Personal Computing in the Networked World
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Transcript Personal Computing in the Networked World
Personal Computing in the
Networked World
Henry Minsky
[email protected]
Keio University
Beartronics Inc.
11/27/101
Henry Minsky
What’s so great about a network
connection?
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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
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NTT DoCoMo Sponsored Research at Keio Univ.
SFC Campus
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http://www.wem.sfc.keio.ac.jp/wem/
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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
Sensor Net
Ketai UI
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Ketai-activated Bulletin Board
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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
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The PicoBrowser is
a tiny customizable
HTML browser and
web server, runs on
the NTT DoCoMo
IAppli platform.
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Also in MIDP, with
micro SVG
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Mobile can mean the other room
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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 won’t be
any difference between mobile and
fixed access
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It’s about how you interact online
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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
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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.
The Applications I Use
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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)
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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
Everyone now needs their own
server
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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 PC’s.
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Personal Virtual Server
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A logical evolution of the telephone answering
machine
Replace the desktop machine
We need a high-level virtual machine models
of a server, and it’s database, so people can
easily pack up their personal server
configuration and run it on another provider
(no lock-in)
Write Mobile apps for people’s PVS
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Virtual Server
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Many of these issues can be solved by
combining the functions of personal
computer and network server into a
standardized abstract virtual server.
Virtual Server
Physical Host Server
TCP/IP
Server image
VM + COW
VM + COW
RDBMS
VM + COW
VM + COW
...
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R/O
Filesystem
Virtual Server Prototype
Application Environment
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Linux UML
Apache Java Server
Microsoft .net common runtime
VMWare
IBM 390
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Server Architecture Features
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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
user’s location for performance. Synchronization required.
Distributed encrypted locally-cached filesystem infrastructure
would be useful. Solves the ‘backup’ problem, makes portability
even easier.
A Virtual Machine
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Define a virtual machine server platform
Allows 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
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Relies on inter-server standards - XML-RPC, TCP,
etc
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Sometimes you want to send a link to your server,
sometimes you want to send a copy of the data
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24x7 operation is assumed (like the phone company)
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Virtual Server
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Obviously this would be useful to businesses and
other organizations as well as consumers
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Technology allows download copy of server image to
local host, for high performance local interaction
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Real dedicated hardware server could be used for
high performance applications
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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
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Flash and DHTML are adding desktoplike front-ends to web apps.
Return of client-server architectures.
.NET RPC technology (XML
RPC/SOAP) is helpful
Mechanizing the Handling of
Information
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Stowger switch
Hollerith Card
Teletype vs. Hell
Spreadsheet
Ebay
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Mobile Devices are Virtual
Windows Into an Online World
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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
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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
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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?
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Built in common model of users/groups
Security / authentication model
Scripting environment
Relational Database Backed
Personal
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Collaborative
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OpenACS Modules – compare to
Yahoo Personal Portal
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Photo Album
Address Book
Web Log
Bookmarks
Calendar
Chat
Classifieds
Contact
Manager
CMS
Curriculum
Directory
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Download
E-commerce
Email Handler
FAQ
File Storage
General Comments
General Permissions
Graphing
Intranet
Member Value
Neighbor to Neighbor
New Stuff
News
Permissions
Poll
Henry Minsky
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Site-Wide Search
Survey
Ticket
Group Features
User Administration
User Groups
User Registration and
Access Control
WimpyPoint
Bboards
Mailing lists
Web of Services
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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
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Can your users do something that you
didn’t 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 server’s applications, or
spread around other servers
n The key is inter-server communication
protocols
n But users cannot run their own servers
yet
n We’re in the mainframe/mini phase of
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web/wireless, not
the PC phase
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Example Future Mobile Services
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Higher bandwidth: 3g, 4g - wireless-toserver photo album direct from digicam,
wireless video sharing
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The Sims
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"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
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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.
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Learning From The Sims
By J.C. Herz in The Standard
Issue Date: Mar 26 2001
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Learning From The Sims
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"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
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Learning From The Sims
By J.C. Herz in The Standard
Issue 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?
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"Yes, it's chickenand-egg. What you
need is a big
enough chicken."
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Henry’s Theory of i-mode
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Everyone loves to discuss this, so I'll do it too:
Low penetration of home PC’s 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
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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
It’s an online community...
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What about voice?
