11/27/101Henry Minsky Personal Computing in the Networked World Henry Minsky [email protected] Keio University Beartronics Inc

11/27/101 Henry Minsky

Personal Computing in the Networked World

Henry Minsky [email protected]

Keio University

Beartronics Inc.


What’s so great about a network connection?

Where is all your stuff? A personal virtual server What defines ‘mobile’ services? (nothing,

everything is ‘mobile’) How could we make better platform and

infrastructure support for personal computing?

What can be learned from I-mode?


Some Mobile Projects I Worked On NTT DoCoMo Sponsored Research at Keio Univ.

SFC Campus

http://www.wem.sfc.keio.ac.jp/wem/ Ketai controlled Web Camera Ketai controlled virtual bulletin board WEM / Memspace server: remembers everything

everywhere, environmental, personal, shared data GPS correction data over IP Picobrowser (see iMode section)





WEM Mobile UnitGPSStill/VideoWeb serverAudioOrientationSensor NetKetai UI





Ketai-activated Bulletin Board

Personalized to each user, calendar, task list, SFC-MODE

Java and I-mode UI supported Remote control of browser window View summary (via Google gateway!) on

I-mode Submit articles via web, I-mode, or email



Vboard iMode UI


Java Picobrowser

The PicoBrowser is a tiny customizable HTML browser and web server, runs on the NTT DoCoMo IAppli platform.

Also in MIDP, with micro SVG


Mobile can mean the other room

Sitting in my office at home, get email with URL of interesting article, from my wife in the other room.

When Wireless WAN Access is available (4G? 802.11?), there won’t be any difference between mobile and fixed access



It’s about how you interact online Emailing links to interesting articles is a very

high-bandwidth and concise, and organized way to communicate online.

Even from the other room. High volumes of email tend to be organized

by filter apps such as Eudora. Online bookmarks, weblogs … Because he was deaf, Edison used to put

everything in writing

The Problem

Personal computers are currently difficult to maintain for even skilled engineers. Servers are impossible to maintain. As new applications are emerging which require full-time network connectivity

and presence, the modern personal computer becomes even less appropriate. In addition, as people's usage methods change, with more use mobile computers and access from multiple devices, a new approach is required

Future requirements include VoIP, multimedia instant messaging, streaming media

Users need a ‘home base’. I-mode was nice but you have to be a server network programmer to make even

a simple new application.


The Applications I Use

Personal file directory (I keep mine in CVS)

Webmail (Yahoo Mail) Weblog Phonebook Household Calendar / Email

alerts Photo album / home

electronic picture frame Instant Message service

(customized)

Random Email - post-it notes to self

Household prioritized task list (bug tracking)

Power (Wimpy) Point for professional presentations

I-Mode address book app I-Mode Google gateway


Everyone now needs their own server Mobile forces customers to use an ASP A drawback (for the user) of turning an

app into a service is that you are now at the mercy of the service provider

In the future, people will lease generic virtual servers, and configure them themselves, thus making remote desktop PC’s.


Personal Virtual Server A logical evolution of the telephone answering

machine Replace the desktop machine We need a high-level virtual machine models

of a server, and it’s database, so people can easily pack up their personal server configuration and run it on another provider (no lock-in)

Write Mobile apps for people’s PVS

Virtual Server

Many of these issues can be solved by combining the functions of personal computer and network server into a standardized abstract virtual server.


VM + COW

Virtual Server

RDBMSVM + COW

VM + COW

VM + COW

...

TCP/IP

R/O Filesystem

Physical Host Server

Server image


Virtual Server Prototype Application Environment Linux UML Apache Java Server Microsoft .net common runtime VMWare IBM 390

Server Architecture Features

A common reliable operating system base image can be made read-only, and shared amongst thousands of servers. Users can thus be freed from low level operating system administration chores.

On top of this base, each user can have their own personal filesystem and applications which can be installed and customized.

Virtual Server runs at data center, local copy can be run at user’s location for performance. Synchronization required.

