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This page will contain pointers to short items about current events, sorted in reverse chronological order.
Business Is Toying With a Web Tool
New York Times (05/19/03) P. C3; Cortese, Amy
Wiki, Web collaboration software used by informal online groups, is taking hold in the business realm. More useful for collaboration than email or face-to-face communication, wiki pages are also a cheap and easy alternative to full-blown collaborative packages such as Lotus Notes. Wiki pages can be edited by any group participant and are sparse in terms of technical overhead. Chris Coldewey, a consultant whose company uses commercial wiki software called
SocialText, says the application is useful for archiving client meetings and notes that the only user requirement is that they be able to type. Bicycle tire maker Composite Tech uses
SocialText as a replacement for other ad hoc modes of communication and serves as an "informal corporate memory," according to the company's Denham Grey. Ward Cunningham, who created the first wiki program in 1995 and authored a wiki manifesto called, "The Wiki Way," says wiki enables "idea keeping" amongst a community. Wiki communities often employ social standards, such as not pushing commercial products (wiki spam) and not using wiki pages for personal purposes (wiki-squatting). Despite natural social rules, wiki software is likely to grate against corporate managers unless some level of administration is built in, as is the case with the
SocialText version; wiki programs often first emerge in companies through the back door, much like instant messaging programs have. Proponents of wiki, which comes from the Hawaiian word for fast, say it is only a matter of time before the technology improves enough to take over more standard software, in the same way Linux has improved to threaten Microsoft's Windows operating system. New York University professor Clay Shirky says, "You just have to do things well enough...it's the attack-from-below strategy."
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/19/technology/19NECO.html
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Intel Introduces New Optimizing Compiler
Intel Corporation today introduced updated tools for software developers to optimize applications for Intel's expanding family of architectures with innovations such as Intel's Hyper Threading Technology. The compilers are available in two differenct flavours; one for C++ and one for FORTRAN. Intel states their new compilers can improve the performance of applications for Intel based systems up to 40 percent when compared to compilers currently available.
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Press Release
