Data management: Big Blue stitches together three acquisitions to weave a master-data offering that could “go a long way toward enabling enterprises to create a single version of the truth without driving IT crazy,” writes Eric Knorr in IBM’s master plan for data. The tangibles are WebSphere Product Center, Customer Center Version 6, and Integration Center. When taken together, they constitute what IBM calls an “information service” solution. Networking: Cisco gets hip to mesh networking and WLAN management one year after rival Symbol brings competing offerings to market. The news beat: Liberty Alliance officials say that products from several vendors have passed conformance testing for the SAML 2.0 specification. Microsoft updates the ActiveSync 4.0 piece of its Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system to fix glitches that occur when synchronizing between a handheld and a PC. Business Objects plans to update its BI suite on Thursday with a new tool that makes querying and reporting easier for the non-technically-savvy. Best of the blogs: IT Troubleshooter’s Michael Baum shares one reader’s experiences in Composite applications create composite headaches, and Ed Foster offers some advice about what to do when your local broadband monopolist doesn’t provide service in your neighborhood. One reader faces the possibility of paying a surcharge. A $10,000 surcharge, that is. Technology Industry