Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »
Public Council Teleconference: Application Rationalization — Hidden Costs and Smart Decisions
November 17 at 11:00 am US/Eastern (GMT-5)
Join Honorio Padrón, of The Hackett Group, who will share the drivers for companies to tackle application rationalization and the results of research that define the hidden cost of complexity. Additionally, we will discuss key decision milestones—to start or not, holding the course steady and fulfilling expectations.
Virtual Desktop Cost-Benefit Analysis — Michael Jacobs, Catlin Group
The analysis contained in this presentation measures the cost of everything from the machines and licenses to the infrastructure for virtual vs. traditional desktop environments.
Honor your best senior team members - Apply for the CIO Ones to Watch Award
Get well-earned public recognition for your top up-and-coming team members, your IT organization and your enterprise. Award winners will be announced, publicized and feted in May 2010, great timing to help attract new IT recruits to your company.
Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »May 01, 2006 — CIO —
From the music industry’s early entanglements with Napster to Sony BMG’s recent release of CDs that created security holes on consumers’ PCs, the transition from CDs to online music has been full of sour notes.
Only now, in addition to bemoaning the behavior of music consumers, the entertainment industry is pointing fingers at the companies that make digital rights management (DRM) technology. DRM defines how digital content such as music, video clips and movies is distributed, and controls consumer access to it. Right now, different consumer devices support different DRM standards—making for a costly and complex quandary for content providers: Which horse to ride? (To find out how media behemoth ESPN is coping with the problem, see “Game On,” Page 60.)
Consumers generally decry DRM safeguards because they interfere in sharing content between a PC, iPod or mobile phone. There’s also the issue of performance: Recent MP3 testing by CNET showed that audio playback with Microsoft’s DRM-protected software resulted in up to a 25 percent loss of battery life; conversely, iPod users can get 8 percent more playtime running non-DRM-protected tunes.
“We’d like nothing more than for you to be able to download or transfer music securely between your phone, your home and work PC, a couple of your players and your home Hi-Fi system, for example,” says John Kennedy, chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the trade body that represents record labels worldwide, during a recent BBC online chat. “It’s the technology companies that hold the key to achieving this. They need to make proprietary systems interoperable with each other.”
On the other hand, says David Rossien, a principal with management consultancy Adventis, music industry executives have yet to articulate a vision for online music, or a plan for achieving it. “They’re still trying to figure out how it’s all going to happen,” he says.