Developing technologies for mBusiness

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Developing technologies for m-Business

• Large technical systems, technological paradigms,
  disruptive technologies
• the CPA case

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Large Technical Systems

• Thomas P. Hughes Networks of Power
• Evolution Invention, Innovation, Development,
  Transfer
• Momentum
• Reverse salients
• Crises
• Battle of systems

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Technological Paradigms

• Kuhn
• Scientific paradigms
• Normal and Revolutionary Science
• Trajectories Market pull or technology push?
• Technological Paradigms
• Incremental innovations
• Radical innovations

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Technological Paradigms

• Outlook which defines the relevant problems, a
  model, and a pattern of inquiry
• Tech. para model and a pattern of solution
  of selected technological problems, based on
  selected principles derived from natural sciences
  and on selected material technologies
• cluster of technologies nuclear,
  semiconductor, organic chemistry, etc.
• A powerful exclusion effects

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Trajectories

• Natural trajectory momentum
• Powerful or circumscribed
• Complementaries
• Frontier ( limits)
• Progress depends on relation with frontier
• Difficult to switch from one trajectory to
  another (when powerful)
• Trajectories can only be evaluated ex post

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Examples

• Mainframe computing
• Technology
• Big companies manufacturers and users
• Centralization
• Automating, control
• Culture, ideology. Power to the big
  corporations
• Personal computing
• Technology
• Smaller companies, high numbers,
• Decentralized development and use
• Informating
• Power to the people
• Network centric computing
• Abbate TCPIP or X.25
• Terminals to mainframes or work stations in LANs
• One network controlled by telcos or many networks
  linked together
• UMTS or WiFi?

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Disruptive technologies

• Radical change, paradigm change
• Sustaining technologies
• Disruptive technologies
• New, not improvement of existing
• Big companies fail, too close to their customers

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Trajectory

• Bigger, faster, more powerful, ..
• What existing customers want
• How exiting technology may be improved
• What engineers want
• Disruptive technology
• Smaller, slower, less powerful,
• Small (no) market, Small profits, ..
• Need innovation of new use areas and users
• Huge potential long term profits, wipe out
  existing industries, ..

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Examples

• Hard disks
• Each new generation smaller, slower, ..
• new companies for each generation
• Excavators, .
• Repressive or emancipatory technologies/media?
• Large scale, centralized or small scale,
  decentralized
• The Internet and democracy debate.
• Commercialization of the Media

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How?

• Why? The huge potential
• Spot and cultivation disruptive technologies
• Determine whether the technology is disruptive or
  sustaining
• Define the strategic significance of the
  disruptive technology
• Located the initial market for the disruptive
  technology
• Keep the disruptive organization independent
• Will this work?

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Disruptive infrastructure and standards

• Can the future be predicted?
• Coordination among many actors
• Battle of systems/paradigms/technologies who
  will win?

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Mobile content services

• Disruptive the dot.com bubble
• i-mode
• big company!
• The role of system builders
• CPA
• Coordination among many actors and technologies

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CPA

• Components - architecture - infrastructure
  standards
• Actors operators, content providers,
  aggregators, integrators, media windows, TV
  channels, standardization bodies
• Technological system
• Disruptive technology

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Examples of CPA services
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What is CPA?

• Platform, standard, business model
• Enables premium charged SMS services
• Open garden

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The historical context of CPA

• Teletorg
• The idea of information based value adding
  services (VAS)
• Sorting out the issues
• New formal institutions
• MobilInfo, SMSInfo
• The idea
• The walled garden approach retention
• The experiences Challenges, opportunities and
  failure

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The brief history of CPA

• An extension (and devolution) of previous
  approaches
• Learning from previous platforms
• New strategy or lack of strategy
• Small-scale, bottom-up, flexible, external inputs
• New actors, roles and responsibilities

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CPA Roles and value network
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Heterogeneity

• Socio-technical and diversity
• Perspective and pluralism
• Symmetrical focus explaining change as
  influenced by technology and human actors
• Strategies to curb, to include and promote
  diversity

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Out of Control

• Criticism of control oriented approaches
• No central point of control or network hub
• Control is multi-faceted
• What is out-of-control?
• Why is it out-of-control?
• Really out-of-control, or perceived as
  out-of-control?

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Standardised

• GSM/GPRS/WAP/UMTS/SMS/MMS
• CPA standards
• Common business model
• Coordinated distribution of short codes and
  definition of rating classes
• Common guidelines for consumer protection
• Standardised service level
• Not primarily a technical standard
• More like a flexible package

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Evolving

• Small invesments, simple solutions and service,
  focus on short term profits, non-strategic
• All components evolving in parallel
• Linked to history
• Teletorg, MobilInfo/SMSInfo
• Linked to context
• Relationship between network operators
• Mobile phone penetration, size of market
• The exchange of personnel and enthusiastic
  employees
• Dot.com era
• Linked to technology
• Existing platforms

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Some reflections

• The relationship with the context
• Internationalisation
• The paradoxes of CPA
• Lack-of-control as control
• Lack-of-strategy as strategy
• Lack-of-resources as a resource
• Intelligence (or stupidity but at least
  innovation) in the fringes
• Change and radical innovation?
• The economy of standards and networks