ft.com
By Paul Rubens
Published: November 22 2005 18:36 | Last updated: November 22 2005 18:36
Why bother carrying a bulky laptop around when all you need is what’s stored in it? That’s the question which prompted IBM researchers in New York state to develop SoulPad, a software package which allows computer users to separate a computer’s “soul” – the programs, settings and data it holds – from its body, the disks, keyboard, screen, processor and other hardware from which it is comprised.
“We were looking at moving computing spaces from one place to another, and what makes a computer your computer,” says Chandra Narayanswami, one of the IBM researchers. “It’s not the hardware itself but all the bits you have put in it, so we figured that if you could move the bits from one computer to another you wouldn’t need to carry around a whole laptop.”
Once a computer’s soul is stored on a storage device like a portable USB hard drive or an iPod with SoulPad software, it can be carried around and reincarnated in another computer simply by plugging in the storage device and starting the computer up. SoulPad bypasses the disks and all the software stored on this computer, bringing the original computer back to life in exactly the same state that it was in before its soul was stored on the SoulPad device, but in a different body. The effect is the same as hibernating a laptop computer in the middle of a work session, then bringing the work session out of hibernation on a different machine.
SoulPad is made up of a stack of three basic building blocks. The first is Knoppix, a version of Linux that runs directly from the SoulPad storage device and configures itself for the computer it finds itself running on automatically. This is used to run VMware Workstation, which allows the all-important top layer to run.
This top layer is a virtual machine – a standard desktop PC emulated by software. The virtual PC can then run any operating system which would run on the hardware it is emulating – Windows, Linux, and soon perhaps even MacOS – and programs which use that operating system. The entire virtual machine is encrypted and protected by a password or USB key to ensure that only the owner can use it.
The key benefit of SoulPad is portability. Storing the SoulPad software and the soul of a standard computer requires about 5Gb of disk space – just a fraction of the capacity of many pocket-sized portable drives or music players. Mobile phones may have this sort of capacity in the near future.
For those who don’t like carrying a laptop, there are also important security benefits. That’s because the alternative is often to use public computers in business centres, airports or internet cafes. But confidential business information may be left on these computers after the user has gone, and they may also be infected with malicious software which captures passwords or credit card details. But with SoulPad there is no possibility of leaving information on the public computer or falling victim to malicious software on it, as the public computer’s disk drive is bypassed totally by SoulPad, and its memory is wiped when the SoulPad device is removed.
The main drawback to a SoulPad device is that it can only be used where there is computer access, but Mr Narayanswami believes that if SoulPad becomes commercially available it would make the provision of public computers much easier.
“The SoulPad model would allow hotels or airport lounges to provide virtually maintenance-free PCs, as they wouldn’t need any software and they couldn’t get viruses. Business travellers used to carry an iron and alarm clock with them, but now they don’t as they expect them to be provided in a hotel. SoulPad makes it easier for a computer to be a simple piece of furniture which you expect in your room.”
* SoulPad is not yet available commercially but some alternatives exist.
P.I Protector Mobility Suite (www.imaginelan.com) takes e-mail, address book and server settings from Outlook or Outlook Express and copies them to a memory stick. When you plug the stick into a public computer you can send and receive e-mails or browse your mail boxes just as if you were using your own computer.
Source here
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Wireless industry ready to deliver multimedia future
ft.com
Published: November 22 2005 18:12 | Last updated: November 22 2005 18:12
Digital businessIt is now five years since wireless operators worked themselves into a bidding frenzy that resulted in them paying billions of dollars, pounds and euros for third-generation radio spectrum licences they hoped would allow them to launch a multimedia revolution on the humble mobile phone.
The plan was simple: load up the extra bandwidth with television, video, music, games and all manner of other wonderful content and their grateful customers would drive up their revenues when they paid in their droves to buy it.
By and large, however, the paying public – in Europe and North America at least – has remained resolutely unmoved by the data revolution, sticking doggedly to using their cellphones for making calls and sending texts.
Nonetheless the wireless industry has never been more innovative and creative than it is at present, and the wealth of new services – allied to sparkling new handsets and an ever-broadening distribution pipe – coming on stream suggests that a bright dawn may soon be on the horizon.
FT Digital Business has identified five companies that exemplify the new optimism and promise a multimedia future.
MOBILE TV – TU MEDIA
It is not uncommon to find people giggling on the subway in Seoul, writes Anna Fifield. Or cheering, or even doing a bit of a dance in their seats. In the most wired country on the planet – it has the highest broadband penetration, at about 75 per cent – South Koreans have quickly taken to watching television on their mobile phones.
“I mostly watch sports and movies when I’m on the bus or the subway,” says Kim Won-sun, one of the 270,000 Koreans who has been using satellite digital media broadcasting– or S-DMB – since SK Telecom launched its commercial service in May.
“It’s a great way of killing time,” says Mr Kim, adding that although his friends are envious of his phone, they’re not quite jealous enough to shell out the $700 that one of the TV-enabled handsets costs.
But SK Telecom, the biggest mobile operator, is hoping that more and more Koreans will buy into the service, as it steps up investment in 3G and content services in an attempt to find new revenue streams in a saturated market.
Lim Kyu-kwan, chief operating officer of TU Media, SK Telecom’s DMB subsidiary, is confident of reaching 370,000 customers by the end of the year and 1.2m customers next year.
The attractions of S-DMB are obvious, Mr Lim says: “The customer can enjoy watching TV anytime, anywhere, so they have powerful content at a reasonable price.”
Joining the service costs Won20,000 (about $20) and the monthly fee is Won13,000, or about the same as a new release CD.
TU’s satellite DMB service offers 11 video and 26 audio channels. In addition to two news channels, music videos, sports, games and cartoons, TU has established its own station, Channel Blue, which shows hit shows such as Desperate Housewives and The Apprentice.
It attracts about 10 per cent audience share but the most popular channels in this soap opera-mad country are the drama stations, where soppy Korean programmes such as Lovers in Prague score 20 per cent ratings.
SK Telecom has a lot riding on the service. It invested more than $300m in its S-DMB project, setting up a broadcasting centre and installing 800 booster pillars around the country. But the service won’t break even until it has 4.5m customers, “so we still have a long way to go”, Mr Lim says. The price of the phones is one impediment to success. “Samsung Electronics and LG have released phones but they are very expensive,” he says. “We face a limitation in promoting our services through these high prices.”
GAMING – IDEAWORKS 3D
Feeding, educating, providing guidance – it might sound like the toil of a parent, but for fans of The Sims, it could be all in an evening’s entertainment on the detailed, “open-ended” simulation game, writes Kate Mackenzie.
Playing God gets addictive, but most players have to leave their Sims behind when they go to work each morning in the real world. From late November, however, players will be able to take their characters, which can be carefully developed and nurtured, with them anywhere, and attend to their virtual charges whenever they have a spare minute.
The launch of Sims 2 Mobile, developed by Ideaworks 3d for Electronic Arts’ manically popular franchise, is being closely watched by many in the fledgling mobile games industry, which has so far been dominated by simple built-in puzzle games or versions of action console games.
On route to becoming the biggest selling PC games ever, Sims titles have become as popular with women as they are with men – a rare thing in the gaming world and well-suited to the mobile phone market as, unlike most PC and console games, both genders are fairly evenly represented.
“For a long time the games that came out were aimed at people who play console games – a lot of action and adventure. In the past year or so people have realised there’s more than that,” says Stuart Dredge, games analyst at Informa, a media research company.
Although it makes up less than one-fifth of the total games industry, mobile games is the fastest-growing segment and Informa estimates it will more than quadruple in value to $11bn in two years.
But the industry still faces a few hurdles. “There’s a big issue in that still a lot of people aren’t aware that you can get them. There’s still some technical problems – you can try and download and not succeed,” says Mr Dredge.
Another reason for the high hopes for The Sims 2 Mobile is the increasing focus on what Mr Dredge calls the “casual gamer” who is not a dedicated player but might spend a few minutes on games while commuting.
“It has true crossover appeal – it appeals to hardcore or dedicated gamers and casual gamers,” says Thor Gunnarsson, an executive director at Ideaworks3d.
SHOPPING – REPORO
The immediacy of shopping on your mobile phone handset – anywhere and anytime – has often been heralded as a potential “killer application” for the mobile internet, writes Maija Palmer. People already buy ringtones and logos through their phones, and in some parts of Europe they can buy train tickets or cans of soft drink from vending machines.
UK-based Reporo is hoping to extend mobile shopping to a far bigger variety of items, from wine to white goods. Mobile shopping, says Richard Watney, managing director, should eventually become just like shopping over the internet.
The Reporo service launched in January is still very modest – it has about 10,000 users and generates up to £5,000 ($8,675) in revenue a month.
However, Mr Watney is expecting explosive growth – he hopes to double customer numbers by Christmas and expects to have 100,000 to 150,000 users by the end of next year.
Growth will be fuelled by the rapid adoption of mobile phones with internet capabilities – some analysts estimate as many 40m internet-enabled handsets in the UK by Christmas.
Though it will take people some time to get used to buying over the medium, Mr Watney expects the adoption rate to be faster than that of the internet, as people are already used to the concept of online “shopping baskets” and so on.
“The teenage community is very comfortable with texting and using their mobiles to buy ringtones. As they mature into more grown-up shoppers, they will migrate to services like these easily,” Mr Watney says.
Reporo users can currently purchase goods from about 25 retailers including CD:Wow, Boots Flowers, Oddbins and Currys. Amusingly, the current product mix – flowers, lingerie from Figleaves.com, computer games – appears tailored to the early-adopter market: men who like gadgets and are perhaps prone to forgetting their wives’ birthdays.
A typical Reporo customer makes two to three purchases a month – most commonly books and CDs – with an average value of about £15. However, transaction sizes are getting bigger. Recently, a customer bought a £600 cooker from Currys through the mobile site, Reporo’s biggest single transaction to date.
To use Reporo, customers register their details – including credit card number – on the site and download a free Java-based software application to the phone. They are given a four-digit pin which is used to authorise any transactions. Credit card details are stored only on Reporo’s servers – not on the phones themselves – to ensure security.
Reporo is signing up retailers at the rate of about one a week. Many, however, are still waiting for the market to grow before committing.
“We have a number of major brands who are interested, but want to see us reach the level of 50,000 customers before they begin to take this seriously,” Mr Watney says.
ADULT ENTERTAINMENT – CHERRY MEDIA
Sex sells, even on cellphones, writes Ian Limbach. Mobile adult entertainment – such as erotic video clips, “moantones” and sex chat – is booming and annual sales will double to $2.1 bn by 2009, according to analysts at Juniper Research.
Barcelona-based Cherry Media was a pioneer in this business and remains one of the few companies focused exclusively on delivering adult content to mobile phones. There are now a dozen such providers, but they tend to peddle a wide variety of content or have little mobile experience.
Cherry Media launched as a mobile portal in late 2003, when mobile internet was painfully slow. “As a company run mostly by women, we knew how to create a flirty, titillating portal. It’s more about psychology than naked flesh. So we added stories and other text to create a deeper experience while the images downloaded,” says Julia Dimambro, the company’s founder.
But in mid 2004, just as Cherry Media geared up to sell its content to mobile operators, Vodafone blocked access to all “over-18” content, requiring customers to verify their age by phoning or walking into a store. Other UK carriers followed suite and mobile adult entertainment was no longer anonymous. “We thought it was the end of the industry,” recollects Ms Dimambro.
In fact, Vodafone’s move led to a healthier business. “It turned out to be nothing but a benefit to us. Vodafone created the first regulated channel and this weeded out the market.
“There is a tremendous commercial opportunity but it needs to be done responsibly, with everyone playing by the book. Operators, billing partners and content providers have now come together to ensure the environment is a safe place to be,” she explains.
And business has gone well for Cherry Media. “We were solvent in just four months and have never borrowed money since,” says Ms Dimambro. “We saw about a 70 per cent revenue growth in our first year, due tothe market being quite hostile to adult content.
“The revenue growth this year to date is rapidly approaching 250 per cent and we are certain that it will surpass the 300 mark before Christmas,” she says.
GAMBLING – CHINA GLORIA LOTTERIES
Lotteries are a national pastime in China. The Tang Dynasty used a form of lottery to fund the building of the Great Wall of China, and, while the government’s overall policy on gambling is still worryingly unclear for many telecommunications carriers, there are signs that Beijing is looking update the lottery market to help pay for projects such as the 2008 Olympics, writes Andrew Gellatly.
Using simple SMS and WAP protocols, technology businesses in China have begun to work with the national and local lottery licensees to offer lotteries on mobiles and the growth potential is enormous.
At the end of 2004, China was the world’s ninth largest market as lottery sales reached Rmb38bn with Rmb22.6bn from a welfare lottery and Rmb15.4 bn from sports lotteries.
Revenues have grown in excess of 50 per cent per year for the past five years and the government is hoping that mobile phone sales will help sustain the existing rapid growth rates – a notoriously difficult task in the lottery business.
According to JinLing Li, business development director of Beijing-based China Gloria Lottery Entertainment & Culture: “The number of lottery consumers and per capita lottery sales in China still lags behind other developed countries.
“In 2004 each person spent only $3.71 on lottery compared with $100 in the major lottery markets.”
China Gloria has begun working with the national Sports Lottery Administration to launch regional sports lotteries, tickets for which can only be bought through mobile phones.
Since May 2003 China mobile’s GoTone users have been able to buy Guangdong sports lottery tickets and check results and via their WAP service on the Guangdong Fengcai WAP site. Users pay a monthly subscription of Rmb3 with a maximum monthly spend of Rmb50.
From September 2005, all China Unicom and China Mobile customers have also been able to check lottery numbers and announcements through the SMS system.
“Mobile lottery betting suddenly becomes a viable option for the man on the street without a credit card but who probably does have a mobile phone,” says Simon Miller a British gaming consultant with long experience in the Chinese sports bettingmarket.
The results are encouraging. At present, 80 per cent of China’s 450m mobile users are using SMS or WAP services and in 2004 Chinese mobile users spent Rmb4.4bn on added-value mobile services.
Source here
Published: November 22 2005 18:12 | Last updated: November 22 2005 18:12
Digital businessIt is now five years since wireless operators worked themselves into a bidding frenzy that resulted in them paying billions of dollars, pounds and euros for third-generation radio spectrum licences they hoped would allow them to launch a multimedia revolution on the humble mobile phone.
The plan was simple: load up the extra bandwidth with television, video, music, games and all manner of other wonderful content and their grateful customers would drive up their revenues when they paid in their droves to buy it.
By and large, however, the paying public – in Europe and North America at least – has remained resolutely unmoved by the data revolution, sticking doggedly to using their cellphones for making calls and sending texts.
Nonetheless the wireless industry has never been more innovative and creative than it is at present, and the wealth of new services – allied to sparkling new handsets and an ever-broadening distribution pipe – coming on stream suggests that a bright dawn may soon be on the horizon.
FT Digital Business has identified five companies that exemplify the new optimism and promise a multimedia future.
MOBILE TV – TU MEDIA
It is not uncommon to find people giggling on the subway in Seoul, writes Anna Fifield. Or cheering, or even doing a bit of a dance in their seats. In the most wired country on the planet – it has the highest broadband penetration, at about 75 per cent – South Koreans have quickly taken to watching television on their mobile phones.
“I mostly watch sports and movies when I’m on the bus or the subway,” says Kim Won-sun, one of the 270,000 Koreans who has been using satellite digital media broadcasting– or S-DMB – since SK Telecom launched its commercial service in May.
“It’s a great way of killing time,” says Mr Kim, adding that although his friends are envious of his phone, they’re not quite jealous enough to shell out the $700 that one of the TV-enabled handsets costs.
But SK Telecom, the biggest mobile operator, is hoping that more and more Koreans will buy into the service, as it steps up investment in 3G and content services in an attempt to find new revenue streams in a saturated market.
Lim Kyu-kwan, chief operating officer of TU Media, SK Telecom’s DMB subsidiary, is confident of reaching 370,000 customers by the end of the year and 1.2m customers next year.
The attractions of S-DMB are obvious, Mr Lim says: “The customer can enjoy watching TV anytime, anywhere, so they have powerful content at a reasonable price.”
Joining the service costs Won20,000 (about $20) and the monthly fee is Won13,000, or about the same as a new release CD.
TU’s satellite DMB service offers 11 video and 26 audio channels. In addition to two news channels, music videos, sports, games and cartoons, TU has established its own station, Channel Blue, which shows hit shows such as Desperate Housewives and The Apprentice.
It attracts about 10 per cent audience share but the most popular channels in this soap opera-mad country are the drama stations, where soppy Korean programmes such as Lovers in Prague score 20 per cent ratings.
SK Telecom has a lot riding on the service. It invested more than $300m in its S-DMB project, setting up a broadcasting centre and installing 800 booster pillars around the country. But the service won’t break even until it has 4.5m customers, “so we still have a long way to go”, Mr Lim says. The price of the phones is one impediment to success. “Samsung Electronics and LG have released phones but they are very expensive,” he says. “We face a limitation in promoting our services through these high prices.”
GAMING – IDEAWORKS 3D
Feeding, educating, providing guidance – it might sound like the toil of a parent, but for fans of The Sims, it could be all in an evening’s entertainment on the detailed, “open-ended” simulation game, writes Kate Mackenzie.
Playing God gets addictive, but most players have to leave their Sims behind when they go to work each morning in the real world. From late November, however, players will be able to take their characters, which can be carefully developed and nurtured, with them anywhere, and attend to their virtual charges whenever they have a spare minute.
