The Semantic Viewpoint's RSS Forum

Introducing the ebTDesign Forum: Expanding the Opportunities for Small Business Success

2005-11-05T16:46:00.000-08:00

The Semantic Viewpoint RSS Forum has moved to its new home at the ebTDesign Forum which will build on next generation productivity discussion. The ebTDesign Forum will have a new expanded charter and new ways to help small businesses compete in the global marketplace. New topics like the following will be discussed regularly:

• Why is relevance management so important to small business competitiveness?
• How will the P2P Economy impact the nature of business services delivery?
• What is the difference between the IT Investment mindset and Enterprise Software Management mindset?
• How can F.I.R.M. Leadership be used to create competitive advantage and productivity lead growth?

Readers of the Semantic Viewpoint RSS Forum are encouraged to continue to follow the discussion on the ebTDesign Forum web site.

Three Broad Strategies

2005-10-24T20:39:00.000-07:00

How to provide services to constituents is one of the most fundamental design decisions that executives must make. This most basic of all design decisions has enormous implications on the running of the business and the establishment of trust. Getting the service delivery wrong can undermine all of the team building efforts that a company may have underway. IT Investment Vehicles are capital planning and investment control tools. These tools can be used most effectively to plan for the future and communicate those plans to the company at large.

The three broad strategies are as follows:

Data-Centric IT Investment strategies are focused on maintaining the integrity and control of data. The most important goal is the accumulation of all the data under the control of one group. This is the most traditional and the most conservative IT Investment strategies.

Net-Centric IT Investment strategies are focused on supplying users with desired services upon request. The most basic tenet is that services must be distributed and raw data must flow as quickly as possible so that the users can process it at their own convenience. This is the most cost effective IT Investment strategies for service providers.

Peer-Centric IT Investment strategies are focused on the relationship and trust that users have with each other. The most basic philosophy of the Peer-Centric IT Investment strategy is that users will do what is in their own best interest at the time. These environments are built on decentralized P2P (Peer-to-Peer) Federations. Participants are free to seek value wherever they choose based on their particular needs at the moment.

Congressman Wolf at October TechDonuts: Communicating the Need for Innovation

2005-10-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

Congressman Frank Wolf was the featured speaker at the TechDonuts meeting hosted by the NVTC Entrepreneur Center last week. He spoke at length about his concerns about the future competitiveness of American industry. He talked about the shortage of native-born students in the engineering and sciences programs. He spoke about asking a group of scientist what they believed was the current state of science and innovation in America. None of the scientists replied that we were doing okay. About forty percent said we were in a stall and the remainder said we were in decline. [1]

The Congressman also said that many Americans are unaware of this trend. During the Q&A portion of the program, I asked the panel what we could do to get the word out to the American people at large. One of the panel members did not feel that there was a problem. I then recounted a conversation I had with a foreign businessperson about the competitiveness of U.S. companies in the mobile phone industry. The foreign businessperson said some of his colleagues feel that American companies are so far behind that it is funny.

One of the other panelists chimed in that he had heard that comment before from other foreign businesspeople. He also said that foreign businesspeople are starting to poach American students with advanced degrees. The businesspeople ask students with ethnic ties to Europe, if they wouldn’t be happier returning to Europe to start their careers. In fact, one of the audience members said the Chinese have a term for it: Sea Turtles. A sea turtle is a Chinese national who studies abroad then comes home to have their children and start their businesses.

Congressman Wolf highlighted once again the need to fire up the engines of innovation in Northern Virginia. There is a need to show the world that the people in Northern Virginia have what it takes to compete in the global market place. There is a need to show that we have the will to maintain our standard of living for ourselves and future generations.

[1] This statement was also made during the announcement of the National Innovation Summit.

OASIS Announces Semantic Execution Environment (SEE) TC: The Web Services Community Can’t Wait

2005-10-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) recently sent a “Call for Participation” email for the Semantic Execution Environment Technical Committee (TC). The email went out before there was a true web site or the requisite press release that accompanies all new technical committees. The only thing that was available was a place to signup and that was all that was necessary to start the ball rolling.

Word of mouth about the new semantic web services standard quickly took over. OASIS members began forwarding the “Call for Participation” email around the Internet to the groups that have been working for years to develop and implement international web services standards. The email has been received in these groups with the kind of hopeful anticipation generally reserved for birthday gifts. Meetings have been hastily planned to discuss new strategies for solving the world’s business problems using this new standard.

