Ellison mocks Salesforce.com's 'itty bitty' application

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison mocked on-demand CRM (customer relationship management) vendor Salesforce.com during a shareholder meeting Wednesday, saying its "itty bitty" application depends on Oracle's products. "We think Salesforce.com has got terrific underlying technology," he said in response to a question from a shareholder about Salesforce.com and the competitive pressures posed by the cloud-computing model. "In fact, everything they run is on an Oracle database. But they don't stop there. We think the Oracle database is fabulous cloud technology.

On top of the Oracle database they build their applications using - what is it? Oh, my God." Ellison's comments follow reports that Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff will be speaking at Oracle's OpenWorld conference during an "executive solution session." Salesforce is also a sponsor of OpenWorld this year. Oracle middleware. His appearance seemed surprising to some observers, given the history between the two companies. Indeed, Ellison's scathingly sarcastic remarks on Wednesday made it sound like the companies' rivalry has not dimmed at all. "Let's look at their technology," he said. "They buy computers. Ellison was an early investor in Salesforce.com and once sat on its board, but left after a falling out with Benioff.

They rent a room. They buy electricity and plug it in. Uh, they put the computers in the room. They then buy an Oracle database to run on those computers and then they buy Oracle middleware to build their applications. A Salesforce.com spokesman wouldn't directly address Ellison's comments, but pointed to the company's successes. "Customers are moving towards cloud computing and away from traditional software," said Bruce Francis, vice president of corporate strategy, via e-mail. "We have more than 63,000 customers experiencing success in the cloud.

Oh, excuse me, and then they build this little itty-bitty application for salesforce automation. ... Most of the technology at Salesforce.com is ours." In addition, a long list of companies have "chucked" Salesforce.com's software and replaced it with Oracle's on-demand CRM software, Ellison claimed. And, as we reported in August, the number of customers grew 32% in Q2."

China takes questions for Obama from Internet users

China's state-run news agency Friday started collecting questions from local Internet users for U.S. President Barack Obama, who is slated to speak to Chinese youth next week during his first visit to the country. Obama is scheduled to hold the session in Shanghai next Monday as part of a three-day visit to a country of rising economic and political influence worldwide. China and the U.S. have appeared to wrangle over the details of the dialogue session, such as whether it will be broadcast live. China's Xinhua News Agency opened an online forum for users to submit questions and said the Web site would broadcast the event.

Chinese officials often portray the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, as a dangerous separatist, while he is usually seen as a peaceful religious activist in the West. "Do you really understand our China?" another question read. Questions that appeared in the forum ranged in tone from innocently curious to accusatory and nationalistic. "China's total elimination of serfdom [in Tibet] in 1959 was identical in nature to Lincoln's abolition of slavery in the U.S.," one post in the forum read, repeating a comparison made by a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman at a press briefing the previous day. "Mr. Obama, do you plan to meet with the Dalai Lama after leaving China?" Demands for greater religious and political autonomy in Tibet are among the most hot-button issues in China. Other questions were more personal. "What kind of Chinese name would you pick for yourself?" one post read. A representative at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said a final decision on the format of the event still had not been reached. Xinhua did not say if the event would also be broadcast on other Web portals or on TV. When asked earlier this week if the event would be broadcast, Ben Rhodes, a U.S. deputy national security advisor, told reporters that Obama hoped to reach as wide an audience as possible at the session but that details remained to be worked out, according to a transcript of his comments. Chinese leaders including President Hu Jintao have held rare online chats with Chinese Internet users in an apparent attempt to boost the government's image.

Local Internet companies are expected to erase sensitive comments that appear on blogs or other parts of their Web sites and can face punishment for failing to do so. Chinese authorities heavily police the Internet for sensitive political content, pornography and other material deemed harmful.

Report: New net neutrality rule coming next week

Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski will propose a new network neutrality rule during a speech at the Brookings Institute on Monday, the Washington Post reports. Additionally, the principles state that consumers are "entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers and content providers." Broadly speaking, net neutrality is the principle that ISPs should not be allowed to block or degrade Internet traffic from their competitors in order to speed up their own. Anonymous sources have told the Post that Genachowski won't offer too many details about the proposed rule and will likely only propose "an additional guideline for networks to be clear that they can't discriminate, or act as gatekeepers, of Web content."  The Post speculates that the rule will essentially be an add-on to the FCC's existing policy statement that networks must allow users to access any lawful Internet content of their choice, to run any legal Web applications of their choice, and to connect to the network using any device that does not harm the network.

The major telcos have uniformly opposed net neutrality by arguing that such government intervention would take away ISPs' incentives to upgrade their networks, thus stalling the widespread deployment of broadband Internet. The debate over net neutrality has heated up over the past few years, especially after the Associated Press first reported back in 2007 that Comcast was throttling peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent during peak hours. Several consumer rights groups, as well as large Internet companies such as Google and eBay, have led the charge to get Congress to pass laws restricting ISPs from blocking or slowing Internet traffic, so far with little success. Essentially, the AP reported that Comcast had been employing technology that is activated when a user attempts to share a complete file with another user through such P2P technologies. The FCC explicitly prohibited Comcast from engaging in this type of traffic shaping last year. As the user is uploading the file, Comcast would then send a message to both the uploader and the downloader telling them there has been an error within the network and that a new connection must be established.

