ColoGeo

On the Way To Self Organizing Networks

From http://www.research.philips.com:

Dr. Tobias Helbig, Department Head Digital Communications and Networking: "The dream is that you have intelligent devices all around you, that there is stuff embedded in your environment with which you can interact, but also: you can carry around with you, equipment like your personal organizer, your phone, your entertainment devices... And as soon as you come in that intelligent environment, you can use whatever is there. And wireless is the key to it." "The stuff we are doing is definitely fun. So, that's the first and foremost thing we can offer. So, that you can realise your ideas. We have a very open attitude in how we interact with each other. And exciting? Well... We are working towards the dream. Starting here and, with... say standards we are working on, with wireless technologies we are working on... And step by step, we are building our own future." "The key to being successful in this area, is that you combine many different knowledge areas. So you need people with an understanding in communication and engineering, but also electrical engineering. Even up to computer scientists. And, as soon as you can combine that, you really are able to address these various layers of the communication stack. And with that, you can really come to solutions which work." "So one of the challenges you always face, is that a lot of discussion is needed to align your ideas with what is possible in the market. To discuss with your colleagues on the product side. To bring your ideas into the products. Nice thing is that we have these colleagues in-house, so it's really fun working in Philips for that."

ColoGeo announces Mobile Server technology

ColoGeo is currently developing MobServer™, its mobile server technology. MobServer™ is a mobile server solution currently being developed in several form factors with an eye toward mobility and portability.

The most compact platform currently being developed in the MobServer™ family is a PDA-sized unit that incorporates server technology in both WiFi and Bluetooth wireless environments. Future versions of the compact MobServer™ will be even smaller.

Larger MobServer™ units, designed to be carried in backpacks or handbags, are also under development. The units have greater capacity to serve hundreds of simultaneous users.

A 12 volt-powered version of MobServer™ is also being developed for use in cars, trucks, buses and boats.

ColoGeo is dedicated to providing mobile server computing solutions, conversations and interactions in local environments. For more information about the potential impact of the convergence of emerging mobile communications and computing, read SmartMobs, or visit http://www.smartmobs.com. ColoGeo is not affiliated in any way with SmartMobs or Howard Rheingold.

Bricolage - Definition

I'm reading Gonzo Marketing: Winning Through Worst Practices by Christopher Locke and ran across a definition of bricolage from the book on Tony Goodson's blog:

"In essence, bricolage is what tinkers do-collecting odd bits of stuff they think may be potentially useful, then using whatever bits seem to work in the context of some later repair job. Simple. And yet profound. Because the bits the bricoleur ends up using were not designed for the use they end up being put to. Figuring out which bits to collect and how to apply them to some task at hand requires a completely different kind of thinking than the procedural algorithmic thought process business has become so dependent upon."

Bricolage is what we are doing at ColoGeo and is more art than science.

Street Talk: An Urban Computer Happening

I was reading Joe McCarthy's blog and found Anne Galloway's blog who is visiting the U.S. to attend Street Talk: An Urban Computing Happening at Intel Research Berkeley. It's a one day event on Friday, July 16, 2004 (Agenda) with some really cool topics and speakers, such as Howard Reingold of SmartMobs and Intel's Eric Paulos.

I hope someone blogs the event. I'm very interested to hear what's going on.

I'm encouraged by the work that Intel Research and others are doing in the Urban Atmospheres projects including Jabberwocky and The Familiar Stranger. I blogged about Jabberwocky and Familiar Strangers in this post a few weeks ago.

We are watching all of this research closely and taking notice!

All I can say is "party on Garth"! Keep up the good work!

ColoGeo Company Launch

ColoGeo is a new kind of company, offering, hopefully, what is a new kind of thinking.

We need your help. We envision a world where everyone carries around a small device, like a phone and/or an iPOD-sized server, and can share the experience of a world of conversation around him. Millions of user "clients" and hundreds of thousands of "servers", each with the chance to change history, even with a simple conversation.

We think that street crossing signals should be able to tell a blind person when it’s safe to cross. We think that people evacuating a building should be able to converse with each other and with rescue workers anywhere, anytime.

When visiting a park, we think you should be able to "listen to the voice of the park", hear "its side of the story", and share your experience, and converse with others, past, present and future.

We think you should be able to identify people whose paths you cross on a regular basis, familiar strangers if you will.

We think that you should be able to base your decision to interact and converse with people, events and places based on a trusted reputation system.

We want to give "a voice" to inanimate objects; mountains, monuments, trees, rivers and oceans. We want to give a "voice" to things in motion, such as trains, buses, boats, bikes, trucks and cars.

We want to build a company as a conversation, and through that conversation, build an infrastructure that is and supports a global conversation, with every locale, individual and event represented and expressed.

We won't hype or highside our users, clients, partners or investors. We're not going to spend a lot of money in "marketing" or "public relations". Since our company is a conversation, we'll tell you the truth. You'd find us out anyway.

We don't have a business plan. This website is our business plan. So, rest assured, we'll be listening carefully to your ideas and your feedback about our ideas. We probably will be wrong more than we are right, so we'll need to hear what you are saying.

We may never make money, although we will try very hard to do so. We'll hire the best and brightest people we can, people who will have the freedom to talk, share, and innovate.

Right now, we're putting together our founding team, the brightest technical geeks we can find who want to change the world. Rock! We're assembling our first round of "angel" investors, a group of innovative and forward-looking thinkers not satisfied with "boring business as usual". Blah, blah, blah!

What we are going to do is hard. Doing anything of this magnitude is hard. We have no guarantee of success. We may execute flawlessly, yet still fail.

The products we are using are new, buggy, and most of them don't work together. They are too new, too big, use too much power, are clunky, and have dismal range. Like the crew of Apollo 13 who had to craft an effective solution to a desperate problem out of a hodgepodge of junk, we seek to do the same. And it will take longer than we think and cost more than we can imagine. But we will faithfully and diligently steward our resources to get the most value for both our stockholders and our stakeholders.

The stakes are high, but we expect to change the world as we know it.

There will be naysayers, and privacy concerns, and misuses of the technologies we bring to the world. But without risk, there is no reward!

This new venture will revolutionize the world!

We call it ColoGeo. Stand by as the future arrives in your neighborhood.