Imimaterials Technology

The importance of technology cannot be underestimated; the technological industries are probably the fastest moving in the world following news stories is vital because technology can cover all manner of industries and hence news stories vary greatly in subject matter.

In today’s high tech world it is unsurprising that so many areas of commerce and life depend upon technology and subsequently, any news in these fields is of vital importance to even the lay reader. Technology news is so important that many news websites have created dedicated pages purely to report on technological developments.

Naturally industries such as computing and video gaming are heavily interested in the developments reported as part of technology news stories. In computing new processor chips as well as other developments are always followed closely to assess the power of future computers. The same can be said for the video games industry that constantly uses technology news stories to keep an eye on what competitors are doing.

Not only can news in this industry contain technological developments but sales figures and levels of worldwide sales of consoles or games. Another essential element of news in the gaming industry is to see which games are being banned and heavily policed by regulators as this can help developers gain a good idea of where the boundaries lay in game development.

There are industries that rely on the technology news pages that may surprise some people; the medical industry relies heavily on technical developments to advance forms of diagnosis and treatment. A recent story on students using consoles to increase their dexterity before surgery was a news article that provided a unique insight into the medical world.

Surprisingly sports are becoming increasingly reliant upon technology to increase their efficiency and skill levels; in cricket it is believed that some players where GPS systems that reveal the amount of running a specific player does during a match and hence alter his training scheme accordingly.

The importance of technology in communications is probably where news is most important. As one of the fastest developing industries in the world, communications has the potential to change our lives unimaginably. Already the mobile phone has revolutionised the way we live and communicate and hence many want to be well informed when a new technology arrives. Next generation phones with full mobile internet as well as GPS navigation systems are at the forefront of the mobile phone industry meaning enthusiasts as well as industry commentators are glued to news stories as they role off the presses.

Other developments reported in the technology news pages include information on the interfaces we use to interact with our various pieces of technology. Recent stories have included reports of headsets that allow users to control game characters through emotions and facial expressions as well as the ability to move items cognitively in a virtual world. Outside of the gaming sphere the rumours of a ’3D internet’ are rife as increasing progress is made in the way we interact with technology.

Developments include ways in which technology may change our home lives. With news stories reporting of fridges that can automatically order food as it runs out, self cleaning ovens and vacuum cleaners that will clean the house without the lifting of the finger. If you believe all the news stories have to say, in the future we will be living in a world without manual labour.

Everyone should have a passing interest in technological developments as eventually they may change everyone’s lives for the better. Granted some of the technology news stories can be too detailed for the lay reader to enjoy but if the stories are written from a general interest perspective, all should be entertained and educated about technology that may one day change the world.

Title of the book, A Companion to American Technology, explains very briefly three points which I am to explain a little more elaborately. First of all, this book is a companion book, therefore we can’t expect many details about the issue, thus this book is a compact, all-inclusive and comprehensive one.

Second, this book has a chronological view to American technology, as it is one of the books of a series which are published by Blackwell about American history such as 19 th century America and, 20th century America. Thus in order to do this important job as well as it is possible , the editor Carroll Pursell, who is chair of history department at Case Western Reserve University ,gathers a group of historians of different fields to write about history of technology in America from the eighteenth century up until the present day .

Hence as the writers are experts in different fields ,this book is the interaction spot of technology with many aspects of American society including environment, science engineering ,government, gender, labor, culture ,art and so on . Therefore articles which are gathered in 435 pages in five parts, including twenty

two chapters ,don’t explain details but they review briefly and comprehensively history of technology and its impact on society ,art ,culture and conversely,

Third and finally as the title concentrates content, this book is about technology, but what the definition of technology in this book is. According to different contributors of this book, technology has different definitions, from airplane and nuclear technology to photography and music. In each section, every contributing author highlights his or her analysis about technology with dates and examples as well as references to a range of different sources.

In particular, different contributors approach technology from a variety of perspectives and emphasize on an array of themes. They explain how necessity of society or creativity of innovator causes innovation ,consequently how technologies shape culture ,and as new technologies don’t have the same effect everywhere, how they have impact on America, what the predominant role that technology has played within the American social context is and finally and simultaneously how culture shapes events even more than technologies .

For instance ,Henry Adams, professor of American art, contributor of chapter twenty one; art and technology, explains about the role of the engineer and how society views technology through art and how technology can actually be considered an art form.

Jeffrey R. Yost who is professor of scientific computing history, explains the role of systems in anything from the development of nuclear technology to the internet; and finally, look beyond scientific discovery to explain technology’s role in creating large systems.

David E . Nye author of many books on technology and American culture explains that how new machines emerge from political and social contexts and can be used for hegemonic ends.

Rebecca Herzig who teaches courses on the history and sociology of science and technology in woman and gender studies, explains that how public toilets

represent an attempt to follow “norms of gender” ,in fact writer examine the results of the intersection of technology and gender .

Nevertheless, this book with an interdisciplinary character is a very useful tool in bringing technology into the process of understanding the history of USA and simultaneously grasp of technology itself.

In better word, Pursell manages to influence readers ‘approach about technology and understand technological progress and development with the examination of past as well as current technological practices,

Consequently ,this well-organized book help readers to realize the material in-depth and encourage them to compare sources and follow twenty two chapters in order to understand different approaches about technology as well as its history in the US.

Thus ,as this book is a professional reference and companion book , is suitable and helpful for American History American Studies and cultural studies students as well as professors in the same area of research , also it can be used as a good textbook. However as it is clearly-written one, it can be useful for others.

There is no doubt that these are tough economic times. Unemployment is high and credit is tight. Key indicates show that is the worse economy in a generation. Many technology transfer offices have seen potential business partners reduce their innovation portfolios and expenditures. This coupled with a reduction in funding sources, from grants and investors to university sources are blowing the technology transfer research commercialization efforts into the perfect storm.

There are difficulties and challenges, but these times also create opportunities. Here are seven tips to help your technology transfer office succeed in these tough economic times.

1. Maintain a list of problems that are relevant to the research and technologies in the pipeline.

Technology transfer offices typically get involved in research commercialization efforts late in the research and testing process. Get involved earlier in the process and start developing a list of problems of which the research can be applied.

This is really an early brainstorming exercise. Don’t just talk to the researchers. Get business input from those who are not involved with the research or the research teams. Independent ideas can be worth their weight in gold.

2. Develop long-term business relationships.

”Dig the well before you are thirsty. “
-Chinese Proverb

Start developing business relationships with business leaders from a wide range of industries. Do this even before you have any applicable research or solutions for them. These relationships will pay off in two ways.

• You will have a better understanding of the types of challenges that these businesses face.
• When you do have promising research technologies and solutions you already have a relationship with the business or their contacts.

3. Pair researchers with business mentors.

Researchers think like researchers. Business people think like business people. Getting the two to communicate with each other versus talking to each other is a common technology transfer office challenge.

Providing a business mentor to promising research leaders will help alleviate this common problem. This continuous conduit will go a lot further than a long forgotten entrepreneurial seminar.

4. Develop alternative commercialization strategies early.

Good business people know that there is always a chance that their efforts may fail. Technology transfer officers know this too. Unfortunately, many researchers and inventors do not think about this, much less plan for it.

Most inventors think that their invention is world changing and worth millions. They have visions of establishing a company based on their research or technology, selling it for millions, and retiring in the lap of luxury.

The truth of the matter is that nine out of ten spin offs and startups will fail. You, can as the technology transfer officer can improve these odds.

I sit on the advisory board for some start up focused investment funds. One of the strategies that we have developed recently is to go for the big distribution partnering deal with large companies. When that doesn’t work – we find out why and have alternative proposals available.

This alternative could be limited distribution agreements on licensing deals. It really doesn’t matter what the alternative is. What does matter is that you get to stay in the game and get a return on the sunk costs.

5. Reduce risks for all involved.

It wasn’t that long ago that many universities shunned the entire technology transfer process. They wanted their faculty teaching and doing research, not commercializing their intellectual property. My, how times have changed.

Now universities love the revenue that comes from royalties and equity distributions and sales that are associated with intellectual property commercialization. Businesses are always looking for a competitive advantage and right now innovation is the soup de jour, except for one thing . . . RISK!

