SMS-Cell Broadcasting

SMS-Cell Broadcast (CB) is a non-intrusive, realtime service of distributing text messages to tuned-in mobile handsets, specific to their current location. Where SMS is a service of individual messages, CB is capable of broadcasting one single message to reach all mobile handsets in an area as small as one radio cell and as big as the entire country. Only handsets that have CB-channels activated will receive the messages. It’s fast and it’s real-time! Sending a message to millions of handsets is a matter of seconds.

Cell Broadcast is available in all GSM networks and almost all types of handsets support it. A telecom operator that has a Cell Broadcast Centre can make the service available. Entering messages is done through an automated application, or through a graphical user-interface. (LogicaCMG Factsheet Cell Broadcast System).

ICTU has done, on the order of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (EZ), exploring research to the feasibility of cell-broadcasting of government services (Novembre 2002 - March 2003). The first applications are sought in the improvement of crisis and disaster managemen. Sweeping measures must always be accompanied by communication with the citizens. Cell-broadcasting makes this possible, for specific area's.

Here also lies an interesting application for Digital Radio. Both regional and local broadcasting radiostations require a cell-infrastructure. In a crisis situation, warnings and other messages can be heard ànd it can be shown on the datadisplay.

Digital radio disturbs RTL4

Digital radio reception is largely immune to interference. Digital radio eliminates many imperfections relating to analog radio transmission and reception. Cable television isn't immune to interference. There has to be done some thorough investigation in these enexpected problems.

On July 19, in Haarlem started broadcasts of digital ether radio. This disturbs the receipts of RTL 4 via the cable. Cable company UPC has receive hundred complaints of citizens of Haarlem, similar protests of cable subscribers almost put out of order the callcenter of UPC.

Via the Vecai, the association of the cable business, yesterday noon UPC has demanded NOS immediately suspenden the broadcasts. According to UPC-spokesman Mark Zellenrath broadcasts of digital radio via the ether (T-DAB, terrestial digital audio broadcasting) uses a very strong signal that makes disturbance happen easily. Noise appears on the TV screen and a strengthen decreased qualitative receipts of RTL 4 (Haarlems Dagblad, July 30, 2004).

Though DAB is more resistant to interference than FM, reception can still be interrupted if the level of interference is high. If the interruptions are regular, bursts of interference from domestic equipment may be the cause. To confirm this, try listening to, say, Radio 3 on FM at the same time when the interference seems to be present. A distinct crackle indicates a burst of interference.

Most local interference is caused by central heating thermostats. To check whether this is the cause, try turning off the heating for a few minutes and see if the problem stops for the duration. You may find that a neighbour’s system is causing the problem rather than your own, in which case check next-door to see if they have problems with intermittent noise on FM, TV or even cordless telephones. Other sources of interference include fridge thermostats, faulty fluorescent lights and very occasionally even electricity street transformers and street lamps (BBC Reception Advice Digital Radio).

Disrupting Skype

In the Automatisering Gids of last week, an article was published, in which the writers underline my earlier statement that Skype is a disrupting technology. They invoke the following arguments:

1. Telephony communication is up to a point that on accessibility, quality of service and price, users need no more need further improvements;
2. To see who's online (the 'presence' of your social network) and to switch easily between text and speech are new important quality characteristics;
3. Skype offers still a lot of development possibilities. By nature, it concerns a software solution to which new functionalities can be added;
4. Skype use of a business model which anticipates on rapidly increasing ADSL-connections;
5. Skype still has the advantage of a pioneer, they lift on the extremely strong reputation of 'the people who brought you KaZaA';
6. The incumbent local phone companies cannot embracy VoIP-telephony quickly because doing so means admitting to their shareholders high voice revenues are going away.

What's the value proposition of Skype? How generates Skype on the basis ot this value proposition an attractive income flow? The writers of the article leave these questions unanswered.

