“Steal or Innovate”

“Picasso once said Good Artists copy Great Artists steal. We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas” that was a quote said by Steve Jobs, current CEO and Chairman of Apple. After learning about the prior history of the introduction of the PC, That quote is the portion I remember most vividly. Typically stealing is an action that is defined as “to take the property of another wrongfully” we are taught by society and our parents that stealing is condemnable action and that good people don’t do it. Yet why is it that innovation and success are built upon technology and ideas stolen from other people?

As the title implies the major steps leading to the introduction of the current pc were taken from sources outside of the company that introduced them. The people that reaped the wealth were not the creators but rather the exploiters. Windows 95 and 3.0 were applications built and inspired by the GUI system that was brought into the spotlight by the Apple Macintosh developed by Steve Jobs and his research team. Windows is now the widely used operating system generating revenue so large that Microsoft houses 3 billionaires and several millionaires. It is ironic that Steve Jobs and his development team were not the original authors of the GUI system, but rather pilfered the idea from a research team that created the technology 10 years prior to the current Macintosh.

The documentary continued to expose more dark secrets as an entire segment was dedicated to the introduction of reverse engineering. The ability to analyze current technology and break it down to its core components in order to rebuild it into a new piece of technology designed to do the exact same tasks it was originally designed to do. As this point was constantly enforced, it can only make people wonder how long the idea of pilfering will continue to dominate as one of the main factors that determine success in the technology environment. This process has continued to run rampant as the uniqueness of technology between companies is constantly be diminished to the point where the only difference companies can offer against their competitors is the brand name and possibility the length and quality of their warranty.

Innovation is term that is defined as “the introduction of something new”. In my mind “new” can be anything that sets it apart from competition regardless of the amount of differences. However there is one requirement that I think needs to be made, innovation is also associated with a process that enables it to perform tasks either faster, smarter, or more efficiently. The advancements from centralized Person to person sharing to non centralized person to person sharing is a form of innovation that made the process of file exchanging far easier and quicker giving the ability of drawing information from multiple sources. Another form of innovation is rereleasing current existing technology into a more compact and user to use form, Sony Entertainment of America is a good example. Typically before the next paradigm shift Sony rereleases the current generation console into a more compact and an aesethically pleasing version to help boost sales of the dying console. This form of innovation introduces new hardware that is smaller and more compact and shows the amount of technology advancement that took place during the console’s lifespan.

Though people may not want to admit it “Steal or innovate” is a very fitting title as both after careful analysis can be considered synonyms to a certain extent. As the next step will often require knowledge from other sources in orders to ensure success. All examples of innovation introduced in the documentary modified prior existing knowledge to help create a better product in some way. Windows 1.0 to 3.1 modified the prior existing GUI system developed for the Lisa by acting as an application designed to create a friendly user interface to bridge the gap between complex programming language and command functions and universal accessibility.

Apple as well modified the ideas they took from Xerox and applied it to their technology to help establish a stronger foothold in the marketplace and introducing the first wide spread GUI system used by numerous people. Steve Jobs having been fascinated by the friendliness of the graphic user interface believed that this would be standard on all computers and to a certain extent he was correct though his GUI isn’t the one used by everybody.

Even today technology is continually being taken from unmentioned sources, For example leading electronic conglomerate LG released their touch screen based phone “Prada” months before the first Iphone was sold and both bear a striking resemblance. LG Employee, Woo-Young Kwak, head of LG Mobile Handset R&D Center, said at a press conference “We consider that Apple copycat Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the IF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006”. Though LG may have been the first to display the new technology and showcase it, it openly showed its current advancements in technology to the world. Within the documentary Steve Jobs openly admits that Apple is notorious for plundering technology. Although they were not the original creators of the technology they were able to improve the technology and create the better product. Apple’s development team has a knack for innovation as it has the ability to constantly improve upon existing technology to appear both pleasing to the eye and on the cutting edge of technology. These kinds of situations are normally quite common as the introduction of new marketable technology will turn heads and eventually be modified or duplicated in hopes of improving and distinguishing themselves. It is should be mentioned that innovation does just apply to what the technology does but also to the appearance or functions it can perform. As long as the public information continues to be easier to access with each passing day the rate at which products with duplicate abilities will be introduced.

