Cloud Summary from Gartner Symposium

From last week's Gartner Symposium, here's a summary of the top 5 cloud-related things from the conference:

• Clearer conversations about the cloud
• Demonstrated examples of success in the cloud
• Real commitment from Google for the enterprise
• Seeing a mainstream "conference 2.0"
• Acknowledgment of a "new normal"

Read more about each of these. Also, Appirio has published a list of the bottom 5 cloud-related things from the Gartner Symposium last week.

New ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and IT

Every year I look forward to this ECAR study of undergraduate student technology use. Some of this year's key findings:

• Laptops are owned by 87.8% of respondents
• 51.2% of respondents own internet-capable handheld devices
• Respondents said they spend an average of 21.3 hours per week on the internet
• Only 45% of respondents report that most or all of their instructors use technology effectively
• Good news for librarians: 73.1% of respondents used the college/university library website at least once during the semester

This one is well worth your time. Read the entire study.

One in Five Internet Users Uses Twitter

Pew has just released a report indicating that 19.1% of Internet users are now participating on Twitter or another status update service. 33% of Twitter users are under 30. The more internet-connected devices one owns, the more likely they are to Twitter; 39% of respondents with four or more devices are Twitter users.

Read the full Pew Report on Twitter and Status Updating.