation of Wi-Fi hotspots (including AT&T managed hotspot service), the growing need for cellular network operators to offload data from overburdened 3G networks, the growing importance of mobile commerce and marketing (especially with the Mobile Retail Initiative), Wi-Fi hotspots as a medium for consumer interaction, and the importance of the IEEE 802.11u amendment in integrating cellular and Wi-Fi networks.

Why are these announcements important? Because they signify that the Wi-Fi industry has turned a corner. No longer is Wi-Fi being regarded as the ugly unlicensed spectrum step-child of much larger licensed spectrum networks. The realization that Wi-Fi is important as a complementary service to cellular mobile networks has sunk in. Wi-Fi can provide localized capacity growth sufficient to meet surging mobile data usage, and this strategy has now permeated carrier roadmaps to the point that the leading Wi-Fi market vendor has responded. In addition, retailers are clamoring to better engage customers where they have the most influence, in-aisle through mobile advertising. The lack of sufficient indoor cellular penetration coupled with the high expense of cell repeater and DAS solutions, and immature femtocell solutions are driving retailers toward Wi-Fi hotspot deployment.

These announcements are more about industry innovation and service integration capabilities (what Cisco calls Hotspot 2.0) than about incremental hardware improvements.

Cisco has done a nice job capturing the requirements needed for Hotspot 2.0 in this whitepaper just released. It's important to note, that while this announcement is geared toward mobile network operators, it is equally applicable to privately operated hotspots by independent establishments such as retailers, municipalities, educational institutions, and others.

Hotspot 2.0 Drivers:

• Growing Mobile Data Demand
• Economic Benefits of Offloading Mobile Data from Cellular to Wi-Fi
• Usability Problems of Today's Wi-Fi Hotspots
• Security Threats of Open Wi-Fi Hotspots

Hotspot 2.0 Solutions:

• Selective IP Traffic Offload (Carrier Core Network vs. Public Internet)
• QoS Preservation
• Improved End-User Experience on Wi-Fi Hotspots
• Automated Network Selection, Authentication and Roaming by Devices (not Users)
• Flexible Authentication Options to Support Multiple Devices and Roaming Agreements
• In-Band Account Provisioning
• Network Type Advertisement (private, free public, paid public)
• Network capability advertisement through the new layer 2 protocols (GAS and ANQP; similar to EAP where the access point acts as an intermediary proxy between client and server)
• Service Advertisement and Monetization through MSAP (Mobility Services Advertisement Protocol)

However, some very big outstanding questions remain:

• Infrastructure Availability of Hotspot 2.0 Functionality
• Mobile Device Availability of Hotspot 2.0 Functionality
• Reduction of Handset and Carrier Implementation Variances
• Independent Network Operator Integration with Carrier Networks (via roaming agreements, etc.)

There is still a long way to go to realize advanced Wi-Fi hotspot services and seamless integration of cellular and Wi-Fi networks, but this is a great step in the right direction!

Wi-Fi is truly growing beyond its roots, from best-effort to mission critical, from private to public networks, from indoor to outdoor, and from isolated networks to large-scale integrated access networks. It's my firm opinion that "Hotspot 2.0" will prove to be a significant evolutionary milestone for Wi-Fi as a technology.

Come, share my excitement!

Cheers,
Andrew

Article Round-Up: 01/21/2011

Here are a collection of articles from the past week that I have found useful, interesting, or enlightening. As always, for a complete list of articles check out my shared article feed from Google Reader.


General Wi-Fi Related Articles
Aruba Networks and SOTI Partner to Enable Advanced Mobile Device Management (MDM): 

"SOTI MobiControl will be integrated with Aruba’s AirWave Wireless Management Suite for mobile device management."

This strategic partnership by Aruba Networks underscores the growing importance of proper management of your corporate mobile device fleet, as well as the need for IT departments to wrap their arms around supporting and securing personal / consumer class devices like tablets and smartphones.


Troubleshooting Checklist for 802.1X on Your WLAN: 

"Though 802.1X isn't the easiest protocol to implement, it should be a must for all organizations with more than a couple of employees using the wireless network. In this tutorial, we'll discuss how to troubleshoot 802.1X client issues."