The launch of Sims 2 Mobile, developed by Ideaworks 3d for Electronic Arts’ manically popular franchise, is being closely watched by many in the fledgling mobile games industry, which has so far been dominated by simple built-in puzzle games or versions of action console games.
On route to becoming the biggest selling PC games ever, Sims titles have become as popular with women as they are with men – a rare thing in the gaming world and well-suited to the mobile phone market as, unlike most PC and console games, both genders are fairly evenly represented.
“For a long time the games that came out were aimed at people who play console games – a lot of action and adventure. In the past year or so people have realised there’s more than that,” says Stuart Dredge, games analyst at Informa, a media research company.
Although it makes up less than one-fifth of the total games industry, mobile games is the fastest-growing segment and Informa estimates it will more than quadruple in value to $11bn in two years.
But the industry still faces a few hurdles. “There’s a big issue in that still a lot of people aren’t aware that you can get them. There’s still some technical problems – you can try and download and not succeed,” says Mr Dredge.
Another reason for the high hopes for The Sims 2 Mobile is the increasing focus on what Mr Dredge calls the “casual gamer” who is not a dedicated player but might spend a few minutes on games while commuting.
“It has true crossover appeal – it appeals to hardcore or dedicated gamers and casual gamers,” says Thor Gunnarsson, an executive director at Ideaworks3d.
SHOPPING – REPORO
The immediacy of shopping on your mobile phone handset – anywhere and anytime – has often been heralded as a potential “killer application” for the mobile internet, writes Maija Palmer. People already buy ringtones and logos through their phones, and in some parts of Europe they can buy train tickets or cans of soft drink from vending machines.
UK-based Reporo is hoping to extend mobile shopping to a far bigger variety of items, from wine to white goods. Mobile shopping, says Richard Watney, managing director, should eventually become just like shopping over the internet.
The Reporo service launched in January is still very modest – it has about 10,000 users and generates up to £5,000 ($8,675) in revenue a month.
However, Mr Watney is expecting explosive growth – he hopes to double customer numbers by Christmas and expects to have 100,000 to 150,000 users by the end of next year.
Growth will be fuelled by the rapid adoption of mobile phones with internet capabilities – some analysts estimate as many 40m internet-enabled handsets in the UK by Christmas.
Though it will take people some time to get used to buying over the medium, Mr Watney expects the adoption rate to be faster than that of the internet, as people are already used to the concept of online “shopping baskets” and so on.
“The teenage community is very comfortable with texting and using their mobiles to buy ringtones. As they mature into more grown-up shoppers, they will migrate to services like these easily,” Mr Watney says.
Reporo users can currently purchase goods from about 25 retailers including CD:Wow, Boots Flowers, Oddbins and Currys. Amusingly, the current product mix – flowers, lingerie from Figleaves.com, computer games – appears tailored to the early-adopter market: men who like gadgets and are perhaps prone to forgetting their wives’ birthdays.
A typical Reporo customer makes two to three purchases a month – most commonly books and CDs – with an average value of about £15. However, transaction sizes are getting bigger. Recently, a customer bought a £600 cooker from Currys through the mobile site, Reporo’s biggest single transaction to date.
To use Reporo, customers register their details – including credit card number – on the site and download a free Java-based software application to the phone. They are given a four-digit pin which is used to authorise any transactions. Credit card details are stored only on Reporo’s servers – not on the phones themselves – to ensure security.
Reporo is signing up retailers at the rate of about one a week. Many, however, are still waiting for the market to grow before committing.
“We have a number of major brands who are interested, but want to see us reach the level of 50,000 customers before they begin to take this seriously,” Mr Watney says.
ADULT ENTERTAINMENT – CHERRY MEDIA
Sex sells, even on cellphones, writes Ian Limbach. Mobile adult entertainment – such as erotic video clips, “moantones” and sex chat – is booming and annual sales will double to $2.1 bn by 2009, according to analysts at Juniper Research.
Barcelona-based Cherry Media was a pioneer in this business and remains one of the few companies focused exclusively on delivering adult content to mobile phones. There are now a dozen such providers, but they tend to peddle a wide variety of content or have little mobile experience.
Cherry Media launched as a mobile portal in late 2003, when mobile internet was painfully slow. “As a company run mostly by women, we knew how to create a flirty, titillating portal. It’s more about psychology than naked flesh. So we added stories and other text to create a deeper experience while the images downloaded,” says Julia Dimambro, the company’s founder.
But in mid 2004, just as Cherry Media geared up to sell its content to mobile operators, Vodafone blocked access to all “over-18” content, requiring customers to verify their age by phoning or walking into a store. Other UK carriers followed suite and mobile adult entertainment was no longer anonymous. “We thought it was the end of the industry,” recollects Ms Dimambro.
In fact, Vodafone’s move led to a healthier business. “It turned out to be nothing but a benefit to us. Vodafone created the first regulated channel and this weeded out the market.
“There is a tremendous commercial opportunity but it needs to be done responsibly, with everyone playing by the book. Operators, billing partners and content providers have now come together to ensure the environment is a safe place to be,” she explains.
And business has gone well for Cherry Media. “We were solvent in just four months and have never borrowed money since,” says Ms Dimambro. “We saw about a 70 per cent revenue growth in our first year, due tothe market being quite hostile to adult content.
“The revenue growth this year to date is rapidly approaching 250 per cent and we are certain that it will surpass the 300 mark before Christmas,” she says.
GAMBLING – CHINA GLORIA LOTTERIES
Lotteries are a national pastime in China. The Tang Dynasty used a form of lottery to fund the building of the Great Wall of China, and, while the government’s overall policy on gambling is still worryingly unclear for many telecommunications carriers, there are signs that Beijing is looking update the lottery market to help pay for projects such as the 2008 Olympics, writes Andrew Gellatly.
Using simple SMS and WAP protocols, technology businesses in China have begun to work with the national and local lottery licensees to offer lotteries on mobiles and the growth potential is enormous.
At the end of 2004, China was the world’s ninth largest market as lottery sales reached Rmb38bn with Rmb22.6bn from a welfare lottery and Rmb15.4 bn from sports lotteries.
Revenues have grown in excess of 50 per cent per year for the past five years and the government is hoping that mobile phone sales will help sustain the existing rapid growth rates – a notoriously difficult task in the lottery business.
According to JinLing Li, business development director of Beijing-based China Gloria Lottery Entertainment & Culture: “The number of lottery consumers and per capita lottery sales in China still lags behind other developed countries.
“In 2004 each person spent only $3.71 on lottery compared with $100 in the major lottery markets.”
China Gloria has begun working with the national Sports Lottery Administration to launch regional sports lotteries, tickets for which can only be bought through mobile phones.
Since May 2003 China mobile’s GoTone users have been able to buy Guangdong sports lottery tickets and check results and via their WAP service on the Guangdong Fengcai WAP site. Users pay a monthly subscription of Rmb3 with a maximum monthly spend of Rmb50.
From September 2005, all China Unicom and China Mobile customers have also been able to check lottery numbers and announcements through the SMS system.
“Mobile lottery betting suddenly becomes a viable option for the man on the street without a credit card but who probably does have a mobile phone,” says Simon Miller a British gaming consultant with long experience in the Chinese sports bettingmarket.
The results are encouraging. At present, 80 per cent of China’s 450m mobile users are using SMS or WAP services and in 2004 Chinese mobile users spent Rmb4.4bn on added-value mobile services.
Source here
Locating "Web 2.0"
paulgraham.com
Web 2.0
November 2005
Does "Web 2.0" mean anything? Till recently I thought it didn't, but the truth turns out to be more complicated. Originally, yes, it was meaningless. Now it seems to have acquired a meaning. And yet those who dislike the term are probably right, because if it means what I think it does, we don't need it.
I first heard the phrase "Web 2.0" in the name of the Web 2.0 conference in 2004. At the time it was supposed to mean using "the web as a platform," which I took to refer to web-based applications. [1]
So I was surprised at a conference this summer when Tim O'Reilly led a session intended to figure out a definition of "Web 2.0." Didn't it already mean using the web as a platform? And if it didn't already mean something, why did we need the phrase at all?
Origins
Tim says the phrase "Web 2.0" first arose in "a brainstorming session between O'Reilly and Medialive International." What is Medialive International? "Producers of technology tradeshows and conferences," according to their site. So presumably that's what this brainstorming session was about. O'Reilly wanted to organize a conference about the web, and they were wondering what to call it.
I don't think there was any deliberate plan to suggest there was a new version of the web. They just wanted to make the point that the web mattered again. It was a kind of semantic deficit spending: they knew new things were coming, and the "2.0" referred to whatever those might turn out to be.
And they were right. New things were coming. But the new version number led to some awkwardness in the short term. In the process of developing the pitch for the first conference, someone must have decided they'd better take a stab at explaining what that "2.0" referred to. Whatever it meant, "the web as a platform" was at least not too constricting.
The story about "Web 2.0" meaning the web as a platform didn't live much past the first conference. By the second conference, what "Web 2.0" seemed to mean was something about democracy. At least, it did when people wrote about it online. The conference itself didn't seem very grassroots. It cost $2800, so the only people who could afford to go were VCs and people from big companies.
And yet, oddly enough, Ryan Singel's article about the conference in Wired News spoke of "throngs of geeks." When a friend of mine asked Ryan about this, it was news to him. He said he'd originally written something like "throngs of VCs and biz dev guys" but had later shortened it just to "throngs," and that this must have in turn been expanded by the editors into "throngs of geeks." After all, a Web 2.0 conference would presumably be full of geeks, right?
Well, no. There were about 7. Even Tim O'Reilly was wearing a suit, a sight so alien I couldn't even parse it at first. I saw him walk by and said to one of the O'Reilly people "that guy looks just like Tim."
"Oh, that's Tim. He bought a suit."
I ran after him, and sure enough, it was. He explained that he'd just bought it in Thailand.
The 2005 Web 2.0 conference reminded me of Internet trade shows during the Bubble, full of prowling VCs looking for the next hot startup. There was that same odd atmosphere created by a large number of people determined not to miss out. Miss out on what? They didn't know. Whatever was going to happen-- whatever Web 2.0 turned out to be.
I wouldn't quite call it "Bubble 2.0" just because VCs are eager to invest again. The Internet is a genuinely big deal. The bust was as much an overreaction as the boom. It's to be expected that once we started to pull out of the bust, there would be a lot of growth in this area, just as there was in the industries that spiked the sharpest before the Depression.
The reason this won't turn into a second Bubble is that the IPO market is gone. Venture investors are driven by exit strategies. The reason they were funding all those laughable startups during the late 90s was that they hoped to sell them to gullible retail investors; they hoped to be laughing all the way to the bank. Now that route is closed. Now the default exit strategy is to get bought, and acquirers are less prone to irrational exuberance than IPO investors. The closest you'll get to Bubble valuations is Rupert Murdoch paying $580 million for Myspace. That's only off by a factor of 10 or so.
1. Ajax
Does "Web 2.0" mean anything more than the name of a conference yet? I don't like to admit it, but it's starting to. When people say "Web 2.0" now, I have some idea what they mean. And the fact that I both despise the phrase and understand it is the surest proof that it has started to mean something.
One ingredient of its meaning is certainly Ajax, which I can still only just bear to use without scare quotes. Basically, what "Ajax" means is "Javascript now works." And that in turn means that web-based applications can now be made to work much more like desktop ones.
As you read this, a whole new generation of software is being written to take advantage of Ajax. There hasn't been such a wave of new applications since microcomputers first appeared. Even Microsoft sees it, but it's too late for them to do anything more than leak "internal" documents designed to give the impression they're on top of this new trend.
In fact the new generation of software is being written way too fast for Microsoft even to channel it, let alone write their own in house. Their only hope now is to buy all the best Ajax startups before Google does. And even that's going to be hard, because Google has as big a head start in buying microstartups as it did in search a few years ago. After all, Google Maps, the canonical Ajax application, was the result of a startup they bought.
So ironically the original description of the Web 2.0 conference turned out to be partially right: web-based applications are a big component of Web 2.0. But I'm convinced they got this right by accident. The Ajax boom didn't start till early 2005, when Google Maps appeared and the term "Ajax" was coined.
2. Democracy
The second big element of Web 2.0 is democracy. We now have several examples to prove that amateurs can surpass professionals, when they have the right kind of system to channel their efforts. Wikipedia may be the most famous. Experts have given Wikipedia middling reviews, but they miss the critical point: it's good enough. And it's free, which means people actually read it. On the web, articles you have to pay for might as well not exist. Even if you were willing to pay to read them yourself, you can't link to them. They're not part of the conversation.
Another place democracy seems to win is in deciding what counts as news. I never look at any news site now except Reddit. [2] I know if something major happens, or someone writes a particularly interesting article, it will show up there. Why bother checking the front page of any specific paper or magazine? Reddit's like an RSS feed for the whole web, with a filter for quality. Similar sites include Digg, a technology news site that's rapidly approaching Slashdot in popularity, and del.icio.us, the collaborative bookmarking network that set off the "tagging" movement. And whereas Wikipedia's main appeal is that it's good enough and free, these sites suggest that voters do a significantly better job than human editors.
The most dramatic example of Web 2.0 democracy is not in the selection of ideas, but their production. I've noticed for a while that the stuff I read on individual people's sites is as good as or better than the stuff I read in newspapers and magazines. And now I have independent evidence: the top links on Reddit are generally links to individual people's sites rather than to magazine articles or news stories.
My experience of writing for magazines suggests an explanation. Editors. They control the topics you can write about, and they can generally rewrite whatever you produce. The result is to damp extremes. Editing yields 95th percentile writing-- 95% of articles are improved by it, but 5% are dragged down. 5% of the time you get "throngs of geeks."
On the web, people can publish whatever they want. Nearly all of it falls short of the editor-damped writing in print publications. But the pool of writers is very, very large. If it's large enough, the lack of damping means the best writing online should surpass the best in print. [3] And now that the web has evolved mechanisms for selecting good stuff, the web wins net. Selection beats damping, for the same reason market economies beat centrally planned ones.
Even the startups are different this time around. They are to the startups of the Bubble what bloggers are to the print media. During the Bubble, a startup meant a company headed by an MBA that was blowing through several million dollars of VC money to "get big fast" in the most literal sense. Now it means a smaller, younger, more technical group that just decided to make something great. They'll decide later if they want to raise VC-scale funding, and if they take it, they'll take it on their terms.
3. Don't Maltreat Users
I think everyone would agree that democracy and Ajax are elements of "Web 2.0." I also see a third: not to maltreat users. During the Bubble a lot of popular sites were quite high-handed with users. And not just in obvious ways, like making them register, or subjecting them to annoying ads. The very design of the average site in the late 90s was an abuse. Many of the most popular sites were loaded with obtrusive branding that made them slow to load and sent the user the message: this is our site, not yours. (There's a physical analog in the Intel and Microsoft stickers that come on some laptops.)
I think the root of the problem was that sites felt they were giving something away for free, and till recently a company giving anything away for free could be pretty high-handed about it. Sometimes it reached the point of economic sadism: site owners assumed that the more pain they caused the user, the more benefit it must be to them. The most dramatic remnant of this model may be at salon.com, where you can read the beginning of a story, but to get the rest you have sit through a movie.
At Y Combinator we advise all the startups we fund never to lord it over users. Never make users register, unless you need to in order to store something for them. If you do make users register, never make them wait for a confirmation link in an email; in fact, don't even ask for their email address unless you need it for some reason. Don't ask them any unnecessary questions. Never send them email unless they explicitly ask for it. Never frame pages you link to, or open them in new windows. If you have a free version and a pay version, don't make the free version too restricted. And if you find yourself asking "should we allow users to do x?" just answer "yes" whenever you're unsure. Err on the side of generosity.
In How to Start a Startup I advised startups never to let anyone fly under them, meaning never to let any other company offer a cheaper, easier solution. Another way to fly low is to give users more power. Let users do what they want. If you don't and a competitor does, you're in trouble.
iTunes is Web 2.0ish in this sense. Finally you can buy individual songs instead of having to buy whole albums. The recording industry hated the idea and resisted it as long as possible. But it was obvious what users wanted, so Apple flew under the labels. [4] Though really it might be better to describe iTunes as Web 1.5. Web 2.0 applied to music would probably mean individual bands giving away DRMless songs for free.
The ultimate way to be nice to users is to give them something for free that competitors charge for. During the 90s a lot of people probably thought we'd have some working system for micropayments by now. In fact things have gone in other direction. The most successful sites are the ones that figure out new ways to give stuff away for free. Craigslist has largely destroyed the classified ad sites of the 90s, and OkCupid looks likely to do the same to the previous generation of dating sites.
Serving web pages is very, very cheap. If you can make even a fraction of a cent per page view, you can make a profit. And technology for targeting ads continues to improve. I wouldn't be surprised if ten years from now eBay had been supplanted by an ad-supported freeBay (or, more likely, gBay).
Odd as it might sound, we tell startups that they should try to make as little money as possible. If you can figure out a way to turn a billion dollar industry into a fifty million dollar industry, so much the better, if all fifty million go to you. Though indeed, making things cheaper often turns out to generate more money in the end, just as automating things often turns out to generate more jobs.
The ultimate target is Microsoft. What a bang that balloon is going to make when someone pops it by offering a free web-based alternative to MS Office. [5] Who will? Google? They seem to be taking their time. I suspect the pin will be wielded by a couple of 20 year old hackers who are too naive to be intimidated by the idea. (How hard can it be?)
The Common Thread
Ajax, democracy, and not dissing users. What do they all have in common? I didn't realize they had anything in common till recently, which is one of the reasons I disliked the term "Web 2.0" so much. It seemed that it was being used as a label for whatever happened to be new-- that it didn't predict anything.
