The survey results portray the American commuter as re-evaluating the time spent getting to and from work. Frustration levels are rising — 45% identify start-stop traffic as the most frustrating part of the commute (up from 37% last year), and 32% identify aggressive/rude drivers (up from 24% last year).

If commuting time could be reduced, 52% would spend it with family/friends – nine points higher than 2008; 37% (6 points higher than 2008) would exercise more.

And drivers are more sensitive to the price of gas. This year, 20% said that $3.50/gallon gas would lead them to seriously consider alternatives to driving alone, in 2008, it was 9% at that price level.

“Conducted at a time of great change in the United States, the Commuter Pain survey clearly demonstrates the vast impact that commuting and traffic congestion have on our economy,” said Anne Altman, general manager of IBM’s global public sector. “The time has come for cities and states to embrace real, long-term solutions that unclog our nation’s roadways.”

IBM Commuter Pain Survey – Key Findings
Analysis of the survey results indicated a number of key findings related to how traffic impacts commuters:

• 55% say they are unlikely or very unlikely to make a driving trip of more than 50 miles from home over Labor Day Weekend.
• 34% report that they have decided not to make a driving trip in the last month due to anticipated traffic – the same percentage as last year. These decisions have a major economic impact, as the reported destinations of these cancelled driving trips are: 25% recreation, 25% shopping, 16% entertainment, 9% eating out, 8% work, and 6% vacation.
• More than one-fifth (21%) of daily commuters say the recession has made them change the way they get to work, with 17% of drivers in this category carpooling more frequently, 30% increasing the number of days they work from home, and 26% taking public transportation more often.
• At the same time, lower gas prices this year have caused 23% of respondents to alter their commuting habits in a different way, with 19% of this group carpooling less now, 19% taking public transportation less often, and 17% working less often from home.
• 27% think accurate and timely road condition information would help reduce travel stress – four points higher than last year.
• 86% say they have been stuck in roadway traffic in the last three years. The average delay is one hour.
• The reported trouble spots for traffic congestion remain very similar to last year, for example, I-95 in both Miami and Washington, DC, as well as the Beltway/495 in DC.
• Only 3% of the survey respondents think roadway traffic has improved substantially, and no city in the study is significantly above that score.

IBM Commuter Pain Index
IBM has compiled the results of the survey into an Index that ranks the emotional and economic toll of commuting in each city on a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the most onerous. Here’s how the cities stack up:

The index is comprised of 10 issues: 1) commuting time, 2) time stuck in traffic, 3) value of time; agreement that: 4) traffic has gotten worse, 5) start-stop traffic is a problem, 6) driving causes stress, 7) driving causes anger, traffic affects work, 9) traffic so bad driving stopped, and 10) decided not to make trip due to traffic. (Click the image to see a larger chart)

For the complete report, please click here: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/attachments/28320.pdf

The Commuter Pain Survey was conducted by IBM to better understand consumer thinking toward traffic congestion as the issue reaches crisis proportions nationwide and higher levels of auto emissions stir environmental concerns. These events are impacting communities in the U.S. and abroad, where governments, citizens and private sector organizations are looking beyond traditional remedies like additional roads and greater access to public transportation to reverse the negative impacts of increased road congestion.

IBM is actively working in the area of ‘Smarter Transportation’ using a team of 150 scientists and a group of IT services professionals to research, test and deploy new traffic information management capabilities in cities such as Brisbane, London, Singapore and Stockholm. Findings from the Commuter Pain Survey will be used to assess citizen concerns about traffic and commuter issues; expand solutions like automated tolling, real-time traffic prediction, congestion charging, and intelligent route planning; and serve as a basis for pioneering innovative new approaches to traffic mitigation.

