Mícheál Ó Foghlú's Weblog

Metaphors and Networks

Saving the Net III: Understanding its Frames | Linux Journal

Doc Searls makes an interesting argument about how the metaphors we use for the Internet/Web influence how we think about it. It contains an excellent set of references (e.g. Zittrain, Reed), so I'll be using this as starting point for my students as an aid to understanding the debates around the future of the Internet.

Camino-Waterford (May 2008)

Over the past two weeks I have travelled on the Camino Santiago (the way of St James) from Waterford to Santiago de Compostela, in Galicia, Spain. The route involved sailing on board the Jeanie Johnston (a replica 19th century wooden hulled sailing ship --- as close to medieval as we could get) from Waterford quay, out of the Waterford estuary, and the southwards past the Scilly Isles and across the Bay of Biscay to A Coruña on the north coast of Galicia; this was a journey of 4 days. The next section was on foot from A Coruña to Santiago de Compostela over 3 days. Finally we spent a few days in Santiago before flying back a more conventional twenty first century route to Dublin airport.

The journey was a recreation of the pilgrimage taken by a previous Mayor of Waterford City in 1473 and 1483, James Rice. This route was known in Medieval times as the "English Way", which was an alternative to the more famous land routes to Santiago such as the French routes that cross the Pyrenees and converge near Pamplona, or the internal Iberian (Spanish and Portuguese) routes coming from the south.

I have posted three sets of public photographs (as yet undocumented) on the Flickr photo sharing site, and I've made this available to everyone so that the people I travelled with can have easy access to them:

• Camino-Waterford Preamble (a small number of photographs taken on my camera phone during and after the ceremony in Christ Church Cathedral where Mary O'Halloran, the Mayor of Waterford, sent us on our way)
• Camino-Waterford Voyage (photographs taken with my Cannon 400D SLR with a Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC prime lens)
• Camino-Waterford Walk (photographs taken with my Cannon 400D SLR with a Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC prime lens)

I found the camino to a be a fantastic experience, particularly because of the people who we travelled with on the ship, and on foot. So a big thanks to my fellow pilgrims: Eamonn, John (of the shell), Jackie, Nina, Mary, Anne, Paddy, Pat, Jim, Oliver, Brian, Aidan and Tim; a big thanks to our fellow travellers on the ship: Sean, John, Pat, Maeve, Coleman, Stephen and Steve; a big thanks to the captain, officers and crew of the Jeanie Johnston (the captain, Luca, Paul, Daithi, , Quentin, Jim, Charlie, Suzie, Earl, Karen, Pat and Johnnie). The trip was organised by the Waterford Museum of Treasures, who placed this article (worth reading for some historical background on James Rice who made the pilgrimage in 1473 and 1483) in the local newspaper the Munster Express; so a special thanks to Eamonn and Donnchadh for making it all possible.

References

• Edwin Mullins, 1974, The Pilgrimage to Santiago (the best book I have found about the pilgrimage which, though it focuses on the route from Paris over land, covers much of the history and context for the growth and decline in popularity of the pilgrimage).
• Camino de Santiago A practical blog about doing the walking pilgrimage today.

TSSG spin-out Zolk C wins prestigious museums award

In London on Wednesday 7th May 2008 the National Trust for Scotland was presented with an a Museums & Heritage Award (full list of awards) for "Use of Technology" in its Culloden site. This recognised the innovative use of technology, a GPS PDA system that delivers an integrated multimedia audio, video and text guide to visitors to the Culloden Battlefield site near Inverness in Scotland. This solution was developed by the TSSG spin-out joint venture company Zolk C together with content management experts.

Edited Wikipedia entry on Battle of Culloden

The Battle of Culloden (Scotts Gaelic: Blàr Chùil Lodair--most of the Highlanders would have spoken Scotts Gaelic), 16 April 1746, was the final clash between the Jacobites and the British Government in the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Culloden brought the Jacobite cause--to restore the House of Stuart to the throne of the Kingdom of Great Britain--to a decisive defeat.