The Skype business model is based on a technological innovation. Peer-to-peer technology allows Skype to apply a software businessmodel to an operator problem. Skype claims this is disrupting existing business models of both circuit switched telco's and VoIP providers. Skype's scaling costs remain the most efficient. 

It has become clear Skype started an income flow with SkypeOut. They charge for bridging to the PSTN. SkypeOut provides Skype users on a prepaid basis the ability to place calls to the public switched telephone network. As Ross Mayfield already stated in his weblog on September, 2003, this is nog that much of a challenge technically and they can create intermediate peers in different countries connected to a softswitch to avoid paying for transport. 

The strategic business design of Skype is wonderful, based on a product pyramid profit. Skype has a simple bit of software, easy to install. It’ll let you make free phone calls to your friends all over the world. And Skype doesn’t want any money for it. It’s free.

This will create a base of the pyramid, through millions of downloads. The base of the pyramid plays a critical strategic role in creating a "firewall" at the bottom. The firewall brand creates a barrier to competitors, and protects the profitability at the top of the structure. How does it work? Well, after a couple days you discover the biggest part of your social network isn't online. Then you decide to add credit to your Skype account. Money flows in, profit starts for Skype and the product pyramide starts working with SkypeOut, SkypeIn etc...

 

CityNet Amsterdam

Amsterdam is forging ahead with plans to connecting all 450,000 homes, businesses and organizations in the city with a fiberoptic access-network. The Municipal Executive has declared that it strives for that open and universal infrastructure to reach every Amsterdam household, business and institution by 2010. The local authority will not be supplying those connections, but will entrust that task to an intended development company, Citynet Amsterdam (www.citynet.nl).

Amsterdam City Council will establish a qualitatively superior, future-proof, fiber-optic, communications network in the municipality of Amsterdam. This will be a communications network which is accessible to all service providers subject to the same favorable conditions, while ensuring that no vertical integration or undesirable monopolies emerge. With regard to the services, the underlying principle is that at least three basic types will be offered via this network: TV, telephone services and Internet data transmission(‘triple play’) plus services using low cost high bandwidth Intranet-type data transmission (Citynet) within the network.

Cibernet Fiber Amsterdam will be the owner and financier of the passive infrastructure. The passive component of this infrastructure will then be let to a wholesale network operator for an agreed period of time (10 years) and the latter will operate the network subject to certain terms and conditions. This operator will be responsible for putting the network into service.

Last Thursday, I visited the Q&A meeting in Amsterdam to see which parties are interested in tendering. On every potential network operator there are at leat five suppliers. This underlines the statement of Dirk van der Woude (senior advisor City of Amsterdam) that large players don't make much rumour.

Network operator

• BT Global Services


• COLT Telecom


• MCI


• KPN


• UPC

Supplier

• Arcadis


• Broadband Solutions TKF


• Cisco


• Corning Cable Systems


• Draka Comteq


• Ericsson


• EuroFiber


• Fixed Access Networks


• Foundry Networks B.V.


• Genexis B.V.


• Getronics Nederland B.V.


• GTI Infra


• Imtech Telecom B.V.


• Isolectra bv


• Lucent Technologies


• Nacap Telecom UK


• Nijkerk Computer Solutions


• NKM Netwerken Veenendaal


• Optaxx


• Packetfront


• Schuuring Communicatie Netwerk


• Siemens Nederland N.V.


• Stam & Co Kommunikatie-Systemen BV


• Telindus


• UNET

Social Networking Tools and CRM

Social Networks are still in search of Business Models.

Despite skepticism that the buzz around social networking tools is fueled by venture capital-created hype, executives at some of these start-ups insist there's money to be made from software that connects friends to friends of friends.

Services like Friendster, Tribe Networks, LinkedIn and Google's Orkut may be growing in popularity but, as Tribe founder Mark Pincus admits, revenues are non-existent and profitability is not even in the equation today.
(www.internetnews.com, February 13, 2004).

