Mobile VCE News Update – February 2010
Welcome to this issue of "Mobile VCE News Update", keeping our member companies and friends informed about events and other news. Please visit the Calendar Page at www.mobilevce.com/calendar.php to download Agendas for future meetings, as well as presentations (many with audio) from past events, and to register to attend upcoming events. All staff from member companies are welcome to attend our Members’ Seminars, Industry Steering Groups, etc.
Please forward this Newsletter to relevant staff in your company. Staff can subscribe to receive a personal copy of this newsletter by registering here or by emailing webmaster@mobilevce.com
News & Events in this Issue:
Events & News
1. A Celebratory Start to 2010 – ‘Cellular 25’
January 2010 saw ~350 leaders from the UK cellular industry gathered at the London Science Museum for ‘Cellular 25’, an event organized by Cambridge Wireless, to celebrate 25 years of mobile cellphones in the UK. The event was looking forward to the future, not just backwards, with presentations from major international operators & manufacturers, followed by an equally well attended evening dinner. The event is described in Mobile VCE Spring 2010 Newsletter, available in hardcopy on request from the Mobile VCE office, or available for download at www.mobilevce.com/newsletter; the latest issue includes a succinct update on VCE’s Core research activities over the past year.
2. Core Research - Industrial Steering Groups
All four Core programme streams held Industry Steering Group meetings in January. Remote participation via Webex for UK-based industrials was higher than normal for the first two of these recent meetings, as the unusual weather conditions (snow and ice) prevented many from attending in body. Slides and recordings of the presentations, as normal, may be downloaded by clicking on the Agenda link from the Calendar Page on the Mobile VCE website calendar page – www.mobilevce.com/calendar - for the appropriate date:
January 7th Instant Knowledge
January 8th User Interaction for Breakthrough Services
January 26th Flexible Networks
January 27th Green Radio
The Industrial Steering Groups for all four areas meet next in March & April – please make a diary note:
March 29th User Interaction for Breakthrough Services
March 30th Instant Knowledge
April 27th Flexible Networks
April 28th Green Radio
Agendas and registration will be available on the Mobile VCE website calendar page nearer the dates.
3. The Instant Knowledge Service: Requirements & Commercialisation
The Instant Knowledge service, being researched by Mobile VCE, is all about harnessing the information which resides on and flows through our personal connected devices – phones, smartphones, netbooks, PC’s, etc – to allow an employee to locate people and information within his company, to speed up his ability to do effective business and even, potentially, to change business processes and business models; hence the longer ‘official’ programme title of “Secure Autonomous Business Networking”.
The recent rapid rise of the smartphone, and netbooks, have been generating increased interest in this service. Partly in response, the leadership team – Nigel Jefferies of Vodafone and James Irvine of Strathclyde University – have been using the demos shown at last October’s Research Review to communicate the service concept to potential end users and to the enterprise client management teams within Mobile VCE’s operator members, the so-called ‘Business User Group’. These discussions are capturing views on end user requirements and exploring commercial opportunities. Participants in this Business User Group activity will also have early access to the trial phase of the service demonstration currently under development. Member companies, or others, who would like to participate in this way are invited to contact Nigel Jefferies, either directly at Vodafone or via the Mobile VCE office.
4. International Workshop “Privacy Solutions for Safer Social Networks”
Security and privacy figure strongly in the Instant Knowledge programme, as these are seen as important requirements for commercial applications. Reflecting this, and the inferred social network capability which enables the service, Mobile VCE will be hosting an International Workshop on 11th May on the theme of “Privacy Solutions for Safer Social Networks”. External speakers from overseas will be invited to present at this event, as well as in-house players from the VCE programme.
More details of the Agenda & Venue will appear in due course on the website www.mobilevce.com/calendar
Member companies wishing to attend are invited to register online; others should email the Mobile VCE office.
5. User Interactions: Application Fields - Augmented Travel, Nomadic & Collaborative Media
These two specific application fields have emerged from a recent Workshop, hosted by the BBC, as foci for the ongoing research of the User Interactions research. Mark Ashdown of Thales and Jerry Kramskoy & Matt Hammond of the BBC respectively are leading an activity to apply the emerging User Interaction techniques and approaches to these two application fields to create new types of services.
Member companies with interests in these application areas who wish to help helping shape them are invited in the first instance to contact Industry Steering Group Chairman, Jason Williams of Orange, or the Mobile VCE office.
6. Flexible Networks: Programme Extension & Network Virtualisation Workshop
The first phase of the Flexible Networks programme, originally due to complete at end 2009, has been extended to mid-2010. Principally this reflects delays in researcher recruitment; however, the extension also allows the research team to more effectively build upon some of the socio-economic driver studies undertaken by LSE. A scenario workshop to prioritise the proposed service types will be held in the next month or so.
The concept of Network Virtualisation being explored within this programme appears to be generating significant interest, in part driven by the accelerating importance of green issues in the telecoms industry, and the potential of this approach to create significant energy and OpEx savings. A key challenge however, certainly important to regulators, is how competitive differentiation on virtualized networks might be achieved. Such issues will be explored at an International Workshop being organized for 9th/10th June. More details of the Agenda & Venue will appear in due course on the website www.mobilevce.com/calendar. Member companies wishing to attend are invited to register online; others should email the Mobile VCE office.
More details on this programme and its activities may be obtained from Mick Wilson of Fujitsu, Industry Chairman of this programme or from the Mobile VCE office.
7. Green Radio: Additional Opportunities for Industrial Engagement
The Green Radio programme continues to be the most ‘popular’ of VCE’s programmes, in terms of industrial engagement and research activity, with ~50 people attending the January Industrial Steering Group meeting.
In addition to these quarterly meetings, the Green Radio ‘Energy Focus Group’ (principally industrial members) continues to meet bimonthly, with its next meeting hosted by Vodafone in Newbury on 19th February. A number of ad hoc technical meetings, focused on specific research approaches, are also happening in the coming months. Industrial members interested in attending these more tightly focused meetings are invited to contact the Industrial Chairman, Simon Fletcher of NEC, or the Mobile VCE office, or to check out the dedicated calendar link in the Green Radio Steering Group area.
NOTE: Mobile VCE Website Access www.mobilevce.com
Access to certain information, including Industrial Steering Groups etc, requires a Members’ Area username & password, obtainable from the primary contact person for your Company and/or the relevant Industry Chairman. If you do not know who to contact, please e-mail jennyj@mobilevce.com
In today’s climate companies increasingly value the 50:1 gearing on their annual subscription, as well as the strategic thinking underlying our research. For full details of the £2.2m industry-steered programme being undertaken in 2010, please contact your company representative or the Mobile VCE office.