Marcus Cake

According to Wikipedia, Enterprise Requirements Planning (ERP) software is “intended to manage all information of functions within a company or business”. “Examples of modules in an ERP which formerly would have been stand-alone applications include: Product lifecycle management, Supply chain management (e.g. Purchasing, Manufacturing and Distribution), Warehouse Management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Sales Order Processing, Online Sales, Financials, Human Resources, and Decision Support System.”- Wikipedia.

ERP software from proprietary vendors can be very expensive and take months to implement. My web site is devoted to applying Web 3.0 to economic development. A key building block underpinning the emergence of Web 3.0 is open source software. I wrote an article about How to setup a server on the Amazon cloud and install SugarCRM in 30 minutes. The potential is summarised even more effectively in the video below. It shows how you can implement an ERP software system in less than 10 minutes. There are many images with “ready to go” enterprise software at Amazon. The experience below can be repeated with different types of server images that provide specific solutions to different problems.

You can learn more about OpenTaps from the OpenTaps web site, a summary PDF or QuickTime movie download.

I just watched a presentation at Gartner called SOA, the Web and the Cloud: Big Decisions about Application Architecture. I encourage you to view the original presentation. It highlights the tremendous opportunity to evolution and innovation by applying Web architectures and cloud computing to the way applications are designed. I will try to outline some of those principles for the non-technical below and then outline the importance of these principles in applying key elements of a Web 3.0 online network to economic development.

A few days ago, the open source browser project Opera released the version 10 of its web browser. This version, called Opera Unite, introduces a major new function that will probably be incorporated into all browsers. Opera Unite extends the browser that reads web pages from the internet, with a web server that publishes information to the web. In short, it facilitates direct peer to peer (or browser to browser) communication between browsers in real-time. Google Wave and Opera Unite facilitate peer to peer in Web 3.0. They do it in different ways. Google Wave appears to have a a superior value proposition, but ultimately it will depend on how, and how many, third party applications are integrated into each platform.

Email was created 40 years ago and provides specific means for people to communicate. It mimics the conventional postal service. Wave is Google’s attempt at how we should communicate given technology today. It provides a new means and a new workflow to communicate. Google Wave may be a masterful strategic move by Google that integrates a range of their online technologies and triggers a paradigm shift. The impact of Google Wave is revolutionary. It could render desktop office productivity software obsolete as workflow and content is managed online. It could also render existing open source and commercial email servers obsolete. Corporates will bypass much of the Web 2.0 point applications and implement Google Wave for an immediate productivity improvement.

Web 1.0 delivered the internet and connected large numbers of people. Web 2.0 demonstrated the technology to assemble and manage large global crowds with a common interest in social interaction. Web 3.0 will apply online network concepts to industry, economic development, climate stability, poverty and democracy. Web 3.0 online networks allow people to see through the community or market and facilitate collective matching, learning and consumption in hours (not months). Web 4.0 achieves a critical mass of participation in online networks that deliver global transparency, governance, distribution, participation, collaboration in key industry, political, social and other community endeavours. Web 4.0 delivers community sovereignty to channels and information.

This article discusses how to create a virtual web server on the Amazon cloud and establish a location to install a new web site in less than 15 minutes.

This article discusses how to create a virtual web server on the Amazon cloud and install/configure SugarCRM in less than an hour. It should actually take 30 minutes if you already have an Amazon account and Elasticfox installed. This is intended as a hackers technical general guide, rather than something a novice could do.

I chose to implement SugarCRM and use it to manage contacts, segment the customer base, and conduct campaigns. This provided a platform to restructure the marketing function of the business to be less reliant on redundant Web 1.0 distribution and more Web 2.0 (participation) and Web 3.0 (contribution).

Rightscale offers to manage a farm of servers to automatically scale the processing and storage capacity of a web application to service growing, or declining, demand from internet users. Rightscale costs USD500 per month plus a USD2,000 setup fee (last time I checked). Scalr is an open source application that performs the same function as Rightscale. You can implement Scalr yourself from here or use Scalr’s USD50 per month paid version (with no setup fee).

Rightscale and Amazon Web Services now offers essential features not previously available - automatic scaling , Manager for MySQL and Persistent Storage. The Amazon Web Services platform empowered the entrepreneur, but advanced technical skills were still required to solve storage and scalability issues to create a truly scalable application. These latest developments are critical building blocks of transformative online networks and bring the power direct to the entrepreneur. This power is available by using the Rightscale dashboard/service. They charge USD2,500 to setup your server and USD500 per month to use the dashboard. This is a fraction of the cost of a comparable web hosting configuration five years ago, assuming a comparable web hosting configuration could be built. Competitive advantage can no longer be derived from the prohibitive cost of web hosting or ability to scale a web application. Unlimited storage and global scalability is now available to the entrepreneur (that is a hacker).

Morgan Stanley has released a research report on Internet Trends (June 2008). I recommend reviewing the presentation. It contains some interesting statistics on shifts in online advertising, the movement of market share to Asia and the decline in US relevance to the global economy.