Subscribtions, classifieds, targeted advertising, all reasonable idea's which have not come into reality. I strongly believe that a Social Network doesn't have a business value. It's what we do with the interconnectivity of social networks is what makes profit happen. In my opinion, current social networks miss a clear business perspective.

Business people looking to connect with each other is interesting from a profit perspective if they want to connect on the basis of a business propositions. When business development is happening easy and faster, then social networks creates value and revenues. But if I have a clear business proprosition, do I still need social networks like LinkedIn.

Your current customers are your friends and the friends of these friends you have to win as new customers. Your current customers have to give you teh referrals to their friends. That's what customer relationship management should do. So, are social networking tools the next answer to CRM.

New York-based Visible Path is taking a different approach to marketing the service, by targeting enterprises with social networking technology. Visible Path Chief Executive Antony Brydon believes the corporate customer is an easier sell for technology that offer relationship networks that connect them to prospective customers, partners, investors and employees (www.internetnews.com, February 13, 2004).

Visible Path has stated a mission which most social networks still do without. Visible Path states that our company's most valuable and least visible asset is relationship capital. Their objective is to accelerate deals using relationships in common to establish trust with new prospects. By means of social network analysis to intelligent mine and make sense of relationship data that exists in information systems. Finding the best path to a particular target is the mission of Visible Path.

Australian transition to digital radio

The Australian commercial radio industry is frustrated because it still has to wait for the Government to make a decision about the transition of analoque to digital technology. This sounds familiar in the Netherlands, where we had to wait for years about the same issue.

The industry's battle with the Government began last October when the Australian Broadcasting Authority announced plans for digital radio trials, which opened the spectrum to newcomers. The future of radio stations becomes uncertain if the transition doesn't meet the following conditions:
- existing operators gaining free access to the digital spectrum on the L-Band;
- a reasonable simulcast period (a 20-year period with reviews at 10 and 15 years);
- a ban on new entrants for at least 10 years.
DMG Radio chief executive Paul Thompson, whose group owns the Nova stations, said the industry was "surprised and seriously taken aback" that the Government had not made any commitment. "I think we expected a more supportive and enthusiastic response by the Government but it's simply not there," he said.
(The Australian, 22 July 2004)

These conditions aren't reasonable conditions. These are the conditions of an industry protecting their current position in broadcasting. But the existing radio stations can't demand there will be no options for new competitors. Digital radio began to take off in the UK, not because of the CD-quality, but because of the introduction of quite a lot ofnew digital-only radiostations. Simply replication of today's analoque radio formats on to digital doesn't make the public to buy digital radio sets.

You can't deny the fact that incumbent radio broadcasters have the right to protect their own interests. Therefore, the Australian Government should start negotiations instead of asking the industry what it wants. This will be far more productive than the current process of policy making, in which the Goverment thinks it only has to facility what the industry demands.

Site Swarming

In a recent blog I have told you that I visited Eyebees. After the meeting I directly made a download of their application Eyebees Swarm. Installation went very easy and producing Swarms also has succeeded. I must say, it is a brilliant idea, I certainly want to experiment with swarming. The technology looks splendid, but ... I don't understood anything at all of the functionality of their application. I called Marco Bunge and he visited me today.

Marco is an enthusiastic narrator, who wants to measure the group dynamics of the world-wide-web, real time, dynamic swarming. He speaks like a true believer. But I am just one of those stupid persons who need nevertheless more insight in the functionality. I keep on asking Marco. It appears Eyebees has two types of applications:
1. Site Swarming: visualisation of the current users of a site, think of making graphically visible the logging of a site;
2. Web Swarming: visualisation of the common surfing within a social network, think of graphics reflecting the sites visited by other surfers.

Eyebees is putting the first application in the market. I think they should follow a dual business strategy:
- a free version which every amature blogger can add to its own weblog, so you can see how much traffic there is;
- a commercial version with which owners of professional sites can offer extra functionality to their visitors, for example Instant Messaging between the current site visitors.

