 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||
 |
||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||
|
||||||||
|
 |
|
Insights
A new breed of portals populates the Web. Voice portals promise easy, ubiquitous Internet access using the most common telecommunication device available: the telephone. The emerging voice market will experience fierce competition among providers. But competition will not be constrained to this market pocket. E-commerce businesses and brick-and-mortar companies have to take the new developments into account to leverage clout in the competitive environment. But they must also be aware that possible threats surface from the new technology. The ubiquity of the service may trigger major changes in consumer behavior. Easy, ubiquitous access to comparison data, for example, can change purchase habits. An integration of such systems in the evolving voice Web can provide synergies. Touch-Tone systems and even call centers may be replaced with voice-enabled information systems that at the same time constitute the visual Web site. The way business takes place in the future will be different. Cellular phones can use intranets and databases; e-mails will transfer voice mails and vice versa. The access mode will depend on individual preferences, not technical necessities. Voice technology and the Voice Web offer a plethora of opportunities and new applications. Only time will sort out which services provide sufficient benefits for customers. New business uses will emerge on a continuous basis, and companies in every field have to be alert to assess which applications can add value for their customers and employees and which might oppose a company's own interests. Author: Martin Schwirn. 17 pages. Index Keywords: Communications; Electronic Commerce; High-Growth Markets; Internet; Internet Technologies; Technology Development.
Completion of the draft of the human genome is just the first step toward new therapies, diagnostic tools, and improved health-management strategies. Researchers must next elucidate the function of human genes and the roles these genes play in maintaining health and causing disease. Pharmaceutical companies hope to identify drug targets and synthesize drugs using chemical or biologic methods, and the growing role of molecular biology in medical practice will create new health-service paradigms through individual genetic profiling and risk adjustment. However, as these advances accelerate and dramatic commercial opportunities open up, a danger exists that attention to ethical, legal, and privacy issues will not keep pace. How can societies protect against third parties' misuse of genetic information, and how can the genomics industry resolve matters of data access, control, and ownership? Commercial ventures need to address public concerns about the privacy of genetic data and other ethical issues if they are to avoid stringent government regulations that could drastically slow the industry's momentum. Self-regulation and public education about the benefits of genomic advances would go a long way to assure the field's success, both in science and in commerce. Author: Andrew Broderick. 9 pages. Index Keywords: Biotechnology; Genetic Engineering; Health Care; Medical Research; Pharmaceutical Industry.
On 22 June 2000, Microsoft announced a major strategy shift--one on a par with its 1995 embrace of the Internet browser/server market and away from its earlier emphasis on building a proprietary online service. Microsoft's recently revealed strategic vision--Microsoft.Net--will guide its software, tools, and services development during the next three years. The company envisions Microsoft.Net--when fully implemented--as a tightly integrated Internet environment that lets people seamlessly access centralized data files, software, applications, and services from various PC and non-PC devices--regardless of where they are or what type of Internet-connected device they are using. The cross-platform networking and centralized integration of software applications and services that Microsoft is describing promise to make data-access and computing tasks far easier and more customer friendly. The result of such new integrated Internet-mediated access will be basic changes in the way people behave, what they buy, and how they buy it. Potential advantages that the Microsoft.Net vision enables include access anywhere, file-sharing efficiencies, automated software updates, and simpler, less costly access devices. By announcing that it will develop the tools and partnerships necessary to realize this cross-platform networking vision, Microsoft is giving the networked-computing paradigm a new definition and legitimacy. Authors: Ed Christie, Paul Di Senso, Michael Gold, Lindsay C. Wilson. 13 pages. Index Keywords: Computer Services; Information Management; Information Technology; Innovation; Internet Technologies.
Wild cards are ideas and events well off the current trend lines in the business environment. They are the seeds of innovation, and the Business Intelligence Program (B-I-P) specializes in identifying them with its Scan process. This study reviews topics, trends, and discontinuities in the business environment that B-I-P researchers surfaced at B-I-P's Scan meeting of 19 July 2000. Topics are various: Companies are exploring the practicality of defined-benefit health insurance plans in which employees manage the allocation of their own health insurance dollars. Computer researchers are developing attentive environments in which user- and context-aware computers address the needs of users on the fly. Two new computing techniques protect the anonymity of posters on the Web and assure that their material cannot be removed without their permission. Another new software product encrypts every second of a musical recording to avoid illegal copying. Systems theory makes yet another comeback as scientists and researchers in biology attempt to interpret the expression process in the interactivity of large numbers of individual genes. Image-based tissue databases explore new techniques for harnessing the power of images. And merchants team up to forestall government online privacy regulation as Canada gives up on a national longitudinal database because of privacy concerns. Author: Kermit M. Patton. 11 pages. Index Keywords: Innovation; Strategic Planning.
Scan
Easy access to relatively inexpensive and abundant sources of easily transportable and versatile hydrocarbon fuels has created a massive hydrocarbon-based inertia within the industrialized world. SRI research scientists Hew Crane and Ed Kinderman maintain that the industrialized world has reached an inflection point at which a significant revaluation of hydrocarbons as energy sources is necessary for the future stability of global political, corporate, and financial structures. They believe that the industrialized world's current appetite for energy, combined with ambitious growth plans by the developing world, has significant market implications. As hydrocarbons' abundance decreases, their inherent versatility, transportability, and high energy per unit of mass will eventually make them an even more treasured energy source. A significant revaluation in the marketplace is inevitable. Whether that revaluation takes place gradually and constructively in the next 10 to 20 years or occurs catastrophically in a short time at some undetermined point in the future depends on how proactively governments, corporations, and the public approach the situation. Shifting the huge inertia of the hydrocarbon-based global energy economy will take significant time, effort, and money, but maintaining the global economy's current energy course is risky in the long run. News The summaries below describe current activities and programs not included in the B-I-P membership but of potential interest to members. LoD Workshops on the East Coast On 11 and 12 September 2000, thought leaders on the topic of eLearning gathered in Washington, D.C., and Princeton, New Jersey, to discuss the future of eLearning. Presentations were by SRI, Cisco, Autodesk, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. SRIC's Learning-on-Demand (LoD) program hosts the Silicon Valley eLearning Network meeting monthly in Menlo Park. eLearning along the Value Chain Most companies are still in the early phases of implementing eLearning and focusing on internal training. However, leading-edge practitioners of eLearning—such as Autodesk, Hewlett-Packard, and Cisco—recognize that they must now start exploring how they can leverage current eLearning efforts into the extended enterprise. Only when a company's total value chain (or web) can take full advantage of all formal and informal learning content via the Internet will the company achieve maximum competitive advantage. The latest report from LoD, eLearning along the Value Chain, examines the ways in which eLearning can provide new opportunities both on the customer-facing side of the business and in the supply-chain end of the enterprise. In addition, it describes and evaluates innovative eLearning practices (as signs of things to come) for companies in high technology, financial and consulting services, and manufacturing and health industries. These practices provide useful insights for companies that are just now starting to think about the next phase of their eLearning initiatives and how the practices can yield maximum competitive advantage. The report derives key implications and sets forth action agendas for both eLearning users and vendors and provides a large number of figures that give clear illustrations of key concepts and developments; summary tables provide easily digestible overviews of major points and conclusions. For more information about the Learning-on-Demand program, telephone: +1 650 859 4600; e-mail: info@sric-bi.com. |
 |
|
||||||||||||
(Korean Inquiries)
(Japanese site)