A real eye opener to a future that is already upon us!

books:


	• Inescapable Data: Harnessing the Power of Convergence Chris Stakutis, John G. Webster IBM Press, 2005 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 17 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

killer apps waiting to be born

The book is an interesting peek at the near future. It projects an ongoing trend of pervasive wireless connectivity at a mass consumer level. Coupled with continuing increases in memory and disk capacity and falling prices per bit. The text is written at a general nontechnical level. You might derive ideas from it for possible new applications.

Various topics are explored. RFID is mooted as expanding vastly. In doing so, it can make economic various devices that detect items with RFID and then offer services based on that data. The archetypal example given is a fridge that can broadcast which items in it have these tags, and do so at relatively small cost.

Another key idea is the use of XML to describe the data. This will be like HTML. It will let some users program applications without having a lot of specialised computer knowledge. Just as HTML gave rise to a flowering of the first generation of the Web, XML enables the next generation.

Almost surely, there are killer apps waiting to be born. The book might inspire you to write these.

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A real eye opener to a future that is already upon us!

Although the title of this book may seem a bit abstract, here is a work that can be appreciated by most anyone, from the most techno savvy industry guru to the mildly technology curious among us. The authors present an insightful, somewhat provocative view of the wireless age we now live in, and how both our personal and professional lives will be affected by certain key evolving technologies.

An interesting perspective taken by Stakutis and Webster focuses upon massive amounts of data being communicated via wireless devices throughout a pervasive intelligent network, and ultimately having the information processing power to manage and correlate this data in such a way as to flush out hidden associations (from seemingly unrelated data) never before imaginable. The authors discuss the role of wireless devices such as cell phones, PDAs, RFID tags, and pervasive network interfaces built into everything from your sneakers to the refrigerator, all "talking" to one another intelligently through self-describing XML.

That said, this book is an easy, enjoyable read. Pick up this book and you'll find yourself thinking of it whenever you reach for your PIM, snap a picture with your cell phone, or possibly even when opening the refrigerator! As a technologist, I consider myself quite knowledgeable of many topics covered within this book, but I also found it to be an enjoyable learning experience as well. Even my wife, who is throughly technologically challenged, found interesting the chapters related to Inescapable Data as it applies to the retail industry and in the home. This book is chocked full of real-world examples and the role Inescapable Data will play in our everyday lives.

The final chapter makes some interesting predictions as to where Inescapable Data will lead us within the next 3 - 5 years. The vision presented will require government, industry, and the average citizen to embrace the march toward a truly Inescapable Data world, but the process has been set into motion, and it does, in fact, seem Inescapable. Give this book a read and you may find yourself rethinking the future and your role in it.

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Want to understand modern technologies? Read this.

Do you ever look at our changing technology and wonder where we are all going and what the world will be like when we get there? This book does a good job of trying to answer these questions. The authors interviewed 50 technology leaders in a wide variety of industries as well as drawing on their own experiece, and distilled the information into a book that is very informative without requiring the reader to have a PhD. The book considers each industry or area of interest in turn, explaining what's going on now and what is likely to develop in the next few years. Some of the areas they consider are: warfare, security, home life, medicine, work, manufacturing, sports, entertainment, retail sales, data storage, supercomputers, and networking. You may view the technological future with the glee of a technophile or with anxiety about the world we're creating -- the authors are unabashed technophiles-- but whatever your views, this book will give you a good education about what's going on. I recommend it highly. [...]

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Outstanding look into our digital future...

I just finished reading an outstanding book that examines the world of "Inescapable Data"... Chris Stakutis and John Webster's Inescapable Data - Harnessing the Power of Convergence.

