JIS - The University of Hong Kong

Transcription

University Students’ Journal of Information Systems
University Students’ Journal of
Information Systems
Fourth Issue
2004 – 2005
A publication of Information Systems Association,
Business and Economics Association, Hong Kong University Students’ Union
ISA BEA HKUSU | Issue 4, 2004 – 2005 | www.hku.hk/hkuisa | 1
Foreword
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PPrrooffeessssoorr PPaattrriicckk YY..K
K..CChhaauu
I am very happy here to introduce this University Students’ Journal of Information Systems
(JIS) to all of you. JIS is an annual journal published by a group of students studying in the
Bachelor of Business Administration (Information Systems) [BBA(IS)] program.
Through JIS, our students are eager to share with you the interesting research they have
done and their insights in the field of Information Systems.
Through JIS, you will discover more about how the applications and development of
Information Systems have created the wonderful world around you and me.
Through JIS, you will share our joy to witness and support the growth of this sprouting
seed being planted in the society by our double-degree program, BBA(IS), which aims to
groom future Information Systems specialists, with expertise in both information
technology and business management.
This year, the theme of JIS is “In Step with IS”. I sincerely hope that through JIS, you will not
only enjoy your life to be “In Step with IS”, but also share the enthusiasm of our future
Information Systems specialists and be “In Love with IS”.
Patrick Y.K. Chau
Faculty of Business and Economics
The University of Hong Kong
2 | www.hku.hk/hkuisa | Issue 4, 2004 – 2005 | ISA bea hkusu
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M.. LLaauu
Hong Kong once again emerged victorious in the 2004 race to attract foreign investments.
Despites its relatively high costs, the SAR still grossed a handsome 34 US billions, which is
more than half of what the unswerving champion, China Mainland, had dished. The trend
is likely to go on, and we should all feel happy about it; after all, the last several years had
been nothing but depressing. A strong IT workforce is the key to an upward spiraling
economy. Many new systems will need to be created, old ones revamped or tuned up,
and legacies of grand dad's times to be phased out - all these require the best of talents.
HKU's BBA(IS) programme has been and will continue to be exemplary in producing the
most qualified IT and business graduates for the demand. It won't take too many
graduating classes to make "HKU IS" a brand name. The journal represents a fine creation
of a sample of these future high flyers. Enjoy reading!
Francis Lau
Head, Department of Computer Science
The University of Hong Kong
Foreword
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Woonngg SSiiuu W
Waaii
The University Students’ Journal of Information Systems (JIS) is an annual publication by
Information Systems Association, BEA, HKUSU. One of the objectives of this journal is to
update university students with the knowledge related to the latest issues of Information
Systems (IS). This year, the journal is designed precisely to enable readers to keep
themselves in step with IS.
The co-authors of the journal discuss and explain in details on a few finely selected IS
topics. From Google web services to their corporate culture, VoIP to RFID, simply no other
university students’ journal can blend business topics with IT topics so well like this journal.
Also, we will take a look of the upcoming IT giant Wikimedia Foundation Inc., and tell you
something special about their latest products and services.
I believe the journal is a good start for all to the learn the power and beauty of Information
Systems.
Wong Siu Wai,
President,
Session 2004 – 2005,
Information Systems Association, BEA, HKUSU.
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Woonngg CChhuunngg TTiinngg,, EErriicc
Being the head of the Editorial Sub-Committee of ISA, BEA, HKUSU, I am glad to see the
publication of the fourth issue of the University Students’ journal of Information Systems.
To be responsible for publishing the Journal, we have to consider what we should provide
to our readers in this fast-changing world. Eventually, we decided that we want everyone
to be “In Step with IS”. The topics we have included in the journal are all hot topics related
to Information Systems that we think our readers should concern. Google, a search engine
that is widely used by you and me, is so successful as an enterprise. What is its formula
behind? The VoIP telephone is becoming popular in Hong Kong. Do you know how much
operation cost does it reduce in Europe? RFID technology is replacing the barcode system.
Do you know it has integrated into our daily lives? Have you ever tried using Wikipedia to
help with your study or project? In the journal, we have also tried to predict its potential.
In this journal, we tried to keep track with the latest development of new technologies and
provide analysis. We want all our readers, from university students to professors, from
research workers to chief executive officers of limited companies, to be able to gain
something they need through reading our journal.
Information Systems, as a bridge for communication, is becoming indispensable for
modern business firms these years. Through reading the works of BBA(IS) students, I do
hope that you can know more about these new technologies and also, be in step with IS.
Eric Wong,
Head,
Editorial Sub-Committee,
Information Systems Association, BEA, HKUSU,
2004 - 2005
Contents
C
Coonntteennttss
Foreword
2
Contents
6
RFID – Present and Future
7
VoIP - Yet Another Internet Jargon?
16
Wiki in Modern Approach
28
Google – Infinite Possibilities
40
The Editorial Sub-Committee
54
Brief Notes On The Issuer
55
Credit
56
Acknowledgement
58
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1. RFID itself
What is RFID?
RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. The technology has been even more
widely used in recent years. RFID brings in entirely new concepts. It can be used to replace
old technologies such as barcode system and it provides the possibilities of new
inventions and applications.
RFID offers identification of a product, or any object across a distance. The distance
allowed depends on the frequency that the tags use. Low-frequency tags have long
ranges up to a few kilometers. That makes it possible to keep track of products along the
supply-chain, or even locate animals and pets. High-frequency tags have shorter ranges,
making it suitable for closed environments.
RFID implies a new means of exchange of information which is wireless and which does
not require contact. When used as the replacement of barcode systems like those in a
supermarket, it effectively speeds up the transactions and reduces the cost, by eliminating
the repetitive process of barcode scanning.
Generally, a RFID system consists of at least a RFID sensor and RFID tags. The Octopus card
reader on a bus is a RFID sensor. The chip in your Octopus card is a RFID tag. When a RFID
tag comes into the range of a sensor, an exchange of information occurs. In the case of
Octopus card system, the tags transmit information to the sensor, so that the system
identifies the card, and bus fare is then deducted
from the ‘card value’.
The power of RFID is more than the Octopus system.
Its full potential is best illustrated by examples. Below
are some other usages and potential future usages
of RFID.
Fig 1.1 RFID chips for animal identification
Current usages
Low-frequency RFID tags are commonly used for animal identification, beer keg tracking,
and automobile key-and-lock, anti-theft systems. Pets are often embedded with small
chips so that they may be returned to their owners if lost.
High-frequency RFID tags are used in book tracking in libraries or bookstores, pallet
tracking,
building
access
control,
airline
baggage tracking, and apparel item tracking.
High-frequency tags are widely used in
identification
badges,
replacing
earlier
magnetic stripe cards. These badges need to
be held within a certain distance from the
reader to authenticate the holder.
UHF
RFID
tags
are
commonly
used
Fig 1.2 A typical container tracking system with RFID
commercially in pallet and container tracking, and
and truck and trailer tracking in shipping
yards.
Microwave RFID tags are used in long range access control for vehicles.
Some toll booths use RFID tags for electronic toll collection. The tags are read as vehicles
pass; the information is used to debit the toll from a prepaid account. The system helps to
speed traffic through toll plazas.
Sensors such as seismic sensors may be read using RFID transceivers, greatly simplifying
remote data collection.
Cards embedded with RFID
chips are widely used as
electronic cash, e.g. Octopus
Card in Hong Kong to pay
fares in mass transit systems
and/or retails.
Starting from the 2004 model
year, a "Smart Key" option is
available to the Toyota Prius
Fig 1.3 DigitialAngel(TM) System, which aids tracking and identifying
and some Lexus models. The key fob uses an active RFID circuit which allows the car to
acknowledge the key's presence within 3 feet of the sensor. The driver can open the doors
and start the car while the key remains in his purse or pocket.
Implantable RFID "chips", originally designed for animal tagging are being used and
contemplated for humans as well. Applied Digital Solutions propose their chip's "unique
under-the-skin format" as a solution to identity fraud, secure building access, computer
access, storage of medical records, anti-kidnapping initiatives and a variety of lawenforcement applications. Combined with sensors to monitor body functions, the Digital
Angel device could provide monitoring for patients. The Baja Beach Club in Barcelona,
Spain uses an implantable Verichip to identify their VIP customers, who in turn use it to
pay for drinks. The Mexico City police department has implanted approximately 170 of
their police officers with the Verichip, to allow access to police databases and possibly
track them in case of kidnapping.
