The trend of looking for commonalities and overlapping interests is emerging in many parts of both academia and business. At the ultrasmall nanoscale examination of a cell, researchers say, the disciplines of biology, chemistry and physics begin to collapse in on each other. In a broader search for patterns, students of the statistical computing language known as R have used methods of counting algae blooms to prove patterns of genocide against native peoples in Central America. Online marketers look at your behavior in a number of contexts to sell you something you may not even know you wanted.

While it is attractive to contemplate the way everything may become connected to everything else, it presents a number of large challenges. The lab research model has been important for over a century in both scientific advancement and product development; soon it may also have to accommodate a search for truth based only on pattern-spotting. Nearer term, companies will have to make tough choices about where to invest and which signals to watch. Trying to do everything will still amount to doing nothing.

NYT blog.

Mobile devices are decreasing the information-accessibility gap in disadvantaged areas. In five years, the gap will be imperceptible as growing communities use mobile technology to provide access to essential information. New solutions and business models from IBM are introducing mobile commerce and remote healthcare, for example. Recorded messages can be transmitted to quickly deliver valuable information about weather and aid to remote or illiterate users who haven’t had ready access before.

Seems doable, unless governments get really stupid. I recently found that according to the ITU, St Helen’s is the only territory without mobiles. With a population of 5,000, this British colony makes little difference. There are, unfortunately some large countries in the bottom five, including Myanmar and Eritrea.

Lowest mobile SIMs/100

It turns out that the initial “data wall,” as it is called, offers a series of displays culled from “live data streaming,” some from sensors around Lincoln Center. The snaking line of light that streams across the wall, for example, is a representation of the movement of traffic along Broadway and Columbus Avenue as it is tracked by a specially mounted camera. When the flow is thwarted by red lights or traffic, the line leaps out of its straightforward progress and curves and twists into visual knots.

The other display showing seepage and spillage is the result of robotic monitoring, not near Lincoln Center, but along the Delaware Aqueduct that carries water into New York City from upstate reservoirs; sensors have revealed continual leaks that lose a substantial amount of water every day.

So we are watching representations of complex phenomena: the flow of traffic and of water.

We have open data sets, but they are just there. How can we make them more usable and truly open? This is something we need to grapple with once the Teleuse@BOP4 data are brought under control.

Sri Lanka retained its position at 12 while China moved to 5, from 13 a year earlier.

“China is continuing its ascent as a services destination, and confirms it should not be considered anymore “merely” the world’s factory,” the report said.

“Sri Lanka is another Asian country that has succeeded in positioning itself as an alternative to India.”

Several Sri Lankan firms are engaging in the high-end of the market in the so-called ‘knowledge processing outsourcing’ of KPO sector.

Sri Lanka has been competing for outsourcing business for several years under the shadow of a 30-year war which increased risk. In 2009 a war ended and the country is looking forward to increasing services investments in particular.

I.B.M. will supply the computing technology and services for an upgraded cellphone network across 16 nations in sub-Saharan Africa. Its customer is India’s largest cellphone operator, Bharti Airtel, which paid $9 billion a few months ago for most of the African assets of Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Company, or Zain.

Under the 10-year agreement, I.B.M. will handle customer service for Bharti and provide the hardware, software and services to run everything from billing and call-traffic management to delivering new services like music and video. The deal takes the broad partnership between Bharti and I.B.M., begun in 2004, beyond India. I.B.M. is not disclosing the dollar size of the deal, but analysts estimate it at more than $1.5 billion over the decade-long span.

On Wednesday, Big Blue announced it has signed a $9.6 million contract with International Broadband Electric Communications to bring the technology to rural America where it hopes to deliver high-speed broadband connectivity to millions of people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to get it. IBM and IBEC, which will build and manage the networks, are working with over a dozen electricity cooperatives in seven states, The Wall Street Journal reported.

For years, people have hoped broadband-over-power line technology, or BPL, would allow power companies to become the third alternative in the broadband market, competing against cable operators and telephone companies. But technical limitations and interference issues with local emergency radios and short-wave ham radios have stood in the way of mass adoption.

In recent years, new modulation techniques supported by other technological advances have helped BPL evolve. Most services today are capable of delivering between 512Kbps and 3Mbps of throughput, which is comparable to most DSL offerings.

In rural areas in particular, BPL technology could finally bring high-speed Internet access to people who otherwise couldn’t get it. Traditional phone and cable companies often find it too expensive to deploy new infrastructure to provide service to the far reaches of rural America.

Read the full story in CNET here.

Serving the needs of tech-savvy customers will be crucial for banks to stay competitive as the collective income of baby boomers’ children is expected to surge over the next 10 years and exceed that of their parents.

