Telegraph | Money | Shell chief defiantly upbeat about future of the oil sector: "Shell chief defiantly upbeat about future of the oil sectorBy Sylvia Pfeifer?(Filed: 12/06/2005) Jeroen van der Veer, the chief executive of Royal Dutch/Shell, the oil giant, will launch a robust defence of the future prospects of the industry tomorrow, arguing that 'this is most definitely not a sunset industry'.
In a speech to be delivered in Asia, van der Veer will argue that the business prospects for the industry are good and that 'energy will remain one of the most impor-tant and dynamic indus-trial sectors'."

Vision 20/20 Final Report: "Vision 20/20: Future Scenarios for the Communications Industry - Implications for Regulation

World news from The Times and the Sunday Times - Times Online: "Space fireworks give Nasa cosmic clues

By Mark Henderson, Science Correspondent


A NASA spacecraft is preparing a celestial fireworks display for Independence Day, when it will shoot a huge copper bullet into a comet in an attempt to find clues to the origin of the solar system.
The Deep Impact probe will fire the missile at the Tempel 1 comet in the early hours of July 3. The next morning, astronomers will see what the explosion reveals about its make-up.
NI_MPU('middle');%u201CEvery year I look forward to the Fourth of July, but this year promises to be extra special,%u201D Andrew Dantzler, the director of Nasa%u2019s solar system division, said yesterday."

Mighty Morphing Power Processors: "Mighty Morphing Power Processors IBM and others are racing to create chameleon chips that change to suit the job

Even by the standards of the Lone Star State, the claim by two Texas researchers -- Douglas C. Burger and Stephen W. Keckler -- can seem a trifle grandiose. 'We're reinventing the computer,' asserts Keckler.

A glance at their backers, though, dispels some of the skepticism. IBM (IBM
) is working closely with the two University of Texas computer scientists. And the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2001 handed them $11 million in development funds. Now, IBM is gearing up to manufacture the first prototype of their concept for a radically new computer-brain chip. If it delivers what Burger and Keckler promise, high-tech gurus are betting it will spawn a new family of superchips from Big Blue -- chips capable of crunching a trillion calculations every second.

Such blistering speed would itself be amazing; it's roughly the oomph of a $50 million supercomputer in 1997. But more impressive, the chip can rewire itself on the fly -- a feat known as reconfigurable computing. With this technology, a future Macintosh from Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL
) might rejigger the circuitry on its PowerPC chip and then run software written for Intel (INTC
) Corp.'s microprocessors. Or an iPod music player could turn into a handheld computer -- or detect an incoming call and convert itself into a cell phone.
IBM is hardly the only chipmaker chasing morphing semiconductors. Virtually every major supplier of so-called logic chips is working on some such notion, including Hewlett-Packard (HPQ
), Intel, NEC (NIPNY
), Philips Electronics (PHG
), and Texas Instruments (TXN
). A dozen or more startups are in the race as well, including Velogix, picoChip Designs, and MathStar."

Perpendicular recording: Why it matters - page 2 | Perspectives | CNET News.com: "Fifty years ago, when the first 5MB drive was introduced, few if any observers could have predicted the current state of the industry. They would likely not have believed that a read/write head could fly 100mph over a spinning platter at a distance that is less than 1/10,000th the width of a human hair. Or that hard drives the size of matchbooks would be capable of storing entire music libraries. This all would have been in the realm of science fiction.

Yet they would likely understand the scientific concepts and physical laws that have made these advances possible. While there has been a great deal of invention, the basic science--like Danish inventor Valdemar Poulsen's discovery of magnetic recording more than 100 years ago--has remained relatively constant.

Such constancy gives rise to confidence across the industry that the challenge of superparamagnetism will be met. Perpendicular recording is most likely the first technology bridge in this realm, but it is by no means the last."

? The future of nano-biology: regenerating tissue and artificial proteins | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com: "The future of nano-biology: regenerating tissue and artificial proteins

-Posted by Dan Farber @ 5:45 pm?
Home
Future in Review

The last day the Future in Review conference focused on big societal issues, rather than the usual techno-centric topics. During a panel on the future of nano-biotechnology, Alan Russell, head of regenerative medicine at the University of Pittsburg, described progress in moving from treating symptoms to generating cures and regenerating tissues as a result of the convergence of nanotechnology and biology. 'Every tissue from head to toe is being regenerated somewhere across the planet,' Russell said. Corneal epithelium are being grown in dishes at one temperature and then cooled and peeled off and placed on an eye. Three patients in the U.S. have received whole cultured bladders grown using nano-biology techniques. A uterus can be grown outside the body in animal tests, placed inside the body and subsequently produce babies. He predicted that within the next five years, spinal cord injuries will be treated with stem cells and some of the paralyzing effects reversed. In South America, stem cell therapy is used to eliminate disease in failing hearts. U.S. trails are starting next week, Russell said. The Department of Defense has allocated $20 million to study whole limb generation. 'If a newt can do it, why not we,' Russell said. However, limb regeneration is more than five years out.

Michael Knapp, CEO of nano-startup Cambrios, described applying techniques of molecular biology to synthesizing electronic components and other materials. His company is discovering and creating artificial proteins (nanostructures) that will attach to inorganic materials, such as semiconductors. Instead of harsh chemical conditions and expensive machines, Cambrios can physically self assemble and bind elements via molecular affinity at room temperature in a bathtub type environment. 'The implementation of bio manufacturing technology will happen first by replacing existing steps in the manufacturing chain in three to five years,' Knapp said. He predicted that the Holy Grail of simply mixing biochemicals and organic salts to create a computer will occur in the 20 to 50 year timeframe."

News in Science - Cloth bag catches shoplifter - 23/05/2005 : "Cloth bag catches shoplifter
Tracy Staedter


Discovery News

Monday, 23 May?2005?




The next generation of bags are being engineered to tell us when they're carrying stolen goods (Image: iStockphoto)



At first glance, a cloth bag may seem an unlikely security device. But if it's made from a new electronic fabric, it could not only resist tampering, but sound an alarm or send an alert to the owner and authorities.'You wouldn't need a safe if you had this,' says Dr Jerry Krill of Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, and the technology's inventor.The cloth is woven with conductive fibres and can be designed to support a variety of electronic components such as tiny circuits, sensors and wireless communication devices. Like other fabrics, the electronic cloth can be sewn into many shapes, such as a bag or a tag. The key to Krill's invention seems to be the way such a bag would be sealed or such a tag might be affixed as a lock. But he's reluctant to talk about the method of attachment until after June, when he expects to file for a patent. Once fashioned into the appropriate device, though, the cloth can be programmed to respond differently to a variety of situations. If it were a bag used to secure a laptop computer, for example, the owner might link it via wireless technology to an existing alarm system, which can sound if the bag is moved or tampered with. It could also trigger a video camera to record the intrusion or place a call to the owner's mobile phone to alert him or her of the breach. Incorporating electronic cloth into such a variety of security devices is completely reasonable, says Tom Martin, an assistant professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg, whose own group develops wearable computers and electronic textiles. Martin says conductive fibres can feel soft or be made 'strong enough that somebody would have to take a crowbar to it'. Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory is seeking commercialisation development partners for this technology."

JPMorgan Chase to Roll Out No-Swipe Card - Yahoo! News: "JPMorgan Chase to Roll Out No-Swipe Card

By Vivian Chu, AP Business Writer Thu May 19, 1:34 PM ET

NEW YORK - JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Thursday it will offer a new credit card that allows users to pay for items by holding the card near a terminal instead of manually swiping it.
ADVERTISEMENT

JPMorgan said it will start mailing out the new 'blink' cards in late June in two major U.S. cities, followed by a nationwide rollout continuing into next year. The company would not name the cities.

The cards are equipped with encrypted data readable by a point-of-sale terminal at the checkout counter. The terminal will emit a tone confirming payment, the bank said.

Besides speeding up the payment process, the new cards are aimed at bolstering credit card sales for JPMorgan Chase, the nation's second largest financial services provider and its premier credit card issuer.

'The new card makes it easier and faster for people to pay in places where they currently use cash, like convenience stores and fast-food stores,' said Thomas O'Donnell, senior vice president of Chase cards services. 'If you can get them to stop using cash, that translates into more frequent credit card use and greater loyalty with customers.'

Although the new cards will not require a customer signature, JPMorgan maintained they provide the same level of security as the traditional card-swiping method.

'The customer has to hold the card close to the terminal, but it stays in their possession at all times,' O'Donnell said. 'The card and the reader in the terminal are safe and secure, and the transaction is handled the same way that credit cards are managed today.'

7-Eleven Inc., the world's top convenience store chain, will test the new card in 170 of its stores, while Sheetz Inc., a family-owned convenience store chain, will launch a cobranded credit card offering the new service at its 300 locations, the bank said. Drugstore chain CVS Corp. and movie theater operator Regal Entertainment Group have also agreed to use the new cards.

JPMorgan said it plans to have thousands of merchants nationwide accepting the new cards by the end of the year."

ThisisLondon: "Scientists hail British cloning success
By Patrick Sawer, Evening Standard
20 May 2005

Scientists around the world today welcomed a British breakthrough in human embryo cloning which they believe will pave the way to curing diseases such as Alzheimer's and diabetes.

Researchers at Newcastle University have successfully cloned a human embryo, becoming only the second in the world to do so and placing Britain at the forefront of controversial stem cell technology.

The team was the first in Europe to be given the goahead to clone embryos after being granted a licence by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority last year. The clone was created as part of research into treatments for diabetes."

New robots can build other bots, fix themselves | CNET News.com: "New robots can build other bots, fix themselves

Published: May 12, 2005, 6:44 AM PDT

By Reuters
Self-replicating robots are no longer the stuff of science fiction.

Scientists at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., have created small robots that can build copies of themselves.

Each robot consists of several 4-inch cubes that have identical machinery, a computer program for replication, and electromagnets to attach and detach to one another. The robots can bend and pick up and stack the cubes.

'Although the machines we have created are still simple compared with biological self-reproduction, they demonstrate that mechanical self-reproduction is possible and not unique to biology,' Hod Lipson said in a report in the science journal Nature on Wednesday.

He and his team believe the design principle could be used to make long term, self-repairing robots that could mend themselves and be used in hazardous situations and on space flights.

The experimental robots self-replicate by using modules placed in special 'feeding locations.'

The machines duplicate themselves by bending over and putting their top cube on the table. Then they bend again, pick up another cube, put it on top of the first and repeat the entire process. As the new robot begins to take shape it helps to build itself.

'The four-module robot was able to construct a replica in 2.5 minutes by lifting and assembling cubes from the feeding locations,' Lipson said.

The robots, which don't do anything else except make copies of themselves, are powered through contacts on the surface of the table and transfer data through their faces."

RFID | News.blog | CNET News.com: "Tags, you're it in new Vegas casino

With the gala opening-night bash winding down at the Wynn Las Vegas resort, it's time to turn on the chips inside the chips.

The casino inside the new $2.7 billion, 2,700-room blue-tinted structure has adopted high-tech radio tags to help keep track of its betting chips. 'Securitywise, it will be huge for us,' Rick Doptis, vice president of table games for the Wynn, told CNET News.com earlier this year.

Located at the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip, hard by the Bellagio and Treasure Island, Steve Wynn's gaming-and-good-times venue is also just a short walk from the Las Vegas Convention Center, better known in years gone by as the home of Comdex--now canceled for a second straight year. Posted by Jonathan Skillings"

The Four Hundred--RFID: Coming Soon to an Application Near You
: "RFID: Coming Soon to an Application Near You

by Mary Lou Roberts

Unless they hold places as direct links in the Wal-Mart or Department of Defense (DOD) supply chains, most iSeries shops have been sitting back and observing emerging RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Systems) technology with little more than passing curiosity. After all, if there's no behemoth retailer mandating that you put RFID tags on your products by some fast-approaching date, what's the worry?

Heads up. RFID may soon be coming to an application near you. RFID tags--tiny microchips that contain data and 'listen' for a radio signal that causes them to transmit a response--are piquing the imaginations of people in lots of lines of business, some of which are inventive, to say the least.

The first and most pervasive application, of course, is retail. That's the one that's been on the front pages since Wal-Mart (now joined by a number of other companies and the DOD) mandated that all of its suppliers will apply RFID tags at the pallet level. Everything coming into their stores will be read into a database that will track inventory and movement.

But that's old hat now. Let's consider the following other uses to which RFID is being applied:

Companies are attaching RFID tags to a variety of corporate assets, including computers, cell phones, PDAs, printers, and more. Companies like Stratum Global offer software that is designed to tag the assets or equipment, and then provide current location information, auditing and triggers for service and repair requirements.
Hospitals are using RFID tags in patient wristbands to make data more available at the bedside, freeing healthcare workers from additional data entry tasks, and presumably ensuring the validity and consistency of the information being collected.
Healthcare facilities also plan to use RFID for document tracking as well as tracking physical assets through their own supply chains, keeping more accurate watch on their inventories of all sorts of items, from bandages to needles, wheelchairs, bedpans, and more.

The financial industry, as well, is gearing up with RFID applications. According to Kip Jones, chief technologies for nuBridges, banks are using the tiny tags for cash tracking and for tracking bulk money movement. (Anyone thinking of robbing a Brinks truck had best beware. That bag may contain an RFID tag--and you won't be hard to find.)
Jones says that there's even talk of embedding RFID tags into currency (though at a nickel a tag, that application is not very practical right now). RFID-tagged bills, however, would make counting much easier and would certainly help to eliminate counterfeiting."

In this interview Craig Rispin, Business Futurist talks about mass personalisation using a new service call Smile Media.

http://www.smilemedia.com.au


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In this interview with Futurist Craig Rispin, he talks about virtual receptionists from Delacon.com.au


MP3 File

http://www.questionsforthefuture.tv/

This interview with Craig Rispin describes how to get your customers to tell you exactly what they want to buy.

Note: the Votations service has been discontinued, a great alternative is the Ask Database. http://www.askdatabase.com


MP3 File

Scotsman.com News - Latest News - Reprap Machines Would Turn Homes into Factories

Reprap Machines Would Turn Homes into Factories

By John von Radowitz, PA Science Correspondent

A revolutionary British development could one day change the face of manufacturing by turning every home into a factory.

Engineers are working on a machine capable of churning out a host of household items and gadgets, including kitchenware, cameras and even small musical instruments.

Not only would the machine make things out of plastic and metal, it would also fabricate its own component parts.

The “self-replicating rapid prototyper”, or RepRap, will be about the size of a refrigerator.

It could become a reality within four years – and the aim is to make it a universal feature of the home.

RepRap machines could in future render many forms of traditional manufacturing obsolete, according to project leader Dr Adrian Bowyer.

“Four hundred years ago almost every human being was employed in agriculture, and now it’s only a couple of per cent,” said Dr Bowyer, from the University of Bath’s Centre for Biomimetics. “I suspect the same thing is going to happen to manufacturing.”

Computer controlled machines already exist which mass-produce plastic components for industry, such as vehicle parts.

These conventional machines cost about £25,000. Dr Bowyer’s idea is initially to use these machines to make the component parts for his RepRap machine.

These machines can then be programmed to make further copies of themselves. People buying them would then be able to make more copies to sell on.

As the number of RepRap machines grows, their cost is expected to tumble to only a few hundred pounds or less.

Dr Bowyer plans to make the 3D designs and computer code needed for an existing machine to make one of his devices freely available on the internet.

He is not taking out a patent and will not charge a licence fee.

“The most interesting part of this is that we’re going to give it away,” he said.

“At the moment an industrial company consists of hundreds of people building and making things. If these machines take off, it will give individual people the chance to do this themselves. And we are talking about making a lot of our consumer goods.

“The effect this has on industry and society could be dramatic.”

Rapid prototype machines work by fusing together layers of plastic according to a blueprint fed into the computer.

Dr Bowyer’s machine would also be able to incorporate simple metal components and circuits out of an alloy that melts at low temperatures.

The machines could, for instance, make complete sets of coloured and decorated plastic plates, dishes and bowels.

The objects they produce would measure no more than 12 inches in length, width and height. But larger items could be made by simply clipping together smaller manufactured parts.

Glass items, complex parts such as microchips, and anything exposed to intense heat – such as a toaster – could not be directly assembled.

Components the machine is unable to make could easily be added. A basic digital camera could be made with the lens and computer chip bought separately and slotted in later.