Open source communities have developed a critical mass of tools and are beginning to morph into the development of solutions. Amazon’s elastic cloud is a critical building block that will support the next wave of economic development. Moore’s law has been improving information technology at a rapid rate for more than 40 years. In isolation, each technology advance represents a rapid advance in a technology area. The combination of these technologies can now deliver a paradigm shift which presents new opportunities for economic development. This article is focussed on how elastic clouds and open source communities can provide virtual building blocks for business and social entrepreneurs building tomorrows disruptive structures.

Prosper means different things to different people. It may mean more income, peer recogntion, more time with family or a sense of satisfaction in making a contribution. The ability to prosper in an online network has one common attribute - the ability to generate traffic. Traffic will reflect your participation and contribution to online networks. It will, ofcourse, also reflect the value of your service offering and demand by customers.

Amazon web services are pioneering essential building blocks for economic development. These blocks will provide a foundation for the next phase of online networks which will pioneer new structures. They reduce processing power and information storage to basic utilities, just like telephone, gas and electric supply. The storage service (S3) and web hosting service (EC2) cost less than 50% of traditional approaches and are more flexible and simpler to use.

Hackers can design their online network at home and simply drag and drop it onto the Amazon cloud. The conventional approach would require a large number of employees or consultants to deliver equivalent functionality. Ofcourse, a significant amount of time was required to raise capital from investors to pay for it. Today, a hacker can create an application on the (free) Linux desktop and an open source development platform. A major ebusiness could be built by a hacker with less than US25k in external development. If you are not a hacker, then you will need to raise some serious capital because you will need significant support to navigate unfamiliar ground and achieve your outcomes.

Typo3 is a content management system. It was named as one of the top 100 companies and projects in the digital content management industry. It is rapidly developing new features and will improve its standing.

The objectives of open source will change over time. As open source evolves and proves its capability, it will move beyond technology, beyond specific industries, to all other aspects of our society. This has been suggested in the past. However, existing organisations are not sufficiently motivated to apply advances in technology to promote development. Business, social and political entrepreneurs that establish online networks are likely to be the primary force for change.

This article outlines the first four stages of the development of online networks and the .Net boom. The objective of the online network in each stage is identified.

Paul Webber released Linux Media Center edition on on 17th March 2007. It was the culmination of five months work by two individuals full-time. He leveraged the Ubuntu Linux distribution and plutohome.com open source projects to deliver a “free” Linux Media Centre. It may be better than Microsoft’s media centre. I expect a quality community will join this project and fix any issues quickly.

It demonstrates the power of one individual to make a significant contribution to the world by leveraging free and open source software. It also extends Ubuntu to deliver a “Media Centre edition” for a specific target segment. The Linux community is moving from tools to solutions for different customer segments.

The next evolution in economic development and the evolution of the internet is likely to be user generated industries. This will move beyond user content to valuable industries which distribute valuable information. Online industry networks will facilitate collaboration and distribute information. Small groups may specialise in the manufacture of information. They will rely on online networks to distribute it. Consumers of information will increasing source their products from online networks.

A user generated industry combines user generated content and user generated infrastructure to distribute products and services from individual manufacturers to individual consumers. There are significant economic and social benefits for the individual manufacturers and consumers of information. Individuals can focus on their unique speciality, work from home and be their own boss. Customers obtain the convenience of online delivery and lower costs. Organisations that have only served the community by distributing information are likely to be rendered redundant by technology advances. These will need to find other means to add value to the global community if they are to survive. Some will not.

My definition of the word hacker has evolved. From programmers cracking computer security (called crackers) to my modest efforts to improve my golf and, now, to skilled people contributing to online networks that reflect their passions and interests. A hacker has the tenacity and persistence to solve problems, often for the sake of solving it. They have the vision of architects, the skills of engineers and empathy of a mother with her upset child. They make significant sacrifices in pursuit of their goal. They navigate around, or though, barriers in their path. They do not rest (if inspired) until the problem is solved, or the challenge is overcome. If only my golf, could be described in these terms.

Online networks will be an essential tool of hackers. The will capture and focus the unique contribution of other hackers. Collective talent, energy and innovation will reshape industrial, social and political frameworks over the next decade.

The two leading Linux distributions, Ubuntu and Opensuse, install a Linux desktop in quickly and easily. They also come preinstalled with the KDE collaboration wizard. This will connect Evolution (the equivalent of Microsoft Outlook) to four open source groupware applications quickly. Those four applications are egroupware, Kolab, Suse Linux Openexchange (SLOX) and Novell Groupwise. Imagine a world where one individual could install a complete desktop, configure a groupware server and integrate the two in a few hours. The social and commercial ramifications would be exponential.

The potential of open source software, open source principles and collective innovation is significant. They could change the world. They should, at the very least, change information intensive industries. These assertions are largely an intellectual argument. The thoughts of an individual. The compelling value of open source and collective innovation as a solution needs to be demonstrated.