So far, though most major banks offer mobile banking, 89% of consumers don’t use their cellphones to conduct banking transactions, according to the study by IBM’s retail banking consulting practice.

The study found that 21% of consumers ages 18-34 use their cellphones for banking transactions, compared with about 10% of the general population. These numbers, particularly for younger consumers, are expected to grow significantly.

Read the full story in USA Today here.

We try to walk the talk at LIRNEasia, but obviously we can be more systematic about it.   Here is brilliant idea from IBM, which may be too complicated for an outfit that is still 12-14 people depending how the counting is done.  But still worth thinking about.

I.B.M. Plan Ties Training and Accounts – New York Times

Under the I.B.M. plan, the employee decides how and when to spend the money, held in an interest-bearing account. When an employee leaves I.B.M., the individual takes the account.

Companies have long paid for employee education and training. Indeed, I.B.M. spends more than $600 million a year on worker education programs. Yet such spending is typically to upgrade a person’s skills for their next job with the company.

“This is truly path breaking,” said Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a professor at the Harvard business school. “The significance is that it’s controlled by the individual. I’m not aware of any other major corporation doing that, as opposed to programs that are part of some career scheme that the company has in mind.”

Powered by ScribeFire.

The project is the largest of a new breed of wireless networks being built across the country. They are taking advantage of the falling cost of providing high-speed Internet access over radio waves as opposed to cable or telephone lines.

The project will cover 1,500 square miles in 38 cities in San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and Santa Cruz Counties, an area of 2.4 million residents. Its builders, going by the name Silicon Valley Metro Connect, said the service would provide free basic wireless access at speeds up to 1 megabit a second — which is roughly comparable to broadband speeds by telephone — in outdoor areas. Special equipment, costing $80 to $120, will be needed to bolster the signal enough to bring it inside homes or offices.

Full story.

The last few posts from the previous thread are posted below for continuity.

1. 196 Harsha Purasinghe on Jul 11th, 2006 at 9:08 am edit
   Dharma,I think I have mentioned this in one of my earlier posts. (which is not visible now, beleive it’s archived)The ideal situation for all of us should have been Standard been established long time ago, and technical implementations of the same happened at that time so by now all of us use standardized sinhala on whatever platform each of us use. If somone either Donald, JC, University or a consortium established the Sinhala standard at that time we will not have these arguments (with technical implementations). I am not in a position to answer the delays behind Sinhala standardization.

   Let me repeat this again I am not defending anyone or any masters as we dont work for anyone. But we followed the Sinhala Unicode and technically implemented it for various use of Sinhala in MS & Mobile Platforms. Same thing I beleive people like Linux, MS, IBM, Orcale will be doing.

   The technical implementation of finalized unicode standard was started about 1 – 1/2 years ago, if am not mistaken so it will take some time to see all these things in place in the marketplace. Windows will support this in Vista, Linux already supports, Oracle supports Sinhala Unicode and so does many other technical implementations. Win XP supports Sinhala Unicode through an enabling pack however the best implementation for MS will arrive with VISTA.

   I think the big mistake ICTA is doing is sleeping rather than coming out and showcasing these solutions to what’s available to general public. If they organize a forum and mini-exhibition to showcase all Sinhala Unicode compliant products/services including emailing among platforms, cut & paste to what not, we can invite all these forum members to showcase the same. Perhaps the same forum can be used to arrange a debate/questioning about the Unicode!

   Newspapers
   ————-
   The best people to answer would be people from ANCL, Wijeya, and Upali where there are 2 people from these organizations who were in the Unicode Task Team if am not mistaken. So they should come and highlight why the papers are not Unicode complaint yet. I dont see an issue but beleive it’s all internal matters which they among themselves needs to finalize.

   Dharma for you to see respective Sinhala Unicode based websites in your PC without downloading, you may have to wait for VISTA where you upgrade to it. Even if another standard get’s established there is no way it will just get established in your PC magically. It applies to JC, Donald and whowever who builds another standard, font or way of working in Sinhala. That too has to be technically accomplished.

   Finally, if it was Donald’s standard which is been accepted by ALL (MS, Linux, Oracle, Googls to local acedamia and private software companies to government) sometime ago we would have implemented the same. But everyone agreed and accepted to work on Sinhala Unicode (SLSI1134) hence we too have established the same to ensure inter operability and also since it’s feasible to technically implement.

2. 197 Donald Gaminitillake on Jul 11th, 2006 at 9:39 am edit
   Dear HarshaWhy you always aviod the question. Just going round and round.I have never said UNICODE is wrong but what you registered with unicode consortium is incomplete Sinhala. The whole problem is this.This was pointed out by me and the Sri Lanka association of Printers on the public hearing. 20 odd group incl VKS over ruled us and registered the incomplete set of Sinhala in the UNICODE.(SLSI1134)

   We do have a problem in implementing Sinhala

   Please confirm whther you have a hidden “union” of character table apart from the few characters registered in the unicode = Slsi1134.

