Eideard

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, has tweeted about how his company “screwed up MySpace in every way possible”…

It is the first time Murdoch has tweeted about the social network and his experience of owning MySpace for six difficult years, since joining the microblogging platform. It was in the context of several technology-related tweets he has written about the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which has been going on all week.

Murdoch tweeted: “CES again. Big three, Apple,Google and Amazon, and maybe Facebook dominant now and growing. Plenty of others good, but not in same league.”

He then wrote: “CES coming to a close. Seems like more innovation than ever, some great, all disruptive. Traditional coys [companies] feeling digital tornado.”

Murdoch has spoken out before about how difficult owning MySpace was, after finally selling it off to advertising company Specific Media and Justin Timberlake last year, for approximately $35m – just six per cent of what News Corporation paid for the business. Murdoch’s business is understood to have retained a small undisclosed stake in the social network, but is not involved in the day to day running of it…

MySpace, which started as a site on which users could share their interest in pop and rock bands, has in the last four years been totally eclipsed by the explosive growth of competitor Facebook.

“This was a good example of how to turn $580 million into a lot less virtually overnight,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner, a technology research firm, at the time of the sale to Specific Media last year. “In many ways, it was a failed merger.”

Murdoch proved, once again, that corporate executives with their brain stuck in last century solutions and methods – will run modern Web exterprises as badly as the worst of their existing/declining ventures.

Murdoch proved incapable of innovation, unable to keep up with the crowded field of peers in the world of geek dynamism. And he wasn’t bright enough to hire someone who could.

ScanEagle ready for launch

Individually, insects have proven a deep well of inspiration for robotics engineers looking to mimic designs refined over millions of years of evolution. Now Boeing has demonstrated swarm technology for reconnaissance missions using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that is similar to the way insects communicate and work together as an intelligent group. Potential uses for the technology include search-and-rescue missions and identifying enemy threats ahead of ground patrols.

In flight tests over the rugged terrain of eastern Oregon last month, different types of UAVs worked together to search the test area by autonomously generating waypoints and mapping the terrain, while simultaneously sending information to teams on the ground. The mission used two Insitu-manufactured ScanEagles and one Procerus Unicorn from The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), which communicated using a Mobile Ad Hoc Network and swarm technology developed by JHU/APL.

“This is a milestone in UAV flight,” said Gabriel Santander, Boeing Advanced Autonomous Networks program director and team leader. “The test team proved that these unmanned aircraft can collect and use data while communicating with each other to support a unified mission.”

JHU/APL principal investigator Dave Scheidt says that the decentralized swarm technology demonstrated in the flight tests has the potential to improve response times while reducing manning requirements when compared to current systems. A broader demonstration of the swarm technology is planned for next month.

Rock on! Living in the southern Rockies we get to witness search-and-rescue technology at work all too often. The better and faster we can make it – the better it will be for folks who look for adventures in the wilderness.

Circulation declines and falling revenue for newspapers and magazines have fueled concern that Americans are replacing traditional offline news sources with online sources. However, a new study by the Pew Center for People and the Press that looked at time spent with different sources of news found that growth in online news consumption hasn’t come at the expense of traditional media such as newspapers and television, but rather has added to it. In fact, people are spending more time with the news than they have at almost any point over the last 15 years, according to the Center’s research.

While it’s true there’s been a gradual decline in the number of people who say they get their daily news from newspapers, magazines and television (with newspapers suffering the biggest decline in consumption), the Pew study found that some of this decline was being compensated for by the increase in numbers of people who were finding their news online, and many people were also adding online consumption to their existing news habits. This has caused the amount of time spent on news to actually increase over the past few years, the center’s research shows, to the point where overall time spent is as high as it was 15 years ago…

More than a third of those surveyed said that they got news from both digital and traditional sources, which the Pew Center said suggests that “instead of replacing traditional news platforms, Americans are increasingly integrating new technologies into their news consumption habits.”

I’d call this good news.

Wonder what sort of ideologue, pundit or pipsqueak would say otherwise?

Chezi K. Ganesan looks every inch the high-tech entrepreneur, dressed in the Silicon Valley uniform of denim shirt and khaki trousers, slick smartphone close at hand. He splits his time between San Jose and this booming coastal metropolis, running his $6 million a year computer chip-making company.

His family has come a long way. His grandfather was not allowed to enter Hindu temples, or even to stand too close to upper-caste people, and women of his Nadar caste, who stood one notch above untouchables in India’s ancient caste hierarchy, were once forced to bare their breasts before upper caste men as a reminder of their low station.

“Caste has no impact on life today,” Mr. Ganesan said in an interview at one of Chennai’s exclusive social clubs, the kind of place where a generation ago someone of his caste would not have been welcome. “It is no longer a barrier…”

India is enjoying an extended economic boom, with near double-digit growth. But the benefits have not been equally shared, and southern India has rocketed far ahead of much of the rest of the country on virtually every score — people here earn more money, are better educated, live longer lives and have fewer children.