For those readers that haven’t seen the “Call for Participation” email, here is a short excerpt:

The OASIS SEE TC aims to continue work initiated by the WSMX project and working group and several other projects in Europe such as DIP, ASG and other projects in the area of Semantic Web Services … The aim of the SEE TC is to provide guidelines, justifications and implementation direction for an execution environment for Semantic Web Services.

Hopefully, this international web services standard will produce results. The leaders of the web services communities and the large enterprise software vendors have been promising a revolution since the latter part of 2000. It seems that the web services community can’t wait.

Global Energy Markets: A Dangerous Illusion?

2005-10-10T18:04:00.000-07:00

ndividual countries are handling high energy prices in different ways. Some countries are subsidizing the cost of gas and oil prices and have been for quite some time. Others have been passing all the price increases on to consumers. The Washington Post article “High Oil Prices Met with Anger Worldwide” talks about the illusion of a coherent global energy market place.

The current energy situation is a disaster waiting to happen and local leaders should take action. The gas and oil prices are supposed to be set globally and uniformly. After Hurricane Katrina, there were no uniform prices throughout the US. There wasn’t even a uniform price in the greater Washington DC area. The effects of energy speculation were even more glaring than normal.

Local leaders should look for ways to foster energy policy ownership at the local level. Groups like the local “homeowner’s association” can use the peer-to-peer relationships of neighbors to create a localized energy policy. All technology adoption is local and the best solutions to global problems are often local solutions. Creating a local culture of self-sufficient energy ownership is the best way to handle the emerging energy crisis.

NVTC Fall Fusion Fest Buzz: Not Even Rain Slowed the Small Business Development Action

2005-10-08T13:27:00.000-07:00

The Fall Fusion Fest is one of the two events each season that all the NVTC committees meet in one place. The small business development action was nonstop. The Reston Town Center Pavilion has a glass roof and is open on all sides. At the height of the event, participants felt a cooling mist drift into the Pavilion because of the substantial downpour that was taking place outside. Few, if any, stopped their pitches because of the inclement weather.

The general buzz was whipped to a fevered pitch by those members who had attended the NVTC “Meet the Capital Players” event earlier in the day. The topic of this meeting was the investment climate for Voice Over IP (VOIP). However, the event took a very interesting turn when the topic of Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) and Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) came up. SIP enables the integration of advanced phone services over VOIP and BPL could render Wi-Fi and Cable modems obsolete. BPL uses standard indoor power wires to carry data at broadband speeds over the Internet.

Bolstered by the “Meet the Capital Players” buzz, there was a lot of talk about starting the New Media Special Interest Group (SIG). A number of people, who are interested in supporting the New Media SIG, were identified. Some of them had ridden the dotcom bubble and done well. Others have current clients that are involved in new media businesses and still others were interested in modeling/simulation. There was even a delegation from the Fairfax County Computer Club House and the Fairfax County Economic Development Agency talking about the benefits of the New Media SIG. The night ended well and a new technical SIG was born.

PS: I only got elbowed a couple of times. But there was no bruising.

NVTC Fall Fusion Fest: Another Chance to Talk New Media

2005-10-05T04:29:00.000-07:00

The NVTC Fall Fusion Fest is tomorrow. This event will provide a great opportunity to talk about the need to support small new media companies and practice hipchecking competitors into the stands. The event will be held at the Reston Town Center Pavilion at 5:30 p.m. right next to Clyde’s Restaurant. The Pavilion doubles as an ice-rink in the winter, which makes it the perfect venue to play the small business development game. The owners have taken down the boards that separate the players from the stands. So, every player is eligible to compete. See you there.

Virginia’s Governor Warner: The Commonwealth’s New Media and Computer Simulations Advantage

2005-10-01T15:10:00.000-07:00

Governor Mark Warner was the featured speaker at the Fairfax County IBEC (International Business Exchange Council) meeting last week. He spoke at length about export opportunities around the world and the assistance that his administration has given to Virginia firms.

In the Q&A portion of the program, I asked him about the potential for new media companies in Virginia. He responded by saying that the future looks really bright. He said that he has worked hard to highlight the efforts of the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) at Old Dominion University.

There are enormous opportunities available to small new media companies that embark on dual-use strategies. Generally, developing new businesses require a lot of faith and a long-term view of investment timelines. Small new media companies may be able to develop a very supportive niche by working on DOD and/or Public Sector simulation and modeling projects. Eventually, new media companies that pursue a DOD/Public Sector strategy will have to deal with on-demand customers in the private sector. To be successful, they will have to develop a unique peer-to-peer customer support culture. The advantage of small businesses being headquartered in the Commonwealth is that there are people in government that understand how to help.

