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Digital technology changes the business relations of the newspaper industry

The newspaper industry is undergoing a digital transformation. This transition does not only involve the introduction of a new technique but also a radical change of the business relations of the newspaper. This is revealed in a new thesis from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

A decrease in sales and advertising income are pressing the newspapers to expand in digital technology. Internet, mobile services, e-paper and phenomena such as YouTube are challenging the traditional ways of producing and distributing media content.

In order for digital development to move forward the newspaper industry needs the knowledge of how digital innovations change their vale networks and business relations. This is revealed in Maria Åkesson's dissertation in informatics "Digital Innovation in the Value Networks of Newspapers".
- Digital innovation is not only a shift in technology. It radically alters the prerequisites for making money in the media industry. The changes affect how the industry creates new values, their business models and relations, says Maria Åkesson.

Wider networks require new business models
The value networks of newspapers have traditionally consisted of other newspapers, readers and advertisers. New digital products and services have widened the relations of the newspaper and changed their possibilities of doing business. Newspapers have not been engaged with for example telecom providers until the opportunity of offering mobile news services emerged.
The thesis presents a model that can be used as a basis and analytical tool to further explore value networks in digital innovation. According to Maria Åkesson the model is useful for newspapers when entering the digital era.
Traditional ways of doing business are challenged as a result of the digitalization of media. Old business models rest on newspapers having control over production, distribution and content. Digital innovation has changed the processes and structures within the business landscape. It has been difficult for the newspaper industry to create business models and value networks that render profit possible in digital media.

- Business models and the way of conducting business have not really changed in the newspaper industry since its beginning, says Maria Åkesson. Both readers and advertisers abandon the papers for digital media. The newspaper industry has not yet managed to form the value networks that are required to be strong within the area. This is a global trend that is obvious mainly in the American newspaper industry.

Maria Åkesson shows that digital innovation turns value networks into more open and flexible structures at the same time as driving forces strive in the opposite direction as soon as digital innovations become established. The thesis shows that individual organisations exist in several parallel value networks with different structures and different business strategies.

Faster Computers With Nanotechnology

The silicon transistors in your computer may be replaced in ten years by transistors based on carbon nanotubes. This is what scientists at the University of Gothenburg are hoping -- they have developed a method to control the nanotubes during production.

Silicon is subject to certain limitations, and industry is looking for a replacement. The electronics industry has net annual sales of over USD 200 billion, and this means that the development is being fuelled by powerful forces.

Scientist Johannes Svensson from the Department of Physics at the University of Gothenburg has investigated the manufacture and use of carbon nanotubes in his PhD thesis.

Faster and smaller

"I don't believe that it will be cheaper to build transistors from another material than silicon, but carbon nanotubes can be used to produce smaller and faster components. This will also result in computers that consume less energy" says Johannes Svensson.

The amazing development in computer power that has taken place after the invention of the integrated circuit in the 1950s has been made possible by the transistor, which is the most important component of all processors, becoming ever-faster.

Increase the speed

The most common semiconductor material in transistors is silicon, since it is cheap and easy to process. But silicon has its limitations. As the size of the transistors is reduced in order to increase their speed, problems arise that lead to, among other things, increased energy consumption and large variation in the transistor properties.

By exchanging the silicon in the channel for a carbon nanotube, the transistors can be made both smaller and faster than today's transistors. A carbon nanotube is a molecule in form of a hollow cylinder with a diameter of around a nanometer (roughly 1/50,000 of the width of a human hair) which consists of pure carbon. Some carbon nanotubes are semiconducting, and this means that they can be used in transistors, although there are several problems that must be solved before they can be connected together to form large circuits.

Electric guidance

"Carbon nanotubes grow randomly and it is not possible to control either their position or direction. Therefore I have applied an electrical field to guide the tubes as they grow," says Johannes Svensson.

One of the effects of the electric field is that most of the carbon nanotubes lie in the same direction. "In order to show that it is possible to build electronic components that contain only carbon nanotubes, I have built a transistor which not only has a carbon nanotube as its channel, but also another nanotube which is used as the electrode that controls the current."

Good contacts

Another problem that must be solved when integrating nanotubes into larger circuits is the difficulty of manufacturing good metal contacts for the tubes. Johannes' research has shown that the properties of the contacts depend on the diameter of the nanotubes. Choosing the correct diameter will allow good contacts with a low resistance to be achieved.

EUROPE: Promoting a university-business dialogue

30 May 2010


European universities need to forge stronger ties with the private sector but must retain full control over their finances, governance and curriculum, the European Parliament decided last week.

