Move yourself!

People connect!

2007-07-13T15:03:00.001-07:00

We're facing nowadays a enormous boom of any kind of online communities, ranging from the typical ones of contacts and dating services (normally making money by subscription methods) to professional ones (e.g. LinkedIn) or friendship ones (e.g. Facebook). I tried myself several of these communities and you realize that it becomes annoying having to sign in for every different interface. Finally you end up choosing the ones with the most appealing interface, the ones where most of your friends/contacts are, etc.

But when you loot at the amounts paid for some of those projects and the ones that are being at stake for the buyout of companies like Facebook, that makes us think at first hand about the "bubble burst" of 2000. Are they really profitable? Their model is subsidizing users (the only way to attract thousands of them everyday), and their main revenue is (again) advertising. But the power that lays behind them is their biggest asset: the number of customers that are using their services 'loyally'. If we imagine the amount of potential customers and the amount of data that they have from them (those non-confidential), we can easily realize their capabilities.

There are also theories that explain that any person in the world can contact any other person by six degrees of separation (six persons that know one or tow members of the chain till reaching the other side of the link). In the end that is leveraging the advantages of socialization, networking and the needs of people to communicate in a global world!

The lords of the media

2007-07-06T14:23:00.001-07:00

The concept of 'prosumer' joins in the same person the consumers with the producers of content. Users are today being the producers of content for free, and then it's indexed, classified and broadcasted by lots of sites widespread around the world. Each time advertising is more targeted and internet companies knor more about the users and their consumer habits. This video also bets for the concentration of the industry where there will be a few big players.

There are others futuristic scenarios on the web that try to anticipate how the mid-term future is going to be. They also predict the big players will unite their power to create the owners of the information and the future media...

Google controls the world...

2007-06-29T13:24:00.001-07:00

There’s a saying by the founder of Unilever: "Half my advertising is wasted but I don't know which half". Nowadays targeted advertising is much more developed than in the era of the old media. Google is a good example of an enabler for this change. We can start thinking about the great amount of information that this company is able to handle: tastes and preferences of users, purchasing habits… So Google has the key to a much more predictable and useful marketing.

But Google ‘domination’ is not only that it is the world’s main info controller, the plans stated in the wall inside its Palo Alto offices clearly state that they plan to expand their tentacles even to the moon. In that way they’re switching from the digital world that made them almost mythical, to the analog ‘real’ world… Do you fear anything?

Donate tech

2007-06-22T14:03:00.001-07:00

Let’s reflect today on the unselfish actions of the techie companies. Part of their Corporate Social Responsibility plan or not, and being done just to give a good external image or not, we can say that this type of actions have in the end a positive impact... Bill Gates for example is recognized, apart from being the richest man in the world, to be the biggest donor as well. One can think that with the amount of money that he owns that’s easy, but that’s a biased point of view… There are many other fortunes in this world that don’t even do this…

Apart from that there’s an initiative in Spain named ‘Project Dono’ where a tech NGO that is in charge of distributing products donated by Microsoft and Cisco to NGO’s and qualified foundations based in Spain to benefit from this project. The products are: operating system software, office software, publishing software and products for servers. The benefited associations have to comply with certain criteria and have to bear the administrative costs. They save a total of 96% of the market costs. It’s a way of helping these associations by giving them technology infrastructure to support their activities. A nice move from Microsoft to also improve their public image?

Get a (virtual) life

2007-06-15T14:44:00.000-07:00

Have you ever played to the Sims? Well, it’s a not so accurate comparison but it’s maybe the most similar one. Because Second Life is a virtual world, but online and with thousands of users living at the same time and interacting 24x7. I started ‘testing’ it some days ago and last week we had the opportunity of having a meeting inside the amphitheatre created by my business school, Instituto de Empresa. We were discussing the opportunities for virtual learning inside Second Life, but we realized that the application has still room for improvement, but great possibilities.

Another interesting phenomenon inside Second Life is the business created around them. Big companies and multinationals have created spaces inside Second Life, creating brand awareness. The first initiative within Spain has been Novatierra, which provides rooms and spaces for private companies to hold meetings inside Second Life. And more to come… How do you see this evolving…?

Plug & touch

2007-06-08T14:38:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has recently launched Microsoft Surface, a product that is a service itself. It consists on a solution that works as a personal computer but the interface is tactile and very friendly. Usability becomes key in such applications. By this way they can make technology more accessible to those people that don’t feel comfortable when interacting with computers and other gadgets. Anyway, although this application is being aimed to the business segment, with this application Microsoft is also tackling the home connectivity business (easy: no keyboard nor mouse).

