Books
International Research Forum 2006
In March 2006, SAP Research convened a daylong meeting of several dozen thinkers and entrepreneurs in Darmstadt, Germany to discuss the future of information and communication technologies (ICT). The first annual International Research Forum was an earnest effort to grapple with the challenges and opportunities posed by these technologies. The forum’s findings—and the accompanying conversation that was by turns provocative, erudite, and even dizzying—have been captured between these covers.
International Research Forum 2006 explores how Web 2.0 and Real World Awareness technologies point to a fundamentally different model of ICT, the security challenges these technologies pose, and whether they can be a lever for growth on a national or even global scale. Some of the brightest minds from SAP, McKinsey, Siemens, Sun, and Intel as well as major universities debated these issues.
The authors recruited select virtual participants to carry the conversation forward and offer their own views. These thinkers included respected technology publisher Tim O’Reilly and security guru Bill Cheswick, among many others.
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction
2 Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web
The principles of Web 2.0 have led to lightweight applications that harness user input, many-to-many connections, and emergent behavior arising from a critical mass of users. Will these developments lead to a fundamentally different IT architecture? Will they pave the way to the Semantic Web, in information is as understandable to machines as it is to humans?
3 IT Security
Is it possible to build a perfectly open and perfectly secure system? Where and how should organizations focus their efforts, and does a new application model require a similar evolution in security?
4 Changing the Resolution of Real World Awareness
Sensors, scanners, and RFIDs promise to transform how data is collected—automatically, with little to no human intervention. How will existing systems cope with the resulting torrent of information? Will privacy concerns cripple these technologies despite their promise?
5 IT as a Tool for Growth and Development
Can developing nations use ICT as a force to accelerate their own development? Can European nations use ICT to jumpstart their stagnating growth?
Conclusion
Appendix: Participants
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