The Jacobites--the majority of them Highland Scots, although containing significant numbers of Lowland forces--supported the claim of James Francis Edward Stuart (aka "The Old Pretender") to the throne; the government army, under the Duke of Cumberland, younger son of the Hanoverian sovereign, King George II, supported his father's cause. It too included significant numbers of Highland Scots, as well as Scottish Lowlanders and some English troops.

The aftermath of the battle was brutal and earned the victorious general the name "Butcher" Cumberland. Charles Edward Stuart eventually left Britain and went to Rome, never to attempt to take the throne again. Civil penalties were also severe. New laws attacked the Highlanders' clan system, and Highland dress was outlawed.

The picture shows myself, Paul Savage and Eamonn de Leastar, the TSSG members who were present at the award ceremony. No blood was spilled, though kilts were in evidence. A big thank you to the full team who made the award possible, including all those in the TSSG who helped.

• Zolk C (at present home page has pictures of the full Zolk C team, including myself)
• TSSG
• Culloden Battlefield
• Museums & Heritage Show

FeedHenry partner with Oracle

SiliconRepublic.com: Irish firm at spearhead of Oracle’s Web 2.0 plans

The TSSG spin-out company FeedHenry has partnered with Oracle. They're starting to gain some traction in the market, and we see a bright future for the dynamic mix of service development platform with legacy interfaces and lightweight widget-based scripting allowing easy creation of Web 2.0 mash-ups. This is particularly attractive to telecommunications operators who are tying to keep up with developments in communications services creation environments.

Future Internet Assembly (Bled, March/April 2008)

The TSSG is at the heart of EU funded research into the Future Internet. The TSSG also has Irish funding (from the HEA and SFI that funds related basic research into the management of future networks). The TSSG was well represented at the recent event in Slovenia: Future Internet Assembly (31st March - 2nd April 2008). This post tries to summarise TSSG Future Internet activity, EU-funded and Irish-funded, and how this range of expertise links to events like the one in Bled.

The key point of this posting is to illustrate how the TSSG is at the centre of Future Internet activity in Europe. In addition to the active projects, and participation in the EU Technology Platforms, the TSSG has also led the way in building events that integrate the North American view of the Future Internet with the European view, in particular through the TridentCom event (held this year in Austria in March, chaired by Miguel ponce de Leon, and next year in Washington DC) chaired by our colleague and visiting Professor in Waterford IT, Thomas Magadanz (Fraunhofer FOKUS and the Technical University of Berlin).

The TSSG's engagement in Future Internet activities builds upon our prior experience in communications infrastructure and services (and in particular the management challenges of heterogeneous environments including wireless access networks), and our experience in EU FP4, FP5, FP6 and FP7 projects from 1996-2008.

Continue reading "Future Internet Assembly (Bled, March/April 2008)"

TSSG spin-out creates location-aware interactive battlefield guide: Culloden Battlefield (Scotland)

The latest spin-out from the TSSG is called Zolk C Ltd., which recently launched an innovative new wireless tourism service for the Culloden Battlefield in Scotland (see quote below from the Sunday Telegraph, 24th February 2008).

It was all a long time ago, but the voices and images conjured by the new time machine at Culloden linger hauntingly in the memory.

On April 16th 2008, the National Trust for Scotland has organised the Grand Opening of the new Culloden Battlefield centre and exhibition. This will also include the new Zolk C service 'The Culloden Battlefield Guide'. Led by Paul Savage, a number of TSSG staff are attending this event.

The Culloden Battlefield Guide.

The innovative Battlefield Guide developed by Zolk C Ltd is the world's first GPS triggered electronic guide in use in tourism and heritage sites. With specially created audio, video and supporting illustrations (including key content from the BBC), the multimedia content is triggered automatically as visitors explore Culloden Moor, at their own pace, allowing them to understand and appreciate better what actually happened on 16th April, 1746.

Visitors to the exhibition at the new STG 9million Culloden centre can enhance their experience by walking the Moor with the Battlefield Guide. They will receive unobtrusive, location specific multimedia content while they soak up the atmosphere of the battle in situ. Initially in English and Gaelic the guide in time will be available in a range of languages from Spanish to Japanese and will be offered to all those visiting the moor.