But there is a common thread. Web 2.0 means using the web the way it's meant to be used. The "trends" we're seeing now are simply the inherent nature of the web emerging from under the broken models that got imposed on it during the Bubble.
I realized this when I read an as-yet unpublished interview with Joe Kraus, the co-founder of Excite. [6]
Excite really never got the business model right at all. We fell into the classic problem of how when a new medium comes out it adopts the practices, the content, the business models of the old medium-- which fails, and then the more appropriate models get figured out.
It may have seemed as if not much was happening during the years after the Bubble burst. But in retrospect, something was happening: the web was finding its natural angle of repose. The democracy component, for example-- that's not an innovation, in the sense of something someone made happen. That's what the web naturally tends to produce.
Ditto for the idea of delivering desktop-like applications over the web. That idea is almost as old as the web. But the first time around it was co-opted by Sun, and we got Java applets. Java has since been remade into a generic replacement for C++, but in 1996 the story about Java was that it represented a new model of software. Instead of desktop applications, you'd run Java "applets" delivered from a server.
This plan collapsed under its own weight. Microsoft helped kill it, but it would have died anyway. There was no uptake among hackers. When you find PR firms promoting something as the next development platform, you can be sure it's not. If it were, you wouldn't need PR firms to tell you, because hackers would already be writing stuff on top of it, the way sites like Busmonster used Google Maps as a platform before Google even meant it to be one.
The proof that Ajax is the next hot platform is that thousands of hackers have spontaneously started building things on top of it. Mikey likes it.
There's another thing all three components of Web 2.0 have in common. Here's a clue. Suppose you approached investors with the following idea for a Web 2.0 startup:
Sites like del.icio.us and flickr allow users to "tag" content with descriptive tokens. But there is also huge source of implicit tags that they ignore: the text within web links. Moreover, these links represent a social network connecting the individuals and organizations who created the pages, and by using graph theory we can compute from this network an estimate of the reputation of each member. We plan to mine the web for these implicit tags, and use them together with the reputation hierarchy they embody to enhance web searches.
How long do you think it would take them on average to realize that it was a description of Google?
Google was a pioneer in all three components of Web 2.0: their core business sounds crushingly hip when described in Web 2.0 terms, "Don't maltreat users" is a subset of "Don't be evil," and of course Google set off the whole Ajax boom with Google Maps.
Web 2.0 means using the web as it was meant to be used, and Google does. That's their secret. The web naturally has a certain grain, and Google is aligned with it. That's why their success seems so effortless. They're sailing with the wind, instead of sitting becalmed praying for a business model, like the print media, or trying to tack upwind by suing their customers, like Microsoft and the record labels. [7]
Google doesn't try to force things to happen their way. They try to figure out what's going to happen, and arrange to be standing there when it does. That's the way to approach technology-- and as business includes an ever larger technological component, the right way to do business.
The fact that Google is a "Web 2.0" company shows that, while meaningful, the term is also rather bogus. It's like the word "allopathic." It just means doing things right, and it's a bad sign when you have a special word for that.
Notes
[1] From the conference site, June 2004: "While the first wave of the Web was closely tied to the browser, the second wave extends applications across the web and enables a new generation of services and business opportunities." To the extent this means anything, it seems to be about web-based applications.
[2] Disclosure: Reddit was funded by Y Combinator. But although I started using it out of loyalty to the home team, I've become a genuine addict. While we're at it, I'm also an investor in !MSFT, having sold all my shares earlier this year.
[3] I'm not against editing. I spend more time editing than writing, and I have a group of picky friends who proofread almost everything I write. What I dislike is editing done after the fact by someone else.
[4] Obvious is an understatement. Users had been climbing in through the window for years before Apple finally moved the door.
[5] Hint: the way to create a web-based alternative to Office may not be to write every component yourself, but to establish a protocol for web-based apps to share a virtual home directory spread across multiple servers. Or it may be to write it all yourself.
[6] The interview is from Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work, to be published by O'Reilly in 2006.
[7] Microsoft didn't sue their customers directly, but they seem to have done all they could to help SCO sue them.
Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Sarah Harlin, Jessica Livingston, Peter Norvig, Aaron Swartz, and Jeff Weiner for reading drafts of this, and to the guys at O'Reilly and Adaptive Path for answering my questions.
Source here
+ Related
ft.com
Ask the experts: Web 2.0
16 Nov 2005 04:15 PM
A new wave of internet development is drawing on established software tools to offer a more dynamic online experience at low cost. Is the new technology, known in Silicon Valley as "Web 2.0", an internet revolution? Can Microsoft compete with the Web 2.0 platform?
here
Web 2.0
November 2005
Does "Web 2.0" mean anything? Till recently I thought it didn't, but the truth turns out to be more complicated. Originally, yes, it was meaningless. Now it seems to have acquired a meaning. And yet those who dislike the term are probably right, because if it means what I think it does, we don't need it.
I first heard the phrase "Web 2.0" in the name of the Web 2.0 conference in 2004. At the time it was supposed to mean using "the web as a platform," which I took to refer to web-based applications. [1]
So I was surprised at a conference this summer when Tim O'Reilly led a session intended to figure out a definition of "Web 2.0." Didn't it already mean using the web as a platform? And if it didn't already mean something, why did we need the phrase at all?
Origins
Tim says the phrase "Web 2.0" first arose in "a brainstorming session between O'Reilly and Medialive International." What is Medialive International? "Producers of technology tradeshows and conferences," according to their site. So presumably that's what this brainstorming session was about. O'Reilly wanted to organize a conference about the web, and they were wondering what to call it.
I don't think there was any deliberate plan to suggest there was a new version of the web. They just wanted to make the point that the web mattered again. It was a kind of semantic deficit spending: they knew new things were coming, and the "2.0" referred to whatever those might turn out to be.
And they were right. New things were coming. But the new version number led to some awkwardness in the short term. In the process of developing the pitch for the first conference, someone must have decided they'd better take a stab at explaining what that "2.0" referred to. Whatever it meant, "the web as a platform" was at least not too constricting.
The story about "Web 2.0" meaning the web as a platform didn't live much past the first conference. By the second conference, what "Web 2.0" seemed to mean was something about democracy. At least, it did when people wrote about it online. The conference itself didn't seem very grassroots. It cost $2800, so the only people who could afford to go were VCs and people from big companies.
And yet, oddly enough, Ryan Singel's article about the conference in Wired News spoke of "throngs of geeks." When a friend of mine asked Ryan about this, it was news to him. He said he'd originally written something like "throngs of VCs and biz dev guys" but had later shortened it just to "throngs," and that this must have in turn been expanded by the editors into "throngs of geeks." After all, a Web 2.0 conference would presumably be full of geeks, right?
Well, no. There were about 7. Even Tim O'Reilly was wearing a suit, a sight so alien I couldn't even parse it at first. I saw him walk by and said to one of the O'Reilly people "that guy looks just like Tim."
"Oh, that's Tim. He bought a suit."
I ran after him, and sure enough, it was. He explained that he'd just bought it in Thailand.
The 2005 Web 2.0 conference reminded me of Internet trade shows during the Bubble, full of prowling VCs looking for the next hot startup. There was that same odd atmosphere created by a large number of people determined not to miss out. Miss out on what? They didn't know. Whatever was going to happen-- whatever Web 2.0 turned out to be.
I wouldn't quite call it "Bubble 2.0" just because VCs are eager to invest again. The Internet is a genuinely big deal. The bust was as much an overreaction as the boom. It's to be expected that once we started to pull out of the bust, there would be a lot of growth in this area, just as there was in the industries that spiked the sharpest before the Depression.
The reason this won't turn into a second Bubble is that the IPO market is gone. Venture investors are driven by exit strategies. The reason they were funding all those laughable startups during the late 90s was that they hoped to sell them to gullible retail investors; they hoped to be laughing all the way to the bank. Now that route is closed. Now the default exit strategy is to get bought, and acquirers are less prone to irrational exuberance than IPO investors. The closest you'll get to Bubble valuations is Rupert Murdoch paying $580 million for Myspace. That's only off by a factor of 10 or so.
1. Ajax
Does "Web 2.0" mean anything more than the name of a conference yet? I don't like to admit it, but it's starting to. When people say "Web 2.0" now, I have some idea what they mean. And the fact that I both despise the phrase and understand it is the surest proof that it has started to mean something.
One ingredient of its meaning is certainly Ajax, which I can still only just bear to use without scare quotes. Basically, what "Ajax" means is "Javascript now works." And that in turn means that web-based applications can now be made to work much more like desktop ones.
As you read this, a whole new generation of software is being written to take advantage of Ajax. There hasn't been such a wave of new applications since microcomputers first appeared. Even Microsoft sees it, but it's too late for them to do anything more than leak "internal" documents designed to give the impression they're on top of this new trend.
In fact the new generation of software is being written way too fast for Microsoft even to channel it, let alone write their own in house. Their only hope now is to buy all the best Ajax startups before Google does. And even that's going to be hard, because Google has as big a head start in buying microstartups as it did in search a few years ago. After all, Google Maps, the canonical Ajax application, was the result of a startup they bought.
So ironically the original description of the Web 2.0 conference turned out to be partially right: web-based applications are a big component of Web 2.0. But I'm convinced they got this right by accident. The Ajax boom didn't start till early 2005, when Google Maps appeared and the term "Ajax" was coined.
2. Democracy
The second big element of Web 2.0 is democracy. We now have several examples to prove that amateurs can surpass professionals, when they have the right kind of system to channel their efforts. Wikipedia may be the most famous. Experts have given Wikipedia middling reviews, but they miss the critical point: it's good enough. And it's free, which means people actually read it. On the web, articles you have to pay for might as well not exist. Even if you were willing to pay to read them yourself, you can't link to them. They're not part of the conversation.
Another place democracy seems to win is in deciding what counts as news. I never look at any news site now except Reddit. [2] I know if something major happens, or someone writes a particularly interesting article, it will show up there. Why bother checking the front page of any specific paper or magazine? Reddit's like an RSS feed for the whole web, with a filter for quality. Similar sites include Digg, a technology news site that's rapidly approaching Slashdot in popularity, and del.icio.us, the collaborative bookmarking network that set off the "tagging" movement. And whereas Wikipedia's main appeal is that it's good enough and free, these sites suggest that voters do a significantly better job than human editors.
The most dramatic example of Web 2.0 democracy is not in the selection of ideas, but their production. I've noticed for a while that the stuff I read on individual people's sites is as good as or better than the stuff I read in newspapers and magazines. And now I have independent evidence: the top links on Reddit are generally links to individual people's sites rather than to magazine articles or news stories.
My experience of writing for magazines suggests an explanation. Editors. They control the topics you can write about, and they can generally rewrite whatever you produce. The result is to damp extremes. Editing yields 95th percentile writing-- 95% of articles are improved by it, but 5% are dragged down. 5% of the time you get "throngs of geeks."
On the web, people can publish whatever they want. Nearly all of it falls short of the editor-damped writing in print publications. But the pool of writers is very, very large. If it's large enough, the lack of damping means the best writing online should surpass the best in print. [3] And now that the web has evolved mechanisms for selecting good stuff, the web wins net. Selection beats damping, for the same reason market economies beat centrally planned ones.
Even the startups are different this time around. They are to the startups of the Bubble what bloggers are to the print media. During the Bubble, a startup meant a company headed by an MBA that was blowing through several million dollars of VC money to "get big fast" in the most literal sense. Now it means a smaller, younger, more technical group that just decided to make something great. They'll decide later if they want to raise VC-scale funding, and if they take it, they'll take it on their terms.
3. Don't Maltreat Users
I think everyone would agree that democracy and Ajax are elements of "Web 2.0." I also see a third: not to maltreat users. During the Bubble a lot of popular sites were quite high-handed with users. And not just in obvious ways, like making them register, or subjecting them to annoying ads. The very design of the average site in the late 90s was an abuse. Many of the most popular sites were loaded with obtrusive branding that made them slow to load and sent the user the message: this is our site, not yours. (There's a physical analog in the Intel and Microsoft stickers that come on some laptops.)
I think the root of the problem was that sites felt they were giving something away for free, and till recently a company giving anything away for free could be pretty high-handed about it. Sometimes it reached the point of economic sadism: site owners assumed that the more pain they caused the user, the more benefit it must be to them. The most dramatic remnant of this model may be at salon.com, where you can read the beginning of a story, but to get the rest you have sit through a movie.
At Y Combinator we advise all the startups we fund never to lord it over users. Never make users register, unless you need to in order to store something for them. If you do make users register, never make them wait for a confirmation link in an email; in fact, don't even ask for their email address unless you need it for some reason. Don't ask them any unnecessary questions. Never send them email unless they explicitly ask for it. Never frame pages you link to, or open them in new windows. If you have a free version and a pay version, don't make the free version too restricted. And if you find yourself asking "should we allow users to do x?" just answer "yes" whenever you're unsure. Err on the side of generosity.
In How to Start a Startup I advised startups never to let anyone fly under them, meaning never to let any other company offer a cheaper, easier solution. Another way to fly low is to give users more power. Let users do what they want. If you don't and a competitor does, you're in trouble.
iTunes is Web 2.0ish in this sense. Finally you can buy individual songs instead of having to buy whole albums. The recording industry hated the idea and resisted it as long as possible. But it was obvious what users wanted, so Apple flew under the labels. [4] Though really it might be better to describe iTunes as Web 1.5. Web 2.0 applied to music would probably mean individual bands giving away DRMless songs for free.
The ultimate way to be nice to users is to give them something for free that competitors charge for. During the 90s a lot of people probably thought we'd have some working system for micropayments by now. In fact things have gone in other direction. The most successful sites are the ones that figure out new ways to give stuff away for free. Craigslist has largely destroyed the classified ad sites of the 90s, and OkCupid looks likely to do the same to the previous generation of dating sites.
Serving web pages is very, very cheap. If you can make even a fraction of a cent per page view, you can make a profit. And technology for targeting ads continues to improve. I wouldn't be surprised if ten years from now eBay had been supplanted by an ad-supported freeBay (or, more likely, gBay).
Odd as it might sound, we tell startups that they should try to make as little money as possible. If you can figure out a way to turn a billion dollar industry into a fifty million dollar industry, so much the better, if all fifty million go to you. Though indeed, making things cheaper often turns out to generate more money in the end, just as automating things often turns out to generate more jobs.
The ultimate target is Microsoft. What a bang that balloon is going to make when someone pops it by offering a free web-based alternative to MS Office. [5] Who will? Google? They seem to be taking their time. I suspect the pin will be wielded by a couple of 20 year old hackers who are too naive to be intimidated by the idea. (How hard can it be?)
The Common Thread
Ajax, democracy, and not dissing users. What do they all have in common? I didn't realize they had anything in common till recently, which is one of the reasons I disliked the term "Web 2.0" so much. It seemed that it was being used as a label for whatever happened to be new-- that it didn't predict anything.
But there is a common thread. Web 2.0 means using the web the way it's meant to be used. The "trends" we're seeing now are simply the inherent nature of the web emerging from under the broken models that got imposed on it during the Bubble.
I realized this when I read an as-yet unpublished interview with Joe Kraus, the co-founder of Excite. [6]
Excite really never got the business model right at all. We fell into the classic problem of how when a new medium comes out it adopts the practices, the content, the business models of the old medium-- which fails, and then the more appropriate models get figured out.
It may have seemed as if not much was happening during the years after the Bubble burst. But in retrospect, something was happening: the web was finding its natural angle of repose. The democracy component, for example-- that's not an innovation, in the sense of something someone made happen. That's what the web naturally tends to produce.
Ditto for the idea of delivering desktop-like applications over the web. That idea is almost as old as the web. But the first time around it was co-opted by Sun, and we got Java applets. Java has since been remade into a generic replacement for C++, but in 1996 the story about Java was that it represented a new model of software. Instead of desktop applications, you'd run Java "applets" delivered from a server.
This plan collapsed under its own weight. Microsoft helped kill it, but it would have died anyway. There was no uptake among hackers. When you find PR firms promoting something as the next development platform, you can be sure it's not. If it were, you wouldn't need PR firms to tell you, because hackers would already be writing stuff on top of it, the way sites like Busmonster used Google Maps as a platform before Google even meant it to be one.
The proof that Ajax is the next hot platform is that thousands of hackers have spontaneously started building things on top of it. Mikey likes it.
There's another thing all three components of Web 2.0 have in common. Here's a clue. Suppose you approached investors with the following idea for a Web 2.0 startup:
Sites like del.icio.us and flickr allow users to "tag" content with descriptive tokens. But there is also huge source of implicit tags that they ignore: the text within web links. Moreover, these links represent a social network connecting the individuals and organizations who created the pages, and by using graph theory we can compute from this network an estimate of the reputation of each member. We plan to mine the web for these implicit tags, and use them together with the reputation hierarchy they embody to enhance web searches.
How long do you think it would take them on average to realize that it was a description of Google?
Google was a pioneer in all three components of Web 2.0: their core business sounds crushingly hip when described in Web 2.0 terms, "Don't maltreat users" is a subset of "Don't be evil," and of course Google set off the whole Ajax boom with Google Maps.
Web 2.0 means using the web as it was meant to be used, and Google does. That's their secret. The web naturally has a certain grain, and Google is aligned with it. That's why their success seems so effortless. They're sailing with the wind, instead of sitting becalmed praying for a business model, like the print media, or trying to tack upwind by suing their customers, like Microsoft and the record labels. [7]
Google doesn't try to force things to happen their way. They try to figure out what's going to happen, and arrange to be standing there when it does. That's the way to approach technology-- and as business includes an ever larger technological component, the right way to do business.
