Global Developer Blog

More IBM Innovation Centers Launched

IBM has launched a new IBM Innovation Center in Dublin, Ireland, and announced plans to open four new IBM Innovation Centers across Europe in Finland, Norway, Switzerland, and Denmark.

]]> The new centers are designed to focus on open standards technologies such as Service-Orientated Architecture (SOA), Web 2.0, 3D Internet, Cell Processor, and POWER 6 architecture.

With these new centers, IBM now hosts a global network of more than 38 Innovation Centers around the world. In 2006 alone, more than 6000 business partners leveraged IBM Innovation Centers worldwide to build and test new solutions.

The five new IBM Innovation Centers in Europe will offer R&D expertise and customized hands-on support to enable start-ups, software developers, and other small to mid-sized companies create innovative new software and hardware applications. These efforts will provide start-ups an entry-point to IBM's Research network, accelerating innovation by providing insights into emerging technologies.

According to a recent European Venture Capital report released by Ernst & Young and Dow Jones, IT had the most significant upturn in investments of any industry in Q1'07, totaling EUR 550.2 million of investments in technology start-ups. This represents an increase of EUR 30.1 million in capital investment with software and information services showing the most activity for the sector.

IBM Innovation Centers will also sponsor workshops on SOA, best practices for companies to take advantage of enterprise Web 2.0, and POWER 6 architecture across Europe. Additionally, IBM will also host connection events offering companies unique networking opportunities for business growth.

Microsoft Software Dev Center to Open in Canada

Microsoft is extending its software development activities across international borders again, following a pattern it set with development centers in Ireland, Denmark, and Israel, and research centers in the U.K., India, and China. But not as far this time around, because the new software development center Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Microsoft Canada Development Centre will open in the fall of 2007 and will be home to software developers from around the world.

]]> The "why?" ought to be obvious: The Vancouver area is close to Microsoft�s corporate offices in Redmond, Washington and allows the company to recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S.

"Microsoft is a global company, and our greatest asset is smart, talented, highly skilled people," said S. Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Developer Division at Microsoft. "Our goal as a company is to attract the next generation of leading software developers from all parts of the world, and this center will be a beacon for some of that talent."

IBM and Global Collaborative Software Development

IBM has announced its vision for community-driven development and introduced new software to help in software delivery projects. The roadmap centers around IBM's software development portfolio which helps geographically and/or organizationally distributed development teams collaborate in real time.

]]> IBM is announcing new offerings to help geographically distributed development teams collaborate, lower the total cost of global software delivery, and deliver software to market faster than ever before. The new Web-centric, lower bandwidth software helps customers reduce overhead costs of deploying a client technology, and allows outsourced members of development teams to participate in software delivery projects more easily, including:

IBM Rational Team Concert, beta 1, a collaborative portal designed to improve team productivity by enabling real-time collaboration across a software delivery team.
IBM Rational Asset Manager 7.0, software provides visible intelligence into software assets and how they are consumed in a collaborative environment.

IBM development teams from the IBM Lab in Bangalore, India, and the IBM Lab in Lexington, MA, have published a Redbook titled Global Development and Delivery in Practice: Experiences of the IBM Rational India Lab. This Redbook discusses common challenges in geographically distributed development environments and the steps IBM took to tailor IBM Rational tools to solve these problems through case study examples. IBM has also created a plug-in offering focused on geographically distributed development for IBM Rational Method Composer 7.2, a process for helping developers deliver customized yet consistent software development projects.

IBM and Kingdee Team Up

IBM and Kingdee International Software, an ERP and e-commerce solutions provider in China, have teamed up to enhance the competitiveness of their clients in China and global markets, and help Kingdee International become a global software provider.

]]> Kingdee International and IBM plan on collaboration that focuses on globalization and SOA, marketing/sales/channels/customers, consultation and application management services (AMS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Kingdee is the first enterprise application software provider awarded ISO9001 International Quality Accreditation in China. Besides its R&D centers set up in Shen Zhen and Shanghai, Kingdee has 39 branches that are primarily responsible for selling and servicing customers, and over 1100 business partners engaged in consultation, technical support, implementation, maintenance, and distributing in Mainland China.