Surveying with a 3502 (followup post): 

"Cisco 3502i Access Points have different radios in them than then 1142 Access Point making the 1142 an unsuitable substitute for a site survey... "

WLC: Generate Third Party Web Authentication Certificate for a WLC: 

"This is a step by step “how to” creating a CSR (Certificate Signing Request) with OPENSSL, processing a third-party certificate that is CHAINED and download it to the Cisco WLC."

Efficient enterprise Wi-Fi coverage requires hybrid approach: 

"The growing need for enterprise Wi-Fi coverage will prompt other new hybrid approaches to emerge, combining aspects of DAS, femtocell and FMC... By making your indoor network infrastructure investments do more, you may well be able to improve indoor coverage for many wireless services at a reduced total cost."

Organizations are increasingly looking to leverage a common infrastructure for both cellular and Wi-Fi solutions. However, converging these networks is not a simple task and market solutions need more time to mature.


Cloudy, With A Chance Of Networking - Network Computing: 

"Wireless providers are venturing into wired networking, a major acquisition has taken place, and one vendor makes commodity-class hardware compete with enterprise-grade components... The cloud is heating up, and the lines between wireless and wired networking are blurring."

Wi-Fi and wireline technologies continue to merge as evidenced by these three announcements. Aerohive expands into wired networking with it's acquisition of Pareto Networks as a strategic play for cloud network management, Meraki does the same with their new MX series routers with cloud control and management, and PowerCloud Systems turns commodity D-Link consumer routers into cloud-enabled enterprise devices.


Wi-Fi Direct Still Finding Its Stride - PCWorld: 

"About 20 products have been approved, but there were few new Wi-Fi Direct gadgets at the recent International Consumer Electronics Show... ''One of the challenges for Wi-Fi Direct was launching in October,' Broadcom's Brown said. 'It's really not timed very well for the fall selling season.' "

The poorly timed release of Wi-Fi Direct is a plausible conclusion. Given product development cycles, I would have expected product announcement to lag behind the feature certification availability. At this point, I wouldn't read too much into the lack of Wi-Fi Direct capable devices, they will come.


Videoconferencing to hit critical mass on mobile: 

"One of the most exciting areas in videoconferencing today is the integration of mobile devices and video, especially as end users grow increasingly comfortable with the form factor of smart phones and tablets"

Wi-Fi will be required for video for a while until 4G networks are built that can handle the traffic load. Even then, Wi-Fi will be the preferred delivery method to carry most of the load. Prepare your networks for video now!


Retail Wi-Fi / Mobile Articles
I posted two articles on the new PCI DSS v2.0 standard and what it means for Wi-Fi network administrators, Cisco announced the results of a recent PCI survey, and also announced a new PCI security solution for retail:


Best Practices to Achieve PCI Compliance for Wireless Networks - CWNP: 

"The recent release of PCI DSS version 2.0 provides a good opportunity to review these “minimum” industry guidelines for wireless networks and provide advice for retail organizations to achieve a successful audit."

Wireless PCI Compliance Resources - Revolution Wi-Fi: 

"it's important to understand the capabilities, limitations, and design choices available in your own environment. This can vary depending on the infrastructure vendor chosen."

Cisco Issues PCI Compliance Pulse Survey Findings – Results Reveal Changing Views on Data Security Compliance - Cisco News: 

"This survey demonstrates that the PCI Council is being successful in communicating and getting the active participation and increased adoption of the PCI standards among stakeholders. The findings also suggest that organizations are increasingly aware of the benefits of compliance."

Cisco Extends Wireless Security Beyond PCI Compliance - Cisco Blog

"Cisco is announcing significant improvements to its wireless network solutions that allow retailers to secure their wireless networks from attacks and improve security where point-of-sale data is transmitted wirelessly... new 'Enhanced Local Mode' (ELM) feature"

Cisco brings an integrated wireless intrusion prevention system (WIPS) to market to improve retail security, reduce CAPEX and OPEX expenses, and maintain market share leadership in the retail industry. If their solution proves capable enough to compete with overlay WIPS vendors, they'll have a compelling solution that cannot be ignored. This comes on the heels of Aruba Network's ArubaOS 6.0 release which enabled similar security functionality.

New mobile blueprint provides fresh insights: 

"retailers don’t want to share the space,” says David Dorf, Director of Technology for Oracle. “Retailers want to control their customer experience and they want to brand it to themselves."

