This document contains multiple news articles on various topics: 1) Disease management in India is discussed as a way to more cost-effectively manage chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension. Reforms are needed to establish standards and ensure solutions work in rural India. 2) Phoenix Technologies plans to invest $15 million over 3-5 years to expand its India operations, aiming to develop next-generation PCs that boot quickly, stay connected, have long battery life, and enhance security. 3) Open-source software like Drupal is gaining popularity, including being adopted for the new White House website. Drupal has over 500,000 sites and its commercial backer Acquia aims to make the platform easier

1. c m y k c m y k
15Bengaluru ●● Monday ●● 2 November 2009
SCARY PLAY: Horror videogames are
having a record year as zombies,
monsters, demons, and chain-saw wielding
psychos fight against the consoles, making
videogames the new home of horror for
some.
DC
GAME OUT: Nokia will close
its gaming service N-Gage next
year, acknowledging failure in its
first major services offering.
Nokia is looking for revenue
from online services, with games
and music being the focus areas.
business
TECHNOMICS
CLOUD UP: Cisco and EMC
are teaming up to sell a new
line of networking gear, PCs
and storage equipment
designed for use with cloud
computing, according to sources
familiar with their plans.
Reform to
manage disease
Kapil Khandelwal
D
isease management,
a system of co-ordi-
nated healthcare
interventions and commu-
nications for chronic dis-
eases such as diabetics,
hypertension, etc. in which
the consumers’ self-care
efforts are significant, as
well as a very broad and
sometimes misunderstood
concept as it is a multi-com-
ponent to the health
improvement strategy for
India. Given the potential
chronic disease risks that
may inflict over 45 million
households and the short-
age in supply of doctors and
nurses in the future for
healthcare policy-makers,
including our PMO, Health
Ministry, the healthcare
delivery, pharmaceuticals
and insurance industry, dis-
cussions are gaining ground
for system reform since it
makes the dual claim that
healthcare resources can be
used more cost-effectively
whilst simultaneously
improving and maintaining
good health for the people
whether insured or not.
While there have been suc-
cess and failures in different
disease management mod-
els in the West, it is time we
reassess and set out norms
and standards of what we as
a nation need from this con-
cept.
As communication is a
critical component in any
disease management deliv-
ery system, the ICT plays a
key role in delivering the
personalised communica-
tion between the consumer
and the care givers. The
benefits of any such ICT-
enabled solution, results in
overall reduction of health-
care delivery costs,
improved healthcare out-
comes and higher produc-
tivity for doctors and nurs-
es.
There are around 25 odd
different solution providers
in India that seem to be
operating some sort of dis-
ease management services
on their platforms.
Moreover, some large
MNC’s have also shown
interest to be a part of the
disease management solu-
tions space.
While this is definitely a
good sign, it is also a cause
of concern on account of
four reasons.
Firstly, in India, pay-
ments for such services are
expected to be predomi-
nantly an out of pocket
expense from the con-
sumer’s wallet who would-
n’t have any motivation to
spend, unless the govern-
ment offers a tax rebate for
such services. These con-
sumers would tend to be
less sticky as the experience
from some countries in
Europe demonstrates. Any
exit by any of the dominant
players from this space due
to the consumer stickiness,
revenue and growth sustain-
ability would mean the end
of this concept in India,
even before it conceptualis-
es.
Secondly, there are no
pre-defined standards and
outcomes for clinical effec-
tiveness, utilisation, finan-
cial, indirect and intangible
metrics that any solution
would need to deliver, for it
to be ready for consumer
use. This would mitigate the
issues of trial and error and
establish the efficiency of
such solutions during the
test phase.
Thirdly, adequate
investments and collabora-
tions have not been made in
this space for research and
development and for
regional adaptability by the
mass market.Around 45 per
cent of the market for such
solutions would come from
rural areas in the next 5
years and would not have
English as a language of
communication.
Lastly, innovation in
business models, is essen-
tial for such a system to
take-off, like that of the
mobile boom in India.
It is time for the inclusive
promotion and success of
disease management solu-
tions. The government,
health, pharma and the
insurance industry should
align with the ICT and
health education and organ-
ised employment sectors.
As many agree that the eco-
nomics of this concept
could save the country
around 1 per cent of GDP,
which is similar to what
Government spends on
healthcare in India.
Kapil Khandelwal is a leading healthcare
and ICT expert.
A dose
of IT
A dose
of IT
Phoenix to
invest 100cr
in India
SANGEETHA CHENGAPPA
BENGALURU
Nov. 1: California based,
Phoenix Technologies,
which started India opera-
tions in 2005 has made a
strategic decision to invest
Rs 100 crore to ramp up its
India operations over the
next 3-5 years. The firm
has recently doubled its
office space and headcount
and will continue to hire
well into 2010, said
Kirthiga Reddy, VP and
GM India, Phoenix
Technologies.
The 30-year old company
which is in the core system
software space helped
launch the PC industry
with its original BIOS
(basic in-out system) prod-
uct and even today a
majority of the company’s
revenue comes from
designing, developing and
supporting core system
software such as,
SecureCore, SecureCore
Tiano and Embedded
BIOS.
