Monday, March 29, 2004

Vivato Unwires Port of Seattle. One hundred and ninety acres without a wire in sight: Vivato scores a major port: The Port of Seattle is a sprawling, busy industrial center with containers moving in and out at an alarming rate. Coordinating data across this multi-hundred acre space is obviously a nightmare. Stretching wire is expensive, even when possible. Many solutions involve proprietary equipment and licensed spectrum. The port's information technology subcontractor, Tideworks Technology, said today that they installed four Vivato 802.11b switches to cover 190 acres of the outdoor containerized terminal, which they estimate can serve 100 simultaneous users. Tideworks worked with Psion Teklogix, which deploys wireless technology at seaports. Vivato's switch uses a phased-array antenna technology which can intelligently scan for and pinpoint users, which allows a greater effective range with fewer devices than even extended-range access points. Vivato has had few big sales--even this one is only six individual pieces of gear--and has suffered criticism over performance of its first-generation 802.11b equipment. However, the company expects its 802.11g re-engineered device to ship later this year. The cost of the deployment wasn't released, but a Vivato spokesperson and the press release both reiterate that the proprietary bids for data service would have runs in the many millions. Vivato's switch was originally retailing for about $15,000 in its base outdoor configuration. They're using two of Vivato's bridge/routers. There's practically no wire in this entire configuration according to the release. Some of the uses of this 190-acre network include allowing remote, instant reporting of container levels, as well as coordinating movement of equipment and personnel who move the containers.... [Wi-Fi Networking News]
4:10:22 PM    comment   

Singapore Offers Interesting 3G vs. Wi-Fi Scenario. Tiny Singapore or other similar countries offer really the only type of location where the 3G vs. Wi-Fi debate is legitimate: Singapore has 600 hotspots, which works out to one hotspot per square kilometer. While that's hardly seamless coverage, it means you never have far to go to find a hotspot. This story considers the reaction from the market when operators there start introducing 3G, which may not have complete coverage at the beginning. The price for the access to the 3G networks will have to be just right or customers may decide it's not worth using. If customers want to use the 3G network for Internet access on their laptops, Wi-Fi may offer a better deal. But if the operators can deliver interesting applications that use the 3G network via smartphones, then they can differentiate the service and attract users.... [Wi-Fi Networking News]
3:47:35 PM    comment   

The Future of Work.

Congrats to Tom Malone for the launch of The Future of Work, a terriffic look at how decentralization is affecting the nature of the organization, the structure of business and our work lives.

When we first launched Lotus Notes in the early 90's, it was an era of Reengineering The Corporation, in which companies were reducing the cost of coordination internally through business process reengineering.  Companies embraced Lotus Notes, an advanced communications technology for the time, reflecting the changing nature of the organization from centralized hierarchical structures toward more decentralized work flows.

When I left Iris/Lotus/IBM in 1997, I did so primarily because in '95-'96 I saw, in our customers, the beginnings of something quite significant: they were extending their core business processes and practices outward to partners, suppliers, and in some cases even customers.  When we launched Groove's V1 product in 2001 and began selling it to enterprises, our primary focus was on how it was an advance in decentralized communications that would reduce the cost of coordination externally in a manner not possible with technologies primarily designed for enterprise use.  The fact that enterprises and government have embraced Groove truly reflects the changing nature of business from centralized structures toward networked, decentralized organizational relationships.

Over the past 12-18 months, we've seen some other very significant technology-catalyzed changes occurring in business, in society, and in our everyday lives.  Last year was most certainly the "year of the laptop".  Broadband is now ever-more pervasive, and 2003 was also undeniably the "year of WiFi".  Our PC usage patterns have been transformed: we carry them to meetings, use them at hotels and on client sites and at home.  Whereas most of us used to do most of our work in our "office" or "cube", our most important work is now done in our "virtual office" - the one that is implemented in software on PC's and a variety of devices tucked away in our backpack, briefcase, purse and pocket.

This isn't a small trend: its impact on business, society and our lives is huge.  I would strongly recommend that you spend some quality time with this presentation based on a landmark study done in 2003 on the pervasiveness of off-site work.

