Do You Think Cloud Computing Can Help Create Network Effect to Support Crowdsourcing?

This topic brought up somehow after (again) I have read an article about convergence, in this new era, any network effect starts with a small set of something and it eventually grows bigger and bigger - users, content etc. The cloud makes it a great platform for such systems that demand this kind of growth. The adoption barrier is close to zero for the companies whose business model actually depends upon creating these effects. They can provision their users, applications, and content on the cloud and be up and running in minutes and can grow as the user base and the content grows. This actually shifts the power to the smaller players and help them compete with the big cloud players and yet allow them to create network effects.

The big cloud players, that are currently on the supply side of this utility mode, have few options on the table. They either can keep themselves to the infrastructure business and I would wear my skeptic hat and agree with a lot of people on the poor viability of this capital intensive business model that has very high operational cost. This option alone does not make sense and the big companies have to have a strategic intent behind such large investment. Google, Amazon, and Microsoft are the supply side cloud infrastructure players that are already moving in the demand side of the tools business though I would not call them the equal players exploring all the opportunities.

And last but not the least, there is a sustainability angle around the cloud providers. They can help consolidate thousands of data centers into few hundreds based on the geographical coverage, availability of water, energy, and dark fiber etc. This is similar to consolidating hundreds of dirty coal plants into few non-coal green power plants that can produce clean energy with efficient transmission and distribution system.

Next: Regulation vs Freedom Network

Nokia Lumia 900 vs Samsung Galaxy S3

I love gadget.... but I just want to compare 2 devices that currently trend in the market as I am using them besides my iPhone 4S. Somehow, what’s so special about this particular WP7 device? Let’s see: An 8MP camera sporting Carl Lens optics, a smooth and beautiful OS, LTE coverage, and the most attractive design of any handset out. But while it’s unarguably the best Windows Phone on the scene... yes, the Lumia 900 does have imperfections. Call quality could have been better and it’s almost baffling to see a phone sporting a Carl Zeiss lens having focus issues. In the end, the pros do outweigh the cons.

For usage comparison, Samsung Galaxy S3 Android Mobile, in the hand feels superb. The design contours well against the palm, and while the screen size may be a little big for some (I need a bit of shuffling to reach the upper section of the screen) it's definitely useable in the hand. So in short: I don't mind with a slightly lighter-feeling polycarbonate shell (although looks cheap!) and I like big HD screens in my pocket, this is a phone definitely one of my best!

Next Question: what next? iPhone 5?

How to Design An Approach to Fight Complexity And Failure

Being in R&D company always occupied my brain to thinking what will be in the future, with simplicity result and complexity ways to absorb overall requirement; necessary design thinking for software architecture is a must, well - I just want to share a bit about that...

Another common point of confusion is the distinction between design thinking and Agile methods of software development. The primary difference is that Agile offers a specific set of prescriptive processes while design thinking encapsulates a set of guidelines and general principles. Although not the same, the two approaches are highly complementary (even on the same project), because both recognize the benefits of using iterative work cycles to pursue customer-centric goals. Always remember that real people work on every project. The best methodologies are inherently people-centric and help participants anticipate likely causes of failure. Visualizing failure early in a project is an excellent means to prevent it from occurring. We’re all human and may make mistakes but certainly no one wants to fail. Finally, design thinking can make potential failure a learning tool and not a final outcome.

Next Question: in reality?

2012 Year of Hope

I always start new year with big mouth and awesome spirit of life... I’m not big on New Year’s Resolutions. I can’t remember the last time I did one, most likely because every resolution is a setup for failure. But several months ago I decided for a resolution for 2012 and it all started with my appetite to try new foods... well, my wife now should stop me! *lol* The resolution is very simple and I can’t fail (well, I can but I won’t).

My 2012 resolution is very simple for NOW, no more mumbo-jumbo big mouth words; simply every time I go out for lunch or dinner with someone else, I’ll let the other person decide on my dish. That’s it! I’ll not be making my own choices on restaurants for 2012!

To support this, there are a few rules for the “game”:
- If the person sitting with me is my family or my wife, I’ll ask them or her to pick my meal.
- If the person is someone who I don’t feel comfortable asking that question, I’ll just let him/her order and I’ll say “the same for me”
- If I’m eating alone, I’ll ask the waitress what she likes and order the first thing she says, or order the special of the day.