Phoenix products are
incorporated into over 125
million computing devices
every year and the compa-
ny now has a vision for the
next generation of PCs and
laptops — PC 3.0. “We
think PCs and laptops
should be fast, reliable,
secure and green, just like
mobiles. And our PC 3.0
vision rests on four key
pillars — instant on,
always connected, all day
computing and secure”
said Kirthiga.
“Tomorrow if you are in
an airport you would want
to reach out to your laptop
instead of your
BlackBerry, because you
will be able to boot your
laptop in 2 seconds, you
would always be connect-
ed to your network, access
relevant stuff in a con-
trolled environment, work
all day with extended bat-
tery optimisation, and keep
your laptop secure, which
our products will ensure”
she explained. Phoenix
licenses its products pri-
marily to PC OEMs and
ODMs (original design
manufacturers) to make
their products attractive to
demanding customers in
businesses, governments,
service providers and con-
sumers.
“We would like to drive a
major share of work
toward our PC 3.0 vision
to happen out of India;
with complete business
ownership of projects that
would include building
end-to-end products, prod-
uct management, develop-
ment and marketing.” said
Kirthiga.
In an era of green, tech
IP is common property
Open source gets a filip, from the White House
ASHLEE VANCE
NEW YORK
Nov. 1: The White House
Web site has caught a case
of Drupal.
In the Internet world,
Drupal is not as bad as it
sounds. The open-source
software package helps peo-
ple create and manage their
Web sites. And this week, a
new WhiteHouse.gov web-
site arrived that had been
built via the Drupal code.
To some, the White House
shift to Drupal from a pro-
prietary software package
represented a serious seal of
approval for open-source
software.
“While open source is
already widespread
throughout the government,
its adoption by the White
House will almost certainly
give permission for much
wider uptake,” wrote Tim
O’Reilly, who publishes
books and holds confer-
ences about open-source
software.
The American govern-
ment’s leanings toward open
source have become more
apparent under the Obama
administration. Aneesh
Chopra, the nation’s first
chief technology officer, has
been hanging out with
prominent open-source
types, and there seems to be
a notion that open-source
software matches up well
with President Obama's
espoused ideals on trans-
parency and community
involvement in projects.
Drupal, however, seems to
be doing just fine with or
without government sup-
port.
The underlying code for
Drupal was written in 2001
by Dries Buytaert, who has
since gone on to become
chief technology officer of
Acquia, a start-up looking to
commercialise the software.
Companies like Nike,
Warner Bros. and Yahoo use
Drupal for various parts of
their Web sites. All told,
close to 500,000 Drupal-
based sites are on the Web,
according to Thomas
Erickson, the chief execu-
tive of Acquia.
Erickson argues that
Drupal has better tools for
making quick changes to
Web sites and making use of
things like podcasts, Twitter
feeds and blogs. In short, he
sees it as the right software
platform for the right time,
helping companies quickly
change their Web sites to
match consumer interests.
“There is no longer a uni-
directional flow of informa-
tion when it comes to man-
aging your brand,” Erickson
said. “Today, it’s a very
interactive process and
requires very fast reaction
times.”
Erickson contends that
people can create Web sites
faster with Drupal than with
competing software from
Microsoft, like Sharepoint.
And he says Drupal has a
more active developer base
then rival open-source proj-
ects. Drupal is downloaded
250,000 times a month,
according to Erickson.
Drupal has long been
billed as a tool for the
Everyman to create a Web
site, but the software has
struggled to live up to this
billing. I’m fairly proficient
with technology and played
with the software a couple
of years back. While I could
set up a basic Web site easi-
ly enough, doing any kind of
real customisation work
proved a bit tricky.
Buytaert said Acquia has
been working to fix these
issues and make sure that
people who download a trial
of Drupal actually continue
using the software.
The company has started
testing something called
Drupal Gardens, which is a
cloud-computing-type serv-
ice for building new Web
sites.
In addition, Acquia is
working with Amazon to
take care of a lot of the
underlying infrastructure
work behind creating a Web
site.
All told, Acquia wants
people to concentrate on the
content of their sites rather
than worrying about the
underlying configuration
baggage.
Like many open-source
companies, Acquia sells
service and support to back
up the free Drupal. It claims
about 300 customers, and
“that number is doubling
every quarter,” Mr. Erickson
said. — NYT
MARY TRIPSAS
NEW YORK
Nov. 1: A popular children’s
song has a refrain — “the
more we get together the
happier we’ll be” — that
may sound like a simplistic
formula for solving the com-
plex challenges of climate
change and sustainability.
But if any area is ripe for
sharing and collaboration
among organisations, it’s
green innovation.
“We all want to save the
planet, and the problems are
bigger than any one firm,
sector or country,” says Dr.
Sarah Slaughter, coordinator
of the MIT Sloan
Sustainability Initiative. In
that spirit, several major cor-
porations have taken inspira-
tion from the open-source
software movement and are
experimenting with forums
for sharing environmentally
friendly innovations and
building communities
around them. The first such
effort, the Eco-Patent
Commons, was started in
January 2008 by IBM,
Nokia, Pitney Bowes and
Sony in collaboration with
the World Business Council
for Sustainable
Development.