Both friends and foes of net neutrality have been waiting anxiously to see how Genachowski would deal with the issue, ever since his confirmation as FCC chairman earlier this year. Tim Karr, the campaign director for media advocacy group Free Press, said at the time of Genachowski's nomination that he was instrumental at getting then-presidential candidate Barack Obama to endorse net neutrality during his presidential campaign. Net neutrality advocates cheered when Genachowski took over the FCC, as many speculated that he would be far more sympathetic to net neutrality than his predecessor Kevin Martin.

Survey: More Companies Hiring CSOs

Even though the worst economic recessionin decades has compelled companies to spend less on outsourced security services and do more in-house, security budgets appear to be holding steady. That's one of the big takeaways from the seventh-annual Global Information Security survey, which CSO and CIO magazines conducted with PricewaterhouseCoopers earlier this year. And more of companies are employing a chief security officer.

Some 7,200 business and technology executives worldwide responded from a variety of industries, including government, health care, financial services and retail. Part of the reason is that regulatory compliance pressures have jolted open the eyes of top brass who may have been blind to their internal security needs previously. For an alternate look at the job picture, check out the following: * Undercover: A Painful Lack of Security Jobs * Surviving Layoffs: Five Career Lessons from the Security Trenches "I have seen examples where companies are making bigger investments in training over time to make internal staff more security savvy," says Miguel Lopez, a Los Angelas-based IT security practitioner who has worked for such companies as MSC Software and Stamps.com. Lopez points to one of his friends in the industry for an example of how things have changed. "My friend, an information security manager, sits on an executive security committee with doctors and other non-IT personnel," he says. "Security is being heard from and listened to more now than ever before." A New Corporate Commitment Companies may still struggle with the quality of their data security, but the response to this year's survey suggests their executive peers have agreed, finally, that security can't be ignored. Not only are more companies investing in security technologies, but overall security investments are largely intact, despite the economy.

Companies' budget plans tell part of the story. Twelve percent of respondents expect their security spending to decline in the next 12 months. Two factors are influencing companies to maintain security as a corporate priority: Seventy-six percent say the increased risk environment has elevated the importance of cybersecurity among the top brass, while 77 percent said the increasingly tangled web of regulations and industry standards has added to the sense of urgency. But 63 percent say their budgets will hold steady or increase (although fewer foresee increases than did last year). For starters, more companies are hiring CSOs or chief information security officers (CISOs). Eighty-five percent of respondents said their companies now have a security executive, up from 56 percent last year and 43 percent in 2006. Just under one-third of security chiefs report to CIOs, 35 percent to CEOs and 28 percent to boards of directors. Respondents were asked how important various security strategies had become in the context of harsher economic realities. Notes Mauricio Angee, senior manager of IT security and compliance and CSO at Universal Orlando: "For segregation of duty purposes, it's interesting to see how companies are being askedby compliance auditors, qualified security assessors and through legislationto hire IT security managers with a much-more-defined set of roles and responsibilities." Such roles include setting the company's security policy, making the security budget pitch (instead of the CIO) and delegating responsibility among lower-level IT security administrators and engineers.

Seventy percent cited the growing importance of data protection while 68 percent cited the need to strengthen the company's governance, risk and compliance programs. None of these developments, however, make a focus on information security a sure bet in the eyes of IT leaders. Angee sayes security leaders still have to fight hard for every penny. Just because companies feel they have to spend money on security doesn't mean executives view it as an essential, even beneficial business process instead of a pain-in-the-neck task being forced upon them. Meanwhile, security execs don't have the same decision-making power as other C-level leaders in every company, says Mark Lobel, a partner in the security practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. If something goes wrong, he concludes, "all you'll have is somebody to blame and fire."

CIOs can bring in a CSO or CISO without a strategy and budget for that person to work with and end up achieving nothing.

Cisco undervalues Tandberg, investment firms say

Two investment consulting companies laid out objections to Cisco's US$3 billion offer for Norwegian videoconferencing vendor Tandberg on Friday, saying in an open letter to Cisco and a press interview that the bid undervalues Tandberg. The agreement requires owners of 90 percent of the company's shares to sign off on the acquisition by Nov. 9. According to recent media reports, holders of 24 percent of Tandberg stock don't plan to accept the deal. Cisco and Tandberg announced the deal on Oct. 1, but it still needs to be approved by Tandberg's shareholders.

Cisco suggested on Monday that it might drop its offer rather than raise it. Cisco has high-definition, immersive videoconferencing systems in its Telepresence line as well as desktop collaboration offerings in its WebEx line. Acquiring Tandberg, one of the major suppliers of videoconferencing equipment, would expand Cisco's already strong position in technology for virtual meetings. Chairman and CEO John Chambers has said video is the key application that will shape communications and drive network infrastructure growth in the coming years. Germonpre reportedly said Panta and investment consultants Scott & Associates own less than 1 percent of Tandberg but have heard other shareholders take the same view.