Distributed encrypted locally-cached filesystem infrastructure would be useful. Solves the ‘backup’ problem, makes portability even easier.


A Virtual Machine

Define a virtual machine server platformAllows users to easily install/uninstall and run multiple web applications, analogous to desktop applications

Provides a complete runtime environment including a fileysystem and database.

Being a virtual machine, a complete snapshot can be made of it and all its application and data contents, in the form a of a simple data file. This server image can be installed and run on any host or hosting service which supports the virtual machine.


Virtual Server Technology

Relies on inter-server standards - XML-RPC, TCP, etc

Sometimes you want to send a link to your server, sometimes you want to send a copy of the data

24x7 operation is assumed (like the phone company)


Virtual Server

Obviously this would be useful to businesses and other organizations as well as consumers

Technology allows download copy of server image to local host, for high performance local interaction

Real dedicated hardware server could be used for high performance applications

Like DOS, or Windows, make a standard, and try to allow for direct access to high performance features of the system if required

Front-end Technology

Flash and DHTML are adding desktop-like front-ends to web apps.

Return of client-server architectures. .NET RPC technology (XML

RPC/SOAP) is helpful


Mechanizing the Handling of Information Stowger switch Hollerith Card Teletype vs. Hell Spreadsheet Ebay


Mobile Devices are Virtual Windows Into an Online World The mobile information device provides

a (small) window into a virtual world The richer that world is, the more useful

the mobile device Requirements: (a) People, (b) Servers,

(c) Extensible cross-server communication

cHTML is 1st order approximation of (c)


HellSchreiber


HTML Takes a Wrong Turn

Turned into the equivalent of a fax machine, a corrupted page layout language

This set back where we are today in mobile, i.e., alternate access is hard instead of simple.

Complete failure of industry to use the technology correctly.

I go to www.fleet.com, and if my browsers doesn't support JavaScript, I get a blank page.

You can implement fax over IP, but not the reverse



XML To The Rescue

But my hotmail.com calendar cannot be downloaded as XML.

There are twenty different formats. SyncML may help.

XML-RPC is a medium sized hammer, SOAP is a big hammer. XML and HTTP are sufficient for many things.


What Kind of Apps Run on A (Personal) Virtual Server?

Built in common model of users/groups Security / authentication model Scripting environment Relational Database Backed

Personal Collaborative


OpenACS Modules – compare to Yahoo Personal Portal Photo Album Address Book Web Log Bookmarks Calendar Chat Classifieds Contact

Manager CMS Curriculum Directory

Site-Wide Search Survey Ticket Group Features User Administration User Groups User Registration and

Access Control WimpyPoint Bboards Mailing lists

Download E-commerce Email Handler FAQ File Storage General Comments General Permissions Graphing Intranet Member Value Neighbor to Neighbor New Stuff News Permissions Poll


Web of Services Each user has their own personal web of

services that they use online that makes up their virtual identity

Need to be able to traverse that easily from a mobile device

POP is a good example. Industrial users’ wireless servers should

be in the web (FedEx, or door locks)


Server Technology That is User Extensible Can your users do something that you

didn’t envision with your service? Is there any way they could? Do they have the ability to manipulate

data in your virtual environment to communicate with others?


Peer to Peer is Orthogonal

Users may keep their data in their own personal server’s applications, or spread around other servers

The key is inter-server communication protocols

But users cannot run their own servers yet We’re in the mainframe/mini phase of

web/wireless, not the PC phase


Example Future Mobile Services

Higher bandwidth: 3g, 4g - wireless-to-server photo album direct from digicam, wireless video sharing


The Sims

"example of how a company and its customers can help a product evolve to the point where customers not only do a large portion of the innovation and marketing but also produce as much intellectual capital as they consume." The Sims

Applies to DoCoMo i-mode service


Learning From The Sims

For the business community, The Sims' lessons are twofold. The first is that interaction design trumps graphics. The Sims is less photorealistic than any computer game on the market, or any broadband site on the Web - it's not even fully 3D. Yet it succeeds tremendously because it allows players with different agendas to interact as consumers, producers, mavens and community leaders and to reap rewards for all of these activities. The richness and complexity of an online experience, like the richness and complexity of a city, is created by the people who live there as they engage with the place and each other.

