Articles by Jason Z. Cohen

Part 1 of this two-part series looks at the changes in software giant SAP's management and how they have affected its corporate culture and product strategy Having delivered on its goal of moving to a service-oriented architecture, SAP now aims to make use of that architecture as it drives innovation out to the fringes of its sphere of influence....

SAP is a company in transition The Walldorf, Germany-based enterprise software firm has been around since 1972, which makes it older than Microsoft. To hear observers and insiders tell it, the firm has been showing its age in recent years....

Facebook has come up with a new plan to fight off its competitors: open sourcing its application platform Citing multiple sources, TechCrunch reports that Facebook is planning to form an open source community around its application programming interface, which it launched just a year ago....

I remember being at the 2000 Democratic National Convention and watching Joe Lieberman give his speech accepting the nomination as Al Gore's running mate. Contrasted with the opposing lines of bandana-faced protesters and riot-geared officers, his speech left me hopeful and uplifted. I recall I felt a sense of pride and kinship, as if I were witnessing history in the making...

It's heartening to see that Mark Zuckerberg is following my advice and seeking a sit-down with Google to hammer out their differences over this Friend Connect thing Last week, Facebook unceremoniously blocked Friend Connect from accessing its data stream. Whether Facebook was on board or aware of Google's plan beforehand depends on whom you ask....

Google and Facebook have been at each other's throats in recent days over Friend Connect, Google's platform for mirroring your social networking data around the Web. Apparently, Facebook doesn't like the fact that Friend Connect does exactly what it's designed to do.

The restaurant-slash-arcade-slash-bar Dave & Buster's is the latest U.S. outlet to suffer a breach of its credit card processing system Hackers based in Ukraine and Estonia -- assisted by a guy in Miami -- installed packet sniffer malware at the point of sale systems in several D&B outlets, which siphoned off "Track 2" data as the information was b...

It seems as though everyone wants to be both social and portable these days. Google, Yahoo, Facebook and MySpace all have recently trumpeted their latest efforts at openness. Are they really the same? ...

SAP announced Tuesday it will offer new business process and rules management capabilities for its NetWeaver service-oriented architecture platform NetWeaver Business Process Management and NetWeaver Business Rules Management will allow companies to build or change business processes and rules without coding....

When the former vice president of the United States gives a speech at a major technology conference in San Francisco, you'd expect to see a story about it the next day, or -- since it was a technology conference -- later on that same day You'd see a run-of-the-mill story in the Chronicle or the Examiner, read a few paragraphs, marvel that Gore's st...

The LiMo Foundation has launched the first release of its Linux-based mobile handset software platform There are 18 handsets from various manufacturers that are ready to use the platform, Andrew Shikiar, Director of Global Marketing for the LiMo Foundation, told LinuxInsider. Handsets are in the works from Motorola, NEC, Samsung and Panasonic, amon...

Here I was all ready to post my thoughts on user interfaces and ease of use, when news surfaced that theSCO Group has received an investment of US$100 million to take it private. The company once claimed to own the rights to Unix and then proceeded to sue IBM and Novell for infringing its intellectual property....

Though theSouthern California Linux Expo, or SCALE, really doesn't get going in earnest until Saturday, it's already clear this is no Macworld First of all, the Linux community doesn't have a charismatic marketing genius like Steve Jobs hawking products on a stage with a three-story screen behind him and an audiovisual program to make U2 jealous....

The world of open source mobile platforms is starting to get a little crowded Over the past couple of days, rumors began flying that Dell is getting into the game with a phone based on Google's Android platform. Dell denies it, but the amount of attention that is being paid to this segment of the market is notable....

A couple of developments in the mobile applications space have my head spinning. First, the LiMo Foundation announced it has increased its membership by adding six new members. Then, Yahoo introduced its mobile developer platform at CES, taking pains to point out that its apps will be compatible with pretty much any mobile platform -- including Android...

When it comes to creative works, such as a drawing or a piece of writing or music, the law is pretty clear about what is a derivative work and what isn't. Not so much with software If the software is open source -- that is, licensed under the GNU General Public License or a similar license -- the waters get even murkier....

At first blush, the recent Podcast and New Media Expo held in Ontario, Calif., might have looked a bit frivolous -- there was a guy with bright blue hair, a woman in a burlesque getup posing for pictures, and someone in a pickle suit handing out promotional buttons -- but doesn't every trade show have its share of weirdness? Podcasting is anything ...