The concept is straightfor-
ward: Firms pledge environ-
mental patents to the com-
mons, and anyone can use
them — free. Many patented
environmental technologies
are not strategic, so sharing
maximises the social benefit
without sacrificing competi-
tive advantage, says Wayne
Balta, VP of corporate envi-
ronmental affairs and prod-
uct safety at IBM. For
instance, IBM contributed a
recyclable cardboard pack-
aging insert that requires
less fossil fuel to create and
transport than the foam
inserts that are now com-
monly used.
Other examples include a
DuPont method for better
detecting pollution in soil,
air or water by using a
micro-organism that pro-
duces light when exposed to
a pollutant. There are also
methods from Xerox for
removing toxic waste from
contaminated groundwater,
as well as a cleaning tech-
nique for semiconductor
wafers from IBM that uses
ozone gas and eliminates
chemical contaminants that
result from other processes.
By assembling these
patents in one easily accessi-
ble location — anyone can
search through them on the
council’s site — the hope is
to encourage their wide-
spread adoption, particularly
in the developing world.
Since its start, the commons
has grown to 100 patents
from 31, with 11 companies
are now participating.
Although there are no for-
mal mechanisms for track-
ing who has used the com-
mons, participating compa-
nies are sometimes contact-
ed by users. For instance,
Mr. Balta said that Yale had
put into effect an IBM
method for decreasing the
use of hazardous solvents in
its quantum computing
device research. The
Creative Commons, a non-
profit organisation that pre-
viously developed licensing
programmes to help in shar-
ing creative and scientific
content, is also planning to
branch out into the environ-
mental arena.
In collaboration with Nike
and Best Buy, it plans to
start a sharing initiative, the
Green Xchange, in early
2010. The programme will
include both patented tech-
nologies and forums for con-
tinuing exchange of innova-
tions such as Best Buy’s sys-
tem for rating the sustain-
ability of a supply chain.
Firms that contribute patents
to the Green Xchange will
have the option of charging
users a fixed annual licens-
ing fee and can also restrict
any licensing by rivals or for
competitive use. In addition,
even if no annual fee is
charged, patent users must
register so there is a record
of who is using what tech-
nology. Though more com-
plex than that of Eco-Patent
Commons, the structure of
Green Xchange will yield
greater numbers of high-
quality inventions, says John
Wilbanks, GreenXchange
coordinator and VP for sci-
ence at Creative Commons.
“We don’t depend on altru-
ism,” Wilbanks says. “This
system helps the environ-
ment while enabling a firm
to make money from patents
in applications outside its
core business.” For instance,
Nike’s air-bag patent for
cushioning shoes is crucial
to its core shoe business, but
may have environmental
benefits in other industries
— perhaps in prolonging the
useful life of tires.
Green Xchange could
enable Nike to license the
air-bag technology selective-
ly to noncompeting compa-
nies.
According to Kelly
Lauber, a global director in
Nike’s Sustainable Business
and Innovation Lab, sharing
technology can have tremen-
dous environmental impact.
By sharing its water-based
adhesive technology and
working with footwear mak-
ers, Lauber estimates that
average levels of environ-
mentally harmful solvents
used by Nike’s suppliers
have decreased to less than
15 grams per pair of shoes
from 350 in 1997. Perhaps
the biggest upside of Green
Xchange may come from
the development of commu-
nities that collaborate in
innovation and the exchange
of ideas.
To encourage that kind of
interaction, Salesforce.com
will provide a search engine,
making it easy to find
patents. And collaboration
platforms from firms like
2degrees and nGenera
should make it easy to iden-
tify firms with common
interests.
Despite the obvious advan-
tages, sharing patents isn’t
as easy as it might sound.
“Numerous features of the
intellectual property system,
particularly the ability of
companies to claim large
swaths of technology
through patents, play havoc
with collaborative efforts,”
says Josh Lerner, a professor
at Harvard Business School.
Henry Chesbrough, the
executive director of the
Center for Open Innovation
at the University of
California, says it is surpris-
ingly hard to give away tech-
nologies. “If it is not done
carefully,” he said, “the com-
panies that use a donated
technology might find them-
selves liable for infringement
of another firm’s patent.”
Both the Eco-Patent
Commons and the Green
Xchange pose organisational
challenges for participating
firms.
“Deciding which patents to
pledge to a commons,” says
Andrew King, a professor at
the Tuck School of Business,
“requires that the legal coun-
sel, R&D staff, business unit
and corporate sustainability
groups all work together, and
most organisations just aren’t
set up for that.”
Weaving corporate togeth-
erness, it seems, isn't so easy
— though green innovations
offer many more reasons to
try. – NYT
Firms are sharing environmentally friendly innovations. They include an IBM
method to clean semiconductor wafers,(top) and a DuPont process (right)
that uses microorganisms to identify pollutants. Others are water-based
shoe adhesives from Nike and a packing insert from IBM.