Google is showing us the way…..

Let me set the expectations right. This post may not be revealing with respect to facts but I wanted to scribble about what I make of them.

As I labored and obsessed to add new and cool stuff on my website (with a very limited knowledge of HTML/XML) I ran into Google voice. And I then like you backtrack a cable to see what is it connected to, I ended up in the Pandora box of Google. This is how it looked:

Hmm…exhaustive line up! But the interesting take away here is the potential change in the distribution channel for technologies. I have deliberately held back labeling them as “software technologies”. Today virtually any non-software technology can be “software-ised”. Advanced software codification and integration of various technologies enable a convergence where one can outsmart one’s imagination with the plethora of possibilities in real-time. Google Voice is one such example and I feel AT&T+iPhone will vouch for this! This is really a harbinger of the smarter planet wave and Google is showing us how the web can be more powerful than what it is today!

The internet plays a wonderful leveler of the playing field. It is banal to quote that nothing will remain the same as we know about computers and software. But it is interesting to think that nothing will remain same about any non-computing technology, once it is touched by the golden glove of softwarisation. It is not just the power of the web. It is also the imagination of the numerous technologists who will smite the non IT technologies with the anvil of software code and make them available on the web world. The web will simply bypass the need of vendors for distribution of such novel technologies. And with the web cruising its way into the mobile space and the reckoning ideological shift towards cloud computing, technology giants who attribute their success to their vendor relationships, will have to do some serious introspection. As for the technology entrepreneurs, the emergence of cloud computing and the evolution of web technology frameworks are excellent enablers to build a value chain and strong business model around their products. As long as you have the imagination and the technical skills to port the imagination to the web, you can steal the thunder from the mighty giants: the old horses will have to make way for the dark horses!

So think about it: What chores from or aspects of the real world would you want to replicate or control via the web world?

Tech and Energy = Smarter Living

When technology meets energy, the result is bound to be explosive!

While working on assessing opportunities for "Smarter Planet", where primarily technology is leveraged to ease the pressure off the energy resources, I bumped into Smart Transportation. I thought I will give you a short summary about it.

Imagine this: Every vehicle on the road communicates with each other to gauge safe distances, communicating with the speed radars for speed limit conformance. Throw in the GPS technology and the data communicated by the vehicles can be further used for live traffic and congestion data. Adaptive routing algorithms can then empower your GPS to use the live data and show you alternate routes. This will not only save your commute time but also mitigate the occurrences of slow moving traffic which then translates into better fuel efficiency and better energy savings! WOW!

To take it to the next level, the data from different modes can be integrated. So if you are starting from home, you can log onto the transportation portal and see what combination of car, trains or bus etc will get you faster to your destination at that time.

These Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) can help to maximize the capacity of the transportation infrastructure. This becomes an important takeaway, given the limits to the physical expansion of infrastructure owing to feasibility and resource availability. Transportation infrastructure is spine of every economy. With such high end technologies, we can also have a very close monitoring of the transportation infrastructure, processing real-time data transmitted by vehicles and infrastructure.

As you can guess, there are several technologies besides Information Technology that are involved here. It is "Telematics" – the basic technology infrastructure encompassing in-vehicle navigation, communication, information, and entertainment services For a wide spread implementation of Smart Transportation, it is important to achieve interoperability and cooperation from various stakeholders. This entails the government and regulatory authorities as well.

There are already several big initiatives in this space especially in US, Japan and Europe. The point is that this commitment needs to sustain over a long period. But definitely, this is a space of opportunities especially for applications that would work across different modes. There are several projects in this space that are based on open platform to foster innovation at rapid space. Not only the technologies involved are matured but giants like Microsoft, IBM, Qualcomm, Hyundai, Toyota etc are playing an active role in getting these technologies to market.