I am curious if there already happens more swarming on the Internet. What would you like to do, if you were offered the opportunity being able to communicate directly with other site visitors, as a type of interaction in an instant social network?

Intelligent agents

@Road, a leading provider of mobile resource management (MRM) services, today announced the availability of the company's newest mobile data integration application, @Road Mobile Enterprise Access (MEA). The @Road MEA service is designed to streamline customers' business processes by improving field force data communications with the enterprise. Developed for use on JAVA and GPS-enabled handsets, @Road MEA lets companies of all sizes access back-office applications from the field, such as customer relationship management (CRM), inventory control and scheduling databases, as well as integrate real-time location-based data directly into these same systems. (Business Wire, June 28, 2004).

This is really good news. At last location-based services become no longer exclusively used to trace the salesforce and their vehicles. These services will used to provide salesman with more business intelligence. It seems to me this kind of functionality has a much better ROI than all those supervisory and checking functionalities, which are perhaps cost-reducing, but will never generate extra income.

Pure Digital Bug

"The Bug was born of the award winning PURE Digital engineering pedigree and a great design from Wayne Hemmingway. Available in either cool white and chrome or sophisticated graphite-metallic and chrome finishes the mains powered Bug will look good in any situation. The Bug features a large blue backlit LCD display mounted on a flexible neck, stereo speakers, a telescopic DAB aerial and superb connectivity including USB connector, SD card slot, S/PDIF digital and analogue outputs and a headphone socket.

As well as bringing you superb quality audio and all of the other benefits of DAB digital radio broadcasting, the Bug brings life to radio by allowing you to pause, rewind and record live radio. Multiple alarms, record timers, the ability to play MP3s, station presets and equalisation settings are among the other clever features packed inside its compact but perfectly formed body. Check out the Bug's own website at www.thebug.com for further details, fun Bug stuff and the latest Bug news". (http://www.pure-digital.com)

In spring of 2004 we were on a visit at the BBC in United Kingdom. We talked about the successful introduction of DAB in United Kingdom. Of course we have also asked them which new functionality the new DAB receivers would have. They were informed about the Pure-Digital Bug, although they officially had to deny the existence of a “MP3-button”.

The endless ether

De eindeloze ether appears soon in our bookshops in the Netherlands. A concise book in which is put that the current restricted possibilities for radio and TV broadcasting will disappear. The report is a quick scan into the possibilities of mobile broadband data communication. The broadband data communication network  must be considered as an endless ether, on which radio, TV and other medium services can be offered not impeded by existing regulations!
 
How can you deserve money with radio on a broadband data communication network? What are the different business models? How influences this the position of the existing players such as makers of the radio programs, existing broadcasters, networks operators and the manufacturers of the reciever equipment and user software? 
 
Always-on internet has become important when then the tariff becam less than 35 euro per month. Speed is less important, but will increase, to reduce the fall of the prices for broadband connections. Everyone can select therefore by means of Internet its own station and listen to it.  Radiolocator helps to make a selection. The portable Internet radio of Reciva is wireless. The streaming radio of Philips isn’t. But both make the switch-over of the current analogue radio to digital internet radio much approachable.
 
Mobile telecommunication became possibly by the invention of cellular networks. The endless ether will become possible by a nation wide network with WiFi-hotspots. It is still lacking of roaming agreements. But these will come certainly. It’s only a matter of time until only a few competitors of WiFi-hotspots remain and combine there networks.
 
Dutch haven’t got used to pay for radio or television. Streaming audio will always be free on the Internet. The possibilities of the endless ether can be exploited, if suppliers specialise on target groups, nich-markets for special interest groups, of offer listeners possibilities to focus on information concerning their individual needs. But there’s no money in personalised information. That conflicts with the expectation of the user that information on the Internet is free.
 
Money will be deserved by the network operators and the suppliers of digital audio receivers. Advertising will be give some cashflow for het content providers. But the questions remains, who will make money by delivering content in times of an endless ether.

