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| Big Four Mobile Makers Form
Security Pact
STOCKHOLM -- German
electronics giant Siemens AG has joined an alliance of the world's three biggest
mobile-phone makers to develop secure mobile electronic transactions, the
parties said on Wednesday.
The three leading cell-phone groups are Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson.
The groups said in a joint statement that the alliance, called Mobile
E-Business Technologies (MeT), will offer consumers a safe and easy way to make
e-commerce transactions using their mobile phones.
Source: TechWeb
Cybersister's
Comment
The mobile phone
companies are moving into the Internet big time. According to IDC research
group, commerce done over mobile phones will reach a volume of $37.7 billion by
2004 from $51.2 million this year. Yes, we are moving into the
billions of dollars in e-commerce over your cell phone. This is
shaking up the industry, as e-commerce/software, technology players
(Microsoft, IBM, Sun) are now having to deal with whole new powerful competitors
from the telcommunications industry. Just like the battle for the Internet
browsers and the search engine/portal wars, we
are gearing up for a huge competitive shakeup in the race
for mobile commerce (m-commerce) supremacy. |
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3G
When you read or
hear the term "3G" it is a short way of saying "third generation". It has been
applied to all sorts of technologies, however, the big thing right now is "3G
wireless", which is the next generation of fast wireless networks. Mobile
networks were not originally intended for data, so right now in North America,
most mobile commerce is limited to relatively slow data speeds, (9.6-Kbps or
14.4-Kbps cellular rates). Carriers promoting 3G networks are talking about
115-Kbps to 2-Mbps transfer rates. No wonder people are excited and talking
about "Internet II" on the mobile networks. This is when you are going to be
able to transfer video clips, full colour catalogs, engineering drawings, etc..
over your cell and the corporate mobile ecommerce world takes off.
CyberSister's Comments
This is
definitely coming, but it'll happen over the next 3-5 years, which is relatively
slow in the Internet world. Why so slow when there is so much money at stake?
Well, it's a combination of politics, business and technology. For example, the
US is currently fighting with Europe over 3G networking regulation issues and
companies are bidding on rights to the bandwidth. Because of the way the current
networks are set up, the US is a few years behind Asia and Western Europe in the
deployment of broader-band third-generation (3G) wireless capabilities.
Convergence & Free Long Distance
We've talked about technological convergence
before. It's the convergence of telephones, PC's, cell phones, digital
assistants, television, radio, etc.. all into a global digital network. Here's
another example: Yahoo
(YHOO)
introduced a suite of free telephone services Tuesday in what is the latest step
toward merging the Internet and telephony. Yahoo's new services allow users to
make free long-distance calls in the U.S. via the Internet and to check e-mail,
stock quotes, news and sports scores by telephone.
CyberSister's
Comment
Traditional
telco's are now going to have to compete with content/software type companies
such as Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL. Hmmm.. when is this going to end? If you are
tired of those evening telemarketing calls trying to get you to switch long
distance carriers (say from Telus to Sprint etc.. ) wait till all the smaller
competing Internet telephone services such as dialpad.com and net2phone.com
start calling you up! Wow. |
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An interesting,
high tech enthusiast that I just met last week. Dr. Tomorrow, aka Frank Ogden is
a futurist who lives in a floating cyberden in Vancouver, B.C. If you are
interested in even more way out stuff than our "Ripple Rocks", then this is the
site to visit. |
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The
Standard
The Standard is an
intelligent, well written online magazine covering the Internet economy. It also
sells research and analyst reports covering new technologies and business issues
all relating to the Internet world. I like it because it covers a wide spectrum
of issues related to ecommerce and Internet, including political and cultural
commentary. |
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| What's a Ripple Effect Rock?
Well, think of a rock thrown in a lake, and how the water ripples outward. This
section of the newsletter covers developments and technologies that we think
might soon cause a "ripple effect" in business or society.
An Intelligent Internet, or... a "Global
Brain"
Francis Heylighen, an artificial intelligence researcher at the Free
University of Brussels, is talking about an intelligent Internet or a "global
brain" that will continually rebuild the links between its pages to adapt them
to users' needs.
Student's of Heylighen have built a Web server called the "Principia
Cybernetica Web" that rebuilds the links between its pages and can adapt them to
users' needs. In a regular Web site, the hyperlinks are fixed. However, this
"intelligent server" can add new hyperlinks whenever it thinks they'll open up a
path that will likely be used, and can close down old links that fall into
disuse. The result is a dynamic system of strengthening and weakening links
between different pages that bears a remarkable resemblance to connections that
grow and fade in a human brain.
And, according to researchers, there's no reason why that sort of artificial
intelligence couldn't be applied to the whole Internet and become the first
step on the road to the global brain. The transivity and continual re-organizing
of the Internet content could form a global brain intelligence from an
assembly of limited intelligences or software agents, each with their own
special area of expertise.
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/nsplus/insight/ai/globalbrain.html
Cybersister's Comment
If you're
interested in this, read the whole article linked above it's fascinating! Some
of the questions raised: do we want a global super-intelligence? Are we destined
to become Borg? (yes, I've managed to include another Star Trek reference in my
newsletter!) Or, should we look forward to the inevitable innovations and
discoveries that come from collaborative group thinking and working together?
Hmm.. there's a few compelling thoughts for you to mull over.
That's it
for now! Have a great week!
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