The sales, service and partner network of Kingdee in China covers 221 cities and areas in seven major regions in the Mainland, namely Southern China, Eastern China, Northern China, Central China, North-eastern China, South-western China and North-western China.at present, Kingdee has 3200 staff and over 400,000 customers in the Asian-Pacific region, including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the like.

C++ Compiler for Multi-core

Game developer Codeplay Software has demoed an automatic parallelizing compiler for C++. The Sieve C++ Parallel Programming System is a scalable programming system for building C++ code suitable for use on multi-core processing platforms. The Sieve System consists of an extension to a C++ compiler, a multi-core linker, and a runtime to schedule the processes.

]]> The Sieve concept seems straightforward enough:

A sieve is defined as a block of code contained within a sieve {} marker and any functions that are marked with sieve.
Inside a sieve, all side-effects are delayed until the end of the sieve.
Side effects are defined as modifications of data that are declared outside the sieve.

Codeplay claims to have tested several different algorithms written in Sieve C++ on a dual Intel Xeon 5300 quad-core PC, AGEIA's PhysX processor, and the Cell BE based Sony Playstation3. The test programs were compiled using the Sieve C++ compiler and linked with the appropriate Sieve runtime for the target platform. Results were measured from program executions across a sequentially increasing number of processor cores

Utilizing the six available SPEs on the Playstation3, for instance, CRC, Mandelbrot and Julia Ray-Tracing showed a performance improvement of 462-, 557-, and 572-percent, respectively, over execution on a single SPE.

IBM Launches Africa Initiative

IBM has launched its first-ever public ThinkPlace Challenge, a three-week open forum designed to foster global collaboration on innovation opportunities and economic development issues facing the African continent.

]]> The top ideas generated through the ThinkPlace Challenge will help shape the agenda for IBM's upcoming Global Innovation Outlook (GIO) focus on Africa, and provide longer-term input for IBM's World Development Initiative (WDI).

The GIO brings together more than 150 global leaders for a series of conferences in seven major markets around the world. These GIO sessions are designed to surface actionable policy issues, investment strategies, business models, and technology priorities related to innovation and economic development in the region. In a related effort, IBM recently launched the WDI to advance sustainable, scalable technology solutions that will foster business development in emerging markets at the so-called "base of the pyramid."

Unlike many initiatives focused on Africa, neither the GIO nor the ThinkPlace Challenge will focus on philanthropic programs or charitable aid programs. Instead, the dialogue will emphasize how collaborative innovation and new business models enabled by information technology can help advance the African economy.

Among the questions these programs will explore:

How can global businesses best partner with local enterprises, universities and governments to build a better platform for economic growth and competitiveness?
What policy initiatives, infrastructure investments and development programs can advance Africa's participation in the global economy?
What specific opportunities are present in developing infrastructure for IT, communications, water and energy? What roles should micro-finance and lending play?

In making ThinkPlace accessible to the public, IBM is inviting clients, partners, developers, and students worldwide to participate in discussions about social, business and technology issues such as those addressed by the GIO process. In accordance with open collaboration principles, all content submitted during the ThinkPlace Challenge will be available for any participant to use and build upon.

IBM Promotes Global via Online Collaboration

At its PartnerWorld 2007 Conference, IBM announced initiatives to promotes global expansion for its business partners through online collaboration and networking.

]]> For instance, the Lotus Connections program represents what IBM claims is the industry�s first platform for enterprise social software. Lotus Connections for Partners provides a secure, online platform designed exclusively for business partners to share information and work together by sharing profile information that describes their business; finding subject matter experts; exchanging online information through social bookmarking; engaging in collaborative business planning; and joining communities of interest. Lotus Connections for Partners is now available through the IBM Value Nets Connections Program to IBM Lotus Partners and other IBM Business Partners who are interested in experiencing technology that lets them engage in the nascent and dynamic market of social software for business.

