Ephraim Schwartz

President Obama's stimulus package addresses very diverse segments of the economy, including health care, education, research, and infrastructure. However, all of these components have one thing in common: the reliance on information technology as the engine powering these stimulus initiatives.

A key initiative in the stimulus plan is addressing the issue of establishing electronic health records to reduce health care costs and improve the care itself by making all medical information for a patient available to anyone who treats her. The federal government has advocated for such a system for a decade, but little visible progress has been made.

With the some of the most recognized names in the high-tech industry -- Intel, Arm, Microsoft, Linux, Acer, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Sony, and many more --hyping netbooks as the next big thing, InfoWorld decided to take a look at a category whose exact definition is still in flux to see how and where they fit into business usage.

When it comes to deciding if your IT department should support netbooks, IT must answer two critical questions.

The idea that a business traveler would someday carry his or her desktop and applications on a small device has been around for well over a decade. Of course, back then, small was brick-size, and the notion was that the user would then be able to plug this device into a screen, keyboard, and mouse wherever they landed.

The concept was considered daring because it was making the outrageous assumption that computing devices were going to get small enough for a user to carry them comfortably while remaining powerful enough to hold and process megabytes of data.

Now that the excitement of the inauguration of a new president is over, the anticipation begins, especially in the high-tech community. Why? Because the new administration has promised to stimulate the U.S. economy by spending billions of dollars on high tech.

The question is what kind of projects should money allocated to high tech go to? How is it best spent? For some, such an investment holds great promise. "If we pull this off right, we will build an infrastructure that will make us the world's leader in the 21st century," says John Seely Brown, co-chairman of Deloitte's Center for Edge Innovation and formerly chief scientist at the famed Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. Others are pessimistic that the stimulus money will really make its way into high-tech investments: "It's more apparent how the cement industry will benefit rather than IT," says Ken McGee, a Gartner vice president.

The constant drumbeat of bad economic news has everyone worried about their jobs. But as several InfoWorld articles have pointed out recently, many are finding the growing pressures of IT work intolerable. Would it be so bad to lose a job in an occupation you no longer take pleasure in?

Not if you can land a job in another line of work you'd enjoy a lot more.

"No one is in control anymore!"

That may sound like a dire call for help in an alien-filled sci-fi movie, but instead it was the happy pronouncement of Milo Medin, co-founder of M2Z Networks, one of the companies awaiting the FCC's decision on whether it will auction AWS-3 (Advanced Wireless Service-3) spectrum.

The fact is when it comes to security if you’re using a wireless device for voice or data you might as well be standing in any international airport and speaking to a colleague over a megaphone. Oh, and you might want to slow down from time to time to let the crowd around you take notes.

Although no one quite put it that way, that is the crux of the opinion of numerous experts I spoke to about using the current crop of wireless devices for voice or data.

The press has been all over President-Elect Barack Obama's addiction to his BlackBerry and the possibility that he might have to give it up for reasons of national security. But no one in the media seems to be asking the most logical follow-up question: Is the cybertechnology that can compromise the future chief executive's BlackBerry also a threat to mobile devices being used every day by thousands of senior executives in corporate America?

One security expert, Ron Cochoran, president of RER Technology, answers that question quite succinctly: "If the president can't use it for security reasons, then there's obviously something wrong with the security system."

The fact is when it comes to security if you're using a wireless device for voice or data you might as well be standing in any international airport and speaking to a colleague over a megaphone. Oh, and you might want to slow down from time to time to let the crowd around you take notes.

Although no one quite put it that way, that is the crux of the opinion of numerous experts I spoke to about using the current crop of wireless devices for voice or data.

Artwork: Diego AguirreA congressionally sponsored study conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, made public on Monday, recommends everything from the creation of a the National Office for Cyberspace outside the authority of the Department of Homeland Security to maintaining "sufficient manufacturing capabilities" at home to supply components and software that is not dependent on a global supply chain.

On the issue of the Department of Homeland Security and maintaining cybersecurity, the comprehensive 64-page report, titled Securing Cyberspace in the 44th Presidency, was emphatic.

I realize almost all of our elected officials have a Web site. But how often do you actually hear from them? Typically, you have to log on to see what they're up to, and if you're lucky, you're allowed to leave a comment.

When it comes to facilitating a more participatory form of government, the Internet has a lot more to offer than that. But to do so, it will likely take some prodding from non-pols like us to make sure the wheels get in motion.

For many companies, RPX represents a major weapon against so-called "patent trolls" -- NPEs (non-practicing entities) that buy up patents from individuals and organizations in need of additional revenue.

As the name implies, NPEs do no research and hold no patents of their own making. Their sole purpose is to snap up patents -- often from companies forced to liquidate their assets -- and look for products that might infringe on those patents they now hold.