Need to Turn the Engine of Innovation: Unleash the Power of the New Media SIG

2005-09-24T16:02:00.000-07:00

Now that the impact of the BRAC recommendations has fallen off the front pages of even the local papers, we must start to investigate the future direction of the Northern Virginia economy.

Government employees often talk about how slowly the “boat” turns when talking about large federal programs. This same analogy can be used for a regional economy that is supported by large government programs. Earlier in the year, there was a lot of talk about the potential for “new media programs.” Now is the time for leaders in Northern Virginia to start a New Media Special Interest Group (SIG) to investigate the opportunities for this region to develop a New Media industry.

New Media is the term used to talk about the changes that on-demand consumers are having on the “media landscape.” The new media business model is more of an attitude than a single technology or business strategy. In this new business environment, customers want to be treated as peers. They don’t want to be owned. They are very skeptical of any claim, inherently self-reliant, and radically independent.

The New Media SIG will identify the current resources available to support small companies that want to develop New Media programs. The New Media SIG will facilitate cooperation between local companies, higher education and local government. This cooperation will lead to training for the business support people and the development of support organizations where needed. The activity of New Media Programs will capitalize on the region’s traditional and mobile Internet dominance. Let’s hear it for the future of New Media programs in Northern Virginia.

Full steam ahead!

A Little Weekend Humor: Start of the Small Business Development Season

2005-09-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

In case you haven’t heard, small business development is like a team sport. Executive management, the employees, and all the investors have to work together to squeeze as much productivity as possible out of each and every event. The Semantic Viewpoint will start covering the major business development events in Northern Virginia with box scores and highlights.

In many ways, covering a small business event is a lot like covering a basketball game or hockey match. In fact, small business development has many things in common with both. Small business development events take place in large indoor venues. Like hockey, small business development is a contact sport where it is completely within the rules to hip check anyone that tries to approach another player’s prospect. Like basketball, more than one player has been injured by an “inadvertent” elbow during business card swaps.

Like high-school and college basketball, there is a holiday business development tournament. The object of the tournament is to get invited to as many high-profile holiday parties as possible and deliver the business. The really top players excel at these matches. The reason is that these players know that their ranking for the entire year can be determined solely by their performance during the holiday season. Because of the importance of this tournament to the overall business goals of small businesses in Northern Virginia, the preparations and venues will be covered in detail during the next couple of months.

The greater Washington Area has all the major professional team sports: Washington Wizards basketball, Washington Capitals Hockey, the Washington Redskins which is the most popular football team in the NFL, and the Washington Nationals which brought baseball back to the nation’s capital. However, with all due respect to the other team sports, the most popular team sport in Northern Virginia is still small business development. Let the season begin.

The Government-Business Consultants Trend: Is it a good thing?

2005-09-15T17:38:00.000-07:00

There is an interesting article in the September 10th issue of the Economist Magazine, “From big business to big government.” This article discusses the similarities that large consultancies are finding between big business and big government.

By almost all accounts, the future of the US economy lies in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). Large companies and large government agencies have been laying-off workers since the early part of the 1990s. SMEs are the real engines of economic growth in the US economy.

Large management consultancies would be well-advised to develop business practices that can survive on the reduced profit margins and lower overhead costs that SMEs can afford. There is a need to work with small service companies to help them increase automation and reduce their cost structures. There is a need to reduce the cost of doing business with them. This would improve their productivity and the country as a whole would benefit greatly from it.

Focusing on Hydrogen Technology Companies

2005-09-13T18:12:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Katrina has dramatically focused this country’s attention on energy security. It has once again highlighted the importance of electricity. In fact, the only difference between the dark ages and today is electricity. All the other advances go by the wayside if there is no electricity like we saw in the aftermath of Katrina. Hospitals don’t function if there is no electricity. Police and fire departments can’t protect us if there is no electricity to power their radios. Electricity has become the new measure of economic prosperity.

In March, there was a local event called E-Business in the Hydrogen Economy. This program discussed Northern Virginia’s Internet dominance. It started a conversation about how companies in the region can reuse current technology investments. It showcased local hydrogen technology companies and their success stories.

The E-Business in the Hydrogen Economy event also acknowledged that there was a need for public outreach and consumer education. With the heightened level of interest in Hydrogen Technology and alternative fuel sources because of Katrina, Americans see the vulnerability of our energy infrastructure. Because of the resulting high energy prices, there is an opportunity to organize support for local hydrogen tech companies.

Some technology commentators suggested that we are twenty years away from the wide-spread commercialization hydrogen technology and other alternative fuel sources. It only took ten years to go to the moon once we decided we wanted to go. Why would commercializing hydrogen technology and other alternative fuels sources take any longer than going to the moon.