Business Partners and developers can also tap into a new Web venue called IBM developerWorks community spaces. This business channel provides an open platform for developers to build communities around a range of technology topics and business trends, including Software as a Service (SaaS). By tapping into developerWorks Spaces, users will gain access to a global network of developer brainpower and educational sources as well as gain the opportunity to participate in online forums, collaborate on joint business opportunities, and build new applications, at no charge.

Broadband Ups and Downs

Proving once again that whether the bottle is half full or half empty depends on where you sit. According to the U.S., the country is falling behind in terms of broadband communications connections when compared to other countries. But according to those "other" countries, they are simply moving ahead.

]]> Overall, according to information released this week by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, U.S. broadband penetration among worldwide industrialized nations dropped from 12th to 15th place. Moreover, the U.S. ranks 20th in the 30-member OECD roster in terms of growth rate of broadband penetration in the last year. Still, the U.S. did manage to keep its lead position with the largest total number of broadband subscribers in the OECD -- 58 million. Interestingly, the U.S. differs from most other countries in that its broadband deployment is provided by cable TV companies, compared to DSL provided by phone companies elsewhere.

In its analysis of additional OECD broadband statistics, Free Press, a lobbying group focusing on universal access, said that U.S. consumers pay dearly for broadband -- $10 per Mbps versus the $1 or less per Mbps that is paid on average by other OECD nations.

European countries are leading broadband deployment with Denmark, the Netherlands, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden in the forefront of the rankings.

Japanese R&D Expands into Vietnam

by Jonathan Erickson

Matsushita Electric has opened another -- its third -- R&D center in southeast Asia, this on ein Vietnam. The research center will focus on embedded software development, primarily software for digital consumer electronics and home electric appliances, and will collaborate with Hanoi University of Technology to train embedded software engineers.

]]> The new company, which opened this week in Hanoi and will operate under the name of Panasonic R&D Center Vietnam Co. Ltd., will initally have 19 employees, but plans call 50 engineers by 2009 and eventually as many as 200 engineers.

At the same time, the university announced it will launch a new course on embedded software technology that will turn out aobut 30 engineers per year. Matsushita said it will provide text books and class materials and send company engineers to lecture at the university.

Huanying Ni Lai Virtual China!

Great blogpost by John Fortt over on Business 2.0, about how 3D design tools are finding new niches in the rush to develop content for virtual realities, notably Second Life.

]]> Though the SL virtuality has its own building tools, master builders normally prefer using tools like AutoCAD, Maya, and Sketch-Up for offline build creation, then import their builds in a range of compatible XML formats (real master builders do high-prim/dense-mesh models offline, texture and light them, then capture the resulting complex textures, import them to Second Life, and impose them on simpler models -- so use of sophisticated offline build tools is not only germane to 'making things pretty' in Second Life, but in making pretty things perform well in the resource-contended virtuality).

According to Fortt, Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk, is psyched on the idea of a possible partnership with Second Life's Linden Labs. Bass says that a great deal of his 3D business is now in 'digital prototyping' -- creating design and usability models of structures, etc. And Second Life is, in many ways, an ideal environment for sharing, evaluating and doing research on these models. Bass says that his fastest-growing customer bases, in India and China, are skipping 2D tools and jumping straight into 3D as a way of meeting perceived coming demand of digital prototyping services.

So the next time I quip that (because everything's so cheap there) Second Life is really "virtual China," I guess I'll remind myself that metaverse development is yet another digital service that can migrate globally to optimize cost.

Cultural Backlash Against Outsourcing?

InformationWeek's Outsourcing Blog, by Paul McDougall, this week wonders if there's menace in the growing rumble, by Indian commentators, that outsourcing threatens traditional Indian values (e.g., by obliging workers to adopt a Western holiday schedule, assume 'Western-sounding' names for telemarketing work, or simply by exposing Indian workers to 'Hallmark Holidays').