Why use satellite technology? A key objective of the Culloden project was that the battlefield site should be restored, as close as possible, to that seen by the forces on that fateful day in April 1746. More traditional techniques such as interpretative panels or markers were not felt to be in keeping with the sanctity of the Moor as a war grave. As well as the multimedia content that is automatically triggered, addition information is available on a menu that changes depending on the visitor's position on the battlefield, allowing them to gain a more complete understanding of the events of 16 April, 1746.

Who is Zolk C?

Zolk C is a new venture based in Waterford, Ireland and Inverness, Scotland. Its remit is to create and operate technology solutions that enable interpreters to deliver a better, more effective user experience at tourism and heritage centres internationally. Zolk C provides full project lifecycle including design, development and management of interpretive solutions. The company is a joint venture between the Telecommunications Software and Systems Group (TSSG) of the Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT), who specialise in the research and design of pervasive, mobile technologies and of Zolk Ltd, an Inverness based company specialising in the design, deployment and management of on-line services. The Zolk portfolio includes Learning Works, Careers Scotland and UHI Millennium Institute. Zolk C has used their combined expertise to design, develop, deploy and manage the Battlefield Guide for the National Trust of Scotland (NTS).

For further information contact: Paul Savage, Zolk C Ltd. on +353 51 302923

For more information on the Culloden Battlefield project click here.

Nubiq is Nominated for the ITLG, Irish Times Innovation Award - Stanford on Thursday

The TSSG is delighted that Nubiq has been nominated for the ITLG, Irish Times Innovation Award Thursday 27th March 2007 at Stanford University, San Francisco, California.
On the evening, the ITLG will present honors to Intel Chairman Craig Barrett and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin TD for their contributions to the growth of Ireland’s technology sector. The ITLG will also present the Irish Times’ Innovation Award to a single Irish company that has achieved technical or business milestones and has demonstrated a capacity for international growth.

This year’s judging process has included the participation of the ITLG Board, Enterprise Ireland, Invest Northern Ireland, IDA Ireland and the Irish Times, each of which nominated highly innovative Irish companies seeking to grow their overseas presence. Unlike other awards, ITLG honorees are selected through an external nomination process.
The ITLG Board are:

• John Hartnett, Senior VP at Palm Inc
• Niall O’Connor, CIO of Apple Inc
• Rory McInerney, Vice President, Intel Corporation
• Barry O’Sullivan, Senior Vice President at Cisco Systems
• Tony Redmond, Chief Technology Officer at HP Services
• John Gilmore, COO, Sling Media Inc
• Conrad Burke, President & CEO, Innovalight Inc

The Irish Times and Irish America Magazine have also dedicated space in upcoming issues to profile ITLG finalists and ultimately the award winner. John Collins, one of Ireland’s most prominent technology journalists, has already interviewed Helene and a preview of the awards ceremony ran in the Irish Times on Monday.
Established in October 2007 and based in Palo Alto, California, the Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) is a group of Irish and Irish American senior executives based in Silicon Valley, active in the global technology industry, committed to ensuring that Ireland remains a strategic area of investment and opportunity for US technology companies, and who are keen to support the growth and development of Irish-based technology companies.
TSSG Press Release

Megalithomania

This is a resource for anyone interested in Irish archeology megalithomania.com - Home. It covers megalithic tombs (like dolmens), but also high crosses and other sites of interest. GPS coordinates and pictures of locations are provided. Some sites may require permission from the private landowner to visit.

The night the IETF turned off IPv4

This is a good summary of the experiment at a recent IETF to disable IPv4 for one hour to test the issues with using an IPv6-only network infrastructure.The night the IETF turned off IPv4

After working on the new Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) for a decade and a half, the Internet Engineering Task Force decided it was time to turn off the old protocol (IPv4 or just IP). So this is what they did for an hour on the network used at the IETF meeting in Philadelphia this week. Network traffic plummeted from some 30Mbps to around 3Mbps as the meeting attendees who had IPv6 enabled could now only get at IPv6-reachable destinations on the Internet. Leslie Daigle, chief Internet technology officer for the Internet Society, who coordinated the IPv4 outage, considers the outage a success.