Contents: The Inescapable Data Vision; The Connectivity Divide; Inescapable Data Fundamentals; From Warfare to Government, Connectivity Is Vitality; Pervading the Home; Connecting Medicine; Work Life - Oxymoron No Longer; Real-Time Manufacturing; Sports and Entertainment - Energizing Our Involvement; Connecting to Retail; Computer Storage Impacted by Inescapable Data; Super Computers, Visualization, and Networks; Inescapable Data in Perspective; Index

The authors explore how technology is allowing more and more devices to broadcast and interact with each other to create linkages that haven't even begun to be explored. What if your refrigerators could broadcast to your PDA when you're at the store to let you know what's in there? With RFID tags, it's a possibility. What if you could have access to the same telemetry data that pit crews have when you go to an racing event? Could your tennis racquet transmit force and angle information to a system that could analyze your game and help you become a better player? All of these things are technically possible, and the rapid advance of processing and storage power makes it much more likely to come to pass at an affordable price point. Besides talking about possibilities, they also explore how technology has to change in order to deal with this constant onslaught of data. Companies like Wal-mart generate terabytes of data from RFID every few days. What do you save? How do you analyze it? Where does it reside and for how long? And with data being stored in XML format, how likely is it that ordinary computer users will be able to write their own tools to analyze their data? Good chance it'll happen...

Probably the only thing they didn't cover in a lot of depth was the personal privacy issue. If retailers are tracking you via tags, sensors, and cameras from the time you walk in the door until you leave, you're passing a lot of information that will be stored about you. While there might be financial benefits to allowing that to happen, that benefit comes at a cost to personal privacy. The issue is acknowledged, but much more space is devoted to the potential benefits than to the potential abuses. Still, this is a book that will open your eyes to possibilities that seemed like science fiction not that very long ago.

Well worth reading to expand your vision...

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Nice practical perspective on developing technologies

The authors of "Inescapable Data" share their excitement about what they see as a rapidly-developing convergence of digital technologies having enormous significance for business and culture. This convergence, in their view, is inescapable, life-altering for both good and bad, and presents a frame-shattering paradigm-shift which is mostly unrecognized, and much less examined critically. "Inescapable Data" is a thought-provoking book meant to describe the new technologies and to examine the special values which arguably will emerge from the convergence.

This book illuminates the practical perspective of these developments. Others who pay attention to developments in culture of this sort believe that this "convergence" presents the most important and consequential development in human history, far vaster in its scope and effects than the Great Wars, and the Industrial Revolution. The developments have been so rapid and the effects so many and complex that is hard at this point to grasp all of the significances, although the dynamics, as noted in the book, are fairly clear.

Nicholas Negroponte in his 1995 book "Being Digital" first popularized the idea of the power and force of "Digital". But this book emphasizes that "Digital" itself is not nearly the force that "Convergence" is and will become. Yes, the impetus certainly comes from the specific digital technologies but the combination of four major separate technology spheres has catalyzed into a much greater force. This is the "Convergence."

As detailed in the book, these technologies are: 1) "data-everywhere" devices, like cellphones, biosensors, miniaturized video cameras, and GPS transmitters; 2) asynchronous-yet-immediate transmission technologies, like instant messaging; 3) intelligent wireless networks; and 4) advanced information processing software. Embedded chips will be everywhere, including in your dog or cat, your clothes, every product you own or consume or use, and your own body. What links everything together context-wise are XML files and protocols. The synergy of all of these components create a whole system which is much greater than the sum of its parts.

In 13 chapters and an index comprising 268 pages, the authors explain the basic vision of the practical dynamics of "inescapable data". Chapters 4-12 contain section by section descriptions of the implementation of the component technologies and show how traditional and historical ways of doing things are being quickly altered, primarily now in manufacturing, distribution, and retailing.

The writing is mostly in the form of serial presentations of anecdotes, statistics, specific examples, and commentary. It is geared to the technologically-interested person focused on practical matters. This is not an academic work; it is full of practical and real-world examples but short on critique, theory, and analysis.

