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AT THE CENTER
The electronic newsletter of the
Silicon Valley World Internet Center

Tuesday, March 30, 2004

 

Past copies of Newsletters and Directions to the Center are available on the Web site.

All programs are held at the Center unless otherwise noted.

To join our community, click on this link: http://center.infopoint.com/join.php

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POWER PUB: TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2004
"NANO-BIO-IT CONVERGENCE: DOES NANOTECHNLOGY OFFER THE TRULY ULTIMATE BIO-IT INTERFACE?"
Pub Master: Mr. Brock Hinzmann, Technology Navigator & Principal Consultant, SRI Consulting Business Intelligence
5:00 p.m.: Networking & Registration
5:30 p.m.: Pub Exchange
6:30 p.m.: Networking
7:00 p.m.: Pub Closes!
Open to the Public. Fee: $15 (cash or check, payable at the door).
Pre-registration is highly encouraged. Registration information below.
Please Note: This Power Pub will be held in the Cyprus Room at the Crowne Plaza Cabaña Hotel, 4290 El Camino Real, Palo Alto.
Directions included below.

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: "CROWNE PLAZA CABANA HOTEL JOINS THE CENTER AS ITS NEWEST KNOWLEDGE NETWORK PARTNER"
Further information below.

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SUMMARY: POWER PUB: TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 2004
"RFID PROMISE: CREATE IT AND THEY SHALL COME"
Pub Master: Mr. Dean Frew, President & Chief Executive Officer, Xterprise, Inc. & Knowledge Network Partner, Silicon Valley World Internet Center
Summary below.

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CENTER ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW LOCATION FOR CENTER'S CORPORATE OFFICES
Full announcement below.

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POWER PUB: TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 2004
"NANO-BIO-IT CONVERGENCE: DOES NANOTECHNLOGY OFFER THE TRULY ULTIMATE BIO-IT INTERFACE?"

Pub Master: Mr. Brock Hinzmann, Technology Navigator & Principal Consultant, SRI Consulting Business Intelligence
5:00 p.m.: Networking & Registration
5:30 p.m.: Pub Exchange
6:30 p.m.: Networking
7:00 p.m.: Pub Closes!
Open to the Public. Fee: $15 (cash or check, payable at the door).
Pre-registration is highly encouraged.
Registration information below.
Please Note: This Power Pub will be held in the Cyprus Room at the Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel, 4290 El Camino Real, Palo Alto.

The buzz around nanotechnology in Silicon Valley has not dried up, in spite of delays and debates over definitions and timing. Does nanotechnology offer the truly ultimate Bio-IT interface? If so, when will this all come to pass? Nanotechnology has been described as offering the ultimate interface between biology and information technologies. Visionaries imagine a pervasive computing environment in which everything, wet and dry, has sensing, computation, and communication capabilities built into it. Many questions exist about how sensors made with nanotechnology will be built and what kind of new capabilities they will offer. In previous World Internet Center sessions, the value of having wireless sensor networks built on nano or any other technology have been discussed and debated. Advanced biological-computer interfaces may also be desirable, but questions exist over what is technically possible and commercially feasible within the timeframe of an attractive investment cycle.

However, the potential creative nano-links with the Valley's biotechnology, electronics, and IT strengths have only wetted the appetites. Even so, many investors are struggling to find value in paying for science projects to discover the links between nanoparticles and biological organisms or the interface between the nano, the bio, and the macro. Most of the new investments in nano appear to be going into lowering the cost of nanoparticle production methods, new tools to figure out where all those nanoparticles are and to manipulate them, sensors built from nanoparticles that are highly sensitive and specific as to which other particles or biological organisms they detect, and simulation and design software tools. The debate over what happens when nanoparticles are introduced into the human biological system and the environment is just beginning.

At this Power Pub, come discuss these questions with Mr. Hinzmann, the Pub Master for the evening:

  • Since electronics researchers can already project they will be able to stay on the Moore's Law curve for another decade using well-known conventional technology, and that large electronics companies are conducting their own nanotechnology research, can nanoelectronic start-up companies have any commercial impact in that timeframe?
  • Will the concern over the environmental and health impacts of using nanoparticles slow the development of the technology?
  • If nanotechnology really does make it possible to put cheap sensors, sensor networks, interfaces, and nanoactuators everywhere, what would be the benefit?

