Looks like Chrome may be taking the role of the operating system. What with all those nifty net-based applications building up on Google's home page. Google Docs is all set to take on MS Office, the features keeping increasing and the usability is improving (still a long way to go).

Once Chrome can deeply integrate with Google Apps --- not unlike the way MS Office (and other products) deeply integrated with MS Windows --- then we will be seeing the first steps towards creating a universal computer. One that just knows how to run a browser -- and drive a network card. That's all thats needed; the rest is on the cloud -- applications and data! 

Low power consumption will make it a preferred device not unlike the mobile phone. Talking of which, with the power that mobile phones are packing, phones will become computers (they already are) running a browser and using the mobile network. 

Google (and others) still have a lot of work to do to create the rich user experience in a world of all-net based applications. Which is why Microsoft is pushing Silverlight so hard and Adobe with Flash. Google still has the Android-card up its sleeve, with iPhone stealing a lot of the mobile-innovation thunder, I guess they will wait a bit.

We are probably reaching the stage where consumer-centered design of services is a very distinct possibility.

Last week, on my blog on Digital wellbeing I posted about Medical Tourism as the next level of outsourcing. Having just returned from a trip to India, I could see how medical services were being increasingly commercialised and could relate to the analyses about the "business potential" of medical tourism.

Yesterday, I got to learn of a completely new area of outsourcing -- lifestyle outsourcing (my term). Calling this virtual gaming gold, this BBC article explains how gaming is becoming a means of livelihood for people in the developing world. Developing skills by playing games and then offering services to lift other players' skills to the next level is a source of income for many. Selling virtual goods for real money is another source of income.

"Neccessity is the mother of invention" is an old saying; the internet era will show us creative solutions to address the challenges of poverty.... at least this is what I hope for.

Meanwhile, I am studying the potential of teaching/tutoring outsourcing, and see some creative businesses like HeyMath and EduComp have already taken the service+software business model to the education space. The US' No Child Left Behind act is also driving the business opportunity.

Services without boundaries is here to stay ... Exploring new frontiers have always had an element of lawlessness. At some stage we will need rules and regulations to allow serious players to act. What can - or should - government and trade organisations do? or should the "market" decide? Standardisation has a significant role to play here.

Web 2.0 is rolling on. I just came across these two pieces of software Flock (link) and Viewzi (link).

Flock is a social-web browser based on Mozilla, that gives a hint of the potential to develop specialist browsers. I'm not sure I'd want dedicated browsers, too much of a hassle. Rather, I'd like to change to a new "skin". A skin here is more than a layout theme or colours and fonts, it captures the user context. So, when I am browsing for people I activate a skin that offers a deeper browser experience. Similarly for shopping, listening to music etc.

Viewzi is a visual search tool. As one who prefers the visual/graphic over text, I find this user experience interesting. It actually interprets the results and content to present different views for the user to browse the content.

Now, I wonder what a Viewzi + Flock experience may actually look like?

Anyway, we still have a way to go before we can harness the power of Web 2.0. I am hoping for more contextualizing and visualizing. We need to focus on "a horizontal context" i.e. to exploit Web 2.0 in the context of work being performed for a given business activity. It makes things much more concrete.

So here it is. A network player like Cisco entering the home entertainment space -- by announcing that they will provide telepresence solutions for the home -- through AT&T and Walmart (!) see this article. I was hoping Tandberg would come up with a solution like this. But, Tandberg is focusing on the small/medium size business with the T1.

Anyway, the race for Telepresence is heating up; and as sales of LCD-displays increase it looks like we may be having these devices in the not-too-distant-future. As these devices reach the home and as the service economy grows; we can soon be using services that were previously restricted to face-to-face meetings. In a global world, this could be very interesting as I could receive services from the other side of the globe. Hmmm.... now what would my doctor think about that? And maybe the do-it-yourself store can finally offer services to help you fix the appliance you bought from them. Would IKEA try something like this?

The consumer-centered design wave is taking shape. I have come across a number of stories of consumer-centricity emerging in what seems like the next dot-com wave.

