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

Thursday, June 26, 2003

 

The Silicon Valley World Internet Center thanks its Sponsors for their continuing support:

EXECUTIVE SPONSORS
• Amdocs, Inc. •• Cable & Wireless •• Deutsche Telekom •• Fujitsu •• IBM Corporation •• SAP •• Sun Microsystems •

KNOWLEDGE NETWORK PARTNERS
•• Halleck ••• IC Growth, Inc. ••• Internet Wire ••

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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AUTO I.D. SALON: MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2003
5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. 5:00 p.m. -5:30 p.m. registration and reception. 5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Salon
Salon Master: Mr. Dean Frew, President, Xterprise Corporation
$15 Fee to attend (cash or check at the door). Open to Public
Register at manager@worldinternetcenter.com with name, title, company/affiliation.

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: SPECIAL PRICE ON "AUTOMATING WEB TESTS WITH TESTMAKER" NEW BOOK FROM FRANK COHEN
Member, Center's Technology Council
Further information below.

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SIBF: WORKING GROUP: BUSINESS APPLICATIONS OF DISTRIBUTED SENSORS AND SENSOR NETWORKS: JULY 22, 2003
Invitation Only.
Further information, below.

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: SAP BECOMES FOUNDING MEMBER OF SMART ITEMS BUSINESS FORUM
Further information below.

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NEXT PUB: AUGUST 7, 2003
Note: Due to the holiday, there will be no Pub in July.
See you on August 7th!

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SUMMARY: TECHNOLOGY BRIEFING: TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 2003
"Business and Technical Objectives for Low Cost Smart Items"

By Dr. Richard Swan, Technical Director for Auto-ID, SAP Corporate Research
Summary and Presentation link below

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SUMMARY: EXECUTIVE BRIEFING: TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2003
"Challenges and Rewards of Driving Innovation: Taking the Thought Leadership Approach"

By Prof. Dr. Lutz Heuser, Vice President and Chief Development Architect, SAP Corporate Research, SAP AG
Summary and Presentation link below.

 

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AUTO I.D. SALON: MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2003
"Adoption and Applicability of RFID in Supply Chain Management"

5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
5:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. registration and reception.
5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Salon
Salon Master: Mr. Dean Frew, President, Xterprise Corporation
$15 Fee to attend (cash or check at the door). Open to Public
Register at manager@worldinternetcenter.com with name, title, company/affiliation.

The Auto ID Salon offers the community of innovators in the Valley an informal opportunity to spin ideas around topics specific to the Auto ID market. The second in a series of evening "salons," this session will focus on the adoption and applicability of RFID technology in supply chain management. The Salon will open with a reception from 5:00 p.m - 5:30 p.m. At 5:30 p.m. the Salon Master, Mr. Dean Frew, will call the attendees to order for a discussion. Experts in this space are most welcomed, as are end-users and other innovators interested in the potential of this hot market. There is no "formal" presentation expected. The Salon benefits from your insights and input.

There are a number of questions that are swirling regarding RFID adoption and applicability in the various supply chain markets. In this Salon we will focus on the following 3 questions:

  1. Does next generation RFID products have enough performance improvement to address the "real" supply chain problems?
  2. How can RFID solutions impact inventory management across product life cycle?
  3. What are the top 3 issues that suppliers are dealing with regarding RFID compliance?

ABOUT THE SALON MASTER: DEAN FREW

Dean Frew, President, Xterprise Corporation, (http://www.xterprise.com) has developed and delivered innovative supply chain solutions for clients across multiple market segments, helping his clients develop real-time enterprises and saving money. For the last 8 years, he has led supply chain execution solution deployment teams delivering to Ford, Anheuser-Busch, Dell, U.S. Department of Defense, Service Master, Ikon, Imagistics, Exel Logistics, Lionize Logistics, among others. Mr. Frew's subject matter and solutions expertise provide the pragmatic view his clients are looking for in a solution integrator. Previous to starting Xterprise (an Incucomm portfolio company), he was the Vice President of Customer Solutions and Operations for the mobile enterprise firm GlobeRanger and was responsible for all customer engagements and OEM relationships with supply chain system providers such as i2, Symbol, and EXE. Prior to that, Mr. Frew had over 16 years in various executive positions at Texas Instruments where he developed core technology and managed systems business units, including initiating the acquisition of RFID pioneer Savi by TI in 1995. To contact Mr. Frew, please send an email to dfrew@xterprise.com.

