Sweeping away a sector’s chaos
By Ross Tieman
Published: May 28 2008 01:25 | Last updated: May 28 2008 01:25
It sounds like an apocryphal story, but Nigel Woodward, London-based director of financial services at Intel, insists it is true.
“At one of the big UK clearing banks, the core accounting system still does calculations in pounds, shillings and pence,” he says. Decimalisation was introduced in the UK in 1971, 37 years ago.
The scale of the IT transformation needed in many areas of the financial industry is mind-boggling. Cobbled-together systems are still the bedrock of a hugely expanded sector accounting for an estimated 7 per cent of global gross domestic product.
While bad systems did not cause the present credit crisis, they probably contributed. “Some big banks failed to keep track of the risks as the volumes built up,” says Intel’s Mr Woodward.
He uses the example of sub-prime mortgages. When a bank bought a collateralised debt obligation (CDO), “was the transaction recorded and tracked back to a residential property in Texas,” he asks. “The bank might already have had a full exposure to property in Texas but didn’t know.”
Technology-enabled scale allowed traders to run ahead of banks’ ability to measure risk, he says. And when regulators and auditors started demanding answers about the scale of banks’ exposure, extracting the information from fragmented systems and databases was difficult and time-consuming. Hence revisions to banks’ profit warnings, as the scale of risk was progressively uncovered.
Jeremy Badman, partner in the strategic IT and operations practice focusing on investment banks at Oliver Wyman, highlights the problem that arose with credit default swaps, a mechanism used by banks to lay off risk that has turned into a market measured in trillions of dollars.
It started as a market where people fixed deals by phone, recorded them on a spreadsheet and faxed contracts. Back-office processing was manual. But as volumes increased, settlement remained manual, and three-month piles of unmatched contracts built up – alarming regulators over uncertain risk positions.
The lesson, says Mr Badman, is that technology has to support innovation, and processes must be “industrialised” quickly when a new product is successful. The trouble is that many financial institutions find this hard, because they rely on gummed-up legacy systems.
Rudy Puryear, global head of the IT practice at consultant Bain, explains: “Many of the IT solutions have been layered on over 15 or 20 years or more. In the 1990s everyone went out and wanted to buy a best-of-breed solution and then had to bolt that on to the legacy system. Then everybody wanted web access, plus companies have made acquisitions of companies using different systems.
“Almost every organisation I have walked into has a huge amount of unnecessary complexity in IT. It drives up cost and it slows down response in terms of time-to-market. We want IT to be an enabler of change. Right now it is very often like a block of concrete, adding rigidity to organisations.”
His recommendations? “You have to recognise that you have a complexity problem and that it is bad. It is driving up cost and constraining the ability to respond to the market-place and it is using up more and more IT dollars.
“You have to start saying you are not going to introduce more complexity. You have to create a future-state view of where you want to migrate this to in, say, five years time. You need to push a lot of shared, common, off-the-shelf solutions. So, as you make incremental decisions, you can measure it against how it helps you towards your desired five-year target.”
One example of this kind of thinking in action is Oyster, a ticketing system for Transport for London, by which users pay fares with a smart card, which stores cash, and can be used to pay for travel and other services.
Jonathan Charley, head of banking, Europe, at EDS, which advised on Oyster’s creation, says it was built as a stand-alone solution because “to integrate it into an existing system would have been a huge challenge”. The system was built on an off-the-shelf package of services-oriented architecture, put together “like Lego bricks”.
Clipping on ready-made flexible units that can take over tasks fragmented across existing systems seems a promising way forward. Charles Marston, who previously worked in the interest rate derivatives operation of a bank, founded systems and software company Calypso in San Francisco in 1997 to develop a universal front and back office platform.
Today, Calypso offers an off-the-shelf system that can be used to trade a host of financial instruments, from spot foreign exchange via derivatives to equities and commodities, yet which also supports straight-through back office tasks such as settlement, and allows banks to capture the data they need for risk and capital management. About 80 institutions have bought the system, including HSBC, Dresdner and Calyon.
As Peter Van der Vorst, chief financial officer of Sybase, an integration, data management and platform company, points out, one of the biggest challenges for many financial firms is keeping pace with the need to process vast and booming volumes of information at appropriate speeds.
So Sybase has just launched a product called RAP, designed to handle algorithmic computer-based trading, service the data needs of the quantitative analysts who write the algo programmes, and deliver the data needed to monitor trades for risk management and compliance.
Retail institutions, too, are finding legacy systems an encumbrance to business development. Nationwide, a UK building society, has decided to embark on a wholesale system renewal using an off-the-shelf solution from software house SAP.
Darin Brumby, divisional director for business systems transformation at Nationwide, says shifting to a new platform will enable it to introduce new products – different kinds of account, for example, and a suite of mortgages – that the current system cannot support.
It will also allow improvements to front and back office organisation. It is tantamount to creating a new building society around the changed market and customer needs. Although it is costly, “we think there is a good first-mover advantage”, he says.
SAP and US rival Oracle believe a pre-integrated offering is the best solution. Over the past few years they have been positioning themselves for the colossal orders that are beginning to flow as financial institutions start replacing legacy systems.
Rajesh Hukku, senior vice-president of financial services at Oracle, reckons the company has spent $30bn buying best-of-breed suppliers and developing a pre-built application integration architecture.
This one-stop-shop purchase of a core banking architecture with the features of your choice that are all promised to work seamlessly has won some other big converts. Citibank, the world’s biggest with 350,000 staff, is among them, replacing 59 versions of its old corporate banking system with a single Oracle solution, in which, for example, a base in Singapore services 14 banking operations in Asia. It is, says Mr Hukku, the biggest legacy system replacement ever.
The idea is that each bit can access all the data, and off-the shelf packages of analytics, for example, will keep a bank compliant with Basel II regulations, credit risk, and liability management, while assuring the flexibility to add in regulatory changes without complicating or compromising performance. “Two plus two equals five, if not 11,” Mr Hukku says.
It sounds like nirvana. And today, maybe it is. But will it still be the best answer in 10, or even five years? “We know that things will change,” says Mr Hukku, “but the basic requirement will always be to look at core data in certain aggregations.”
David Hunt, head of technology consulting at Capgemini Financial Services, agrees on the importance of data, but cautions that the IT industry still does not necessarily deliver all the right answers. “What we are not good at, as technologists, is doing that low-cost, throw-away innovation,” he says.
Yet financial services firms need to experiment with products as consumer technology changes.
Today’s private bank customers “may be happy to come to the office and have a fat cigar, but their inheritors might want to bank on their X-box 360 or mobile phone,” says Mr Hunt.
Tomorrow’s systems won’t just need to be agile, he says. In consumer, as well as investment banking, they will need to support rapid innovation of products, and rapid industrialisation of those that succeed.
It is a far cry from the days when they wrote that program in pounds, shillings and pence. Financial businesses are learning that they cannot see far into the future. System designers must learn not even to try.
Jerry Norton, head of financial services at consulting and software group Logica, deserves the last word. A layered approach that separates fundamental systems from distribution channels can help. But fundamentally, it’s about philosophy, he says. “Most other things – consumer products, even buildings – have a design life-time.”
Sure, a general ledger doesn’t change much. But isn’t it time systems were sold with an end-of-use date warning?
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
e-Spirit AG präsentiert Informationsmanagement für international agierende Unternehmen
Content-Management-System FirstSpirit 4 integriert die Mehrzahl aller externen Datenquellen nahtlos in Portale
Auf den Intranet.days 2008 im Sheraton Hotel in Frankfurt/Offenbach zeigt der Gold Sponsor e-Spirit AG die aktuelle Version seines Content-Management-Systems FirstSpirit. Vom 4. bis zum 5. Juni 2008 bietet das international tätige Produkthaus ausführliche Informationen zu konzeptionellen, technischen und organisatorischen Aspekten in Intranets. Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei neben effektivem Datenmanagement auch die Portalintegration.
Basierend auf Erfahrungen aus Intranet-Projekten für renommierte Kunden wie Endress+Hauser, Schaeffler Gruppe, OTTO, Robert Bosch, Würth oder EADS informieren die Experten von e-Spirit darüber, wie selbst höchste Ansprüche an Leistungsfähigkeit, Modul-Erweiterungen und Anbindungen von Datenquellen durch kundenspezifische Anpassungen von FirstSpirit erfüllt werden können. Durch die Möglichkeit der Anbindung fast aller externen Datenquellen mit Konnektoren bietet FirstSpirit größte Flexibilität und Komfort, wie z. B. eine Vorschau unabhängig vom Dateityp. Dank der in FirstSpirit vorhandenen APIs (Application Protocol Interfaces) können kundenspezifische Datenbanken und Systeme zusätzlich mit geringem Aufwand angebunden werden.
27.05.2008, Christiane Capps
Auf den Intranet.days 2008 im Sheraton Hotel in Frankfurt/Offenbach zeigt der Gold Sponsor e-Spirit AG die aktuelle Version seines Content-Management-Systems FirstSpirit. Vom 4. bis zum 5. Juni 2008 bietet das international tätige Produkthaus ausführliche Informationen zu konzeptionellen, technischen und organisatorischen Aspekten in Intranets. Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei neben effektivem Datenmanagement auch die Portalintegration.
Basierend auf Erfahrungen aus Intranet-Projekten für renommierte Kunden wie Endress+Hauser, Schaeffler Gruppe, OTTO, Robert Bosch, Würth oder EADS informieren die Experten von e-Spirit darüber, wie selbst höchste Ansprüche an Leistungsfähigkeit, Modul-Erweiterungen und Anbindungen von Datenquellen durch kundenspezifische Anpassungen von FirstSpirit erfüllt werden können. Durch die Möglichkeit der Anbindung fast aller externen Datenquellen mit Konnektoren bietet FirstSpirit größte Flexibilität und Komfort, wie z. B. eine Vorschau unabhängig vom Dateityp. Dank der in FirstSpirit vorhandenen APIs (Application Protocol Interfaces) können kundenspezifische Datenbanken und Systeme zusätzlich mit geringem Aufwand angebunden werden.
27.05.2008, Christiane Capps
Monday, May 26, 2008
Web 2.0 euphoria tempered by social problems
Web 2.0 euphoria tempered by social problems
By Chris Nuttall and Richard Waters in San Francisco
Published: May 26 2008 18:46 | Last updated: May 26 2008 18:46
Facebook’s announcement a year ago that it would open up its social network to let applications from other companies on to its “platform” marked a peak for Silicon Valley’s Web 2.0 euphoria.
The move touched off a wave of enthusiasm for making “widgets” – mini-applications that internet users can plant on their Facebook page or on other websites. By grabbing the attention of the millions of users on social networks, the companies making these new portable applications dreamed of tapping into a vast new market.
A year on, the much-talked of “widget economy” has failed to take off. In their entirety, widget makers are making only about $40m in annual revenue, according to Will Price, chief executive of Widgetbox, a website that acts as a catalogue for the applications.
Max Levchin, chief executive of Slide, the most successful of the widget-makers, declines to discuss finances, though he says that only “two or three” companies have achieved the scale where they can make revenues “in the high single to low double-digit millions [of dollars]”.
For the rest, widgets have become a cottage industry. Some developers have made enough of a living from creating widgets to be able to quit their regular jobs, says Howard Hartenbaum, a partner at venture capital firm August Capital. But these are likely to remain very small businesses, he adds.
“I can’t say with any confidence that any of the widget companies have figured out a sustainable revenue model,” says Mitchell Kertzman, a partner at Hummer Winblad, a venture capital firm.
The difficulties of the widget companies point to a broader problem that has beset the crowded Web 2.0 landscape. The wave of “social media” companies that has arisen since the middle of this decade, many of them characterised by user-generated content and new forms of communications, has changed the way millions of people interact and entertain themselves online.
Yet, by their nature, these new forms of behaviour are proving extremely difficult to turn into hard cash.
At the start of the decade, Google struggled to find a suitable way to make money from search before alighting on the keyword advertising that has underpinned its fortune. A similar hunt for forms of advertising that suit the social media – where users want to engage with each other, not corporate brands – has proved difficult. By common consent, the key to commercial success lies in co-opting the crowd, though few have so far succeeded.
“The core strength is the communication between people and the network,” says Martin Green, head of business development at Meebo.
