While there can be no one size fits all solution its worth to understand the broader factors driving current consumption/production. Its easy to blame “Greece” (or other economically backward locations for that matter) for the European crisis but identifying and fixing the real issues calls for a lot of hard work/sacrifices than fighting for rights in the streets. We need to understand how the next generation consumption and production looks like and how all the market participants need to adapt to it.  While a balance is needed in what you consume and produce, in a increasingly personalized/specialized world what culture of consumption/production is needed?

If Industrial revolution created “mass production” (with related employment) opportunities the current IT revolution is creating “mass consumption” (mobile devices and social networks being drivers) opportunities. While ERP systems of the past automated the production processes (read blue collar work) the current generation IT systems are automating service related process (read white collar work).  While the current increasingly automated physical and digital factories (across all domains of work) are disrupting the current patterns of consumption/production, we may well see revolutions all the year round.

The real question for me is how do we move from the current trends of mass consumption to one of mass production (using the human factor) as well, in a way that we can create wealth needed for consumption.  I personally feel Education is a fundamental input needed for wealth creation in the Knowledge economy.  The German mindset of “selbst machen” aka “DIY” culture imbued since birth in all activities (parenting, kindergarten/school, Television,…) is a good basis to think about creating a sustainable economy (the current strength of Germany economy is a good proof point for this).  While new production tools  are needed to support the new consumption patterns, the challenge is to get the best brains to work on the problems with maximum impact for the society in large. Providing open access to knowledge is another area fundamental for creating a sustainable world. While we seem to be making progress in some fronts still a lot more needs to be done. The recent call to arms for a “Enterprise Spring” by a leading Enterprise software advocate may be a portend of things to come.

While the recent demise of legends like Steve Jobs and Dennis Ritchie marks the end of a era we can only hope that new leaders will emerge to fix the current state of the union.

Why are Digital Marketplaces suddenly a craze again? The ease of content consumption and creation by the new Mobile devices has a lot to do with it. In this context its interesting to reflect over statements, “Content is King”, “Aggregation is King”, “Distribution is King maker”, “Contributor is King”. A related interesting article can be found here http://m.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/why-content-isn-8217-t-king/8551/2/  While the business models of different industries are being redefined I find the Big Idea from Strategy Guru Michael E Porter on “Creating Shared Value”  particularly important. The value creation in Network (be it Personal Social Networks or Professional Business Networks) driven growth is the new reality.  While all aspects of Value Chain are important and modern ERP systems have done a good job of automating business process, its how we can harness the Social networks (Employee and Ecosystem) to create Shared value in Digital Marketplaces, the new challenge.

While Apple has shown what is needed to build such Digital Marketplace others are busy trying to replicate it and improve it in different domains. Having products that can delight consumers, are simple to use, offer instant value, consumers can trust the provider and social controls exist on content are some of the key requirements for a successful Digital Marketplace. Building such Marketplaces would have two fold challenge. One hand creating technology/products to run such a marketplace (nice youtube video related to this) and on the other hand having management practices that enable open/transparent collaboration with ecosystem. The current emphasis on “Lean/Agile” processes and “Design Thinking” approaches are important to achieve this. I find the debate on “People vs Process” at the heart of this problem, this article (and comments!) throws some interesting light on this.

In conclusion I can only say there is huge efficiency gain possible in all businesses processes using Digital marketplace approach (and not just @Apple ). Business network can contribute to making the processes efficient, economical and consumption driven.  The challenge really is building such a Digital Marketplace to support “Shared Value Creation”.

The idea is to create Datasets on grassroots agencies (NGO’s) working in development projects in a standard format (IATA format) by enabling ‘Self Service’ entry of such data by these organizations, including building useful visualizations on the datasets. This idea can take a lot inspiration from the World Bank aid visualizations that are currently available and AidData portal that tracks development finance. What I miss in the current solutions is a “Self Service” interface where recipients, donors and intermediaries can maintain the data for their grassroots development projects in a standardized format.

Who will benefit from this idea?

• This will provide transparent information access to (potential) grassroots aid donors on current funding agencies, causes and recipients
• Help (potential) receivers transparently access information on current funding agencies and causes
• Help funding intermediaries better match the interests of donors and aid receivers
• Enhances current aid data sets with grassroots aid data and makes the data more representative

What will be needed to implement this idea?