Spiraling medical costs and growing demand for medical care present the health care industry with unprecedented challenges. To meet the cost and quality expectations of the hospitals it serves, Implanet is infusing its operations with new intelligence to reduce the costs associated with human error, out-of-stock products, and supply chain inefficiencies while offering the best possible medical devices and supporting services.
By offering a line of products that are completely traceable, Implanet gives health care providers the peace of mind that comes with being able to easily identify patients whose implanted medical devices are the subject of a recall.
Prior to the creation of its new system, Implanet had no means of tracking its products once they left its manufacturing facilities. This meant the company’s medical devices were difficult to trace once shipped.
The company’s BeepN’Track service uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags to track medical devices from Implanet to hospitals. Prior to shipping, Implanet affixes an RFID tag bearing a unique serial number to the packaging of each individual device. Before a surgical procedure takes place, a hospital uses a handheld device to scan the tag from the medical device being implanted and stores that information along with the patient’s records. The tag is given to the patient after surgery so he or she will have all available information concerning the implant in the event of future concerns.
The information stored on the tags is gathered by IBM’s WebSphere Sensor Events software and transmitted to IBM’s InfoSphere Traceability Server software. This allows Implanet to manage and share information with the systems of any trading partners that adhere to GS1 EPCglobal’s Electronic Product Code Information Services standard for capturing and sharing sensor data.
“We do not want to focus on our commodity product – the implant itself – but on a complete solution which makes the product smart and thus creates a new generation of medical solutions,” said Erick Cloix, chief executive officer, Implanet. “With IBM’s health care industry knowledge and its technology expertise, this initiative is opening up the whole international market to us.”
IBM is creating a smarter, more connected healthcare system that delivers better care with fewer mistakes, predicts and prevents diseases, and empowers people to make better choices. This includes integrating data so doctors, patients and insurers can share information seamlessly and efficiently. IBM also helps clients apply advanced analytics to improve medical research, diagnosis and treatment in order to improve patient care and help reduce healthcare costs.
About IBM
For more information about IBM, visit: http://www.ibm.com/think.
For more information about IBM sensor technologies, visit: http://www.ibm.com/software/solutions/sensors/.
To see a video on smarter healthcare go to http://tinyurl.com/cdqjuo.

The new degree comes at a time when U.S. colleges and universities are expected to lead the way in preparing the future workforce with innovative new skills to help boost the economy. For example, in July, President Obama launched the American Graduation Initiative, a 10-year, $12 billion plan to provide community colleges nationwide with funding for new scholarships and online classes for students, and to modernize aging facilities and infrastructures.
As part of the new MCC degree, students have the opportunity to learn virtualization and server consolidation, energy efficiency, business resiliency, and security and compliance skills through a new, real-world enterprise data center on campus. The center is built upon IBM Power Systems servers running AIX, IBM i and Linux environments.
IBM technologies used in this program allow MCC to extend the degree to other colleges through a virtual learning program. As a result, all courses in the green data center management track will be offered online where remote students can gain the same skills as those on campus including virtual access to the physical data center itself.
MCC developed the curriculum with the help of the IBM Academic Initiative, an innovative program that now provides nearly 4,000 colleges and universities worldwide with no-charge access to online skills resources including tutorials and courseware.
“IBM’s Academic Initiative will further help ensure that MCC students are developing technology skills that bring together computer science, engineering and sustainability,” said Tom Pensabene, Dean of Information Technology of Metropolitan Community College. “We’re seeing a dramatic increase in demand here in Nebraska for specialists who understand how to help companies reduce the costs associated with running an energy-intensive data center. Now, our students are getting exposure to leading edge IBM technologies, increasing their chances of being hired for jobs in this growing area.”
Until now there has been no comprehensive, real-world learning environment for students to get green data center skills at the undergraduate level. Beginning December 2009, students can enroll in the new “Associate Degree in Information Technology – Data Center Management” degree and take 36 credit hours of courses including:

• Hardware, Disaster Recovery, & Troubleshooting – Designed to teach students how to identify and follow best practices when working with hardware components and systems found in an enterprise environment. Focus is on the hardware and software used to create a fault-tolerant, redundant configuration that meets the requirements of a company’s Disaster Recovery (DRP) or Business Continuity Plan (BCP).
• Introduction to Data Center Management – The student learns about data center design, support, management, and maintenance while working in a server environment. Topics also include daily operations of a data center, such as monitoring power requirements and safety regulations.
• Virtualization, Remote Access, & Monitoring – Introduces students to both hardware and software methods used to implement virtualization and the server specifications required to implement it. Multiple vendor solutions are explored.
• Data Center Racks & Cabling – Introduces students to the basics of rack and cabling infrastructure in a data center. Topics include cabling installation practices, management strategies, maintenance practices, and certification.
• Building a Secure Environment – Students explore methods to mitigate vulnerabilities of Internet/Intranet applications while maintaining web servers and workstations based on installation. Discussion centers on best practices and a variety of methods to build, test, and defend all computers in the enterprise environment.
• Applied Data Center Management – Students define project requirements, researches issues, and designs a data center project that meets the goals. Projects include all aspects of the Data Center such as facilities, infrastructure, servers and security.
• Networking Security – Provides students with the knowledge of network security and the skills necessary to install, configure, manage, monitor, and troubleshoot security services/servers on multiple platforms in an enterprise environment. Security areas include DNS, Web servers, Encryption, IPSec, PKS, VPNs, and Network Address Translation (NAT).
• Data Center Internship – Provides students with the opportunity to apply his/her knowledge, learn new techniques, and get hands-on experience managing a data center. Students work in the Information Technology Data Center on campus and access the data center remotely.