A lot of solutions are taking the shape of "dervices". A what? Well, I have coined this term to represent the phenomenon of a content service that is powered by software and made available on a preferred device that is connected to the net. The service can be consumed by other generic devices as well, but the user experience will decide which device is best suited to host the service. For eg listening to music would be best on your iPod, while updating playlists would be best via a wide-screened browser or even better ... through feeds from a community portal. I expect "dervices" to be the way how Software-as-a-service will execute and how subscription-based models (as opposed to ownership) will take root.

Imagine all your devices like a humungous remote control that exists on the cloud that captures all your interactions via your devices -- mobile phone, TV-remote, GPS, Gaming console, Google-searches, e-mail, IM etc and then offers it to you through a Chumby or on your TiVo or your laptop. As all our devices become data-acqusition devices the likes of Google and Microsoft would like to get a hold of that data. Now extend the range of the devices to include devices like the Automatic teller machine (ATM), health care devices and one can see how things get more difficult to manage effectively.

An interesting service (not a dervice) that is right along the consumer-centricity path is Communispace. This service is aimed at enterprises wishing to engage with their customers in a more interactive manner. This takes enterprise feedback management to the next levels -- vendors like confirmIT may have to extend and embrace ... or even redesign.

Yes! I am happy the consumer-centric wave is gaining momentum... but am also a VERY worried that my politicians and law-makers are blissfully unaware of how the digital society around us is changing. Change that challenges the old laws and regulations!

Last year I posted about Microsoft's global launch of Unified Communication. And today, I read Mary Jo's post on Echoes. Echoes is evidently Microsoft's attempt at Unified Communications for the consumer. What is strange, is that just this morning I was installing a VOiP handset I received from my broadband operator (an upgrade of my broadband package). The handset was working in a few seconds but when it came to personalising it, I gave up after entering the first 3 names in the address book. When my wife commented "Why does'nt our broadband subscription come with a networked address book?". Ah ha!

Well, let me start with my user-context. I have all my contacts stored in Outlook, I can synchronize them with my phone via my PC or via the corporate email server (Exchange). I use WiFi, GPRS, Infrared or Bluetooth as the available communication protocols/technology to do this. I use web-access to my email server to access my contacts should I be fortunate enough to leave my phone at home.

Now, here comes the hard part. I would like to share some of those contacts with my family - a few business contacts but mostly family and friends. I can do it today but it requires everyone to have a degree in computer science. I would have expected my Telco to provide me with tools to make this painless and in the process actually have gotten me as a sales agent. Get my social network closer to them (the Telco). But, the story is sad. The solutions offered are so difficult to use, they are hardly used (some are really fantastic). But then, Telcos are so caught up in thinking as network people they forget the value add that usable software brings.

So, I am happy that Microsoft is "pushing" Telcos to offer better services. As for privacy, I'm not all that concerned, my Telcos have long had access some of my very private content -- my conversations. Let them battle with Microsoft to ensure that privacy is not violated. And I'll be expecting my Data Protection Agency to put some pressure too.

As Microsoft (and Apple) are giving Telcos a hard time -- in my opinion, this is for their (Telcos) own good. Hopefully, Telcos can provide a platform that allows for creating value through better services (communication and entertainment) for a Digital Society.

PS! Plaxo users reading this must be wondering why I did not mention their solutions. I am waiting to watch as to how Comcast intends using Plaxo content after acquiring them. See this post. Actually, I am more concerned with privacy through Plaxo than through my Telco.

Ashoka, flatness and being local

I just discovered Ashoka a well-established organisation working in the social sector -actually been around since 1980 (!) driving for local change with a global network. Causes is bringing societal responsibility to social networking by creating applications for Facebook and mySpace.

The world is getting flatter every day -- but it is also retaining the uniqueness of acting local. Flatness and "localness" represent different dimensions. I think one represents access to knowledge and tools while the other represents the actions and solutions. Access speeds up action... I think.

It is long overdue, the time to split my blog into a separate blog that focuses on a special theme of the Digital Society.

Welcome to the Digital care and well-being blog. I will post there on matters of healthcare and well-being. I will continue posting to my Digital Society blog on all other matters until I find another topic that is appropriate to branch out to. After all, Society 2.0 is a huge topic.

Software platforms for NGOs - Open Source is more than software

Open Source is definitely reaching the 2.0 state and becoming a real alternative to commercial software. However, most of all it proposes value to take "Social Networking" to the NGOs and non-profits who work tirelessly to make changes in their respective societies.

