Articles by Andrew K. Burger

The British Airport Authority (BAA) on Wednesday announced that it has launched a limited scale trial of three integrated, biometric-driven security systems at London's Heathrow airport. The miSense, miSenseplus and miSenseallclear systems are designed to speed up and simplify passenger check-in, boarding and arrival procedures while at the same time strengthen security...

New wired and wireless Web services are improving supply chain and business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) network management at both ends of the chain. As companies such as Ariba and IBM are hard at work extending supply chain and B2B network management with new and improved service-oriented architecture (SOA)-based Web services at the partner and customer end, wireless sensor network (WSN) providers such asArch Rock are working at the opposite end, pushing wireless Web services-enabled networking onto the shop floor and to previously inaccessible production locations...

The explosion of digital audio technology has led to a relaxing of cultural and economic barriers worldwide, as detailed inPart 1 andPart 2 of this series Part 3 reviews the ways contemporary artists and distributors can use blogging, streaming, downloading and other nontraditional methods of marketing to get the word out about their creations....

Sterling Commerce, anAT&T subsidiary, last week acquired e-commerce platform provider Comergent for US$155 million in cash -- further evidence of the rapid development and consolidation taking place in the B2C and B2B market sectors Sterling Commerce and Comergent are best known for their state-of-the-art service-oriented architecture (SOA)-based s...

Music has transcended cultural and economic barriers worldwide, thanks in large part to the growth of digital audio technology, as noted in Part 1 andPart 2 of this series Throughout history, broad groups of species have undergone periods of rapid evolution and radiation. The same can be said today of digital music technology. From MP3 streaming an...

It seems rarer than ever these days that a majority of Americans can get together, rally round a common cause, hash out their differences, and forge a consensus in support of a durable and lasting approach to a pressing and vital public issue. Yet that is what is happening as a groundswell builds from the grass roots up with regard to U.S. energy policy and the prospect of developing biofuels as an alternative energy source...

Music has the power to transcend national and cultural boundaries, asPart 1 of this series on digital music notes Today, an explosion of musical and technological innovation is resulting in a profusion of new, cross-cultural musical styles and influences. Digital music technology is the "core enabler" changing the face of the music industry -- as w...

Although the U.S. alternative energy and clean tech industry is still playing catch-up with Europe, investments have been picking up in recent years -- and quickly -- as detailed inPart 1 of this two-part series on alternative energy Despite a lack of strong leadership at the federal level, governments in prominent states, notably California, are i...

The power of music to bridge national boundaries and cultural divides has long been recognized, but perhaps has never been as starkly clear as it is today. One need only look at the phenomenal growth of MTV channels in countries around the world during the past decade The commercialization and spread of satellite and fiber optic cable broadcasting ...

Venture capital (VC) and private and public investments in alternative energy continue to grow at their highest rates since the OPEC crisis of the 1970s Around the world, the persistence of much higher fossil fuel prices, heightened power demands -- particularly in the fast-developing economies of China and India -- national employment trends, secu...

In the late 1990s, companies such asIBM and Ariba began rolling out the first global B2B networks Subsequently, online supply chain technology expanded to meet the needs of companies that sell to the average consumer, and B2C was born. B2C technology required the complex selling, configuration and order-management capabilities found in traditional ...

The business-to-business market was the darling of e-commerce pundits way back in the early '90s when companies began to get serious about using the Web to do business. B2B e-commerce was expected to lead the way into a brave new online world of business communications, management and international trade However, it turns out that the business-to-c...

Wireless networking continues to make inroads in metropolitan and rural areas across the U.S. as the development of 802.1x technologies and associated standards forges ahead. Wireless broadband and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) have both gained momentum and are moving inexorably forward. It's now possible to connect to the Internet and a variety of voice and data networks in spaces large and small, public and private...

As the nature of Internet threats has morphed, IT systems professionals and security providers have adapted their response tactics Part 1 of this two-part series takes a look at how the security threat landscape has shifted. This second installment considers what strategies the experts are cooking up to prevent and protect against the latest onslau...

Recognizing the mutual benefit that accrues to helping their online merchants succeed, e-commerce hosting companies, along with e-tailers themselves, are driving demand for software applications that can help them better manage and grow their businesses "Our mission is to organize the world's information," Emily White, Google's director of online s...

It's a sad fact of life for today's information-driven organizations that the nature of security threats is continuously shifting and evolving. Intrusion mechanisms such as worms, Trojans and rootkit exploits continually evolve into more-developed forms, and wax and wane in terms of number and frequency of attacks Zero-day vulnerability attacks and...

It wasn't so long ago that technological or economic reasons -- or both -- stood in the way of many people who aspired to launch a retail business online. That's changed drastically in a short span of time. Professional quality e-commerce hosting services, along with a growing range of easy-to-use software tools, have come within the reach of even those with modest budgets...

The adaptation of technologies that were once exclusive to big science and the military for commercial public use has become a characteristic of our times. Notable among them are global positioning systems (GPS) and geographic information systems (GIS), both of which have been growing in adoption as their technological evolution continues Part 1 ...

With the ongoing development of wireless telecommunications and shared application and data resources, the practice of integrating geographic information systems (GIS) with conventional data analysis and decision support systems is on the rise This trend is having a profound effect on how products and services are delivered, how decisions are reach...

In days of old, before consumers were able do all their holiday shopping without leaving their homes, before the days of television commercials, and yea, even before the heyday of the venerable department store, there was the Fuller Brush man. And the Hoover Vacuum Cleaner man. And, of course, the milkman Consider the fictional Willy Loman in Arth...