infoTECH Feature

December 23, 2008

Hyperconnectivity Demands Simplicity

By Tony Rybczynski
This article originally appeared in the December issue of Internet Telephony magazine.
 
Hyperconnectivity is a megatrend whereby everything and everyone that can benefit from being connected will be connected. Closely related to hyperconnectivity, and to a great degree a key enabler, is the megatrend that everything (not yet everyone!) that can benefit from being digitized will be digitized.
 
There are three reasons why hyperconnectivity and digitization are so closely related: 1) Once content (music, books, photos/painting, medical records, movies) are digitized, add some headers to this digitized content and you have packetized data, ready to go. 2) Once content such as audio and video is packetized to stream over the network, then it is trivial to store it for later retrieval, analysis and replay. 3) The above digitization is focused on audio, image, video and data, but the technology for cost effective digitization now covers a hundred different physical and environmental conditions including temperature, humidity, pressure, acidity, air quality, movement, radiation level, and so on.
 
Connectivity and digitization go hand in hand. But to-date digitization has been accompanied by simplicity, while connectivity has generally been complicated for many users. A simple consumer-oriented example can illustrate this point: A friend of mine received a digital picture frame, a key feature being the ability to wirelessly connect the digital picture frame to a PC. Digitization was trivial, and was done the moment the picture was taken; but connectivity was another matter. The manual didn’t give any reasonable guidance on how to make the wireless connection actually work. Lesson learnt: just because something can technically be done, it’s not going to deliver user value unless it’s simple. It shouldn’t require a Ph.D, though my friend has one!
 
Two further examples would be instructive: I got a gizmo that takes audio input from anything with an audio jack, and allows me to use any radio as a speaker. I just tuned in on an unused channel and bingo, my car radio played the podcasts I downloaded on my WiFi (News - Alert)-enabled PDA. Now that’s hyperconnectivity made simple! Also, my local utility offered to install a smart thermostat in my home for free which would allow me to adjust my thermostat over the Internet. Simple enough. In exchange, the utility would remotely control my home’s temperature to lower electrical demand. Interesting offer of potential value to me and to the utility.
 
These consumer examples illustrate that hyperconnectivity is happening all around us, but it’s not just about technology. User and business value have to be delivered or it’s not going to happen.

Tony Rybczynski (News - Alert), Director of Strategic Enterprise Technologies at Nortel, writes the Inside Networking column for TMCnet. To read more of Tony�s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Greg Galitzine
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