miércoles, 30 de enero de 2008

Start the path to become modern economies

A country must develop its own technology so that it could be sold in the world, that's exactly how the rich countries make money and for that the people receive high wages and everybody seems to win. The lack of tech and resources in poor countries is a problem, but despite that there are smart folks that could make something interesting if somebody give them money and resources. I believe that venture capitals could help the developing nations a lot in starting the path to become modern economies, they don't need to invent something new, they could develop technologies that could improve their life style, etc, and their tech products (for example software) could be sold in the same country at the beginnig, is just a thought!!.

jueves, 24 de enero de 2008

Googlelization??

I wrote in a previous post that Google is having more competence from the vertical search engines, that's perfect because the end-users have better access to specific information. About Google, this company has many services (that's the new paradigm, software as a service), and that's exactly the trend, Microsoft has a big challenge there!!. Today I read that Google will have a health service [1], they are thinking in solve the problem of health information [2], this is a big issue because we are not talking about credit cards information, this is especial data that is owned only by the end-users, I believe that's important to have an efficient way to manage and store that type of data, but the question is who own that data??, for me is the property of the end-users, its a good idea but we have to watch out what business model will appear, I mean do you really like the idea of receive ads about some health problem that you have or will have (there comes the Web 3.0, web intelligence)??. As I say Google has many services and with that they are really helping in organizing the world information I think that's perfect, but certain information is extremely delicate, so with all that I am thinking that we are in the process of becoming a Googlelization (the word comes from civilization), we are depending more in them (Google's algorithms and servers).

[1] http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2008-01-23-n83.html
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/14/technology/
14healthnet.html?_r=1&em&ex=1187236800&en=66c63ffcdb8643a8&ei=
5087%0A&oref=slogin

[3] http://financials-advisor.blogspot.com/2007/12/googlelization.html

miércoles, 23 de enero de 2008

Facebook & MySQL

Its hard to believe that Facebook maybe is 15 billion worth, that's a lot of money for a relative new Web 2.0 company especially now that the US is in a slow down economic situation, but real numbers are hard to get when there's a bubble, I'm not an expert in web's bubble, but from the transaction between Sun and MySQL database engine for 1 billion, I can figure out that there is a bubble over there. Why is there to much difference??, MySQL is used by a lot of companies (thousands) while Facebook is a social network, the only answers that I have come up so far are that there is a Web 2.0 bubble now and that MySQL is not known by the end-user and Facebook is famous becuase is a front-user application, that could be two answers, for me is clear that MySQL is worth more than 1 billion, maybe I am wrong??

Vertical Search Engines & Web 3.0

Its really hard to make predictions on how the online scenery will be in the near future now that we have the word Web 2.0, that mean new web technologies, most of them related with the user web interface, web-sites are more friendly and the end-user can interact with the site (for example Ajax). My predictions are that more people are going to start to use vertical search engines (for example image or video search engines) because those engines are specific and they all have novel algorithms, with all this the first prediction is that Google will have more competence those articles can corroborate that [1,2]. The second prediction is that we are going to have more intelligence web-sites, that can be known as Web 3.0.

Here is a list of different search engines:

http://www.exalead.com
http://www.mahalo.com
http://www.quintura.com
http://www.search.wikia.com
http://www.ask.com
etc.....

[1] http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/vertical_search.php
[2] http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/
googles-search-share-slackens-nielsen/
story.aspx?guid=%7BD8576427-26FF-4F34-9910-88A0BA58E9D8%7D

martes, 22 de enero de 2008

India & Knowledge Revolution

In this post I will think out loud about India and the Peruvian currently situation, the reason is that I see India as an example for the developing countries (third world economies), because with all their huge problems they always (government) try to be in this knowledge economy (they see that as the knowledge revolution [1]). I haven't make a complete research about the Peruvian situation (in that issue), but just make you this question, are we (Peru) trying to fit in this new economy??. I can say from my (personal) observations, that it seems that this is not an important issue in Peru (to bad to be real). We have grown like more than 7% last year (2007) that is good of course, there are local companies that are performing great, but I still don't see a technological neither a science environment, just try to know how many Peruvian papers have been published in international events (by universities), I think that maybe 20 papers are a lot, so how can I think that we are doing something in that issue??.

Going back to the India issue, they made the green revolution to be more productivity and now they are thinking (and they will do) in reduce the gap between "scientific know-how and free-level-do how"[1]. That's just an amazing step in put the scientific knowledge in hands of regular people, so that they could apply in many fields and that must be done using the IT, and we all know that India best brand is the IT issue, good luck!!!

