Web Development Live

Is South Korea a graveyard for overseas Internet companies? American Internet heavies such as Google, YouTube and MySpace, leaders of the so-called “web 2.0″ frenzy, face heavy odds in South Korea. Why is it that these companies boast astronomical numbers of subscribers and users in many other markets around the Web Development Tutorial world but find little luck here?

MySpace, the world’s largest online social network, launched a Korean service last week, but local portal and blog users have given the new service the cold shoulder. “I signed up out of curiosity, but I canceled my membership soon after because I found it un-user friendly,” a Korean blogger reported. Another blogger said, “MySpace isn’t new or interesting for Korean users who are already familiar with online communities like Cyworld.”

Google and YouTube are also having a hard time here. Since it launched its Korean-language service in 2006, Google, the Web Development Tutorial world’s top Internet search engine, has earned a mere 2 percent-range share of the local Internet portal market. YouTube launched a Korean-language service in January. But while the world’s largest video sharing website boasts about 30 million visitors per month in the U.S., in Korea it has only about one-tenth the number of users as PandoraTV, South Korea’s No. 1 video sharing website.

Experts say the foreign challengers have failed to understand the peculiarities of the South Korean market. Their quality suffers in comparison to local offerings in terms of Korean-language features, site design and sophistication of services, South Korean experts argue.

In addition, South Korean Internet users generally tend to be uninterested in services from abroad. AFP reported recently, “South Korea is one of the world’s most wired countries, with some 70 percent of homes having high-speed Internet access. But it has largely shunned popular overseas services.”

Since 2004, there has been no notable change in the rankings of the local portal market, where Naver tops the list. Cho Il-sang, CEO of MetriX, an online survey agency, said, “Overseas web service providers should be more sincere in approaching the Korean market, so that their participation in the Web Development Tutorial market can give a wholesome impetus to the development of the Korean Internet industry.”

In New York City, in places where hard facts don’t go, rumor and speculation fill the void.

Such is the case with 43 MacDougal St., an 1846 building that has for decades sat empty and abandoned in the West Village.

“I heard that it used to be a hangout for the mafia, and there was a police shootout there, and they had to close it for Web Development Software evidence,” said Tal Kon, 22, who has lived on the picturesque block for a year.

“I’ve heard that the FBI, or the CIA, or somebody closed it down, and that there was a dead body in there,” said Ronen Grady, who for four years has operated the hip cafe 12 Chairs across the street.

What is known about 43 MacDougal is that it is in the Charlton-King-Vandam Historic District, which makes it a landmark. It was home to a group called Citizens for a Better Village, an Italian American social club, and has fallen into a state of dangerous neglect.

Makeshift curtains cover every window in the four-story house. Rats scurry out of holes in the ground floor. Graffiti adorns the Web Development Software front doors.

The older residents, the ones with longer memories who recall when the neighborhood was home to the Genovese crime family, have kept the Omerta code, years after the last of the dons have been chased out.

“For years it was a social club, a numbers spot,” said one woman who said she had lived in the area for all of her 64 years, and who most emphatically would not give her name. Vinny “the Chin” Gigante used to work out of there. They’d be in there, smoking cigarettes. People was used to it.”

Even rock poetess Patti Smith, who has lived on the block for 10 years, is tight-lipped about the mystery building.

“I don’t talk to reporters,” she said before turning into her house.

Prospective buyers routinely knock on the house’s doors and poke around the neighborhood to find out if the building is for sale.

It isn’t, although the two men listed as owners, Abraham and Arthur Blasof, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

But the building, which would surely fetch many millions of dollars on the open market, isn’t only of interest to real estate speculators.

Preservationists say 43 MacDougal is suffering from dangerous levels of neglect, and want the city to Web Development Software step in and save a historic building before it crumbles.

“The sad thing is that this is nearly 200-year old building that has clearly been taken good care of until very recently,” said Andrew Berman, president of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. “People would kill to get their hands on it and put the love and care into it that it deserves.”

Berman’s group has reached out to the Department of Buildings, the Fire Department, and the city’s Department of Housing, Preservation and Development, but said so far they have been unresponsive.