Dr Bowyer said the devices would effectively be a form of Universal Constructor, the theoretical self-replicating machine first proposed by mathematician John von Neumann in the 1950s.

He and colleague Ed Sells have already built a simple demonstration robot with an electrical circuit using the technology.

They are now looking for funding for the next stages of development, leading to a programme for making the component parts of a RepRap machine in about four years.

Transforming the whole basis of manufacturing might take as long as 20 years, if it ever happened, said Dr Bowyer.

He admitted there was an anarchistic element to what he was doing.

“Employment will increase, because it’s not employment that creates wealth, it’s wealth that creates employment,” he said.

Channelnewsasia.com: "Samsung unveils six new MP3 players in bid to triple sales




SEOUL: South Korea's Samsung has unveiled six new models of MP3 player to help it triple sales this year.

It aims to sell more than five million MP3 players this year, up from 1.7 million units in 2004.


Samsung, a relatively late comer to the MP3 player business, already has eight models in the fast growing and profitable market.

The six new players from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd should be available in the first half of the year.

They range from a 256 megabyte flash memory type to a 30 gigabyte hard disk drive model capable of holding about 7,500 songs.
"

Technology News: News: Bush Taps Hopkins Physicist to Lead NASA: "Bush Taps Hopkins Physicist to Lead NASA
Bush Taps Hopkins Physicist to Lead NASA

By Marcia Dunn
Associated Press
03/13/05 5:21 PM PT

Prior to taking over the space department at Johns Hopkins, Michael Griffin was president and chief operating officer of In-Q-Tel, a CIA-bankrolled venture-capital organization. Earlier in his career, Griffin worked at NASA as chief engineer and as deputy for technology at the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization.


IBM Workplace Services Express provides an integrated portal, making it easy for people to work together with customizable work spaces. See the four-minute demo: Boost Productivity and Improve Collaboration. Easily and Affordably.

President Bush picked physicist Michael Griffin to lead NASA Latest News about NASA as it prepares to resume space shuttle flights and tries to meet the White House goal of sending astronauts back to the moon in the decade ahead.

If confirmed by the Senate, Griffin would become the space agency's 11th administrator.

Members of Congress on Friday immediately praised the president's choice, as did John Logsdon, director of George Washington University's space policy institute.

'I've known Mike for a long time and have a great deal of respect for him as a kind of innovative thinker, real enthusiast full of energy,' Logsdon said.

'His biggest challenge is convincing Congress that the president's vision should be a national vision, that it's the right way for the program to proceed,' Logsdon added.

Sean O'Keefe left NASA last month after three years in the top job to become chancellor of Louisiana State University. Since then, his deputy, former space shuttle commander Frederick Gregory, has been serving as acting administrator.

For the past year, Griffin has headed the space department at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. It is the lab's second-largest department and specializes in projec"

USATODAY.com - Townes leads life where science and faith coexist

Townes leads life where science and faith coexist
By Robert Tuttle, The Christian Science Monitor
NEW YORK — When Nobel Prize-winning physicist Charles Hard Townes was a professor at Columbia University during the 1950s, a colleague, Willis Lamb, asked him if God ever helps him in the lab. Dr. Townes gave the question some thought. "Well," he recalls telling Lamb. "I think so."

For centuries, scientists and religious scholars have sparred over questions about the workings of the universe. Galileo's espousal of a sun-centered universe, rather than the earth-centered model widely accepted at the time, landed the 16th-century astronomer in court, accused of heresy.

AP
Townes

"I don't think that science is complete at all. We don't understand everything and one can see, within science itself, there are many inconsistencies."

More recently, scientists and religious leaders have disagreed over everything from the big bang theory of the origin of the universe to the teaching of evolution in schools to the debate over stem-cell research.

But even in these often discordant worlds, Townes has found little difficulty in reconciling his Christian faith with the empiricism of scientific inquiry.

"I don't think that science is complete at all," says the 89-year-old physicist. "We don't understand everything and one can see, within science itself, there are many inconsistencies. We just have to accept that we don't understand."

Within the great unknowns of the universe, Townes argues there is ample room for faith in God and His presence in human experience.

On Wednesday, Townes was awarded this year's Templeton Prize for progress or discoveries about spiritual reality. The award includes a cash prize of £795,000 sterling ($1.4 million).

"The real focus of the prize really seems to resonate with Townes's interest for the past 30 years, which is how to break down the barriers between science and religion," says Sir John Templeton, president of the foundation that bears his name and which awards the prize.

The award, Townes says, is "a great honor, but it is also very humbling."

Townes is best known for his groundbreaking research in the 1950s into the amplification of electromagnetic waves, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in physics with two other scientists in 1964. The research eventually led to his invention of the maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission) and later the laser (light amplification by stimulated emission).

Both inventions have had an impact on a range of different scientific and industrial fields. Masers are used to amplify radio waves, and lasers have become commonplace in everything from welding to communications to medicine.

Born in 1915, on a farm in Greenville, S.C., Townes was raised a Baptist. He was immersed in the wonders of the Blue Ridge Mountains near his home.

As a child, he says, he loved to explore the natural world around him, collecting insects and especially butterflies. The marvels of nature, he says, helped spark a curiosity about the universe and man's place within it. To this day, he remains an avid naturalist and accomplished bird watcher.

"I knew I wanted to be a scientist," he says, speaking of his childhood. "Which kind of scientist was the question."

Townes took his first physics class in his sophomore year of college and went on to earn a PhD in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1939.

For much of the next decade, Townes worked on the technical staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York City, where, he says, he once talked about his research with Albert Einstein.

Townes tackled a variety of problems at Bell including microwave generation, vacuum tubes, and solid-state physics.

In 1948, Townes joined the faculty of Columbia University and spent most of the remainder of his professional career in academia, moving to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961 and then to the University of California at Berkeley in 1967.

There he focused on astrophysics, discovering the existence of molecules in interstellar space and a black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

Today he remains on UC Berkeley's faculty, working with graduate students and researching.

"Now, I'm looking at stars," he says, describing his current research interests. "I'm looking at their behavior. Most people don't realize that stars are changing pretty rapidly."

For all his interest in scientific inquiry, Townes says it has never led to a crisis of faith. He exhibits a strong sense of rationalism in his approach to both science and religion.

"He is very interested in the foundations of religion and faith-based concepts and he discusses them in a manner that is very attractive for fellow scientists," says Marvin Cohen, president of the American Physical Society and a close colleague of Townes. "He really thinks before he speaks. If there is an opposite of a loose cannon, that would be Charles Townes."

In 1966, Townes published "The Convergence of Science and Religion," an article that detailed some of his thoughts on the relation between religion and science.

"They are much more similar than people generally accept," Townes says. "Science has faith. We make postulates. We can't prove those postulates, but we have faith in them."

Max wanted to see this in action.

In this interview with Craig Rispin, he describes how to get your customers to tell you exactly what they want to buy.

Thursday January 13, 2005

Broadband: Wireless is no silver bullet
BY EDWIN YAPP

EVERY so often, technology journalists get to witness good news that brings cheer to the country. 

For instance, Internet service provider (ISP) Jaring officially launching its wireless broadband service, targeted at consumers and businesses, on Dec 11 last year. 

The company was first given the nod to run a wireless broadband network last July, and chose US-based Soma Networks Inc as its infrastructure partner. 

The launch was indeed a significant milestone – not merely because Malaysia’s first and oldest ISP can finally provide broadband services to the masses, after more than a decade of providing dialup Internet connections – but because now another ISP has made its foray into broadband service provision. 

Malaysians first experienced broadband surfing in 2001 when TM Net Sdn Bhd rolled out its streamyx service via ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) to consumers. 

Last May, Time dotCom Bhd became the second service provider to launch broadband services, which it did with its wireless solution called Webbit, but only for selected areas in Petaling Jaya. 

TM Net now has 270,000 broadband subscribers, while Time dotCom has garnered about 1,300 subscribers. 

This puts the broadband penetration rate at approximately 1% of the population, according to industry regulator the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). 

Despite this, the Government has expressed disappointment in the broadband take-up rate. 

Reiterating his stand on the matter, Energy, Water and Communications Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik recently said that the country’s broadband penetration rate leaves a lot to be desired. 

“We have a miserable 0.85% broadband penetration rate, compared with 5.5% in Singapore, 3.1% in Australia, 14.6% in Hong Kong and about 22% in South Korea. 