[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7202545.stm

jueves, 10 de enero de 2008

About India & Tata Group

I think that a country must have its own technology in order to be competitive and be part of this knowledge economy. Chindia (India & China) is doing a good job in that issue. In this post I'll think out loud about India, we know that this country is doing an amazing effort in eradicating the poverty and is a great example of how technology can contribute to develop and take out a lot of people from the poverty. India almost since its independence began to work in having science as a tool to develop the country, this article [1] entitled “Science ’can lift India’s poor’ ” indicates how science could make a real impact in poor countries, they have (India) made a blueprint for prosperity, done by Dr Abdul kalam (the previous India's president). When I read that article [1] I thought that it was a good and very interesting one, so I sent it to my friends of the Peruvian Computer Society (SPC) [2] and they liked very much too, because is truth (Peru needs urgently to put science as a priority, I wonder why they (politician) haven't make it already??, I mean a real one that could be done).

Before I start to think out loud about Tata, I'll like to talk about Bollywood (my friends think that I am crazy because I see Bollywood's movies), some of those movies are really cool, the songs, dances and all that stuff, I think they make it perfect, Its a complete different type of movies, I think that are very human, and for me if I want to know more about this amazing country (civilization), I have to see those movies (Bollywood is one of many cinema industry in India) to understand their culture. Its a big industry, but here in all Latin America is not famous at all. Now comes the Tata issue, reading about this group [3] I found that it has 98 operating companies in seven business sectors and that their revenues in 2006-07 is the equivalent of about 3.2% of the country's GDP, just wooow!!!. Before I read the business profile I knew that it was big and of course I was aware of Tata Consultancy Services [4], it is the world's first organisation to achieve an enterprise-wide Maturity Level 5 on quality improvement models (CMMI), that speaks by itself. So its basically a leading group in the world and comes from India. What I like very much about this group is that they believe that innovations is the key to success. Today I read that they have achieve to build the cheapest car in the world [5], nice example of how a business group can change many lifes, I mean this car could be affordable by many people, those that have motorcycle would be able to buy this car, and with that we are talking about improving the quality of life of many people. Of course there is a profitable business behind that, but at the same time is a social issue, I mean they have made a car for India!!.


[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6340201.stm
[2] http://listas.spc.org.pe/pipermail/spc-socios/2007-February/000158.html
[3] http://www.tata.com/0_about_us/group_profile.htm
[4] http://www.tata.com/tcs/index.htm
[5] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7180396.stm

lunes, 7 de enero de 2008

Wikia Search comes alive

Today Wikia Search comes alive [1], this is a project that had been announced months ago, so it's not new at all. It's based in the Wiki paradigm (a wiki is software that allows users to create, edit, and link web pages easily [2]), so it'll be feed by the users (sounds really cool!!). Behind this new search engine is a different approach, the transparency [3], that will be very interesting, because it'll not have any patented stuff (black box for the users, I am in favor of the patented stuff too), and we can all contribute with our knowledge and experience, Jimmy Wales said that this project will "completely controlled by the community of users. So it's going to be similar to any wiki except people will be able to participate in the creation of search results" [3], but behind this cool project is a profitable business too, it needs to be like that to be alive in this competitive environment, and the model will be the same as Google, the advertising ("We're planning to have an advertising supported model"[3]). Google has proven that with the Googleship (partnership) they make tons of money, so it's probably that Wikia will make millions too with the help of us (the users), very smart. I am starting to think that maybe Google's search empire (I love Google) is ending because there are more and more search engines coming alive, lets think about that!!.

[1] http://search.wikia.com/wiki/Search_Wikia
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
[3] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7174587.stm

sábado, 5 de enero de 2008

Nanotechnology Industry (a new one)

In this post I will like to make emphasis in this new nanotechnology industry, first of all what it is?, the wikipedia said "... refers broadly to a field of applied science and technology whose unifying theme is the control of matter on the atomic and molecular scale, normally 1 to 100 nanometers, and the fabrication of devices within that size range." [1] It is a very multidisciplinary field and the one that I like most is robotics. It came up in concepts by the end of the fifties (physicist Richard Feynman) and the term was coined in 1974 by Tokyo Science University Professor Norio Taniguchi. So this is another example how current modern technology was already in theory (papers) by the middle of the previous century (XX), and here come my opinion, the rich and developed countries are like that not because some God wanted is because they work hard, investigate, they are always trying new stuff, and of course those initiatives become industries and they make tons of money with that, I wonder why that is not a pattern in other countries (for example Peru)??. I found this '...by 2015 nanotechnology will play a crucial role in $1 trillion worth of products, "which would require two million workers." '[2], see what I mean, a lot of money and jobs will come for that XXI's product, and my prediction is that this industry will be as big as the Web, because it will be every where, we are going to use intelligent clothing it will turn warm if the weather is cold or the other way, we will have molecular robots inside our body fixing what ever they can and there are more and more examples. I read that now venture capitals are investing and that the platform for develop this XXI's product is already building, yes!!! another industry that will improve our life and of course is part of the knowledge economy. Do we want to see how this industry grows or do we want to be part of it??, I will like to develop software for those nano robots, what about you??.

References:

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanotechnology
[2]http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/business/smallbusiness/
20edge.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin