The document discusses the transformative impact of digital disruptions on 21st-century business practices, driven by advances in technology and new media. It identifies seven key digital disruptions, including new media, living in a new reality, and social power, emphasizing their effect on business models and societal behavior. The report aims to provide insights on these trends to help organizations effectively leverage technology for competitive advantage.

1. Technology Innovations
Powering 21st Century Business
Leading Edge Forum
2008
Digital
Disruptions
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2. DIGTAL TRUST | LEADING
ABoUT THE VoL. 8 EDGE FoRUM LEA DI NG EDGE FoRU M
As part of CSC’s Office of Innovation, the Leading Edge Forum to provoke conversations in the marketplace about the potential
(LEF) is a global community whose programs help participants for innovation when applying technology to help advance
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LEF members work to spot key emerging business and technology
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these trends for business advantage. Members enjoy access to that helps CIOs and senior business executives develop into
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LEF LEADERSHIP
WILLIAM KoFF
PAUL GUSTAFSoN Vice President and Chief Technology Officer,
Director, Leading Edge Forum Office of Innovation
Paul Gustafson is an accomplished technologist and proven Bill Koff is a leader in CSC’s technology community, providing
leader in emerging technologies, applied research and strategy. vision and direction as vice president and chief technology officer
As director of the Leading Edge Forum, Paul brings vision and for the office of Innovation. Bill plays a key role in guiding CSC
leadership to a portfolio of programs that make up the LEF and research, innovation, technology thought leadership and alliance
directs the technology research agenda. Astute at recognizing partner activities, and in certifying CSC’s Centers of Excellence
technology trends, how they interrelate, and their implications and Innovation Centers. He advises CSC and its clients on criti-
for business, Paul brings his insights to bear on client strategy, cal information technology trends, technology innovation and
CSC research, leadership development and innovation strategy. strategic investments in leading edge technology. A frequent
He has published numerous papers and articles on strategic speaker on technology, architecture and management issues,
technology issues and speaks to executive audiences frequently Bill’s areas of interest include system architecture, digital disrup-
on these topics. tions, innovative uses of data, and the open source movement.
pgustafs@csc.com wkoff@csc.com

3. L E A D IN G E D G E Fo RU M DIGTAL TRUST | VoL. 8
Digital Disruptions Leading
Edge
Forum
2008
Technology Innovations
Powering 21st Century Business
CoNTENTS 2 Why Digital Is More Disruptive
4 New Media
We have met the new media, and it is us.
15 Living in a New Reality
We will blend physical and virtual reality, improving both.
27 Social Power
The power inherent in connected people surges.
36 Information Transparency
What is observed by one will be known to all.
47 New Wave of Waves
The sky is not the limit as spectrum goes digital.
59 Platform Makeover
This is not your father’s computing platform.
69 Smart(er) World
Smarter everything makes us smarter everywhere.
80 Thriving on Disruption
82 NoTES
93 ACKNoWLEDGMENTS
Get all LEF reports by subscribing to the LEF RSS feed: www.csc.com/lefpodcast
1

4. DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS LEA DI NG EDGE FoRU M
Why Digital is More Disruptive
over the centuries we have experienced at least a few principal disruptions play out, they will raise questions, alter behaviors,
disruptions to “business as usual” and “life as we know it,” trigger new business models, and ultimately become part of
including the Industrial Revolution, the Computer Revolution, the foundation of a new economy.
and most recently, the Internet Revolution. Though these
unstoppable and, for the most part, irreversible disruptions
have brought unprecedented economic growth, the digital
disruptions begun with the Internet’s launch at the end of the As these disruptions play out, they
20th century and responsible for a tremendous spike in global
will raise questions, alter behaviors,
productivity promise a second-round impact in the 21st century
that we can only begin to imagine. trigger new business models,
and ultimately become part of the
Digital disruptions are about information and communication
technologies that change business models deeply, and often foundation of a new economy.
shockingly. These disruptions, on par with the telephone and
automobile, transform the marketplace and society so completely
that it can take decades for their full effects to be realized.
The seven digital disruptions that will reshape 21st century
Clayton Christensen first introduced the notion of disruptive business are:
technologies in his seminal book The Innovator’s Dilemma. A
disruptive technology, in contrast to a sustaining technology, 1. New Media — old media was about stiff distribution channels,
introduces a very different value proposition than was previously big-studio creators and power brokers. New Media is about
available. Disruptive technologies are often not recognized by
1
flexible distribution channels, self-created content and broad
existing customers as something they need currently, so firms find participation. Content moves from isolation to interaction.
themselves facing a dilemma: if they listen to their customers and Creators are you and me. Distribution channels vary and
bypass the innovation, new entrants may swoop in and take over, overlap, so that TV comes over the Internet and vice versa.
often appealing to a different market first but then gradually taking Prime time and media-controlled broadcast and distribution
over the original market. Therefore, disruptive technologies need to are things of the past. When the Writers Guild of America
be considered from a market standpoint (what market values the went on strike to obtain royalties for digital viewings, the
new technology’s characteristics?), not a technology standpoint. chaos ignited by the strike — TV shows were cancelled, reruns
ran aplenty — showed that progress with new media will not
This report focuses on the latest disruptive technologies in necessarily move from business model A to business model
information and communication technologies. These digital B, but more likely from A to chaos to B. This is likely to be
disruptions are completely reshaping industry, much the way true for all the digital disruptions.
the music industry has been rocked in the last decade by the
advent of digital media. The seven disruptions identified in 2. Living in a New Reality — We can break free of the physical
this report are all at various stages of maturation and, like the world’s constraints by venturing into the virtual world.
music industry transformation, are works in progress. As these Augmented reality, a blending of the virtual and real, enables
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5. L E A D IN G E D G E Fo RU M DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS
us to move effortlessly in time and space, interact in new 6. Platform Makeover — Silicon has its limits, so it is only
ways, and experience things like never before. Participate in natural that new methods are being explored to provide
a real-world event like a NASA spacecraft landing. Fly across next-generation computation power, in many more places,
a weather map of the country to see where it’s raining. Host and with many more purposes than today’s computers.
a town hall meeting for 100,000 employees without anyone As the new methods emerge — nanotechnology, molecular
having to travel. Control your data center remotely. Learn computing, quantum computing, optical computing — they
from life-size virtual guides at a historic tourist site. The ability will challenge silicon-based business models and markets.
to visualize data from numerous sources in 3D will enhance one key disruption will be in cryptography. Quantum com-
learning and productivity beyond what we can imagine today. puting blows apart current encryption techniques, which are
effective because it takes a long time (hundreds of years) to
3. Social Power — Leveraging the power inherent in connected factor a large number and break an encryption scheme. A
people is disrupting how we locate and retain expertise, col- quantum computer can do it in seconds. When that day comes,
laborate, advertise, lend money and even listen to music. New everything that depends on encryption, from credit card
business strategies harnessing social power put a premium transactions to e-mail, will be wide open and unprotected
on relationships and what others say and do, and tap the viral until new security techniques are created.
capability of social networks as distribution channels for
advertising, software applications and more. Enterprises need 7. Smart(er) World — It doesn’t take long to point out what is
to “let people be people” and flex their social muscle at the “dumb” about our current technology landscape: applica-
office (with blog posts, social networks, etc.), but within tions that don’t understand what we mean, rapidly-changing
corporate guidelines for acting responsibly. With social technologies that don’t work well together, systems that
networks infiltrating the enterprise as well as becoming the crash for no known reason, computers that you “talk” to by
hub of one’s Internet experience, major disruptions are afoot. typing. A smart(er) technology landscape that understands
language and can reason is in the works. With that comes
4. Information Transparency — Information that was once cloaked innovations in knowledge gathering, decision making and
in darkness — inaccessible or nonexistent — is now available in predicting. Smart virtual assistants are the future of online
droves, shedding light on previously opaque people, processes customer service, disrupting labor-intensive call centers.
and things. This leads to more efficiency and fewer surprises, Semantics can be put to work to find expertise in the
and can redefine activities such as criminal investigations, enterprise, solving problems faster and averting crises.
product comparisons, driving patterns and, thanks to ubiqui- Semantics at the IT infrastructure level make services more
tous cameras, overseas hiring. When enterprises know where shareable and organizations more agile, since they can develop
their employees and assets are in real time, they can operate applications and manage change faster.
more safely and effectively. People are demanding access to
more data, on their terms, and this force will be disruptive as Many of the digital disruptions overlap, triggering new and
enterprises and government agencies work to respond. more powerful disruptions. Virtual worlds are the next frontier
for social networks. Social networks have a strong influence
5. New Wave of Waves — The communications infrastructure is on new media. Information transparency is a prerequisite
undergoing a major overhaul as the Internet and new radio for a smart(er) world. New waves are a key enabler of infor-
waves that are extending the Internet create platforms that mation transparency. New platforms will turbocharge all the
challenge the old regime. A general purpose communica- other disruptions.
tions utility has formed that obliterates the limited products
and services of telephony, TV and radio that used to ride This is an exciting time. In the pages that follow, we examine
on 20th century infrastructures. As spectrum opens up, and each disruption and its potential to redefine 21st century
spectrum allocation eventually falls by the wayside, the business. Forewarned is forearmed; explore with us what lies
air waves become fertile ground — some say “beachfront ahead and plan accordingly.
property” — for a vast array of new services from new
players, not just traditional operators. This sets up a perfect
storm for innovation, where it is not clear who the ultimate
winner will be except for the consumer.
3

6. DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS LEA DI NG EDGE FoRU M
neW MeDia
We have met the new media, and it is us.
When you’re on youTube, you’re looking new media in the to traditional media sources. The proviewer is prolific and
eye. The new media is the ordinary person — you and me — garners an enthusiastic, if narrow, following. The proviewer
creating and sharing life experiences through videos. It is the actively creates, modifies, shares and evaluates; this is “lean
citizen journalist, the blogger, the podcaster, the basement forward” rather than “lean back” media.
musician, the cell phone author. It is professional talent freed
from the vise of Big Media. New media is consumer-driven, Are we returning to our roots? Some say that the new media
interactive, social, customized and personal. People want to is renewing the art of personal storytelling.2 We are enter-
participate, and on their terms — their content, their schedule, taining each other individually and informing each other
their place. personally, not unlike how people communicated hundreds
of years ago.
New media is about entertainment and news — digital video,
audio and text — delivered for personal consumption and In conjunction with this, video is exploding. Video is often
customization, typically on a laptop, mobile phone, game considered the best way to tell a story or convey information,
box or hand-held device. New technologies continue the new and the Internet and related technologies have lowered the
media revolution, with consumers wresting more control from barrier to widespread video. Enterprises can convey more of
media titans and enjoying entirely new ways of experiencing their corporate messages in video, and proviewers are becoming
entertainment and news. as facile with video as they are with text. Video is becoming
just another data type: ordinary, plentiful and expected.
The Internet has become a global channel for new media,
breaking down the strong-hold grip that Big Media — traditional So although new media is not just about video, video is a
TV, radio, film and news producers — have on their content and very important part of the story. Let us examine the story by
their audiences. The Internet levels the playing field, allowing exploring the disruptions in content and distribution that are
others — you and me — to play. driving the new media revolution.
This new media world, where we can interact with artists and
TV (AND EVERyTHING ELSE) oN My TERMS
journalists and even be the artists and journalists, requires
a new way to navigate it all. The entire access experience is Created by Me
changing and will continue to change, as the content itself Content is no longer the sole purview of big TV and film
also changes. These changes will be of huge importance, for studios, radio stations, newspapers and magazines. Proviewers
they are designed around the consumer, not the producer. generate content and are an entirely new source of creativity
Whoever anticipates and meets the needs of the consumer and competition. There are many examples: youTube, CNN
best will win. iReports and other forms of citizen journalism, six million
blogs, currenttv.com, Apple’s Garage Band and cell phone
This starts with recognizing that “consumer” has become novels. These new media put the individual in charge of creating
an anachronism. yesterday’s consumer has become today’s content, at once personalizing, diversifying and enlarging
“proviewer,” a producer and a proactive viewer. The proviewer the content mix. Some call this mass social media, depicted
has become a new source of content and a potential threat in Figure 1.
4

7. L E A D IN G E D G E Fo RU M DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS
Figure 1 T HE E ME R GE N C E A N D R I S E oF MASS S o CIAL ME DIA view time and most popular clips. Video
can more readily be part of a mixed-
media marketing campaign.
Traditional Media
When DuPont wanted to educate a
Institutional
Television Control younger audience about DuPont science
and innovation and encourage conversa-
observe
Movies tion, it turned to video storytelling and
Media Outlets
used Brightcove to deliver the message.
centralized Does Old Media Radio
mediation Matter? DuPont hired advertising agency Denuo,
a unit of Publicis Group, to create short-
Print
sh form videos describing the relevance of
publi
DuPont’s science innovations to every-
distributed mediation
push
Shift
day life. Denuo worked with Brightcove
Social Media
con
to place these “Science Stories” on blogs
tribu Syndication
te Podcasts such as BoingBoing and SEED Network’s
ne
tw
ScienceBlogs, streaming the stories in
Us blog
blog
blog
or
Vlogs
k
Social dedicated players. In this way, viewers
ed
ge
blog blog
Consumption Forums could easily spread the videos in a viral
network via commments, Blogosphere
effects trackbacks, IM, empty center manner. (See Figure 2.)
feedback, etc. blog blog Wikis
blog blog
blog Enterprise 2.0 Consumer
pull Though DuPont has a long-established
Platforms Control
brand, with this effort Denuo helped
DuPont connect with a new audience
in a very targeted, different and relevant
Source: Dion Hinchcliffe’s Web 2.0 Blog, Social Computing Magazine. Licensed
way. The program generated tremendous
under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
http://web2.socialcomputingmagazine.com
word of mouth, with 25 percent of views
generated from word of mouth and 75
percent of those aged 18-24 (60 percent
of those aged 18-44) indicating they
In the enterprise, companies are enjoying similar freedom to would tell an average of five people about the videos. (For
become content creators. Enterprises can build and launch more on word of mouth, see Social Power.) DuPont made a
their own TV channels, and get corporate messages to large positive impact on its target audience — 90 percent indicated
audiences through video, audio and imagery rather than the videos were interesting and informative — using new media
standard text. Brightcove provides an Internet TV platform to reach that audience directly.
for enterprises to publish on-demand video and other digital
media assets online. Whereas in the past it was cost-prohibitive “The emergence of new digital media channels has created
for enterprises to communicate extensively, if at all, in video opportunities for any marketer to reach audiences in new,
(it involved broadcasting or DVD manufacturing), Brightcove’s exciting ways and enable these audiences to share the content
platform, delivered as a hosted turnkey service, makes the they view easily with others, amplifying the marketer’s voice,”
video proposition cost-effective, especially for those serving notes Gary Spangler, e-business leader, DuPont Electronic and
niche markets. Communication Technologies.
Brightcove’s technology enables further distribution through If enterprises can bypass big studios, artists can too. Professional,
syndication and viral video sharing; video content can be acclaimed talent can create their own material uninhibited
e-mailed, embedded in a blog or put in an RSS feed, so the by producers and release it to a global audience, as with
message gets out much further. Content can include advertising, Funnyordie.com, a comedy video site that combines proviewer
and metrics can be analyzed such as number of views, average content with original exclusive content from professionals.
5

8. DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS LEA DI NG EDGE FoRU M
Figure 2 BRI GH TCoV E ’S P L Ay E R E NAB LE S VIE WE RS To S PRE AD T H E Wo RD
A Bo UT D UP o NT ’S S C I E NC E STo R I E S
Start of video features “freeze screen” that
encourages users to initiate video play.
oTHER oPTIoNS ACCESSIBLE VIA PLAyER MENU
E-mail to a Access Direct Add to Blogger or Access Embed Code to
Friend Link to Player Typepad Blog Post Player to Any Site
Source: Brightcove
NEw KId oN ThE BLoCK: VIdEo
There is a new kid on the block, video, IT. Employees will bring video into the extends to the enterprise as well, where
that IT needs to befriend. Traditionally, enterprise without CIO consent. For video will become more popular for
little if any video has been allowed on example, an engineer might use a home such activities as training, marketing
corporate networks because it slows laptop with a built-in camera to take and internal messaging. Hewlett-
the network down and consumes so footage for a project and post that video Packard has a YouTube-like site, HP
much storage. However, with video on an internal blog. Uncut, where employees post self-
becoming a prevalent and preferred made videos about best practices and
mode of communication on the Internet, Enterprises need alignment between IT experiences at HP — so you can see
IT’s unfriendly attitude must change. and new media like video, just as IT had and learn from the engineers them-
to ready itself for IM and the browser. selves.3 Video is becoming a first class
Just like instant messaging (IM) and Although video had many false starts citizen, and IT needs to help this new
browsers, video is poised to infiltrate with video e-mail, the ascent of YouTube citizen feel at home and prosper.
the enterprise and do an end-run around signals that video is here to stay. This
6

9. L E A D IN G E D G E Fo RU M DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS
Similarly, independent musicians can be heard and gain a Making It Mine
following without a studio at sites like strayform.com. Aspiring In addition to creating original content from scratch, proviewers
producers and actors can release short-form Web videos that are manipulating and modifying once-untouchable content.
attract big audiences; one low-budget mini-series, “We Need Content is being served up more like raw data to alter for one’s
Girlfriends,” which was released on its own Web site, promoted personal consumption.
on MySpace, and later released on MySpace and youTube, has
been picked up by CBS to develop as a pilot TV series.4 For instance, proviewers can create their own TV experience.
Microsoft’s Mediaroom, an Internet TV platform that telcos
The notion of citizen journalism and “microjournalism” is can sell, works with TNT and Showtime to let proviewers
alive and well in an age of youTube, Twitter, digital cameras, choose which TV camera angle they want when viewing sports.
camera phones and blogs. Minute-by-minute details that would This is a major departure from having the network decide,
not make the 6 o’clock news are now on full view in video, though the network is still in charge of much of the action,
pictures, text or a mix; for better or worse, no one’s actions like which angles are available to choose from. This idea puts
are private. For instance, the nitty gritty of a political campaign forth the notion of informed media, where a program such
can be captured for all to see, from pushing and shoving 5
as a sports telecast can be enhanced by statistics, online
to controversial remarks by political candidates.6 Though this chatting with friends, stopping the action, and controlling
type of reporting might seem superficial, it can spread like replays. Microsoft had a chance to put its viewer control on
kudzu and have real impact. (See “Microblogging Makes Its full display during the 2008 olympics in Beijing, when MSN,
Mark” in Social Power.) in an exclusive partnership with NBC, provided over 3,000 hours
of live on-demand coverage of the games.
Blogging in the enterprise, a form of citizen journalism, uncorks
information and ideas as employees are given a voice to Proviewers can also create their own TV and radio channels.
communicate their views and expertise directly, and customers Joost, Move Networks and others deliver TV over the Internet
and strategic partners can comment back (or create their own so proviewers can slice-and-dice programs to create their own
blogs). Blogging encourages a reciprocal exchange of ideas, channels, like a music playlist. BlogTalkRadio lets you broadcast
fosters innovation through these frank conversations, builds your own radio station. (See Social Power.)
loyalty and interest in the enterprise, and chronicles corporate
history in a lasting, searchable fashion. Boeing and General Motors Another area where proviewers are being given a voice, literally,
are two major corporations that have leveraged blogging is in televised political debates. In the U.S. presidential debates
to build customer ties and even influence product direction. in 2007 sponsored by CNN and youTube, CNN took questions
“Businesses can be bloggers too; this is not just a tool for the people submitted via youTube and made them the basis of the
media,” says Anil Dash, vice president of Six Apart, vendor of two-hour televised debates. This was a new form of questioning:
blogging software Moveable Type, TypePad and Vox. “It’s still by the general public, in their own words, with their emotions
early stage for enterprise blogs, but they will become important and faces on full display for the candidates. These were not
business tools.” prepared questions read by a professional moderator but per-
sonal questions coming from ordinary citizens, uncontrolled by
Then there is the cell phone novelist, who does an end-run the TV broadcaster or the candidates.
around traditional publishing houses and authors by banging
out short, clipped novels on a cell phone and publishing them With this new format the public becomes part of the national
on a Web site. In many cases cell phone novels, popular in political dialogue, inserting itself directly into the discussion.
Japan, are by first-time authors. These new authors are creating Internet technologies and new media improve the ability to
a new genre — stories that are created a few lines at a time, reach out to constituents and hear first hand what people are
often thin on plot and character development but appealing saying. Democracy does scale.
to a younger audience raised on cell phones, the Internet
and comic books. In 2007, five of the 10 best-selling novels Indeed, all the presidential candidates were pumping the
in Japan were originally cell phone novels, which were later Internet and social network sites like never before (most of these
published as books. 7
sites didn’t even exist in the last election). This is giving rise
to a new grass roots voice and an audience the candidates
7

10. DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS LEA DI NG EDGE FoRU M
delivering low-budget films to a college audience wrapped in
Internet technologies and new media a social experience. young adults are invited to meet online
before, during and after a showing, to send comments to
improve the ability to reach out to
friends and producers about what they like or don’t like about
constituents and hear first hand what a particular film.8 This highly targeted audience “will help to
create, influence and ‘blowtorch’ content made just for them.”9
people are saying. democracy does scale.
This is a completely new movie-going experience.
Sites like LastFM are changing the radio listening experience.
cannot ignore. It is safe to say the arrival of youTube, MySpace, Listeners on LastFM can build their own radio station, connect
Facebook and other video and social network sites is changing with others also listening to their station, and create commu-
the face and voice of politics. The fun has just begun. nities around an artist. These activities are impossible to do on
a traditional radio station. LastFM turns the radio industry on
Redefining the Experience its head, from a top-down broadcast model to a bottom-up
New media is about not only making it mine but also extending community model.
and redefining the experience.
In the movie world, proviewers are gaining a bit of control over
the most sacred of untouchable media, the movie. Technology one of the most powerful aspects
by ClearPlay lets you filter out objectionable content while
of new media is that it is a social
playing a DVD without altering the actual content. So, you
could turn an R-rated movie into a PG13 version for your kids. experience — the audience shares
This is a powerful new capability that studios oppose, as it
its opinion of a work readily and can
changes the finished product that is viewed. However, this
attitude fails to recognize that one-size-fits-all will no longer easily invite others to view or listen.
do. Home is where people can express their personal values,
and the more flexible the movie industry is in addressing a
variety of values, the higher the viewership. In fact, studios
could increase their revenues by offering different versions on LastFM people come together united by similar tastes
themselves (rather than consumers or third parties doing it); in music. The individual chooses what to listen to and uses
this business decision requires a significant change in mind that to connect to other fans as well as discover similar music
set and artistic values. based on what the community has recommended. When an
artist adds a new title, listeners can find it via similar music,
Another sign of extending media content to others is the giving artists a new channel for having their work discovered.
ability to add subtitles to a work. Technology from DotSUB LastFM is like a portal into music and artists that provides
lets anyone add subtitles to movies and video clips in any a shared experience built on opinion, context and relation-
language, making the content more shareable globally. This is ships. Social power redefines the media experience. (See
another area of opportunity for the studios, which typically offer Social Power.)
a few translations for a few movies but not many translations
for all movies.
I DEMAND oN-DEMAND
As for redefining the experience, one of the most powerful Having media on my terms includes not only content but also
aspects of new media is that it is a social experience — the distribution. Having a better on-demand distribution model is
audience shares its opinion of a work readily and can easily imperative because proviewers decide not only what to watch
invite others to view or listen. Microsoft’s shared TV experience or listen to but when and where. TiVo and Sling were pioneers
lets proviewers in different locations chat online while watching in opening up TV access so that proviewers had more control.
the same show. Blowtorch Entertainment, a new company, is Today there are many signs of media distribution opening up
8

11. L E A D IN G E D G E Fo RU M DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS
PICTurE ThIs: FINdINg IT
As more content is rendered in video, video content. Pluggd Inc. (now Delve through better analysis of CCTV footage.
audio and photographs, search tech- Networks) and Digitalsmiths are two of IntelliVid’s intelligent video analysis
niques originally designed for text need to many companies working on contextual software uses object-based searching
keep pace. New technologies are making ad placement using advanced video to enable store personnel to “camera
it easier to search images and sounds to and audio search techniques. Pluggd’s surf” to track a suspect or an object in
find what you need, match ads to content, search technology, SeeHere and real time. The software also enables the
and even cut down on shoplifting. HearHere, enables people to quickly user to assemble critical video evidence
find the content they want within a in minutes to manage an investigation
For years, digital cameras have given video or audio clip using a special and share critical information — video
pictures time stamps, making it possible concept-search technique. Its contextual clips, still images and case notes all
to search by date; in the future it may ad placement technology is based on integrated in a single electronic file —
be possible to search by who is in matching ads to consumer searches, with store personnel and law enforce-
the picture, where they are, and even including specific keyword searches. ment. The act of shoplifting becomes
their expression, as advances in facial Digitalsmith’s technology, VideoSense, more transparent, and thus preventable.
detection, geo tagging and expression digitizes video content so it is easily (See Information Transparency.) That is
detection become commercialized.10 searchable “inside” and matches that the beauty of better search and analysis:
You’ll be able to find Aunt Sally or search content to context-appropriate ads. understanding processes and leveraging
for someone who is smiling or crying. the data at hand.
In the world of closed circuit television,
On the Internet, advertisers long for technology from IntelliVid is helping
an automatic way to match ads to store owners cut down on shoplifting
over open networks like the Internet and alternative networks Getting Out of the Box
like cellular, reaching broader audiences. Netflix, who moved DVD rentals from the store to our mail-
boxes and then our computers, has now pledged to deliver
Further, as distribution opens up, it is happening at near zero that content directly to our TV screens. Netflix is bringing
cost to the distributor. you don’t have to press DVDs or CDs, some 6,000 movies and TV shows, available to paying sub-
or have TV or radio broadcast infrastructure. Instead, as the scribers of its Web site, to the living room TV via the Internet.
Brightcove-DuPont example showed, everyone can play. The The company’s first partnership is with LG Electronics, which
new media vision is that TV, movies and radio be available plans to add the Netflix service to a new line of HDTVs with
for anytime, anywhere consumption and interaction. wireless connections to the Internet.11 Netflix’s goal is to be seen as
a movie channel that can be accessed from numerous devices.12
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Another player in the movie rental shakeup is VUDU, whose
VUDU Box makes over 6,000 movies accessible on the TV screen TV and video content is getting out
via the Internet. VUDU’s appliance does not require a computer
of its original box.
or cable or satellite TV — just a broadband Internet connection.
VUDU’s system stores the movies and TV shows you rent or
buy in your own personal digital library. (See Figure 3.)
by players like Amazon and Apple (iTunes) that are making
The writing has long been on the wall for traditional video movies available for download to computers and iPods, and
rental companies to digitize distribution, spurred further Sony, a movie maker itself, that is making movies and videos
downloadable to the Sony Playstation 3
Figure 3 RENT MoVIES DIRECTLy FRoM yoUR TV SCREEN USING game console.
VUDU AND THE INTERNET
Also in the video content shuffle is
youTube, who is bringing its Internet
video content to TV via a partnership
with TiVo.13 Viewers will be able to
access youTube content through their
TiVos; content will be streamed (rather
than downloaded) via broadband con-
nection.14 TiVo users will also be able
to subscribe to Internet video feeds
using RSS, expanding the role of
RSS from text to video and providing
flexibility for accessing Internet video.
The youTube-TiVo partnership is the
Source: CSC result of youTube opening its platform
to outside developers.
If Netflix, VUDU and youTube are about
Figure 4 TVU NETWoRKS BRINGS LIVE TV oVER THE INTERNET getting movies and other video content
FRoM ARoUND THE WoRLD, VIA ITS WEB SITE oR THE to TV, others are focused on getting
DoWNLoADABLE TVUPLAyER (SHoWN HERE) TV content to the Internet. Either way,
TV and video content is getting out of
its original box.
TVU networks lets you get foreign TV
stations and other video content live
over the Internet. From TVU’s Web site,
people in Pakistan were able to watch
CNNi when that station was banned
there. Soccer fans around the world can
watch the latest soccer on Indonesia’s
StarTV channel, and immigrants in the
United States can watch Taiwan TV, TV5
Telugu from India, or Arca from Brazil.
Source: TVU networks
(See Figure 4.)
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The platform uses peer-to-peer real-time packet replication broadcasters, and can broadcast up to HDTV quality. Called
so that, in contrast to traditional streaming, as the number of “the ultimate in multicast TV,” TVU provides global distribution
viewers grows the transmission does not degrade, and there of TV programming at low cost.
is no need to account for additional traffic or boost infrastruc-
ture. TVU has sustained over 150,000 simultaneous viewers on Many others are working to get TV to the Internet. Joost and
a single Internet connection. TVU manages the overall network Move Networks use peer-to-peer technology but with different
performance, with broadcasters controlling the rights, coverage, strategies. Joost, from the founders of Skype, stores content
and schedule for their content. on its central servers and releases it (once) into the peer-to-
peer network, where it is shared among users. Move delivers
“To broadcasters, we are another transmission medium,” explains video as a standard Web object that is cached in small bits
Paul Shen, CEo of TVU. “The broadcaster determines what to for easier transmission. Both offer broadcast quality program-
broadcast and whether or not to charge viewers.” TVU shares ming ranging from programs like “The Gadget Show,” a British
profit with the broadcaster from revenue generated from adver- television series, to segments from well-known U.S. shows like
tising on the TVU platform. “CSI: Ny,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and CNN. Both aim to make it
easier and more cost-effective than traditional broadcasting
As of May 2008, TVU had 4.5 million unique viewers per month for organizations to get their video to a large audience.
who watched over 11 million hours of programming monthly;
roughly 300 TV channels are broadcast daily. TVU is bundled Hulu is a joint venture between NBC and News Corp. to provide
into Hewlett-Packard’s Pavilion laptops and expects to have prime time shows from NBC, Fox and other TV networks on
a global viewer base of 40 million by the end of 2008. TVU the Internet. Here is Hollywood taking the bull by the horns to
has content from over 200 countries, including amateur self- control online distribution of its content. The site is intended
NEw MEdIA ChANgEs ThE FACE oF AdVErTIsINg
New media is changing the face of online Connecting the Dots that you are probably in a certain income
advertising, for as content takes on The more relevant the ad, the more it bracket, and that it is almost Valentine’s
new forms, such as mobile and video, is perceived as content and welcomed Day. Through Placecast, advertisers
so does advertising. Online advertising by the consumer. Targeting online ads can recommend a shop near the hotel
is a nascent area, but one thing is sure: through location and context is growing. for purchasing a gift and send that ad,
advertising will continue to grow and Placecast combines location informa- called a PlaceAd, to your mobile phone
evolve online, where the audience is and tion with contextual information to “put or laptop. Placecast gives anonymous
the metrics are better. There is much audience in place,” as its slogan says. location information context that can
experimentation and creativity taking If you are at a hotel in Manhattan, be converted into a revenue stream.
place as companies seek to optimize Placecast’s software can let advertisers It connects the dots to help advertisers
advertising in a world of new media. know that you are attending a conference, target their audience.