I sit here writing this as we're about about to lift the veil from what I believe you'll find truly represents the next generation of communications software, Groove v3.0.  Our primary design goal for this product, based very specifically on how it has been being used by our customers over the past three years, was to implement, for its users, the essence of their "virtual office".  Where we do our work together, and where we want to do our work together because of how it feels and just works.  We now live in an era of extreme mobility, where the attributes of secure communications, coordination, and synchronization are core to most everything we do in terms of information work.  An era where our tools and mobile devices must be specifically designed with advanced, elegant awareness & notification to help us to efficiently swarm around our joint activities, and to aggregate and prioritize notifications in ways that help us to conserve our attention and cope with information overload.

Think of how you yourself work, on a day-to-day basis.  This era is one of virtual work performed by a highly decentralized workforce.  Technology's role in this era is to bring us effective horizontal fusion - reducing the cost of coordination between us in a manner not possible with centralized technologies.  It should reflect the changing nature of work, from the physical workplace, toward the decentralized workspace.  And it most certainly will. [Ray Ozzie's Weblog]
3:44:44 PM    comment   


Wal-Mart Hits Snags in Push to Use Radio Tags to Track Goods. Wal-Mart has been forced to revise its timetable for requiring suppliers to put radio frequency tags on their shipments. By Barnaby J. Feder. [New York Times: Business]
3:43:11 PM    comment   

Virgin Mobile 'preps £1.3bn float'. Fallback option [The Register]
3:41:21 PM    comment   

Thin Touch Screen Mobile Concept. JOEL JOHNSON -- Although it looks a little thicker than the claimed 2mm width, this concept mobile by Moscow-based design bureau Proekt has all the features you would expect from an imaginary phone. What makes it stand out more than its svelte profile is the single-piece touch screen and controls,... [Gizmodo]
2:53:42 PM    comment   

Indian PDA 'Simputer' Launches. JOEL JOHNSON -- The Simputer, the Indian PDA that aimed to provide low-cost computing to the masses, has hit the streets after a three-year delay. Although the Simputer originally had some innovate ideas, such as letting different users store their data on cheap, swappable memory cards and village-based software packages,... [Gizmodo]
2:53:05 PM    comment   

My Wireless Future presentation. The Powerpoint presentation for my keynote at the Wireless Future conference today is available here (1.6MB PPT).

Heath Row has a great transcript of the talk on the Fast Company site.
[Werblog]
2:52:25 PM    comment   

650 million cameraphones a year. Alan Reiter points to a research report suggesting that 150 million camera-enabled mobile phones will be sold this year, growing to 650 million by 2008.  At that point, there will be something like a billion people sending photos and video back and forth among mobile devices.  And people are wondering what all that Internet capacity will be used for?
[Werblog]
2:49:19 PM    comment   

Wireless Deals Focus on Tunes. Licensing agreements that will enable carriers to sell ring tunes to consumers or third-party distributors are evolving along with the expansion of the wireless music market. [Wired News]
2:37:24 PM    comment   

Adimos Debuts WVM. SUNNYVALE, Calif. and TOKYO-- Adimos, the leading provider of wireless multimedia connectivity solutions for consumer appliances, announced today the debut of its Wireless Video Module (WVM). This new semiconductor technology delivers the highest quality multimedia transmission over a wireless... [Wireless IQ - News Feeds]
2:31:27 PM    comment   

UTStarcom Nabs 86 Mil Contract. ALAMEDA, Calif.-- UTStarcom, Inc., a global leader in IP access networking and services, today announced that it has signed contracts valued at approximately 85.7 million with China Netcom Corporation (CNC) to expand and upgrade its IP-based PAS (Personal Access System) (iPAS) networks in Beijing... [Wireless IQ - News Feeds]
2:30:21 PM    comment   

Wal-Mart Hits Snags in Push to Use Radio Tags to Track Goods. Wal-Mart has been forced to revise its timetable for requiring suppliers to put radio frequency tags on their shipments. By Barnaby J. Feder. [New York Times: Technology]
2:28:55 PM    comment   

Wireless Carriers Get Religion for Business Applications. Partnerships with software developers pave the Way for services aimed at enterprise. [eWEEK Technology News]
2:27:55 PM    comment