Standaard besturingsysteem voor DAB-receivers

In een eerdere bijdrage heb ik Bill Gates al een keer aangespoord om zich met DAB te bemoeien. Wat zou het toch mooi zijn als elke digitale radio voorzien wordt van Microsoft DAB Windows, zodat we zelf naar hartelust applicaties kunnen ontwikkelen en installeren.

"But while radio content and listenership is on the up, new, very high-quality radio hardware is in decline. Radio is mostly sold in sub £150, portable box products, and the wide variety of manufacturers taking advantage of the DAB digital radio market is mostly doing so with mass-market, chain-store devices, predominantly built around the same technology - the Frontier Silicon Chorus DAB module."

Leuk voor Digitale One en PURE dat ze deze technologie hebben ontwikkeld. Maar wel erg jammer dat we nu met een gesloten systeem zitten. Wat niet is kan nog komen, moeten we maar denken.

Stowe Boyd visited Eyebees in Amsterdam

Een eerste poging om deze blog in het Engels te schrijven

Yesterday, Stowe Boyd visited Eyebees in Amsterdam. I studied his weblog before attending to the meeting. Wearing a cap, he didn't look very much like the picture on his weblog, but he surely talks about the things he is writing about.

The meeting started with a short welcoming bij Marco Bunge, one of the owners of the start-up Eyebees. Then Stowe Boyd took off with his Powerpoint slide-show. A few words on the sheets, but interesting pictures illustrating what he is talking about.

Stowe Boyd is particulary interested in the phenomena of social networks and social tools. His motto is: your network is smarter than you. What a relief. My meetings with more than 6 people are not intelligent at all. But thanks to Stowe, there might be some hope out there. Although I am familiar with AlwaysOn, Blogger, Friendster, LinkedIn, Orkut and Slashdot, I still wonder when my memberships will pay off. Stowe thinks it has little to do with the social tools, but far more with a good limited set of grouprules.

Often life during Swarm Time on the internet gives you an empty street feeling. What we need is some kind of bottom-up, self-organizing phenomena. But we don't need a leader. We need a small set of rules which defines our social network on the internet. Social tools make it happen, they make sure you get connected. This will organise people arround you, the best source of information.

Social Network Applications are interesting for businesses too. Bateson once wrote that a business is a network of conversations. So stay online, all day long. It gives you better decisions more quickly. Exploiting your relationships.

It was great fun to listen to someone who really knows something about what he calls "social tools". Although he didn't make any direct references to complexity- and chaostheory, he must be highly influences by what has it's origins in the Sante Fe Institute. This stimulates me to go on with the work I'm doing with collegae's to apply complexitytheory to innovation and knowledge processes.

112

In Amerika en Europa worden location-based services gestimuleerd doordat de overheid van mobiele operators eist dat de afzenders van 112-berichten tot op een afstand van 15 meter nauwkeurig kunnen worden getraceerd. Het blijft toch vermakelijk om te zien dat voor het C2000-project de politie worstelt met het goed functioneren van een noodknop, terwijl parallel daaraan binnenkort elke willekeurige burger voorzien is van een mobiele noodknop.

Social Network Applications

Friendster, Orkut, LinkedIn, ... Het aantal applicaties waarmee een sociaal netwerk kan worden ondersteund is heel snel aan het groeien. Bij applicaties zoals Friendster en Orkut ligt de focus op het verzamelen van zoveel mogelijk contacten. Terwijl bij LinkedId de meerwaarde vooral zit in de kracht van de relatie, zodat efficiency kan worden geboekt bij het vinden van de meest waardevolle relaties.

AlwaysOn claimt dat het als eerste participatieve journalistiek (blogging) combineert met een social network. Ik weet het niet. Het lijkt tot verdacht veel op wat Google aan het doen is met Blogger en de mogelijk tot het aanmaken van een eigen profiel.

