A Master Is/Will...
Always willing to learn - Carrie Dowling
Follow a certan strategy and is reliable - Michelle Seidman
Extemporaneous - Branden Roberts
Eclectic - Kyle Thoms
Passionate - Davonne Thomas
Never Give up - Lisa Wade
Unassuming - Ryan Wolfgang
Easy to get along with - Aaron Harrison
Intelligent - Khalid Iben-Yaich
Experienced - Sean May
Well Liked - Adam
Take command - Sam Myers
Be decisive - Archana Balasubramanian
Pick the right decision - Sveta Sharma
The Search
Kyle Thoms
The Search, written by John Battelle is a book about Google. But not just about Google business, or how entrepreneurs succeed, but also about the cultural impact and shift that Google has introduced. Even at the beginning of the book Battelle establishes his desire to analyze this aspect of Google. He takes a cultural anthropological approach to the study of search engines and how they affect how people live their lives.
He does not only speak on the cultural impact, but also goes into the business side of Google. He mentions many of the entrepreneurial successes and ideas that Google used to make it to the top. One of these big ideas was using a pay-per-click method. They were not the first to use this idea, stealing it from Bill Gross, the inventor of the Magellan desktop search engine. Even so they used it effectively and profitably. Another effective method they use is tailoring ads to the user. What the user searches for the site recognizes key words and brings ads that involve these key words. Google also is not content to stay static. The company grows, adapts, and changes to satisfy customers and reintroduce it’s name to the population periodically.
The final part of the book focuses on the future of search engines and Google itself. This is speculation, but speculation from a leading technical journal editor. He hypothesizes that Google could potentially become a central platform for our entire lives, having every piece of information at our fingertips anytime, anywhere.
A Brief Introduction to WiMAX:
WiMAX is a technology that has many useful applications in the real world. It is wireless in nature, and therefore very flexible. It can potentially be used in a variety of ways, such as; broadband internet access, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as a substitute for the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN), Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) as a replacement for cable and satellite television, or even as a mobile telephone service. All these applications are well within the broad spectrum of WiMAX (What is WiMax?, 2007).
WiMAX works in a simple way. An Internet Service Provider (ISP) transmits the signal to a WiMAX transmitter. This transmitter then sends the signal along the air to another tower, which can further transmit the signal. Eventually the signal is picked up by a WiMAX receiver and an internet connection is established and maintained. This is done through a licensed radio frequency spectrum. The diagram below on the left helps to illustrate this (Grabianowski & Brain, 2007).
(Grabianowski & Brain, 2007) (What is WiMax?, 2007)
This signal, when sent point to point with a direct line of sight (LOS) can transmit data of speeds up to 72Mbps over a distance of 30 miles. This is an extremely high data rate for such a long distance. Point to point means that the signal is sent from one site directly to another site without having any other receivers pick up the signal. Point to multipoint is when a signal is broadcast concentrically around a transmitter to be picked up by all WiMAX receivers in the area. With this signal a data rate of 40Mbps with a radius of six miles from the antennae is possible. This is for a non-line of sight (NLOS) signal. The diagram on the above right can help illustrate this (What is WiMax?, 2007).
Where WiMAX is used Today:
In India, which is one of the fastest growing telecommunications markets in the world, a company called Aircel Business Solutions has committed as much as $100 million to build a WiMAX network. This network would be located in Chennai, which is in the southern portion of India, and is also where Aircel is based. This is looked as a beginning step forward to integrating WiMAX completely into India. 14 percent of India’s 600,000 villages do not even have one phone. With WiMAX technology information transfer could easily become accessible to these people (Kowalke, 2006).
In Korea the government is heavily pushing wireless broadband access. To this end they have been aiding the technology called WiBro. This is essentially the same as WiMAX but developed by the Koreans. They are actually ahead of the United States in deployment of wireless broadband technology. The government has set aside frequency spectrums for wireless broadband and vendor companies such as LG Electronics and Samsung Ltd have already begun building WiBro systems (Korzeniowski, 2005).
