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| China tech | |
| Friday, 11 August 2006 | |
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Today I was chatting with Ted Haeger from Novell. Ted's job is rather fun. He's the director of user communities for his company, which means he travels around the world showing amazing technologies to people and explaining why such technology is going to have a real impact on the way people communicate. Today Ted was busy impressing me. He showed me something called SuSE GNU/Linux, an operating system designed to make office work simpler, more reliable and and more secure. It looks like a cross between Microsoft Windows and MacOS X. It runs on older computers and it's incredibly fast. It's also freely available. I liked the technology for several reasons. One was that it works in dozens of different languages. It's got great support for Chinese and Japanese, and you can just switch the entire computer between languages with a few clicks. Another thing that really impressed me was that the technology has all the advantages of something like Windows Vista – the next generation of Microsoft Windows that will be released in February 2007 – but costs nothing for a home user. Novell have been particularly altruistic in that their technology is not controlled. What Ted showed me in SuSE GNU/Linux can be taken and put into other computer systems without cost or restriction. This means that Chinese version of GNU/Linux called Red Flag can adapt the features. Novell's technology therefore empowers people without expecting direct financial returns. That probably sounds really weird. How can a company function if it does not charge for the technology it makes? This is where technology is turning out to be a totally different market from things like cars or DVD players. The idea is that technology is mainly a commodity and the value is not with the commodity itself (like individual software applications) but in the provision of services that use the commodities. This is why IBM now sell solutions rather than software or hardware. You can still buy an IBM server but their main interest is in selling you a package that includes servers, support, training and all kinds of extra things. This is very clever. People are not so interested in paying for software but they will certainly pay for a solution to a problem. If you can keep solving their problem they will keep paying you, year after year after year. This shift in the technology market has an enormous impact on end users and on developing nations. A lot of technology is a commodity that companies are build and simply give away. It's now possible to have a complete computer system with cutting edge software without spending a penny. More importantly this technology is available with liberal licenses that ensure the technology can be customised to suit the local environment. I believe that China is getting direct benefit from this today. There is a whole generation of Chinese programmers who have access to the very best of American and European technology under terms that ensure the technology will be adapted and integrated in the Chinese market without requiring licensing costs or control from foreign interests. This is bound to lead to a vast and healthy internal computer market that will help power the future of Chinese digital infrastructure. I think that's amazing. We come back to empowerment. This is a very different idea from selling technology to people. This is where you give people the ability to take technology and to make it work for their own environment. They are empowered to solve their problems, empowered to adapt the technology and empowered to form their own business. Some companies are leading the field when it comes to empowering technology. Novell is one. Sun Microsystems is another. IBM and Red Hat are extremely important. There is also Canonical – the funders of the Ubuntu operating system – who are helping to ensure advanced technology is really easy to use. These companies are stars of the second generation of digital infrastructure, where instead of making billions through selling restrictive licenses they are actually making money through ensuring people control their own digital life. Personally I think that's very cool. There is one postscript. All of these freedoms are not yet ensured or protected. Things like Digital Rights Management (DRM) and patents are being leveraged by interest groups who want to control digital infrastructure. It's a scary thing and deserves an article all of its own. For now let's be glad of Ted at Novell and the others have done so much to make technology more free. If you have any thoughts or comments you can always email me at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it . |
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