ABOUT BROCK HINZMANN

Brock Hinzmann is the technology navigator and a principal consultant with SRI Consulting Business Intelligence. Over the past 25 years, Mr. Hinzmann has worked with hundreds of clients to conduct future scanning exercises, create future scenarios, conduct business opportunity searches, and to draw technology road maps. Over the past few years, his projects have dealt with nanotechnology, fuel cells, advanced interfaces, robotics, and pervasive computing.

ABOUT SRI CONSULTING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

SRI Consulting Business Intelligence (http://www.sric-bi.com) was formed originally as the Long-Range Planning Service for the Stanford Research Institute. SRIC-BI specializes in making sense of the future for its large corporate and government clients around the world. SRIC-BI is able to customize its consulting projects by leveraging off the knowledge gained from several syndicated research programs. Scan® is a subscription-based program that alerts participants to potential major business impacts that might result from today's early weak signals of change and works with clients to customize those implications into actionable ideas. Explorer® is a technology mapping service that tracks nearly 40 technology areas in nanotechnology, biotechnology, electronics, IT, energy, and so forth. VALS® is a consumer market segmentation system that predicts purchasing behavior based on psychological motivations on end-users.

REGISTRATION & SPECIAL INFORMATION

Pre-registration is highly recommended. There is a $15 fee (cash or check only) which will be collected at the door. Please make checks payable to Silicon Valley World Internet Center. To pre-register, please send your name, title, company name, telephone number, and email address to:

Ms. Claire Kahrobaie
Manager, Client Services
T: 650.565.8070
E: kahrobaie@worldinternetcenter.com

** Special Note: As a special welcome to the Center's Pub attendees, the Cabaña Hotel is extending a discount for post-Pub networking! Please ask to receive a coupon for a 10% discount off of beverages at the Crowne Plaza Cabaña Palo Alto's bar applicable the night of the Pub.

DIRECTIONS TO THE CROWNE PLAZA CABANA HOTEL

From Highway 101 - North or South

  • Take Highway 101 to San Antonio Road/Los Altos exit.
  • Proceed on San Antonio west, approximately 2 miles.
  • Turn right on El Camino Real and proceed 1/2 mile.
  • Turn left at Dinah's Court stoplight into the Crowne Plaza Cabaña hotel entrance.
  • Parking is available in the front and back of the hotel. Ask for the Cyprus Room.

From Highway 280 - North or South

  • Take Highway 280 to the Page Mill Road exit.
  • Proceed on Page Mill east, approximately 3 miles.
  • Turn right onto El Camino Real.
  • Continue for 1 mile to Dinah's Court stoplight.
  • Turn right into the Crowne Plaza Cabaña hotel entrance.
  • Parking is available in the front and back of the hotel. Ask for the Cyprus Room.

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: "CROWNE PLAZA CABANA HOTEL JOINS THE CENTER AS ITS NEWEST KNOWLEDGE NETWORK PARTNER"

The Center is happy to announce that the Crowne Plaza Cabaña Hotel in Palo Alto has become our newest Knowledge Network Partner. In our eighth year of business, the World Internet Center has aligned with the most sophisticated, high tech business hotel in the Silicon Valley to provide support for its on-going mission to advance Internet-related technologies and markets.

"We welcome the Crowne Plaza Cabaña Hotel as our new Knowledge Network Partner," says Dr. Susan Duggan, chief executive office of the Silicon Valley World Internet Center. "Their facilities provide state-of-the-art wireless connectivity for our clients' think tank sessions and for our public programs supporting the 'innovation dialog' in the Valley. Beyond that, the unique California ambience of the Cabaña blends perfectly with our goal of providing an inspiring setting for the best minds in the business to shape the future of the Internet Economy." The Cabaña has hosted many global dignitaries over the years including presidents Clinton and Bush, as well as Queen Nour. The World Internet Center expects to complement this list of world leaders, attracting luminaries from business, government and the high tech industry from around the globe.

We hope that you will come to consider the Cabaña as your second home to network, spin ideas, and simply relax. The Cabaña is offering a special "World Internet Center" rate for guests wishing to stay here. For reservations, contact the Center with an email to info@worldinternetcenter.com with your hotel room request.