Amal Graafstra, a Washington state native and business owner, had a RFID chip implanted
in his left hand in early 2005. The chip was 12 mm long by 2 mm in diameter and has a
basic read range of two inches (50 mm). The implant procedure was conducted by a
cosmetic surgeon, although the name of the doctor was not released. When asked what
he planed to do with the implant, Graafstra responded: "As I’m writing my own software
and soldering up my own stuff, pretty much anything I want. Well, more accurately,
anything I have the time and inspiration to do. Ultimately though, I think true keyless
access will require an implantable chip with a very strong encryption system; right now I’m
only looking at this type of thing in a personal context."
Potential Usages
The boom of technology has opened up many possibilities for other fields to benefit from
the advantages of RFID. RFID applications on health care, mobile phone, traffic, surgery
and so on, though have not yet been really deployed, but the discussion about these
topics has been started intensely.
Potentials of RFID are great and multi-billion dollars have been invested to further develop
this technology in new areas and direction. This part is mainly to study the potential
application of RFID in the future mobile phone industry.
RFID technology is not yet really adapted in the mobile phone industry due to technology
limitations and cost concerns. However, underneath, there are some promising potentials
of RFID in the industry.
Firstly, the most sounding RFID application on mobile phone is related production
identification. Customers could for example use their mobile phones which equipped with
RFID readers, to get specific information on their shopping items. For example, a shopper
of DVDs, by using the RFID reader in his or
her mobile, can read the information on the
chosen DVDs. The shopper can find specific
information about specific movies, such as
trailers and customers’ ranking.
In addition, mobile phone equipped with a
RFID reader or tag can be used as a device
for paying goods and services. Indeed
mobile RFID payment application has been
launched in Japan by Japanese operator
DoCoMo. DoCoMo’s users can use their
mobile phones as electronic wallets to pay
for
goods
and
services
during
their
shopping trips, though there are only less
Fig 1.4 A tracking system using wireless technologies
than 40 companies, such as McDonald’s, have offered their products for this particular
application.
Moreover, RFID can also be applied in the area of access control. Instead of carrying a
number of different keys, now what we need is just a RFID tag equipped mobile phone,
provided that the buildings are installed with the RFID reader. This would be particularly
beneficial to people who are moving between many different premises, for example,
security guards and maintenance.
It is obvious that, there are many potentials application of RFID on the mobile phone
industry. However, as mentioned before, due to security problems, technology limitation
and expensive component costs and mass public reach ability, there are still years to come
before RFID technology can be commonly used in the mobile industry.
Recent development
Large companies in the U.S., like Wal-Mart, have been urging its suppliers to include RFID
tags in the products. They have realised the potential value of RFID to the supply chain.
We can expect to see RFID systems in action in the future, but probably not the near future.
Fig 1.4 A clothwith RFID
2. Privacy Concerns and Regulations
Worries
Let us consider arguments from both the supporting and conservative sides to RFID
usages.
The worry of RFID intruding privacy is understandable. RFID tags are small, and
manufacturers can embed tags into their products, and keep track of them from sales to
customers till they are disposed. Accessing a tag’s information does not require the
acknowledgement of the owner. Theoretically companies and governments can monitor
everyone’s personal belongings, collecting incredible large amount of information about
the customers and citizens.
Legislations
It is probably this worry that gives rise to the call for regulating the use of RFID. In US, there
have been discussion on federal regulation of RFID technology, and some of the states
have begun to propose laws to ease privacy concerns related to the technology.
Take the case in California as an example. California lawmakers introduced the Identity
Information Protection Act of 2005 in February, which concerned mainly remote
identification. The bill those lawmakers proposed would make it illegal to incorporate RFID
chips into identity documents with limited exceptions. By identity documents, it would
mean drivers’ licenses, ID cards, library cards, etc.
There has been another regulatory bill that would apply to all businesses in the country.
The recent Senate Bill 1834 proposes that businesses have to notify customers if they are
using an RFID system and have to destroy the RFID tags before customers leave the store.
The business will have to ask for customers’ written consent before it can collect their
information with RFID.
Perhaps it is worth to note there are no actual regulations or laws concerning RFID so far,
though the controversies have become serious.
Controversies
There has been resistance in the legislation. While privacy activists claim that RFID and
other similar technologies will harm customers’ privacy, enthusiasts of RFID seem to
believe that too strict a regulation will hinder the development of technologies, meaning
it may probably bring negative impact on technological advancement. Supporters to RFID
generally do not object regulations, but regulations should not be too early. A more gentle
resolution may come up from manufacturers.
Picture sources
http://212.100.255.36/graphics/hr/rfid-tag-on-woolworths-garment.jpg
http://www.teagasc.ie/research/reports/beef/4623/4623fig01.gif
http://www.avio.co.jp/products/system/rfid/about.htm
http://www.dassnagar.com/Software/AMgm/CusCentric/it_ContainerTracking.htm
http://www.skyaid.org/images/DigitalAngel_sys_arch.gif
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/smart-label.htm
http://news.com.com/2100-1029-5065388.html
http://news.com.com/Wal-Mart+turns+on+radio+tags/2100-1012_3-5202240.html
http://news.com.com/California+bill+would+ban+tracking+chips+in+IDs/2100-1039_35689358.html?tag=nl
http://news.com.com/California+lawmaker+introduces+RFID+bill/2100-1014_35164457.html?tag=nl
VoIP – Yet Another Internet Jargon?
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Lesson 1 – What is VoIP?
A comprehensive Introduction to VoIP – not the latest but hottest technology combining voice and the
Internet
What is VoIP?
“Voice over Internet Protocol”, abbreviated as VoIP, is a kind of technology allowing people
to make use of stable and high quality broadband Internet connection (to replace regular
telephone service) to make phone calls, rather than using regular telephone service. It is
used in the IP telephony for a set of services for running the release of voice information
using the Internet Protocol.
How does VoIP work?
VoIP involves the transformation of voice using the Internet Protocol. During the process,
the voice of the speaker is transmitted to the receiver in the form of packets and then
transformed back to the original form while the receiver receives it. It refers to the
conversion between analogue and digital form of signal. In order to change the voice into
packets, the voice is first converted to a digital form from analogue form and then
converted back to analogue form while one receives it. While the regular phone system
switches analog signal into digital signal at a toll station, IP Telephony does this conversion
at the source. Once after digitalization, the signal will be sent via a modem to other users
directly or through VolP services. As for other IP Telephony users, the signal will be sent
directly while regular phone users associated with VoIP services will be sent using VolP. In
the process of voice transfer, VoIP uses real-time protocol to ensure that the packets are
delivered in a right direction and at a real speed.
Due to the need of analog-digital signal conversion, this function can be implemented
into the VoIP phone itself or to a separate box called Analog Telephone Adaptor (ATA).
Implementation of VoIP Phones
CISCOSYSTEMS
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
8 #
*
Fig 2.1 Network structure of VoIP phone
With the implementation of VoIP service into the IP phone, the IP phone is connected to
the Ethernet and the signal is sent to the Internet via the associated router and finally
reaches the VoIP service provider.
Other than VoIP phones, VoIP service can also be attached to a particular adaptor
Implementation of Analog Telephone Adaptor (ATA)
VoIP can be connected to cell phones and can be used in a PC atmosphere. To make a
VoIP call, an additional piece of equipment called Analog Telephone Adaptor (ATA) is
necessary.
1 2
3
4 5
6
7 8
9
8
#
*
CISCOSYSTEMS
ORDINARY
TELEPHONE
VOIP
SERVICE
PROVIDER
CISCO SYSTEMS
ATA
ROUTER
ETHERNET
CELL
PHONE
INTERNET
Fig 2.2 Network structure of VoIP phone with ATA
Under a typical setup, ATA allows users to make telephone calls as usual with the use of a
standard telephone. The ATA performs analog-digital conversion in a way that the Internet
can understand. It sends the signal to broadband and modem which is then passed over
to the Internet.
A typical setup looks like the following:
CISCO SYSTEMS
1 2
3
4 5
6
7 8
9
8
#
*
TALK / DATA
TALK
RS CS TR RD TD CD
Fig 2.3 Phone connected to modem through ATA
Direct connection via VoIP
It is also possible to bypass the VoIP service provider to allow two IP telephones to
connect to each other directly.
A typical setup is shown as follows:
CISCO SYSTEMS
CISCO SYSTEMS
1 2
3
1 2
3
4 5
7 8
6
9
4 5
7 8
6
9
8
#
*
8
#
*
Fig 2.4 Direct connection of VoIP phones
Features of VoIP
As the voice, which is an analog signal, is converted into small packets in digital format
and sent over the broadband connection to the VoIP service provider, different kinds of
features are offered by this service provider.
