Editorial
The Hub had the privilege of attending the All Ireland Business Networks Forum (www.busnetforum.com) which took place in the agreeable surroundings of Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park on the 30th January 2007. The purpose of the event was to discuss how to promote collaboration among businesses on the island of Ireland to ensure commercial success. A number of speakers – some were from state agencies, some were business leaders - gave their opinion and examples of the benefits of business networks. Although it wasn’t broadly stated, the kind of commercial success that these networks are being encouraged towards is global in nature and in the knowledge area. |
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What became patently obvious throughout the conference was the fact that Ireland, in terms of economic growth, has come to a crossroads. Certainly, when Tony O’Connell, the vice president of EMEA Supply Chain Management Group for Dell pointed out that Dell alone is responsible for 6% of this countries GNP, one could hear a veritable intake of collective breath from the audience. Why? Well, because our over-reliance on Foreign Direct Investment was the elephant in the room. On a daily basis, we are hearing of foreign companies – like Motorola or Thompson Scientific “re-structuring” and moving operations to low cost countries. Aside from the availability of a cheap, educated labour force in these locations (once our unique claim to fame), broadband infrastructure has meant that this sort of global relocating is now more possible then ever. So if we take the worst case scenario i.e. that major contributors like Dell, Intel, Microsoft etc. to our GNP might move to these low cost locations, what do we realistically have to replace them? Well, the government is betting that the output of Research & Development among indigenous industry and third levels will result in a commercial benefit that will shore up the deficit that the loss of foreign direct investment might bring.
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To digress for a moment, there is an old story that during the Space race of the 1950's and 60's, that Houston had a problem. Due to zero gravity, they couldn't get their ball point pens to work in space. The ink simply wouldn't flow to the tip of the pen. So NASA spent over $12 million dollars perfecting a ball point pen that could work in space. The Russians, so the story goes, had a simpler solution. They used pencils.
Now this story, whether true or not, teaches a very basic lesson that Ireland could learn from. Simple innovation can box clever and beat financial might. Or to put it another way, better to think smart, then spend hard.
The Hub makes this point because we think it is relevant in terms of Ireland's hopes for its investment in Research & Development and attaining the Holy Grail of being a Knowledge Economy. With the recent NDP plan unveiling a significant commitment from the government to R&D spending of €6.1 billion in Ireland over the next 10 years, it still is a paltry amount in comparison to the US, or even the UK. But where we can compete is in terms of innovation and smart thinking. We have no choice but to try and spend these resources wisely, if we are going to stave off economic stagnation.
In the area of Digital Media, this approach is even more crucial when we consider the sort of competition that we are up against globally. It is a lean and mean global sector with new and enormously successful companies emerging equally from academic institutes (like Google from Stanford for example) as well as from the private sector (such as YouTube). What's more, it is increasingly a sector where the field is open to anyone of any age with a computer, a broadband connection and some business savvy – many of whom have the ability to create so-called “disruptive” technologies. These technologies are applications that undermine traditional technologies in new and explosive ways such as Voice Over IP or user-based content generation tools.
That is why it is critical that academia begins to work together with industry (and vice versa) in a meaningful way. By meaningful, we mean understanding and responding to the fast-paced and changing nature of the digital media landscape. More often then not, a research project instigated in the digital media space will see, through the course of its project life, the underlying technologies and applications it uses changing quite radically over a short period of time. For example, compare the available Internet technologies of today, commonly known as Web 2.0, with what was available at the time of the Dot.Com bust only a few short years ago. They are radically more advanced and this rapid evolution doesn't look set to stop. Academic research cannot reside in an ivory tower away from the ebb and flow of the commercial world around it. It needs to be engaged – indeed hard-wired – into that very sea of consumer and commercial demand.
But, as the Business Networks Forum recognised, it is not only the academics that need to re-configure to take advantage of the global digital media opportunity, it is industry too. Digital media innovation pre-supposes a convergence of technology. However, one would assume that industry convergence would be a natural pre-cursor. This is not always the case and often requires a lot of facilitation and mediation in order for it to happen. However, the results are worth it and it is incredibly satisfying when things start to click.