It's important to understanding the "how's" and "why's" of retail mobile use cases to build effective mobile commerce and marketing solutions. Simply web-enabling current applications and consumer-facing services will lead to a poor user experience. Watch for retailers to innovate in mobile service delivery over the next year in order to differentiate from the crowd.


Surveys Highlight Sales Clerks' Problems: 

"Two surveys conducted for Motorola Solutions Inc. in December indicate that shoppers are becoming more informed than sales clerks, and sales clerks are sometimes frustrated by a dearth of store information."

A key component of retail e-commerce and m-commerce initiatives will be to outfit the sales clerks and customer representatives with enough information to enhance the customer experience in-store, driving greater foot traffic, providing a positive customer experience, and preventing customers from using brick-and-mortar stores as showroom floors for subsequent Internet purchases.


The Web's Chipping Away at Brick 'n' Mortar: 

"Shifting consumer buying patterns will drive changes in retail business models, fueling more e-commerce and hybrid approaches (order on the Web, pick up at your local store in an hour)."

I like the title of this article, as it does a pretty good job summing up the state of retail right now!


What will drive Mobile Marketing & Advertising in 2011?: 

"1. Relevance will be the key revenue driver for new mobile based services: With advanced trends such as Location-Based Services (LBS)... 

5. Rise of mobile based coupons, loyalty programs & deals..."

Starbucks Launches Mobile Barcode Payments: 

"Could this be the service that, finally, popularizes mobile payments and/or barcodes with mainstream US consumers?"

Mobile payments will come into their own in 2011, just as mobile coupons did in 2010. Look for both features to expand dramatically.


Expansion At Hand As M-Commerce Plans Gain: 

"M-commerce is also high on retailers' radar, with 69% of the executives surveyed saying mobile is an important strategic initiative -- up from 28% a year ago."

1% of shoppers say mobile is their primary online buying channel - Internet Retailer: 

"though mobile may not be most consumers’ primary buying channel, shoppers do turn to their web-enabled mobile devices to help them shop."

Evidence surfacing that mobile payments catching on in the U.S.: 

"communications service providers, financial institutions and retailers all seem to be ready to push ahead to allow consumers to make payments with mobile devices."

Christmas 2010 saw spike in mobile shopping: study - Mobile Commerce Daily - Research: 

"the spike in page views for Amazon on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday shows a clear trend towards consumers using the mobile Web as a tool for comparison-shopping or actual mobile commerce, or both."

Miscellaneous Articles
Top 10 Data Breaches of 2010 - www.esecurityplanet.com: 

"Surprisingly few of these big breaches are associated with trendy new technologies. Instead, many can be attributed to either old fashioned hacks, basic omissions in security best practices, or errors in security policies and processes."

Although Wi-Fi security tends to grab headlines, Lisa Phifer explains the real threats are more old fashioned.

IPv6: Smartphones compromise users' privacy - The H Security: News and Features: 

"operating systems transfer an ID that discloses information about their users... The problem is currently only affecting a small number of users because IPv6 is not yet in widespread use. However, German Telekom and several other IPs plan to offer IPv6 in addition to the old IPv4 during this year."

As the Internet migration to IPv6 accelerates with the now complete exhaustion of IPv4 addresses by the IANA, IPv6 security gaps will be exposed with increasing regularity.

Phone Home - Your Fridge Just Tweeted: 

"The most surprising revelations at CES, however, came on the household appliance front. Manufacturers presented a world where the Internet of Things is gradually realized"

Simplicity to Stimulate Innovation -Freedom to Think and Dream Big: 

"The best ideas are the simplest ones, and after you hear them they’re totally obvious, yet they evade us for years and years and years. You don’t have to be Albert Einstein or Stephen Hawking to have great ideas. You just have to think and keep your eyes open.” ~ Steve Levitt"

Comic for the week!
Doghouse Diaries - To Fi or Not to Fi
I suppose you could always leave it unlocked but make the network name something like, I’M A HACKER AND I’LL SNIFF YOUR PACKETS.

Cheers (and happy reading),
Andrew

Articles Worth Reading: 01/14/2011

Here are a collection of articles from the past week that I have found useful, interesting, or enlightening. As always, for a complete list of articles check out my shared article feed from Google Reader.


