Charles Wheelan has just published a very nice post on "Why What's Good for India Is Good for Us".
Head on over to Yahoo Finance for the complete article Trust me. It's really worth a read
- Because it's the world's largest democracy.
- Because it's where a large proportion of the world's poor live.
- Because a richer India will make for a richer America.
- Because it's not China.
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WOW!!. never in my dreams would I have believed that I would be a victim of "identity theft". Here's my story.
I got back home late this PM to receive a call from dell (supposedly) computers. Here's how the call went.
HIM (with a heavy indian accent) : Hello Rohan, this is {a typical indian name} calling from dell computers. Can you please give me another credit card to continue processing your order because your credit card did not go throughME: eh !! hello... what order ?
HIM: for a dell computer
ME: well, I believe there's some misunderstanding, who are you calling for?
HIM: Rohan Pinto
ME: well, that's me alright, but what order are youn referring to, I didn't place any order with dell for anything
HIM: well sir, I am calling from the dell customer service center in India. Are you Rohan Pinto sir ?
ME: yes I am.
HIM: is your address :........
ME: yes it is.
HIM: Sir, can you verify your phone number sir?
ME: well, you called me right, so you seem to have it already dont you ?
HIM: that's right sir. So can you please give me another credit card number sir, because the visa card information you gave us priorly was declined...
ME: Hold on a sec... There seems to be a mis-underatnding.
I DID NOT PLACE ANY ORDER WITH DELL HIM: Sir you did sir, the computers are supposed to be shipped to Alex Bankwah, 1205B Mont Pellier, St. Laurent, Quebec. and the phone number for delivery confirmation is : 514-227-2455
ME: I DID NOT Please do not process anything on my behalf, because I believe that there may be some form of fraud involved. So please do not process anything further and cancel any order that you may have received from me.
HIM: Don't worry sir, nothing will be procesed until we have the correct information. and since the credit card did not go through, you will not be charged for anything.
ME: Well, good. Now I seem to be getting a whiff of what may have happened. Could you please verify the credit card number that was provided so I could cross-check if it was my credit card information that was used.
HIM: No sir, we cannot do that because in India sir, everything is automated, my system only shows a declined credit card and not the number sir. So I cannot give you that info. and dont worry sir, we will not be processing any order.
ME: I would like to ensure that this does not happen again so could you please flag me as a potential fraud victim and not process any further phone or online orders from me ?
HIM: yes sir we will. Thank you for your co-operation sir.
ME: Well, whew!! By the way.. When was this order places..?
HIM: around 3 hours ago sir.
ME: Could you give me any more info, so I could follow up on this and ensure that such orders are not being placed with vendors?
HIM: no sir, I already gavce you all the information I had sir. I do not have any more information on this order sir.. Have a good Day sir.
he hangs up abruptly
I was aghast!! What If this "miscreant" was placing orders all over the place using my "identity" ?? What if the "miscreant" has all my information and uses it elsewhere... he and/or she at least seems to have a lot of information about who I am, and where I live and my contact info... I decided to call the number in Quebec to find out more... and a french speaking lady answered the phone..
ME: Hello, is this 514-227-2455SHE(with a strong french accent) : yes it is.
ME: is there anybody by the name Alex Bankwah there ?
SHE: Who? alex ? who alex?
ME: Well, The reason I am calling 'mam is to verify some information. Did you order a dell computer today?
SHE: no..? dell ? computer? no ?
ME: Well 'mam, looks like there's been a misunderstanding. Someone seems to have made a mistake. There was supposed to be a computer ordered for a Mr. Alex Bankwah residing at 1205B Mont Pellier, St. Laurent, Quebec.; and the contact number I have is 514-227-2455.
SHE: the nunber is right, but thats not our address and I dont know any Alex Bankwah.
ME: Sorry to have wasted your time madam, I seem to have a wrong number..
I was even more curious now, Why would someone order a computer using my information and have it shipped to a ficticious address? I thought that I should crosscheck this information with dell. and hey !! I decided to call dell directly to verify the information.
DELL REP: Hello, Thank you for calling Dell Canada, How may I help you.ME: Hello, I am calling up to veify an order that was placed. Could you verify if there was any order processed for a dell computer system by me, "Rohan Pinto" ?
HIM: Did you place an order sir?