“They send each other tons of links, refer things to each other and if you can put ads into that stream in a way that users pull it through, not hijack those relationships, then we think you’re halfway there.”
Even those companies that hit on a way to meld adverts with their media are likely to discover few advertisers ready to try it out.
“Social media is ahead of the capacity of the advertisers to take advantage of it,” says Mr Price at Widgetbox. The standardised units of advertising and methods of measurement needed for this medium have yet to be developed, he adds. “Real spend has been held hostage by that lack of analytics and what we’ve been relegated to is fighting for experimental budgets that don’t require clear proof of value.”
Meanwhile, many Web 2.0 companies face another challenge. Four or more years since the movement began, the winners, at least in terms of users, are starting to emerge. Many others can still dream of winning “viral” adoption, as millions are drawn to their services by word of mouth, but setting themselves apart from the crowd is getting harder.
“Some of those companies have risen to the top and people are beginning to believe they will have an overwhelming advantage in the market,” says Mike Maples, who runs a micro-cap fund whose investments include Twitter, a micro-blogging site, and Digg, a news aggregator.
It is only natural, he adds, that the winners in this race for audience attention will end up with “mass adoption and user attention before you necessarily recognise where the revenue comes from”.
That was the thinking behind a few winners – and many losers – from the first generation of consumer dotcoms at the end of the 1990s. Something similar looks in store for Web 2.0.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
By Chris Nuttall and Richard Waters in San Francisco
Published: May 26 2008 18:46 | Last updated: May 26 2008 18:46
Facebook’s announcement a year ago that it would open up its social network to let applications from other companies on to its “platform” marked a peak for Silicon Valley’s Web 2.0 euphoria.
The move touched off a wave of enthusiasm for making “widgets” – mini-applications that internet users can plant on their Facebook page or on other websites. By grabbing the attention of the millions of users on social networks, the companies making these new portable applications dreamed of tapping into a vast new market.
A year on, the much-talked of “widget economy” has failed to take off. In their entirety, widget makers are making only about $40m in annual revenue, according to Will Price, chief executive of Widgetbox, a website that acts as a catalogue for the applications.
Max Levchin, chief executive of Slide, the most successful of the widget-makers, declines to discuss finances, though he says that only “two or three” companies have achieved the scale where they can make revenues “in the high single to low double-digit millions [of dollars]”.
For the rest, widgets have become a cottage industry. Some developers have made enough of a living from creating widgets to be able to quit their regular jobs, says Howard Hartenbaum, a partner at venture capital firm August Capital. But these are likely to remain very small businesses, he adds.
“I can’t say with any confidence that any of the widget companies have figured out a sustainable revenue model,” says Mitchell Kertzman, a partner at Hummer Winblad, a venture capital firm.
The difficulties of the widget companies point to a broader problem that has beset the crowded Web 2.0 landscape. The wave of “social media” companies that has arisen since the middle of this decade, many of them characterised by user-generated content and new forms of communications, has changed the way millions of people interact and entertain themselves online.
Yet, by their nature, these new forms of behaviour are proving extremely difficult to turn into hard cash.
At the start of the decade, Google struggled to find a suitable way to make money from search before alighting on the keyword advertising that has underpinned its fortune. A similar hunt for forms of advertising that suit the social media – where users want to engage with each other, not corporate brands – has proved difficult. By common consent, the key to commercial success lies in co-opting the crowd, though few have so far succeeded.
“The core strength is the communication between people and the network,” says Martin Green, head of business development at Meebo.
“They send each other tons of links, refer things to each other and if you can put ads into that stream in a way that users pull it through, not hijack those relationships, then we think you’re halfway there.”
Even those companies that hit on a way to meld adverts with their media are likely to discover few advertisers ready to try it out.
“Social media is ahead of the capacity of the advertisers to take advantage of it,” says Mr Price at Widgetbox. The standardised units of advertising and methods of measurement needed for this medium have yet to be developed, he adds. “Real spend has been held hostage by that lack of analytics and what we’ve been relegated to is fighting for experimental budgets that don’t require clear proof of value.”
Meanwhile, many Web 2.0 companies face another challenge. Four or more years since the movement began, the winners, at least in terms of users, are starting to emerge. Many others can still dream of winning “viral” adoption, as millions are drawn to their services by word of mouth, but setting themselves apart from the crowd is getting harder.
“Some of those companies have risen to the top and people are beginning to believe they will have an overwhelming advantage in the market,” says Mike Maples, who runs a micro-cap fund whose investments include Twitter, a micro-blogging site, and Digg, a news aggregator.
It is only natural, he adds, that the winners in this race for audience attention will end up with “mass adoption and user attention before you necessarily recognise where the revenue comes from”.
That was the thinking behind a few winners – and many losers – from the first generation of consumer dotcoms at the end of the 1990s. Something similar looks in store for Web 2.0.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Web 2.0 fails to produce cash
Web 2.0 fails to produce cash
By Richard Waters and Chris Nuttall in San Francisco
Published: May 26 2008 19:18 | Last updated: May 26 2008 19:18
Many members of the Web 2.0 generation of internet companies have so far produced little in the way of revenue, despite bringing about some significant changes in online behaviour, according to some of the entrepreneurs and financiers behind the movement.
The shortage of revenue among social networks, blogs and other “social media” sites that put user-generated content and communications at their core has persisted despite more than four years of experimentation aimed at turning such sites into money-makers. Together with the US economic downturn and a shortage of initial public offerings, the failure has damped the mood in internet start-up circles.
“There is going to be a shake-out here in the next year or two” as many Web 2.0 companies disappear, said Roger Lee, a partner at Battery Ventures.
“These are challenging macro-economic conditions,” said Shawn Hardin, chief executive of Flock, a browser maker that raised $15m in venture capital last week.
Yet that has not stopped a continuing round of venture capital fundraising and acquisition activity at high valuations as investors and corporate acquirers hunt for businesses capable of rising above a crowded field.
“If you look at some of the valuations, you wonder what fantasy of revenues they’re based on,” said Mitchell Kertzman, a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Hummer Winblad.
In one sign of the continued hopes for start-ups that have yet to alight on a solid business model, several financiers expressed support for the private fundraising being undertaken by Twitter, one of Silicon Valley’s most talked-about companies. The “micro-blogging” service, whose users post messages no more than 40 characters long, has yet to find a way to make money, but its early adoption by a group of enthusiastic users is seen as a sign that it will eventually be successful.
Other recent venture capital deals have included fundraisings that have put valuations of about $500m each on Slide, a maker of “widgets”, small applications that are carried on social networks, and Ning, a social networking platform founded by Marc Andreessen, a co-founder of browser maker Netscape.
Despite the slow start to money-making by Web 2.0 companies, the trend towards more social online behaviour that it embodies is widely claimed by insiders to be of lasting significance.
“The capabilities that are coming with Web 2.0 are very profound,” said Devin Wenig, head of the markets division of Thomson Reuters. “The Valley is usually right, and it’s usually early.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
By Richard Waters and Chris Nuttall in San Francisco
Published: May 26 2008 19:18 | Last updated: May 26 2008 19:18
Many members of the Web 2.0 generation of internet companies have so far produced little in the way of revenue, despite bringing about some significant changes in online behaviour, according to some of the entrepreneurs and financiers behind the movement.
The shortage of revenue among social networks, blogs and other “social media” sites that put user-generated content and communications at their core has persisted despite more than four years of experimentation aimed at turning such sites into money-makers. Together with the US economic downturn and a shortage of initial public offerings, the failure has damped the mood in internet start-up circles.
“There is going to be a shake-out here in the next year or two” as many Web 2.0 companies disappear, said Roger Lee, a partner at Battery Ventures.
“These are challenging macro-economic conditions,” said Shawn Hardin, chief executive of Flock, a browser maker that raised $15m in venture capital last week.
Yet that has not stopped a continuing round of venture capital fundraising and acquisition activity at high valuations as investors and corporate acquirers hunt for businesses capable of rising above a crowded field.
“If you look at some of the valuations, you wonder what fantasy of revenues they’re based on,” said Mitchell Kertzman, a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Hummer Winblad.
In one sign of the continued hopes for start-ups that have yet to alight on a solid business model, several financiers expressed support for the private fundraising being undertaken by Twitter, one of Silicon Valley’s most talked-about companies. The “micro-blogging” service, whose users post messages no more than 40 characters long, has yet to find a way to make money, but its early adoption by a group of enthusiastic users is seen as a sign that it will eventually be successful.
Other recent venture capital deals have included fundraisings that have put valuations of about $500m each on Slide, a maker of “widgets”, small applications that are carried on social networks, and Ning, a social networking platform founded by Marc Andreessen, a co-founder of browser maker Netscape.
Despite the slow start to money-making by Web 2.0 companies, the trend towards more social online behaviour that it embodies is widely claimed by insiders to be of lasting significance.
“The capabilities that are coming with Web 2.0 are very profound,” said Devin Wenig, head of the markets division of Thomson Reuters. “The Valley is usually right, and it’s usually early.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Way to go? Mapping looks to be the web’s next big thing
Way to go? Mapping looks to be the web’s next big thing
By Richard Waters in San Francisco
Published: May 21 2008 19:04 | Last updated: May 21 2008 19:04
When European regulators last week cleared the €2.9bn ($4.5bn, £2.3bn) purchase of TeleAtlas, a digital mapping company, by TomTom, the maker of navigation devices, they were giving a nudge along to one of the hottest business fads on the internet.
Approval for that deal makes it almost certain that a bigger transaction will also get the nod: Nokia’s proposed $8.1bn purchase of Navteq, the largest acquisition undertaken by the mobile handset maker.
Navteq’s database of maps covers more than 70 countries. Yet as a source for the next world-changing online idea, digital maps might appear a distinctly unpromising place to start. These basic graphical representations of the world seem a rather humdrum commodity, hardly a key to unlocking the riches of the internet.
That is not how it appears to Nokia. Anssi Vanjoki, a senior executive of the Finnish company, recently summed up the reason for its acquisition: “We can locate our experiences, our history, on the map. It’s a very concrete expression of a context.” Displayed on the bigger, higher-resolution screens that are becoming more common on mobile handsets, maps can become “a user interface to many things”.
This is turning into a prevailing view in the internet industry – partly because mapping does not stop at simple two-dimensional representations. Mike Liebhold, a veteran technologist who is now a fellow at Silicon Valley’s Institute for the Future, calls it a “3D data arms race”, with some of the biggest technology companies rushing to amass vast libraries of information describing the world in painstaking detail.
Erik Jorgensen, a senior executive in Microsoft’s online operations, says the software company is building a “digital representation of the globe to a high degree of accuracy” that will bring about “a change in how you think about the internet”. He adds: “We’re very much betting on a paradigm shift. We believe it will be a way that people can socialise, shop and share information.”
The bet, in short, is that the map is about to become the interface to many of the things people do on the internet – and that the company that controls this interface could one day own something as prevalent and powerful as Google’s simple search box. This proposition takes on added power when applied to the mobile world. Displayed on location-aware handsets, digital maps can be used to order information around the user. The information that matters most is information about things that are closest.
That explains why a car navigation company and a maker of mobile phones are leading the charge. A collision with established internet powers such as Google, which has itself identified the mobile internet as its next big money-making opportunity, is inevitable.
Reordering the internet around this new geographic interface is a project that has been under way for some time. It starts with what engineers at Google call the “base canvas” – a detailed digital representation of the physical world on to which other information can be “hung”. Thanks to the plunging costs of technologies such as digital imaging and geolocation equipment, the world is being mapped, measured, plotted and photographed in almost unimaginable detail.
At one end of the spectrum are people like Steve Coast, a British amateur who is hoping to create a communal map of the world as comprehensive as Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. Volunteers who contribute to Mr Coast’s OpenStreetMap.org literally redraw the map. “You buy a GPS [global positioning system] unit and cycle around the roads,” he says. “It drops a data point every second, like Hansel and Gretel dropping breadcrumbs.” Collecting those data points and joining the dots is the first step in sketching a map of the road network.
At the other extreme are the likes of Google, which is approaching the task with its usual unbounded ambition. “Our goal is to make a kind of mirror world, a replica world,” declares John Hanke, head of its Google Earth unit.
Many of these data are being gathered through painstaking methods and put into private databases. For instance, Navteq and TeleAtlas each use their own fleets of vehicles to collect a mass of street-level information useful to motorists but not shown on official maps – covering everything from speed limits and one-way streets to big construction projects.