Chapter Four starts the discussion of existing and developing applications of "inescapable data", and is about digital convergence in military and government spheres. Instant messaging, GPS transmitters, ubiquitous cellular communication, and advanced software applications have radically altered traditional "command and control" operations. With immediate, field-based information, the way battles are waged is now different. Commanders have instantaneous information about realtime happenings, aggregated and realtime updated information about equipment and materials including logistical supply chains and more, through wireless devices held or embedded in all elements of the military operation, including individual troops.

Governments, using wireless video camera transmitters, biosensors, and GPS transmitters can now utilize realtime broad-scale, relatively inexpensive surveillance for crime control and other purposes. In the home, wireless and digital technologies acting to provide surveillance and remote control of heating and electrical systems are in use now, and many more applications will be utilized very soon. The technology and cost factors are available now. In the field of medicine, everyday worklife, manufacturing, retail and entertainment, data collection is coming widespread as miniature sensors, radio frequency identification devices (RFID), wireless connectivity, XML content headers, and information processing software facilitate the recording of much of social, business, and cultural life. This then allows the widespread, immediate, real-time processing of relevant information by businesses, marketers, government (think "Homeland Security"), and, of course, miscreants of various types.

The important part to understand is not just that new technology is available now and at relatively low cost. What makes all of this interesting is that the connections among individual components of this technological matrix are increasing and developing. So, your new refrigerator is linked to the manufacturer's array of servers and to your grocery store's servers, and to your bank. Your medical records are stored in your doctor's server, connected to insurance company and government computers, as well as wide-scale medical-related organizations. Each of these linked "nodes" is further linked, or will be to other nodes, so that an immense matrix of relationships is now being furthered.

Chapters 7 and 10 on manufacturing and retail show how old-fashioned practices involving a company networking its departments and units internally, has now evolved into a process where the company computers and particularly its databases are now linked to all of its component suppliers, distributors, advertisers, regulatory entities, and more.

The authors detail through each of the chapters the available technology, the specific uses, and the immediately perceivable effects, via interviews with a large handful of corporate, university, and business people involved in the technology. Examples of use, both awesome and mundane, are noted.

The alleged benefits of the convergence are vastly new efficiencies, flexibilities, customization opportunities, adaptability, and other values, many of which remain to be determined. One thing is absolutely certain- there will be plenty of data generated. Almost certainly, there will be plenty of people and organizations trying to make sense and meaning of this data, filtering and analyzing with new, capable, processing applications.

Whole new industries will form to manage this data. Where linked computers once vastly facilitated digital development, including the Internet, there will now be linked databases which will stand out as the chief component of the convergence. There will be systematic, continuous connectivity in a matrix of networked relationships represented by linked databases.

This convergence concept is highly reminiscent of Big Brother of "1984" fame. Obviously, there are serious issues about the quality of life in the convergence era. The good is in enormous increases in efficiency, in customized processes and products, in immediacy, and in flexibility and individual freedoms. The downsides are discussed here in a mere four pages in Chapter 13 on "Perspectives". The authors itemize them as: discriminatory insurance underwriting effecting those unlucky enough to have reported genetic or medical issues; rampant identity theft, increased marketing pressures, a conflation of work and home life which some may feel as threatening, the alteration of sports and entertainment, and the exposure of formerly personal information. Another issue is the likelihood that some people will not be connected, for whatever reason. This group will comprise an underclass missing out on the benefits of convergence.

The book ends with a list of suggestions to the reader on how to exploit the developments - use an email PDA, avail of work-at-home opportunities, equip your kids with cell devices, convince your medical provider to send SMS and email appointment reminders, and set up home surveillance. For businesses, they suggest broad use of IM, groupware, and work-at-home concepts. Predictions include global calendars, singular devices, single key authentication, cashless economic transactions, and flexible matrix workers.

These suggestions and predictions seem fairly lame in respect to a process compared by some to the Great Wars and the Industrial Revolution. However, the perspective here is a practical, pragmatic one. More weighty suggestions, conclusions, and predictions are for higher-level academic writers.

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