Web 2.0 : In the News

Macomb County is putting info into the Cloud. So is Rochester Hills. And Sterling Heights. U-M has launched Google Apps for Education, to service their 90,000 students and faculty. Online technology isn't just a fad, it's become an economic strategy for cutting municipal budgets.

Excerpt:

"Robert Ferrari, director of digital strategy for Michigan Municipal League, said information technology upgrades are a big investment for cash-strapped jurisdictions.

"They have to buy servers, backup and hardware, where with the cloud you can kind of rent or pay on a monthly basis. You don't have the cost of having to update that infrastructure to stay current. That's what the big boys are for — the AT&Ts, the Googles, the Microsofts — to provide that support," Ferrari said."

Read the rest here.

In a guest editorial, the executive chairman and former CEO of Google makes the case that if we want our region to be economically ascendent, we need to more fully embrace and exploit the Internet.

Excerpt:

"For some businesses, new technology is unwelcome. Progress is disruptive for incumbents. Some will be unable or unwilling to adapt.

But research shows that for every job lost to the Internet economy, 2.6 jobs are created. And the Internet doesn't just displace old industries. It helps renew them."

Read the rest here.

Macomb's Circuit Court and County Clerk sing the hosannahs of converting to Google Apps in order to cut down on costs and better organize their services.

We'll bet it's pretty nice when a municipal government turns its tech experiences into marketing copy for one of the biggest companies on the planet.

(full disclosure: Metromode's editor relies on the same apps to keep him sane).


Excerpt:

"The biggest draw for us to go Google is the cost control that comes with cloud computing. For a fixed per employee cost, the county gets Google Apps for Government and Google Message Discovery for archiving and e-discovery. There is no additional cost for servers, backup, antivirus or antispam protection, or disaster recovery. When new enhancements are available, there is no need for extra investment. Savings are also realized because Google Apps for Government has zero scheduled downtime! Maintenance is performed while the system is running. Our IT Department staff who have become proficient with Google Apps for Government are making themselves more valuable to the taxpayers."

Read the rest of the story here.

University of Michigan students have developed a new app to tout (er, tweet) good deeds.


Excerpt:

Beautify your world. Leave an inspirational message in a public place. Connect with a family member. Those are just a few of the proposed acts of kindness pushed out to users of a new smartphone application developed by University of Michigan students…

DoGood, a new, free app available to iPhone and iPod Touch users, aims to make the world a better place, its developers say.

"We simply wanted to empower the 40 million iPhone and iPod Touch users to collectively do acts of kindness," said Bornhorst, a senior computer science and engineering student. "I can go smile at a stranger, but what if we could get 300,000 people to do that? … The world needs something like this."

DoGood, created by the student-run company Mobil33t, (pronounced "mobil-EET") has been downloaded more than 10,000 times since its release June 8. It has an active user base of more than 5,000, and that number is growing every day. It lets users leave stories about how they participated in that day's deed. It also integrates with Facebook and Twitter so participants can send a message to their friends when they've finished an act of kindness.

"There's a tweet somewhere in the world about DoGood every five to 10 minutes," Bornhorst said.

Read the full story here.