Could this be the beginning of a trend?

NPR reports that the City of Los Angeles has voted to overhaul its email system, converting it from a Microsoft-based software system, to a Google Gmail system where the data will be kept private on Google's servers across the U.S.

With so many municipal and state governments strapped for cash these days, you've gotta wonder if this is gonna catch on. If L.A. is serious about doing it, shouldn't others take a hard look at it, too? Politicians eager to bring home some tax savings to their constituents may not be able to resist the urge to review their local government's spending on I.T., and figure out what they could push into the Google cloud.

For those looking for some more detail on the possible rationale behind this deal, take a look at this InformationWeek column, which gives four possible reasons that L.A. chose Google over Microsoft.

Hey Mayor Sheila Dixon -- is somebody in your office gonna take a closer look at this?

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 9:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Big Ideas, Government Tech, West Coast
        

If you haven't read it yet, then run -- don't walk -- to Jay Hancock's latest, most excellent column where he talks with Yash Gupta, dean of the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. In it, Gupta (left) talks about the difference in the innovation economies and cultures of Baltimore and Southern California's Silicon Valley.

He makes some interesting points. And, it seems there's a call to action somewhere in there for our business and political leaders to wake up and smell the Old Bay right under their noses.

I may be oversimplifying it, but Gupta seems to say that entrepreneurs are overly dependent around these parts on the federal government as a cash cow for contracts. Such dependence can be both financially and professionally rewarding, but stultifying -- partly because the government market is a different animal than the consumer and business market.

It was also refreshing for Gupta to point out that California has high taxes and a tough regulatory environment, and yet its Silicon Valley is still synonymous with business innovation -- so the excuse that Maryland isn't tax-friendly to businesses may be just that: an excuse.

Yet, the other side is hard to ignore, when billions of federal dollars are staring your local/regional economy in the face.

In an interview I did awhile back with Christian Johansson, the state's secretary of the Department of Business and Economic Development, he essentially noted that the federal government is the big gorilla in the room that businesses around here can't ignore.

If the Maryland companies don't take advantage of the steady spigot of contracts that are made available each year, than other companies in other states most certainly will.

What do you think?

(photo credit: JHU)

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 8:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Big Ideas, East Coast, Entrepreneurs & Risk Takers, Government Tech, West Coast
        

Did you catch Justin Fenton's story about the Baltimore Police Department wanting to roll out BlackBerries to its 2,000 officers? It's an interesting one, talking about how Commissioner Bealefeld hopes cops will use these smartphones to check warrants, retrieve drivers license photos and stay better connected with each other.

Before the Baltimore Police Department decided to give BlackBerries to police officers to do their jobs, I was using my iPhone to do my job as a crime reporter.

The department's top brass can also use the phones' built-in GPS to track the beat cops as they're deployed on the street. Not a bad idea, one might think.

Before I started covering technology earlier this year, I was a crime and breaking news reporter, doing my time on the Sun's city desk for the previous four years.

I had used a mobile laptop and a video camera in the past to do my work from the field. But I really wanted an iPhone because I knew it would help me work faster, because I wouldn't have to wait for a laptop to boot up and I could transmit photos more seamlessly and instantaneously from the device.

So, here's how I ended up used a smartphone to report on crime in Baltimore: (hit the jump for the rest)

Continue reading "Baltimore police with smartphones: a good idea?" »

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 8:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Government Tech, Smartphones
        

A recent patent filing by defense contractor Lockheed Martin gives us a peek into a portable virtual reality simulator the company is cooking up.

The patent application is titled: "Portable immersive environment using motion capture and head mounted display." Basically, it includes head gear and handheld controllers and a powerful computer system that integrates motion capture, virtual reality, kinematics and computer-aided design.

A motion-capture camera system captures the users' motions and a virtual reality simulator then generates "scaled avatars within a three-dimensional virtual reality simulation." So not only are you viewing virtual reality, your motions can move your avatar through the virtual space.

Cue the virtual reality movie references..........now. The Matrix, anyone? 

One nifty trick the patent app cites: the simulator is able to scale a person's avatar in real time. For instance, a 5-foot 4-inch user of the device can be scaled in real-time to be a 6-foot 2-inch avatar, and the images that the person sees through their headset will be from the perspective of the taller avatar. Get it?

What's different about their system, the Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin notes, is that it integrates motion capture and virtual reality. People who use it can interact with both real and artificial virtual reality environments, according to the patent application.

And it's not just for one user -- you can get immersed in a virtual reality with a group of people, include a trainer in whatever training exercise you can dream up. Below are detailed diagrams of the headset and the portable computer system. 

Such a system has all sorts of implications and applications, from military training scenarios to virtual gaming. Wonder if Lockheed Martin has ever considered putting out a kicking high-end video game system for consumers?

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Gadgets, Government Tech
        

Have you ever heard the phrase "Feds, Meds, Eds & Beds"?