The fact that Google is a "Web 2.0" company shows that, while meaningful, the term is also rather bogus. It's like the word "allopathic." It just means doing things right, and it's a bad sign when you have a special word for that.
Notes
[1] From the conference site, June 2004: "While the first wave of the Web was closely tied to the browser, the second wave extends applications across the web and enables a new generation of services and business opportunities." To the extent this means anything, it seems to be about web-based applications.
[2] Disclosure: Reddit was funded by Y Combinator. But although I started using it out of loyalty to the home team, I've become a genuine addict. While we're at it, I'm also an investor in !MSFT, having sold all my shares earlier this year.
[3] I'm not against editing. I spend more time editing than writing, and I have a group of picky friends who proofread almost everything I write. What I dislike is editing done after the fact by someone else.
[4] Obvious is an understatement. Users had been climbing in through the window for years before Apple finally moved the door.
[5] Hint: the way to create a web-based alternative to Office may not be to write every component yourself, but to establish a protocol for web-based apps to share a virtual home directory spread across multiple servers. Or it may be to write it all yourself.
[6] The interview is from Jessica Livingston's Founders at Work, to be published by O'Reilly in 2006.
[7] Microsoft didn't sue their customers directly, but they seem to have done all they could to help SCO sue them.
Thanks to Trevor Blackwell, Sarah Harlin, Jessica Livingston, Peter Norvig, Aaron Swartz, and Jeff Weiner for reading drafts of this, and to the guys at O'Reilly and Adaptive Path for answering my questions.
Source here
+ Related
ft.com
Ask the experts: Web 2.0
16 Nov 2005 04:15 PM
A new wave of internet development is drawing on established software tools to offer a more dynamic online experience at low cost. Is the new technology, known in Silicon Valley as "Web 2.0", an internet revolution? Can Microsoft compete with the Web 2.0 platform?
here
the end-to-end Internet?
1
ft.com
Rise up against US oppressors
By Dan Gillmor
Published: November 22 2005 18:36 | Last updated: November 22 2005 18:36
2
washingtonpost.com
Renewed Warning of Bandwidth Hoarding
By Jonathan Krim
Thursday, November 24, 2005; Page D01
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1
ft.com
Rise up against US oppressors
By Dan Gillmor
Published: November 22 2005 18:36 | Last updated: November 22 2005 18:36
Dan GillmorThe open internet is under attack as never before, and the attackers are the usual suspects: governments and incumbent communications giants. Unhappily, this applies in America, too.
By “open” I mean an internet where customers use the available bandwidth as they see fit, not as oligopolies decree. Of course, what customers want is not especially relevant to the bureaucrats and executives who are working hard to regain control.
It is not surprising to see repressive governments, especially the ones that control national telecommunications operations, squeeze the life out of this vital new medium. Not just political control is at stake; so, in many cases, is an enormous amount of revenue.
But it is disheartening to watch the US turn in this direction. The nation that spawned the internet is renouncing some core values in the process.
Consider, in particular, a recent interview in Newsweek magazine, in which Ed Whitacre, the chief executive of SBC Communications, made clear that he much preferred the days when US phone companies were monopolies. (Now that SBC is buying and will rename itself AT&T, he and other acquisition-minded American telecoms are well along the way toward recreating those happy – for the monopolists – old days.)
In the interview, Whitacre all but announced his company’s intention to play favourites on the data lines his company provides. At one point, he complained about Skype, the voice-over-IP company, saying, “They use our network free,” and strongly implied that he intended to force Skype (or its customers) to pay extra in order to use the network.
The nearly pure arrogance of this statement only compounded its fundamental wrongness. What the carriers provide is bandwidth: moving data packets from here to there. It is not their role, or should not be, to decide what gets delivered or in what order.
Given Whitacre’s logic, unfortunately supported by key policies, he is surely allowed to put speed bumps, outright roadblocks or extra charges in the way of all content providers on the Net. (And you thought this newspaper was already expensive.)
The SBC chief’s assertions of authority over what data passes over “his” lines – initially acquired via government-granted monopolies – have a ring of reality in part because of current government policy. Federal regulators, untroubled by the implications, are busy telling the incumbent phone and cable giants that they have no obligation to share their lines with competitors.
Oh, there have been mumblings from regulators about requiring what competition advocates call open access, that is, not discriminating in what content gets carried on those lines. But nearly all of the regulations belie such intentions.
In July I fretted about this trend in this column, following a US Supreme Court decision in a case dubbed “Brand X” after the name of an internet service provider blocked from a cable company’s lines. I worried that the decision, which adhered to current law, was another step toward giving big telecoms absolute control over the data that flows in the lines they control in addition to the provision of access itself.
Congress seems ready to compound the damage. Legislation aimed at updating telecom laws threatens the “end to end” principle that, as Internet pioneer Vint Cerf explains, “allows people at each level of the network to innovate free of any central control”.
In a letter to a congressional committee, Cerf, now a senior employee of Google, wrote that the legislation, if it becomes law, “would do great damage to the internet as we know it”. Enshrining a rule that broadly permits network operators to discriminate in favour of certain kinds of services and to potentially interfere with others would place broadband operators in control of online activity.
It is not only Google making these complaints. Microsoft and other companies not in control of networks are equally concerned.
No one should blame Whitacre and his equally power-hungry peers in the telecom world for wanting to regain control. It is in their DNA to tell us what our choices will be, and what innovation will occur at what speed.
But the Internet’s DNA is precisely the opposite. It lets the people at the edges of networks innovate and make their own choices. This is why the Net has grown so powerfully – why it is a vibrant ecosystem and, increasingly, a platform for our communications future. It’s ours, collectively, not theirs.
Source here
2
washingtonpost.com
Renewed Warning of Bandwidth Hoarding
By Jonathan Krim
Thursday, November 24, 2005; Page D01
A couple of years ago, a group of big technology companies got together and issued a public alarm about the future of the Internet:
Those who own the wires that get us online, the companies said, should not be able to pick and choose what Web content and services we can see and use.
Just as electric companies can't cut deals with electronics makers to allow only some products to work, the Internet should have similar, guaranteed "network neutrality," argued tech firms such as Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc.
The telephone and cable companies that provide most Internet access dismissed the warning as a pro-regulatory, paranoid rant. It was a solution in search of a problem, they said, and they vowed they would never, ever do such a thing. And the issue receded.
But now it's back in a big way, and the question is: How will the tech industry respond?
Consider:
On March 3, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it settled a case against a small North Carolina-based telephone company that was blocking the ability of its customers to use voice-over-Internet calling services instead of regular phone lines.
On Sept. 15, the first major draft of proposed changes in the nation's telecommunication's laws was circulated by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The draft said Internet service providers must not "block, impair, interfere with the offering of, access to, or the use of such content, applications or services."
On Nov. 2, another draft of the bill came out, with language specifically addressing the Internet video services that are proliferating as connection speeds increase and the phone companies get into the digital television business. In this draft, the prohibition on blocking or impeding content was gone.
If the bill passes as is, tech companies say, the Internet could be forever compromised.
"Enshrining a rule that broadly permits network operators to discriminate in favor of certain kinds of services and to potentially interfere with others would place broadband operators in control of online activity," Vinton G. Cerf, a founding father of the Internet who now works for Google Inc., wrote in a letter to Congress.
The phone companies argue that with their new fiber-optic systems capable of handling huge amounts of bandwidth, they simply want the ability to set aside some of it for their own services, be it television, gaming or anything else.
Unfortunately for them, the head of phone giant SBC Communications Inc., Edward E. Whitacre Jr., was a little more plain-spoken in an interview in Business Week.
"Now what they [Google, Yahoo, MSN] would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it," Whitacre said. "So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using."
Like his predecessor, FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin favors network neutrality "principles," but not codifying them as rules.
The FCC did add them as conditions of planned mergers between SBC and AT&T Corp., and Verizon Communications Inc. and MCI Inc. But those conditions apply only for two years, and only to those companies, so Congress will have to wrestle with this beast.
A coalition of tech companies that includes Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon, Google, Ebay Inc. and IAC/InterActive Corp., argues that the issue is bigger than straight-up discrimination.
What if, they say, the Internet service providers decide to reserve 90 percent of their bandwidth for their own services, and leave 10 percent for the rest?
"Allowing broadband providers to segment their . . . offerings and reserve huge amounts of bandwidth for their own services will not give consumers the broadband Internet our country and economy need," Cerf wrote.
Another wrinkle: What if Internet service providers decide to provide lots of bandwidth to customers who buy their other services, such as cellular or voice-over-Internet telephony -- but less if the customer uses rival providers of those services?
That would be similar to the kind of bundling that occurs now, under which, for example, cable Internet service is cheaper if a consumer also buys a cable-television package. That, they say, is the free market at work.
With tech firms and the Internet providers engaged in many joint business relationships, it is unclear how much artillery the technology group is willing to roll out on this issue.
If they hope to succeed against the powerful cable and telephone lobbies, it will require more than some letters and public testimony to Congress.
Source here
ft.com
Rise up against US oppressors
By Dan Gillmor
Published: November 22 2005 18:36 | Last updated: November 22 2005 18:36
2
washingtonpost.com
Renewed Warning of Bandwidth Hoarding
By Jonathan Krim
Thursday, November 24, 2005; Page D01
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1
ft.com
Rise up against US oppressors
By Dan Gillmor
Published: November 22 2005 18:36 | Last updated: November 22 2005 18:36
Dan GillmorThe open internet is under attack as never before, and the attackers are the usual suspects: governments and incumbent communications giants. Unhappily, this applies in America, too.
By “open” I mean an internet where customers use the available bandwidth as they see fit, not as oligopolies decree. Of course, what customers want is not especially relevant to the bureaucrats and executives who are working hard to regain control.
It is not surprising to see repressive governments, especially the ones that control national telecommunications operations, squeeze the life out of this vital new medium. Not just political control is at stake; so, in many cases, is an enormous amount of revenue.
But it is disheartening to watch the US turn in this direction. The nation that spawned the internet is renouncing some core values in the process.
Consider, in particular, a recent interview in Newsweek magazine, in which Ed Whitacre, the chief executive of SBC Communications, made clear that he much preferred the days when US phone companies were monopolies. (Now that SBC is buying and will rename itself AT&T, he and other acquisition-minded American telecoms are well along the way toward recreating those happy – for the monopolists – old days.)
In the interview, Whitacre all but announced his company’s intention to play favourites on the data lines his company provides. At one point, he complained about Skype, the voice-over-IP company, saying, “They use our network free,” and strongly implied that he intended to force Skype (or its customers) to pay extra in order to use the network.
The nearly pure arrogance of this statement only compounded its fundamental wrongness. What the carriers provide is bandwidth: moving data packets from here to there. It is not their role, or should not be, to decide what gets delivered or in what order.
Given Whitacre’s logic, unfortunately supported by key policies, he is surely allowed to put speed bumps, outright roadblocks or extra charges in the way of all content providers on the Net. (And you thought this newspaper was already expensive.)
The SBC chief’s assertions of authority over what data passes over “his” lines – initially acquired via government-granted monopolies – have a ring of reality in part because of current government policy. Federal regulators, untroubled by the implications, are busy telling the incumbent phone and cable giants that they have no obligation to share their lines with competitors.
Oh, there have been mumblings from regulators about requiring what competition advocates call open access, that is, not discriminating in what content gets carried on those lines. But nearly all of the regulations belie such intentions.
In July I fretted about this trend in this column, following a US Supreme Court decision in a case dubbed “Brand X” after the name of an internet service provider blocked from a cable company’s lines. I worried that the decision, which adhered to current law, was another step toward giving big telecoms absolute control over the data that flows in the lines they control in addition to the provision of access itself.
Congress seems ready to compound the damage. Legislation aimed at updating telecom laws threatens the “end to end” principle that, as Internet pioneer Vint Cerf explains, “allows people at each level of the network to innovate free of any central control”.
In a letter to a congressional committee, Cerf, now a senior employee of Google, wrote that the legislation, if it becomes law, “would do great damage to the internet as we know it”. Enshrining a rule that broadly permits network operators to discriminate in favour of certain kinds of services and to potentially interfere with others would place broadband operators in control of online activity.
It is not only Google making these complaints. Microsoft and other companies not in control of networks are equally concerned.
No one should blame Whitacre and his equally power-hungry peers in the telecom world for wanting to regain control. It is in their DNA to tell us what our choices will be, and what innovation will occur at what speed.
But the Internet’s DNA is precisely the opposite. It lets the people at the edges of networks innovate and make their own choices. This is why the Net has grown so powerfully – why it is a vibrant ecosystem and, increasingly, a platform for our communications future. It’s ours, collectively, not theirs.
Source here
2
washingtonpost.com
Renewed Warning of Bandwidth Hoarding
By Jonathan Krim
Thursday, November 24, 2005; Page D01
A couple of years ago, a group of big technology companies got together and issued a public alarm about the future of the Internet:
Those who own the wires that get us online, the companies said, should not be able to pick and choose what Web content and services we can see and use.
Just as electric companies can't cut deals with electronics makers to allow only some products to work, the Internet should have similar, guaranteed "network neutrality," argued tech firms such as Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc.
The telephone and cable companies that provide most Internet access dismissed the warning as a pro-regulatory, paranoid rant. It was a solution in search of a problem, they said, and they vowed they would never, ever do such a thing. And the issue receded.
But now it's back in a big way, and the question is: How will the tech industry respond?
Consider:
On March 3, the Federal Communications Commission announced that it settled a case against a small North Carolina-based telephone company that was blocking the ability of its customers to use voice-over-Internet calling services instead of regular phone lines.
On Sept. 15, the first major draft of proposed changes in the nation's telecommunication's laws was circulated by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The draft said Internet service providers must not "block, impair, interfere with the offering of, access to, or the use of such content, applications or services."
On Nov. 2, another draft of the bill came out, with language specifically addressing the Internet video services that are proliferating as connection speeds increase and the phone companies get into the digital television business. In this draft, the prohibition on blocking or impeding content was gone.
If the bill passes as is, tech companies say, the Internet could be forever compromised.
"Enshrining a rule that broadly permits network operators to discriminate in favor of certain kinds of services and to potentially interfere with others would place broadband operators in control of online activity," Vinton G. Cerf, a founding father of the Internet who now works for Google Inc., wrote in a letter to Congress.
The phone companies argue that with their new fiber-optic systems capable of handling huge amounts of bandwidth, they simply want the ability to set aside some of it for their own services, be it television, gaming or anything else.
Unfortunately for them, the head of phone giant SBC Communications Inc., Edward E. Whitacre Jr., was a little more plain-spoken in an interview in Business Week.
"Now what they [Google, Yahoo, MSN] would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it," Whitacre said. "So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using."
Like his predecessor, FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin favors network neutrality "principles," but not codifying them as rules.
The FCC did add them as conditions of planned mergers between SBC and AT&T Corp., and Verizon Communications Inc. and MCI Inc. But those conditions apply only for two years, and only to those companies, so Congress will have to wrestle with this beast.
A coalition of tech companies that includes Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon, Google, Ebay Inc. and IAC/InterActive Corp., argues that the issue is bigger than straight-up discrimination.
What if, they say, the Internet service providers decide to reserve 90 percent of their bandwidth for their own services, and leave 10 percent for the rest?
"Allowing broadband providers to segment their . . . offerings and reserve huge amounts of bandwidth for their own services will not give consumers the broadband Internet our country and economy need," Cerf wrote.
Another wrinkle: What if Internet service providers decide to provide lots of bandwidth to customers who buy their other services, such as cellular or voice-over-Internet telephony -- but less if the customer uses rival providers of those services?
That would be similar to the kind of bundling that occurs now, under which, for example, cable Internet service is cheaper if a consumer also buys a cable-television package. That, they say, is the free market at work.
With tech firms and the Internet providers engaged in many joint business relationships, it is unclear how much artillery the technology group is willing to roll out on this issue.
If they hope to succeed against the powerful cable and telephone lobbies, it will require more than some letters and public testimony to Congress.
Source here
Data handling is key to next telecoms leap
ft.com
By Tom White
Published: November 22 2005 18:36 | Last updated: November 22 2005 18:36
Ever since the invention of the telephone, testing and data management have been crucial for success – from the engineers who made sure circuits worked for the first phone calls, through to the complex systems deployed in 3G networks today.
The telecommunications industry is now on the edge of a revolution that will see sophisticated data manipulation and reporting techniques applied to every aspect of telecom companies’ business – from relationships with individual subscribers through to large corporate accounts, and management of the network itself.
The implications of this revolution are every bit as significant as the first GSM text message sent by Motorola engineers in 1992, or the first satellite phone call in the 1960s. And just like those earlier breakthroughs, we have yet to fully realise what improving data collection and management will mean for the telecoms industry as a whole.
Mobile network operators have performed brilliantly in selling the advantages of mobile telecoms to the public, so much so that there will soon be more mobile devices in many European countries than there are people. These devices possess true 21st-century sophistication, with the capability to download e-mail, voicemail and data services such as presentations, video clips and internet access.
Traditional voice services look Neanderthal next to today’s super-capable devices, with network statistics from all providers suggesting an increasing take-up of new services as consumers become familiar with the power and range of their mobile phones and PDAs.
So far, so good. But now the industry must satisfy and retain its increasingly sophisticated customer base. If today’s average customer expects to be able to make voice calls, send text messages and perhaps to access e-mails via their mobile device, then the average customer 10 years hence will expect to be able to deal in their share portfolio with 100 per cent accuracy over the network; to videoconference with their families from 8,000 miles away, and to edit sales presentations and send them to customers with fully encrypted security.
