Finally, Giesecke & Devrient contributes to Android!

Well, after some months of work, G&D has finally gone public on the project that it was developing on Android platform. As can be checked in the press release the contribution consists on code that enables any Android based phone with a microSD card slot (all of them, for the time being) to use a special microSD with a SmartCard embedded on it (check more info about the Mobile Security Card) to deploy security enhanced applications with the use of hardware Security Elements.
But this is only a start point as, it can be checked in this document, several SE may be added in the future... so if you have a good idea or want to work on that project just visit the Google Code page of the Secure Element Evaluation Kit (SEEK)!!

Malthus

I've been more than a month without posting and although I would have liked to write something more about the MWC all the travels and social compromises refrained me to do so.
I would like to write, nevertheless, about something that appeared in a conversation in one of my last business trips. It was about the present financial crisis and its relationship with the energy crisis. The argument was that as our hunger for oil and other resources is so big and our wastes would need three planets to be naturally degradated, we are facing the end of our economic and technological progress.
My point was that this is actually what was pointed by Malthus: The catastrophe in front of a peak on demand and scarcity of resources. Malthusian theories demonstrated wrong because they did not take into account one endogenous factor, i.e. Technological progress.
It is right that we have a problem of scarcity with the present resources and that this trend is not sustainable in the long run, but the solution is not stopping the wheel from spinning, but invest in research and apply an economic rationallity to the resources and reflex in its price the actual costs of consuming these resources.

From a Physics perspective we have not reach in any way the limit of energy consumption nor of space occupied: Only a small fraction of the energy that comes from the sun would be necessary to supply the present energy needs and vast areas of the earth remain deserted.
This does not mean that things will get on track alone and we have to do nothing. We have a tough task in front of us, but if we realize of the importance of the problem and strongly believe that altogether we can find a solution, it will come.

Wikis

The year is started and once the first part of my Master Thesis is written, I do a pause to write a brief post about Wikis. I'm a strong supporter of Wikis. Not only of the servers themselves but also of Wiki Philosophy: Collaboration, Openness, Control... Control? Yes, Control, I really think that the versioning system of Wikis is very powerful and enables control about what is published, when and by whom. Would be Wikipedia possible without editorial control?
I have found an interesting whitepaper from a site that talks about Wikis. Although it is a commercial Whitepaper I found it quite interesting. Particularly some parts like these excerpts:

Though the type of wiki employed may differ from company to company, the types of tasks for which wikis are used are basically the same. Specifically, daytoday usage of the application typically falls into the following three categories:

Project Management

• Wikis may be used as a central repository for capturing constantly updated product features and specifications
• Wikis may provide a central repository for simple issue tracking and resolution
• The iterative nature of wikis allow team members to track thedevelopment history of projects over time
  

Collaboration

• Internally, wikis allow simple text-based collaboration on internal documents such as company guidelines, reports, and productspecifications
• Externally, wikis are useful for collaboration with customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders on key business documents and ongoing projects
  

Knowledge Management

• Because wikis can be easily updated by anyone in the organization, wide-ranging company documents, such as guidelines and FAQs are more easily kept accurate and up-to-date

Actually in the R&D department of my company is used for the 3 purposes. Interisting also these comments about evaluating the value of Wikis in the enterprise, that i find true but quite dangerous ;-)

In assessing the potential impact of wikis, one might do well to take a lesson
from the early days of e-mail. Although many tried to detail the cost savings
associated with e-mail by measuring the related reductions in postage, increases
in worker productivity, and various other metrics, these estimates paled in
comparison to the actual value brought by e-mail itself. This major discrepancy
occurred primarily because e-mail ultimately changed the way people worked,
not just how they exchanged documents.

You can find the whole document here.

SIM Machine

Today, at Luton Airport in London, I have found an interesting machine. It was a regular automatic can selling machine but instead of Coke cans it contained SIM cards and SIM Accessories! From cards of several European and Middle East operators, to a TurboSIM to unlock Nokia phones and SIM carriers...

This is one of the possibilities that the SIM card enabled and unleashed in the past, even without knowing, but that empower the mobile phones use and that increase the possibilities of users, and also of operators in most of cases, of using the technology to the most convenience for them.