Continued on the following page >
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14. DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS LEA DI NG EDGE FoRU M
NEw MEdIA ChANgEs ThE FACE oF AdVErTIsINg (continued)
Mobile ads, another form of targeting, Mobile is testing cell phone advertising mobile ads on an opt-in basis will no
are ads sent to you on a mobile device, in a partnership with the social network doubt be required. Still, location-based
customized to your location. If you are service Loopt, which lets families and mobile ads put advertisers a huge step
walking down the street past a depart- friends keep track of each other on their closer to the customer purchase.
ment store, you might get an ad on cell phones.15 Members of Loopt who
your cell phone that jackets are on sale. have GPS-equipped cell phones and online ads go video
Advertisers are salivating at this form have chosen to participate might receive Like content on the Web, advertisements
of advertising because they get much an ad for a nearby restaurant or movie are evolving from text to images (banners)
closer to the customer and the point theater. There are privacy issues, of to video. Video ads take on a new look
of sale than if using mass advertising course, as people may find this form of and feel as they are incorporated into
outlets like TV and newspapers. CBS advertising highly intrusive, so offering video content in different ways:
• viral ads, which are appended to video
BUy THE JACKET yoUR FAVoRITE TV CHARACTER IS content that is e-mailed around
WEARING WHILE yoU WATCH THE SHoW
• geo-targeted overlays, which are
additions to video ads that reflect
your location (for example, what stores
are nearby in your state)
• interactive overlays, which let you
click to a Web site or video for more
information
• branded video players, which frame
the content on your screen with an
advertiser’s logo
YuMe is one company offering these
kinds of ad services;16 its ad platform
will also power NBC Direct, the first site
to offer free downloads of prime time
TV shows.
Source: ICE Innovative Technologies Continued on the following page >
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NEw MEdIA ChANgEs ThE FACE oF AdVErTIsINg (continued)
As downloadable video content increases clicking and shopping is a major distrac- spots and breaks, if any. Internet content
— whether TV shows, short clips or movies, tion from watching the show, it’s sure is flexible and interactive, and advertising
and whether to laptops, cell phones or to satisfy impulse buying — and the must follow suit.
other mobile devices — dynamic video product company is selling direct to the
ads can be part of the downloaded consumer at retail, not wholesale, prices. Key questions are: Who is in charge of
content. On the belief that most people The ICE technology works on standard IPTV channel programming, and thus
would rather have ad-supported content TV (cable, satellite) and IPTV, and will be advertising? Will there be a bidding
than pay for content, advertisers are available for TV content on the Web. system for ad time, or will advertising
gearing up for this and for being able follow an entirely different business
to track these offline views for their ad Further, producers can change the model? How do we get IPTV, the Web
metrics. Poddadies helps advertisers do products in the show based on its and television to accept and display
that and has a system to change ads on sponsors. Technology from i3media, each other’s ads when proprietary,
the desktop once the video file has been a consortium of media companies in incompatible video players and formats
downloaded. Adobe also has a system
17
Spain, lets you manipulate individual make integration — and therefore an
to change ads in its new Media Player.18 objects in a video frame. For instance, effective overall ad strategy — difficult?
you could change a bottle of wine Stay tuned as industry, audience and
shop the show from a Monte Rosso Vineyard label technology work out these and other
There may be ads aplenty, but there still to a Seven Springs Vineyard label if online ad issues.
lurks the age-old question: How effective that grower is sponsoring the show.19
is the ad? Especially in a world of time The proviewer can click on the wine
shifting and ad skipping? If advertisers bottle to obtain more information and
fear their ads are being ignored, they can purchase it.
try an ad-less approach. New technology
lets people “shop the show” and buy new ad age
products they see on a TV program right Though online advertising is in its
from their TV screen. If you like the shoes infancy, it is clear that advertisers are
the actress is wearing, using technology moving from a scattershot approach
from ICE Innovative Technologies, you to, ultimately, 1-to-1 marketing and
can buy them instantly with a few clicks buying direct from the ad itself (no
of your TV remote. The ICE technology more Web page redirects). The traditional
provides a standard format for listing (TV) ad network, with neatly delineated
products, presented as a menu next to spots and breaks, has given way to a
the show, that you navigate through to new ad network supporting Internet
make a purchase. While it’s not clear if content that features wildly irregular
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to be used for marketing purposes and revenue generation, cellular networks. The producers argued that the digital arena
making money from ads on the site and in the videos. Before is not mature enough to make a compensation decision. In
Hulu, NBC had removed its shows from iTunes in a pricing dispute February 2008 a three-year deal was struck giving writers a
with Apple; if Hulu, which launched in october 2007, succeeds, percentage of the gross from digital distribution, though this
it will give networks more leverage in negotiating distribution could be mostly “symbolic” if revenue from digital distribution
deals with Apple and others.20 is relatively low.21
VeohTV comes at Internet TV from a different angle, serving as The growing pains of new media are being felt by content
a video browser that captures, stores and sorts free online video creators and producers alike as media industries continue to
content. VeohTV has been described as TiVo for the Internet, calibrate against an increasingly digital future.
with a similar DVR-style interface that lets you find video you
want and watch it when you want (save video streams as
downloads to watch later if desired). VeohTV integrates video
sources across the Internet, so you can watch full-length on-demand is a powerful model
episodes from CBS, NBC, youTube, MySpace, Google, yahoo
and thousands of other sources. As you use VeohTV, it learns
that is pressuring old thinking about
what you like and makes video recommendations to you. ownership and rights to change.
Challenging Old Thinking
The new media vision for on-demand content will be in the
making for some time. on-demand is a powerful model that
LoSE To WIN
is pressuring old thinking about ownership and rights to change.
Digital distribution was a major factor in the 2007-2008 Writers Enterprises need to recognize that new media shifts power to
Guild of America strike. The 12,000 writers from film, TV and proviewers. The business models that will flourish are those
radio, who went on strike for three months and forced many that invite participation and give individuals more control.
shows off the air, wanted stronger compensation for their works ownership is not the way to win. openness, customization
in digital, Internet and other non-traditional formats, whether and personalization are the way of the future.
DVD, streamed to a Web site, downloaded, or transmitted over
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living in a neW reality
We will blend physical and virtual reality, improving both.
According to philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), people Virtual worlds and blended-reality worlds are powerful but
can never know reality directly. We are, by design, one layer not yet fully understood. However, virtual worlds and virtual
removed from reality, with our brains synthesizing external reality will play an increasingly significant role in our personal
stimuli — sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches — and and professional lives. How this story plays out is still unknown,
creating a coherent experience. In other words, we experience but with more people populating virtual worlds and experiencing
the world through a layer of perception. Today’s virtual worlds virtual reality in everyday situations, progress is being made as
magnify this layering we do, pre-digesting data (stimuli) and the story unfolds.
feeding it to us as a new layer of perception that helps us
understand the world in new ways. We can detect and analyze In this chapter we explore virtual worlds and other expressions
more, and ultimately make better decisions, because virtual of virtual reality including simulations, augmented worlds and
worlds present data on our terms: visual, life-like, interactive telepresence. The new reality is that we live in a blended reality
and 3D. This is far more compelling and comprehensible than that combines physical reality and virtual reality, improving
if data was rendered simply as text. If a picture is worth 1,000 both. To probe this, we examine how virtual reality is taking on
words, a virtual world is worth 1,000 pictures and more. properties of the physical word, and how the physical world is
being enhanced with virtual reality.
Put another way, virtual worlds offer the promise of “all media,
all the time,” says Jan C.J. Jones, co-executive producer of
Forest Rose Productions, LLC.
The new reality is that we live in
Virtual worlds, with their origins in online games, are not
a blended reality that combines
new. However, what’s different today is that virtual worlds are
making their way into the mainstream, being applied to business physical reality and virtual reality,
and personal uses that go far beyond games. We are seeing
improving both.
real markets for virtual worlds, new levels of sophistication in
virtual worlds, and more real-world data being incorporated
that delivers new experiences or addresses previously unsolvable
problems.
VIRTUAL REALITIES INCoRPoRATE
PHySICAL REALITIES
As virtual worlds approach commercialization — some estimate
there will be over 50 million participants in virtual worlds by Second Life, the poster child of virtual worlds, mimics the real
201122 — they leverage their “game DNA.” Many virtual world world in that people (avatars) meet in Second Life, interact, acquire
environments resemble and operate similar to a game, involving land, build houses and use currency (Linden dollars). Although
rich visualization — 3D settings, avatars, objects — and collabo- it started as a social site, Second Life is fast being adopted for
ration. This helps lay the groundwork for mass participation in business use as organizations explore its potential, particularly
virtual worlds, where the notion of a game per se may be subtle what can be done in a virtual world that was never before pos-
or nonexistent, but people familiar with games will know right sible. For example, experience the weather as a weather balloon
away how to participate. as your avatar flies over a weather map. The world becomes a
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science fiction playground where we are now in the simulation. in the future. Engineers could put a CAD model of a part on
What if we were a tile on the space shuttle? Through virtual worlds Explorer Island, make changes jointly, and save the new model
we can experience the rarely possible and the impossible. on Explorer Island. The engineers could see the model in the
context of the larger system it fits in. For example, they could
see where the controls of a spacecraft would be and open up a
control panel to see where the part ultimately belongs.
Through virtual worlds we can
experience the rarely possible Elsewhere, Second Life is being used to simulate disaster
preparedness and response activities by the Idaho Bioterrorism
and the impossible.
Awareness and Preparedness Program. What’s different about
this versus other virtual reality simulations is the ability to
construct objects and environments with others, build collabora-
At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the impossible tive networks on the fly, and provide context for the exercises,
includes providing a real-time experience of the Phoenix space- complete with buildings, hospitals, helicopters and people.
craft landing on Mars. For the Phoenix landing on May 25, 2008, Coordination activities can be simulated, involving people,
JPL streamed realtime video from NASA TV to Explorer Island, material, facilities, movement and routes. If you need to attend
its property in Second Life, and had a replica of the spacecraft a meeting or view a presentation, you do so in the context of
in Second Life. (See Figure 5.) People watched the landing the environment and with others, increasing your awareness
in Second Life while engineers watched at JPL, the California of peer activities.
Institute of Technology and the University of Arizona. “one
person on Explorer Island cried because they were so happy Another Second Life project, by the University of Denver, incor-
to be part of a NASA event,” said Tom Soderstrom, IT chief porates real weather data from the U.S. National oceanic and
technology officer at JPL. Virtual worlds remove obstacles Atmospheric Administration (NoAA) into a large map of the
to participation — you can now experience a Mars landing United States, where students can learn about weather in
first hand — and give JPL a personal connection to the public a wholly new way: by flying their avatars through weather
it never had before. patterns as they unfold across the country.23 organizations
can also leverage learning by hosting a conference in a virtual
As JPL experiments with Explorer Island for public outreach, con- world, as MIT did during its Emerging Technologies Conference
ferences, training and collaboration, it has its eye on engineering in September 2007. MIT broadcast a portion of the conference
live to Second Life, where it was watched
by over 120 people on a virtual screen.24
MIT used software from Veodia to deliver
TV-quality streaming video to Second Life.
In a virtual world, people can navigate
a conference or other live event through
a 3D experience that enables them to
interact with others via avatars. This is
very different from watching a video of
the event after-the-fact and alone (or
attending the event in person). Figure 6
shows a virtual trade show hosted by
the Everything Channel, where attendees
could participate and interact in four
Figure 5 The Phoenix spacecraft landed on Mars in Second Life, coinciding with the actual different venues.
landing on May 25, 2008. Several members of Second Life sat on the lander after it touched
down. (That’s a second lander in the background, hovering.) The Second Life audience watched
the lander go through its entry, descent and landing maneuvers in real time, seeing video In addition to being a testing ground for
from Mission Control, information directly from the Mission Controller’s blog, and pictures as learning and training, Second Life is being
they came in. Source: NASA
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Figure 6 Welcome to this virtual trade show. Each building in the middleground represents an area of interest (from left): conference center,
exhibits, media center and the CopaCabana. By visiting each area, you can hear presentations and gather conference materials (documents)
in your virtual briefcase. When you need a break, hang out at the CopaCabana, where you can chat with attendees. The trade show environment
was created using InXpo, an open source toolkit for building collaborative 3D virtual worlds. Source: Everything Channel
used for other real-world activities such as recruiting, orienta- to be started by dragging and dropping files onto the walls, which
tion, marketing, co-designing products with customers, test- can then be collaboratively viewed and updated. Qwaq Forums
ing floor layouts and designing dream kitchens. 25
Reuters has runs a version of openoffice.org and the Mozilla Firefox browser
reporters in Second Life reporting on Second Life to the real and allows desktop sharing, meaning easy viewing and editing
world, and reporting on the real world to Second Life. Also of Microsoft office documents and other formats such as PDFs.
seizing on the interplay between virtual and real for news, the Being able to edit documents in real time, working together, is
British police used Second Life in the highly-publicized case of a core feature.
Madeleine McCann to help search for the missing four-year-old
by posting virtual pictures of her.26 (This virtual-real detective Users can drag and drop documents from their local desktops
work was taken to a whole new level on a TV show; see “Blended- to the applications running on the room walls, and vice versa,
Reality Entertainment” later in this chapter.) and can review files in 2D and 3D, all while discussing topics
using built-in text and voice chat. By linking rooms, users can
To expand virtual worlds for business use, Second Life’s creator, move between them, like going from one meeting to another.
Linden Lab, is working with IBM to create open standards for Importantly, the rooms persist, so the current state of a project
virtual worlds that help advance the vision of a 3D Internet for remains intact. This allows users to adopt different working
commerce. This work includes having protocols and standards styles; for example, they can leave work for each other to review
for such things as universal avatars that can traverse different or meet interactively to review together.
virtual worlds (instead of having to create a separate avatar for
each world), and interoperable worlds that can be linked and CSC developed a proof-of-concept with Qwaq Forums, focusing
traversed as easily as moving from one Web page to another.27 on solution selling (how to sell and what to sell), that was tested
with 80 CSCers representing a variety of roles within the sales and
Whereas Second Life is an open platform inviting anyone’s partic- business development community. Qwaq Forums was chosen for its
ipation, another virtual environment, Qwaq Forums, is designed security, minimal hardware requirements, and business orientation.
specifically for secure business collaboration. With Qwaq Forums, overall reaction was positive, with 90 percent agreeing that Qwaq
users can quickly create a virtual room — team room, conference Forums is a viable technology for learning and business purposes.
room, media room — from a template and customize it for meet-
ings or projects. Each room comes with smart walls, allowing “We are opening the door to a new way for teams to collabo-
applications — document editor, spreadsheet, whiteboard, etc. — rate and learn virtually by providing a highly contextual
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Virtual worlds are an important way to
engage the new generation entering
the workforce and help global, matrixed
teams ramp up quickly to increase
their productivity.
environment,” says Holly Huntley, CSC’s global chief learning
officer who sponsored the project. “Virtual worlds are an
important way to engage the new generation entering the
Figure 7 A Qwaq Forums virtual auditorium is used to present a
workforce and help global, matrixed teams ramp up quickly
surgical procedure. Left display: Miramar by Intel Corp. Right display:
to increase their productivity.” Video feed by Clarity Creative Group LLC. Cleft patient model by
BioDigital Systems LLC in collaboration with NyU Medical Center.
CSC is exploring roll-out options for Qwaq Forums as a new Virtual auditorium design by E-spaces, n.v. Source: Qwaq
platform for learning to support key communities and other
enterprise development programs. Qwaq Forums is not an
“either/or” but an addition to e-mail, phone, wikis, IM and tele- IBM Labs has created a 3D Data Center using openSim, an
presence, providing hands-on collaboration (e.g., jointly editing open source virtual worlds platform. IBM provides the 3D Data
documents) that the others, with the exception of wikis, do Center application as part of its virtual worlds services. “It’s a
not. Qwaq Forum’s presence (feeling like you are in the same practical entree into virtual worlds, especially if the company is
place with someone) is stronger than IM but not as strong as IT oriented,” says Michael osias, architect of the 3D Data Center.
telepresence; it can be delivered through simplistic avatars that “There’s a real shock value when people first see it because
connote a “get the job done” environment, meaning you don’t it’s such a compelling use of virtual worlds technology.”
need to spend a lot of time on your avatar’s appearance.
A neat feature of Qwaq Forums is its distance-sensitive voice
capability. Users don head sets and speak through them as
if their avatar is talking; a person can sound near or far away
depending on where his avatar is in relation to yours. (Second
Life does this also, but conference calls do not.)
Intel is partnering with Qwaq to integrate Intel’s Miramar 3D
information space technology with Qwaq’s technology. The result
will be a new desktop visualization edition of Qwaq Forums that
integrates 2D desktop applications and shared 3D information
work spaces for large numbers of users across the enterprise.
According to Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner,
“Intel envisions using the desktop visualization edition of
Qwaq Forums to dramatically enhance the productivity of our
Figure 8 Manage real data centers using IBM Labs’ virtual 3D
global distributed workforce.”28 (See Figure 7.)
Data Center. Use your avatar to roam server rooms in different
cities, check equipment and distribute workloads. you can also run
If the enterprise is looking for a focused application for getting simulations of space, power and cooling planning as well as disaster
started in virtual worlds, a virtual data center might be the way recovery scenarios. Source: IBM
to go.
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Through sophisticated visualization, the 3D Data Center simplifies creativity among Shell employees. The islands have a learning
complex processes and data, including hardware data, monitor- center, laboratory, ideation area, 3D project mapping arena and
ing data and financial data. By rendering computer equipment other business facilities. Unfrozenmind designed and developed
in 3D and combining it with monitoring information like the the islands as part of its BrandNewPlanet 2.0 collaborative
temperature of a CPU rack, the 3D Data Center presents a offering, working with concepts jointly developed by Shell’s
hybrid visualization that is easy to understand. (See Figure 8.) GameChanger group.
For example, you can identify hot spots (represented by a Tapping Location, Movement and Expression
flame) and take action: move virtual machines to other machines Virtual realities about places are improving with an influx of
that have available capacity, move machines to a cooler spot, real-world data. Google Earth gives a 3D rendering of the planet
or even move workloads to another geographic site. All this can that can be manipulated, mashed up and drilled into as the user
be done without being physically present. IBM’s Dallas Global searches for driving directions, restaurants, shops, parks, tourist
Solutions Center was the first production user of the 3D sites and geographic features of a particular place. EveryScape,
Data Center; the Swiss firm
Implenia, which manages Figure 9 V I RTUAL Wo RLD PLAT Fo RMS — A SAMPLE
commercial real estate, is
also an early user. Both are
P LATFo RM TA R GET USE HoSTED By oP EN SoU RCE
running their data centers
more efficiently as a result.
S ECo ND LIFE Entertainment/Multipurpose Vendor No
Collaboration in the 3D Data o P ENS IM (BE TA ) Entertainment/Multipurpose Self yes
Center is done via avatars
Wo NDERLAND Enterprise/Multipurpose Vendor/Self yes
and instant messaging; IBM (BE TA)
intends to add voice in the
future. QWAQ Fo RU M S Enterprise/Collaboration Vendor/Self No
P RoToS P H E RE Enterprise/Training Vendor/Self No
Longer term, IBM is target-
ing enterprise architecture M U LTIVE RS E Multipurpose Development Platform Self yes
for virtual worlds; that is,
3DVIA Multipurpose Development Platform Self No
build an enterprise architec-
VIRTo o LS
ture (e.g., operating system,
middleware) in a 3D environ- CRo QUET Multipurpose Development Platform Self yes
(BE TA)
ment and hook it to a real
system. TH E RE Entertainment Vendor No
IBM started the 3D Data TW INITy (BETA ) Entertainment Vendor No
Source: CSC
Center in Second Life and
switched to openSim for
security and control purposes (i.e., for use behind the firewall). which believes being there is more important than getting
Many enterprises dabble in Second Life and then progress to there, provides virtual streetscapes that give a photorealistic
a platform that addresses their specific needs. A sample of view of a city at ground level, including monuments, stores and
virtual world platforms is shown in Figure 9. buildings you can walk into. (See Figure 10.)
other companies, like energy giant Shell, are focusing on col- The city of Barcelona, working with Barcelona Media, has
laboration to drive innovation across the organization. Shell’s incorporated city data — waterworks, electrical data, tele-
GameChanger innovation group teamed with Unfrozenmind communications wiring and building data — into an accurate,
to create an archipelago of 3D virtual islands in Second Life large-scale, virtual city that you traverse by moving your arm in
to stimulate internal and external collaboration, learning and front of a large projected display of the 3D city, your avatar zipping
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Figure 10 Explore the real world online using Everyscape.com. Here, travel down West 43rd Street in New york City to check out the
Times Square area, using your mouse to advance or change direction (360-degree turns possible). The map at right tracks your position
as you move, so you always know where you are. Source: EveryScape
through the streets or sewers of Barcelona. The city is starting to the term “user-generated reality” to define the broad spectrum
use the technology to coordinate contracting work; engineers, of creative, self-expressive, user-generated animation it enables.
architects and other workers can see and study an area of the
city before they start ripping up streets or laying concrete.
In addition to map and infrastructure data, another neat boost
to the virtual from the real comes in movement data for avatars.
Sam the Weatherman, an avatar from Activa Multimedia who
delivers weather reports on the Internet, cell phones and TV,
and is the leading provider of weather forecasts in Spain,29
has a catalog of movements that are based on data from
real movements by real people, collected and processed by
Barcelona Media. (See Figure 11.) Sam’s realism, enhanced
by his movements, draws people to information they might
otherwise ignore. Reality helps virtual reality, which ultimately
improves our reality. We know to expect rain today.
Virtual realities about places
are improving with an influx
of real-world data.
Figure 11 To bring life-like movement to avatars, Barcelona
Media straps reflectors to a person’s arms, legs, torso and head,
captures the person’s motions via camera, and maps the move-
Another approach to avatar creation comes from Fix8, which pro- ments to an avatar. CSC’s Alex Fuss demonstrates at Barcelona
vides technology to create enriched avatars that incorporate real- Media during a site visit in conjunction with a TTI/Vanguard
conference in Barcelona on “New Form/New Content.”
life features such as facial expression and voice. Fix8 has coined
Source: TTI/Vanguard
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More Fun, Really!
In entertainment, virtual reality is incorporating reality to give us
new experiences. The hit video game “Guitar Hero” and its off- organizations are adding virtual reality
spring “Rock Band” mimic playing music in real life. Both let you
to physical reality where physical reality
experience music by feeling it as you play the music with a near-
life-size guitar or other instrument as the controller. you play alone cannot get the job done, or virtual
music by following color-coded patterns on screen that match
reality can do it better.
the color-coded buttons on your guitar or other instrument, earn-
ing points (like a game) for how well you play. Some say this will
change how people get to know music, yearning to play a new
song in order to experience it.30 The Nintendo Wii echoes this In cars, being able to see a virtual obstacle and successfully
idea of “feeling” the game with its motion-sensitive controllers that drive around it can improve driver training and safety. A mobile
resemble the real world, such as a pool stick or cooking utensils. vehicle operation and encounter simulator helps drivers see
Nintendo understood that players wanted a more dynamic expe- potential obstacles and avoid them.32 The simulator uses
rience, so it tapped into the user’s motion and haptics, not more a head-mounted display worn by the driver to show virtual
realistic graphics or sound, to make Wii games more lively and obstacles against a real-world background. The driver sees the
real. you can stir your virtual soup in the game “Cooking Mama: obstacle and responds to avoid hitting it; the car generates
Cook off” or do real push-ups with your virtual trainer in “Wii Fit.” motion and visual feedback to the display, which adjusts the
scene accordingly. The simulator was awarded a patent in 2006
Second Life played virtual host to the 2006 Grand Slam tennis and can be used to improve training, engineering and research
matches to give fans a new way to experience the tournaments, about driver response behavior. In the past, vehicle simulators
complete with near-real-time data from the tournament. IBM set have been too expensive for everyday drivers, and only the
up the virtual stadiums and provided a unique viewer experience most costly simulators could provide credible motion cues;
such as being able to watch live matches from different this invention, which takes advantage of recent advances in
perspectives (eg., player, umpire, first-row seat). IBM calls computer processing and image generation speeds, creates a
it v-business, or business conducted in a virtual space.31 This cost-effective and realistic vehicle-in-motion environment.
experiment in fun is serious business.
Imagine you are a tourist at a historic site, and a life-size virtual
character you can see and hear explains the site’s significance
PHySICAL REALITIES INCoRPoRATE
and what it was like to live there 150 years ago. Researchers at
VIRTUAL REALITIES
the Georgia Institute of Technology are working on experiences
As virtual spaces adopt physical world characteristics, so too that incorporate full-scale virtual characters that move and
the physical world is getting a boost by adopting virtual reality talk, describing a site or tourist attraction in narrative detail
characteristics. If virtual reality is one end of the reality spectrum, in situ. Don your special glasses to see and hear the 3D Sarah
and the physical world is the other, this section focuses in between Dye tell her tale about the Civil War, and what brought her
but towards the physical world, to see how virtual reality enhance- to oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, as you and Sarah walk the
ments to it are making improvements. organizations are adding cemetery grounds.33 (See Figure 12.) Augmented reality makes
virtual reality to physical reality where physical reality alone the experience much richer than reading Sarah’s story on a
cannot get the job done, or virtual reality can do it better. plaque; it provides a brand new way to learn about and take
in the physical site.
Seeing Is Believing
Being able to see ahead, or see something rather than read “our goal is to create much more natural and easy-to-learn
about it, is a powerful capability. In the military, an unmanned interfaces to educational experiences,” says Blair MacIntyre,
aerial vehicle can see over the next hill, helping troops decide associate professor in the School of Interactive Computing and
whether or not it is safe to proceed. The UAV is operated remotely director of the Augmented Environments Lab in the GVU
and serves as a virtual sentinel on the battlefield. Having this (Graphics, Visualization and Usability) Center at Georgia Tech.
advance information in near-real time is significant for readiness “These interfaces align graphics and sound with real locations
and something soldiers cannot do themselves. in the world, like a grave or a room. People interact by moving
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Better Science
The science lab is being enhanced by powerful simulations that
are able to process enormous quantities of data, such as from
the Human Genome project, in realistic timeframes. Structure
magazine reported on the first simulation of a whole biological
organism, the satellite tobacco mosaic virus, showing in intricate
molecular detail “how each of the million or so atoms in the
virus and a surrounding drop of salt water was interacting with
almost every other atom every femtosecond, or millionth of
a billionth of a second.”36 In the future, researchers hope that
bigger, longer simulations will reveal how viruses, the smallest
natural organisms known, invade cells and cause disease.
Collaborating “in” the Office
Advances in telepresence help people in different locations feel
like they are in the same room, changing the dynamics of ordinary
video conferencing, which has less fidelity and in the past has
Figure 12 An artist’s rendering of a historic tourist site augmented
with virtual reality story-telling. Researchers at Georgia Tech are
working on this. Source: David Stuart
around the location. People have a much better understanding
of where they are in real space versus virtual space, and we want
to leverage this.”
Another historical site getting a boost from the virtual is the
Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. An interactive Vietnam
Wall has been created at Footnote.com in conjunction with the
National Archives. The digital memorial is searchable by name, Figure 13 The U.S. government uses virtual people in 3D simula-
tions to help teach foreign languages such as Arabic. The virtual
hometown, year of death and many other categories, making it
scenarios demonstrate gestures, action, facial expressions, visual
easy to find a person (and then easily locate their name among cues and lip-synchronized speech, all key to learning the language.
over 58,000 others when visiting the real wall). At the digital This scenario simulates interaction at an Iraqi checkpoint.
Source: Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) Modeling, Virtual
wall, visitors can post tributes, stories and photos, sharing them
Environments and Simulation (MOVES) Institute and Vcom3D, Inc.
with others globally. It’s not the same as being at the real wall,
but it encourages learning and can be cathartic for veterans,
for it “may even shock them to the extent that they come back been notoriously hard to use.37 Hewlett-Packard, in conjunc-
to reality,” says one veteran. 34 tion with DreamWorks, has created an immersive visual display
that surrounds the user, going beyond traditional video confer-
The virtual is being used to enhance the real for many other encing. The Panoply display, first used to view car races, is now
educational purposes. The U.S. government is using virtual part of HP’s Halo Collaboration Studio.
reality to enhance foreign language skills training, particularly
when learning Arabic for use at Iraqi checkpoints.35 Under- Using Halo studios technology set up in a conference room,
standing gestures is critical to understanding the meaning of companies can hold face-to-face meetings with people in various
spoken words. (See Figure 13.) locations, with life-size displays and real-time audio. These and
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similar displays are used extensively by outsourcing firms in simply pushing a button and selecting your call. on the receiving
India to communicate with their clients in the United States end, rooms can be set up to answer calls automatically or manu-
and elsewhere. ally. The idea is to encourage use through simple operation, in
contrast to more complicated videoconferencing technology that
CSC is working on a pilot project with NASA’s JPL to explore often sits dormant and requires more time-consuming activation.
high definition video conferencing. The pilot involves three rooms,
two at JPL offices in Pasadena, California and one at CSC’s
Pasadena Innovation Center. The rooms are outfitted with systems
from LifeSize Communications that provide 90 percent of the “Telepresence is not so much about
telepresence experience of high-end systems (such as those saving on travel costs as it is about
offered by HP and Cisco) at a fraction of the cost. (other tele-
presence vendors include Polycom and Tandberg.) The lower having more effective meetings and
price point allows organizations to outfit many more rooms solving problems right away.”
and achieve the network effect of having enough systems to
— Tomas Soderstrom
connect with to make the technology more valuable, which
results in better collaboration throughout the engineering ranks,
not just for senior staff.
“The LifeSize solution serves the most people in the most cost-
Whereas traditional (standard definition) videoconferencing effective manner,” says Todd Lucas, director of CSC’s Pasadena
typically connects larger groups of 10-30 people per room, Innovation Center who is heading the project.
telepresence addresses a different paradigm, connecting small
groups of 1-4 people per room for remote face-to-face collabo- JPL, which has 5,000 employees scattered in over 100 buildings
ration. (See Figure 14.) This enables more personal interaction on its Pasadena campus, has purchased four systems since the
than phone calls or audio conferencing, and more timeliness and pilot began. Some 30 other locations at JPL, other NASA centers
efficiency than meeting in person. and JPL vendor partner sites are being considered for systems.
“Telepresence is not so much about saving
on travel costs as it is about having more
effective meetings and solving problems
right away,” observes Tomas Soderstrom,
IT chief technology officer at JPL.
The pilot uses LifeSize systems that
support up to four continuous presence
locations and large, 61-inch monitors that
provide a face-to-face experience even
in multipoint calls. LifeSize systems
deliver telepresence-quality video com-
munications (1280 x 720 resolution at 30
frames per second, which is typical for
high definition videoconferencing) over
existing broadband networks, including
the Internet, with as little as one megabit
per second of bandwidth, thus avoiding
the high cost of dedicated lines. Figure 14 Telepresence technology is being deployed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to
promote more meaningful dialogue and participation while minimizing the costs, down time and
environmental impact associated with travel. The solution from LifeSize Communications enables
The pilot emphasizes “always on,” meaning
many rooms to be outfitted so that rank-and-file employees, not just senior staff, can benefit
the monitor “sleeps” and is activated by from using telepresence. Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory and LifeSize Communications
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Another twist on telepresence is mobile telepresence via a Figure 15 SHoPPING MEETS VIRTUAL REALITy
robot. HeadThere believes telepresence is the “killer app” for
robotics; the company’s Giraffe robot technology is designed
to bring telepresence into the mainstream. The Giraffe is a tall,
slim machine with a video screen and camera as its “head” and
an adjustable-height base that extends more than five feet tall.
