The geoweb

Since the launch of Google Earth in 2005, the basic free version has been downloaded over 250m times. Microsoft has spent a couple of hundreds of millions of dollars on Virtual Earth, mainly to acquire imagery, which now totals 14 petabytes. These and other virtual globes are being put to a wide range of uses – some unexpected, such as the use of Google Earth to coordinate relief efforts in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Tax inspectors use Google Earth to establish whether people are correctly reporting the size of their properties. However, while geobrowsers are an effective mean construct a geoweb, which will inter alia combine virtual maps with other sources of data in ‘mashups’.

However, geowebs may also have bad uses. For example, it appears that Google Earth may have been used by Iraqi insurgents planning attacks on a British base in the city of Basra. The easy access to satellite imagery enabled the clear identification of individual buildings and vehicles.

New forms of computer interface

It is an obvious and well-known fact that computers have become cheaper, more capable, faster and more commonplace over the last 25 years. The Economist, however, claims that much less progress has been made when it comes to ease of use; people often find computer control systems (user interfaces) too complex; consequently, the full productive potential of computers is not being realised. The solution may lie in gesture-sensitive multi-touch screens, which make computing feasible in new places (especially public ones) by dispensing with keyboards. Another alternative to the mouse as a pointing device is to use a gaze-tracking camera, which works out where the user is looking and moves an on-screen pointer accordingly. Of course, making computers simpler to use will require smarter software, such as context aware systems. The logical conclusion of new input devices, sensors and smarter software to anticipate users’ needs, will be for computing to blend into the background. In this ubiquitous computing model computers will no longer be used explicitly – they will simply be there.

Intellectual property

The number of patent applications has accelerated in recent years, resulting in huge backlogs and lengthy delays in granting patent rights. In an attempt to overcome these problems the USA Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Britain’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and the European Patent office are exploring and evaluating a radical change – opening the process up to internet-based collaboration. The scheme, known as ‘Peer to Patent’, enables anybody who is interested to comment on a patent application via the internet. ‘Peer to Patent’ builds on the notion that practitioners and researchers within a particular field have all the relevant ‘prior art’ at their fingertips already (thus obviating the need for a patent examiner to find evidence that others have already done everything claimed in the patent, thereby proving that an invention is not novel). All the patent officer therefore needs to do is to get that community to tell it what it already knows. ‘Peer to Patent’ does this using the latest web-based collaboration tools. A one-year pilot ‘Peer to Patent’ scheme was launched by the USPTO on 15 June 2007. The scheme will scrutinise 250 patent applications in computer-related fields.

Open source software

A new website, the Free Knowledge for ICT Literacy Portal has been launched that offers an information resource on free, libre and open source software (FLOSS) with the focus on the nongovernmental organisation (NGO) sector. It aims to provide free learning resources for ICT literacy using FLOSS and to improve access to online information. The portal is the initiative of the Community Education Computer Society (CECS) in collaboration with the Meraka Institute and with support from the OSISA. IBM has released a free office suite for Windows and Linux, Lotus Symphony, which can be downloaded from the Symphony website. Symphony is made up of three applications: Lotus Symphony Documents, Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets and Lotus Symphony Presentations. Microsoft has announced that it was submitting its shared licences, which include the permissive licence, community licence and reference licence, to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) for certification as true open source licences. Other companies that have had licences certified by the OSI include Apple, Nokia, RealNetworks and Sybase. Two of the more popular and better known OSIapproved licences are the GNU General Public Licence (GPL) and the Mozilla Public Licence, which is used by Firefox.

Toys

Webkinz are essentially stuffed animal pets, but the difference between Webkinz and other similar toys is the business model behind them. By melding the old world of toy retailing with participation in an online community Webkinz shows a deep understanding of how to use the concept of virtual worlds to their full advantage. Children are spending more time online but still love old-fashioned stuffed toys. By buying a Webkinz animal a child gets access to a year’s use of the online Wekinz World where he feeds and take care of his animal, plays games, amasses ‘money’ to buy virtual products for the pets and chat to other owners.

E-learning

SA’s first mobile e-learning initiative was launched at the Abel T Motshoane High School in Winterveld. The Classmate PCs used are mobile and capable of connecting wirelessly to the school’s network and the Internet via WiMAX. The project is expected to be rolled out nationwide in the coming years and was a collaborative effort between government and industry players such as Intel, IBM Microsoft and Telkom.

Wikipedia

A new online tool called WikiScanner makes it possible to establish what edits have been made on Wikipedia. The free Scanner captures the Internet Protocol addresses used in anonymous Wikipedia edits in the past five years. These are then combined with public information about which IP addresses belong to whom to reveal Wikipedia changes made from computers assigned to many organisations. In reaction, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says ‘It is fabulous and I strongly support it.’