As you could read in the previous paragraph, we have named several concepts at the same time: product, service and application. Product in this example with ‘Surface’ could be more understood as the hardware itself and its features, which are assembled and executed by different applications. While the service could be defined at a higher level, like something more abstract that explains the purpose or the outcomes of the technology applied. How would you define the distinction between these different words?

Duel of the techie titans

2007-06-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

Every sport fan likes always to watch the greatest teams playing, like a Real Madrid vs. FC Barcelona game. Even if they’re not in their best playing moment, at least there’s always the curiosity and interest of watching two giant rivals playing. This last week, the techie world could witness the meeting of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs included in a conference promoted by “All Things Digital”.

Both top executives didn’t appear together since the beginning of the nineties, when both have bee in the leading edge of the industry since the end of the seventies… However there was no battle as such, but more the mutual acknowledge of their successes. It was also a moment to take a look back to memories thirty years ago, and how things have changes since then! In the end we have the opportunity of having a conversation between two real legends that apart from the love & hate that they can generate, we can recognize that they accumulated important achievements and charisma.

TechIE Tuesday!: delivered

2007-05-25T02:23:00.001-07:00

This week we hosted in the Instituto de Empresa the "TechIE Tuesday!". The name is based on the gatherings of entrepreneurs and investors at the dawn of endless ideas in the world of internet. It was an initiative organized by the TechIE Club, the first 'big' event since its foundation. Firstly we had the opportunity of listening to Anil de Mello, from Mobuzz TV, a Spanish start-up that has an interesting proposal about internet TV. After, we hosted a panel session with presentations from Google, Vodafone and Zinkia, another Spanish start-up that is being successful creating original cartoons. This debate was moderated by our professor Enrique Dans.

Initiatives like this are examples of win-win scenarios. All the stakeholders get a benefit from the celebration of this event: the Instituto de Empresa appears as the host for student initiatives that gives it a good external image, the speakers and participant companies get visibility in an event in one of the top Business Schools, the attendants have the possibility of listening to top industry speakers for free, and the organizes have the possibility of learning from the experience to organizae an event like this, apart from the networking possibilities open to everyone.

Silicon Valley, not alley anymore...

2007-05-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

During the last week, I had the opportunity of participating in a trip to San Francisco included in my Management studies at the Instituto de Empresa Business School. It was a great opportunity to 'live' Silicon Valley, the most dynamic zone in the world for new technologies, internet, etc. and one of the models followed by other initiatives throughout the world. From our operations base in the Bay Area we could easily reach Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, ... and visit companies such as Google, Cisco, HP, Sun, Electronic Arts, Ideo, etc., including several conferences and workshops that were very profitable in terms of knowledge of this market.

Having a first-hand view from people inside the valley, we could experience the story of this area like if it were the history of a country: the beginning of dozens of start-ups in garages, the crack of 2000, the environment surrounded by entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, business angels, financial markets ready for ‘hype-type’ IPO’s, the workforce coming from Stanford, Berkeley, and each time more the very talented people coming from any part of the world, etc., makes the perfect formula for a success story that will still remain as one of the main references in the business world.

In search of the Paneuropean operator

2007-05-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

Blyk is a European venture that aims at creating a pan-European mobile operator. Have you ever dreamt of going anywhere in Europe using your cell phone, without caring which mobile operator is serving you and knowing that they’re not charging you high prices? Thinking in the GSM standard, widely spread in this continent, technically speaking that doesn’t pose a lot of difficulties.

Actually nowadays Vodafone is the operator with more national operators in Europe and could leverage this situation by implementing a true global and unique network. However they’re still keeping each local business separately while starting to unify some back office systems and offering special price plans to their customers to call abroad while using their network. At the same time Blyk is also proposing a different business model, based on being ad-funded. So customers would use their services for free but being receivers of advertising.

Our environment interacts

2007-05-04T12:51:00.000-07:00

The concept Ambient Intelligence (AmI) refers to idea that technologies, networks and computers surround people and interact with them. It’s like technologies being embedded in our environment like nature does and respond actively to changes around us and to our own requests. It requires the combination of different technologies: wireless, nanotechnology, biotechnology, sensors, etc.

Another topic related to this one is Human Computer Interaction: how are we going to communicate with machines in the near future? Are we going to accept the intrusive and invasive use of a different set of gadgets inside our everyday lives?

