Archive for the ‘communications’ Category

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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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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Can Information Technology Eliminate Cultural Barriers? Monday, November 15th, 2010

In eras past, if you wanted to read materials published in another language, you had to wait for someone who knew both that and your languages to do a translation. Even then, you might never become aware of the translated publication or get access to it. These days, Google will translate, say a German page into English, at the click of a button.

Language has been a major barrier between cultures. When you cannot understand what the speaker of another language is saying, you tend to lose interest in that person (and the person’s culture). On the other hand, if there was some device like Google’s German to English (and vice versa) translation that can tackle the comprehension problem, it is possible that greater understanding will develop among different cultures.

The context for the above thoughts was the launching of Indian Language Technology Proliferation and Deployment Center’ (ILTP-DC) in India recently. The center has stated objectives “to facilitate human-machine interaction without language barrier” and “creating and accessing multilingual knowledge resources” among others.

India has 18 “official” languages and a hundred and more “unofficial” ones. If the ILTP-DC can indeed make it possible to translate content in one of these languages to another with the ease of Google, probably the extent of divisiveness among its people could lessen.

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Mobile Phones and Poverty Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

In a village in Kerala, India, when mobile phones arrived on the scene, a few three-wheeler taxi drivers began to use it. And when the word spread among taxi users, they began to call the taxi drivers on the phone for trips. The result was that those drivers who had bought mobile phones saw a jump in their business.

Earlier, prospective customers had to go to taxi stands and hire any available taxi. Now, they could phone a particular taxi driver whenever they wanted to go on a trip. Result: the mobile phone owner got more business compared to the random hires at the taxi stand.

These days, almost all drivers have a mobile phone, and have specific customers who almost always call them.

Mobile phones benefit the poorer sections in other ways too. It enables farmers and others in remote areas to get connected with markets. It gives rise to new businesses, such as selling SIM cards on commission and servicing handsets. These businesses do not need big investments or a high level of skill.

However, such an impact can come about only if mobile phone use is widespread in rural as well as urban areas. And that means the handsets and usage costs are affordable to the people in the country. India has achieved this goal and mobile phone use is widespread even in rural areas.

Read the Information Economy Report 2010 on ICTs, Enterprises and Poverty Alleviation published by the UN agency UNCTAD.

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Does Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Developments Contribute to Economic Progress? Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

A World Bank report has sought to analyze the impact of high speed Internet access on economic development in developing countries. The study found that ICT allows economies “to acquire and share ideas, expertise, services and technologies locally, regionally, and across the world.” ICT also contributes to integrating global economy.

Broadband accelerates knowledge transfer and technological diffusion and enhances the competitive advantages of fast-learning economies. Mobile phones based on wireless technology connect remote rural areas with the rest of the country. Their low costs make them affordable even for poorer sections of the community.

The increased connectivity enables not only sharing of information but also leads to increased economic activity. If people could conclude economic transactions with a phone call, instead of traveling long distances, economic activity becomes much easier and more frequent. It also becomes possible to deliver healthcare, education and other facilities to remote areas.

Rural business also benefits from the increased connectivity. Trading platforms such as Tradenet in Ghana enable rural farmers to sign up for SMS alerts for offers to buy or sell, connecting remote buyers and sellers. Information about up-to-date prices can also be obtained across all the markets covered.

Read the numerous other examples of how increased connectivity has benefited developing economies in the Information and Communication for Development (ICAD) report for 2009. The full report is available for purchase at World Bank Publications website.

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Keeping Communication Channels Open in Disaster-affected and poor Infrastructure Areas Friday, April 23rd, 2010

Catapult Technology, Ltd., an Information Technology contractor based in Bethesda, MD, has won a $58.7 million task order with the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) within the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The order involves keeping communications channels open in disaster-affected areas around the world to enable OFDA to provide its disaster relief effectively.

As the Chairman of Catapult remarked, functioning communications services can mean the difference between life and death when unexpected disaster strikes. The Chairman added that the company is well-equipped to keep the communications channels open in such cases.

Under the contract, Catapult will:

  • Support the IT/Communications capacity for a number of Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DART).
  • Support OFDA’s IT and communications services for the delivery of humanitarian assistance in response to international disasters, potentially several sites concurrently and often in remote, developing areas with little or no infrastructure.
  • Provide support both at USAID Washington, DC headquarters, as well as in the field.

