This article from ITWorld Canada speculates on the impact of the cabinet shuffle on Canadian IT providers. The author ponders if technology efficiency will be one of the initiatives that Mr. Day will take on as the new Treasury Board Minister. He points out that the aging legacy systems will need replacing and new efficiency-focuses applications will be preferred. He also points out that close to 40% of the public sector will be retiring in the coming years which will put pressure on the government to automate more of its services. Is this a driver for Government 2.0? I hope so. A greater focus on multi-departmental and multi-jurisdictional e-collaboration could only help achieve the levels of efficiencies sought. And wider implementation of open source web 2.0 applications will allow for better platform integration and less data lock-in by closed vendor-based applications.

http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/why-cabinet-shake-up-isnt-bad-news-for-it-industry/139797-pg1

CNN reporter, Pete Cashmore writes this interesting and thought provoking article on how social media is being used to support the relief efforts in Haiti. He notes that everyone from aid organizations to politicians to celebrities are tapping into their social media followers to ask for them for donations and help.  According to Cashmore, this is one of the first times in history that social media is overcoming “Slacktivism“. Followers are actually doing more than just observing or “following”;  they are actually doing something to make a difference.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/14/cashmore.haiti.earthquake.relief.technology/index.html

WebDrive client, Pierre Belvedere Inc, is launching their first-ever social media-based consumer opinion survey (thanks to a little help from WebDrive).  The goal is to learn more about the stationary, pen and academic agenda preferences of the student market (high school to university age groups).  

Students will be communicated with through a number of social mediums including Facebook, MySpace, LinkeIn, YouTube and Twitter.  The goal is to create a viral effect where by students will refer other students to the survey using social networking sites.  The company’s ROI is anticipated to be impressive because this approach lowers their communication costs while attracting a larger number of respondents.

If you know someone in this age group, you can refer them to the survey through this link.

http://pierrebelvedere.webdrive.ca