Archive for the ‘information technology’ Category

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WebCams: From a near-Billion Dollar industry to a multi-Billion Dollar one? Sunday, December 26th, 2010

WebCams are devices that help Internet users to hold a video communication across the Web. The quality of the communication tended to suffer from the low bandwidth typical until recently.

However, with the increasing availability and popularity of broadband, the situation is changing. And the availability of free video communication applications provided by Google and Skype, the appeal of video communications is even more.

The WebCam industry is expected to grow fast in such a context. Logitech is the major player in the market now while others include Creative Technologies, Microsoft, Philips, Cisco and D-Link. Then there are a large number of Chinese manufacturers of OEM equipment included with notebook computers.

WebCams are also important in security applications as they provide the ability to monitor establishments remotely. You can, for example, monitor unauthorized intruders into your establishment while sitting across the globe, for example.

With the increasing importance of security everywhere, from homes to scientific establishments, the potential market for the WebCam industry is great.

The report titles Worldwide WebCam Market Shares Strategies, and Forecasts, 2009-2015 looks at the markets, forecasts and strategies for the WebCam industry that is estimated to amount to $3.2 billion by 2015.

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Posted in broadband network, business, communications, emerging markets, information technology, trends | No Comments »

Competing in Telecommunications Market with Network Quality Sunday, December 19th, 2010

Few things have caught the fancy of the general public as cell phones have. The ability to communicate on the go, and be available for communication wherever you are, has indeed affected a lot of things. It has improved the ability to earn income and people’s lifestyles.

The popularity has naturally attracted sellers of everything connected with cell phones, including technology developers. As competition increases, sellers try to differentiate themselves through improved quality of their networks. Advancing technology raises user’s expectations and these expectations are often not met.

Terms like 2G and 3G can be seen as referring to network technologies that attempt to meet user expectations increasingly better. GSM is considered a 2G technology, GPRS a 2.5G one, and 3G uses Broadband Wireless network technologies. Each technology improved the speed of data download, i.e. you could get more things to your mobile device within acceptable times.

Phones were devices that enabled you to talk with someone who is beyond a few minutes of walking distance. Now they are devices that enable you to browse the Internet and download music files without having to wait for ever.

Advancing technologies also improved the range of communications. Telephones can now reach even the remotest corners at acceptable costs.

We are presently in the 3G era which has speeds of up to 2 megabytes per second (2Mbps). 4G is visualized as technologies that can reach 100 Mbps.

And 5G is expected to lead to a truly wireless world, connecting the whole world into a borderless community. Using the potentials of nanotechnolgy, cloud computing and network protocols, a new Next Generation Network promises great things.

The 5G NanoCore is a technology and market report that delves into 5G technology of telecommunications.

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Posted in broadband network, cloud computing, information technology, mobile web, smartphone applications, wireless communication | No Comments »

Connected World: A Cisco Study Friday, December 10th, 2010

In today’s business, workers are more mobile and distributed than ever. This mobility and geographical distribution of workforce presents new challenges, particularly in the areas of data management and security. A Cisco study examines how IT professionals are managing this challenge.

Some major findings of the study include:

* Workers are finding that they need not be in an office to be productive. Workers also prefer the mobility and flexibility of working out of the office to an extent that they are willing to accept such a job even if it pays a little less compared to a job that does not offer such flexibility.
* IT policies have, however, not kept pace with the worker preferences as above, and also with new devices, social media and video and other new modes of communication.
* Better collaboration among teams in the data center, virtualization and cloud computing technologies have an important role to play in the emerging environment.

These trends also creates new problems for security and data governance because employees want to access and work with data from anywhere with different devices.

See the news report on Marketwire for details of the trends.

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Posted in IT security, cloud computing, communications, information technology, mobile web | No Comments »

A Model for Future Retail? Sunday, December 5th, 2010

While an increasing number of people go online for shopping we still go to brick-and-mortar stores to buy most of our requirements. A recent news item about an Amazon fulfillment center made this writer wonder about the possibilities. Can online stores like Amazon that focuses on selling and fulfillment centers widely distributed near production centers be the future of retail?

