LIAM CHAPMAN

Now that I have some “spare time” I’m hoping to give the site a bit of a refresh or complete update. This blog might not even be here. stay tuned, if anyone does at all lol.

“Think about how you use the Internet. The communications and Information source has penetrated every stratum of our lives. But what if the computer desktop as a concept and the Internet as a data space, were to merge? This is the promise of what has become known as Web 2.0, where accessing, saving, creating and sharing information moves from the desktop and on to the Internet.” (Web Design Next-gen creativity volume 2.0, 2007 : p13)

The above extract clearly explains what Web 2.0 means. The term was originally coined by Dale Dougherty from O’Reilly media. Some see it as the latest technology buzzword, others see it as a true force and conventional wisdom of participation and networking on the Internet. Where the Internet is no longer a one way system and gives power to the audience, transforming websites into collaborative networks, where it relies on the audience to participate in order to function and succeed.

Clear examples of Web 2.0 and Social participation include YouTube, Digg, Facebook and Wikipedia. YouTube for example has on average of approximately a 100 Million videos watch per day and that number is growing, all of its content is generated and watched by it’s audience, it merely provides the service.

Some see Web 2.0 as a precursor to cloud computing, in terms of providing Software as a Service to audiences contributing to the cloud.

“…Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie warned Microsoft’s top executives and engineers that a “services wave of applications and experiences available instantly over the internet” was approaching and that it would reshape the traditional software business.”(Carr, N, 2008).

Web 2.0 services have certain characteristics that are different to traditional websites or ‘Web 1.0’ era. Such as the increase use of technologies such as AJAX and CSS to create an overall better user experience and interface.

A great example of Social Networking and Web 2.0 is Facebook. Facebook has in the past year become one of the fastest growing online services, as it has rapidly captured a large user base and created new approaches for interacting and developing content online.

The most popular feature on Facebook is its community of applications and developers. Facebook wasn’t necessarily the pioneer in this field, other websites such as Flickr had opened up its site in order for people develop with it’s API and generate ‘Mash-Ups’.

Simple ‘Mash-Ups’ include combining music events with maps to notify fans of when bands are performing, along with Facebooks event and photo applications, to identify who or what is in the photo, to enhance the overall experience of a music event.

Facebooks approach and integration of it’s applications was quite remarkable, it made applications similar to an application that you would use locally on your computer. The Facebook platform also greatly reduces cost and storage for applications, similar to what ‘Cloud Computing’ attempts to achieve.

“…experience shows the power of Facebook Platform as a new model for disseminating software. The plummeting costs of bandwidth, processing power, and storage had driven down the price of application development.”(Vogelstein, F, 2007).

By comparing Facebooks ‘Event’ application with Apples ‘iCal’, this demonstrates, the power and potential of Facebooks platform and future cloud platforms. Both have different approaches, but serve the same purpose.

Apples iCal is a local calendar application that you can use to record and schedule meetings and events, you can also share and synchronise online, making it possible for people to subscribe to your calendar.
Facebooks ‘Event’ application has a very different interface and method, but can also provide the same functionality to schedule meetings and events, be it private or public, and can instantly be shared with all your friends on Facebook.

Although some applications are limited in functionality, the integration by Facebook alone was quite a feat. Even their own applications have no priority and can be removed from your account if you desire.

The reaction to Facebooks platform, was well received by tech-industry and considered quite revolutionary, as Facebook innovated new approaches to social networking and distributing content online through the Web 2.0 paradigm.

“Facebook now gave even the most modest developer the opportunity to win instant and mammoth distribution through its word-of-mouth engine. Users no longer need to search for applications that they may not even know they want; instead, the applications find them.” (Vogelstein, F, 2007).

Facebook demonstrates how powerful social networks are, not just for interacting with friends online, but for distributing and interacting content in the cloud and proves the Web 2.0 paradigm of merging the desktop and Internet, bringing cloud computing closer.