I hadn't -- until I listened to Christian S. Johansson, head of the state Department of Business and Economic Development, drop it during his keynote address at the Maryland Incubator of the Year Awards on June 17.

In a room full of bright start-up companies, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and state biz development leaders, Johansson talked about the strength and resilience of the Maryland economy, in the face of a national recession.  A big reason for that strength, he said, is "Feds, Meds, Eds and Beds."  Here's what that catch-phrase means:

* Feds: The state benefits from tens of thousands of jobs tied directly and indirectly to federal government agencies that employ people at military and civilian facilities. (Think NSA at Fort Meade to the Social Security Administration headquarters at Woodlawn.) Contractors that do work for these federal agencies and military installations are also plentiful in Maryland. 

* Meds: The health care and social services industry is a huge employer in Maryland. Also, biotechnology is a growing, cutting-edge sector that's seen a lot of investment in recent years.

* Eds: Education. Higher education. And the research that comes out of institutions such as the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University.

* Beds: Tourism. From the Inner Harbor to the Eastern Shore to Deep Creek.

The notion of Feds, Meds, Eds & Beds sounds like a nifty marketing jingle for state leaders to use in their cheerleading and marketing of Maryland. What do you think?

Meantime, if you're interested in getting a snapshot of the Maryland economy, here are some links to peruse:

:: This state report has one of the latest overviews of Maryland's private-sector workforce.

:: The 2008 Maryland employment and payrolls data show a breakdown of public and private sector jobs, including average weekly wage per worker. (Hint: There are more workers in local and state government than federal, but federal workers have a higher average weekly salary. Gee, I wonder if that's why everybody seems to covet a job with the Feds. :-)

:: The Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore has more specific stats that drill down on the economic activity in the Baltimore area, such as this chart on employment by industry.

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 9:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Big Ideas, East Coast, Government Tech
        

Every once in a while, I get to see -- and sometimes write about -- a fascinating new product before the consumer masses get to it. It's one of the cool perks of being a journalist, really.

That happened to me recently, when Bill Anderson (left) of Oculis Labs Inc., in Owings Mills, gave me and some colleagues here at The Baltimore Sun a demo of his new software: "Chameleon" and "PrivateEye." (Here's my full story on how he launched his company and came up with the idea.) 

Here's what Chameleon does: it uses sophisticated gaze-tracking technology to dynamically render the words and images on a computer monitor so that only the authorized user can read them. It's accurate down to about one single character. If someone is peeking over your shoulder (aka "shoulder surfing"), all they will see is dummy text that is constantly changing. You, the user, will be able to read the text you choose to read wherever your eyes wander on the screen.

I tried reading the documents -- a Word and an Excel document -- over Anderson's shoulder, and I could not. I had no idea where his eyes were and the text was constantly changing on me.  

For now, big government agencies involved in military/intelligence operations are the most likely ideal customers because it requires some special hardware (the gaze-tracking equipment), and the price tag ain't cheap. Anderson bills Chameleon as a way for people to protect their monitors, which can be critical in battlefield and intelligence operations, where super-spies with powerful telephoto lenses can peer over your shoulder from a very long ways away.

For consumers, there's a lighter-weight version, PrivateEye. Here's what that does: It taps into your computer's Web cam (that's the only hardware you need) and uses face-detection technology so that your computer knows when you turn away from the screen. As soon as you turn away, the screen softly blurs. Ideal for office situations where privacy of information is paramount, such as medical settings, financial institutions, law firms, etc.

Anderson gave us a tour of the software and we shot some video. Check it out below!

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Gadgets, Government Tech, Startups, Venture Cap
        

I went to visit a little company in Columbia called Sourcefire a few weeks back, on the trail of a story about what Maryland companies think about President Obama's push to upgrade the nation's cyber security capacity. (Hint: They're not unhappy about it, as my story today sez.)

I met with the company's founder, Martin Roesch (CTO), John Burris (CEO) and Todd Headley (CFO), who gave me and photographer Lloyd Fox a tour of their 300-person shop.  Perhaps the funniest thing that struck me is the company's quirky little culture.

They have a mascot -- the Snort pig -- which they use to brand their intrusion prevention products for computer network safety. They have art on the walls of their offices that incorporates the pig, riffing on popular movie posters and art classics.

The Snort pig as "Neo" in The Matrix? As Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa"? (left) Hey -- why not?

Oh, and a classic bumper sticker, hung above founder Martin Roesch's desk: "My kid reads your honor student's email." (photo below) Total. Geek. Humor among the cyber security set who work closely with the alphabet soup of defense and intelligence agencies based in Maryland.  

I hope one day my kid grows up knowing how to hack into computer networks (in a benevolent way, on the side of the good guys, of course.) 

 Needless to say, Sourcefire is humming along. The company has had its ups and downs after it went public a few years ago, but revenue is going up and they're trying to stay lean as possible to get themselves to full-blown profitability.