The base is on wheels, so the Giraffe can be rolled to wherever
you need it: an office, lobby, factory, center for daycare or
elderly care, or room at home for telecommuting or watching
the kids remotely. Be wherever you need to be.38
Clothes that Fit
In fashion, the real world meets the virtual when it comes to
trying on clothes. TC2’s Intellifit body scanner, a walk-in booth
that does a 360-degree body scan in less than 10 seconds, could
redefine the fashion industry in terms of how bodies are mea-
Try on a virtual dress and show your friends at home via the
sured, patterns are sized, and people try on clothes. The scanner Internet. Source: Andrea Mohin/The New York Times/Redux
uses cylindrical holographic imaging technology to take a full
body scan and create 3D avatar images detailing a person’s
precise measurements. Shoppers can use the avatars to try on most advanced full body avatar for the consumer world. This is
clothing when shopping online. (Send your avatar specifications becoming a real market,” says Paul Schuepp, president and CEo
to a 3D printer and you’ll have a perfect mini-you! See “Platform of Animetrics. The ultimate goal is to be able to try clothes on your
Magic: 3D Printing” in Platform Makeover.) customized avatar in a virtual shopping mall, having submitted
measurements and your photo via the Web. Animetrics is also
This is a big step forward from self-reported measurements, working with a company that will provide virtual hair styles for
which Lands’ End, for one, has been using since 1998 and your face as a service at hair salons.
enhanced in 2003 with 3D models (My Virtual Model) based
on the self-reported measurements.
If you’d rather shop in the store than by catalog but you’re The idea that you can go shopping
too busy to try outfits on, you can try them on virtually. At the
and interact with friends who can’t
Manhattan Bloomingdale’s, in the Lanette Lapore department,
an interactive mirror can show you a life-size image of a virtual be there — show them what you’re
dress, like a hologram, that you “try on” by positioning yourself
trying on and get immediate
behind it.39 (See Figure 15.) The virtual fitting — the real you in
the virtual dress — can be beamed to friends via the Internet, feedback — is something that wasn’t
who can tell you, via text chat that appears on the mirror, if
possible before.
you look good in red. The idea that you can go shopping and
interact with friends who can’t be there — show them what
you’re trying on and get immediate feedback — is something
that wasn’t possible before. The key to the Animetrics “GotFace” technology, which converts 2D
pictures to 3D facial models, is being able to work in suboptimal
In addition, you might want to have an avatar that looks like you lighting and with angled rather than straight-on poses. (See
try on the virtual dress. Face creation and face recognition tech- Figure 16.) This is a big benefit when working with photographs or
nologies from Animetrics are being used in Korean department surveillance video. Animetrics technology is also being used for
stores so you can try clothes on an avatar that resembles you and national security and law enforcement, to better identify people
see how you look. Animetrics is working with Korean company of interest from photo libraries. The focus is not on virtual worlds
iFashion to personalize its avatar software. “iFashion is by far the but rather on visualization for better intelligence about a person.
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Figure 16 G oT FAC E ?
Animetrics’ “GotFace” software converts the 2D photo on the left to a 3D facial model, which is added to an avatar to create the “real you.”
Such personalized avatars are being used for trying on clothes virtually in real stores and, ultimately, in virtual online stores. Source: Animetrics
Blended-Reality Entertainment club, and the real club had screens up showing the corre-
Virtual clothing and virtual appearances make a neat state- sponding event in Second Life. When asked if I was bringing
ment for virtual reality augmenting physical reality, but what my avatar with me via my laptop — the club has free Wi-Fi — I
about when virtual reality is the star of a TV show? Here we decided I needed to sit down and have a nice cup of tea.”
have the real TV show (though some question if a TV show is A bit perplexing, maybe, but certainly a way to broaden
real) being improved with virtual reality in the plot. The result participation.
is many twists and turns as characters weave in and out of
reality and virtual reality.
“CSI: Ny” aired an episode in october 2007 in which crime The TV show dramatized the tension
investigators turned to Second Life to help solve a murder.
between the real and the virtual and
The plot involved impersonating avatars in the real world,
investigating the real crime as an avatar, getting real leads in delivered a unique viewer experience
the virtual world, searching for real suspects by finding their
through a blended reality.
avatars, and being attacked by a real computer virus inflicted
by an avatar. In an added twist on the interplay between real
and virtual, viewers could log onto Second Life during the
broadcast and investigate the clues. The TV show dramatized Reliving Your Vacation
the tension between the real and the virtual and delivered a Another unique experience could be showing how you spent
unique viewer experience through a blended reality. your vacation, virtually. If you take digital photographs on
vacation and upload them to Flickr or another photo sharing
Another case of blended reality was opening night at a site, Microsoft Live Labs’ Photosynth software can combine
UK nightclub. Notes Ben Machin, technical lead on CSC’s them into a 3D visualization that can be navigated like a virtual
Qwaq Forums project, “I was invited to the club, which world. Relive the experience and share it with your friends.
was also hosting an opening night of itself in Second Life. Back at work, you could relive a conference or trade-show
The music in Second Life was streamed live from the real experience the same way.
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THE RESULT: A NEW REALITy both business and personal, of this uncharted territory. The
barrier to entry is low; you don’t have to pack up and move
As the physical world is augmented by the virtual, and the West with uncertainty but can pioneer with safety and relative
virtual world gets closer to the physical, a new reality is born. ease. Early indications are that virtual worlds can provide a
This blended reality has important implications for organiza- better understanding of reality and bring us closer to our real
tions, as shown in Figure 17. selves. That’s having the best of both worlds.
We will continue to see a blending of physical and virtual
reality, where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
While some question the relevance of the virtual world to the As the physical world is augmented
real — will virtual marketing and sales translate to real sales?
by the virtual, and the virtual world
— there seems to be a connection that will only grow stronger
as both sides, virtual and real, explore and experiment. gets closer to the physical, a new
reality is born.
As in the early days of the Web, we are in the formative stages
of virtual worlds. People are fascinated by the possibilities,
Figure 17 T HE N E W R E A L I T I E S
A N E W L E A D E RSHIP Mo DEL WILL Enterprise teams will form and disband based on the skills needed at the time
E M E R G E B AS E D M o RE o N MERIT THAN (similar to online games). Look for flatter, more collaborative, more flexible
H IE R A R C H y. organizational structures, where skills are more important than seniority.
S U P E R - Co L L A Bo RATIVE WoRK SKILLS Collaborative gaming skills like ping quotient (connecting with others when
W IL L B E PA R AM o U NT. requested), protovation (experimenting rapidly despite risks), mobbability
(working well in large groups) and influency (being persuasive in multiple
social contexts and media spaces) will be key.40
V I RT UA L Wo R LDS WILL ENABLE NEW Expect more life-like characters like Sam the Weatherman and smart avatars
M o D E S o F IN T ERAC TIo N. to personify information and interact with us.
V I RT UA L Wo R LDS WILL FACILITATE organizations will experiment with product development, communication,
E X P E R IM E N TATIo N. learning and new virtual worlds themselves.
IT E R AT I V E D E VELo PMENT AND Virtual worlds will provide collaborative development and testing environments
Co - C R E AT Io N W ILL INCRE AS E . for enterprises and customers to create products together.
Wo R K W I L L B ECo ME Mo RE LIKE Think scenarios and engaging with others to accomplish a specific goal.
A G A M E . 41
Source: CSC
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soCial poWer
The power inherent in connected people surges.
As the Internet continues to evolve, it is revealing the power as distribution channels for advertising, software applications
of our social side — our inherent drive to connect with others and more.
and share. We have always had a social side, but the Internet
is unleashing it in new ways with considerable force, showing
SoCIAL NETWoRKS BECoME THE HUB
that much can be accomplished by networked individuals with
similar interests once they find each other. Social networks are becoming the hub of the Internet — the place
you start out at, like the portals of the 1990s. Sign on to your social
We see social power in action when new artists are discovered network and do everything from there: e-mail; surf; make phone
on MySpace, old friends are discovered on Facebook, experts calls; share photos, music and ideas; keep in touch with friends;
from around the world contribute to the Encyclopedia of Life,
or coordinated online shareholder activism ousts a CEo. In the
2008 U.S. presidential primary race, MySpace held the first-ever social networks are becoming the
online pre-primary right before the January 3 Iowa caucuses that
launched the official election season. Later in the campaign, news
hub of the Internet.
organizations were citing the number of people on MySpace and
Facebook linked to the candidates. A new grass-roots political
dialogue has emerged online. connect with business people. MySpace co-founder Chris De Wolfe
declares that “evolving online social destinations are laying the
Why the sudden surge in social power? Didn’t the Internet groundwork for the new social web which we believe is becoming
enable us to connect like never before? And then the browser? infinitely more personal, more portable, and more collaborative.”42
yes, but social network sites are making it even easier to Figure 18 shows a timeline of the socialization of the Internet.
connect. Barriers to entry — to get
on the Internet and find friends and
Figure 18 E Vo LUT Io N o F S o CIAL ME DIA o N T H E IN TER NET
colleagues, to become part of an interest
group and work together — are even
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
lower now.
As the Internet becomes more social- 1995 - AOL got people onto the Internet
centric, social sites are becoming the
starting point or hub of our cyber experi- 1999 - Yahoo organized it
ence. Enterprises are earnestly attempting
to leverage social power, both internally 2003 - Google made it searchable
among employees and externally in busi-
ness strategies. New strategies harnessing 2007 - Facebook made it social
social power put a premium on relation-
ships and what others say and do, and
tap the viral capability of social networks Source: SocialMedia Networks
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Everything Gets “Socialized” social power has revenue power, and that social networks — those
There are many signs of the emerging social Internet. Facebook’s informal connections we create internally and externally — must
release of the Facebook Platform in May 2007 opened up Face- be cultivated and managed.
book to outside developers’ applications, and later that year
Facebook opened its development platform to outside social
networking sites. The latter came in the wake of Google’s launch
of openSocial in october 2007, to create an open platform for
social power has revenue power.
social networks on the Web (an open Web API). Applications
written to the open Social standard can run on any social network
supporting openSocial (e.g., orkut, LinkedIn, Hi5, Friendster,
Ning, Salesforce.com), giving access to as many as 100 million Leadership, Innovation, Revenue
users or more, in contrast to less than half that for Facebook “organizations readily see the importance of social networks
at the time. 43
In March 2008 Google joined with yahoo and today,” says Rob Cross, assistant professor at the University of
MySpace to create an independent non-profit openSocial Virginia and an expert in social network analysis. Ten years ago, he
Foundation. 44
Around the same time, Microsoft opened up had to do a lot of explaining to executives about the importance
Windows Live so users can share their contact lists (e.g., Hotmail of social networks. Today, he says, organizations just “get it.”
address book) with five of the top social networks (Facebook,
Bebo, LinkedIn, Tagged and Hi5).45 These moves aim to expand “People understand the importance of identifying and manag-
social networks and reinforce their prominence as hub destina- ing their informal social connections — how the work really gets
tions teeming with functionality and people of interest to you. done,” Cross says. organizations seek Cross’s help with that
to improve leadership, innovation, revenue growth and change
In addition to social networks per se, applications outside the in the organization. Having leaders think about their personal
social network, from expense tracking to healthcare to fitness connections helps with succession planning and knowledge
to music distribution, are becoming socialized. Expensr.com lets retention as people retire. Connecting the right experts, who
you track your personal expenses so you can see where your may not be interacting, can often lead to new product ideas.
money is going and how your spending compares to others. Being able to make more informed decisions faster can save
you can invite friends and become part of different groups to manufacturers millions in annual operations.
compare against (e.g., men, women, engineers, those in their
thirties, residents of Atlanta). Patientslikeme.com welcomes people For instance, using social network analysis, one multinational
with medical conditions who wish to share their experiences with petrochemical company reported that a single network of 60
similar patients, compare symptoms and treatments, and learn people contributed $5 million in savings a year by transferring
from others. AWare Technologies Health’s FitAWare activity moni- best practices effectively within the company. In one situation,
toring service taps social networking and friendly competition to an oil well expected to be shut down for four days was up
encourage participation in corporate fitness programs. Surrge.com and running in two days because an engineer working on
is a social site for music distribution, where fans are compensated the problem was able to identify an expert to help him fix
for referring music to friends in the network (if their friends buy it, cutting in half the number of production days lost. Here,
it), and communities of support are built around artists. having an effective social network delivered a hard, measurable
return to the company.46
Even an old standby, photo sharing, gets a decidedly community
twist from Shutterfly. And leveraging social for altruistic purposes, So the social structure of the organization can be optimal, or it
TakingITGlobal.org is an online community that inspires young can hamper the company’s ability to get things done. It is impor-
people to get involved in their local as well as global community. tant to understand that social networks have a structure, and that
structure can be modified to improve performance by increasing
productive interactions and decreasing unproductive ones.
PoWER To THE ENTERPRISE
Social power is not lost on the enterprise, either. What once may The Ties that Bind
have been considered a “soft” topic relegated to HR is moving Social networks keep the strong ties strong, strengthen the
into mainstream business discourse as companies realize that weak ties, and leverage your colleagues’ ties. In social networks
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it is important to know a lot of people, but not necessarily well. called WorkBook, to enable organizations to use Facebook
Who your colleagues and friends know — not necessarily who from behind the corporate firewall. This could be the salve
you know — will be key, as you’ll be able to reach them much corporations need to take a serious look at leveraging the
more easily than in the past. popular social networking technology for collaboration.
This recalls the idea of six degrees of
separation: no matter how large the Figure 19 CUT T ING A FE W T IE S CUTS DE E PLy
network gets, you’re only six people
away from anyone else. Links between
network clusters are critical; you only
need a few strong ties to reach the
External Connectivity in Pharmaceutical research and development
person you seek. Similarly, if a few
strong ties break, many ties are lost.
Therapeutic Area External Research
Scientists in Community
Social network analysis illustrates how Company
when a few strong connections in a social
network are severed, many more connec-
tions disappear. In Figure 19, the top figure
shows that 12 scientists in a therapeutic
area of a pharmaceutical company hold
the bulk of the connections to academia.
The bottom figure shows how the removal
of the top four scientists cuts external
connectivity by half (72 out of 142
interactions). Some 80 percent of the
organization’s interactions with academia
removal of Top 4 scientists reduces Connectivity
are one-on-one, making management
concerned not with whom the scientists Therapeutic Area External Research
Scientists in Community
are connected but with how to manage Company
these critical sources of knowledge should
key scientists leave.
Bringing Social to the Enterprise
To harness the power of social networks
in the enterprise, companies are looking
at sites like Facebook and MySpace to
establish corporate groups. “It’s all about
bringing social visibility and connection
to stovepiped communities and content.
The content and expertise already exist
in the enterprise, but there is very limited Social network analysis illustrates how when a few strong connections in a social network
insight into it,” observes Paul Gustafson, are severed, many more connections disappear. The top figure shows that 12 scientists
in a therapeutic area of a pharmaceutical company hold the bulk of the connections
director of CSC’s Leading Edge Forum.
to academia. The bottom figure shows how the removal of the top four scientists cuts
external connectivity by half (72 out of 142 interactions). Some 80 percent of the
However, there are security concerns with organization’s interactions with academia are one-on-one, making management concerned
consumer sites since they operate on the not with whom the scientists are connected but with how to manage these critical
sources of knowledge should key scientists leave. Source: Rob Cross
public Internet. one company, WorkLight,
offers a secure overlay for Facebook,
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Another approach is to deploy social networking software see, for example, a colleague’s recent blog posts and subscrip-
specifically designed for the enterprise. Universal McCann, the tions, his expertise and communities of interest, documents
global media communications agency, is using NewsGator Social he has contributed to or added, and how he tags content.
Sites and Microsoft office SharePoint to improve communica- Tags alone are a great clue for discovering others with similar
tion and information flow across the agency’s 90 offices in 66 interests. By tagging an item with a tag from a community
countries. UM wanted its employees to have their fingers on (e.g., Alzheimer’s Research), that item can be found easily by
the pulse of what’s happening in their market segments and community members or visitors.
throughout the media industry. The solution integrates well
with existing infrastructure and security protocols, important “We are at the intersection of content and people, helping
UM requirements that consumer-based solutions lacked.47 people discern what’s most relevant to whom” states J.B.
Holston, CEo of NewsGator Technologies. “The view of the
Social Sites features include tacitly built profiles, social network person is central to social computing.”
graphs, communities, advanced tagging and tag clouds, RSS
feeds, subscriptions and management, notifications, and col- NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is experimenting with
league tracking. (See sample profile in Figure 20.) It is easy to social networking software from Socialcast to retain and share
knowledge as NASA employees retire and a new crop comes
in.48 JPL is seizing on the social movement as a way to transfer
knowledge to younger employees who are more familiar with
social networking environments,49 and to promote collabora-
tion across NASA’s far-flung groups. To encourage technology
adoption, JPL is using “reverse mentoring,” where a younger
person mentors an older person on the technology.
And behind the scenes, there will be many architectural
considerations as social computing becomes a core part of
the IT infrastructure.
Microblogging Makes Its Mark
As social networking spreads to the enterprise, microblogging,
a form of social networking, is also making its mark in organi-
zations. During the California wild fires in 2007, residents
used Twitter, the leading microblogging service, to get up-to-
the-minute details of the fires. Here a social networking tool for
keeping in constant touch — you give short, rapid-fire updates
of a situation in real time via text messages from cell phones or
PCs — became a life-saving proposition. At least two residents
and one news service, KPBS News, were publishing Twitter
feeds that Twitter users could subscribe to for the latest on
where the fires were, evacuation details, and supplies needed.50
There are more than 50,000 Twitter users, doubling every two
to three weeks, according to obvious Corp, which launched
Twitter in 2006.51
Figure 20 This NewsGator profile provides a tacit view of a
Microblogging reminds us to never underestimate the power of the
person through the content they create and the activities they
perform in the organization. Source: NewsGator Technologies social network to wreak havoc instantly — or, as writer and critic
Howard Rheingold would say, to amplify the power of smart mobs.
Twitterers protested a live interview of Facebook founder Mark
Zuckerberg at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference
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and Festival, demanding — while the interview was taking place reportage offered by news articles, microjournalism is a new
— that the interviewer not cut Zuckerberg off or inject her own media form that brings immediacy and, paradoxically, detail
views. “By the midway point, the crowd had grown vocally hostile, that traditional journalism does not. one veteran ad industry
empowered by the ad-hoc Twitter network that had formed.”52 journalist twitters religiously on the nascent online ad industry,
reporting colorful, behind-the-scenes observations and making
a name for himself as a microblogger.53
Microblogging reminds us to never
Microjournalism can be used to seed longer-form journalism
underestimate the power of the social by posting the short snippets to a blog or Web site, and it can
network to wreak havoc instantly. be used to create community discussion by distributing those
snippets to a community of friends, such as on Facebook.54
A counterpart to microblogging is microvideo, where short
snippets of video by citizen journalists or journalists with digital
Microblogging’s immediate communication ushers in a new age cameras — i.e., not a full camera crew — can be shared on
of “microjournalism,” in which journalists can recount an event youTube and other sites. (See “Created by Me” in New Media.)
second by second, in clipped 140-character bursts (the limit A new microblogging service, Zannel, lets you post video, text
of a text message). While obviously not the same as the full and photos via cell phone to share with friends on the Web.
PEEr-To-PEEr BusINEss ModELs
Here’s a simple idea: match those with and demand and the P2P nature of the studio, which eventually became Virgin
money to those who need it. Sounds Internet, which lends itself (if you will) to Records.) VirginMoneyUS.com provides
like the basis of a social network and cutting out intermediaries. Using a slightly real estate, personal, education and busi-
a business. This is what Zopa.com, different model, VirginMoneyUS.com ness loans between family and friends,
Prosper.com and VirginMoneyUS.com do. manages loans between relatives and facilitating the transaction between bor-
friends — people who already know each rower and lender. This includes providing
Zopa.com and Prosper.com take a peer- other. All three models speak to the same legally-binding documents, structured
based, match-making approach to impulse: cut the bank out of the picture, repayment terms, electronic funds transfers,
lending and borrowing money. The sites which often makes for quicker, easier, e-mail statements, a year-end tax summary,
match those who have with those who more affordable access to capital. and ongoing customer support to both
need, without the overhead of a tradi- parties for the life of the loan.
tional financial institution and with more VirginMoneyUS.com (formerly
flexibility to extend credit. Although in CircleLending), launched in October 2007 VirginMoneyUS.com facilitates loan
general the sites limit the amount that and developed and hosted by CSC, is renegotiations and offers flexibility. “Our
can be borrowed, and typically there part of Richard Branson’s Virgin empire.56 loans are a lot more flexible, so you can
are more borrowers than lenders, 55
the (Branson is predisposed to P2P lending; miss a payment now and then and you
concept of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending he got his start with a $10,000 loan can restructure a loan,” explains Asheesh
makes sense given the laws of supply from his aunt in 1972 to build a recording Advani, CEO of Virgin Money USA. “If
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PEEr-To-PEEr BusINEss ModELs (continued)
you default, your parents aren’t going to lend and borrow without a bank via a two percentage points lower than what a
foreclose on you. There’s going to be a Web platform, but most participants do bank would charge.
grace period for you to get back on your not know each other personally.
feet.” As a third party to the transaction, P2P lending is in its infancy but is expected
VirginMoneyUS.com manages the relation- The idea across all the P2P lending sites is to grow. According to Celent, a research
ship and takes the awkwardness out of it. that borrowers receive lower interest rates firm, P2P loans in 2007 were estimated to
and lenders earn a better return than if be $647 million, versus $2.5 trillion in U.S.
This is a new type of added value: a middle dealing with traditional financial institu- consumer debt.57 That may be a drop in the
man that deals with the social intricacies. tions. Advani says that loans among bucket, but it’s bound to expand as social
Zopa and Prosper also help individuals family and friends are typically at least networks continue to grow.
VirginMoneyUS.com is a peer-to-peer lending site that capitalizes on people’s social networks, managing
loans between family and friends. Source: VirginMoneyUS.com
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WHAT oTHERS SAy (oR Do) MATTERS News Corporation.) The online destination extended the
TV audience to the online community and provided a
In an interconnected world, who you know, and more importantly, more interactive and lasting experience than a 30-second
who your colleagues and friends know, matters. What they say TV spot (which, incidentally, went for $2.7 million). The more
or do has real bearing on you actions. That is why word-of- lasting the experience, the more likely word-of-mouth will
mouth advertising and accreditation systems have become so be generated.
important online.
Although word-of-mouth is a growing component in marketing
I Bought It Based on Word-of-Mouth campaigns, it is not fully understood online yet. “The continued
Word-of-mouth advertising via social net-
works is taking off, magnified by the likes Figure 21 To P 10 S o CIAL NETWo RKING SITES
of Facebook, MySpace and consumer- FoR MARCH 2008 ( U. S. , H o ME AND WoRK )
generated media like blogs. What people
say, recommend and buy online can in-
Unique Audience Unique Audience
fluence more people more quickly than
Site (000) March 08 (000) March 07 % Change
traditional word-of-mouth ever could.
Keller Fay Group, a market research firm Myspace.com 60,398 55,937 8%
specializing in word-of-mouth, indicates Facebook 24,940 12,622 98%
that although 90 percent of word-of-
Classmates Online 13,599 12,991 5%
mouth conversations take place offline
LinkedIn 7,877 1,878 319%
(face-to-face or over the phone),58 brand
marketers have become actively involved Windows Live Spaces 7,852 9,076 -13%
in online word-of-mouth marketing via Reunion.com 5,940 5,217 14%
new media, metrics and word-of-mouth
AOL Hometown 5,785 9,246 -37%
specialists.59 Figure 21’s traffic data shows
why online word-of-mouth has such Club Penguin 4,623 3,482 33%
potential. According to Nielsen online, AOL Community 3,229 4,640 -30%
MySpace alone had over 60 million
Buzznet.com 2,717 1,822 49%
unique visitors in March 2008, and
Facebook unique visitors skyrocketed
98 percent in March 2008 from the Source: Nielsen Online
previous year.60
That is one reason why Super Bowl ads were officially placed advancement of new word-of-mouth technologies is creating
on MySpace in 2008. The Super Bowl is the preeminent crosscurrents among alternative media strategies, as evidenced
TV advertising event of the year in the United States. For by Facebook’s recent attempt to bridge the gap between
the first time, the National Football League and the TV social networking and WoM marketing,” says Patrick Quinn,
broadcaster, Fox Sports, included MySpace space as part CEo of PQ Media.62
of the advertising. 61
(Fox Sports and MySpace are part of
This is a reference to Facebook’s botched launch of Beacon,
which automatically shared Facebook members’ Web surfing
activities with their friends and family — a sort of forced
what people say, recommend word-of-mouth. Beacon looked promising but crossed
the line in terms of privacy. Facebook did an about-face
and buy online can influence more
and made Beacon opt-in rather than opt-out after strong
people more quickly than traditional user protest. Clearly, word-of-mouth is a potent force to
be used with care. (For more on privacy and transparency,
word-of-mouth ever could.
see Information Transparency.)
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A site dedicated to word-of-mouth shopping is ThisNext.com. ment industry had threatened to sue Digg.) Digg withdrew
Members recommend products and services to each other, its ban (not clear if for better or worse — that depends on
from jewelry to sports equipment to books to toys. Members your point of view about fair rights use).63 As Jean-Jacques
can organize their recommendations into something akin to Rousseau theorized in 1762, “a perfect society would be
a playlist called a shopcast; you might have a shopcast for controlled by the ‘general will’ of its populace.”64 But we
remodeling or cooking or golfing. People with similar interests are not perfect, and the will of the populace — the social
can see what you recommend, or they can defer to the collec- network — may not always be right.
tive wisdom of the community. In the end, it’s all about giving
and receiving advice in a trusted group. • Does the work-life balance lose balance? With the social
network as the hub, personal and professional activities
How Do Others Rate Me? could be so intermingled that you can’t relax or give quality
Formal rating systems that vouch for someone or something time to either. Time management, and supporting tools,
online take full advantage of the power of social networks. It will be critical.
all started with commercial ventures like Amazon’s “friends
and favorites” and eBay’s reputation system rating sellers. • Whither the 20-year-olds? When 20-somethings leave
People would rate products (Amazon) and their purchase college, will they stay on Facebook? Does the social
experience (eBay) for the benefit of others and, ostensibly, network phenomenon have longevity or is it primarily
to improve what or who was being rated. for a younger demographic? While certain sites may target
a younger audience, the power and reach of social networks
Now we have systems like those from Slashdot and Digg will continue to grow, especially in vertical social networks
that take community-generated accreditation to a new level. (i.e., those geared to specific groups like triathletes — see
In both systems, members rate articles on their quality, with Mosaic co-creator Marc Andreessen’s latest undertaking,
the highest-rating entries rising to the top of the site. These ning.com). Though 20-somethings may migrate to a different
systems provide context and relevance to information based platform, the drive to connect socially is inherently human
on how people in a related group act. and won’t go away.
Although many benefit from such collective wisdom, there is Social Power and Enterprise Responsibility
always the risk that myopia could set in. The danger of an Thus, organizations need to explore and leverage social power
accreditation system, reputation system or social network in for their benefit. organizations have a choice: (1) leverage con-
general is that people become insular and don’t think outside sumer social networking sites, benefit from an immediate and
the group. These systems act as filters, and good ideas may already established employee network, and manage the risk with
not always filter through. Related to this, the group may be secure overlays and enterprise governance programs; (2) imple-
inherently biased. Be careful to think for yourself and weigh ment an internal corporate social network and eliminate many
your thoughts against those of the group. (For more on of the security risks inherent with consumer sites, but lose the
collective wisdom, see Smart(er) World.) power of the immediacy of the consumer sites and force people
to maintain yet another social networking profile; or (3) follow
a hybrid strategy that merges consumer and corporate social
WHERE Do WE Go FRoM HERE?
networks in ways useful to the individual.
Though social networks are here to stay, there are some
questions to consider: once the organization has decided which approach to pursue,
it will need to establish a governance model to ensure respon-
• What happens if the social network turns against you? The sible use of the social networking tools. This includes guidelines
outcome could go either way. The Beacon faux pas showed for appropriate use, transparency, proprietary and confidential
the power of the social network to change a Facebook information, regulatory compliance and legal discovery. Addi-
policy (for the better, most would say). Digg.com was tionally, organizations will need to consider and create provisions
successfully challenged by its members when Digg tried to protect employee privacy. This is especially important for
to ban them from posting a software code that helps people companies with employees in Europe, where privacy laws are
illegally download certain HD DVD movies. (The entertain- stricter than in the United States. Finally, organizations consider-
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ing the use of social networking need to create a monitoring Another question is: Can employees import external groups
capability. Depending on how widespread use of the network into their corporate social network? you might want to create
is, this can range from a member of the security team reviewing a “bike to work” community on the corporate site but invite
content online to setting up tools to monitor performance and some non-work friends to join. This raises issues about access for
unauthorized use. non-employees who have been added to a corporate group.
But what exactly is unauthorized use? NewsGator believes The reality today is that work and personal life intertwine
organizations embarking on a social networking project need heavily for most employees. Many workers already use company
to get early buy-in on what will be accepted. once employees systems like e-mail for non-work activities. This is going to
have an easy way to create content that is visible to all other happen with social networking systems too. The challenge is
employees, it’s too late to decide what will be done about an to strike a balance that satisfies employees without detracting
inappropriate blog post. This doesn’t mean that companies from organizational performance. “We will evolve towards some
should write 20-page “appropriate use” policies that they sort of ‘return on attention’ to measure these initiatives,” predicts
e-mail to every employee. In general, a couple of sentences J.B. Holston of NewsGator. “Successful initiatives will be those
should suffice to point out that (1) the tools are provided where the newly-created social networks vibrate with activity
to make the company better and (2) employees should use and positive performance.”
their best judgment.
Virtual Worlds: The Next Social Frontier
As organizations test how to leverage social power among
employees, partners and clients against the backdrop of global
organizations need to establish sourcing and distributed teams, they must also realize that
social networks are a moving target. The next frontier for
a governance model to ensure
social networks, in terms of technology platform, is virtual
responsible use of social worlds. Right now a Facebook or a MySpace is easier to join
than a Second Life — for instance, no high-resolution graphics
networking tools.
hardware is required, no avatar needs to be created and
manipulated. But virtual worlds are coming in force to the
Internet (See Living in a New Reality), and being social in
Similarly, the management team should come to grips with the nature, they are the logical next step for social networks.
“fun” side of a social networking project. Will it be acceptable organizations improving their social literacy must consider
for users to form communities around non-work topics? Will virtual worlds as well.
this be encouraged? Will non-work content be emphasized
or discouraged? Successful social networking projects always
need some element of enjoyment for the end user. Deciding
on the appropriate level and means is an important step to
take consciously in the beginning of the project and adjust as
needed over time. This has a lot to do with the management
team getting comfortable with social networking.
The hybrid strategy raises additional questions such as: Can
employees add widgets (self-contained pieces of code) from
outside the company to their behind-the-firewall personal
pages? This can make the personal page more relevant and
fun, but there are security and appropriate content consider-
ations. Some companies are considering managing their own
widget galleries (or relying on third parties to perform this
function) to address these sorts of issues.
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inforMation transparenCy
What is observed by one will be known to all.