¾
¾
¾
¾
Due
Store incoming calls in the form of voice mails
Send the voice mail as an email attachment so that the user can listen to it in
his/her own computer
Three-way calling
Offers caller ID display and call waiting
to the low cost of VoIP, this technology is growing rapidly and the possibilities are
therefore endless.
Lesson 2 – Benefits
The reasons why you should not stick to the traditional telephony service and benefits to the society.
The advanced technology of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) will absolutely change the
business world dramatically. Improvements can be admired from three aspects:
1.
2.
3.
economic benefits
daily operations
organizational structure
Economic Benefits
When you consider that an average employee spends hundreds of hours per year on the
telephone, it is intuitive to see why VoIP is attracting so much attention. Numerous giant
corporate firms, from banks to retail, are implementing VolP to replace voice calls. UK bank
Abbey is rolling out VoIP to its branch network and sandwich retailer Pret A Manger has
installed VoIP to communicate with its global chain shops, with the estimation of saving
£10,000 a month.
As the cost of high speed internet access (such as broadband) drops, VoIP is now well
within reach of small businesses. Some telecommunication companies and internet
service providers (ISPs) are now offering VoIP deals targeted at the market segment of
small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Traditional phone calls work by devoting an entire phone line to each call. With VoIP, voice
data is compressed and transmitted over a computer network, such LAN, VPN or Internet.
This means VoIP uses up to 90% less bandwidth than a traditional phone call and is
consequently more cost-effective and more efficient.
Phone companies are already using this technology to carry international calls. According
to industry estimation, up to 75% of international calls will be carried over the internet by
2007. In fact, if you are using a cheap, long distance telephone service, you are probably
using IP telephony already without knowing it.
VoIP is helping its users to save money and by introducing VoIP phone system to your own
corporate computer networks, you could do so too.
Cheaper internal calls
Long-distance and international phone calls can be at the price of a local call.
Free internal calls to all departments that share the same network
With a Virtual Private Network (VPN) in place you can speak to connected colleagues at
different branches or on the road via wireless transmission like General Packet Radio
Service (GPRS) free of charge. This is particularly useful to the growing population of SMEs
who have multiple sites scattered all over the globe – currently 33% of the business world,
according to the Yankee Group’s latest statistics. However, cheaper calls are not the sole
advantage. If you merge your phone and data networks, VoIP can help you work more
efficiently and make your company’s phone network and voice data easier to look after
and manipulate.
Reduce operating costs
Since a VoIP-enabled system is based on software rather than hardware, it is easier to
manage and maintain. The absence of additional hardware investment enables VoIP
service to have high return on investment ratio (ROI). Earning more revenue comes along
with a decrease in expenditure.
Simpler infrastructure
With VoIP on your computer network you can add telephones and increase call capacity
without additional cabling.
Scalability
Traditional PBX (Private Branch Exchange) phone system has a set number of ports for
telephones to plug into. VoIP systems provide greater scalability as you can run a number
of ‘virtual users’ through each network socket.
Flexibility
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is an allocated amount of bandwidth on the public
internet where public access is prevented through encryption. If your company has its
own VPN and combines it with VoIP, you can set up a fully functioning office where there
is a broadband connection. New call centres can be set up and running in minutes
(software installation time) not weeks.
Daily Operations
The main advantage of VoIP is that it is cheaper than making ordinary phone calls. Another
key advantage is being able to combine phone calls with business data. It means you can
adopt call centre style technology with each incoming call triggering onscreen pop ups
with customer details. You can also add a ‘Click to call’ button on your website.
Enhanced customer service
By adding a ‘Click to talk’ button to a website, a VoIP-enabled enterprise can put web users
in touch with customer service staff. You could also look at implementing customer
relationship management software (CRM). Incoming calls could automatically trigger
screen pop ups with customer account information and contact history. It helps
salespersons to tailor-make their service according to clients’ particular needs.
Dependable call management
Voice-related services, such as follow me roaming, caller-ID display, call forwarding and
broadcast messaging, become simpler to maintain and can be updated promptly by
altering VoIP software’s administrative settings as needed by your employees.
Improve productivity
VoIP treats voice as if it were any other kind of multimedia data, so users can attach
documents to voice messages or participate in virtual meetings using shared data and
videoconferencing.
Wireless-compatible
With a wireless LAN in place, mobile devices such as PDAs and smartphones can use your
VoIP system. (If you install a wireless LAN, you need to ensure you have appropriate
security controls in place, such as a firewall or encryption scheme.)
Organizational Structure
Refining receptionists’ responsibility
The work of telephone operators and secretaries can be done automatically. Phone calls
can be directed directly to corresponding managers or CRM staff. Customers’ data and
phone history are speedily and accurately retrieved.
Enabling remote conferencing
Communication channels involving multitudinous people can be set up with ease. Group
discussion and decision improve management quality.
Lesson 3 – Concealed Side of VoIP
Two common components shared among all leading technologies on the Internet –concerns and
drawbacks.
With the advance development of VoIP technology, the use of IP telephony becomes
prevalent. Sharing the same problem with many other information technology
developments, the existing regulatory measures may not be applicable to IP telephony
and may induce anxiety among users. To most users, VoIP may have no or little difference
from traditional phone service, however, the truth behind it is far more complicated. This
article will focus on the impact and anxieties brought by the prevalence of IP telephony.
Connectivity of networks
First of all, it is the connectivity between different networks. If the networks are not interconnected, users will not be able to connect to everyone freely with the traditional phone
service like now. Switching between networks with the portable original telephone
number should also be made to possible. Also, the voice quality of VoIP connections is less
preferable to traditional analog phone calls. Given that the data travels through the
internet, there is an increased potential over landline phones, for dropouts and
interference, similar to those experienced by cell phones.
Identification of caller’s information
As information recognized though the IP network is much more than the telephone
network and incur more risks, users should be informed whether it is a phone call through
IP network when the call comes. To achieve this, the telephone number can be adjusted,
e.g. adding a prefix to the phone number or assigning a specific block of numbers to IP
phone. With the use of IP technology, the boundary between nations gradually disappears.
However, in some cases, information of a caller must be identified. For example,
emergency call station must be able to identify caller’s exact physical position and the
caller’s identity. To protect users from annoyance, identification of caller’s information
must be made possible.
Anxiety of minority group
The switch from tradition phone service to VoIP may also cause anxiety to some minority
group or socially disadvantaged group. Elderly or other people who are less adapted to
new technology may find IP telephony confusing. People living in remote areas that are
not covered by broadband or other high speed network may not be able to use the
service. If the trend of VoIP develop to such an extent that the above groups of people
become minority to the society, their needs may be ignored and the quality of telephone
service available to them may deteriorate.
Insurance of service quality
To ensure the public safety and security, IP phone service provider should provide
telephone directory service and emergency call service. Besides, service provider should
have backup power supply. In case of power outrage, the service will still maintain
necessary service and in particular, the life-line will still be able to work normally.
All in all, the standard of service quality, continuity of service, public safety and security
should not be lower than that of traditional phone service. The regulatory measures
towards VoIP technology depend largely on whether or not it is intended to be a
substitute of traditional phone..
Final Lesson – Current Situation and Prospect
Snapshots of VoIP application in the market, and future prospects of the technology
VoIP has been discussed for more than a decade. Recently, it is observed that more and
more companies are starting to implement VoIP. This makes VoIP alive. The appeal of VoIP
is quite simple: it is much cheaper than traditional phone calls. In the earlier days without
broadband, the implementation was dismissed by many as being irrelevant and hard to
scale. Yet, today it is a different story. With improved quality of network infrastructure and
voice platforms, businesses and some carriers are steadily embracing VoIP solutions as the
market matures. So what prospect is there for consumer of VoIP?
Broadband be the gateway of VoIP
A major barrier to the adoption of VoIP in the consumer market has been the bandwidth
limitation and charging system of dial-up Internet access - technical performance and the
potential cost savings were limited. Voice transmission is delay sensitive, the past
implementation protocols(e.g. H.323) provide 64kbps voice transmission. In the decades
without broadband, it is hard to be used and the quality of service is not stable. Now, the
availability and uptake of broadband services is rapidly removing that barrier. Together
with the development of new protocols(e.g. SIP), compression of voice messages is up to
8k, 6k which allows huge capacity for voice transmission for a company using broadband
connection.