Learning From The SimsBy J.C. Herz in The StandardIssue Date: Mar 26 2001


Learning From The Sims

"The second lesson is that online businesses don't just exist, like buildings, in space. They exist, like cities, in human context over time. The best ones are designed to grow more interconnected, not just bigger, as the population evolves. They're always messy. They're never finished. They harbor an almost palpable sense of around-the-clock activity and a sense of place that owes as much to collective experience as to snazzy signage. When you open your window, there's a there there." comments on sim city

Learning From The SimsBy J.C. Herz in The StandardIssue Date: Mar 26 2001


End of PVS section

Optional I-Mode section follows


How Did NTT DoCoMo Succeed?

"Yes, it's chicken-and-egg. What you need is a big enough chicken."


Henry’s Theory of i-mode Everyone loves to discuss this, so I'll do it too: Low penetration of home PC’s and networked machines at work, thus i-mode is the best

email option. Culturally I think people here are discouraged from web-surfing and making personal phone calls at work.

Good content (what? train schedules?) Actually not so good, but compared to what the WAP vendors did, it was sensational People in Japan accustomed to paying for things, not accustomed to flat rate (phone)

services, or free internet NTT sits all over phone service, making it more expensive to call next door than to call

across the planet The train ride! 20% of free time spent on train. Even carrying a "laptop" in Japan is not practical. Ultra lite notebooks abound, PDAs

somewhat popular. USA: 'Mobile' means you can put it on the car seat next to you when you drive Japan: 'mobile' means put it in your shirt pocket while you walk or are crammed on a rush

hour train Excellent Marketing! Great ads, coordinated campaigns. The handsets are marketed as *cool*. They are cool. DEVELOPERS: Low barrier to entry, cHTML, just like the real web


NTT paid attention to user experience and developers Magnet content authored by experts Core set of attractive services to build a community

around Worked with handset manufacturers Support for integrated email/browser/address-book in

handsets Strict quality control over “captive” sites, while

allowing external sites to be accessible cHTML, GIF, low barrier to entry for developers It’s an online community...


What about voice?

DoCoMo voice audio quality is noticeably worse than others

They make up for it with marketing, as far as I can tell.

Or rather, non-marketing (they never mention voice quality)


Potential Barriers

WAP i-mode

WMLWML

Crappy HandsetsCrappy Handsets

No ContentNo Content

Pay by minutePay by minute

Marketing ConfusionMarketing Confusion

Misleading HypeMisleading Hype

Automobile/Home CultureAutomobile/Home CultureSexy Handsets

Unified Marketing

No Expectations

Magnet Content

cHTML

Pay by packet

2 hour train ride

$$ landlines

Pedestrian/Out-of-house culture


Elements of DoCoMo Success

"Potential Energy Model" of adoption -- make it easy to fall into the hole

Users accustomed to not complain about high rates What are the factors -- more than one: Easy to buy, shovel the users in, cHTML NTT soaks you on per/minute on phone lines, but you

pay by the packet for i-mode

Elements of WAP Failure

I-mode is a ‘lubricant’ WAP is an ‘irritant’


Mobile Subscribers in Japan

Source: www.tca.or.jp


Mobile Internet Services in Japan


It’s not just DoCoMo

Most wireless carriers in US/Europe would be happy to have 3rd place in Japan.

Wireless Internet is working for other Japanese companies as well


You Get I-Mode by Default

A typical Japanese user ordering mobile phone service from NTT DoCoMo for the first time will usually be subscribed to the i-mode service unless he or she specifically refuses the extra online service.

i-mode is an add-on service that costs an extra 300 yen monthly service fee on top of the regular phone

charge.