These are not the only trucks and vans crawling the kerbsides of cities to suck up information. Google is there too. “Every five feet or so, we’re capturing a 360-degree image that is many megapixels,” says Mr Hanke. Those pictures add a detailed street-level view. Microsoft, not to be outdone, has taken to the air. It has gone as far as designing and building specialised cameras, flying them around to collect three-dimensional images using a technology called Lidar, a variant of radar.
This is about more than mapping and photographing the planet. It also involves modelling it, collecting enough geographic and spatial data points to be able to render a detailed digital version. With a service called Sketch-up, for instance, Google lets users draw their own digital models of real-world buildings and add them to its 3D “warehouse”.
These are expensive undertakings and are based on an untested proposition: that the resulting digital representations will form the new backdrop for a whole range of money-making online activities. Also, with several companies all racing to create what are essentially the same basic geo-spatial frameworks, the costs have been multiplied across a number of rivals.
Yet it is not hard to see how these companies justify the costs to themselves: gross profit margins on internet search are above 80 per cent and, for any company that can generate scale, these development costs are likely to pale by comparison. In addition, as the acquisitions of TeleAtlas and Navteq show, companies that have created parts of what could become the web’s next compelling interface already command high values.
Digital representations like these can be used to meet a basic human need, according to the companies that are racing to outdo each other in their exhaustive rendering of the real world. “You can see it on the cave walls: this is where the animals are, this is where we are,” says Mr Hanke at Google. “This is dinner, how do we get there and get home again?”
The cave walls have been replaced by the worldwide web and the tools have grown more sophisticated but the idea is the same. For an internet service that can place itself at the centre of this – guiding the modern hunter to dinner or performing other geographically relevant tasks – there may be serious money to be made.
Imagine, says Mr Jorgensen at Microsoft, that you are going to the theatre: you will probably want to find other things nearby, like a place to park and a restaurant, so it makes sense to search by location. “Sometimes, to go to a place and find all the information associated with it is easier than regular search,” he says. Advertisers might well pay a premium to reach internet users who are looking for things with that level of geographic specificity.
Mr Hanke adds that this type of search interface obviates the need to type in keywords – just go to a digital map and browse around. “Geography is another way, a different way, to organise information,” he says. “As human beings, we inherently understand geography.”
All of this works, however, only if information on the web is indexed geographically. That means adding machine-readable “tags” to documents to indicate the location to which they refer: think of it like sticking Post-it notes on to web documents, says Mr Liebhold – labelling information so it can be sorted and found in a different way.
Mr Jorgensen at Microsoft estimates that 60-80 per cent of web pages have geographically relevant information on them and could be indexed like this. Viewed on a mobile phone that knows its location (handsets incorporating GPS are set to become more common in the next two years), these ubiquitous digital maps and the new “geoweb” could become a powerful force. Ask for a restaurant and the handset would be able to show where the nearest one is, along with how to get there and an option to book a table by text message.
But why stop there? Once the basic building blocks are in place, the interplay between the virtual world and the real world could become much more inventive. Using a geographically “aware” handset, says Mr Jorgensen, the user could simply issue an instruction to “show everything around me” on a particular subject: the device could trawl the web and filter and present information based on proximity.
Even seemingly fanciful ideas would become possible using these basic technologies, according to Ian Holt, who leads an advanced technology group at Ordnance Survey, the UK mapping agency. Why not location-aware spectacles? “As you look around, they will overlay data about what you’re looking at,” he says, like the “heads-up” displays used by fighter pilots.
According to the technocrats, ideas such as this are a stepping stone towards a future digital playground called “augmented reality”. It is a place where the real world becomes a frame on which to present information. Virtual reality would be turned inside out: rather than retreating into a make-believe virtual world, inhabitants of augmented reality will be living in real space but with layers of data overlaid to deliver a supercharged version of reality.
Using these technologies, real or fictitious information could be “mapped” on to the real world to create new experiences, says Mr Liebhold at the Institute for the Future. “At the click of a mouse, this street could be converted into a space colony or a mediaeval village. This hints at an enormous new entertainment industry.”
For now, ideas of this ilk still sound fanciful. Attempts to project how particular technologies will be used have a habit of missing the mark and can often seem quaint in retrospect. However, that does not weaken the force of those technologies or their long-term impact. The project to render the physical world in digital form, down to small levels of detail, marks one of those turning points in the information age that could change everything.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
By Richard Waters in San Francisco
Published: May 21 2008 19:04 | Last updated: May 21 2008 19:04
When European regulators last week cleared the €2.9bn ($4.5bn, £2.3bn) purchase of TeleAtlas, a digital mapping company, by TomTom, the maker of navigation devices, they were giving a nudge along to one of the hottest business fads on the internet.
Approval for that deal makes it almost certain that a bigger transaction will also get the nod: Nokia’s proposed $8.1bn purchase of Navteq, the largest acquisition undertaken by the mobile handset maker.
Navteq’s database of maps covers more than 70 countries. Yet as a source for the next world-changing online idea, digital maps might appear a distinctly unpromising place to start. These basic graphical representations of the world seem a rather humdrum commodity, hardly a key to unlocking the riches of the internet.
That is not how it appears to Nokia. Anssi Vanjoki, a senior executive of the Finnish company, recently summed up the reason for its acquisition: “We can locate our experiences, our history, on the map. It’s a very concrete expression of a context.” Displayed on the bigger, higher-resolution screens that are becoming more common on mobile handsets, maps can become “a user interface to many things”.
This is turning into a prevailing view in the internet industry – partly because mapping does not stop at simple two-dimensional representations. Mike Liebhold, a veteran technologist who is now a fellow at Silicon Valley’s Institute for the Future, calls it a “3D data arms race”, with some of the biggest technology companies rushing to amass vast libraries of information describing the world in painstaking detail.
Erik Jorgensen, a senior executive in Microsoft’s online operations, says the software company is building a “digital representation of the globe to a high degree of accuracy” that will bring about “a change in how you think about the internet”. He adds: “We’re very much betting on a paradigm shift. We believe it will be a way that people can socialise, shop and share information.”
The bet, in short, is that the map is about to become the interface to many of the things people do on the internet – and that the company that controls this interface could one day own something as prevalent and powerful as Google’s simple search box. This proposition takes on added power when applied to the mobile world. Displayed on location-aware handsets, digital maps can be used to order information around the user. The information that matters most is information about things that are closest.
That explains why a car navigation company and a maker of mobile phones are leading the charge. A collision with established internet powers such as Google, which has itself identified the mobile internet as its next big money-making opportunity, is inevitable.
Reordering the internet around this new geographic interface is a project that has been under way for some time. It starts with what engineers at Google call the “base canvas” – a detailed digital representation of the physical world on to which other information can be “hung”. Thanks to the plunging costs of technologies such as digital imaging and geolocation equipment, the world is being mapped, measured, plotted and photographed in almost unimaginable detail.
At one end of the spectrum are people like Steve Coast, a British amateur who is hoping to create a communal map of the world as comprehensive as Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. Volunteers who contribute to Mr Coast’s OpenStreetMap.org literally redraw the map. “You buy a GPS [global positioning system] unit and cycle around the roads,” he says. “It drops a data point every second, like Hansel and Gretel dropping breadcrumbs.” Collecting those data points and joining the dots is the first step in sketching a map of the road network.
At the other extreme are the likes of Google, which is approaching the task with its usual unbounded ambition. “Our goal is to make a kind of mirror world, a replica world,” declares John Hanke, head of its Google Earth unit.
Many of these data are being gathered through painstaking methods and put into private databases. For instance, Navteq and TeleAtlas each use their own fleets of vehicles to collect a mass of street-level information useful to motorists but not shown on official maps – covering everything from speed limits and one-way streets to big construction projects.
These are not the only trucks and vans crawling the kerbsides of cities to suck up information. Google is there too. “Every five feet or so, we’re capturing a 360-degree image that is many megapixels,” says Mr Hanke. Those pictures add a detailed street-level view. Microsoft, not to be outdone, has taken to the air. It has gone as far as designing and building specialised cameras, flying them around to collect three-dimensional images using a technology called Lidar, a variant of radar.
This is about more than mapping and photographing the planet. It also involves modelling it, collecting enough geographic and spatial data points to be able to render a detailed digital version. With a service called Sketch-up, for instance, Google lets users draw their own digital models of real-world buildings and add them to its 3D “warehouse”.
These are expensive undertakings and are based on an untested proposition: that the resulting digital representations will form the new backdrop for a whole range of money-making online activities. Also, with several companies all racing to create what are essentially the same basic geo-spatial frameworks, the costs have been multiplied across a number of rivals.
Yet it is not hard to see how these companies justify the costs to themselves: gross profit margins on internet search are above 80 per cent and, for any company that can generate scale, these development costs are likely to pale by comparison. In addition, as the acquisitions of TeleAtlas and Navteq show, companies that have created parts of what could become the web’s next compelling interface already command high values.
Digital representations like these can be used to meet a basic human need, according to the companies that are racing to outdo each other in their exhaustive rendering of the real world. “You can see it on the cave walls: this is where the animals are, this is where we are,” says Mr Hanke at Google. “This is dinner, how do we get there and get home again?”
The cave walls have been replaced by the worldwide web and the tools have grown more sophisticated but the idea is the same. For an internet service that can place itself at the centre of this – guiding the modern hunter to dinner or performing other geographically relevant tasks – there may be serious money to be made.
Imagine, says Mr Jorgensen at Microsoft, that you are going to the theatre: you will probably want to find other things nearby, like a place to park and a restaurant, so it makes sense to search by location. “Sometimes, to go to a place and find all the information associated with it is easier than regular search,” he says. Advertisers might well pay a premium to reach internet users who are looking for things with that level of geographic specificity.
Mr Hanke adds that this type of search interface obviates the need to type in keywords – just go to a digital map and browse around. “Geography is another way, a different way, to organise information,” he says. “As human beings, we inherently understand geography.”
All of this works, however, only if information on the web is indexed geographically. That means adding machine-readable “tags” to documents to indicate the location to which they refer: think of it like sticking Post-it notes on to web documents, says Mr Liebhold – labelling information so it can be sorted and found in a different way.
Mr Jorgensen at Microsoft estimates that 60-80 per cent of web pages have geographically relevant information on them and could be indexed like this. Viewed on a mobile phone that knows its location (handsets incorporating GPS are set to become more common in the next two years), these ubiquitous digital maps and the new “geoweb” could become a powerful force. Ask for a restaurant and the handset would be able to show where the nearest one is, along with how to get there and an option to book a table by text message.
But why stop there? Once the basic building blocks are in place, the interplay between the virtual world and the real world could become much more inventive. Using a geographically “aware” handset, says Mr Jorgensen, the user could simply issue an instruction to “show everything around me” on a particular subject: the device could trawl the web and filter and present information based on proximity.
Even seemingly fanciful ideas would become possible using these basic technologies, according to Ian Holt, who leads an advanced technology group at Ordnance Survey, the UK mapping agency. Why not location-aware spectacles? “As you look around, they will overlay data about what you’re looking at,” he says, like the “heads-up” displays used by fighter pilots.
According to the technocrats, ideas such as this are a stepping stone towards a future digital playground called “augmented reality”. It is a place where the real world becomes a frame on which to present information. Virtual reality would be turned inside out: rather than retreating into a make-believe virtual world, inhabitants of augmented reality will be living in real space but with layers of data overlaid to deliver a supercharged version of reality.
Using these technologies, real or fictitious information could be “mapped” on to the real world to create new experiences, says Mr Liebhold at the Institute for the Future. “At the click of a mouse, this street could be converted into a space colony or a mediaeval village. This hints at an enormous new entertainment industry.”
For now, ideas of this ilk still sound fanciful. Attempts to project how particular technologies will be used have a habit of missing the mark and can often seem quaint in retrospect. However, that does not weaken the force of those technologies or their long-term impact. The project to render the physical world in digital form, down to small levels of detail, marks one of those turning points in the information age that could change everything.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Forum "Portalintegration" der e-Spirit AG in Frankfurt am Main
Publizieren in komplexen Portalumgebungen mit FirstSpirit - Exklusives Praxisbeispiel des Pharmakonzerns Merz
Die e-Spirit AG, Hersteller des Content-Management-Systems (CMS) FirstSpirit, veranstaltet am 25. Mai 2008 im Japan Center in Frankfurt am Main das Forum "Publizieren leicht gemacht - FirstSpirit im Portal". Fokus der halbtägigen Veranstaltung ist die Pflege redaktioneller Inhalte in der Umgebung der drei großen Portale von IBM, SAP und Microsoft.