The appeal of VoIP is obvious and the example of Yahoo! Broadband in Japan shows how
compelling it can be when combined in a broadband package. The majority of Yahoo!
Broadband’s 2.5 million broadband customers have also subscribed to its Internet
telephony service. They are now benefiting from unlimited free calls to other Yahoo!
Broadband customers and cheap long-distance calls to other destinations in Japan and
internationally.
Threat to voice providers
The threat of VoIP is obvious. VoIP service providers can bypass much - or all - of the PSTN
and offer very competitively priced calls or call packages. This poses a direct threat to
service providers who rely on both interconnection and traditional voice for the bulk of
their revenues and more importantly, profitability. Although VoIP may not totally support
all functions provided by PSTN, it meets the requirements of holding a business: simple
and cheap. Not only are there emerging new entrants specialising in cheap voice, VoIP
has started rumblings in the cable world: the consequences of major cable operators
plowing their way into VoIP is a prospect that could keep Telco well awake at night.
So far, most people have done nothing to understand what VoIP means to them. This is
something that must change, as in the longer term VoIP is either an opportunity or a
threat to incumbents’ voice revenues depends on what they choose to do.
Missed opportunities
Most service providers are using low-cost and bundled packages as the hook to attract
new customers. This is having some success, however VoIP can do so much more. There
are significant opportunities for service providers to offer multiple line operation on
broadband networks or to partner with other service providers to offer attractive gaming,
messaging and voice packages. This would allow them to target their offerings more
specifically at small businesses and specific segments of the consumer market, for instance.
The China threat
While the world is making revenue and benefiting from the implementation of VoIP, the
mainland China business is hard to taste this. The underlying reason is that the media
gateway protocols are blocked. China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) reiterated
that it still has not formulated guidelines concerning VoIP businesses and that many
current VoIP businesses could potentially be illegal.
Conclusion
In addition to its excellent features provided exclusively and the brilliant ideas of using
Internet as a telephony medium, the long-lasting and well-developed researches behind
VoIP is a very strong backup. Instead of falling silently without any meaningful applications
on the market, like the majority of technologies on the Internet, VoIP should be
responsible for an alternative telephony service where traditional telephony service is not
easily available. However, with the maturity of mobile telephony device and service and
the change of habit that telephony is no longer the primary choice of communication
medium, VoIP’s room of development is very limited without new ideas being brought out.
And like any new development, VoIP also raises a number of complex issues ranging from
quality of service deficiencies to a lack of clarity over number portability and much head
scratching by regulators over how to categorise and deal with VoIP service providers. Until
these issues are solved, VoIP will still remain outside of the main voice arena.
References
http://www.bayanvoip.com/map3/disadvantage-of-voip.html
http://www.is4profit.com/businessadvice/voip/voip02.htm
http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr04-05/english/panels/itb/minutes/itb041213.pdf
http://www.ofta.gov.hk/en/report-paper-guide/paper/consultation/20041221/org/04.pdf
http://www.voicegap.com/euromarket-research.p
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To get started: A brief introduction about Wiki
Wiki is the simplest online database that could possibly work, according to Ward
Cunningham who invented WikiWikiWeb in 1995.
Wiki was begun on 25 March 1995. The first Wiki site was founded as an automated
supplement to the PortlandPatternRepository.
A Wiki is a web application that allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but
also allows anyone to edit the content. It is unusual among group communication
mechanisms in that it allows the organizations of contributions to be edited in addition to
the content itself. It supports hyperlinks and is based on simple text syntax for creating
new pages and crosslinks between internal pages. The term Wiki also refers to the
collaborative software used to create such a website.
Wiki enables documents to be written collectively in a simple markup language using a
web browser thus it is user-friendly. Pages in the Wiki are usually highly interconnected via
hyperlinks, in effect, a very simple database.
Key characteristics
The most defining characteristic of Wiki technology is that it is easy to create and update
the page. Generally, Wiki are open to public without the need of registering any user
account. There is no review before modifications are accepted. In the following part, we
use Wikipedia pages for illustration.
Pages and editing
There are 3 page representations for Wiki. They are user-editable "source code", template
and rendered HTML code produced by the server.
The user-editable "source code" is the format stored locally on the server which is usually
in plain text and visible to users only when editing in the browser form. The template
defines the layout and element common to all pages. The rendered HTML code is
produced from the source text when a particular page is requested.
The source format, known as "Wikitext," is basically using a simplified markup language to
promote plain-text editing with a few simple conventions for structure and style. In this
way, a consistency in the page format and the extra safety for the user can be achieved.
Fig 3.1 A screenshot of editing in Wikipedia
Linking and creating pages
Wiki is a true hypertext medium with non-linear navigational structures. Each page
typically contains a large number of links to other pages. Links are created using a specific
syntax, the so-called "link pattern."
New pages in a Wiki are usually created by adding the appropriate links on a topically
related page. If the link does not exist, it is typically emphasized as a "broken" link.
Following that link opens an edit window, which then allows the user to enter the text for
the new page. This mechanism ensures a generally high level of connectedness.
Controlling changes
The main feature of Wiki that allows users to modify the content without any review gives
rise to history comparison reports, which highlight the changes between two revisions of
a page.
Wikis are practising the philosophy of making it user-friendly and easy to correct mistakes.
Thus Wikis are very open. They provide a means to verify the validity of recent additions to
the body of pages. The "Recent Changes" page is a specific list numbering recent edits or a
list of all the edits made within a given timeframe. Two other functions about changing
the content in Wikis are: the Revision History showing previous page versions and the Diff
feature, highlighting the changes between two revisions. If any irreverence of the contents
in the new version is detected, every user can easily restore the old one.
To use or not to use: How Wiki can be used and its pros and cons
Current Usages
Wiki has been developed since 1995. Nowadays, it has been widely used for web
application for constructing websites. Due to its special features, Wiki has been used in
several aspects listed below.
Data Collection
It is the most common way of using Wiki. Since Wiki is easy for editing or adding new
content, it is often used for creating large database. Wikipedia is a well-known online
encyclopedia sponsored by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its content is written
collaboratively by volunteers. According to the statistic of Meatball Wiki, it is the largest
Wiki site.
Discussion and Collaboration
Wiki has often been used to provide a place for discussion. Because of its convenience,
Wiki is very suitable for brain-storming. A large group of people can come up a solution in
a Wiki page by providing and compromising ideas. Some online forums using Wiki has
been built. These kinds of forums allow users to provide their opinions based on the
others’.
Besides Wikipedia, ResumeWiki is one of the good examples of collaboration in using the
“Wiki” technology. In ResumeWiki, every individual is free to upload their covering profile
and CV to the system (without information such as address). Other users can thus edit the
uploaded files. Alternatively, users can choose to submit their comments and suggestions
without editing.
Recording Tools
TiddlyWiki is an experimental micro-content Wiki website built by JeremyRuston. It allows
anyone to create personal self-contained hypertext documents that can be posted to any
web server, sent by email or kept on a USB thumb drive. It can be used as a reuseable nonlinear personal web notebook. People can download the web-site, which can actually be
described as a template. It can be used as a medium of writing and any users with a web
browser are able to read it.
Advantages of using Wiki
Easy to edit
A Wiki site allows users to edit the pages without logging in. To edit a page, no special
HTML knowledge is necessary. Any people can edit or add a new page easily. Wiki is also
the same as thus “What you see is what you get” software. In addition to it, it is webeditable so any people with a computer installed with web-browser can do their
modification on a Wiki site. This makes it very cross-platform for end users.
Co-operation
Since anyone can take part in modifying a Wiki site, unfinished or incomplete work can be
placed in a Wiki so it is can be shared and improved by others at their discretion. The
feature of Wiki allows people from different background and with different professions to
contribute on the construction of a website. Large Wiki sites like an encyclopedia can be
made under many people’s effort. Wiki also allows people with different point of view to
share and compromise their ideas to make the result more satisfactory.
Timeliness
When there is a new event, traditional media might take a long time to publish the
content. Before the launch of Wiki, all the new discoveries and definitions on certain things
are often published only after a long period of time. However, for a Wiki site, it takes a very
short time to provide new contents. Anyone who knows the latest information can update
the content. Within a second, the new content is uploaded to the site. Therefore,
information provided in a Wiki site can always be kept up-to-date.
Problems using Wiki
Difficult to manage
Wiki sites require users to have self-discipline. For many Wiki sites, vandalism is one of the
major problems. To prevent vandalism, some Wiki sites ban individual users by blocking
particular IP address. However, since many ISP assign a new IP address for each login,
banning IP is not very effective. It may also prevent legitimate users from accessing.