In May 2008 a stolen laptop was found and the criminals were Such information transparency has powerful implications for
caught when the owner realized she could operate the laptop’s individuals and organizations. More information more available
camera remotely to see who was using it. The standard-issue is yielding new insights, visibility into enterprise operations
camera, intended for business and recreational use, was key to is improving performance, expectations about information
identifying the suspects.65 The owner leveraged the power of availability are rising, and software tools themselves are
the Internet, and the devices and applications connected to it, becoming more transparent.
to gather information about the suspects and crack the case.
MoRE INFoRMATIoN MoRE AVAILABLE
Today there are countless examples of how information that
was once not available is, and how that information is shedding A vast collection of consumer applications and technologies,
light on previously opaque people, processes and things. powered by the Internet, is delivering an information ecosystem
Everything from price comparisons (farecast.com) to com- that yields transparency about ourselves, our processes and our
pany organization charts (orgchart.forbes.com) to hidden things. (See Figure 22.)
home-buying costs (feedisclosure.com) to the dirtiest hotels
(tripadvisor.com/dirtyhotels) is on the Web for public con- Figure 22 T H E INFo RMAT Io N E CoSySTEM
sumption. Even salaries, the most sacrosanct of information, yIE LDS T RANS PARE NCy
are being revealed (glassdoor.com). As John Taylor, technology
evangelist for the Educational Testing Service and former chief
• Who you are: fingerprints, iris scans, face recognition,
technology officer of DuPont, has said for years, “There are no
voice analyzers, gait analyzers, typing analyzers, DNA
secrets in a wired society.” tests, ID cards
• Where you are: GPS, cameras
Information transparency is largely driven by technology, but
• What you are doing: Twitter, MSN Messenger, AIM,
the law is also an important factor. Regulations like Sarbanes-
ICQ, Sametime
oxley mandate stronger financial disclosure and “transparency”
• What you are working on: oDesk
of financial dealings. Democracies in general favor information
• What you are holding: RFID tags, QR bar codes
transparency, whereas repressive governments with a history
of censorship do not. China’s Tiananmen Square massacre in • What you are sharing: social networks
1989 and Russia’s attempted coup in 1991 were not reported • What others are collecting: data aggregator sites
on state news outlets but reached the world nonetheless via
• What others think: opinion Web sites
the Internet. Tyranny made transparent is tyranny defeated.
• What’s in your house: eBay
China and Russia have gone on to open up communications
and their markets. • What’s in the world’s knowledge repository: Google
• What’s the price: bot sites that compare prices
Today we operate in a global marketplace, yet ironically, because • What’s the code: open source
of the Internet and information transparency, it is almost like
• What’s the application: Web Services, mash-ups
we’re living in a small town, where everyone knows everything
• What are my resources: peer-to-peer
about everyone. What is observed by one will be known to all.
Source: CSC
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Look at Web sites that provide detailed product information. Just like these unfiltered opinions, stories by citizen journalists on
For used car buyers, CARFAX provides vehicle history reports CNN’s iReport.com are unfiltered and unedited. If CNN uses an
so buyers can know if a car or truck has been in an accident iReport, it vets the story first, stamps it “on CNN,” and shows the
before they buy it. CARFAX generates reports on demand based story on TV or CNN.com (e.g., the iReport page). But on iReport.com
on the vehicle identification number (VIN), drawing from its stories are available immediately when iReporters post them.
database of over five billion records from 20,000 data sources. iReport.com is about reporting all the news that doesn’t make the
Competitors are working with auto manufacturers to tag every news, and in so doing makes the world a little more transparent.
part of the car at birth and relate it to the car’s VIN, making
the car’s parts traceable through the car’s life, as has been Seeing It Like It Is
done with airplanes for years. Also making the world a little more transparent is research by
University of Toronto professor Steve Mann, who for 30 years has
been inventing, designing, building and wearing cyborglogging
devices that capture one’s every movement and conversation.
Mann’s cyborglogger system (“glogger” for short) has more than
“There are no secrets in a wired society.”
28,000 users who capture, record, index and share their lives
— John Taylor
online to see better and benefit from increased personal safety
and reduced crime. Users can get cheaper life insurance rates
because they can collect evidence of wrongdoing directed at
The result of this transparency is better maintenance and more them — not unlike using surveillance cameras and security locks
confident buyers, who know the history of their car’s parts and in a store or home to reduce risk.
whether or not a part is an original. Currently, the only place
build records exist is on the vehicle sticker at the dealership. Mann wears special electric glasses (his EyeTap invention)
Without that sticker, it is very difficult to recreate the car’s that capture his life as it happens. His wearable computer
history in terms of components and features. In the future, functions like a “black box” flight recorder in that it captures
everything from parts, service records, photos of the car over physiological readings such as ECG (electrocardiogram), EEG
time, and history of the car’s owners (bachelor or family with (electroencephalogram) and the like. Users can review their
two kids and a dog) could be tied to the VIN number and ECG data, see a spike, and check their cyborglogs to see
accessed via a social network site dedicated to cars. what caused the spike. (Was the person talking to an in-law?)
Everything the user sees and experiences can be captured
Flightstats.com gives on-time percentages for each plane flight and shared on the Internet for all to see (with controls).
you consider, as well as current flight status for particular flights,
routes and airports. Data that existed but was unavailable is In addition to healthcare applications, Mann has experimented
now readily available to consumers, who can access it flight- with having first responders use the technology (see the building
by-flight as they prepare to buy tickets. Air travelers can I’m going in and give me orders) and even shoppers (which
make more informed ticket decisions and purchase their bananas do you want?). It is not unlike the idea of retail stores
tickets from any number of sites that compare prices and having complete video footage of a person’s shopping experi-
find the lowest fares — again, information that was not ence to mine for marketing purposes.
previously readily available — including Farecast, Expedia,
Travelocity and orbitz. Computer pioneer Gordon Bell’s digital archive at Microsoft
Research is an example of a cyborglog that builds on Mann’s ideas
Telling It Like It Is of a life-long health record that could be combined with others’
on orbitz you can report what you actually see at the airport, life-long data for scientific, historical and other research.
such as flight delays and long security lines, in real time via your
cell phone. This takes transparency to a new level because the Shorter term and less all-encompassing, companies are using
airlines may not yet be reporting what you are experiencing. cameras to monitor and record daily activities of employees.
This “man on the street” feedback puts pressure on corporations oDesk Corporation, which assigns contract programmers, Web
to tell the truth and rectify problems quickly. Ditto for the designers and project managers from India, Russia and around
countless consumer opinions on the Web. the world to jobs, allows employers to audit employee activities
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in real time via screen shots and Webcam shots that let you
see, literally, what your team members are working on. Employers
use this visibility to spot-check code, see when the contractor
is working, and find out if the contractor is getting stuck on
any tasks. Though on-the-job privacy will increasingly be a
concern as more data about workers is collected, this level of
transparency gives employers added confidence to hire and
manage remote teams from a global workforce.
All this comes against the backdrop of a proliferation of cameras
on the Internet (recall the beginning of this chapter), as well
as cameras in public spaces and on roads. These cameras are
making people and processes more transparent and providing
better public safety.
In addition, sensors serving as cameras for the body are making
our bodily processes more transparent. A continuous glucose
monitoring system from Medtronic that uses a sensor under the
Figure 23 Medtronic’s continuous glucose monitoring system,
skin reports glucose levels every five minutes, providing 100 called the Guardian REAL-Time System, uses a sensor under the
times more information than conventional glucose monitoring skin and a transmitter (top) to send data every five minutes to a
and thus helping diabetics avoid high and low glucose levels. 66 monitor (bottom). Diabetics can keep close track of their blood
sugar level, avoiding high and low levels. Source: Medtronic, Inc.
(See Figure 23.) More information means better decision making
because we can “see” what the body is doing in a timely manner.
FINdINg BALANCE: TrANsPArENCy VErsus PrIVACy
Transparency is here to stay, but trans- sensors in hotel refrigerators that negotiations. We accept cameras in
parency can be a double-edge sword, automatically collect precise informa- stores and on street corners. However,
providing benefits at a cost. Individuals tion about our drinking habits. However, the U.S. government demanded that
and organizations need to strike a balance the National Basketball Association Google withdraw images from Google
between transparency and the following: Players Association refused to allow Street View that it took from public
TV broadcasters to put RFID chips in streets near U.S. military bases, claiming
• Privacy: Constant surveillance and players’ sneakers, fearing this would threats to national security.67 Privacy
constant data collection may at some reveal players slowing down over their takes a subordinate role when it’s
point cross the privacy line. We accept careers and thus hamper contract a matter of safety, whether against
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FINdINg BALANCE: TrANsPArENCy VErsus PrIVACy (continued)
terrorism or healthcare errors. If it’s • Fraud: It may be true that on the • Managing your own transparency: This
a matter of saving my life versus my Internet there are no secrets, but will be increasingly important but
privacy, it’s an easier decision to want there may also be more lies. It could difficult. Companies search the
your information shared. be that a certain amount of deception Internet to vet prospective employees;
is necessary to maintain privacy in candidates entering the workforce
Still, as computers collect sensitive a transparent environment. may find themselves trying to explain
information from us and even begin away embarrassing blogs, comments
to decipher our emotions and what • Knowing too much: With transparency, and Web site content created in their
our words mean (see Smart(er) it may be possible to know too much. salad days. Internet content often
World), we know this information For example, insurers may not cover remains long after the user has gone
can be compromised or lost. Paul you or employers may not hire you dormant or even closed an account,
Saffo, director at the Institute for if they know you are sick or at risk. so beware of what you say on
the Future, believes we will have Thus people may avoid getting Facebook, MySpace and elsewhere.70
to pay for what we want to keep tested to keep their medical records
private.68 Further, we will have to clean (and insurers or employers Overall, transparency is good — more
relinquish any expectations of privacy unaware). In this case knowing too knowledge, more informed decisions,
in public places, creating tension much can hurt, even though putting more innovation — but you have to
for government agencies and others off knowing can hurt much more manage it and stay vigilant.
who operate there. later.69
ENTERPRISE VISIBILITy:
ILLUMINATING oPERATIoNS
In the future, everyone and everything
In the future, everyone and everything will be tracked, from
will be tracked, from employees
employees escaping a fire in the workplace, to equipment
moving underground, to oil flowing through a pipeline, to widgets escaping a fire in the workplace,
coming off the assembly line. Information will be presented
to equipment moving underground,
visually, accurately, in (near) real time. Such enterprise visibility
(transparency) will illuminate operations, bringing new levels to oil flowing through a pipeline, to
of safety, efficiency and innovation to the organization.
widgets coming off the assembly line.
Enterprise visibility is the ability to “see” all the organization’s
assets: who and what, where and when. It includes monitoring,
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42. DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS LEA DI NG EDGE FoRU M
CSC has created such a system to track employees both inside
and outside, integrating RFID technology (inside tracking) and
GPS technology (outside tracking). The system uses accurate 3D
depictions of geospatially-located buildings and infrastructure
(e.g., pipelines, transmission lines, rail lines), which you can fly
over and through to locate employees in real time, be they inside
conference rooms or outside taking a break. (See Figure 24.)
The system, which also tracks assets, uses latitude, longitude and
altitude to pinpoint a subject’s location. Knowing where people
and assets are is critical for safety, especially in dangerous or
harsh environments.
This is particularly true in the mining industry, where enterprise
visibility of mobile equipment is sorely needed. In underground
Figure 24 This visualization shows exactly where employees are mining, vehicles and people have been difficult to track. This
(in their cubicles) using CSC’s enterprise visibility real-time tracking is because technologies such as RFID have not worked well
technology. Part of the building has become transparent so you can
in subterranean areas. However, technology advances in RFID
see the people or things being tracked. The technology integrates
RFID (for tracking the people inside) and GPS (for exterior location) devices have now improved dramatically, enabling systems to
into a single presentation platform. Source: CSC be designed and developed that were not possible in the past.
tracking, identifying, classifying and assigning attributes to a CSC has deployed an underground RFID system in a mine
person, vehicle, fixed asset or infrastructure — whether stationary in Cannington, Australia for BHP Billiton, the world’s largest
or moving. In general, enterprise visibility systems combine RFID, producer of silver and lead. The Underground Traffic Information
GPS and imagery to track assets visually in mapped locations. System is the first system of its kind using RFID in an underground
environment to inform vehicle operators about where nearby
Knowing Exactly Where You Are vehicles are moving in real time. (See Figure 25.)
Knowing where your employees are at all times is always a chal-
lenge. But what if you had a 3D digital model of your enterprise The system, which received the CSC Chairman’s Award for
building or campus and could track employees using avatars? Excellence in 2008, is helping BHPB eliminate underground traffic
accidents, as well as determine more
efficient routes and reduce bottlenecks.
Above ground, vehicle safety is being
addressed through a different transpar-
ency angle: track truckers using GPS and
sensors on the truck to ensure that truck-
ers don’t drive longer than they should,
which can result in fatigue and accidents.
Truckers typically record their mileage
manually and can “cook the books” to
hide the fact that they have driven more
hours than mandated by federal law.
Digital surveillance eliminates this, making
Figure 25 In this underground silver, lead and zinc mine in Cannington, Australia, the
small truck on the right needs to get out of the way of a large front-end loader approaching. driver activity completely transparent.71
The truck needs to reverse until the front-end loader can safely pass. The inset shows a
collision between a light vehicle and a haul truck. The difficult traffic conditions in the mine Visibility also improves efficiency. Imag-
are being addressed with an RFID system that works underground and lets drivers know
ine a 3D visualization of a hospital,
when vehicles are approaching. Since the installation of the system, designed by CSC, there
have been no accidents recorded in the defined underground zones. Source: BHP Billiton where you can fly through the facility
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43. L E A D IN G E D G E Fo RU M DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS
and see all its assets. you can know when an ambulance is RISING EXPECTATIoNS ABoUT TRANSPARENCy
expected in the emergency room and the condition of the
patient. you can have better information about organs being Indeed, once people have tasted transparency, they want more.
transplanted. Information can no longer be hidden. People are increasingly
demanding that data be available to them, particularly public
CSC has introduced omniLocation to provide such enterprise data.
visibility to clients. omniLocation is CSC-developed middle-
ware that integrates location and sensor technology with Web In the United States, there is a strong cry for federal agencies
Services to create a real world visualization of enterprise to make their data more transparent. A Princeton University study
operations. It integrates location with relevant attributes about observes that federal agencies are falling behind in presenting
people, vehicles, assets and infrastructure, creating a four- data to the public.73 The study suggests that if agencies pro-
dimensional visualization of the client’s enterprise on a Web vided easier Web access to raw data, private companies and
platform. This augmented reality combines data about physical organizations could present the data in new ways.
business operations onto a real world visualization that is
physically correct, accurately mapped, and continuously updated.
omniLocation delivers an unprecedented level of insight
into operations to improve safety, security and efficiency. It once people have tasted
provides an interactive interface to the user and an operations transparency, they want more.
communication tool to the client.
Visualization Tools Are Key
Visualization tools are key to enterprise visibility systems. Tools For example, if the Environmental Protection Agency could make
such as Google Maps, Google Earth, Google SketchUp and more raw data more accessible to the public, then interested par-
Google Sketchy Physics provide highly accurate, free maps. ties, including consumers, could analyze and interpret the data in
creative ways useful to them. Many interested parties already do
Further, the maps are getting more realistic. “Google Earth this; for instance, USA Today taps Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)
visualizes the real world, not a virtual replica,” notes Dan Munyan, data to publish a national map of mercury emission sources.74
chief technologist for CSC’s Global Security Solutions Identity But if more data were more readily accessible, more analyses
Labs. “We are almost at near real-time updates with satellite leading to improved understanding would be possible.
imagery. In the past, updates were on the order of every 28 days;
now they are just a few seconds.” The demand for better data transparency, along with problems
such as natural disasters that require collaboration, heightened
To showcase its enterprise visibility tracking technology, public awareness about protecting the environment, and
CSC provided real-time tracking for the 2008 Amgen Tour of the explosion of the Web, are driving EPA to seek new ways
California professional cycling race. Riders wore small RFID to serve its data to the public. To this end, EPA launched a
devices and were represented as moving avatars on a National Dialogue on Access to Environmental Information,75
digital map, rendered via Google Maps or Google Earth. The which sought input from citizens and organizations alike on
Location object Field Tracking (LoFT) solution let users what information they look for, how they use it, search terms
predict what would happen next since they had access to and delivery formats.
historical data as well as elevation and route data. The LoFT
mash-up could be displayed on a handheld as well as a laptop “The American people have a real thirst for environmental
or desktop.72 information,” says Molly o’Neill, EPA chief information officer
and assistant administrator for the office of Environmental
As enterprise visibility takes hold, it is moving from exotic and Information. “That’s a major reason we launched the National
harsh environments to the mundane, such as monitoring Dialogue. People expect to find information not in days or hours
passport queues at airports to ensure that enough border or minutes, but rather in seconds.” Input from the National
control agents are on hand. When technology is applied to Dialogue, which ran from January through June 2008, will shape
ordinary jobs, it’s a sure sign it’s going mainstream. EPA’s strategy for access to environmental information.
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Similarly, in healthcare people have been demanding better DrIvInG TrAnSpArEncy: MASh-upS AnD MorE
access to information so they can analyze it and make decisions.
Making the healthcare system more transparent is an enormous As information becomes more transparent, the software tools
challenge, but work is well underway. themselves are becoming more transparent, from mash-ups to
(further out) attentional software and intentional software.
TransparenT HealTHcare:
THe DocTor and Your InformaTIon are In
As anyone who has been to the doctor’s in U.S. hospitals as a result of medical the person changes jobs, insurance
office in the United States knows, U.S. errors.76 U.S. healthcare as a percentage companies, doctors, hospitals or state
healthcare is ripe for an IT transformation. of GNP continues to grow and exceeds of residence.
Every time you fill out an intake form that of any other industrialized country.
describing who you are, what medications (It was 16 percent in 2006 and estimated In 2004 President Bush issued an execu-
you are on, and who your insurance to be 16.6 percent in 2008 and 19.5 percent tive order that the majority of Americans
carrier is, you are reminded of how in 2017.77) Better information that makes have electronic health records by 2014.
paper-based the healthcare system still patient and disease data more transparent Two initiatives helping realize the goal by
is. But healthcare is poised to become and reduces administrative costs and time setting data standards are the Health
more transparent as longitudinal elec- will help reverse these statistics. Information Technology Standards Panel,
tronic health records, intelligence systems at the government level, and SNOMED, a
and improved connectivity help deliver Key technology enablers include: privately-led taxonomy of some 300,000
better information for better decisions. medical terms. One state-of-the-art
Longitudinal Electronic Health Records — prototype based on SNOMED terms is a
“Transparent healthcare is about improving An individual’s personal health information visualization tool developed by IBM that
the quality of care with better information must be standardized and integrated maps a person’s electronic health record
for better decisions, saving lives and into an electronic health record that lasts data to a 3D image of the human body.
money,” says Dr. Robert Wah, CSC’s chief a lifetime. This record would include The Analytic and Symbolic Mapper
medical officer. information from doctor visits, hospital Engine, described as Google Earth for the
stays, pharmacies, lab tests and the body,78 brings dry medical data to life
It is estimated that there are anywhere supporting medical and pharmacy claims. and makes it easy to understand.
from 44,000 to 98,000 deaths per year The record must remain active whether
Continued on the following page >
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45. L E A D In G E D G E Fo ru M DIGITAL DISrupTIonS
TransparenT HealTHcare:
THe DocTor and Your InformaTIon are In (continued)
At the same time, public record manage- database of patient information and tying together islands of information.
ment services are emerging, including medical research and flags potential Although the NHIN will not be in place
Google Health (in beta), Microsoft’s conflicts in an individual’s medication or for years, four architecture prototpyes
HealthVault, Revolution Health (backed treatment. These examples underscore
79
have been developed, including one by
by AOL co-founder Steve Case) and the desperate need to correlate health CSC. This is a major issue for Americans.
ActiveHealth Management’s ActivePHR. information and make it available in a In a 2008 survey commissioned by CSC,
These services are an effort to give timely, comprehensive manner. 70 percent of 1,000 Americans polled
people tools to manage their own health indicated they would be more likely to
information, similar to how they manage Connectivity — The Nationwide Health vote for a presidential candidate who
their bank information online. Information Network (NHIN) is key to
Continued on the following page >
Intelligence Systems — Once you have
the data, intelligence algorithms (rules) All Patients with same diagnosis
are needed to apply against the data
to yield insights. Am I getting better
1
or worse? Are two drugs interfering Remove
Non-responders
with each other? Resolution Health has and Toxic Responders
created a rules engine that answers
such questions. The engine generates
2
communications for doctors and patients,
Treat
as a result of its analysis, to warn the Responders and Patients
Not Predisposed to Toxicity
doctor that two drugs could interfere,
for example, or to reinforce to the
patient the importance of taking a medi-
cation by explaining the adverse conse-
quences of not doing so. ActiveHealth Stratifying patients by genotype lets researchers predict who will respond favorably (or not)
to a drug, paving the way for personalized medicine based on an individual’s specific, unique
Management has compiled a large
characteristics. Source: CSC
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46. DIGITAL DISrupTIonS LEA DI nG EDGE Foru M
TransparenT HealTHcare:
THe DocTor and Your InformaTIon are In (continued)
supports the creation of a nationwide doctors can analyze detailed individual at- to reveal the complex underlying causes
health information network. 80
tributes to create a custom plan. Similarly, and outcomes of diseases can effective,
researchers will know the one molecule to personalized treatments be realized.
The ultimate goal of a transparent health- target with a new drug, maximizing effec-
care system is personalized medicine. tiveness and thus minimizing side effects, In the end, it’s about making the entire
Based on genetic information, family back- or which patients will respond negatively healthcare system smarter: patients, doctors,
ground and your DNA, care is customized to a new drug before it is administered. nurses, hospitals, suppliers, insurance com-
for the individual. Your insulin dosage can panies, government payors, pharmaceutical
be fine-tuned so there is no need to prick To fully realize the vision of personalized companies and life science researchers.
yourself every 20 minutes to check your medicine, longitudinal clinical patient data It’s a complex system, to be sure, but if
blood sugar level. Instead of relying on must be integrated with molecular data the financial services and travel industries
three general criteria — gender, weight (e.g., genomics, proteomics). Only by can become digitally transparent, so can
and height — to develop a treatment plan, seamlessly integrating these data types healthcare. It’s a matter of life and death.
Making the inner workings of applications, along with application With mashups, much the same way blogging systems put
information, more transparent leads to application innovation, Web publishing into the hands of millions of ordinary non-
most notably in the form of mash-ups. now software (applica- technical people, the barrier to developing applications
tions) is open enough to be easily combined with other software and turning creativity into innovation is so low that there’s
(applications) to yield new applications. As shown in Figure 26, a vacuum into which an entire new class of developers will
an entire mash-up ecosystem is emerging, where the modern be sucked. It’s already happening.81
Web functions as an operating system and the whole is greater
than the sum of the parts. Mashup Feed is reporting an average of three new mash-ups
per day and total mash-ups at over 3,300.82 clever mash-ups
Mash-ups can be created by novices; they do not require have been created to show correlations between political
sophisticated programmers. “Mash-ups disrupt the former contributions and votes cast (maplight.org), property values
culture that ‘someone else knows best,’ giving individuals full in your neighborhood (zillow.com) and automobile speed traps
freedom to represent information any way that pleases them,” (njection.com/speedtrap), as shown in Figure 27.
asserts paul Gustafson, director of cSc’s Leading Edge Forum.
“The result is potentially endless innovation.” Then there are mapping mash-ups that incorporate pictures
and video, such as viewr, a catalog of global real estate offer-
This innovation stems from a broader pool of non-technical ings. As one blogger wrote, why not add pictures and video
people who can now create applications: of not just the property but the surrounding area, searchable
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47. L E A D IN G E D G E Fo RU M DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS
Figure 26 T HE MAS H - U P E CoSyST E M: FLo URIS H ING IN AN INCRE AS ING Ly
N URT URI N G E N V I R o N ME N T
Web
HTML
commerce search content
site engine site
RIA Enterprise
feed of the
online Edge
application aggregator P ublic Tolerance
Continuum
Mobile media
storage
discovery
Hybrid
Database
mash-up ris
e
Browser content ter
p
aw En
int kwa
ers r
service
Mash-up Drivers: ect d
ion security SOA
Great Content is Hard to Recreate Private Services and
Increasing Developer and User Skills Information
The Benefit of Building on the Shoulders of Giants
Widespread Availability of Good Tools
Lightweight Data and Service Models Source: Dion Hinchcliffe’s Web 2.0 Blog, Social Computing Magazine. Licensed under a
Easy to Reuse Services Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Right to Remix Spreading http://web2.socialcomputingmagazine.com/the_web_20_mashup_ecosystem_ramps_up.htm
across city maps. Have commentary about the neighborhoods than spending days pulling data from different sources into a
using “wiki-fied pop-ups” in the mash-up, and add social presentation and e-mailing it.
networking that allows residents and
prospective buyers to chat.83 The possi-
bilities are endless.
one tool for creating mash-ups is Intel
Mash Maker, for both novice and power
users.84 others include MapBuilder,85 for
mashing Google and yahoo maps, and
Google Mashup Editor (in testing).86
In the enterprise, mash-ups are being used
in a variety of areas, from government to
e-commerce to telephony. For example,
the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency
created a mash-up called overwatch to
make intelligence gathering and analysis
more timely. The overwatch platform,
shown in Figure 28, enables end users
to create a current, customized view of
a particular situation based on multiple
intelligence data sources. overwatch is Figure 27 This mash-up lets you find speed traps in your area. Speed traps appear as
browser-based and uses drag-and-drop yellow or red dots on the map, depending on severity level. When you hover your cursor
over a speed trap, detailed information and advertising appear. you can also add speed
techniques and bookmarks. This is far
traps to the map using a simple form Source: Njection
faster, more dynamic and more secure
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48. DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS LEA DI NG EDGE FoRU M
Figure 28 This mash-up, called overwatch, gives U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency staffers the ability to create an informational
view of a situation quickly, right from their browser. Source: JackBe Corporation
overwatch was created using JackBe Corporation’s Presto
enterprise mash-up software. Key benefits of the approach savvy enterprises will leverage
are empowering end users to assemble the data they need
on the fly, and improving information sharing and real-time
a data-operational strategy that
access to critical information. “Mash-ups address the IT bottle- puts information at the core of the
neck by empowering business users to easily assemble their
business, even if the business is
own situational applications in response to ever-changing
business requirements,” says Luis Derechin, CEo of JackBe. selling hard goods like cars. data
other applications of Presto include providing current inven- adds value and drives sales.
tory data to field sales people (Tupperware); creating a faster,
more flexible shopping cart for e-commerce applications
(Nutrisystem); and tracking research citations (Thomson The Internet was founded on transparency and we are feeling the
Scientific). effects, amplified by Web 2.0, mash-ups, ubiquitous connectivity,
user self-service, and a culture that demands information. Savvy
In addition, new on the scene for JackBe are mashlets, portable enterprises will leverage a data-operational strategy that puts infor-
micro applications that present a “face” to enterprise mash-ups. mation at the core of the business, even if the business is selling
The objective of mashlets is to share their mash-up results easily hard goods like cars. Data adds value and drives sales. As Internet
and safely; mashlets can be put into a blog or portal, sent technologies and cultural norms continue to evolve, there is no
to co-workers or customers, or viewed in a browser or next- end in sight to transparency and the innovations it can yield.
generation mobile phone.
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DIGTAL TRUST VoL. 8
neW Wave of Waves
The sky is not the limit as spectrum goes digital.
To paraphrase Nobel-prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, we
The game has changed; wireless is
are immersed in a sea of waves (mostly invisible) that surrounds
us with a tremendous amount of potential information.87 This a new frontier that is completely
sea of waves, the electromagnetic spectrum, includes X-rays, up for grabs, with spectrum as
visible light waves, heat waves, microwaves, radio waves and
valuable a resource today as oil
more, as shown in Figure 29. These waves present a cacophony
of signals that we, using suitable receivers and transmitters, was in the Industrial Age.
can somehow separate out and interpret.
Amidst this cacophony, new hardware and software tools are has changed; wireless is a new frontier that is completely up
refining our ability to control radio wave signals, whether cellular, for grabs, with spectrum as valuable a resource today as oil
broadcast TV, AM/FM radio or Wi-Fi. This is enabling us to re- was in the Industrial Age.
allocate spectrum to a host of new digital
applications, and to one day do away
with spectrum allocation entirely thanks
to cognitive radio. Change is in the air.
However, it will take time to revise U.S.
Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) regulations and business models
that profit handsomely from the regu-
lated spectrum bequeathed to us in 1912,
a result of radio communication mishaps
that contributed to the sinking of the
Titanic.88 Change will be introduced
gradually as some spectrum bands are
reallocated and others are opened for
general purpose rather than proprietary
use. Eventually, the current contrivance
of spectrum allocation will be shattered
altogether.
This is a key point. We are no longer held Figure 29 This depiction of electromagnetic spectrum shows several objects with size
scales comparable to the wavelengths of the waves of different types of electromagnetic
back by old technologies that led to the radiation. Note that the range of wavelengths varies by many orders of magnitude, while
creation of spectrum allocation to avoid the waves shown in this “cartoon” do not. For example, visible light waves are typically
100 time shorter than infrared waves, not just slightly shorter as depicted pictorially.
interference. New technologies render
Source: NASA’s “Living With a Star” program and the Center for Science Education at Space
spectrum allocation obsolete. The game Sciences Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley.
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DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS
The race to stake out the wireless Figure 30 SPECTRUM oPENS UP IN THE 700MHz BAND (C BLoCK)
frontier is precipitating a spectrum
battle between the established telcos;
io
radio, cable and satellite broadcasters;
ad
R
e
Internet service providers; and start-ups.
av
w
ol
e
rt
tr
ac
As the battle plays out and the demand
ho
on
c R
Sp
affi M
io S
C
Tr ES
Ph ord oth
to
io
R io
for wireless communications increases,
e ss
te
ir /
ad
FM ad
d
ad
C o
le
SB
lli
A el
un
et
R
R
te
t
U
on
ex
lu
ro
wireless will become the norm and wired
M
B
Sa
W
B
C
N
A
G
the exception.
5-600MHz 700MHz 800MHz 900MHz 1200MHz 1900MHz 2400MHz 3.1 – 10.6GHz
SPECTRUM oPENS UP A B CDE AWS AWS
Imagine a day when your mobile phone UWB
works on any wireless network, not just
your carrier’s network, or emergency Unused “white
space” is available FCC auctions off
responders can carry one radio that for low-power, the C Block for
Verizon
unlicensed $20 billion for a
communicates with firefighters, police, Sprint Wireless
applications. new open access
federal emergency responders, the 700 MHz
industry.
National Guard and others seamlessly AT&T Wi-Fi
T-Mobile
Mobility
and reliably.