Latest is Kaltura a video platform and DimDim a web-meeting platform. These are just two of probably hundreds such software platforms making the news. As a specialist in collaboration technology my personal favourite has been Drupal and civiCRM.

My thoughts immediately go to the small non-profits driven by energetic, passionate and skilled idealists -- always short on funds and striving to make the kroner or rupee go as far as possible. Looking back at the 80s, I see how user-centered design became possible when Microsoft, Lotus and Borland let-loose the power of the PC with development tools and software architectures. This ultimately led to mass adoption of computing in the workplace. I sense a wave of citizen-centered design approaching and I wonder how governments and bureacracy will react. More on this later...

I suspect Kaltura will be challenging the likes of YouTube and Google Video - not directly - but in allowing for the development of solutions without the hassle of those "pesky ads". And DimDim is taking the battle to Microsoft, Google and Cisco (Webex). On the other hand, these could also be partners... it is difficult to say in this new era of Darwinism; those who adapt will survive. The trick is in "How to adapt".

The folks at NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) have experimented with the use of multi-platform technology to understand how they can make their programming more accessible. They used one their most popular series as content for the experiment. Smart guys. The reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. I have just had my first taste of the user experience and it is really fascinating.

So whats the big deal? Well, there are many aspects to this experiment, you need to visit their sandbox NRKBeta and hang around to understand what I'm getting at. Just 3 points and then I'll leave you to experience NRKBeta.

• (a) the sandbox is social networking in practice -- the site does not make a big point of it, it is too busy using the technology as a tool to drive the main agenda i.e. experimentation with media and media technologies. Very refreshing in these days of Social Networking hype (don't get me wrong, I am a fan of SN, its just that the focus is on technology and not on its application

• (b) foresight and planning - the folks at NRK have evidently shaped the contract for the programme and removed legal issues that would have prevented them to experiment with this technology. Issues that copyrighting and sponsorship clauses bring along. Now, that must be at least 2 years before this experiment.

• (c) use of BitTorrent - a technology that has been associated with questionable practices like file-sharing of copyrighted material etc. The point NRK are making is that, as with all technology, there is a difference between the application of the technology and the technology itself. Actually, I don't think they are not making a point of it, they are too focused on experimenting with the use of multi-platform media distribution.

I can see my TV license fees being put good use! NRK is doing a good job -- and Eirik is excellent at communicating in an easy-to-understand language and a steady stream of articles and presentations.

I'm looking for an application of this technology in the field of education. Education in urban regions, rural areas, in developing countries, where access to good content is not cheap and bandwidths are not broad enough. NRKBeta is definitely a "testbed" for media services for an open digital society.

The semantics of "Healthcare services" are getting richer and "self service" seems to take on a whole new meaning. This article is the latest describing innovative health care solutions that can transform the way health care services are disbursed. There are some interesting opportunities for a welfare nation like Norway to get more out of the tax-kroner -- or other welfare states where health care services are managed and provisioned by the welfare state. My other blogposts on health care.

The opportunities could be just as interesting for the private insurance business -- if not just as obvious. Just yesterday, in a conversation with a financial advisor, I learned of health care services offered by his insurance company -- both supplemental and alternative to what the state offers (not primary health care services). Since welfare states cannot match the service levels needed by a demanding population, there is a huge business opportunity for health care insurance. I guess, expecting some tax reform, in light of this competition, is wishful thinking :-)

PS! The shirt is not a new invention, this technology has been around for some time (for eg Lifeshirt from Vivometrics has served special groups of users). However, what makes it interesting now is to see this technology in the context of recent moves by Microsoft (HealthVault) and Google Health.

So what is new? Could the public and private sectors in welfare states collaborate to benefit from these innovations? The emergence of the multi-polar world and this huge marketplace in India, China, Brazil & Russia should create a solid business case for the export of lifestyle and welfare services. The public sector can then offer better services to their local populations.... they could actually be the test-bed for the next generation of lifestyle services?