• Need user studies with grassroots agencies on “open aid data” needs and willingness to contribute to “Self Service” data entry
• Need to explore ways to aggregate grassroots aid data (both automated and manual)
• Build infrastructure / tools to help ‘Self Service’ data entry of aid data in IATA format
• Leverage related efforts regarding map features, API & Technology tools to help build visualizations. While CKAN IATI provides the basis needed for building grassroots aid data format and AidData platform can be extended with grassroots datasets it needs to be seen if data format needs changes/simplifications and to what extent current open visualization platforms can be reused

I would expect getting grassroots agencies to contribute to Open Aid data (be it manual or automated means) would be the biggest challenge. Given the potential transparency benefits for the Aid process it is well worth the effort to give it a try   Would be interesting to hear the views of others on it…

What is really preventing the traditional Enterprises from adapting the Bazaar type of Business model? The question if this is the right model for all Business to adopt is something I personally feel is not up for debate anymore. At the heart of adoption would be creating learning organizations that empower people to collaborate in the enterprise and across the Business network in a transparent way. In this context I like the thought on “social objects in the enterprise” by JP Rangaswami.  Making people across organisational boundaries to collaborate is difficult enough than the task of collaborating with business ecosystem is a major challenge to conventional organizational setups. The genY style leadership being promoted by Vineet Nayar from HCL is a good example on how we can get there. I also like the following statement from SAP Chief Sustainability Officer Peter Graf  “we need to manage entirely new type of resources – social impacts, environ impacts, network life cycle sustainability metrics (energy, water, ..) not just finance and enterprise assets (people, machinery,…)”.

I liked a statement from an expert at SAP Customer event Sapphire “Future is in harnessing diversity (be it people, technology, domains, systems) and ensuring interoperability for unlocking new value”. While the emphasis is mine, I think they highlight the key aspects of a Bazaar business model. Given the current smart customers who keep themselves informed in real time the next gen biz models begin with empowering the employees.  While providing “self service” access to content inside the enterprise has been mainstream for some time how this can be enabled for the business network will be key for the emerging business models. Enabling Amazon mechanical turk like efficiency to extended business process can make the “Bazaar” like business models possible.

- Before our trip we were doing some research on places to visit in London so as to optimize time and cost. Having consulted with some London resident friends, visitors and online travel sites we had come up with a initial short list on paper. I wanted a digital version of this list (kind of Tour itinerary)  with map integration to show location details. Basically during research stage I was navigating different websites (travel sites + Google maps) to arrive at a list of places to see. Ideally I would have liked to consolidate this list, get it pushed to my mobile device and provide offline access. Kind of briefing book interface of this content would be great. In reality it was a pretty inefficient process (add stress factor) to actually visit planned places and my expensive mobile was under utilized due to the expensive roaming charges. Considering the number of people who have a similar need there may be some business opportunity for a techie here …

-  I understand Google Maps offers some way to mark (star) locations that you can reuse, I was trying to star locations on the map (based on where I am) from Mobile device but looks this feature is not enable. I know they have some feature to help you track your movements remotely but that is not what I wanted (think of the roaming costs!)

- I tried to use the Google Maps street view but found it as a good idea but still practically useless, at least the current implementation on the mobile device (am using Android HTC Desire).  I found the need a few times that I need some visual assistance (kind of augmented reality support) to go a place from where I am.  I know there is a app for that but possible trying to startup a different app for each need is something even a techie like me had not done naturally

- I was trying to use Foursquare to check-in at some locations and get some tips. The data quality and interaction speed was so poor that I gave up after a few tries.  I was actually looking for some kind of location history (details for a tourist spot I am currently at) and info on other interesting sites nearby. Yes my travel guide provides this information but my “smart phone” can make this process more enriching and fun

- We found out it can be difficult to locate and meet people even knowing they are pretty close by. There should be easy way to share location information and guide the user to the shared location. I know given the accuracy of our GPS systems this is asking for too much but the mobile networks know enough to provide a good enough approximation.