To say wireless will become the norm
is one thing, but getting there — having
ubiquity and seamless connectivity — is
Source: CSC
quite another. The wireless arena, unlike
the Internet, is not based on one unifying
protocol and universal access but rather
a hodge-podge of incompatible protocols (e.g., TDMA, CDMA, The 700 MHz band, originally assigned to analog TV, will be
HSDPA, GSM, GPRS, EVDo, UWB, Wi-Fi, WiMAX), proprietary freed up as a result of the U.S. transition to digital TV (which
frequency bands (i.e., licensed and unlicensed spectrum), and will be completed in 2009). The 700 MHz band’s five blocks
access restrictions. Slowly this is changing as spectrum opens up (A-E), depicted in Figure 30, were auctioned off for a mix
and the traditional licensing models fall by the wayside. of commercial and public safety uses, both proprietary and
open. The big winners were Verizon Wireless, which spent
The 700 MHz auction is a major step towards opening up roughly $9.4 billion for C-, B- and A-block licenses, and AT&T
spectrum and introducing innovative business models. The Mobility, which spent $6.6 billion for B-block licenses.90 In
FCC has called the 700 MHz band “beachfront property,” a total, the auction earned $20 billion.91
valuable scarce resource providing a foundation for building
innovative new products and services.89 During the time leading up to the March 2008 auction, the
C block received the most attention because it contained
open access elements, added at the urging of Google (which
The FCC has called the 700 Mhz did not pick up any licenses), that opened the door to com-
band “beachfront property,” a panies other than traditional phone companies to win licenses
and create a host of new wireless services. Verizon Wireless
valuable scarce resource providing predicts “a new wave of consumer electronics and applica-
a foundation for building innovative tions” using Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in its
C block, which must by definition be open to compatible
new products and services. applications and devices.92 (LTE is discussed in “The Race
Towards Broader Coverage and Speed.”)
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DIGTAL TRUST VoL. 8
An early sign of innovation in the 700 MHz band is 700 MHz with the open Handset Alliance it is leading for third-party
Wi-Fi. With Wi-Fi operating in an unlicensed band, companies applications. Even Apple opened its iPhone platform to outside
that already have hotspots could become “super hotspots,” developers, enabling capabilities such as Wi-Fi telephony. The
delivering an on-ramp to the Internet and providing a host opening up of the platform by Apple is very strategic, for it
of new innovations and disruptions in the spirit of the open sets up more potential disruptions for the carriers and device
C block. This on-ramp takes consumers to an endless array of manufacturers, who need to strike a balance in deciding “which
applications, in contrast to the single applications of the licensed wave to ride” at any one time.
bands (e.g., TV, radio, voice). The model shifts from licensed
to unlicensed, from proprietary to open. Another area of spectrum ripe for opening up is TV white
space, the portion of unused spectrum that separates licensed
In addition, 700 MHz Wi-Fi sets up an alternative to PCS or TV bands. In the past, white space served as a buffer to prevent
WiMAX for a nationwide wireless network. Because it operates interference, but with today’s transmitters and receivers that
at a lower frequency (700 MHz in contrast to 2.4-5 GHz for is no longer needed. Having the additional spectrum available
licensed Wi-Fi), 700 MHz Wi-Fi has broader reach, meaning for unlicensed devices would be a major win for innovation.
fewer towers are required. Estimates put the price of building The FCC is deciding whether and how to free up this vacant
a national Wi-Fi network at $2 billion, in contrast to $4 billion spectrum, considered “a golden technological opportunity” for
for a national 1900 MHz PCS network and $5 billion for a WiMAX broadband services for those without broadband and for
network.93 (Wi-Fi versus WiMAX is primarily about speed/ consumer applications such as smart homes and mobile TV.94
distance versus cost, with Wi-Fi being slower and shorter range Google has given suggestions to the FCC for how white space
but less expensive to deploy.) could be deployed for unlicensed use, particularly mobile Web
access.95 Anything that increases Web traffic improves Google’s
Though the prospect of a nationwide wireless network, another position as an advertising platform.
sign of spectrum opening up, is many years away, vendors are
opening up in the meantime. Verizon Wireless has opened its However, open spectrum does have its challenges. Already
network to other devices and applications. Google is developing in multi-tenant buildings, there are complaints about the
an open platform for mobile phones (Android) in conjunction performance of Wi-Fi due to access point overlap and
whIThEr ThE rAdIo?
With wireless Internet connectivity and no need to tune into a radio station’s The Chumby, a Wi-Fi gadget that looks
providing more flexibility and choice, it frequency. Just navigate to the station like an alarm clock, comes with Internet
is easy to see that traditional AM/FM you want via your mobile or laptop. radio too. So it’s not just Internet radio
radio will eventually become obsolete. Radio over the Internet, such as through per se but all the devices that can tune
Just as wireless Internet connectivity LastFM or Internet radio streaming, gives into Internet radio that will make tradi-
breaks the cellular juggernaut, it also you more choices and control, disrupting tional radio obsolete. Thus we have
breaks the radio juggernaut, dashing traditional radio the way music and TV conditions setting up the demise of
the value once inherent in having a are being disrupted. (See New Media.) radio as we know it: new networks
proprietary hold on spectrum. Once you accessible by new devices that put radio
can get radio over the Internet, there is With the new iPhone 3G, Internet radio in new places.
no need to have allocated radio spectrum streaming hits a growing population.
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DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS
a passenger on a ship, you would use Wi-Fi at port, 3G around
the coast, and satellite at sea.
or, say you are a passenger on a high-speed Thalys train in
Europe, which uses a different way to provide connectivity.
If you are on a Thalys train going from Paris to Brussels,
Amsterdam or cologne, you can enjoy broadband Internet
connectivity for the entire duration of the journey at an
average cruise speed of 300 kilometers per hour (187 miles
per hour). cSc helped Thalys choose the provider, negotiate,
and manage the implementation of the wireless service. This
Figure 31 The PepWave MAX mobile router works with Wi-Fi,
3G, WiMAX and other networks to provide seamless, high-speed allowed Thalys International to become the first European
connectivity on cars, buses, trains and boats. Source: PepWave commercial passenger rail service provider to offer passengers
Internet connectivity using Wi-Fi, satellite and cellular tech-
nologies. Figure 32 shows the high-level design.
bandwidth sharing. (However, getting away from microwave
ovens will no doubt enhance the performance of these new The solution provides continuous coverage across France,
networks!) Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, where Thalys operates.
currently the system has been deployed on three train sets,
WIRELESS IN NEW PLAcES
with plans for full deployment by 2009. For Thalys, which serves
As spectrum opens up and wireless eventually becomes the over six million passengers per year, Internet connectivity is a
norm, it is important to see where Wi-Fi and other wireless differentiator that its competitors (other trains and airlines) do
technologies are making inroads in terms of new applications not offer yet, though efforts are underway. The Thalys project
and new techniques. won the cSc chairman’s Award for Excellence in 2008.
Trains and Planes: Connecting in Motion on planes, Internet connectivity while in flight is becoming
Trains, planes and automobiles are getting online with Wi-Fi. a reality. Aircell and onAir offer Wi-Fi connectivity in the
In the past, connections to the Internet have been difficult if cabin, with service expected to start on some U.S. airlines (e.g.,
not impossible in moving vehicles. But advances in roaming and American Airlines, Virgin America) in 200896 and movement
network access are making it possible to
provide continuous coverage. PePWave
TrainFi, housed in a ruggedized enclo-
sure, is a Wi-Fi modem for vehicles, trains
and other public transportation systems.
With its advanced algorithms, it is able to
provide a stable Wi-Fi connection in a
moving vehicle at speeds up to 75 miles
per hour, enabling streaming video and
data on high-speed transit systems.
The PepWave MAX mobile router, shown
in Figure 31, allows for seamless failover
across Wi-Fi, WiMAX, 3G, satellite and
other networks. The MAX mobile router,
to be announced in fall 2008, maintains
Figure 32 Internet access from a moving, high-speed Thalys International train works as follows:
connectivity over vast geographic areas; From the passenger’s laptop, data is transmitted to one of two hotspots in the passenger’s train
it is designed for use in cars, buses, car, and on to a central server before transmission through a rooftop antenna, which connects
to a satellite 36,000 kilometers above or to 3G ground networks. Source: CSC
trains and boats. For example, if you are
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ExTENdINg CoVErAgE AT hoME: CoMBININg CELLuLAr ANd wI-FI
As more phone calls are made via wireless unlicensed mobile access (UMA) network make and take calls from your cell phone
rather than wireline phones, cellular controllers and multi-access convergence or browser and manage voicemail as
carriers are competing to grab hold of gateways, will climb to $46.3 billion by text, making it searchable, sharable and
the sizeable “home zone” market by 2010.97 Nokia is currently the leading dual- actionable. Ribbit’s Caller ID 2.0 feature
employing dual-mode handset services mode handset manufacturer, followed let’s you see a Web page of information
and femto-based systems in the home. by HTC and Sony Ericsson.98 about a caller before you take the call,
including his latest blog posts, photos,
Among the carriers in the game is T-Mobile, For those who want to dispense with videos, and past calls to you (which you
which has launched HotSpot @Home, a cellular altogether, there are Wi-Fi only can listen to or read as text). The social
service that offers unlimited calling via phones powered by services from Web meets telephony.
dual-mode (Wi-Fi and cellular) handsets companies like Vonage. Callers operate
using customers’ home WLANs. Dual mode these phones over Wi-Fi networks at As consumers experience disruption with
gets us one step closer to the vision of home, in the office or at hotspots. With the mobile phone first hand, it drives
open access, shifts traffic off the cellular voice as just another data type on the home the power of spectrum while also
network, and leverages infrastructure and Internet, service is much less expensive presenting new platforms and possibilities
service already in use by the customer at than cellular (or wireline) and comes that take us well beyond what dial tone
home. with features you’d expect (voice mail, delivered in the past.
caller ID, call waiting, caller forwarding).
Sprint is testing the waters with its Airave The trick is to make Wi-Fi calling as Of note: Our history with bandwidth
femtocell, and AT&T is exploring femtocells reliable and accepted as cellular, and in suggests that as networks get faster,
as well. Femtocells are an alternative so doing upstage cellular (and wireline). services that are linear in growth (versus
way to improve coverage at home. exponential) become priced at a flat
Consumers set up a femtocell, essentially a Cell phone disruptions are also coming fee rather than a per-minute fee, as has
mini cell tower, in the house. The femtocell from services such as fring and Ribbit. happened with long distance wireline.
provides coverage where existing cell Fring is a mobile VoIP service that lets “If this is true, the advent of higher-
coverage is poor. Unlike dual-mode users talk, chat and interact with each speed wireless will rapidly erode the
services, which require a special handset, other from their mobile phones using need to meter wireless voice minutes,”
femtocells work with existing cellular Internet connectivity, not expensive cell says Phil Edholm, enterprise chief
handsets. (Cable companies may also phone minutes, without boundaries and strategy officer and vice president of
get into the act, using WiMAX femtocells regardless of device or telco service. network architecture at Nortel. “This
to provide wireless service to consumers.) Fring also offers file transfer (limited) would substantially reduce the need
and supports multiple languages. Ribbit to use multiple networks to lower costs,
There is some serious money at stake. (acquired by BT in July 2008) is an open as with dual mode services.” So as dual
According to a study by Infonetics Research, platform that bridges the worlds of mode disrupts, it too could one day be
the worldwide fixed-mobile convergence cellular and the Web using VoIP, essentially disrupted.
market, including dual-mode phones, obliterating the voice stovepipe. You can
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Figure 33 M o B I L E B R oADB A N D T E C H No Lo Gy PAT H and WiMAX deliver high speeds and more
seamless connectivity (i.e., less roaming)
through broader reach. The path that
operators choose regarding LTE and
Cellular Operators WiMAX is shown in Figure 33.
4G
CDMA
LTE is a counterstrike to WiMAX for large,
LTE OFDM/
UMTS/ metro area networks. WiMAX requires
GSM HSPA MIMO
+ new infrastructure but has broad range.
Flat IP Feeling threatened, the GSM camp devel-
Network oped LTE in response. Although not as
Greenfield Licenses, WiMAX
New Entrants, Attackers powerful as WiMAX, LTE works on existing
GSM infrastructure so is less expensive
spectrum & regulatory considerations
to roll out. LTE will succeed HSDPA and
WiMAX Trials Rollout
LTE Demos Trials Early Adopters Rollout
can be used with existing GSM networks.
2007 2008 2009 2010 Figure 34 depicts LTE and WiMAX on
their respective paths to 4G networks.
Evolved Edge: Bridge for GSM operators to leapfrog to LTE
WiMAX: Differentiated offering for new entrants
LTE: Natural evolution path for 2G/3G operators WiMAX is expected to accommodate
Source: Nortel fixed, nomadic, portable and mobile wire-
less broadband connectivity without the
need for a direct line-of-sight to a base
already underway in Europe, Asia and Australia. Aircell uses station, similar to the traditional cellular phone network. IEEE
cellular and onAir uses satellite technology to beam signals to standards 802.16-2004, for fixed wireless, and 802.16e-2005, for
the plane, which becomes a hotspot inside the cabin. (Satellite mobile wireless, have been ratified and interoperable products
technology is required for coverage on trans-oceanic flights.) are now emerging from many vendors. Wireless operator Xanadoo
A major issue, at least in the U.S., is whether to allow voice calls or launched one of the first commercial mobile WiMAX networks
not. A central feature of the onAir service
is that the crew can disable the voice Figure 34 LT E AND WiMAX ARE THE TWo
feature at any time. Will social etiquette MA J o R PAT H S To 4 G NE T Wo RKS
win out? Probably not in Europe, at least,
where airlines (e.g., Air France, Ryanair) Device Movement All IP and Mobile
are already testing and offering in-flight
cell phone service. (Meanwhile, note that 4G
U.S. airlines have removed their in-flight LTE
3.5G
phones.) In any event, Wi-Fi in flight (with 3G
HSDPA NexGen Wi-Fi
2.5G
HSUPA 802.11n
or without voice) is a new revenue oppor- 2G CDMA2000 Wi-Fi at 700 Mhz
W-CDMA 802.11a/b/g/n
GPRS WiMAX
tunity for the airlines, who are hurting over ular 1xEV-DO Rev. A
Cell CDMA EDGE 802.16-2004
GSM
sky-high fuel prices. other players include TDMA
Mobile WiMAX
Wi-Fi
802.16e/802.16-2005
802.11a/g
Row 44, whose Wi-Fi service has been
Wi-Fi
tested by Alaska Airlines,99 and AeroMobile, 802.11b
offering service on Dubai-based Emirates
and Qantas Airways (trial).100
s
The Race Towards Broader les
ire
W
Coverage and Speed
>14.4 Kbps 64-144 Kkbps 384 Kbps- 10-20 Mbps 25-30 Mbps 70 Mbps 100 Mbps Data Rates
In contrast to the more limited bandwidth 3 Mbps
and range of Wi-Fi, technologies like LTE Source: CSC
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(802.16e) in North America in April 2008. Juniper Research combined with wireless USB provides even more flexibility
forecasts that mobile WiMAX will take off from 2010-2013, and reliability. As short-range wireless connections take off,
topping 80 million subscribers worldwide by then. 101
we can get rid of most of those unsightly wires in our offices
and homes.
WiMAX could start making its move when Intel, along with
partners Sprint Nextel and Clearwire, begins field tests of A really interesting potential of UWB is the ability to have
WiMAX networks and technology in 2008. 102
Intel plans to peripherals become public and shared in a private-use sense.
include both WiMAX and Wi-Fi in its next chipset for laptops With UWB, the hotel display can become the large display for a
(Centrino 2), which was introduced in July 2008; the company PDA, or every seat at a conference table can have a display that
released a dedicated WiMAX chipset (Intel WiMAX Connection becomes the display for the seated individual. This opens the door
2250) in 2006. Intel hopes WiMAX becomes just as popular as to carrying intelligence and using displays where needed, versus
Wi-Fi and a viable alternative to 4G mobile phone networks.103 today’s model of carrying different devices and intelligence for
different displays (e.g., PCs, PDAs). (See Platform Makeover.)
While some are moving to LTE, others say it is more cost
effective to upgrade Wi-Fi to approximate WiMAX function-
ality that is “good enough.” This approach would not require
deploying new infrastructure, as with WiMAX; however, Wi-Fi, A really interesting potential of
with a range of approximately 300 feet, was never intended
ultrawideband is the ability to have
to handle seamless hand-offs between cells, which is a unique
feature of WiMAX. peripherals become public and
shared in a private-use sense.
Despite these challenges and some false starts, WiMAX plans
are underway. In May 2008, a partnership was announced
among Sprint, Clearwire, Comcast, Time Warner, Google and
Intel to create a new WiMAX company bearing the Clearwire We may also be able to see through walls. A unique hand-held
name. The partnership is unique in that it gives cable operators, radar system designed by Camero uses UWB to detect hidden
an Internet company and a chip maker a stake in shaping objects on the other side of a wall and display them as images
the future of mobile wireless Internet access.104 As the new on screen. Designed for military and search and rescue oper-
Clearwire competes with Verizon Wireless and AT&T, which ations, the system has been sold to armies and police forces
are just beginning their plans for next-generation wireless around the world, and is hoped to become a general-issue tool
networks, the battle for wireless broadband is on. for all military units one day, just the way night vision technology
has.107 (If this technology reaches the enterprise, imagine being
Indeed, another WiMAX competitor is NextWave, whose MXtv able to see if someone is in the office if the door is closed, and
is a mobile multicast and broadcast technology for WiMAX whether they are alone or with someone else. Surely there is
operators. Essentially, MXtv is a way for WiMAX operators a business in creating jamming equipment for this!)
to provide TV and other video services. Alactel-Lucent has
signed on.105
SPECTRUM SHATTERS CoMPLETELy
Ultrawideband: Connecting Close In Eventually, we will see a complete breakdown of spectrum as
Ultrawideband offers the promise of being ultra-connected at software defined radio, and its child, cognitive radio, take hold
close range. UWB is a very low-power technology that sends and spectrum allocation is shattered. Use the entire spectrum
signals in quick bursts across a wide spectrum of frequencies. and let software find the signals you need. The result: a dynamic
It is useful indoors, such as for connecting home networks, and completely digital spectrum.
entertainment centers, consumer electronics and PC peripherals.
The first UWB-enabled notebook PCs shipped in late 2007. The vision of a dynamic digital spectrum is possible because
PC peripherals will show up in 2008, followed by consumer we are no longer bound by old technology. Dividing up and
electronics and applications in volume in 2010, and over allocating spectrum, and developing separate infrastructures
400 million UWB-enabled devices shipped in 2011.106 UWB to utilize specific assigned frequencies, was originally done
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arriving at the antenna slightly out of phase with the original
use the entire spectrum and let signal was overcome by increasing the power of the broadcasting
software find the signals you need. node so that the stronger, unaltered original signal could be
distinguished from its wayward siblings. SDRs can identify
out-of-phase rogue waves and shift them into phase, thereby
to avoid signal interference. Today this approach is largely an increasing the signal strength of the direct transmission while
anachronism given the hardware and software advances of the reducing the power required of the transmitter. Interference is
last 50 years, which have yielded extremely powerful, miniature no longer a liability but actually a redundant signal asset called
processors capable of running sophisticated wave transforma- “multi-path gain.”
tion algorithms in real time — i.e., extracting the signals, and only
those signals, you need. Physics does not dictate that we divide
up the spectrum to avoid interference; waves do not generally
interfere with each other. Rather, up until recently, our radio
technology was incapable of separating out the waves of GoVERNMENT ’ S Ro LE
interest — i.e., the signal from the noise — so we legislated (Or Challenges Facing Software Defined Radio)
frequency separation. But this is no longer necessary. Software
defined radio (SDR) enables moving to different frequencies and
modulations via software, and cognitive radio allows negotiating
Despite the promise of software defined radio and cognitive
spectrum on the fly as needed.
radio, the government plays a pivotal role in their success:
Today, we must be willing to embrace the new technology
• Broadcast license holders have little incentive to support
of SDR, reverse spectrum regulation, and resolve turf wars
the opening of the electromagnetic spectrum for general
that impede progress in the vast radio space. SDR is a major
use. The government will need to get involved to undo its
game-changer, on par with the telephone, automobile and
allocation “solution” of the past.
personal computer.108
• The government’s prohibition of the use of open source
code109 in the development of SDR will undoubtedly slow
the advancement of this groundbreaking technology.
software defined radio is a
major game-changer, on par • Regulators don’t understand SDR technology well enough
to regulate it well.
with the telephone, automobile
and personal computer.
Perhaps the ultimate in SDR is when devices can negotiate
spectrum intelligently as needed. A cognitive radio would detect
Inside Software Defined Radio user needs based on context and provide the appropriate
With SDR, transmitters comprising small, powerful computer wireless service, at the lowest level of power consumption,
chips can use a slew of software algorithms to carve informa- automatically adjusting transmission and reception parameters.
tion into a wave that can be picked out by a similarly-equipped Cognitive radio can detect unused spectrum and share it
receiver, despite many other wave broadcasts in the same without harmful interference to others, as well as capture the
frequency. The receiver sports multiple antennae to catch all best spectrum to meet quality-of-service requirements.
wave types and corresponding algorithms to analyze them,
and selects and transforms the waves of interest. Some say the technologies needed for cognitive radio already
exist. They include a handset being able to locate itself with
Additionally, interference becomes a plus. In the past, multi-path GPS, sense and analyze nearby spectrum, know the date and
interference from the reflection and refraction of transmitted time, detect patterns and biometric information from users, and
waves bouncing off the atmosphere, mountains or buildings and contain and manage a database of nations and regulations. The
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biggest challenge will be “designing clever algorithms that Now people in different frequency bands can communicate
will take all that information and make decisions about where using a single portable radio, not multiple radios for different
in the spectrum to operate at any given moment.” 110
Many bands. The importance of seamless mobile communications
experts believe that a typical cell phone in 10 or 20 years will was driven home by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001
have cognitive features. 111
and natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina.116
JTRS: Using Software Defined Radio to Crack the Spectrum Spacecraft Communications: An Industry in Transition
SDR is already being put into play by the military. The Joint SDR is being used in space as well. Spacecraft designers have
Tactical Radio System (JTRS) is a multi-billion dollar program long had to pay special attention to radio communications. The
of the U.S. Department of Defense that is developing an SDR space environment imposes many difficult constraints. Some of
for war fighter communications. The SDR will support swappable them, such as low power, low bandwidth, noise, mobility, and
hardware components and software upgrades for a family of multiple base stations, are shared by earthbound applications,
180,000 interoperable devices, which will eventually replace while others, such as potentially long propagation delays, are
the 750,000 tactical radios carried by soldiers or mounted on unique to space. over the years, many specialized waveforms
vehicles, aircraft and ships. 112
The goal is to provide real-time and protocols have been developed for space. Although some
voice, data, image and video communications to commanders have been standardized by the Consultative Committee for
and soldiers to improve situational awareness, enabling troops Space Data Systems (CCSDS), the large number of incompat-
on the move to make decisions quickly. ible options in the standards has resulted in virtually all space
missions being unique and unable to interoperate. This ends
JTRS uses a new IP-based wideband networking waveform up requiring one-off designs for flight systems, and dedicated
(WNW). The waveform enables ad hoc mobile connectivity ground systems for each mission. Meanwhile, successful
across the battle space and different service branches, and commercial solutions to many of these constraints have
is compatible with existing waveforms used by the DoD. This become widely deployed.
mobile connected battlefield is in contrast to having stove-
piped radios and an Internet based at fixed sites.113 Currently, NASA is moving towards using the Internet Protocol
(IP) to improve interoperability among its spacecraft. This
More than 100 JTRS Ground Mobile Radios (GMR) are being “Internet-in-Space” transition has been extremely disruptive
tested across the United States. The GMR system has four to the “old guard” of the world’s civil space agencies, but must
channels that can be configured with multiple simultaneous ultimately succeed. CSC’s operating Missions as Nodes on
waveforms. As the JTRS GMR program director at Boeing, the Internet (oMNI) project has been the world leader in this
which is building the initial units, put it, “Multiple legacy area for nine years, and demonstrated on-orbit117 IP spacecraft
radios would be needed to deliver the same throughput communications in early 2000.
capability of just one WNW channel on the GMR system,
significantly increasing capacity to deliver critical information But IP is only part of the interoperability equation. The protocol
to the warfighter.” 114
must still be carried over a host of different frequencies and
waveforms. SDRs are making inroads on spacecraft. SDRs
JTRS is considered a pivotal program because current radio are starting to be used to implement the radio modem tech-
systems lack interoperability across the military’s wide variety nologies used to send and receive spacecraft telemetry and
of environments, from backpacks to ships, and have insufficient commands. Motorola’s fourth generation spacecraft trans-
bandwidth to meet present and future communication needs. ceiver is an SDR. This allows for not only flexible flight radio
With JTRS, a single radio can support different standards, designs, but also the possibility of on-orbit modification of
frequencies, bandwidths and waveforms via software controls the waveforms used, in response to evolving standards and
that are adapted to the mission and intended platform. 115
interoperability requirements. In addition, SDRs at groundstations
could be reprogrammed between contacts (communica-
JTRS uses SDR to crack the confines of the spectrum not only tions with the spacecraft) for different waveforms, allowing
for warfighters but also for public safety personnel. In March one groundstation to be easily shared between multiple
2008 Thales Communications introduced the first SDR based missions. A CSC technology grant titled “Software Defined
on JTRS for U.S. government agencies and first responders. Radio” describes the construction of a prototype SDR-based
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groundstation for the U.S. Naval Academy’s MidStar-1 Space- options with travel times based on the speeds and locations
craft that can be easily modified for use by NASA’s CHIPSat of other Dash drivers at the moment, coupled with historic
spacecraft. 118
road data for every time and day of the year. A person’s driving
data is transmitted over the Dash network to nearby Dash
SDRs on spacecraft are a kind of Trojan Horse that have the drivers, providing traffic updates based on real-time traffic
potential to completely disrupt the status quo of civil space flow. The more drivers participating in the Dash network, the
agencies. Ultimately, digital improvements in spectrum utiliza- more accurate the traffic reports are. Dash uses GPS, GPRS
tion, and the SDR’s reprogrammability, will mean that space- and Wi-Fi (for connecting to the Internet).
craft can be modified after the fact to use widely deployed
commercial waveforms and protocols, instead of “special for Another example of a viral network is the one Laptop Per Child
space” ones, to meet their requirements easily and cheaply computer, the Xo. The Xo creates a self-organizing mesh network
while enjoying almost universal interoperability. with other Xos, and the network strengthens as Xos are added.
(See Figure 35.) The network deliberately extends connectivity
to places that were previously unconnected, such as schools and
homes in Africa.
sdrs on spacecraft are a kind of
Elsewhere in the world, the notion of a grand Wi-Fi mesh network
Trojan horse that have the potential linking Wi-Fi hotspots around the world is talking hold. FoN,
to completely disrupt the status quo the Madrid-based company creating this network, signed a deal
with British Telecom in october 2007 to create BT FoN, a joint
of civil space agencies. venture, to create the world’s largest Wi-Fi community. Users
sign up by offering their own home or office Wi-Fi hotspot as
part of the community, and in return get free (or nearly free)
access to all participating hotspots worldwide. Google is a FoN
Game Changer: Viral Radio investor, lending credence to the initiative. As noted in a Wi-Fi
Having finer control of waves using SDR has led to a rethinking Planet article, “While Earthlink and other vendors struggle to
of not only spectrum but radio infrastructure. Whereas tradi-
tional radio is point-to-point or point-to-multipoint, the advanced
Figure 35 ME S H WIT H FRIE NDS
capabilities of SDR (transmitters and receivers), along with
their reduced size and cost, have led to a completely new
communications architecture dubbed “viral radio.”
Viral radio architecture mirrors the architecture of the Internet,
based on transmission protocols that allow nodes to self-
organize in an ad hoc fashion into infinitely scalable networks
with no central backbone. The network becomes faster
and more reliable as more nodes join. Nodes can be strung
together to extend the network to places where traditional
wireless networks have been ineffective and wired networks
have been prohibitive, such as stairwells and elevators. A
viral network should be future-proof, meaning its devices
should work indefinitely no matter what other communica-
tions enter the environment and no matter how the underlying
technology evolves.119
one Laptop Per Child’s Xo computer interface shows “my
neighborhood” and the mesh network — ad hoc networks
An example of a viral network is Dash Express, an in-car that link to the Internet — at work.
navigation system from Dash Networks. Dash reports traffic Source: One Laptop Per Child. Licensed under Creative Commons
Attribution 2.5, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/
conditions and — here’s what’s new — up to three routing
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find the magic beans that will sprout into profitable, affordable, being done via mobile phone (banking, buying, marketing,
or even just practical municipal Wi-Fi, BT FoN is trying a dis- airport check-in124), enjoy TV and other entertainment via
tinctively UK version that actually makes some sense — at least mobile phone, and read books and listen to recorded lectures
in cultures inclined to share.”120 The idea is to provide more and radio stations via mobile devices. Workers in the field will
connectivity to more people through a federation of hotspots. increasingly have the information they need at a job site or
Three-year-old FoN is still pursuing this vision, though it is customer’s office, rather than having to go back to the office
not at the scale it would like to be (there were 340,000 FoN computer. Wireless networks can be set up “on the fly,” for
hotspots worldwide as of May 2008).121 Still, FoN presents example using CSC’s Emergency Digital Communications
an interesting, bottom-up viral alternative to cellular and
WiMAX.
There are many other possibilities for viral networks. Andrew “Because they [applications]
Lippman and David P. Reed, pioneers in viral communications, can grow virally, they need
describe applications and emphasize the innovative, disruptive
nature of viral communications: not be provided by traditional
communications companies.”
Applications range from wearable health monitors that
find the nearest doctor, to smart parking meters that — Andrew Lippman and David P. Reed
can download a movie to your car while billing you for
parking. They can extend radio service into elevators,
basements and stairwells, and can be both secure and Solutions (a trailer-mounted tower towed by a vehicle)125
multi-party. These emergent communicators need not or a book-size cell phone base station such as the GSM
require traditional “accounts” nor exist as centrally nanoCELL by RIVA Networks.126 Such networks bring connec-
created services — they can be unlicensed, personalized, tivity to disaster areas, international waters and other places
digital, renegade and “below the noise floor.” Because where public infrastructure does not exist. you can even
they can grow virally, they need not be provided by become a reseller of a carrier’s network. Sonopia, for
traditional communications companies. example, enables organizations to be their own mobile
carrier, focusing on marketing and customer acquisition
. . . . Instead of reserving wireless for special applications while the underlying carrier focuses on infrastructure. Groups
that require mobility, we view it as the norm. We antici- like the National Wildlife Federation can sell their own
pate a time when wires are the special case, needed branded phone service and help strengthen grass roots
primarily for power distribution.122 support in the process. Enterprises could become mobile
carriers to establish a preferred mobile network for their
employees’ use.