He would like the city to begin to enforce its landmark laws, preventing demolition by Web Development Software neglect.

Environmentally friendly technologies are being developed to address a myriad of global challenges, including the need for alternate fuel sources, better drinking water treatment, and air quality improvements. Investment in the cleantech space is indicative of the increased attention to green innovation venture capital investment alone in this category has been estimated at $5 billion. Therefore, the Web Development Prices advancement of these technologies is of significant interest to business and the public at large.

When the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) launched the Eco-Patent Commons, it appeared to be a win for the “green movement.” IBM, Sony, Pitney-Bowes and Nokia are among the companies who have already donated patents to the initiative, doing their part to protect the environment by aiding and promoting innovation in this sector.

For those unfamiliar with the Eco-Patent Commons, it is an initiative to build an online, searchable repository for patents that are donated by companies for royalty-free use by anyone, without need for a license or purchase. The only limitation for the donated patents is that they should provide “environmental benefit” either directly (such as an air emissions treatment technology), or indirectly (such as a more energy efficient manufacturing process). The objective is to promote technology and innovation sharing and environmental improvement through the free use of these inventions.

However, the Eco-Patent Commons itself is in need of some innovation if it truly hopes to accomplish its goal: sharing useful environmental technologies for “the Web Development Prices greater good.” The current initiative consists only of patented technologies, which, due to the lengthy patent process, are minimally several years old and may no longer be cutting edge. As an illustration, the most recent patent of the 31 currently offered in the Eco-Patent Commons is 7,251,458, from Nokia: “Systems and methods for recycling of cell phones at the end of life.” Although this patent was issued on July 31, 2007, it was actually filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on May 23, 2003. This invention, the newest of the Eco-Patent Common offerings, is almost five years old already.

How can a recently issued patent possibly be “old technology”? It is simply a result of the overwhelming number of inventions the USPTO reviews annually for patents. Statistics available on the USPTO Web site reveal that approximately 426,000 utility patent applications were submitted in 2006, representing nine percent growth over the previous year’s submittals. A patent application routinely requires at least two years to go through the examination process, and can require much longer depending on specific patent prosecution issues.

The sluggish nature of the patent system means that even the best intentions of a company that donates environmentally beneficial patents to the Eco-Patent Commons cannot compensate for the age of the invention, which likely has become less relevant with time. As a result, these patents may have little value to any company, despite their free availability through the Eco-Patent Commons. In addition, it is clear that the donating company did not find the patent to have Web Development Prices compelling competitive advantage for them, or they would not have donated it to begin with, so why would any other company necessarily find value in the donated patent?

To compensate for these drawbacks and make the Eco-Patent Commons as useful and powerful as it can be, the initiative requires expansion to offer truly recent inventions that have not spent years in the patent application process. This involves widening the scope of the initiative to include non-patented inventions that have yet to be marketed and made public.

One way to make these inventions available is through enabled invention disclosures. An enabled invention disclosure (also called “defensive publication” or “technical bulletin”) is a written description of an invention that ideally has the same degree of detail as an issued patent. Therefore a well-written invention disclosure provides sufficient information to the reader to understand and use the invention.

Many companies successfully use enabled invention disclosures as part of their intellectual property (IP) strategies. Companies frequently have inventions that they do not wish to patent because the patent process is so expensive, including invention development costs, legal preparation and patent prosecution fees. However, companies also wish to prevent competitors from patenting those same inventions.

By using enabled invention disclosures to publish the invention, companies accomplish both goals: they save the cost of patenting but they also establish a “prior art bar” to obtaining the patent and make it impossible for competitors to claim it the invention as their own. Several Web site forums exist for publishing inventions, including www.ip.com and www.researchdisclosure.com.

The Eco-Patent Commons should be expanded to include these enabled invention disclosures. Many inventions that companies deem non-strategic for patent application and instead decide to publish may be excellent candidates to be donated to the Eco-Patent Commons. These published inventions would be truly new, fresh and useful — a good first step to creating the true springboard for green innovation that the Eco-Patent Commons was meant to be.

