Margaret Thatcher once said “Governments are bad businessmen, privatization at any cost would be better than keeping with the costs of ineffective structure”. Neither governments are good webmasters, website of the Israeli Institute of Export is a compelling example of how governments can botch a simple thing. A recent study from researchers at Princeton University suggests an interesting approach. The governments should publish raw information in RSS/XML format instead of putting it into clumsy websites. Information will be further disseminated, mashed up and syndicated by zillions of content aggregators.

Still one can’t underestimate capacity of governments to screw up even simple tasks. XBRL, Extensible Business Reporting Language, a XML-based microformat for financial reporting, is being implemented for ten years.

In a move to get into online document editing market Adobe introduced Acrobat 9 software, an upgrade that enables creating and sharing electronic documents. Acrobat 9 supports for Adobe Flash technology, the ability to unify a wide range of content in rich PDF Portfolios, and access to real-time capabilities for sharing and editing a PDF document with colleagues.

Acrobat 9 enables users to include Adobe Flash Player compatible video and application files in PDF documents, thus effectively converting static documents into dynamic. Acrobat 9 also includes the ability to unify a wide range of content into a single document with the new concept of PDF Portfolios. PDF Portfolios allow to assemble multiple media types, such as documents, video, audio, and even 3D objects, into one, compressed PDF file. Users can then choose among several professional layouts — or create their own — to quickly integrate content, define navigation, and add polish and branding. As a result, communications such as sales proposals, legal documents, and product collateral can become far more customized and compelling.

In addition, Acrobat 9 provides access to capabilities for collaborating live within a PDF document — enabled by working with Acrobat.com, a new suite of hosted services Adobe introduced as public beta today. For example, a salesperson could use Acrobat 9 to send a lengthy contract to clients. The sales professional, or any of the recipients using Adobe Reader1, can then drive the group’s navigation through the PDF document in real-time working with Acrobat.com. This helps ensure everyone is literally, and figuratively, on the same page.

Additionally, Acrobat 9 users can access Acrobat.com for storing and sharing files, use it as a central location for collecting data as part of a forms process, and to gather comments in a shared document review. Acrobat.com includes other services, such as Adobe ConnectNow, personal Web conferencing that provides desktop sharing, video and voice conferencing, and integrated chat; and Adobe Buzzword, an elegant, Web-based word processor that can be used to easily co-author and share documents for comment and review, creating high-quality print results.

via Business Wire

Internal and external threat, high energy prices and ceaseless quest of the Saudi Royal family to secure the realm will create a tremendous new demand for defense and security equipment and services in Saudi Arabia.

A recent market research report on Saudi Defense and Security Market reveals a stunning figure of $115 Billion cumulative 2008-2018 Saudi defense and security market. The report outlines business opportunities for surveillance equipment, perimeter protection equipment and ID card management.

Related reports:
Saudi Oil Industry Security Market

Below is the testimony of of Andrew Siegel, Vice President, When Pigs Fly, Inc., before U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The subject of the hearing is how fuel subsidies impact food supply.

Our bakery was started in 1993. Since then it has it has grown and changed dramatically. The Bakery has gone from a sole proprietorship baking 85 loaves per day and delivering to a handful of local stores and restaurants to where it is today. Delivering to over 250 grocery stores and supermarkets in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and a small presence in Rhode Island , Connecticut, New Jersey and New York . The bakery also has established 5 company stores where we bake and deliver our fresh breads seven days a week and we have an online business where customers can order and have breads shipped anywhere in the country. We have about 50 employees who are full and part time This is an increase of 25% over last year.

As in any business there are lots of obstacles and hurdles to overcome. I think that when a business starts up the odds of it surviving 10 years is not very high. So when we look at the decisions to be made one of the factors that we take into consideration is what can and what can’t we control.

We are very fortunate that the bread we bake is a product that consumers really like. The biggest challenges we face are not where to deliver our bread but how do we get it there and insure that the quality maintained as we grow the business.

So what hurdles has the bakery faced recently and what steps can we make to insure that we can continue to bake quality bread and deliver them to our customers at a reasonable price.

In the last 2 years we have seen some dramatic price increases in every part of our business. The cost of propane, electricity, gasoline, ingredients like honey, nuts, seeds, flour have had increases of 50 to 100% . We use about 50000 lbs of flour per week. If you relate that into costs

in September of 2007 it was about $7600 per week
In October of 2007 it increased to $9700 per week
in December it was $12400 per week that’s when things started to get crazy there were rumors that there may not be enough of some kinds of flour to get through until the next crop. So from December until the end of February the price went as high as $28000 per week. Before reaching the $28000 level I purchased some at $22000. An increase of 189% just from September

So now the price is about $15000 per week 100% above the cost of flour in September but almost 50% lower than where it was at the end of February.