ME knowing for sure that I was speaking to a dell representative : well, no. not exactly, I just recieved a call from dell a couple of minutes ago asking me to provide dell with a valid credit card in order to complete and order that I had placed. But since I had not placed any order with dell, I asked the dell representative who called me to cancel any order that may have been placed using my "identity". I am just calling back to get some more information on this order so I could follow up and see who may have placed an order using my identity?
HIM: If you can hold on for a minute, I could check to see if there are any open orders that are in queue for processing..
a brief pause
HIM: There does not seem to be any order from you in our systems.
ME: Thats wierd, because a dell representative just called me a few minutes ago trying to confirm the order, maybe he canceled the order and it's not in the processing queue that you may be looking at right now. Is there some way for me to know if I EVER placed an order with dell.
HIM: Sure, could you hold on for a few minutes..
another brief pause
HIM: Hello..., there has been no order placed or cancelled at all in the system.
ME: could it be with dell US? or another country? because the dell representative called me from India. at lkeast that what I was told
HIM: Sorry for asking you this again, could I put you on hold for a few more minutes?
ME: Sure.
another brief pause, which was quite long...
HIM: I crosschecked the entire system, US, Canada and India, there positively is no order placed by any "Rohan Pinto" at all. Are you sure the name is "Rohan Pinto" and not anything else.
ME: Well I am sure the name is right, but could you pull up any information using a phone number ?
HIM: Sure, which number ?
ME: I give him the EXACT same number that I RECEIVED a call on from the dell representative
HIM (again after putting me on hold for a few more minutes): We have absolutely no record of that number in our systems. Are you sure that the call was from DELL ?
ME: Well, All I am sure of is that a Mr. Somebody, claiming to be a dell representative called me to confirm a order.
HIM: I would not be surprised if it was a prank. Is there anything I could help you with.
ME: well, no..
HIM: Thank you for calling dell. Have a Good Day Now.
Well, Now a new thought hit me.!! why did I associate "identity theft" and theives with those who do no come from the same cultural background as me? Just because the call was from India, and the person had a strong Indian accent, There's just no way I could rule the "caller" out of my list of fraudulent callers. maybe the dell representative who called me the first time was the miscreant himself, trying to procure my credit card information. WOW !!! an "Identity Thief", an "Indian"!! Outsourcing Customer Service, Order Fulfillment and Support sure does have it's disadvantages.
If the "so called dell representative" could not see the credit card info on file, I BET! he would not be in a position to obtain credit card info either...
I remember from a report that I had read a long time ago, that the ROI on outsourcing is visible after at least a 5 year baking period. Well, the outsourcing bubble sprouted in 2000/2001. It's the end of 2005.. almost 5 years and I for sure do see the difference.. Do You ?
We have outsourced a process... a business process, and "identity theft" sure is a "process"...
We all need to gear up for a band of "identity theives" who may be hard to track down. "identity, and security" should be the number 1 priority of all organizations embarking on securing their customers data even though programs like CMM Level 5 certifications etc exist in the outsourcing companies.
......because there's only so much one can do to protect data and identities !! We are NOT virtual entities but living breating human beings that are in the process of being converted to a barcode ;-( Thank You USA ;-(
WOW!!. never in my dreams would I have believed that I would be a victim of "identity theft". Here's my story.
I got back home late this PM to receive a call from dell (supposedly) computers. Here's how the call went.
HIM (with a heavy indian accent) : Hello Rohan, this is {a typical indian name} calling from dell computers. Can you please give me another credit card to continue processing your order because your credit card did not go throughME: eh !! hello... what order ?
HIM: for a dell computer
ME: well, I believe there's some misunderstanding, who are you calling for?
HIM: Rohan Pinto
ME: well, that's me alright, but what order are youn referring to, I didn't place any order with dell for anything
HIM: well sir, I am calling from the dell customer service center in India. Are you Rohan Pinto sir ?
ME: yes I am.
HIM: is your address :........
ME: yes it is.
HIM: Sir, can you verify your phone number sir?
ME: well, you called me right, so you seem to have it already dont you ?
HIM: that's right sir. So can you please give me another credit card number sir, because the visa card information you gave us priorly was declined...
ME: Hold on a sec... There seems to be a mis-underatnding.
I DID NOT PLACE ANY ORDER WITH DELL HIM: Sir you did sir, the computers are supposed to be shipped to Alex Bankwah, 1205B Mont Pellier, St. Laurent, Quebec. and the phone number for delivery confirmation is : 514-227-2455
ME: I DID NOT Please do not process anything on my behalf, because I believe that there may be some form of fraud involved. So please do not process anything further and cancel any order that you may have received from me.