One of the things that surprised me more was a SIM card of Orange Spain on sale in the machine. The point is that in Spain before buying a SIM card you must present your ID card and register it, so you can not be an anonymous user of a mobile phone for security reasons. This regulation stem from the Madrid bombings in 2004. Because this I wonder whether you can use the machine bought card directly from it or you have to do a previous activation in a physical shop in Spain, what would take convenience to the buy of the SIM card in the Airport...

Another of the most suprising items was the TurboSIM to unlock the Nokia phones... This simple device has become a common device and now not only Geeks use it to use their branded iPhone with whatever carrier!

GSMA Mobile Asia Congress news

These days the Mobile Asia Congress of the GSM Association is been held in Macau. From the first speeches some interesting news extracted from the Mobile Business Briefing of the GSMA:

GSMA CEO: Digital Dividend key to future growth
GSMA CEO Rob Conway used his opening keynote address at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress yesterday to call on governments around the world to free up further Digital Dividend spectrum for mobile use. Conway said that further mobile use of the spectrum ? which is becoming available due to the shift from analogue to digital TV ? would be a "major economic stimulus" that could help governments address the current global financial crisis. "Broadcasters have plenty of spectrum and using some of that spectrum for wireless is far more efficient and a much bigger boost to the economy than any TV channel," he said. "We all know the studies which show how mobile can increase GDP."
Conway added that the success of mobile broadband had meant that new spectrum is required to meet capacity demands and noted that future mobile standards such as LTE will also benefit from the new airwaves. "LTE depends on harmonised spectrum and LTE is the future," he said. Citing GSMA research, Conway said that network costs in lower frequencies such as 700MHz are around seven times cheaper than 3.5GHz, making network expansion into rural areas more economically viable and ensuring greater 'in-building' coverage. "The lower the harmonised frequency band, the greater the incentive for investing in LTE networks," he said. Conway hailed the recent decisions in France and Switzerland to make Digital Dividend spectrum in the 790-862MHz frequency band available for mobile use, but criticised the situation in Spain, which is allowing broadcasters to block the release of Digital Dividend for mobile. Elsewhere in his address, Conway pledged his support for measures aimed at increasing network efficiencies and reducing costs, such as network sharing between operators, and the deployment of energy efficient base stations.

And another one on NFC (Near Field Communications):

GSMA pushes for NFC handsets
The GSMA has called for full Near Field Communications (NFC) functionality to be built into commercially available handsets from mid-2009. Such a move would give a big boost to mobile payment services, it said. The Association's board also announced its support for the 'Single Wire Protocol' (SWP) standard that defines the interface between a mobile phone?s SIM card and its embedded NFC chipset. It is the NFC chip which communicates with contactless readers so users can make financial transactions over short distances, for instance using a debit or credit card to buy small items in a convenience store or a ticket on public transport.
A number of mobile operators are already conducting trials of NFC services as part of the GSMA's Pay-Buy-Mobile initiative. The GSMA claimed that the trials ? being conducted by nine operators, including South Korea's KTF, and Taiwan's FarEastone, in eight countries ? have already shown a growing consumer demand for mobile payment services. Further trials are planned by 15 operators in 14 countries. Encouraging results from Taiwan found that 90 percent of people felt positive toward the new service, whilst over 90 percent of triallists in France said they found contactless mobile payment convenient, fast and easy to use. This latest development follows issue of a detailed Device Requirement document by the GSMA in July to a wide range of vendors and suppliers in the Pay-Buy-Mobile ecosystem. The GSMA revealed that 37 key players responded, giving an understanding of the core requirements for any SWP/NFC device.

More information in Mobile Asia Congress website and the GSMA official page.

New Apollo Program

Some days ago I read in the Time magazine that Obama is really committed to start a New Apollo Program related to achieving for the US energetic independence. This is a Kennedy's size program and I really agree that a superpower like the US must be involved in any big achievement regarding this topic in the present time.
Europeans are really committed to the ITER initiative to find an alternative to Oil in Nuclear Fusion. The US has also relationship with this project but I see the approach of the US more broad. I guess that several different approaches will be established in the first times, then select two or three of them, the most promising, and progress them to final stages. Just then will be a bet for only one of them, but once it is seen its final viability.