Sometimes, backups are needed for security reasons.
There has been edit wars in which people with opposing views delete each other’s
assertions over and over. Finally, all kinds of viewpoints coexist in the same article.
Spam is also a problem for Wikis. Since visitors can create a page easily on a Wiki site, it is
often used by spammers to induce readers into using his products or services. A
commonly used defense against spammers is delaying indexing of outbound links,
allowing a Wiki’s editors or participants to remove offending links quickly.
Lower value of data
Because in a Wiki site any users can edit freely, they are unrestricted. This can lead to the
creation of pages with less coherance or community value. Since the data can be edited
easily, the content of the pages is often changed. This makes the information provided by
a Wiki site to have lower referencing value. Anyone can make their modification on the
Wiki pages. It implies that some changes may actually be worse than the original version
which will lower its value. Extra effort from other users has to be spent to restore it back to
the original one.
To compare: differences between Wiki and tradition media, Blog
Traditionally, different media like books, newspapers deliver information from one party
only. A book expresses the view of the author to its readers. Newspaper reports news to its
subscribers. The emergence of Wiki has brought a great change to the definition of
medium. The main characteristic of Wiki is its high flexibility. It does not reflect the view of
one single author only. The content of a Wiki page can be composed by many parties.
Moreover, it allows the readers to act as a writer, i.e. readers can also take part in modifying
the content. It is not only a medium that deliver the thoughts and views of its writers, but a
multi-way communication. In addition, the timeliness of Wiki permits it to contain the
most updated information.
There are other encyclopedias existing on the internet as web-pages, but Wikipedia is not
only a large online encyclopedia. It may be the most fast-expanding and most updated
encyclopedia in the world. According to Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide
Web, web-browser is not only a reading tool, but also a writing tool. The sentence
perfectly matches with the idea of the Wiki technology.
According to the statistics by Alexa.com, in May 2005, Wikipedia.org has been ranked as
Top 100 most frequently visited site globally and 57th in the English category. The
following graph from alexa.com shows the trend of the web site from March 2003 to April
2005.
Fig 3.2 Daily traffic of Wikipedia
According to Wikimedia, Wikipedia is now more popular than some encyclopedia or
search reference sites such as Encyclopedia.com and excite.com. The way of building an
encyclopedia using Wiki is accepted by many people.
Compared to Wiki, Blog may be more familiar. It is defined as web-based publication
consisting of periodic articles. It is often featuring news, comments, and personal diaries.
The contents of many Wiki-related sites tend to be more academic in nature while many
of the blogging sites are personal diaries without any formal validation of the contents.
Both Wiki and Blog allow people with little knowledge of scripting and web design skills to
produce publication on the Internet. They also allow a lot of interaction between writers
and readers. Other similarities include the timeliness and easy editing. The difference is
that, writers and readers can still be distinguished in a Blog. On the other hand, no names
of the editors are written on the Wiki page. And, a reader can become a writer if he takes
part in the modification of content. In other words, Wiki is more easily edited.
To look into the future: The developing Wiki
Co-operation between Wiki sites and other large websites has appeared. Yahoo! has made
an agreement with Wikipedia that Yahoo! will provide the latter with hardware and
resource support. Whenever users search in Yahoo!, the articles of the searching target will
come up as the top of the relevant results. It combines the huge search engine with the
huge editable database, which can provide more benefits to the user.
Fig 3.3 Financial information of Wikimedia
Besides Wikipedia, its sister projects like Wikinews, Wikitionary and Wikibooks also gain
huge success. The technology is not only used for building an encyclopedia but also in
many different aspects.
Statistics from Wikipedia showed that Wikinews is expanding fastly.
As shown
the diagram,
since
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website
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Number
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Fig 3.4 in
Number
of Wikinews
articles
reporters of the site has already exceeded 160 and the number of news articles has
exceeded 2000. The trend is very likely to be increasing continuously.
On 20 July 2005, the English edition of Wikinews was added to Google news site for
indexing. It acts as strong evidence that Wikinews is now being accepted.
For Wiktionary, statistics from alexa.com shows that the daily traffic has been increasing
quickly since the launch of the site in 2004. It could be foreseen that the rank will continue
to grow along the expansion of the site.
Fig 3.6 Daily traffic of Wikitionary
For Wikibooks, since the launch of the site on 10 July 2003, volunteers have written around
11407 book modules in a multitude of books.
Fig 3.7 Daily traffic of Wikibooks
The above graph was extracted from alexa.com, dated on 17 Oct 2005. The graph shows
that the rank of the Wikibooks.org is on an increasing trend.
All in all, the Wiki project comprosing of Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikibooks and other
Wikisite have been proven to be great success. The affection power of the projects is
expected to be higher and higher in future.
Wiki in business application
There are currently two identifiable companies using Wiki technology for developing
commercial software. They are Socialtext and Jotspot.
Socialtext implemented the Wiki technology as a business working environment. The
Knowledge Management System (KMS) developed by Socialtext allows user to edit,
restore, share and discuss the business documents under a common environment.
Comparing to normal use of the emails, knowledge is shared in the system in a more
efficient way. It can be seen in the following diagram extracted from the official site
www.socialtext.com.
Fig 3.8 Differences between E-mail and Socialtext’s system
It is especially efficient for team project in which members requires a quick sharing of ideas
or information. With the introduction of intranet and extranet, it enables further exchange
within the company. The current market penetration of Socialtext is massive. According to
the statistics of the company, they have over 100 Customers and 20 of the top 1000 Global
companies using Socialtext. The well known ones are Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein,
Nokia and Kodak.
As an investment bank, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein uses SocialText to reduce email
overload and foster the sharing of the knowledge in the capital market. Nokia and Kodak,
on the other hand, utilize the software in checking a group’s progress and sharing the
information with minimal effort and high return to the contributors.
Jotspot is the first Wiki-originated software. It is developed by two founders of a wellknown search engine Excite.com. The ultimate benefit of the JotSpot application Wiki is
that the design of a web application can constantly evolve based on user behavior and
learning. Nowadays, in customer-oriented business environment, the software users can
build a custom web-based application that matches both the needs of company and its
customers. A lot of communication costs and time can be saved in the sharing system.
Apart from the email sharing features like SocialText, Jotspot offers external data
integration. It can easily integrate the contents from external parties in many formats such
as RSS and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol).
In January 2005, Jotspot signed up Walt Disney as its paying customer. It is its first major
customer. Although it starts later, Jotspot is catching up with Socialtext.
Both companies have gained trust from the venture capitalists. Socialtext has raised
US$3.1million in its first round of venture capital, while Jotspot has raised US$5.2 million.
The competition between these two companies in Wiki software will continue in the
coming years.
To conclude: A conclusion about Wiki
The special features of Wiki lead it to a positive future development. The application of
Wiki is getting more and more attention.
In the foreseeable future, Wiki will be one of the tools in developing web pages, which can
be modified easily or require a large group of people to share ideas. The China National
Scientific and Mathematics Library is now using Wikipedia as a research topic for
information exchange. (http://159.226.100.132/pmWiki/pmWiki.php)
In October 2003, the Academic ADL Co-Lab hosted by the National Defense Department
of United States, used Wikipedia as an elaboration of the topic in the conference.
(www.academiccolab.org/projecs/repositories/community/Wiki/index.php?page=Learing
RepositoryCommunity)
Besides building web pages, companies can use Wiki for developing strategies and
brainstorming ideas which could be very effective due to its special features. The softwares
SocialText and JotSpot are two of the examples.
Regardless of its defects, Wiki remains a very useful web application for data research and
has the potential to become the mainstream of the style of web pages
Top Ten Wiki Sites:
Pos. Conservative
Inclusive
Site
1.
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WikiPedia (all languages)
2.
56440
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3.
N/A
50000
World66Wiki
4.
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48410
EnglishWiktionary
5.
N/A
28282
WikiWiki
6.
28101
38804
Wikinfo
7.
22645
30222
EnciclopediaLibre
8.
N/A
22000
TWiki
9.
N/A
9199
SenseisLibrary
10.
N/A
6882
NoSmoke
References
Lohr, S. 2005. New York Times. New York, October 5, p. G.1
Taylor, C. 2005. It's a Wiki, Wiki World.Time , June 6, 40-42.