“This is shameful,” he said. 

Wireless to the rescue
The Government regards wireless broadband as a supplementary technology that could help drive broadband take-up (see In.Tech, May 6, 2004), but certain realities must be laid out before anyone gets the idea that it will save the day. 

For starters, although the chief advantage being touted is that subscribers can get hooked up almost immediately after subscribing to the service, the truth is far from that.  

This claim only holds true if you’ve got wireless coverage in the first place. In any wireless system, the service is only as good as its coverage; and coverage expansion can be a thorny issue because there are often problems associated with site and land acquisition for transmission towers in urban areas. 

Jaring plans to launch its service in “significant parts” of the Klang Valley, including Shah Alam, Klang and Damansara in Petaling Jaya, by this month, after which services will be extended nationwide. 

This is easier said that done. Just take a close look at Time dotCom’s experiences with Webbit. 

According to a Time dotCom spokesman, while its initial plan to roll out Webbit to the rest of Klang Valley and other major cities and towns in Malaysia remains, there has been some “schedule change in view of the latest technological developments in the industry.” 

Hence, parts of the Klang Valley still do not have Webbit service; contrary to what the company promised when it first launched Webbit last May. 

Thus, coverage expansion must surely be Jaring’s chief concern as it seeks to build up its network as quickly as possible in the coming months. Failing to roll out network coverage quickly will surely dampen potential subscribers’ enthusiasm. 

Then there is the issue of the service quality. Any RF (radio frequency) system will always be susceptible to variations in environmental conditions, such as foliage scatter, blockage from terrain and buildings, and transmission loss due to diffraction and reflection. 

What this means in practice is that, if the network is not designed and implemented properly, these factors could affect transmission speeds as well as service reliability. 

And today’s increasingly demanding subscribers will only give service providers one chance to deliver a high quality, always available and easy-to-use service. Should Jaring’s wireless services not measure up to consumers’ expectation, take-up rate will be affected. 

Content is king
The above are merely the technical challenges. What about the non-technical ones? 

One issue foremost on my mind is content (or the lack thereof) for the broadband user. 

Broadband may initially excite former dialup users because they can experience the increase in raw download and upload speeds. But just as how the rush after a rollercoaster ride often fades, speed alone will not sustain consumer interest. 

Content and applications must be compelling enough to keep users coming back for more, and they should have a broad reach inspiring everybody – not just the tech-savvy – to hook on to the Net. 

You can’t just build it, and hope they will come, and more importantly, stay on. 

Still, Jaring CEO Mohamed Awang Lah is confident that his company’s broadband service would be well accepted by consumers. 

“Based on global trends, we estimate that 30% of Malaysian subscribers are ready to convert from dialup to high-speed, broadband access,” he told reporters at Jaring’s wireless broadband launch. 

Jaring does have one thing going for it – the fact that it’s bundling free VoIP (Voice-over-Internet Protocol) telephony with its service. 

This, to me, would be a compelling reason why anyone would want to subscribe to a broadband connection, especially after experiencing phenomenal VoIP services such as Skype. 

IMHO, the need to communicate at reduced costs may just be that elusive “killer app” for the broadband world. 

It remains to be seen if Jaring can do what it claims. I, for one, will be rooting for its success, because if Jaring can hit the right chords, it may just unleash a chain reaction that will spur broadband take-up and make all parties – consumers, service providers and policymakers – happy.

TechCentral: Story: "Revisiting R&D focus in 9th Malaysia Plan
By ZAM KARIM

KUALA LUMPUR: The Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry will submit its proposal for the Ninth Malaysia Plan to the Government by the end of February. 

The gist of the proposal would be on 'revisiting' the nation's R&D focus, said its minister Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Mohd Jarjis. 

The ministry is currently in the final stages of drafting its proposal, and is analysing feedback gathered from various industries, including the focus industries: The information technology and biotechnology sectors. 

Jamaluddin said he and his ministry's officials had also visited countries such as Norway, Ireland and India to learn from these countries’ experiences, “so that what we offer investors will be comparable with (what these countries offer).” 

This would lead to the creation of more jobs for Malaysians, and bring more income to the country, he told In.Tech this morning after officially opening HP Malaysia's new headquarters, HP Towers (formerly Wisma Semantan), here. 

Jamaluddin also reiterated the Government's intention to work closely with companies such as Hewlett-Packard to help bridge the digital divide. 

The Government is 're-tuning' its focus from the “One Home, One PC” concept to the “One Home, One PC and One Internet Access” idea. 

“What people failed to see is that the PC and Internet access are two different things,” he said. 

It is important to give people access to the Internet so that they will able to benefit from the World Wide Web's vast resources, he added. 

The Government wants to reduce the cost of an entry-level computing system to half the current RM1,000 price tag. 

'RM500 would be in line with the country's current poverty level,' Jamaluddin said. 

One solution would be to get communities to set up and manage wireless Internet-enabled servers at their community centres; households can then connect wirelessly to the server with low-cost thin clients, or stripped-down PCs that would be 'fed' applications and software from the server. 

The Government wants companies such as HP to work with its agencies such as Mimos Bhd and Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC), Jamaluddin said. 

Sources closed to HP said that the company began talks with MDC immediately after the launch ceremony in which Jamaluddin officiated this morning. 

 

Corporate conscience 

HP Malaysia's Hq was officially opened without the usual fanfare. 

To do its bit for the victims of the Asian Tsunami disaster, the company did not spend lavishly on the HP Towers launch and instead donated the event's initial budget -- plus more from an internal donation drive -- to the Malaysian Red Crescent Society and Mercy Malaysia, via The Star Earthquake/ Tsunami Relief Fund. 

The internal donation drive garnered RM350,000, with HP Malaysia matching contributions ringgit-for-ringgit, topping it off with an additional RM150,000. 

“How can we celebrate with the knowledge that so many out there are in dire need,” said T.F. Chong, HP Malaysia's managing director. 

“It touched me deeply when HP Malaysia employees themselves suggested that we forego our planned event to aid the tsunami survivors,” he added. 

At the regional and global levels, Hewlett-Packard Co has already committed up to US$3mil (RM11.4mil) through direct corporate contributions as well as employee-matching funds. 

However, HP's involvement does not end there. Chong said that the company was also working with the Government to come up with alternative ways to disseminate tsunami-related warnings to the public, but decline to give more information at the moment."

Small tricks, big business

By Rob O'Neill
December 14, 2004
Next

Zoran and Sonia Naumovski in their Sydney Boost franchise. Photo: Natalie Boog

Boost Juice has had a stratospheric rise since it began four years ago, starting a mini-revolution in Australian retailing and opening a niche in healthful food consumption.

It owes its success - which will see it with 175 stores by the end of the year - to a timely idea and the hard work of its franchise lessees, who in turn owe much of their success to Boost's IT systems that smooth their business's operations.

When Zoran and Sonia Naumovski plunked down $120,000 to open their two central Sydney Boost Juice bars this year, IT was as important a consideration as brand and location. They are typical of Australia's 54,000 franchise owners, the economy's backbone of mum-and-dad operators, who need efficient IT systems to run a competitive business.

Sonia, who runs the business day-to-day, rates the group's buying power and IT system consistency, which aids training at both sites, as two significant benefits of being part of the Boost franchise. Boost manages the IT system, which includes a company network so franchise partners have access to critical business systems such as human resources, interstore communication and the supply chain.

"Basically (it) allows us to concentrate on the general operation of the business rather than worrying about the IT side of things," says Zoran. "The current set-up means we can just walk into the business from day one and concentrate on running the business in an efficient and profitable manner rather than getting caught up in IT issues. Training and exposure on the point-of-sale system is provided prior to opening day and can also be obtained by communicating with other partners."

Their story highlights the benefits to be gained by those who dream of owning a business and by independent operators considering joining a franchise. These advantages are in scale and access to services, a powerful brand and marketing machine, bulk buying and technology for competitive advantage.

According to the Franchise Council of Australia - which represents three-quarters of Australia's 800 franchise brands and 54,000 franchise workplaces employing half a million workers - IT plays a growing role in assisting marketing and building the brand.

Council chief executive Richard Evans says that in addition to delivering better systems for accounting and other applications, IT plays a big role in the modern franchise in delivering education and training along with facilitating communications.

"As use of the web increases, franchise systems are seeing webpage development as another arm to their marketing approach," Evans says.