Ein exklusives Beispiel aus der Praxis bietet dabei der internationale Healthcare-Konzern Merz GmbH & Co. KGaA: Im Rahmen des Forums gewährt das Unternehmen erstmals Einblicke in sein Intranet und schildert die Praxiserfahrungen mit FirstSpirit.
In weiteren Fachvorträgen informieren Gastredner der Firmen IBM Global Business Services, adesso AG und HLP Informationsmanagement GmbH über FirstSpirit und seine Einsatzmöglichkeiten in den unterschiedlichen Portalen.
Namhafte Unternehmen wie EADS, Commerzbank, Robert Bosch GmbH und OTTO setzen seit Jahren FirstSpirit zur Integration in die großen Portale ein. Im Rahmen des Portalforums wird in verschiedenen Fachvorträgen dargestellt, wie das CMS von e-Spirit den spezifischen Anforderungen komplexer Umgebungen im SAP NetWeaver Portal, IBM WebSphere Portal und mit dem Microsoft Office SharePoint Server begegnet.
Weiterhin konnte Dr. Andrea Kreißelmeier, Head of Corporate Communications der Firma Merz, als Rednerin gewonnen werden. In einem exklusiven Vortrag berichtet sie erstmals öffentlich über den Einsatz von FirstSpirit im unternehmenseigenen Intranet "Merz & More".
Im Anschluss an die Veranstaltung haben Teilnehmer und Referenten beim Business Lunch die Gelegenheit, Informationen und Erfahrungen auszutauschen.
Weitere Termine für das Forum sind der 24. Juni (Düsseldorf), der 30. September (Hamburg) und der 7. Oktober (München). Die Teilnahme ist kostenfrei. Das Anmeldeformular sowie weitere Informationen finden sich unter www.FirstSpirit.de/Forum
19.05.2008, Christiane Capps
Die e-Spirit AG, Hersteller des Content-Management-Systems (CMS) FirstSpirit, veranstaltet am 25. Mai 2008 im Japan Center in Frankfurt am Main das Forum "Publizieren leicht gemacht - FirstSpirit im Portal". Fokus der halbtägigen Veranstaltung ist die Pflege redaktioneller Inhalte in der Umgebung der drei großen Portale von IBM, SAP und Microsoft.
Ein exklusives Beispiel aus der Praxis bietet dabei der internationale Healthcare-Konzern Merz GmbH & Co. KGaA: Im Rahmen des Forums gewährt das Unternehmen erstmals Einblicke in sein Intranet und schildert die Praxiserfahrungen mit FirstSpirit.
In weiteren Fachvorträgen informieren Gastredner der Firmen IBM Global Business Services, adesso AG und HLP Informationsmanagement GmbH über FirstSpirit und seine Einsatzmöglichkeiten in den unterschiedlichen Portalen.
Namhafte Unternehmen wie EADS, Commerzbank, Robert Bosch GmbH und OTTO setzen seit Jahren FirstSpirit zur Integration in die großen Portale ein. Im Rahmen des Portalforums wird in verschiedenen Fachvorträgen dargestellt, wie das CMS von e-Spirit den spezifischen Anforderungen komplexer Umgebungen im SAP NetWeaver Portal, IBM WebSphere Portal und mit dem Microsoft Office SharePoint Server begegnet.
Weiterhin konnte Dr. Andrea Kreißelmeier, Head of Corporate Communications der Firma Merz, als Rednerin gewonnen werden. In einem exklusiven Vortrag berichtet sie erstmals öffentlich über den Einsatz von FirstSpirit im unternehmenseigenen Intranet "Merz & More".
Im Anschluss an die Veranstaltung haben Teilnehmer und Referenten beim Business Lunch die Gelegenheit, Informationen und Erfahrungen auszutauschen.
Weitere Termine für das Forum sind der 24. Juni (Düsseldorf), der 30. September (Hamburg) und der 7. Oktober (München). Die Teilnahme ist kostenfrei. Das Anmeldeformular sowie weitere Informationen finden sich unter www.FirstSpirit.de/Forum
19.05.2008, Christiane Capps
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Praxis-Workshop: "Unternehmensprozesse mit SharePoint optimieren"
Die Locatech GmbH setzt am 30.05.2008 mit dem Praxis-Workshop "Optimieren unternehmensweiter Prozesse mit SharePoint" ihre Veranstaltungsreihe fort. Dieser Workshop richtet sich an alle, die für die Organisation von Arbeitsprozessen verantwortlich sind und einer Datenflut aus strukturierten und unstrukturierten Informationen gegenüber stehen. Beispielsweise Geschäftsführer, IT-, Projektleiter oder Leiter aus dem Bereich Organisation werden hier in die Methoden für das Dokumenten- und Informationsmanagement eingeführt.
Ziel ist es, den Teilnehmern zu vermitteln, wie sie auf Basis der Microsoft-SharePoint-Plattform ihren Verwaltungsaufwand auf ein Minimum reduzieren und sich so Zeitfenster für andere Projekte schaffen. Ihnen wird aufgezeigt, für welche typischen Szenarien eine SharePoint-Umgebung sinnvoll eingesetzt werden kann und wie sie Unternehmen wirkungsvoll beim Vereinfachen und Optimieren von Arbeitsabläufen unterstützt. Außerdem wird erläutert, wie mit einfachen Schritten ein eigenes Portal realisiert werden kann, in das Unternehmensdaten, zugehörige Informationen, Dokumente und eine Teamkommunikation integriert werden.
Veranstaltungsort für den aktuellen Workshop ist das Seminargebäude der Industrie- und Handelskammer zu Dortmund, Märkische Straße 120, 44141 Dortmund. Die Workshopgebühr beträgt 95 Euro zzgl. MwSt., Nachlässe werden für Teilnehmer aus dem gleichen Unternehmen gewährt. Anmeldungen sind online möglich unter http://www.locatech.com/index.php?id=106 .
Referent:
Referent dieses Workshops ist Dirk Löhn, der Gründer der Locatech GmbH. Er unterstützt seit über 20 Jahren Unternehmen mit ganzheitlichen Lösungen für das Dokumenten- und Informationsmanagement und verfügt dadurch über tief greifende Erfahrungen mit SharePoint.
Stimme eines Seminarteilnehmers:
"Das Know-how, das ich mir in dem Workshop 'Pflichtenhefterstellung' angeeignet habe, werde ich für unsere internen Projekte gleich anwenden. Der Workshop war sehr gut organisiert. Der Referent hat sein Wissen direkt aus der Praxis vermittelt, wodurch seine Erläuterungen sehr anschaulich und leicht nachvollziehbar waren", meint Mike Therolf, Geschäftsführer der unternehmen online GmbH & Co. KG, der im April einen Locatech-Workshop besucht hat.
13.05.2008, Leif Sonstenes, Locatech GmbH
Ziel ist es, den Teilnehmern zu vermitteln, wie sie auf Basis der Microsoft-SharePoint-Plattform ihren Verwaltungsaufwand auf ein Minimum reduzieren und sich so Zeitfenster für andere Projekte schaffen. Ihnen wird aufgezeigt, für welche typischen Szenarien eine SharePoint-Umgebung sinnvoll eingesetzt werden kann und wie sie Unternehmen wirkungsvoll beim Vereinfachen und Optimieren von Arbeitsabläufen unterstützt. Außerdem wird erläutert, wie mit einfachen Schritten ein eigenes Portal realisiert werden kann, in das Unternehmensdaten, zugehörige Informationen, Dokumente und eine Teamkommunikation integriert werden.
Veranstaltungsort für den aktuellen Workshop ist das Seminargebäude der Industrie- und Handelskammer zu Dortmund, Märkische Straße 120, 44141 Dortmund. Die Workshopgebühr beträgt 95 Euro zzgl. MwSt., Nachlässe werden für Teilnehmer aus dem gleichen Unternehmen gewährt. Anmeldungen sind online möglich unter http://www.locatech.com/index.php?id=106 .
Referent:
Referent dieses Workshops ist Dirk Löhn, der Gründer der Locatech GmbH. Er unterstützt seit über 20 Jahren Unternehmen mit ganzheitlichen Lösungen für das Dokumenten- und Informationsmanagement und verfügt dadurch über tief greifende Erfahrungen mit SharePoint.
Stimme eines Seminarteilnehmers:
"Das Know-how, das ich mir in dem Workshop 'Pflichtenhefterstellung' angeeignet habe, werde ich für unsere internen Projekte gleich anwenden. Der Workshop war sehr gut organisiert. Der Referent hat sein Wissen direkt aus der Praxis vermittelt, wodurch seine Erläuterungen sehr anschaulich und leicht nachvollziehbar waren", meint Mike Therolf, Geschäftsführer der unternehmen online GmbH & Co. KG, der im April einen Locatech-Workshop besucht hat.
13.05.2008, Leif Sonstenes, Locatech GmbH
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
AIIM startet Umfrage zur Auffindbarkeit/Findability
Vor wenigen Tagen hat Microsoft den Kauf des Such-Experten FAST Search & Transfer für 840 Millionen Euro abgeschlossen und zuvor auch noch ein milliardenschweres Übernahmeangebot an Yahoo! abgegeben. Auch wenn dieses kürzlich zurückgezogen wurde, die Fakten bleiben bestehen: Der Markt für Online-Suche ist aus gutem Grund interessanter denn je: Jeglicher Content ist nutzlos, wenn keiner ihn finden und darauf zugreifen kann. Aus diesem Grund führt die AIIM Market Intelligence, eine Geschäftseinheit des internationalen Anwender-Fachverbands AIIM Europe - the ECM Association, eine Marktumfrage zum Status Quo im Bereich Suchen und Finden von Informationen durch.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
FT.com / Technology / Digital Business - Personal view: 3D brings challenges for the world wild web
FT.com / Technology / Digital Business - Personal view: 3D brings challenges for the world wild web
Personal view: 3D brings challenges for the world wild web
By David Wortley
Published: April 30 2008 04:12 | Last updated: April 30 2008 04:12
The future for IT is 3D. The onscreen desktop will be replaced by a doorway to walk through, the typical corporate website by worlds to explore.
There is nothing imaginative or futuristic about that. As the limits of technology fall away, IT portals can be more instinctive, and resemble more closely the physical world we are used to dealing with.
Serious virtual worlds have the potential to make conventional websites seem about as effective a business tool as a leaflet.
Of course, there are the added depth of functionality and potential uses of the virtual world – but it goes further.
Virtual worlds have the ability to get to the crux of the issue of customer contact, offering a halfway house between the flat efficiencies of the website or call centre and the high costs of face-to-face interaction and the physical and branded location of an office or retail outlet.
The virtual world offers a sense of place and genuine interaction for large audiences at an affordable price.
How many people click out of a website because they cannot find what they want or immediately see what is relevant to them? To overcome this, the office of PA Consulting in the Second Life virtual world is staffed constantly by a team of Second Life PA avatars in locations around the world.
It means the organisation has trained “greeters” who can find out more about visitors, what kinds of services they are looking for and offer them what they need.
A little human charm changes the nature of the relationship between the user and the software, encourages greater interest, more thought. In a virtual world, relationships with customers can be developed through meetings across a desk with an avatar, using an audio or video conversation.
BP is trialling the idea of using Second Life as a place for employees to meet a counsellor or manager to talk about issues they might feel are too sensitive to discuss face-to-face.
In general, virtual worlds are ideal for hosting events that can bring together customers, experts and star “draws” internationally, involving speakers who can take part from home with a PC and a microphone. This leads to what Cisco’s Christian Renaud has been calling “serendipitous meetings”, the kind of unlikely meetings between people to exchange ideas and talk about partnerships that would not otherwise happen.
There is the opportunity for promotion, building customer loyalty and viral marketing through offering virtual objects. The average Second Life user is acquisitive, keen to have a distinctive appearance, and – in a world where every detail has to be created from nothing – keen on any kind of “stuff” that can be shared with others.
