Personal Computing in the Networked World

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Personal Computing in the Networked World

• Henry Minsky hqm_at_alum.mit.edu
• Keio University
• Beartronics Inc.

11/27/101
Henry Minsky
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Whats so great about a network connection?

• Where is all your stuff?
• A personal virtual server
• What defines mobile services? (nothing,
  everything is mobile)
• How could we make better platform and
  infrastructure support for personal computing?
• What can be learned from I-mode?

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Some Mobile Projects I Worked On

• NTT DoCoMo Sponsored Research at Keio Univ. SFC
  Campus
• http//www.wem.sfc.keio.ac.jp/wem/
• Ketai controlled Web Camera
• Ketai controlled virtual bulletin board
• WEM / Memspace server remembers everything
  everywhere, environmental, personal, shared data
• GPS correction data over IP
• Picobrowser (see iMode section)

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WEM Mobile Unit
GPS Still/Video Web server Audio Orientation Senso
r Net Ketai UI
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Ketai-activated Bulletin Board

• Personalized to each user, calendar, task list,
  SFC-MODE
• Java and I-mode UI supported
• Remote control of browser window
• View summary (via Google gateway!) on I-mode
• Submit articles via web, I-mode, or email

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Vboard iMode UI
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Java Picobrowser

• The PicoBrowser is a tiny customizable HTML
  browser and web server, runs on the NTT DoCoMo
  IAppli platform.
• Also in MIDP, with micro SVG

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Mobile can mean the other room

• Sitting in my office at home, get email with URL
  of interesting article, from my wife in the other
  room.
• When Wireless WAN Access is available (4G?
  802.11?), there wont be any difference between
  mobile and fixed access

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Its about how you interact online

• Emailing links to interesting articles is a very
  high-bandwidth and concise, and organized way to
  communicate online.
• Even from the other room.
• High volumes of email tend to be organized by
  filter apps such as Eudora.
• Online bookmarks, weblogs
• Because he was deaf, Edison used to put
  everything in writing

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The Problem

• Personal computers are currently difficult to
  maintain for even skilled engineers.
• Servers are impossible to maintain.
• As new applications are emerging which require
  full-time network connectivity and presence, the
  modern personal computer becomes even less
  appropriate. In addition, as people's usage
  methods change, with more use mobile computers
  and access from multiple devices, a new approach
  is required
• Future requirements include VoIP, multimedia
  instant messaging, streaming media
• Users need a home base.
• I-mode was nice but you have to be a server
  network programmer to make even a simple new
  application.

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The Applications I Use

• Personal file directory (I keep mine in CVS)
• Webmail (Yahoo Mail)
• Weblog
• Phonebook
• Household Calendar / Email alerts
• Photo album / home electronic picture frame
• Instant Message service (customized)

• Random Email - post-it notes to self
• Household prioritized task list (bug tracking)
• Power (Wimpy) Point for professional
  presentations
• I-Mode address book app
• I-Mode Google gateway

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Everyone now needs their own server

• Mobile forces customers to use an ASP
• A drawback (for the user) of turning an app into
  a service is that you are now at the mercy of the
  service provider
• In the future, people will lease generic virtual
  servers, and configure them themselves, thus
  making remote desktop PCs.

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Personal Virtual Server

• A logical evolution of the telephone answering
  machine
• Replace the desktop machine
• We need a high-level virtual machine models of a
  server, and its database, so people can easily
  pack up their personal server configuration and
  run it on another provider (no lock-in)
• Write Mobile apps for peoples PVS

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Virtual Server

• Many of these issues can be solved by combining
  the functions of personal computer and network
  server into a standardized abstract virtual
  server.

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Virtual Server
Physical Host Server
Server image
TCP/IP
VM COW
RDBMS
VM COW
VM COW
R/O Filesystem
VM COW
...
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Virtual Server Prototype Application Environment

• Linux UML
• Apache Java Server
• Microsoft .net common runtime
• VMWare
• IBM 390

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Server Architecture Features

• A common reliable operating system base image can
  be made read-only, and shared amongst thousands
  of servers. Users can thus be freed from low
  level operating system administration chores.
• On top of this base, each user can have their own
  personal filesystem and applications which can be
  installed and customized.
• Virtual Server runs at data center, local copy
  can be run at users location for performance.
  Synchronization required.
• Distributed encrypted locally-cached filesystem
  infrastructure would be useful. Solves the
  backup problem, makes portability even easier.