Music everywhere

2007-04-27T03:15:00.000-07:00

How many times have you thought that the music that you have in your computer could be played in the Hi-Fi system in the living room? Or maybe in your car? Well that’s becoming each time more a reality: wireless standards that allow equipment to understand each other in a fast way will drive it.

This is the beginning of a current that we’re going to see boosting in the coming years: convergence and user’s customization. Imagine what a user wants from the technology and plan your design for it. Another field that comes into place in this case is domotics, think about a single interface in your house where you define all the parameters that control any single device. Do you fear that all the machines will talk inside your house?

Reshaping the music market

2007-04-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

The music industry is being suffering enormous changes in the last decade. Internet posed an interesting threat to a very well established and profitable market. Their traditional business model basically selling CDs was partially replaced by digital downloads via internet and more specifically through peer to peer file sharing applications. And then Intellectual Property Rights came into scene, until different protection systems appeared such as DRM. Steve Jobs, considered one of the best tech gurus, questioned the utility of such methods, and soon an agreement between EMI and Apple announced the appearance of music sold without DRM protection in exchange of an additional charge per song.

Undoubtedly, the power of users sharing music (not piracy of people selling it…) is difficult to control. So business models have to be redefined. And the ones that will adapt best to this scenario will be (are) the most successful. As normally artists get more revenue from concerts and merchandising that the sale of records itself, they should take profit of he huge power of internet to broad the reach of their music. However the record companies don’t want to lose their piece of cake. Talking about the possibilities of internet to promote new music talents, let’s take the example of ‘Sellaband’, a website that allows users to buy a kind of ‘virtual shares’ of new groups, and then if they get enough ‘investment’ the group will record a CD. The users that invested on them will get a discount to buy it and they’ll share a 50% of the revenue coming from this CD. Don’t you think that’s innovation and really taking this industry to the future rather than anchoring it in the past?

Stop the warming...

2007-04-13T09:25:00.000-07:00

Climate change is a very hot topic nowadays. It’s a very important issue, and the kind of problem that it’s not really taken into account until some consequences of its devastated effect are suffered. One of the main issues regarding the climate change is the information manipulation. People usually just see and/or believe what is broadcasted in the news and everything depends on what the ‘experts’ tell us. There’s an interesting awarded documentary talking about it: “An inconvenient truth”.

Internet is a very powerful information source, so in some way it has the responsibility of providing true information. But of course that’s not always like that, so users must learn to distinguish between real and fake information. Then which is the most trustful source? Like the web 2.0 spirit, oneself has the responsibility to be the chooser and disseminator of the real truths. And climate change should be among them. Here we have some basic advices to follow to do one's bit...

Playing telecom games

2007-04-06T03:19:00.000-07:00

Game theory has been widely used in very different subjects such as economics, politics, sociology, psychology, transportation, etc. It’s emplyed in situations where there is more than one player that has to take decisions interactively. Basically there are a limited number of players, a set of actions and an output function to be maximized for each player.

Game theory has induced a vast range of studies and some of them have tackled the communication systems. For example it has been used for wireless communications, in the case of calculating distributed power control, for example when the power transmitted by one cell affects the adjacent ones (here we have an example where there are several ‘decision makers’: several cells). Gaming, strategy and telecommunications at the same time …

Videoconference in three dimensions

2007-03-30T07:39:00.000-07:00

It’s neither a dream nor something that you find in an amusement park. 3D videoconference, also called 'telepresence', consists on creating a virtual image of the person at the other side of the line like if he or she were in our own room. Some related examples are 3D movies, which anyway are not having the spread of classical movies, probably because the industry is not concentrating their efforts on them, which might be spectacular but difficult to produce.

Some of the main big players in the industry are interested in this platform like Nortel, Cisco, Ericsson, Lucent, etc. If we compare this proposal with existing mobile videoconferencing, it seems there’s no much hype around this service over 3G networks: still not many people using it. However, if we think in today’s global world where lots of people travel around the world for business matters, don’t you think that these advances in videoconferencing can help to reduce the travel necessities and improve the quality of people’s personal life?

Cell cinema

2007-03-23T13:38:00.000-07:00

One of the main drawbacks of today's cell phone is its small screen and its limited capabilities when talking about visual content. However this situation is improving. Screen resolution and graphic processors are inevitably arriving to this industry.

