The WAVE Report
Issue #0243------------------12/6/02

The WAVE Report archive is available on http://www.wave-report.com

--------------------------------------

0243.1 Hot Topics

0243.2 Story of the Issue

0243.3 3D

0243.4 Wireless

0243.5 Internet

--------------------------------------

0243.1 Hot Topics

***nReach to Deploy Mobile Content Vending Kiosks
(November 26)

nReach, the designers of the Mobile Content Kiosk for mobile
phones and handheld devices, will deploy new digital vending
ports, private label websites and prepaid card locations, in 7
retail chains across the United States, on November 29, 2002.
Retailers include: Anywhere Wireless, CCI Wireless, Cellular
Junction, Pro Wireless, San Diego Wireless, Spring
Communications, and World Communications, it was announced today.

As an expanded beta test of their in-store digital vending
concept, consumers will be able purchase content for mobile
phones either in-store, or on the web, via nReach's new prepaid
card. The new card is intended to help retailers tap into the
aftermarket content and sales that consumers have been accessing
on the Web. To support the initiative, nReach has assembled a
library of new content for mobile phones, including ring tones,
graphics, logos, games, SMS alerts, picture messages, voice
cards, and celebrity voice greetings.

The multipurpose prepaid card can be used at the retailer's
private label website, or in-store at the digital vending kiosk.
Retailers resell the pre-paid card (similar to phone cards). The
consumer can then access the in-store vending port or log online
(using their unique pass code branded on each card), order
products for their mobile phone, and within seconds the content
is delivered through their wireless carrier.

nReach's vending port/website/prepaid card package is a turnkey
solution currently available for wireless retailers, consumer
electronic retailers, convenience stores, and promotional events.

http://www.nreach.com

***Platform Conference Coming to San Jose and Taipei in Early
2003
(November 26)

The Platform Conference will be held at two locations in early
2003: San Jose, California in January, and Taipei, Taiwan in
February. The dates and locations will be:

San Jose, California
Silicon Valley Conference Center
January 28-29, 2003

Taipei, Taiwan
Taipei International Convention Center (TICC)
February 19-20, 2003

Platform Conference is driven by dozens of technology vendors and
independent analysts, each focused on a unique slice of the
technology pool that keeps the industry in motion. Industry
leaders will discuss strategies and solutions for the most
pressing issues facing their industries, such as:

- Chip connect solutions, I/O standards and implementation
resources
- DRAM technology trends, DDR2 vs. dual channel DDR vs. QBM
- Platform infrastructure for new processors
- Next generation dual channel DDR chip sets, new UMA chip sets
- Graphics, multimedia, storage and mobile platform technologies
- The path forward for PCI-X and PCI Express
- Entertainment computing platforms and market opportunities

Sponsorship opportunities, speaking slots and exhibit spaces are
still open, but filling up quickly. If would like to participate,
act now as space is limited. Vendor participation information is
available on the conference Web site.

http://www.platformconference.com

***MultiGen-Paradigm Announces Creator 2.6
(December 2)

MultiGen-Paradigm, Inc., a provider of realtime 3D software
solutions, today announced the release of Creator 2.6. This
toolset provides for the generation of optimized object models,
high fidelity terrain and synthetic environments for use in
realtime 3D visual simulation, urban simulation and other
visualization applications.

MultiGen Creator 2.6 was developed based on customer feedback and
introduces new technology in key areas:

- Rapid Process Modeling (RPM) is a new set of tools that permit
users to generate automated tree, foliage and building models for
use as point features when generating virtual environments, or as
a basis to more quickly make detailed models from a fast, ground-
up model. These tools automatically orient, texture and attribute
the models they produce.

- Texture Power Tools is a technology push to enhance modeling
productivity and greater realism by making image-centric texture
tools, pushing 3D texturing to the more easily managed and
produced 2D image processing, rather than mapping-centric tools
that already exist in Creator and in other 3D modeling packages.

- Creator 2.6 will also have a new palette to generate light
points and strings for airport site modeling and design, which
enables users to specify the attributes and characteristics of
runway lights in the modeling environment, and automatically
trust the loader in runtime applications such as MultiGen-
Paradigm's own Vega Prime environment, to bring in the data and
display the properties as designed from the outset. These new
attributes for Vega Prime are defined in the new version 15.8
OpenFlight specification.

MultiGen Creator 2.6 will be available in Q1 of 2003.

http://www.multigen-paradigm.com


0243.2 Story of the Issue

***Collaborate West 2002
November 4-6, 2002
by John Latta

Anaheim, CA

Buzz words were everywhere: perceptual collaboration, community
hubs, bridges, disorganized paper processes, e-learning,
intelligent information and electronic meetingware. Yet, words
crept into the comments like - Why has this market not taken off?
A seminar yesterday said it well:

"Make sure that the pilot (collaboration) solves a specific
problem, is visible to the whole organization, and has the
full support of those who will use it."

