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In this issue:

  * Toward Web Services
  * New Frontiers in Brain Imaging
  * Developments in Fuel Processors
  * Financial Services for Gen X
  * Social Networking in eLearning
  * Next-Generation Interface Technologies
  * Signals of Change
  * Issues of Electronic Presence
  * Networked Movies to the Home
  * Learning Outsourcing
  * RFID and Privacy
  * Advanced Drug Delivery
  * Nanotechnology
  * SRIC-BI Presentations


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(Full text of SRIC-BI publications is available to
sponsoring clients only.  To find out if your company is a
sponsor, please visit http://www.sric-bi.com/info.shtml.)
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---------------------
 Recent Publications
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Toward Web Services

The technologies and processes of component-based software 
engineering are changing as component software prepares to 
enter the era of Web services. Three elements are 
particularly important in establishing Web-services 
technology: service-oriented architectures to establish the 
necessary theoretical framework, a Web-services stack to 
determine how standards and protocols fit together, and 
programmatic and development/deployment platforms. (April 
2004 Component-Based Software Engineering Viewpoints)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer/CBSE.shtml


New Frontiers in Brain Imaging

New tools such as functional magnetic-resonance imaging 
(fMRI) have revitalized the moribund field of biofeedback 
and opened the door to newer applications of neuroimaging 
such as neuroeconomics and neuromarketing. Nonetheless, 
researchers have a way to go before they understand the 
complexities of the human brain, so current neuroimaging 
technology provides only crude glimpses of the human brain 
at work. (Neuroimaging, Neuroeconomics, and Neuromarketing)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Scan/ScanMonthly/SM014.shtml#D04-2466


Developments in Fuel Processors

The U.S. Department of Energy is reviewing the ability of 
onboard-fuel flexible-processing technologies to meet 
performance criteria and will issue its verdict on the 
future of onboard fuel processing for propulsion 
applications at the end of June. Onboard re-forming is an 
important part of the fuel infrastructure necessary for 
fuel-cell commercialization. (April 2004 Fuel Cells 
Viewpoints)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer/FC.shtml


Financial Services for Gen X

Gen X has not received the same level of marketing 
attention that Boomers have.  Nonetheless, this younger 
generation is well educated, is moving into high-paying 
positions, and constitutes 20% of the Mass Affluent and 
more than one-third of the Emerging Affluent markets. By 
establishing relationships with Gen X now, financial 
institutions can position themselves to become the 
providers of choice for this generation's future 
wealth-management needs. (Make Way for Gen X)
http://www.sric-bi.com/CFD/MRsummaries/MR.VI-08.shtml


Social Networking in eLearning

Some of the new tools, technologies, and services that help 
build social networks and facilitate social interaction can 
complement eLearning programs and improve learning 
effectiveness. In the past few years, companies that offer 
social-networking services have attracted considerable 
interest in the popular press as well as in the venture- 
capital industry. Another category of companies facilitates 
personal contacts and network building by identifying and 
locating experts. (LoD Bulletin, First Quarter 2004)
http://www.sric-bi.com/LoD/bulletins.shtml


Next-Generation Interface Technologies

Today, system designers are looking to metadata--information 
that users do not explicitly enter into computer systems 
but that provides hints of users' context, emotional state, 
and intent--to help them develop the next generation of 
interfaces. The ability to infer a person's context from 
metadata presents opportunities to improve customer 
service, strengthen security, and introduce new marketing 
techniques and investigative tools. But companies need to 
avoid overstepping privacy and other bounds when they use 
the technology. (Metadata Extraction for Interface 
Technologies: Potential and Risks)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Scan/ScanMonthly/SM014.shtml#D04-2469


Signals of Change

As the Boomer generation hits retirement age, product 
designers will redesign a whole raft of products and 
services, putting aside conventional views of disabilities 
such as loss of sight, hearing, mobility, and strength. The 
April 2004 issue of Scan(tm) Monthly explores this signal 
of change, along with topics such as machine approximations 
of human senses, interfaces between biology and the digital 
world of silicon, and companies' misleading assumptions 
about suitable products for the elderly. (Scan(tm) Monthly, April
2004)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Scan/ScanMonthly/SM014.shtml#SoCs