There’s a company called Actimagine that patented a video codec that uses low power, therefore suitable for mobile and portable devices. There’s has been a recent launch with a Sony Ericsson phone and it seems that it’s just the beginning of a new era for mobile video. Do you imagine watching films in your while flying in your phone?

Video in your pocket

2007-03-16T13:05:00.001-07:00

DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting – Hanheld, there’s for example another version for Satellite) is a technology that enables efficient video transmission over the air. It uses IPDC (IP Datacasting). The idea is to offer a common standard and provide a useful harmonisation for the deployment of the mobile operators. The technology can be integrated in networks such as UMTS.

Video streaming is one of the most characteristic services that 3G networks can offer. The possibilities are quite varied and after the recent success of web initiatives like YouTube, we could say it’s a promising service. Now we should think about the revenue model for it. Users download video for free on the internet, and the industry is already talking about profitable advertising. Mobile video will have to differentiate to offer high quality content anywhere. And how is going to be the acceptance for this offer?

Telecom stars play together

2007-03-09T10:25:00.000-08:00

There’s an initiative called Telecommunications Platform Initiative, initiated by Sun MicroSystems in junction with Ericsson and Nokia. The idea is to create a standardized Platform to facilitate the integration of telecom equipment and improve the design, development and supply chain of the networks provided by the networks.

Standardization is fundamental for Telecommunications, and it’s interesting that some of the giants in this world partner to come up with a unique solution. But standards are good also for several other aspects of life. For example, the world is a “babel” of languages, but can you imagine what would happen if not all the world were using a decimal numbering system?

Communications in the sky

2007-03-02T15:36:00.000-08:00

Satellite communications are a lesser known means of telecommunication compared to fiber, DSL, wireless, etc. However their possibilities are quite wide. Their have a very broad reach, which makes them really suitable for broadcast applications like Satellite TV. For example, satellite TV is surviving and being profitable despite deploying costs are huge.

But what about transmitting personal communications? The problem is that in this case the capacity is limited because it depends on the number of total communications, while broadcasting uses a fixed bandwidth to transmit data in the downlink. At the same time it requires big power to be transmitted by the handsets… Actually attempts of creating mobile operators through satellites sunk. Now let’s fly with our imagination and think in a future with colonies in Mars and other planets… Then satellites could be the ‘fiber’ that interconnects the world nowadays. Hundreds of satellites deployed in the space acting as repeaters to link planets one to another, does it sound sci-fi?

Collaborate for 'humanity research': it's free!

2007-02-23T01:50:00.000-08:00

You may have heard about the SETI project, where it was asked for the collaborative union of the idle capacity of computers connected around the world to analyse vast amounts of information of signals captured from the space, searching for any extra-terrestrial communication. IBM is powering the project “World Community Grid” to contribute to different projects in humanity benefit (including AIDS, genome comparison, cancer, etc.). I have already tried it and the computer performance is not affected, try it!

There’s another curious initiative initiated in a University in Barcelona, where they want to take profit of the high capabilities of the Play Station 3 (20 times bigger that that of a normal computer). They’re researching molecular interactions that are useful for pharmaceutical research, and that requires very high calculation capabilities which become quite expensive. They discovered PS3 power and have started to recruit videogamers which can share the idle time of their consoles while connected to the internet.

Wireless world congress

2007-02-16T02:21:00.000-08:00

For the second year in a row, Barcelona has been the host city for the GSM World Congress, the biggest annual event of the GSM Association, which gathers almost one thousand members in the mobile industry. Each year, the main players in the arena dress up to astonish the telecom world: no one can be left behind.

This year one of the main actors has been the content producers and internet companies. Probably operators trust them a lot to boost their 3G networks. Another interesting point is the strong irruption of Chinese manufacturers, while other big players have switched part of their business to other activities more related to IT solutions providers. For those readers that are Spanish speakers, you can check the Vodafone blog for this Congress with some interesting topics. Apart from the convergence happening in this world, what would you expect for the future of wireless communications?

Squeezing the spectrum

2007-02-09T10:40:00.000-08:00

A more technical post today: let’s talk about ultra-wideband (UWB). The frequency spectrum for wireless communications is becoming quite scarce, and expensive for some operators… So it’s like a ‘natural resource’ with some slight differences: its amount is fixed and we know it (well, theoretically frequencies are infinitely extended, but other thing is that they are feasible), and their extensive use is not exhausting the resource nor polluting the environment…

UWB uses a very large bandwidth (more than 500 Mhz, imagine commercial UMTS mobile communications use carriers of 5Mhz…). And the more bandwidth tat is used, the more is the throughput. Although this is some kind of tricky because they have to use very high frequencies, and the range is very low Taking into account Shannon limit for the wireless channel, that states that the highest the bandwidth, the lower the signal to noise ratio required for a certain throughput. Also the emission levels permitted are relatively small. Therefore its main use will be for personal area networks.

