Curiouser and Curiouser! on telecomms http://matt.blogs.it/ RSS feed for topic telecomms Copyright 2006 Matt Mower Squib/0.1 self@mattmower.com self@mattmower.com en-gb Where's my fibre? Wed, 19 Jun 2002 00:38:33 +0100 <P>JRo essay: <A href="http://jrobb.userland.com/stories/2002/06/18/telecommunicationsImplosion.html">Telecommunications Implosion</A> [<A href="http://jrobb.userland.com/">John Robb's Radio Weblog</A>]</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><FONT color=red>»</FONT> John has some interesting & depressing things to say about the state of broad-band and how vested interests are strangling any chance for things to change.</P> <P>I don't know if the situation is better here in the UK.&nbsp; I guess it probably is, for now, with strong competition between DSL and cable vendors.&nbsp; But nobody is talking about fibre to the home here either.</P> <P>&nbsp;</P></BLOCKQUOTE> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000024.html Paradox of the best network Tue, 25 Jun 2002 20:00:03 +0100 <A href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0108019/2002/05/20.html#a56">Best Human Network</A>. <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><FONT size=2>"<FONT color=#cc3333>The perfect network is perfectly plain, and perfectly extensible.&nbsp; That means it is also the perfect capital repellant, [which] implies a <I>guaranteed</I> loss to network operators, but a boon to the services on the 'ends'."<BR>- <SPAN class=SpellE>Roxane</SPAN> <SPAN class=SpellE>Googin's</SPAN> High Tech Observer as&nbsp; cited in <SPAN><FONT color=#cc3300><A href="http://netparadox.com/">The Paradox of the Best Network</A></FONT><BR></SPAN></FONT></FONT></P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P dir=ltr><FONT size=2><FONT color=#cc3333><SPAN>Take a moment to scan <SPAN><FONT color=#cc3300><A href="http://netparadox.com/">The Paradox of the Best Network</A>. We've cited the piece before. The quote, which prompted the Paradox piece in the first place, suggests that the best network is the one that produces the best results for its users (the ends). The Paradox article and the quote are referring to telecom and internet networks. We wonder if it's true and if it has relevance for human networks.</FONT></SPAN></SPAN></FONT></FONT></P><FONT size=2><FONT color=#cc3333><SPAN> <P dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"></SPAN></FONT></FONT>[<A href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0108019/">5th Constituency</A>]</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">» It is a good piece to be sure.&nbsp; To help you decide whether to follow the link and read it here is a 10% summary by <A href="http://www.copernic.com/products/summarizer/index.html">Copernic Summarizer</A></P> <UL dir=ltr> <LI> <DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face="Courier, Monospace" size=2>Just a few short months ago, it seemed that humanity stood on the edge of a communications revolution.</FONT></DIV></LI> <LI> <DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face="Courier, Monospace" size=2>New technology promised to topple barriers of space and time.</FONT></DIV></LI> <LI> <DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face="Courier, Monospace" size=2>Prospects of new connectedness recede as capital markets tighten, existing telephone companies back off on capital expenditures, established communications equipment suppliers falter, and ambitious new telecom companies fail.</FONT></DIV></LI> <LI> <DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face="Courier, Monospace" size=2>Despite the darkened outlook, new communications capabilities are within reach that will make the current Internet look like tin cans and string.</FONT></DIV></LI> <LI> <DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face="Courier, Monospace" size=2>Radically simplified technologies can blast bits a million times faster than the current network at a millionth of the cost.</FONT></DIV></LI> <LI> <DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face="Courier, Monospace" size=2>It's not even that the communications revolution has been derailed by inept or self-aggrandizing behavior by incumbent telephone companies and their government regulators.</FONT></DIV></LI> <LI> <DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face="Courier, Monospace" size=2>It provokes incumbent companies to mass lawyers and lobbyists to thwart the development of a competitive communications market.</FONT></DIV></LI> <LI> <DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face="Courier, Monospace" size=2>Communications networks have a more important job than generating return on investment --- their value comes from their connectivity and from the services they enable.</FONT></DIV></LI> <LI> <DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face="Courier, Monospace" size=2>Therefore, the best network delivers bits in the largest volumes at the fastest speeds.</FONT></DIV></LI> <LI> <DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face="Courier, Monospace" size=2>In addition, the best network is the most open to new communications services; it closes off the fewest futures and elicits the most innovation.</FONT></DIV></LI> <LI> <DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face="Courier, Monospace" size=2>As software engineers say, "Today's optimization is tomorrow's bottleneck."</FONT></DIV></LI> <LI> <DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face="Courier, Monospace" size=2>Thus, the best network is a "stupid" network that does nothing but move bits.2 Only then is the network truly open to any and all services that want to use it, no matter how innovative or how unexpected.</FONT></DIV></LI> <LI> <DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face="Courier, Monospace" size=2>They know that implementing the new commodity network threatens the very basis of their business.</FONT></DIV></LI> <LI> <DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face="Courier, Monospace" size=2>As a result of this simplicity, the Internet has proven to be the most scalable, most robust communications infrastructure humans have ever built.</FONT></DIV></LI> <LI> <DIV style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><FONT face="Courier, Monospace" size=2>It will boost the economy, open global markets, and make us better informed citizens, customers and business people.</FONT></DIV></LI></UL> <P dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">&nbsp;</P></BLOCKQUOTE> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000049.html TAO of topic maps Mon, 15 Jul 2002 21:52:39 +0100 <P><A href="http://www.steptwo.com.au/columntwo/archives/000090.html">The TAO of Topic Maps</A>. Steve Pepper has written a succinct introduction to topic maps, titled The TAO of Topic Maps. To quote Steve: Topic [<A href="http://www.steptwo.com.au/columntwo/">Column Two</A>]</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P><FONT color=red>»</FONT> I finally got a chance to read this paper on the tube going to London today.&nbsp; A key paragraph that leapt out at me was:</P> <BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <P>"<FONT face="Courier, Monospace">But knowledge is fundamentally different from information: the difference is that between knowing a thing versus simply having information about it.&nbsp; And if, as one writer claims, 'knowledge management covers three main knowledge activities: generation, codification, and transfer', then topic maps can be regarded as the standard for codification that is the necessary prerequisite for the development of tools that assist in the generation and transfer of knowledge.</FONT>"</P></BLOCKQUOTE> <P>In general the topic maps approach seems very sound to me with very laudible goals.&nbsp; It also dovetails nicely with a lot of my liveTopics efforts and lends some new and credible directions.</P> <P>For example I have already implemented code in the liveTopics plugin to export the topical references in the weblog as an XTM topic map.&nbsp;&nbsp; Additionally my idea for <EM>topic themes</EM> seems almost identical to the concept of themes in the document.</P> <P>It also highlights some things I should address.&nbsp; The idea of synonyms and homynyms are clearly important once people start sharing their topics (via topicRolls).&nbsp; It may also be useful to allow people to define their own glossaries (maybe integrated with the existing Radio glossary).&nbsp; And in order to generate occurrence data the permalinks of each posting should be used as topic references to that posting.</P> <P>All in all a useful guide to the capabilities of topic maps.&nbsp; What is required now is another work building upon this that details some of the applications that topic maps will enable.</P> <P>&nbsp;</P></BLOCKQUOTE> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00000201.html