Finally, the last piece in the puzzle is financing. In the area of digital media, Ireland is extremely lax, partly due to the misconception that digital media is “risky” and also a general lack of understanding as to what it actually is. Not a helpful combination. The fact that Digital Media straddles so many industry sectors adds to the difficulty. The Venture Capital community and the Fund Managers need to engage with the sector, understand it and help move it along. As the majority of practitioners are coming from a creative or technology bias, as opposed to a business one, it can be off-putting for potential funders. However, this shortfall can be easily rectified by putting a business-focused management team in place and this shouldn’t distract from the overall potential of the sector – which increasingly is giving huge returns on a global scale. In fact, it is one of the few industry sectors that in some ways is future-proofed from the impact of climate change and scarce natural resources in that it is a knowledge intensive business whose products and services are frequently intangible.
But, as the Government have rightly acknowledged, academic research certainly has the most potential from a commercial perspective as it exists outside the day to day demands of enterprise and can be more flexible in its response when guided. Enterprise Ireland are currently using the term “industry-led” to categorise and define a type of research which is unilaterally informed by industry input. But in terms of Digital Media – a sector so thoroughly commercial in its end use - it would seem that anything else is simply academic navel gazing and certainly not a good return on investment. Yes, the ink may flow to the tip of the pen in zero gravity, but if a pencil is equally effective, use it and move on. Give the customer what they want to fulfill the function, don't start trying to give them what you think they want.
Future Shock
Last month, we looked at what the technology trends for 2007 were. Well, why stop there, we thought? What will the next 15-20 years bring? Although predicting the future is much like picking up mercury with a fork, predictions do give us insight into what kind of overall trends are shaping our technological future. The outcome may not be exactly as predicted but it certainly can be informative. The Hub came across the following predictions by David Howell from Personal Computer world and we thought we’d share them with you (as well as a few of our own).
Human 2.0
With Web 2.0 becoming the new web and Extreme Makeover being so popular on Living TV, it’s no surprise that the human body will be getting an upgrade. Already they have developed an artificial pancreas in the lab (giving hope to many diabetes sufferers) and it looks as if the future of human augmentation is bright. Already, we can grow skin, cartilage, bone, ears and bladders.
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Other developments include: preventative medicine whereby technology identifies problems long before symptoms appear.
Also there is the ‘spray on’ nano-computer that would consist of particles that could be sprayed onto a patient to monitor heart rate for instance, communicating wirelessly to other machines. Robotic technology for amputees means that the 6 million dollar man may well become a reality… and available on the VHI!
Links www.verichipcorp.com
www.ric.org/bionic
Quantum computers
As anyone who has read the Hitcher-hikers Guide to the Galaxy can attest, quantum computing is hard to get your head around. Whereas traditional computers all use a system of switches that can be either on or off, quantum computers are different in that they can be in both of these states at the same time – it’s called superposition, and the ‘switches’ are referred to as quantum bits or qubits. This ability to be in two states at the same time is what makes quantum computers so fast.
Qubits operate through what is called a quantum gate, which causes them to change their state. The bit that bends the mind is that each element of the superposition states is said to exist in two different universes. The quantum computer works on the problem in parallel in each universe until an answer is presented. No date has been put on when the first Quantum computer will be here but one can safely guess that 2020 will see a fundamental (if rudimentary) evolution in the nature of computing. |
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Links
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-quant.html
Programmable matter
When discussing programmable matter – i.e. a substance that can be morphed into any shape and carry out computable tasks, one has to name check the Carnegie Mellon University’s Synthetic Reality project.
The substance has been dubbed Claytronics and consists of ‘catoms’ – short for Claytronics atoms - which can move in three dimensions and hold any given shape. They also have a CPU, onboard memory, sensors and network awareness. With applications as wide as medicine, fire-fighting and 3D physical rendering, Claytronics could be the wonder substance of the future.
Links
www.intel.com/research/dpr.htm
www.cs.cmu.edu/~claytronics
www.programmablematter.com
Nanotechnology
In March this year IBM announced it had built the first complete electronic integrated circuit around a single ‘carbon nanotube’ molecule; a new material that could provide enhanced performance over today’s silicon semiconductors.
The achievement is significant because the circuit was built using standard semiconductor processes and used a single molecule as the base for all components in the circuit, rather than linking together individually constructed components. This is small. Very small. |
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“Carbon nanotube transistors have the potential to outperform state-of-the-art silicon devices,” said Dr TC Chen, vice-president, Science & Technology, IBM Research.
