Debra D'Agostino

More and more often, IT is being asked to play a critical role in building relationships with customers. According to CIO Insight‘s November Research study on business process improvement, IT shops are spending a greater portion of their budgets on customer-focused business activities. But are their efforts paying off? As one of the leading thinkers […]

With roughly 33 percent of all voters using new electronic equipment to cast their votes in yesterday’s mid-term election, there was little surprise when precincts began reporting problems with the machines. In fact, counties in at least seven states—Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and South Carolina—extended polling hours as a result of system […]

David Dill is a computer science professor at Stanford University and the founder of Verified Voting, a non-profit organization that encourages voter-verified paper ballots rather than paperless systems. Dill spoke with Online Editor Debra D’Agostino about vote flipping, poll security and lessons learned from yesterday’s election. What follows is an edited transcript of his remarks. […]

Gerry McGovern spends the majority of his time focused on what he calls “the impact of the content revolution.” As one of the world’s leading thinkers on the development and management of Web content, McGovern is the author of several books, including The Caring Economy, Content Critical, and The Web Content Style Guide. But lately, […]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. may have made RFID (radio frequency identification) a household word, but the mega-retailer may no longer be the technology’s lead adopter. At least one company has managed to implement RFID at the item level—rather than on pallets or cases—the Holy Grail of supply-chain management. That company is Boekhandels Groep Nederland’s Selexyz, Holland’s […]

Is outsourcing IT overseas past its prime? According to a new survey, it is. Consider this: Two years ago, 84 percent of the respondents to a Global IT Outsourcing Study sponsored by Chicago-based consulting firm DiamondCluster International said they planned to increase their level of offshore outsourcing. In 2006, that figure fell to 64 percent. […]

Jeff Neville, CIO of Eastern Mountain Sports, the $200 million Boston-based outdoor clothing and gear retailer, has a job most CIOs would envy: In addition to running the company’s IT team of 18 employees, Neville also serves as the company’s vice president of strategy—a rare twist that put IT front and center following a management-led […]

Bob Egan worries about WiFi. And he wonders why no one is listening to him. Egan, the author of a WiFi security report and director of emerging technologies at Boston-based analyst firm TowerGroup, says that “WiFi security is a problem that just won’t seem to go away,” despite years of media coverage detailing the need […]

As CIO of Symantec Corp., one of the world’s leading IT security vendors, David Thompson has a lot to live up to. He’s in charge of the Cupertino, Calif.-based firm’s enterprise architecture, internal business systems and, of course, security. Senior Reporter Debra D’Agostino spoke with Thompson about the new threats Web 2.0 creates for the […]

As conflicts in the Middle East and elsewhere continue to drain the U.S. armed forces and the death toll in Iraq and Afghanistan nears 3,000, recruitment of new servicemen and women is an increasing challenge. The task is particularly difficult for the U.S. Army, which depends on its 8,000 recruiters across the nation to deliver […]

Weather forecasters agree we’re in for another bad hurricane season. The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration defines a “normal” hurricane season as having 6 to 14 named storms, with up to 3 major hurricanes. Its prediction for 2006: as many as 16 named storms, and 6 major hurricanes. And if it seems we’ve escaped Mother […]

As I conducted interviews for this month’s story on e-voting, I asked all my sources a straightforward question: “Is there anything technologists can do to help shore up the vulnerabilities (technological, procedural or otherwise) of e-voting?” I expected the answers to be pretty obvious: Write Congress, join online debates and so on. The nearly unanimous […]