According to a recent Gartner report entitled Emerging technologies to drive self-service business intelligence, much of the innovation in the BI platform market will come from emerging technologies that make it easier to build and consume analytical applications.

In the July edition of Brainstorm, I gave a few examples of how big media still isn't getting the internet video phenomenon. Here's yet another one: US television network NBC has forked out billions of dollars for the rights to broadcast the Olympics to its US audiences until 2012. But I didn't read many articles during and after the Beijing competition that praised its coverage.

Dell's reputation as one of the world's most dynamic companies has faded. Some of its key competitors have been acquired as the IT industry has undergone significant consolidation. Today, many question what Dell should be doing to ensure its future growth and entrench its position in a consolidating global market.

Emma Kaye found a niche of such radical fusion that it helped create a new generation of mobile entertainment in Africa.

i5 has received numerous accolades from Microsoft since its inception in 2004 when it earned Microsoft Gold Partner status. In 2006, i5 won three awards at Microsoft Partner Summit 2006 (Partner of the Year: Business Solutions, Information Worker Solutions, and the Winning Customer Initiative award). i5 then received the ISV of the Year award in 2007 and won the 2008 Global Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner of the Year.

Matt Mullenweg adores jazz. Before he became an online legend by founding Word- Press, he used to barter websites for music lessons. Mullenweg’s mind must have been wired to open source by the spontaneously free rhythms of jazz that has its roots in the Atlantic slavery trade circa 1800. Forged in repression, the very essence of jazz speaks to a consciousness that sought to create beauty from tragedy. Despite the fact that this music has morphed into a multitude of genres, it still echoes liberation in its unbounded individualism. There are as many styles of jazz as there are people playing jazz. Small wonder then that Word- Press offers the same freedom of expression.

Could big media and big technology become trusted stewards of the ecosystem? Maybe, but it won’t matter.

The notion of computing as a utility, or a global network of linked information, may seem thoroughly modern. Both, however, predate the birth of what would become the internet. Even more curiously, it was a totally unrelated event that changed the course of history, and made these theoretical dreams reality.

Two years ago, the business intelligence (BI) market was, if not full, then certainly bristling with a number of different sol-ution providers. Today, there are far fewer. Oracle bought Hyperion, IBM acquired Cognos, and SAP forked out for Business Objects, reducing the number of vendors to a few large players and a handful of specialists.

Dell has a reputation for operational efficiency and an enviable sales strategy. Now it must change.

SOA governance isn`t an option, it`s an imperative, says Gartner.

The humble cellphone has become an indispensable communication tool, offering everything from basic telephony to on-the-go office functionality. Mobile banking, e-mail wherever you are, SMS, GPS; you name it, the cellphone now has it. And we couldn`t live without one. What will the cellphone, already an essential, absolutely critical must-have, offer in the future?

In a classic case of stating the obvious, the Competition Commission says there`s no competition in the local telecoms space.

Sentech is almost R1 billion short only days before the pre-set dual illumination broadcast date.

The Shuttleworth Foundation has realised that throwing money at a problem doesn`t make it go away

A South African company has developed the continent`s first electric car. Place your orders now; Joule will be available in less than two years.

A local remote mail archiving and backup solution goes global, in a really big way.

The Lions Rugby website has become a popular interactive community of online fans.

Google harvests information and tracks human behaviour at a ferocious pace. But growth may become its Achilles heel.

Government`s BPO dreams have fallen flat before they even got off the ground. Where next for the local call centre and BPO market?