Demonstrators for the digital society

What started as an attempt to go beyond alumni reunions led to an interesting scenario of the digital society. On the 28th of November 2007 the alumni association of my high school in Mumbai, India handed over 100 cashless healthcards to teaching and non-teaching staff and ex-teachers (See newspaper coverage here - PS! Vikram and Gerry are the ones who have done all the heavy lifting).

There are a many digital societal elements to this "experiment"

• technology in the use of open source technology (Drupal) to collaborate, online payments (Paypal) to raise funds and support transparency in fundraising
• business models for the development of an insurance product for healthcare with a unique model for users, healthcare providers, insurers and financiers
• organisation design in redesigning the workings of the managing committee of the alumni association to be able to execute such a project, organisational flexibility for the school administration

However, this just the tip of the iceberg of challenges and opportunities -- an attempt to demonstrate that a grassroots driven idea to deliver something of value for many stakeholders can be done and hopefully raise the discussion of how citizens can participate in shaping its society.

For practical reasons, some elements have been out of scope -- elements that are critical for scaling up such ideas and sustaining them. This involves the creation of institutions and solutions that are of a foundational nature. Institutions that are industry-led but not driven by commercial interests, institutions that not only shape legislation but also have the authority to enforce it. The welfare models of the Nordics or Canada can be a source of inspiration but cannot be copy-pasted, they must be designed to suit the diversity, population size, existing infrastructure and maturity of existing institutions.

With the impending rush of baby-boomer retirement (eldrebølge) this is not just a welfare issue, there are some great business opportunities. The challenges are numerous everything from shaping new business models to establishing trust-institutions to harnessing the potential of personal health devices and body sensor network technology that will hit the market.

Now if the Healthcare, Insurance and Telecom providers could pool their resources to drive simple standards for interoperability ... then maybe the Tim Berners-Lee's vision of the semantic web could come to life in a very practical application that affects ordinary people. To my mind this form of catalyst activity is what government should focus on even more.

And here is one more example of the "Digital Society in Practice". My collegaue Øyvind Strømme pointed me to Thomas Friedman's article in the NYTimes. Very inspiring story of social responsibility by the Byrraju Foundation.

At first looks, one is tempted to think that the Societal Digital Infrastructure (SDI) is missing, but it is there; evidently not with the reliability, stability and other -ilities needed for industrialised usage (which is Friedman's point). The design is in place and this looks like a good case for highlighting the relevance of an SDI. I do not think Byrraju are or should be overly concerned about the lack of infrastructure, that will come if one focuses on shaping and running the solution.

There are some interesting scenarios that can play out in taking this to the next level. The one that fascinates me is, EQ meets IQ (more than ET meets IT), where emotions and a desire "to give back" meets intellect, opening for all sorts of life-altering but yet practical solutions. Such solutions will be the proverbial snowballs, that drive the creation of an SDI and fuels the innovation process. As Internet technologies make it possible for expatriates to want to "give back" in more specific ways, we will see some interesting forms of project delivery.

Climate, large distances and a scarce population forced the discipline of Telemedicine to develop and grow in Norway years ago. Telemedicine is a full-fledged informatics discipline (see Norwegian center of Telemedicine) addressing some tough challenges in technology, medicine, health management, sociology etc. Combining this knowledge with knowledge from the maturing solar technology solutions, mobile technologies and video-conferencing technologies can make for some interesting products. Last December, I blogged along similar lines and I thought I was too futuristic; how wrong I was! -- the pace of development is blistering.

So, the democratizational effects of the Internet and IT in general, are shaping interesting societal models that will challenge traditional forms of governance and will increase the collaboration between public sector, the volunteer/NGO sector and the private sector.

My recent posts have talked about technology and solutions and less about the Digital Society. Partly due to myopia (its an occupational hazard of working with solution planning) but also deliberately, to show examples of what can form building blocks for the foundation of a digital society. However, today I am suddenly made aware of a live example that can serve as a use case for the Societal Digital Infrastructure (see my other blogposts with this tag).

The TVaksjon is an annual national fund raising event hosted by NRK - the Norwegian state television. An event that, for one day, brings people together to support an organisation that works towards a focused cause. The organisation and cause are carefully chosen to balance multiple perspectives. This year the funds go to UNICEF Norge and the topic is Together for children aimed at helping children face the challenges of HIV and AIDS. This event is a national dugnad has many interesting elements like the use of auctioning technology, use of crowdsourcing techniques to mobilize volunteers nationwide or the use of web technology that helps businesses to leverage their social involvement and profile their products.