In order to get more businesses interested in potential technology look for new ways to reduce their potential risks. Right now cash is king. Instead of negotiating a lower royalty percentage, offer your potential licensor a deferred royalty agreement at a higher percentage. This is the business innovator’s version of “no interest payments for 3 years”.

This approach allows the business to conserve cash today and the university to reap more money in the long run. It’s better than the technology sitting on the shelf waiting to become obsolete.

6. Teach bootstrapping to your startups.

All technology startups need money. That is a known fact. The truth is that many could get by with less money than they think that they need. There in lies the art of bootstrapping. Bootstrapping basically means to start and operate a business without lots of investment funds. It requires the entrepreneur to focus on sales and to hold fixed costs to an absolute minimum.

Bootstrapping requires a unique mindset that few lead researchers turned entrepreneurs can relate to. It takes a special entrepreneur to be able to successfully bootstrap a business.
Help your lead researchers and startup teams. Get some experienced bootstrappers on your advisory and consulting teams and pass the knowledge on to your startups.

7. Partner with other technology transfer offices.

Technology transfer offices provide a valuable service to both the university and their research communities. They play a vital role in the economic development of their respective communities and states. Unlike many organizations involved in the invention commercialization process they do not compete.

Some technology transfer offices such as Stanford and MIT are the envy of their peers, however most technology transfer offices do not reside in a geographic area that harbors entrepreneurship in its DNA.

Partnering with other technology transfer offices offers many unique benefits that cannot be found though other means. It opens up dialogue and support for represented research and technologies to new areas and new commercialization ideas. It develops relationships with other potential business partners and fosters potential research synergies.

Targeted TTO partnerships can lead to specific research pairing with higher degrees of commercialization potential. This focused effort will, in the long run, yield a high degree of return on investment.

These 7 technology transfer officer tips can help you reduce your operating costs and increase your revenue generation success rate. It’s a win for society, the researcher, the business community, the university, and YOU!

Information Technology is an industry that still provides lots of career opportunities in today’s unstable job market. Software development, networking and record maintenance in the health care facilities are just a few of the the opportunities in the information technology field. Because there are many opportunities available in the information technology industry, there are countless numbers of training colleges that have sprung up offering training courses. If you look around for “Information Technology Schools,” you’ll find hundreds of the training schools. However, all schools are not created equal. Selecting the training institutes that offer you the best information technology classes will is a large, and often daunting task. Reading this article will help your search for the best information technology classes in DC metro area. Here is what to look for in an information technology training college.

1. Look for Information technology classes with various options

You will be well aware that there are options like associate degrees and bachelors degrees for information technology. You must always look for information technology classes that offer both associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in the same college. There very few training schools in the DC metro area to offer both associate and bachelor degrees in information technology.

2. Look for information technology classes with updated training materials

Information technology is a rapidly changing field so there will always be updates in technology that you have to learn as you go. Because of this, you should get the most updated knowledge in computer science to stay in the industry. You should do your research and make sure that the training materials used in the information technology classes are giving you the most updated information in computer science.

3. Look for more practical classes in computer science

Unlike other programs, the information technology classes need more practical tuition than theory. Make sure that the training school you choose has adequate lab facilities. The technology courses should also contain lots of lab sessions focusing on computer science. These practical sessions in computer science will help students to learn the actual applications of their knowledge, and gives them more confidence as they start out on their new career.

4. Look for placement assistance

Though there are lots of career opportunities for students graduating with an information technology degree, the placement assistance offered by some of the best training schools will help in the career search. Joining the information technology classes with placement assistance help you land a .

Finding the Right Information Technology School

With the huge popularity of computer science and information technology, thousands of training schools have opened worldwide. Unfortunately not all the training schools are the same. Moreover, some online career training scams have entered the field quite recently. Doing a little research will ensure that you find genuine schools which offer good education in the field of Information Technology. Virginia, for instance is home to several wonderful career schools which offer practical and tailored curricula to a diverse community of working adults and students. With the help of such colleges, getting into a career in information technology is safe and easy.

Information Technology and the move to a computerized infrastructure model are bringing great changes to many industries. Often it is the CIO of the company who escort this fundamental shift in the business revenue stream. Leading others through modernization, revolutionize and transformation means you must be able to make changes yourself.

Forget about asking whether technology drives business or business drives technology. Stop perturbing about whether or not technology is strategic. Silence all the confusions about how advance this technology is to that technology. In technology, there are numerous questions that if you have to ask, you probably already know and don’t like the answer. A more satisfying line of inquiry is how much of your technological horsepower is actually being used to turn the wheels of innovation.

Some people says that Technology drives business modernization, novelty, success & Innovations that opens up new doors of opportunities, improves the company’s performance on the whole, sharpens the company’s market intelligence, and makes new things possible for the clients. Another school of thought is that the Business Drives Technology, as such integration is about assisting business to facilitate their profitability by utilizing technology and other resources available to the enterprise. But realistically speaking, the driving force comes from the CEO and CIO of the company, who both endeavor to leverage technology to its fullest potential.

In a society that has become entirely dependent on computers and immediate communications, technology is becoming the heartbeat in the process of office design as decisions on layout and services. Some aspects of technology, like the computer animation & communication, are highly visible demonstration devices. But more of it is in the largely unseen infrastructure, with the emphasis on sophisticated wiring and smart communication devices to provide for an ever greater flow, and on communications and power facilities to keep operations running through almost any anticipated calamity.

In the modernization of the today’s businesses, Common business drivers include; Mergers and Acquisitions, Internal Reorganizations, Application and System Consolidation, Inconsistent/Duplicated/Fragmented Data, New Business Strategies, Compliance with Government Regulations, Streamlining Business Processes. To achieve the success in the accommodation of these business drivers, the sturdy and smart input would be required from both the parties i. e. the business as well as the technology.

In a company, you could cover every surface in your office with how to manage change. But one aspect of change management that often dodges IT Managers is how to better influence corporate colleagues. If information technology drives business decisions, the IT executives must communicate and be persuasive with other department heads on key project management issues.

Strategic planning for Information Technology is one component of an overall company vision for success. This psychoanalysis facilitates IT professionals to successfully define short and long-term goals and ascertain the resources necessary to apprehend such goals. To ensure success, the strategic plan should be developed in a thorough but rapid manner, consist of a brief, succinct compilation of analyzed data, and provide opportunities by which additional planning and analysis can occur.

Several important benefits occur as the result of a successful strategic IT plan. First, employees are provided with an understanding of how their role fits in with the overall company structure. Also, this planning allows managers to realize additional opportunities for growth and success. Finally, important relationships between technology investment and positive outcomes, such as increased market share, are revealed.

It’s now become the industry dilemma that IT people need to know more about business. They need to understand the disciplines and the lingo of business process management, business performance management, customer relationship management, supply chain management, financial management, human resources management, operations management, etc. Lacking that knowledge, communication with business people and understanding of business requirements will forever be troubled.

On the other hand the Business people should also drive their efforts to know more about information technology. As with all communication and relationship issues, this is not a prejudiced problem. Just as IT people need to become more business-oriented, business people need to be more IT-oriented. They need to understand the roles and relationships among the many different kinds of technology upon which their information systems depend, and they need to understand the dependencies among those technologies. Business people need to have a working knowledge of the technology stack as it affects their capability to get information, perform business analysis, and make informed business decisions.

Beyond the relatively straight-forward needs of business becoming IT-oriented and technologists becoming business-oriented, there lies a new challenge. We must develop common understanding and shared perspective of value, an issue that is both a business concern and a technology consideration. When business and IT have different meaning and outlook for value, conflicts are certain to arise.

Business and IT organizations often have two evidently different perspectives of value. IT expert generally take a data-to-value approach. Where Data produces information, information enhances knowledge, knowledge drives action, action produces outcomes, and favorable outcomes deliver value. Business management typically uses a goals-to-value system. Business drivers and goals determine strategies, strategies drive tactics, which in turn produce results, and positive results produce value.