In a detailed resolution, the parliament called for the creation of a European Industrial PhD scheme in which the European Commission would help fund doctoral programmes from its Seventh Framework Programme for research.

Members urged European institutions of higher education to adopt more innovative and methodical curricula encouraging entrepreneurship. The parliament said better university-business ties could also be a way to attract bright young researchers to the European labour market.

Small and medium-sized businesses should also get easier access to university education and funding for research, the resolution stated. But universities must not depend on businesses financially or intellectually, the members stressed, with one risk being higher funding for mathematics, science and technology over the humanities.

"Higher education remains a public responsibility and therefore public financing to universities is needed in order to preserve equal financing to all fields of study, including humanities," the resolution said.

Collaboration between university and private sector should benefit all areas of study. The resolution also called on businesses to increase their scholarships, and encouraged the development of international student work placements to help language learning and cross-border collaboration.

Universities must focus on "following up young graduates more closely in order to assess the economic and social usefulness of education programmes".

The resolution stressed "there is no longer any such thing as a 'job for life'," so universities should become more accessible for retraining and life-long learning to reflect the constantly changing needs of individuals, of vulnerable social groups and of the labour market.

Better links between universities and business would remove the gender disparities present in some university departments, the resolution stated.

US and UAE sign MoU on research, development and promotion of clean energy solutions

The US DoE and Masdar are going to work together on research, developmeng and promotion of clean energy solutions in the future. The memorandum of understanding between the two parties will serve as the backbone for the establishment of a collaboration framework in three key areas: carbon capture and sequestration, water and bio-fuels, as well as building technology.

The United Arab Emirates are one of the biggest oil producers in the world at the moment, but the country's strong ties to the United States, and the global changes in energy production and usage, have made UAE a significant collaborator in sustainable and clean energy development. Masdar, the country's multifaceted renewable energy initiative, is involved in numerous RE developments, of which the most prominent are Masdar City, to be the world first self-sustainable city, and the London Array (large offshore wind farm in the Thames Estuary) in which Masdar holds a stake, alondside E.ON and DONG Energy.

Bill Gates to visit Xiamen University for cooperation on nuclear power

Xiamen University has revealed that Bill Gates, Microsoft's founder just sent a letter to Zhu Chongshi, president of Xiamen University, to express his wish to visit the Xiamen campus in the near future.

According to informed sources, Bill Gates will discuss the possibility of cooperation on nuclear power with Xiamen University and even the Fujian Province. It is reported that Bill Gates has built a nuclear power company called TerraPower in 2006, and Li Ning, director of Asian Development Division of TerraPower is also the dean of School of Nuclear Research in Xiamen University.

Xiamen University is now doing research on traveling-wave reactor (a kind of nuclear reactor) and expected to establish a new nuclear energy R&D center in China.

In the second annual report of the Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation released on 25th January, Bill Gates said that energy is probably the biggest market in the world and developing cheap energy is a good way to help the poorest people.

It is reported that a delegation headed by Bill Gates visited Beijing from November 4th to 5th, 2009 at the invitation of State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation.

XMU President Zhu Chongshi accompanied the visitors during their tour of the China Institute of Atomic Energy and the China Experimental Fast Reactor on November 5th. President Zhu gave the visitors an introduction to XMU and cordially invited Bill Gates to visit Fujian, Xiamen and XMU.

IBM to Collaborate With Universities to Make Mobile Devices More Accessible

ARMONK, N.Y., - 10 Mar 2010: IBM (NYSE: IBM), the National Institute of Design (NID) of India and Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo (RCAST) today announced a new collaborative research initiative to explore an open, common user interface platform for mobile devices, to make them easier to use for disadvantaged populations around the world.

Software developed by IBM Research and the universities will be made available as open source, and other materials developed will be made publicly available, in order to allow governments and businesses around the world to take advantage of the technology. As the world's infrastructure becomes increasingly digital and governments around the world provide information and services via Web sites, it's critical that the Internet be accessible to all people, including those who are illiterate, blind, deaf, or elderly. The aim of the collaborative research is to help make this possible.

The new research partnership is part of the IBM's Open Collaborative Research program, an initiative to foster innovation through university-industry research collaboration. RCAST is the first university affiliated research institute in Japan to participate in the Open Collaborative Research program, and NID is the second university in India.