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: SPECIAL PRICE ON "AUTOMATING WEB TESTS WITH TESTMAKER" NEW BOOK FROM FRANK COHEN

Frank Cohen, a member of the World Internet Center's Technology Council, just finished his latest book: "Automating Web Tests with TestMaker". Frank is offering a special discount for Center members of 50% off the normal price (good until June 30) when you buy the book at the PushToTest Web site: http://www.pushtotest.com/ptt/books/awtbook.html

Being at the center of the PushToTest community - now serving 38,000 software developers, QA technicians and IT managers - gives Frank a wonderful view of current software development and testing practices. The book contains 305-pages of Frank's favorite experiences, tips and techniques, and fully working test agent code that he uses when building and testing Web-enabled applications, including Web Services.

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SIBF: WORKING GROUP: BUSINESS APPLICATIONS OF DISTRIBUTED SENSORS AND SENSOR NETWORKS: JULY 22, 2003:
3:30 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. Invitation Only.

One aspect of research and commercial development in the Smart Items area is Sensor Nets. In general the objective is make use of sensory information gathered from a number of point sources and build an overall picture of the situation. This has obvious military applications and has been the subject of DARPA and other federal research for more than 30 years. Recently wireless technology like 802.11 wi-fi and low power standards like Blue-Tooth and 802.15.4 have opened the economic feasibility of low-cost wireless-based ad-hoc networks. There are also MEMS-based and other technology sensors that can provide richer information than traditional temperation, vibration and light.

In this Smart Items Business Forum Working Group, the focus will be on exploring the commercial business applications of sensor net technology. For the purpose of discussion we should assume the availability of multi-hop radio technology. It may be valuable to discuss any emerging biological or other sensors that will open new business applications. The prime focus of discussion will be on identifying existing or emerging commercial application domains that can serve widely applicable business needs.

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: SAP: FOUNDING MEMBER OF SMART ITEMS BUSINESS FORUM

SAP Corporate Research (http://www.sap.com/research) announced they will join the Smart Items Business Forum (SIBF) at the Silicon Valley World Internet Center and will serve as the founding chair of the rotating Board of Advisors. The Smart Items Business Forum (SIBF) will convene corporate and government representatives to identify and fully leverage Smart Items business scenarios with the highest possible return on investment (ROI) for enterprise-scale customers.

"It's not enough to know how Smart Items technology will work," says Prof. Dr. Lutz Heuser, vice president of SAP Corporate Research and chief development architect. "We also need to understand the business impact that this technology will generate. There are many industry segments that will be affected by Smart Items technology. The Silicon Valley World Internet Center is starting a Smart Items Business Forum where we will discuss the business objectives of such a Smart Items infrastructure in much more detail than the technical. SAP Corporate Research has agreed to be the founding member and chair of this Forum. We hope that others will join this Forum to contribute to a lively discussion about how business will be impacted and change because of Smart Items."

"We are very pleased that SAP Corporate Research had the vision to be the founding member and chair of the Smart Items Business Forum," said Susan Duggan, CEO of the Silicon Valley World Internet Center. "The time is now to work across industries to glean the business return that Smart Items technology and infrastructure will bring to the enterprise. The Smart Items Business Forum will provide that neutral ground for shaping the future of high business return in this space."

The Forum will advance the understanding of the specific value dynamics of Smart Items in order to optimize ROI, identify and promote vertical market opportunities, identify and promote related innovative technologies and foster strategic partnerships, especially between software and hardware companies.

SAP Corporate Research will be the founding chair of the Forum, which is open for membership to all companies and government officials who will act as a rotating board of advisors and members. The founding Board of Advisors will consist of five key companies in the Smart Items space. Positions on the Board are available. Four sessions are currently planned by the SIBF for the Summer of 2003. As the membership in the Forum grows, members and advisors will inform the creation of further sessions.