Effective business/IT relationships are ultimately a question of alignment. New IT skills, new business skills, and new perspectives that sets the stage for business/IT alignment. But it doesn’t assure alignment. To achieve genuine association there are several things that must be done; some by IT, some by the business, and some collectively.

Conflicts between business and IT organizations have existed from the very beginning of automated Information Systems. We have accelerated in so many ways both in business and in technology. However, the problem still pestilences most of the businesses. The Business/IT crack must go away. The cost is high; the value is null; and the barriers that it crafts grow bigger each moment. The problem can be fixed, and the time to fix it is now!

Introduction

Advances in both cognitive science and information technology have the potential to transform education and training in ways previously unimaginable. To lay the groundwork for Federal leadership in learning technology innovation, in September 2002, the Commerce Department published Visions 2020: Transforming Education and Training through Advanced Technologies. For Visions 2020, a number of distinguished individuals and teams from a wide range of technology and education fields were asked to look out into the future, and describe what technology-enabled learning experiences could be like. They responded with a rich collection of visions, some of which are excerpted in this report. Visions 2020 identified potential technologies, their application for learning, and how the learning environment would need to change to take full advantage of them. With a future vision in hand, the Commerce Department convened a Summit on the Use of Advanced Technologies in Education and Training. At the Summit, stakeholder groups identified ways to encourage technology-enabled transformation in U. S. education and training. The U. S. Departments of Commerce and Education (who co-chair the NSTC Working Group) and Net Day formed partnership aimed at analyzing K-12 student views about technology for learning. These views are analyzed in this second report, Visions 2020. 2: Student Views on Transforming Education and Training Through Advanced Technologies. In October-November 2004, NetDay sponsored its “Speak-Up Day for Students” which offered online questionnaires, which asked K-12 students across the country about their use of technology.

Collapse of the information float

Not only is information growing quickly, the time lag between discovery and application — the information “float” — is rapidly shrinking. For example, it took many hundreds of years for the steam engine to move from being a curiosity to a commercial product. In contrast, recent discoveries in science and engineering show up in products virtually overnight.

Education must focus on new competencies

Changes of this magnitude require a complete rethinking of education, both in terms of the curriculum, and in the development of pedagogies that insure that every student acquires the high level of skills needed to thrive in the dynamic world of the 21st century. In addition to the basic skills of literacy and numeracy, every learner must also master the “three C’s:” Communication, Collaboration, and Creative Problem Solving. Beyond these are the equally important skills of knowing how to use numbers and data in real-world tasks, the ability to locate and process information relevant to the task at hand, technological fluency, and, most of all, the skills and attitudes needed to be a lifelong learner.

Technological fluency is a basic skill

Technological fluency is a step beyond technological literacy. To be fluent in technology use means that we can sit down at a computer and use it as easily as we can pick up and read a book in our native language. Of the challenges facing education today, preparing students to be fluent in the use of computational and communication technologies is one of our greatest.

Education must prepare students for jobs that have yet to be invented

If our challenge could be limited to preparing people for the kinds of jobs available today, we would still have a lot of work to do. Unfortunately, the challenge is even greater. Many of the jobs that will be available at the turn of the century have yet to be invented.

If you doubt this, consider the following. One of the job categories in great demand today is that of Webmaster — a person who designs, creates, and maintains sites on the World Wide Web. This job did not exist ten years ago. In fact, it did not even exist five years ago! This means that the people who are working in this new field have acquired their skills largely on their own.

ESSENTIAL STUDENT LEARNINGS FOR 2020

•Use the technology to involve the student and parent in assessment.

•Give every student a lifelong e-portfolio.

•Assess team work, collaboration and creativity using the technology, e. g. through games, simulations etc.

Technology will enable us to abandon

•The role of teacher as knowledge transmitter and student as the receiver.

•The “top down”, one-off model of initial and continued teacher training.

•Textbooks.

•Traditional methods of assessment of content in one-time, big exam testing period.

•Fixed times in classrooms

•The traditional notions of school space and school time

Innovations of time

•Flexible working (staff & pupil)

•Learning should be possible all day every day

•Self-controlled time management

•True individualised learning programmes

•Clever use of ICT

•Move away from prescribed ages to start and finish schooling

Technology

Computer-based training represents a period of single-user tools in which the computer made its entrance in education and was brought into use for mathematics, computer-aided design, simulation programs, infinite calculation methods, writing, and presentation skills. Online learning represents multi-user tools, such as communication tools,the World Wide Web (WWW), streaming video and a virtual learning environment for online courses. Lecture notes were digitized and put online, as were video snaps together with references to publications that could be reached via hyperlinks. Underlying tools for two-way communication are used to support this time- and place-independent way of learning. Learning on demand represents the next generation web-based virtual learning environment where learning material, which is broken up into specified learning objects, is initially distributed online for regular educational tracks. The underlying systems will be compound systems with merged technologies and features gathered from several compound learning systems.

Four Changes

Many school managers and school boards do currently recognize the need for fundamental changes in schools and education systems at large. Some of them have already started revolutionary experimental schools. First results from these schools show that students love the new approaches that have been adopted and that learning results are satisfying. In the Netherlands, about six schools have started recently to work along entirely new lines

Future Schools

• 4 hours periods

• Interdisciplinary themes

• Areas for 90 to 120 students

• Continuing individual learning Paths

ENVISIONING THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR 2020

The Learner

•The technology will enable a “new 2020 student” – responsible, independent, exciting.

•We need to identify and agree what we want learners to look like first, then use the technology to make it happen.

“Don’t use technology for technology sake; it must be seamlessly integrated into the curriculum so that it is second nature to the teachers and students”

School Design

Schools as extended learning centres.

•On-line tutoring/mentoring available 24/7.

•Change time structures to allow for immersion in learning and real research.

•Use technology and class design to facilitate individual student progress, giving immediate access to ICT when appropriate.

Intelligent Tutor/Helper

No concept drew greater interest from the student responders than some sort of an intelligent tutor/helper. Many students desired such a tutor or helper for use in school and at home.

The Oracle: Many students expressed interest in an “answer machine,” through which a student could pose a specific question and the machine would respond with an answer. Similarly, some students described a sort of knowledge utility. Through a computer or an Internet web site, students could access all of the world’s knowledge from any location.

Make It A Game

•A way kids could have fun doing their homework. Someone could invent videogame homework.

•Video games that reenact historic events or scientific experiments. People love video games, and what better way to learn than through telling the story, while being able to reenact it.

Take Me There

•Things like virtual reality careers we could do. We would be able to work in an environment in which we would have to work in the future without actually being there, but still be able to explore and see what it would be like.

•3-D simulators to reenact historic events.

•Computer that has a virtual tour on it so, when looking up a country, you can go onto the computer and get a tour of it.

On-Line Classes

•Computer with a built in school system so you can learn at home without going to school.

•Virtual class room, where kids can stay at home and learn. The teacher could be on the computer or on a T. V. screen with a video camera or a web cam. This way, no one would have to miss a day of school if they were sick.

Working Digitally

•IM on school computers and, if a student can’t get up to ask a question or talk, you can just IM someone!

•Website with different subjects and teachers there to teach students different subjects. That way, we can go to school anytime we want and we wouldn’t have to wake up so early in the morning to catch the bus.

•Before the marking period closes, students can see their grades online to see what work and assignments they’re missing or if they failed on an assignment they can improve it.

A Different Kind of Teacher

•Computer that is like a personal teacher that has a lot of patience and that can speak.

•Teacher for every student, but not real teachers. They should be holograms and they should know everything possible

•Robotic teachers so we could learn more stuff and not get yelled at as often.

A Different Kind of Book

•Digital books that read the lesson to you, and teach you specific things. The thing would be voice-sensitive so you could read, and it would correct your reading.

•Dictionary that talks. So when kids find a word they can’t pronounce, they listen to the dictionary pronounce it for them.

Attributes of the Learning Process

•Computers that can produce realistic images of any subject. For example, the operation of machines or human organs.

•3-D simulations in classes such as science because often materials needed are not safe or available.

A Computer for Every Student

•Laptop that didn’t sell for much so that every student could have one on their desk.

•We already have laptops, but to see every student with an updated laptop to use with software that will aid them in their schoolwork will be nice. This could lessen the strain on students because the computers can be used to ask commonly asked questions.