Switch-off in de UK

Als de overheid een datum voor de switch-off noemt voor het afsluiten van het gebruik van de huidige FM-frequenties, is dit een enorme stimulans voor de marktontwikkeling van digitale radio. Maar het is een politiek gevoelig punt. Wie durft haar kiezers voor te spiegelen dat de bestaande radio's allemaal moeten worden vervangen?

Het ziet er naar uit dat in Engeland de eerste stap heeft gezet. In een voorwoord van een te verschijnen rapport van het Digital Radio Development Bureau kondigt de overheid aan, nog dit jaar te gaan beoordelen wat een geschikte datum voor de switch-off zou kunnen zijn.

Location-based information voor 1 euro per gebruiker

De meest LBS-oplossingen gebruiken het op satelieten gebaseerde GPS of de Cell-ID apparatuur van netwerk-operators. In een persbericht van Directionsmag wordt een softwareoplossing besproken dat voor een prijsdoorbraak zal zorgen. De door CPS ontwikkelde Matrix-oplossing zorgt voor een snelle location-fix, werkt op een standaard GSM-toestel, zowel buiten- als binnenhuis. Het is leveranciersonafhankelijk en kan dus zeer snel worden uitgerold onder mobiele operators, die in een multi-vendor situatie zitten t.a.v. de handheld -leveranciers.

Polderen met fileproblemen

In de Automatisering Gids van deze week lezen we:

"Den Haag, 10.30 uur - De Rabobank presenteert samen met een groep van tientallen bedrijven een revolutionair plan genaamd kilometerbeloning om de fileproblematiek en de CO2-uitstoot te bestrijden.

ICT speelt een cruciale rol in het plan, bijvoorbeeld voor het registreren van de afgelegde kilometers. Maar de bedenkers willen de telematica in de auto ook inzetten om te bereiken dat automobilisten meer openbaarvervoer-kilometers gaan maken. (tdo)"

Het is altijd weer verbasingwekkend hoe dat polderen in Nederland tot creatieve, geldverslindende, onzinnige oplossingen leidt. Het consortium is blijkbaar even vergeten dat elke auto al uitgerust is met een kilometerteller. Maar als ik de overheid een rekening mag sturen voor elke minuut dat ik in de file sta, ben ik direct voor!

Opsporen en volgen van mobiele gebruikers

In Korea wordt binnenkort een wet aangenomen die mobiele operators verbiedt om zonder toestemming informatie te verzamelen over de locatie van gebruikers van mobiele telefoons. Dit is bedoeld om de privacy van mobiele telefoongebruikers te beschermen. Alleen met expliciete toestemming van gebruikers, mag hun positie worden getraceerd.

Een uitzondering wordt gemaakt voor (medische) hulpdiensten die in noodgevallen een gebruiker op basis van zijn mobiele telefoon mogen traceren. Dit laatste is overigens ook in Europa een issue. De EU wil mobiele operators verplichten om zeer nauwkeurig de locatie van mobiele 112-bellers te traceren, zodat in geval van nood snel assistentie kan worden verleend. Vooralsnog is de nauwkeurigheid beperkt tot buurt en wijk.

Visual Radio Applications

In Engeland groeit het enthousiasme over digitale radio. Deze week weer een enthousiast artikel in The Gardian. Het geloof in de toekomst is in dit artikel gebaseerd op nieuwe functionaliteiten:
- pause en rewind mogelijkheden,
- hard disks voor het opnemen van honderden uren radiouitzendingen,
- het kopen van muziek en video's;
- het lezen van een elektronisch tijdschrift;
- het bekijken van filenieuws;
- elektronische programmagidsen;
- interactiviteit door combinatie met een mobiele telefoon,
- het verzenden van visuele reclame.

Langzaam begint duidelijk te worden wat de voordelen van digital broadcasting zijn ten opzichte van UMTS. En dat er veel meer ontvangers voor digitale radio zijn zoals mobiele telefoons, PDA's etc. Misschien moet Bill Gates zo langzamerhand maar een claim leggen op een nieuwe tak van sport in de softwareindustrie: Visual Radio Applications.