Be an owner of the web

2007-02-02T10:45:00.000-08:00

Have you ever dreamt of owning the web? Do you want to get part of the cake that you generate while web browsing? Now you can do it with AGLOCO. I got to know it when reading to my ex-colleague in Nortel Javier Alvira, now MBA Candidate in Stanford. Actually it’s an idea born in Stanford Business School, the cradle of so many successful internet start-ups.

It works essentially with a Viewbar that is added to the bottom of your browser and allows you to get the benefit from the money generated by your searches, ads, and anti-fraud and other software utilities. The idea is to refer as much people as possible so you can get benefit also from their navigation and referrals. However the Viewbar is not still available, just as a beta tester. It is an original idea, attracting people with revenue, so it seems a nice move...

IP all around us

2007-01-26T01:53:00.000-08:00

IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) is a standard for Next Generation Networks (NGN) that will allow operators to offer different multimedia services: video retransmission, PTT (push-to-talk), instant messaging, presence indicator, etc. IMS entails using IP protocol for all the networks, independently of the access. It simplifies the structure so in the application level, there’s more freedom to provide ‘all-platform’ solutions.

Mobile operators are the customers for handset and network manufacturers, which are already offering this technology. And IMS offers them very big possibilities to leverage their 3G networks. And the questions are: how are they going to promote these services to really make them as extensive as possible? Talking about the flat rate model, by the one hand operators seem to be reluctant to impose it, but the market is asking for the flat rate and the idea of making people used to new services through this type of invoicing customers, what would you say?

Cyber Society

2007-01-19T12:23:00.000-08:00

Today we have an issue that might open our mind to different reflections and ideas about how new technologies and gadgets are changing our lives. Daniel Goleman is the well-known author of the books about Emotional Intelligence and more recently Social Intelligence. They are two interesting concepts that extend the concept of intelligence beyond the classic one. Both are linked and take into account the capacity of people to capture and manage emotions and social relation in a positive manner.

Now let’s turn these concepts into an application to the Digital Society that we have today, specially in big cities full of noise, rush and computerized systems. In our everyday life we see continuously examples of how people spend more time with their fashionable devices that allow them to listen to music, make photographs or play videogames. Some can argue that internet and seamless connectivity is allowing us to establish relations with people far away and make contact easier. However at the same time, don’t you think that the traditional way of living and contacting with the people we meet everyday in our way, is being put aside and substituted by these machines, our ‘new friends’? Where is all this going?

iPhone comes to rock the coolness world

2007-01-12T09:47:00.000-08:00

It's one of the main news in the new year for the telecom and IT sector: Apple finally decided to launch the iPhone. It's a ver cool (and expensive) gadget with the following characteristics: there's an option with 4 GB and other with 8 GB memory, a 3.5 inches tactile screen, a 2 megapixel photo camera, and connectivity through WiFi, Bluetooth and EDGE (GSM based). It's gonna be launched in the USA in June and planned for Europe in the end of this year.

For those of you also Spanish speakers you can find here two opinions from my Master mates Alex and Javier. Personally I see there's a big lack in the connectivity of the iPhone as it doesn't include 3G technologies. I would bet that at least for its European introduction it's going to be upgraded to include 3G connectivity. For example, Nokia N series already have very high capabilities as music reproducers, photo cameras, PDAs and they of course are 3G capable, one year before iPhone landing... Anyway, Apple is clearly leveraging its reputation with the iPod and its high design capabilities. Do you dare to make any predictions?

Low-cost laptops

2006-12-22T15:16:00.000-08:00

Reaching already Christmas and New Year’s time, while everybody rushes to big shopping malls to buy the last-minute presents, we can take a look to this news about a laptop that will be sold for 100$!

As you can see in the article, they’re called the ‘green computer’, and it can be used as a normal laptop or as an electronic book. First models are expected to be manufactured in February. MIT and United Nations are supporting the project, and also several high tech companies showed interest on it. Some different questions come to my mind at this moment: after the manufacturing, how do you make that these laptops reach the places that need this? Is all this initiative just a tactic that some companies carry out to get people’s attention? Here comes the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility that refers to corporate activities that respond to their responsibility towards the society and how they can contribute to social actions based on their capabilities. So ho much commitment can we expect from all the organizations involved in this project?