Of course that kind of arrangement will not allow shoppers to see, touch and feel actual physical merchandise. With advancing technology, however, the fulfillment centers should be able to provide the next best option, video viewing of the merchandise with the prospective customer being able to view it in as full detail as possible. And the customer can do it anonymously, 24/7, and examine merchandise stocked at different fulfillment centers before selecting one.

Such an arrangement can push sourcing to near production centers, create jobs for “lifting, sorting and packing”, and shipping merchandise at the fulfillment centers, and provide the convenience of shopping from home to shoppers. So long as there are effective arrangements for quality assurance of the products involved it should be possible to cover practically every kind of merchandise by such an arrangement.

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Posted in business, information technology, innovation, online retail | No Comments »

Information Technology at Local Government Level Monday, November 29th, 2010

Local government is the closest government to people everywhere. And local governance can affect the quality of their lives most closely. Citizens will naturally be interested to know what is going on at their local council.

With modern information technology, it is comparatively easy to communicate all kinds of information to the public. Local councils can create a database of projects being handled by them, make it searchable in different ways and open the searchable database to the public. This is what St. Lucie city council is doing now as reported at St. Lucie County developments.

The online documents include maps, approvals, applications, amendments, reviews, conditions and reports. It involves entering thousands of documents going back to the early 1970s into a searchable database, and is expected to be completed by January 2011. The database is open to the public and is searchable by projects – all, approved or archived.

Councils typically receive inquiries about projects from local citizens. Such inquiries take up the time of not only the person who makes the inquiry but also the council staff who has to look up the information and respond to it. A searchable database as the one above can save time at both the ends.

The value of such projects can be enhanced by allowing local citizens to register with the website and keep a line of communication open.

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Posted in e-governance, information technology | No Comments »

Environmental and Societal Roles of Information Technology Friday, November 26th, 2010

Information and Communication Technology has a much greater significance than simply as a productivity enhancing tool for business and industry.

Energy consumption has a major impact on our environment as energy generation using conventional methods adds to the carbon footprint. ICT has for example been used to make power grids smarter and minimize energy losses during transmission and end user points. Minimizing losses means that less energy needs to be generated to meet the same demand, thus reducing the environmental impact.

The ICT industry itself is becoming more energy efficient through campaigns such as the green computing initiative, in addition to helping other industries enhance their energy efficiency.

On the social front, ICT can enhance the effectiveness of social services delivery. For example, it can enable remote delivery of education and healthcare to rural and other areas that has not yet had benefited from economic development. It has already enhanced connectivity among people through social networking and by making mobile telephony available in areas where conventional telephony has not reached.

E-governance initiatives can also make it possible to deliver government services much more widely and even effectively.

Information and Communication Technology can thus benefit businesses, government and the civil society. It is in this context that the Global Information Technology Report (GITR) published by the World Economic Forum assumes significance. The report rates the countries of the world on how they have leveraged the potential of ICT for all round improvement.

The latest GITR should be available at GITR page of NetworkedReadiness website.

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Posted in business transformation, e-governance, information technology, trends | No Comments »

What can Information Technology do for Development? Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

Information technology has the unique characteristic of being able to reach remote corners where other technology might not have reached. Many of these remote places, such as villages in developing countries of Africa might be quite undeveloped. Even such places can have the convenience of mobile telephony by setting up a few towers for wireless communication.

And countries like India have succeeded in bringing down the costs of cell phones and call charges to an extent that most people even in villages can afford it.

The issue is how to tap this phenomenon to bring development to the undeveloped areas. It should theoretically be possible to deliver education, healthcare, information and government services to every remote corner through wireless communications, supplemented with a minimum of local infrastructure.

