The Drone Co-operative

May 6, 2013 Leave a comment

Introduction

With the advances of commercial drone technology and parallel computing I’ve started to envisage a possible future where small companies or a co-operative of entrepreneurs can create there own city-wide internet/telephony platforms.

The main premise is that commercial drones would be used to deliver a small-scale web service to customers. This service would allow users to freely access a city-based intranet/social media service which is separate from anything offered on the internet, therefore offering a more secure method of local communication. 

Drones

Separately, full web-access could be offered for a monthly fee. Again to create a more secure framework, an integrated web search feature would be introduced therefore by-passing existing web offerings such as Google and Bing.

This integrated search would give preference to local search results over what we have now, which is a conglomerate based one, with large companies able to hold sway.

Users may flock to the new system in the knowledge that access data on them is not being offered for use by conglomerates.

In a world where the introduction of Augmented Reality technology such as Google Glasses and the inferred extra private data that will eventually be held on consumers, those consumers may now be extremely interested in having a new type of secure local web provider.

The Co-operative Approach

I foresee a situation whereby a number of small drone companies as well as private entrepeneurs would come together as a co-operative so that there drones could be used in this manner, therefore reducing cost issues.

These commercial drones would obviously continue in their normal business operations, providing specialist contract work to larger companies.

Technical advances envisaged

Obviously the above technical platform is not available right now, it takes into account that advances in certain areas will continue:

  • that commercial drones will continue to evolve:
    • have greater range and time in the air
    • can be placed into specified geosynchronous orbits
    • have on-board server technology
  • that the advances in parallel computing continue to gain pace offering small companies the ability to create there own high performance server farms for a very low outlay.

The following web articles give credence to the above statements:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/9708309.stm

http://mashable.com/2012/03/19/the-pirate-bay-drones/

http://phys.org/news/2013-04-adapteva-parallel-boards-summer.html

http://www.azcentral.com/business/news/articles/20130424telecom-equipped-drones-could-revolutionize-wireless-market.html?nclick_check=1

Next steps

I do need to do some more thinking about whether this really would be something people might be interested in and whether government would indeed ever allow it. I’m extremely interested what this approach could mean for new concepts such as Big Data, as we move forward.

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Corporate Collaborative Virtual World

April 23, 2013 Leave a comment

As part of last month’s presentation to DSTL/Qinetiq we hosted a small virtual world for attendee’s to see how collaboration and communication could work.

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The virtual world was based around version 2 of VastPark’s software platform although soon we’re hoping to get our hands on version 3 later this year which will:

  • offer a HTML5 player for users to log into a virtual world whilst they are using a tablet/smartphone
  • update it’s core virtual world player to use the Unity3D rendering engine allowing for greater visual quality
  • bring full integration with the company’s social media offering so that companies can have social media and a virtual world presence from one portal

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Is Mobile Learning about to become, well, simply just Learning

April 22, 2013 Leave a comment

Over the last few years, everyone and his dog has been writing, researching and presenting their ideas on how everyone should incorporate a mobile learning strategy into their curriculum.

Obviously we are all sold on the need to move to HTML5, but the argument starts after that. The current hard sell doing the circuits is that we place our faith in a responsive style of design and development (Responsive Elearning Design) whereby we use an authoring tool that allows us to develop content that downgrades itself to match the device you are using. The key drivers for the philosophy has been that mobile students:

  • don’t have the bandwidth to download desktop based learning
  • don’t have the screen real estate to view desktop based learning
  • don’t want to view a huge 2 hour desktop course, only small chunks at convenient times
  • can’t view desktop courses on a small smartphone screen.

The problem with this approach is that everyone of the above factors has already been overcome. Yes, not in full circulation, but they have been overcome:

  • people are starting the slow adoption of 4G that will make their mobile phone access quicker than my current village broadband!
  • there are now a trickle of HD smartphones on the market. These phones have a higher screen resolution than the Logica laptop you are using to view this blog right now!
  • open source learning management systems such as Moodle are now organised in a way that they promote the creation of courses by using a series of small modular chunks of learning.
  • Screens on upmarket smartphones are slowly getting larger.

True, the above factors could still take 18 months to fully come mainstream – but in my view it won’t be long before our teenagers are all surfing the web on HD smartphones using 4G.

Simply, now, with a Moodle server and a copy of the latest Adobe Captivate, one can create multi-device learning without the need for any huge change in development.

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Networking Drone Data

April 13, 2013 1 Comment

I noticed with some puzzlement Eric Schmidt, Head of Google, calling for civilian drone technology to be regulated, warning about privacy and security concerns.

Like most cynacists I then got to thinking how could such new technology harm the established data magnets.

video-civilian-drones-articleLarge

My first thought was that if drones could share land and road data, with local enthusiasts being able to pin-point accident blackspots long before established providers could. The potential for this type of super up to date data could harm companies such as Google who provide a more traditional mapping function. Not to mention that using drones could produce a much more up to date Street View function.

I then saw a riveting article regarding the possibility the file-sharing drones and an announcement from Pirate Bay that in future parts of its site could be hosted on GPS controlled drones. In this way, they could provide a completely unrestricted “airborne Pirate Bay”.

I wondered if other people viewed drone technology as divisive or ultimately a technology for improved change.

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Providing the learning platform for every school in a country!

April 12, 2013 Leave a comment

It’s always an eye opener when a company from your home town receives some quite amazing recognition.

Frog, based in Halifax, provide learning systems and are currently delivering on a contract to provide every one of the Malaysia’s 10,000 state schools and 10 million students with access to Frog’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) – a fully featured learning platform.

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In recognition of this they have been shortlisted for the prestigous ComputerWorld award, a 25 year old US-based honors program celebrating companies making an impact in the welfare of society using ICT.

If you’d like know more go to their site http://www.frogtrade.com their drag and drop interface for creating everything – learning platform, content, student views etc etc is very interesting and the platform seems to be multi-tenancy too.

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Presenting at the forthcoming C2ISTAR Learning Conference sponsored by the Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (DSTL)

February 12, 2013 Leave a comment

Myself and a colleague, Just Harris, will be presenting a white paper on learning innovation within the Contemporary Operating Environment at a forthcoming learning conference in March at Qinetiq’s Farnborough site.

Other presentations will be made by Qinetiq as well as Newmann and Spurr (NSC). NSC are currently the company providing the JCOVE simulation service for both pre-deployment and in-theatre learning.

Our paper will discuss a number of streams:

  • Communities of Practice for enhanced knowledge retention
  • Collaborative Virtual Worlds and their use within the military arena
  • Inexpensive off the shelf serious games for improving strategy/influencing skills
  • The future of semi-autonomous characters within tailored made simulations, such as VBS2.

Following presentations their will be lunch and a live online demonstration of the use of a virtual world for collaborative learning.

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The demonstration will be using VastPark technologies, for a video example of their work, go to this link: http://vimeo.com/49000257

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