Hurricane Relief Efforts: One Nation Stands Together

2005-09-01T04:16:00.000-07:00

Many have talked about the massive devastation in many Gulf-coast states this past week. Others have talked about the ongoing relief effort. Readers of the Semantic Viewpoint are encouraged to talk about the planning and rebuilding process. The semantic web, the P2P Economy and all the other next generation technologies rely on physical and internet-based communities in this country. We are, as of this week, all members of those communities hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. We should stand as one nation and start this week to rebuild the many lives that have been so tragically affected.

Announced: UBL Procurement and Transportation Technical Committees

2005-08-24T17:38:00.000-07:00

On the same day that the BRAC Recommendations were approved, the OASIS UBL Technical Committee announced the formation of the Procurement and Transportation Sub-committees.

The Procurement and Transportation Sub-committees have been set up to expand the number of UBL-enabled electronic document implementations. These implementations are crucial to the promotion of new technologies. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) will be the major beneficiaries of widespread UBL-enabled electronic processing. Right now SMEs use fax machines as their primary means of electronic business. However, fax messages do nothing to eliminate manual data entry and the associated transaction costs.

Trade Associations in Northern Virginia should follow the lead of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and set up UBL Validation Services. The UBL Validation services provide a trusted-third party verification of document correctness. Acting now to support UBL-enabled business infrastructure improvements will help Northern Virginia retain the current leadership position in E-Commerce and critical Internet business processing.

SOX Compliance: Time Running Out on SEC Survey

2005-08-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

The SEC Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies is asking executives to comment on the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act by August 31, 2005.

Executives from Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) should watch very carefully for the results of this survey. Currently, the potential costs associated with SOX compliance can negatively impact IPO or M&A plans. Strategic investors are very wary of acquiring interests in companies that have not invested in SOX programs.

The SEC could authorize the development of Semantic web-based process control strategies for compliance management. These strategies would greatly reduce the storage costs associated with SOX compliance. The current brute-force regime relies on storing enormous amounts of data and after-the-fact inspections to determine compliance. The business world learned from Dr. W. Edward Deming that process quality has to be engineered. Hopefully, the SEC will learn the same lesson.

Future-Proofing the Northern Virginia Business Infrastructure

2005-08-15T18:48:00.000-07:00

This post continues the previous discussion about what can be done to recover from the BRAC Recommendation.

Trade associations should start the planning process now for Universal Business Language (UBL) implementation. Supporting UBL initiatives provide a way to “future-proof” the Business-to-Business and Business-to-Government infrastructures in Northern Virginia. If the recommendations of the BRAC report are defeated, then SMEs using UBL enabled software platforms will have a large cost advantage over other companies using either manual or EDI systems.

The Universal Business Language (UBL) initiative is a XML program that will help SMEs reduce their transaction costs. SMEs will be able to purchase software platforms that utilize royalty-free libraries of standard electronic XML business documents. Large organizations that want to use SMEs as suppliers will benefit from reduced paperwork. The cost savings of using UBL-enabled platforms will approach those of current EDI solutions. But, you won’t have the expensive EDI setup charges.

Fire Up the Engines of Innovation

2005-08-08T11:11:00.000-07:00

A number of people in Northern Virginia have asked me what should be done about the DOD BRAC Report. The answer is to look for opportunities in new high tech areas like the Semantic Web and the Hydrogen Economy. Move away from end-to-end or enterprise applications. Concentrate on Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Executives from SMEs have been saying for years, that all the easy problems have been solved and that they don’t need another database application. They need applications that will actually address real-world problems concerns.

Some believe that companies in Northern Virginia can’t address the concerns of private sector executives. Some say that we don’t have what it takes to compete in the global market place. Some say our companies can not exist without government contracts. They say that the entire region has fallen behind Silicon Valley because they have a better entrepreneur support system. We say it feels like 1994 and that it’s a good time to be an entrepreneur in Northern Virginia.

The Discussion Continues

2005-08-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the first post of the Semantic Viewpoint’s RSS Forum. This forum has been created to facilitate the next-generation conversation of productivity growth. Executives from Small and Medium-sized Enterprises will find information that they can use to enhance the performance of their teams without breaking the bank.

The Semantic Viewpoint’s RSS Forum continues the information sharing that was started with the Semantic Viewpoint Newsletter. The main point of the discussion is how to help executives, who are responsible for the next generation of productivity growth, reach their goals in the most cost effective way. The Semantic Viewpoint RSS Forum will enlarge the number of topics to include potential non-profit and governmental resources.