Back to the communications future

2006-12-15T09:58:00.000-08:00

Push to Talk (PTT) is a wireless technology that enables peer to peer communications similarly to a walkie-talkie. Do you remember or ever used one? Personally, I remember it as a toy when you receive the walkie-talkie for Christmas for example. Actually they’re initial wireless communications, replacing the rudimentary system made of two plastic glasses and a thread, which could represent our wired communications toy.

PTT is normally a half-duplex (one way) system that allows instant communications between systems, using the carrier’s packet network (actually a VoIP solution is one of the alternatives). It means that you’re only allowed to talk when no one else is doing so, and while pressing the button of your terminal. After all the fancy cell phones with new capabilities that flood the market, don’t you think that this service is like coming back some years ago to ages where you couldn’t contact your friends when they were out of their homes? Anyway PTT is working and it has already been launched in different countries.

Today's library of Alexandria

2006-12-08T14:29:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest undertakings of Google is to digitize the books and documents from the most important libraries around the world. This is in accordance with their vision of organizing all the information in the world and making it accessible. Today, only 15 % of the information worldwide is available on the internet, less than what you expected?

The application behind this is called “Google Book Search”. However this is a huge task and not free of complications. Imagine taking ancient printings and manage to scan and convert them into digital documents. But this is also an initiative that aims to give people in less developed countries the possibility to accede to information that maybe otherwise couldn’t because they don’t have a library close to them. And with a computer and a click, you can do it now. But you may think: how Google does business out of this, and are they entering traditional book sellers business? More than that, they’re re-directing traffic to their sites and all this is just quite aligned with their vision stated above. What is next for Google?

Pay wireless

2006-12-01T11:12:00.000-08:00

Why mobile commerce (m-commerce) is not boosting and is not being adopted by most users? Cell phone penetration is being very high, sometimes over 100%. So, why users don't really trust on using it instead of credit or debit cards? Well, is it a matter of trust? Security is one of the reasons, but today's mobile networks are quite secure at least like a credit card payment system. Another issue is the amount of places where you can pay with the phone, still not very extended... Also we can talk about the ease of use of this payment method. Is it really easy for not tech-friendly users?

But actually I'd say that one of the main problems is the small involvement of the companies in the sector. There are the shops and the banks, as well as card issuers, and apart from this we have the service enablers. Maybe there are too many players? The key question: would you be eager to pay using your phone, and why?

The TechIE fellowship

2006-11-24T22:53:00.000-08:00

This week, I have a more 'personal' post. I'll talk about the Instituto de Empresa Business School, where I'm studying Telecom Management since two months ago. IE is one of the top Business Schools in Spain and Europe, present in the best rankings worldwide. We have decided to start a "Tech Club" there. This is mainly aimed to promote the networking and interchange of ideas about IT and the Digital Business.

One of my friends told me once that he couldn't understand our Engineering, talking about waves that he cannot touch, see,... like the bridges that he may design. Well, that's not magic, that's physics enabling human communication. And around IT there's a lot of business and inter-relation with very different aspects of our life nowadays. As what I try to do in this blog, if you want to know more and understand this world in a simpler way, join the 'community'! Do you dare?

Internet.afr

2006-11-17T01:48:00.000-08:00

Today’s post might be a reflection in a loud voice. We know wealth is not equally distributed. And Africa is the main point everybody can look at. It might sound a little futile to talk about internet access in Africa, when lots of people are starving, not having basic Maslow’s pyramid needs covered…

But that’s what I read in this article, and just the first phrase shows us the great digital divide: African users must pay 90 times more than US ones! Not fair at all, in that way for example, how could they be able to access online education? Maybe that’s still a too far objective… but education is basic for the progress of these nations and to confront the evils that happen there. And that doesn’t mean that a bad usage of internet could bring more evils… Although the primary task is to ease accessibility to people, after they get more food first…

Users rule the web

2006-11-10T10:24:00.000-08:00

Probably, if you’re reading this, you ever used Second Life, or LinkedIn, or MySpace… Also you may know that then you’re part of the web 2.0. Basically, we could consider that web 1.0 is the way we used internet since its beginning, being a passive receiver of information, while now we can become a very active part of the web.

And all this is creating a wave for new businesses and new models. Most of them have online advertisement as one of the main source of income. And they are also looking for other sources of revenue. Or course some are asking for membership fees, or special services charges. Would you be willing to pay for one of these online social networks and what is the extra value you get from this decision?

