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New communication behaviours in a Web 2.0 world
is declining on an annual basis and will continue to do so. Jim Cicconi of AT&T expects that,
without investment, the internet’s current network architecture will reach the limits of its
capacity by 2010. He predicts that $130 billion will be needed to bridge the gap. Traffic may in
fact increase fifty-fold by 2015, following an unprecedented new wave of broadband traffic. This
increase will be driven both by greater penetration and also by vastly increased take-up of such
services as video streaming, virtual worlds and other services yet to emerge
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.
New and even faster broadband technologies will clearly be required. For wireless access the
dominant technology might become mobile WiMax or extensions of current 3G systems. For
wireline it will most probably be optical cable transmission. This will be more widely deployed
around the world. Upload speed network capacities will need special attention, as upload is
becoming more important, having previously been neglected.
A new generation of devices will have to be deployed to meet the potential of higher speed
mobile internet network access
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. It is expected that the devices will combine the functionalities
of current technologies. Rather like the iPhone, the devices will combine functionalities for
such services as voice, quality internet connection, multimedia and data storage and sharing,
multimedia playing, and easy transfer of files or multimedia content to friends. However, a large
group of consumers will still require only the traditional voice functions. Their need will be met
by simplified devices.
3.4 Enterprise 2.0 growth
Analysis indicates that the business Web 2.0 technologies
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market was valued at around
$764 million in 2008 and will grow to more than $4.6 billion by 2013
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. We firmly believe that
corporations will overcome their fears of implementing Web 2.0 into enterprise technology and
will make interactivity Web and peer-to-peer based software their main software applications.
The main benefits the corporations will gain are cost savings in such areas
as IT development and software solutions, and improved knowledge sharing.
Usage of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
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and mash-ups
integrated into their corporate software platform (so called ‘productivity
tools’) will gain popularity. Companies will get better results from
collaboration either among their own employees, or between employees and
corporate partners.
Ease of adoption and use is another benefit for the corporation.
Corporations will procure more software from open source environments, so
software solutions providers will have to adapt. As software companies and
individual software producers increasingly incorporate standard APIs into
their applications, complex portfolios will become more readily available for
corporate users to pick up and use. Many start-up companies are forming
today to serve these future customer needs.
Virtual world applications might find a use in business processes too – as the equivalent of
the B2B internet. Some corporations are already exploring the potential for virtual meetings,
virtual training and virtual product shows with customers. In product development meanwhile,
3D computer-aided design is a well-developed concept that could find further opportunities in
highly realistic virtual worlds.
Summary of Contents for Web 2.0 services
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