The fundamental intent of all this activity is to:

- Create the next major use for information and
communications technology in business.

Collaboration Struggles

The problems are:

- In spite of 10+ years of efforts going back to the early
networking and groupware, collaboration and RTC technologies
are immature. Issues such as application integration and
user interface are hot topics. In a mature technology these
should be non-issues.

- Collaboration goes to the center of how a business
operates and to take the next major IT leap means
understanding and impacting:
-- Organizational culture;
-- Business processes;
-- Workflow; and
-- The essence of each individual business and those
that work in it.

- Collaboration has subsumed communications technology,
i.e., video conferencing, IM and more, but the integration
of communications within workflow and businesses processes
is crude.

- What is new today, as one of the few bright spots in the
enterprise use of collaboration, is IM. This is
characterized as the only serious contender to the telephone
in decades. Yet, this is hardly collaboration, but a simple
text substitute for the phone. Presence is another way of
saying - the other person is able to respond when I
communicate via IM. Even the phone can't do that. We should
not confuse IM with the full potential of collaboration.

Collaborate West was a tiny event. We counted about 200 at the
first keynote, which was no more than a panel discussion. The
economy certainly plays a role here. Investment in new
technologies or even new software solutions has dried up.
Communications is in a depression. The VCs have shrunk the purse
strings to the point that it is nearly impossible to get any
funding.

Here are some points made in the presentations:

- Web conferencing has the potential of being viral, and
Webex is one of the strongest companies in this space.

- IM changes the way individuals make calls. It is the first
serious application to challenge the phone.

- In collaborative interactions, Metcalf's Law applies. That
is, the value of the network goes up by the square of the
number of participants on the network. Exponential scaling
means that collaboration application complexity rapidly
becomes huge. This includes: managing communications,
traceability, security and content management.

- Right now the "Pain exceeds Pleasure" in collaboration.

Across multiple talks the following forms of collaboration
surfaced:

- Perceptual Collaboration - Screen Sharing
-- One or more individuals sharing the same screen
content, such as a PowerPoint presentation. This
frequently involves web conferencing.
- Workplace Collaboration - Virtual Teams
-- Participants have a common job or task objective.
- Data Centric Collaboration - see IntraLinks below
-- Individuals involved in the creation, review or
management of documents. Typically an application is
the window to the data or a web browser.
- Contextual Collaboration - Application sharing
-- Requires tight integration with applications to
allow individuals to work within applications and share
its use. This includes the ability to shift application
control between individuals during collaboration.

Michael Schrage Illuminates

The keynote on the second day was given by Michael Schrage, Co-
Director, MIT Media Lab eMarkets Initiative. Michael began as the
first technology reporter for the Washington Post, has written a
number of books and now has a key position at the Media Lab. I
have long enjoyed his perspectives because of the depth of
thought and out-of-box thinking. Today's keynote was no
exception. We will report on the essence of what was said, in the
order given.

- The most valuable part of networking is not the networks
but the networkers who are created. These are the
individuals who use the networks effectively.

- According to polls of workers - what is the biggest waste
of organizational time?
-- Meetings.

- Why do we want to replicate meetings with technology?
-- We should not and this is what collaboration is
about today.
-- We need to redefine where value is created in an
organization and focus our efforts there.

- History has shown us that the dominant collaborative
medium is a shared space.
-- Significant advances frequently come from creative
relationships, not creative individuals - discovery of
the stucture of DNA was discussed.
-- The share space in the discovery of DNA was the
model used, not original research done.
-- An electronically shared space can take many forms:
a room, a CAD drawing, and a model.

- The properties of the shared space shape the quality of
the collaboration.
-- The architecture of the shared space is critical to
the evolution of the collaboration.
-- Keys to a quality shared space are models and
interactions.
-- The goal in creating shared spaces is to build great
collaboration.
-- IM is the creation of a shared space.

- The emphasis on networks today is on bandwidth and the
transport of bits - this is a classic capacity vs.
capability tradeoff.
-- Rather than networks we need to think of worknets.
-- Accomplishing work is the focus.
-- It is important to think about enabling interaction
between individuals in shared spaces

- With an emphasis on efficiency accomplished by interaction
in shared spaces, this drives collaboration to accomplishing
work in the organization.