For such an initiative to work at this depth of credibility and involvement requires a hidden foundation. A foundation built on a combination of societal practices, social behaviours, laws and governance and enforced and enabled by technology. It is a combination of these that form the foundation of a digital society -- Societal Digital Infrastructure.

It is very likely that similar campaigns exist in other countries or in different communities like this scheme DonorsChoose. Please drop me a note/comment if you have other examples.

In what I would characterise a landmark event for communications, Microsoft and Norwegian telco Telenor teamed to launch the VoIP platform in Oslo today (Norwegian). Demonstrating the merger of software-powered telephony with device/network powered telephony I sensed a major shift -- blurring the lines between traditional communication and collaboration --but also witnessing another example of the consumerisation of IT (i.e. introducing products from the consumer market, into the enterprise).

The two case-study presentations were also impressive; but then Microsoft are very good at recruiting early adopters to demonstrate production-grade implementations. The case studies were from Norway's largest company StatoilHydro (collaboration between land and sea/rig) and one of Northern Europe's most advanced hospitals St. Olav in Trondheim (the VoIP platform as the foundation for communication).

Again, Microsoft showed their willingness to develop hardware, even though it may only be to demonstrate the power of the software platform. The Roundtable device is a simple device with a USB-connected 360-degree camera with voice-detection allowing for automatically zooming to the speaker. The quality of the picture could have been better but anyway, it brings an audio/video dimension to VoIP in the enterprise. And in these climate-conscious days, it could help reduce travel.

Microsoft's VoIP platform (or Unified Communications as it is called) seems poised to be the "web operating system" for developing large scale mobile applications with deep integration of communication and presence. Judging by the partners present and those announced, it looks like a new wave of solutions from ISVs. The video-conferencing sector (like Tandberg) will get a boost from this launch even though I think it is difficult to say if the impact will be positve (i.e. people develop a sense for video conferencing and look for better solutions) or negative (i.e. put off buying expensive video-conferencing equipment).

Following the announcement of this years Nobel Peace Prize; Renny had an interesting post here - Nobel Peace Prize to Al Gore or Vint Cerf? I like the line of thinking and would like to extend this nomination for 2008 to also include Robert Kahn (Cerf's co-inventor) and 3 others:

(1) Sir Tim Berners-Lee -- for taking the TCP/IP and layering a powerful "human interface" on it with the sole purpose of sharing information and driving the rapid evolution we experience. But what I think is even more noble (no pun intendend) is his choice to make his invention open and free -- notable if one considers the potential for commercial gain through intellectual property rights. I think CERN his employer at the time, also deserves credit.

(2) Linus Torvalds for almost single-handedly making Open Source a model, not just for software technology innovation, but for inspiring and driving societal innovation and grass-roots development.

(3) Dr Nicholas Negroponte for his $100 computer initiative -- also known as the One Laptop Per Child project. The success of such an initiative is crucial for bridging the digital divide and helping education become a fundamental human right. The Give 1 Get 1 move could open the floodgates.

What appeals is the vision, selflessness and humanness of these individuals in creating an infrastructure needed for a grass-roots knowledge ecosystem that the world needs. These individuals also represent courage and strength in taking on the commercial giants on their own turf -- and driving change. Like Dr Negroponte convincing Intel to collaborate on the OLPC.

As an aside:
The much publicized "During my service in the United States Congress I took the initiative in creating the Internet." statement from Al Gore during the presidential election drew much fire from the media. I believe the media put a different twist causing misunderstanding and ridicule that "Al Gore claimed he invented the Internet". However, as Internet pioneers Vint Cerf & Bob Kahn set the record straight in this little known article, Al Gore does deserve some credit for making the Internet a global success.

I look forward to hearing Cerf at this years Norwegian Computer Society's annual awards event.