Handsets. They do matter.

What is the best handset you can get in the US? Europe?

What is the typical handset?

How does it compare to Japan?

Features:


Ericsson R289LX Handset (USA ATT PocketNet) 172 g 160 hours standby 240 min talk full charge in 2 hr 154 x 50 x 23 mm Laughably small

B&W screen


F503i Handset (low-end Java ketai)

77g 430 hours standby 135 min talk full charge in 2 hr 135 x 46 x 15 mm 16 bit color, 120x160

pixels Java, 600k heap voice dialing


Handset Technology not just Gimmicks UI needs all the help it can get 3D user interface? CD quality sound 24 bit color? More screen resolution?


Java in the Handset

Why isn’t Java in the Phone as useless as client side Java on desktop?

Because the UI is the bottleneck, and data rates are slow

The restricted subset API is actually a blessing


What use is Java in a phone?

No hardware I/O on current java API DoCoMo phones. Why not? Do they think we're idiots?

They want to avoid the risk of some malicious applet grabbing your address book or dialing your phone.

But wait a minute here - that's what signed applets are for. Authentication means you recognize and trust the guy who made the software, and you give them the power to potentially do harm, in exchange for doing something useful.

Like when you give your online broker your social security number. Don't cripple the phone, just make sure that people know who they are getting apps from, and allow them extra Permissions.

Like the Java security model was *supposed* to work.


What use is Java in a phone? On Java devices, there's NO interface from Java to HTML --

what's wrong with HTML? Because the Java guys say "we don't *DO* HTML".

Well, they are only in business because of HTML, so they should be a little less stuck up.

Industrial applications need I/O. Otherwise you are really stuck in a subset of your desktop (i.e., check your desktop mail, send email).

With peripherals, you get camera, microphone, GPS, RF tag reader, bar code,thermometer, geiger counter, local printing (bluetooth). Allows phone to be a more effective extension of your nervous system.

Java Bluetooth API.


HQM’s Java Picobrowser

The PicoBrowser is a tiny HTML browser and web server, which fits into 7.5 kbytes of Java, and runs on the NTT DoCoMo IAppli platform.

Now in MIDP, with SVG


So you’re a carrier Provide the tools to make your service usefully

extensible by the users and developers (e.g., real standards based HTML, iAppli, MIDP, J2ME)

You desperately need a large customer base. Target wide range of consumers by packaging a core set of services, with a memorable identity.

Lock in users with better services, not closed ones


So you’re a developer

TCP/IP and standards means never having to be locked into a carrier.

You don’t need sheer majority of customers as desperately as the carriers.

Make deals with all carriers.


What about WAP?

I-mode is a ‘lubricant’WAP is an ‘irritant’

Recent History: WAP: Let's add some barriers to developer entry!

Compare i-mode to WAP: HTML, GIF, (and Java) WAP: no HTML, no GIF, (no Java) Online services wasteland Say what?

WAP vs HTML

You cannot do <a href="foo.php?x=10&y=20">foo</a> because WML is XML, and the "&" always indicates a "entity" or you

need "&" or something, or else

<anchor> <go href="foo.php"> <postfield name="x" value="10"> <postfield name=“y" value=“20"> </go>foo</anchor> Syntax which runs on your emulator fails on half the phones anyway. Phones will fail to display anything if there’s a single parse error. (I can

understand this mode for developers, but it is suicide for end-users). No telling what the filesize limit is on your gateway or someone else’s.


What about WAP?

It’s not HTML. SETVAR? What is this, a scripting language?

But wait, you haven’t seen WMLScript! Look, are you writing a web server that runs in the phone? If so, let's just do it for real.

Java on the phone! Servlet engine on the phone! Integrate the firmware browser ! Implement your own browser! Picobrowser! It's a Java extensible browser! It's a servlet engine!


Economics of Wireless Billing NTT model is more correct, in my opinion, than the existing Internet

models; consumers pay by bandwidth. Now, we can argue about how the price may be too high, but that is *the* scalable model.