NEW WAVES = NEW oPPoRTUNITIES
our irrepressible demand for wireless broadband is driving us All these changes point to integrating the opportunities of new
towards a wireless-only world. Eventually, competing approaches waves into the business. Instead of being merely a conduit
will converge as SDR enables islands of connectivity to come for voice and text, communications are being more tightly
together. The battle of Wi-Fi versus WiMAX versus cellular (be it integrated into the business. Nortel helped a hospital integrate
GSM or CDMA) will be irrelevant when software takes over to communications into the patient discharge process, enabling
unite the spectrum. In the meantime, we see many steps today doctors to sign off on paperwork electronically rather than
towards convergence, from dual-mode phones to quad-band in person, and automatically notifying staff when rooms and
phones to data-rich mobile services (à la the iPhone and Google beds are freed up. The result is a more streamlined, efficient
Phone) to soon-to-come 4G networks that emphasize video, process that can accommodate more patients more quickly.
mobility and integration of terminals, networks and applications.
or consider mobile entertainment. In-flight Internet access
All this reflects a mounting shift to mobile markets (see the means airlines can reduce the cost of in-flight entertainment
LEF report “Connected World”).123 We will see more business dramatically while improving customer service, for passengers
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out on this question until the technology gives us real choices
Instead of being merely a conduit to consider.
for voice and text, communications
one thing seems certain: SDR will provide a more efficient
are being more tightly integrated infrastructure as upgrades are made via software, not hard-
into the business. ware, and can be done over the air (if so programmed). This
will be faster, easier and cheaper than having to climb a tower
and install a new part.
will be able to select their own entertainment — movies, books, As spectrum goes digital and the vision of viral communica-
podcasts, articles — from the riches of the Internet. This move tions takes hold, spectrum shifts from what cyberlaw expert
to individual entertainment started some time ago with movies Lawrence Lessig calls a rivalrous to a non-rivalrous good.127
(DVDs) on laptops and ubiquitous personal game players, and Spectrum is no longer a scarce resource, with one person’s
affects other industries like hospitality as well. Hotels no longer use rivaling another person’s use, but a resource that is not
can count on pay-per-view movies as a rich revenue source
since people bring their own movies and videos on their laptops
and cell phones. This mirrors the demise of hotels’ phone service
as a major revenue source, blown away by the onslaught of
spectrum is no longer a scarce
the cell phone. Going forward, hotels, airlines and others will resource, with one person’s use
have countless new wave opportunities to leverage.
rivaling another person’s use, but a
To this end, in a wireless world context will be key. Where resource that is not depleted with
you are and what you are doing will be relevant to how you
connect and what information you access. Random searching
use (and, in fact, expands).
and manual network selection will be replaced by context-
aware searching and your phone knowing which device to call
your colleague on. depleted with use (and, in fact, expands). This sets the stage
for new products, services and business models, upending
Eventually, though, we won’t need multiple devices (cell phone, traditional ways of doing business. Companies and consumers
Wi-Fi receiver, AM/FM radio) thanks to SDR. The question is, alike need to prepare for this new wave of electromagnetic
will we want the Swiss Army knife of communication devices waves.
or will we prefer having a few specialized devices? The jury is
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platforM Makeover
This is not your father’s computing platform.
In the never-ending quest to make computing faster and cheaper,
the computing platform is undergoing an extreme makeover. Today’s computing paradigm is being
turned on its head as the platform as
Today’s computing paradigm is being turned on its head as the
platform as we know it transforms into a virtual instantiation we know it transforms into a virtual
of itself or disappears into the network cloud. Environmental instantiation of itself or disappears
pressures are driving the platform to be greener, which furthers
the move to virtualization and cloud computing. At the same into the network cloud.
time, multicore chips are increasing speed and efficiency, pushing
Moore’s Law with silicon to the limit.
As software and services migrate from local hardware to the
Although these changes are radical on their own, another source Internet, the data center footprint shrinks, hardware inventory
of radical platform change is coming in new materials that will changes, and IT can shift focus from maintenance (now handled
eventually replace today’s silicon and microelectronics materials. in the cloud) to the immediate needs of the business. other
Nanotechnology, molecular computing, quantum computing and benefits include anytime, anywhere accessibility for users and
optical computing use new materials that, if successful, will applications, improved collaboration across distributed business
dramatically alter the platform landscape, bringing awesome groups, the ability to scale applications quickly as needed,
levels of speed and miniaturization and making a host of new and increased flexibility to change applications and services
applications possible. or experiment with new ones.
Let’s look at changes to today’s platform and then examine the As another step in the evolution of “netcentric” computing,
new materials in the pipeline. cloud computing will take 5-10 years to play out. It has a strong
start from virtualization capabilities, software-as-a-service appli-
cations like Salesforce.com and Google docs, grid computing,
ToDAy’S TACTICS
Web 2.0 technologies, infrastructure services like Amazon Web
Cloud Computing Services and Google’s App Engine application hosting service,
Cloud computing is a completely new paradigm for computing software platforms like Microsoft’s Live Mesh, specialized “cloud”
that centralizes data center resources on the Internet (the hardware such as IBM’s iDataPlex systems, and super-fast network
cloud). Inside the cloud are all data, storage, application switches.
and processing activities, which must be orchestrated and
monitored (no mean feat). outside the cloud, users need only Amazon Web Services offer Web-scale computing services
an input and output device. Ultimately, the Internet becomes that free software developers and businesses from the heavy
the “world data center.”
Cloud computing is a radical change from today because every ultimately, the Internet becomes
enterprise has its own data center, desktops, laptops and
handhelds, with the desktop or laptop typically the focal point.
the “world data center.”
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grEEN IT: MoVINg BEyoNd ThE 2% soLuTIoN
DAVID MOSCHELLA AND DOUGLAS NEAL, CSC
Green IT is not just about building more
Business/IT Strategy
efficient data centers and using low-
Green IT operations
power personal computers. In fact, IT
Market Life Cycle
itself consumes only about two percent Perspective
of total energy (in the United States).
The real green IT opportunities will be
found in using information technology
to address the other 98 percent in the
wider economy — in areas such as
product development, operations,
logistics, brand support, supply chain,
globalization and regulatory compliance.
In many of these areas, IT can play a
leading role that will attract board-level
attention and support.
However, IT also needs to get its own
Source: CSC with Dan Esty, author, Green to Gold
house in order — demonstrate sufficient
green computing hygiene — before it
can creditably seek a wider role in its IT and all the employees of the enterprise core business strategy, its impact on the
firm’s environmental strategy. Examples need to take a holistic approach towards entire supply and demand chain ecosystem,
of both green efforts are shown below. green that encompasses the company’s and the information systems required for
support and verification. This approach
needs to be backed up with hard numbers
2% green hygiene 98% green Business on goals and progress, so that we can
• Reduced energy usage • Less office and store space protect the brand and preempt any
• Aligned financial incentives • More efficient buildings accusations of “green washing.” To do this,
• Reengineered data centers • Green manufacturing IT needs to build relationships with other
• Fresh air and warmer cooling • Smart products and sensors parts of the business, such as facilities,
• Virtualization, utility computing, fewer servers • Reduced commuting and flying who frequently have data and sensors
• More laptops and flat panels • Improved supply chain and logistics that can be an important part of a
• PC power management and thin clients • Reduced printing/paper/mail corporate energy dashboard.
• Green buying, power supplies • Ease of disposal and recycling
• Longer life cycles and recycling • Environmental dashboards IT has to look at the full life cycle energy
• Best practices and metrics • Measurements and compliance costs of its devices, not just the energy
to use them. For example, IT-intensive
Continued the on following page >
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lifting typically associated with launching and growing a suc-
cessful Web business. Amazon Web Services give software
developers the keys to Amazon’s back-end infrastructure,
which they can use to build and grow any business. This makes
it possible for any business to reach the scale of major Internet
players such as Amazon.com but without the expensive price
grEEN IT: MoVINg BEyoNd ThE tag needed to build and maintain such a reliable, secure and
2% soLuTIoN (continued) scalable infrastructure.
Amazon Web Services enable organizations to address un-
predictable scaling needs, such as the “success disaster” that
happens when an application suddenly becomes immensely
devices such as mobile phones may popular, or there is a one-time project with a tight deadline.
require twice as much energy to build Services can be scaled up or down in minutes and are billed
as to use. This highlights the importance on a pro-rated basis. For example, in 2007 a developer at
of end-to-end supply chain energy moni- The New york Times used Amazon Web Services (Simple
toring, from component construction Storage Service or S3, and Elastic Compute Cloud or EC2) to
through end-of-life disposal. create 11 million PDFs of past articles. This was done in just under
24 hours, using 100 EC2 instances, and generating 1.5 terabytes
To help enterprises get started, we of data, which was stored on S3.128 (Some four terabytes of
recommend a four-step approach: source data were uploaded to S3 to start the project.)
• Reduce power consumption across “A single developer commands 100 servers remotely and
the enterprise. charges it to his expense account! No formal budgeting was
• Improve reuse and recycling beyond needed,” remarked Jeff Barr, Amazon’s senior Web Services
just PCs. evangelist. The project was high profile and had a short deadline,
• Green the business on as many fronts for the Times was eliminating TimesSelect, a subscription-based
as possible. online service, and making most of its articles, going back
• Measure and comply — only IT can to 1851, available free of charge.129 Since then, the Times has
do this. completed another digital archive project, TimesMachine, using
Amazon Web Services.130
Like the space program, “going green”
could ignite widespread innovation in Network giant Cisco is pushing a netcentric view of the
many fields such as energy, transporta- platform through new high-speed switches. Cisco’s Nexus 7000
tion and communications. IT has a great Series Switches, designed for the data center, can download
opportunity to demonstrate leadership 90,000 movies in 38 seconds or copy the entire searchable
across the firm. This will be a long-term Web in 7.5 minutes. In its January 2008 announcement, Cisco
effort, involving everyone. Most companies explained, “As the data center transitions to a more services-
are in very early stages. The time to get centric model, the network plays a pivotal role in orchestrating
greener is now. virtual IT resources and scaling workloads.”131 Further, as the
cloud’s capabilities expand, a new layer of software, called a
“fabric,” is appearing to orchestrate all the various technology
David Moschella is Global Research Director in the cloud (network, servers, storage and applications).132
and Douglas Neal is a Research Fellow, both
for the LEF Executive Programme. The two on the user’s end, how people interact with the computer will
are leading an in-depth study of green IT. change, whether it means carrying an “ultra-thin” device that
accesses everything off the network (e.g., the CherryPal PC
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is entirely cloud-based133) or simply wearing a microphone to University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, to work on the
ask the network to retrieve data (e.g., “find me all the sales problem.139
figures from last week”), which would then be projected onto
an ordinary object, like a wall or table, that would double as In the past, parallel processing was exclusive to the high perfor-
a display. 134
Embedded projector display technology from mance computing (HPC) community. Now parallel processing
Microvision, designed for mobile phones, laptops and other must go mainstream, as we have all become members of the
mobile devices, is already turning walls into displays. 135
HPC community since our everyday devices boast so much
power. The eight-core Sony Playstation 3 (PS3), introduced in
Multicore Chips 2006, is the equivalent of roughly 40 Cray-1 supercomputers
With Moore’s Law reaching its twilight years in silicon due circa 1976. In June 2008, the Los Alamos National Laboratory
to cooling issues, meaning silicon chips cannot continue set the world record for supercomputer processing speed by
their stunning improvements in performance forever (beyond combining more than 12,000 IBM cell processors originally
throwing more chips into the hardware), the chip industry has designed for the PS3.140
focused on improving chip performance through multicore
chips — that is, putting multiple processors (cores) on a single More recently, Intel announced its first multicore graphics
silicon chip, with certain common functions shared. Multiple capable processing unit, Larrabee. Larrabee will have numerous
computer functions can be done in parallel, rather than sequen- x86 processor cores and will be able to run existing games and
tially, though this presents a challenge because advances in software requiring high-end graphics.141 Larrabee will compete
parallel processing software have not kept pace. with high-end graphics processors, targeting the PC graphics
market initially.142 Intel hopes that Larrabee will “usher in a new
era of parallel computing by offering developers a way to create
highly specialized applications, such as games that require visual
M EM o Ry BRE AKT H R o U GH : T H E ME MRISTo R
computing or scientific software applications that require
intensive graphics capabilities. . . .”143
Bringing Parallelism Into the Mainstream
A new component for chips has been discovered, called
Indeed, more parallelism is on the way. Although games written
the memory resistor or “memristor.” The memristor joins
and tuned for multiple cores distribute game layers across the
the resistor, capacitor and inductor as the fourth funda-
cores (i.e., parallelize the processing), most standard software
mental component of electrical circuits. Eventually, using
on general purpose machines takes, at best, only limited
the memristor, engineers could develop a new kind of
advantage of the multiple cores and processors available due
computer memory that would enhance and eventually
to the complexity of parallel programming. Though program-
replace today’s dynamic random access memory (D-RAM).
mers’ brains (and our brains) process via a massively parallel
The memristor would load start-up data faster and could
set of neurons, programmers think serially, breaking down a
one day lead to systems that remember, understand
problem and coding its solution as a series of steps. Advances
patterns of data and make decisions, getting closer to
in automatically taking these serial solutions, parallelizing
how people think.136 (See Smart(er) World.)
them, and unifying the results have been slow in coming. But
they are coming.
Typical consumer-oriented microprocessors have up to eight one company addressing the multicore software challenge,
cores on a chip; the industry is moving to chips with 100 or depicted in Figure 36, is RapidMind. RapidMind offers a hardware-
more cores.137 Intel has built a prototype 80-core processor, independent Single Program Multiple Data (SPMD) platform
though it is not expected to be commercialized until sometime whose APIs integrate with ordinary code (e.g., C++) and leverage
around 2012.138 In an effort to help create the parallel processing the potential of all the processors, whether multicore processors
software that is desperately needed to keep all these chips busy from AMD, Intel or Sony, or graphics processors from NVIDIA
simultaneously, Intel and Microsoft have funded a $20 million or ATI. The RapidMind platform, based on data parallelism,
research grant over five years that will create independent has been used to improve 10-fold the performance of an
laboratories at the University of California, Berkeley and the Elastography Contrast Enhancement medical imaging and
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Figure 36 T HE MU LT I Co R E S o F T WA R E CH ALLE NG E
Quad 8-Core Terascale Hardware
Core
Potential
Quad 8-Core Fusion
Core
PERFORMANCE
PowerPC CellBE Capability Gap
Multicore
# cores
Single
Software
Core Performance
GHz
Today’s software does not take full advantage of multicore hardware, creating a capability gap. Source: RapidMind
analysis system, which constructs a blood flow model to
account for anomalies found in an image of the brain or correlates As the virtualization trend
ultrasound data to produce a clearer image, all in real time.
continues, along with the move
Another company tackling the problem is a household name: to multicore, both should pull
Apple. At the outset of the company’s 2008 Worldwide Devel-
parallelism along with them.
opment Conference, Apple CEo Steve Jobs said, “The way the
processor industry is going is to add more and more cores,
but nobody knows how to program those things. . . . I mean,
two, yeah; four, not really; eight, forget it.”144
ToMoRRoW’S NEW MATERIALS
At the heart of Apple’s new 2009 operating system, Snow In the long-term — 10 or more years from now — the silicon
Leopard, is a technology code-named Grand Central that will chips of today’s platform will be replaced with new materials,
provide support for multicore processors, making it easy for representing a significant break with the past 45 years of silicon-
developers to create programs that take full advantage of the based processing. As Moore’s Law comes to an end, with no
power of multicore Macs. “Snow Leopard further extends support more power able to be eked out of a silicon chip, new materials
for modern hardware with open Computing Language (openCL), must be harnessed to increase processing speed and efficiency.
which lets any application tap into the vast gigaflops of GPU com- Instead of chips and their associated microelectronics, there
puting power previously available only to graphics applications.”145
Virtualization software, increasingly popular in the infrastruc- Instead of chips and their associated
ture, is particularly well-suited to parallelism. Virtual software
microelectronics, there will be far
runs multiple operating systems and application stacks, which
have natural functional boundaries that can be distributed across smaller, lighter materials at work:
processors and cores. As the virtualization trend continues,
atoms, dNA, electron spins and light.
along with the move to multicore, both should pull parallelism
along with them.
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will be far smaller, lighter materials at work: atoms, DNA, sensors to help detect traumatic brain injury (TBI) early on.
electron spins and light. This may sound futuristic, but it is Impact sensors in the helmet will relay blast-injury data to
not science fiction — labs are busy perfecting these materials first responders in real time. The sensors will continuously
now. Although viable commercial solutions may be some time record data about the helmet wearer’s physical condition;
away, the horizon is decades, not centuries. this is key to detecting and treating TBI, because soldiers
experiencing a blast sometimes do not realize they have sus-
Nanotechnology: Making Things Super Small tained a brain injury until hours or days later. Similar systems
Nanotechnology, the building of things atom by atom, enables could be used to monitor neurological patients in intensive
unprecedented levels of control with incredibly small parts. care, or motorcycle riders so that first responders would
Nano parts are on the order of 100 nanometers (billionths know what happened to the rider if there was a crash.147
of a meter) or less; you would have to move a Post-It note The sensors are being designed to be small, low power and
half-way around the earth for it to appear three nanometers light weight.
in size to you. 146
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are creating
Although atomically-precise manufacturing and self-assembly a “power shirt” that uses textile fibers covered with zinc oxide
are quite a ways off, the use of nano-sized materials is enabling nanowires to generate electric current from the wearer’s move-
exciting innovations that could pave the way for revolutionary ment that could power a range of portable electronic devices —
applications in such areas as medicine, smart materials (see great for soldiers, hikers and others on foot.148 The fibers, called
Smart(er) World) and energy. This includes innovations such as nanogenerators (see Figure 37), could also be woven into tents,
precisely-targeted agents for cancer therapy, artificial blood, curtains and other materials to harness energy from the wind,
and equipment that self-repairs. sound vibrations or other mechanical energy.149
For example, University of Illinois researchers are creating a Longer term, the most advanced nanotechnology applica-
combat helmet for the U.S. Army containing nanotechnology tions envisioned include artificial organ systems, exaflop laptop
Figure 37 Georgia Tech Regents’ Professor Zhong Lin Wang holds a prototype microfiber nanogenerator. The nanogenerator is being woven
into shirts to harvest electrical energy from the wearer’s movement to power portable electronic devices. Source: Georgia Institute of Technology
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PLATForM MAgIC: 3d PrINTINg
Imagine if you could print out a real toy the bottom up, as the print head moves
for your child to play with. back and forth. Depending on the size
of the object, it can take anywhere
That’s the vision of 3D printing: consumers from one to 12 hours to complete a job.
using 3D printers at home to print design Once started, though, the job can be left
specs off the Web.150 Print anything you unattended — like baking a cake.
need, from toys to parts to landscape and
furniture designs. The printer is driven by data from com-
mercial 3D CAD software that is used
If the dawn of the digital age was about to design the object. Most 3D printers
A 3D printer produces a physical object
moving from atoms to bits, 3D printing use a powder or soft material to build you can hold in your hands, ideal for
brings it full circle, moving from bits the model, layer by layer, and include an prototype designs. In this picture, the
to atoms. And with that comes some adhesive material for bonding the layers. “printed” object is being cleared of
powder that forms during the printing
platform magic: Who would have thought Leaders in the field include Z Corporation, 151
process. As 3D printers get cheaper, they
you could manufacture a toy from your Stratasys and 3D systems, while interesting will spring up across campuses, offices
home printer? new entrants include Desktop Factory and homes and be used for applications
and Fab@Home. yet to be imagined. Source: Z Corporation
A 3D printer yields a solid object that you
can hold in your hands, in contrast to familiar story: Costs Drop, tech- than $10,000, require very little training,
a 2D printer that yields a flat image on nology spreads, innovation soars and are capable of being operated in a
paper. The implications for education are Additive rapid prototyping machines were typical faculty office, computer lab or home.
enormous; as children we learn kinestheti- first introduced over 20 years ago, but At least one vendor has the ambition of
cally, by holding and examining things like they were large, expensive and difficult producing 3D printers for less than $1,000
blocks. Now imagine that a laptop designer to operate. Hence they were of limited in five years. “As these printers achieve lower
can “print” a 3D model to examine her interest to most organizations except for price points and accessibility, they will
design; an architect can “print” a scale a few well-funded labs. However, in the late spring up across campuses, offices and
model of a building to help understand 1990s, lower-cost machines using technol- homes and be used for applications yet to
and communicate his design; a biochemist ogies such as fused-deposition modeling be imagined,” envisions A. Michael Berman,
can “print” accurate models of DNA (FDM) and powder binding began to be chief technology officer at Art Center
molecules, enlarged by orders of magnitude, available in the $30,000 to $50,000 range. College of Design in Pasadena, California.
to help students and researchers better These machines, which can be used without
understand nature; and artists can create special environmental controls and with a This piece was developed, with permission,
unique works using the new 3D techniques. modest amount of training, were the first from an article by A. Michael Berman, “3D
3D printers (by our definition). Printing: Making the Virtual Real,” October
like Baking a Cake 2007 (http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/
Most 3D printers are additive in that they However, we are on the verge of the intro- pdf/DEC0702.pdf). Dr. Berman can be
produce the object layer by layer, from duction of new systems that will cost less contacted at amichaelberman@gmail.com.
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computers, efficient solar-based fuel production, removal of computation in a biomolecular environment. In 2006, Israeli
greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, and manufacturing researchers developed a molecular computer that uses enzymes
based on productive nanosystems. 152
Though these applications to perform calculations from within the human body and monitor
are far in the future, nanotechnology is coming: possibly in the release of drugs.157 The progress continues.
the next decade, probably in the next 25 years, and almost
certainly in the 21st century, according to J. Storrs Hall, chief In contrast to traditional computing’s serial processing, DNA
scientist at Nanorex, Inc. and protégé of Eric Drexler, considered computing is similar to parallel processing; the molecules
the father of nanotechnology.153 can produce billions of potential answers simultaneously,
making DNA computing suitable for solving “fuzzy logic”158
Molecular Computing: Channeling Mother Nature problems that have many solutions, though one may be
The human body is a marvel of creation, its millions of optimal (e.g., the traveling salesman problem). In the future
molecules serving as natural supercomputers that have the there may be hybrid machines that use silicon for normal
potential to perform calculations many times faster than processing tasks and DNA co-processors for tasks they are
today’s supercomputers.154 DNA computing (a form of molecular more suited for.
computing) attempts to discover the computational power
of molecules and design computers based on this new DNA is a plentiful, cheap source of processing power, and it
model of computation. DNA computing has many strong can be produced cleanly. But the key advantage is being able
features, including: extremely dense information storage, to make computers far smaller than today that are able to
enormous parallelism and extraordinary energy efficiency. 155
hold much more data; one pound of DNA has the capacity
Though DNA computing is still in its infancy — the field to store more information than all the electronic computers
was initially developed in 1994 — it is particularly suited ever built.159
for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications, including
implants that release drugs according to conditions sensed In addition to DNA computing, progress is being made in
in the body. molecular electronics. In 2007, IBM scientists reported a
possible breakthrough when they created a molecular switch
that could turn itself on and off without altering its geometric
shape. Maintaining a constant shape is important for being
The human body is a marvel of able to link molecules together to form logic gates. Also in
creation, its millions of molecules 2007, a team of UCLA and California Institute of Technology
chemists reported successfully demonstrating a large-scale,
serving as natural supercomputers ultra-dense memory device that stores information using
that have the potential to perform reconfigurable molecular switches. Both achievements are
important steps towards building molecular computers.160
calculations many times faster than
today’s supercomputers. Quantum Leap
Quantum computers make direct use of natural quantum
mechanical phenomena such as spins of electrons or currents
in superconducting circuits to store information as quantum
In 2003, Israeli scientists demonstrated a limited but function- bits (qubits) and perform computation. A qubit can assume
ing molecular computing machine that used DNA molecules the values 0, 1 or both simultaneously — very different from
and enzymes, instead of silicon chips, for both data storage the rigid 0 or 1 (on or off) of a binary bit. What makes quantum
and processing — a major achievement. The computer can computing so powerful is that qubits can store much more
perform 330 trillion operations per second, more than 100,000 information than binary bits, and qubits can be used together
times the speed of the fastest PC — all from something that to perform calculations on that information in a parallel, not
looks like a drop of water. 156
serial, fashion. That is, quantum computing can process and
evaluate many possible permutations of a problem simulta-
However, the focus is not on computational power per se, neously. As the number of qubits in these computers scales,
but rather on medical applications that require autonomous this capability will enable extremely fast solutions to a wide
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range of problems that are currently considered intractable magnetic flux qubits. D-Wave uses a well known technique
even on the fastest available supercomputers. Consider the called Adiabatic Quantum Computation (AQC) to solve a
following example. wide variety of complex problems in search, optimization,
constraint satisfaction and pattern matching. Adiabatic quantum
Given an image, a human can easily recognize and label a computers leverage the deep connection between hard math
large range of interesting objects in the image — trees, cars, problems and the fundamental laws of nature. They use quantum
people, landmarks, etc. This task, seemingly intuitive for physics to do the math.
humans, remains beyond the reach of any current automated
image labeling system. This problem is of significant interest Special purpose adiabatic quantum processors can be orders-
not only because of the obvious economic importance of of-magnitude faster than classical digital processors. Large-
image search, but also because it is mathematically related scale adiabatic quantum computers have not yet been built
to a wide range of tasks at which humans currently outperform so it is not yet possible to know empirically how well they
machines. A technology that can recognize and label objects will perform, but leading researchers expect them to achieve
in images will be able to solve many of the outstanding prob- quadratic speed-ups over existing classical computing. This
lems standing in the way of true machine intelligence, including means that calculations that currently take hours will be
learning and automated reasoning. able to be done in seconds. As the quantum computers
scale, they will potentially be able to solve in a few days
problems that would otherwise require millions or even
billions of CPU years using today’s computers. An additional
benefit is that quantum processors are extremely low power
Quantum computing can process and
(power consumption and heat generation are reduced by
evaluate many possible permutations factors of thousands) when compared to current state-of-
the-art systems.
of a problem simultaneously.
D-Wave is working with Google to test a proof-of concept
structured classification application using a quantum computer
running at 28 qubits. “our computers will be able to solve a
General purpose quantum computing is still in the research wide range of high-value structured classification problems
stage, as noted in a February 2008 MITRE newsletter (MITRE, in applications such as image matching, machine learning,
a federally funded R&D center, is doing joint research with scheduling and complex database search,” says Jonathan
Princeton University on quantum computing): Silverman, director of product marketing at D-Wave. “We are
currently testing prototype versions of the hardware but we
Still a work in progress, quantum computing is closing in will need to get to 1,000 qubits or more to be com-mercial-
on a time when small quantum computing machines com- ly viable.” D-Wave expects to have a 512-qubit system run-
prised of a few qubits will appear on the research scene. ning by the end of 2008 and a 1,024-qubit system available
At first, they’ll probably come as quantum peripherals tied commercially in 2009. “once the technology scales, it will
to classical computers, with the peripheral used only for be able to solve very hard problems significantly beyond the
specialized tasks. Until then, the security of current bank- scope of traditional HPC systems,” Silverman asserts.
ing codes can be maintained. But with all the attention
being given to quantum computing, traditional computing Let There Be Light
may soon be in store for some mighty stiff competition. 161
Ah, to have computers that operate at the speed of light —
or close to it. Researchers are working on tapping light, already
D-Wave Systems is pioneering the development of quantum used in fiber optics for high-speed telecommunications, to
computers for commercial applications. Rather than wait for power computers. Using photons instead of electrons is theo-
general purpose quantum computing to become commercially retically much faster because photons travel much faster than
feasible, D-Wave is leveraging the properties of quantum devices an electric current. Photons have two unique properties that
that are buildable today to create special purpose analog give them a boost: entanglement (instantaneous communi-
computers. D-Wave’s quantum processors are arrays of cation no matter what the distance) and superposition (the
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ability to process multiple options simultaneously). other eliminate data transfer bottlenecks in supercomputers where
benefits include lower cross talk, better signal integrity at hundreds or thousands of processors are involved. The research
high frequencies, and lower power requirements at higher involves precisely aligning chips to make it possible to transmit
transmission rates. light across the surface of the chips in ultra-narrow channels called
wave guides. If the idea proves successful, it would be possible to
optical computing is in early stages in the lab. A key challenge create smaller machines that are 1,000 times faster than today’s
is that it is very difficult to use light to control the state of a computers.164 Funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research
beam of light (on or off), though in 2007 researchers at Harvard Projects Agency (DARPA), the five-year project was announced
University announced they had developed a workable approach in March 2008 and includes partners Stanford University, the
that uses only one photon rather than large bursts of photons University of California at San Diego, Luxtera and Kotura.
to switch states. Such an optical transistor is a key step towards
building a practical optical computer.162 Around the same time, NEC Corporation announced an advance
in optical connections between chips that will pave the way
IBM announced a prototype optical interconnect technology for supercomputers to reach speeds of 10 petaflops, roughly
in February 2008 that could enable very large file transfers in 20 times faster than the world’s fastest computer.165
seconds with extremely low power. The “green optical link” could
enable speeds as high as eight terabits per second using power overall, the platform makeover is about optimizing perfor-
equivalent to one 100-watt light bulb.163 The technology puts mance: getting the right power to the right applications, not
optical chips and optical data buses in a single package and uses wasting hardware or energy, not running software you don’t
standard components, a big step towards commercialization. need. The next generation of new materials, which will take
us well beyond Moore’s Law, is on its way. Expect new levels
Sun Microsystems has launched a high-risk project to use light of high performance computing and a wealth of new applica-
instead of wires between chips to speed data transfer. The tech- tions and solvable problems.
nology, part of a field called silicon photonics, would, if successful,
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sMart(er) WorlD
Smarter everything makes us smarter everywhere.
Inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil has long been predicting a • proactively associates and correlates data based on grasped
smart(er) world. Extrapolating from trends that show acceler- meaning
ating CPU power and decreasing memory and storage density, • leverages real-world background information to assimilate
combined with accelerating advances in biology, Kurzweil new data — i.e., learns
predicts that by 2029 we will have reverse-engineered the • reasons from what it learns
brain and produced for $1,000 a computer version 10 times as • makes common-sense recommendations and predictions
smart that passes the Turing Test — that is, that converses so • makes decisions and acts on behalf of humans
fluently it fools most humans into thinking it is human.
To put it another way: “A working definition of intelligence is the
This will lead to what Kurzweil calls the Singularity: “technological ability to acquire, through experience, knowledge and models
change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the of the world (including other entities and self), and use them
fabric of human history.” 166
Although we are decades from the productively to solve novel problems and deal successfully with
Singularity, which Kurweil puts at 2045, he can be proud of unanticipated circumstances.”167
his predictions to date. Today many technologies are becoming
smart, leveraging small, powerful, inexpensive processors and
HoW To GET SMART(ER)
communications technology to take on tasks once accomplished
only by humans. With an understanding of what constitutes smart, this section
discusses some of the key building blocks for making things
smarter.
Kurzweil predicts that by 2029 we
Smarter Assistants
will have reverse-engineered the brain
Technology from MyCyberTwin is closing in on Kurzweil’s goal,
and produced for $1,000 a computer letting you create a virtual assistant (avatar) and train it to be
version 10 times as smart that passes your proxy, speaking and acting on your behalf and fooling many
humans into thinking it’s you.
the Turing Test.
The technology, a unique blend of heuristic algorithms, knowl-
edge mining and knowledge representation, takes less than six
WHAT IS SMART?
weeks to train and test, is 95 percent accurate, learns to be even
Though the philosophical debate over whether computers can more accurate with use, and can actually analyze the mood (are
ever be said to think may never be resolved, there is general you angry?) and personality (are you an agreeable person?) of
agreement on what it means for technology to be smart. Smart the person communicating with it and modify its own communi-
technology approaches human cognition when it: cation style accordingly. A cybertwin communicates via text chat,
which can be supplemented with voice output from the avatar.