The attraction of a franchise's mature IT systems is not just for new operators such as Zoran and Sonia Naumovski; long-time independent operators such as Sydney motel owner David Osborne are also swayed by the logic of plugging into a big IT provider and its marketing generator.

Osborne joined the Best Western franchise in 2002 after his Paramatta motel in Sydney had been operating independently for more than 25 years. A changing market that no longer favoured the go-it-alone approach lay behind his decision. And technology played a significant role.

"We used to operate through the Yellow Pages and the NRMA directory, and that worked quite successfully for many years," he says. "Travelling sales representatives carried the NRMA guide in their glove boxes."

But then cost-cutting businesses began to tender for all-of-business contracts for accommodation, taking the decision out of the hands of their road warriors. Bookings were more often made through global distribution systems (GDSs) and online and customers were increasingly seeking loyalty programs and rewards.

"We needed to become part of a larger group," Osborne says. He chose Best Western after evaluating its IT systems, brand, marketing, and fees.

"Best Western stacked up as the best option overall," he says, along with infrastructure and development in the US backed by a "pool of money" to develop its IT that smaller Australian operators such as his can't match.

The central IT team has delivered applications that make a difference to his business. On top of cost-effective access to systems, the company has developed an application called Best Cheque to manage commissions paid to travel agents.

As an independent operator, such commissions are a nightmare to process, but Best Cheque allows that to be managed centrally by the group. The result is Osborne's property is more attractive to agencies, he gets more bookings and the administrative hassle of managing agency payments is taken off his plate.

"These services offer us a genuine competitive advantage and enable us to overcome many of the shortcomings associated with a smaller independent operator," he says.

The franchise association still allows Osborne to act independently, too. For instance, the company intranet helps his staff to be aware of tender opportunities for accommodation that Best Western Wesley Lodge can respond to locally as an independent business or through the group, whichever is most appropriate.

Best Western's Australian deputy CEO, Michael Kerr, says delivering IT has been one of the company's biggest challenges over the past four years.

"We had to take advantage of new IT products coming onto the market and encourage the operators to take them up," he says. "We can provide IT infrastructure services they could not afford independently."

Each operator has a micro-site within the group site, linking with the main global distribution systems. Kerr says 40 per cent of bookings are now made through the website.

Operators can take part in deals for communications services and hardware. Support and security are also managed by the franchise.

"We have a sophisticated intranet," he says. "If someone spills ink on a carpet, they can find a fix for it there. There's a lot of business support and training."

In addition, the franchise can view inventory online and help operators set rates and manage their yield. This is one area of which Kerr is particularly proud, with the group managing to increase average yields by 20 to 30 per cent in a static market.

"Any increase in the rate goes 95 per cent to the bottom line," he says.

In Sydney, Bondi real-estate agent Ron Bauer is another former independent small-business owner who says he was "floored by the technology and how it is being adopted and promoted" when he joined the Ray White group.

He feels the IT benefits have provided tangible business benefits to his operations. And it's not just the real-estate agent who benefits - Ray White corporate benefits from increased revenue because all commissions are put through the network instead of being kept on paper or reported manually.

At the customer end, the website is more functional and generates more traffic and sales leads, while internally the intranet and other forms of electronic communications are several steps ahead of what Bauer was used to.

The intranet comes in two parts. The first is Infocentral, which is available to everyone in the Ray White network. Bauer says there is a vast amount of information there, including standard documents, contracts and form letters. The system also includes vertical market websites for Ray White's divisions and other businesses.

Then there is the "principals" site, which is security protected and for proprietors only. "I was floored by that," Bauer says. "There's so much in there and I've really only seen the tip of the iceberg."

Joining the franchise has changed the way Bauer does business: "We had our own ideas about how things should work but we are learning that a lot of what we've done could have been done better and more efficiently."

For accounting and monthly reporting, there is a system called Impact, with all data managed from the franchise head office, where back-up and security are also managed to remove one big headache for the local operators.

According to the group manager of IT, Tom White, Impact is to be replaced with a more web-centric system from New Zealand developer Online Solutions Ltd. The system has already been tested in Ray White offices across the Tasman and proved to be a winner. It will enable access from home and also potentially from client premises.

On top of the Impact change, White and his team of 12 IT staff are working on new tools to manage listings, to present marketing material to property vendors and to deliver real-time market data to help franchisees make decisions about growth.

Bauer is also enthusiastic about the franchise customer relationship management system that tracks buyers and sellers and helps match their needs to produce sales.

White, as the force behind the technology at Ray White Real Estate, has a straightforward philosophy for the delivery of IT services.

"We aim to deliver simple, effective tools for both offices and salespeople to serve a wide range of what they do in the market but not to dictate what they do."

Looking after the family

Boost has ridden the health wave, and in just four years grew from one Adelaide shop to 140 stores throughout Australia and New Zealand. According to BRW's Young Rich edition, founder and former fashion model Janine Allis doubled her net worth last year to $36 million. Earlier this year, the company launched a pilot brand extension, the Boost Health Bar, expanding the juice franchise into the health-food market.

For Boost Juice Bars' IT manager Eddie Tucker, hardware and software support and the selection of a point-of-sale system are the priorities.

"We are keen to make the transition as easy as we can for (franchisees) when joining the Boost family," Tucker says.

Boost's IT service is working on a standard telecommunications and internet package for the group.

"We are looking at providing a bundled telecommunications package whereby Boost, through Telstra, will provide a complete end-to-end managed delivery of telecommunications and internet set-up to provide ease of delivery to new and existing franchisees."

As in any significant business, IT plays an advisory role in discussions across the group to help the business reach its goals. Tucker says his department works with the business but is "firm on system standards and ethics".

The scale of the business is also now delivering purchase breaks for franchisees. "Having a popular brand name carries weight with existing and potential vendors which allows for increased services or reduction in purchased unit prices," Tucker says.

To support its international expansion into New Zealand and next year Dubai, the business must ensure point-of-sale and other systems are compliant with foreign retail trading and governance requirements. -- Rob O'Neill

Franchisee's recipe for business reporting

Some franchisees are so big in their own right, they need to implement their own IT systems. That was the case with Melbourne-based KFC and Pizza Hut operator Southern Restaurants, which owns 58 outlets in Victoria and South Australia.

The company needed to find a system to do dual reporting to manage its Australian June 30 year-end and also November 30 for the US-based franchisors. Southern Restaurants' payroll system also had specific requirements, needing to manage 1200 employees and unique requirements for superannuation, allowances and the movement of casual staff between locations.

CFO Michael Corry says the existing systems were not meeting increasingly complex requirements and the need to access information when it was needed and in the form it was needed. Improved response times, scalability and quality reporting were vital.

The company has chosen software from Australian-based software developer Pronto, which has particular strengths in the retail segment.

The Pronto Xi system is providing integrated functionality with Southern Restaurants and also helps manage more than 60 suppliers.

ONLINE TRAVELER

Ins and outs of finding deals on the Internet

By Darren M. Green
Special to the Tribune
Published December 12, 2004

For those privy to the tricks of the trade, the Web does indeed offer budget-conscious travelers a virtual cornucopia of savings opportunities. Read on to learn the ins and outs of finding travel deals over the Internet.

Hotels

There's no other aspect of travel so fraught with deeply discounted online opportunities. Here's how to do it:

www.quikbook.com--Quikbook combines quantity (searches yield impressive listings), a Web site which is intuitive for beginners, detailed information and photographs, and, most importantly, the best overall average hotel prices in a series of test searches. Honorable mention in this category goes to www.octupustravel.com.

www.hotwire.com--When a specific hotel is not part of the equation, Hotwire gets my nod over its predecessor in this field, www.priceline.com. Enter your parameters (e.g. four-star or better near the river), and Mr. Hotwire spits out a list of heavily discounted options which includes all of the pertinent information except the actual name of the property.

Last-minute deals

According to PhocusWright, an online travel research company, one-third of online travel consumers plan trips within two weeks of departure. The Web sites below offer relief from exorbitant prices for the truant:

www.smarterliving.com--If you're flexible as to date of departure and destination, sign up for the Smarterliving e-mail newsletter, published by one of the true pioneers in discounted online travel. Loads of discounts will find their way to you every week.

www.site59.com--Specializing in package deals for trips booked anywhere from three hours to 14 days prior to departure, Site59 provides the best bang for the buck in finding last-minute online travel specials. Site59 powers the last-minute travel sections for a bevy of 800-pound gorillas in the Internet travel arena (including Yahoo Travel, Travelocity and Orbitz), so they must be doing something right.

www.11thhourvacations.com--The winner of the "best of the rest" category, this Web site, which also offers discounts on cruises and vacation rentals, may be just the ticket if Site59 doesn't cover your particular destination for some reason.