HIM: Don't worry sir, nothing will be procesed until we have the correct information. and since the credit card did not go through, you will not be charged for anything.
ME: Well, good. Now I seem to be getting a whiff of what may have happened. Could you please verify the credit card number that was provided so I could cross-check if it was my credit card information that was used.
HIM: No sir, we cannot do that because in India sir, everything is automated, my system only shows a declined credit card and not the number sir. So I cannot give you that info. and dont worry sir, we will not be processing any order.
ME: I would like to ensure that this does not happen again so could you please flag me as a potential fraud victim and not process any further phone or online orders from me ?
HIM: yes sir we will. Thank you for your co-operation sir.
ME: Well, whew!! By the way.. When was this order places..?
HIM: around 3 hours ago sir.
ME: Could you give me any more info, so I could follow up on this and ensure that such orders are not being placed with vendors?
HIM: no sir, I already gavce you all the information I had sir. I do not have any more information on this order sir.. Have a good Day sir.
he hangs up abruptly
I was aghast!! What If this "miscreant" was placing orders all over the place using my "identity" ?? What if the "miscreant" has all my information and uses it elsewhere... he and/or she at least seems to have a lot of information about who I am, and where I live and my contact info... I decided to call the number in Quebec to find out more... and a french speaking lady answered the phone..
ME: Hello, is this 514-227-2455SHE(with a strong french accent) : yes it is.
ME: is there anybody by the name Alex Bankwah there ?
SHE: Who? alex ? who alex?
ME: Well, The reason I am calling 'mam is to verify some information. Did you order a dell computer today?
SHE: no..? dell ? computer? no ?
ME: Well 'mam, looks like there's been a misunderstanding. Someone seems to have made a mistake. There was supposed to be a computer ordered for a Mr. Alex Bankwah residing at 1205B Mont Pellier, St. Laurent, Quebec.; and the contact number I have is 514-227-2455.
SHE: the nunber is right, but thats not our address and I dont know any Alex Bankwah.
ME: Sorry to have wasted your time madam, I seem to have a wrong number..
I was even more curious now, Why would someone order a computer using my information and have it shipped to a ficticious address? I thought that I should crosscheck this information with dell. and hey !! I decided to call dell directly to verify the information.
DELL REP: Hello, Thank you for calling Dell Canada, How may I help you.ME: Hello, I am calling up to veify an order that was placed. Could you verify if there was any order processed for a dell computer system by me, "Rohan Pinto" ?
HIM: Did you place an order sir?
ME knowing for sure that I was speaking to a dell representative : well, no. not exactly, I just recieved a call from dell a couple of minutes ago asking me to provide dell with a valid credit card in order to complete and order that I had placed. But since I had not placed any order with dell, I asked the dell representative who called me to cancel any order that may have been placed using my "identity". I am just calling back to get some more information on this order so I could follow up and see who may have placed an order using my identity?
HIM: If you can hold on for a minute, I could check to see if there are any open orders that are in queue for processing..
a brief pause
HIM: There does not seem to be any order from you in our systems.
ME: Thats wierd, because a dell representative just called me a few minutes ago trying to confirm the order, maybe he canceled the order and it's not in the processing queue that you may be looking at right now. Is there some way for me to know if I EVER placed an order with dell.
HIM: Sure, could you hold on for a few minutes..
another brief pause
HIM: Hello..., there has been no order placed or cancelled at all in the system.
ME: could it be with dell US? or another country? because the dell representative called me from India. at lkeast that what I was told
HIM: Sorry for asking you this again, could I put you on hold for a few more minutes?
ME: Sure.
another brief pause, which was quite long...
HIM: I crosschecked the entire system, US, Canada and India, there positively is no order placed by any "Rohan Pinto" at all. Are you sure the name is "Rohan Pinto" and not anything else.
ME: Well I am sure the name is right, but could you pull up any information using a phone number ?
HIM: Sure, which number ?
ME: I give him the EXACT same number that I RECEIVED a call on from the dell representative
HIM (again after putting me on hold for a few more minutes): We have absolutely no record of that number in our systems. Are you sure that the call was from DELL ?
ME: Well, All I am sure of is that a Mr. Somebody, claiming to be a dell representative called me to confirm a order.