The experience of virtual worlds is “real” enough to ensure people maintain a strong sense of self-awareness. Recently, we created avatars for a couple of MPs visiting us at the Serious Games Institute, giving them the chance to speak and interact with an audience in a virtual world. The standard uniform for avatars being jeans and T-shirts, I had to do some shopping to find the appropriate suits and ties they could wear.
But big business needs to be cautious about the growing market for virtual objects. When Nissan wanted to launch its latest sports car, it had the idea of a huge vending machine in Second Life which would give away models of the car for people to drive around in.
Rather than being regarded as a treat, this giveaway upset the spirit of Second Life. A number of the population had managed to build little businesses from creating and selling virtual vehicles to other users. A business giant coming in and giving away sports cars for nothing became the subject of gossip and led to a boycott of the Nissan island.
The processing power required to facilitate the shift to 3D IT is an issue for the moment, but it’s only a temporary one. The biggest challenges concern interoperability and security.
Just as the standard HTML language was the making of the web, so will the ability to have a universal avatar capable of slipping effortlessly between one virtual world and another.
A consortium of organisations in the US is pushing for a recognised standard that will allow this to happen. As previous attempts to create standards have shown, however, it is not going to happen without friction between the commercial organisations building their proprietary environments and virtual customer bases.
For commercial operations to settle with confidence into virtual worlds, far more work is going to be needed on security. It is virtually impossible to find out the real identity of people behind the avatars – meaning they have no responsibility for what they do.
Web visitors to company sites are similarly anonymous, but they do not have the same opportunity to abuse staff, band together to organise protest raids, or generally upset other visitors.
Some form of digital signature will be needed to ensure avatars are held to account for their actions, just as they would be in the real world.
In many ways, the growth of virtual worlds is like the frontier towns of the Wild West, where new social forms were worked out messily and in public. In the same way, new codes of behaviour will eventually be adopted.
David Wortley is director of the Serious Games Institute, Coventry University.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Personal view: 3D brings challenges for the world wild web
By David Wortley
Published: April 30 2008 04:12 | Last updated: April 30 2008 04:12
The future for IT is 3D. The onscreen desktop will be replaced by a doorway to walk through, the typical corporate website by worlds to explore.
There is nothing imaginative or futuristic about that. As the limits of technology fall away, IT portals can be more instinctive, and resemble more closely the physical world we are used to dealing with.
Serious virtual worlds have the potential to make conventional websites seem about as effective a business tool as a leaflet.
Of course, there are the added depth of functionality and potential uses of the virtual world – but it goes further.
Virtual worlds have the ability to get to the crux of the issue of customer contact, offering a halfway house between the flat efficiencies of the website or call centre and the high costs of face-to-face interaction and the physical and branded location of an office or retail outlet.
The virtual world offers a sense of place and genuine interaction for large audiences at an affordable price.
How many people click out of a website because they cannot find what they want or immediately see what is relevant to them? To overcome this, the office of PA Consulting in the Second Life virtual world is staffed constantly by a team of Second Life PA avatars in locations around the world.
It means the organisation has trained “greeters” who can find out more about visitors, what kinds of services they are looking for and offer them what they need.
A little human charm changes the nature of the relationship between the user and the software, encourages greater interest, more thought. In a virtual world, relationships with customers can be developed through meetings across a desk with an avatar, using an audio or video conversation.
BP is trialling the idea of using Second Life as a place for employees to meet a counsellor or manager to talk about issues they might feel are too sensitive to discuss face-to-face.
In general, virtual worlds are ideal for hosting events that can bring together customers, experts and star “draws” internationally, involving speakers who can take part from home with a PC and a microphone. This leads to what Cisco’s Christian Renaud has been calling “serendipitous meetings”, the kind of unlikely meetings between people to exchange ideas and talk about partnerships that would not otherwise happen.
There is the opportunity for promotion, building customer loyalty and viral marketing through offering virtual objects. The average Second Life user is acquisitive, keen to have a distinctive appearance, and – in a world where every detail has to be created from nothing – keen on any kind of “stuff” that can be shared with others.
The experience of virtual worlds is “real” enough to ensure people maintain a strong sense of self-awareness. Recently, we created avatars for a couple of MPs visiting us at the Serious Games Institute, giving them the chance to speak and interact with an audience in a virtual world. The standard uniform for avatars being jeans and T-shirts, I had to do some shopping to find the appropriate suits and ties they could wear.
But big business needs to be cautious about the growing market for virtual objects. When Nissan wanted to launch its latest sports car, it had the idea of a huge vending machine in Second Life which would give away models of the car for people to drive around in.
Rather than being regarded as a treat, this giveaway upset the spirit of Second Life. A number of the population had managed to build little businesses from creating and selling virtual vehicles to other users. A business giant coming in and giving away sports cars for nothing became the subject of gossip and led to a boycott of the Nissan island.
The processing power required to facilitate the shift to 3D IT is an issue for the moment, but it’s only a temporary one. The biggest challenges concern interoperability and security.
Just as the standard HTML language was the making of the web, so will the ability to have a universal avatar capable of slipping effortlessly between one virtual world and another.
A consortium of organisations in the US is pushing for a recognised standard that will allow this to happen. As previous attempts to create standards have shown, however, it is not going to happen without friction between the commercial organisations building their proprietary environments and virtual customer bases.
For commercial operations to settle with confidence into virtual worlds, far more work is going to be needed on security. It is virtually impossible to find out the real identity of people behind the avatars – meaning they have no responsibility for what they do.
Web visitors to company sites are similarly anonymous, but they do not have the same opportunity to abuse staff, band together to organise protest raids, or generally upset other visitors.
Some form of digital signature will be needed to ensure avatars are held to account for their actions, just as they would be in the real world.
In many ways, the growth of virtual worlds is like the frontier towns of the Wild West, where new social forms were worked out messily and in public. In the same way, new codes of behaviour will eventually be adopted.
David Wortley is director of the Serious Games Institute, Coventry University.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
ECM = integratie | Opinie | ECM | Computable.nl
ECM = integratie | Opinie | ECM | Computable.nl
ECM = integratie
Enterprise content management wordt vaak als een apart product in de markt gezet. Het beheer van content zou volgens deze producten zoveel mogelijk plaats moeten vinden binnen dit product. Eigenlijk is dit een rare gedachtegang. In principe zou ecm veel meer een visie dan een product moeten zijn. Want content is overal: in de productendatabase, in het crm-pakket, op de website, in Word- en Excel-documenten, in Exchange/Outlook, in de wiki, op het intranet.
Wat een echt overkoepelend ecm-product zou moeten zijn is een grote integratietoepassing: een product dat content overal vandaan haalt, omzet in een uniform geheel, aanpasbaar en beheersbaar maakt, maar ook weer terug wegschrijft in de contentsilo waar het vandaan kwam. Een mapping dus, tussen content in de diverse applicaties en content in het ecm-pakket.
In plaats daarvan wordt de ecm-markt op dit moment vooral gedomineerd door hele grote softwarepakketten die vooral hun best doen om content IN die pakketten te houden. Dat lijkt een simpele oplossing, maar het is een versimpeling van de werkelijkheid en levert op termijn een informatiemanagement-nachtmerrie op. Wat organisaties eigenlijk vooral willen is integratie, aggregate en syndicatie van content.
Het is niet dat er niets gebeurt. Er zijn diverse initiatieven gestart om contentuitwisseling te verbeteren. Zo is vanuit de Java Community Proces, de standaardorganisatie voor Java-technologie, JSR-170 en de opvolger JSR-283 gestart, een Java-standaard om het toegangsprotocol op content te standaardiseren. De OASIS-standaardorganisatie heeft tientallen open standaarden ontwikkeld voor gestructureerde informatie. De Dublin Core-standaard van ISO geeft houvast voor het definieren van metadata. Het World Wide Web Consortium (afgekort W3C) heeft tientallen zeer bekende standaarden zoals XHTML, HTTP, XSLT, CSS en SOAP onder zijn hoede.
Alhoewel sommige van deze initiatieven zeer succesvol zijn, blijft het opvallen hoe de ecm-industrie de makkelijke weg kiest en niet standaarden adopteert maar toch weer eigen, proprietary formats definieert en vooral ook content zoveel mogelijk binnen de eigen informatiesilo houden, in plaats van content zoveel mogelijk te halen uit de bestaande contentsilos. Een gemiste kans?
ECM = integratie
Enterprise content management wordt vaak als een apart product in de markt gezet. Het beheer van content zou volgens deze producten zoveel mogelijk plaats moeten vinden binnen dit product. Eigenlijk is dit een rare gedachtegang. In principe zou ecm veel meer een visie dan een product moeten zijn. Want content is overal: in de productendatabase, in het crm-pakket, op de website, in Word- en Excel-documenten, in Exchange/Outlook, in de wiki, op het intranet.
Wat een echt overkoepelend ecm-product zou moeten zijn is een grote integratietoepassing: een product dat content overal vandaan haalt, omzet in een uniform geheel, aanpasbaar en beheersbaar maakt, maar ook weer terug wegschrijft in de contentsilo waar het vandaan kwam. Een mapping dus, tussen content in de diverse applicaties en content in het ecm-pakket.
In plaats daarvan wordt de ecm-markt op dit moment vooral gedomineerd door hele grote softwarepakketten die vooral hun best doen om content IN die pakketten te houden. Dat lijkt een simpele oplossing, maar het is een versimpeling van de werkelijkheid en levert op termijn een informatiemanagement-nachtmerrie op. Wat organisaties eigenlijk vooral willen is integratie, aggregate en syndicatie van content.
Het is niet dat er niets gebeurt. Er zijn diverse initiatieven gestart om contentuitwisseling te verbeteren. Zo is vanuit de Java Community Proces, de standaardorganisatie voor Java-technologie, JSR-170 en de opvolger JSR-283 gestart, een Java-standaard om het toegangsprotocol op content te standaardiseren. De OASIS-standaardorganisatie heeft tientallen open standaarden ontwikkeld voor gestructureerde informatie. De Dublin Core-standaard van ISO geeft houvast voor het definieren van metadata. Het World Wide Web Consortium (afgekort W3C) heeft tientallen zeer bekende standaarden zoals XHTML, HTTP, XSLT, CSS en SOAP onder zijn hoede.
Alhoewel sommige van deze initiatieven zeer succesvol zijn, blijft het opvallen hoe de ecm-industrie de makkelijke weg kiest en niet standaarden adopteert maar toch weer eigen, proprietary formats definieert en vooral ook content zoveel mogelijk binnen de eigen informatiesilo houden, in plaats van content zoveel mogelijk te halen uit de bestaande contentsilos. Een gemiste kans?
Friday, April 25, 2008
FT.com / Home UK / UK - ‘Massive deal’ from Autonomy
FT.com / Home UK / UK - ‘Massive deal’ from Autonomy
‘Massive deal’ from Autonomy
By Tom Braithwaite and Philip Stafford
Published: April 24 2008 22:21 | Last updated: April 24 2008 22:21
Shares in Autonomy tumbled yesterday despite record first-quarter results and the announcement of a “massive deal”, with Deutsche Bank, as the search software company benefited from the subprime crisis.
Shares in the Cambridge-based company dropped 146p, or nearly 15 per cent, to 844p after it met analysts’ forecasts but failed to trigger the raft of immediate upgrades that some had expected.
Pre-tax profit in the three months to March 31 rose 47 per cent to $23.6m (£12m) on revenue up from $65.5m to $105.1m as it attracted new customers including Barclays Capital and Michelin. Earnings per share rose from 7 cents to 10 cents.
Autonomy’s products’ ability to sort through unstructured data from text to phone calls has attracted customers from governments’ intelligence agencies to banks, looking to beef up compliance procedures and prepare for lawsuits related to the credit squeeze.
Autonomy also announced a deal for compliance software. The deal is with Deutsche Bank, though Autonomy did not name the bank. Mike Lynch, chief executive, said it was “expected to be one of the most significant contracts Autonomy has won” and is worth at least $20m over two years.
“Various sectors shifted spending from general IT to regulatory and litigation- related purchases, making the direct effect of the subprime crisis a net positive for our business,” said Mr Lynch. He added Autonomy would maintain its “conservative view” on prospects.
