[ Ø ] Harsh's GIS Blog

Here are four “events” from 2006 that I consider as evolutionary milestones of our burgeoning SIS industry:

• E2- ESRI finally catches up to GE. Almost
• Virtual Earth- Microsoft adds the ability to add and save shapes, and browser-based GE-esque 3D views
• GE- Google gulps SketchUp and consolidates GE’s usergroups by jumping head-first in collaborations
• Spatial Web Services- Be it ESRI’s ArcWeb Services with GlobeXplorer, or DM Solutions Group‘s MapSherpa Spatial Web Services and Mapgears, spatial web services gain a firmer footing at the enterprise level.

–π

According to TheStree.com, American Online recently bought Truveo. Note that this was predicted by Technology Review earlier.

–π

More crystal ball gazing:

• A tough year ahead for Sony ["fate deserved, although XBox would probably hurt more"]
• AJAX cleans up the Web ["impressive"]
• Cracks appear in Apple’s iTunes shiny armor ["would take more, but also refer to hymn"]
• Telco companies get ensnared in a domestic eavesdropping scandal ["a very tight-rope"]
• A video search company is acquired by a major player ["iFilm?"]
• Municipal Wi-Fi ["refer to South Korea and Japan"]
• Silicon Photonics [ ~ 'integrating light with silicon']
• Social Machines [ ~ 'social web']
• Search ["Google"!]
• Feeds ["RSS and podcasting and videos, need I say more?"]

–Technology Review [π]

Related:
• Gates on Vista
• Directions Magazine takes a swing

1. First there were WiFi hotspots, then hot zones ["even more so"]
2. Cell phones do everything ["right-on"]
3. Internet phone calls become more popular now that major Web companies are making it easier ["about time"]
4. The [MS] Office moves to the Web. Documents, e-mail and spreadsheets move off your desktop computer to the Web ["about time"]
5. Stem-cell research advances despite legal challenges ["right-on"]
6. Biotechs target flu vaccines ["right-on, same for other vaccines"]
7. Even small start-ups go global ["even more so"]
8. Video comes to the blog ["refer to 9"]
9. On-demand video everywhere ["refer to 2"]
10. Clean technologies ["even more so"]

–Top 10 Tech Trends for 2006 [π]

Below is a simple inquiry into how natural check could kick-in from a market stand-point to curtail a growing population. Although, a more interesting inquiry would have been “when” would it kick-in?

First, a sample population was divided into 3 basic groups- consumers, laborers and producers. Then the general effect of each on the other because of a growing market and the resulting downward pressure on price was ‘guessed at’.

WHERE
SOL = Standard of Life
c = Consumers
l = Labor
p = Producers
e = Environmental Resources
* = Note: A higher Standard of Life may not always result in a positive contribution to a growing population. It may however lead to a more socially-amicable world environment, thus causing higher SOLe.

Needless to say, this simple inquiry did not even touch the complexity of our market of more than 6 billion. But it did help throw some light on a topic I have been thinking about for some time now- Labor Optimization, which some would say is just another euphemism for Competitive Outsourcing.

–π

Related:
• International Organization for Migration (IOM)