Except -- some traffic is orders of magnitude higher than others --consider, access your bank account or weather forecast, vs mpeg movie. How do the carriers bill? By time, not bandwidth? That bites. Then maybe logarithmic billing would be best. But if you’re sitting on the airwaves you should get charged something.

But ... in the telecom world, when you call someone, you pay the bandwidth, not them (except with US cell phones). In the current internet environment, both parties pay. Bad business model for providers. Need the equivalent of a “collect call”.

It *is* micropayments, except it's all to NTT. Still… As far as phone bills, people in Japan are used to high ones, and i-mode is

priced fairly low compared to US mobile internet.


M-Commerce: Payment Systems

Payment systems - furikomi is fixed rate, couple of bucks. bad for small purchase. Great for large purchase. but checks in the US have smaller charges, but are slower to clear (paper!?!).


Who is DoCoMo’s Customer? A business must answer the question

"Who is your customer?" NTT Docomo answers "all Japanese

people". That's true for them - but they explicitly

DONT PROVIDE CONTENT. Third-party content providers must

answer that question.


In the US, they’re still skeptical about this whole cell-phone thing.He: So, you work in the Keitai business?Me: Yes.He: I for example don't have a Keitai. Nobody needs a Keitai. That's all hype.Me: I have a lot of Keitais and need them all.He: I have a lot of friends who don't own a Keitai.Me: So you have friends? Do you meet them sometimes?He: For sure I meet my friends! We all have telephone at home! We make our appointments in advance or we meet at one of our apartments.Me: You know that japanese people don't meet very often at home, right?He: Sometimes I meet my friends also in our favorite bar.Me: Do you go also in other bar's than your favorite one?He: Why should I? I meet my friends there.Me: Right, you don't need a Keitai.

He: Give me only one really good reason why somebody should own a Keitai!Me: Maybe for the convenience to place a call anytime?He: For this there are public phones anywhere!Me: Hm, maybe for the convenience to get a call anytime?He: I hate if somebody gets a call in public, or in the train. It's even not allowed!Me: You know that the new phones are also able to send and receive emails, right?He: What's this for?Me: Maybe to stay in contact with friends?He: But if you want to stay in contact with friends, you can meet them!Me: Yes, and you can make your appointments in advance via email.He: Stupid. You can call them!Me: With a Keitai...?He: Keitai, Keitai...give me one good reason why somebody should own a Keitai! ...

From keitai-l mailing list


Mobile Network: Today’s Situation

We’re at the very beginning. Like three years after the invention of the telephone

High bandwidth, more powerful CPUs, better displays, all in the pipeline

Interoperable web server apps just starting (SOAP, .net, XML-RPC) 4


What Next?


The failure of the Web to mechanize the handling of information This is the first alternate to HTML. HTML was

supposed to be a semantic format. It was completely corrupted to be a page layout language.


Personal Virtual Server A logical evolution of the telephone

answering machine Replace the desktop machine We need a high-level virtual machine

models of a server, and it’s database, so people can easily pack up their personal server configuration and run it on another provider (no lock-in)

Write Mobile apps for people’s PVS


Improvements to Java profile

A Modest Proposal: Put a web server in the phone. "Are you insane?". A minimal Java web server, without a filesystem or

CGI capability, takes up about 20 kbytes. (See www.acme.com). Even desktop machines don't have web servers in them. Maybe they should. Then you can generate HTML interfaces to things. Next best thing, really equivalent, is to have hook from the Java API to the microbrowser. Not too hard to write a Java HTML widget, but it's still slow compared to browser firmware directly written in C.


Mobile means getting a useful window to your desktop data Mobile points out the need for XML-like generalized data

access - XML-RPC isn't really needed for simple transactions HTTP works fine (key->value pairs)

But the idea is some new end-user browser technology comes along, and you should be able to easily grab data from existing services (calendar, etc) without having to add explicit support to the service itself.

You should be able to write gateways to older services easily. Keeps your existing investment in infrastructure and leverages it.