And all this in a 10 years time frame. I think that this is fairly possible and it could bring two things to the present world: An objective to fight for in turmoil times and a long term solution to Oil dependence. I am sure it will not mean ending with Oil, oil is useful for several applications, but it can reduce the widespread presence of it. An in times of economic crisis public investment and spend is capital to find the way out.

Related to this today I found an interesting video in youtube on conmuting in DC...



Bravo Obama!

Bradford Robotic Telescope and eyeOS

Well, while I wait for my switch to Tele2 from Telefonica, I have discovered some things in the Internet world. One of them is the Bradford Robotic Telescope. A fully automated installation in the Teide Observatory that gives support to students all around the world in order to explore the night sky. Beside its scientific and pedagogic interest it has a page where the webcams that are in the observatory continuously show the state of its surroundings. One of the cams gives a night vision of the Teide from Izaña, the mount where the Teide observatory is set on. Each day they generate a video with the pictures taken. The one from Yesterday night is quite breathtaking because some high altitude clouds. Just have a look to it and enjoy!



The other thing I recently discovered, well actually rediscovered as I heard about them a year a half ago, is eyeOS. A web OS system founded by a Catalan guy that can be downloaded and set up on any Apache-PHP5 enabled machine. I installed mine and am evaluating it... my next step is to access from the Internet and my mobile phone while on the go!!!

Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona and NFC

Last Friday, while I was going to watch a cinema movie to Gràcia, I was shocked after what I watch underground. As can be seen in the following pictures, in Universitat Underground station there is an access barrier that is activated with NFC... this has been a big surprise because I have not found any official announcement in the net, but they have installed this access barrier and also a "recharge point" near the ticketing machines...






It does not seem supported by any mobile operator, as the logos and information there was unbranded. I guess they are using Nokia 6131 NFC enabled phones that does not use the SIM card for storing the sensitive data but an "embedded chip" that is inside the handset and managed over-the-air... will continue investigating.

Google Chrome (or Chromium)

Recently has been released the Google Chrome, the new google application that is going to give them the control of the world. Just kidding, this new web browser is quite awesome. I downloaded it 10 minutes after it was made available and start working with it. 

The first thing I missed where my delicious plugin that I use frequently on Firefox, but this has been easily solved. Just with some Bookmarklets (small pieces of javascript code bookmarkable) I already have the buttons. Now just need to configure the keyboard shortcuts.

The second thing I missed was Portability. I actually use the portable version in all my Windows computers, on Linux the regular one suffices, because I am able to sandbox everything to a directory: No registry, no hidden folders... As Google Chrome source has been released also as Open Source with a BSD license, tons of developers are workin on this. Actually, the day after the publication of the browser, the first version of Chrome Portable was made available. And it rocks! I am at present using it and I guess is going to replace my Firefox Portable implementations in a brief time... 

The only thing that scared me was the Google Terms of use that you have to accept before using the Google Chrome executable... but thanks to Chromium and the BSD license you can get rid of it easily!

UOC

The UOC is the Open University of Catalonia. Its method, based on distance and online learning is sometimes hard to cope with, but it is flexible enough to adapt to your time availability. This is sometimes bad, as can make you relax, but is a powerful tool when you are highly motivated!

In the MSc on Knowledge and Information Society they have made possible to finish the MSc Thesis in two semesters... even for the ones that have started it in the previous semester, and without having to enrol (and pay!) again.

I was convinced of the method, but now I am convinced of the institution ;-)

Magic Black Box

As I previously introduced, for the Austrian last business travel I prepared a device as to impress my colleagues ;-) From this aim resulted the Magic Black Box, also known as I.M.W.V.S. (Integrated Mobile-Webcam Visualization System) :-D. Is basically a device to display in a computer screen a Mobile Handset display. It is useful to beam this screen and make live demos with big audiences.

In the following picture you can have and idea of the external look of the MBB.