 

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/lg-says-apple-copied-the-prada-phone-also-apples-mother-is-obese-235933.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iphone

http://www.gamespot.com/psp/action/spiderman3/news.html?sid=6182424&cpage=11&prev_button=1

The Torrent Uprise

Torrent Sharing and its effect as a Disruptive Technology

During the final years of the 20^th century and the beginning of the 21^st the introduction of p2p sharing revolutionized the way information could be distributed. P2p sharing allowed for computers to take information from foreign hosts i.e. (Users/Seeders) rather than taking information from a network much like an http or ftp download. Users draw the required data they needed from multiple users in small pieces and assembled them to eventually create the requested file that they wished to download. I will be referencing a program known as “KaZaA”; a decentralized p2p program that allowed for basic search activity as well as single and zipped file transfers 4.

“KaZaA” though not as reputable as “Napster” was a downloadable program that drew upon users who also installed the application. Like most to all p2p programs at the time the sharing community was limited to those who had the program, example a file distributed by KaZaA could not be shared with a Napster user unless a client had both programs already installed. With the advent of Torrent sharing it allowed for users to share information with anybody regardless of the program they used to transfer data. In other words it created a community far larger than any file sharing application did in the past allowing for files to be exchanged exponentially faster and expanding the library of sharable files atleast a 100 fold.

It should be noted that Bittorent and Bittorent clients are not p2p applications but instead an entirely new process known as file sharing. As file sharing is a newer way of distributing data than the other p2p model it can be considered as the successor to p2p.

Bittorent was in a sense the next logical step in file sharing as it seemed to improve upon the faults and errors that were evident with the p2p clients of the current age. Though Bittorent in itself has faults not evident in p2p such less effort in concealing anonymity, it has made more of a disruptive effect upon the entertainment industry, music industry, and publishing industry than p2p ever did. One feature that Bittorent is known for is that it’s sharing community is far larger than any p2p program in the past has been able to hold. This is because Bittorent’s client programs are compatible with each other regardless of the application and grants them access to every seeder/leecher that is affiliated with the torrent. It is because of the mass amount of people that are available to distribute data that a torrent is able to stay alive for years if its popularity is sufficient. This causes far more of an effect upon the media industry as it’s easier to obtain larger .avi/.mkv files if there are more seeders to distribute it.

Another feature evident in Torrent sharing is the ability to view contents of zip/rar files that the torrent will upload to your computer. It also grants you access to which of the contents you would to download meaning that you are able to retrieve the data you want without downloading the entire zipped file. This feature gives you the security you need to download larger box torrents without having to worry about obtaining information, viruses, or spam that you don’t want.

Finally Bittorent takes advantage of the blogging system that we learned in class earlier. As Torrent as uploaded to websites for public download they are often accompanied by a blog with user comments detailing torrent information, such as quality, uploader information, and user comments from those who have already completed downloading the requested file. Some sites that allow this are “Mininova” and “PirateBay”, continuing to pool their users together “Torrents. to” has created a portal site that allows for users to instantly jump from site to site inspecting and comparing torrent comments and updated seeder to lecher ratios 3. By providing this information people know what to expect from the torrent, as p2p had many flaws regarding the contents of its files with nobody to justify its contents except based on the amount of seeders it currently has. This along with the ability to view the contents of the zipped file give more than enough reason for people to download larger box torrents and .avi files as it offers more security and reliability to justify that the contents you are going to download are authentic and will cause no harm to your computer.

As a “Disruptive Technology” I believe that Bittorent is the bigger monster, solely because the community that uses application is so big that files that would take days to transfer in KaZaA and older p2p program take mere hours to minutes to complete. For example the DVD release of “Don’t Mess with the Zohan” will be on Oct. 8, 2008 yet a leak occurred and the torrent has already received 10,354 seeders with an estimated 12,783 leechers 1. Another example would be the newest episode of a cartoon called “Naruto” with the latest episode having 27,833 seeders and nearly 10,000 leechers 2. The additional features such as the blog rating system and the uploader information introduced by Bittorent allow for these torrents to stay alive far longer than they would if there were distributed on p2p systems thus having an effect on the media, publishing, and music industry in the long run as listeners and readers will be able to easily find a website that distributes these torrents. As the world continues to move into the digital age and more people beginning to access the internet for the first time they will be unable to pay for a majority of the entertainment they wish to watch. It will lead to more people logging into torrent sites and to seed/leech and distribute data and will only continue to grow larger until the media industry does something drastic to make sure it’s dwindling sales don’t continue to tail spin into the ground.