•Laptop computers should be given as a school supply to every student in the future.

The Need for Speed

•Faster modems would help the kids in the future. It would make things a lot easier for them, and they wouldn’t have to worry about not getting stuff done because of the time it takes for everything to load.

•We need new, faster computers.

Want It Wireless

•Wireless Internet everywhere: in the park, at home, hospitals, and everywhere else. That way there will be wireless, trouble-free Internet wherever you go. That will give the child a chance to learn wherever he is.

Make It Safe and Easy to Use

•Easier version of the Internet for the younger people.

•Something should be invented that filters out incorrect information on any website. It is very misleading and confusing to find different facts on different websites, so it would be very helpful if there were a way to filter out wrong information.

24-7 Access:

•Access your school’s network from online at your own home.

•Access to the school websites and information from our houses, because it would help a lot with school projects and homework.

Conclusion

During 2020,Every student would use a small, handheld wireless computer that is voice activated. The computer would offer high-speed access to a kid-friendly Internet, populated with websites that are safe, designed specifically for use by students, with no pop-up ads. Using this device, students would complete most of their in-school, college work and homework, as well as take online classes both at school and at home. Students would use the small computer to play mathematics-learning games and read interactive e-textbooks. In completing their schoolwork, students would work closely and routinely with an intelligent digital tutor, and tap a knowledge utility to obtain factual answers to questions they pose. In their history studies, students could participate in 3-D virtual reality-based historic reenactments.

Bluetooth Technology

What is Bluetooth?

Bluetooth technology is a type of the wireless technology that eliminates the need for the number of inconvenient cables and devices that are used to connect the computers, mobile phones, digital cameras, handheld devices and new digital appliances. Bluetooth enables the users to connect to a wide variety of telecommunication and computing devices easily, without cables.

It makes rapid ad hoc connections, automatic unconscious connections between two or more digital devices. Bluetooth provides the opportunity of using the mobile data in different applications. Bluetooth makes wireless communication between the two devices in a localized area of a room of office or home very easily. Bluetooth technology uses radio-based links and all the connections between the devices and invisible and instantaneous.

By Bluetooth technology your laptop can send print request to a printer in your next room. Bluetooth is actually a standard for wireless communication between the devices in a relatively small area and it is therefore works fine in the personal area network (PAN) using radio frequency.

Any two devices that follow the Bluetooth standard can communicate with each other. A number of the Bluetooth devices like digital camera, mobile phone and handheld pc can form a network. You can send emails to your mobile phones from your laptop without any physical connect between your laptop and your mobile phones.

Features of Bluetooth technology

• Bluetooth technology uses radio waves for communication in 2. 4 GHz

• It supports multipoint communication not just point to point.

• Bluetooth works in a small area of 10-15 meters.

• Bluetooth offers speed of 1-2 Mbps.

• Bluetooth chipsets are less expensive though more expensive than IrDA.

How Bluetooth Technology Works

Bluetooth is a high speed wireless link technology that uses the radio waves. It is designed to connect the mobile phones, laptops, hand held devices and portable equipments with almost no work by the end users. Unlike infrared Bluetooth does not require line of sight between the connecting units. Bluetooth technology is a modified form of the current Wireless LAN technology and it’s more acceptable for its relative small size and low cost.

The current circuits are contained on a circuit board of 0. 9 cm square and a much smaller single chip version is in development and soon it will be in use. The cost of the Bluetooth device is expected to fall rapidly. Bluetooth chip has to be equipped in many devices. In Bluetooth technology, small and inexpensive transceivers have been placed in the digital devices. The radio waves operate at 2. 45 Ghz band on the Bluetooth devices. Bluetooth supports the data speed up to 721 Kbps and 3 voice channels. The Bluetooth chip can either be built into the devices or it can be uses as an adapter. In computer it can be used with the USB port. Each Bluetooth device has a 48 bit address from the IEEE 802 standards and the Bluetooth connections can be either point to point or multipoint. Bluetooth range is 10 meter but it can be extended up to 100 meters by increasing the power.

Bluetooth devices are protected from the external interference because they change their frequency up to 1600 times in a second. Bluetooth radio technology provides the bridge between the existing data network. Bluetooth guarantees security at the bit level and the authentication is controlled by the end user by using 128 bit key. An important face of the Bluetooth technology is that it instantly forms a network when two or more devices come closer in the range of each other.

Bluetooth Technology Benefits

Bluetooth technology is a convenient choice of communication in a wire free, short range environment. Bluetooth is a globally available standard for connecting the devices like mobile phones, digital cameras, laptops, MP3 Players, cars, stereo headsets etc. Bluetooth enable devices do not need to install any drivers. The key benefits of the Bluetooth wireless technology are its built-in-security, low cost, easy of use, robustness, and ad hoc networking capabilities.

The Bluetooth wireless technology is available globally. Many manufactures from the different companies are busy to implement the technology in their products. Bluetooth technology operates in the 2. 4 Ghz, one of the unlicensed, industrial and scientific radio band. Bluetooth technology is a free of charge service but your mobile phones set should support the GSM and CDMA technology.

Today mobile phones have built in capabilities and Bluetooth functionalities in them. Bluetooth technology is available in the different range of the devices like mobile phones, automobiles, medical devices, industries and enterprises etc.

Due to the key features of the Bluetooth technology like low power consumption, low cost and wireless features make it more popular. Bluetooth technology does not require any fixed infrastructure and it is very simple to install and setup.

No wires are required to connect the Bluetooth devices. You can connect to other Bluetooth enabled devices anytime if they come in your range. Bluetooth wireless technology is widely supported and is secure wireless standard today. Bluetooth devices has built-in security features such as 128 bit encryption and pin code authentication when Bluetooth devices identify themselves they use the pin code when they first time connect.

Bushra Bashir

http://www. networktutorials. info

In working closely with technology providers over the years, I regularly discover that these companies are making common mistakes that devalue the company, leave revenue on the table, or jeopardize their long-term health. So this special article identifies the top 10 of these mistakes to help you avoid making them.

10. Failure to register a federal copyright for company-developed software

Your company has spent months, and maybe years developing the next-big-thing. You’re out there licensing it to customers, fighting off competitors, and trying to maximize your revenues. What would you do if a customer was misusing your software? What if a competitor was copying parts of it to use in its product? There are various ways to respond to these problems, but one of the easiest to way to strengthen your claims is to register a copyright for the software with the United States Copyright Office. Registration provides you with an enhanced ability to have a court prevent infringing use of your software, and a greater amount of damages that are recoverable. The best part is that registration is relatively easy and inexpensive.

9. Licensing technology too broadly

So you’ve landed that big deal with that big customer. You’ve carefully priced the deal based upon your expectations of how the customer is going to use your technology – by a specific group within the customer’s large organization. You’re hoping that the success of this deal will lead to a greater adoption of your technology within the rest of the company, and ultimately more revenue for you. Unfortunately, you later learn that this one group is sharing your technology throughout the rest of the company, with no additional license fees to you, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Why? By failing to carefully and narrowly draw up the license grant in your agreement, you’ve unwittingly granted the entire company the rights to use your technology, and you’ve left a pile of cash on the table.

8. Failure to provide detailed support and maintenance policies

Too often, once a company’s technology is ready to be licensed, determining how to support the technology becomes an afterthought. General and non-descriptive obligations like “providing telephone and email support” and “providing updates” are invitations for disagreements and missed expectations. When is phone support being offered? How quickly will you respond to problems? What is considered and update and what is a new product for which you would charge the customer separately? Many times, you need your customer to provide you with certain information about the problem before you can diagnose and fix it. Set the appropriate expectations in your support and maintenance policies and avoid these issues in the future.

7. Not contracting customers to recurring support fees

Customers want and expect that you will be there to support your product, assist with problems, and provide them updates when you add features or fix bugs. Customers also expect that you will regularly charge them for these services, so why do so many technology vendors sell a product to a customer and fail to structure regular and recurring support fees? In general, a technology vendor’s highest profit margins are realized through a support fee stream, and not in the upfront license charge.