"Through this collaborative research initiative, we will uncover real information accessibility requirements and issues that the elderly and people in developing economies are facing today," said Chieko Asakawa, IBM Fellow and chief technology officer of IBM's accessibility research. "By focusing on mobile devices, which have a tremendous potential to empower them, we believe the findings will help us offer affordable services to a large population, who are still deprived of access to key information sources."

Mobile phones have had phenomenal penetration globally. Low cost of ownership and a simple user interface contribute to the success of mobile phones with the less literate. However, apart from basic voice communication, illiterate populations are not able to exploit the benefits of information and services available to Internet users. IBM Research - India and NID will identify the communication needs and preferences of the non- and semi-literate population, to not only help them connect but to engage with information through mobile devices.

"By bringing IBM's deep knowledge in mobile web and NID's interface design and ethnological expertise, this initiative is aimed to develop inclusive technologies and help the underprivileged improve their lives," said Dr. Jignesh Khakhar of NID.

IBM researchers in Tokyo and the human information engineering research team, led by Professor Tohru Ifukube of RCAST, will place their research focus on Japan's elderly population, where the aging rate is growing at a rapid pace, making Japan the world's most elderly population. With IBM's accessibility technology expertise and RCAST's expertise, they will work directly with the elderly to investigate and determine real-life requirements of elderly people when using mobile devices.

"New technologies and various new services will continue to emerge, and mobile devices will become a window of opportunity for us to engage with information anytime anyplace," said Professor Tohru Ifukube of RCAST. "With IBM's expertise in accessibility technologies and mobile web technologies, coupled with our expertise in five-senses communication and NID's interface design expertise, we are looking forward to develop inclusive technologies for elderly population to help improve quality of life."

In 2009, IBM was recognized with India's National Award in the category of "Technological Innovation" for best applied research aimed at improving the life of persons with disabilities - India's highest such award. It recognized the work of IBM Researchers in creating technology for what IBM calls the "Spoken Web." This voice-enabled technology, developed by IBM Research - India, complements the Internet, and enables people with little or no literacy, or those with visual impairment, to access and share information, perform business transactions, and create social networks using mobile or landline phones. IBM was also recognized with the 2009 Helen Keller Award from India's National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People. The honor lauded IBM for demonstrating policies and practices that provide equal employment opportunities for people with disabilities. IBM has earned these significant awards for three years in a row.

IBM has a distinguished history in developing accessibility technology. The company developed a Braille printer in 1975 and a talking typewriter for the blind in 1980. More recently, IBM created the Home Page Reader, a browser that narrates Web content. In 2008, IBM earned the Helen Keller Achievement Award in Accessibility from the American Foundation for the Blind.

Google Editions: Google Plans to Launch E-Book Store This Summer

Google is getting ready to launch its own e-book store and challenge Apple and Amazon. According to the Wall Street Journal, Chris Palma, Google's manager for strategic-partner development, announced the timetable for the launch of the company's e-book store during an event at Random House's Manhattan offices earlier today. Google Editions, as the new store will be called, will launch in late June or July.

Google will allow book retailers to sell Google Editions on their own sites and, according to the Wall Street Journal's report, "keep the bulk of the revenue." Google, of course, also plans to highlight these e-books on its own book search engine. It's important to note that Google is also still trying to win the right to distribute out-of-print books, but the Google Books Settlement that would give Google the rights to do so is still caught up in various legal challenges.

When we first heard about Google Editions last year, Google's plan was to offer around half a million books at launch. At the time, Google also noted that it wants its books to be compatible with any device, whether that's a laptop, phone or dedicated e-reader. Apple's tablet wasn't on the horizon back then, but chances are that Google will also want its books to be compatible with this new platform. Given that Google is already using the ePub standard, we can only hope that Google's plan is to sell DRM-free ePub books.

RUSSIA: Millions for research and development.

Leading universities will receive up to 90 billion rubles (US$3 billion) to support R&D activities over the next three years. Announcing the grant, Minister of Education and Science Andrei Fursenko said the funds would improve the scientific potential of universities and attract foreign scientists, including Russians currently working abroad. 

All of the grants will be provided on a competitive basis.  

Sergey Ivanets, Director of Department of Strategy and Perspective Projects in Education and Science at the ministry, said Russia was experiencing a lack of research projects and was forced to attract compatriots from abroad. 

Analysts believe most of the money will go to so-called federal Russian universities, such as Southern, Siberian and Far Eastern, as well to 14 research universities.  

Federal universities were established by the government as autonomous institutions. Each has its own special rights in the field of education and innovation, and financial and economic activities.  

The university presidents are not elected but appointed by the government for five years. Each university also must form its own board of trustees. 