For the moment, it’s likely that a computer using these molecular switches will be a hybrid machine for the time being i.e. it will be a mixture of traditional electronics and single molecular transistors.
Links
www.zyvex.com
http://domino.watson.ibm.com
Tera-scale processing
With Moore’s Law still holding true, even more massive changes are set to take place in CPU design over the next few years. Of Intel’s 15 multi-core related projects, the most exciting is tera-scale computing. Your PC could have hundreds of cores working in parallel. To make this kind of chip technology possible Intel is researching how nanotechnology will need to be used to allow billions of transistors.
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According to the company: “Intel foresees devices revolving around tera-scale architectures that use tens to hundreds of cores to process massive amounts of information in parallel. In a tera-scale world, there will be new capabilities for mining and interpreting the world’s growing data. Interactive virtual environments are now being developed for both collaboration and education.”
The impact of having this sort of processing power on your desktop is truly mind-boggling. From rendering micro-detail 3-D virtual worlds to vast storage capabilities, suddenly every computer in the world that existed in 1985 would have equal processing power to anyone individual tera-scale computer on your desktop.
Links
www.intel.com/technology/techresearch/terascale
Robotics
Science Fiction over the last two centuries has pondered the idea of man creating an artificial life form – and the inherent dangers associated with that. From Bicentennial Man to the Terminator, there has been a big moral question mark over the process. Regardless though, the development of robotics over the past five years has been astonishing, to the point where we now have life-like androids. One of the most advanced humanoid robots announced this year is Repliee Q1.
The android is covered in a silicon-like substance that resembles human skin. Its movements are controlled by internal sensors that enable it to react to its surroundings, but it’s the small almost unnoticeable movements, such as fluttering eyelids and the simulation of breathing, that make this android stand out from others. |
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Although, the robot is most eerily effective in a static position, scientists are well on their way to create sensory movement in a realistic way. We have marvelled at Honda’s Asimo that can walk, run, dance and climb stairs, and coupling this with the traits of Repliee seems inevitable.
Links
http://www.ed.ams.eng.osaka-u.ac.jp/development/Humanoid/ReplieeQ1/ReplieeQ1_eng.htm
www.hansonrobotics.com
Internet 2020
To understand how the web will evolve over the next twenty years, we need look no further then Galway. There you will find the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (part of NUI Galway) who are actively researching the Semantic Web – the next generation web which will enable us to effectively search the masses of information that is online.
But the development of the web may not always have positive side-effects. As we noted in this column previously, the Pew Internet and the American Life Project noted in one of their surveys that at least 60 per cent of respondents thought that a Luddite counter-culture might develop, as a backlash to the encroachment of the web into our daily lives. Virtual environments will also become more widespread but may open new forms of addiction. What is clear is that the web will go mobile. One prediction stated that a 1Gbyte/sec mobile connection will become the norm.
“Key builders of the next generation of the internet often agree on the direction technology will change, but there is much less agreement about the social and political impact those changes will have,” said Janna Quitney Anderson, lead author of the report.
Links
www.w3.org/2001/s
www.btplc.com/21CN
E Ink
Plastic Logic, a company commercialising research to the tune of 100 million dollars in venture capital financing, is building the first commercial manufacturing facility targeted at flexible active-matrix display modules for ‘take anywhere, read anywhere’ electronic reader products. What does that mean? Basically they are flexible eBook readers. With a wafer thin flexible plastic page giving LCD screen quality image resolution, the paperback may finally be dead.
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Plastic Logic’s research shows that consumers are very reluctant to read on laptops, phones and PDAs even in this age of pervasive digital content. Enormous amounts of paper are still carried around. However, people are making less room in their lives for the weight and bulk of paper and are becoming more sensitive to the environmental impact of printing to read.
The thinness, lightness and robustness enabled by the flexibility of Plastic Logic’s displays will, at last, enable electronic reader products that are as comfortable and natural to read as paper whether at the beach, in a train or relaxing on the sofa at home. Wireless connectivity will allow users to purchase and download a book or pick up the latest edition of a newspaper wherever and whenever they desire. The battery will last for thousands of pages allowing the charger to be left at home.
