Stephen Gordon and Monideepa Tarafdar spell out the necessary changes in a recipe that is sure to open some eyes. They provide a checklist, a software shopping list, and specific lessons for creative leaders, IT managers, and chief executives.

If you’ve always wanted to change your IT department’s persona this is a great opportunity to begin the process.

MIT Sloan Management Review – Innovation & IT

Below are a few of these tools.  Try them out and see if you can find others

A conversion tool for currency, weights and measures

On the Google search bar try typing in the following and notice the screen as you type in your conversion:

• 100 Euros in dollars
• 1 Mile in km
• 5.5 Pounds in kg
• 26 Inches in cm
• 55 Knots in mph

A time zone conversion tool

Try the following examples on the Google Search bar:

• Time London
• Time Raleigh
• Time Paris
• Time Newport Beach

Current Weather conditions

Type some of the following examples in the Google Search bar:

• Weather Seattle
• Weather Las Vegas
• Weather Miami

A Calculator

Type in standard or advanced equations and see what comes up:

• 5*9
• (7+3)*3
• 5*9+sqrt 10
• 93/5
• 20% of 32.95

Flight Status

No need to go to the airline’s site if you know the airline and flight number:

• Flight Status AA 1490
• Flight Status Delta 1651

 Stock Quotes

If you know the stock ticker type the words “Stock Quote” followed by the ticker symbol:

• Stock Quote WYNN
• Stock Quote GOOG
• Stock Quote AAPL
• Stock Quote MSFT

 Definitions

Type “Define:” (with a colon) then the word that you want defined:

• Define: efficiency
• Define: functional
• Define: erudite

Spell Checker

You may have noticed corrections being offered when you typed in searched for definitions above:

• Misspell a word and Google will offer a correction

Movie Show Times

Type “Movies” and your zip code or ype “Movies” and the name of the movie you want to see:

• Movies 27612
• Movies “The Expendables” 27612
• “The Expendables” 27612

These are a few of the many functions that Google can help you perform.  There are many other functions including, maps and directions, foreign language translations, phonebook lookups, and shipment status.  Try these out and see what others you can find for yourself.

The short video covers, on a high level, the 12 requirements that need to be implemented in order to secure credit card information.  It’s a great way to communicate the need for security without having to read through the whole standard.

https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/about/pcidss_rocks_video.shtml

Hometown:  Mt Pleasant, SC

Twitter Account:  I’m twitter-free, but have a blog: http://mhoop.wordpress.com/

Areas of expertise:  
Product development and design, program management, K-12 public education

What certifications have you recently obtained?:
MBA from USC, April 2009

One technology you can’t live without:
Smart phone with internet capabilities.

Unknown fact about me:
I like to write music.

Google states that the over the next several months, they will be reviewing responses, narrowing down choices, visiting local communities and meeting with local officials.  The lucky community or communities will be announced by the end of the year.  Won’t that be a nice Christmas present for town or city?

Google’s experiment of building an ultra high-speed broadband network hopes to reach at least 50,000 individuals and potentially up to 500,000.   According to the 2000 census, the population of the City of Columbia was 116,278.  2008 estimates put the population at 127,029.   Kind of nice how these numbers are within the Google range, huh?

I know I’m kind of partial here but Columbia would be an excellent choice for this project.  Columbia is a great place to live and raise a family.  We’re not too big, yet big enough.  We are a college town w/a thriving arts community.  We not only have a local municipality presence with the City of Columbia, but we also have a State Government presence with our legislators at the the Capitol.  The k-12 students as well as our local university and colleges would benefit greatly! 

With South Carolina currently having one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, the boom that Columbia could get could be limitless.   This Google intiative could help give Columbia a fabulous boost that we need.  By choosing Columbia as the test bed, Google could begin to then build their network out to other communities throughout the State!  Not to mention that we’re home of the Gamecocks!  That’s a reason to come here, in and of itself, right?

So, we’ll stay on top of this story and see how Columbia fares.

Cities such as Columbia, SC; Greenville, SC; Greensboro, NC;  Decatur, GA; Topeka, KS; Palo Alto, CA; Grand Rapids, MI and dozens of other cities have assembled groups of volunteers, assigned city staff and even  hired marketing experts to assemble their “Google pitch”.  The competition is intense, but these cities know the benefit that it will bring to their communities in terms of economic development and delivery of next-generation applications and content if they are selected.

Why is Google doing this?  Is this the first step in their aim to become a national broadband provider?  I don’t think so.  Rather, it is a chance to show to the FCC and others at the federal level that open access broadband networks at 1 Gbps speeds, much higher than the incumbents are proposing, can be built and operated in such a way that multiple service providers can provide service over the same “pipe” and still make money.  Google has lobbied the FCC in support of network openness but this principle is a glaring omission in the recently released National Broadband Plan.  Thus, the Community Fiber project  may be a “test case” for network openness at Gigabit speeds.  As municipalities complete their Community Fiber applications this week, they should keep in mind that there are other options besides Google.  Several communities in North Carolina have funded their community fiber networks through a financing vehicle called a “Certificate of Participation”.  In addition, there are private equity firms that are actively reviewing business plans.  Thus, consider the work that you have done preparing your Community Fiber application as laying the ground work to explore other options if you are not one of the “chosen few”.