Digital media has given us the opportunity to create our own content through multimedia software and peripherals. Dependance on traditional media corporations to deliver us content is of less importance as the web is full of a variety of content created by the audience.

Corporations such as the BBC have started providing its television programming online through its ‘iPlayer’. Many media providers have also followed suit in an attempt to capture online audiences.

Content online from vendors such as YouTube display approximately 100 Million videos daily (BBC News Online, 2006). These figures are astronomical in comparison to traditional media vendors and it’s clear to see why traditional and new media are converging.

“Just as the electric guitar and the garage democratized pop music forty years ago, desktop creation and production tools are democratizing the studio. Apple’s GarageBand, free with every Mac, greets a user with the suggestion “Record your next big hit,” and provides the tools to do just that. Likewise, digital video cameras and desktop editing suites (Free with every copy of Windows and every Mac) are putting the sorts of tools into the hands of the average home moviemaker that were once reserved for professionals alone.”(Anderson,C,2006 : p63).

Future content of the cloud will predominantly be produced and classified by the audience, not for commercial purposes, but for passion and enjoyment. Most content on YouTube is created by its audience, the quality of the content does not limit the enjoyment compared to traditional video.

“Nuttal also reports that an audience member heckled Chen over the lousy quality of YouTube videos, shouting “HD! HD!” during his talk. Another onlooker quipped, “Someone scream out ‘Better Content!’”(Carr, N, 2007).

As cloud computing services take-off, participation and contributions will dominant the media landscape and as a result may show a decline in traditional media outlets. Due to everything in the cloud being provided for free and greater reach to audiences across the globe.

The adoption and success of cloud computing will largely rely on the audience’s participation storing and computing data in the cloud. As current trends show this shouldn’t be a problem.
Vast audiences across the globe are already participating on the web. We are the web. From blogs to wikis, to social networks to web-apps and much more.

We are the web, and the web is the cloud. Cloud computing is next step where we move a majority of our resources online to compute and provide our content and data. The web is saturated in media produced by the audience. The audience is both the producer and consumer, the cloud is the distribution, provided through web services such as YouTube and Flickr.

“The Netscape IPO wasn’t really about dot-commerce. At its heart was a new cultural force based on mass collaboration. Blogs, Wikipedia, open source, peer-to-peer – behold the power of the people.” (Kelly, K, 2005).

The power that users posses today is unfounded in history, audiences have the ability to influence and contribute on a global scale. Through blogs and videos we have the access to an audience that the media of long ago could have only dreamed of. But why do people participate online?

“The electricity of participation nudges ordinary folks to invest huge hunks of energy and time into making free encyclopedias, creating public tutorials for changing a flat tire, or cataloging the votes in the Senate. More and more of the Web runs in this mode. One study found that only 40 percent of the Web is commercial. The rest runs on duty or passion.” (Kelly, K, 2005).

What does participation and collaboration have to do with cloud computing? It’s quite simple, it shows we are already passively storing and communicating with the cloud. Audiences across the globe upload vast quantities of video to YouTube, publish and research information on blogs and wikis. We interact and share information with friends and services online. We are publishing our own content to to remote servers where it is stored and viewed by potentially millions of people.
It also shows the audiences acceptance of online services and communities, and to a certain degree how important they are, including how much more important it will continue to be as more people sign up and contribute to the cloud.

Well, as you can see. I’ve published The Abstract, Introduction and the first chapter of my thesis. It’s not brilliant I know! heh and some of it is a bit out of date by now too.

To make it more comprehensive I’ll publish the bibliography, add tags and break the chapters into pages.

You may be asking yourself, “why is he blogging his thesis?”. When compiling it I found it quite difficult finding research on the subject. I hope that my work helps others. I’m a strong believer in everything open source. So why not open source my dissertation! I plan to delve into the cloud computing subject in the future and hope the you can also contribute to it

I plan to publish more of it later and during the week. There is a lot to read in the first chapter.