Here a screenshot of how a beamed screen would look like.



Components

There two main components for building this device:

* Lifecam VX-3000
* Cardboard Box

The webcam original look



The displaying software and webcam features can be found at the Microsoft Website

The original cardboard box look



Assembly



This is the camera with its base unscrewed as to reduce the volume occupied. Note that there is a piece at the bottom of the camera, where the screw was attached, that may be used to pin the camera vertical if a suitable hole is done at the bottom of the cardboard box.



This is the cardboard support as to keep the camera fixed even when the box is moved.



These are views of the situation of the camera inside the box. The clips in the sides are removable so if the box must be transported unfolded it is easy and fast to unmount it.



These slits are where the folding handset is put in. They are, of course, in the side in front of the camera.




Final views of the present Magic Black Box configuration with a folding handset. Note the hole to pass the webcam USB cable by.
Further Developments
It would be quite interesting to improve it allowing to suit different handsets thant the folding ones!!!

The social Enterprise

Before the Magic Black Box appears... a very good article on the Social Software applied to the Enterprise.

Excerpt:

"The discussion eventually brought us to an even broader question: Why should enterprises go social, and what are the compelling reasons for adoption? On the surface there are immediate benefits, but from experience we know that consumer technologies do not directly map into the enterprise. In this post, we explore the reasons for the social enterprise, look at what social technologies fit and raise various concerns related to adoption."

"As a rule, what is good for individuals is not good for companies and the other way around. This is because both are selfish and it is the tension between the two that drives capitalism. The same is true for technologies; consumer products have not traditionally been needed by companies, with the exception of communication tools."

"Apple, for instance, is known to be very secretive about its plans. Does it give them a competetive edge? Likely yes. How does the introduction of blogging and open social tools to the enterprise impact that? More leaks are likely to occur. Information has an amazing tendency to find its way forward through the human network. The challenge then, is to define a set of policies and rules that ensure that nothing classified gets out. This is not simple."

"New social tools can enable companies to be more agile and self-organizing. The have a chance to break down the walls of complex, ineffective hierarchies and to empower employees to get things done. These tools are simple, fun, engaging, and inspirational. Bringing fresh winds of change to the stale corporate mentality is a good thing and should be welcomed."

Alive

I am Alive!!! I have just returned from a business travel to centre Europe (Vienna, Bratislava...) and have some things and thoughts to share... but I have no time :-( Hope soon to show here my new development... the Magic Black Box!

Master Thesis

Finally the time has come. I have started the final season of the MSc. and I must prepare the Master Thesis. I have published some posts on the topic but I have some news. First of all, I have changed the subject of study. My original idea was to make some study about Knowledge Management and the ways to audit it.
After a first conversation with my thesis adviser I agreed to work on a KM related topic: Technological transfer and knowledge transformation in the SIM world. The objective is to do a quantitative analysis on the present production of knowledge in the Out of the mobile communications by the SIM card as to find some trends and opportunities... here is the draft for the proposal, although I must work deeply in clarifying the purpose and final hypothesis...

Convergence

Convergence was one of the buzzwords of 2007 in the Telecomunications world. Convergence between fixed and mobile services (FMC) , billing convergence or technological convergence.
The fact is that Telecom Operators are offering their customers different products that are billed separetely. For instance, Internet ADSL access, cable TV, fixed Telephony service or even Mobile Telephony. This situation has made that the Telco Operator may bundle Dual or Triple Play offers to the customer and bill them altogether. There is also an opportunity to create technology mixed solutions, like Femtocells that use the legacy fixed network and ADSL access to increase the Mobile Network access or Pay TV solutions over the ADSL connection... this is what convergence, at least in a restricted sense signified to the Telco Operators.