Examples of Good Wireless

SFC Mode demo pages -screen shots. ACES - email is the killer app for i-mode - how does SFC Mode use it? ImaHima, other services based around messaging- YYou

need to communicate with others, the simplest form of "publishing", as stated in the premise of this talk.

"Peer to Peer" means being able to produce as well as consume, also means having your own "virtual" server, i.e., something which takes your place to serve your info when you are not physically there.


Don’t Be an Idiot

I don’t want my phone to yell out ads as I walk by stores (Virgin Atlantic).

Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

I do want my phone to beep if I get near the friend I am trying to find in a crowd.


Need high-level actions

Since the UI sucks so badly on mobile devices, we need to enable high-level powerful commands

This requires that our cloud of web services can be operated on by commands


Who is making money?

NTT always makes money on packets and service

NTT doesn’t supply content NTT takes a cut of billing customers i-mode photo-album service -- great for NTT,

not so great for user - 15 cents each time you look? But fun to send to friends to view once.


Did I mention they solved the Micropayments problem? Japanese mobile internet carriers

provide consolidated billing on the phone bill.

Random Slides


'Mobile' also means paper Without a sufficiently high res screen or high

bandwidth mobile data network… I print out a map from a URL before I leave the

house Best interface to I-mode top menu is printed

catalog from DoCoMo I print out phone numbers, because I might be

out of range and my phone’s address book app doesn’t play nice with my XML online address app. (Could customize a Java App if it were a little more powerful implementation)


What make an application “Mobile”? Ergonomics


Ergonomics

With mobile, it's weight, not size. 100g max. Remember Sony CD walkman-had to be size of CD case. Original walkman, size of cassette case.

People don't particularly want small screens, although they are good for privacy on the train.

You want a phone and a PDA. Hard to get both in the same device.

I am getting carpal tunnel in my thumb from the tiny keypad on the phone.


Inherent Artifacts of ‘Mobile’ Access At the moment, cellular technology means that

‘mobile’ trades off freedom of movement for low bandwidth and small-sized access device

Think ‘paperback book’, not desktop computer Data entry is hard, user can only read small amount

of data Suited to point tasks, and controlling other processes,

not for bulk data entry or general browsing It’s more like a railroad switch than a railroad


Mobile and Fixed Can Be Complementary Take home stereo and walkman

example. In Japan, much ‘free’ time is spent on

trains or on foot.


What Are You Doing When You’re Mobile? When you are mobile, you are mostly

interacting with other people or real things. That’s why you’re not in the house.

Mobile Network Access is made proportionally more useful by the amount of stuff you keep and do on the network.


Essentials of (Wireless) Web Communication

Java phones are good because you need every ounce of UI help with these things. But ... Java is beside the point.

The power of the web is users being able to "publish" info,not be passive consumers. So when the user gets to the point that they need to publish information, they need something as "simple" as HTML, i.e.,simple enough that they can publish info in a way that is universally accessible by others.

The power of HTML is not that you can view your own stuff, but that someone else in Siberia can view your content without having to download and run a special application. That applies equally to the wireless web.

SO: that means that users should get whatever help they need to publish info (i.e., www.weblogger.com, etc), but that info needs to be viewable from the server in a universal form (HTML, XML, etc).

The (personal) server is responsible for converting and delivering the user’s info in whatever formats or calling sequences are required by other users


The “Network Effect”

The utility of the network is proportional to the square of the number of users.

.. But only if the users actively participate ..

How are they effectively contributors or publishers of information and services?


Appropriate Technology Getting latest spot prices at Tsukiji fish market Foods Infomart. Japan has many small

produce distributors, out in the field. Need mobile price and inventory information.

Vertical market, appropriate use of technology. Industrial users - low profile but very important DoPa mobile data telemetry - vending machines,

sensors

Documents

11/27/101Henry Minsky Personal Computing in the Networked World Henry Minsky [email protected] Keio University Beartronics Inc