Views on Network Management

This article links to a well argued draft paper Why Telcos Don’t Get Networks. Abstract:

If there is a sector of the economy that should embrace network-based thinking, it is telecommunications. Surprisingly, the opposite is the case. The leading firms building telecommunications and Internet infrastructure increasingly emphasize consolidation, hierarchy, and exclusive control, rather than collaboration and decentralization. Regulators are dismantling legal frameworks that once promoted openness and interconnection, in favor of misguided efforts to incent proprietary investment. And many scholars, even those challenging the current drift of policy and business models, embrace a static worldview that is a relic of earlier eras. Network-based strategies are thus hard to find today in the so-called "network industries," even as such ideas flourish in adjacent digital information markets. This chapter explores the origins of this paradox, describes its manifestations in the legal and business environment, and traces a more hopeful future.

Metcalfe’s Law: more misunderstood than wrong?

An interesting discussion of Metcalfe’s Law Metcalfe's Law: more misunderstood than wrong?

The industry is at it again–trying to figure out what to make of Metcalfe’s Law. This time it’s IEEE Spectrum with a controversially titled “Metcalfe’s Law is Wrong”. The main thrust of the argument is that the value of a network grows O(nlogn) as opposed to O(n2). Unfortunately, the authors’ O(nlogn) suggeston is no more accurate or insightful than the original proposal. ... The typical statement of the law is “the value of a network increases proportionately with the square of the number of its users.” ... The unit of measurement along the X-axis is “compatibly communicating devices”, not users. ... Title of graph: "The Systemic Value of Compatibly Communicating Devices Grows as the Square of Their Number"

The Network Neutrality Debate

This is a great rant that pokes holes in just about everyone's arguments: LXer: Network Neutrality and an Internet with Vision.

In recently-aired plans by telephone companies, content providers who are willing to pay extra would get their content delivered at a higher bandwidth. While it's easy to wax indignant over telephone companies' presumptuousness in deciding what packets should travel at what times, it's harder to step back and take in the economic issues driving the proposed change. And there are technical questions about it as well.

Are Native Mobile Applications Dead?

There's been an interesting discussion on the internal TSSG technical discussion list in recent days spurred by this provocative post from Michael Mace, an ex Palm employee: Mobile Opportunity: Mobile applications, RIP. His basic thesis is that it is so painful trying to develop for so many hardware platforms (that currently make up the mobile handset market) that developers will inevitably be drawn towards mobile web applications instead, even though this certainly has its own problems. He claims the business model for mobile developers of native applications is so flawed that the web-based approach will inevitably win out. It is an attractive thesis and one that definitely appeals to me.

To see some of the other on-line contributions to this debate:

• 3 Million Platforms (Elia Freedman, CEO of Infinity Softworks - posted in October 2007 - the comments point out that Symbian is actually composed a number of incompatible platforms including various versions of S60 and UIQ)
• Mobile Applications are dead (Stefan - Feb 2008) with a nice tombstone graphic
• What's all that other software for? (Peter Harbeson Feb 2008) explains how much functionality there is already available via the web on mobile smartphones

Unlike many of my colleagues I have such to a UIQ3 phone, the Sony Ericsson P1i (others seem to have Nokia N95 or iPhones), and even with its limited web browsing capabilities (Opera 2.3.08) it is a really useful tool. The native applications I use are: voice calls and SMS, camera, PIM (contacts, notes, calendar - though I sync with Google Calendar), and a very useful SSH client. In an emergency I use email (but it's very slow to sync with my IMAP server that has hundreds of folders), being able to send email is definitely useful. I use the mini-qwerty-keyboard and the touch-sensitive screen with a stylus for hand writing recognition about equally. Ironically I really like the built-in FM radio and use this more frequently than the MP3 player - which I do use for podcasts and music using a 4Gig card for external storage. If the bowser were more robust I would definitely use it even more.

CAIDA IPv6 Topology Maps

I was interested to see that CAIDA had released an updated IPv6 topology map based on statistics gathered in January 2008. The graphs are a visualisation of ASs (Autonomous Systems) in the Internet based on the number of routes between them. ASs are usually controlled by a single owner, and thus this diagram tries to capture logical complexity of the network of networks that is the Internet.

These graphs create an interesting picture of the complexity of the Internet. For comparison have a look at the IPv4 topology map (multiple versions). If you look at these you'll see that the current IPv6 topology is as complex as the IPv4 Internet in 2000, at the height of the dot com boom. Of course the current IPv4 topology is more complex (latest shown currently is 2007).