Technically, today’s devices can cope with all of these functions in terms of processing power and memory capacity. Now certainty, security and speed – the qualities that will enable commercial transactions across the mobile network – are coming into focus. The integrity of data transfer between mobile devices and the network must come as close as possible to broadband internet’s standards if consumers are to realise their mobile devices’ potential. What’s more, both consumers and the organisations that deal with them – from stockbrokers through to mortgage lenders, insurance companies and e-commerce outfits – will expect 100 per cent security of transaction and processing. They will also expect these services to be delivered quickly and efficiently, just as they are today over broadband connections.
The key to delivering services more quickly and with 100 per cent security is innovative data management. Whereas at one stage good data management meant a green light on all network operations systems, and the knowledge that a service could be provided, now it will mean constant measurement of the quality of delivered services – right down to the level of service received by an individual handset, anywhere on the network.
The concept of service in the telecommunications industry is shifting from servicing and managing a network to managing the experience of individual customers and groups of customers.
The benefits of this customer-centric service management model are immense. Consumers will be able to access and send encrypted data across the mobile network, enabling a wide range of financial and other services in a completely secure environment. Telecommunications operators will be able to increase the amount of time people spend on their network as the range of uses for mobile devices widens – and increase their revenues and profitability in the process. Finally, the companies offering services across the network to consumers will also see their revenues soar. Better data management will enable the telecommunications network for e-commerce and could be the second phase in the e-commerce revolution that began six years ago with the provision of faster, safer internet access by ISP’s.
Customer-centric service management will mean that problems experienced in the delivery of services to an individual handset can be resolved quickly and effectively. Large corporate customers for mobile telephony could see how their subscribed services are being used, by location, handset and service, as well as having access to accurate measurements on network performance that will demonstrate the value for money they are receiving from their network service providers.
As telecom service providers implement advanced data management techniques, the effect will be even wider take-up of mobile services than we have seen in the 25-year history of mobile communications. What was once a means of staying in touch will become a bank, a shopping mall and an office – all held in your pocket.
New and more sophisticated data management techniques will enable this, helping telecom service providers and their customers to access faster and more secure operations across the mobile network, as well as allowing for better reporting and management of faults.
Despite all that we have seen so far, and all that is remarkable in today’s telecommunications industry, there can be no doubt that the best is yet to come.
Tom White is UK Managing Director of Agilent Technologies
Source here
By Tom White
Published: November 22 2005 18:36 | Last updated: November 22 2005 18:36
Ever since the invention of the telephone, testing and data management have been crucial for success – from the engineers who made sure circuits worked for the first phone calls, through to the complex systems deployed in 3G networks today.
The telecommunications industry is now on the edge of a revolution that will see sophisticated data manipulation and reporting techniques applied to every aspect of telecom companies’ business – from relationships with individual subscribers through to large corporate accounts, and management of the network itself.
The implications of this revolution are every bit as significant as the first GSM text message sent by Motorola engineers in 1992, or the first satellite phone call in the 1960s. And just like those earlier breakthroughs, we have yet to fully realise what improving data collection and management will mean for the telecoms industry as a whole.
Mobile network operators have performed brilliantly in selling the advantages of mobile telecoms to the public, so much so that there will soon be more mobile devices in many European countries than there are people. These devices possess true 21st-century sophistication, with the capability to download e-mail, voicemail and data services such as presentations, video clips and internet access.
Traditional voice services look Neanderthal next to today’s super-capable devices, with network statistics from all providers suggesting an increasing take-up of new services as consumers become familiar with the power and range of their mobile phones and PDAs.
So far, so good. But now the industry must satisfy and retain its increasingly sophisticated customer base. If today’s average customer expects to be able to make voice calls, send text messages and perhaps to access e-mails via their mobile device, then the average customer 10 years hence will expect to be able to deal in their share portfolio with 100 per cent accuracy over the network; to videoconference with their families from 8,000 miles away, and to edit sales presentations and send them to customers with fully encrypted security.
Technically, today’s devices can cope with all of these functions in terms of processing power and memory capacity. Now certainty, security and speed – the qualities that will enable commercial transactions across the mobile network – are coming into focus. The integrity of data transfer between mobile devices and the network must come as close as possible to broadband internet’s standards if consumers are to realise their mobile devices’ potential. What’s more, both consumers and the organisations that deal with them – from stockbrokers through to mortgage lenders, insurance companies and e-commerce outfits – will expect 100 per cent security of transaction and processing. They will also expect these services to be delivered quickly and efficiently, just as they are today over broadband connections.
The key to delivering services more quickly and with 100 per cent security is innovative data management. Whereas at one stage good data management meant a green light on all network operations systems, and the knowledge that a service could be provided, now it will mean constant measurement of the quality of delivered services – right down to the level of service received by an individual handset, anywhere on the network.
The concept of service in the telecommunications industry is shifting from servicing and managing a network to managing the experience of individual customers and groups of customers.
The benefits of this customer-centric service management model are immense. Consumers will be able to access and send encrypted data across the mobile network, enabling a wide range of financial and other services in a completely secure environment. Telecommunications operators will be able to increase the amount of time people spend on their network as the range of uses for mobile devices widens – and increase their revenues and profitability in the process. Finally, the companies offering services across the network to consumers will also see their revenues soar. Better data management will enable the telecommunications network for e-commerce and could be the second phase in the e-commerce revolution that began six years ago with the provision of faster, safer internet access by ISP’s.
Customer-centric service management will mean that problems experienced in the delivery of services to an individual handset can be resolved quickly and effectively. Large corporate customers for mobile telephony could see how their subscribed services are being used, by location, handset and service, as well as having access to accurate measurements on network performance that will demonstrate the value for money they are receiving from their network service providers.
As telecom service providers implement advanced data management techniques, the effect will be even wider take-up of mobile services than we have seen in the 25-year history of mobile communications. What was once a means of staying in touch will become a bank, a shopping mall and an office – all held in your pocket.
New and more sophisticated data management techniques will enable this, helping telecom service providers and their customers to access faster and more secure operations across the mobile network, as well as allowing for better reporting and management of faults.
Despite all that we have seen so far, and all that is remarkable in today’s telecommunications industry, there can be no doubt that the best is yet to come.
Tom White is UK Managing Director of Agilent Technologies
Source here
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
BT: Making the Internet work better
zdnet.co.uk
Cath Everett
ZDNet UK
November 23, 2005, 10:15 GMT
Peter Hovell heads up the BT wing charged with improving the Internet, which includes the telco's multi-billion pound 21st Century Network project
The marketing mission statement at BT's Network Research Centre reads: "The NRC vision is a global network that can be accessed from any device, anywhere, whilst providing security, appropriate service quality and being economic to deploy and operate".
Peter Hovell, who heads up the unit, has a slightly cleaner vision of his group's ultimate mandate. "If we can make the Internet a nicer experience and provide a range of quality applications, whether they be voice, video or whatever, the Net will become more what people wanted — a nicer place where applications just work and are more instantaneous as networks get faster, and where data will appear as required," he says.
NRC is based in Adastral Park in Ipswich, along with BT's other research centres, and has been in existence since the organisation was part of the Post Office. At this stage, its research focused on enhancing PSTN networks, but this has now shifted to the Internet and its associated protocols and technologies.
Making it all work better
To achieve this aim of "making it all work better", BT has developed two parallel projects that will provide the foundation for the overall vision of a more efficient network: the 21st Century Network (21CN) and New Internet Architectures (NIA).
The 21CN is a five-year long initiative in which BT will replace its copper circuit-switched networks with a single IP-based core infrastructure, based on optical fibre. The aim is to provide customers with a single network, using both fixed and wireless links, to access broadband-based voice and data services from anywhere in the country and using any number of devices. The scheme is expected to be completed by 2009 and will cost a total of £10bn.
But while Hovell's researchers are "generally looking at how networks will evolve in the future", they are also investigating how to optimise performance at an access level rather than simply at the core network.
"Access networks such as DSL are always increasing in speed, but there comes an economic limit if you want to use different technologies to improve the operational costs of running and maintaining fibre, and if you want to add new services and facilities," says Hovell. "So we're quite interested in passive optical networks where there's one fibre from the network and we use splitters to deliver the signal to many people."
Hundreds of signals
While each home or business could be provided with its own fibre line, this is not only an expensive option, but one that also results in "potential termination problems in exchanges because there are so many cables coming in".
Having only one fibre in the network and splitting it into hundreds of signals, however, currently "looks like the more feasible and economic deployment", says Hovell. Radio technology, on the other hand, could be a suitable choice "for mobility in the home and home distribution".
"Because it would be a shared infrastructure with several hundred users, each would have a moderate bandwidth of say 10Mb per second, but when people aren't using it, which is a considerable amount of time, we could steer it to others that require it. So there's the potential to burst up to Gigabit per second downloads," said Hovell.
This sort of service would enable customers to download music and video in seconds, provide for network back-up of home videos and support thin client access to remote applications, particularly for small businesses that currently experience difficulties in maintaining their own PCs.
DVD-quality audio
But the work that is going into the IP-based 21CN is also feeding into the NIA project, which involves updating the fundamental structure of the Internet "to make it a better and safer place to be".
"The Internet was invented many years ago by academia, but when the inventors worked on it originally, there was no concept of economics or bad guys. They invented an architecture that was a free-for-all, so everyone could share information and everything was nice and kind," says Hovell. "But the world has changed, the use of the Internet has changed and, fundamentally, the architecture has not evolved to take account of that."
In an attempt to kick-start this evolution, BT is working on technologies that can be deployed incrementally to improve the way the Internet functions. One such initiative focuses on developing a feedback mechanism to alleviate congestion-related performance problems.
Trafficmaster
"If you're driving a car, you know when you've been stuck in a traffic jam, but you don't know when the next one is going to happen. However, if you introduce Trafficmaster, it will tell you what's coming up," Hovell explains. "It's the same analogy with the Internet. An Internet packet won't know when the network is congested, but a feedback mechanism can predict when the packet is going to a congested node and hence can alter its routing dynamically."
Nonetheless, he describes such technology as a "mid- to long-term solution" and does not expect it to appear commercially for another five to ten years. "It's still very early days in the research cycle and, although it's already got considerable traction in the academic and Internet world, it takes much longer to standardise things like this and have them built into equipment. Take VoIP — it's been around for years, but it's only just starting to happen," he says.
21CN
Two other key areas of focus that run across both the 21CN and NIA programmes, however, revolve around quality of service (QoS) and security, although Hovell was not prepared to talk about the latter due to its sensitive nature. The focus here is not on creating "stovepipe solutions that only work on the core or access networks, but end-to-end solutions that are also cheap to deploy and run", he explains.
To illustrate the point in QoS terms, BT has introduced the concept of Guaranteed Quality of Service Synthesis (GQS). This involves tackling congestion issues on the Internet, but this time with the idea of providing an engaged signal if it is busy — a mechanism that is likely to become more important as networks increasingly carry voice and video traffic.
Abnormal loads
While Hovell acknowledges that the current over-provisioning of the Internet means that the network currently fails only rarely — as a result of congestion, equipment faults or abnormal loads — there is less and less tolerance for even the smallest interruption to service. "We do need a quite cheap solution, but one that also works, so we developed one called GQS. This surrounds the core network with gateways and measures congestion on the actual path in real-time to decide whether to admit a call or not, rather than relying on a centralised device adding up individual bits of bandwidth," he says.
Three NCR researchers submitted draft specifications on GQS to a meeting of the Internet Engineering Taskforce in Canada in November 2005, and the hope is that the technology could start appearing in commercial equipment in between two to five years' time.
Source here
Cath Everett
ZDNet UK
November 23, 2005, 10:15 GMT
Peter Hovell heads up the BT wing charged with improving the Internet, which includes the telco's multi-billion pound 21st Century Network project
The marketing mission statement at BT's Network Research Centre reads: "The NRC vision is a global network that can be accessed from any device, anywhere, whilst providing security, appropriate service quality and being economic to deploy and operate".
Peter Hovell, who heads up the unit, has a slightly cleaner vision of his group's ultimate mandate. "If we can make the Internet a nicer experience and provide a range of quality applications, whether they be voice, video or whatever, the Net will become more what people wanted — a nicer place where applications just work and are more instantaneous as networks get faster, and where data will appear as required," he says.
NRC is based in Adastral Park in Ipswich, along with BT's other research centres, and has been in existence since the organisation was part of the Post Office. At this stage, its research focused on enhancing PSTN networks, but this has now shifted to the Internet and its associated protocols and technologies.
Making it all work better
To achieve this aim of "making it all work better", BT has developed two parallel projects that will provide the foundation for the overall vision of a more efficient network: the 21st Century Network (21CN) and New Internet Architectures (NIA).
The 21CN is a five-year long initiative in which BT will replace its copper circuit-switched networks with a single IP-based core infrastructure, based on optical fibre. The aim is to provide customers with a single network, using both fixed and wireless links, to access broadband-based voice and data services from anywhere in the country and using any number of devices. The scheme is expected to be completed by 2009 and will cost a total of £10bn.
But while Hovell's researchers are "generally looking at how networks will evolve in the future", they are also investigating how to optimise performance at an access level rather than simply at the core network.
"Access networks such as DSL are always increasing in speed, but there comes an economic limit if you want to use different technologies to improve the operational costs of running and maintaining fibre, and if you want to add new services and facilities," says Hovell. "So we're quite interested in passive optical networks where there's one fibre from the network and we use splitters to deliver the signal to many people."
Hundreds of signals
While each home or business could be provided with its own fibre line, this is not only an expensive option, but one that also results in "potential termination problems in exchanges because there are so many cables coming in".
Having only one fibre in the network and splitting it into hundreds of signals, however, currently "looks like the more feasible and economic deployment", says Hovell. Radio technology, on the other hand, could be a suitable choice "for mobility in the home and home distribution".
"Because it would be a shared infrastructure with several hundred users, each would have a moderate bandwidth of say 10Mb per second, but when people aren't using it, which is a considerable amount of time, we could steer it to others that require it. So there's the potential to burst up to Gigabit per second downloads," said Hovell.
This sort of service would enable customers to download music and video in seconds, provide for network back-up of home videos and support thin client access to remote applications, particularly for small businesses that currently experience difficulties in maintaining their own PCs.
DVD-quality audio
But the work that is going into the IP-based 21CN is also feeding into the NIA project, which involves updating the fundamental structure of the Internet "to make it a better and safer place to be".
"The Internet was invented many years ago by academia, but when the inventors worked on it originally, there was no concept of economics or bad guys. They invented an architecture that was a free-for-all, so everyone could share information and everything was nice and kind," says Hovell. "But the world has changed, the use of the Internet has changed and, fundamentally, the architecture has not evolved to take account of that."
In an attempt to kick-start this evolution, BT is working on technologies that can be deployed incrementally to improve the way the Internet functions. One such initiative focuses on developing a feedback mechanism to alleviate congestion-related performance problems.
Trafficmaster
"If you're driving a car, you know when you've been stuck in a traffic jam, but you don't know when the next one is going to happen. However, if you introduce Trafficmaster, it will tell you what's coming up," Hovell explains. "It's the same analogy with the Internet. An Internet packet won't know when the network is congested, but a feedback mechanism can predict when the packet is going to a congested node and hence can alter its routing dynamically."
Nonetheless, he describes such technology as a "mid- to long-term solution" and does not expect it to appear commercially for another five to ten years. "It's still very early days in the research cycle and, although it's already got considerable traction in the academic and Internet world, it takes much longer to standardise things like this and have them built into equipment. Take VoIP — it's been around for years, but it's only just starting to happen," he says.
21CN
Two other key areas of focus that run across both the 21CN and NIA programmes, however, revolve around quality of service (QoS) and security, although Hovell was not prepared to talk about the latter due to its sensitive nature. The focus here is not on creating "stovepipe solutions that only work on the core or access networks, but end-to-end solutions that are also cheap to deploy and run", he explains.
To illustrate the point in QoS terms, BT has introduced the concept of Guaranteed Quality of Service Synthesis (GQS). This involves tackling congestion issues on the Internet, but this time with the idea of providing an engaged signal if it is busy — a mechanism that is likely to become more important as networks increasingly carry voice and video traffic.
Abnormal loads
While Hovell acknowledges that the current over-provisioning of the Internet means that the network currently fails only rarely — as a result of congestion, equipment faults or abnormal loads — there is less and less tolerance for even the smallest interruption to service. "We do need a quite cheap solution, but one that also works, so we developed one called GQS. This surrounds the core network with gateways and measures congestion on the actual path in real-time to decide whether to admit a call or not, rather than relying on a centralised device adding up individual bits of bandwidth," he says.
Three NCR researchers submitted draft specifications on GQS to a meeting of the Internet Engineering Taskforce in Canada in November 2005, and the hope is that the technology could start appearing in commercial equipment in between two to five years' time.
Source here
Wireless Communication and Development
USC Annenberg Research Network on International Communication
2005 Workshop
Wireless Communication and Development: A Global Perspective
October 7-8, 2005
The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey, CA.