For example, a recent news report from Bangladesh speaks of connecting all the 4501 unions – the lowest tier of local government – are now linked to the internet. The Union Information Centres will provide all government forms, public notifications and gazettes, birth and death registration information, passport and visa support, information on public examinations, new jobs, laws, health and agricultural, and disaster management among others.

Read the Coimbra Soft blog on using infotech for development in Africa.

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Posted in e-governance, education delivery, healthcare, information delivery, information technology | No Comments »

Google Capitalism Emerging Sunday, November 21st, 2010

Google is the top player in an industry that did not exist in the pre-Internet era. Starting out as a search engine, it has come to dominate the online advertising market. In the process it has created several innovations including AdSense that multiplied the ads exposure. Acquisition of Doubleclick enhanced its advertising offers.

Google has been able to mold the consumer mindset in new ways. With acquisitions like YouTube and other companies, it has been able to offer a complete package that includes news, entertainment and search results in the user’s Web browser. The user can enjoy music and movies, read the latest news and gossip, play games and search for information or products without leaving the computer workstation.

Google TV, with a TV and set-top box is another consumer friendly offer from Google.

Google has become much more than a search and online advertising company now with several new products, such as Google Earth, Cloud computing services offered through Google Docs and other channels, News feeds and Social networking. Software as a Service (SaaS) acquired a new meaning in Google’s hands.

SaaS was a natural next step for Google after it managed to attract a large number of business users through Google Mail. Google Docs has become an alternative to Microsoft Office.

Read about a report on the Google phenomenon and its impact on capitalism at Market Publishers..

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Posted in business, business transformation, cloud computing, information technology, innovation | No Comments »

Remote Learning and Broadband Connectivity Friday, November 19th, 2010

WiZiQ is a Web based platform for learning and teaching online, any subject. Virtual classrooms that use images, PowerPoint presentations and documents, full way audio and video sharing and live chat can make education delivery highly effective and also enhances the interaction amongst the participants. What is more, WiZiQ is free to join.

A blogger who used the technology to tutor students remotely reports that both he and his students were thrilled with the experience, and that the students learnt what they were taught. However, there were some audio/video issues that marred the sessions. The audio and video broadcasts were out of sync and the sessions ended up with the teacher using IM and whiteboard.

WiZiQ provided surprisingly prompt support to the feedback about this experience (they could do it because the India-based company has easy access to relatively inexpensive tech support and can provide feedback quickly to its customers.

The support email diagnosed the problem as low bandwidth at the students’ end, and also contained tips on how diagnose it in future sessions. Presenters can access the students’ bandwidth information and tailored the broadcast accordingly.

What this experience highlights is the need for universally available good bandwidth to benefit from the latest online education delivery technologies. These modern technologies can enable anyone anywhere access quality education, provided bandwidth is available.

Read the blog post at ZDNet Education.

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Posted in education, education delivery, information technology | No Comments »

Geographic Information System (GIS) Day Thursday, November 18th, 2010

November 17, 2010 was the 12th GIS Day, which the city of Las Vegas celebrated with several events. The scheduled events included a visit to an eighth grade geography class where city staff explains the role GIS plays in the city’s efforts with fire response, neighborhood health indicators, park inventory and pavement management. Another is a visit the Desert Pines High School Academy of Information Technology on Wednesday to discuss how datasets can be used to generate helpful 3-D building models.

What is GIS?

According to GIS.com, “geographic information system (GIS) integrates hardware, software, and data for capturing, managing, analyzing, and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information.” For example, cities can use GIS technology to provide accurate information about buildings, rivers and roads, in 2D or 3D or other models. People can see WHERE a feature is present, and WHAT it is, and the distribution of features can also reveal a PATTERN.

Mapping need not be of physical features alone. For example, you can convert data about healthcare facilities available in different areas into a geographical map for easy comprehension and suitable action. By using color coding, the comprehensibility of the map can be enhanced further.

Governments, businesses and individuals find innumerable uses for GIS information as outlined at this What can you do with GIS page.

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Posted in GIS, information technology, reference material | No Comments »

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