Ever since I discovered these graphs I have thought that they were a great way to visualise the complexity of the Internet (IPv4 and IPv6).

More Undersea Cable Pictures

It’s 2008 — Do You Know Where Your Internet Cables Are? - GigaOM

Discussion of NAT (and IPv4 address deplation)

Nice to see that we are starting to think of the good things that NAt gave us, as well as planning the move to IPv6 where it will no longer be required. I think this post has it right, NAT served a purpose, now move on.

As IPv6 Deploys, Will We Look Back on NAT as the Ugly Step Sister or Unsung Hero?

Internet prediced to reach zettabyte (annual US traffic)

TDP - Estimating the Exaflood

From YouTube, IPTV, and high-definition images, to “cloud computing” and ubiquitous mobile cameras—to 3D games, virtual worlds, and photorealistic telepresence—the new wave is swelling into an exaflood of Internet and IP traffic. An exabyte is 10 to the 18th. We estimate that by 2015, U.S. IP traffic could reach an annual total of one zettabyte (1021 bytes), or one million million billion bytes.

Internet Undersea Cables (Guardian, UK)

SeaCableHi.jpg (JPEG Image, 1703x1037 pixels) - Scaled (92%)

Thanks to James Mernin.

IPv6 Address Added for Root Servers in the Root Zone

ICANN | IPv6 Address Added for Root Servers in the Root Zone

MARINA DEL REY, Calif.: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers today took another step along the path of deployment for the next-generation IPv6 Internet addressing system.

IPv6 addresses were added for six of the world’s 13 root server networks (A, F, H, J, K, M) to the appropriate files and databases. This move allows for the possibility of fuller IPv6 usage of the Domain Name System (DNS). Prior to today, those using IPv6 had needed to retain the older IPv4 addressing system in order to be able to use domain names.

"The ISP community welcomes this development as part of the continuing evolution of the public Internet,” said Tony Holmes, chair of ICANN’s Internet Service and Connectivity Provider Constituency. “IPv6 will be an essential part our future and support in the root servers is essential to the growth, stability, and reliability of the public Internet.”

Name server software relies on the root servers as a key part in translating domains like “icann.org” into the routing identifiers used by computers to connect to one another. In 2007 the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee concluded that ICANN should move forward with the enhancement of the DNS root service by adding IPv6 addresses for the root servers.

As more and more devices connect to the Internet they require unique Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. The remaining free pool of unassigned IPv4 addresses is being depleted by the growth of the Internet. IPv6 is the addressing protocol that increases the unique IP addresses from the 4 billion available in IPv4, to more than 340 trillion trillion trillion.

“Today’s addition of IPv6 addresses for the root servers enhances the end-to-end connectivity for IPv6 networks, and furthers the growth of the global interoperable Internet,” added David Conrad, ICANN’s Vice President of Research and IANA Strategy. “This is a major step forward for IPv6-only connectivity and the global migration to IPv6.”

Further technical information on the move is available at http://www.iana.org/reports/root-aaaa-announcement.html

Graveyard Scenes

The graveyard at Newtown, Co. Waterford is very scenic.

Local Byways

A shot of the mountains in County Waterford.

The closer hill is Croughan Hill (390m), with the Comeragh Mountains in the background. The shot was taken on the back road from Newtown towards the 5 Cross Roads (aka Guilcagh Cross Roads). Yahoo Maps

Nework Neutrality arguments rumble on in the US

In this article David Isenberg critiques Scott Cleland's assertion that telcos need to disciminate against certain traffic for reasons of network management The Network Management Excuse.

Ireland has 2nd higest percentage of IPv6 DNS entries

In this interesting analysis of actual IPv6 deployment (for http - web servers, smtp - email server and dns - domain name servers) Examining Actual State of IPv6 Deployment it seems that Ireland is doing quite well in terms of DNS with 14% of our sites having an IPv6 address - not a high score but 2nd only to Lithuania. We have don't fare so well in have 4.1% of our mail servers IPv6 enabled - above the median in 35th place, and 38% of our web servers enabled - below the median around 80th.

