The MSc Thesis

The day arrived and last Monday I presented my master's thesis. It has been a long and tough way but now I'm happy with the result and with the stages that come along. Of course, I could do a better job if more time would have been available, but as mi adviser told me, it overtakes the standards of the task :-o . Nevertheless, this does not end here. Some opportunities have appeared now to apply the methodology and results to my day to day work and also positive perspectives arise on the academic field. A PhD? It is too early to know and I have promised my partner a period of relative rest.
Anyhow, and although this blog was started for the master, I hope to continue posting here the highlights (and down-lights) of my work, the random thoughts and the silly ideas that may appear in the future.

Mission (partly) accomplished!

The thesis work is more than fifty pages long and partly boring ;-) It is available here, and released under Creative Commons license, so if you enroll on having a look do it under your own responsibility, you are warned! Just kidding, any feedback is highly welcomed.

I post here the Abstract

The SIM card: An exercise of Technology Watch chasing state of the art and new opportunities.

The SIM card has become, thanks to its embedding in Mobile Handsets of GSM and other systems, the permanent companion of the subscriber and the more spread Smart Card of the world. In this work an exercise of TechnologyWatch has been done on the developments around the SIM Card along with a theoretical and literature review on the TW process. Technology Watch, and the broad concept of Competitive Intelligence, are introduced from a scholarlypoint of view and a review of literature on TW from the year 2003 to the present is done. This Theoretical Framework is then put on test with a Case Study about the SIM Card.
Using sources and data at three levels: Research, Development and Innovation and having in mind the corpus of the Technology Watch discipline, an analysis is done finding interesting knowledge, qualitative and quantitative, on the recent past and present development of the SIM card. This information is also used to do some prospect on the subject.
Some of the findings have been to identify the main publications at the research level, the Relevant International Patent Classifications and interesting sources for Market analysis for SIM Development. Moreover, a list of Institutions and Companies working in the subject is provided as well as the 2008 more published topics in the industry. The system and techniques used to do all this process are also described in detail.
This work is a start point in order to construct a system for continuous environmental scanning on SIM card developments as to detect weak signals and early trends to take advantage of them. Thus, it must be considered as a seminal work of a broader approach to Technology Watch in the SIM card business. It may be of interests of scholars, because the broad review on the literature, as well as practitioners, because the practical orientation of the Case Study, and managers of related industries because the information extracted from the data analysed.

Summer

This must be the most used post title in the present days... actually this and "The end of the Summer". Finally, August is over and the time to start again at cruise speed with all the duties is here. Tomorrow, September 1st., it will be the time to get all the ToDos that we step aside in July and retake them to see that they are not yet over.
For me August was pretended to be a prolific month where I could advance in my work for the MSc. Thesis, but unfortunately it has turned to be a demanding time from my work in order to get along with all the duties from the different customers. Anyhow, some work could be done and I have advanced in the preparation of a paper on the sources used for my work. Moreover, I had the opportunity to read some books interesting for my work in the Thesis and in G&D.
Hope soon to get at this cruise speed and get on with the hot fall that comes along!!

UOC revisited

Some days ago I wrote about the UOC, this Open University that inspires me and leads me to get my MSc. in Knowledge and Information Society. I must say that I was totally wrong. What I interpreted from my tutor explanations and what he really meant had nothing to do. I thought as the university realized that a 12 week period for developing a MSc. Thesis work was to short time to do it when working full time and because that they gave us the opportunity to finish the thesis in a longer period without having to enroll again and pay the tuition fee.

I was wrong as I said. Not only I have to pay again the tuition fee but I have not been able to enroll and keep the access to the restricted contents of the library... really sad. Luckily I am member of the Old Students of the University of Barcelona, where I studied my degree in physics, and keep the access to the materials of this library.

So, after a year and a half of moderate satisfaction with the UOC, I am really disappointed because they bad way to manage this issue.

Summer

It looks like when one is approaching the summer, this time of warm and light, work becomes harder and thoughts fuzzier... anyhow it is a good time for reflection and born of new ideas.

Finally I will not be able to finish the Master Thesis before summer so I will continue it from September on. Notwithstanding the possibility to work on it this summer is exciting and I hope I will be able to invest some work time and resources on it and bring some light to my Thesis work...

WIPO Python document retriever

Working on the sources for my MSc. Thesis I started to have a look to the patent finder of the WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization). As it is the world database and the topic I am covering is quite globalised I think that it is the best IPR database to do the analysis. I need to do such an analysis of several searches on the Wipo database and I have not close the terms of the final search I have to do. So, I have to perform previous searches, analyze the number of records per year, applicant... and then decide if the terms are OK.

The point is that the way the records are retrieved is not useful enough. Thus I have written a Python script that retrieves the records that match the terms of search and stores them in a delimiter separated file. This file can be imported in a calc sheet and analyzed with the usual tools, or even exported to any database format to do advanced treatment of the information.

I put it in online under a Creative Commons license, as usual. I will update the code uploaded if I make further developments.

