Archive for October 15th, 2008
Gartner’s 10 technologies worth watching
I mentioned earlier in the week that the Gartner Symposium has been going on this week down at Disney World in Orlando.
One of the interesting things that Gartner presents each year around this time is its list of technologies worth watching for the next year. Technically, Gartner describes them as “strategic technologies,” which the market research firm describes as “one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years.”
With that, the list of strategic technologies:
- Virtualization
- Cloud computing
- Servers — Beyond Blades
- Web-Oriented Architectures
- EnterpriseMashups
- Specialized Systems
- Social Software and Social Networking
- Unified Communications
- Business Intelligence
- Green IT
So they don’t have Web 2.0 together — Gartner has broken it up into various bits.
These are directed at industry over all. We all know that governments are… different. For example, I still think that cloud computing is a tough sell in government. Enterprise mash-ups can be incredibly powerful. (See the CJD-fav Virtual Alabama.)
Get more information and details on this list here… and Gartner has even posted a video with officials talking about why these matter.
Happy birthday to… Phil Bond and George Stone

ITAA's Phil Bond
A very happy birthday to ITAA President and CEO Phil Bond. It is also the birthday of my good friend George Stone, who is the features editor at DC Magazine.
We’ve talked about change a lot in recent months. Bond has overseen a lot of change at ITAA — the merger with GEIA… and a possible merger with EIA… So he has been a very busy person.
So… on this date…
From public radio’s Writer’s Almanac:
It’s the birthday of the poet Virgil, (books by this author) born Publius Vergilius Maro near Mantua, Italy, 70 B.C.E. The government asked Virgil to write a poem persuading Romans who had left the countryside to return home and become farmers again. He wrote The Georgics, a kind of poetic farming manual about grain production, trees, animal husbandry, and beekeeping. The emperor was so impressed that he gave Virgil a generous stipend, and the poet spent the rest of his life working on his epic poem, The Aeneid.
From the Library of Congress’s report on this day in history:
On October 15, 1972, Jackie Robinson threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the second game of the World Series commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of his becoming the first African-American to play in modern Major League Baseball. His Major League career began in earnest on April 15, 1947, when played in his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Following his retirement from baseball, Robinson worked as vice president for personnel at Chock Full O’ Nuts from 1957 to 1964. He was also active with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In December 1956, the NAACP had recognized Robinson with the Spingarn Medal, which it awards annually for the highest achievement by an African American. Robinson chaired the NAACP’s million-dollar Freedom Fund Drive in 1957 and was a member of the board of directors until 1967.
Many other groups also honored Robinson. In July 1962, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference held a testimonial dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. Although SCLC president Martin Luther King was not able to attend, King’s speech recognized the positive impact of Robinson’s achievements beyond baseball.
Read more — and see photos — here.
Other events:
In 1951 The situation comedy “I Love Lucy” premiered on CBS.
In 1964, it was announced that Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev had been removed from office. He was succeeded as premier by Alexei N. Kosygin and as Communist Party secretary by Leonid I. Brezhnev
In 1989 Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings surpassed Gordie Howe’s NHL career scoring record of 1,850 points.
In 1990 Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev was named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1990 South Africa’s Separate Amenities Act, which had barred blacks from public facilities for decades, was scrapped.
In 1991 The Senate narrowly confirmed the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, 52-48.
In 1993 Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to end apartheid in South Africa.
Other birthdays:
84 Lee Iacocca
Former Chrysler chairman
73 Barry McGuire
Rock singer
71 Linda Lavin
Actress (“Alice”)
66 Penny Marshall
Actress, director
63 Jim Palmer
Baseball Hall of Famer
62 Richard Carpenter
Singer, musician (The Carpenters)
55 Tito Jackson
Singer (The Jackson Five)
53 Tanya Roberts
Actress
49 Sarah Ferguson
Duchess of York
49 Emeril Lagasse
TV chef
39 Dominic West
Actor (“The Wire”)