IETF NSIS

I am here in Amsterdam speaking at a Marcus Evans conference on 9th Annual Signalling Systems for Future Telecoms (Exploring the Future of Networks and Interconnect for an All-IP World), quite a mouthful but a really good event.

The first talk today was from Martin Stiemerling (NEC) who co-chairs the IETF nsis activity: Next Steps in Signaling (nsis) Charter. This is a fascinating development allowing flexible in-band signalling and QoS (Quality of Service) negotiation over IP routed networks.

As usual the main problem with any inter-domain QoS across the Internet is a business issue, rather than a technical one of standards: why would any network operator give some other operator's customers priority on their networks, so most QoS systems are applied within a single network autonomous system only, administered by a single operator. So just because I think my VoIP is important, doesn't mean every operator in my path will agree, even if the standards allow them to.

Perl 5.10 Released, Perl turns 20

Here's the official announcement on the release of Perl 5.10 Perl 5.10 now available - The Perl Foundation. This is the first major upgrade to Perl 5 in 5 years. The release was timed to coincide with Perl's 20th birthday - Happy 20th Birthday Perl (18th Dec 2007).

Jim Bound on IPv6

An excellent interview with Jim Bound, CTO of the IPv6 Forum: IPv6 guru predicts last-minute switch to protocol - Network World

Summary of IPv6 Announcements

An excellent summary of major announcments about IPv6 this year: The Year IPv6 Made it to Major League

May 6th 2007: ARIN board of trustees passes a resolution advising the Internet community that migration to a new version of the internet protocol, IPv6, will be necessary to allow continued growth of the internet.

June 29th 2007, Puerto Rico: ICANN Board resolution states that: The Board further resolves to work with the Regional Internet Registries and other stakeholders to promote education and outreach, with the goal of supporting the future growth of the Internet by encouraging the timely deployment of IPv6.

Oct 26th 2007 at the RIPE 55 meeting in Amsterdam: “Growth and innovation on the Internet depends on the continued availability of IP address space. The remaining pool of unallocated IPv4 address space is likely to be fully allocated within two to four years...the deployment of IPv6 is necessary for the development of future IP networks”

Nov 15th 2007: IGF meeting, Rio de Janeiro, chairman’s report: “Panelists also discussed the eventual exhaustion of ICANN’s reserve of unassigned IPv4 addresses.”

It was made clear that this would not cause the Internet to fail, but this was used to indicate the importance of the effort to bring the IPv6 network on-line and the need for the full interoperability between the IPv4 and IPv6 networks.

This is but a small sample of the fast growing visibility IPv6 acquired this year, 2007.

The internet ecosystem, ranging from network Operator Groups (NOG) to peering forums to Regional Internet Registries (RIR) to ICANN, to IANA and even the United Nations sponsored Internet Governance Forum (IGF), had IPv6 quite high on its agenda this year. This rather sudden surge has taken at least some of us, amongst long term IPv6 proponents and advocates, by surprise, as it took close to a decade, lots of persistence, lots of convincing and periods of doubt, to get to this point. This is a period those involved in the early IPv6 experiments and deployment in the Research and Education Networks, the IPv6 Forum since its beginnings back in 1999, should savor and enjoy. Not to mention those who fathered RFC’s, spent time at IETF and late nights on numerous mailing lists and never ending e-mail strings.

Tim Bray on Communication

Tim Bray posts On Communication, a good read. I would add printing to the list of key communications technologies dating from maybe 1430 so making it 577 in Tim's table.

Notes from the Trenches on Agile Development with JRuby (in Oracle)

In this interesting post Rich Manalang describes the process of doing a short (6 week) JRuby project in Oracle blow by blow Oracle AppsLab's Mix, JRuby on Rails, Small Teams, Agile, and it's Effects on the World. This really captures the decision points and problems when working in an organisation used to larger more formal projects, amazing that they pulled it off and did some performance tuning in time!

Tim on the Net, the Web and the Graph of social inter-relations

When Tim blogs we listen, as he has a great way of simplifying complex arguments down to easily understandable metaphors, that just might change the world, again..... Giant Global Graph | Decentralized Information Group (DIG) Breadcrumbs