Proceedings
Friday October 7
Session 1
Wireless Communication and Development: Reviewing the Evidence
Chair: Jonathan Aronson (USC)
* Leonard Waverman (London Business School), Mobile Telecommunications and Economic Growth
[paper - TK][slides (PPT-1.7Mb) ]
* Judith Mariscal and Eugenio Rivera (CIDE-Mexico), New Trends in Mobile Communications in Latin America
[paper (PDF-224Kb)] [slides (PPT-150Kb)]
* Rohan Samarajiva (Lirne.net), Wireless communication and development in the Asia-Pacific: Institutions matter
[paper (PDF-425Kb)] [slides (PPT-425Kb) ]
Lunch Keynote address:
Richard Fuchs (Director ICT4D, IDRC), It's the End of the World As we Know It: ICTs and Development into the Future
[slides (PPT-5.5Mb) ]
Session 2
Low-cost Wireless Alternatives: Case Studies
Chair: François Bar (USC)
* Jack Qiu (Chinese University of Hong Kong ),The Accidental Accomplishment of Little Smart: Understanding the Emergence of a Working-Class ICT
[paper (PDF-210Kb)] [slides (PPT-470Kb) ]
* Eric Brewer (UC Berkeley),Technology Insights for Rural Connectivity
[paper (PDF-36Kb)] [slides (PPT-3.8Mb) ]
Saturday October 8
Session 3
Wireless Applications for Rural Development
Chair: Manuel Castells (USC)
* Hernan Galperin (USC) and François Bar (USC), Diversifying Network Development: Microtelcos in Latin America and the Caribbean
[paper (PDF-168Kb)] [slides (PPT-190Kb) ]
* Michael Best (Georgia Tech) and Raul Roman (USC), Licence-exempt Wireless Policies: Unleashing the Internet for Rural Development
[paper -TK] [slides (PPT-1.6Mb) ]
* Francisco Proenza (FAO), The Road to Broadband Development in Developing Countries is through Competition Driven by Wireless and VoIP
[paper (PDF-478Kb)] [slides (PPT-326Kb)]
Lunch Keynote address:
Ashok Jhunjhunwala (IIT Chennai), Wireless Communications and Development: Rural India Focus
[slides (PPT-6.1Mb)]
Session 4
Wireless and Development: A Users Perspective
Chair: Jonathan Taplin (USC)
* Jonathan Donner (Columbia University), The use of mobile phones by microentrepreneurs in Kigali, Rwanda: Changes to social and business networks
[paper (PDF-585Kb)] [slides (PDF-1.4Mb)]
* Nyaki Adeya (Visiting Scholar, USC), Wireless Technologies and Development in Africa
[paper (PDF-385Kb)] [slides (PPT-221Kb)]
Source here
2005 Workshop
Wireless Communication and Development: A Global Perspective
October 7-8, 2005
The Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey, CA.
Proceedings
Friday October 7
Session 1
Wireless Communication and Development: Reviewing the Evidence
Chair: Jonathan Aronson (USC)
* Leonard Waverman (London Business School), Mobile Telecommunications and Economic Growth
[paper - TK][slides (PPT-1.7Mb) ]
* Judith Mariscal and Eugenio Rivera (CIDE-Mexico), New Trends in Mobile Communications in Latin America
[paper (PDF-224Kb)] [slides (PPT-150Kb)]
* Rohan Samarajiva (Lirne.net), Wireless communication and development in the Asia-Pacific: Institutions matter
[paper (PDF-425Kb)] [slides (PPT-425Kb) ]
Lunch Keynote address:
Richard Fuchs (Director ICT4D, IDRC), It's the End of the World As we Know It: ICTs and Development into the Future
[slides (PPT-5.5Mb) ]
Session 2
Low-cost Wireless Alternatives: Case Studies
Chair: François Bar (USC)
* Jack Qiu (Chinese University of Hong Kong ),The Accidental Accomplishment of Little Smart: Understanding the Emergence of a Working-Class ICT
[paper (PDF-210Kb)] [slides (PPT-470Kb) ]
* Eric Brewer (UC Berkeley),Technology Insights for Rural Connectivity
[paper (PDF-36Kb)] [slides (PPT-3.8Mb) ]
Saturday October 8
Session 3
Wireless Applications for Rural Development
Chair: Manuel Castells (USC)
* Hernan Galperin (USC) and François Bar (USC), Diversifying Network Development: Microtelcos in Latin America and the Caribbean
[paper (PDF-168Kb)] [slides (PPT-190Kb) ]
* Michael Best (Georgia Tech) and Raul Roman (USC), Licence-exempt Wireless Policies: Unleashing the Internet for Rural Development
[paper -TK] [slides (PPT-1.6Mb) ]
* Francisco Proenza (FAO), The Road to Broadband Development in Developing Countries is through Competition Driven by Wireless and VoIP
[paper (PDF-478Kb)] [slides (PPT-326Kb)]
Lunch Keynote address:
Ashok Jhunjhunwala (IIT Chennai), Wireless Communications and Development: Rural India Focus
[slides (PPT-6.1Mb)]
Session 4
Wireless and Development: A Users Perspective
Chair: Jonathan Taplin (USC)
* Jonathan Donner (Columbia University), The use of mobile phones by microentrepreneurs in Kigali, Rwanda: Changes to social and business networks
[paper (PDF-585Kb)] [slides (PDF-1.4Mb)]
* Nyaki Adeya (Visiting Scholar, USC), Wireless Technologies and Development in Africa
[paper (PDF-385Kb)] [slides (PPT-221Kb)]
Source here
3G cell standard set to take root in China
reuters.com
3G cell standard set to take root in China
Mon Nov 21, 2005 2:42 AM ET16
By Doug Young
HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's home-grown third-generation (3G) mobile telecoms standard is set to take root as more big industry names back it and as the prospect of soft loans and technical support attracts developing market interest.
But first, China must prove outside critics wrong by building and operating a system that works, industry executives say.
The government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to develop the standard, known as TD-SCDMA, over the last few years.
The plan, once dismissed by many outsiders as a pipedream, has gained slow but steady momentum in the last year, with most of the world's major telecoms equipment vendors signing on with Chinese partners to support the technology.
"I think TD-SCDMA will play a role in China, and I wouldn't be surprised if smaller markets outside China do some testing in less complex environments," said Michael Tatelman, North Asia manager of the mobile devices unit of Motorola Inc.
"China is great at promoting and exporting standards," he said on the sidelines of the 3G World Congress this week in Hong Kong. "So is private business there. Like anywhere else, there's a cooperation between government and private enterprises."
Motorola, like a number of other global telecoms equipment makers, has said it will support TD-SCDMA through joint ventures and less formal tie-ups.
Others on the list include Ericsson (ERICb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research), Nokia Oyj (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research), Siemens AG (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), Alcatel (CGEP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and Nortel
U.S.-based Lucent Technologies (LU.N: Quote, Profile, Research) became one of the last to fall into line. The company told Reuters it was forming an alliance with China's Datang Telecom Technology Ltd. (600198.SS: Quote, Profile, Research) to develop TD-SCDMA systems.
DEVELOPING MARKETS
Industry observers point out that the technology would be especially suitable for developing markets, since China is likely to provide strong support via soft loans, other financing and technical support for anyone who builds a system.
Such support was a key factor in promulgating the world's two second-generation (2G) mobile standards, GSM and CDMA. GSM was strongly advocated by governments of Western Europe, and by companies including Ericsson and Nokia, while CDMA was backed by the United States and by companies including Qualcomm Industry experts reckon TD-SCDMA could exist alongside two other high-speed cellular technologies: WCDMA, already in use in Europe and Japan, and CDMA2000 1x, used in North America.
"TD-SCDMA is being sponsored by China just like GSM was sponsored by Europe," said Bob Mao, president of Greater China for Nortel, also on the sidelines of the congress.
"China has been very methodical to make sure the technology is robust. That's why it's taking so long" to roll out fully commercialized products.
ROMANIA SIGNED UP
One developing market -- Romania -- has already signed on to the standard, and is testing out a trial network with China's No. 2 telecoms equipment maker, ZTE Corp. (0763.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) (000063.SZ: Quote, Profile, Research), a ZTE executive told Reuters.
But most observers say China will have to show the technology works by building its own broader system before it embarks on any major campaign to spread the technology abroad.
Such a development looks virtually certain to happen next year, when the country is expected to award 3G licenses.
Most observers expect either three or four licenses to be given out, with at least one of those requiring its holder to build either a partial or complete network based on TD-SCDMA.
"We do believe that China is a country which is big enough to have more than one technology available," said Philippe Keryer, president of the mobile communications group for France's Alcatel (CGEP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research). "There is a significant market for TD-SCDMA in China. It is opening the door for using the technology outside."
Source here
3G cell standard set to take root in China
Mon Nov 21, 2005 2:42 AM ET16
By Doug Young
HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's home-grown third-generation (3G) mobile telecoms standard is set to take root as more big industry names back it and as the prospect of soft loans and technical support attracts developing market interest.
But first, China must prove outside critics wrong by building and operating a system that works, industry executives say.
The government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to develop the standard, known as TD-SCDMA, over the last few years.
The plan, once dismissed by many outsiders as a pipedream, has gained slow but steady momentum in the last year, with most of the world's major telecoms equipment vendors signing on with Chinese partners to support the technology.
"I think TD-SCDMA will play a role in China, and I wouldn't be surprised if smaller markets outside China do some testing in less complex environments," said Michael Tatelman, North Asia manager of the mobile devices unit of Motorola Inc.
"China is great at promoting and exporting standards," he said on the sidelines of the 3G World Congress this week in Hong Kong. "So is private business there. Like anywhere else, there's a cooperation between government and private enterprises."
Motorola, like a number of other global telecoms equipment makers, has said it will support TD-SCDMA through joint ventures and less formal tie-ups.
Others on the list include Ericsson (ERICb.ST: Quote, Profile, Research), Nokia Oyj (NOK1V.HE: Quote, Profile, Research), Siemens AG (SIEGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), Alcatel (CGEP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and Nortel
U.S.-based Lucent Technologies (LU.N: Quote, Profile, Research) became one of the last to fall into line. The company told Reuters it was forming an alliance with China's Datang Telecom Technology Ltd. (600198.SS: Quote, Profile, Research) to develop TD-SCDMA systems.
DEVELOPING MARKETS
Industry observers point out that the technology would be especially suitable for developing markets, since China is likely to provide strong support via soft loans, other financing and technical support for anyone who builds a system.
Such support was a key factor in promulgating the world's two second-generation (2G) mobile standards, GSM and CDMA. GSM was strongly advocated by governments of Western Europe, and by companies including Ericsson and Nokia, while CDMA was backed by the United States and by companies including Qualcomm Industry experts reckon TD-SCDMA could exist alongside two other high-speed cellular technologies: WCDMA, already in use in Europe and Japan, and CDMA2000 1x, used in North America.
"TD-SCDMA is being sponsored by China just like GSM was sponsored by Europe," said Bob Mao, president of Greater China for Nortel, also on the sidelines of the congress.
"China has been very methodical to make sure the technology is robust. That's why it's taking so long" to roll out fully commercialized products.
ROMANIA SIGNED UP
One developing market -- Romania -- has already signed on to the standard, and is testing out a trial network with China's No. 2 telecoms equipment maker, ZTE Corp. (0763.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) (000063.SZ: Quote, Profile, Research), a ZTE executive told Reuters.
But most observers say China will have to show the technology works by building its own broader system before it embarks on any major campaign to spread the technology abroad.
Such a development looks virtually certain to happen next year, when the country is expected to award 3G licenses.
Most observers expect either three or four licenses to be given out, with at least one of those requiring its holder to build either a partial or complete network based on TD-SCDMA.
"We do believe that China is a country which is big enough to have more than one technology available," said Philippe Keryer, president of the mobile communications group for France's Alcatel (CGEP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research). "There is a significant market for TD-SCDMA in China. It is opening the door for using the technology outside."
Source here
Library of Congress plans world digital library
reuters.com
Library of Congress plans world digital library
Tue Nov 22, 2005 2:14 PM ET
By Eric Auchard
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. Library of Congress is kicking off a campaign on Tuesday to work with other nation's libraries to build a World Digital Library, starting with a $3 million donation from Google Inc..
Librarian of Congress James Billington said he is looking to attract further private funding to develop bilingual projects, featuring millions of unique objects, with libraries in China, India, the Muslim world and other nations.
This builds on major existing digital documentary projects by the Library of Congress -- one preserving an online record of Americana and another documenting ties between the United States and Brazil, France, the Netherlands, Russia and Spain.
"The World Digital Library is an attempt to go beyond Europe and the Americas...into cultures where the majority of the world is," Billington told Reuters in a telephone interview.
As an example, Billington said the Library of Congress is in discussions with the national library of Egypt to include a collection of great Islamic scientific works from the 10th through the 16th Century in the World Digital Library.
"We are trying to do a documentary record of other great cultures of the world. How much we will be able to do will depend on how many additional partners we attract," he said.
Over the past decade, the American Memory Project of the Library of Congress has digitized more than ten million items to create a documentary record of Americana. A link is located at: http://www.loc.gov/memory/.
These include manuscripts, maps, audiovisual recordings, cartoons, caricatures, posters, documentary photographs, music, and, to a lesser extent, historic books. The World Digital Library would draw on a similar variety of multimedia objects.
A second project, known as the Global Gateway and introduced in 2000, involves collaborations with five national libraries in Europe and Brazil that focus on documenting ties between each of those countries and U.S. culture. (http://international.loc.gov/intldl/find/digital_collaborations.html/)
GLOBAL CULTURES
By contrast, the World Digital Library will focus on creating records of global cultures. The Library of Congress will contribute its own body of works to a blended collection with other countries. More than half of the printed volumes in the Library of Congress are in languages other than English.
"It will deal with the culture of those people rather than with our contacts as Americans with those cultures," Billington said.
Web search company Google has agreed to work with the Library of Congress on developing standards for indexing the digital collections and by providing computer equipment.
The Library of Congress push adds momentum to a variety of competing projects by leading Internet companies and some of the world's greatest libraries to make available online a range of historic literature, audio recordings and film archives.
The plans unveiled over the past year mark the most sustained drive yet to make good on the vision of Internet pioneers to open the world's library collections to a global online audience. The dream suffered from a lack of funding and the distractions of the dot-com era's get-rich-quick schemes.
Among these are a major push by Google with five major academic libraries to digitize their book collections.
Meanwhile, the Open Content Alliance, backed by Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp., the non-profit Internet Archive and other major libraries, is looking to create an online clearinghouse for historic books, audio and films.
The Google Print project has been met with lawsuits by the New York-based Authors Guild and five U.S. publishers who are seeking to block Google's plan to create an online card catalog of copyright works in the collections of its library partners.
Source here
Library of Congress plans world digital library
Tue Nov 22, 2005 2:14 PM ET
By Eric Auchard
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. Library of Congress is kicking off a campaign on Tuesday to work with other nation's libraries to build a World Digital Library, starting with a $3 million donation from Google Inc..
Librarian of Congress James Billington said he is looking to attract further private funding to develop bilingual projects, featuring millions of unique objects, with libraries in China, India, the Muslim world and other nations.
This builds on major existing digital documentary projects by the Library of Congress -- one preserving an online record of Americana and another documenting ties between the United States and Brazil, France, the Netherlands, Russia and Spain.
"The World Digital Library is an attempt to go beyond Europe and the Americas...into cultures where the majority of the world is," Billington told Reuters in a telephone interview.
As an example, Billington said the Library of Congress is in discussions with the national library of Egypt to include a collection of great Islamic scientific works from the 10th through the 16th Century in the World Digital Library.
"We are trying to do a documentary record of other great cultures of the world. How much we will be able to do will depend on how many additional partners we attract," he said.
Over the past decade, the American Memory Project of the Library of Congress has digitized more than ten million items to create a documentary record of Americana. A link is located at: http://www.loc.gov/memory/.
These include manuscripts, maps, audiovisual recordings, cartoons, caricatures, posters, documentary photographs, music, and, to a lesser extent, historic books. The World Digital Library would draw on a similar variety of multimedia objects.
A second project, known as the Global Gateway and introduced in 2000, involves collaborations with five national libraries in Europe and Brazil that focus on documenting ties between each of those countries and U.S. culture. (http://international.loc.gov/intldl/find/digital_collaborations.html/)
GLOBAL CULTURES
By contrast, the World Digital Library will focus on creating records of global cultures. The Library of Congress will contribute its own body of works to a blended collection with other countries. More than half of the printed volumes in the Library of Congress are in languages other than English.
"It will deal with the culture of those people rather than with our contacts as Americans with those cultures," Billington said.
Web search company Google has agreed to work with the Library of Congress on developing standards for indexing the digital collections and by providing computer equipment.
The Library of Congress push adds momentum to a variety of competing projects by leading Internet companies and some of the world's greatest libraries to make available online a range of historic literature, audio recordings and film archives.
The plans unveiled over the past year mark the most sustained drive yet to make good on the vision of Internet pioneers to open the world's library collections to a global online audience. The dream suffered from a lack of funding and the distractions of the dot-com era's get-rich-quick schemes.
Among these are a major push by Google with five major academic libraries to digitize their book collections.
Meanwhile, the Open Content Alliance, backed by Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp., the non-profit Internet Archive and other major libraries, is looking to create an online clearinghouse for historic books, audio and films.
The Google Print project has been met with lawsuits by the New York-based Authors Guild and five U.S. publishers who are seeking to block Google's plan to create an online card catalog of copyright works in the collections of its library partners.
Source here
TiVo to bring TV programming to iPod, PSP
reuters.com
TiVo to bring TV programming to iPod, PSP
Mon Nov 21, 2005 1:09 PM ET11
NEW YORK (Reuters) - TiVo Inc. on Monday said it will begin testing a feature in the coming weeks to let some subscribers transfer recorded television programming to Apple iPod digital music players or Sony's PlayStation portable devices, sending the company's shares up 4.5 percent.
The new feature will only be available to "stand-alone" TiVo subscribers that are not among the 2.3 million customers from satellite TV operator DirecTV Group Inc.
