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Executive Update
Geolocation and Privacy: Part I -- Wide Choices, Legal Issues
Location-based services have many features and applications that all executives need to be aware of, as their organizations likely are, or will be, using them. The purpose of this two-part Executive Update series is to present a panorama of the varied location-based services accompanied by an analysis of the legal issues raised. The privacy implications of geolocation have to be evaluated according to the role played by the data subject and the collection and processing of personal information.
Tyler Cowan, an economics professor at George Mason University, came out with an interesting little electronic book (US $3.99 -- it's more of a long essay than a book) earlier this year entitled The Great Stagnation (Dutton Adult, 2011).
Many of the discussions I am exposed to as an agile consultant are about this question, "Have Agile methods crossed the chasm?" The client wants to know whether he or she will be using a software method that has reached a certain level of maturity and acceptance. Needless to say, the question is of critical importance.
Businesses are faced with ever-increasing complexity, competition, and cost pressures. Vendors espouse new products and "silver bullet" solutions, but more often than not, they fall short of expectations, and worse, add to the complexity of IT challenges. Yet there is hope for getting a handle on this complexity and finally addressing the challenge of business/IT alignment. The approach is not based on a new product or technology but on an architectural foundation that brings the complexity of IT into focus from a business perspective.
Despite the hype, despite the maturity of some vendors and their offerings, the cloud/software as a service (SaaS) world is still in its infancy. There are mature offerings, but there are also immature offerings.
This survey examined how organizations perceive and are using tablet devices. Sixty-two percent of the 103 respondents come from organizations headquartered or based in North America, 16% from organizations in Australia/Pacific, 11% from organizations in Europe, 3% from organizations in Asia, and the remainder from organizations in other regions.