]]> I'm not sure this is a bad -- or threatening -- thing, either way. The fact is, India is no longer a crown colony, nor is it the "dirty little secret" of Western service industry. As citizens of a huge nation, and as valued trading partners, Indian service providers have a certain right to begin to expect not to have to call themselves 'Bob' and 'Alice' and learn to say 'Happy Valentine's Day' in a Midwestern accent. Or, conversely, if Western firms really think they need this stuff, they should be willing to pay a premium for it.

As to claims of cultural imperialism: On the one hand, participation in the global economy demands adaptation to a nascent global values-system -- but on the other, part-benefit of _successful_ participation means you get to start dictating what's on the global values-agenda. So it all evens out: I lead with Valentine's Day, and you match and raise with Vinayaka Chaturthi!

Read more here.

Cockburn to Keynote at SD Best Practices, Russia

The program for SD Best Practices Russia (April 3-4 at the Radisson Slavianskaya Hotel, Moscow) continues to fill out -- the XML and Agile Development tracks look particularly strong. But what caught my eye, today, is the fact that development-best-practice-for-real-and-lasting-human-benefit and use-case-writing guru, Alistair Cockburn, principal of Humans and Technology, Inc., will be keynoting on Day 1.

]]> You have to love Cockburn (pronounced 'CO-burn,' as he notes on his main website -- a Wiki-based open collaborative forum). He's a poet. He's an outdoorsman. He has one of the world's most memorable bad hair photos. And for at least a decade, he's been the source of a great deal of inspiration and wisdom about adaptive and Agile software development methods and practice -- much of which is encapsulated here, in his long page of links to talks.

Check it out, as they say in Scotland.

Oooooh ... Grava!

Global (developer) education is a subject dear to our hearts. So we were pleased and provoked to note that, at a UK educational technology trade event, about two weeks back, Microsoft quietly announced that it had entered Beta on its "Grava" project.

]]> The product codenamed "Grava" is a meta-programming/courseware-authoring system based on Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), the graphics model underlying Windows Vista. It lets educators without a great deal of programming knowledge create courseware, publications, surveys, graphical physics demos and similar neat stuff, using an "app-gen" style user interface and underlying simplified script language. Courseware authored this way can be played back on the Grava Player, presently a stand-alone application.

Grava meta-applications can be enhanced further by delving into the (actually not too intimidating) underlying mysteries of WPF -- a very elegant and self-consistent model for multimedia, 3D and 2D graphics and text handling, in which content, functionality, time-based animation scripting and other variables are largely specified and controlled via human-readable (or at least comprehensible) XML files.

WPF is extended into Internet space by WPF/E ('E' is apparently for 'Everywhere'), a model for doing 2D animation, media and text-handling in suitably-equipped browser environments (WPF/E plug-ins are presently available for IE7, IE6+, FireFox and other browsers, running on Vista and XP SP2). This given, it seems likely (to me, anyway) that the ultimate destination for the Grava player is on the desktop, and in the browser -- meaning that what Microsoft is tentatively presenting, here, may be the basis for a powerful, Internet-enabled courseware publishing and administration system.

Given the current status of courseware authoring (profusion of platforms, no uniform standards, variable Internet compatibility, lots of home-grown solutions, etc.), I'd hazard that Microsoft's providing what may become a de-facto standard is probably beneficial, and that making it fully Internet-deployable (which they haven't announced, but I'm surmising is in the playbook) may lead in some very interesting and healthy directions. Like ... towards creation of a vast body of easily-licensed and/or opensource standard courseware; towards creation of a global community of commercial and freelance educator/content providers; and perhaps even towards some level of national, or even global concensus on the value of computer-based education, and towards creation of numerous new business models in courseware publishing, aggregation, syndication, etc. (think: "Google Learn," "courseware bloggers," etc.).