For the past 12 years, MCC has often ranked in the top 20 community colleges nationwide for number of IT graduates, and the college’s computer classes are the mainstay of its offerings. One reason for their success is that Omaha is one of only a few U.S. cities that sits at the intersection of both east-west and north-south fiber optic networks — attracting a large number of communications and information services companies and putting IT-savvy employees in high demand for data center jobs.
“IBM is proud to be a key partner in helping Metropolitan Community College of Omaha develop the first program of its kind based on the transformational work IBM is undertaking with clients and cities world-wide,” said Jim Corgel, General Manager of ISV and Developer Relations at IBM. “As companies look to improve service, reduce cost and manage risk, students educated through MCC’s new program will be well-positioned for IT careers that help businesses address these challenges.”
MCC’s data center is funded through a three year $1.8 million grant that MCC received from the U.S. Department of Labor with the goal of increasing the number of students in IT education.
For more information on the MCC data center management degree, visit: http://staffshare.mccneb.edu/mccadc/.
For more information on IBM’s Academic Initiative, visit: http://www.ibm.com/academicinitiative.

“Today more than ever, enterprises need an affordable, reliable and efficient way to deploy and manage desktop infrastructures,” says Jan Jackman, Vice President, End User Services, IBM Global Technology Services. “The public desktop cloud service is designed to help bring cost savings, flexibility, scalability and security to clients like never before.”
The new IBM Smart Business Desktop on the IBM Cloud subscription service helps clients virtualize desktop computing resources, and provide a logical, rather than a physical, method of access to data, computing power, storage capacity and other resources. This service requires no up front capital or one time expense and is designed to provide enhanced levels of security, resiliency, reliability, and quality for virtual desktops. The service offers flexible delivery models, including three standard cloud-based offerings, dedicated infrastructure, and customer premise solutions, while helping to streamline data backup and recovery, and reduce unauthorized access.
Through key technology and business partnerships with Citrix, Desktone, VMware and Wyse, along with IBM tools for customer assessment and strategic planning, IBM is helping clients address PC replacement dilemmas, deliver resilience and reliability for critical information, and resolve Internet access parity problems, all at competitive subscription service pricing.
“We’re thrilled that IBM recognizes Desktone’s pioneering work in desktops as a service® (DaaS®), from both technical and market development perspectives, and has selected us to provide foundational technology for its innovative service,” says Harry Ruda, CEO, Desktone. “Desktone’s solution is the first and only virtual desktop hosting platform designed specifically for the cloud era, providing unique capabilities such as multi-tenancy and seamless multi-data center support, key elements to designing and building a scalable, cost-effective global desktop cloud offering.”
Supported by government funding, the Hispanic Information and Telecommunications Network is partnering with IBM on a grass roots project called CBO Connect to provide desktop computing to over 200 sites nationwide. The CBO Connect is a coalition of community based organizations consisting of non-profits, schools and libraries where visitors have access to 21st century classrooms that offer desktop cloud computing, interactive video conferencing for distance learning, video distribution system with digital signage, and other classroom and administrative services.
“We recognize the interdependency between access to online services, economic development and the quality of life,” said Jose Rodriguez, CEO of the Hispanic Information Telecommunications Network. “By working with IBM, we can build classrooms to serve as technology learning centers for underserved broadband communities and ultimately provide a low cost entry point for residential subscribers by using cloud computing services.”
IBM plans to make the IBM Smart Business Desktop on the IBM Cloud service available in North America and Europe starting October 2009.