But their long-term future seems steady, as we move deeper into a world where more of our lives are intricately tied to the virtual spheres we've created for our personal and professional lives.

There are probably hundreds of little companies that are hoping to ride some piece of the cyber security wave in Maryland, as money comes pouring out of Washington. Some state and business leaders think the state can become a "Silicon Valley of cyber security." Some say we're pretty much already established as one.

What do you think?

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Government Tech
        

Just got the news that Maryland's Technology Development Corp. (TEDCO) awarded $599,934 in funding through a partnership through Fort Detrick (under the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command) and the Frederick County Office of Economic Development.

Check out the jump to find the list of companies -- each of which received a $50,000 infusion over the past year -- and a description of what they're developing. It's an interesting mix of work.

Continue reading "Maryland's latest funding for military/biotech-related companies" »

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 9:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: BioTech, Government Tech, Research
        

President Obama made network-security geeks gasp with glee when he announced late last month that he would be appointing a cyber security "czar" who will focus on securing America's information technology infrastructure.

Maryland is home to a lot of major government agencies and military installations -- from the Social Security Administration in Woodlawn to Fort Meade, the NSA's home, in Anne Arundel County.

And there are many, many jobs and companies in Maryland that are tied directly to work on IT projects with these government agencies. Protecting network infrastructure has been one of those out-of-the-spotlight industries for years.

(Pictured here is Melissa Hathaway, who conducted a 60-day review of U.S. cyber security policy, while listening to Obama's announcement. Read her White House blog post on her review here.)

Sure, network security is absolutely critical, and a mistake could give a company or government a big black eye, but it hasn't been a very sexy preoccupation for the great American government bureaucracy -- certainly not as thrilling as space exploration or "shovel-ready" projects.

But now a U.S. president is pushing it, hard.

So, were Maryland techies in this field excited about Obama's pledge to ramp up cyber-security? Early reports I'm getting from a slew of small companies indicate: Heck, yes!

I'm working on a story about the topic, but I'd love to get some feedback here to help with my research.

(Photo courtesy of AFP/Getty Images)

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Government Tech
        

Earlier this week, I scooted down to the Baltimore Convention Center, to catch Steven Britz's talk on how he's using ultraviolet rays to grow nutrient-rich lettuce.

Britz, a research plant physiologist at the USDA's Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, was one of many presenters at the Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics/International Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/IQEC). (See the photo below) 

Britz talked about things like flavonoids ... and ultraviolet A and B ... and polyphenolic compounds .... and phenolic acid esters ... and the "complicated geometry" of lettuce, which is "hardly a flat surface." (At this point, I started wondering why I took all those English and writing classes in college, and only one bio course. Ack.)

Such veggie geometry -- unruly lettuce leaves everywhere, I suppose -- poses a challenge when you're trying to beam ultraviolet rays at it to help the lettuce turn redder and healthier.

Britz flashed photos of red leaf lettuce heads (the Lolla Rossa you see above), showing before-and-after shots of what they looked like in experiments where an ultraviolet light was focused on them for 48 hours. Notice how red the one on the right is -- that one got a dose of ultraviolet-B for 48 hours. The lettuce looked better, it tasted better -- and gosh darn it, people liked it!

He talked about how in the future, we might see large farm operations using UV rays to help boost the freshness of lettuce before it gets shipped across country. We might even see UV-emitting LEDs built into our refrigerators, to help sustain freshness and nutrients in fruits and veggies.

His vision, half-joking: "A chicken in every pot and an LED in every refrigerator." I caught up with Britz by phone in a followup interview and he patiently explained what he was doing with UV and lettuce.

Continue reading "Veggie Tech: Building the better lettuce" »

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Government Tech
        

Their message was tantalizingly exciting at a time when the cable news channels, talk radio, blogs and newspapers are filled with news of economic woe. Afterall, there is a recession all around us -- haven't you heard? 

Yet these executives from TCS, Sourcefire, and Salar -- three totally different companies -- were telling a crowd of about 100 people how they're bringing in more dollars. (That's the attentive crowd to the left.)

The venue was a hotel conference room at the Sheraton in Towson, Md. The moderator: Art Jacoby, an experienced business advisor who's well-traveled in Baltimore biz circles.

The executives were Tim Lorello, global commercial sales senior V.P. and chief marketing officer, Telecommunication Systems Inc. (aka, TCS, a service provider to wireless cos.), of Annapolis; Michele Perry, chief marketing officer, Sourcefire (computer network intrusion prevention), of Columbia; and Todd Johnson, president of Salar Inc. (clinical software for hospitals), of Baltimore. 

Here's a quick-and-dirty rundown of what each talked about at the meeting, organized by the Greater Baltimore Technology Council:

Continue reading "Three tales of growth in a recession" »

Posted by Gus Sentementes at 6:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Government Tech, Wireless