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A Virtual Machine

• Define a virtual machine server platformAllows
  users to easily install/uninstall and run
  multiple web applications, analogous to desktop
  applications
• Provides a complete runtime environment including
  a fileysystem and database.
• Being a virtual machine, a complete snapshot can
  be made of it and all its application and data
  contents, in the form a of a simple data file.
  This server image can be installed and run on any
  host or hosting service which supports the
  virtual machine.

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Virtual Server Technology

• Relies on inter-server standards - XML-RPC, TCP,
  etc
• Sometimes you want to send a link to your server,
  sometimes you want to send a copy of the data
• 24x7 operation is assumed (like the phone company)

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Virtual Server

• Obviously this would be useful to businesses and
  other organizations as well as consumers
• Technology allows download copy of server image
  to local host, for high performance local
  interaction
• Real dedicated hardware server could be used for
  high performance applications
• Like DOS, or Windows, make a standard, and try to
  allow for direct access to high performance
  features of the system if required

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Front-end Technology

• Flash and DHTML are adding desktop-like
  front-ends to web apps.
• Return of client-server architectures.
• .NET RPC technology (XML RPC/SOAP) is helpful

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Mechanizing the Handling of Information

• Stowger switch
• Hollerith Card
• Teletype vs. Hell
• Spreadsheet
• Ebay

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Mobile Devices are Virtual Windows Into an Online
World

• The mobile information device provides a (small)
  window into a virtual world
• The richer that world is, the more useful the
  mobile device
• Requirements (a) People, (b) Servers, (c)
  Extensible cross-server communication
• cHTML is 1st order approximation of (c)

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HellSchreiber
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HTML Takes a Wrong Turn

• Turned into the equivalent of a fax machine, a
  corrupted page layout language
• This set back where we are today in mobile,
  i.e., alternate access is hard instead of simple.
  
• Complete failure of industry to use the
  technology correctly.
• I go to www.fleet.com, and if my browsers doesn't
  support JavaScript, I get a blank page.
• You can implement fax over IP, but not the
  reverse

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XML To The Rescue

• But my hotmail.com calendar cannot be downloaded
  as XML.
• There are twenty different formats. SyncML may
  help.
• XML-RPC is a medium sized hammer, SOAP is a big
  hammer. XML and HTTP are sufficient for many
  things.

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What Kind of Apps Run on A (Personal) Virtual
Server?

• Built in common model of users/groups
• Security / authentication model
• Scripting environment
• Relational Database Backed

Collaborative
Personal
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OpenACS Modules compare to Yahoo Personal Portal

• Site-Wide Search
• Survey
• Ticket
• Group Features
• User Administration
• User Groups
• User Registration and Access Control
• WimpyPoint
• Bboards
• Mailing lists

• Photo Album
• Address Book
• Web Log
• Bookmarks
• Calendar
• Chat
• Classifieds
• Contact Manager
• CMS
• Curriculum
• Directory

• Download
• E-commerce
• Email Handler
• FAQ
• File Storage
• General Comments
• General Permissions
• Graphing
• Intranet
• Member Value
• Neighbor to Neighbor
• New Stuff
• News
• Permissions
• Poll

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Web of Services

• Each user has their own personal web of services
  that they use online that makes up their virtual
  identity
• Need to be able to traverse that easily from a
  mobile device
• POP is a good example.
• Industrial users wireless servers should be in
  the web (FedEx, or door locks)

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Server Technology That is User Extensible

• Can your users do something that you didnt
  envision with your service?
• Is there any way they could?
• Do they have the ability to manipulate data in
  your virtual environment to communicate with
  others?

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Peer to Peer is Orthogonal

• Users may keep their data in their own personal
  servers applications, or spread around other
  servers
• The key is inter-server communication protocols
• But users cannot run their own servers yet
• Were in the mainframe/mini phase of
  web/wireless, not the PC phase

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Example Future Mobile Services

• Higher bandwidth 3g, 4g - wireless-to-server
  photo album direct from digicam, wireless video
  sharing

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The Sims

• "example of how a company and its customers can
  help a product evolve to the point where
  customers not only do a large portion of the
  innovation and marketing but also produce as much
  intellectual capital as they consume." The Sims
• Applies to DoCoMo i-mode service