For information on institutional membership, please contact the Center's CEO, Dr. Susan Duggan at duggan@worldinternetcenter.com

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TECHNOLOGY BRIEFING: TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 2003
"Business and Technical Objectives for Low Cost Smart Items"

By Richard Swan, Ph.D. Technical Director for Auto-ID SAP Corporate Research Center, SAP Labs, Inc., Palo Alto
To view Dr. Swan's presentation, click Here and Scroll down and click onto "June 3, 2003" to view the program information, " Business and Technical Objectives for Low Cost Smart Items"

Auto-ID tags are an example of Smart Items aimed at low cost and widespread use in the economy. This presentation will tackle a range of business and technical questions:

  • What are the business objectives for the trillion dollars in market muscle pushing the deployment of a common set of hardware and software RFID standards throughout the supply chain?
  • What has been the role of the MIT Auto-ID center?
  • What are the potential capabilities of a widely deployed Auto-ID infrastructure?
  • What business processes can be addressed by Auto-ID?
  • What technical capabilities must be in place to make it work?
  • Can it really scale?
  • What full closed-loop trials are in place?
  • What are the issues in connecting Auto-ID to enterprise applications?

About the Speaker

Dr. Richard Swan founded SAP's Corporate Research Center in Palo Alto. One of the main research projects has been the development of an extensible infrastructure to support the wide spread deployment of "Smart Items". This technology has been deployed in two substantial pilots by SAP, one with Procter&Gamble in the U.S. and the other with Metro AG in Europe. Richard is guiding the setting of SAP's product roadmap for Auto-ID and the establishment of international public standards with the Auto-ID Center Software ActionGroup.

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SUMMARY: EXECUTIVE BRIEFING: TUESDAY, MAY 13, 2003
"Challenges and Rewards of Driving Innovation: Taking the Thought Leadership Approach"

By Prof. Dr. Lutz Heuser, Vice President and Chief Development Architect, SAP Corporate Research, SAP AG.

To view Dr. Heuser's presentation, visit the Center's Website. Scroll down and click onto "May 13, 2003" to view the program information, ""Challenges and Rewards of Driving Innovation: Taking the Thought Leadership Approach."

In a shifting economy when many enterprises lean towards tried-and-true solutions, business progress is attained through pushing innovation forward, even in a time of uncertainty. Dr. Lutz Heuser's Executive Briefing addressed how to optimize and extend business processes utilizing innovative technologies.

Dr. Heuser, Vice President and Chief Development Architect of SAP Corporate Research, will conducted an Executive Briefing illustrating how processes for IT innovation can be supported by business-driven technology research. His briefing illuminated key areas of research-driven innovation being conducted at SAP worldwide, looking at optimizing existing business processes through, for example, Adaptive Supply Chain Networks and Smart Vending, as well as identifying new business processes arenas which enterprise-level applications can support, such as Homeland Security.

As a producer of IT solutions, to become a trusted innovator you have to identify the right technology along with the most excited early adopters to experiment and place a first product in the market with certainty - all in a timely fashion. Rising to this challenge reaps great rewards: gaining momentum and market share. Dr. Heuser addressed SAP Corporate Research's approaches to these challenges, outlining specific areas of innovation.

As Smart Items business-enabling technologies like RFID and ad hoc sensor networks are gaining momentum, SAP will sponsor a series of briefings and working groups specifically designed to identify and leverage new enterprise business opportunities across industry sectors.

Dr. Heuser will specifically addressed SAP's Smart Vending initiative. The ability to connect machine data sources, better known as Smart Items, to SAP systems is becoming an important topic for SAP customers as the number of devices with the ability to collect and distribute data grows. SAP is embracing the evolution of Smart Items and their information. By allowing SAP customers to incorporate data from diverse sources, customers can optimize existing business processes that improve the bottom line. The SAP Smart Vending initiative is one such example. By collecting and exchanging data with vending machines in the field, customers will be able to reduce logistics costs while promoting sales. Together with its partners, SAP Corporate Research is setting up a vending demo center that allows interested parties to evaluate the ROI opportunities at a minimal risk.

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

EXECUTIVE SPONSORS
• Amdocs, Inc. http://www.amdocs.com
• Cable & Wireless http://www.cw.com
• Deutsche Telekom http://www.dtag.de/english/index.htm
• Fujitsu http://www.fujitsu.com
• IBM Corporation http://www.ibm.com
• SAP http://www.mysap.com
• Sun Microsystems http://www.sun.com

KNOWLEDGE NETWORK PARTNERS
• Halleck http://www.halleck.com
• IC Growth, Inc. http://www.icgrowth.com
• Internet Wire http://www.internetwire.com

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

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