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.

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!

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!

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!

Israel

These days I am on a business travel in Israel. I must say that I have become a converted. I really find this country interesting and that its people is doing a hard work in order to get along. For sure, there are things I do not like about "the problem" but this young country is able to show the rest of the world incredible things, like how in 20 years they have formed the most wealthy region of startup and technology (IT, security and bio) enterprises. For sure there are some things to change, and to regret, but I am optimistic about it. Hope to come back some more times and show how this economically flourishing country becomes the flourishing of democracy in Middle East.

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."

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.

Mobile World Congress 2008 (II)

The Mobile World Congress ended a week ago and I have invested all this time in recovering from the 5 days work. Tough hours standing up at the booth, but also good conversations with my colleagues from around the world (Germany, Singapore, Argentina, Egypt, France...) and also with customers, partners and people passing by. These also from countries I have not yet visited: Romania, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Mexico, US... and some I have the opportunity to visit sometime in the past: UK, Netherlands, Germany, Brazil...

As can be seen the MWC is a preeminent international event. People from the Mobile industry once a year meet in Barcelona to talk with their customers, competitors, colleagues, students... and try to get some competitive advantage at the end, be it better image, more contracts, sensitive information or just more motivated stand crew.
On Monday there was a party held at "El Palauet" organized by Giesecke and Devrient. It was intended for all the staff of the Barcelona event but also for customers, partners and other G&D related people. It was a bit tiring going directly from the booth to the party and have dinner in the buffet also standing up, but the "El Bulli" catering, from the Ferran Adrià group of companies, and the musical events entertained us as well that it was a pity to had to leave so early.

The worst things of the MWC was like in the past, thefts, that were produced even inside the trade fair, and prices, quite high even for an international event like this. For the first, I saw a lot of police at the doors of the event after Tuesday, but they should be from Saturday on. Attendants to the Congress start doing the registration and taking their badges this day and so, they must be protected, because a theft becomes thousands of comments between attendants and its impact in the image of the organization is impressive. On the prices, I understand that the attendants to the MWC are mainly of the managerial levels and that they can pay 35 ? for having lunch, but would they want to pay for it if they have to take it in a tray by themselves, wait for a long queue and stand a high noise environment? I guess they will not. And less if they have a 15? alternative 100 meters walking from the venue with a good quality of food. These two things, security and prices (hotels, food and transportation) must be addressed for the next year if we want to keep this world leading event for next years.

Mobile World Congress 2008

Today I have been at the MWC trade fair. It has not yet started, it will tomorrow, but there were all the people setting up the stands for the show. It is incredible how many people comes from the other side of the world to meet here in Barcelona.
This fair is very important for Barcelona. Not every city has a world leading fair like this and so we must take care of it. Just arriving the congress I was told that a colleague was stolen his laptop and luggage. I did not see any policeman in the entrance of the event, so this is something that must be improved. The people that attends this fair is closed to the decision makers, so if we do not take care of them, the continuity of the event in the city.
Another issue is the hotel prices. It looks like some hotels have increased their rates because the high demand these days. This was one of the reasons, beside the smaller beds offer, for Cannes lose the fair. Some agreement has been achieved on this so hope the presence of the Congress in Barcelona will be assured at least until 2012.

End of 3rd. Semester

The third semester of the MSc. I am present studying (actually the reason because I started this blog) is over. With it, I have finished all the courses I had to study in Knowledge and Information Society. They have been:

- Introduction to the Knowledge and Information Society
- Technology Fundamentals of the Information Society
- Applied Statistics for Research in KS
- Technology, Economy and Society
- Information Management for Research
- Electronic Commerce and Marketing.
- Chaos Management. Introduction to Conflictology
- New Economy and E-Business
- Enterprise in the KS

Now I have to finish the MSc. preparing the Master Thesis. I prepared a brief Research proposal that I posted some time ago. Now I link the two essays I had to prepare for the New Economy and E-Business course. Both are in English and hope that you find them interesting.
The first one is on the effect of the different modes of payment in general economy. It pretends to be an introductory essay on macroeconomy. The second one is from the micro point of view and pretends to be an analysis of two case studies of enterprises applying the information collected in payment to improve their results. Both must be considered at the introductory level and hope to have the opportunity to expand them. Nothing more, enjoy the reading!

Globalization and Inequality

Recently I had the opportunity to read a brief note on the results of a work of the International Monetary Fund that has two news. One of them is good and the other is bad. I know that the IMF is not an independent NPO that has no interests in globalization, but I want to think that the papers published are actual independent science.
The bad news is that globalization, and more specifically technology, has a negative consequence in the inqualities of the world. That is, as technology and direct foreign investment gets into a country, inequality rises. Notwithstanding increase global trading reduces it.
The good one is that although it is true that globalization negatively influences inequality, as the Gini coefficients show, the overall states of the population increases in absolute terms. That is, the poor are less poor and the rich get richer.

I have been always of the idea that globalization, the good one, is positive for the world. The conscience that we all are in the same planet. fight for the same things and have the same fears may save the planet from a final war. Additionally, global trade has given prosperity to the world in absolute terms. Never has been as many people as today living with the standard of living we have. Of course, never has been also so many poor people. Anyhow globalization, from my point of view, may take the solutions to some of the present problems of the world. Opening trade barriers in the developed countries, especially those that refer to farming and agricultural products, will increase the possibilities of poor countries to produce products for what they are competitive enough and that can profit. Of course, the process of globalization must change, but rising new trading barriers and strengthening the national borders will not get the solution. The possibility of killing 6 billion people in the world to go back to the eighteenth century is not acceptable.

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.

Bicingadget

Today when I was having a shower (I know, it's an strange place to have an idea, or maybe not?) I started to think in an status screen where useful information at this time in the morning may be showed. The kind of issues I was thinking where the number of available bikes in the nearest bicing station, weather, trains schedule, traffic information... the kind of information news program give in the morning but more personalized. Once in the office, I opened firefox and my iGoogle page appeared and I thought... why not? I've just found a place where I kind find some of this information, in fact the one on the bicing station, and I expect this weeked to start working on the gadget development... Lets see if it works!

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.