‘Google Books, the online phenomenon that has become something of a godsend to book addicts the world over is quickly gaining popularity among Jamaican readers.’

The quotation above was taken from an article published in the Sunday Gleaner November 1, 2009. I am challenging the writer to prove that Google Books is ‘quickly gaining popularity among Jamaican readers. What is the basis of such as statement? Does the writer have access to data, Web trends reports etc. to corroborate this statement? If this information is available, it should have been included in the article.

I am aware that there are Websites that can provide this type of data such as http://siteanalytics.compete.com upon the payment of a subscription but the article is void of any such reference.

Read the Gleaner article athttp://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20091101/arts/arts2.html 

I am not so enthusiastic however about the ’special package for journalists’. If FLOW should follow through with their plan to offer journalists the ‘triple play’ package for $3,000 per month, it could be interpreted as bribery. No journalist from any reputable organization in any of the first world countries could accept such an offer as it could compromise their position. Journalist should consider not accepting the offer especially since FLOW recently received a significant amount of ‘negative press’ following a series of unpopular acquisitions. Their offer, though generous, should be flatly refused. This should not divert our attention however from the fact that their plans for the public schools and libraries will go a long way in preparing future generations for the digital age.

English replaces Pardy at Flow – JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM

I find it difficult to accept that a major change such as scrapping the ’shift system’ could be made  or even proposed without the benefit of the results from a reputable study/research.

I am curious to find out the direct and indirect impact on things such as;

1. What impact will it have on the traveling public in the mornings?
2. What impact will it have on employers who have to give time off to workers to pick up children? During the shift system, time off would normally be required only when the children are on the the morning shift.
3. What impact will it have on the jobs of people currently working in the school system? What levels of redundancies can we expect? On the face of it, there may be no significant impact on teachers but most certainly it will have a major impact on the support staff such as Bursars, cleaners, canteen staff etc.
4. What levels of savings can we expect? The system should benefit from reductions in some utility costs such as electricity.
5. Will 100 schools be adequate to absorb the students from the ’second’ shift as well as the new students that will be entering the school system?

Jamaica Gleaner News – Shift system not benefiting schools, says Holness – Monday | March 24, 2008

The government itself has been pursuing an e-business strategy as a means of improving customer service to the public but before we jump headlong into it we should raise the level of awareness of the general public to the dangers and risk associated with e-business. There are security issues with the e-business Web-site as well as with the PC that is used to access the site. Jamaicans have been exposed to e-business for years as we have been purchasing goods and services on the Internet. Up until now however, we have not had any major fallouts resulting from hacking. This is partly due to the fact that our participation in e-business was that of customers, not as owners or operators of the e-business sites themselves. Now that we have begun to invest significantly in e-business we must address the issue of security as we have now become more ’suitable’ targets for hackers and consequently must prepare ourselves for our ‘hacking Tsunami’. This can be approached from many angles, but I am going to address just one, cost.

Firstly, the government can make computers and software cheaper by rolling back the GCT on these items especially on security products used to combat spyware, viruses, worms and Trojan horses. It makes no sense if the government and the general public become e-business partners when generally the PC’s being used to conduct these transactions are not secured. I should point out that ’secured ‘ PC’s are another way of combating yet another cost that is ‘waiting in the wings’ to capitalize on the first major fallout resulting from an attack by ‘hackers’ i.e. insurance premiums. As someone that is involved in the business of selling and repairing computers, I have observed that most PC’s are only ’secured’ in the initial 3-6 months after purchase when usually some ‘brand’ name anti-virus program is installed on the PC on a trial basis and permits upgrades for the duration of the trial. No further attempts are made to secure the PC even if there are ‘free’ alternatives as there is an expectation gap that once one of these ‘brand’ name security programs have been installed on a computer, there is no need to update the software and the PC is protected against all current and future threats from viruses, worms etc.

Secondly, the cost of maintaining an up-to-date Windows PC is exorbitant especially with the current call charges of using a modem to dial-up an ISP. There were 51 updates excluding SP2 for Windows XP home edition for the period May – December 2004. Downloading these updates varied from a few minutes to over 2 hours depending on the size of the file being downloaded. Based on the charges to dial the ISP and using a 56K modem, these costs could run into hundreds of dollars, yet another cost/disincentive to keep your computer up-to-date.

The cost of keeping your computer adequately secured via anti-virus programs and spyware removal tools and the cost of keeping your operating system and application software up-to-date may well deter the general public from venturing into e-business. This could backfire on the government and all the other e-business merchants that are waiting to capitalize on their new frontier and spread there influence over the Internet. The system will not be profitable if it is not utilize by the public. Hackers strive in an environment that is not secure and so the government would be well advised to play their part in reducing the cost of security to the users of personal computers. This means that if they cannot roll back the G.C.T. on computers and accessories, at least remove it from the ’security’ products. Cable & Wireless should also consider charging a reduce rate for calls made to ISP’s rather than using the normal intra parish rate as a means of encouraging increased use of the Internet.

Finally, all attempts should be made to reduce the ‘expectation gap’ mentioned above. The government and the ISP’s should launch a public education program focusing on the security of personal computers. Additionally, we should consider setting up a lobby group to approach Microsoft, who recently entered the anti-virus and ’spyware’ removal tools market to see whether we can secure some preferential prices on these products. Secure computing and secure browsing are admirable goals as we take e-business to the next level in 2005. Happy surfing Jamaica.

P.S. -This item was published originally on my Web site www.jitdistributors.com