Issues of Electronic Presence

Computer-enabled awareness of people's online presence is 
coming closer as products from Microsoft and IBM reach the 
marketplace. With proper use, presence-enabled systems will 
enable workers to communicate electronically in less 
intrusive ways than they can today. However, the technology 
raises privacy issues, given its ability to expose people's 
work practices, and workers' reluctance to change the way 
they operate with others could slow acceptance of the 
technology. (April 2004 Knowledge-Management Tools 
Viewpoints)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer/KMT.shtml


Networked Movies to the Home

At one time, many analysts assumed that fiber-optic 
networks would dominate movie distribution. However, the 
film industry clearly wants to tap into multiple revenue 
sources, and distribution channels are proliferating. Thus, 
whether fiber becomes popular or not, it will share the 
market with many other options, such as terrestrial 
broadcast networks that deliver movies to hard-disk video 
recorders, wireless options, and Rupert Murdoch's newly 
assembled global satellite-distribution network. (Networked 
Movies to the Home: Emerging Alternatives)
http://www.sric-bi.com/DF/summaries/NetwkdMovies2004-04.shtml


Learning Outsourcing

As companies increasingly recognize that few of their 
training activities lie within their core competencies, 
they are opting to procure outsourced services to satisfy 
their learning and training needs. For some companies, 
outsourcing is an easy way to make training go away. For 
others, it is an opportunity to raise the overall quality 
of learning and training, reduce costs, and ensure the 
strategic relevance of these activities to core business 
objectives. (Learning Outsourcing: Strategic Opportunity)
http://www.sric-bi.com/LoD/summaries/LearnOutsrc2004-04.shtml


RFID and Privacy

On 28 February, the first protest against radio-frequency-
identification (RFID) technology took place outside Metro's 
"future store" in Rheinberg, Germany. This action, along 
with several bills under consideration in state 
legislatures in the United States, points to the 
possibility that privacy issues, looming liability 
problems, and data conflicts among supply-chain partners 
could prevent some uses of RFID technology in the future. 
(April 2004 RFID Technologies Viewpoints)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Explorer/RFID.shtml


Advanced Drug Delivery

Players in the drug-delivery industry are pursuing 
opportunities to reformulate existing drugs, develop more 
effective and targeted delivery mechanisms, and introduce 
properties that enhance drugs' efficacy and safety. Among 
the delivery mechanisms under development are transdermal 
routes with the aid of ultrasound, heat-activated release 
from hydrogels, photoreactive nanoporous materials, 
microfabricated delivery systems, and aerosol inhalation. 
(Advanced Drug-Delivery Systems)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Scan/ScanMonthly/SM014.shtml#D04-2467


Nanotechnology

Physicist Richard Feynman introduced the idea of 
manipulating materials at the atomic and molecular scales 
in 1959. Interest in the resulting field of nanotechnology 
has been growing substantially in recent years, and now 
many everyday objects that we take for granted result from 
designers' ability to improve control of materials at the 
microscale. (Nanotechnology Basics)
http://www.sric-bi.com/Scan/ScanMonthly/SM014.shtml#D04-2468


-----------------------
 SRIC-BI Presentations
-----------------------

Partner Value Management

Some 82% of executives believe that partnerships will be 
the primary vehicle for their companies' future growth. 
SRIC-BI, through its work in partner management, has 
developed a value-based approach to managing the partner 
channel. A new executive briefing outlines this approach, 
showing how partner value management (PVM) ties partner 
metrics and modeling to decision making and processes. 
Decision makers can use PVM to drive value both at the 
portfolio level and in individual partnerships.
http://www.sric-bi.com/consulting/briefings.shtml


Public Seminar on Scanning

On 17 June, Bill Ralston and Tom McKenna of SRIC-BI will 
present "Scanning: Peripheral Vision in a Rapidly Changing 
Environment" at the San Francisco, California, chapter of 
the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals 
(SCIP). For more information, visit the SCIP Web site: 
https://s08.123signup.com/servlet/SignUp?P=1857191152246600&PG=185
7182300&Info=


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