Wide Wireless World

2006-11-03T14:53:00.000-08:00

What do you want wires for? It’s not only that they occupy a space in our room, house, etc, neither that they are not the most fashionable way of decorating your house… It’s also that you can go to spend the afternoon to the park and have connectivity to anywhere in the world with your laptop and your phone for example.

Doesn’t that sound great? Well, it’s still in developing process. The reliability and speed of today’s fixed lines (DSL, cable, etc.) cannot be comparable to the wireless ones. But soon wireless technologies such as ‘Beyond 3G’ and WiMAX (although still to be proven their feasibility) will hit the ground.

A new technology has appeared into the scene: xG, a low power and long range system. It’s said that it transmits data 3 times faster than other technologies, at the same power and frequency. As WiMAX, it needs still to be proven… Have you heard of other broadband technologies apart from the standardized ones?

Spread knowledge and share

2006-10-27T12:38:00.000-07:00

Did you ever dream of spreading the world's knowledge to every corner where connectivity is available? If people learn the basics of computers and web browsing, then they would be able to access to the largest 'library' ever. Actually, Google is trying since some time ago to scan all the books from important libraries around the world. An outstanding project.

And what about on-line education? If you ever took an online course or online studies, you can realize the strong and weak points of it. However, it should be a good option to work in this field to enhance the alphabetization of developing countries, don't you think so?

Apart from the well-known wikipedia, the Google guys are challenging this world with an outstanding inititative ("The Literacy Project") to fight against analphabetism and improve the inter-relation between the different organizations inside this movement. Another ‘bravo!’ for Google!

Innovation: wanted!

2006-10-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

Which is the maximum ‘megabits per second’ speed? (When) are the advances going to stop, when is it enough? The continuous technology change and advances are going sometimes faster than what people can ‘absorb’. So what is the future here?

Usability is one of the key factors today. Make gadgets and technologies accessible to all the people, whatever group, culture or factor. Make things simple for some of these groups could be a successful idea. Personalization will be a good marketing tool.

And of course, last but not least, let’s mention the famous ‘killer application’ (see one idea from Cisco) that will star the next telecom future? Or is not worth looking for it like the ‘search for the lost treasure’, as it has become a mixture of different services or ideas?

Converge to win

2006-10-13T13:15:00.000-07:00

One of the main movements within the telecommunications sector is the convergence . One of the examples is seen in the different functionalities included in one mobile terminal: music, video games, agenda, photo camera, etc. Don’t you prefer to have your gadgets 'all-in-one'?

Another example for this convergence is that of large operators, who are integrating the mobile subsidiaries into their structure. And which concept could we relate to that…? Triple-play, or better said, quadruple-play (named ‘grand slam’ as well). That is the combination in one unique offer of a bundle of services: phone calls, television, internet, and also mobile phone calls. Also we talked before about VoIP: having voice over packtes is another form of convergence to achieve to transmit everything through data networks (all-IP). What other examples of convergence can you think about?

Paradoxically, it has been recently alerted that the internet is experiencing a kind of ‘divergence’, based on the idea that different ‘nets’ could arise soon. For example, Asia is going to become one of the biggest markets, but their users will prefer to visit pages in their language rather than with Latin characters. This issue is as well related to the ‘net neutrality’ phenomenon that we wrote about in the last post, as the keeping the neutrality of the internet is a way of not diverging it. Do you dare to predict the future of the ‘global internet’?

Knocking down the 'digital divide' wall

2006-10-06T07:30:00.000-07:00

One of the main challenges for today's global telecommunications is to 'bridge' the digital divide between different countries, cultural groups, etc. Sometimes we hear statistics about the penetration of information technologies such as internet, and gadgets such as the mobile telephones.

Tackling that is one initiative promoted by Intel, with its 'Intel World Ahead Program'. By facilitating the access of less favored people to personal computers, they want to create a technological infrastructure that can be later on capable of connecting people, where before there was perhaps just an old telephone cabin...

There are other private companies that put their efforts in recycling terminals and equipment. With the synergies and summoning ability of big high-tech multinationals and similar foundations altogether, the results could be really sensitive. A good organization and collaboration from host countries, as well as a strict non-corruption policy, should be essential ingredients for the formula. Do you think that big corporations could at least agree on such matters?