The Chinese have developed a plan to have 150 base stations made available covering over 90 percent of Beijing’s commercial and residential areas. While it is not clear whether or not this system will be ready for public use or not, the infrastructure will be there and available for future use. While China is moving slower than is fellow Asian country Korea, WiMAX is still in development and part of the Chinese’s future (Sun, 2007).
Recent Developments in WiMAX:
One of the biggest developments in recent wireless technology history is the adoption of WiMAX into the IMT-2000 standard. The IMT-2000 standard is regulated by the International Telecommunication Union. These standards are in place to regulate 3G, or the 3rd generation wireless networks. To have WiMAX included within these strict standards is a step forward for the technology. This significantly escalates the opportunity for worldwide deployment. This is the first time a new interface has been added to IMT-2000 in almost a decade (WiMAX Forum Newsroom, 2007).
In July of 2007 an advancement was made in WiMAX that caught everyone’s attention. Sprint and Clearwire, a leading WiMAX developer, had inked a deal to build a nationwide wireless WiMAX network. Sprint was going to produce 65 percent of the network with Clearwire being responsible for the remaining 35 percent. Nearly four months after this deal had been done, it was undone. As much as this was a step forward initially, it is almost as much as a step backward now. While Sprint still insists on creating this network, they now have to find a different vendor company, create a new deal, and create new infrastructure plans before they can continue with the project. While this only delays WiMAX and it’s eventually deployment, it will still take more time. This infrastructure was estimated at being able to reach over 100 million Americans (Cox, 2007).
The Future of WiMAX:
Intel, one of the leaders in technology, is fully backing WiMAX technology. Intel is planning to eventually mass produce highly integrated silicon solutions. By the end of this year, 2007, Intel will have add-in cards available for purchase and use. By then end of 2008 fully integrated Wi-Fi/WiMAX modules will be developed. These modules are code named “Echo Peak” currently. This integration would provide convenient broadband connectivity anywhere it is need. The home, office, and on the go people could all be serviced (WiMAX Broadband Wireless Technology, 2007).
Eventually a system known as a Global Area Network, or GAN, could potentially become available. This GAN would supply data and voice communication anywhere on Earth. WiMAX is a serious step in the direction of creating a completely global system of information transfer. With the data rates possible at a 30 mile distance a global infrastructure is less a thing of the far future, and more of an immediate concern (BGAN (Broadband Global Area Network), 2007).
Defining Human Communication
When defining a short phrase it is initially best to look at each word individually. In the case of human communication there are two words in the phrase. One word is easy to define, and the other is more complicated. The word human is referring to the bipedal, sometimes intelligent beings that populate the surface of Earth. The more complicated word is communication, which requires more thought.
Analysis of Dictionary Definition:
Merriam – Webster defines communication as “a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior.” There are a few key points within this definition that require attention. The first is that communication requires more than one individual. There has to be someone to receive the information that is sent for a message to be transmitted. One of the most interesting words in the definition is “common.” Common relays the fact that both individuals must have the same system of symbols or signs to fully understand the information that is being sent between them. Without a common system, the message is lost. The symbols and signs that are mentioned come in a few different forms as well. One system that is obvious is the language that is being spoken. Languages are complex systems of many signs that represent sounds and when put together relay meaning. Another example would be a peace sign. A peace sign is a symbol that relays the meaning of a single word.
One distinction that is not made obvious is that communication is both verbal and non-verbal. Verbal encompasses both spoken and written communication, and non-verbal is information that is relayed through body language and body signaling. Some examples of non-verbal communication are a wave, wink, or nod. All of these send a message that a receiver can decode and understand. Verbal communication requires a language. If there is no language the sounds being made or words being written cannot be decoded by the receiver.
Medium:
There are other traits involved in communication as well. One is the medium. The medium is what the message is sent through to get to the receiver. If communication is verbal then there are a few mediums it could travel across. Verbal communication, if the two communicators are close to each other, is sent through the air in between the individuals. If they are far away and on the phone, then the medium is the phone wires. Similarly, if it is written then the medium is the paper. This aspect allows for the message to be transmitted.