It flagged that “some customers delay[ed] payments until immediately after quarter end” but said cash collection had recovered. Cash balances rose by $2.9m from the end of the previous quarter to $95.5m; the company is debt free and Mr Lynch said he would consider returning cash to shareholders with $100m “probably the magic number”.
FT Comment
● Following a strong run, yesterday’s 15 per cent drop should bring a more sober aspect to Autonomy’s share price. A prospective p/e ratio of about 30 times earnings was priced to perfection, given its low earnings visibility. In the face of an economic slowdown, upgrades may not appear this year. Until further guidance comes through, shares may be range bound from here.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
‘Massive deal’ from Autonomy
By Tom Braithwaite and Philip Stafford
Published: April 24 2008 22:21 | Last updated: April 24 2008 22:21
Shares in Autonomy tumbled yesterday despite record first-quarter results and the announcement of a “massive deal”, with Deutsche Bank, as the search software company benefited from the subprime crisis.
Shares in the Cambridge-based company dropped 146p, or nearly 15 per cent, to 844p after it met analysts’ forecasts but failed to trigger the raft of immediate upgrades that some had expected.
Pre-tax profit in the three months to March 31 rose 47 per cent to $23.6m (£12m) on revenue up from $65.5m to $105.1m as it attracted new customers including Barclays Capital and Michelin. Earnings per share rose from 7 cents to 10 cents.
Autonomy’s products’ ability to sort through unstructured data from text to phone calls has attracted customers from governments’ intelligence agencies to banks, looking to beef up compliance procedures and prepare for lawsuits related to the credit squeeze.
Autonomy also announced a deal for compliance software. The deal is with Deutsche Bank, though Autonomy did not name the bank. Mike Lynch, chief executive, said it was “expected to be one of the most significant contracts Autonomy has won” and is worth at least $20m over two years.
“Various sectors shifted spending from general IT to regulatory and litigation- related purchases, making the direct effect of the subprime crisis a net positive for our business,” said Mr Lynch. He added Autonomy would maintain its “conservative view” on prospects.
It flagged that “some customers delay[ed] payments until immediately after quarter end” but said cash collection had recovered. Cash balances rose by $2.9m from the end of the previous quarter to $95.5m; the company is debt free and Mr Lynch said he would consider returning cash to shareholders with $100m “probably the magic number”.
FT Comment
● Following a strong run, yesterday’s 15 per cent drop should bring a more sober aspect to Autonomy’s share price. A prospective p/e ratio of about 30 times earnings was priced to perfection, given its low earnings visibility. In the face of an economic slowdown, upgrades may not appear this year. Until further guidance comes through, shares may be range bound from here.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
FT.com / Companies / By region - Autonomy gets credit crisis boost
FT.com / Companies / By region - Autonomy gets credit crisis boost
Autonomy gets credit crisis boost
By Tom Braithwaite
Published: April 24 2008 09:18 | Last updated: April 24 2008 09:18
Autonomy produced record first quarter results on Thursday and announced a “massive deal” with an investment bank as the search software company benefitted from new customers and the subprime crisis.
But shares in the Cambridge-based company fell 66p, or 6.7 per cent, to 924p in early trading - capping a strong run - after the company met analysts’ forecasts but failed to trigger the raft of immediate upgrades that some had expected.
Pre-tax profit in the three months to March 31 rose by 47 per cent to $23.6m on revenue that rose from $65.5m to $105.1m as Autonomy attracted new customers including Barclays Capital and Michelin. Earnings per share increased from $0.07 to $0.10.
Autonomy’s products’ ability to sort through unstructured data from text to phone calls has attracted customers from banks, looking to beef up compliance procedures and prepare for lawsuits related to the credit squeeze, and governments’ intelligence agencies.
“Various sectors shifted spending from general IT to regulatory and litigation-related purchases, making the direct effect of the subprime crisis a net positive for our business,” said Mike Lynch, chief executive. “We have decided to maintain our conservative view on prospects, which we will review if, as expected, current strength continues.”
Mr Lynch also announced a “massive deal” with an unnamed investment banking client related to litigation. He said it was “expected to be one of the most significant contracts Autonomy has won”.
Autonomy flagged that “some customers delay[ed] payments until immediately after quarter end” but said cash collection had since recovered. Cash balances increased by $2.9m from the end of the previous quarter to $95.5m; the company is debt free and Mr Lynch said he would consider returning cash to shareholders with cash of about $100m - “probably the magic number”, he said.
“A solid set of results combined with a cautiously optimistic outlook,” said Derek Brown, analyst at Seymour Pierce.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Autonomy gets credit crisis boost
By Tom Braithwaite
Published: April 24 2008 09:18 | Last updated: April 24 2008 09:18
Autonomy produced record first quarter results on Thursday and announced a “massive deal” with an investment bank as the search software company benefitted from new customers and the subprime crisis.
But shares in the Cambridge-based company fell 66p, or 6.7 per cent, to 924p in early trading - capping a strong run - after the company met analysts’ forecasts but failed to trigger the raft of immediate upgrades that some had expected.
Pre-tax profit in the three months to March 31 rose by 47 per cent to $23.6m on revenue that rose from $65.5m to $105.1m as Autonomy attracted new customers including Barclays Capital and Michelin. Earnings per share increased from $0.07 to $0.10.
Autonomy’s products’ ability to sort through unstructured data from text to phone calls has attracted customers from banks, looking to beef up compliance procedures and prepare for lawsuits related to the credit squeeze, and governments’ intelligence agencies.
“Various sectors shifted spending from general IT to regulatory and litigation-related purchases, making the direct effect of the subprime crisis a net positive for our business,” said Mike Lynch, chief executive. “We have decided to maintain our conservative view on prospects, which we will review if, as expected, current strength continues.”
Mr Lynch also announced a “massive deal” with an unnamed investment banking client related to litigation. He said it was “expected to be one of the most significant contracts Autonomy has won”.
Autonomy flagged that “some customers delay[ed] payments until immediately after quarter end” but said cash collection had since recovered. Cash balances increased by $2.9m from the end of the previous quarter to $95.5m; the company is debt free and Mr Lynch said he would consider returning cash to shareholders with cash of about $100m - “probably the magic number”, he said.
“A solid set of results combined with a cautiously optimistic outlook,” said Derek Brown, analyst at Seymour Pierce.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
contentXXL ASP.NET CMS - Online Consulting ist begeistert vom Content Relationship Management / Wissens - Management des contentXXL CMS
contentXXL ASP.NET CMS - Online Consulting ist begeistert vom Content Relationship Management / Wissens - Management des contentXXL CMS
Der Schweizer IT-Dienstleister Online Consulting AG aus Wil, Schweiz, ist begeistert vom Content Relationship Managements von contentXXL. Auch aus diesem Grund setzt er das Microsoft .NET-basierte Business Content Management System (CMS) als Plattform für die jüngst relaunchte Webseite ein. Das Content Relationship Management ist ein herausragendes Merkmal von contentXXL und bietet die Möglichkeit, einzelne Inhalte zueinander in Beziehung zu setzen. Damit werden verwandte Inhaltsobjekte (Handbücher, Kontakdaten, weiterführende Links, alternative Produkte) beim Einpflegen verknüpft und dann im jeweils sinnvollen Kontext gemeinsam auf verschiedenen Seiten des Internetauftritts präsentiert. Diese Objekte können von Fall zu Fall an anderer Stelle oder in anderen Sprachen erneut verwendet werden, ohne mehrmals gepflegt zu werden. Online Consulting setzt das Content Relationship Management beispielsweise ein, um Besuchern der Webseite im Bereich Produkte zugleich Referenzen, relevante Artikel, weiterführende Links oder Dokumente anzubieten.
Der Schweizer IT-Dienstleister Online Consulting AG aus Wil, Schweiz, ist begeistert vom Content Relationship Managements von contentXXL. Auch aus diesem Grund setzt er das Microsoft .NET-basierte Business Content Management System (CMS) als Plattform für die jüngst relaunchte Webseite ein. Das Content Relationship Management ist ein herausragendes Merkmal von contentXXL und bietet die Möglichkeit, einzelne Inhalte zueinander in Beziehung zu setzen. Damit werden verwandte Inhaltsobjekte (Handbücher, Kontakdaten, weiterführende Links, alternative Produkte) beim Einpflegen verknüpft und dann im jeweils sinnvollen Kontext gemeinsam auf verschiedenen Seiten des Internetauftritts präsentiert. Diese Objekte können von Fall zu Fall an anderer Stelle oder in anderen Sprachen erneut verwendet werden, ohne mehrmals gepflegt zu werden. Online Consulting setzt das Content Relationship Management beispielsweise ein, um Besuchern der Webseite im Bereich Produkte zugleich Referenzen, relevante Artikel, weiterführende Links oder Dokumente anzubieten.
FT.com / Companies / IT - Microsoft unveils hybrid computing platform
FT.com / Companies / IT - Microsoft unveils hybrid computing platform
Microsoft unveils hybrid computing platform
By Richard Waters in San Francisco
Published: April 23 2008 03:55 | Last updated: April 23 2008 03:55
Microsoft unveiled on Wednesday the first important piece of a new hybrid computing platform intended to ease the transition of its core software business to the web.
The move comes two-and-a-half years after Bill Gates, chairman, warned that the rise of internet computing could one day threaten Microsoft’s desktop software business.
It is the clearest evidence so far of the influence of Ray Ozzie, who took over from Mr Gates as the company’s chief software architect in 2005.
The new technology, known as Live Mesh, is designed to free a consumer’s data from the PC or other device where it resides and place copies of it automatically on any other internet-connected gadget, or make it available through a web browser.
Microsoft executives said the Mesh could make it possible for people to access digital music stored on their home PC from any device or computer, work on documents that were entered on other computers or share their photos and other media automatically with friends over the internet.
The technology is being launched in an early test version, with a full trial scheduled for later this year, Microsoft said. The group did not say when it expected consumer services based on the idea to be available.
By giving users a way to copy data easily to Microsoft’s servers and then work on it in a “virtual desktop” through a browser, the idea echoes the so-called “cloud computing” strategies of companies such as Google.
Microsoft said it would guarantee at least five gigabytes of storage free of charge.
However, Microsoft’s plan adds a further element, making it possible to “sync” information automatically between a user’s computers and other digital devices, creating what it called a personal “device mesh”.
Users who first register all their devices on a Microsoft website will be able to copy information between them simply by “right clicking” on the relevant folders, Microsoft said.
This peer-to-peer system, though using the internet as a hub, leaves data and the programs needed to manipulate it on the “client” devices – an idea that ties in with Microsoft’s argument that the internet is not yet ready to replace all client-based computing, and Mr Ozzie’s own long-running work in his earlier companies on similar peer-to-peer technologies.
“It has the potential to be visionary – there is something more powerful than the cloud, it’s the cloud plus the device mesh,” said David Smith, an analyst at Gartner.
As a transitional technology that does not rely on a complete shift to the web, the plan is designed to protect Microsoft’s own earlier technology investments, as well as those of customers who rely on its software, he added.
Adoption of the technology would depend on how closely Microsoft integrates the Mesh idea into its other software, and whether other developers adopted it and built applications around it, Mr Smith said. Reflecting Microsoft’s increasing move away from a Windows-only computing world, the company said it would soon make versions of the technology available that run on a wide range of internet browsers as well as Apple’s Mac operating system.
Mr Ozzie said in an internal memo that the aim was to link all internet-enabled devices, “not just PCs and phones but TVs, game consoles, digital picture frames, DVRs, media players, cameras and camcorders, home servers . . . our car’s entertainment and navigation systems, and more”.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Microsoft unveils hybrid computing platform
By Richard Waters in San Francisco
Published: April 23 2008 03:55 | Last updated: April 23 2008 03:55
Microsoft unveiled on Wednesday the first important piece of a new hybrid computing platform intended to ease the transition of its core software business to the web.
The move comes two-and-a-half years after Bill Gates, chairman, warned that the rise of internet computing could one day threaten Microsoft’s desktop software business.
It is the clearest evidence so far of the influence of Ray Ozzie, who took over from Mr Gates as the company’s chief software architect in 2005.
The new technology, known as Live Mesh, is designed to free a consumer’s data from the PC or other device where it resides and place copies of it automatically on any other internet-connected gadget, or make it available through a web browser.
Microsoft executives said the Mesh could make it possible for people to access digital music stored on their home PC from any device or computer, work on documents that were entered on other computers or share their photos and other media automatically with friends over the internet.