6. Inadequate non-disclosure and non-compete agreements with employees and contractors

The technology business is one of the most competitive industries in the market. Why take a chance losing your competitive advantage by not ensuring that your intellectual property, customer lists, trade secrets, and other sensitive information are properly protected through appropriate agreements with your employees, contractors, and vendors? Finding and using some form agreement that you saw floating around on the Internet somewhere may actually make matters worse if you don’t fully understand the terms. Moreover, simple steps can be taken to ensure that anything developed by your employees is, and remains, your company’s property.

5. Giving away intellectual property ownership too liberally

Many technology companies develop customized technology for their customers, or make customized modifications to their existing technology on behalf of a particular customer. And most customers argue that if they’re paying for it, they want to own it. But giving away your company’s intellectual property in these instances can prevent you from reusing it for other customers – effectively shutting down a potential source of revenue in the future. And many times, your customers may not need to actually “own” the developments – a license right can often do the trick.

4. Using overly broad or subjective acceptance testing

It is not uncommon or unreasonable for customers to want to “kick the tires” of your technology before they pay for it. Problems arise when the customer has an unreasonable expectation of what the technology is supposed to achieve, and either want to withhold payment, or force you to provide extra services to meet that unreasonable expectation. This especially manifests itself when a customer includes acceptance testing language in a contract which is not tied to objective and realistic standards. Although it can be a laborious effort, taking the time to objectify these standards with the customer in the contract can save you significant time down the road, and get you paid faster.

3. Offering liberal source code escrow release conditions

For software developers, you know that your source code is the “crown jewels” of your business. It is the core of your technology, representing months or years of your blood, sweat, and tears. Yet many software companies are willing to give it away, for free, to their customers. How? By entering into a source code escrow agreement with a customer and allowing it to be released to them in situations where the code still holds value for you. Many customers will demand the source code be released to them if you stop supporting the software, but the intellectual property in the code may still be used in your other products or technology, effectively giving your customer the tools it needs to duplicate your technology. Creating very narrow and specific source code release conditions can minimize this impact.

2. Undervaluing technology

What is your technology worth? It’s a difficult question, and value can be measured and determined in many ways. Many new technology companies feel compelled to undercharge for their technology in an effort to break into the market. Although there is certainly some merit in that, I see vendors consistently undervaluing what their technology is worth, leaving significant revenue on the table. Understanding the impact and loss to the customer if they DON’T license your technology is the first key to pricing your product. Plus, under-pricing your product can create an impression that the technology is “cheap” – not a label that will build a positive reputation of your company in the long run.

1. Using a form license and/or services agreement that doesn’t fit your business model

Capturing exactly how you want to provide your product or services to your customer, allocating the risks, and creating each party’s obligations and rights, is not a simple or quick process. Replicating some other company’s form agreement not only exposes you to risks that you may not be aware of, but potentially violates the other company’s copyright in their agreement, and raises the risks outlined in the other points of this list. Having a customized agreement created for you that aligns with your business processes, mitigates your risks, and addresses the laws that apply in your jurisdiction for your industry is a key component in running a successful technology business.