• senses and recognizes patterns as humans do
• appreciates the semantics — the meaning — of the patterns The cybertwin technology is being used by PBL Media and
it perceives, be they text, speech, special or situational Fairfax Media, two large media companies in Australia, as well
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as several banks and an airline to handle customer inquiries care and electronic sales. Beneath the InteliWISE Conversational
and transactions. (See Figure 38.) Each cybertwin is designed Agent, which communicates via chat by the user, digitized voice
with the enterprise’s specific goals in mind, whether it’s get- by the avatar, and context-dynamic video, is semantic technol-
ting people to sign up for a credit card or simply keeping ogy that helps make sense of external client databases, including
them on the site as long as possible. As a result of deploying customized CRM feeds, news feeds and dictionary sources
cybertwin technology, one company has been able to cut its of definitions (e.g., Wikipedia). InteliWISE intends to create
call center staff in half. exact user profiles that will help answer such questions as “Is
the user satisfied with our solutions?” and “If we identify the
Indeed, what’s really exciting about this technology is it gives user’s knowledge level, what kind of response is best suited
enterprises the ability to scale in a digital environment, be it for this kind of user?”
a Web site or a virtual world. A single cybertwin can handle
millions of inquiries simultaneously, across several areas of The InteliWISE technology applies “just the right amount” of
expertise, says Liesl Capper, co-founder of MyCyberTwin. In intelligence rather than a heavy-handed approach, making it
the future, smart avatars will be the primary way to handle simple but effective. The technology can be deployed on Web
customer service. sites, kiosks, mobile phones and as a widget on a PC. InteliWISE
solutions have automated up to 70 percent of call center queries,
InteliWISE has also seized on this opportunity, providing smart with over 80 percent of them answered correctly. The technol-
avatars — it calls them conversational agents — for online customer ogy has been deployed at LoT Polish Airlines (see Figure 39),
The Crowley Group, Carolina Medical Centre and Public TV
(all in Poland).
For the future, InteliWISE is working on making its avatars
more autonomous and deploying voice recognition, which would
enable its technology, which already uses voice synthesis, to
be accessed via telephone. However, given an avatar’s well-
defined problem space (e.g., bank policies, airline procedures),
it is not clear that the more general problem of getting them
to understand natural language will be solved soon, though
progress is being made.
As more business is done online and consumers seek a
personal experience, avatars will be the only way to handle
growth and provide individual attention. “The only way to
scale our physical limits into virtual infinity is through virtual
assistants,” says Paul Gustafson, director of CSC’s Leading
Edge Forum. Engaging with an avatar will be much more
appealing than clicking through a virtual space or poring over
a FAQ. That is why MyCyberTwin is targeting search as the next
frontier for its technology. A smart avatar will be able to find
what you want through a conversational-style set of questions
that enable you to narrow the search.
Bringing Understanding to the Web
Figure 38 This demonstration of a cybertwin for ANZ Bank in
The Web itself is gaining a more human-like, semantic under-
Australia shows the cybertwin answering the customer’s initial
question, “What products do you offer?” The customer has typed standing of the information it has traditionally compared using
her next question, “Do you have any credit cards that earn air keyword matching, devoid of meaning. Web 3.0, dubbed the
miles?”, in the chat box. See demo at: Semantic Web by Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee in 1998,
http://www.mycybertwin.com/demo/anz/ Source: MyCyberTwin
focuses on representing meaning and providing reasoning
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objects and procedures; and federated
stores rather than large local databases.
The net result is being able to find
relevant information, extract embed-
ded and intrinsic knowledge, reason
automatically, solve more complex prob-
lems, and manage computer systems
autonomically.
Information-centric patterns of com-
puting have reached their limits in
terms of coping with scale, complexity,
security, mobility, rich media interac-
tion and autonomic behavior. As more
people, devices, information and com-
Figure 39 LoT Polish Airlines uses a conversational agent from InteliWISE to provide merce rush to the Web, a smarter, more
information about on-board services, frequent flier program, check-in, tickets and reservations, automated environment is needed to
baggage transport, and travel to other countries. Source: LOT Polish Airlines
manage and make sense of the Web’s
treasure trove of data and transaction
opportunities. Web 3.0 addresses these
capabilities. When information on the Web is encoded in issues by connecting knowledge, and it lays the foundation
semantic form, its meaning laid bare, it becomes transparent for Web 4.0, the Web that connects intelligence in an envi-
and accessible to a variety of reasoning engines. 168
Web 3.0 ronment where people and things reason and communicate
promises to expose much information that has escaped our together.171 (See Figure 40.)
attention and will make the Web work more effectively for
us. Said to be in beta now, Web 3.0 will be big business; the Semantic Search
market for semantic technologies and applications is expected Broadly speaking, the Holy Grail of the Semantic Web is seman-
to exceed $50 billion in 2010.169 tic search: giving the Internet the ability to find what we meant
to ask for, not merely the keywords we used to ask. Semantic
search is appearing in a number of places. In May 2008 Power-
set launched a beta of its namesake product, a semantic search
As more business is done online
layer atop Wikipedia and Freebase, with tools to help extract,
and consumers seek a personal organize and navigate content by meaning.
experience, avatars will be the only
way to handle growth and provide
As more people, devices, information
individual attention.
and commerce rush to the web, a
smarter, more automated environment
With Web 3.0, the Internet shifts from information-centric is needed to manage and make sense
to knowledge-centric computing.170 This shift emphasizes end-
user rather than IT development; unified platforms rather than of the web’s treasure trove of data
separate technologies for documents, models and behaviors; and transaction opportunities.
systems that can learn at run time from user input and system
learning about the environment; external knowledge struc-
tures rather than embedded, hard-coded reasoning; “glass
box” transparent semantic agents rather than “black box”
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Figure 40 EVo LU T I o N o F T H E W E B To 2020
Autonomic
Semantic Agent Agent webs
Artificial Intelligent Natural Ecosystems
Intelligence Agents Language
Intellectual that know,
Property
Smart
learn and reason
Personal
Spime Markets as humans do
Increasing Knowledge Connectivity & Reasoning
Assistants Blogjects
3 4 Semantic
Communities
The Semantic Web The Ubiquitous Web
Connects Knowledge Connects Intelligence Semantic
Ontologies Semantic Enterprise
Semantic Website & UI Semantic Semantic
Search Blog Wiki Semantic
Knowledge Social networks
Semantic
Bases Semantic
Thesauri & Desktop Context-Aware
Email
Taxonomies Games
Bots
Multi-user
Enterprise Mash-ups Wiki Community
Gaming
Search Engines Portals Portals
Marketplaces
Content Portals
Web Sites RSS & Auctions
Blogs
Social
1 2 Bookmarking
The Web PIMS The Social Web
Connects Information Connects People
Desktop Email
Databases Social
“Push” Conferencing Networks
Publish & Subscribe
P2P
File Sharing Instant Messaging
File Servers
Increasing Social Connectivity
Source: Nova Spivak, Radar Networks; John Breslin, DERI; and Mills Davis, Project 10X
Freebase (free database) is an open, collaboratively-edited is hard. But unlocking the meaning hidden in words promises
“database of the world’s knowledge.”172 Freebase analyzes a big payoff.
data sources such as Wikipedia sentence by sentence, and
puts summaries of the most important concepts into a Hakia.com, another contender, uses semantic technology
database. For example, when processing the entry on the to deliver search results backed by credible sources, such
Golden Gate Bridge, Freebase would store the concepts as those recommended by librarians rather than popular
“bridge earns name” and “winds prevent operation.” Freebase rankings. Hakia also connects you with people who asked
users can upload tables of data by domain and type, such the same question you did, and is available on mobile
as IBM’s acquisitions this year or all primary election results, phones.
so they are available to answer queries.
Highly specialized search sites including Like.com (images),
Powerset leverages Freebase to build and query these Vast.com (entities and attributes), Pandora (music), Metacarta
tables, and asserts that queries with linguistic structure (location) and Kayak (travel) are designed to understand a
better leverage the technology, prompting the Powerset specific area. other sites, such as Search Wikia, Topicle and
engine to try to specifically answer the question. When the ChaCha, use people to manually refine search results.
query “Who won the Republican nomination?” was entered
in May 2008, Powerset had the answer (John McCain), Some vendors focus on relevance matching in the enter-
though the answer was the seventh result. (The fifth result prise, including Twine, Llesiant and Tacit Software. Their services
had the letters “w” “o” “n” highlighted in the word “won’t.”) use semantics to discover information of interest to individ-
Cleary the technology is still in beta; language processing ual employees and to locate expertise in the organization.
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“Knowledge is not necessarily digital; it’s often tacit — in In addition to locating expertise, NASA is using semantics in
our heads,” says David Gilmour, CEo of Tacit Software. Tacit’s other ways. It is using Swoop to correlate ontologies across
Illumio software draws out employee interests by creating multiple groups inside and outside NASA to create an interna-
a special user profile based on where the person browses tional standard for planetary data. NASA is also using Science
and his e-mail messages and documents. Through word organizer, a semantic hypermedia system, for organizing science
parsing and statistical techniques that simulate semantics, and other project information from the individual’s perspective.
the software reveals the person’s strengths and areas of “There is lots of information out there but it’s only useful when
interest, so it knows what kinds of information would be it addresses your particular problem or when it’s analyzed
relevant to this person (and delivers it), and when this from your perspective,” says Jeanne Holm, chief knowledge
person would be suitable to respond to a query or provide architect at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
information (and arranges the response, with the person’s
permission). The National Library of Medicine, working with CSC, is explor-
ing an open source digital content repository tool, Fedora,
Semantics in the Enterprise that provides semantic capabilities to contextualize and inter-
An interesting application of semantics in the enterprise is relate digital content from many sources. one of its interesting
being able to locate expertise quickly. Semantics enable the features is that it uses RDF to represent the relationships
organization to build connections between people, informa- between digital objects stored in the repository.
tion and events, breaking down stovepiped information to
search it more effectively and find what you need fast. For example, one digital object might represent a collection of
materials, and other digital objects might be members of that
NASA offers a good example. When the Space Shuttle collection. or, a network of relationships might exist between
takes off, any malfunction, no matter how minor, must be a set of digital objects about Thomas Jefferson: a scanned
dealt with immediately by a team of specialists. NASA is letter penned by Jefferson, a photo of a painting of Jefferson,
using Semantic Web technologies to quickly locate exper- a document about the artist, a diagram of Monticello, and
tise throughout the agency when it is required, whether for a document about the construction of Monticello. Searching
dealing with mission-critical situations or for staffing proj- the repository using these types of relationships will help
ects in general. The PoPS (People, organizations, Projects, users drill down more quickly to the specific content they
Skills) system draws on databases throughout NASA to seek. The latest release of Fedora uses Mulgara, a scalable
integrate information about its nearly 70,000 civil service open source RDF database, or “semantic triplestore,” that
and contractor workers.173 This information includes proj- indexes all the relationships in the repository and supports
ects worked on, articles published, competency information, the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C’s) new SPARQL
contact information, and code of accounts (time reporting) semantic query language.
information.
“As libraries provide more information resources to the public
So, for example, to find a foam specialist, PoPs would search on the Web, they bring their strong heritage of cataloging
the code of accounts database to see who had charged time — that is, describing resources using very formal methods,”
to a related area, and then would search other databases to observes Ed Luczak, principal systems architect at CSC who
narrow the field to one or a few people. In the past, locating is on assignment at the National Library of Medicine. “In
an expert involved e-mail queries or word-of-mouth, taking information systems and on the Web, libraries are using very
hours if not days, whereas with PoPs it takes just minutes. well-defined XML-based metadata schemes and, often, controlled
To do this, NASA created an RDF federation of three core vocabularies to describe resources. This richness in describ-
databases (project data, skills information, and people and ing resources makes the resources easier to find or discover
organizational data) and used the Swoop ontology editor to when someone is searching for them. Libraries typically don’t
create an oWL ontology for the federation. (RDF and oWL call this ‘semantics’ although most of the rest of us would.”
are fundamental tools underpinning the Semantic Web.) This Recall that the W3C “Semantic Web” working group was
ontology relates relevant information in the federation, which originally called the “Metadata” working group; the ideas are
can be queried by users dynamically to find the expertise closely related, and they are being applied more widely to
they needed quickly. real-world problems today.
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Cataloging the data — building an ontology — is crucial to Semantics Meet Services
describing a problem space that can be semantically searched, At the infrastructure level, vendors are busy injecting semantics
and even more crucial when that problem space is particu- into foundational services and processes. For example, Zepheira
larly complex. Consider the very real problem of terrorism, builds software for semantic SoA (Service oriented Archi-
which involves identifying complicated sequences of events tecture). With semantic SoA (SSoA), resources and services
and unraveling webs of personal connections. Researchers at are wrapped with semantic identifiers so they can be shared
the University of Maryland, College Park are building a terror- across the enterprise, not confined to the local system. By
ism ontology using new techniques to help the intelligence clearly identifying and describing all resources relevant to a
community examine information from many angles and surface service, including relationships across services, enterprises can
relationships.174 With ontologies, relationships become a first- begin to create automated tools and dashboards to manage
class citizen, as important as the data itself. change and adapt quickly to new business opportunities.
Indeed, establishing relationships — via ontologies, cataloging Imagine a service called “document to phone” for transferring
or other means — is what enables the beauty of semantics to a document to a mobile phone. In a typical SoA environment
be fully realized. Semantics have no value until the connections there is very little descriptive information about the business
nature of the service. The descriptive information is technical —
about message data structures and network protocol require-
ments rather than the characteristics of the document and the
with ontologies, relationships
mobile phone that would be relevant to the business.
become a first-class citizen,
In SSoA, you wrap the service with information that describes
as important as the data itself.
a document, a phone, and what the service does. Then, when
an application needs a service for transferring HTML to a mo-
bile phone, it can find the “document to phone” service because
are made. one company, Mondeca, focuses on classifying doc- HTML is a kind of document, and the environment makes the con-
uments and other content to determine how the data relates. nection. “We’re adding business vocabulary to the specifications
Mondeca’s Intelligent Topic Manager works with structured for services,” explains Eric Miller, president of Zepheira. “We’re
and unstructured text and multimedia data to identify topics surfacing the meaning of services, and the meaning of everything
and create a network of content related to a particular topic, touched by services, so you can use services and integrate with
using Semantic Web standards. Classifying content in this services in ways not originally anticipated by the designers.”
way improves navigation and search and is an important step
towards the larger semantic enterprise. Mondeca’s technology one example of how a SSoA can help the enterprise is financial
has been used to classify legal terminology, scientific publica- trading. Trading is enhanced by making connections between
tions, and e-tourism information, for example. evolving news events and publicly traded companies or commod-
ities. These connections are facilitated by the effective integration
Also on the road to the semantic enterprise and the Semantic of private data from analysts, licensed third party content and,
Web are microformats, simple open data standards that make it increasingly, publicly available information on the Web. Many
easy to exchange information and enable agents on the Web to of the existing service interfaces used for specific applica-
work on your behalf. A vcard uses a microformat for exchang- tions of this data can be wrapped in a SSoA architecture so
ing business cards; now the travel industry, namely TripBlox, has the service and even the related data can be leveraged for
developed a microformat for publishing trip ideas, wish lists and additional uses beyond their original purpose. The ability to
favorite itineraries. Travel bloggers and enthusiasts can publish wrap existing services, use them in new ways, and rapidly
their travel plans and information using the TripBlox publishing create new ways to connect them to support more effective
standard. TripBlox stores all content in RDF and uses an oWL data integration and analysis enables more effective trading
ontology to make sense of it. Reasoning techniques are used to and creates competitive advantage.
infer connections between trips, activities, hotels and trip authors.
Defining the context of the data makes it much easier to understand SSoA is also very powerful for compliance management and
and leverage. That’s what the Semantic enterprise is all about. corporate mergers; information systems must be adaptable
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to policy changes and merger requirements, respectively. • Determine mutual funds’ net asset value and compliance
Traditional SoA helps break down stovepiped applications status daily.
and data, but SSoA takes it a step further. SSoA lets you • Calculate the cost of a product, like an airplane, before
create enterprise-wide models for policy management or for it is built.
coordinating separate processes from corporations after a • Compare results of scientific studies to see how they
merger. The key is in direct expression of business context impact other studies.
within the information systems, so that IT and managers can
collaborate closely to translate business changes into systems. The Metatomix platform provides a suite of tools to create an
Without such models, changes established by the business ontology, connect data sources, semantically integrate them,
are not reflected rapidly in the services. SSoA can help orga- and either persist the data in an RDF data store or provide a
nizations react quickly to regulatory changes and adopt new real-time, virtual view of the data. Metatomix’s differentiator is
strategies fast. applying rules and policies on top of the ontology reasoning,
to yield greater insight. For example, a policy would look for an
The SSoA infrastructure includes two key components. Per- event, such as three people applying for a credit card from the
sistent URLs (PURLs) are an open industry convention for same company, and trigger a “possible money laundering” alert
establishing unique identifiers for resources (data, documents, when the event occurs, automatically notifying an analyst and
services) across all information systems so the resources remain creating a fraud case in the system.
intact amidst social or organizational change. Remix is a Web-
based application platform from Zepheira that allows people
to combine Web content with data sources ranging from data-
using semantics has the potential
bases to desktop office application files, and publish the results
internally or externally on the Web. to remove many of the tasks
Resources and services are identified using the language of the traditionally associated with
business, as defined in an ontology. When creating an ontology,
application implementation
there does not need to be agreement up front on terms and
definitions. you can create a simple infrastructure that wraps projects, and deliver systems that
existing services such that they connect to other services as
needed — they can establish the link. The SSoA supports many provide business processes that can
different policies and the fact that they might change. (Remix
adapt and evolve as users explore
is the tool for this.)
business process efficiencies.
“We empower employees to stitch services together the way
they need to, and record those stitchings for future use,” says
Miller. This gives the enterprise flexibility rather than imposing
a single, top-down view. Companies can make the connection between stovepiped data
sources and detect fraud faster. By identifying relationships
Zepheira intends to have its entire infrastructure ready by the across data, customers and accounts, and being able to make
end of 2009, so enterprises can move from prototype applica- decisions in real time (e.g., do not accept this person’s credit
tions to full-scale implementation. card application), banks can save millions. In the past, fraud de-
tection could take six to nine months as banks collected data
Like Zepheira, Metatomix focuses on enterprise infrastructure and searched for patterns of fraud after the fact, losing millions
to connect existing systems and access them semantically. in bad debt in the process.175
Enterprises are using the Metatomix Semantic Platform to:
one financial services firm using the Metatomix platform
• Identify criminals based on background checks and aggregates data from over 6,000 mutual funds daily, generates
other data. their net asset value, and determines whether or not the funds
• Stop anti-money laundering and other types of fraud. are in compliance with their specific regulations. This activity
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Figure 41 Delaycast.com uses predictive modeling to forecast flight delays and cancellations. The right column shows predicted minimums
and maximums. Source: Delaycast.com
is done in a one-hour window and includes aggregating data The potential for disruption comes if you give business people
from other sources in North America, Europe and Asia. Using (end users) the ability to define business processes and system
semantic technology, the firm can analyze data on the fly requirements in ways that IT systems can understand, without
and look for anomalies or trends for its mutual fund clients needing IT consultants to interpret the requirements, identify
without having to hard code the work. The firm estimates it is gaps and issues, and specify configurations and customizations.
saving over 100,000 person-hours a year using this revamped From a business change point of view, semantics enable the busi-
process. Additionally, with the semantic platform the firm can ness person to understand how the process step he or she is
create new value-added services for its clients quickly. responsible for fits into the overall, end-to-end business process.
Using semantics has the potential to remove many of the tasks
Another opportunity for semantics is connecting business process traditionally associated with application implementation projects,
management (BPM) services with semantic capability. Integrated and deliver systems that provide business processes that can
Project SUPER (Semantics Utilised for Process Management adapt and evolve as users explore business process efficiencies.
within and Between Enterprises), led by the European Union,
focuses on creating a semantic user interface to business applica- Peering into the Crystal Ball
tion development. Ultimately this would shift control from IT to When something can predict well, like the proverbial crystal ball,
business people, enabling them to describe requirements, systems we think of it as smart. New technologies and techniques are helping
set-up and modifications in standard English. CSC is exploring predict outcomes, putting prediction power in the hands of con-
how to use semantic BPM to accelerate application delivery. sumers and addressing areas as fickle as a sales person’s behavior.
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For instance, Delaycast.com uses predictive modeling to let profiles are based on forward-looking models, and as such, are
consumers know if flights will be delayed or cancelled at certain never 100% accurate. Looking forward, we cannot predict foul
U.S. airports, when, and for how long. The company has built weather, the grounding of a fleet of MD80s or the landing of
mathematical models of the U.S. air transportation system that Air Force one. Nevertheless, the insight will help travelers avoid
analyze flight delay and cancellation patterns and project them known troubles.”176 Delaycast is a free Web service that makes
into the future. Enter the departure and arrival airports, airline, powerful predictive technology an everyday consumer tool.
flight time and time of day and get an estimate of whether and
for how long a flight will be delayed before it happens, as shown Predicting flights is one thing, but what about predicting
in Figure 41. something less tangible like behavior? Predicting how a sales
person will perform and improving his or her performance is
of course, predicting the future is not an exact science. As the focus of Spring Lake Technologies. The company’s Smart-
Delaycast notes on its Web site: “All of our predictions and Series software analyzes profiles of individual sales people,
Figure 42 Predictive software gives a sales person tips for an upcoming presentation to a prospective client based on an analysis of the sales
person and the prospect. The goal is to help the sales person be more aligned with the prospect’s behaviors and motivations, increasing the
sales person’s effectiveness. The meter reflects the alignment strength between the sales person and the prospect. The stronger the score, the
more positive the alignment. This illustration shows that for the upcoming presentation, the sales person is not well aligned; the system predicts
how the prospect will act in the presentation and gives selling recommendations for the sales person. Source: Spring Lake Technologies
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consisting of 20 behavioral attributes and 14 dominant traits, the technology. It’s all about working smart by leveraging what
against a composite profile of the optimal sales person. The you know — the characteristics of your top sales people — and
software integrates predictive technologies, applied behavioral using metrics, not guesswork, to maximize performance and
science and the art of selling into an engine that predicts how minimize the cost of hiring the “wrong person.”
sales people will behave, and provides customized recommenda-
tions for how to improve performance. The system gets smarter Predictive behavioral software is also being used to help
as people are added to (or subtracted from) the optimal profile marketers better understand consumer actions and target
composite. advertising accordingly. ValueClick Media’s Precision BT software
suite, launched in July 2008, applies predictive algorithms to
Individuals can also be analyzed for how they will perform with behavioral targeting, helping marketers identify the best pros-
a particular client (too structured for the client? not structured pects from hundreds of consumer interest segments based on
enough?) based on an analysis of the client’s profile and how the marketer’s objectives and the consumer’s likelihood to take
the individual’s behavior and traits map to it. (See Figure 42.) action in the future.177 Better predictors of behavior will find
Similarly, prospective hires can be analyzed to predict the many uses in marketing, sales, operations and other areas.
likelihood of their success before they join a new company.
Brain Power
It is difficult to assess behavior without sophisticated instru- There are many ways to be smart, but how about tapping the
mentation. The SmartSeries software is based on research brain directly? Heavy machinery operators in mines in Australia
from over 25,000 sales profiles that measure characteris- can wear a “Smart Cap” that senses fatigue by reading brain
tics of effectiveness; over 8,000 seller and buyer behavioral waves. (See Figure 43.) AngloCoal trialed the Smart Cap in
attributes; over 240,000 behavioral tendencies and sales February 2008; the cap transmits a fatigue rating (a single digit
best practices; and 144 complex buyer behaviors modeled number) wirelessly to a computer in the vehicle’s cab or to a
by type. The software uses regression analysis and mathemat- mobile phone, allowing the operator to be warned by a flashing
ical formulations to analyze profiles and generate individual display or an alarm. Tired drivers can be given a rest break,
recommendations for selling more effectively. Recommenda- improving safety and productivity. The sensor technology in
tions are situation specific, and the software self-learns with the cap is extremely precise, reading electrical scalp activity
every interaction. As the sales person has additional interac- of just a few microvolts. The cap could potentially be used by
tions with the client, he answers additional questions about the drivers of all kinds of vehicles, including cars.
client for the system, which gets smarter about the client’s
tendencies. Another brain-savvy system entering the market targets video
gamers. Players can control action in a game by wearing a special
headset from Emotiv Systems, available at the end of 2008, that
reads brain waves. By merely concentrating on moving an object,
The predictive power of the software the player moves the object.178
gives organizations new tools to hone In the lab, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are
employee skills and get everyone exploring how to tap brain waves to control a cursor (“Brain-
Browser”) or operate a wheel chair (“Aware Chair”) by sensing
closer to being peak performers. certain wave activities as the user gazes at the computer or
control screen. At Duke University, researchers have enabled a
monkey, outfitted with electrodes in her brain, to walk a robotic
dog by merely thinking about it. The prediction is that in 10
The predictive power of the software gives organizations new years intelligent brain-computer interfaces that let people
tools to hone employee skills and get everyone closer to being communicate mentally with objects and other people will be
peak performers. often just a 10-15 percent increase in sales, available commercially.179
which Spring Lake Technologies’ clients have reported, is
significant. RightNow Technologies, Primavera Software and If mind reading gets your attention, get this: researchers at
Advent Software have reported improved effectiveness with the University of California at Berkeley have created software
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DIGTAL TRUST VoL. 8
moving full force in that direction. There are many possibilities
for innovation between now and the Singularity. To take just
one example, if we can understand protein folding, a problem
scientists have been working on for 30 years, we can under-
stand how life works, how diseases operate, and how to create
exact drugs in days, not years, that do not require a lot of
experimentation.182 That’s really, really smart.
Computers will get smarter because of their ability to aggre-
gate information from so many sources and minds, creating
a collective wisdom like never before. Collective wisdom
draws strength from the tenet that more brains are better
than one; virtual markets that aggregate data from thousands
and make predictions (e.g., the Hollywood Stock Exchange)
are one example of this. However, acquiring and assimilat-
ing information from a broad range of sources is generally
a very slow process. Having bots that can troll for data and
not only find it but parse through it to bring meaning and
understanding is the goal.
Computers will get smarter because
of their ability to aggregate
information from so many sources
and minds, creating a collective
Figure 43 The Smart Cap (prototype on top) senses if you are wisdom like never before.
tired; the finished cap with the circuitry concealed is below. The
mobile phone shows the feedback display (a fatigue rating of 3).
Source: CRCMining Australia
of course, there is still the challenge of the quality of the
(a decoder) that predicts brain activity based on what you are “wisdom” itself. Even with all the data in the world, not everyone
looking at. The decoder’s smarter understanding of what you applies good wisdom or judgment. Collective wisdom depends
are looking at or focusing on could eventually lead to mind on the crowd you are drawing from. Hopefully that crowd is
reading. 180
Along these lines, “brain fingerprinting” is a contro- sharp, diverse and well-intentioned.
versial proposed investigative technique that measures brain
wave responses to words, phrases or pictures to determine In the end, getting smart(er) is about being better informed
whether or not they are familiar to you. one application is lie and, as a result, having greater potential to make better decisions.
detection, 181
where “do you know the person in this picture?” It is like information transparency on steroids. organizations need
could elicit a different response through brain wave detection to prepare for a smart(er) world, no matter what form it takes.
than what the person says. For one thing is sure: Although fast will beat big, smart(er) will
beat fast — and everything is getting smart(er).
GET SMART(ER) NoW
Although we still have decades to go on Kurzweil’s vision of a
super-smart world — if it even materializes — we are nonetheless
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82. DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS LEA DI NG EDGE FoRU M
thriving on Disruption
The 21st century will be laden with digital disruptions. These growth, and the inception of new industries.”185 That growth
disruptions are forming the foundation for a new economy, will come from what Arthur calls new “arrangements-of-use”186
the Networked Information Economy. This economy, identified for the technologies, as complementary infrastructure is built
by Harvard professor yochai Benkler in his book The Wealth to make full use of the new digital technologies. The digital
of Networks, finds value predominantly in the production, disruptions we have described will be coupled with new
enhancement and sharing of information (e.g., financial services, “arrangements-of-use” so that enterprises and individuals can
accounting, software, science, ideas, designs, opinions) and take full advantage of the disruptions.
cultural content (e.g., movies, books, music).
Benkler argues that we are rapidly exiting the Industrial Infor-
mation Economy, which merely placed an information layer atop “The digitization of business is steadily
the hard-goods-based industrial economy, and hurtling full-force
transforming the economy, and the
into the Networked Information Economy. “The change brought
about by the networked information environment is deep,” writes next two decades will see continually
Benkler. “It is structural. It goes to the very foundations of how
rising productivity, increasing growth,
liberal markets and liberal democracies have coevolved for
almost two centuries.”183 and the inception of new industries.”
— W. Brian Arthur
Benkler continues: “A series of changes in the technologies,
economic organization, and social practices of production in
this environment has created new opportunities for how we
make and exchange information, knowledge, and culture. These For example, in New Wave of Waves we are already seeing
changes have increased the role of nonmarket and nonproprietary a complementary infrastructure mature. What used to be
production, both by individuals alone and by cooperative efforts independent infrastructures supporting telephony, cable TV and
in a wide range of loosely or tightly woven collaborations.”184 mobile voice are rapidly converging into a unified experience
enabled by the Internet. The same holds true with data net-
This speaks directly to the New Media, Living in a New Reality working in the enterprise. No one would dream of standing up a
and Social Power disruptions, and indirectly to the other digital network based on proprietary protocols or e-mail systems that
disruptions. These digital disruptions are powering the Networked can’t communicate outside the enterprise, but this was exactly
Information Economy and may be the biggest challenge to the the case in the early 1990s. or, consider how the Platform
status quo the world has ever seen. Makeover trend towards cloud computing completely changes
how we provision applications, data and other enterprise
The overall impact of today’s digital disruptions may take years resources — a strong indicator that infrastructures are aiming
to be felt. W. Brian Arthur of the Sante Fe Institute writes that at higher levels of service and interoperability. In Living in a New
“beneath the surface storms and uncertainties, the digitization Reality, virtual worlds are providing a global, sensory-filled
of business is steadily transforming the economy, and the next fabric for people to participate in regardless of time and place.
two decades will see continually rising productivity, increasing This is an entirely new infrastructure for remote collaboration.
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83. L E A D IN G E D G E Fo RU M DIGITAL DISRUPTIoNS
These new infrastructures are the basis for Information Transpar- revolution to fully blossom are the 1,001 subtechnologies,
ency and its successor, a Smart(er) World. Both draw strength arrangements, and architectures that adapt us to the new
from unified communications — we know more about people, technologies and them to us. Their arrival takes time, and it
places and things and can reason and predict better from these defines the buildout period as one that creates the arrange-
connections. Both benefit from more powerful, agile platforms ments and subtechnologies that bring the new possibilities
that can analyze and make sense of enormous amounts of into full use.”187
information rapidly. Platform Makeover will especially help
a Smart(er) World as new materials beyond silicon provide So put today’s digital disruptions on your radar and realize
enormous computational power that gets machines much they are a work in progress as supporting technologies and
closer to emulating the brain. new behaviors take hold. Today’s digital disruptions lay down
important foundations and principles for the new economy
Building out these infrastructures in full will take time and to build and thrive on.
work. Arthur declares: “. . . what’s needed for the [information]
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84. DIGTAL DISRUPTIoNS LEA DI NG EDGE FoRU M
notes
1. Clayton Christensen, The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail
(Harvard Business School Press: Boston, 1997), p. xv.
2. Center for Digital Storytelling, http://www.storycenter.org/
3. http://h30400.www3.hp.com/
4. “The Beta Male’s Charms,” The New York Times, 7 February 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/07/fashion/07girlfriends.html?_r=1&sq=beta%20male&st=nyt&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&
scp=1&adxnnlx=1202761231-gS60wksKVomfwy55VHym8g
5. See youTube video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf9aE3Toepo&feature=related
6. “youTube effect felt beyond debates,” CNN.com, 27 November 2007,
http://www.cnn.com/2007/PoLITICS/11/26/youtube.debate/index.html.