Sources

http://www.mininova.org/tor/1766066

http://www.mininova.org/tor/1794920

http://torrents.to/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazaa

Web 2.0 and Enterprise

Web 2.0 and Enterprise

 

The 21^st century has quickly evolved into an age unlike any other; where the pace of change continues to grow exponentially faster than most people cannot keep up with. Technology’s emerges only to die with a flicker unnoticed by many and then vaguely recalled upon years later. Industries frantically research for the next “big thing” only to find new competition waiting for them at the finish line, normally dubbed as format wars. This has occurred with HdTv’s, the Blueray/HdDvd format war/ and the console wars, however the transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 was met with no resistance, and with no competition. Web 2.0 is far more than a simple patch applied to update existing features within Web 1.0 and can probably be compared to the release of a new Window’s operating system.

 

Thinking back I can vaguely recall upon features that date to the pre 2.0 era such as portals, directories, and page viewer tickers. In this essay I would like to take time to debate a few changes and cover them in as much detail as I can, mainly within the context of the Enterprise 2.0 scenarios. In short by taking the favorable features of the introduction of Web 2.0 and applying them into the business context is what Enterprise 2.0 is in a nut shell or “The use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers. 1”

 

While it may sound like a good idea, one of the main challenges regarding the implication of social based technology into a business is that people will abuse it. If given too much freedom people will take it for granted. Companies will think of it as a useful technology to help garner more profits and fail to take serious consideration of the baggage that it come with it 2. To some social based technology would be another form of instant messaging to help them inform another employee to get them another donut from the cafeteria. Most corporations are concerned about if they implement Enterprise 2.0 will there be abuse and misuse of it for social or leisurely activities? In one case a member of an organization noted that their organization had discovered an employee scalping tickets inappropriately on their internal blog and that it gave them some concern. 3 However if Enterprise were to transform and somehow the users rather than the superiors take it upon themselves to prevent misuse and establish a peer control board. It would allow prevent further misuse but nipping it in the bud and establishing that if you do something to abuse these social networking tools you will be reported by your peers.

 

A major concern that should be addressed is security. By implementing Enterprise 2.0 will the company’s information be risk or worse would there be legal dangers from the dependence on p2p sharing within the corporation? Again it depends on the firm however the solution should be approached in much the same way most programs developed; the creation of a guidelines page would limit the transfer of illegal materials and employees would actively know they are doing something illegal or something shady. However as noted above the creation of a strong work force who are concerned with the future of the company will be able to spot and report anything they deem to be suspicious. By giving trust to your employees and acknowledging they have the power to watch over themselves they will treat Enterprise more as a privilege and use it effectively.

 

After being properly regulated and the employee’s trained the implication of these social networking tools will be prove to be most effective. A good example would be if the company decides to push a new product and needs feedback from the employees, then forum based applications and blogging would enable them to receive quick results in regards to the product’s overall quality. Another option would to document the new product and simply upload it as a podcast for employee/potential customers to observe and rate their feelings. Also by implementing Enterprise 2.0 the training costs of educating new employees on how to use this technology would be next to none as most of the younger generation already uses this technology on a daily basis with 5 to 10% of them only personal blogs. 7

 

Amr research has found that 64%percent of companies have currently implemented some form of Web 2.0 into their enterprises. 4 With a majority taking of advantage of Wiki’s (57%), Blogs (53%), Social Networking (48%), and p2p (45%) of the said 64 percent. Though 64% percent of the market shares are using Enterprise 2.0 does this apply to smaller companies where communication between employees is far easier than it would be in their corporate counter parts? In short the answer is no, Larger companies are taking advantage of Enterprise 2.0 as it allows for a greater sense of communication and allows for information to be passed from employee to employee far easier than it normally would’ve been. According to a Forrester report nearly 68 percent of small businesses do not use Enterprise 2.0. 5 Why? This is because of the size of their company that they are able to communicate both internally and externally without the need of Enterprise 2.0. As the company continues to grow however the percentage of companies that use it will increase due to the strain of the size of the business. 6

 

In conclusion the implication of Enterprise will continue to evolve to the point where all companies regardless of if it is big of small will have it. This is because in time enterprise will offer faster modes of communication that may one day not be limited to strictly by the computer. It may cross over to phones, watches, pda. If the creation Enterprise 3.0 is introduced with elements from Web 3.0 then it will most likely continue to evolve the environment of the modern day work place.

 

 

 Sources

 

http://www.takingaiim.com/2008/01/using-enterpris.html

 

http://theobvious.typepad.com/blog/2008/06/most-companies.html

 

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=147

 

http://www.ciozone.com/index.php/Editorial-Research/Majority-of-Companies-Now-Using-Enterprise-2.0-Technologies.html

 

http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/04/heres-the-reason-why-small-businesses-wont-adopt-enterprise-20.html

 

http://innovationcreators.com/wp/?p=193