It is a significant fact that we are in the focal point of a deep-seated change in both technology and its application. Any institutions in our day expect to get more value from their investments in technology. In the “Post dearth era of calculation” the user-friendliness of dispensation power is not a check where cost of platform technology has become a minor factor in selecting among alternatives to build the business solution and as such the constraining factors are the managerial impact of reengineering the business process and the costs and time required for system development. Additionally, the need to re-educate personnel to the compulsory level of expertise can be an extremely expensive scheme. Open systems enable organizations to buy off-the-shelf solutions to business problems. Open systems standards set apart the design in which data is swapped, remote systems are accessed, and services are attracted. The receipt of open systems standards supports the creation of system architectures that can be built from technology components. These standards enable us, as follows:
• To build reusable class libraries to use in object-oriented design and development environments.
• To build functional products those interact with the same data which are bedded on object oriented as well as bedded on full integrity.
• To modify a correspondence at an individual desktop workstation to include data, addressing and graphics input from a word processor, a personal spreadsheet, a workgroup database, and an existing project host relevance to be propelled by electronic mail to someplace in the world.
It is worth mentioning that opposing to the claims of groups variety from the Open Software base to the user consortium Open User Recommended Solutions, open systems are not exclusively systems that conform to OSF UNIX specifications. The client/server model makes the enterprise available at the desk. It provides access to data that the previous architectures did not. Standards have been defined for client-server figuring. If these principles are understood and used, a society can rationally expect to buy solutions today that can grow with their business needs without the constant need to revise the solutions. Architectures based on open systems standards can be implemented throughout the world, as global systems become the norm for large organizations. While a supportable common platform on a global scale is far from standardized, it certainly is becoming much easier to accomplish. From the desktop, enterprise-wide applications are indistinguishable from workgroup and personal applications. Powerful enabling technologies with built-in conformance to open systems standards are evolving rapidly. Examples include object-oriented development, relational and object-oriented databases, multimedia, imaging, expert systems, geographic information systems, voice recognition and voice response, and text management. These technologies provide the opportunity to integrate their generic potential—with the particular necessities of a business—to create a cost-effective and personalized business solution. The client/server model provides the ideal platform with which to integrate these enabling technologies. Well-defined interface standards enable integration of products from several vendors to provide the right application solution. Enterprise systems are those that create and provide a shared information resource for the entire corporation. They do not imply centralized development and control, but they do treat information and technology as corporate resources. Enterprise network management requires all devices and applications in the enterprise computing environment to be visible and managed. This remains a major challenge as organizations move to distributed processing. Standards are defined and are being implemented within the client/server model. Client/server applications give greater viability to worker empowerment in a distributed organization than do today’s host-centered environments.
Prospects are accessible to society and populace who are equipped and capable to compete in the global market and there is no denying the fact that a competitive global economy will ensure obsolescence and obscurity to those who cannot or are unwilling to compete. All organizations must look for ways to demonstrate value. We are in conclusion bearing in mind that an enthusiasm has to rethink upon existing managerial structures and commerce in putting into practice. Organizations are aggressively downsizing even as they try to aggressively expand their revenue base. There is more willingness to continue improvement practices and programs to eliminate redundancy and increase effectiveness. Organizations are becoming market-driven while remaining true to their business vision. To be competitive in a global economy, organizations in developed economies must employ technology to gain the efficiencies necessary to offset their higher labor costs. Reengineering the business process to provide information and decision-making support at points of customer contact reduces the need for layers of decision-making management, improves responsiveness, and enhances customer service. Empowerment means that knowledge and responsibility are available to the employee at the point of customer contact. Empowerment will ensure that product and service problems and opportunities are identified and finalized. Client/server computing is the most effective source for the tools that empower employees with authority and responsibility. The following are some key drivers in organizational philosophy, policies, and practices. Competitiveness is forcing organizations to find new ways to manage their business, despite fewer personnel, more outsourcing, a market-driven orientation, and rapid product obsolescence. Technology can be the enabler of organizational nimbleness. To survive and prosper in a world where trade barriers are being eliminated, organizations must look for partnerships and processes that are not restrained by artificial borders. Quality, cost, product differentiation, and service are the new marketing priorities. Our information systems must support these priorities.
Contesting demands that information systems organizations justify their costs and it is evident that business are in the way to question the return on their existing investments and as such Centralized IS an operation in particular are under the microscope. Manufactured goods obsolescence has never been so vital a factor. Purchasers have more options and are more demanding. Technology must enable organizations to anticipate demand and meet it. Quality and flexibility require decisions to be made by individuals who are in touch with the customer. Many organizations are eliminating layers of middle management. Technology must provide the necessary information and support to this new structure. If a business is run from its distributed locations, the technology supporting these units must be as reliable as the existing central systems. Technology for remote management of the distributed technology is essential in order to use scarce expertise appropriately and to reduce costs. Each individual must have access to all information he or she has a “need and right” to access, without regard to where it is collected, determined, or located. We can use technology today to provide this “single-system image” of information at the desk, whatever the technology used to create it. Standardization has introduced many new suppliers and has dramatically reduced costs. Competition is driving innovation. Organizations must use architectures that take advantage of cost-effective offerings as they appear. Desktop workstations now provide the power and mainframe capacity that mainframes did only a few years ago. The challenge is to effectively use this power and capacity to create solutions to real business problems. Downsizing and empowerment require that the workgroup have access to information and work collectively. Decisions are being made in the workplace, not in the head office. Standards and new technologies enable workstation users to access information and systems without regard to location. Remote network management enables experts to provide support and central, system-like reliability to distributed systems. However, distributed systems are not transparent. Data access across a network often has unpredictable result sets; therefore, performance on existing networks is often inadequate, requiring a retooling of the existing network infrastructure to support the new data access environment.
Standards enable many new vendors to enter the market. With a common platform target, every product has the entire marketplace as a potential customer. With the high rate of introduction of products, it is certain that organizations will have to deal with multiple vendors. Only through a commitment to standards-based technology will the heterogeneous multiple vendor environment effectively service the buyer. Workstation power, workgroup empowerment, preservation of existing investments, remote network management, and market-driven business are the forces creating the need for client/server computing. The technology is here; what is missing is the expertise to effectively apply it. Organizational pressures to demonstrate value apply as much to the information systems functions as to any other element or operating unit of the business. This is a special challenge because most IS organizations have not previously experienced strong financial constraints, nor have they been measured for success using the same business justification “yardstick” as other value-creating units within the business enterprise. IS has not been under the microscope to prove that the role it plays truly adds value to the overall organization. In today’s world, organizations that cannot be seen to add value are either eliminated or outsourced. It has been found out on a survey that about 1000 companies, on average, spend 90 percent of IS dollars maintaining existing systems. Major business benefits, however, are available only from “new” systems. Dramatic reductions in the cost of technology help cost justify many systems. Organizations that adapt faster than their competitors demonstrate value and become the leaders in their marketplace. Products and services command a premium price when these organizations are “early to market. ” As they become commodities, they attract only commodity prices. This is true of both commercial organizations wishing to be competitive in the market with their products and of service organizations wishing to demonstrate value within their department or government sector. “It only took God seven days to create the world because he didn’t have an existing environment to deal with. “3 Billions of dollars have been invested in corporate computing infrastructure and training. This investment must be fully used. Successful client/server solutions integrate with the existing applications and provide a gradual migration to the new platforms and business models.
To meet the goals of the 1990s, organizations are downsizing and eliminating middle-management positions. They want to transfer responsibility to empower the person closest to the customer to make decisions. Historically, computer systems have imposed the burden of data collection and maintenance on the front-line work force but have husbanded information in the head office to support decision making by middle management. Information must be made available to the data creators and maintainers by providing the connectivity and distributed management of enterprise databases and applications. The technology of client/server computing will support the movement of information processing to the direct creators and users of information. OLTP applications traditionally have been used in insurance, financial, government, and sales-related organizations. These applications are characterized by their need for highly reliable platforms that guarantee that transactions will be handled correctly, no data will be lost, and response times will be extremely low, and only authorized users will have access to an application. The IS industry understands OLTP in the traditional mainframe-centered platforms but not in the distributed client/server platforms. Organizations do (and will continue) to rely on technology to drive business. Much of the IS industry does not yet understand how to build mission-critical applications on client/server platforms. As organizations move to employee empowerment and workgroup computing, the desktop becomes the critical technology element running the business. Client/server applications and platforms must provide mainframe levels of reliability. Executive information systems provide a single-screen view of “how well we are doing” by comparing the mass of details contained in their current and historical enterprise databases with information obtained from outside sources about the economy and competition. As organizations enter into corporation with their customers and suppliers, the need to integrate with external systems becomes essential in order to capture the necessary information for an effective EIS. Organizations want to use the EIS data to make strategic decisions. The DSS should provide “what if” analyses to project the results of these decisions. Managers define expectations, and the local processing capability generates decision alerts when reality does not conform. This is the DSS of the client/server model. Information is now recognized as a corporate resource. To be truly effective, organizations must collect data at the source and distribute it, according to the requirements of “need and right to access,” throughout the organization. Workgroups will select the platforms that best meet their needs, and these platforms must integrate to support the enterprise solution. Systems built around open systems standards are essential for cost-effective integration. Los Angeles County issued a request for information stating simply that its goal was “to implement and operate a modern telecommunications network that creates a seamless utility for all County telecommunications applications from desktop to desktop. The United States government has initiated a project—the National Information Interchange that has the simple objective of “making the intellectual property of the United States available to all with a need and right to access.
“Computers will become a truly useful part of our society only when they are linked by an infrastructure like the highway system and the electric power grid, creating a new kind of free market for information services. The feature that makes the highway and electric power grids truly useful is their pervasiveness. Every home and office has ready access to these services; thus, they are used—without thought—in the normal course of living and working. This pervasive accessibility has emerged largely because of the adoption of standards for interconnection. If there were no standards for driving, imagine the confusion and danger. What if every wall plug were a different shape, or the power available on every plug were random? If using a service requires too much thought and attention, that service cannot become a default part of our living and working environment. “Imagine the United States without its highways. Our millions of cars, buses, and trucks driven in our own backyards and neighborhood parking lots, with occasional forays by the daring few along uncharted, unpredictable, and treacherous dirt roads, full of unspeakable terrors. “7 The parking lot analogy illustrated in Figure 1. 1 represents the current information-processing environment in most organizations. It is easy and transparent to locate and use information on a local area network (LAN), but information located on another LAN is almost inaccessible. End-user access to enterprise data often is unavailable except for predefined information requests. Although computers—from mainframes to PCs—are numerous, powerful, flexible, and widely used, they are still used in relative isolation. When they communicate, they usually do so ineffectively, through arcane and arbitrary procedures. Information comes with many faces. As shown in Figure 1. 2, it can take the form of text, drawings, music, speech, photographs, stock prices, invoices, software, live video, and many other entities. Yet once information is computerized, it becomes a deceptively uniform sequence of ones and zeros. The underlying infrastructure must be flexible in the way it transports these ones and zeros. To be truly effective besides routing these binaries to their destinations the infrastructure must be able to carry binaries with varying degrees of speed, accuracy, and security to accommodate different computer capabilities and needs.
Because computers are manufactured and sold by vendors with differing views on the most effective technology, they do not share common implementation concepts. Transporting ones and zeros around, however flexibly, isn’t enough. Computers based on different technologies cannot comprehend each other’s ones and zeros any more than people comprehend foreign languages. We therefore need to endow our IS organizations with a set of widely understood common information interchange conventions. Moreover, these conventions must be based on concepts that make life easier for humans, rather than for computer servants. Finally, the truly useful infrastructure must be equipped with “common servers”—computers that provide a few basic information services of wide interest, such as computerized white and yellow pages.

