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StratVantage Consulting, LLC — Mike’s Take on the News 11/14/00Clipped from: http://www.stratvantage.com/news/111400.htm |
The News – 11/14/00
HP and Nokia to Enable Cell Phones to Print from Web
The two companies recently announced an effort that would allow a person to identify a document on the Web via URL, send that URL to an HP printer, and the printer would retrieve the document and print it. The phone would use IR, vCard or Bluetooth protocols to send the URL to the printer. “Nokia 9110 and 9110i Communicators currently have the capability to beam a URL using today’s vCard and IR technology. HP printers supporting these evolving standards will be available beginning next year.”
This effort is stemming from HP’s “CoolTown” research project. Let’s see. Our image is stodgy; we don’t seem to get it. I know! Let’s start a project called “CoolTown!” Then all the kids will think we’re hep!
Kidding aside, HP envisions, in CoolTown, that devices will be broadcasting URLs wirelessly throughout our environment via “beacons.” This sounds like Bluetooth, but HP doesn’t name that technology specifically. HP is also a partner in MIT’s Oxygen project, which aims to bring a pervasive computing fabric to everyday life.
I do like one turn of phrase in HP’s CoolTown propaganda, though: “your pocket device becomes a remote control for the world-at-large.” Yes! Now I can mute the people who talk in movies!
A B2B Business Standard?
UDDI is a non-profit organization originally established by Ariba, IBM, and Microsoft that is fostering a Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration standard. This standard will involve “the creation of a service registry architecture that presents a standard way for businesses to build a registry, query other businesses, and enable those registered businesses to interoperate and share information globally in a distributed manner.” This registry will contain information on how each business is able to do electronic commerce and provides a globally unique identifier. The goal is to help businesses find trading partners and enter into productive relationships without worrying about disparate technologies.
“Registering with UDDI will enable a company to publicly list a definition of itself, its services, and methods for engagement.” The list of community members includes most of the luminaries of the B2B marketplace. The real test will be in spreading the concept into the rest of the industrial marketplaces.