This week articles focus on news from the National Retail Federation (NRF) show,  advice for establishing corporate culture and creativity for entrepreneurs, some older Wi-Fi articles I just found, and more news flowing out of CES (particularly around smart meters, sensors, and the connected home).


Because of the diversity of articles (so many are must-reads and can't be left out), I've decided to start splitting this weekly recap into sections for easier digestion. Feel free to skip to the sections that interest you, at your leisure. After all, not everyone has the same interests as I do (whoda thunk)! 


Without delay, here they are...


General Wi-Fi Related Articles

Mathias On Mobility: The Wireless LAN Architecture Question -- InformationWeek: 

"most WLAN suppliers today offer controllers of one form or another. But there is, in fact, a difference between the controller as box and the controller as function"

A must read for wireless engineers to understand the fundamental design choices they face when evaluating solutions and vendors!


How to approach wireless LAN architectures: 

"Networking professionals need to understand the two paths in wireless networking: controller-centric approach, and a decentralized -- also known as controller-less or smart AP -- approach."

Aerohive Blog » Airtime Unfairness (aka SLA): 

"If you can control the airtime, then you can manipulate it based on policy, and that’s always a good thing."

Step 1 - control airtime. Step 2 - policy-based airtime control is even better. Aerohive is developing quite a suite of advanced wireless controls, while keeping them simple with SLA, Client Health Score, and TeacherView. I'll have more to come on this as I get my hands on some of their equipment!

802.11: It is the same EIRP, so why does antenna gain mater?: 

"Let me rephrase the dilemma. Is using 100 mW power on a radio with 3 dBi antenna the same as using 20 mW power on a radio with 10 dBi antenna? In both cases you have the same EIRP – 200 mW (I have disregarded the loss from the cables and connectors for the sake of better understanding. I am also using arbitrary numbers.)

Short answer? NO!"

Gregor does a great job re-enforcing the fundamentals with this article on the importance of Link Budget Calculations and antenna selection! Great job!

Wi-Spy: Five Years of Leading the Way | MetaGeek: 

"Here's a quick tour of the evolution of MetaGeek products, showing the progression from Wi-Spy Viewer 1.0 to Chanalyzer Pro, and how they have led the whole industry forward over the past five years."

MetaGeek has innovated with their Wi-Spy product line, and I'll be writing about their product soon.

Best practices for event-driven mobile communication systems - RCR Wireless News: 

"Enhanced mobile infrastructure is often a requirement for major events ranging from the Olympics or World Cup to concerts and festivals. The nature of these events presents specific challenges such as massive crowds, the temporary nature of the event, and the short timeframe allowed for deployment."

This article focuses on cellular challenges at large events, but is very applicable to Wi-Fi as well.

Boing Boing: WiFi isn't short for "Wireless Fidelity": 

"WiFi doesn't 'stand for' wireless fidelity. It's a pun on 'Hi-Fi' and 'wireless fidelity' doesn't mean anything."

An oldie but a goodie! I like to reference this article anytime media reports on "wireless fidelity". It's so annoying!

Survey finds big 2011 surge in enterprise mobile apps: 

"A survey of 250 IT managers finds that 9 out of 10 are planning this year to dramatically expand the number of mobile applications deployed at their companies."

Will your Wi-Fi network be ready for the onslaught of mobile devices? Prepare now, or face the consequences!


Retail Industry Specific Wi-Fi Articles


National Retail Federation - National Retail Federation Announces Release of Second Version of Mobile Blueprint: 

"Mobile adoption in retail is moving rapidly, ABI Research reports that through December 2010 mobile commerce excluding travel will have grown 143 percent from $1.4 billion in 2009 to $3.4 billion in 2010"

This is a *MUST* read if you support Wi-Fi in the retail industry.


“Is Your Brand Ready to Engage Mobile Consumers?” Asks ABI Research | Press Release | ABI Research: 

"mounting evidence points to a broadening awareness that mobile will soon become a necessary way to engage with customers and prospects."

Make Your Brick-and-Mortar Store More Like Your E-Commerce Site | ClickZ: 

"Big changes are in store (pun intended). The biggest trends in business today – mobile, social, relevance – are poised to change the in-store shopping experience dramatically."