Here is a sample of what you would get if you execute:

C> wiposearchretrieve.py "Smartcard"

Query Params|Record Id.|Patent Code|Publication Date|Description|International Class|Application Number|Applicant Name|url|Abstract
SIM+Card|1|WO 2008/052205|02.05.2008|COMBINED ALGORITHMIC AND EDITORIAL-REVIEWED MOBILE CONTENT SEARCH RESULTS|G06Q 10/00|PCT/US2007/082754|JUMP TAP, INC.|http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/fetch.jsp?LANG=ENG&DBSELECT=PCT&SERVER_TYPE=19-10&SORT=41236014-KEY&TYPE_FIELD=256&IDB=0&IDOC=1451431&C=10&ELEMENT_SET=BASICHTML-ENG&RESULT=1&TOTAL=3280&START=1&DISP=500&FORM=SEP-0/HITNUM,B-ENG,DP,MC,AN,PA,ABSUM-ENG&SEARCH_IA=US2007082754&QUERY=%22SIM+Card%22|In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for reviewing mobile content to determine relevance such that presenting the reviewed content to a mobile communication facility may be based at least in part on the relevance. The reviewed content may be subject to an algorithmic review, an editorial review, or a combined algorithmic- editorial review. The reviewed content may be blacklisted and prevented from being presented, whitelisted and permitted to be presented to the mobile communication facility, or given a relevance score based at least in part on appropriateness of content. Portions of the reviewed content may be removed or replaced with appropriate content prior to presentation to the user.
SIM+Card|2|WO 2008/052100|02.05.2008|PORTABLE MULTIFUNCTION DEVICE, METHOD, AND GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE FOR ADJUSTING AN INSERTION POINT MARKER|G06F 3/048|PCT/US2007/082486|APPLE INC.|http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/fetch.jsp?LANG=ENG&DBSELECT=PCT&SERVER_TYPE=19-10&SORT=41236014-KEY&TYPE_FIELD=256&IDB=0&IDOC=1451325&C=10&ELEMENT_SET=BASICHTML-ENG&RESULT=2&TOTAL=3280&START=1&DISP=500&FORM=SEP-0/HITNUM,B-ENG,DP,MC,AN,PA,ABSUM-ENG&SEARCH_IA=US2007082486&QUERY=%22SIM+Card%22|In accordance with some embodiments, a computer-implemented method is performed at a portable electronic device with a touch screen display. The method includes: displaying graphics and an insertion marker at a first location in the graphics on the touch screen display; detecting a finger contact with the touch screen display; and in response to the detected finger contact, expanding the insertion marker from a first size to a second size on the touch screen display and expanding a portion of the graphics on the touch screen display from an original size to an expanded size. The method further includes detecting movement of the finger contact on the touch screen display and moving the expanded insertion marker in accordance with the detecte...
SIM+Card|3|WO 2008/051718|02.05.2008|METHOD, SYSTEM, AND GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE FOR MAKING CONFERENCE CALLS|H04M 1/247|PCT/US2007/080971|APPLE INC.|http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/fetch.jsp?LANG=ENG&DBSELECT=PCT&SERVER_TYPE=19-10&SORT=41236014-KEY&TYPE_FIELD=256&IDB=0&IDOC=1450639&C=10&ELEMENT_SET=BASICHTML-ENG&RESULT=3&TOTAL=3280&START=1&DISP=500&FORM=SEP-0/HITNUM,B-ENG,DP,MC,AN,PA,ABSUM-ENG&SEARCH_IA=US2007080971&QUERY=%22SIM+Card%22|A user interface for handling multiple calls includes displaying an image associated with a first party on a first call and an image associated with a second party on a second call. When one call is active and the other call is on hold, the image associated with the party that is on the active call is visually highlighted to make it more visually prominent relative to the other image. When both calls are joined into a conference call, both images are displayed adjacent to each other and neither is visually highlighted relative to the other.
...
...

Sources of information

It is interesting to see how hard is to get the right sources for developing a rigorous work on any subject. Let's say that sources are half of the final result. Of course, the effort is not half, just like buying good bricks is not half of the effort of building a house, but a bad election of bricks would have dramatic consequences in the final result.

In my work regarding the knowledge production on the SIM technology, I have found some databases that would help in the retrieving of records related with the research. I have mainly found in the UPC library page. I have also checked in the UB and UOC library, as I have remote access for this libraries only, and almost them all are accessible from them.

Additionally I have started using del.icio.us, the fantastic online bookmarks manager. I am not a fan of bookmarks thus the elementary possibilities provided by firefox sufficed my needs, but now that I have to look for interesting and locatable sources in the Internet, it is a very powerful tool.

One of the problem of creating a knowledge database is the format. First I started with MSWord, the I switched to BibTex, and finally I did it in Excel. I will combine the use of Excel with Python scripts to be able to convert between this format and the others... let's see how it works ;-)

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...

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!

Master Thesis

These days, thanks to the book for the Information for Research course, I've been thinking a lot on what topic to do the Master Thesis about, and although I'm pretty sure of the area, I have no idea on the topic. The main area is Knowledge Management, from an economic and results oriented approach, but the fine subject is not clear.

I've found some links to take ideas, and what is more important, previous research on the topic, but I'm not able to align it with the framework on KM of my company. I'm sure it has to have a practical point of view, and that one of the returns must be a way to turn tangible the outcomes of a KM program in a company. How to address this objective without leaving the rigorous and academic approach? This is one of the challenges of the present season work!

P.S: Why languages are so strange, thesis is a doctoral dissertation in spanish and a dissertation is a master thesis... fool's world!