The technology is being launched in an early test version, with a full trial scheduled for later this year, Microsoft said. The group did not say when it expected consumer services based on the idea to be available.
By giving users a way to copy data easily to Microsoft’s servers and then work on it in a “virtual desktop” through a browser, the idea echoes the so-called “cloud computing” strategies of companies such as Google.
Microsoft said it would guarantee at least five gigabytes of storage free of charge.
However, Microsoft’s plan adds a further element, making it possible to “sync” information automatically between a user’s computers and other digital devices, creating what it called a personal “device mesh”.
Users who first register all their devices on a Microsoft website will be able to copy information between them simply by “right clicking” on the relevant folders, Microsoft said.
This peer-to-peer system, though using the internet as a hub, leaves data and the programs needed to manipulate it on the “client” devices – an idea that ties in with Microsoft’s argument that the internet is not yet ready to replace all client-based computing, and Mr Ozzie’s own long-running work in his earlier companies on similar peer-to-peer technologies.
“It has the potential to be visionary – there is something more powerful than the cloud, it’s the cloud plus the device mesh,” said David Smith, an analyst at Gartner.
As a transitional technology that does not rely on a complete shift to the web, the plan is designed to protect Microsoft’s own earlier technology investments, as well as those of customers who rely on its software, he added.
Adoption of the technology would depend on how closely Microsoft integrates the Mesh idea into its other software, and whether other developers adopted it and built applications around it, Mr Smith said. Reflecting Microsoft’s increasing move away from a Windows-only computing world, the company said it would soon make versions of the technology available that run on a wide range of internet browsers as well as Apple’s Mac operating system.
Mr Ozzie said in an internal memo that the aim was to link all internet-enabled devices, “not just PCs and phones but TVs, game consoles, digital picture frames, DVRs, media players, cameras and camcorders, home servers . . . our car’s entertainment and navigation systems, and more”.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
'Werkruimte verandert fundamenteel' | Nieuws | Internet | Computable.nl
'Werkruimte verandert fundamenteel' | Nieuws | Internet | Computable.nl
De wijze waarop bedrijven opereren en communiceren met personeel en klanten, zal de komende jaren fundamenteel veranderen. Nieuwe webtechnologieën maken het werk efficiënter en minder plaatsgebonden. Dat stelt onderzoeker Forrester aan de vooravond van een Web 2.0-conferentie.
De wijze waarop bedrijven opereren en communiceren met personeel en klanten, zal de komende jaren fundamenteel veranderen. Nieuwe webtechnologieën maken het werk efficiënter en minder plaatsgebonden. Dat stelt onderzoeker Forrester aan de vooravond van een Web 2.0-conferentie.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Eine Plattform für alle Online-Magazine: contentXXL CMS
Eine Plattform für alle Online-Magazine: contentXXL CMS
Verlagsgesellschaften betreiben heute parallel zu Ihren Print-Publikationen die Online-Ausgaben, nutzen aber oft nicht die Synergien, die ihnen das Internet etwa durch Verknüpfung von Inhalten oder die gemeinsame Nutzung von Anwendungen bietet. Der Schweizer KünzlerBachmann Verlag aus St. Gallen arbeitet hier anders. Nachdem man 2007 die Online-Präsenz der Kinder- und Jugendzeitschrift "Spick.net" mit Hilfe des Content Management Systems (CMS) contentXXL neu aufgesetzt hat, startete nun auf der gleichen Plattform das moderne Internet-Familienmagazin "swissfamily.ch". Der klare Vorteil dieser Vorgehensweise besteht in der Möglichkeit, in beiden (und weiteren) Internetportalen sämtliche eingesetzten contentXXL-Module sowie den Inhalt der Portale gegenseitig nutzen zu können. Der Redakteur entscheidet mit wenigen Klicks, welche Inhalte auf welchem Navigationspunkt bei welcher URL ausgegeben werden.
Verantwortlich für dieses Projekt ist wie beim "Spick" der langjährige Internetpartner des Verlags, Online Consulting AG aus Wil/Schweiz.
Der KünzlerBachmann Verlag betreut gleich mehrere Print- und Online Produkte rund um die junge Familie. Im vergangenen Jahr startete man mit der Entscheidung für das auf Microsoft .NET basierte CMS contentXXL eine Optimierungsoffensive für sämtliche Online-Magazine und -Portale. Im letzten Jahr "spick.net", in diesem Jahr das übergreifende Familienportal. "swissfamily.ch".
Verlagsgesellschaften betreiben heute parallel zu Ihren Print-Publikationen die Online-Ausgaben, nutzen aber oft nicht die Synergien, die ihnen das Internet etwa durch Verknüpfung von Inhalten oder die gemeinsame Nutzung von Anwendungen bietet. Der Schweizer KünzlerBachmann Verlag aus St. Gallen arbeitet hier anders. Nachdem man 2007 die Online-Präsenz der Kinder- und Jugendzeitschrift "Spick.net" mit Hilfe des Content Management Systems (CMS) contentXXL neu aufgesetzt hat, startete nun auf der gleichen Plattform das moderne Internet-Familienmagazin "swissfamily.ch". Der klare Vorteil dieser Vorgehensweise besteht in der Möglichkeit, in beiden (und weiteren) Internetportalen sämtliche eingesetzten contentXXL-Module sowie den Inhalt der Portale gegenseitig nutzen zu können. Der Redakteur entscheidet mit wenigen Klicks, welche Inhalte auf welchem Navigationspunkt bei welcher URL ausgegeben werden.
Verantwortlich für dieses Projekt ist wie beim "Spick" der langjährige Internetpartner des Verlags, Online Consulting AG aus Wil/Schweiz.
Der KünzlerBachmann Verlag betreut gleich mehrere Print- und Online Produkte rund um die junge Familie. Im vergangenen Jahr startete man mit der Entscheidung für das auf Microsoft .NET basierte CMS contentXXL eine Optimierungsoffensive für sämtliche Online-Magazine und -Portale. Im letzten Jahr "spick.net", in diesem Jahr das übergreifende Familienportal. "swissfamily.ch".
Enterprise Content Management for SMBs
Enterprise Content Management for SMBs
Most vendors have given SMBs pretty short shrift. That's got to change--content management is a good place to start.
Long thought of as the second-class citizens of IT, small-tomedium- businesses (SMBs) drew the focus of major and mid-range IT vendors alike in the late 1990s for a number of reasons. First, the era of big, enterprise installed applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) seemed about over. SAP and other vendors had saturated the high end of the customer base and needed to go downmarket. Second, the SMB market was supposed to dramatically outgrow the Global 2000 market in the next 10 years. Third, in order for those new SMBs to compete with G2000s, they would need to adopt technologies that would level the playing field with G2000s—specifically, Internet and Web content management technologies that allow the creation of virtual storefronts with customer service.
Major players like Microsoft launched new divisions supposedly devoted to serving SMBs. Others like IBM with its Express line, debuted mid-range versions of older enterprise products for SMBs. Still others acquired mid-range offerings EMC/Documentum from its OTG acquisition. Application service providers (ASP) sprung up all over the place purportedly to provide SMBs with enterprise applications online. Even small vendors chanted the “small is beautiful” mantra. Well, it all sounded good, but most SMBs found that these players paid them little more than lip service. If, in fact, their booming numbers did compensate in volume of smaller individual sales for the thinner margins they required, then IT vendors had their bases covered. But they weren’t going to promote and seed a market that might never materialize.
The fact is, says Tom Eid, principal analyst, Content, Communication and Collaboration, Gartner, “vendors pay more attention to larger companies in terms of marketing, providing advanced releases, and other benefits.” That’s because “SMBs do not buy technology—instead, they tend to buy solutions that solve their business problems,” says Sanjeev Aggarwal, senior analyst, Small and Medium Business Strategies, Yankee Group. In other words, SMBs don’t madly pursue the state-of-the-art because the generally lack the funds and/or IT resources. They buy solutions that do things like help them be more profitable, cut costs, and be more efficient.
Most vendors have given SMBs pretty short shrift. That's got to change--content management is a good place to start.
Long thought of as the second-class citizens of IT, small-tomedium- businesses (SMBs) drew the focus of major and mid-range IT vendors alike in the late 1990s for a number of reasons. First, the era of big, enterprise installed applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) seemed about over. SAP and other vendors had saturated the high end of the customer base and needed to go downmarket. Second, the SMB market was supposed to dramatically outgrow the Global 2000 market in the next 10 years. Third, in order for those new SMBs to compete with G2000s, they would need to adopt technologies that would level the playing field with G2000s—specifically, Internet and Web content management technologies that allow the creation of virtual storefronts with customer service.
Major players like Microsoft launched new divisions supposedly devoted to serving SMBs. Others like IBM with its Express line, debuted mid-range versions of older enterprise products for SMBs. Still others acquired mid-range offerings EMC/Documentum from its OTG acquisition. Application service providers (ASP) sprung up all over the place purportedly to provide SMBs with enterprise applications online. Even small vendors chanted the “small is beautiful” mantra. Well, it all sounded good, but most SMBs found that these players paid them little more than lip service. If, in fact, their booming numbers did compensate in volume of smaller individual sales for the thinner margins they required, then IT vendors had their bases covered. But they weren’t going to promote and seed a market that might never materialize.
The fact is, says Tom Eid, principal analyst, Content, Communication and Collaboration, Gartner, “vendors pay more attention to larger companies in terms of marketing, providing advanced releases, and other benefits.” That’s because “SMBs do not buy technology—instead, they tend to buy solutions that solve their business problems,” says Sanjeev Aggarwal, senior analyst, Small and Medium Business Strategies, Yankee Group. In other words, SMBs don’t madly pursue the state-of-the-art because the generally lack the funds and/or IT resources. They buy solutions that do things like help them be more profitable, cut costs, and be more efficient.
FT.com / Home UK / UK - Notebook computers to go
FT.com / Home UK / UK - Notebook computers to go
Notebook computers to go
By Paul Taylor
Published: April 18 2008 03:00 | Last updated: April 18 2008 03:00
Those with long memories and large coat pockets may recall the "sub-notebook" PCs of the 1990s and early 2000s, such as Psion's Series 7, Toshiba's Libretto, Compaq's Contura Aero and Olivetti's Quaderno.
The concept is making a comeback as a high-performance, "ultra-portable" device that slots neatly in between full-size laptops and hybrid devices such as the HTC Shift ( www.htc.com ) with its tilting 7in touch screen, slide-out qwerty keyboard and built-in 3G cellular data connection.
Asus, the Taiwanese PC-maker, has scored an unexpected hit with the Asus Eee PC ultra-portable notebook, with prices starting at £183 in the UK. The Eee PC, based on Intel's ClassmatePC project, is designed to run internet-based applications and was targeted at the education market. But it has been snapped up by mobile professionals looking for a low-cost portable device with a reasonable, albeit somewhat cramped, qwerty keyboard.
The basic Eee PC, which went on sale last October, was built round a Linux operating system, with solid-state flash memory storage rather than a spinning hard drive, Wi-Fi networking and a bright 7in screen - all weighing less than 2lb (0.9kg). (Asus has now ex-panded the range to include a Windows XP machine and others with greater storage.)
But what differentiates the Eee PC from tablet-size "ultra-mobile" PCs such as Samsung's U1 and from mobile internet devices such as OQO's Model O1 are its traditional clamshell design, touch pad -pointing device and near- full-size qwerty keyboard. With Asus expecting to sell up to 5m Eee PCs this year, other PC-makers have begun to take notice.
I have been testing one of the first direct rivals, Hewlett-Packard's HP 2133 Mini-Note PC, launched in the US and elsewhere 10 days ago. Like the Eee PC, the Mini-Note ( www.hp.com ) offers a choice of operating system including Linux and Windows Vista Business. It costs from £388 in the UKfor the basic version with 512KB of Ram, a 1GHz Via processor and SuSe Linux.
My $599 test model came with Windows Vista Home Basic, a 1.2GHz Via C7-M microprocessor, 1GB of Ram and an 8.9in widescreen display. Unlike the Eee PC, its 120GB hard drive is standard.