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Learning From The Sims

• For the business community, The Sims' lessons are
  twofold. The first is that interaction design
  trumps graphics. The Sims is less photorealistic
  than any computer game on the market, or any
  broadband site on the Web - it's not even fully
  3D. Yet it succeeds tremendously because it
  allows players with different agendas to interact
  as consumers, producers, mavens and community
  leaders and to reap rewards for all of these
  activities. The richness and complexity of an
  online experience, like the richness and
  complexity of a city, is created by the people
  who live there as they engage with the place and
  each other.
• Learning From The SimsBy J.C. Herz in The
  StandardIssue Date Mar 26 2001

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Learning From The Sims

• "The second lesson is that online businesses
  don't just exist, like buildings, in space. They
  exist, like cities, in human context over time.
  The best ones are designed to grow more
  interconnected, not just bigger, as the
  population evolves. They're always messy. They're
  never finished. They harbor an almost palpable
  sense of around-the-clock activity and a sense of
  place that owes as much to collective experience
  as to snazzy signage. When you open your window,
  there's a there there." comments on sim city
• Learning From The SimsBy J.C. Herz in The
  StandardIssue Date Mar 26 2001

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End of PVS section

• Optional I-Mode section follows

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How Did NTT DoCoMo Succeed?

• "Yes, it's chicken-and-egg. What you need is a
  big enough chicken."

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Henrys Theory of i-mode

• Everyone loves to discuss this, so I'll do it
  too
• Low penetration of home PCs and networked
  machines at work, thus i-mode is the best email
  option. Culturally I think people here are
  discouraged from web-surfing and making personal
  phone calls at work.
• Good content (what? train schedules?)
• Actually not so good, but compared to what the
  WAP vendors did, it was sensational
• People in Japan accustomed to paying for things,
  not accustomed to flat rate (phone) services, or
  free internet
• NTT sits all over phone service, making it more
  expensive to call next door than to call across
  the planet
• The train ride! 20 of free time spent on train.
• Even carrying a "laptop" in Japan is not
  practical. Ultra lite notebooks abound, PDAs
  somewhat popular.
• USA 'Mobile' means you can put it on the car
  seat next to you when you drive
• Japan 'mobile' means put it in your shirt pocket
  while you walk or are crammed on a rush hour
  train
• Excellent Marketing! Great ads, coordinated
  campaigns.
• The handsets are marketed as cool. They are
  cool.
• DEVELOPERS Low barrier to entry, cHTML, just
  like the real web

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NTT paid attention to user experience and
developers

• Magnet content authored by experts
• Core set of attractive services to build a
  community around
• Worked with handset manufacturers
• Support for integrated email/browser/address-book
  in handsets
• Strict quality control over captive sites,
  while allowing external sites to be accessible
• cHTML, GIF, low barrier to entry for developers
• Its an online community...

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What about voice?

• DoCoMo voice audio quality is noticeably worse
  than others
• They make up for it with marketing, as far as I
  can tell.
• Or rather, non-marketing (they never mention
  voice quality)

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Potential Barriers
landlines
Sexy Handsets
Automobile/Home Culture
Unified Marketing
Misleading Hype
No Expectations
Marketing Confusion
Magnet Content
Pay by minute
cHTML
No Content
Pay by packet
Crappy Handsets
2 hour train ride
Pedestrian/Out-of-house culture
WML
i-mode
WAP
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Elements of DoCoMo Success

• "Potential Energy Model" of adoption -- make it
  easy to fall into the hole
• Users accustomed to not complain about high rates
• What are the factors -- more than one
• Easy to buy, shovel the users in, cHTML
• NTT soaks you on per/minute on phone lines, but
  you pay by the packet for i-mode

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Elements of WAP Failure

• I-mode is a lubricant
• WAP is an irritant

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Mobile Subscribers in Japan
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Source www.tca.or.jp
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Mobile Internet Services in Japan
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Its not just DoCoMo

• Most wireless carriers in US/Europe would be
  happy to have 3rd place in Japan.
• Wireless Internet is working for other Japanese
  companies as well

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You Get I-Mode by Default

• A typical Japanese user ordering mobile phone
  service from NTT DoCoMo for the first time will
  usually be subscribed to the i-mode service
  unless he or she specifically refuses the extra
  online service.
• i-mode is an add-on service that costs an extra
  300 yen monthly service fee on top of the regular
  phone charge.

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Handsets. They do matter.