Software accessibility

Microsoft has launched a pay-as-you-go computing system aimed at making its office software more accessible for people in emerging markets. Microsoft will charge R199 for a three-month subscription to use Microsoft Office 2007 and first-time users will get an extra three months for free. After that, customers will top up their subscription as they go. This will be more affordable forthose who can not manage the upfront fee. The technology is only available on new computers. The technology, which is based on the pre-paid cellphone model that has proved a hit throughout the developing world, may be available in other markets at a later date. The initiative is part of Microsoft’s push into developing countries where fewer people have access to computers. However, the company is facing competition from the free open source Linux operating system, and is therefore seeking ways to make its software more affordable.

Encouraging innovation

American space agency NASA is offering generous prizes to anyone who can solve a new series of problems that their space engineers cannot. The aim is to tap the largely ignored – but knowledgeable – community of space junkies and garden-shed inventors worldwide, rewarding innovation and fresh design. Since the contests replace traditional research grants, Nasa is prepared to reward successful participants with large sums of money – and the inventors retain commercial rights to more money further down the line. Some of the current and forthcoming challenges include the following:

  • Personal Air Vehicle Challenge (a contest to build light aircraft for use on earth to ferry passengers to and from waiting spacecraft; prize money $250 000).
  • MoonRox Challenge (entrants must extract 2.5kg of oxygen from 100kg of mock lunar rock – in four hours or less; prize money $500 000).
  • Beam Power Challenge (teams must design and build a lift that runs up and down a tethered ribbon; prize money $500 000).
  • Lunar Lander Challenge (competitors must build a rocket that takes off vertically, ascends, reaches cruise height and then lands vertically; prize money $2m).
  • Tether Challenge (candidates must up with the strongest rope yet for use in structural applications in space; prize money $500 000).

The One Laptop Per Child programme

The One Laptop Per Child programme and Intel have settled their differences, with chipmaker Intel having now joined the board of the campaign and making contributions to funding. In terms of the new partnership, Intel and One Laptop Per Child will seek ways to package their computers together for overseas governments. For example, Intel's Classmate, which has to be plugged in, might be an option for urban settings, while the XO laptops, which use very little power and can be mechanically recharged by hand, could go into rural districts. The biggest benefit for the group could be Intel's work with the project on future technical developments, which will deepen the pool of software and hardware designers available to perfect the XO machines. Although several countries have expressed interest in the $175 laptop (not –yet - $100!), One Laptop Per Child's leaders have refrained from saying which governments will be first to officially sign contracts to buy the machines. The project needs orders for three million laptops for its low-cost supply chain to be economically viable.

The end of telephony?

Research released by Dimension Data shows inter alia the following:

  • e-mail has overtaken telephony as a communication tool in the workplace. Other electronic communication tools are also reaching high adoption levels.
  • End users prefer to communicate using electronic media rather than voice services such as telephony.
  • The increase in email usage is widening the personal communication gap.

In other words, people would rather email than speak to each other on the telephone. This raises issues and concerns about, for instance, how effective and meaningful email communication is when dealing with problem resolution and discussing complex issues. Moreover, email communication may be less secure, thereby having a negative impact on productivity as users wrestle with growing volumes of emails.

  • The three most ubiquitous technologies increase productivity the most. Over 70% of the endusers surveyed say email impacts positively on their productivity, followed by conventional fixedline telephony (53%) and mobile telephony (52%). However, instant messaging, blogs and softphones are considered most disruptive, and could negatively impact productivity if not managed properly.
  • Unified communications is a vibrant and developing market; and unified communications technologies are more likely to be outsourced or externally managed than other technologies.

Eco-friendly PCs

PC World has presented a prototype of what it claims is the UK’s first truly carbon-neutral massmarket PC. Due to be launched in October, it uses between 13 and 17% of the energy of a standard desktop computer. Lighter than a standard mini-tower, the PC (which does not yet have a name) is easily moved. It doesn't have a fan, which saves energy and also makes it very quiet. PC World intends to offset the carbon emitted in the production and delivery of the machines, and plans to offset some of its customers' carbon emissions by giving them an energy-saving light bulb or two. All the packaging will be produced from recycled materials, and there are no instruction manuals – everything has been put on CD. Computer manufacturers have long been singled out for their impact on the environment. A study carried out by the UN found that the manufacture of a 24kg PC burns 240kg of fossil fuels, produces 22kg of harmful chemicals and consumes 1.5 tons of water. By contrast, the manufacture of cars or fridges only consumes between one and two times' their weight in fossil fuels. According to the European Environmental Agency, the volume of electronic rubbish is rising three times faster than other forms of municipal waste.

Technology Trends is compiled by the Institute for Futures Research.

This Work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License


Back to top