Weiss, A. 2005. NetWorker. New York, September, Vol. 9, Iss 3; 16-23
http://www.infoanarchy.org/Wiki/index.php/Wiki_Pros_And_Cons
http://Wiki.org/Wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki
http://en.Wikipedia.org/Wiki/Wiki
http://www.usemod.com/cgi-bin/mb.pl?BiggestWiki
http://c2.com/cgi/Wiki?WikiHistory
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Google has been a successful company which developed a new approach to online
search. Named for the mathematical term "googol" which means a 1 followed by 100
zeros, the company has been able to search the immense amount of information available
on the web including more than 8 billions web pages, documents of different file types,
more than 2 billions images and 1 billion usenet messages. Google.com has become one
of the 5 most popular sites on the Internet and is used around the world by 81.9 millions
users per month. (Nielsen/NetRatings 6/03)
Let us look at the technology used in its search engine and Gmail, its corporate culture
and marketing strategy to see how it differentiates itself from other search engine
providers on the internet.
Google Search Engine
The birth of google search engine
Eight years ago, two Ph.D. students, being discontented with the search engine service
back then, worked out a way to make information easier to find on the Internet. That is
how Google begins its trail towards the “perfect search engine”. Not to mention its
capability of finding more than 220 types of files and supporting 35 different languages
and many other features, Google search engine is user-friendly in the sense that it returns
you with the most relevant results in a shorter time than any other search engines do. The
faster response time is made possible with Google’s use of linked PCs instead of large
servers. In addition, the persistent development and implementation of its improved
search algorithms on fetching, indexing and ranking web pages contribute to Google’s
superior searching performance.
“Spidering” process – Web-crawling with Googlebots
Google dispatches its Googlebots, the web-crawling robots that collect web pages, to
maintain and improve its vast index. The Googlebots does not traverse the web in reality,
but they send requests to a web server for a web page, downloading the entire page, then
handing it off to Google's indexer for indexing. To make sure that the database is up-to-
date, the Googlebots revisits sites, especially to those delivering information such as news
or stock quotes, which is timely in nature.
There is the term “Search Engine Optimization (SEO)”, which refers to the process of web
pages increasing their hits by staying high in the rank of search results of a search engine.
Some web pages try to achieve this by using deceptive ways like word and link spamming,
or creating multiple pages with duplicate contents. Googlebots are wise enough to detect
these links which are intended to trick Google.
However, Googlebots sometimes can create problems. Freshbot is among one of the
many types of Googlebots. Freshbots pay regular visits to web pages if frequent updates
of the pages are made. The more often you update your web page, the more often you
will be visited by Freshbots. Occasionally, there is the situation that the visit of a huge
amount of Freshbots to some dynamically driven pages crashes the web servers. Besides,
Googlebots have an intention to pick up only the index of the directories on a site,
meaning the Googlebots would not surf to any other pages in those directories even if
direct linkages to the index are present.
Indexing process
It is done by sorting every word in every page, and then passing the index to the search
database for future reference. This index database is sorted alphabetically by search term,
with each index entry storing a list of documents in which the term appears and the
location within the text where it occurs. This data structure allows rapid access to
documents that contain user query terms.
To enhance search performance, Google eliminates common words like the, is, on, or, of,
how, why, etc, for these words have little to do with narrowing a search, and therefore can
safely be discarded. The indexer also eliminates some punctuation and multiple spaces, as
well as converting all letters to lowercase for better performance. There are also some
other concerns for the indexer such as ways to avoid spamming and the fields to be
indexed.
Retrieval & Ranking process – PageRank™ technology
A search engine retrieves results from its index based on the users’ search queries and
returns the users with relevant web pages. A distinctive feature of Google from the
conventional search engines is that it is hypertext-based. Googlebots not only scan for
page-based text, but also analyze all the text content and factors in fonts, subdivisions,
page context and the precise positions of all terms and phrases on the page. Besides,
Google works on analysis of content of neighboring web pages to guarantee that its users
can get something specifically relevant to what they seek.
For ranking results to be displayed in the user interface, Google uses a web structure
mining algorithm named PageRank™. With PageRank™ technology, an equation of more
than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms is solved to measure a web page’s
importance. A web page’s score is computed by weighting each in-link to the page
proportionally to the quality of the page containing the in-link.
PageRank ( p) = (1 − d ) + d *
PageRank (q)
)　∑
c( q )
∀q _ pointing _ to _ p　(
where d is a damping factor between 0 and 1, and
c(q) is the number of outgoing links in q
Instead of counting direct links, Google’s PageRank™ interprets a link between two pages
as a vote cast for the linked page. The importance of a page is assessed by the votes it
receives. A vote would be of greater weight if it is cast by a page of greater importance.
Ranking of a page is based on the value it gains from PageRank™. A page that receives a
higher PageRank™ is more likely to appear at the top of the search results. For example, for
a small universe of four web pages: A, B, C and D. If all those pages link to A, then the PR
(PageRank) of page A would be the sum of the PR of pages B, C and D.
PR(A) = PR(B) + PR(C) + PR(D)
The unique combination of advanced hardware and software employed by Google is
proved to be efficient and effective. Google’s performance in relative precision was
statistically significantly higher than MSN and AOL, based on a research in 2003, in which
Google returns additional relevant documents. Nevertheless, Google is under criticism. The
search engine tends to put negative events or statements at the top of the list, due to its
inability to make moral judgments about information and to “distinguish between hugely
popular accurate information and hugely popular dated information”, as explained by
Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt. It is certain that Google still has a long way to the “perfect
search engine”.
Future developments – Post-retrieval analysis
Some search engines try to tackle the problem of overloading search results from a query
by performing post-retrieval analysis. Two common approaches are the Arizona noun
phraser and the Self-organizing map (SOP). The former indexes key phrases that appear in
documents and apply the part-of-speech tagging and linguistic rules. The latter is a neural-
network that automatically clusters the web pages into different regions on a 2D map.
Competitive Intelligent Spider (SI spider) and Meta Spider are two search agents that
incorporate post-retrieval analysis tools in their architecture. It is expected in the future
that better indexing is made possible by applying computational linguistics analysis to
extract meaning entities rather than mere keywords from web pages. And, more advanced
intelligent techniques have to be used to distinguish between good and bad pages.
Gmail
While looking at an email service, we can look at several perspectives: technology, user
experience and marketing strategy. With its unique features in these three areas, Gmail is
able to differentiate itself from other email services.
Gmail - Something different?
Gmail is the email service provided by Google. It is well known that Gmail provided a
storage space of 1GB for its users. This has been one of the most attractive features. To
celebrate its one year’s birthday, now it even provides a storage space of beyond 2GBs.
Besides, searching can be done to find the exact message that you want, and the simple
design and layout makes loading of pages much faster.
Technology
On Gmail’s web site, it says, “Gmail is an experiment in a new kind of web mail, built on the
idea that you should never have to delete mail and you should always be able to find the
message you want.”
Gmail provides a free-of-charge email service with large amount of storage space.
However, how can a user find the information he wants while there are such large amount
of data? The answer is the famous Google search. Users can experience extra convenience
in the management of messages by Google search.
Fig 4.1 Screenshot of Gmail account
Free POP access and automatic forwarding
Users can download messages and read them offline using Blackberry or Outlook. They
can also forward new messages to a specific email account. In this way they can even
switch to other email services without losing access to the messages.
Multiple tools and browsers supported
Gmail allows rich text formatting and over 60 colors of the rainbow, giving a land of more
than just black and white. Multiple functions such as filtering, spell check, labeling and
message notifier are available. Gmail provides support for various types of browsers
including IE 5.5+, Netscape 7.1+, Mozilla 1.4+, Firefox 0.8+ and Safari 1.2.1+.
An easier way to manage and send photos
Gmail now works with Picasa, Google's free photo organizer. You can use Picasa to easily
find, edit and preview your photos. Logging into Gmail directly from Picasa enables you to
send the photos from your Gmail account. Picasa even automatically resizes your photos
so they're easier to receive and open.
GMail Drive – an unofficial but useful product
Another thing about using Gmail is that you can use Gmail as a storage medium. There is a
Shell Namespace Extension called GMail Drive that can create a virtual file system around
your Google Gmail account. You can save and retrieve files stored on your Gmail account
directly from the Windows Explorer. GMail Drive adds a new drive to your computer under
the My Computer folder, where you can create new folders, copy and drag'n'drop files to
just as below:
Fig 4.2 Screenshot of Gmail driver
User experience
Fast loading time
Gmail has a simple interface which enables fast processing time, using the AJAX
architecture. AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript And XML. Using AJAX, the item
description is loaded dynamically from the server only on mouseover. Since users may not
hover the mouseover of every item, this will reduce the initial page load size by more than
half, therefore loading the page much faster.