• What is the best handset you can get in the US?
  Europe?
• What is the typical handset?
• How does it compare to Japan?
• Features

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Ericsson R289LX Handset (USA ATT PocketNet)

• 172 g
• 160 hours standby
• 240 min talk
• full charge in 2 hr
• 154 x 50 x 23 mm
• Laughably small BW screen

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F503i Handset (low-end Java ketai)

• 77g
• 430 hours standby
• 135 min talk
• full charge in 2 hr
• 135 x 46 x 15 mm
• 16 bit color, 120x160 pixels
• Java, 600k heap
• voice dialing

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Handset Technology not just Gimmicks

• UI needs all the help it can get
• 3D user interface?
• CD quality sound
• 24 bit color?
• More screen resolution?

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Java in the Handset

• Why isnt Java in the Phone as useless as client
  side Java on desktop?
• Because the UI is the bottleneck, and data rates
  are slow
• The restricted subset API is actually a blessing

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What use is Java in a phone?

• No hardware I/O on current java API DoCoMo
  phones. Why not? Do they think we're idiots?
• They want to avoid the risk of some malicious
  applet grabbing your address book or dialing your
  phone.
• But wait a minute here - that's what signed
  applets are for. Authentication means you
  recognize and trust the guy who made the
  software, and you give them the power to
  potentially do harm, in exchange for doing
  something useful.
• Like when you give your online broker your social
  security number. Don't cripple the phone, just
  make sure that people know who they are getting
  apps from, and allow them extra Permissions.
• Like the Java security model was supposed to
  work.

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What use is Java in a phone?

• On Java devices, there's NO interface from Java
  to HTML -- what's wrong with HTML? Because the
  Java guys say "we don't DO HTML".
• Well, they are only in business because of HTML,
  so they should be a little less stuck up.
• Industrial applications need I/O. Otherwise you
  are really stuck in a subset of your desktop
  (i.e., check your desktop mail, send email).
• With peripherals, you get camera, microphone,
  GPS, RF tag reader, bar code,thermometer, geiger
  counter, local printing (bluetooth). Allows phone
  to be a more effective extension of your nervous
  system.
• Java Bluetooth API.

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HQMs Java Picobrowser

• The PicoBrowser is a tiny HTML browser and web
  server, which fits into 7.5 kbytes of Java, and
  runs on the NTT DoCoMo IAppli platform.
• Now in MIDP, with SVG

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So youre a carrier

• Provide the tools to make your service usefully
  extensible by the users and developers (e.g.,
  real standards based HTML, iAppli, MIDP, J2ME)
• You desperately need a large customer base.
  Target wide range of consumers by packaging a
  core set of services, with a memorable identity.
• Lock in users with better services, not closed
  ones

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So youre a developer

• TCP/IP and standards means never having to be
  locked into a carrier.
• You dont need sheer majority of customers as
  desperately as the carriers.
• Make deals with all carriers.

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What about WAP?

• I-mode is a lubricant
• WAP is an irritant
• Recent History WAP Let's add some barriers to
  developer entry!
• Compare i-mode to WAP
• HTML, GIF, (and Java)
• WAP no HTML, no GIF, (no Java)
• Online services wasteland
• Say what?

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WAP vs HTML

• You cannot do lta href"foo.php?x10y20"gtfoolt/agt
  
• because WML is XML, and the "" always indicates
  a "entity" or you need "amp" or something, or
  else
• ltanchorgt
• ltgo href"foo.php"gt
• ltpostfield name"x" value"10"gt
• ltpostfield namey" value20"gt
• lt/gogtfoolt/anchorgt
• Syntax which runs on your emulator fails on half
  the phones anyway.
• Phones will fail to display anything if theres a
  single parse error. (I can understand this mode
  for developers, but it is suicide for end-users).
• No telling what the filesize limit is on your
  gateway or someone elses.

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What about WAP?

• Its not HTML. SETVAR? What is this, a scripting
  language?
• But wait, you havent seen WMLScript! Look, are
  you writing a web server that runs in the phone?
  If so, let's just do it for real.
• Java on the phone! Servlet engine on the phone!
  Integrate the firmware browser ! Implement your
  own browser! Picobrowser! It's a Java extensible
  browser! It's a servlet engine!