Technological innovation proceeds at a pace that challenges the human mind to understand how to take advantage of its capabilities. Electronic information management, technological innovation in the personal computer, high-speed electronic communication, and digital encoding of information provide new opportunities for enhanced services at lower cost. Personal computers can provide services directly to people who have minimal computer experience. They provide low-cost, high-performance computing engines at the site that the individual lives, works, or accesses the service—regardless of where the information is physically stored. Standards for user interface, data access, and intercrosses communications have been defined for the personal computer and are being adopted by a majority of the vendor community. There is no reason to accept solutions that do not conform to the accepted standards. Most large organizations today use a heterogeneous collection of hardware, software, and connectivity technologies. There is considerable momentum toward increased use of technology from multiple vendors. This trend leads to an increasingly heterogeneous environment for users and developers of computer systems. Users are interested in the business functionality, not the technology. Developers rarely are interested in more than a subset of the technology. The concept of the single-system image says that you can build systems that provide transparency of the technology platform to the user and—at the largest extent possible—to the developer. Developers will need sufficient knowledge of the syntax used to solve the business problem, but will need little or no knowledge of the underlying technology infrastructure. Hardware platforms, operating systems, database engines, and communications protocols are necessary technological components of any computer solution, but they should provide services—not create obstacles to getting the job done. Services should be masked; that is, they should be provided in a natural manner without requiring the user to make unnatural gyrations to invoke them. Only by masking these services and by using standard interfaces can we hope to develop systems quickly and economically. At the same time, masking (known as encapsulation in object-oriented programming) and standard interfaces preserve the ability to change the underlying technology without affecting the application. There is value in restricting imagination when you build system architectures. Systems development is not an art; it is an engineering discipline that can be learned and used. Systems can be built on the foundations established by previous projects.
Within the single-system image environment, a business system user is totally unaware of where data is stored, how the client and server processors work, and what networking is involved in gaining connectivity. Every application that the user accesses provides a common “look and feel. ” Help is provided in the same way by every application. Errors are presented and resolved in the same way by every application. Access is provided through a standard security procedure for every application. Each user has access to all services for which he or she has a need and a right to access.
• The security layer is invisible to the authorized and impenetrable to the unauthorized.
• Navigation from function to function and application to application is provided in the same way in every system. New applications can be added with minimal training, because the standard functions work in the same way, and only the new business functions need be learned. It is not necessary to go to “boot camp for basic training” prior to using each new application. Basic training is a one-time effort because the basics do not change.
The complexity of a heterogeneous computing platform will result in many interfaces at both the logical and physical level. Organizations evolve from one platform to another as the industry changes, as new technologies evolve that are more cost effective, and as acquisitions and mergers introduce other installed platforms. All these advances must be accommodated. There is complexity and risk when attempting to interoperate among technologies from many vendors. It is necessary to engage in “proof of concept” testing to distinguish the marketing version of products and architectures from the delivered version. Many organizations use a test lab concept called technology competency centers to do this “proof of concept. ” The TCC concept provides a local, small-scale model of all the technologies involved in a potential single-system, interoperable image. Installing a proposed solution using a TCC is a low-cost means of ensuring that the solution is viable. These labs enable rapid installation of the proposed solution into a proven environment. They eliminate the need to set up from scratch all the components that are necessary to support the unique part of a new application. Organizations—Merrill Lynch, Health Canada, SHL System house, BSG Corporation, Microsoft, and many others—use such labs to do sanity checks on new technologies. The rapid changes in technology capability dictate that such a resource be available to validate new products. The single-system image is best implemented through the client/server model. . Our experience confirms that client/server computing can provide the enterprise to the desktop. Because the desktop computer is the user’s view into the enterprise, there is no better way to guarantee a single image than to start at the desktop. Unfortunately, it often seems as if the number of definitions of client/server computing depends on how many organizations you survey, whether they’re hardware and software vendors, integrators, or IS groups. Each has a vested interest in a definition that makes its particular product or service an indispensable component. Throughout this book, the following definitions will be used consistently:
• Client: A client is a single-user workstation that provides presentation services and the appropriate computing, connectivity, and database services and interfaces relevant to the business need.
• Server: A server is one or more multi-user processors with shared memory providing computing, connectivity, and database services and interfaces relevant to the business need.
Client/server computing is an environment that satisfies the business need by appropriately allocating the application processing between the client and the server processors. The client requests services from the server; the server processes the request and returns the result to the client. The communications mechanism is a message passing interposes communication (IPC) that enables (but does not require) distributed placement of the client and server processes. Client/server is a software model of computing, not a hardware definition. This definition makes client/server a rather generic model and fits what is known in the industry as “cooperative processing” or “peer-to-peer. ” Because the client/server environment is typically heterogeneous, the hardware platform and operating system of the client and server are not usually the same. In such cases, the communications mechanism may be further extended through a well-defined set of standard application program interfaces (APIs) and remote procedure calls. The modern diagram representing the client/server model was probably first popularized by Sybase. Figure 1. 4 illustrates the single-system image vision. A client-user relies on the desktop workstation for all computing needs. Whether the application runs totally on the desktop or uses services provided by one or more servers—be they powerful PCs or mainframes—is irrelevant. Effective client/server computing will be fundamentally platform-independent. The user of an application wants the business functionality it provides; the computing platform provides access to this business functionality. There is no benefit, yet considerable risk, in exposing this platform to its user. Changes in platform and underlying technology should be transparent to the user. Training costs, business processing delays and errors, staff frustration, and staff turnover result from the confusion generated by changes in environments where the user is sensitive to the technology platform.

It is easily demonstrated that systems built with transparency to the technology, for all users, offer the highest probability of solid ongoing return for the technology investment. It is equally demonstrable that if developers become aware of the target platform, development will be bound to that platform. Developers will use special features, tricks, and syntax found only in the specific development platform. Tools, which isolate developers from the specifics of any single platform, assist developers in writing transparent, portable applications. These tools must be available for each of the three essential components in any application: data access, processing, and interfaces. Data access includes the graphical user interface (GUI) and stored data access. Processing includes the business logic. Interfaces link services with other applications. This simple model, reflected in Figure 1. 5, should be kept in mind when following the evolution to client/server computing. The use of technology layers provides this application development isolation. These layers isolate the characteristics of the technology at each level from the layer above and below. This layering is fundamental to the development of applications in the client/server model. The rapid rate of change in these technologies and the lack of experience with the “best” solutions implies that we must isolate specific technologies from each other. This book will continue to emphasize and expand on the concept of a systems development environment (SDE) as a way to achieve this isolation. Developer tools are by far the most visible. Most developers need to know only the syntax of these tools to express the business problem in a format acceptable to the technology platform. With the increasing involvement of minicomputer professionals, as technology users and application assemblers, technology isolation is even more important. Very few—perhaps none—of an organization’s application development staff needs to be aware of the hardware, system software, specific database engines, specific communications products, or specific presentation services products. These are invoked through the APIs message passing, and generated by tools or by a few technical specialists. As you will see in Chapter 6, the development of an application architecture supported by a technical architecture and systems development environment is the key to achieving this platform independence and ultimately to developing successful client/server applications.
As organizations increase the use of personal productivity tools, workstations become widely installed. The need to protect desktop real estate requires that host terminal capabilities be provided by the single workstation. It soon becomes evident that the power of the workstation is not being tapped and application processing migrates to the desktop. Once most users are connected from their workstation desktop to the applications and data at the host mainframe or minicomputer, there is significant cost benefit in offloading processing to these powerful workstations. The first applications tend to be data capture and edit. These simplify—but still use—the transaction expected by an already existing host application. If the workstation is to become truly integrated with the application, reengineering of the business process will be necessary. Accounting functions and many customer service applications are easily offloaded in this manner. Thus, workgroup and departmental processing is done at the LAN level, with host involvement for enterprise-wide data and enforcement of interdepartmental business rules. In this “dumb” terminal (IBM uses the euphemism nonprogrammable to describe its 327x devices) emulation environment, all application logic resides in the minicomputer, mainframe, or workstation. Clearly a $5000 or less desktop workstation is capable of much more than the character display provided by a $500 terminal. In the client/server model, the low-cost processing power of the workstation will replace host processing, and the application logic will be divided appropriately among the platforms. As previously noted, this distribution of function and data is transparent to the user and application developer.
The mainframe-centric model uses the presentation capabilities of the workstation to front-end existing applications. The character mode interface is remapped by products such as Easel and Mozart. The same data is displayed or entered through the use of pull-down lists, scrollable fields, check boxes, and buttons; the user interface is easy to use, and information is presented more clearly. In this mainframe-centric model, mainframe applications continue to run unmodified, because the existing terminal data stream is processed by the workstation-based communications API. This protects the investment in existing applications while improving performance and reducing costs. Character mode applications, usually driven from a block mode screen, attempt to display as much data as possible in order to reduce the number of transmissions required to complete a function. Dumb terminals impose limitations on the user interface including fixed length fields, fixed length lists, crowded screens, single or limited character fonts, limited or no graphics icons, and limited windowing for multiple application display. In addition, the fixed layout of the screen makes it difficult to support the display of conditionally derived information. In contrast, the workstation GUI provides facilities to build the screen dynamically. This enables screens to be built with a variable format based conditionally on the data values of specific fields. Variable length fields can be scrollable, and lists of fields can have a scrollable number of rows. This enables a much larger virtual screen to be used with no additional data communicated between the client workstation and server. Windowing can be used to pull up additional information such as help text, valid value lists, and error messages without losing the original screen contents. The more robust GUI facilities of the workstation enable the user to navigate easily around the screen. Additional information can be encapsulated by varying the display’s colors, fonts, graphics icons, scrollable lists, pull-down lists, and option boxes. Option lists can be provided to enable users to quickly select input values. Help can be provided, based on the context and the cursor location, using the same pull-down list facilities. Although it is a limited use of client/server computing capability, a GUI front end to an existing application is frequently the first client/server-like application implemented by organizations familiar with the host mainframe and dumb-terminal approach. The GUI preserves the existing investment while providing the benefits of ease of use associated with a GUI. It is possible to provide dramatic and functionally rich changes to the user interface without host application change.
The next logical step is the provision of some edit and processing logic executing at the desktop workstation. This additional logic can be added without requiring changes in the host application and may reduce the host transaction rate by sending up only valid transactions. With minimal changes to the host application, network traffic can be reduced and performance can be improved by using the workstation’s processing power to encode the data stream into a compressed form. A more interactive user interface can be provided with built-in, context-sensitive help, and extensive prompting and user interfaces that are sensitive to the users’ level of expertise. These options can be added through the use of workstation processing power. These capabilities enable users to operate an existing system with less intensive training and may even provide the opportunity for public access to the applications. Electronic data interchange (EDI) is an example of this front-end processing. EDI enables organizations to communicate electronically with their suppliers or customers. Frequently, these systems provide the workstation front end to deal with the EDI link but continue to work with the existing back-end host system applications. Messages are reformatted and responses are handled by the EDI client, but application processing is done by the existing application server. Productivity may be enhanced significantly by capturing information at the source and making it available to all authorized users. Typically, if users employ a multipart form for data capture, the form data is entered into multiple systems. Capturing this information once to a server in a client/server application, and reusing the data for several client applications can reduce errors, lower data entry costs, and speed up the availability of this information.
There is no delay while the forms are passed around the organization. This is usually a better technique than forms imaging technology in which the forms are created and distributed internally in an organization. The use of workflow-management technology and techniques, in conjunction with imaging technology, is an effective way of handling this process when forms are filled out by a person who is physically remote from the organization. Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) technology can be an extremely effective way to automate the capture of data from a form, without the need to key. Current experience with this technique shows accuracy rates greater than 99. 5 percent for typed forms and greater than 98. 5 percent for handwritten forms.