HIM: I would not be surprised if it was a prank. Is there anything I could help you with.
ME: well, no..
HIM: Thank you for calling dell. Have a Good Day Now.
Well, Now a new thought hit me.!! why did I associate "identity theft" and theives with those who do no come from the same cultural background as me? Just because the call was from India, and the person had a strong Indian accent, There's just no way I could rule the "caller" out of my list of fraudulent callers. maybe the dell representative who called me the first time was the miscreant himself, trying to procure my credit card information. WOW !!! an "Identity Thief", an "Indian"!! Outsourcing Customer Service, Order Fulfillment and Support sure does have it's disadvantages.
If the "so called dell representative" could not see the credit card info on file, I BET! he would not be in a position to obtain credit card info either...
I remember from a report that I had read a long time ago, that the ROI on outsourcing is visible after at least a 5 year baking period. Well, the outsourcing bubble sprouted in 2000/2001. It's the end of 2005.. almost 5 years and I for sure do see the difference.. Do You ?
We have outsourced a process... a business process, and "identity theft" sure is a "process"...
We all need to gear up for a band of "identity theives" who may be hard to track down. "identity, and security" should be the number 1 priority of all organizations embarking on securing their customers data even though programs like CMM Level 5 certifications etc exist in the outsourcing companies.
......because there's only so much one can do to protect data and identities !! We are NOT virtual entities but living breating human beings that are in the process of being converted to a barcode ;-( Thank You USA ;-(
According to this forbes report, Time Warner has picked its partner. It's going to marry off its AOL unit to Google for a dowry of $1 billion for 5% of the company, plus a share of ad revenue. Are we gonna have any more surprises ?
I guess it's all a big game of numbers. In a extremely recent report by forbes (4 days ago), Caris & Co. Equity Research analyst Mark Stahlman predicted that Microsoft would beat Google to win an online-advertising partnership with Time Warner unit AOL. Well predications can be so wrong dont they ?
and hey !! arranged marriages are not so bad So, to that, read my old post on curry 'n rice girl
yep... Google's launched a Blog Search Engine. Technorati... watch out !!! I am not sure if I could term this as "Google joins Icerocket, Technorati and Blogpulse with exclusive searches on weblogs from every corner of the globe." or is Google's giving the rest a run for their money
Read the full report here.
It's been nearly two and a half years since Google purchased Pyra Labs, the company that built the hugely popular Blogger publishing service, and Google has been promising blog search ever since then.For more information, see the Google Blog Search FAQ. This is a nice complement to the searchability of the blogosphere.While Google web search has allowed you to limit results to popular blog file types such as RSS and XML in web search results for some time, and its news search includes some blogs as sources, Google hasn't had a specialized tool to surface purely blog postings. In fact, while all of the major search engines have been dabbling with blog and feed search, none has done much with blog search until now.
Google's new service (in beta, naturally) is available both at google.com/blogsearch and search.blogger.com. Google blog search scans content posted to blogs and feeds in virtually real-time, according to Jason Goldman, Google product manager for blog search.
"We look for sites that update pinging services, and then we crawl in real-time so that we can serve up search results that are as fresh as we can," said Goldman.
All said and done, I strongly feel that googlism is here to stay.
Take a walk with Jack Welch (former General Electric Chairman and CEO)through "The Five Stages of Crisis Management" on "Why Katrina will make us stronger".
New Orleans, of course, is not a company, but like any city, it is an organization. And there can be no denying that New Orleans' crisis is tragic in a way that company crises are not. But contrary to the sound and fury out there right now, the Katrina crisis follows a well-worn pattern.a case study of the five stages people seem to have to go through during severe crises
The first stage of that pattern is denial. The problem isn't that bad, the thinking usually goes, it can't be, because bad things don't happen here, to us. The second is containment. This is the stage where people, including perfectly capable leaders, try to make the problem disappear by giving it to someone else to solve. The third stage is shame-mongering, in which all parties with a stake in the problem enter into a frantic dance of self-defense, assigning blame and claiming credit. Fourth comes blood on the floor. In just about every crisis, a high profile person pays with his job, and sometimes he takes a crowd with him. In the fifth and final stage, the crisis gets fixed and, despite prophecies of permanent doom, life goes on, usually for the better.