- The following question was asked of the audience:
-- Which would you prefer?
--- Technology that would provide a 10X efficiency
improvement in handling information, OR
--- Something that would improve your ability to
work with your boss by 20%.
-- Only one hand in the audience went up for the
information improvement.
-- This was used as an illustration of the value of
technology if it improves the work environment.

- What organizations are the most effective in using the
concepts of shared space?
-- Those that evaluate employee performance using the
360 degree method.
-- Employees must see beyond the narrow scope of the
job and interact well with employees throughout the
organization - both up and down, to be most effective.
-- The same criteria for effective workers in a shared
spaces applies.

The mind shift that Michael brought can be summarized as:

- If electronic collaboration is to be effective it must
improve the interaction between individuals in the work
environment, NOT just to make possible access to screens,
data or with applications.

It is Michael's premise that electronic collaboration must exceed
the limitations of work accomplishment today. Web conferences are
an electronic makeover of the traditional meeting. Michael's
premise is that a shared work space, as it now exists, is the
vehicle that shows collaboration can be accomplished. He showed
an example of the British Petroleum HIVE in Houston, which was
developed by MIT Media Lab. This is like a control room, but for
the purpose of enabling interactive real and virtual shared work
spaces. He also described where it works and does not work - both
being organizational issues.

Shared space is a concept that mandates closer working
relationships in organizations. One example cited, where
management dictated the use of a shared space, was in the design
of the Boeing 777. This is the first all CAD built aircraft using
a French software package called Catia. The top-down dictate from
Boeing was - if it is not in Catia it does not go on the
airplane. That forced the use of this shared space.

Company Views

In one of the more interesting presentations, IntraLinks
described how collaboration was used successfully in
pharmaceutical trials. Here there are massive amounts of data,
the process is highly regulated, there is a need to keep
stringent records and many different groups are involved. The
solution IntraLinks has created is a Community Hub that serves as
a repository of the data, and access is provided via HTML to
involved parties with varying levels of permission. The same type
of application applies to M&A or large institutional loan
transactions, where multiple organizations are involved in the
creation and modification of documents. This is certainly a
collaboration process but we came away wondering is this not just
an application for web access to a central server of the document
store? Is collaboration a form of sheep's clothing?

These forms of collaboration are the means to enable different
forms of interactions between the individuals. In addition, there
is a communications overlay. This includes networking to link
computers, voice or video and any combination of these. The
inclusion of the last two is called rich media collaboration. Web
conferencing is the scheduling of multiple individuals, at the
same time, to accomplish any of these forms.

Show Floor

The show floor was like a different world from the conference.
Many of the leading companies with collaboration software were
not present. No IBM Lotus, no Microsoft, and most of the small
cutting edge collaboration software companies did not have
booths. What was on the floor were video conferencing equipment
companies and service providers like AT&T, Spring and SBC. There
was even a company that makes video conferencing furniture. Even
the show has not made the exhibit jump to collaboration.

WAVE Comments

At Collaborate West 2002 there were three vectors, which can be
largely independent, to make collaboration possible. Thus, the
expectation to create a business model is formed around the
following:

1) Software that enables collaboration. There are many forms
including, but not limited to:
-- Virtual workplaces
-- Collaborative content management;
-- Portals and online communities;
-- Distributed project management;
-- Knowledge management; and
-- Meeting participation and management.

2) Communications and interface technologies - typically
with a communications service:
-- IM,
-- Voice;
-- Video conferencing;
-- Web conferencing;

3) Hardware
-- Video cameras;
-- Video conferencing;
-- Microphones,
-- Displays; and
-- Conference workstations.

The challenge is to provide something useful to the participants
that management can reduce to an ROI benefit. This means that one
or more of the three categories above must directly contribute to
the business function in a quantifiable way. Selling technology
alone is no longer adequate. It is here where the disconnect
between the concept of collaboration and reality surface. In the
past, management could come to grips with potential travel
savings using video conferencing. It is possible to see how, for
special vertical markets, such as pharmaceutical trails, benefit
could be realized from IntraLinks software. However, the ROI
benefit from many of the other forms of collaboration is much
more difficult to quantify.

Given the three parts cited above, is the whole of the three
larger than any one? Based on what was presented at Collaborate
West 2002 I have a hard time making the case that collaboration,
which includes communications, has any additional traction.
Adding software for document collaboration to video conferencing
may make meetings better over a video link, but it is unclear if
management will spend significant funds for an enterprise-wide
document collaboration software.

Given these hugely disparate conditions we now set an expectation
for collaboration:

- The integration of business function into individual
collaboration tools and communications has significant
promise.

Logic implies this makes sense. The real issue is how to
accomplish it. What we saw at this event, at least in terms of
the talks, are the fruits of many efforts to accomplish this.
What is missing?