Rightsizing and rationalizing are strategies used with the client/server model to take advantage of the lower cost of workstation technology. Rightsizing and upsizing may involve the addition of more diverse or more powerful computing resources to an enterprise computing environment. The benefits of rightsizing are reduction in cost and/or increased functionality, performance, and flexibility in the applications of the enterprise. Significant cost savings usually are obtained from a resulting reduction in employee, hardware, software, and maintenance expenses. Additional savings typically accrue from the improved effectiveness of the user community using client/server technology. Eliminating middle layers of management implies empowerment to the first level of management with the decision-making authority for the whole job. Information provided at the desktop by networked PCs and workstations integrated with existing host (such as mainframe and minicomputer) applications is necessary to facilitate this empowerment. These desktop-host integrated systems house the information required to make decisions quickly. To be effective, the desktop workstation must provide access to this information as part of the normal business practice. Architects and developers must work closely with business decision makers to ensure that new applications and systems are designed to be integrated with effective business processes. Much of the cause of poor return on technology investment is attributable to a lack of understanding by the designers of the day-to-day business impact of their solutions. Downsizing information systems is more than an attempt to use cheaper workstation technologies to replace existing mainframes and minicomputers in use. Although some benefit is obtained by this approach, greater benefit is obtained by reengineering the business processes to really use the capabilities of the desktop environment. Systems solutions are effective only when they are seen by the actual user to add value to the business process. Client/server technology implemented on low-cost standard hardware will drive downsizing. Client/server computing makes the desktop the users’ enterprise. As we move from the machine-centered era of computing into the workgroup era, the desktop workstation is empowering the business user to regain ownership of his or her information resource. Client/server computing combines the best of the old with the new—the reliable multi-user access to shared data and resources with the intuitive, powerful desktop workstation.
In view of the above it is evident that object-oriented development concepts are embodied in the use of an SDE created for an organization from an architecturally selected set of tools. The SDE provides more effective development and maintenance than companies have experienced with traditional host-based approaches. Client/server computing is open computing. Mix and match is the rule. Development tools and development environments must be created with both openness and standards in mind. Mainframe applications rarely can be downsized—without modifications—to a workstation environment. Modifications can be minor, wherein tools are used to port existing mainframe source code—or major, wherein the applications are rewritten using completely new tools. In porting, native COBOL compilers, functional file systems, and emulators for DB2, IMS DB/DC, and CICS are available for workstations. In rewriting, there is a broad array of tools ranging from PowerBuilder, Visual Basic, and Access, to larger scale tools such as Forte and Dynasty. Micro Focus has added an Object Oriented (OO) option to its workbench to facilitate the creation of reusable components. The OO option supports integration with applications developed under Smalltalk/V PM. IBM’s CICS for OS/2, OS400, RS6000, and HP/UX products enable developers to directly port applications using standard CICS call interfaces from the mainframe to the workstation. These applications can then run under OS/2, AIX, OS400, HP/UX, or MVS/VSE without modification. This promises to enable developers to create applications for execution in the CICS MVS environment and later to port them to these other environments without modification. Conversely, applications can be designed and built for such environments and subsequently ported to MVS (if this is a logical move). Organizations envisioning such a migration should ensure that their SDE incorporates standards that are consistent for all of these platforms.
These harvests, pooled with the economical processing power available on the workstation, make the workstation Local Area Network an ideal expansion and maintenance environment for existing host processors. When an organization views mainframe or minicomputer resources as real dollars, developers can usually justify offloading the development in only three to six months. Explorers can be effective only when a proper systems development environment is put in place and provided with a suite of tools offering the host capabilities plus enhanced connectivity. Workstation operating systems are still more primitive than the existing host server MVS, VMS, or UNIX operating systems. Therefore, appropriate standards and procedures must be put in place to coordinate shared development. The workstation environment will change. Only projects built with common standards and procedures will be resilient enough to remain viable in the new environment.
The major reserves come up to from new projects that can create apposite values at the initiate and do all development using the workstation LAN environment. It is possible to retrofit standards to an existing environment and establish a workstation with a LAN-based maintenance environment. The benefits are less because retrofitting the standards creates some costs. However, these costs are justified when the application is scheduled to undergo significant maintenance or if the application is very critical and there is a desire to reduce the error rate created by changes. The discipline associated with the movement toward client/server-based development, and the transfer of code between the host and client/server will almost certainly result in better testing and fewer errors. The testing facilities and usability of the workstation will make the developer and tester more effective and therefore more accurate. Business processes use database, communications, and application services. In an ideal world, we pick the best servers available to provide these services, thereby enabling our organizations to enjoy the maximum benefit that current technology provides. Real-world developers’ make compromises around the existing technology, existing application products, training investments, product support, and a myriad other factors. Key to the success of full client/server applications is selecting an appropriate application and technical architecture for the organization. Once the technical architecture is defined, the tools are known.
The ultimate pace is to accomplish an SDE to categorize the principles desirable to use the tools in actual fact. This SDE is the collection of hardware, software, standards, standard procedures, interfaces, and training built up to support the organization’s particular needs. Many construction projects fail because their developers assume that a person with a toolbox full of carpenter’s tools is a capable builder.

In view of the above, it is evident that in order to be a successful planner, a person needs  be trained to build according to standards. The creation of standards to define interfaces to the sewerage, water, electrical utilities, road, school, and community systems is essential for successful, cost-effective building. We do not expect a carpenter to design such interfaces individually for every building. Rather, pragmatism discourages imagination in this regard. By reusing the models previously built to accomplish integration, we all benefit from cost and risk reduction. Suffice it to say that the preamble of a whole new generation of Object oriented Technology based on tools for client/server development demands that proper standards can be put in place to support shared development, reusable code, interfaces to existing systems, security, error handling, and an organizational standard “gaze and think. ” As with any new technology, there will be changes. Developers can build application systems closely tied to today’s technology or use an SDE and promote applications that can progress along with the expertise podium.