It is expected that, in addition to the federal universities, state financial support will only go to those universities with strong staff who have authored many scientific publications or patents and whose results can be applied in practice. 

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the investments would allow the establishment of "powerful research centres", similar to those at the Kurchatov Institute, Russia's leading research and development institution in the field of nuclear energy. 

Universities will be able use the money to purchase training and laboratory equipment, further train academics, develop information resources and improve management and research.

Raytheon to develop next-generation GPS control segment

AURORA, Colo.—The U.S. Air Force awarded Raytheon Co. an $886 million contract to develop a new element of the Global Positioning System to improve the accuracy of information from GPS satellites.

The contract represents the first two development blocks of the advanced control segment (OCX), which will have a significant impact on GPS capabilities. The OCX will include anti-jam capabilities and improved security, accuracy, and reliability and will be based on a modern service-oriented architecture to integrate government and industry open-system standards.
“We are excited to partner with the Air Force to provide the best-value GPS control system for the future,” says Lynn Dugle, president of Raytheon’s Intelligence and Information Systems business. “Raytheon’s broad experience in delivering satellite-to-ground, command-and-control systems will ensure that our nation’s military and civil GPS users worldwide are provided new capabilities.”

The OCX will dramatically affect GPS command, control, and mission capabilities and make it easier for the operations team to run the current GPS block II and all future GPS satellites, Raytheon officials say.

The GPS, a satellite-based radio navigation system for the military and the public, comprises three major segments: the user segment, the space segment, and the control segment, which includes a master control station and ground antennas.

“The OCX concept was created to separate the control and space segments,” says Bob Canty, GPS vice president and program manager for Raytheon. “Technologies were evolving so rapidly and were so critical to execution that specialized skills were needed. The GPS wing saw the same need for specialized expertise on GPS OCX.”

Teammates include The Boeing Company, ITT, Braxton Technologies, Infinity Systems Engineering, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The contract was awarded by the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base.

US Army meets with Apple, discusses tech for soldiers

by Chris Rawson (RSS feed) on Mar 23rd 2010 at 6:00PM
Earlier this month, Major General Nick Justice and several members of his staff traveled to Apple's Cupertino campus to discuss soldiers using Apple's products and technology in the field. In addition to having the most awesome name ever, Maj. Gen. Justice also heads the US Army's Research, Development, and Engineering Command. He's reportedly interested in moving the Army away from the custom-built "big green box" electronics that the Army has used over the past decades; instead, Justice wants the Army to investigate existing solutions from the commercial sector, including Apple's portable lines.

Rather than continuing to invest heaps of money to research its own devices, Maj. Gen. Justice wants to take a different approach: leveraging the knowledge and research of the commercial sector into the Army's portable equipment. This approach makes perfect sense for a number of reasons. Companies like Apple have already laid a lot of the groundwork for developing durable and easily portable devices, and their devices provide multiple functions with an extremely easy-to-use interface.

Thanks to TUAW reader Ryan for the tip.


One of the Army's lead computer scientists working for the Communications-Electronics Research and Development Center said, "Apple technologies offer unique and proven solutions with intuitive designs that allow users to learn quickly without a training manual." Indeed, most of the Army's soldiers either own an iPod or have at least used one before. So whether we're talking about a direct use of iPod touches and iPhones out in the field, or rather, Army-specific tech influenced by Apple's design, there's very little training needed to adapt soldiers to the technology. As a former member of the military myself, I can tell you that using simple interfaces like the iPhone OS in the Army's portable equipment would be a huge step toward "soldier-proofing" the devices, making them both easier to use and more reliable in the field.

This isn't the first we've heard of Apple's portables being deployed for military applications. A Newsweek article from about a year ago noted the many uses that the iPod touch has seen on the battlefield already. It's been used for everything from language translation to ballistics calculations for snipers in Afghanistan via an app called Bulletflight. Other US Department of Defense projects for the iPhone OS include software to display video from aerial drones, video conferencing with intelligence agents, and even a remote control app for bomb disposal robots. The Army's Communications-Electronics Research and Development Center is also developing COIN Collector, a counter-insurgency information collection app, and MilSpace, a social networking/planning app.

Apple most likely didn't have military applications in mind when they developed the iPhone OS, but the simple, yet flexible interface has drawn the military's attention anyway. It may not reach the point where soldiers are given Army-issued iPod touches alongside their M-16s (although that would be a great recruitment tool), but it's likely that, at the very least, future Army devices will draw much of their inspiration from Apple's portable lines.