The work will involve program management; system operations and maintenance; systems development; communications and field operations support; IT equipment procurement, maintenance, storage and distribution; and providing network connectivity among several sites in the U.S., Latin America, and field locations.

Catapult Technology, Ltd.is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned (SDVO) contractor. Read the full news release at PRWeb.

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WiMax Forum Gears up to Meet Intensifying Demand for Wireless Access Thursday, April 15th, 2010

WiMAX or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access is a telecommunications technology that provides up to 40 MB per second wireless access to last mile users. It is based on the Broadband Wireless Access standard IEEE 802.16. The WiMAX Forum was created in 2001 to promote conformity and interoperability of the standard.

WiMAX is similar to Wi-Fi that refers to Wireless LAN standard (IEEE 802.11) ratified by the Wi-Fi Alliance. The WiMAX Forum certifies equipment made by different vendors and the certification is an indicator that the equipment will be compatible with other certified equipment of similar profile.

WiMAX is a preferred solution for providing (i) portable mobile connectivity across cities and countries, (ii) wireless alternative to cable and DSL for last mile broadband access, (iii) data, Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) services (iv) busines-continuity support by providing an alternative in case the fixed connectivity goes down and (v) a network for machine to machine communications

WiMAX can be deployed in areas such as rural regions where other technologies are difficult to implement. It is considered suitable for providing connectivity in poorer countries.

The WiMAX Forum is accelerating its efforts to provide advanced features that enhance the performance of its current Release 1 technology. A 50 percent improvement is expected from the initiative and it can cater to the intensifying demand for 4G WiMAX networks and services. Products that conform to the enhanced standard are expected by late 2010.

At the same time, the Forum is fast-tracking activities to get WiMAX Release 2 certification ready by 2011. Going by current trends, network overload is a real possibility and the Forum is seeking to provide more advanced technologies that will support continued expansion of connectivity services. Faster networks with greater capacity and efficiency are what the enhancements seek to deliver.

Read the detailed story at YourStory.in.

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A City Pitches for Google’s Ultra High Speed Network Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

New Haven City Hall is aiming to pitch New Haven as a pilot city for Google’s “ultra-high speed” fiber optic network. Google is developing a new 1GB per second high speed broadband network that they claim to be “more than 100 times faster than what Americans have access to today,” and could revolutionize Internet use.

The new network will reportedly make it possible to download a full length feature film in less than five minutes, allow doctors to stream three-dimensional medical images and universities to broadcast three-dimensional lectures.

Google is selecting a few pilot locations for the network and inviting applications from interested communities. And New Haven is brainstorming its pitch. Applications are due March 26 and competition among communities is expected to be fierce.

The city hopes to broaden community interest by involving students, businesses, Yale University and bio-tech firms, and its website http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/googlefiber/ inviting partners to join the campaign is already up and running.

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NEC’s Unified Communications is Integrated into IBM’s Lotus Foundations Monday, February 15th, 2010

NEC announced at the IBM Lotusphere show that its open, software-based Unified Communications (UC) platform, Sphericall, is now fully integrated with IBM’s Lotus Foundations platform.

The software will come as an integral component of the Lotus Foundations system, loading when the system loads. It exposes communication functions to any application on the Foundations platform. SMBs that want applications with integrated communications to optimize their business processes need to look at the IBM/NEC offer.

The full package will be available through both IBM and NEC channels. IBM channels tend to specialize on vertical markets such as retail, distribution, real estate, primary education, local government and such. NEC channels typically have proven telecom expertise.

IBM channel partners can now identify the integrated communication needs of their customers and easily meet these though the NEC package. NEC channels can add value to their offerings through application software, say by partnering with local IBM resellers.

Customers benefit from the synergy of the two technologies to improve their business processes. They can sense the availability of their customers or suppliers for communication, and use instant or plain messaging, video or audio conferences, or other appropriate means to communicate. This ability to communicate while working with different applications from anywhere (e.g. home, remote locations, customer sites, mobile devices) can significantly speed up business processes.

Read about the range of potential benefits at: Unified Communications with Lotus Foundations

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