Web Site To Help Teach Small Business Technology

The West Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation have created a new Web site designed to educate small businesses on beneficial technologies and applications. The site, www.wvconnectivity.net, is part of an ongoing statewide program to encourage small business people to use broadband and Web-based technologies to improve business performance, expand market opportunities and enhance competitiveness, according to a chamber press release.

The new program is called the West Virginia Small Business Technology Education and Competitiveness Initiative. The Web site is designed to:

• Generate greater demand for and use of broadband connectivity options among West Virginia small businesses, and
• Expand awareness, adoption and use of new Web-based technologies and business-solution technological applications that are available to improve West Virginia's small business competitiveness, performance capabilities and market reach.

"We have compiled a great deal of useful technology information on this site to make it easy for small business people to explore and consider new uses of cost-effective technologies," said Steve Roberts, President of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce." Most small business people do not have the time nor the capabilities to keep up with the latest business technologies and applications, so this site makes it easy for them to learn and stay informed," Roberts said.

"The site also will have a searchable of technology companies and service providers in West Virginia so small businesses can link with these technology solution providers." The site also has information that showcases how broadband connectivity can benefit community improvement, education, public safety, health care, economic development, "home-sourced" jobs, Roberts added.

The Coming Commoditization of Processes?

Provided is an excerpt from a thought-provoking article:

"However, a new world is coming, and it will lead to dramatic changes in the shape and structure of corporations. A broad set of process standards will soon make it easy to determine whether a business capability can be improved by outsourcing it. Such standards will also make it easier to compare service providers and evaluate the costs versus the benefits of outsourcing. Eventually these costs and benefits will be so visible to buyers that outsourced processes will become a commodity, and prices will fall dramatically. The low costs and low risk of outsourcing will accelerate the flow of jobs offshore, force companies to look differently at their strategies, and change the basis of competition. These changes are already happening in some process domains, and there are many indications that they will spread across virtually all commonly performed processes."

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/news/management-focus/the-coming-commoditisation-of-processes/2005/08/08/1123353247508.html?oneclick=true#

Indiana Schools Enrolling Open Source

Schools in Indiana have started a Linux pilot project that could lead to every secondary-school student in the state using the open-source operating system, according to software company Linspire. The Indiana Access Program is designed to provide affordable classroom computers for every secondary student. This program makes these systems available with the partnership of Indiana-based companies, benefiting the local Indiana economy.

Linspire, which sells a version of Linux aimed primarily at consumers, said "dozens" of classrooms across Indiana have already deployed the open-source operating system on desktops. If the trial is successful, around 300,000 Linux PCs could be deployed over coming years. This would allow every secondary-school student to have access to a Linux desktop in each classroom they visit during the day.

Proponents of open-source operating systems say school systems can save money by not having to pay the licensing fees associated with non-open source systems, such as those from Microsoft and Apple.