- The biggest hurdle to mobile data usage is the roaming charges. This is still far too expensive currently for tourists. Given the promotion budgets of Governments’ & local businesses to attract tourists, its amazing that the only innovative business model for free Mobile internet usage is to go to Starbucks. At some locations open Mobile Wi-Fi networks were available but did not work at least for me.

- There were lot of promotional offers  with complex pricing models (be it for using the public transport, visiting tourist spots, hotel stay,..). It would be interesting to have a Groupon like service which not only makes last minute offers but also helps optimize standard tourist needs

- It was helpful to use Mobile to locate nearest food joints (the user interface can be better). Use of mobile search and usage of user reviews has arrived

- SMS based messaging is still the killer app for mobile. Given the noise level in London subways it was the best way to communicate. Expect this will be the case for most big city tourists but can imagine instant messaging may also be helpful (if only we can get most users to one system, Facebook?)

- I was impressed by the wealth on knowledge at the Natural History Museum. It is a bit sad that you have to be physically present there to experience this. Given the current E-Learning technologies creating virtual tours for the remotest of schools in the world should be feasible. Actually it was notable how understaffed the museum was, considering the looming British budget cuts this can only get worse. Mobile technologies may help to augment visitor experience in a efficient way. Every object in the museum had a great story to tell (be it the Dinosaur skeletons or the many rock samples…) if only we can make them smart enough to tell their own story and enable the visitors to engage with them in a whole new way…

- Last but not least I had to visit the Apple store to experience it first hand. It was amazing to see people still waiting in queues for hours to buy the iPad. I am convinced mobile internet is here and hopefully we will see mass market data charges sooner than later. The apps to make Tourist experience more rewarding will come

After getting to startup my device (must say slot to insert mobile card in the phone can be better) as probably most people do I installed social networking related apps (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare). It was interesting to note LinkedIn had no own app (unlike for Blackberry) for Android. The usage of Android Appstore itself to find and install apps was easy. But still not sure what’s the difference between HTC likes and Market app installed on the device by default to install apps from the appstore. Having added a 8 GB SD card could at least could install apps without needing to worry about space and the good search integration in device makes the lookup experience nice. Liked the integration of Google content in the device including Reader app (to read blogs), People (i.e. contacts, like the way it links contacts from facebook and other services), GMail, Maps, YouTube, Google Places, Google Earth, Google Sky and Googles. While some of the applications clearly need more work the current feature set is also impressive. I mostly find my self using the Barcode Scanner app to scan barcodes on my PC to install apps on my mobile, its kind of neat and no typing effort   

Other apps I am currently using include MobileVoip (as a Voip user find this pretty convenient), Dropbox (like the idea of access to files anywhere, but would expect google docs would do this for me sometime…), Evernote (like to idea of digital notes but did not use much still), Barcoo (a consumer app to scan barcodes to get product information). There are some apps installed for Exchange rate info (does not work currently…), Weather and Stock information as well.  As for the games have the usual suspect top rated free apps (Angry Birds, Talking Tom, Dora Memory, Kids Puzzle/Number games, Teeter,..). Mostly motivated by my kids needs, but must say he really loves them all!. It would be great if you could just export all installed apps and share it, maybe just need to find the app that does it

Now to switch gears and put on my Developer Hat. Its nice to use the many apps out there but it would be more fun to develop own application   I tried this out using the Android SDK with Eclipse plugin and using the Adobe Burrito release.  While details on using them can be content for next blog, in short its easy to use the environments to quickly develop apps for Android. The Video of my demo app developed using the Adobe Burrito can be found below. This demo (work-in-progress) adapts the Flex Mobile Survey Ape sample app to work against the SAP River platform.  

I found using Mocking UI development tools particularly useful to think through the Mobile application idea and share with others. Some tools that I tried out and can suggest are AppInventor tool from Google and Balsamiq mockup tool, I find the latter tool better. If you plan to work on Mobile apps in the SAP environment than projects in SAP Code Exchange can provide a good starting point. This blog on using SAP Xcelsius on Andorid phone, also gives some idea of potential for Mobile content on Android.  Using OCR cloud service to automate data capture on the device is one area I find interesting in context of mobile apps. Hopefully I was able to inspire you to use and build apps for the Mobile platform..