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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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$$ landlines
Potential Barriers
Automobile/Home Culture
Misleading Hype
Magnet Content
Pay by minute
cHTML
No Content
Pay by packet
Crappy Handsets
2 hour train ride
Pedestrian/Out-of-house
culture
i-mode
WAP
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Unified Marketing
No Expectations
Marketing Confusion
WML
Sexy Handsets
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Elements of DoCoMo Success
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"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
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I-mode is a ‘lubricant’
WAP is an ‘irritant’
Mobile Subscribers in Japan
11/27/101 Source: www.tca.or.jp
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Mobile Internet Services in Japan
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It’s not just DoCoMo
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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
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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.
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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.
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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)
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172 g
160 hours standby
240 min talk
full charge in 2 hr
154 x 50 x 23 mm
Laughably small
B&W screen
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F503i Handset (low-end Java ketai)
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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
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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
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Why isn’t 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?
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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?
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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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HQM’s Java Picobrowser
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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 you’re a carrier
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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 you’re a developer
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TCP/IP and standards means never
having to be locked into a carrier.
You don’t need sheer majority of
customers as desperately as the
carriers.
Make deals with all carriers.
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What about WAP?
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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
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You cannot do <a href="foo.php?x=10&y=20">foo</a>
because WML is XML, and the "&" always indicates a "entity" or you
need "&" or something, or else
<anchor>
<go href="foo.php">
<postfield name="x" value="10">
<postfield name=“y" value=“20">
</go>foo</anchor>
Syntax which runs on your emulator fails on half the phones anyway.
Phones will fail to display anything if there’s 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 else’s.
What about WAP?
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It’s not HTML. SETVAR? What is this, a
scripting language?
But wait, you haven’t 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
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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 you’re 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 imode is priced fairly low compared to US mobile internet.
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M-Commerce: Payment Systems
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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 DoCoMo’s Customer?
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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, they’re still skeptical about
this whole cell-phone thing.
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.
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!
...
From keitai-l mailing list
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Henry Minsky
Mobile Network: Today’s Situation
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We’re 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
n
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
n Replace the desktop machine
n We need a high-level virtual machine
models of a server, and it’s database,
so people can easily pack up their
personal server configuration and run it
on another provider (no lock-in)
n Write Mobile apps for people’s PVS
Henry Minsky
11/27/101
n
Improvements to Java profile
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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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Henry Minsky
Mobile means getting a useful
window to your desktop data
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Mobile points out the need for XML-like generalized data
access - XML-RPC isn't really needed for simple transactions
HTTP works fine (key->value 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
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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.
11/27/101
Henry Minsky
Don’t Be an Idiot
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I don’t want my phone to yell out ads as
I walk by stores (Virgin Atlantic).
Just because you can do it, doesn’t
mean it’s a good idea.
I do want my phone to beep if I get near
the friend I am trying to find in a crowd.
11/27/101
Henry Minsky
Need high-level actions
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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
11/27/101
Henry Minsky
Who is making money?
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NTT always makes money on packets
and service
NTT doesn’t 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.
11/27/101
Henry Minsky
Did I mention they solved the
Micropayments problem?
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Japanese mobile internet carriers
provide consolidated billing on the
phone bill.
11/27/101
Henry Minsky
Random Slides
'Mobile' also means paper
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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 phone’s address book
app doesn’t play nice with my XML online
address app. (Could customize a Java App if it were a
little more powerful implementation)
11/27/101
Henry Minsky
What make an application
“Mobile”?
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Ergonomics
11/27/101
Henry Minsky
Ergonomics
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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.
11/27/101
Henry Minsky
Inherent Artifacts of ‘Mobile’
Access
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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
It’s more like a railroad switch than a railroad
11/27/101
Henry Minsky
Mobile and Fixed Can Be
Complementary
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Take home stereo and walkman
example.
In Japan, much ‘free’ time is spent on
trains or on foot.
11/27/101
Henry Minsky
What Are You Doing When
You’re Mobile?
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When you are mobile, you are mostly
interacting with other people or real
things. That’s why you’re not in the
house.
Mobile Network Access is made
proportionally more useful by the
amount of stuff you keep and do on the
network.
11/27/101
Henry Minsky
Essentials of (Wireless) Web Communication
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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 user’s info
in whatever formats or calling sequences are required by other users
11/27/101
Henry Minsky
The “Network Effect”
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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?
11/27/101
Henry Minsky
Appropriate Technology
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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
11/27/101
Henry Minsky