Companies wishing to donate inventions to the Eco-Patent Commons can also do their part to move the initiative closer to its goal of widespread environmental technology sharing and innovation. The Eco-Patent Commons is a golden opportunity for companies to “give back” positively to the global community by donating environmentally beneficial inventions — and build a reputation as an eco-friendly brand in the process. To take full advantage of this opportunity, companies could add incentives to their R&D and product development processes to help increase the numbers of environmentally friendly inventions created and considered for use or donation, thus building the company brand and image among both consumers and investors/shareholders as a socially responsible organization.

And developing an environmentally driven invention process is not as difficult as it sounds. Strategies already exist to create new inventions specifically aimed toward environmental benefits, and for the past 10 years my company, ipCapital Group, has been successfully using just such a process. Our Invention on Demand (IOD) process for “directed invention” has been used across a wide variety of technology areas, including the greentech space. By implementing IOD, ipCapital’s client companies have invented unique solutions and technologies that address a myriad of problems. In fact, IOD can even be used to build and improve upon the already donated patents in the Eco-Patent Commons and bring those inventions up to date.

The creative mind has the Web Development Prices capability to develop both the ideas and processes to solve the innumerable environmental problems that threaten our planet, but only through invention-sharing initiatives like the Eco-Patent Commons can we hope to channel environmental innovation to make a lasting impact for future generations. However, the above improvements are needed if the Eco-Patent Commons hopes to have a truly meaningful impact in the greentech space.

Nancy Edwards Cronin is a Principal Partner of ipCapital Group, an intellectual property consulting firm based in Williston, Vt. With more than 15 years of consulting experience, Nancy serves as an advisor to companies that wish to maximize value using IP, optimize the use of IP in product/service development and business transactions, establish strategic IP positions against competitors, and implement intellectual asset management (IAM) programs. She focuses her efforts in industries such as energy and environmental technology, chemical manufacturing, consumer products, electronics, construction and building materials, medical devices, printing, and semiconductors.

Cisco last week released specifics of its previously announced innovation and sustainability initiative for China.

The initiative includes research and development, education, procurement, investment and training, Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers said in an Web Development Live announcement in Beijing.

“The next stage of our strategy for China reflects the country’s importance to Cisco’s global growth strategy and to our long-term business model, built upon next-generation innovation in collaboration and Web 2.0 technologies,” said Chambers.

“Cisco’s public-private collaboration within China not only helps accelerate these business efforts, but also helps the 1.3 billion people and growing number of entrepreneurs within the country gain access to social and economic opportunities afforded by the internet.”

The move also included the appointment of Jim Sherriff, previously Cisco’s senior vice-president of global operations, to the newly created position of chairman, Cisco China.

According to a press release regarding the initiative, a memorandum between Cisco and China’s National Development and Web Development Live Reform Commission is intended to “extend cooperation in the areas of manufacturing and service outsourcing, next-generation internet, venture investment, training and development, as well as environmentally focused research and development including energy efficiency, emission reduction and network-based green urban development”.

A similar memorandum between Cisco and China’s Ministry of Commerce will see the vendor work with the ministry to help implement the Thousand-Hundred-Ten Project for China’s business process operations industry.

The program will see Cisco provide training to improve the skills of Web Development Live employees in Chinese companies.

Everyone knows the Web has come a long way since its early days, and one of the most changed areas has to be e-commerce. A landscape once dominated by boutique, Web-only shops, sparsely populated with shoppers, is now home to every major retailer and corporation on the planet. Selling goods on the Web has become huge business.

Many companies’ fortes, however, are in brick and mortar storefronts. For others, the only selling they have done is wholesale to retailers; selling direct to end-customers just wasn’t an option. They would love to take advantage of the Web Development Classes additional sales channels the Web opens up, but time and money spent building a e-commerce applications, as well as the high-availability, highly scalable environment needed to run them, is time and money that could be spent on core business processes. If only there was somebody to handle the legwork of building, managing and housing such an application …

For big companies that need enterprise-class e-commerce applications, that somebody is Demandware. Based in Woburn, Mass., Demandware offers an on-demand e-commerce application that customers use to service their consumer-facing needs.  According to Vice President of Engineering and Technology Wayne Whitcomb, the company’s platform is like licensed enterprise software that customers can customize, extend and Web Development Classes integrate as they wish, but without the burdens of development or delivery via computing resources.