Airfares

While at least partially responsible for the online travel revolution, airfare discount Web sites no longer offer dollar savings to rival those in the above categories. No matter, you may yet squeeze a couple of bucks off the ticket price at these sites.

www.sidestep--The Sidestep comparison engine, which can be downloaded in a couple of minutes, magically appears on the left side of your monitor every time you search for airfares online (be it at an airline Web site, Expedia or another discounter). It takes the search parameters you've entered at your destination Web site and kicks out a list of lowest prices which you can compare to the results generated by the Web site you are visiting. If there's a better deal out there, Sidestep will find it, and all you need to do is click on the relevant link to be transported directly to the purchasing screen at the winning Web site.

www.travelocity.com--Check out the Dream Maps feature if you're simply looking to get away for the cheapest price possible. Enter your airport of departure, and Travelocity will produce a map with the cheapest fare to cities both within and outside of the United States. Simply click on the most interesting fare, and you'll be presented with dates for which such fares are available.

Airline Web sites--While not a very exciting recommendation, it's always worth taking a peek at the airlines' Web sites before booking online.

Packages

Once hailed as the "next big thing" in online travel, this genre hasn't really lived up to its billing. Even though all of the major players have jumped on the bandwagon, evidence of any real savings in booking the whole enchilada at once rather than purchasing flight, hotel and car separately has been difficult to find. Nonetheless, if you count yourself among the legions of time-strapped vacation planners who'd rather click on the purchase link once rather than three times, check out the vacation package tab at www.expedia.com to peruse probably the most impressive listing of allegedly-discounted, all-in-one options.

Cars

Rental cars tend to cost what they cost regardless of where booked, but for those convinced they can beat the system, you may well use www.orbitz.com. Search results are displayed in "matrix" fashion, which makes side-by-side comparison-shopping easier.

Auctions

Yes, auctions. If you just can't seem to find your dream vacation online at the right price, a good last ditch effort is www.skyauctions.com, which lists vacation packages which have sold at auction for as little as $1. Also, www.ebay.com has taken the plunge into the online travel world by offering cruises, vacation packages and loads more to the highest bidder.

The sweet taste of e-commerce success

By Adam Turner
December 7, 2004
Next

Bert Werden... built his WineStar online wine cellar from the back of a Strathmore bottle shop in Melbourne's north. Photo: Simon Schluter

Tucked away in a suburban bottle shop, Bert Werden is a seven-year e-commerce veteran whose site now turns over $4 million a year.

While well-financed competitors such as Foster's WinePlanet - which collapsed in 2001 - burned cash with no hint of return, Werden quietly built his WineStar online wine cellar from the back of a Strathmore bottle shop in Melbourne's north.


WineStar hosts the most popular wine forum outside the US, receiving a million hits a month. But it was uncorked in 1997 as a five-page website with an order form.


"A guy who used to come in here and buy Jim Beam-and-cola cans said we should go online," Werden says.


"I designed our first website in Excel but we still found people actually using it, which amazed us because we were just piss-farting around at this stage. It went from fortnightly inquiries to weekly inquiries to daily inquiries, so we thought we should look at the full e-commerce bit."


Back then, e-commerce was touted as a business revolution. Anybody, anywhere could sell anything to anyone - eliminating superfluous costs such as shopfronts and sales forces. From the selling of car parts to automotive giants to getting text books into school kids' backpacks, in this electronic grand bazaar anyone could hang out their shingle and be a global player.


Expectations soared with the share prices of the newly listed online retailers (e-tailers) as they built lavish cyber shopfronts for consumers. Online business-to-business marketplaces were also constructed so organisations could screw down their suppliers on the prices of everything from stationery to semiconductors.


No idea was too ambitious, no business plan too sketchy - build it and they will come.


But often, no one came.


An example is winepros.com.au, which is about to be used by wine group Cheviot Bridge for a backdoor listing on the Australian Stock Exchange, five years after the original e-tailer raised $25 million in capital and three years after it went into voluntary liquidation.


Another was Werden's chief competitor, Foster's, which closed down WinePlanet after its bricks and mortar retailers revolted - but not before it dropped nearly $100 million into the venture. It was joined in the same year by bottleshop.com.au, which burned $405,000 in two years.


But it is not all doom. After a hard couple of years Australia's wider business community is embracing the internet after watching the rise and fall of many e-commerce startups.


Half of small business and 40 per cent of medium-sized business are now taking orders online, according to the Sensis 2004 e-Business Report. The past year saw many more shop online - the proportion of small businesses buying goods and services jumped from 45 per cent to 55 per cent and medium businesses rose from 64 per cent to 74 per cent.


Capitalising on this trend, online marketplace corProcure - formed from 14 shareholders including Pricewaterhouse¿Coopers and Telstra - has turned 90 degrees from when it was conceived as a massive buying group for Australia's blue chips. Australia Post bought the flailing online marketplace to be a foundation for its e-commerce platform.


After sifting through the e-commerce graveyard to see where others went wrong, Australia Post's corProcure product manager Karyn Welsh shifted the marketplace's focus from blue chip giants to medium and large-sized companies.


It's a lesson that might have saved corProcure competitor Cyberlynx, which looks set to implode after it emerged last week that five of the seven founding companies will abandon a marketplace that was supposed to generate $9 billion a year in transactions. "The biggest corporates have buying power in their own right, but the medium to large companies don't have so much power and so only by participating in a collective buying group can they achieve similar savings," Welsh says.


corProcure's downfall was a lack of direction, with "14 shareholders pulling it in 14 directions," she says.


"The technology was fine - it was like having a Rolls-Royce motor but no body, so we had to build the body around it."


Fear of missing the e-commerce wave drove the construction of many online marketplaces, but poor management led to their downfall, says Ariba's Asia Pacific managing director, Peter Stavroff.


Ariba builds electronic procurement systems for online marketplaces and itself rode the e-commerce roller coaster but survived by expanding into services and training.


"On paper you'd look at corProcure and say, "That's just got to work', but it was an absolute dud," Stavroff says.


"To get multiple stakeholders to agree on the same thing across multiple businesses is almost impossible - that's really the bottom line. I think a lot of people were blurry-eyed about the hype and there were people making decisions who didn't know what they were doing."


And with in excess of $50 million a year now passing through corProcure, Australia Post's Welsh says e-commerce wasn't a failure, it just failed to match the hype.


At the peak of the e-commerce hype, WineStar was quoted $50,000 to build an e-commerce website. Werden resisted the temptation to build an expensive site in the hope customers would come and instead bought a $200 off-the-shelf e-commerce package. He customised the package himself and also started an online wine forum for customers, which he follows closely to predict sales trends.


Four years after the dotcom bubble burst, and having outlived well-financed competitors, Werden says overcoming the impersonal nature of shopping online is key.


"I think we've succeeded because we've made an impersonal medium quite personal with features such as the forum," Werden says. "Now we need to build on this by winning over the older market - those in their 50s and over who may be comfortable using email and the web but haven't embraced e-commerce."


Despite the demise of so many online business ventures, e-commerce is not a failure and most of those which survived the dotcom mania are turning a profit, says Forrester Research vice-president John McCarthy.


E-commerce rode the wave of dotcom hype and was unceremoniously dumped when it failed to reach unrealistic expectations, McCarthy says.


"I don't think e-commerce failed - like anything else, the people who understood what their target market was and had a viable business plan survived," he says.


"As for the 'Field of Dreams' approach - build it and they will come - that was just crazy. A bad idea is still a bad idea no matter how much money you throw at it."


The new Brisbane owners of dStore, one of the darlings of Australia's short-lived dotcom love affair, have taken heed from the lessons of the past four years. In 2001, while in receivership, dStore was bleeding $300,000 a month, which was less than it was losing when it was trading because of a technology and business model that saw the cost of filling an order rise to more than what the consumer paid.


Under HotShed, dStore turned its first profit after only nine months, says HotShed and now dStore chief executive, Andrew Cooper.