Now, you may be wondering that if most every crisis follows a pattern, why can't we manage them better, or even prevent them?Do we have something to learn from this ? Think hard. I think we surely do. !!In business, we very often do. Over time, organizations may go through several crises, but very rarely do they go through the same type twice. The reason? Companies typically go to extremes after a crisis. They throw up fortresses of rules, controls and procedures to fix what went wrong in the first place. In that way, they build a kind of immunity to the sickness that felled them. It is very unlikely, for instance, that Johnson & Johnson will ever have another product tampering disaster like Tylenol.
Immunity to crises comes from learning. Crises teach us where the system is broken and how to repair it so it won't break again. Ultimately, learning is why disasters, in business and in nature, have the potential to make the organizations that survive them so much stronger in the long run. And learning will reveal the crisis management of Katrina for what it was an age old pattern meant to be broken.
According to this report on yahoo news, Sun Microsystems, has been named ones of the "pioneers" in Corporate Blogging. Our CIO, Bill Vass, also said that blogging is a non-issue when it comes to productivity.
Some CIOs worry that having employees getting involved with corporate blogging will just become one more thing to take up valuable time. Others voice concern about the impact on employee productivity caused by reading and writing blogs.Vass views both of these responses as non-issues. Instead, he suggests that business leaders should view blogging as an investment in time. The return on the blogging investment comes in the form of increased corporate visibility.
At the same time, Corporate blogging is not a bed of roses. One has to be extremely careful when publishing content on a corporate blog, especially when it comes to trade secrets.
Apple Computers ran into its own blogging woes earlier this year. Two blogging sites PowerPage and AppleInsider published trade secrets about upcoming products. Apple took the blog writers to court and won. In March 2005, the San Jose Mercury News reported that a San Jose judge had ruled that the two sites had no right to protect the identities of the sources disclosing the information.
As a CIO, Vass sees his role in corporate blogging in very clear terms. His role is to ensure that the communications tools are there and are easy to use. He advises other CIOs to recognize the difference between external and internal blogs.He said corporate leadership must understand the importance of having in place a corporate blogging policy. "Know the rules," he said. "Then let them go wild."
Disclaimers Many bloggers put a disclaimer on their front page saying who they work for, but that they're not speaking officially. This is good practice, but don't count it to avoid trouble; it may not have much legal effect.
I cannot post an excerpt from this report here, as it's not a published with creative commons license or anything of the likes.. It's copyrighted, and reuters earns revenues selling stories & one needs republishing permissions and I dont have it. But you could read the report by clicking here or visiting reuters.UPDATE :
I hope this helps those bloggers, who are reluctant to blog with fears of repercussions of their posts. Well, fear is a factor, ignorance is another, and knowledge to know the difference is well the third
- A Copyright is a form of protection provided to authors of “original works of authorship”, both published and unpublished. Copyright protects the form of expression rather than the subject of the expression. Federal copyright registrations are issued by the U.S. Copyright Office. They give the copyright owner exclusive rights to reproduce the copyrighted work, to prepare derivative works, to distribute copies of the work, and to perform and display the work publicly.
- A Trademark is a word, name, symbol or device which indicates the source of a product and distinguishes it from the products of others. A servicemark identifies and distinguishes the source of a service instead of a product. Trademarks are issued by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. They prevent others from using a confusingly similar mark, but cannot prevent others from making the same products or from selling the same products under a clearly different mark.
- A Patent is the grant of a property right to an inventor. What is granted is the right to exclude others from using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention. Patents are issued by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.
just like in ...God grant me serinity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.Trust me, I'm speaking from experience...
A US Border Patrol Agent catches an illegal alien in the bushes right by the border fence, he pulls him out and says "Sorry, you know the law, you've got to go back across the border right now." The mexican man pleads with them, "No, noooo Senior, I must stay in de USA! Pleeeze!" The Border Patrol Agent thinks to himself, I'm going to make it hard for him and says "Ok, I'll let you stay if you can use 3 english words in a sentence". The Mexican man of course agrees. The Border Patrol Agent tells him, "The 3 words are: Green, Pink and Yellow. Now use them in 1 sentence." The Mexican man thinks really hard for about 2 minutes, then says, "Hmmm, Ok. The phone, it went Green, Green, Green,... I Pink it up, and sez Yellow?"
Link Courtesy : Timothy from his slashdot post.Does anybody from New York know if Cathedral Pkwy (110th street) is a one or a two way street ? BTW: Could Yahoo Maps, MSN Maps & Mapquest also be used as evidence in the courts of Law ?