Every now and then it is good to be prodded into blogging. So last week's post by Eirik was indeed welcome! Thanks Eirik! And the encouragement seemed well timed; just as Microsoft had announced their HealthVault initiative. Evidently beating Google to this service (see Google Health)

Enabling consumer-citizens to manage their own healthcare records, the next wave of digital-device invasion of the home is quite clear - healthcare devices! So while MP3 players/iPods, DVDs, and gaming devices have taken their chunk of wallet, the next wave could see a whole range of heart-rate, insulin, blood-pressure monitors and everything the bio-medical electronic firms can conjure up. After all, health is serious business.

To me, this service as another implementation of the Societal Digital Infrastructure (see other blogposts with this tag) -- a service that opens for disruptive changes in the way people and authorities receive and disburse health-care. We in Norway -- and other comparable welfare states -- have health-care served by Government, financed by taxes. While this centralised model works well in a small population -- to get an idea of the depth of integration in Norway see the Electronic prescription intiative -- I am not so convinced it can scale up to work in a diverse and not-so-well-integrated environment like say US or India.

So, will HealthVault offer a means to implement a healthcare service in these environments similar to that of say Norway, with much simpler "integration"? Conversely, will HealthVault challenge the centralised models like that in Norway, by opening up for other options? Microsoft has launched this HealthVault together with some service providers and device manufacturers, in what can be termed as a ecosystem. And Google will soon follow.

I suspect there is sufficient consumer/citizen interest in this domain to make this happen and drive for standardisation of data exchange and device functionality. Then, I hope health-care providers can interoperate in much the same way as telecom providers or banks are forced to interconnect with their competitors to provide a service to their consumers. Ultimately, consumers must benefit from this.

It will be interesting to watch how health-care providers will respond to this service-commodization? And the insurance industry? We all know how reluctant mobile operators were, when number portability was mandated by law. And with bank-number portability in Norway on the drawing-board there is precedent for some interesting times.

As a (software) planning architect I am seeing more examples that convince me that the "S" in SOA should be "Society" :-)

Looks like ISPs are in for competition from a new source -- device manufacturers. Last week HTC announced HTCmail - a service powered by Microsoft's Hosted Exchange offering.
See http://www.htc.com/press_room/03-press-070828.htm

There is much talk about the next great thing in software architectures - Software-as-a-service. Microsoft has been working on making this happen in the marketplace (Hosted Exchange is quite old; I recall trying to sell the concept to a telco and a bank some 4-5 years ago). Anyway, Microsoft probably has a solid base of empirical data to understand how software-as-a-service will work in the marketplace. I think that this will be invaluable in white-labelling software (white-labelling is a business strategy like co-branding (retail) or code-sharing (airlines) that allows a player to extend the reach of their offerings -- HTC is aiming at mass market or small businesses who could not be bothered by installing or configuring Exchange installations)

I'm not quite sure what Microsoft's SaaS strategy is, but I would suspect they are looking to attract other players to distribute services from their Live-portfolio. Could P&C insurance vendors be mature partners? or banks? After all they have been white-labelling for some time now. And then, should Telcos focus on delivering high-quality access for these services?.. or should they aggressively go after digital content? Probably both.

Disruption appears to be more the rule than the exception.

The digital home appears to be many steps closer. 3 announcements in the last few days lead me to this:
(a) Microsoft has just recently released the Home Server to its OEM partners. (see more here)
(b) Clearwire & Sprint announced that they to jointly build out WiMax networks in the US
(c) Facebook acquired Parakey See this

So imagine Facebook applications increasing social networking, particularly sharing digital content, and MS Home Server reducing the load of managing family produced digital content and WiMax networks making it easier and cheaper for untethered networking for the masses. OK, fine it will be a dream if it all comes together -- but there are some opportunities here given the rapid growth of multi-PC households and enormous rise in the production of digital content

Will service providers like telcos, media or even insurance companies capitalise on these developments to reduce churn (by reducing the consumer-employee-citizen schizophrenia that many customers experience)? I hope mine would

Photosynth from Microsoft Research (see here) takes Hypertexting, Semantics, Graphics and Social Networks to an amazing entertaining level ... with great potential for societies and businesses. See this video and judge for yourself.

Am not sure George Orwell would have approved (not that any one would have asked for approval) but this technology does bring a whole new meaning to "triangulation" -- distance learning, virtual tourism and telemedicine are some areas that can benefit from such technologies and affect the way societies work and live.

I sense a Facebook application (built on their application platform) is just round the corner :-)