The Washington Post reports that Microsoft today said “it was opening to the public a test version of its ‘Office Live Workspace,’ a service that allows users to save Office documents such as memos and spreadsheets online so that they may be accessed by other users connected to the Web.  ‘We are responding to the most urgent needs of the 500 million Office users. They want to access their documents anywhere,’ said Guy Gilbert, a senior product manager for Microsoft.” [...]

Last week, the European Commission laid out its position on sovereign wealth funds, saying that EU nations should avoid ‘uncoordinated responses’ that could scare off investors.  In spite of this, Germany said on Wednesday it would push ahead with its own legislation aimed at shielding companies from unwanted foreign takeovers.  The government's draft bill could prevent foreign investors from buying 25% or more in a German company, or in a foreign company that has German interests that are viewed as [...]

According to the International Herald Tribune, “[a] Japanese government panel is proposing to govern ‘influential, widely read news-related sites as newspapers and broadcasting are now regulated.’  The government is also seeking to rein in some of the more unsavory aspects of the Internet, leaving in its wake, critics say, the censoring hand of government interference.  The panel, set up by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, said Internet service providers (ISPs) should be answerable for breaches of vaguer ‘minimum [...]

The Mercury News reveals that “[o]nline advertising revenues exceeded $21 billion for the first time in 2007, although preliminary data compiled by an industry trade group also suggests growth is slowing. The Interactive Advertising Bureau said its estimates show ad revenues grew 25 percent last year from nearly $17 billion in 2006. In dollar amounts, the estimated gain was $4.2 billion - less than the 35 percent and $4.3 billion growth seen in 2006 over 2005.  Analysts have said the [...]

I’m here in Geneva at the Open Forum Europe conference, listening to discussions about the problem with standards bodies today. More specifically, listening to IBM’s take on the problem with any standards body that would approve Open XML (like ECMA). […]