Listening:
Listening is one of the most important characteristics of communication. If the message is coming to a non-receptive receiver then the message is lost. The listener also has to understand and comprehend the message. Usually this requires a language, but even without one, rudimentary signals and working together can be enough to get a message across. If the communication is to continue then the listener to would have to respond and the original sender would then become the listener.
Conclusion:
Human communication may seem like a simple thing, but that is only on the surface. When looking deeper there are many aspects that make communication a tricky study, but looking at each word individually helps the process. There are many traits that are taken for granted, such as a common language and the medium. To understand human communication it is necessary to keenly observe the people around and to recognize what makes them effectively interact with each other, and this interaction is what has allowed people to advance so far socially. To accurately define human communication it was necessary to separate each word into individual components that make up every aspect of the word, and after analyzing each word in this way a much clearer definition was formed.
Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com
Amazon.com is known as one of the largest shopping sites on the internet. It could be described as the Wal-Mart of the online community. With so many different categories, items, and products to buy from it could be considered one stop shopping for online goods. But where did this site come from? Why is it so successful today and has it always been successful? Who is the genius behind the concept and implementation of such a massive community? The answer to these questions is a man born Jeff Bezos. Bezos was a visionary in a population that did not recognize its full potential. With his ideas and foresight he brought Amazon.com into the front of the online community and transformed a small online book dealership into the multi-billion conglomerate industry it is today.
Early History of Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos was born on January 12, 1964 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He grew up spending most of his summers at his grandfather’s ranch in Texas, working on various tasks and showing a surprising amount of mechanical aptitude. When he was a young boy he was able to dismantle his crib with a screwdriver. This helps to illustrate the kind of man that Bezos would grow up to be. This task took initiative, curiosity, ingenuity, and a certain amount of roguishness to accomplish. He would apply many of these same attributes later in life to his business.
Jeffrey’s biological father left he and his mother when Jeff was only one year old. She remarried to his stepfather, Mike Bezos, when Jeff was four. Mike had escaped from Cuba when he was fifteen and managed to get an education from the University of Albuquerque. This helped to provide Jeffrey with an exemplary role model to look up to. Mike was an engineer and moved the family to Houston to work for Exxon.
With his mechanical aptitude and a father in the engineering business he began to show much interest in science. He did many of his experiments out of his parents’ garage. After the stint in Houston, the Bezos family moved to Miami, Florida. This is where Jeff attended high school and did very well there. He was the valedictorian of his year and fell in love with computers (Jeff Bezos Biography, 2005).
College and Early Business Career
With this love of computers he attended Princeton University. His original plan had been to study physics, but soon turned back to this old love. With computer science and electrical engineering degrees Jeff was ready to move into the real world and was driven to make money.
After Princeton Bezos found employment on Wall Street with the stock market. With his computer science background he was able to help study market trends electronically. He began his career at a company called Fitel, which was a start-up company. He worked for other financial businesses as well, including Bankers Trust, and D. E. Shaw. At Bankers Trust he was able to move up into a Vice Presidency, and at D. E. Shaw he found his future wife. Her name is Mackenzie and was a Princeton Graduate as well. He was eventually able to move up into a Senior Vice Presidency position at D. E. Shaw. This was when he made a brilliant career move, but also had to take a big leap of faith (Jeff Bezos Biography, 2005).
A Brief History of the Internet
The internet was first developed in the 1960s. J.C.R Licklider of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology first proposed a global network of computers in 1962, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, headed the development of this project. Lawrence Roberts of MIT successfully connected a Massachusetts computer with a California computer in 1965 over normal dial up telephone lines. Roberts moved to the DARPA project in 1966 and developed the plan for the ARPANET.
In 1969 the ARPANET was brought online by ARPA, which was DARPA renamed. It connected four major universities; UCLA, Stanford Research Institute, UCSB, and the University of Utah. In 1970 MIT, Harvard, BBN, and Systems Development Corp. were also added to the network. Even more were included in 1971 and the system kept growing after that.
In the 1970s the internet matured with the advent of the TCP/IP architecture. It replaced the NCP, or Network Control Protocol and was universally adopted by 1983. TCP/IP was one of the true stepping stones in the creation of the modern internet, and the TCP/IP system is still used today.