Regulations have trailed the opportunities and benefits presented by technology. The SEC has only recently changed its regulation to allow the delivery of shareholder information by the internet. The internet presents the world with an opportunity for a truly global capital market. Regulation is critical to the integrity and credibility of equity markets. However, in an era of global business and the internet there are limits to the reach and effectiveness of regulation. My spam filter receives at least 10 emails a day recommending the purchase of the shares of a listed company. I suspect many receive similar emails. It is difficult to see how any method of regulation could protect an investor from Spam, or point to point communication. Can we protect the “investor” in a world where information can travel from individual to individual, companies can shift countries and advisers could use the internet to mask their identity. The challenge for global regulators is real. A careful balance must be struck between the need for efficient and effective capital markets, effective investor protection at a minimum of transaction costs. The efficient and effective operation of global capital markets is critical to capital formation, economic growth, taxes to fund government and having available resources to address the critical environmental, health and social problems of our time.

Economic development and new technologies can require significant adjustment for existing players. In financial markets, many of these business models were formed in the early 1900’s. Large organisations and signficant infrastructure was required to distribute information from point to point. In an era of the internet, the cost of distributing information point to point is almost zero. Information distribution business based upon old business models must adapt. Given the significant investments, many current players are unable to change. Only new entrants have the flexibility to offer new business models offered by the internet.

How much time do you spend asking someone else for a file they have? How many requests do you get for someone asking for a file that is only on your laptop? For some, particularly small business, the time spent doing these two things can be significant. This article is devoted to a simple method of getting your laptop to manage the process of sharing files. You will need a web server to be a single computer that can act as a single point of reference for all files. A web server can be set up and home using your ADSL connection, or leased. This method could be used to synchronise files amongst multiple projects and multiple people.

There have been concerns that Moore’s law may not continue. Recent innovations have solved problems in manufacturing, power consumption and heat generation. It appears that a further innovation may not only see that Moore’s law continues but introduce a revolution in computing. In simple terms, it is the ability to put 80 cores on a single chip.

If Moore’s law continues, then the cost of hardware will continue to decline and the ability to run a bank from a desert island a reality. The ability of software to take advantage of these hardware advantages may be limited. The advances in hardware and emergence of Utility computing will overcome much of the limitation. The result will be unpredented opportunity for entrepreneurs to create applications to global audiences in an increasingly service oriented world. Linux is likely to be best placed to take advantage of advances in hardware.

Skype made internet telephony popular. It added video functionality to Skype last year. It has now added remote desktop or application sharing. As the worlds most popular internet telephone software, this will have a significant impact on the number of people that work together over the internet. Could Skype make application sharing popular just like it did for internet telephony?

On 1st November 2006, the Isle of Man’s new Companies Act came into effect. The legislation included the ability to create “Protected Cell Companies”. “A PCC is a company with an internal structure that allows for the legal segregation of assets and liabilities into different cells and a central core. This framework is designed to offer increased protection to investors in individual cells from the liabilities and creditors of other cells.”
A PCC would appear to be a viable and useful structure with many applications. Only time will reveal its competitive advantage against other types of structures and the innovative uses this structure may be used.

My previously article “The Isle of Man New Manx Vehicle - simple, more flexible, offshore and part of the EU for VAT purposes” provided an overview of the Isle of Man. It highlighted the attributes of the jurisdiction for internet businesses and the introduction of the “New Manx Vehicle” corporate structure (”NMV”). The NMV was designed to compete more effectively with the corporate structure offered by the British Virgin Islands. In 2004, the BVI incorporated 60,000 companies and the Isle of Man just 2,593. The NMV will be available for incorporation from the 1st November 2006. Apparently, there is significant interest in the NMV. A ballott is being conducted to award the honour of being the first NMV incorporated.

The WRT54G is a router which costs approximately USD50. It has a large installed base of users. With custom software it can have the functionality of more expensive routers. The combination of open source software, the large installed base of WRT54G users and cheap hardware has also faciltated the creation of the largest global wi-fi network encompassing 80,000 within twelve months. This article will highlight the practical applications of using the WRT54G to empower the home. It will also highlight one opportunity to change the world by leveraging user generated infrastructure that is being pursued by FON. FON has created the largest wifi community on the world encompassing 80,000 users in less than 12 months.

Over many years, I have developed a simple Microsoft Excel template to support a transaction process. Transaction types included a merger or aquisition, IPO’s or private equity capital raising. This template is a starting point and needs to be customised to meet the unique requirements of each company and the specific transaction being pursued. To download the template, click on Transaction process template .This template is part of a series of templates used in a transaction process. It complements my previous post Financial forecast model: A Microsoft Excel template could become an Open Source project

I will contribute the other templates as time permits. The business plan template and Investor presentation templates are still to be posted.

Please review all the available templates by selecting the Templates category .

The global economy is 70% services based. Broadband penetration is growing. The opportunities for open source technology to change the status quo are staggering. LAMP is the technology which underpins most of the major web sites in the world today. It will be a key tool for the social and commercial entrepreneurs of tomorrow and underpin the the .NET boom.