Day: January 2, 2003

The Theory of Networks

From News.com (via s+b):

The new network math discussed in “Linked” and “Nexus” will ultimately do for network innovation. Scientists and innovators will look for “hidden networks” within complex systems to figure out whether those networks are being overly relied upon or foolishly underexploited. These analyses will transform how organizations manage their networks to manage value. Indeed, individuals and institutions may be able to create just-in-time network activity to increase reliability and exploit opportunity, much as Black-Merton-Scholes equations empowered innovative traders to create just-in-time trading of options and derivatives to better hedge or speculate. In manufacturing, supply chains represent nothing if not an organizational opportunity to identify hidden networks of risk and reward.

I had written about the understanding of Networks as one of my 10X Tsunamis.

WiFi Network in Spain’s Zamora

From WSJ:

Only one person in six is online, according to a Spanish government study released early in 2002; that penetration rate lags behind even the sluggish national standard of about 20%. Only three towns in the province have access to the high-speed digital lines known as DSL. But now about 600 people in Zamora are signing on to the Web without wires through this Afitel Wi-Fi service. Afitel figures it needs 2,000 customers to reach an operational break-even, and it aims to have 3,000 by its first anniversary next September.

The Zamora project aims to create an entire “hot city” — and unlike so many pioneering technology projects in small European cities, it aims to do it as a private-sector, money-making venture, rather than as a political pork project.

With the free hardware, Afitel figures its basic cost per customer is about 60 ($62.90); that is, it costs about 600 to install an antenna that creates a hot spot to serve 10 people or so.

Citywide WiFi networks are what the emerging markets need to leapfrog from no connectivity to ubiquitous connectivity.

Boosting WiFi Networks

Writes Mossberg (WSJ):

The SpeedStream gadgets create a parallel, wired network in your home using the electrical wiring, and then turn it into a wireless network. The SpeedStream products are really meant for building a so-called Powerline network, which is a wired competitor to Wi-Fi wireless networks. But Powerline networks have struggled to gain acceptance in the face of Wi-Fi’s popularity, so Siemens has cleverly merged the two types of networks by building a Wi-Fi transmitter onto a Powerline wall adapter.

These SpeedStream Powerline products are made by a company called Efficient Networks, owned by German conglomerate Siemens. The Powerline Wireless Access Point costs $99 and the Powerline Ethernet Adapter costs $89.

The Power of Commitment

Goethe: “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative ( and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.”

Thanks to Chetanbhai for pointing this wonderful quote.

TECH TALK: 2003 Expectations: Microsoft and Office 11

Lets start with the technology worlds most powerful company and the product on almost every desk in the world. One of the big releases of the year is likely to be Microsofts Office 11. This is what Directions On Microsoft has to say on the challenge facing Microsoft in 2003: Office XP did relatively little to boost the bottom line. To maintain its leadership in business software and to generate revenue from its second-most profitable business, Microsoft must deliver an Office that will prompt customers to upgrade and prove that Software Assurance, its new upgrade program, is worth the substantial premium.

Windows and Office contribute almost all of Microsofts profits. That is why the release of Office 11 is so critical. Adds Amy Wohl on the significance:

Microsoft Office 11 seems to be positioned by Microsoft to be more than just a new release of an existing and very popular product.

  • Its sufficiently powerful (or power-hungry) that it requires an operating system upgrade to Windows XP
  • It starts to fit into the world of .NET and Web Services with enhanced XML support
  • For the first time, not just for Microsoft but for any Office Suite, the emphasis may be on getting to the data in the suites applications and keeping them updated (perhaps from outside data sources) or letting them update other applications.

    Acccording to Jean Paoli, Microsofts architect of XDocs. The important thing is not the software that created the data, but the data itself. So the goal becomes to get to that data from any tool and XML becomes a convenient way to do that.

    When Microsoft did customer interviewing as they formulated their plans for Office 11, they found customers consistently referred to disconnected islands of data, including documents, data in databases, and data in email. So the idea was to place this customer need and a solution for it at the center of the XML strategy for Office 11.

    • This use of XML in Office 11 will give a tremendous boost to Web Services. Says Victoria Murphy (quoted in Forbes): Conventional wisdom says that Web services are beginning to sound like the next Y2K: way overhyped and in the long run, a nonevent. But this is an oversimplification. Web services really do matter, and will bring huge benefits to users if standards like XML are followed. Microsoft is promising that its next release of Office will allow investors directly to pull data from corporate filings. This has far-reaching implications for how we get and manipulate data, and might just get rid of hoards of Wall Street-bound college seniors who want nothing more than to do data entry.

    Tomorrow: Web Services and Utility Computing

    Continue reading TECH TALK: 2003 Expectations: Microsoft and Office 11