The integration of collaboration tools into applications

- This is not only hard to accomplish, but it is a fact
that Microsoft controls all the major desktop
applications. Thus, collaboration should be integrated
into Office, the OS and more. This will happen in much
the same way that the Internet was embedded into the OS
and HTML into Office. Keep in mind that Internet
embedding enables access to the sites of others using
protocols and data formats. Collaboration is about
individuals and work processes.

Ease of use

- There are as many user interfaces as collaboration
applications. In fact, the user interface is the means
of product differentiation. Another user interface
issue is the one click collaboration access button, no
matter where the user is, including any application.
This access should also be context sensitive. The whole
area of user interface needs to be researched and
tested by use. We come away daunted by all the
possibilities. We found it interesting the number of
multiple monitor setups with video cameras on the show
floor.

Work and application sensitive presence

- The ability to establish a rich presence criteria,
which includes personal business activities, Internet
and application use and others as factors in
determining presence.

Ubiquitous XML documents with standard vertical usage
formats

- It could be said that Adobe Acrobat has such a
presence but it appears that the value of XML documents
could go well beyond what Acrobat provides.

Enterprise adaptable collaboration

- This has a close parallel with e-commerce application
servers, which can be tailored to industry segments and
individual companies. In the case of collaboration, the
company can readily tailor a collaboration suite. The
software is scalable to large enterprises.

Built-in performance metrics to measure the impact of use

- This is hard to do, of high value to the enterprise
and not addressed at the conference at all.

Integrated connectivity and communications capability

- The independent silos of the above three, software,
communications, and hardware, have to be seamlessly
integrated. Further, the user responsibility for
connectivity should be eliminated. One no longer has to
think about dialup for Internet connection and such
messiness should not apply for collaboration.

Licensing for use that is not onerous

- Not infrequently the issues came up - management of
licenses or attendees in a collaborative conference so
all could attend, or the attendance was limited in
advance to avoid the use license restrictions.

Note that the keynote by Michael Schrage takes these issues up
the abstraction ladder. That is, he suggested that shared spaces
are the means to enhance the process of work. This brings some
very interesting possibilities that remain to be explored.
Collaboration as the next wave of computer integration into work
remains in its infancy.


0243.3 3D

***HI Corporation Enters into Global Alliance with Imagination
Technologies
(November 26)

Imagination Technologies Group and mobile 3D rendering technology
develoer HI Corporation today announced that they have agreed to
cooperate in working on 3D graphics technologies for mobile
communication devices in Japan and in marketing their products in
Japan and abroad.

According to this agreement, HI Corporation will port its Mascot
Capsule Engine Micro3D Edition to Imagination Technologies'
PowerVR MBX graphics core. Imagination Technologies will provide
technology support to HI Corporation for the porting. The
companies will also introduce each other's products to their
customers worldwide.

The alliance to intended to allow users to gain 3D rendering
capability on their mobile telephones and other mobile
communication devices using PowerVR MBX, and embedding of 3D
graphic applications will become possible. It is expected that
the cooperation will accelerate penetration of 3D in the mobile
communication industry.

Mascot Capsule Engine Micro3D Edition is a 3D engine for the
mobile industry. J-PHONE handsets, NTT DoCoMo 504i series
handsets, and the au C3003P model handset have already adopted
this technology. For the current fiscal year, HI Corp. forecasts
1.2 billion yen in revenues, a 120% increase over the previous
year. Going forward, the company intends to supply Mascot Capsule
Engine beyond domestic mobile handsets to overseas markets and
numerous embedded devices. Mascot Capsule Engine is a 3D software
engine that enables real-time 3D rendering on the PC desktop, web
pages, embedded devices, handheld game devices, and mobile
handsets. Due to the content that has been developed for PCs and
mobile handsets, the Engine enjoys a large user base.

PowerVR MBX features 3D, 2D and video graphics processing in a
small area, with very low power consumption. It maintains all of
PowerVR's features and capabilities, which will allow content
migration from existing platforms to new generation mobile
devices. Because PowerVR's processing architecture is designed to
minimize external memory bandwidth requirements, it is ideal for
use in System on Chip (SoC) solutions.

http://www.hicorp.co.jp
http://www.imgtec.com

***ParallelGraphics Releases Cortona Movie Maker 1.0
(December 4)

ParallelGraphics, a developer in the field of Web-based 3D
technologies, today released Cortona Movie Maker 1.0, their
latest product in the 3D Virtual Manuals market. Virtual Manuals
can now be delivered in video format by using Cortona Movie
Maker.

