New Zealand Institute’s fibre plan ‘myopic’, says Vodafone

Hey all,

 

For my last post, here is the latest news coming from the ICT sector in New Zealand.

 

“Vodafone’s general manager of corporate affairs, Tom Chignall, labels the New Zealand Institute’s latest broadband report “a bit myopic” for being focused on fibre.  “Fibre is important, but it’s not the only way of delivering broadband,” he says. Even as a means of increasing fibre penetration, “the model is flawed”, Chignall says. “It seems like a step backwards, effectively renationalising Telecom’s assets.” The free market “may not  have satisfied everyone”, but it has produced significant improvement in communications, and too much re-regulation might do more harm than good, he says.”

“The New Zealand Institute suggested, in its final report on broadband, that a single company be given monopoly ownership of “last-mile” connections between exchanges or street cabinets and user premises.
Existing telcos, utilities, local and central government, and other private investors, would have shares in the hypothetical company, christened FibreCo, and contribute resources, including fibre ducting and electronics to the company’s operation.”Read more at: http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/netw/780DEA3A6A492D66CC257422003381A9

 

Till next time…

 

GS

MARS DISCOVERY DISTRICT

Hello,

Today in my blog posting I will speak about one of the ICT clusters most important support systems, Mars. MaRS is at the heart of the “Discovery District” — two square kilometers in downtown Toronto and the city’s centre of innovation. MaRS brings science and technology researchers together under one roof with business and investment capital firms. MaRS Discovery District is a not-for-profit corporation founded by a group of business and community leaders to help foster research and innovation and take discoveries from the lab to the marketplace. The McGuinty government’s goal is to support the research and development of the best ideas, and help turn those ideas into products and services — because that will create jobs and prosperity for Ontarians.

MaRS will help the government deliver on its four research and commercialization priorities:

·         Strengthening support for commercialization

·         Attracting, retaining and developing the best and the brightest researchers

·         Sustaining research excellence

·         Building innovation networks.

The Ontario government has invested $50.5 million in MaRS.

Read more at: http://www.premier.gov.on.ca/news/Product.asp?ProductID=471

Till next time….

GS

Computers to Merge With Humans

Hey all,

“By 2020 the terms “interface” and “user” will be obsolete as computers merge ever closer with humans.  It is one prediction in a Microsoft-backed report drawn from the discussions of 45 academics from the fields of computing, science, sociology and psychology.  It predicts fundamental changes in the field of so-called Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).

By 2020 humans will increasingly interrogate machines, the report said. In turn computers will be able to anticipate what we want from them, which will require new rules about our relationship with machines. The ever-present network will channel mass market information directly to us while disseminating our own intimate information. The report dubs this the era of so-called hyper-connectivity and predicts it will mean a growth in “techno-dependency”.  

 

This ever more intimate relationship between humans and computers will be a double-edged sword, it suggests.

The widespread introduction of the calculator – widely blamed for a fall in the standard of mental arithmetic – with what may happen as computers become more intelligent and take on new responsibilities. We can see where the future is heading, the future is now. The rapidly advancing world of ICT and clusters will make this prediction true sooner rather than later.

Read more at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7325004.stm

till next time….

GS

Smart tags hail the web of things

Hey, 

Dr Kortuem and colleagues at the University of Lancaster are working on a project that combines smart tags and personal identifiers to keep an eye on people working on construction sites using heavy machine tools.

“It’s to keep track of how long they are used, to figure out vibrations generated by these tools,” he said. “It’s for health and safety. We create personalised health and safety records for every worker.”

The future of the internet is an internet of connected objects Jean-Francois Kitten

“The current way of generating this data is after the fact and no-one really cares about it,” he said. “There is legislation and companies need to generate the data, they need to prove that they comply with the legislation.”

Many hardware makers, such as router maker Cisco, are also starting to put smarter tags on devices so they can keep a record of their working life and can call for help if they are about to fail or are in need of servicing.

For more information, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7207514.stm

Till Next Time…. 

GS

Silicon chips stretch into shape

Hello,

Interesting new development from ICT:

Normally fragile and brittle silicon chips have been made to bend and fold, paving the way for a new generation of flexible electronic devices. The stretchy circuits could be used to build advanced brain implants, health monitors or smart clothing. The silicon chips can be bent, stretched and folded whilst maintaining the electronic capabilities of traditional microchips. The circuits are built from ribbons of single crystalline silicon supported on very thin plastic and rubber-like layers.

Possibilities and opportunities with this advancement are limitless.

read more- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7313203.stm

 Till Next Time….

GS

News Release: ICT Industry Finds Budget Support Modest

Hey Everyone,

This past February, the budget tabled by the Finance Ministry was presented to the ICT industry. The Budget proposed to increase the expenditure limit for Canadian-controlled private corporations in the ICT sector.  ITAC has called for a move to full refundability to ensure that all R&D investors in Canada, regardless of their ownership or their profit positions, have access to the credits. The changes shown constitute a 1.1 percent improvement on the support the program provides. These measures simply aren’t enough to incent substantial R&D investors to keep high-valueknowledge jobs in Canada.  

According to the report, the ICT industry faces major shortages of skilled workers and several measures take steps to address the talent shortage. This has been deliberately been caused by Canada’s immigration system. Skilled Immigrants are not being accepted into the workforce, which is slowing the global competitiveness of the ICT industry. The budget hints at more of an effort to modernize the immigration system.  

 A little bit about ITAC,  “The Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) is the voice of the Canadian information and communications technologies (ICT) industry in all sectors including telecommunications and Internet services, ICT consulting services, hardware, microelectronics, software and electronic content. ITAC’s network of companies accounts for more than 70 per cent of the 589,000 jobs, $137.6 billion in revenue, $5.2 billion in R&D investment, $22.6 billion in exports and $11.5 billion in capital expenditures that the industry contributes annually to theCanadian economy.”

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:bWoQ9xG8BmwJ:www.itac.ca/MediaCentre/ITACNewsRelease/26Feb_Release_Budget_2008.pdf+Information+Technology+Association+of+Canada+(ITAC)&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=ca

Till Next Time….

GS