Joël Van Hoolandt — Fractional CTO | Magma Consulting

The next year in tech will be all about building connections between PC and post-PC devices, whether phones, tablets, game consoles, e-readers or next-gen SmartRoombas. They’ll be connections without cords, built on shared interfaces, proximity-based communication, and storage, syncing and computing infrastructure increasingly shifted to the cloud. That’s what Tuesday’s release of OS X Lion is all about: building on the App Store and iCloud. That’s what Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows 8 is all about: building on unified IDs on everything from Windows Phone 7 to Office to Xbox and Skype. And I’m going to convince you that this is even what Google+ is really all about. You can see this already in Google+’s mobile apps for Android and iOS; we’ll see it more as Google continues to integrate more of its web properties into the social network. Read further Tim's article on Wired web site

Ownership of e-readers is exploding, according to a survey by Pew Internet Research . Over the past six months, ownership of e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook has grown from 6% to 12% of U.S. adults. E-readers are more popular than tablets devices such as the iPad or various Android slates like the Samsung Galaxy Tab which are owned by 8% of U.S. adults. More info, read here

If you're interested to get a fresh view on what's knowledge management, just watch this video. It's an interview of Larry Lucardie, CEO of Knowledge Values.

Looking for a knowledge management conference in Europe? Then, save the date for this yearly european conference. 12th European Conference on Knowledge Management - ECKM 2011 University of Passau, Germany 1-2 September 2011 Conference Chair: Prof. Dr. Franz Lehner, University of Passau, Germany Programme Chair: Prof. Dr. Klaus Bredl University of Augsburg, Germany The conference will be located almost exactly at the geographic centre of Europe. Passau is close to the metropolitan area of Munich. According to a statement attributed to Alexander von Humboldt, Passau is referred to as one of the seven most beautiful towns of the world. Passau is spectacularly located at the confluence of three rivers, one of them being the river Danube, the second longest river of Europe.

Google this week unveiled a limited beta test for its upcoming Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office tool, giving its customers a way to utilize its Google Docs service with Microsoft's popular Office suite in a fairly seamless fashion. The tool is billed as a way for Google customers to more easily migrate, over time, from Microsoft Office to the less capable (but free) Google Docs. "Google Docs [is] 100% web: It provides real-time collaboration in the browser, with no software to install, manage or upgrade," Google Group Product Manager Shan Sinha wrote in a blog post announcing the tool. "With Cloud Connect, people can continue to use the familiar [Microsoft] Office [applications], while reaping many of the benefits of web-based collaboration that Google Docs users already enjoy." Google Cloud Connect works with Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, and 2010, providing users with a way to sync documents to Google's Docs-based services. Because these documents ...

Despite the financial crisis, the European Commission has communicated some crucial agenda points for an innovative union: EU and member states need to continue to invest in education, R&D, innovation and ICT. Those investments should be performed hand in hand with reforms to get more value for money and tackle fragmentation. Our education systems at all levels should be modernized. Researchers and innovators must be able to work and to cooperate across the EU as easily as within national borders. Access to EU programmes must be simplified and their leverage effect on private sector investment enhanced, with the support of the European Investment Bank. We need to get more innovation out of our research. Remaining barriers for entrepreneurs to bring 'ideas to market' must be removed (better access to finance, affordable Intellectual Property rights etc.) European Innovation Partnerships should be launched to accelerate research, development and market deployment of innovati...