I got a bit carried away copy and pasting it in. You may also want to read this other blog post before reading about ‘welcome to the cloud’.

http://liamchapman.co.uk/?p=37

Cheers.

1.5 – Existing and Future Cloud Services

Recently there has been development and interest from large technology companies such as Google, Microsoft, Sun, IBM, Dell and Amazon to develop cloud computing services. Amazon has already launched a beta version of its cloud computing service named ‘Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).

“Just as Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) enables storage in the cloud, Amazon EC2 enables “compute” in the cloud. Amazon EC2’s simple web service interface allows you to obtain and configure capacity with minimal friction. It provides you with complete control of your computing resources and lets you run on Amazon’s proven computing environment. Amazon EC2 reduces the time required to obtain and boot new server instances to minutes, allowing you to quickly scale capacity, both up and down, as your computing requirements change. Amazon EC2 changes the economics of computing by allowing you to pay only for capacity that you actually use.” (Amazon Web Services, 2008).

Amazon EC2 is currently leading the way in cloud computing and is slowly starting to receive attention along with Amazon S3. The above extract from their website clearly explains what their service provides and what cloud computing attempts to achieve, by synergising services to compute and execute data on a global scale, however, currently the service does charge a premium, which services from other companies such as Google aim to provide for free via advertising.

A cloud computing service that many are eagerly awaiting is from Google and IBM who have teamed up for research in cloud computing. Google is preparing vast data centres so that students and business can compute and store data in the ‘cloud’

“Google is building a data center, at an undisclosed location, that will contain more than 1,600 processors by the end of the year. I.B.M. is also setting up a data center for the initiative.”(Lohr, S, 2007)

“..Mr. Schmidt recalled that he had sketched out his vision of cloud computing on a whiteboard, emphasizing its potential economic and social importance, and urged the I.B.M. chief to cooperate to build the skills needed.”(Lohr, S, 2007).

However, although notifications that Google and IBM are developing cloud computing services, they have been very secretive of it’s development.
Google is working with many partners other than IBM, Apple and Google are also supposedly working on cloud services and devices.

“Google’s architectural model around broadband and services and so forth plays very well to the powerful devices and services Apple is doing. We’re a perfect back end to the problems that they’re trying to solve. And they have very good judgment on user interface and people. They don’t have this supercomputer I’m talking about, which is the data centers.”(Schmidt, E, 2007)

Time will tell on future cloud services developed by Google and its partners, another contender for cloud computing is Microsoft, who also sees the potential of cloud computing.
Microsoft is the seen as the biggest and must powerful corporation in the tech-industry, however it only offers limited online services, in an attempt to combat the dominance of Google. Microsofts services are also largely unknown, but they have plans to bring their platform to cloud computing.

“The software maker[Microsoft] has been talking for some time about its plans to have a full-fledged platform that lives on its servers, as opposed to a set of discrete services, as is the case today.”(Fried, I, 2007).

In the future Microsoft aims to provide a majority of it’s popular software, such as Office and even Windows as a service in the Cloud. However Microsoft knows that this will be no easy task, and is more than likely a primary reason it has proposed the acquisition of Yahoo!

“In addition to making available its existing services, such as mail and instant messaging, Microsoft also will create core infrastructure services, such as storage and alerts, that developers can build on top of. It’s a set of capabilities that have been referred to as a “Cloud OS,”…”(Fried, I, 2007).

The future looks bright for cloud computing, the current undertaking and pursuit of the cloud computing paradigm by significant companies shows the importance and belief in this model. Google, Microsoft, IBM and Amazon are likely to be the biggest contenders for cloud computing, however there are more services to come from large and small companies, all we can do is wait and see.

(All references for this article, will be published in a separate post)

1.4 – Software as a Service & Web-Apps

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a term used for applications that are accessed online, usually associated with business and enterprise orientated software. A pioneer in SaaS is SalesForce.com, SalesForce provides access to web applications and a platform for developing software remotely.