The factors involved as I understand it is corn being planted instead of wheat to make ethanol, China’s economy growing and using more grains to feed livestock , The worst weather conditions making this the poorest wheat crop in decades and hedge funds
manipulating driving prices up in a bubble and causing us bakeries and the consumers to bear the costs. So when the prices are racing to the sky literally by thousands of dollars per week. Our bakery and every other bakery has to purchase flour or go out of business. So now we have raised our prices. Customers are upset and our employees are feeling the pain due to no pay raises and increased costs of all their living expenses. I think that we will survive this crisis. My fear is that if all of the above mentioned factors continue that next year we will not be so lucky.

Here is conclusion of Bruce A. Babcock, Director of the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development, Iowa State University, made at the same hearing of U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs:

“Thus, unless we have a return to $40 or $50 crude oil, we can expect the price of corn to be well above historical levels for the foreseeable future even if all support for corn ethanol were eliminated.”

A stratospheric airship is an airship designed to fly at very high altitudes (30,000 - 70,000 ft or 10 - 20 km). An unmanned lighter-than-air vehicle, the HAA, is intended to operate above the jet stream in a quasi-geostationary position to deliver persistent station keeping as a surveillance platform, telecommunications relay, or a weather observer. Such airship would be in the air for up to one month or for longer time and can survey a 600 mile diameter of land. It will use solar cells to provide its power and will be unmanned during its flight. Though the concept is very tempting, it’s still more concept than mature technology.

However, there is an entire industry launching radiosondes to gather weather information in stratosphere. This is how U.S. Patent 6,628,941 describes this field:

“Radiosondes are the instrument packages launched on weather balloons to gather weather data. Radiosondes are launched from a network of sites around the world at noon and at midnight Greenwich Mean Time each day. The weather service radiosondes collect temperature, humidity, pressure and wind data as they rise from the surface of the Earth to approximately 100,000 feet during a two-hour flight. This data is then input in atmospheric models that are run on supercomputers. The information gathered from the network of ascending radiosondes is critical in predicting the weather. Most countries of the world are bound by treaty to launch radiosondes from designated sites and to share the data with other countries. Currently there are about 800,000 radiosondes launched each year throughout the world. This number represents the 997 global weather stations launching two radiosondes per day, 365 days per year (727,000) plus a small number of radiosondes launched for military and research purposes. About 18% of radiosondes are recovered, reconditioned and reclaimed, resulting in new production of about 650,000 weather-gathering radiosondes per year. “

Space Data Corporation, Chandler, Arizona-based startup, has come with a solution to merge a concept of stratospheric airship with existing technology of radiosondes. Currently Space Data technology allows to reach mobile phone users in rural areas lacking reliable reception. The problem is that it’s too expensive to put cable or build cell towers in low population density areas (eighty percent of the U.S. population live in 10 percent of the U.S. area). Cell sites cost about $250,000. Space Data corporation took approach of launching expendable stratospheric platforms with lifetime of 24 hours.

Space Data Corporation launches large latex balloons filled with hydrogen. The balloon has attached a six-pound Styrofoam wrapped box that contains the transceiver. The balloon reaches altitude of 20 miles into the stratosphere. It lasts for 24 hours before bursting in the thin air. The transceiver, which costs about $1,500, parachutes to earth. The transceiver has GPS that allows to track and recover it (it also has sticker with reward coupon of $100 for returning it to the company). Inexpensive weather balloon costs about $50 a pop.

One balloon covers radius of about 420 miles. Space Data’s network presently covers rural areas in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana by launching daily 10 balloons.

Space Data has raised $75 million in funding and has about 100 employees. The firm got its breakthrough in 2005 by winning a five-year, $49 million contract from the U.S. Air Force.

Space Data technology is a good case study how a small/medium-sized company can tap into Homeland Security/Defense market. The tragic consequences of Hurricane Katrina made all too evident the drastic need for providing communications in emergency situation.

Space Data technology may prove itself as an inexpensive and way to launch backup cellular network in the disaster stricken area. It would take about 40 balloons for nationwide machine-to-machine wireless connectivity or 200-plus balloons for nationwide wireless voice coverage (according to one of the company’s press releases).

We can’t say yet that the market for expendable stratospheric platforms has already emerged. So far it’s rather small niche pursued by a small company. However, if the challenges of extending stratospheric platform lifetime and bringing down cost of payload will be overcome, we may witness emergence of new market.