See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r90z0PMnKwI
7. “Thumbs Race as Japan’s Best Sellers Go Cellular,” The New York Times, 20 January 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/world/asia/20japan.html
8. “Six Leaps of Innovation — Kelly Rodriques and Paul Schiff, Blowtorch,” Fortune, 27 December 2007.
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fortune/0712/gallery.sixleaps.fortune/6.html
9. “Blowtorch Ignites a New Model to Entertain, Engage and Connect young Adults,” Blowtorch press release, 16 November 2007.
http://www.allbusiness.com/media-telecommunications/movies-sound-recording/5308344-1.html
10. “Up next: Cameras that know who you photographed,” CNET News.com, 14 November 2007.
http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9816371-39.html
11. “Netflix Partners With LG to Bring Movies Straight to TV,” The New York Times, 3 January 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/technology/03netflix.html?em&ex=1199509200&en=e9881b82c236e3fb&ei=5087%0A
12. Ibid.
13. “TiVo, youTube to deliver videos to TVs,” MSNBC.com, 12 March 2008. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23599036/
14. “youTube Coming to TV, With TiVo the Gateway,” The New York Times, 13 March 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/technology/13tivo.html
15. “In CBS Test, Mobile Ads Find Users,” The New York Times, 6 February 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/06/technology/06mobile.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
16. yuMe Ad Gallery, http://www.yume.com/ad_gallery/gallery.html
17. “Download This: ‘Dynamic’ Downloadable Advertising is Going to Be Big in 2008,” Beet.TV, 26 December 2007.
http://www.beet.tv/2007/12/download-this-d.html
18. Ibid.
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notes
19. See video under i3media, http://www.activamultimedia.com/am/v_portal/apartados/pl_basica.php?te=157&idm=151
20. “Behold Hulu, Hollywood’s answer to youTube,” Fortune, 29 october 2007.
http://bigtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2007/10/29/behold-hulu-hollywoods-answer-to-youtube/
21. “Who Won the Writers Strike?,” The New York Times, 12 February 2008,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/arts/television/12strike.html?ref=arts; and Writers Guild of America Contract
2007 Proposals, http://www.wga.org/subpage_member.aspx?id=2485
22. “Virtual World Population: 50 million by 2011,” GigaOM, 20 May 2007.
http://gigaom.com/2007/05/20/virtual-world-population-50-million-by-2011/
23. “Second Earth,” Technology Review, July/August 2007.
http://www.technologyreview.com/printer_friendly_article.aspx?id=18911
24. An example of hosting a conference in Second Life is at
https://veodia.com/blog.html (see 28 September 2007 blog entry).
25. Second Life Grid examples,
http://secondlifegrid.net/how/research_and_concept_testing, http://secondlifegrid.net/how/simulation_and_prototyping
26. “Missing girl hunt hits cyber world,” CNN.com, 12 June 2007.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WoRLD/europe/06/12/mccann.virtual/index.html
27. “IBM and Linden Lab Launch Collaboration to Further Advance the 3D Internet,” press release, 10 october 2007.
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/22428.wss
28. “Qwaq, Intel Collaborate on Enhanced Virtual Workspace Product,” press release, 20 September 2007.
http://www.qwaq.com/company/press_releases/pr-2007_09_20.php
29. SAM Audiovisual Weather Services,
http://www.activamultimedia.com/am/v_portal/apartados/pl_productos.php?te=193&idm=151
For insight into the complex Pinocchio-like process of creating Sam, see
http://www.meteosam.com/eng/index.php. Click on “His secrets” for a cool and informative video.
30. “Full-on Rock Band Makes Jamming Follow-Up to Guitar Hero,” Wired, 14 September 2007.
http://www.wired.com/print/gaming/gamingreviews/magazine/15-10/mf_harmonix
31. “Grand Slam tennis that’s out of this world,” The Sydney Morning Herald, 12 January 2007.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/what-a-racquet/2007/01/12/1168105128562.html
32. “Vehicle operations simulator with augmented reality,” U.S. Patent 7246050, 16 June 2006.
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7246050.html
33. Jay David Bolter and Blair MacIntyre, “Is It Live or Is It AR?”, IEEE Spectrum, August 2007.
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/aug07/5377
34. “Vets pay tribute to fallen comrades at virtual Vietnam wall,” CNN.com, 1 April 2008.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/01/vietnam.wall/index.html
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notes
35. “Iraqi Checkpoint training using virtual humans to learn cultural gestures,” X3D case study, Web3D Consortium.
http://www.web3d.org/casestudies/detail/iraqi-checkpoint-training-using-virtual-humans-to-learn-cultural-gestures/
36. Peter L. Freddolino, Anton S. Arkhipov, Steven B. Larson, Alexander McPherson and Klaus Schulten,
“Molecular dynamics simulations of the complete satellite tobacco mosaic virus,” Structure, 14 March 2006, pp. 437-449.
37. A good paper on telepresence is the Human Productivity Lab’s “Telepresence, Effective Visual Collaboration and the
Future of Global Business at the Speed of Light,” by Howard S. Lichtman, August 2006.
http://www.humanproductivitylab.com/telepresencepaper/index.php
38. HeadThere, http://www.headthere.com/applications.html#Telecommuting
39. “If the Mirror Could Talk (It Can),” The New York Times, 18 March 2007.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/fashion/18mirror.html
40. Jane McGonigal, Ph.D., “Superheroes 2.0,” presentation at TTI/Vanguard, Barcelona, Spain, 17 July 2007, pp. 3-5, 7.
41. Jane McGonigal, Ph.D., “Alternate Realities: A Game Designer’s Perspective on the Future of Happiness,” presentation at
TTI/Vanguard, Barcelona, Spain, 17 July 2007, p. 14.
42. “Tell me the future,” The Guardian, 3 December 2007.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/03/mondaymediasection.internet
43. “open Social: a new universe of social applications all over the web,” Marc Andreessen Blog, 31 october 2007.
http://blog.pmarca.com/2007/10/open-social-a-n.html
44. “The New openSocial — Now a Little Less Googley,” Good Morning Silicon Valley, 25 March 2008.
45. “Microsoft Partners With Social Networks To Improve Data Portability,” Online Media Daily, 26 March 2008.
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=79248&Nid=40828&p=913539
46. Rob Cross, Roger Martin and Leigh Weiss, “The Ties that Bind: Driving Financial Return through Networks,” Network
Roundtable at the University of Virginia white paper, 2007, p. 8.
47. “NewsGator Delivers Corporate Social Computing Platform for Universal McCann,” press release, 9 June 2008.
http://www.newsgator.com/CompanyInfo/Press/Archive.aspx?post=158
48. “one Small Step for Socialcast, one Giant Leap for Enterprise Social Networking,” InformationWeek, Startup City Blog,
9 May 2008. http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/05/one_small_step_2.html
49. This idea of using social tools for enterprise knowledge management is put forth in “Next Generation Knowledge
Management with Web 2.0,” a CSC Technology Grant paper by Pablo Bermejo García, February 2008.
http://www.csc.com/aboutus/leadingedgeforum/mds/mds435/843.shtml
50. “Google Maps and Twitter are Essential Information Resources for California Fires,” InformationWeek’s Digital Life
Weblog, 24 october 2007. http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/10/google_maps_and.html
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notes
51. “The Red Shift Theory,” InformationWeek, 18 August 2007, p. 2.
http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=4CICMFIHIMSMoQSNDLRSKHSCJUNN2JVN?
articleID=201800873&pgno=2&queryText=
52. “Live From SXSW: Zuckerberg Keynote Crumbles Into Chaos,” TechNewsWorld, 10 March 2008.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Live-From-SXSW-Zuckerberg-Keynote-Crumbles-Into-Chaos-62044.html.
An interesting analysis showing tweets integrated into a video of the keynote is at
http://www.marrowbones.com/commons/technosocial/2008/03/anatomy_of_a_mob_the_lacyzucke.html
53. “Twittering Journalist offers Wisdom To Advertising Flacks,” online Spin Blog, 7 March 2008.
http://blogs.mediapost.com/spin/?p=1250
54. “Campaign Reporting in Under 140 Taps,” The New York Times, 21 January 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/technology/21link.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
55. “Alternative lending sites often have good deals,” USA Today, 25 December 2007.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2007-12-25-peerlending-pers_N.htm
56. “Virgin Money Web Site Launches With CSC,” CSC case study, 2007,
http://www.csc.com/solutions/hostingservices/casestudies/5250.shtml?ref=hp_thumb
In addition to the United States, Virgin Money operates sites for the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa.
57. “Alternative lending sites often have good deals,” USA Today, 25 December 2007.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2007-12-25-peerlending-pers_N.htm
58. WoMMA Buyers Guide — Keller Fay Group, http://buyers.womma.org/companies/keller-fay-group/; and “Brad Fay,
Co-Founder Keller Fay Group, Wins ARF’s Prestigious ‘Grand Innovation Award,’” press release, 13 April 2007,
http://kellerfay.com/news/News%20Release%20-%20ARF%20Award.pdf
59. “New PQ Media Forecast: Word-of-Mouth Marketing Spending To Break $1 Billion in 2007,” press release, 15 November 2007.
http://www.prwebdirect.com/releases/2007/11/prweb569807.htm
60. “Top 10 US Social-Network and Blog-Site Rankings Issued for March [2008],” MarketingCharts,
http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/top-10-us-social-network-and-blog-site-rankings-issued-for-march-4289/
nielsen-online-top-10-social-networking-sites-us-march-2008jpg/
61. “FoX Sports, MySpace & NFL to create online destination for SB XLII ads,” FoX Sports, 24 May 2007.
http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/6843838
62. “New PQ Media Forecast: Word-of-Mouth Marketing Spending To Break $1 Billion in 2007,” press release, 15 November 2007.
http://www.prwebdirect.com/releases/2007/11/prweb569807.htm
63. “Digital Restrictions Management Hits a Snag: Digg Users Stand Up for Fair Use,” 3 May 2007,
http://www.saschameinrath.com/blog_tags/drm
64. Social Contract (Rousseau), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Social_Contract
65. “Stolen Laptop Helps Turn Tables on Suspects,” The New York Times, 10 May 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/nyregion/10laptop.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
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notes
66. “Medtronic Launches New Guardian Real-Time System with Miniature Transmitter and Carelink Personal Software,” press
release, 19 March 2007. http://wwwp.medtronic.com/Newsroom/NewsReleaseDetails.do?itemId=1174306815850&lang=en_US
67. “Google Caves to Pentagon Wishes,” InformationWeek’s Google Weblog, 7 March 2008.
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/03/google_caves_to.html
68. InfoWorld Futures Project Interview with Paul Saffo, 1997, http://www.saffo.com/aboutps/interviews/infoworld.php
69. “Insurance Fears Lead Many to Shun DNA Tests,” The New York Times, 24 February 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/24/health/24dna.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
70. “you Are What you Post,” BusinessWeek, 27 March 2006.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_13/b3977071.htm
71. “Technology and the tired trucker: Why the trucking industry resists onboard recorders,” Computerworld, 17 March 2008.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=313196
72. “CSC Launches New Location Awareness Solution at the 2008 Amgen Tour of California,” press release, 12 February 2008.
http://www.csc.com/newsandevents/news/12529.shtml
73. David Robinson, Harlan yu, William P. Zeller and Edward W. Felten, “Government Data and the Invisible Hand,” draft,
to appear in final form in the Yale Journal of Law and Technology, Volume 11, Fall 2008,
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1138083;
and “Study says Uncle Sam should get out of Web publishing business,” Computerworld, 5 June 2008,
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9093938&source=NLT_PM&nlid=8
74. See the “Who’s emitting mercury?” map at http://www.usatoday.com/news/mercury-emitter-map.htm
75. See video and additional information at http://www.epa.gov/nationaldialogue/index.html
76. Linda T. Kohn, Janet M. Corrigan and Molla S. Donaldson, Editors, Committee on Quality of Health Care in America,
Institute of Medicine, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2000),
Executive Summary, p. 1. http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9728&page=1
77. “Health Care Costs 101, 2008 Edition” California Healthcare Foundation, slide 3. Data based on projections from the Centers
for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), office of the Actuary.
78. “Visualizing Electronic Health Records With ‘Google-Earth for the Body,’” IEEE Spectrum, January 2008.
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/jan08/5854
79. “Health Care’s New Dimension,” Virginia Business online, September 2000.
http://www.gatewayva.com/biz/virginiabusiness/magazine/yr2000/sep00/lynch.html
80. “Voters Care About Information Technology in Healthcare, CSC Survey Finds,” February 2008.
http://www.csc.com/government/ds/11250-health_it_voter_survey?ref=lsl
81. Larry Dignan, “Mashup Ecosystem Poised to Explode,” blog post, 27 January 2006. http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2484
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notes
82. http://www.mashupfeed.com/ Data as of 26 August 2008.
83. Transparent Real Estate, http://transparentre.com/2007/01/02/new-ideas-for-2007.aspx
84. http://mashmaker.intel.com
85. http://www.mapbuilder.net/
86. http://googlemashupeditor.blogspot.com/
87. Richard Feynman explains in this brief video: http://www.cnbc.cmu.edu/~masmith/media/feynman_long.mov
88. Dwight A. Johnson, “The Radio Legacy of the R.M.S. Titanic,” 28 December 1998, http://www.avsia.com/djohnson/titanic.html
89. “700 MHz Explained in 10 Steps,” GigaOM, 14 March 2007. http://gigaom.com/2007/03/14/700mhz-explained/
90. “700 MHz to be LTE heavy,” RCR Wireless, 4 April 2008.
http://www.rcrnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080404/SUB/581566019
91. Ibid.
92. Ibid.
93. “700 MHz Explained in 10 Steps,” GigaoM, 14 March 2007, http://gigaom.com/2007/03/14/700mhz-explained/;
and “Sprint hints at cutback on ambitious nationwide WiMax rollout ,” InfoWorld, 12 November 2007,
http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/11/12/Sprint-hints-at-cutback-on-ambitious-nationwide-WiMax-rollout_1.html
(WiMAX estimate).
94. “TV White Space Holds the Key for Broadband Wireless Internet Access for Millions of People Still Living without
Broadband,” FireceWireless, 13 December 2007.
http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/tv-white-space-holds-key-broadband-wireless-internet-access-millions-
people-still-liv?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal
95. “Google Plan Would open TV Band for Wireless Use,” The New York Times, 25 March 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/25/business/media/25google.html
96. “Internet-a-Gogo: Airlines to offer In-Flight Access,” The Wall Street Journal, 19 June 2008.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121382851874286403.html (Subscription required).
Also at: http://webreprints.djreprints.com/1972500433907.html
97. “FMC market forecast to top $46B in 2010, FMC subscribers to top 38M; UMA here to stay, says new Infonetics report,”
press release, 4 october 2007, http://www.infonetics.com/cgp/b-a.asp?sID=66 (Registration required.)
98. “Infonetics Research: T-Mobile USA, orange heat up FMC infrastructure market; FMC phones hit $27B in 2007,” press release,
11 April 2008, http://www.infonetics.com/cgp/b-a.asp?sID=66 (Registration required.)
99. “Alaska Airlines Working With Row 44 To Launch Inflight Wireless Internet Service,” press release, 18 September 2007.
http://www.alaskasworld.com/Newsroom/ASNews/ASstories/AS_20070918_080507.asp
87

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Notes
100. Emirates, http://www.emirates.com/us/english/flying/staying_connected/staying_connected.aspx,
Qantas, http://www.qantas.com.au/info/flying/inTheAir/communications.
Also see “WiFi in the sky: Airlines prepare Cabin Hotspots,” The Wall Street Journal, 3 April 2007,
http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/sB117555160709857409.html (subscription required.)
101. “Mobile WiMAX to reach 80m subscribers within 5 Years, Assuming Device Availability and Differentiated services,
According to Juniper research,” press release, 11 December 2007.
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2007/12/emw575540.htm
102. see the latest WiMAX deployments at
http://www.wimax.com/commentary/blog/blog-2008/where-in-the-world-are-wimax-networks
103. “Intel Looks to 2008 for WiMax push,” eWeek, 1 August 2007. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2165070,00.asp
104. “Tech Firms to Build WiMax network in u.s.,” The Wall Street Journal, 8 May 2008.
http://online.wsj.com/article/sB121015567027273579.html (subscription required.)
105. “nextWave signs on Alcatel-Lucent for WiMAX TV,” FierceBroadbandWireless, 13 March 2008.
http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/nextwave-signs-on-alcatel-lucent-for-wimax-tv/2008-03-13?utm_
medium=nl&utm_source=link
106. In-stat data as reported in http://www.cellular-news.com/story/28029.php
107. “Israeli company develops radar system that sees through walls,” Haaretz.com, 11 June 2008.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/991793.html This paragraph is developed from this article.
108. Adrew Lippman and David p. reed, “Viral Communications,” MIT Media Laboratory white paper, 19 May 2003.
109. Gnu radio, http://gnuradio.org/trac/wiki; and Gnu radio suggested reading,
http://gnuradio.org/trac/wiki/suggestedreading
110. “radios Get smart,” IEEE Spectrum, 1 February 2007, p. 4. http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/feb07/4892
111. Ibid.
112. Joint Tactical radio system, problems and restructuring, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JTrs#problems_and_restructuring
113. “Connected World: redefining the Geography of Business and How We Work and play,” CsC Leading Edge Forum,
september 2006, p. 24. http://www.csc.com/aboutus/leadingedgeforum/knowledgelibrary/uploads/1139_1.pdf
114. “Boeing Begins production of Joint Tactical radio system Ground Mobile radios Engineering Models,” press release,
8 January 2008. http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2008/q1/080108a_nr.html
115. “Connected World,” p. 24. http://www.csc.com/aboutus/leadingedgeforum/knowledgelibrary/uploads/1139_1.pdf
116. “Thales Announces Liberty: The First Multiband software Defined Land Mobile radio — All Bands, All Modes, Full Encryption
in one radio,” press release, 26 March 2008. https://secure.thalescomminc.com/newsroom_details.asp?ID=321
117. The term “on orbit” is common in the space community. It is used to distinguish from a spacecraft that is in a lab, in a test
facility, on the launch pad, or in its ascent phase. It also implies that the spacecraft is in the correct orbit, not just any orbit.
88

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Notes
118. Edward Criscuolo, “software Defined radio,” CsC Technology Grant, november 2007.
http://www.csc.com/aboutus/leadingedgeforum/mds/mds435/843.shtml
119. Lippman and reed, “Viral Communications,” p. 5.
120. “share and share Alike,” Wi-Fi Planet News, 9 october 2007. http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/3704146
121. “Global Dreams for a Wireless Web,” The New York Times, 25 May 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/technology/25web.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1
122. Lippman and reed, “Viral Communications,” p. 1.
123. “Connected World,” pp. 67-81. http://www.csc.com/aboutus/leadingedgeforum/knowledgelibrary/uploads/1139_1.pdf
124. “paper Is out, Cellphones Are In,” The New York Times, 18 March 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/technology/18check.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
125. “Connected World,” p. 26. http://www.csc.com/aboutus/leadingedgeforum/knowledgelibrary/uploads/1139_1.pdf
126. nanoCELL, http://www.rivanetworks.com/nano/nano.htm
127. Lawrence Lessig, The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World (new York: random House, 2001), p. 21.
128. “self-service, prorated supercomputing Fun!,” open — All the Code That’s Fit to print, new York Times Blog,
1 november 2007.
http://open.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/self-service-prorated-super-computing-fun/?scp=1-b&sq=prorated+
supercomputing+fun&st=nyt
129. “Times to stop Charging for parts of Its Web site,” The New York Times, 18 september 2007.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/business/media/18times.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
130. “The new York Times Archives + Amazon Web services = TimesMachine,” open — All the Code That’s Fit to print,
new York Times Blog, 21 May 2008. http://open.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/s3/
131. “Cisco unveils nexus 7000 series Data Center-Class platform,” press release, 28 January 2008.
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2008/prod_012808b.html
132. “Cisco’s new Data Center plan Looks promising. What Will IBM Think?,” BusinessWeek Tech Beat Blog, 28 January 2008.
http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2008/01/ciscos_new_data.html
133. Cherrypal, http://cherrypal.com/
134. “Coming soon, to Any Flat surface near You,” The New York Times, 30 March 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/business/30novelties.html
135. “unlock the big screen experience from small devices,” Microvision,
http://www.microvision.com/pico_projector_displays/embedded.html
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92. DIGTAL DISRUPTIoNS LEA DI NG EDGE FoRU M
notes
136. “The future of computers,” Hewlett-Packard,
http://h71028.www7.hp.com/eNewsletter/cache/599441-0-0-225-121.html?jumpid=em_di_384564_US_US_0_000&diaid=
di_hpc_us_637441_US&dimid=1008769118&dicid=taw_July08&mrm=1-4BVUP This paragraph is developed from this article.
137. “Industry Giants Try to Break Computing’s Dead End,” The New York Times, 19 March 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/technology/19compute.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin
138. “Intel shows off 80-core processor,” ZDNet News, 11 February 2007. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6158181.html
139. “Industry Giants Try to Break Computing’s Dead End,” The New York Times, 19 March 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/technology/19compute.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin
140. “Apple in Parallel: Turning the PC World Upside Down?,” The New York Times, 10 June 2008.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/apple-in-parallel-turning-the-pc-world-upside-down/
141. “Inside Intel Larrabee,” eWeek, 7 August 2008. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Infrastructure/Inside-Intel-Larrabee/
142. “First Details on a Future Intel Design Codenamed ‘Larrabee,’” press release, 4 August 2008.
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20080804fact.htm?iid=SEARCH
143. “Intel Details Larrabee Processor Architecture,” eWeek, 4 August 2008. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Desktops-and-
Notebooks/Intel-Details-Larrabee-Processor-Architecture/?kc=EWKNLENT08082008STR1
144. “Apple in Parallel: Turning the PC World Upside Down?,” The New York Times, 10 June 2008.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/apple-in-parallel-turning-the-pc-world-upside-down/
145. “Apple Previews Mac oS X Snow Leopard to Developers,” press release, 9 June 2008.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/06/09snowleopard.html
146. “How big (or small) is a nanometer?,” http://www.egr.msu.edu/~mackay/nanometer/nanometer.htm
147. “Researchers develop combat helmet with smart nanotechnology sensors,” NanoWerk News, 7 March 2008.
http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=4866.php
148. “Fiber-based Nanotechnology Could Power Electronic Devices,” press release, 13 February 2008.
http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?id=1715
149. Ibid.
150. “Beam It Down from the Web, Scotty,” The New York Times, 7 May 2007.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/technology/07copy.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=3D+printing&st=nyt&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
151. See Z Corporation’s video for the ZPrinter 450 under Spotlight at: http://www.zcorp.com/
152. “Productive Nanosystems: A Technology Roadmap,” Sponsored by the Foresight Nanotech Institute, Battelle,
the Waitt Family Foundation, Sun Microsystems and Zyvex Labs, 2007, Executive Summary, p. xiii.
http://www.foresight.org/roadmaps/Nanotech_Roadmap_2007_main.pdf
153. J. Storrs Hall, Nanofuture: What’s Next for Nanotechnology (New york: Prometheus Books, 2005), p. 26.
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notes
154. “How DNA Computers Will Work,” http://computer.howstuffworks.com/dna-computer.htm
155. USC Laboratory for Molecular Science, http://www.usc.edu/dept/molecular-science/ (Click on DNA Computing.)
156. “Computer Made from DNA and Enzymes,” National Geographic News, 24 February 2003.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/37540047.html
157. “Molecular Computer Developed To Perform Calculations From Within Human Body,” Medindia.com, 25 February 2006.
http://www.medindia.net/news/view_news_main.asp?x=8108
158. “Computer Made from DNA and Enzymes,” National Geographic News, 24 February 2003.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/pf/37540047.html This paragraph is developed from this article.
159. “How DNA Computers Will Work,” http://computer.howstuffworks.com/dna-computer2.htm
160. “Chemists Report Important Step Toward Building Molecular Computers,” ScienceDaily, 25 January 2007,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070124175450.htm; and “A New Type of Molecular Switch,”
Technology Review, 4 September 2007, http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/19329/?a=f
161. “What Is Quantum?”, The Mitre Digest, February 2008.
162. “Speed-of-light computing comes a step closer,” New Scientist, 18 July 2007.
http://technology.newscientist.com/channel/tech/mg19526136.400-speedoflight-computing-comes-a-step-closer.html
163. “IBM Unveils a Prototype Green optical Network Technology for Sharing Huge Files in Seconds,” press release,
28 February 2008. http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/23607.wss
164. “Replacing Wire With Laser, Sun Tries to Speed Up Data,” The New York Times, 24 March 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/24/technology/24wafer.html?_r=1&oref=slogin This paragraph is developed
from this article.
165. Ibid.
166. Ray Kurzweil, “The Law of Accelerating Returns,”
http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0134.html?
167. “Semantic Wave 2008 Report: Industry Roadmap to Web 3.0 & Multibillion Dollar Market opportunities,” Project 10X,
Executive Summary, February 2008, p. 10.
168. Ibid., p. 8.
169. Ibid., p. 20.
170. Ibid., p. 4. This paragraph is developed from this report.
171. Ibid., p. 3.
172. http://www.freebase.com/
91

94. DIGTAL DISRUPTIoNS LEA DI NG EDGE FoRU M
notes
173. “Case Study: PoPS — NASA’s Expertise Location Service Powered by Semantic Web Technologies,” W3C Case Study,
February 2008. http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/sweo/public/UseCases/Nasa/
174. Aaron Mannes and Jennifer Golbeck, “Building a Terrorism ontology,”
http://www.mindswap.org/papers/Terrorontologyfinal.pdf
175. See Metatomix “Boiler Room” video at http://www.metatomix.com/knowledgecenter/boilerRoom.php
176. The Delaycast Engine, http://www.delaycast.com/about.html
177. “ValueClick To Launch Predictive Behavioral Targeting,” MediaPost Publications, 21 July 2008.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.san&s=86905&Nid=45235&p=913539
178. “Moving Mountains With the Brain, Not a Joystick,” The New York Times, 8 June 2008,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/technology/08novel.html. See Emotiv Systems at http://emotiv.com
179. William E. Halal, “A First for Thought Power,” TechCast, 3 February 2008.
http://www.techcast.org/Commentary.aspx?ID=139
180. “Brain Scanner Can Tell What you’re Looking At,” Wired, 5 March 2008.
http://www.wired.com/print/science/discoveries/news/2008/03/mri_vision
181. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_fingerprinting
182. “The Protein Folding Problem,” http://www.ram.org/research/pfp.html
183. yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks (New Haven and London: yale University Press, 2006), p. 1.
184. Ibid., p. 2.
185. W. Brian Arthur, “Why Tech Is Still The Future,” Fortune, 24 November 2003.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2003/11/24/353778/index.htm
186. W. Brian Arthur, “Is the Information Revolution Dead?,” March 2002, pp. 5 and 6.
http://www.ebusinessforum.gr/old/content/downloads/IstheInformationRevolutionDead.pdf
187. Ibid., p. 5.
92

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L E A D IN DISRUPTIoNS LEA DI NG EDGE FoRU M
DIGTAL DISRUPTIoNS
aCknoWleDgMents
Alex Fuss conducted the research for this LEF report as the 2008 LEF Associate. A seasoned technologist
with over 25 years of domestic and international experience, Alex specializes in researching and leveraging
leading edge technologies to build enterprise architectures for innovative products and services, primarily
in the financial services industry. As a director of technology he has led many technology and technology
governance client engagements. He presents frequently at conferences and is currently co-authoring a book,
Real-World SOA, to be published by Sys-Con Media.
Working on Digital Disruptions has deepened Alex’s appreciation for the accelerated speed of innovation and
the unprecedented impact it promises to have on all aspects of our lives. The fantastic technology advances
in computing platforms and wireless communication are laying the groundwork for new media, virtual worlds,
social networks and better information transparency, all of which will change how we do business. The end
result is a smarter world, with machines aiding humans like never before. Alex feels smarter already, having
worked on Digital Disruptions with countless experts and luminaries forging our digital world.
With his LEF assignment complete, Alex has returned to CSC’s Financial Services Sector (FSS) office of the
CTo, where he is helping shape FSS’s open source software strategy. Alex received a B.A. in computer science
and philosophy from Columbia University and is a PMI-certified project manager. He resides in New york City.
afuss@csc.com
The LEF thanks the many others who contributed to the Digital Disruptions report.
Special thanks to Lisa Braun, senior writer, for bringing the ideas together.
Anisha Ahluwalia, Denuo Group Josh Hawkins, Brightcove Michael osias, IBM
Brian Arthur, Santa Fe Institute Gregory Hilton, ICE Innovative Technologies Maniam Palanivelu, Nortel
Jeff Barr, Amazon.com Jeanne Holm, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Jon Pilkington, Metatomix
Michael Berman, Art Center College of Design Jeff Holmes, CSC Brian Ralphs, BP
Adam Berrey, Brightcove J.B. Holston, NewsGator Technologies David P. Reed, MIT Media Lab
Jay Bolter, Georgia Institute of Technology Holly Huntley, CSC Ashley Roach, NewsGator Technologies
Daniel Bongers, CRCMining Australia Jan C.J. Jones, Forest Rose Productions Patrick Sautin, CSC
Liesl Capper, MyCyberTwin Peter Knights, University of Queensland Harriet Schabes, Ishto
Ed Criscuolo, CSC Bill Koff, CSC Paul Schuepp, Animetrics
Rob Cross, University of Virginia Paul Lever, University of Queensland Kenneth Senne, MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Corre Curtice, CSC Todd Lucas, CSC Nati Shalom, GigaSpaces
Steve D’Angelo, Spring Lake Technologies Ed Luczak, CSC Ehud Shapiro, Weizmann Institute of Science
Anil Dash, Six Apart Ben Machin, CSC Paul Shen, TVU networks
Mills Davis, Project10X Blair MacIntyre, Georgia Institute of Technology Jonathan Silverman, D-Wave Systems
Jean Delahousse, Mondeca Dan Malks, JackBe Tomas Soderstrom,
Kobus Du Plessis, CSC Richard Mandelbaum, Xynetics Group NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Rajiv Dulepet, WiseWindow Steve Mann, University of Toronto Gary Spangler, DuPont
Travis Durick, PePWave Neil Martin, formerly D-Wave Systems, Peter Steinlauf, Edmunds
Phil Edholm, Nortel now MetaRAM Walter Steinlin, Swisscom
Dan Foltz, CSC Eric Miller, Zepheira Simon Stokes, CSC
Dennis Franklin, CSC Michael I. Miller, Animetrics Marcin Strzalkowski, InteliWISE
Scott Fraser, Regina Moldovan, Nortel John Taylor, Educational Testing Service
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency David Moschella, CSC Robert Wah, CSC
David Gilmour, Tacit Software Dan Munyan, CSC Chris Warner, JackBe
Michael Greene, CSCS Douglas Neal, CSC Helen Payne Watt, Virgin Money
Paul Gustafson, CSC Debra o’Grady, CSC Carl Wu, CSC
NIls Magnus Haldorsen, CSC Uche ogbuji, Zepheira John Zakos, MyCyberTwin
93

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