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Economics of Wireless Billing

• NTT model is more correct, in my opinion, than
  the existing Internet models consumers pay by
  bandwidth. Now, we can argue about how the price
  may be too high, but that is the scalable
  model.
• Except -- some traffic is orders of magnitude
  higher than others --consider, access your bank
  account or weather forecast, vs mpeg movie. How
  do the carriers bill? By time, not bandwidth?
  That bites. Then maybe logarithmic billing would
  be best. But if youre sitting on the airwaves
  you should get charged something.
• But ... in the telecom world, when you call
  someone, you pay the bandwidth, not them (except
  with US cell phones). In the current internet
  environment, both parties pay. Bad business model
  for providers. Need the equivalent of a collect
  call.
• It is micropayments, except it's all to NTT.
  Still
• As far as phone bills, people in Japan are used
  to high ones, and i-mode is priced fairly low
  compared to US mobile internet.

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M-Commerce Payment Systems

• Payment systems - furikomi is fixed rate, couple
  of bucks. bad for small purchase. Great for large
  purchase. but checks in the US have smaller
  charges, but are slower to clear (paper!?!).

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Who is DoCoMos Customer?

• A business must answer the question "Who is your
  customer?"
• NTT Docomo answers "all Japanese people".
• That's true for them - but they explicitly DONT
  PROVIDE CONTENT.
• Third-party content providers must answer that
  question.

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In the US, theyre still skeptical about this
whole cell-phone thing.
He Give me only one really good reason why
somebody should own a Keitai! Me Maybe for the
convenience to place a call anytime? He For this
there are public phones anywhere! Me Hm, maybe
for the convenience to get a call anytime? He I
hate if somebody gets a call in public, or in the
train. It's even not allowed! Me You know that
the new phones are also able to send and receive
emails, right? He What's this for? Me Maybe to
stay in contact with friends? He But if you want
to stay in contact with friends, you can meet
them! Me Yes, and you can make your appointments
in advance via email. He Stupid. You can call
them! Me With a Keitai...? He Keitai,
Keitai...give me one good reason why somebody
should own a Keitai! ...
He So, you work in the Keitai business? Me
Yes. He I for example don't have a Keitai.
Nobody needs a Keitai. That's all hype. Me I
have a lot of Keitais and need them all. He I
have a lot of friends who don't own a Keitai. Me
So you have friends? Do you meet them
sometimes? He For sure I meet my friends! We all
have telephone at home! We make our appointments
in advance or we meet at one of our
apartments. Me You know that japanese people
don't meet very often at home, right? He
Sometimes I meet my friends also in our favorite
bar. Me Do you go also in other bar's than your
favorite one? He Why should I? I meet my friends
there. Me Right, you don't need a Keitai.
From keitai-l mailing list
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Mobile Network Todays Situation

• Were at the very beginning. Like three years
  after the invention of the telephone
• High bandwidth, more powerful CPUs, better
  displays, all in the pipeline
• Interoperable web server apps just starting
  (SOAP, .net, XML-RPC)

4
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What Next?
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The failure of the Web to mechanize the handling
of information

• This is the first alternate to HTML. HTML was
  supposed to be a semantic format. It was
  completely corrupted to be a page layout language.

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Personal Virtual Server

• A logical evolution of the telephone answering
  machine
• Replace the desktop machine
• We need a high-level virtual machine models of a
  server, and its database, so people can easily
  pack up their personal server configuration and
  run it on another provider (no lock-in)
• Write Mobile apps for peoples PVS

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Improvements to Java profile

• A Modest Proposal Put a web server in the phone.
• "Are you insane?".
• A minimal Java web server, without a filesystem
  or CGI capability, takes up about 20 kbytes. (See
  www.acme.com). Even desktop machines don't have
  web servers in them. Maybe they should. Then you
  can generate HTML interfaces to things. Next
  best thing, really equivalent, is to have hook
  from the Java API to the microbrowser. Not too
  hard to write a Java HTML widget, but it's still
  slow compared to browser firmware directly
  written in C.

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Mobile means getting a useful window to your
desktop data

• Mobile points out the need for XML-like
  generalized data access - XML-RPC isn't really
  needed for simple transactions HTTP works fine
  (key-gtvalue pairs)
• But the idea is some new end-user browser
  technology comes along, and you should be able to
  easily grab data from existing services
  (calendar, etc) without having to add explicit
  support to the service itself.
• You should be able to write gateways to older
  services easily. Keeps your existing investment
  in infrastructure and leverages it.

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Examples of Good Wireless

• SFC Mode demo pages -screen shots.
• ACES
• - email is the killer app for i-mode - how does
  SFC Mode use it?
• ImaHima, other services based around
  messaging- YYou need to communicate with others,
  the simplest form of "publishing", as stated in
  the premise of this talk.
• "Peer to Peer" means being able to produce as
  well as consume, also means having your own
  "virtual" server, i.e., something which takes
  your place to serve your info when you are not
  physically there.