Applications from SalesForce consist of analytical, automation and marketing applications that can be used ‘on-demand’ to reduce cost and improve scalability.

From a consumers perspective, Software as as Service is commonly labeled as web applications and encompasses Web 2.0.
A prominent leader in the development of consumer targeted web applications is Google.
Google currently offers an advance word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, calendar, email, video player, RSS reader, maps and multiple other services that are comparable to traditional software found locally on a desktop computer.
Since Googles software is in the cloud, users have the option to share and collaborate on documents, something that is limited with local software.

The potential power of web-apps in the cloud is that users can save, edit and access information anywhere in the world, more importantly, for free.

Other advantages of web-apps include the ability to integrate and share resources in the cloud to improve speed and efficiency of advanced or mundane tasks.

If you go to Google.com and search for anything, you can find what you want instantly, be it, commerce, information (data and documents), social networking (Address book, Calendar), files (video, music and documents) in most cases more efficiently than locally on your computer.

If you can do all of these tasks for free do you really need an OS? Because your OS uses an old and taxing hierarchy, making you have to look through folders which becomes tedious and more laborious. Another aspect is that you have to update, secure and backup your OS constantly, where as if its in the cloud your services are taken care of by the service provider.

Other methods to make web-app adoption rapid and less intimidating, comprise of technologies such as ‘Adobe Integrated Runtime’ (AIR) and ‘Google Gears’, which have been developed to make web applications become partial local applications that reside locally in the users machine.

AIR is a method to use web technology such as JavaScript, XHTML to create a local applications for the desktop, other methods such as ‘Widgets’ and ‘Gadgets’ from Apple and Microsoft perform a similar purpose.

This is an example of how important the web has become to users and indicates gradual steps to dependence on web-apps and cloud computing.

(All references for this article, will be published in a separate post)

1.3 – Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing its etymology is vague, however it simply defines connecting remote servers over the Internet, where resources are shared and accessed anywhere in the world. Businesses and consumers store and compute their information remotely and interact with their data locally, using a hub or terminal, not dissimilar from a web browser.

Software as a Service (SaaS) or ‘web-apps’ are considered one of the early stages of cloud computing. Cloud Computing is not limited to applications though, Cloud Computing can offer substantial computing power for analysing and generating data, through the use of multiple servers running in parallel or ‘grids’.

Significant tech-companies such as Microsoft, Google, IBM and Amazon are pursing cloud computing initiatives, which clearly shows the enthusiasm and belief of the cloud computing paradigm as a future digital medium.

Another means of exploring cloud computing is by comparing the functionality with computer operating systems (OS). Simply due to the future functions of cloud computing, which will be indistinguishable from what users know today as an operating system.

“…when you get reconnected to the Internet, your computer will just synchronize with the cloud.
Here’s another way of saying this – and these are not my words. People call this an Internet operating system…. And if you think about it as an Internet operating system, the Internet operating system will have to have all of the normal features of the older versions of operating systems. It will have to have security, it will have to have caching, it will have to have replication, and it will have to have performance.” (Schmidt, E, 2007)

A strong advocate of cloud computing and many web schemes is Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Sun Microsystems and current CEO of Google. Schmidt elaborates on Software as a Service being a possible catalyst of the progression and eventual adoption of cloud computing.

“Well, one answer is that the systems they’re replacing are very complicated, and people have very high standards for interactive services. So everything has to work; all the features have to be there; and they have to never break……Online calendars are the perfect example of this. Sharing a calendar in the older (client server) model was hard. Now it’s easy because the model says the calendars are stored on professional servers, and they are visible everywhere you want them to be. Making this happen reliably and securely is complicated and technical, but it is ultimately justified by delivering on a very simple concept.” (Schmidt, E, 2007)

Each cloud computing model has a different architecture to deliver content, a prominent aspect of all cloud computing models is virtualisation. Through virtualisation all hardware and software is managed and updated remotely by the service provider, doing so benefits the user, reducing cost and maintenance of an alternative local system.