No pop-ups
Besides, only related textual advertisement would be shown. There will be no annoying
pop-ups. Users are free to choose whether to read advertisement or not.
Avoiding spam messages
Graphics in messages would not be shown unless users allow them. This can help avoid
spam as many spammers detect email with display of graphics. As long as you do not
display graphics, those spammers would think that your email address is not valid and will
not continue sending junk mail to you.
Marketing Strategy
Spreading new accounts by Sending Invitations
Different from traditional email services, Google is not giving out email accounts in the
way of user registration. Instead, it first gave out some free accounts to existing members
and let them each invites some new users. The new users, after using Gmail for a period of
time, can then invite other new users. As a result, Gmail accounts are spread in a slow,
controlled and viral way. This could avoid the break down of server due to too rapid
growth of users. It also ensures that only faithful users get Gmail accounts.
Now Gmail is now moving past the requirement that an invitation is necessary to create an
account on Gmail! Random users may find on the Google page there a link that says, “New!
Get Gmail.” Following that link one can also get a new Gmail account.
However, there are also some drawbacks about using Gmail.
Technology Problem
Dependence on Javascript
Gmail depends heavily on Javascript, so it will become inaccessible for browsers which do
not support Javascript. One may need to override security settings to make the Javascript
work. In many places, you may still find a Win98 PC with Internet Explorer 4 or 5 and a slow
dial-up connection, so it is quite likely that GMail will not allow you to get to your settings
which is displayed using Javascript.
Use of keyboard and tabbed browsing
Gmail does not support tabbed browsing. You may use shortcut keys if you have enabled
Keyboard Shortcuts in your Gmail Settings. However, some shortcut keys for tabbed
browsing cannot be used. E.g. Ctrl-t to open a new tab. You cannot start two drafts each in
a different tab while keeping your inbox open in another. This is very inconvenient if you
need to refer to more than one tab at the same time.
The privacy problem
Reading and deleting messages
Google would show users advertisements that are related to the content of their email
messages. That means Google “reads” users’ email and this is very bothersome to some
people. Google’s Terms of Service also suggest that when you delete an email through the
Web interface, it may not be deleted from the Google storage system. Remnants of
messages remain and this is quite undesirable for most users.
User Experience Problem
Users developing Ad blindness?
Ad blindness results when people get accustomed to advertisement and stop noticing
them. Ad blindness is not a problem for search engines, as people are searching for
information useful to them. However, Gmail ads have a much less probability of being
relevant. Consequently, people have a lot less incentive to read them, and eventually learn
to ignore them without conscious effort.
Competition
Since there is the problem of ad blindness, another challenge for Google is that it must
provide incentives which motivate people to read ads in order to stop them from
developing ad blindness. A possible way is to offer extra storage space for users who read
ads. However, Gmail still needs to face the competition with email service providers such
as Yahoo! and Hotmail who are also continuously improving their business models.
Overall speaking, Gmail is an email system with a simple interface, large amount of storage
space and multiple functions. Nevertheless, its practice of showing advertisement may
annoy users or even intrude users’ privacy. Also, it has great dependence on Javascript and
does not allow tabbed browsing. Google must find solve the problem of ad blindness to
maintain its advertising business. Moreover, Gmail needs to develop new strengths in
order to compete with other email service providers.
Corporate Culture
Corporate culture is the soul of a company. The peculiar corporate culture of Google plays
an important role to its undoubted success. Unlike most of the large corporate, stresses
and rigid rules are not applied to Google, which, instead, is known for its relaxed corporate
culture. The hallways in Google’s world headquarters building, located in Mountain View,
California, are full of exercise balls and bicycles. A roller hockey game takes place in the
company parking lot twice a week. Dogs are running merrily around while Googlers, how
Google’s employees call themselves, are busy with their own programmes or algorithms.
Such a causal work environment, together with the great freedom for Googlers to work,
provides them with amazingly high efficiency and quality of work.
As a company of a search engine, the flow of information is always crucial. To facilitate
communication at all levels and across departments, Google purposefully minimises the
corporate hierarchy and emphasises on teamwork. Equality is encouraged at every level of
the corporation. Outstanding technology of Google is one of its essential comparative
advantages. It is not difficult to understand how Google treasures brilliant ideas and
creativity. In the company’s view, the ability to think values even more than experience.
This may suggest why many fresh graduates from famed institutes managed to grab the
chances for interviews alongside with millions of other applicants.
Actually, Google culture is so deeply-rooted that it wants something special for
recruitment. You may come across
with
thousands
of
billboards
everyday. But have you ever linked
a billboard with a strange and
challenging
mathematics
questions with your career? If not,
you should, at least, start to think
of it because it’s the way Google
does. Of course, billboard is just a
Fig 4.3 Billboard of Google start. Only if you are patient
enough and capable of following the right path prepared by Google, you will notice the
underlying principals of recruitment from Google. The billboard recruitment is just a start.
Google has made an even more tough recruitment device - the Google Labs Aptitude Test.
Questions in it range from complicated mathematics calculations to meaningless-looking
questions like asking you to write to simply fill up space. Be innovative and creative, be
curious, be prepared to challenge and to be challenged. This is how Google demonstrates
to all and it wants anyone joining it to be that like.
Individual thinking is always embraced in Google. Each Google engineer is required to
spend 20% of their work week on projects that interest them. There is where many
significant new products of Google like Gmail, Google News, AdSense originate. Examples
of some current projects are AjaXSLT, Google mMAIM and Sitemap Generator. AJAXSLT is
an implementation of XSLT in JavaScript which is intended for use in fat web pages.
mMAIM is to make monitoring, analysis and deployment of MySQL easier. Sitemap
Generator is a simple script that can be configured to automatically create Sitemaps and
submit them to Google.
You can make money without doing evil.
It is the driving force of Google. This Ten things Google has found to be true
distinguishes
Google
from
other 1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
mainstream search engines – simple and 2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.
straight-forward user interfaces, forbidding 3. Fast is better than slow.
of pop-up ads, having PageRank as the one 4. Democracy on the web works.
and only rule of ranking of search results. 5. You don't need to be at your desk to
However, upon the IPO’s of Google, this need an answer.
golden
rule
faces
its
greatest
ever 6. You can make money without doing evil.
challenge. Not only having difficulty to keep 7. There's always more information out
the “no evil” rule, but the company may there.
also be required to answer shareholders 8. The need for information crosses all
who will want the company to cut back on borders.
employee benefits and to focus on short 9. You can be serious without a suit.
term gains. In response to this,
10. Great just isn't good enough.
co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page promised that the IPO would not change the
corporate culture, in a report written for potential investors.
Business Strategy and Business View of Google
Since the burst of the ‘Internet Bubble’ in 2000, Nasdaq has not appeared to have big
volumes of transactions. However, the launch of Google’s IPO on the 19th 2004 was an
exception. It brought about a storm, showed to the world the power of IT development
and attracted full attention of investors from all over the world. This ‘storm’ was conducive
to the boom of Nasdaq market.
On the whole, the IPO affects the world’s IT business and its peripheral markets:
It is definitely the most charming IPO in Wall Street. The stock price of the company has
forth-folded, reaching US$300 from the initial US$80.
Investors have changed their perceptions on the techno stock. Nasdaq market attracted
creative and energetic entrepreneurs worldwide. The legend of Google’s rapid
development makes all the attention of credits. Market observers and investors focus on
Google’s IPO. Investors have rebuilt its confident on the technology-intensive company.
About seven thousand of rich-background IT companies in Silicon Valley is waiting to
attract the “hot money” from the financial markets just like how Google did. The success of
the IPO is a role model for those companies. After the collection of capital, they can
implement their creative ideas on the latest and hottest technologies in full ranges:
medicine, military, networking, architecture, 3D animations, mathematical modeling,
business solutions, etc.
In ‘search engine technology’, Google holds the leading position, and it will keep its role in
the future. Its role is to create and innovate on the search engine. It brings us convenience
by simple interfaces and accurate search results. Not to mention that, Google handles 80%
of all the Internet’s search operations. Google displays huge business values underneath
the routine search engine operations. After Google, other IT giants, including Amazon,
Microsoft MSN, Yahoo!, have joined the competition on search engine business. To
customers and web-surfers, it is good news because it implied free service upgrades and
improvements.
According to the Fortune magazine, there have been two more billionaires in their list.