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Dont Be an Idiot

• I dont want my phone to yell out ads as I walk
  by stores (Virgin Atlantic).
• Just because you can do it, doesnt mean its a
  good idea.
• I do want my phone to beep if I get near the
  friend I am trying to find in a crowd.

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Need high-level actions

• Since the UI sucks so badly on mobile devices, we
  need to enable high-level powerful commands
• This requires that our cloud of web services can
  be operated on by commands

Henry Minsky
11/27/101
83
Who is making money?

• NTT always makes money on packets and service
• NTT doesnt supply content
• NTT takes a cut of billing customers
• i-mode photo-album service -- great for NTT, not
  so great for user - 15 cents each time you look?
  But fun to send to friends to view once.

Henry Minsky
11/27/101
84
Did I mention they solved the Micropayments
problem?

• Japanese mobile internet carriers provide
  consolidated billing on the phone bill.

Henry Minsky
11/27/101
85
Random Slides
86
'Mobile' also means paper

• Without a sufficiently high res screen or high
  bandwidth mobile data network
• I print out a map from a URL before I leave the
  house
• Best interface to I-mode top menu is printed
  catalog from DoCoMo
• I print out phone numbers, because I might be out
  of range and my phones address book app doesnt
  play nice with my XML online address app. (Could
  customize a Java App if it were a little more
  powerful implementation)

Henry Minsky
11/27/101
87
What make an application Mobile?

• Ergonomics

Henry Minsky
11/27/101
88
Ergonomics

• With mobile, it's weight, not size. 100g max.
  Remember Sony CD walkman-had to be size of CD
  case. Original walkman, size of cassette case.
• People don't particularly want small screens,
  although they are good for privacy on the train.
• You want a phone and a PDA. Hard to get both in
  the same device.
• I am getting carpal tunnel in my thumb from the
  tiny keypad on the phone.

Henry Minsky
11/27/101
89
Inherent Artifacts of Mobile Access

• At the moment, cellular technology means that
  mobile trades off freedom of movement for low
  bandwidth and small-sized access device
• Think paperback book, not desktop computer
• Data entry is hard, user can only read small
  amount of data
• Suited to point tasks, and controlling other
  processes, not for bulk data entry or general
  browsing
• Its more like a railroad switch than a railroad

Henry Minsky
11/27/101
90
Mobile and Fixed Can Be Complementary

• Take home stereo and walkman example.
• In Japan, much free time is spent on trains or
  on foot.

Henry Minsky
11/27/101
91
What Are You Doing When Youre Mobile?

• When you are mobile, you are mostly interacting
  with other people or real things. Thats why
  youre not in the house.
• Mobile Network Access is made proportionally more
  useful by the amount of stuff you keep and do on
  the network.

Henry Minsky
11/27/101
92
Essentials of (Wireless) Web Communication

• Java phones are good because you need every ounce
  of UI help with these things. But ... Java is
  beside the point.
• The power of the web is users being able to
  "publish" info,not be passive consumers. So when
  the user gets to the point that they need to
  publish information, they need something as
  "simple" as HTML, i.e.,simple enough that they
  can publish info in a way that is universally
  accessible by others.
• The power of HTML is not that you can view your
  own stuff, but that someone else in Siberia can
  view your content without having to download and
  run a special application. That applies equally
  to the wireless web.
• SO that means that users should get whatever
  help they need to publish info (i.e.,
  www.weblogger.com, etc), but that info needs to
  be viewable from the server in a universal form
  (HTML, XML, etc).
• The (personal) server is responsible for
  converting and delivering the users info in
  whatever formats or calling sequences are
  required by other users

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11/27/101
93
The Network Effect

• The utility of the network is proportional to the
  square of the number of users.
• .. But only if the users actively participate ..
• How are they effectively contributors or
  publishers of information and services?

Henry Minsky
11/27/101
94
Appropriate Technology

• Getting latest spot prices at Tsukiji fish market
• Foods Infomart. Japan has many small produce
  distributors, out in the field. Need mobile price
  and inventory information.
• Vertical market, appropriate use of technology.
• Industrial users - low profile but very important
• DoPa mobile data telemetry - vending machines,
  sensors

Henry Minsky
11/27/101