"When dStore was launched we looked at it and thought it was amazing but everyone's expectations of e-commerce were far too high," Cooper says.


dStore's downfall was due to a weak technology platform and poor marketing, he says, and HotShed acquired it for the chance to showcase its own e-commerce platform.


"A lesson that we've taken out of dStore is that we gear our advertising towards finding those consumers that do shop online rather than trying to convert consumers into online shoppers," Cooper says.


"dStore is a profitable business now, it's just nowhere as big as the original investors intended it to be."


Similarly, the challenge to resuscitate Melbourne e-tailer Wishlist fell to Australian dotcom veteran Adrian Finlayson.


As the industry went from boom to bust, Finlayson took on the task of turning around Wishlist. He shed almost three-quarters of his 120 staff when it became obvious the world was not beating a path to the door.


"That was certainly a massive low point for the business,'' Finlayson says. "Wishlist got caught up in the hype - there's no doubt about it. In those days the business was building for massive growth and the expectations were set for growth of 200 or 300 per cent per annum."


An e-commerce consultant during the excesses of the late 1990s, Finlayson was snapped up by software developer FreeMarkets in 2000 to run their Australasian operations after a stock market frenzy saw its share price peak at $US370 ($A474).


"People spent too much money building solutions they didn't need; you spend money in a different way when the market throws money at you and expects you to grow quickly," he says.


The most successful businesses now build solutions slightly behind their needs rather than anticipating, he says.


"In today's environment, I don't know of any successful business that builds on the belief that they will come. E-commerce does fundamentally change the way people do business, whether it was back then or now, but now the market has a different perception of the value of that change and of how quickly you should grow within that change."


It is a formula that served WineStar well. It has a growing customer base and Werden has turned his attention to the building phase. Preparing to fight off the next onslaught from online competitors, he hopes to move WineStar from the back room into its own premises and modernise the inventory system.


"Strathmore Cellars and WineStar are getting in each other's way," Werden says.


"The retail giants such as Woolworths and Coles Myer are eventually going to make another big push and that will be our biggest challenge."


Andrew Spicer


chief executive, WebCentral Group, Australia's biggest web host.


Broadband is enabling a second wave because it is more convenient.


The rise of micro-markets - online sole traders akin to the stallholders at weekend markets - on sites such as eBay and Amazon has led to the rise of a new class of entrepreneur. These small, home-operated stores, specialising in categories such as jewellery, are made possible because of the improved quality of shopfront software and mature e-commerce payment security options such as credit-card processing and PayPal.


Women have found goods and services online that appeal, and that broadens the market.


The financial services and entertainment sectors are getting their collective act together. I wouldn't want to be a video store owner with Telstra's video download service letting people people download what they want.


Government is speeding its use of e-commerce providing tenders, documents, forms and other information online.


We will see an acceleration in e-commerce in the next year, but it won't be at the bubble level.


Len Augustine


Marketing director, SAP, business software developer


Integration between the website that the customer accesses and the back-end warehouse is becoming huge. Even small entrepreneurial companies that sold online overlooked how to get the product out of the warehouse and into their customers' hands, but that is much of the cost.


The big challenge in Australia was finding a logistics provider to deliver at a time convenient to the consumer. Businesses are using their relationship with SAP to smooth the process of doing business with each other.


The transport and logistics companies had to put in systems to track pallets, which would often get left in yards at the other ends of Australia.


Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in 10 years make an amazing difference to the supply chain. You will plan and execute a supply-chain delivery using real-time data. Leaving the RFID chip alive as it enters the consumer supply chain, you can do more interesting things, such as a "smart shelf" that queries the warehouse and then supplier to see if a good is in stock and, if not, how long it will take to get it to the consumer.


Bruce McCabe


Managing director and analyst, S2 Intelligence, independent analysis firm


We will see a steady increase in volumes of online sales, but it's not explosive any more.


The most important driver of change in the online buying experience is as the "semantic web", where contextual information is added to products and services to help us better search for them.


The next is the ability to be able to find things based on their geographic location, such as what Sensis is now attempting to tie together, but that may be more like a 20- to 30-year process.


Another aspect is trust and security, which has developed slower than we would have thought five years ago, because consumers don't understand these issues.


Demographics play a big part, as youngsters who didn't have credit cards five years ago now do and grew up with shopping online.


Over the last year Australian businesses found B2C delivered the most value but next year they are cranking up their B2B projects, improving the ways businesses interact with each other and streamlining their supply channel

Nano-based products starting to have consumer impact
By Linda A. Johnson, Associated Press

TRENTON, N.J. — For a science that's about manipulating substances at the molecular level, nanotechnology is starting to bring big profits to many consumer product makers.

Gaze deeply into the tennis ball held by Harris A. Goldberg, president and chief officer of InMat; it has an interior nanotech coating.

Mike Derer, AP

Already, nanoscience has produced stain- and wrinkle-resistant clothing, self-cleaning windows, glare-reducing and fog-resistant coatings for eyeglasses and windshields, dramatically increased computer memory, better sports equipment, improved cosmetics and sunscreens, and lighter, stronger auto components.

What's next? More user-friendly cell phones, longer-lasting batteries, lighter car tires that retain air longer, better imaging techniques for diagnosing disease, drugs more precisely targeted to limit side effects, faster consumer electronics, perhaps even cheaper beer made with "nano yeast," experts say.

Fortune 500 companies from General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co. and IBM to Motorola, Sony, DuPont and 3M are making big investments in nanotechnology to improve medicine, computer components, electronic toys, microelectronics, photovoltaic systems, cosmetics and flat-panel displays for TV and video screens. Some products are already on store shelves.

"Nanotechnology is in the process of revolutionizing consumer technology," said Dave Bishop, president of the New Jersey Nanotechnology Consortium. "It's really a transformational technology, like transistors were."

Nanotechnology takes its name from the nanometer — one-billionth of a meter — about 80,000 times less than the diameter of a human hair. By manipulating substances from one to several hundred nanometers thick, scientists and manufacturers can take advantage of magnetic, electronic or optical properties not present at normal size.

But unlike the nanotechnology done in "clean room" labs, where devices are sometimes assembled atom by atom under electron microscopes, manufacturers basically use the principles of chemistry, aided by careful control of conditions such as temperature and pressure, to make molecules assemble themselves precisely, yet economically, with desired attributes.

"This is something with huge revenue potential," predicted Bishop, who heads nanotechnology research at Bell Labs, the research arm of telecom gear maker Lucent Technologies Inc. of Murray Hill, N.J.

Estimates of nanotechnology's financial impact range from about $20 billion to $50 billion in revenues today, jumping to as much as $1 trillion by 2010 and more than $2 trillion by 2015.

Lux Research, a New York consulting company focused on nanotechnology, forecasts products incorporating nanotechnology by 2014 will account for $2.6 trillion worth of products — 15% of global manufacturing output.

"There are really a lot of products out there. People just have a low awareness of them," said Matthew Nordan, vice president of research at Lux.

"What (companies) want to focus on is the end benefit to the consumer," such as improvements to cars or fabrics, said Gretchen McNeely, research manager for publisher Small Times Media, which covers the business of micro and nanoscale technology.

While some consumer advocates have questioned nanotechnology's safety, David Luzzi, co-director of The Nanotechnology Institute in Philadelphia, and Clayton Teague, director of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office, say there's no evidence of serious danger for the general public. People have been encountering nano-sized particles for years in the form of exhaust from cars, furnaces and power plants, toner particles from copier machines, even molecules containing the active ingredients of drugs, they said.

Most nanotechnology applications are not seen to pose a risk, but that is being carefully studied by federal, academic and industrial researchers, Teague said.

Nanotechnology began showing up in consumer products, notably cosmetics and sunscreens about 10 years ago, McNeely said. But it technically dates to decades before. For example, catalytic converters, put on cars since the 1970s, use platinum-rhodium particles to convert pollutants into safe gases.

Fast-forward a few decades, and now nanoparticles are in a broad range of consumer products, from food packaging to sporting goods.

At Chicago-based Wilson Sporting Goods, the nCode — "n" for nanotechnology — line of high-end tennis rackets launched in June already is the top new racket in the world, said Wilson spokesman Jon Muir. Injecting silicon oxide particles into voids in the graphite frame makes it stronger.

"It adds stability and it also enhances the life of the frame" and adds power to each stroke, Muir said.

