A report from Nielsen//NetRatings and Washingtonpost.com indicates that 60% of working women using the Internet at work feel there is not enough time in the day for personal activities and issues, compared to just 48% of their male counterparts. Nonetheless, these women are voracious media consumers, especially when it comes to the Internet as 48% have increased their Internet usage over the past year and 27% say they are “not at all likely” to give up the Net in order to save time. It is therefore no surprise that 63% of these women told Nielsen and Washingtonpost.com they would “definitely” include the Internet in a marketing campaign targeted to their demographic segment.

Gartner analysts said that 85% of all outsourcing contracts signed since 2001 through year-end 2004 will be renegotiated within three years of signing because the original contracts did not serve the enterprise’s long-term objectives, as reported by Tekrati.

The demand for information security professionals will touch 77,000 in 2008, and most will come from Asia and the Pacific. Over the next few years, 25,000 to 50,000 of the IS professionals will be needed in the United States alone, where there already is a shortfall of security specialists.

IDC says worldwide unit shipments of the DVRs will climb to more than 28 million in 2008, a compound annual growth rate of 46.9% between 2003 and 2008. That is spurred in large part by cable and satellite TV providers investing heavily in DVR-enabled set-top boxes in the United States, IDC said.

As compared to 77% of all Internet users age 18 and above, 82% of 18-to-34-year-olds are comfortable with the technology. 25% of this group sends or shares video via the Web, compared to 6% of all Internet users. 42% burn downloaded music to CDs, versus 24% of all Internet users 18 and older. 30% visit entertainment sites daily, compared to 32% who read newspaper entertainment sections and 19% who read entertainment magazines. The Web is so integrated into the lives of 18-to-34-year-olds, it’s becoming commonplace for them to use it no matter where they are. Compared to 15% of people age 18 and above, 24% of 18- to-34-year-olds access the Web from friends’ homes, and 16% use a cell phone.

According to a recent report from SBC Communications, 73% of people 18 to 30 years old file their taxes electronically.

The Information Technology Association of America, in a survey set for release Tuesday, acknowledges that the migration of tech jobs to low-paid foreigners has eliminated 104,000 American jobs so far, nearly 3% of the positions in the U.S. tech industry. Software engineers have been particularly hard hit. Researchers at Global Insight Inc., which prepared the report for the ITAA, predicted that demand for U.S. software engineers would shrink through 2008. But ITAA leaders emphasized that outsourcing has damaged the job market far less than the dot-com meltdown of early 2000, when Internet startups, telecom companies and other companies eliminated as many as 268,000 positions.

Gartner now expects U.S. IT spending in 2004 to reach $776 billion, and $825 billion in 2005, compared with $739 billion in 2003. Forecast from IDC apparently uses different metrics, since they estimated 2004 spending at $391 bln.

A study of file-sharing’s effects on music sales says online music trading appears to have had little part in the recent slide in CD sales. For the study, released Monday, researchers at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina tracked music downloads over 17 weeks in 2002, matching data on file transfers with actual market performance of the songs and albums being downloaded. Even high levels of file-swapping seemed to translate into an effect on album sales that was “statistically indistinguishable from zero,” they wrote.

In 2003 Internet service providers in Russia spent roughly $55 mln. on fighting spam. The activities include purchasing and maintaining proper software packages as well as support for ISP users overwhelmed with unsolicited e-mail.

The combined European Printer, Copier and Multi-functional Product (MFP) market grew 16.2% in 2003, with shipments totalling 34.5 mil units, according to final results from Gartner Inc. Shipments in Q4 2003 totalled 11.8 mil units, a 16.4% increase compared to Q4 2002. The region recorded a healthy growth during Q4 2003, driven by strong demand for colour devices and multi-functional products. Eastern Europe performed particularly well and recorded a 24% growth, fuelling the European MFP market during Q4.

According to the British Phonographic Industry, 8 million people in the UK are downloading music, with 92% of them using illegal sites. While teenagers 12 to 19 comprise 12% of the British population and 16% of music spending, they represent roughly 30% of the nation’s downloaders. The 25 to 34 group also has a higher share of downloaders compared to purchasers.

The findings of a study by a consortium of consumer packaged goods companies show that online advertising spurred lifts in sales ranging from 7-12.5%, demonstrating the extent to which an increase in the level of online media impacts offline sales.

The telecommunications industry is set to save $14.5 billion in the next four years through offshoring 5% of its work force to countries such as India, Estonia, and Argentina, according to a Deloitte & Touche survey published last week.

Spam sent via instant messaging is set to become a major nuisance in 2004, with the number of IM spam messages tripling from 400 million to 1.2 billion, according to research firm the Radicati Group.

Only 39% of British small businesses update virus protection once a week, compared with 51% of German companies and 73% of Spanish companies. Some 20% of respondents did not know that a virus can forward itself via contacts in your address book and 48% did not know that viruses can store pornographic content on your machine without your knowledge.

As the fall TV season began, viewership among men from 18 to 34 fell 12% compared with the year before, Nielsen reported. And for the youngest group of adult men, those 18 to 24, the decline was a steeper 20%.

An explosive demand for LCD screens for televisions is forecast to lead to a near doubling of the world’s LCD market to $42 billion by 2007, technology research group IDC said. In 2004 the total LCD panel market is expected to grow over 50% to about $37 billion from $24 billion in 2003 as TVs as thin as a picture frame prove as popular as flat computer screens.