Neutrality or Net-reality

2006-09-29T05:27:00.000-07:00

The debate is already burning in the internet world. Telecom operators are already asking to charge more to customer’s whose use of their network is intensive. Today peer to peer file sharing, content downloads, etc. are loading the networks with high traffic volumes. This issue is known as Net Neutrality.

So operators claim that companies such us Google, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, etc. are making business from internet use that is allowed by their networks. Actually it’s clear that the operators make networks and connectivity possible, but they already get paid for it. And contents, which give the value to the networks, are provided by groups like the mentioned ones before. What is the best solution to this dilemma?

Also, this can be related to the idea of free content and services within internet. We’re used to have free email, free instant messaging, free voice calls over IP, etc. This is making people getting used to no cost as well as is one of the keys of the success of the internet. How can business get done then, will users become keener to pay for high value web services?

Do you VoIP?

2006-09-22T04:02:00.000-07:00

It's already becoming something even 'old' to talk about it, but VoIP is involving some remarkable changes in communications. Using programmes such as Skype, users are getting used to make phone calls for free. VoIP is one of the causes that fixed telephone call rates are decreasing even to very low limits, so they're now focusing on broadband services like ADSL. But how much traffic do operators lose due to these new VoIP applications? Or maybe there's more traffic because they're for free... We have to say that VoIP is especially helpful for long distance calls.

Then we get to the point of measuring the value of money and how much are users ready to pay for telecom services, or better: how much are they used to pay? For instance, we're 'used' to have email for free since it was born, and that's one of the reasons for its success. But for example SMS are not for free... So telecoms are facing the fight for revenue. If users are generating a monthly ARPU, what can you offer them so they become convinced that they can pay more for high value added services? Which is the limit for this ARPU? Users tend to switch to cheaper applications, and that's normal, but how will this affect the IT business, the revenues and the expense in innovation?

Returning to voice, the combination of VoIP with WiFi is what threatens the current model. Having voice with mobility is what turned to be the success of technologies such as GSM. But full mobility is not easy to achieve, that's why current voice operators and their massive network deployments have still much to say. What can arise from this competition of technologies is new business models such as the flat rate for mobile calls as it is today for fixed communications.

Is roaming cheaper ?!

2006-09-15T05:49:00.000-07:00

The EU Commission has proposed to cut the roaming tariffs that mobile operators were charging to their customers when traveling within the EU territory. This has created controversial reactions from different sides. Logically, mobile operators are showing their opposition to this initiative as it reduces significantly this type of income. National regulators have also taken part in the issue claiming their involvement in these cases. For example the Spanish regulator was in favour of the operators arguing that they have to invest to give coverage to the increase of customers in tourist zones of the country, that become very populated specially in summer.

So by one side the EU Commission wanted to reduce to the minimum these roaming rates, to ideally being similar to the ones for calls inside the country of origin. In the opposite side, groups as the GSM Association defended the operators' view and stated that these measures were unfair.

Certainly, the roaming charges that the European users 'suffer' are quite high, multiplying by several times the ones that they have at their home countries. Which is your case for the roaming tariffs in other parts of the world?

Actually, if we think that in Europe GSM standard is widely used and it uses a centralized user locating system with VLR and HLR registers, why should it be so difficult to route these calls (apart from traffic interconnection between the two operators involved)? What do you think?

Share your bandwidth and roam the world!

2006-09-08T08:41:00.000-07:00

Wireless is becoming the preferred option for today's telecommunications. Although their deployment and operation are not an easy task, its advantages are huge: communication anywhere and anytime, and each time with better speed and reliability.

One of the interesting projects that is using WiFi as base technology is the Spanish-based start-up FON. Their aim is to create a wireless network from the personal WiFi connections that users have at their homes, offices, etc., mainly aiming at residential users. They have two main types of users, basically speaking: those who share part of their bandwidth in exchange of being able to use other subscriber's hot spot, and those who share their bandwidth in exchange of a charge (part of it for the company itself). So the more subscribers that join FON, the more gain for them, as they can get braodband wireless in more sites. For more information please check the FON blog link in the section in the right. The idea is remarkable and seems to be likely to be expanded more each time. Here you have some reflections about it, what do you think?:

- The mobility is limited because the coverage is not widely spread
- By now there's no possibility to roam between access points as each one is independent and maybe from different service providers
- The core network is owned by the service providers and they won't respond on any issues and queries from users
- Quality of service is not guaranteed
- Security can be a vulnerable point

Please share with us if you know of any other innitiatives around the world similar to FON, or let us know your comments regarding any of the ideas displayed here!