The present year, in the Mobile World Congress, one of the hot issues was the Near Field Communications (NFC) technology and the services associated, that is, Mobile Ticketing, Identification and Payment. This technology enables the possibility to put, securely and once issued, inside the mobile phone the applications needed to deploy these services. This situation positions the Mobile Operators as key players in a new group of payment services. And this is not new for them, at present they are charging the subscriber for the services that they use when browsing the Internet, like streaming TV or ring-tones and music download. This technology presents the opportunity to make the same in the real world.
This new position can take convergence to another stage. Once the physical platform, credit cards and SIM cards, converge, what will be the difference in putting a payment application on one or the other? The Telco Operators may start competing with the Credit Card issuers (mainly banks) for the customers as to offer them the more number of services. Maybe we can see in the near future some Telco Operators start issuing credit cards and some bank enter the business of Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) as to offer Telecommunication Services to their own customers.

I am sure that not all the Telco Operators will enter the bank industry, as well as most of the banks will not start their own MVNO, but it will be interesting to see how this enabling technology that is the NFC affects the business arena between banks and telcos, and also all the supplier industry for both sectors Converge.

Traveling...

Tomorrow I travel to Morocco for 3 days. I go with a colleague to visit two customers. One of them is a new project that we must start up. It is quite challenging when you have to pioneer in an area like I am doing now. But it is also frightening the possibility of make a big mistake. Anyhow, I have been working for a long time on this project and I expect to do it OK.

Additionally I have been working on the bicingadget in the previous days. I have upgraded my hosting plan for domocat.com and now I am able to store the scripts I developed for the domocat.x10hosting.com site and link them in this site. Soon I will publish something about this work...

GPhone, OHA and the SIM

Some days ago the announcement of Google entry in the Mobile Business made real the rumors on the GPhone. Finally it is not going to be a physical handset but a software platform. It is business as usual for Google, but we have to thing that selling hardware is not estrange for Google as their Google Enterprise servers are installed worldwide and come from them!
The first thing that surprises from the Google announce is the fact that it is an Alliance. Android, a company bought by Google some time ago, will be the base for the platform, but the Open Handset Alliance, as it is called, has more than 30 members and I am sure that it will grow up in time. Secondly, it is about openness. No software, as far as I remember, is open. It is free for private use, but not open. Neither the Engine nor Google Earth are open source applications. They are proprietary but for free use by particulars. I guess is an important bet from Google to go in the way of openness.
Another interesting thing is that big worldwide operators like Telefonica and T-Online are in the Alliance. This boosts the possibilities of it to a higher level as a handset without a network is a very disturbing thing. Additionally, my opinion is that the intentions of Google for bidding on the new frequencies auction of the United States has been a way to press the operators to join the Alliance. Google, as far as I imagine, is not going to enter the telecom world, it would make all the other operators in the world, far more than a thousand, in its competitors, not its partners, as recently has been seen with Vodafone.
And if the operators are in... who will protect their information? The SIM card seems the natural way, as has been in the GSM-3G networks, and I think it will be. Than SIM card is a security token that belongs to the operator and so, it decides what is inside it. Information for authentication, service applications, user information like the phonebook, everything is at the reach of them. This fact has been a boost for the growth of the mobile market in Europe, and one of the important points in the leading of Europe in the Mobile Industry, and it will continue this way. The question I have is, will it be the preferred security token for the user? In an open platform based handset the probability of virus, malware, sniffing, scamming growths exponentially, so will be the worry of the user for security. If the SIM cards positions itself, with the help of the operators, as a useful and trustworthy security token for the user and third parties, then its life will be long. If not, it will be replaced by a broad number of dedicated and proprietary tokens that will partially do the role the SIM card can play in this future. Personally I am pessimistic... why? Just think in the number of ID, credit, frequent traveler and loyalty cards you carry in your wallet.

Technological Darwinism

Today I've read and article on the recent achievement of a teenager with the iPhone. It seems that this guys have connected the iPhone to the forbidden networks of Orange, Movistar and Vodafone. This is not a great novelty because each day thousands of cellular phones are unlocked in order to work with any network provider and in fact, it is a feature, the unlocking mechanism, guaranteed by the GSM standards in order to boost competition. The news, for me, comes from the fact that the unlocking procedure has engaged a token I did not now yet. It is the TurboSIM. What is the TurboSIM? Well, I would say it is something like a parasite in the biologic scale. It presumably filters the Cellular Phone - SIM Interface communication in order to take profit of it and send the suitable commands to get some functionality. It would be nice to see how it works (it is announced as Open Source) and which is the very change for the market dynamics the providing of such a "revolutionary" token but it looks like by now it is impossible to get one!!