Beyond that, the Cabaña has a warm and welcoming bar and restaurant, very much in keeping with our own culture at the Center of supporting good friends with good food and good times. The Cabaña will host the Center's corporate offices and be the venue for many of its think tank sessions and events.

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SUMMARY: POWER PUB: TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 2004
"RFID PROMISE: CREATE IT AND THEY SHALL COME"

Pub Master: Mr. Dean Frew, President & Chief Executive Officer, Xterprise, Inc. & Knowledge Network Partner, Silicon Valley World Internet Center

The inaugural Power Pub at the Center's new location at the Cabaña Hotel was a rousing success. 115 participants discussed the promise of the growing RFID market with Pub Master Dean Frew, President of Xterprise, Inc. presiding. The Power Pub participants mirrored the ever-growing RFID market in the Valley with quite a number of startup companies in attendance, along with integration consultants, VCs, and the RFID tag and solution producers such as Alien, SAP, IBM, HP, and Sun.

The Guiding Questions for this hour discussion included:

  • How important is the evolution of standards to broader and deeper adoption?
  • Are there really business cases that support these solutions?
  • Are we too tied to the processes and methodologies of the past to envision the benefits of what EPC/RFID can bring?

The following is a brief summary of individual questions asked and key points established in this rich Pub Exchange. These do not reflect, necessarily, the opinions of the World Internet Center or of the Pub Master.

  • Standards are so narrow and watered down that they may end up not serving us well.
  • Standards will need to be applicable across various industries
  • Does it matter that the EPC (Class 1; V2) global standard will not be ready for Walmart? (NO)
  • In a literary-inspired analogy, one participant asked, "Are some pigs more equal than others?" In other words will the retail industry have more input into standards setting than others? Dean Frew pointed out that Accenture is leading the way for RFID usage in the pharmaceutical industry.
  • Are we losing the vision of the Auto-ID Center? (Countered by a participant, "Vision is vision and money is money."
  • What about the impact of the Chinese market on setting standards? Dean Frew reminded us that it is hard to go wrong when the largest retailer in the world is behind a certain standard and that, frankly, the train has already left the station.
  • Look how long it took for bar codes to get adopted (15-20 years)? Aren't we looking at a similar lengthy time frame? (Countered by the opinion that customers/end-users are much more organized that they were before and have direct input into the setting of standards, which will directly affect a more speedy adoption rate than with bar codes.)
  • What are the triggers for business cases? The value proposition is: once the information which is tagged onto the materials leaves the facilities, there can be considerable savings is materials are not lost or stolen.
  • It will most likely be a long time before item-level tagging will be generally deployed, though it is available now.
  • What is the DOD doing with RFID? Tagging things that can explode. Deploying RFID with containers.
  • What if DOD's standard is different from Walmart's?
  • What does RFID do to the labor force? Cost? Accuracy?
  • How do we deal with all these data being generated from RFID tags?
  • How do you see the technology changing from passive to active? Distributed intelligence systems . . .
  • Are we getting trapped in discreet frequencies?
  • Note: the EU will be embedding RFID tags in the EURO.

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CENTER ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW LOCATION FOR CENTER'S CORPORATE OFFICES

The World Internet Center is pleased to announce that its new corporate offices are located at the Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel in Palo Alto.

Our new address is: 4290 El Camino Real, Suite 200, Palo Alto, California, 94306.
Our new telephone number is: 650.565.8070.
Our new facsimile number is: 650.565.8069.

We are pleased to be able to offer our clients and members of our community world class facilities and meeting rooms, complete with a warm and welcoming bar and restaurant for those post-session brainstorms.

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For further information on the Center's Sponsors and Knowledge Network Partners, visit their Websites:

CORPORATE SPONSORS
SAP http://www.sap.com/
Archstone Consulting http://www.archstoneconsulting.com/

KNOWLEDGE NETWORK PARTNERS
• Halleck http://www.halleck.com
• IC Growth, Inc. http://www.icgrowth.com
• Market Wire http://www.marketwire.com
• Incucomm http://www.incucomm.com

Xterprise http://www.xterprise.com

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To join our community, click on this link: http://center.infopoint.com/join.php

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