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In this issue:

  * Swarm Intelligence
  * Nutraceuticals
  * Growing Interest in CWDM
  * Practitioners' Views of eLearning
  * Bio-Fuel Cells
  * ScanSoft's Big Move into Speech Technology
  * Category Influences on Consumers' Purchase Decisions
  * Signals of Change
  * U.S. Corporate Responses to Global Climate Change
  * Update on the 2002-03 Affluent MacroMonitor
  * Presentations and Press by SRIC-BI Staff


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(Full text of SRIC-BI publications is available to
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---------------------
 Recent Publications
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Swarm Intelligence

Eric Bonabeau, once with France Telecom and now at 
Icosystems, is pioneering the idea of using swarm 
intelligence--the emergent, collective intelligence of social 
insect colonies--to develop emergent properties in artificial 
systems. Though this approach has proved itself in a number 
of situations, including network routing and supply-chain 
optimization, it calls for a different mind-set than the 
typical central-command structure and the predefined, 
preprogrammed solutions to problems that people use in 
developing software and managing vast amounts of information. 
(May 2003 Knowledge-Based Systems Viewpoints)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer/KBS.shtml


Nutraceuticals

The nutraceuticals industry--which produces functional foods, 
dietary supplements, and fortified foods--is enduring some 
growing pains. Regulators and consumers alike increasingly 
want to see scientific evidence of manufacturers' health 
claims, yet the expense of conducting the necessary studies 
and clinical trials is so high that few companies in the 
industry are willing to take the risk. Moreover, routes to 
product differentiation are few, paybacks on investments are 
uncertain, and competition is fierce to find the next big 
nutraceutical. (Nutraceuticals: Opportunities and Threats)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Scan/ScanMonthly/SM003.shtml#D03-2428


Growing Interest in CWDM

At a time when carriers must accommodate steadily rising 
traffic on their networks with low capital-expenditure 
budgets, coarse wavelength-division multiplexing (CWDM) is 
becoming an increasingly attractive option. A big part of 
CWDM's appeal is the wide spacing between wavelengths, which 
allows equipment vendors to make CWDM systems significantly 
more cheaply than they can make dense wavelength-division 
multiplexing systems. (May 2003 Fiber-Optic Communications 
Viewpoints)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer/FOC.shtml


Practitioners' Views of eLearning

In a survey of more than 350 eLearning practitioners around 
the globe, a solid majority of respondents (60%) said that 
they consider their eLearning programs to be "good" or 
"excellent." This result was surprising, given considerable 
discussion in the literature about drop-out rates and poor 
quality. In another somewhat surprising response, fully 
two-fifths of respondents (41%) say that they are using 
eLearning enterprisewide. (Quality and Effectiveness of 
eLearning)
http://www.sric-bi.com/LoD/summaries/QEelearning2003-04.shtml


Bio-Fuel Cells

Although most of the fuel cells under commercial development 
today use inorganic catalysts such as platinum, researchers 
are also working on fuel cells that use enzymes or 
microorganisms as catalysts. Developments in chemical fuel 
cells and continued advances in biotechnology are aiding 
bio-fuel-cell developers in furthering a technology that 
could promote society's transition toward a hydrogen economy. 
(May 2003 Fuel Cells Viewpoints)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer/FC.shtml


ScanSoft's Big Move into Speech Technology

In the past two months, ScanSoft has changed the 
speech-technology industry fundamentally by building a 
partnership with Nuance and entering a merger agreement with 
SpeechWorks. The Massachusetts-based company, which was not 
even in the speech-technology arena two years ago, has 
managed to become a major player by capitalizing on the 
economic downturn in the information-technology industry and 
acquiring speech-technology assets that had lost most of 
their previous value. (May 2003 Speech Interfaces Viewpoints)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer/SI.shtml


Category Influences on Consumers' Purchase Decisions

Categories of products--such as televisions and DVD 
players--often influence each other, either increasing or 
decreasing the likelihood that consumers will select a 
product from a given category. Companies that analyze such 
influences in a systematic way can strengthen their 
understanding of their customers, improve their strategic 
planning, and identify the full range of their competitors. 
(Exploring the Competitive Dynamics of Product-Category 
Relationships)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Scan/ScanMonthly/SM003.shtml#D03-2426


Signals of Change

Moblogging (mobile Web logging)--the use of cell phones to 
make and access entries on Web logs--is increasingly popular. 
The May 2003 issue of Scan Monthly looks at the potential for 
moblogging to expand the horizons of journalism by sending 
fast-breaking news to consumers through nontraditional 
channels. Other writeups look at new ways of engaging 
consumer attention, attempts to revalue water, and progress 
in developing context-aware computer systems. (Scan Monthly, 
May 2003)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Scan/ScanMonthly/SM003.shtml#SoCs


U.S. Corporate Responses to Global Climate Change

Despite the refusal of the United States to ratify the Kyoto 
Protocol, a growing number of businesses are acting 
voluntarily to reduce their own environmental footprint. 
DuPont, IBM, and John Hancock Financial Services are in the 
vanguard of climate action, focusing both on internal 
solutions to reduce their emissions of global-warming gases 
and on external possibilities, such as emissions trading and 
investment in carbon sinks or sequestration. (U.S. Corporate 
Responses to Global Climate Change)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Scan/ScanMonthly/SM003.shtml#D03-2429


Update on the 2002-03 Affluent MacroMonitor

SRIC-BI's Consumer Financial Decisions group has released 
more than half the deliverables for its 2002-03 Affluent 
MacroMonitor. The Affluent Top-Line compares two years' 
answers of households with incomes of $100 000 or more or 
assets of $500 000 (excluding the home). CFD's Affluent 
banner is available for clients on the Web site, and clients 
can request custom banners, selecting as many as 18 
populations for analysis.
http://www.sric-bi.com/CFD/announcements.shtml



------------------------------------------
 Presentations and Press by SRIC-BI Staff
------------------------------------------

* "Changes in Consumer Trust of Financial Institutions
  and Professionals: 1994-2002 Trend."  Presentation by
  Larry Cohen, Director of Consumer Financial Decisions,
  at the American Association for Public Opinion Research
  (17 May 2003).
  http://www.sric-bi.com/news.shtml


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Copyright 2003 by SRI Consulting Business Intelligence.