“As flour is to a cookie, virtualization is to a cloud. People are always asking me (their first mistake) what is the difference between clouds and the “Grid” hype of the 1990s. My pat answer is “virtualization.” Virtualization is the secret sauce of a cloud.” (Willis, J, 2008).

Virtualisation also consolidates processing power and storage to output advanced calculations through grids and multiple servers, potentially giving the audience the power of a ‘super-computer’ .

Even with all the advantages of cloud computing, there is opposition. Notably because of the adverse effects it could have on the enterprise market and economics in general. In addition, cloud computing is considered a buzzword, much like Web 2.0. Also some state, that cloud computing cannot operate as proposed. Even though serious vendors and corporations are undertaking cloud computing with vigor.

“Enterprise customers should not ignore cloud computing. It has the potential to significantly change IT. Most enterprise organizations look at cloud-based or utility computing as a trend that applies only to the small WEB 2.0 vendors and the small-to-medium business space, but large vendors like IBM, Dell, and Sun are taking strong positions in regards to cloud computing.”
(Willis, J, 2008).

An important purpose of operating systems is to provide a framework for users to interact and create content with applications. Otherwise an operating system just communicates with hardware, still an important aspect, especially at a server level for cloud computing.

However, consider the Internet as a new framework, for developing and sharing applications. With online services from companies like Google and Facebook, methods are currently in place to provide and develop applications remotely online, similar to how applications operate locally on a personal computer. This concept is know as Software as a Service.

(All references for this article, will be published in a separate post)

1.2 – Methods and Approaches to the Web

Amongst the many visions of how the web could operate there are three systems other than cloud computing, which are particularly worth mentioning: semantic web, project xanadu and umbrella networking.

The Semantic web approach, proposes making information on the Internet to be interpreted and analysed by computers to perform tedious tasks such as finding, combining data and sharing. The term was initially coined by Tim Berners-Lee the director of W3C and he continues to pursue the semantic web.

“I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialize.” (Berners-Lee, T, 1999).

The term ‘intelligent agent’ refers to Artificial Intelligence (AI) having the ability to learn and analyse data on the web, and output this data in a format suitable for humans, taking out tedious, frustrating tasks such as organisation and to enhance guidance on the web. However, a few current problems are that websites are designed to be interpreted by humans, not machines. Despite this steps are in place to make data to be easily read by humans and machines, which has lead to development of technologies such as eXtensible Markup Language (XML).

Markup languages such as HTML have been slowly evolving to be read more easily by humans and computers so that the code describes the content, instead of just the code formatting the content.

Example:
HTML:                             XML
<h1>Example</h1>       <header>Example</header>

The obstacles that occur to accomplish the semantic web and make it feasible, is lack of adoption and skepticism such as, a semantic web would initially rely on human preferences and currently there is limited software development in order to complete the ‘semantic dream’, however characteristics of the semantic web have been incorporated into ‘cloud computing’ and other approaches.

The Semantic web is on one of many approaches, there have been many others such as ‘project xanadu’ led by Ted Nelson, one of the pioneers for hypertext and hypermedia.

Xanadu was founded by Ted Nelson in the sixties and it is considered one of the first hypertext projects. However, no software was ever surfaced, until 1998 and it appeared incomplete, also in 2007, Project Xanadu released Xanadu Space 1.0.
Ted Nelson visioned a method for users who could choose their own path through a piece of work i.e. a book or document, digitally, without restrictions, such as copyright and automation of content.

“Since 1960, we have fought for a world of deep electronic documents– with side-by-side intercomparison and frictionless re-use of copyrighted material.
We have an exact and simple structure. The Xanadu model handles automatic version management and rights management through deep connection.” (From: Project Xanadu).