Having recently read the book “The Design of Design” by Frederick Brooks, a legendary Computer Scientist, I would like to share some of my related thoughts in this blog post. Everyday we are “consumers” of design decisions of different people (be it in the laptop where I currently write this post with, Chair I am currently sitting in….) and at the same design many things ourselves (be it in the blog post I am writing, the projects we undertake,…).  Given the importance of Design in everyday life (without getting into details on “what is design”?) its worth to spend some time to think about the process of Design itself without getting to abstract about it. This book is a good starting point for this.

Some key (personal) notes from this book

- The hardest part of design is deciding what to design.

- In design process “problem and solution space” are moving targets

- Successful designs are end user driven designs. The success of open source software can be to a good extent attributed to the fact that the developers (ex: Linux OS) where also users of the software

- “Design” reflects the mind of the designer and design team

- Coherence/Integrity of Design reflect in the product as a whole and in every element of it and are a hallmark of a great designer

- Identify “critical resource” in design and optimize for it. Use “constraints” to innovate and scope the project

- Follow “key design achievements” in your domain past & present. You should learn from “prior art” to understand the “design constraints” and related decisions

- Design process to follow (water fall, Spiral,…) relate to design complexity of the project

- Globalization driven specialization makes it difficult to have a “Chief Designer” who can manage it all. Still a core design team needs to ensure “consistency” in design

- “Design Contests” may be a good way to solve critical design problems and ensure grassroots innovation

- End users need to know details on “design decisions” to ensure better outcomes. Designers are also “human”

- Articulated guesses beat unspoken assumption. Former allows debate for improvement

- Design = Orthogonal (decouple things) + Propriety (less is more) + generality (extensible)

- “Delight” comes from superior elegance of solution and not novelty per se. Design for the end use.

- Several micro decisions reflect the designers style

- Need right design visualizations for different stake holders to understand and contribute

Hopefully I can make use of at least some of this advice in my next designs

My last blog post was about what new applications can be built, in this blog I would like to share my thoughts on how we should be building them. Having recently read this blog post on Timeless software, I like the idea of thinking in terms of container (read platform if you like) and content (aka application). I had blogged a log time back how offering ‘Everything as a Service’ was the trend for IT industry, looks this still holds true. One could potentially build a custom container for hosting their content but considering the resource constraint most apps wouldn’t do it. This Oreilly Media  youtube video gives a good overview on the container/content battles happening in the Internet economy. Given that some key containers (ex: social network by Facebook, search by Google, Smartphone by Apple/Google,…) have established providers while for other intense battle is currently underway, it’s a real challenge to bet on one container to build the app on.

Taking a value chain approach would help on deciding the container of choice. The most important being the target consumption audience. Based on the end-user of application several constraints (ex: need for a native app or browser based, on premise/cloud or mixed offering, ..) limit container choice. The procurement options (be it of hardware, reusable software components, skilled development team, ..) also to an extent constrain the choice. Container support for the production process (be it for application lifecycle management, built-in data models, legacy integration options, ..) is a important criteria.  Last but not least the monetization options offered by the container (ex: revenue sharing model, appstore to enable delivery, support and relationship management options, ..) are important.

I would be personally interested in building applications in Sustainability and E-learning domains.  Typical container requirements would include support for collaboration (ex: office documents, content management systems, ..), support for transactional/analytical data models ( ex: Asset management, Course management, ..) and support for legacy integration (ex: migrate/integrate asset data, integrate energy data from external data sources, ..). Current container options to build such a application can range from using Infrastructure services from Amazon (be it for compute or store), using Microsoft Azure services (considering current Microsoft on premise options not ideal for next gen apps), build on the Salesforce platform, build on the Google app engine platform, use hosting services from vendors such as Rackspace and build on open source components (ex: WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, ..) or build on the SAP Business ByDesign platform, to list a few of the many options.

As you can see making the container choice is complex and risky! While we can only expect the container/content battles to intensify in the future using open standards and open data maybe the best guidance in preventing any vendor locking and ensuring hopefully a ‘Timeless Software’. Wishing all readers a Happy New Year hopefully you will have a successful 2011!