Knowledge Society in Catalonia

This weekend I've been working in the bincingadget, a first approach to the idea I introduced in my previous post on having standard gadgets for my everymorning worries (bicing, renfe, weather...). At present I'm able to catch the information that I need and put it in an ftp server. The google gadget simply accesses to this information in the web server and shows it. Now I'm planning the step to put it in a dedicated server because I now have to keep the laptop on to execute the updating script.

Today I read this article on the knowledge society in Catalonia. It started setting up the fact that Catalonia, a former engine in software and IT services in Spain, has receded in its leading role. One of the targeted causes are lack of institutional strategy, or even diverging strategy, in the topic. I may agree with the idea but I would add also the high prices in the broadband access and the strong and rigid telecommunications regulation as factors that make a huge impact on it. At present, for a home to have broadband access to the Internet costs around 60 ? per month in Spain. This cost, affordable for middle and middle-high class homes contracting a double and triple play offer, lays quite aside for the 30-40 % of homes with incomes below the mean. Additionally, the ban for public institutions to offer free universal wireless access to the Internet is a hard barrier in order to give local administrations, like the city government and NPO's, the possibility to impulse and give momentum to local initiatives. These two factors may have been taken into account in the analysis of the KIS of any territory or country because the infrastructures are, like is mentioned in the article, the basement where the whole knowledge is build on.

Mobile Communication and Society

Today I've received the book I was looking from some months ago. It's a research essay on, as the title of this post says, Mobiles and Society. Linked with this topic there is an article I've been suggested to read in La Vanguardia and that is on Web 2.0, the recurrent topic of the last 4 or 5 years in the ICT industry. In a former post I babbled on the possibility for the Mobile Technology to converge (another buzz word) in a Mobile 2.0 paradigm. In that post I put the SMS technology as an incipient one seeming the possibilities of social participation and content generation of the users. A recent news talked about that the SMS technology was 8000% (1500? per MB!) more expensive that its correspondent over UMTS... and it continues to be used. Some factors influence this use. Of course, the fact that ALL the mobile terminals in the world that use the GSM technology implement this feature and the easy use in any terminal have promoted this. But even in the communication between people that know each other and have cheaper alternatives like IM, email and others, continue to use this 7bit alphabet, text based mean of communication. But what I see even more amazing is that mobile provider still see the SMS service as a value added one... strange humans, I say.

Invention and Innovation

One of the most important concepts, or better, difference between concepts, when analysing the present society and its changes is the one between Invention and Innovation. I'm not completely sure about one the best definition for each of these words is but what I'm absolutely sure is that the difference is clear, once analysed, and easy to understand. When we talk about innovation we usually think in the changes that mean the fact that things are done, from its appearing, slightly differently, either for a new machine or for a new process. Maybe the change is not revolutionary itself, and usually are the kind of things that we see as logical and that we say "How can be that nobody has thought on it before?". Examples of these are kind of innovation are the Ikea way of selling furniture (dismounted and in packages) or the delivery of prepared food to home. Invention, in another way, mean to us something not thought or not done before. A machine or tool able to make something not done before (like a light bulb) or a light saber.
An invention can produce and innovation, but it is not necessary. Also an innovation could be based in an invention but it couldn't. Those concepts are complementaries but do not mean the same, although sometimes we tend to misuse them. The main difference between Invention and Innovation, to return to the start of the post, is the fact that innovation has consequences in the performance. When the concept innovation is used we are saying that things are done with less effort or in less time, or lately in a cleaner way. The use of a lighting screwdriver can be fun, but it is hardly going to mean that the electrician will fix the TV in less time. If something can be done, formally a process, with less effort it can be an innovation, though no revolutionary invention is used. Think in the no-stock production of automation plants. The simple fact of having no stock and receive the goods just in time provided the producers a way to reduce costs and time in the car making process.

To end with, just think that sometimes small changes, although not revolutionary in itself, could give a footprint of colosal dimensions. Or haven't you heard the story on the flying olive?