Links
www.plasticlogic.com
News
Feb. 8th: Information session: Dare to be Digital Ireland 2007
Digital Hub Development Agency, in association with Belfast City Council and the University of Abertay, Dundee, Scotland, are delighted to announce 'Dare to be Digital Ireland 07'.
An information session, detailing how third level students can take part in this exciting games competition will be held on 8th of February 2007 in The Digital Hub (Digital Exchange, Crane St, The Digital Hub, Dublin 8). Click here to view the invitation.
Dare to be Digital is open to third level students interested in developing an innovative product in the games sector suitable for any platform. This event will allow students to hear information about the competition, meet previous participants and interact with potential partners from other 3rd level institutions and industry professionals. Dare to be Digital teams must consist of 5 members and collaboration between colleges is encouraged.
More info: www.daretobedigitalireland.com e: daretobedigital@thedigitalhub.com
t: 01 4806200
Feb. 8th: GameDevelopers.ie Event: Latham Talk
William Latham, CEO of Games Audit Ltd., in the UK, will be coming to Dublin to speak in The Digital Hub. The talk will be part of a day long event to launch the Dare to be Digital Competition in Ireland.
Date: Thursday 8th February
Time: 7pm
Venue: Digital Exchange, Crane Street, The Digital Hub, Dublin 8.
Further information: http://www.gamedevelopers.ie/news/viewnews.php?article=306
Attendance free. Sponsored by Enterprise Ireland and the Digital Hub
Jan 18th: Brandmail Solutions partner with BT Ireland
Brandmail Solutions' secure e-mail service is to be used by BT Ireland as part of its service to protect customers against e-mail scams such as spoofed emails and phishing attacks. The new service called BT Secure Mail will be free and BT Ireland is expected to roll this out in early 2007.
Brandmail Solutions was founded in 2004 and also has offices in Silicon Valley, and Cologne, as well as The Digital Hub. Brandmail Solutions offers a complete, scalable, secure and robust end-to-end e-mail branding and security solution that enables organisations’ brands in the end-users inbox and also secures the e-mail communication channel, guaranteeing delivery and providing extensive reporting to brand managers.
Built upon industry standards, Brandmail Solutions has created a verified mail system to restore confidence in email communications, and does this by establishing relationships with ISPs and Mailbox Providers to ensure that email, supposedly sent by its customers, is only delivered if it is genuine. Spoofed email messages are discarded before the recipient ever sees them. Genuine emails are allowed to bypass the content-based filters which are commonly used by ISPs. These emails are identified as secure by replacing the sender’s email address with a graphical representation of their corporate logo along with a secure icon.
Jan. 18th: Digital Hub company’s family safety solutions bolster built-in security of Windows Vista
PixAlert, based in The Digital Hub since 2005, are one of the top security companies aligned to support the consumer launch of Windows Vista.
Microsoft have announced the leading security providers who have committed to delivering fully tested and compatible versions of their consumer and small-business security solutions by the 30th of January when the Windows Vista™ operating system becomes generally available on new PCs and in retail stores around the world.
PixAlert are providers of intelligent image auditing and monitoring solutions for home and business use, has made its advanced PC protection and real-time image-monitoring solution, SafeScreen, available in Windows Vista. SafeScreen actively blocks unsuitable images from all sources (including the Internet, DVDs and cell phones), helping to protect the family from unwelcome content.
Jan. 9th: Podcastingireland.ie sign new one year contract with VHI
Vhi have signed a one year contract with podcastingireland.ie to provide a unique online consumer health audio show, Vhi Health Club. The show is produced by podcastingireland.ie, an online portal run by the production company, Athena Media, based in The Digital Hub.
The show, presented by Aileen O'Meara, RTE's former Health correspondent, has been running as a fortnightly edition since July 2006 on both www.vhi.ie and www.podcastingireland.ie but its popularity has led to a new weekly edition for 2007. It can be downloaded through the websites or through iTunes and it has already been downloaded over 25,000 times.
Tune into Digital Hub FM
Digital Hub FM will be broadcasting on 94.3FM across inner city Dublin from its studio in The Digital Hub. Tune in every Friday from 10th November to 15th December 2006 and 26th January to 22nd June 2007.