   “yes” or “no”

   Even Harsula avoid this question. This was posted last week.(160 and 163 )
   Linux group have proved that there is a”union” .

   Donald Gaminitillake
   Colombo

3. 198 Dharma Gamage on Jul 11th, 2006 at 9:42 am edit
   Harsha,[quote]
   The best people to answer would be people from ANCL, Wijeya, and Upali where there are 2 people from these organizations who were in the Unicode Task Team if am not mistaken. So they should come and highlight why the papers are not Unicode complaint yet.
   [unquote]Yes, the best person to answer this question is Mr. Naveendra Gunaratne from Wijeya Newspapers, who was in the original Sinhala fonts task team and left thoroughly disappointed, because his concerns were never taken seriously by Gihan, Dino and the rest of the team, who had their own agendas. (The ANCL man was only a puppet.)

   However, I do not see any logical reason why any newspaper company should shift to Unicode compatible platform.

   As I said before, if the Unicode supporters want to make Unicode Sinhala, a standard they should first have enough applications to attract users. As long as they do not, the newspapers will use what will bring them better results. The business leaders take decisions based on market.

   Newspapers do not use Oracle or Linux. All they wanted is good font sets to be used in the publishing environment and perhaps relevant applications.

   You cannot force anybody to use Unicode compatible Sinhala fonts sets, if that does not given any advantage over the rest. You cannot hold a gun at the head of a press baron and threaten him to use Unicode.

   Finally, have you seen anywhere that VISTA will support Sinhala? I have not and given what had happened in the past, I have strong doubts about that.

4. 199 Donald Gaminitillake on Jul 11th, 2006 at 12:26 pm edit
   Dear DharmaThe problem is what Sri Lanka registered with Unicode was a limited set of Sinhala characters.The first person in Sri Lanka who made a Sinhala font is Mr Ravi Peiris now at Ingrin

   Since there is no set of full Sinhala characters registered either in SLSI or in Unicode the software developers are deprived to make any software for sinhala.

   Only I have done and published this document with code points. Since this was done by me in private capacity I do have the copyrights and a patent is pending.

   The code points which are outside the unicode registered area is kept under a blanket called a “UNION” and this list was never published. The content in this “union” differ from one font maker to the other.

   As I have previously mentioned in 178
   Quote
   Only a part is registered balance kept inside a unpublished “union”. Who ever hid these codepoints may had a commercial venure –a monopoly — in the mind or deprive the people in lanka of Sinhala IT education. IT only open for the english speaking group.
   Unquote

   Donald Gaminitillake
   Colombo

5. 200 Dharma Gamage on Jul 11th, 2006 at 2:39 pm edit
   Donald/JC,What I cannot understand is, if these guys are so sure about Unicode and SLS 1134, why they waste their time in this forum arguing with you people.Why they have to sell Unicode/SLS 1134 so hard if that is the only solution, as they claim?

Click here for full article [registration required]

By Saritha Rai, New York Times, June 5, 2006
BANGALORE, India, June 4 — The world’s biggest computer services company could not have chosen a more appropriate setting to lay out its strategy for staying on top.
On Tuesday, on the expansive grounds of the Bangalore Palace, a colonial-era mansion once inhabited by a maharajah, the chairman and chief executive of I.B.M., Samuel J. Palmisano, will address 10,000 Indian employees. He will share the stage with A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, India’s president, and Sunil Mittal, chairman of the country’s largest cellular services provider, Bharti Tele-Ventures. An additional 6,500 employees will look in on the town hall-style meeting by satellite from other Indian cities.

On the same day, Mr. Palmisano and other top executives will meet here with investment analysts and local customers to showcase I.B.M.’s global integration capabilities in a briefing customarily held in New York. During the week, the company will lead the 50 analysts on a tour of its Indian operations.

The meetings are more than an exercise in public and investor relations. They are an acknowledgment of India’s critical role in I.B.M.’s strategy, providing it with its fastest-growing market and a crucial base for delivering services to much of the world.

“A significant part of any large project that we do worldwide is today being delivered out of here,” said Shanker Annaswamy, I.B.M.’s managing director for India, who presides over what is now the company’s second-largest worldwide operation. In the last few years, even as the company has laid off thousands of workers in the United States and Europe, the growth in I.B.M.’s work force in India has been remarkable. From 9,000 employees in early 2004, the number has grown to 43,000 (out of 329,000 worldwide), making I.B.M. the country’s largest multinational employer.