My last blog post was about what new applications can be built, in this blog I would like to share my thoughts on how we should be building them. Having recently read this blog post on Timeless software, I like the idea of thinking in terms of container (read platform if you like) and content (aka application). I had blogged a log time back how offering ‘Everything as a Service’ was the trend for IT industry, looks this still holds true. One could potentially build a custom container for hosting their content but considering the resource constraint most apps wouldn’t do it. This Oreilly Media  youtube video gives a good overview on the container/content battles happening in the Internet economy. Given that some key containers (ex: social network by Facebook, search by Google, Smartphone by Apple/Google,…) have established providers while for other intense battle is currently underway, it’s a real challenge to bet on one container to build the app on.

Taking a value chain approach would help on deciding the container of choice. The most important being the target consumption audience. Based on the end-user of application several constraints (ex: need for a native app or browser based, on premise/cloud or mixed offering, ..) limit container choice. The procurement options (be it of hardware, reusable software components, skilled development team, ..) also to an extent constrain the choice. Container support for the production process (be it for application lifecycle management, built-in data models, legacy integration options, ..) is a important criteria.  Last but not least the monetization options offered by the container (ex: revenue sharing model, appstore to enable delivery, support and relationship management options, ..) are important.

I would be personally interested in building applications in Sustainability and E-learning domains.  Typical container requirements would include support for collaboration (ex: office documents, content management systems, ..), support for transactional/analytical data models ( ex: Asset management, Course management, ..) and support for legacy integration (ex: migrate/integrate asset data, integrate energy data from external data sources, ..). Current container options to build such a application can range from using Infrastructure services from Amazon (be it for compute or store), using Microsoft Azure services (considering current Microsoft on premise options not ideal for next gen apps), build on the Salesforce platform, build on the Google app engine platform, use hosting services from vendors such as Rackspace and build on open source components (ex: WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, ..) or build on the SAP Business ByDesign platform, to list a few of the many options.

As you can see making the container choice is complex and risky! While we can only expect the container/content battles to intensify in the future using open standards and open data maybe the best guidance in preventing any vendor locking and ensuring hopefully a ‘Timeless Software’. Wishing all readers a Happy New Year hopefully you will have a successful 2011!

I usually prefer to look back at things before trying to imagine the future.  If we look back to the web history (not going to the whole computing history for now!!), we have come a long way from the first “you have got (e)mail” and your personal homepages (I can still remember creating my first homepage on geocities). The dotcom boom (with selling everything online theme) taught us many lessons (and brought a lot of money for survivors like Google, amazon, eBay,..) on what applications work on the web. The recent Web2.0 trends show us how we can use web as a platform (Facebook and twitter are possible the best examples here) to create collaborative social network driven applications. Given the current trends in High performance computing at commodity prices (be it recent announcement of Amazon to offer GPU as a Service or the many NoSQL based services out there to name a few) what are the next generation applications that can be built?

Before I can come up with my own list what are others building?  Augmented reality based applications (be it the Kinetic from Microsoft, mobile apps using augmented reality such as this,..) are a current rage. They leverage the latest hardware (read multi-core  processors, cheap flash memory),  software (read multi-touch OS) and (mobile) network innovations to create a new genre of applications. Data-Intensive scientific discovery (more details in book here) using data mashups are opening a whole new field of computing applications. Social software (as pioneered by likes of Facebook and Twitter) is becoming mainstream with many organizations opening up their datasets (be it Open government initiatives, open datasets in the cloud offered by firms like amazon,..). What we are seeing is applications enabling increasing collaboration across value chains ( be it in the form of consumer, employee or supplier networks). While we are seeing a lot of consolidation in the IT vendor space (greatly driven by the acquisition spree from Oracle), the traditional on premise software may well join the mainframes of the past. While the cloud based applications need scale to make some real money this is where we will see the most new applications. While some people may dismiss cloud as another deployment model only, having a system that can get real-time insights to its usage opens up whole new possibilities.

So to come back to my question “given computing trends what new applications can we build?”, the trend to make things smart (be it a smart planet as IBM puts it,  smart TV and smart Car  as some recent Google initiatives target, internet of things aiming to make the business web get more lean,…) will continue. Its just that the we now have more technology at a low cost that makes it possible to try to make some of the applications we dreamt about in the past into reality. But don’t expect the Star Trek  “Beam me up, Scotty” to be a reality any time soon   Developing applications that would help people at the bottom of the pyramid lead a better life would possible be the applications that I would like to build.