Tim Burners-Lee and others at CERN proposed a new protocol for information systems in 1991. This was a hypertext based system. This means it used a system of links embedded in pages and text to link to other text and pages. This is the system still in use today by modern graphical web browsers such as Mozilla’s Firefox, Microsoft’s Explorer, and Safari or Opera.
The next huge development in the internet as we know it today was the design and implementation of a graphical web browser called Mosaic. This was created by Marc Andreessen and a team at the NCSA, or National Center for Supercomputing Applications. This was the first one of its kind, and Andreessen then moved on and created the next generation called Netscape (Howe, 2007).
The Start of Amazon.com
This is where the internet and Jeff Bezos collide. In the spring of 1994 Jeff noticed that internet usage was rising by 2300 percent a year. This is an astronomical number. Without any internet commercial traffic to speak of Bezos, like many other visionaries, saw a grand opportunity in front of him. With the scientific mind that he has, Bezos researched leading mail-order companies to see which could be a viable fit for the new internet medium. His conclusion came to books, because no comprehensive mail-order service existed for them. With the internet a vast database could be used to hold all the information of all the books. No catalog is large enough to do this (Jeff Bezos Biography, 2005).
After attending the American Booksellers’ Convention in Los Angeles, Bezos found out that most major book sellers had already put together large electronic lists of their stockpiles of books. If he could get a single location on the internet for all of these books where interested parties could search these sellers and order directly from the company he would be in business. He also knew he would have go into business by himself, which was a substantial risk. He sacrificed his safe job and made the decision to start this company (Jeff Bezos Biography, 2005).
He relocated to Seattle to get in touch with Ingram which was a book whole seller. His wife Mackenzie drove, and on the way Jeff typed up a business plan on the way. He decided to name it Amazon after the mighty river in South America. It seems to have no end and an infinite amount of branches (Ramo, 1999).
On July 16, 1995, Bezos opened Amazon to the world. He had 300 beta testers and his code worked across all platforms. He had three Sun Microstations set up on tables made from doors he purchased at Home Depot for less than 60 dollars each. These 300 beta testers spread the news about the website to everyone they could. By then end of 30 days Amazon had sold books to all 50 states and across 45 countries in the world. By that September they were making 20,000 dollars a week in sales. (Jeff Bezos Biography, 2005)
Continued Expansion
Amazon went public in 1997. They had seen steady growth, but skeptics still wondered if an online bookstore could continue to succeed. Other larger companies were still in charge of the market and this could potentially be a problem.
Two years after the skepticism Amazon proved them all wrong by being larger than its two greatest competitors combined (Frey & Cook, 2004).
Bezos then unveiled his newest strategy. To take Amazon from the internet’s biggest book store to the internet’s biggest everything store. Again skeptics though that too much growth could kill the company. Again they were wrong, and the wise people that had invested money in Amazon.com were now if not billionaires, at least millionaires (Jeff Bezos Biography, 2005).
Surviving the dot com burst
When the century turned and the year 2000 was upon us, Amazon.com start to hit its darkest hours. With the focus on getting big quickly, and restructuring internal organization by laying off over 150 employees, Amazon.com saw huge losses. By summer of 2000 stock had dropped by one third and it reported a loss of 500 million dollars plus for the holiday fourth quarter. In 2001 Amazon reported an annual loss of 1.4 billion dollars. Many speculated this was the end of the road for them (Frey & Cook, 2004).
Bezos had had enough of it. He restructured the entire organization. He layed off 1,300 workers, tore down two warehouses, and got rid of a call center. He told his people to stop selling items that weren’t profitable, and made a great focus on customer service. It started to bolster it’s offerings by selling products in other peoples warehouses as opposed to his own. He could directly sell Target products or Toy “R” Us products. He had pulled his company out of the slump by what seemed to be sheer will, but was in actuality great management and implementation of a successful strategy (Frey & Cook, 2004).