The Mini-Note is designed to appeal equally to students and cost-conscious business travellers tired of carrying a heavy laptop. It measures 10.04in wide by 6.5in deep by 1.05in thick (255 x 165 x 27mm) - smaller than most hardback novels - and weighs about 2.8lb (1.27kg) with the standard three-cell battery. An optional six-cell battery doubles the battery life to about four hours and elevates the back of the PC to create a convenient angle for typing. This raises the weight to about 3.3lb.
The Mini-Notes's size is determined by the cleverly designed qwerty keyboard with big keys, and the LCD (liquid crystal display) panel bordered by stereo speakers and a 1.3 megapixel webcam. With an elegant and durable brushed aluminium case, the Mini-Note has the look and feel of a machine several times its price. This is a device almost anyone - male or female - would feel comfortable carrying in one hand.
Its sturdiness is more than skin-deep. HP has built the Mini-Note around a magnesium alloy support structure and included the company's HP 3D DriveGuard to help protect the hard drive and its data.
Other features include a mini-touch pad with "scroll zone" for navigation, although the mouse buttons on either side of the pad are awkward. The Mini-Note has all the standard ports and connectivity options including integrated Wi-Fi, optional Bluetooth and the option to add a broadband wireless data card in an express card slot.
The low-power Via processor and integrated Via graphics sub-system do a good job driving the system, butgenerate a lot of heat that can make the Mini-Note uncomfortable to hold on a lap for long periods.
Most users should find the 120GB hard drive adequate, although HP offers a 160GB option as well as a 4GB flash memory for Linux-based systems and a 64GB SSD (solid state drive) version for those who need faster, more reliable storage.
Overall, despite a few niggles, I am impressed by the HP Mini-Note. It provides value for money and is a worthy competitor for Asus.
I have also been looking at the HTC Shift. At 800g, it is smaller and lighter than the Eee PC and the Mini-Note, and may be ideally suited to mobile internet access.
The model I have been testing is powered by an 800MHz Intel processor. It has 1GB of Ram and a 40GB hard drive, comes with a 7in 800 by 400 pixel touch-sensitive display and is running Windows Vista Business. It also has a built-in 3G wireless data card, WiFi networking and Bluetooth connectivity.
Stand-out featuresinclude the clever way its screen slides up and tilts to reveal a mini-qwerty keyboard. Its SnapVue technology provides quick, easy access to e-mail and SMS text messaging without the need to fire up Windows.
I am not sure I would feel comfortable leaving my laptop at home and taking the Shift on a long business trip, but I found it great for my daily commute. The Mini-Note is a far more rounded machine that should please most users, including students and business people.
When a full-size laptop is just too heavy
Q. I want an ultra-mobile device that I can use while travelling. What are my options? You could consider a qwerty- based smartphone, provided you do not intend to do too much typing. Alternatively, take a look at a larger device such as the HTC Shift that comes with a reasonably large touch screen, a qwerty keyboard suitable for two-finger "hunt-and-peck" typing and Windows Vista.
Q. How about a sub-notebook device such as the Asus Eee PC or HP 2133 Mini-Note? Both provide a good alternative to lugging around a full-size laptop. They are a fraction of the price and ideally suited for running basic office productivity software and web applications. The Mini-Note is particularly attractive, especially when paired with a plug-in wireless broadband card.
Q. What about a lightweight laptop with a full-size screen? If you plan on doing heavy duty office work, gaming or running processor-intensive multimedia options, ultra-light laptops such as the ThinkPad X300 are probably the best bet. But be prepared for a relatively hefty price tag.
paul.taylor@ft.com Paul Taylor tackles your high-tech problems and queries at www.ft.com/gadgetguru
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Notebook computers to go
By Paul Taylor
Published: April 18 2008 03:00 | Last updated: April 18 2008 03:00
Those with long memories and large coat pockets may recall the "sub-notebook" PCs of the 1990s and early 2000s, such as Psion's Series 7, Toshiba's Libretto, Compaq's Contura Aero and Olivetti's Quaderno.
The concept is making a comeback as a high-performance, "ultra-portable" device that slots neatly in between full-size laptops and hybrid devices such as the HTC Shift ( www.htc.com ) with its tilting 7in touch screen, slide-out qwerty keyboard and built-in 3G cellular data connection.
Asus, the Taiwanese PC-maker, has scored an unexpected hit with the Asus Eee PC ultra-portable notebook, with prices starting at £183 in the UK. The Eee PC, based on Intel's ClassmatePC project, is designed to run internet-based applications and was targeted at the education market. But it has been snapped up by mobile professionals looking for a low-cost portable device with a reasonable, albeit somewhat cramped, qwerty keyboard.
The basic Eee PC, which went on sale last October, was built round a Linux operating system, with solid-state flash memory storage rather than a spinning hard drive, Wi-Fi networking and a bright 7in screen - all weighing less than 2lb (0.9kg). (Asus has now ex-panded the range to include a Windows XP machine and others with greater storage.)
But what differentiates the Eee PC from tablet-size "ultra-mobile" PCs such as Samsung's U1 and from mobile internet devices such as OQO's Model O1 are its traditional clamshell design, touch pad -pointing device and near- full-size qwerty keyboard. With Asus expecting to sell up to 5m Eee PCs this year, other PC-makers have begun to take notice.
I have been testing one of the first direct rivals, Hewlett-Packard's HP 2133 Mini-Note PC, launched in the US and elsewhere 10 days ago. Like the Eee PC, the Mini-Note ( www.hp.com ) offers a choice of operating system including Linux and Windows Vista Business. It costs from £388 in the UKfor the basic version with 512KB of Ram, a 1GHz Via processor and SuSe Linux.
My $599 test model came with Windows Vista Home Basic, a 1.2GHz Via C7-M microprocessor, 1GB of Ram and an 8.9in widescreen display. Unlike the Eee PC, its 120GB hard drive is standard.
The Mini-Note is designed to appeal equally to students and cost-conscious business travellers tired of carrying a heavy laptop. It measures 10.04in wide by 6.5in deep by 1.05in thick (255 x 165 x 27mm) - smaller than most hardback novels - and weighs about 2.8lb (1.27kg) with the standard three-cell battery. An optional six-cell battery doubles the battery life to about four hours and elevates the back of the PC to create a convenient angle for typing. This raises the weight to about 3.3lb.
The Mini-Notes's size is determined by the cleverly designed qwerty keyboard with big keys, and the LCD (liquid crystal display) panel bordered by stereo speakers and a 1.3 megapixel webcam. With an elegant and durable brushed aluminium case, the Mini-Note has the look and feel of a machine several times its price. This is a device almost anyone - male or female - would feel comfortable carrying in one hand.
Its sturdiness is more than skin-deep. HP has built the Mini-Note around a magnesium alloy support structure and included the company's HP 3D DriveGuard to help protect the hard drive and its data.
Other features include a mini-touch pad with "scroll zone" for navigation, although the mouse buttons on either side of the pad are awkward. The Mini-Note has all the standard ports and connectivity options including integrated Wi-Fi, optional Bluetooth and the option to add a broadband wireless data card in an express card slot.
The low-power Via processor and integrated Via graphics sub-system do a good job driving the system, butgenerate a lot of heat that can make the Mini-Note uncomfortable to hold on a lap for long periods.
Most users should find the 120GB hard drive adequate, although HP offers a 160GB option as well as a 4GB flash memory for Linux-based systems and a 64GB SSD (solid state drive) version for those who need faster, more reliable storage.
Overall, despite a few niggles, I am impressed by the HP Mini-Note. It provides value for money and is a worthy competitor for Asus.
I have also been looking at the HTC Shift. At 800g, it is smaller and lighter than the Eee PC and the Mini-Note, and may be ideally suited to mobile internet access.
The model I have been testing is powered by an 800MHz Intel processor. It has 1GB of Ram and a 40GB hard drive, comes with a 7in 800 by 400 pixel touch-sensitive display and is running Windows Vista Business. It also has a built-in 3G wireless data card, WiFi networking and Bluetooth connectivity.
Stand-out featuresinclude the clever way its screen slides up and tilts to reveal a mini-qwerty keyboard. Its SnapVue technology provides quick, easy access to e-mail and SMS text messaging without the need to fire up Windows.
I am not sure I would feel comfortable leaving my laptop at home and taking the Shift on a long business trip, but I found it great for my daily commute. The Mini-Note is a far more rounded machine that should please most users, including students and business people.
When a full-size laptop is just too heavy
Q. I want an ultra-mobile device that I can use while travelling. What are my options? You could consider a qwerty- based smartphone, provided you do not intend to do too much typing. Alternatively, take a look at a larger device such as the HTC Shift that comes with a reasonably large touch screen, a qwerty keyboard suitable for two-finger "hunt-and-peck" typing and Windows Vista.
Q. How about a sub-notebook device such as the Asus Eee PC or HP 2133 Mini-Note? Both provide a good alternative to lugging around a full-size laptop. They are a fraction of the price and ideally suited for running basic office productivity software and web applications. The Mini-Note is particularly attractive, especially when paired with a plug-in wireless broadband card.
Q. What about a lightweight laptop with a full-size screen? If you plan on doing heavy duty office work, gaming or running processor-intensive multimedia options, ultra-light laptops such as the ThinkPad X300 are probably the best bet. But be prepared for a relatively hefty price tag.
paul.taylor@ft.com Paul Taylor tackles your high-tech problems and queries at www.ft.com/gadgetguru
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Thursday, April 17, 2008
ERP/SCM: FT.com / Companies / IT - US fears weigh on Sage shares
ERP/SCM: FT.com / Companies / IT - US fears weigh on Sage shares
US fears weigh on Sage shares
By Tim Bradshaw
Published: April 15 2008 03:00 | Last updated: April 15 2008 03:00
Sage shares fell yesterday despite the software group stating that first-half results would be in line with market expectations.
Analysts' average expectations estimate sales for the six months to March 31 will be £617m, with earnings before interest, tax and amortisation of £145m.
Sage shares fell 6.1p to 192.4p, partly because of concerns about the prospects for a recovery in its US healthcare business and fears that a slowing US economy will hold back IT spending.
But analysts at Merrill Lynch said the "in-line" statement was encouraging given weaker results from Intuit, Sage's US rival, in February. About 70 per cent of Sage's revenues are classified as recurring, which analysts said should provide some insulation from broader economic fluctuations. Tim Bradshaw
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
US fears weigh on Sage shares
By Tim Bradshaw
Published: April 15 2008 03:00 | Last updated: April 15 2008 03:00
Sage shares fell yesterday despite the software group stating that first-half results would be in line with market expectations.
Analysts' average expectations estimate sales for the six months to March 31 will be £617m, with earnings before interest, tax and amortisation of £145m.
Sage shares fell 6.1p to 192.4p, partly because of concerns about the prospects for a recovery in its US healthcare business and fears that a slowing US economy will hold back IT spending.
But analysts at Merrill Lynch said the "in-line" statement was encouraging given weaker results from Intuit, Sage's US rival, in February. About 70 per cent of Sage's revenues are classified as recurring, which analysts said should provide some insulation from broader economic fluctuations. Tim Bradshaw
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
Monday, April 14, 2008
KMWorld.com: What’s the New Face of Knowledge Management?
KMWorld.com: What’s the New Face of Knowledge Management?
Here’s a shocker: There was a time when knowledge management wasn’t very well accepted. The early proponents—self-described "global, big-picture" thinkers—made a critical strategic error. By overloading the significance of KM with visions of utopian "transparent organizations" and "corporate agility," they gave the reigning executives of the day the perfect exit route. Had they simply asked for technology support for certain broken business processes (as many did, but not all), they probably would have gained a fair share of executive buy-in. But instead they insisted on weighing down the conversation with talk of "the sharing organization." To which, the typical executive simply replied: "We already have sharing technology. We have networks, and file shares. We have email. We have meetings. Why should I spend more money to do something we are already doing?"
Here’s a shocker: There was a time when knowledge management wasn’t very well accepted. The early proponents—self-described "global, big-picture" thinkers—made a critical strategic error. By overloading the significance of KM with visions of utopian "transparent organizations" and "corporate agility," they gave the reigning executives of the day the perfect exit route. Had they simply asked for technology support for certain broken business processes (as many did, but not all), they probably would have gained a fair share of executive buy-in. But instead they insisted on weighing down the conversation with talk of "the sharing organization." To which, the typical executive simply replied: "We already have sharing technology. We have networks, and file shares. We have email. We have meetings. Why should I spend more money to do something we are already doing?"
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