Panta Capital Managing Director Peter Germonpre said in an interview that Cisco would have to offer at least 170 Norwegian Kroner per share, about 11 percent above the current bid of 153.5 Kroner, according to a Wall Street Journal report. In an open letter on behalf of Tandberg shareholders, addressed to Chambers and Chief Strategy Officer Ned Hooper, Panta and Scott said Cisco isn't offering enough of a premium. In addition, they said estimates of the company's 2009 results have fallen by only about 9 percent, outperforming estimates for the technology sector and for Tandberg rival Polycom, which fell between about 30 percent and 45 percent. Among other things, the consultants said Tandberg's third-quarter financial results beat the consensus estimates of analysts for revenue and profit. They said Cisco is valuing Tandberg on a par with Polycom while the Norwegian company is actually outperforming its competitor. Panta and Scott rejected that argument, saying Tandberg had been seen as a takeover target before then.

When the deal was announced, Cisco said its offer represented a 38.3 percent premium over Tandberg's share price on July 15, which Cisco said was just before the company's stock started to rise because of takeover speculation. Cisco reiterated its position on the Tandberg offer in a prepared statement. "We believe we are paying a fair price for a quality asset, and our offer comes recommended by the Tandberg Board of Directors," Cisco said. "Further, Cisco's general approach to M&A activities is that no acquisition should be pursued or completed if it runs counter to the broader principles of prudence and financial fairness."

Online libel case stirs up free speech debate

An Illinois politician's attempt to unmask the identity of an e-mail poster who allegedly made disparaging remarks about her teenage son in an online forum is stirring a debate about free speech rights on the Internet. The paper had run a story describing a bitterly contested local election that Stone was running in. The case involves Lisa Stone, Trustee of the Village of Buffalo Grove, Il. According to a story in the Chicago Tribune , someone anonymously posted "deeply disturbing" comments about Stone's 15-year old son earlier this year in a local newspaper.

In response to that story an individual using the name Hipcheck15 posted comments that were critical of Stone. Those comments, in turn, evoked allegedly defamatory statements directed against Stone's son by Hipcheck15, the Tribune story said. The comments apparently prompted Stone's son to go online and post comments in defense of his mother. The paper did not say what exactly Hipcheck15 wrote, but it quoted Stone as describing the comments as being "vile" and "shocking." Stone did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request from Computerworld seeking comment for this story. In response to an order from the court, the paper turned in the IP address for Hipcheck15. Stone then obtained a similar order from the circuit court judge that asked Hipcheck15's Internet service provider, or ISP, to reveal the true identity of the person to whom the IP address was assigned to. As part of an effort to file a defamation lawsuit against Hipcheck15, Stone approached the Cook County Circuit Court and asked it to order the newspaper to turn in the true identity of the poster, the Tribune said.

According to the Tribune, the ISP late turned in the identity of Hipcheck15 to the court last month. Stone apparently has insisted that all she is trying to do is protect her son and other children from being similarly attacked online. A hearing is now scheduled for November 7 to decide whether the judge should provide Stone with Hipcheck15's true identity. She is hoping the case will serve as a deterrent against similar attacks. Individuals who libel or defame others online, anonymously or otherwise, are just as exposed to lawsuits as they are in the physical world and cannot expect First Amendment rights to automatically protect them. "Saying you're a lousy professor is one thing.

Eugene Volokh, professor of law at the University of California at Los Angeles' School of Law, said the case serves as another reminder that online anonymity does not automatically provide immunity against libel charges. But saying you molest 13-year olds is completely different," he said. Judges in other cases have shown a willingness to do just that if, in their opinion, the complaints had merit. Though one might use a pseudonym to conceal their true identity a court can force an ISP to unmask them in such cases, Volokh said. In a similar case earlier this year, a Texas circuit court judge ordered an online news aggregation site to turn over identifying information on 178 people who had anonymously posted allegedly defamatory comments about two individuals involved in a sexual assault case.

William Pieratt Demond, a partner at Connor & Demond PLLC, a law firm in Austin that is representing the couple, today said that the online site has since turned over information that has so far led to three people being identified as tied to the comments. The two individuals, who were acquitted of all charges, had claimed they had been subjected to intense and inarguably defamatory comments in the online forum. Libel lawsuits have been filed against all three, Demond told Computerworld today. Judges have to make the decision whether an online comment reflects just a personal opinion which is protected, or if it crosses the line and becomes defamatory. "Courts have said that because revealing a speaker's identity could end up deterring people from speaking up, we are going to require some showing whether there is a cause," he said. In the Stone case, it is hard to know how much merit her complaint has, Volokh said. Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said the case was troubling. "We think anonymous speech on the Internet is really critical and needs to be protected," Yohnka said.

Yohnka warned against a growing tendency by corporations and individuals to use defamation claims as a way to get the courts to force ISPs to unmask anonymous online commentators. "Saying something is defamatory shouldn't be the trigger" for deciding when someone should be unmasked he said. It has traditionally been one way in which people have chosen to express themselves on political and social issues, he said. Corporations and public figures in particular need to show they have a prima facie case before they are allowed to seek the identity of an anonymous poster, Yohnka said.