A crucial factor is the collapse of the caste system over the last half century, a factor that undergirds many of the other reasons that the south has prospered — more stable governments, better infrastructure and a geographic position that gives it closer connections to the global economy.

“The breakdown of caste hierarchy has broken the traditional links between caste and profession, and released enormous entrepreneurial energies in the south,” said Ashutosh Varshney, a professor at Brown University who has studied the role of caste in southern India’s development. This breakdown, he said, goes a long way to explaining “why the south has taken such a lead over the north in the last three decades.”

Cynicism isn’t required to look somewhat askance at this article. Yet, I understand the process of history. After all, taking part, taking a leading part in commerce is not so much a leveler for individuals but a bringer of opportunity. Especially to those outside the backwardness of previous political royalty.

RTFA. There is a great deal of information whether you accept the analysis or conclusions. Some of the latter are confirmed – and welcome. I only speak as someone who has witnessed decades of American stubbornness at maintaining our national racism as a cultural “heritage”.

The interview was recorded just before the start of CES. I thought I’d poke it out here on the site for a couple of reasons:

1. The North American Auto Show opens today in Detroit and Ford swept both Car of the Year – the Fusion Hybrid – and Truck of the Year – the Transit Connect. While I’m not ever likely to buy the former, the latter is in the running – though I’d prefer a pickup truck on the same platform.

2. That’s a good start to the show. There will be lots more – including coverage from the “fringe” counter-show which skipped the creaky Cobo Hall venue and is using nearby casinos [Uncle Dave will appreciate the difference].

3. Mulally is a geek.

4. Disclaimer – I own a little Ford stock. Not that they’d notice.

Cleantech investment is on the rise again, according to two reports released this week, hitting $1.2 billion in the second quarter. “Cleantech venture investment has rebounded moderately after free-falling for two consecutive quarters,” said Brian Fan, senior director of research for the Cleantech Group, in a press release…

The Cleantech Group, which tracks deals in North America, Europe, China and India, said Wednesday that cash was distributed among more companies, too: 94 compared with 82 in the first quarter. Meanwhile, Greentech Media put the number of deals in the second quarter at 85 vs. 59 in the first…

The similarities in the reports also shed light on areas of investment in cleantech trends in the second quarter. Aside from agreeing that cleantech venture capital grew, both groups listed transportation technologies, including vehicles, biofuels and batteries, as among the top investment categories in the second quarter.

The Cleantech Group said that transportation, boosted by stimulus funding and increased attention on the automotive industry, raised the most cash – with $236 million for vehicles, $206 million for biofuels and $165 million for advanced batteries. Greentech Media put transportation deals in second place at more than $202.5 million and clumped biofuels, gasification and cleaner coal together in third place, with a total of more than $195 million. The energy-storage category, including batteries and fuel cells, came in fourth with $181.5 million.

Meanwhile. the “new whine in an old bottle” crowd – you, know, the dweebs who claim to be legitimate skeptics about climate change with their fingers crossed behind their collective backsides – have been claiming that Wall Street and Venture Capital are walking away from Green investing. I think they know less about investing than they claim to know about climate science.

No one was surprised when Greentech investing diminished during the screaming meemie days of mid-recession. Only a fool and followers of same would claim that Greentech was singled out for a reduction in investment. Those of us who follow tech markets in general knew the difference – and it’s nice to see knowledgeable sites like earth2tech.com record the changes taking place.

The GigaOM Network has been increasing its group of tech blogs, but its newest feature is a subscription research service called GigaOM Pro.

Om Malik, the founder of GigaOM Network, plans to sell in-depth research reports on technology sectors and shorter, timely reports on companies and news in those sectors to technology and business executive. Subscriptions to the service, which GigaOM is unveiling Thursday, will cost $79 a year at first and more down the road, said Mr. Malik, in an interview. (Read Mr. Malik’s blog post on GigaOM Pro here.)

GigaOM is the latest example of a Web company that once relied solely on advertising for revenue adding new revenue streams. On Monday, I wrote about other start-ups making similar shifts.

“To assume that there is only one revenue stream, which is advertising, is kind of short-sighted in this kind of media economy,” Mr. Malik said. He does not believe in charging for content that publishers have already given readers for free, so GigaOM Pro adds additional services. Readers have asked for deeper analysis than blog posts can provide, he added…

Six GigaOM Pro analysts will cover four areas: infrastructure, mobile, green I.T. and the connected consumer. Led by Michael Wolf, who recently joined GigaOM from the analysis firm ABI, they will add more topics in coming weeks. Bloggers for GigaOM blogs will contribute content.