TiVo's move bypasses Apple Computer Inc., whose decision in October to sell music videos and ABC TV network shows started much debate in the media industry about the end of the advertising supported TV business model.
One analyst briefed on the announcement said the new feature may raise "concerns" among program owners, who aim to profit from movies and shows either through DVD or online sales. But since TiVo employs open industry standards, there could be little legal recourse to halt their plans.
"The TV industry has to embrace video on demand in cable, Internet and other forms of video distributions even though there are many ways these technologies allow distribution that doesn't make them any money," said Josh Bernoff, an analyst at Forrester Research.
TiVo, which currently serves about 1.3 million stand alone subscribers, is aiming to differentiate itself from digital recorder services offered by cable operators, even as it seeks to land more cable distribution deals. It currently has a deal with Comcast Corp. and has said it was actively pursuing similar deals.
DirecTV plans to begin selling its own digital video recorder and will stop marketing those made by TiVo.
It's unclear how many users will actually have access to these features, however. Analysts said there were perhaps "hundreds of thousands" of Series2 users. But TiVo has not disclosed the number of customers using Series2 recorders that let viewers send recorded programs to home computers.
A TiVo spokesman said most of its customers are using Series2 boxes that are built with the ability to connect to a computer.
In order to move recorded programming to portable devices, TiVo will be required to purchase software that translates the programming into a file that can be read on either the iPod or Sony's PSP.
The files will be watermarked and traceable to originating computers to discourages piracy.
"The increasing popularity of mobile devices for viewing video such as Apple's iPod and the PSP device demonstrate the enormous consumer demand for entertainment on the go," TiVo CEO Tom Rogers said in a statement.
Shares of TiVo rose 19 cents to $5.46 on the Nasdaq in afternoon trading on Monday
Source here
TiVo to bring TV programming to iPod, PSP
Mon Nov 21, 2005 1:09 PM ET11
NEW YORK (Reuters) - TiVo Inc. on Monday said it will begin testing a feature in the coming weeks to let some subscribers transfer recorded television programming to Apple iPod digital music players or Sony's PlayStation portable devices, sending the company's shares up 4.5 percent.
The new feature will only be available to "stand-alone" TiVo subscribers that are not among the 2.3 million customers from satellite TV operator DirecTV Group Inc.
TiVo's move bypasses Apple Computer Inc., whose decision in October to sell music videos and ABC TV network shows started much debate in the media industry about the end of the advertising supported TV business model.
One analyst briefed on the announcement said the new feature may raise "concerns" among program owners, who aim to profit from movies and shows either through DVD or online sales. But since TiVo employs open industry standards, there could be little legal recourse to halt their plans.
"The TV industry has to embrace video on demand in cable, Internet and other forms of video distributions even though there are many ways these technologies allow distribution that doesn't make them any money," said Josh Bernoff, an analyst at Forrester Research.
TiVo, which currently serves about 1.3 million stand alone subscribers, is aiming to differentiate itself from digital recorder services offered by cable operators, even as it seeks to land more cable distribution deals. It currently has a deal with Comcast Corp. and has said it was actively pursuing similar deals.
DirecTV plans to begin selling its own digital video recorder and will stop marketing those made by TiVo.
It's unclear how many users will actually have access to these features, however. Analysts said there were perhaps "hundreds of thousands" of Series2 users. But TiVo has not disclosed the number of customers using Series2 recorders that let viewers send recorded programs to home computers.
A TiVo spokesman said most of its customers are using Series2 boxes that are built with the ability to connect to a computer.
In order to move recorded programming to portable devices, TiVo will be required to purchase software that translates the programming into a file that can be read on either the iPod or Sony's PSP.
The files will be watermarked and traceable to originating computers to discourages piracy.
"The increasing popularity of mobile devices for viewing video such as Apple's iPod and the PSP device demonstrate the enormous consumer demand for entertainment on the go," TiVo CEO Tom Rogers said in a statement.
Shares of TiVo rose 19 cents to $5.46 on the Nasdaq in afternoon trading on Monday
Source here
Gartner: 3G phones will flop this Christmas
zdnet.co.uk
Gartner: 3G phones will flop this Christmas
Karen Gomm
ZDNet UK
November 22, 2005, 18:05 GMT
Analyst firm sees little demand for third-generation handsets, but 3 has hit back by claiming Gartner hasn't got to grips with the sales figures
Analyst group Gartner has predicted that sales of 3G phones will be poor this Christmas because the devices have failed to grab consumers' attention, a charge that mobile phone operator 3 has strongly refuted.
In a report published on Tuesday, Gartner warned that 3G mobile phones could suffer from over-supply and a lack of demand during the lucrative fourth quarter.
Carolina Milanesi, principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner UK, said 3G handsets face a lack of demand this Christmas, partly due to an unclear marketing message.
"Gartner predicts a build up in handset inventory — which will affect 3G mobile phones in particular — as mobile operators, especially in Western Europe, will fail to convince consumers that Christmas this year will be a 3G Christmas," Milanesi said.
This, Milanesi claimed, is because users aren't impressed with the functionality offered by a 3G phone.
"We're still missing a reason for 3G, do users really care? They don't notice if it takes 30 seconds to download a song or not," Milanesi argued.
The mobile phone industry has experienced a few false starts with 3G. But 3, the first operator to launch 3G services in the UK, hit out at Gartner's claims.
A spokesman for 3 said the analyst had clearly misinterpreted the success of 3, both globally and locally, and was patronising 3G customers' knowledge of the technology.
"There has been a clear lack of understanding of where we are in the market. Our customers clearly understand Web access, video messaging, TV and games," the 3 spokesman said.
The 3 spokesman added that he disagreed with Gartner's claim that people didn't have a reason to move to 3G. "We have 10 million customers globally and at least 3.2 million in the UK, which I think is a clear demonstration of 3G's success in the market," he stated.
Source here
Gartner: 3G phones will flop this Christmas
Karen Gomm
ZDNet UK
November 22, 2005, 18:05 GMT
Analyst firm sees little demand for third-generation handsets, but 3 has hit back by claiming Gartner hasn't got to grips with the sales figures
Analyst group Gartner has predicted that sales of 3G phones will be poor this Christmas because the devices have failed to grab consumers' attention, a charge that mobile phone operator 3 has strongly refuted.
In a report published on Tuesday, Gartner warned that 3G mobile phones could suffer from over-supply and a lack of demand during the lucrative fourth quarter.
Carolina Milanesi, principal analyst for mobile terminals research at Gartner UK, said 3G handsets face a lack of demand this Christmas, partly due to an unclear marketing message.
"Gartner predicts a build up in handset inventory — which will affect 3G mobile phones in particular — as mobile operators, especially in Western Europe, will fail to convince consumers that Christmas this year will be a 3G Christmas," Milanesi said.
This, Milanesi claimed, is because users aren't impressed with the functionality offered by a 3G phone.
"We're still missing a reason for 3G, do users really care? They don't notice if it takes 30 seconds to download a song or not," Milanesi argued.
The mobile phone industry has experienced a few false starts with 3G. But 3, the first operator to launch 3G services in the UK, hit out at Gartner's claims.
A spokesman for 3 said the analyst had clearly misinterpreted the success of 3, both globally and locally, and was patronising 3G customers' knowledge of the technology.
"There has been a clear lack of understanding of where we are in the market. Our customers clearly understand Web access, video messaging, TV and games," the 3 spokesman said.
The 3 spokesman added that he disagreed with Gartner's claim that people didn't have a reason to move to 3G. "We have 10 million customers globally and at least 3.2 million in the UK, which I think is a clear demonstration of 3G's success in the market," he stated.
Source here
SUMMIT SPARKS DIGITAL DEBATE
[On Monday I attended the Broadband Summit in Westminster. It was interesting to see Ed Richards' keynote make clear statements on the challenges ahead with reference to Ofcom's DDR Digital Dividend Review, announced last week. This also came up in conversation with delegates at the Summit. Below is the press release by the event organisers.]
Interforum.org
PRESS RELEASE
21st November 2005.
SUMMIT SPARKS DIGITAL DEBATE
Nearly 500 top decision-makers from business and public life met today (21 November) to shape the UK's digital future and to examine how the way people live and work will soon be changing.
The Broadband Britain Summit, at London's QEII Conference Centre, included key presentations from The Rt Hon Alun Michael MP, Minister of State for Industry and the Regions, Sir Digby Jones, director general of the CBI and Ed Richards, chief operating officer of Ofcom.
It was hosted by InterForum, the not-for-profit, independent organisation which promotes the acceleration of information and communication technology to improve the business performance of the UK. Said its chief executive, Phil Flaxton: "This year the summit looked at how achieving digital excellence can improve the cohesion of UK society, the wealth of its economy and the quality of life of its citizens.
"The growth of business being done on the Internet continues to accelerate, and more and more companies and organisations large and small are joining this tidal wave of connectivity. But, there is a social benefit which is only just beginning to be realised and that is the potential of more flexible working. Advancing ICT means that staff can undertake many activities from any workstation in any office almost anywhere, and even from home.
"This whole huge area of changed working patterns is the subject of Work Wise Week, which is being staged next February, to demonstrate the massive benefits to UK business of facilitating more flexible working."
In his presentation, The Rt Hon. Alun Michael MP, Minister of State for Industry and the Regions detailed the Government's digital strategy. It is committed to ensuring that the whole of society can reap the benefits from advances in technology. Internet connectivity is increasing in the UK with currently over 55.7 per cent (13 million households) having access [August 2005], of which 55 per cent are broadband connections. Nationally, broadband is available to 97 per cent of homes and businesses [BT].
Sir Digby Jones, director general of the CBI, explained how the UK's GDP and global competitiveness will increase with the implementation of new technologies such as broadband. With online sales in the UK reaching £71.1 billion in the UK this year, a massive increase from £39.5 billion in 2004, demonstrates the increasing importance of the Internet for doing business.
Ed Richards, chief operating officer at Ofcom, outlined how content will deliver extensive opportunities for a successful UK knowledge economy, with Karen Price, chief executive of E-Skills UK, introduced the education and skills agenda - embedding technology into people's lives - how processes and people fit together.
Peter Thomson, director of the Future Work Forum at Henley Management Centre looked at the flexible working agenda, previewing the Work Wise Week initiative taking place throughout the UK from the 19 to 27 February 2006, which will show how technology will change the way we work and live.
A key element of the summit was a debate, chaired by Declan Curry, business presenter for the BBC Breakfast programme, where an invited audience of 470 decision-makers from forward-thinking businesses, Government (central, regional, local), regional development agencies, professional and trade associations and Members of Parliament discussed digital Britain.
The Summit was also supported by the regional development agencies. Andy Walton, eBusiness manager at One NorthEast, said: "eBusiness and eCommerce are key to improving our regional economy. Broadband is vital to making the digital economy work, which is why we are supporting the Broadband Britain summit."
"Events such as this help One NorthEast move the agenda forward. The discussion which needs to take place with the region's SMEs is no longer just about having broadband, but more about adopting new technology effectively and making the internal business changes needed to ensure our business community gains competitive advantage."
Fabian King, Head of Regional ICT at the South West of England Regional Development Agency, said: "Businesses in South West of England are using ICT to become more competitive and access international markets, which is good for the region's economy. Community groups and individuals are also benefiting from broadband access as it can improve people's quality of life and enhance skills and learning opportunities for all ages."
----- Ends -----
Notes to editors:
* The summit was presented in association with: DTI, DEFRA, the South East of England Development Agency, South West Regional Development Agency, North West Regional Development Agency and One NorthEast.
* The summit is also supported by the CBI, the British Chambers of Commerce, Technology Means Business and Information TV.
The media will be invited to a briefing in the morning, with opportunities to interview the principal presenters - invitations and notes to editors will be sent out directly.
* Further information about the summit and InterForum can be found at www.interforum.org. There is also a media centre with downloadable resources including latest news, background information and print quality images.
Source here
+ Related
zdnet.co.uk
Small businesses 'risk missing opportunities of broadband'
Graeme Wearden
ZDNet UK
November 21, 2005, 15:45 GMT
The CBI says that broadband operators have let down the UK's SMEs by focusing on football and porn rather than business services
One of the leading players in the UK's business sector has warned that small businesses are in grave danger of wasting the opportunity given to them by the rapid growth in broadband availability in the UK.
Sir Digby Jones told the Broadband Britain Summit 2005 in London that high-speed networks give every company the chance to compete on the global stage, and also let them transform their own working practices.
However, as broadband gives companies across the world this chance, UK firms who won't react may struggle to survive.
"We live in a world of globalisation, where China wants your lunch and India wants your dinner," said Jones, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, in the opening keynote at the event.
According to recent Ofcom figures, more than 30 percent of businesses now have broadband. But, Jones warned, many aren't getting full value out of it — and he believes large telecoms operators are to blame.
"Only relatively recently have suppliers begun paying attention to the business market, rather than the entertainment needs of consumers. The indifference felt by some companies is a legacy of this," claimed Jones. "Surely business matters as much as football or pornography on broadband."
"We need to ensure that businesses have services available to them that help them make the additional investment they need to be able to take the pearl from the broadband oyster," he said.
Jones wants to see small businesses using modern connectivity methods to bring in flexible and remote working, offer e-learning to their employees and change their sales and purchasing patterns.
One attendee warned that companies who haven't yet embraced broadband risk being left behind nimbler rivals.
"When Internet access was first available, the early adopters got a big jump on everyone else. The government did then do a good job of getting more people online, but it took four years."
"The early adopters of broadband are already there. Medium and late adopters need to wake up," the attendee added.
Source here
Interforum.org
PRESS RELEASE
21st November 2005.
SUMMIT SPARKS DIGITAL DEBATE
Nearly 500 top decision-makers from business and public life met today (21 November) to shape the UK's digital future and to examine how the way people live and work will soon be changing.
The Broadband Britain Summit, at London's QEII Conference Centre, included key presentations from The Rt Hon Alun Michael MP, Minister of State for Industry and the Regions, Sir Digby Jones, director general of the CBI and Ed Richards, chief operating officer of Ofcom.
It was hosted by InterForum, the not-for-profit, independent organisation which promotes the acceleration of information and communication technology to improve the business performance of the UK. Said its chief executive, Phil Flaxton: "This year the summit looked at how achieving digital excellence can improve the cohesion of UK society, the wealth of its economy and the quality of life of its citizens.
"The growth of business being done on the Internet continues to accelerate, and more and more companies and organisations large and small are joining this tidal wave of connectivity. But, there is a social benefit which is only just beginning to be realised and that is the potential of more flexible working. Advancing ICT means that staff can undertake many activities from any workstation in any office almost anywhere, and even from home.
"This whole huge area of changed working patterns is the subject of Work Wise Week, which is being staged next February, to demonstrate the massive benefits to UK business of facilitating more flexible working."
In his presentation, The Rt Hon. Alun Michael MP, Minister of State for Industry and the Regions detailed the Government's digital strategy. It is committed to ensuring that the whole of society can reap the benefits from advances in technology. Internet connectivity is increasing in the UK with currently over 55.7 per cent (13 million households) having access [August 2005], of which 55 per cent are broadband connections. Nationally, broadband is available to 97 per cent of homes and businesses [BT].
Sir Digby Jones, director general of the CBI, explained how the UK's GDP and global competitiveness will increase with the implementation of new technologies such as broadband. With online sales in the UK reaching £71.1 billion in the UK this year, a massive increase from £39.5 billion in 2004, demonstrates the increasing importance of the Internet for doing business.
Ed Richards, chief operating officer at Ofcom, outlined how content will deliver extensive opportunities for a successful UK knowledge economy, with Karen Price, chief executive of E-Skills UK, introduced the education and skills agenda - embedding technology into people's lives - how processes and people fit together.
Peter Thomson, director of the Future Work Forum at Henley Management Centre looked at the flexible working agenda, previewing the Work Wise Week initiative taking place throughout the UK from the 19 to 27 February 2006, which will show how technology will change the way we work and live.
A key element of the summit was a debate, chaired by Declan Curry, business presenter for the BBC Breakfast programme, where an invited audience of 470 decision-makers from forward-thinking businesses, Government (central, regional, local), regional development agencies, professional and trade associations and Members of Parliament discussed digital Britain.
The Summit was also supported by the regional development agencies. Andy Walton, eBusiness manager at One NorthEast, said: "eBusiness and eCommerce are key to improving our regional economy. Broadband is vital to making the digital economy work, which is why we are supporting the Broadband Britain summit."
"Events such as this help One NorthEast move the agenda forward. The discussion which needs to take place with the region's SMEs is no longer just about having broadband, but more about adopting new technology effectively and making the internal business changes needed to ensure our business community gains competitive advantage."
Fabian King, Head of Regional ICT at the South West of England Regional Development Agency, said: "Businesses in South West of England are using ICT to become more competitive and access international markets, which is good for the region's economy. Community groups and individuals are also benefiting from broadband access as it can improve people's quality of life and enhance skills and learning opportunities for all ages."
----- Ends -----
Notes to editors:
* The summit was presented in association with: DTI, DEFRA, the South East of England Development Agency, South West Regional Development Agency, North West Regional Development Agency and One NorthEast.
* The summit is also supported by the CBI, the British Chambers of Commerce, Technology Means Business and Information TV.
The media will be invited to a briefing in the morning, with opportunities to interview the principal presenters - invitations and notes to editors will be sent out directly.
* Further information about the summit and InterForum can be found at www.interforum.org. There is also a media centre with downloadable resources including latest news, background information and print quality images.