I eat pretty much anything, so there won’t be much I won’t like and I expect to have tried many things I would not have tried otherwise... but, wait...exclude frogs!

Why?

In two words: selection bias. We have ingredients that we like a lot and every time that we see it on a dish we are inclined to ordering it. I think the selection bias just gets worse with age and instead of expanding the list of ingredients and foods we like, we narrow it to just a few, making us picky eaters and “old people”.

And this resolution starts in 3, 2, 1… Now!

I hope...

Empty Cup

Something happened with me these days... Anyway, a weird thing happened to me today. I decided to google my own name. I was just messing around on the computer, avoiding a routine that I should prepare for my work. I started with my full name and received only boring, work-related results, as well as the results for some other people who happens to share my names. This is when things became interesting this evening. As a lecturer you always find yourself wondering if you've ever truly mattered, if you've ever truly "reached" a student. Tonight, through the wonders of Google, I have my answer.

Anyway, I should get to my point. So, I was googling my name and I stumbled upon my name mentioned in a blog written by myself or any other stupid journal when I was young *tsk*. Of course I was curious, so I clicked the link. I discovered, to my surprise, that the particular post that mentioned my name referenced this particular press stuff and the positive memories some of my friends have of it. After all of the fun and inspiration and general mix of feelings involved in my first foray into lecturing, indeed it was worthwhile to someone else besides me, my mum especially. I wonder how many more blogs of former students I'll stumble upon before my career is over-- I hope it's many more!

Daydreamer

I wonder why I called this note about Daydreamer? Somehow, life is hard from some people perspectives, there are a lot of problem, small or big. In fact, sometimes we do not realize that some matters will cause us problem. In love or relationship for instance, there are many many problem can arise without we notice, such as honesty...

I may think that. Being honest is enough, just tell the truth when our partner ask and not lying to them is sufficient in safeguarding our relationship. Somehow, if we are an over sensitive person, we may get hurt easily by the people words, but the sad thing is we did not realize that we are an over sensitive person…. arch! Am I??

So were the people around me, they may not realize that they are dealing with an over sensitive person, that their criticism will give the over sensitive person a hard-to-heal-emotional wound. I may think that my life is as smooth as my plan, but sometimes it is not. I share a lot of quotes, to overcome my problem in life and make me realize that sometimes a small issue may cause me such a big problem.

Why mind is simple? I just read a book about practice mind power. And what I just found that actually our mind is really simple, friendly to the user, but at the same time very powerful. But, they will never give an answer such as; whether we need a degree/master/phd or money or supportive family or talent etc… blah… So where the desire,determination, and believe come from? OUR MIND! It's very simple but our mind can be the source of everything. Just think big and positive I believe there's is always something for me, if not money or status may be it's happiness. Very simple isn't? Although, often I don't understand whether my logic action is right or wrong…

Be happy...

Mobile Cloud Services and Their Dreams

As I have noted in my early blog about Future Mobile Technology, there are many hints about kind of research found that annual revenues from cloud-based mobile applications will reach nearly $9.5 billion by 2014 (again we can see these numbers from many expert in the internet), fuelled by the need for converged, collaborative services, the widespread adoption of mobile broadband services and the deployment of key technological enablers. These reports found that enterprise applications will account for the majority of revenues over the next five years, with businesses increasingly seeking to capitalize on the ability of "Platform as a Service" (PaaS) providers to offer scalable, flexible data storage solutions allied to device agnostic, synchronized office services (re. Microsoft and HP).

However, consumer-oriented services will comprise an ever-larger proportion of total revenues, derived both from time-based subscriptions to services such as mobile online gaming and advertising from cloud-based social networks, that terminology being buzzed from early days as well as around 2-3 years ago. And, the mobile cloud services report warned that many enterprise customers still remained wary of entrusting their personal data to remote third-parties.

I found other findings from Juniper report, and herewith as what they said:
* While the onset of a cloud-based ecosystem may further erode the strength of the mobile operator/customer relationship, cloud offers operators the opportunity to develop new revenues streams as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and PaaS providers.
* Lack of network capacity may continue to be a constraint on the growth of network-based services even after LTE and WiMAX networks are deployed.

My conclusion, how to make money for the emerging countries?