Virtual Manuals are designed to be more flexible than traditional
training materials, and are tools in the delivery of customer
support, training and maintenance activities. Cortona Movie Maker
creates movies based on VRML models by capturing all the
movements, animations and user actions, and then recording them
as a digital movie in any popular video format - including
streaming video.

By exploiting the features of the Cortona engine, Cortona Movie
Maker solves the problem of capturing video from a PC screen,
which previously resulted in considerable quality loss. Using
Cortona Movie Maker, no single frame is skipped during the video
recording session. Its smart pausing technology can automatically
pause a recording session until all the large textures are
loaded. The output resolution can be higher than the screen
resolution. It is possible, for example, to record a 2000x2000
movie while only having 800x600 on a PC.

Cortona Movie Maker can also be used to create high-resolution
images or sequences of images to be used in a variety of printed
materials such as offline training tools, maintenance manuals,
and sales and marketing materials.

http://www.parallelgraphics.com


0243.4 Wireless

***Redline Fixed Wireless Product Receives Regulatory Approval in
China
(December 2)

Redline Communications Inc., a provider of next-generation
broadband fixed wireless equipment, today reported it has
received Chinese government regulatory approval of the AN-50
broadband fixed wireless product. The AN-50 has been certified
for use by the Peoples' Republic of China Ministry of Information
Industry (CMII). With this certification, the AN-50 can be sold
throughout China, with Redline customers citing the CMII number
2002AJ1172 for import activities.

The AN-50, which operates in the 5.8 GHz band, is compelling for
the Chinese market following the recent decision to regulate 2.4
GHz systems for indoor operations only, leaving carriers and
Internet service providers to seek an alternative solution to
meet their outdoor fixed wireless applications.

The Access Node 50 (AN-50) is a non-line-of-sight, fixed wireless
system utilizing OFDM (orthogonal frequency division
multiplexing) technology. Redline's OFDM approach - along with
other wireless features implemented in the system - helps to
overcome performance limitations plaguing some first- and second-
generation equipment. The AN-50 is configurable to function as a
high-speed point-to-point system, operating at up to 72 Mbps over
the air per link, with up to 16 links per location. The system
operates in the license-exempt UNII band of 5.8 GHz.

The Redline product has been certified for use in all major
telecommunications markets worldwide, including Industry Canada
(IC), the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the CE
(Conformite Europeenne) certification required for the European
Union.

http://www.redlinecommunications.com


0243.5 Internet

***Public Interest Registry Finalizes Contract to Manage .org
Domains
(December 3)

The Public Interest Registry (PIR) today announced the execution
of its contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers (ICANN) to operate the .org top-level domain. PIR
will assume responsibility from the current registry operator,
VeriSign, on January 1, 2003. PIR was established by the Internet
Society (ISOC) in October 2002 and has subcontracted with Dublin-
based Afilias Limited for operational support.

In order to minimize disruption and make the transition as smooth
as possible, all parties have agreed to a 25-day phase-in period
during which back-end services will continue to be provided by
VeriSign. This phase-in period was requested by VeriSign and
will have no adverse financial impact on PIR. It will also allow
registrars more time for testing, and thus enhance the stability
of the system. On January 25, 2003, the back-end technical
services for the registry will be cutover from VeriSign to
Afilias.

PIR has a dedicated Web site (below) to provide detailed
information on the transition to the public. Special processes
have been developed to ensure a smooth transition for domain name
retailers (registrars); registrants should see only minimal
differences.

The PIR board is composed of technological experts in a variety
of areas from around the globe. They will guide the organization
in the remainder of its staffing and administrative tasks through
the transition and the first year of start-up. Board members
include Gerry Baranano, Frode Greisen, Lawrence H. Landweber,
Alan Levin, Andy Linton, David W. Maher and Marc Rotenberg.
David Maher is the chairman, Andy Linton is the secretary and
Alan Levin is the treasurer. Lynn St. Amour, ISOC President/CEO
is an ex-officio non-voting representative to the PIR board.

http://www.publicinterestregistry.org

--------------------------------------

Copyright 2010 The WAVE Report

To subscribe to the WAVE Report go to

http://www.wave-report.com

To unsubscribe also use the Wave Report Home page or send the preformatted UNSUBSCRIBE message:

List Management - Unsubscribe

Previous issues of WAVE, as well as other info can be found at

http://www.wave-report.com

Comments on or questions about the WAVE may be sent to:

John N. Latta - Editor-In-Chief

The WAVE Report may be redistributed in full for individual readership and posted to newsgroups, Web, and FTP sites. This publication may not be reprinted or redistributed for profit. Short quotes are permitted but must be attributed to the WAVE Report.