The project, never really took off as it encountered financial problems There had been prototypes and demonstrations, but it failed to capture interest. Some theory and technology from Xanadu contains a lot of what the web is today, most notably ‘Wikis’ where users can choose a path, create, edit, share information, search and retrieve documents and so on.

Lastly, Facebook has produced a similar approach to cloud computing, where it attempts to consolidate most of the services users need i.e. commerce, productivity, communication and of course, social networking. This concept is very new and named ‘Umbrella Networking’ by Ajit Jaokar. Umbrella Networking, simply means having all your services provided under one site or ‘umbrella’.

“The idea is – we “log in’ to a single profile on our social network. The resultant social network then becomes an ‘umbrella’ network encompassing your Web, Mobile Web and even the Enterprise Web. The concept of umbrella social networks becomes even more powerful when presence is added to the mix.”(Jaokar, A, 2007).

Advantages of such a system is that the user experience becomes more personal, for example: Facebooks messaging system improves upon email and communication online, it restricts contact to your friends and considerably reduces unwanted spam and advertising, compared to commonly seen email-web-clients today.

“Facebook messaging is the new e-mail. Everyone feels stressed from a deluge of e-mail from unwanted people and companies. But Facebook messages are always from friends.”(BBC News Online, 2007).

An article by the BBC in response to the valuation of Facebook of fifteen billion dollars, list reasons as to why and it mentions some key aspects of cloud computing and umbrella networking.

“Facebook is the new web: The decision to open up the network to outside developers turned Facebook into a destination for many uses, like messaging, photos and video…”(BBC News Online, 2007).

From looking at other approaches to the web, generates better understanding of possible directions of cloud computing and how each approach has possible influences upon each paradigm.

(All references for this article, will be published in a separate post)

1.1 – Development of Networks & the Internet

“Dumb terminals” and “mainframe” computers were amongst the first releases of computers, operated mainly by corporations and governments. Interaction was via cards, tapes, disks and later by command line entry such as BASIC and MS DOS.

Mainframe computers stored vast quantities of data, which were accessed by terminals over networks, this was due to storage being considerably expensive at the time and not compact enough to be personalised and controlled locally.

However, as technology progressed and components became more affordable, mainframe computers were slowly abandoned and the Personal Computer (PC) became the front-runner for interacting with digital information.

Xerox introduced the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and was later developed and absorbed into Apple’s and Microsoft’s respective Operating Systems (OS). The GUI made it easier for users to operate computers compared to command line entry. This opened up the audience for commercial and home use.

With the Personal Computer aimed for home use and a GUI, it made it possible for everyone to perform tasks such as word processing, accounting, recreational use such as games and of course, making it effortless to connect to networks and the Internet.

As with many new technologies, the development of the Internet was initially spurred on by military means. As early as 1945, specifically Hypertext pages. Hypertext pages were originally influenced by Memex, developed by Vannevar Bush. Further development was carried out by Douglas Engelbart and Ted Nelson who coined ‘hypermedia’ and ‘hypertext’.

Eventually hypertext evolved into a scientific and commercial outlet, leading to the development of TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) in 1983 and later HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and the World Wide Web (WWW) in the 1990s .

Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a digital protocol to transfer data on the World Wide Web and intranets. It’s purpose is to send and receive hypertext pages over networks and the Internet.

The development and protocol definition are carried out by various organisations, most notably the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), whose director is Tim Berners-Lee.
Tim Berners-Lee is widely know as the inventor of the world wide web, which was developed at CERN in 1989, along with early, basic web browsers.

Web Browsers are the dominant method of how users interact with content on the world wide web. Pioneering browsers such as ViolaWWW and Mosaic lead the development of browser technology and eventually Mosaic evolved into Netscape, the first popular web browser and then this lead to Internet Explorer and Mozilla FireFox, which are the two most ubiquitous web browsers in the world today.

(All references for this article, will be published in a separate post)