Still early times, yet. But I'm thinking of trying to get into the Community Tech Preview group for Grava and seeing who's there. You can apply, too:

https://beta.microsoft.com/Grava

Second Life to Le Pen: Non!

By now, everybody who reads global geeknews has heard about the more or less spontaneous protest, by francophone residents of the Second Life virtuality, against the appearance, the week before last, of a virtual office connected to the ultra-rightist Front Nacional party of Jean-Marie Le Pen. If not, a very good account can be found here -- comprising not only original reportage by militantgeek, but solid quotes from (and links to the work of) SL journo Wagner James Au, whose analysis of the events is both lyrical and acute.

]]> Because the Dobb's SL laboratory and Caffeine Cathedral is on Ile de France in the French Archipelago, I was on the scene as these events unfolded -- as usual, my jaw dropping and the hair on the back of my neck standing on end with the eerie feeling of being present as history was being made.

And as usual, the lay media got it wrong. And in this case, even the SL media got it a little wrong -- not because they didn't understand what was going on, but because they were explaining it mostly for an audience of SL residents.

The facts aren't in dispute: Le Pen's office appears. Beginning ironically on Martin Luther King day (a fact of which the French were no doubt mostly unaware, but which inflected our stateside perception of events), a protest is mounted. Over the course of 24 hours or so, the mood becomes increasingly ugly. And then, at a certain point, an attack commences -- residents pull out chain-guns, push weapons, rez cages and start sending in flying saucers dropping exploding pink pigs. Eventually, the Le Penistes retreat, taking their office with them, and trailing cries of "We shall return!" And today, a small casino stands on the spot.

In the aftermath, the global media concensus (at least among "fair and balanced" sources) seems to be that:

This is important. Which I don't dispute, but then again, important why? There have been fights and protests in SL before -- but this is the first time (I think) such famous names and deeply-polarized philosophies have been involved. Beyond that, there's nothing much to mark this incident as having special significance ... then again, we could say as much about the Potemkin affair or the capture of Fort Sumter -- not distinguished or particularly meaningful actions in and of themselves, but definitely "shots heard 'round the world."
It's a good thing that SL residents drove out Le Pen. Which I do dispute, but only a little. I'm all for free speech and assembly. But frankly, it's hard for me to be concerned with the free-speech and assembly rights of neo-fascists. And I find the tenacious counterculturalism (an agglomeration of leftism, greenism, sciencism, humanism, libertarianism, entrepreneurism, anti-corporatism and other weird bedfellows) of SL refreshing and hopeful. Also, this is my SL neighborhood we're talking about -- donc je m'en fiche les questions de 'constitutionalite.'
But it was bad that SL residents used "violence" to quash "free speech." This, I dispute stridently, on semantic and philosophical grounds -- and it was this point the lay media most completely failed to grasp. Violence in Second Life is symbolic -- confined to displays of fireworks, tossing avatars around harmlessly, and various forms of high- and low-tech "griefing" (i.e., tossing avatars several thousand meters, attaching 200MB textures to people's heads to blind them, rezzing cages around them, etc.). Annoying, yes. Denial-of-servicey, sure. But harmless. And unless you have rights to property, you can't hurt, steal or displace it at all. So all the apparent violence done, here, could be construed as no more than a form of "speech."

It's Showtime! (In India)

This past weekend, Jon Erickson (Editorial Director of the portal and Editor in Chief of Dr. Dobb's Journal) and other CMP colleagues journeyed to Hyderabad for the first stop on this week's Dr. Dobb's SD Expo India three-city tour. In Jon's case, it was a little like watching an America's Cup race via telemetry -- at every intermediate airport (and on the WiFi-equipped Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Hyderabad), he'd sign on and update us via instant messaging, file a few blog entries, etc. His most recent dispatch, from the seventh-floor atrium restaurant of the Taj Krishna hotel, informed us that he'd tasted all the available local coffees, and that Chennai was currently leading the pack. Watch for Jon's news updates on the show, over the next several days, in our Architecture & Design department, and elsewhere.