Awards and Lasting Contributions
In 1999 Jeff Bezos won Time Magazines Person of the Year award. At the tender age of 35, he was the fourth youngest to ever win the award. Only Charles Lindbergh, Queen Elizabeth II, and Martin Luther King Jr. were younger. Dubbed the King of cybercommerce by the magazine it was easy to see why. With his revolutionary vision and excellent managerial techniques he pioneered the idea of internet commerce. He was able to survive the dot com burst with an idea of refocusing and customer service. He has been able to keep this company successful for over 13 years (Ramo, 1999).
There are people who have not bought a compact disc at a store in years. There are other people who have not bought clothes at a retail mall in this same amount of time. The reason is because all they have to do is point and click on a website. The clothes or compact discs or anything else will be delivered directly to their doorstep. This is the idea that Jeff Bezos had and has made successful, not only for himself but for other internet whole sellers as well. These are the advancements that helped to make the internet a success.
I would be remiss if I did not first mention CICS as being a mover and shaker. Within this community upstanding citizens of various technological skills are entering or have already entered job markets. These people all have the training required to participate in this movement. From VP's of AT&T to entrepreneurs of WiMAX there are many people in important positions.
Another important entity is the ITU. This is the International Telecommunications Union. This body has over 200 members, each member a different country. These countries get together and help to decide important telecommunications regulations, and these regulations are part of the future of information. They recently added WiMAX to the IMT-2000 standard which is a great start. This will help to push this emerging technology to the foreground.
The other large companies involved with this are the vendor companies. Companies such as Sprint are looking to completely deploy WiMAX around the United States. This network would definitely revolutionize the information industry.
3.1 3G Today
As stated before, CDMA2000 and WCDMA are the two most relevant technologies in use today. They are the dominant forces in 3G. CDMA2000 was one of the first operational 3G technologies, and was capable of transmitting data faster than dial up. Now over 285 million people are using CDMA2000 and enjoying the increased throughput capabilities and data services over 2G technologies.
There is also WCDMA, or Wideband Code Division Multiple Access. This is also known as UMTS, or Universal Mobile Telecommunication System, and is most often chosen by GSM operators. UMTS is completely backwards compatible with GSM and GPRS systems that were widely used in Europe. This makes the evolution from existing 2G technologies to 3G much simpler. WCDMA offers rates faster than dial up services and average rates that are greater than both GSM and GPRS. Over 130 million subscribers are using WCDMA solutions for their mobile and voice needs today.
3G wireless services, including CDMA2000 and UMTS enable consumers and professionals to experience excellent voice quality as well as a wide array of compelling data services today, including:
• Mobile Internet Connectivity
• Mobile Email
• Multimedia services, such as digital photos and movies
• Wireless Application Downloading
• Video-on-Demand
• Real Time Multiplayer Gaming
• Enhanced Emergency services
http://www.3gtoday.com/wps/portal/3ghome?page=home
3.2 ITU and IMT – 2000
IMT-2000, or International Mobile Telecommunications, was created by the International Telecommunications Union, or ITU, and governs what exactly is included in the 3G spectrum. It is a set of standards that regulates what is included. It helps to provide a framework for worldwide wireless access by linking diverse systems of both satellite and terrestrial based networks.
In 1999 the ITU approved five radio interfaces for IMT-2000 and recently approved a sixth in 2007. These interfaces are
• WCDMA, used in UMTS
• CDMA2000
• TD-CDMA
• EDGE
• DECT
• WiMAX
WiMAX is the most recent technology added (Presentation, 2007).
The ITU is the leading United Nations agency for information and communications technologies. Its role within the UN is to provide a focal point for governments and the private sectors communications and regulations of those communications. There are three main divisions; radio communication, standardization, and development.
The ITU spearheads telecommunications development on a global scale. It fosters the deployment of information and telecommunication technology in developing countries by consulting on development strategies and frameworks. It also provides technical assistance in security, management, financing, and installation and management.
In Paris in 1865 was when the International Telecommunications Union was founded, but did not actually become a part of the United Nations until 1947. The ITU now numbers 191 members and over 700 public and private sector companies as well as international and regional telecommunications entities. It gives acknowledgement and voice to all of its members and its mission is to provide efficient telecommunications worldwide (ITU, 2007).
http://www.itu.int/net/home/index.aspx