Brian Fuller’s blog on the state of media and communications

Featured Stories I’ve Published Recently

3G Services in China, an Economic Revival? (July 21)

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The story of the global recession’s impact on high-technology industry is written in the red ink of earnings statements, bankruptcies and shotgun consolidations around the world, such is the uncertainty we see during this historic downturn.

But the response from governments around the world was swift last autumn, when the first effects of the mortgage industry’s collapse began rippling around the globe. Today, industry is hoping that government stimulus money will lift all stranded boats.

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EEs, vendors search for their voice, and answers, in social media (July 7)

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Call it the engineering paradox: The same engineers who helped invent the Internet are trailing adopters of its technologies.

Whether it was in the mid-1990s when engineers were unable or forbidden to go online at work or today when their involvement in social media platforms seems muted, EEs don’t have the presence online that software engineers (their Internet co-inventors) and consumers do. But that’s changing as social-media and community picks up steam in the electronics world.

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IEEE, industry players in race to modernize smart grid (June 17)

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Engineers and industry officials have started the clock ticking after a “historic” meeting in Santa Clara to begin to frame standards to help modernize the North American power grid, which has remained virtually unchanged for a century.

IEEE’s P2030 group, founded in March, met June 3 to 5 at Intel’s Santa Clara headquarters, gathering 150 people together to begin the work of identifying existing standards, as well as technology holes that need to be fixed to deliver on smart grid interoperability. It was one in a series of related national meetings in the past six weeks, from Washington to Santa Clara, from government to the private sector, to build frameworks and begin work around standards.

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The Pounding Promise of Piezoelectric (June 18)

They say innovation stands on the shoulders of our predecessors. For Elizabeth Redmond and Andrew Katz, it stood in Trevor Baylis’ shoes.

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Upgrading the Nation’s Power Grid, One Standard at a Time (June 15)

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The nation’s power grid hasn’t been upgraded in a century, but suddenly there’s a sense of urgency. In high-profile meetings from Washington to Santa Clara in the past two months, industry executives, scientists, engineers and government officials have ratcheted up the dialogue about modernizing how energy is generated, distributed and used. The movement, helped by an expected $4.5 billion in government stimulus money, has its roots in the national concern over fossil fuel resources and heightened focus on energy efficiency.

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Amid Economic Gloom, Industry Execs Chart Encouraging Future (March 15)

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SCOTTSDALE, Ariz—Against a backdrop of a deepening recession, electronics industry executives plotted emerging changes in mindset, markets, and technology they said will propel future growth and boost the global economy. At a surprisingly and remarkably upbeat Semico Summit conference here, executives said lessons of previous downturns, particularly 2001, have laid the foundation for more nimble thinking, even as the recession radically alters the industry’s landscape.

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