They are Sergery Brin and Larry Page, the creators of Google.com.
The importance of the Internet in people’s daily life has changed the view on tradition
marketing model. Companies and global corporations now focused on how to promote
their sales on the Internet. One of the ways is to incorporate with Google. The method of
advertising is called “Adwords”. That is charged only when Internet users clicks on the
sponsor websites. The more users clicked, the more Google can earn. The lowest price of a
single hit is US$0.05.
In 2003, the income of Google is US$1B. 96% of it came from advertisement. Meanwhile,
the total income generated by all Internet advertising was US$8B. To most of the internet
marketers, Google advertisement is the most effective and efficient way to promote their
businesses, products or services.
A lot of global corporations, like Sony and Panasonic, are utilising a new technology called
“SEO”(search engine optimisation) to ensure their websites’ ranks in the search results stay
on the first top-10 list. Actually, 20% of US corporation websites are using Google
optimisation. SEO to Google optimisation has become a strategy to corporate marketers.
Google has certainly been successful in its search engine, in Gmail and some other services.
However, to keep its users and customers, it must keep on making improvements and
developing new attractive features. Here are some areas that Google is going to further
develop.
Google’s Future Development and Prospects
In the past (in the initial stage of Google.com)
Spider and PageRank
¾
¾
Google use tens of thousand of servers for website links lookup, each thread is a
“Spider”. The jobs of every single “Spider” are to check for update from one link
to another link, rank the relationships of the links, and shadow the links to
Google’s database. “Spider” technology needs complex computation to
prevent repeated jobs; meanwhile it has to accurately predict the priority of
their job list.
PageRank is the simple ranking system of websites mentioned before.
At present
¾
¾
2 years ago: GOOGLE News, GOOGLE Group, GOOGLE Toolbar, GOOGLE API,
GOOGLE Compute, Froogle, Google Local.
1 years ago: blog.google.com, the amusing and exciting technology: GMail in 1G
email capacity, GDS(Google Desktop Search).
In future and interesting prediction
Picasa, AI and Grid Computing.
¾
¾
¾
Picase: Google is seeking the development on the photo sharing.
AI: Google is developing its Articial Intelligence for more advanced searching
service. People use Google for searching answers to their questions, not
searching the websites where the keywords exist.
Grid Computing: Due to the popularity of P2P networking, Google has
considered using this technology to increase their searching efficiency and at
the same time reducing the running cost of servers.
Future prospects
Google will jump out of the tradition role of a search engineer service
provider, to become a popular software application provider
Google has merged a number of various IT companies and its aim is to develop and
improve those popular software applications. For instance, Google has taken over Picasa
for its great photo management software. Another example is Google Earth, which is a
highly revolutionary 3D map which visualises the world.
Corporate with China local search engine
Due to China PRC government control and the trade barrier, foreign companies, including
Google.com, face difficulties in entering China markets.
On a recent survey conducted by www.163.com, China has 94,000,000 Internet users.
China is now the 2nd largest Internet markets in the world behind US. Google has no
reasons to miss this big cake. To provide the best service to local Chinese users, Google
may plan to Joint Venture with the local Internet search engine giant BaiDu.com. Google is
planning to form a strategic partnership with Sohu.com.
Google Versus Microsoft
From the recruiting advertisements, we can observe that Google has ideas on not just
search engine technology, but a full range of computer technologies.
Passionate about these topics? You should work at Google.
• algorithms
• data
• machine learning
• artificial
compression
• natural language processing
intelligence
• data mining
• operating systems
• compiler
• file system
• profiling
optimization
design
• robotics
• computer
• genetic
architecture
algorithms
• computer
• information
graphics
retrieval
Send your resume and a brief cover letter to [email protected].
• text processing
• user interface
design
• web
information
retrieval
• and more!
The shocking news on Human Resource in IT field is the joining of Joshua Bloch in Google.
Joshua Bloch was formerly a leading software engineer and software architect in Sun
Microsystems, one of the creators of Java technology. His book “Effective JAVA” is a bible
to many Java specialists.
Other renowned IT experts who have recently joined Google are:
-Adam Bosworth, former Chief Software Architect, BEA
-David Stoutamire, previously worked for Sun
-Greg Stein, former project manager (PM) of CollabNet
-Rob Pike, former UNIX development team in Bell Lab
To be honest, most of the IT practitioners have a positive attitude on joining Google
because it represents challenge, creativity, revolution and innovation.
From all those observations, we can predict that Google is paving its road to develop a
brand new framework similar to .NET framework, or a series of Development Tools similar
to Visual Studio (VS) or maybe even an Operating Systems (OS).
References
http://code.google.com/projects.html
http://www.google.com/gmail/help/tour
http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/
http://www.google.com.hk/intl/eng/corporate/index.html
http://www.googletutor.com/
http://www.javarss.com/ajax/j2ee-ajax.html
http://www.techuser.net/gmailads.html
http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm
The Editorial Sub - Committee
T
Thhee E
Eddiittoorriiaall SSuubb--C
Coom
mm
miitttteeee
IISSA
A,, BBEEA
A,, H
HK
KU
USSU
U SSeessssiioonn 22000044 –– 22000055
The Editorial Sub-Committee
Throughout this year, the Editorial Sub-Committee, had paid our wholehearted effort in
publishing the Journal. Here I would like to give my thanks and appreciation to all the SubCommittee members.
Head:
Wong Chung Ting, Eric
Vice-Head:
Yu Suk Man, Karen
Honorary Secretary:
Leung Sze Tai, Fandy
Financial Secretary:
Wong Ka Yan, Cynthia
Marketing Secretary:
Ip Hoi Yan
Editors:
Cheng Hon Fai, Johnny
Chan Wai Wa, Edward
Chan Siu Yan, Derek
Chiu King Hei, Peter
Kwok Wai Tung, Gladys
Lam Ka Yan, Vanessa
Ng Tsz Man, Issac
Poon Suet Ying, Sally
Wong Po Lun, Nathan
Yau Kai Sang, Samuel
Advisors:
Chan Afonso Juno
Lee Si Chun, Kevin
Shiu Ka Wai, Boby
B
Brriieeff N
Nootteess O
Onn T
Thhee IIssssuueerr
IISSA
A,, BBEEA
A,, H
HK
KU
USSU
Information Systems Association, BEA, HKUSU
Established in February, 2001, Information Systems Association, Business and Economics
Association, Hong Kong University Students’ Union (“ISA, BEA, HKUSU”, previously named
“ISA, HKU”) is the academic-oriented and official student organization representing the
students of the double-degree programme of Bachelor of Business Administration
(Information Systems) and Bachelor of Engineering (Software Engineering), (This year, the
second degree of the programme has been changed to Bachelor of Engineering
(Computer Science)) supported by School of Business and Department of Computer
Science of The University of Hong Kong.
In 2005, with the aid of the council of the faculty society (BEA Council) and the Students’
Union, we successfully affiliated to the Hong Kong University Students’ Union. We have
moved a large step forward since 2001.
We organize functions to promote the concept of Information Systems to the students of
The University of Hong Kong and embracing secondary students to the world of
Information Systems.
We, ISA, BEA, HKUSU, still have a large room to grow. Through every year’s activities, and
the efforts of the executive committee members, we believe that the field of Information
Systems can be spread effectively, not only as a field of study, but and a profession as well.
For
further
details
or
queries,
please
visit
our
Association
website
http://www.hku.hk/hkuisa.You are also welcome to send us an email at [email protected] for
any comments and suggestions.
Credit
C
Crreeddiitt
C
Crreeddiitt
Website
http://www.tnc.hk/
Address
iBay, Level 10, Cyberport 2, Hong Kong
Phone
(852) 3157-7019
Fax
(852) 3157-1320
Email
[email protected]
Sales - [email protected]
Partnership - [email protected]
Acknowledgement
A
Acckknnoow
wlleeddggeem
meenntt
IISSA
A,, BBEEA
A,, H
HK
KU
USSU
The following entities are gratefully acknowledged for providing information for the
complication of this Journal (ordered alphabetically):
Individual
Dr. Benjamin Yen
Dr. Francis C.M. Lau
Dr. Millie M.L. Kwan
Dr S.M. Yiu
Prof. Patrick K.Y. Chau
Organizations
Hong Kong Students’ Union (HKUSU)
Office of Student Affairs, The University of Hong Kong (OSA)
The Editorial Sub-Committee apologises for any possible yet unintended omissions.

JIS - The University of Hong Kong

Transcription

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