As the year ends, we can both look back and look forward. The New York Time's John Markoff who has made a career looking at the Internet and Silicon Valley has a well balanced look at where the Internet is going in today's New York Times. Om Malik presents a wonderful counterattack (as did John Gruber over at Daring Fireball) on the Quartz post of last week that said 2013 was a lost year in tech…its created quite a stir as has the YCombinator founder Paul Graham/The Information tizzie which ValleyWag fueled ….what a way to end the year.
With controversy in the media…..Now On To The News.

Viewing Where the Internet Goes

Will 2014 be the year that the Internet is reined in? When Edward J. Snowden, the disaffected National Security Agency contract employee, purloined tens of thousands of classified documents from computers around the world, his actions – and their still-reverberating consequences – heightened international pressure to control the network that has increasingly become the world's stage.

No question the Internet of things will be front and center. GigaOm has a few stories today pointing out why the topic will be so hot and heavy

What’s ahead for the internet of things: Our CES preview podcast

Next week at this time my colleague and co-host Kevin Tofel will be fighting the hordes at the Consumer Electronics Show and reporting back on the cool widgets and gadgets that he finds.

PTC cozies up to the industrial internet of things, picks up ThingWorx for $112 million

The companies that build out the internet of things won't just be making connected door knobs: they'll also be cranking out all kinds of hardware and software for industrial applications like factories and assembly plants. With that market in mind, PTC agreed Monday to buy ThingWorx, a maker for software development tools, for $112 million.

Being the CEO of an all virtual agency tells me that creating a model of no office required over 20 years ago makes me a pioneer in the sector of remote working. When I read the story below out of Toronto I couldn't help by think just how far ahead of the curve my agency is when it comes to doing things that big business considers complex.

In the search for savings, the workplace gets an overhaul

The fifth floor of Manulife Financial Corp.'s stately headquarters on Toronto's Bloor Street East sat empty during a recent tour, the workers having vacated about a week earlier. The traditional offices on the periphery of the floor, in many different sizes and configurations, are destined to become a relic of the past.

A flat management approach for Zappos where people have no titles and no hierarchy sounds like open source hacker management to me. 

Zappos is going holacratic: no job titles, no managers, no hierarchy

Zappos is known for its zany corporate culture. The company's Q4 "All Hands" meeting in November was aptly-themed "Gone Wild": one female employee voluntarily climbed into a case filled with tarantulas to win a $250 gift card. The event opened with a Lion King performance put on by employees at the Smith Center in downtown Las Vegas…

Apple has had Chiat Day as their creative agency for many years. Could a new hire mean a change is in the wind after 30 years or more? 

The man behind NYT Magazine's gorgeous covers is headed to Apple

You may not know the name Arem Duplessis, but you've no doubt seen his work on the cover of The New York Times Magazine in the past 10 years. As design director at NYT Mag, he crafted some of the most stunning work in the publication's history — examples seen above — and he's just been hired away from his decade-long post.

Our own Ritch Blasi, who leads Comunicano's Mobile and Wireless efforts has been a busy boy of late. Beyond booking meetings like there's no tomorrow at CES, he's been engaging online in conversations with LightReading's Sarah Reedy about her views on WiFi being the new network. 

Is WiFi the New It Network?

WiFi is no longer the pitch hitter for when cellular isn't doing its job. In fact, several startups are banking on it being the preferred network for enough people to build a business on. Republic Wireless and Scratch Wireless are two of those companies. Both are wholesaling Sprint Corp.

Verizon acquired Terremark a few years back and has moved things to the cloud. AT&T and others are all doing the same thing to counter the threat of Amazon and Rackspace. Here's why Verizon is so bullish. 

Verizon: Major Apps Move Cloud-ward in 2014

Expect to see leading brand-name enterprise apps become more cloud-based in 2014 as cloud services do a better job of securely supporting hybrid cloud environments that give enterprises more confidence to move more core apps into the cloud, a top Verizon Terremark executive is predicting.

Being international the last two months tells me alot about our broadband infrastructure in the USA. But the USA is a massive land mass, and that means a lot compared to say Portugal and a population of 10 million in a country the size of one of the USA's states. Still, the wireless experience and the in ground experiences I'm seeing globally do make me think the USA is falling behind even with our LTE leadership. 

U.S. Struggles to Keep Pace in Delivering Broadband Service

San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States, a progressive and economically vibrant metropolis of 1.4 million people sprawled across south-central Texas. But the speed of its Internet service is no match for the Latvian capital, Riga, a city of 700,000 on the Baltic Sea.

BlackBerry is starting to mount their comeback campaign. Time will tell. One thing's for sure, they are pushing their QNX group and that's a smart move.

BlackBerry: The way forward

Jin Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images I'm surrounded by a talented team of industry leaders, including our new leaders for enterprise, corporate development and strategic planning, and marketing. In the coming weeks, I'll continue to build out my leadership team with those who have the skills and passion to get BlackBerry back on the path to profitability.

Why Successful People Never Bring Smartphones Into Meetings

Do you check your phone for text messages or emails during business meetings? According to new research from the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, you are probably annoying your boss and colleagues. Furthermore, the research indicates that older professionals and those with higher incomes are far more likely […]

Last story is Om Malik's rebuutal to Quartz. It's a great dose of reality.

Dear Quartz, maybe it's you that needs new glasses and a map. 2013 was not a lost year for tech

The Atlantic's sister publication, Quartz (QZ) yesterday published a provocative piece under the headline – 2013 was a lost year for tech. It was a good way to boost attention, but it also highlights a trend of looking at technology from a narrow lens of consumer-tech.

As the year ends, I have to say thanks. Thanks to great clients who take our guidance and let us do what we do best. Thanks to the influencers whom without your willingness to listen to what we have to say we wouldn't have an audience for our clients, and most of all thank you to the entire Comunicano team, past and present. Without all of you none of this would be possible. 

Personally I also have to thank the pilots, train conductors, taxi drivers, limo drivers, chefs, cooks, hotel chambermaids, hotel managers and staff and all the online service providers we use like TripIt.

This past year I accomplished what I set out to do, cutting my travel down by almost 1/3rd. Instead of 266 days on the road it was only 189. But I covered more distance 140,189 miles vs. 122,000 in 2012. I visited only 9 countries vs. 13 and only 57 cities vs. 82.  That meant I was spending more time in fewer places, and establishing better and deeper ties and friendships. And at the end of the day, that's what really matters.

Happy New Year!!!