The spread of a seemingly playful alternative to traditional diplomas, inspired by Boy Scout achievement patches and video-game power-ups, suggests that the standard certification system no longer works in today's fast-changing job market. Educational upstarts across the Web are adopting "badges" to certify skills and abilities. If scouting…

Backups are a modern fact of life. Every organization that has any kind of computing technology (and that is all of them these days) needs to back up its data in case of technological or user errors. Traditionally, large-scale backups have been done via an internal or external tape drive that takes magnetic tapes (minicassettes, essentially) and…

Rural small businesses struggling against the current of competition from "big box" retailers, weak consumer demand, and on-line shopping options must find strategies that work. Many are finding that adoption of e-commerce strategies is a key to survival, even prosperity. This article highlights the lessons learned from a recent case study…