Top 10 Things You Missed at the NRF Big Show 2011 | Retail Trends | RIS News: Business/Technology Insights for Retail, Supermarket Executives: 

"Executives from Macy’s, Food Lion and Tesco acknowledged the importance of WiFi availability in brick-and-mortar stores"

Cisco Blog » Blog Archive » Speed: 

"Wireless enables huge increases in business velocity. When information comes to you versus you going to where it is, you save enormous amounts of time. Saving time is the same as increasing speed."

The retail organization that I work for has a motto: "Speed is Life". Almost always, design trade-offs must be made between an ideal solution and one which simply meets the immediate objectives. As an engineer, understanding this fact is important to achieving success.

Cisco Blog » Blog Archive » PCI DSS: Survey Results Reveal More Focus on Complying than Complaining: 

"when asked in a recent Cisco-commissioned survey about their sentiments on PCI compliance, organizations were largely positive and on board with PCI."

Do your customers or your organization need guidance on PCI regulations? Look for some advice coming from Revolution Wi-Fi and CWNP soon!

Retail Chains - Retailers should bring the web inside stores, Cisco says - Internet Retailer: 

"Bringing e-commerce shopping features inside bricks-and-mortar stores could increase revenues for retailers, suggests a report released this week by Cisco Systems Inc."

Thoughts From NRF's Big Show: 

"It's understandable that retail companies are excited by interactive displays and other cool new technologies, because they feel that shopping in a store has to be as easy and satisfying as shopping online."

Sensor Networks & Smart-Home Articles
The more I read about sensor networks, I more that I am left with the vision that both Wi-Fi and Zigbee will be used as complementary technologies to achieve the connected home as well as smart buildings. Zigbee for sensor metrics and control throughout the home, and Wi-Fi for the 'central brains' to achieve broader integration with the Internet for information reporting, dissemination, and remote control. Imagine the synergies!


dailywireless.org » Connected TVs at CES: 

"Industry watchers and manufacturers estimate that nearly two-thirds of households in the United States now have a flat-screen set. This year manufacturers want to convince people that their new sets are already obsolete"

I'm happy using my Roku player with any old TV. Why would I spend more money on a connected TV when I can get a low-cost Roku for my existing flat-panel?

dailywireless.org » Connected Home at CES: 

"Cisco, General Electric, and Xerox shared the stage this morning at CES, to discuss smart metering, green technology and the connected home."

LG's Thinq automated oven, refrigerator, and washer / dryer are the future now (hands-on) -- Engadget: 

"The details of connectivity and interoperability are scarce but we do know that the appliances support both WiFi and ZigBee connectivity in order to communicate with each other, your in-home smart meter, and with smartphones when outside of the home."

Samsung WiFi-enabled RF4289 fridge cools, eats and tweets; we go hands-on -- Engadget: 

"Other brands may view networked fridges as the key to going green, but it seems Samsung is more interested in letting users access Pandora or tweet while grabbing a snack."

I think some engineers at Samsung got too excited about connected appliances and went haywire. Who wants to tweet or post on Facebook from their refrigerator? Seriously?!


Entrepreneurial Articles

5 things you’re doing that are killing your culture | VentureBeat: 

"If you’re serious about creating a great corporate culture, here are the five areas in which you need to assess your company"

6 Tips for Building a More Creative Company | MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog: 

"The lack of creativity at your office isn’t due to “not enough creative people,” but a company culture that resists change. This is what stifles remarkable ideas."

The Most Influential Consumers Online are on Twitter « Brian Solis Brian Solis: 

"Twitter is a human seismograph and it represents a transformative channel where everyday people possess the ability to affect actions."

Startup Professionals Musings: Lack of Integrity is an Easy Quality to Detect: 

"As an entrepreneur, your personal integrity is critical for getting and keeping the support of investors and team members, and your company’s integrity is critical for getting and keeping customers and vendors. But in a practical sense, what does that really mean?"

Rachel Botsman: The case for collaborative consumption | Video on TED.com: 

"At TEDxSydney, Rachel Botsman says we're 'wired to share'"

Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders | Video on TED.com: 

"Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg looks at why a smaller percentage of women than men reach the top of their professions -- and offers 3 powerful pieces of advice to women aiming for the C-suite."

Unfortunately, I've tended to notice many of these self-defeating traits among women that I know who are really motivated. Whatever the cause, we need more women in executive and influential positions.


... and 'NO', I'm not going to mention the Verizon iPhone on purpose!


And of course, your comic for the week!





Cheers (and happy reading)!
Andrew