Source here
+ Related
zdnet.co.uk
Small businesses 'risk missing opportunities of broadband'
Graeme Wearden
ZDNet UK
November 21, 2005, 15:45 GMT
The CBI says that broadband operators have let down the UK's SMEs by focusing on football and porn rather than business services
One of the leading players in the UK's business sector has warned that small businesses are in grave danger of wasting the opportunity given to them by the rapid growth in broadband availability in the UK.
Sir Digby Jones told the Broadband Britain Summit 2005 in London that high-speed networks give every company the chance to compete on the global stage, and also let them transform their own working practices.
However, as broadband gives companies across the world this chance, UK firms who won't react may struggle to survive.
"We live in a world of globalisation, where China wants your lunch and India wants your dinner," said Jones, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, in the opening keynote at the event.
According to recent Ofcom figures, more than 30 percent of businesses now have broadband. But, Jones warned, many aren't getting full value out of it — and he believes large telecoms operators are to blame.
"Only relatively recently have suppliers begun paying attention to the business market, rather than the entertainment needs of consumers. The indifference felt by some companies is a legacy of this," claimed Jones. "Surely business matters as much as football or pornography on broadband."
"We need to ensure that businesses have services available to them that help them make the additional investment they need to be able to take the pearl from the broadband oyster," he said.
Jones wants to see small businesses using modern connectivity methods to bring in flexible and remote working, offer e-learning to their employees and change their sales and purchasing patterns.
One attendee warned that companies who haven't yet embraced broadband risk being left behind nimbler rivals.
"When Internet access was first available, the early adopters got a big jump on everyone else. The government did then do a good job of getting more people online, but it took four years."
"The early adopters of broadband are already there. Medium and late adopters need to wake up," the attendee added.
Source here
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Growing up with the wired generation
guardian.co.uk
Natalie Hanman
Thursday November 10, 2005
The Guardian
Today's teenagers use technology to stay in touch with friends at all times - turning their bedrooms into 'connected cocoons'
Being sent to your bedroom used to be a punishment: now it's a teen dream. Through personal computers, mobile phones and gaming consoles, teenagers are spurning antisocial angst for a culture of "connected cocooning".
It's a phrase coined by music channel MTV to describe how the current 16-to-24-year-old "MTV generation" is permanently plugged into a network of digital devices, bringing the world to their fingertips in a way no previous generation has ever experienced.
Such limitless communication is having a revolutionary impact on the way young people interact, socialise, work and play. This tech-savvy teen tribe is united as never before, with the lonely search for identity set to become a vision of the past.
"Technologies certainly do create cultural phenomenon, whether for good or for ill," says Windsor Holden, senior analyst at Analysys. "Young people have seen all these different facilities, adapted them and changed the means of communication."
MTV's recently released Generations report on the lives of the MTV (ages 16 to 24) and VH1 (ages 25 to 44) generations defines how technology has driven differences between these age groups.
Young, early adopters have become used to instant gratification, the report found. Globalisation and consumerism do not deter. Instead, brands define and give a sense of belonging. Devices and their uses displace the real and the virtual, creating a world where you can be who you want to be. And joining the digital march isn't just a personal choice; to play a part in youth society, it is imperative to be switched on, charged up and always connected.
As Aisha Walker, lecturer in education at Leeds University, says: "Younger people now have a wider range of communication available and their parents don't necessarily understand the technology. But they are not talking about different things, they are just perhaps talking about it in a slightly different context."
From discovering new bands on social networking site MySpace, to texting music downloads on Groove Mobile's Tell A Friend service, the supposedly alienated, antisocial youth of the 21st century are forming a world wide web of cultural critique that cannot be ignored. It is what they have always done - only now, it is easier, quicker and packs a bigger punch.
Rather than kicking a ball around in a park with a friend, they're battling a Tokyo-based teenager in the Fifa premiership league. "Videogaming is a connector and an equaliser, and has created a new type of community mindset," says the report. "The mere mention of individual games and their challenges spark conversations between strangers; high scores will cause even the roughest teenager to respect the geekiest."
A day spent watching the MTV channel confirms the eclectic, rapidly evolving tastes and trends of this generation. Alongside the musical hits and misses there is a large dose of unsubtle celebrity, branding and consumerism.
Frightening pace of change
Sound scary? To many parents, teachers and politicians, it clearly is. "Young people are more unified by watching Big Brother than they are by having a political persuasion," says Simon Brown, vice president, strategic planning at MTV. "For the older generation, the pace of change has been quite frightening."
He says social and political flux, as well as the advance of technology, is behind the change. "The VH1 generation grew up in a period where there were still a few certainties. The family was still together. You had CND marches, so had clear political divisions. You knew where you belonged. A lot of these certainties seem to have gone. So you have to try to mix and match identities to assert who you are. The MTV generation doesn't have fixed values, so they are more open to new technologies.
"Media has taken over some of the teaching that normally society would have provided. And technology has driven that; it has been the conduit."
Cyber bullying, "happy slapping", internet pornography and underage mobile gambling have tainted the takeup of technology, with many blaming it for increasing social alienation in today's youth.
But the effects of technological advancement are unavoidable. Three out of four children have access to the internet via a computer at home. One in three children who use the internet makes friends online. Children in the UK aged between 10 and 19 own approximately 7.5m mobile phones, on which they send many of the 89m text messages written daily. And one pound in every 10 of disposable income was spent by teenagers on mobile products and services this year.
It is an astonishing level of penetration. The mobile phone, especially, has become an integral part of a young adult's everyday life. Ringtones are a badge of identity as much as the clothes you wear; text and picture messaging is the way to spread the word. A phone in your pocket is not only reassuring but commands respect. Graham Brown, chief executive of DhaliwalBrown, which runs Wireless World Forum (W2F) and mobileYouth, says: "Mobile music is a tool for timeless psychological needs - the need to belong through peer group reinforcement and the need to be significant, through status." Knowledge is power
For the new MTV generation, the mobile is also one of many sources of information. And knowledge is power. What to wear, what to listen to and where to go: modern technology provides the answers.
"Word of mouth as a source of information has always been trusted, especially by younger generations," says the report. "The speed of the internet means that websites can provide information quicker, and its size means that a far greater pool of talent can potentially be accessed in a single sitting. Its information is trusted more because it is perceived to resemble word of mouth... This is why viral marketing campaigns work so well."
This viral spread of what's hot and what's not has led to a growing appetite for more diverse subcultures. W2F's Future of Mobile Music report reveals that the more advanced mobile music markets in Japan and Korea are finding success in providing increasingly niche offerings, such as reggae and blues. Few in the UK have yet taken advantage of this movement away from the mainstream - as the unimaginative T-Mobile/EMI deal with Robbie Williams shows - but companies that ignore such trends risk missing out on the economic benefits of marketing to a youth sect with pocket money to spare.
"Sixteen-to-24-year-olds just can't stop talking to each other," says Brown. "Take away their means of communication, and they are really lost."
Source here
Natalie Hanman
Thursday November 10, 2005
The Guardian
Today's teenagers use technology to stay in touch with friends at all times - turning their bedrooms into 'connected cocoons'
Being sent to your bedroom used to be a punishment: now it's a teen dream. Through personal computers, mobile phones and gaming consoles, teenagers are spurning antisocial angst for a culture of "connected cocooning".
It's a phrase coined by music channel MTV to describe how the current 16-to-24-year-old "MTV generation" is permanently plugged into a network of digital devices, bringing the world to their fingertips in a way no previous generation has ever experienced.
Such limitless communication is having a revolutionary impact on the way young people interact, socialise, work and play. This tech-savvy teen tribe is united as never before, with the lonely search for identity set to become a vision of the past.
"Technologies certainly do create cultural phenomenon, whether for good or for ill," says Windsor Holden, senior analyst at Analysys. "Young people have seen all these different facilities, adapted them and changed the means of communication."
MTV's recently released Generations report on the lives of the MTV (ages 16 to 24) and VH1 (ages 25 to 44) generations defines how technology has driven differences between these age groups.
Young, early adopters have become used to instant gratification, the report found. Globalisation and consumerism do not deter. Instead, brands define and give a sense of belonging. Devices and their uses displace the real and the virtual, creating a world where you can be who you want to be. And joining the digital march isn't just a personal choice; to play a part in youth society, it is imperative to be switched on, charged up and always connected.
As Aisha Walker, lecturer in education at Leeds University, says: "Younger people now have a wider range of communication available and their parents don't necessarily understand the technology. But they are not talking about different things, they are just perhaps talking about it in a slightly different context."
From discovering new bands on social networking site MySpace, to texting music downloads on Groove Mobile's Tell A Friend service, the supposedly alienated, antisocial youth of the 21st century are forming a world wide web of cultural critique that cannot be ignored. It is what they have always done - only now, it is easier, quicker and packs a bigger punch.
Rather than kicking a ball around in a park with a friend, they're battling a Tokyo-based teenager in the Fifa premiership league. "Videogaming is a connector and an equaliser, and has created a new type of community mindset," says the report. "The mere mention of individual games and their challenges spark conversations between strangers; high scores will cause even the roughest teenager to respect the geekiest."
A day spent watching the MTV channel confirms the eclectic, rapidly evolving tastes and trends of this generation. Alongside the musical hits and misses there is a large dose of unsubtle celebrity, branding and consumerism.
Frightening pace of change
Sound scary? To many parents, teachers and politicians, it clearly is. "Young people are more unified by watching Big Brother than they are by having a political persuasion," says Simon Brown, vice president, strategic planning at MTV. "For the older generation, the pace of change has been quite frightening."
He says social and political flux, as well as the advance of technology, is behind the change. "The VH1 generation grew up in a period where there were still a few certainties. The family was still together. You had CND marches, so had clear political divisions. You knew where you belonged. A lot of these certainties seem to have gone. So you have to try to mix and match identities to assert who you are. The MTV generation doesn't have fixed values, so they are more open to new technologies.
"Media has taken over some of the teaching that normally society would have provided. And technology has driven that; it has been the conduit."
Cyber bullying, "happy slapping", internet pornography and underage mobile gambling have tainted the takeup of technology, with many blaming it for increasing social alienation in today's youth.
But the effects of technological advancement are unavoidable. Three out of four children have access to the internet via a computer at home. One in three children who use the internet makes friends online. Children in the UK aged between 10 and 19 own approximately 7.5m mobile phones, on which they send many of the 89m text messages written daily. And one pound in every 10 of disposable income was spent by teenagers on mobile products and services this year.
It is an astonishing level of penetration. The mobile phone, especially, has become an integral part of a young adult's everyday life. Ringtones are a badge of identity as much as the clothes you wear; text and picture messaging is the way to spread the word. A phone in your pocket is not only reassuring but commands respect. Graham Brown, chief executive of DhaliwalBrown, which runs Wireless World Forum (W2F) and mobileYouth, says: "Mobile music is a tool for timeless psychological needs - the need to belong through peer group reinforcement and the need to be significant, through status." Knowledge is power
For the new MTV generation, the mobile is also one of many sources of information. And knowledge is power. What to wear, what to listen to and where to go: modern technology provides the answers.
"Word of mouth as a source of information has always been trusted, especially by younger generations," says the report. "The speed of the internet means that websites can provide information quicker, and its size means that a far greater pool of talent can potentially be accessed in a single sitting. Its information is trusted more because it is perceived to resemble word of mouth... This is why viral marketing campaigns work so well."
This viral spread of what's hot and what's not has led to a growing appetite for more diverse subcultures. W2F's Future of Mobile Music report reveals that the more advanced mobile music markets in Japan and Korea are finding success in providing increasingly niche offerings, such as reggae and blues. Few in the UK have yet taken advantage of this movement away from the mainstream - as the unimaginative T-Mobile/EMI deal with Robbie Williams shows - but companies that ignore such trends risk missing out on the economic benefits of marketing to a youth sect with pocket money to spare.
"Sixteen-to-24-year-olds just can't stop talking to each other," says Brown. "Take away their means of communication, and they are really lost."
Source here
The Wireless Event/ May 06
[Following our conversation at the Cambridge Wireless Forum this week, I am advising Piers Bearne on input into the forthcoming Wireless Event. - There will be an international "Open Spectrum" presence in the Spectrum Policy sessions].
The Wireless Event
16-18 May 2006, Olympia, London
The world’s biggest wireless broadband and convergence conference
The Wireless Event, now in its fourth year, is the world's biggest wireless broadband show. Every year, thousands of enterprise IT buyers mingle with the Who's Who of Wi-Fi, wireless broadband, VoIP and 3G data in an exciting, content-driven format. This is the world's largest wireless and convergence exhibition, with over 100 exhibitors, two executive conferences for service providers and six specialised seminars for end-users. It's held in conjunction with the Wireless Broadband Innovation Awards. Get involved today!
Further here
The Wireless Event
16-18 May 2006, Olympia, London
The world’s biggest wireless broadband and convergence conference
The Wireless Event, now in its fourth year, is the world's biggest wireless broadband show. Every year, thousands of enterprise IT buyers mingle with the Who's Who of Wi-Fi, wireless broadband, VoIP and 3G data in an exciting, content-driven format. This is the world's largest wireless and convergence exhibition, with over 100 exhibitors, two executive conferences for service providers and six specialised seminars for end-users. It's held in conjunction with the Wireless Broadband Innovation Awards. Get involved today!
Further here
Nintendo- WiFi Connection
See the global Nintendo map here
The UK Nintendo WiFi Connection map is coming soon...
See here for Nintendo UK
See the Nintendo WiFi guide web-page and video here
+ Related
gamesindustry.biz
Nintendo announces Wi-Fi Connection plans for Europe
Ellie Gibson 11:25 04/11/2005
More than 7500 hotspots to be active in UK alone from launch on November 25
Nintendo has announced that more than 15,000 Wi-Fi Connection hotspots will be active in time for the European launch of the service - a figure which is set to almost double by the end of the year.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, senior director of marketing Jim Merrick said: "We've been on the sidelines of online gaming for a long time, because we just didn't see the right combination of value for the consumer and technology and gameplay."
"Now I think the time is right. We talked about the promise of Wi-Fi when we first introduced the DS, and now we can show you what Nintendo's vision of online gaming is."
More than half of the hotspots will be in the UK alone, thanks to deals with BT Openzone and The Cloud. Piggybacking their infrastructure, Wi-Fi Connection will allow gamers to play Wi-Fi-enabled multiplayer games like Tony Hawk's American Sk8land (Nov 18) and Mario Kart DS (Nov 25) from a vast number of locations.
These will include branches of McDonald's and Coffee Republic, Hilton and Ramada Jarvis hotels, Road Chef and Welcome Break service stations, First Great Western railway stations, more than 25 student unions, city centre BT payphones, airports, football stadiums, the British Library and Canary Wharf.
Nintendo will be launching a new website, Nintendo Wi-Fi.com, where visitors can input a postcode to find the location of their nearest hotspot. The site will also give gamers the chance to see how their high scores compare with other players, and will offer technical support - those with wireless networks at home will be able to search a database of more than 200 routers for advice on configuration.
Those who don't have a home wireless network will be able to purchase the Wi-Fi USB Connector dongle, which attaches to a PC, to get their DS online. It will retail for around GBP 30.
Nintendo is keen to stress that there are no fees or subscription costs for playing, and no risk of harassment as players do not directly communicate with each other.
Instead of entering a name and password, each DS owner has a unique identifier number entered into the DS's memory. Users can swap numbers offline to build up a friends list, or play anonymously against gamers from all around the world.
Wi-Fi Connection will launch in Europe on November 25. Nintendo has confirmed that its next-generation console, codenamed Revolution, will also make use of the service.
Source here
zdnet.co.uk
Free Wi-Fi access for Nintendo users
Karen Gomm
ZDNet UK
November 04, 2005, 11:50 GMT
The launch of Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection service is good news for gamers and could help make wireless access an easier process for everyone
BT and The Cloud are offering free Wi-Fi access to people who use Nintendo's DS gaming device in a move that could benefit mobile workers too.
Nintendo is launching its Wi-Fi Connection service on 25 November 2005, which will allow users of its DS consoles to access Wi-Fi at several thousand UK hot spots run by The Cloud or BT.
To access the service, DS users will just have to turn on their device and select the Wi-Fi option without, in Nintendo's words, "complicated menu screens and minimum configurations".
This may prompt service providers to create more accessible Wi-Fi networks and open out the market to a wider audience.
George Polk, chief executive of The Cloud, said showing how easy and accessible Wi-Fi can be could trigger business service providers to follow suit.
"The power of the Nintendo service is that it's so easy to use — everyone who has a DS wants to play games, and now to play networked games all they have to do is be in a hotspot. This simplicity will have a huge spill-over effect in the business market," he said.
The complexities of using Wi-Fi are believed by some to be holding back mass adoption in the business market. Although BT and The Cloud have a roaming deal that allows Openzone customers to use The Cloud's hot spots, such deals are still rare. This means that a subscriber to one hot spot operator often can't use another's service. Aggregators such as iPass do exist, but again don't have roaming deals with every operator.
Some users have also complained that logging into a Wi-Fi hot spot can be a fiddly and time-consuming process, as well as an expensive one. For example, one hour's access at a BT Openzone hot spot costs £6.
But Polk claims that usability, not cost, is the major hurdle.
"The biggest barrier to hotspot usage until now has been that its so complex and difficult for a user to connect. There's no problem with demand — every business user wants access to email — but I can't count the number of times I heard people say, 'I'd love to use it but I can't figure out,'" he said.
"By showing that Wi-Fi connectivity can be easy and convenient, the Nintendo service will set the benchmark that will push the business service providers to create fabulous and easy service experiences," Polk added.
Source here
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