"There are a number of things being announced that week; some of it will likely be storage related," said the analyst, who asked not to be named.
Sources told internetnews.com IBM has been sniffing around a start-up called Incipient, which makes storage virtualization software that helps "companies more efficiently manage, move and protect their data." But this rumor was shot down.
IBM spokeswoman Lisa Lanspery flatly denied the news has anything to do with Incipient, saying that she'd never heard of the company. Robert Infantino, senior vice president at Incipient, also denied such a deal was in place and said his company doesn't discuss its OEM partners. If Big Blue were to partner with Incipient in an original equipment manufacturer's deal, it could sell the company's startup in its own products. IBM could also buy the Waltham, Mass., company outright to fortify its position in the storage virtualization market against rivals like EMC and Hitachi Data Systems (HDS), the source said under condition of anonymity. Such a deal is intriguing.
It's also possible IBM just wants to make it harder for EMC to sell its new Invista virtualization software, as well as put a crimp in the sales of HDS' TagmaStore Universal Storage Platform (USP).Read the entire post at internetnews.com for a first hand report on this subject.
Beer always tastes better when it's free, or so the saying goes. So leave it to a group of college students to find a way to make sure their beer is always free. Well, at least the recipe they use to brew it is. A group of students at IT University of Copenhagen have produced what they claim is the first open-source beer. The recipe and brand of their beer is published under a Creative Commons license, which means anyone can use the recipe for pleasure or profit. The only catch: If you make money selling their unique beer, you have to give them credit and publish any changes you make to the recipe under a similar license. Their inspiration wasn't just to get drunk, but to see what happens when an open-source structure is applied to a universally known product like beer. "Why not take the legal framework, the open-source licenses, and apply them on analog products?" said Rasmus Nielsen, a member of Superflex, an art organization that helped create the beer in conjunction with a student group called Vores Øl (Our Beer). On their website, the students said they are interested in seeing how their beer will get better once it is out in the world, acquiring slight improvements as the recipe is shared. Vjores Øl hopes that the beer "perhaps one day becomes the Linux of beers." Version 1.0 of the libation is brewed using classic techniques but has a special ingredient to make it unique. Each batch of the golden-brown ale has guarana, a South American stimulant, added to it. The guarana is equivalent to 35 milligrams of caffeine, which Vores Øl suspects should counter the drowsiness-inducing effects of the 6 percent alcohol level. Proponents of open source are always quick to counter the assumption that they make software code "free." A famous quote on the open-source GNU Project website explains the kind of freedom they really promote: "Free software is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of 'free' as in 'free speech,' not as in 'free beer.'" The guarana-infused beer isn't going to be handed out at frat parties, because it isn't free of charge. But the recipe to make a batch of the beer is open to all and is being enjoyed by beer lovers from Brazil to France, judging by guestbook entries on the Vores Øl website. As open source spreads beyond software to online encyclopedias like Wikipedia and biological research, it was only a matter of time before somebody created an open-source beer. According to the site, Vores Øl created the beer "as an experiment in applying modern open-source ideas and methods on a traditional real-world product." While the idea of open-source beer has been around since 1998 as a joke, the students and Superflex decided to make it a reality. "Beer was chosen for its universal qualities as a commodity that we would like to think of as free," said Nielsen. In an industry where taste is everything, a beer seller's recipe is typically kept under strict trademark. Home brewers, however, commonly share tips with each other, and home-brew recipe books abound. "Home brewers enjoy telling the story about how they made it and what the recipes were. There are very few secrets kept by home brewers," said Charlie Papzian, president of the Brewers Association. In the beer business, more than just recipes are moving toward open source, as some brewers are adopting an open-source business model as well. An ex-Red Hat employee in Australia has developed his love for spirits into an open-source project by creating a brewery that is owned in part by its customers. Brewtopia allows its patrons to own part of the brewery and chime in on important brand decisions that relate to Blowfly, its beer. "We second-guessed our choices every day that leaving the company open was the right thing to do," said Liam Mulhall, Brewtopia's CEO. "But when you have Harvard Business School using your company as a case study ... it's extremely satisfying." Brewtopia's libations are a hit in the IT industry, with employees from Cisco Systems, Mitel and Alcatel all making it their choice of beer at company parties. Brewtopia even supplied the beer at Yahoo's 10th anniversary party.