Digital Hub FM will also broadcast live on the Internet. For more information on the wide range of programmes in Digital Hub FMs schedule and to listen live online visit: www.digitalhubfm.com
Events
Feb. 6th: Safer Internet Day 2007
Price: Free
February the 6th sees this year's Safer Internet Day which is organised by Insafe, a network of 23 nodes in 21 countries funded through the EU Safer Internet Programme, and is aimed at children and younger internet users. Each year a series of events are run to promote safer use of the internet and draw younger people's attention to the skills required to use computers and the internet as safely as possible. The highlight of the day will be a worldwide blogathon, which will reach Australia on 6th February and progress westward through the day to finish up in the USA and Canada.
More info: brian.honan@bhconsulting.ie|+353-1 4404065 http://www.saferinternet.org/ww/en/pub/insafe/focus/ireland.htm
Feb. 16th – 18th: SkyCon
Location: The University of Limerick
Time: 10am
Price: EUR40
SkyCon is the first ever conference being run by Skynet, the University of Limerick Computer Society, to celebrate its 15th Birthday. Speakers include pillars of the Free Software community such as Alan Cox and Robert Chassell. There will also be a significant Irish presence at the conference with companies including Blacknight solutions, HEAnet and Corvil attending. While the focus of the conference is Free Software, major industry names such as Microsoft, Sun and Oracle will also be speaking.
More info: skycon@skynet.ie Tel:+353-86-170-1659
http://skycon.skynet.ie/
Feb. 22nd: Running a Pay Per Click Advertising Campaign
Location: Engineers Ireland, 22 Clyde Rd, Dublin 4
Time: 9:00
Price: EUR145 Members (EUR195 Non Members)
The IIA and Online-Marketing.ie present this seminar which focuses on Paid For Advertising with the search engines. It explores the advantages of such a campaign, how the process works with the most frequently used search engine, and most importantly how to monitor your results. You will be taken through a live tutorial to set up your own Pay Per Click campaign.
More info: events@iia.ie Tel: 087 292 3333
http://www.iia.ie/events.asp?eventid=120
Feb. 28th: Online Marketing: How to Effectively Generate Sales Leads Online
Location: Talbot Hotel, Wexford.
Time: 2pm
Price: EUR20 Members & Non-Members
The IIA and Wexford County Enterprise Board present this half-day seminar designed to help you effectively use online marketing. This seminar will show you how to design an e-mail marketing campaign for optimum results, the best use of content, the return you should expect on an online marketing campaign, and finally how to measure your success. We are delighted to include eBay as our keynote speaker.
More info: events@iia.ie Tel: 087 292 3333
http://www.iia.ie/events.asp?eventid=121
March 02
March 13th: Creating Accessible PDF Documents
Location; Engineers Ireland, 22 Clyde Rd, Dublin 4
Time: 2pm
Price: EUR95 Members (EUR145 Non-Members)
The IIA and iQ Content present the third in the joint Masterclass series. Although using the PDF format is one of the easiest ways to deliver documents on your website, it can create significant difficulties for people with disabilities - undermining your efforts to create an inclusive web presence and to achieve full conformance. How can you continue benefiting from the convenience of PDF while ensuring that the documents you create are accessible? And how do you go about fixing the documents that are currently on your site?
More info: events@iia.ie Tel: 087 292 3333
http://www.iia.ie/events.asp?eventid=122
March 21st: Search Marketing World 2007
Location: Royal Hospital Kilmainham
Time: 8am
Price: EUR345
Ireland will host its first Search Marketing Conference with a host of international speakers from Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and leading Search Engine Marketing agencies. The conference is being organised by Interactive Return. The day is aimed at Irish and international business, marketing, advertising and PR professionals and covers 3 different tracks, allowing the expected 350 attendees to tailor the day to their areas of interest. An all day clinic will also offer attendees a free consultation session with a Search Engine Marketing professional. Experts such as Search Marketing guru, Danny Sullivan, John Herlihy EMEA Head of Online Sales & Operations, Google; Mel Carson, MSN adCenter Community Manager, Europe; and Richard Firminger, Regional Sales Director, Northern Europe, Yahoo, are some of the speakers at the event. During the session the speakers will discuss the future of Search in 2007 and beyond.
More info: martin@interactivereturn.com Tel: 01 6729154
http://www.searchmarketingworld2007.com