Internetnews.com reports that, according to research released this week by Computer Economics, “IT spending in 2008 will increase by only low single digit percentages and may be closer to flat. On the plus side, a solid majority – 66 percent – of organizations surveyed expect their IT budgets to increase in 2008, while only 12 percent expect cuts. Large organizations were a bit more cautious in spending plans with 60 percent saying they expect their IT budget to increase and 16 percent expecting budget cuts.”
Jason Matusow points out on his blog today that “Microsoft and the DAISY (Digital Accessible Information SYstem) consortia announced that Microsoft Office will support ‘Save As’ DAISY using Open XML files in Office XP, Office 2003, and Office 2007. This is going to be done via a translation project hosted on SourceForge (yes, that makes it an open source project).”
Venture Beat claims that “Barack Obama will unveil several new technology policy initiatives today during a visit to Silicon Valley, including a proposal for a national technology czar called a ‘chief technology officer.’
According to the International Herald Tribune, “Yahoo, reeling from a growing backlash over human rights and its China operations, has settled a lawsuit that accused it of illegally helping the Chinese government jail and torture two journalists. Neither side disclosed details other than to agree that Yahoo would pay the attorneys fees of Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning and the family member who sued on their behalf. Yahoo also said it would ‘provide financial, humanitarian and legal support to these families.’”
ZDNet.com reports that “VeriSign plans to divest its communications, billing and commerce businesses so it can focus on its domain names, Web certificates and identity protection. The strategy, [announced today], will mean VeriSign will be more focused on what used to be its core business.”