In 2002, Wilson came out with "Double Core" tennis balls, now the top-selling balls in Europe. Inside is an ultrathin coating of a clay composite material, made by InMat Inc. of Hillsborough, N.J., to make balls retain air better, giving a more consistent bounce and longer life, said company president Harris Goldberg.

InMat has developed variations with other potential applications, including chemical protective gloves and food packaging to keep out oxygen so products like meat and cheese stay fresh longer.

"These are all water-based coatings, so there's no environmental hazard," Goldberg said.

BASF of Mount Olive, N.J., uses nanotechnology to deliver on its motto, "We make a lot of products you buy better," said spokesman Timothy Fitzpatrick.

Its most popular nanotech-based products include high-SPF ultraviolet absorbers for sunscreen and for fibers for clothing, high-durability pigments for plastics and coatings, and polymer dispersions for exterior paints, coatings and adhesives, he said.

Clothing maker Levi Strauss & Co. of San Francisco in fall 2002 came out with Dockers pants that use DuPont Teflon stain defender to keep spills out of the fabric, said spokeswoman Andrea Corso.

"Since then, everybody has it out, all the way up to high-end designers," including Prada, she said.

Corso said about 40% of Dockers women's and men's classic and premium clothes now have stain defender or other nanotechnology, such as the Perspiration Guard line that draws moisture from the body and spreads it across the fabric to dry out faster.

Nano-Tex of Greensboro, N.C., makes nanotech-based textile treatments that resist spills, dry synthetic fabrics quicker or give synthetics the look and feel of cotton. Spokesman Dan Stevens said more than 20 million garments using its treatments have been sold this year. Major customers include Gap, Eddie Bauer, Nordstrom, Brooks Brothers, Nike, Old Navy, Perry Ellis and Tommy Hilfiger.

At IGI in Buena, N.J., a maker of fat-based microcapsules to enclose moisturizers and other ingredients, about 75% of its $3.6 million annual revenues comes from its nanotech "Novasome" capsules, which can deeply penetrate skin and don't degrade while on the shelf. Chief executive Frank Gerardi said top customers include Johnson & Johnson, for its Neutrogena skincare line, Estee Lauder, for Renutriv, Resilience and other product lines, and Chattem, which buys menthol Novasomes to cover its IcyHot Sleeve pain relievers to make them work hours longer.

According to a May 2004 National Science Foundation report, a survey of manufacturers found 28% already were selling nanotechnology products late last year and another 15% expected to introduce commercial products within a year.

By Alan Kohler
Analysis
August 24, 2004 - 3:51PM

Over the weekend we learnt that Rupert Murdoch thinks the next media revolution will be personal video recorders, which are basically a cross between VCRs and computers, in which the TV programs are recorded on a big internal hard drive instead of videotape.

One always is inclined to pay attention to Rupert Murdoch's musings on the future of the media, but perhaps the most interesting thing about PVRs is that we can't buy them, even though they have been on sale in America for four years.

Murdoch's Foxtel plans to introduce them next March - a total delay of about five years, if it's the first to sell them.

Why the hold-up? Answer: PVRs have been kept out of Australia by a TV network conspiracy.

That's because they allow advertisements to be easily skipped, either when you are recording or playing back.

They also improve the efficiency of recording TV in general by using electronic program guides (EPGs) to help preset the recorder weeks ahead, but the main thing is ad-skipping. "Ad-free TV" is the promise.

In the US, TV networks were unable to prevent PVRs. A device called TiVo has become a cult product and is selling well for $US99.99 ($A138).

In Australia the networks have blocked them. TiVo has been trying to get into the Australian market but failed. Go to the local Harvey Norman or JB Hi-Fi and you won't find a PVR.

To operate effectively, PVRs need electronic program guides so they can hunt for shows you want to record; without EPGs they are just VCRs with more storage.

The TV networks control who gets program guides in Australia because the courts here apply a different copyright law to that in America. A seminal case called Telstra v Desktop Marketing, in which Telstra prevented that company reusing the White Pages, has resulted in copyright in Australia applying to raw data.

In America, thanks to a case called Feist v Rural Telephone, there needs to be creative addition for copyright to apply.

A Sydney-based listed company called HWW Ltd, controlled by Stephen Wall, has a licence to distribute electronic versions of TV guides in Australia. Its contracts with the TV networks explicitly prevent it from selling the guides to anyone who plans to use them in PVRs. In the contracts, the networks assert copyright over the guides, although this has not been tested in court.

Chief executive Paul Marshall says he gets at least five requests a month to use the program guides in PVRs. He refuses them all.

Another company in Sydney, Faulconbridge, using the brand name ICE and run by Peter Vogel, believes it has found a way around this.

Vogel collects TV guide information from a variety of public sources, including newspapers and websites, and is planning to launch a service for PVR owners in two weeks' time, providing EPGs over a wireless data network for $2 a week.

He says his legal advice is that copyright does not attach to his EPG, but he is preparing for a big legal battle anyway. He believes, with good reason, that the TV networks will move heaven and earth to stop him.

But the thing they really want to stop is not so much his EPG service, which might actually get people to watch more TV, but his fiendish added extra: for $1 a week Peter Vogel will also notify your PVR, using the wireless data network, when the ads start and finish.

This means that when the PVR is recording a program, it can stop recording during the ads (this is what TiVo machines do in the US). When you play it back - no ads!

The implications of this for TV networks are obvious. In the US, TiVo has produced a trend towards product placement in TV shows instead of traditional ads, because so many people are zapping them. There are some who believe that the only viable long-term television business model is now subscription (which is why Rupert Murdoch is excited).

Even without Peter Vogel's ad-notification service there is trouble for the networks.

I found a business in Melbourne called DVRs Direct, run by Nigel Trinca, selling digital PVRs through a website. He sells 14 brands from Korea and Taiwan at $500 to $1500.

Most of them, says Trinca, can be programmed to automatically skip the ads, but he doesn't want to take on the networks. Instead, his machines fast-forward in 30-second jumps. So you press it five times for five 30-second ads, which takes about five seconds, and the ads are gone.

Yesterday I went into a JB Hi-Fi store. There were a few hard-drive video recorders for sale (they're not PVRs without EPGs) that have varying ad-skipping abilities. One fast-forwards very quickly; another goes in 10-second jumps. All of them are more efficient at zapping the ads than any VCR.

And that's the basic problem for the networks: the principle of fast-forwarding is no different to the VCRs we are all used to, and the recordable DVDs that are on the market now.

It's just that PVRs are much better at it, and can do it automatically, while they record.

Foxtel and Rupert Murdoch, meanwhile, have an interesting decision to make with their own PVRs next March: what sort of fast-forward/ad-skipping do they allow? (Five per cent of Foxtel's revenue comes from ads and Kerry Packer owns 25 per cent of the business.)

Will it be just the usual rolling fast-forward, or 10-second skips, or 30-second skips, or automatic ad-zapping?

I asked Foxtel this question yesterday - a spokesman said it hadn't decided yet. But he understood the significance of the decision.

If Peter Vogel wins his forthcoming battle and other PVRs have the full ad-skipping function, anything less from Foxtel would make its PVRs less attractive to the market, but threaten 5 per cent of revenue.

The networks and Foxtel have done well to hold back the tide for four years, but they can't do it forever.

Whoops, I forgot - this is Australia. Maybe they can.

This story was found at: http://smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/24/1093246514861.html

VoIP gaining ground, despite cost concerns - Computerworld: "oIP gaining ground, despite cost concerns
Users see benefits in the networking technology

News Story by Matt Hamblen

AUGUST 13, 2004 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Interest in voice-over-IP projects at U.S. businesses remains keen, according to analysts, and several companies are moving ahead with plans to install such systems.

For example, The Boeing Co. said last month that it plans to install 150,000 VoIP phones and related networking equipment from Cisco Systems Inc. (see story). In March, IBM outlined plans to provide VoIP phones to about 400,000 of its employees and contractors over the next five years using gear from Avaya Inc., Cisco and Siemens AG (see story). And SouthTrust Bank in Birmingham, Ala., has installed a VoIP system, based mainly on Cisco gear, in 825 branches in the Southeast over the past three years. The system has saved the bank millions of dollars and has reduced annual communication costs by 30%, said Stanley Adams, SouthTrust's group vice president of network services."