As opposed to the old ASP model of hosting applications, though, where everything was individually managed and quarantined, Whitcomb says Demandware’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform allows the company to deliver new features and innovations “all the time, to all customers.” Being able to roll out these updates across the customer board is very important, too, because Demandware’s customers are large retail brands facing substantial competitive pressures. The demands of being a real-time business, finicky customers trends, aggressive competition and the need to drive customer loyalty via the Web site make for a situation where retailers not only need a high-performance, highly available solution, but also one that is constantly evolving.

“Normally in an enterprise application, for reliability, security and stability, you’d want to minimize change as much as possible,” says Whitcomb. “However, the [e-commerce] market demand and consumer demands are exactly opposite that. They push for frequent change, innovation and dealing with unpredictable consumer traffic at the Web Development Classes same time.”

Perhaps this necessary combination of both application and platform innovation is the reason Whitcomb says Demandware has little to no competition in the high-end e-commerce market. SaaS options like Amazon WebStore and eBay ProStores work for the low end, he noted, but just are not designed to handle larger companies’ needs in terms of branding, customer experience and scale.

To ensure it can deliver adequate capacity, scalability, reliability and security, Demandware chose to build a closely coupled grid computing delivery platform for its application. The platform is comprised of a series of PODs (points of delivery), which Whitcomb explains as e-commerce appliances with packaged compute capacity that Demandware deploys to tier 1 datacenters globally. The company directly manages those PODs, as well as the customer environment, sandbox development environments, integrated test environments, pre-production staging and production environments, all of which are isolated from one another within the Demandware grid. “To effectively manage all of those environments requires a lot of automation and a lot of flexibility of the delivery platform that really can only be provided through grid computing techniques,” Whitcomb says.

As for the nuts and bolts of the grid, Whitcomb says blades, each of one of which is imparted with a persona, handle the computing. Each blade’s persona determines how it will participate in the grid, and the persona model allows Demandware to envision how customer environments will utilize that capacity. Customer environments can be flexed to meet significant changes in demand (e.g, 10:1) in a matter of minutes, said Whitcomb. Computing resources within the grid are pooled using Demandware’s internally developed virtualization software.

A flexible, dedicated grid delivery platform is necessary, says Whitcomb, because the alternatives are either economically or pragmatically infeasible. Whereas Demandware can invest heavily in research and development of the platform because the company derives value from the grid across its customer base, it would be difficult for those customers to make such investments individually.

Among Demandware’s most interesting customers, in terms of use, is Bare Escentuals. A purveyor of “healthy” makeup, Bare Escentuals does a lot of marketing through print, electronic media and television (in the form of infomercials). Thanks in large part to the latter, Whitcomb says Bare Escentuals’ Web traffic varies unpredictably and at factors as high as 10x. Bare Escentuals also populates its site with a fair amount of rich media, a practice that is facilitated through Demandware’s use of Akamai’s content distribution technology.

Apparel company Timberland also utilizes Demandware to manage sites across several geographies and lines of business, all without needing to toil with infrastructure or application development. Whitcomb is especially proud that HP, a company with “all the resources in the world,” also sees tremendous value in using Demandware. Other customers include Playmobil, Sally Beauty Supply, Gardener’s Supply Co. and Playboy.com.

Although he believes that all applications that share core or common requirements will eventually find their ways into an on-demand delivery model, Whitcomb acknowledges that such models do bring with Web Development Classes them a certain degree of difficulty for the provider. These challenges include integration with legacy backend systems and third-party services, letting customers have control over the elements they want to control, and keeping the application current and reliable.

“The dimensions of that make it a real challenge to serve the enterprise,” says Whitcomb. “The enterprises certainly want it — they’re crying for it — and I think it’s up to the market to deliver against those strong needs. Demandware proves that, at least in the e-commerce market, it can be done.”