GigaOM Pro will also offer longer briefings, like a 23-page report on the smart energy home or a 65-page briefing on social media in the enterprise. There are quarterly and weekly wrap-ups and closer looks at certain companies in a sector, such as a report on whether Google will lead the way in mobile app innovation and an analysis of Cisco’s acquisition of Pure Digital. Analysts also publish collections of links to relevant articles from around the Web.

I suppose this wouldn’t be especially newsworthy or a topic for a diarist like me – except for the fact that it centers on Om Malik. Om is not a guru; but, his knowledge of tech business – grounded in a global understanding of many business streams – provides a heck of a lot more useful information than does anyone more likely to use the title.

I don’t give investment advice except to a couple of close kin. I think I ain’t bad at it because I got back to where I was before the recent crash – last week. But, if there is anyone in print, digital or otherwise, that I might credit with prompting a few of my picks – it would be Om.

Daylife/Getty Images

Command of the issues, cool confidence and disarming smile aside, Barack Obama might just owe his campaign’s success to his team’s ability to harness the technology at their fingertips. Social networking, broadband and data management all played huge roles in making the Obama campaign the most personalized presidential campaign ever…

Data drove many decisions for the campaign. The team amassed more than 13 million email addresses and more than 5 million friends across the social networking landscape. Of the roughly $750 million Obama raised, two-thirds of it was donated online. There were field offices across the nation. Data was coming from everywhere — every time someone signed up on Facebook, donated $5 or requested info from my.barackobama.com, the campaign got at least a phone number or an email address.

Corralling the various data was critical, Luke Peterson said during the presentation, as it allowed the campaign to “break down the walls between departments.” In early 2007, when Iowa was the focus, Team Obama built a tool that meshed voter registration data with data collected online to determine the geographic location of voters. This allowed precinct organizers to more fully personalize the experience for voters in their precincts. Instead of generic phone calls asking people to vote for Obama, callers were able offer rides to caucus locations or talk about issues that voters might have raised via a forum post. While all this was going on in Iowa, another web tool was feeding information to volunteers in states with later primaries and caucuses, who built and grew coalitions until the official campaign focused its attention on those states.

The main objective of this data integration strategy was to make the most of resource expenditures. The Obama campaign didn’t want to waste time going through the phonebook cold calling, so it used data mining and integration to figure out “who the cream was on our barrel,” on whom it should unleash its hordes of volunteers. This was the campaign’s single biggest technology-derived success…

Makes good sense to me. The Rove-directed Republicans did similar work, though, focused by premise on a smaller demographic grounded in religion and reactionary ideology.

Welcome to the fourth annual Pogie Awards, celebrating the very best in consumer technology! More than 7,000 products submitted, from 93 countries. More than eight million people voting by text message. A $1 million grand prize.

That would be nice, wouldn’t it? Actually, it’s just me sitting in my office. And there aren’t any prizes. Still, this is my chance to give a nod to the best technology ideas of 2008. Not the best products – in fact, sometimes they’re terrific ideas wasted on dumb products. No, these are the strokes of inspiration, the clever twists, the flashes of genius that somehow made it through committee, past the lawyers and into the marketplace.

What a concept: an online software catalogue, stocked with thousands of wildly creative, visually stunning, free or cheap new software programs that download directly to your phone – no computer needed.

It began with Apple’s iPhone App Store, then spread to the Google Android Market; the Palm App Store opened this week, and the BlackBerry Store opens in March.

An app store turns a smartphone into something completely different: a pocket laptop, a stamp of individuality, an indispensable companion. It becomes the reason you buy one of these machines in the first place.

And by making room for those 10,000 individual great ideas – the apps themselves – the app store concept takes the trophy as the Tech Idea of the Year.

RTFA. Several prizewinners. Lots of humor. Lots of insight.

Barack Obama’s transition team appointed three people to develop technology policy priorities for the Obama administration.

Blair Levin, an analyst at financial services company Stifel Nicolaus focusing on telecom, media and technology regulations, served as chief of staff for Reed Hundt when he was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

Sonal Shah runs Google’s philanthropic initiatives. She’s the head of Google.org, which aims to use technology to address climate change, poverty and disease. Shah has worked for the Treasury Department and the National Security Council and serves on the Obama-Biden Transition Project Advisory Board, which has been managing the transition.

The third member of the working group is Julius Genachowski, cofounder of Rock Creek Ventures and LaunchBox Digital. Genachowski has worked at IAC and served as chief counsel at the FCC. He, too, is on the Obama-Biden Transition Project Advisory Board.

Obama has laid out a technology plan that includes investing in scientific research, ensuring that the Internet is open and bringing broadband to more people. He has said he plans to be the first president to appoint a chief technology officer who will guide technology priorities.

Cripes. We’re still waiting to see who will be the CTO?