The Network Podcast

3D viewing is spreading from cinema to the small screen. When will brands see the benefits of 3D advertising? iTunes: cs.co/tnp - Subscribe, listen to past episodes, rate the show or write a review. TRANSCRIPT for "3D Advertising: A New Dimension" written by Jason Deign: You could call it a struggle between different dimensions. Today’s video devices, from Apple iPads to flat-screen TVs, are slimmer than ever before. The upcoming Sony Xperia Tablet Z, for example, is about one quarter of an inch thick. Yet gaze into the screens of these thin devices and "flat" is the last thing you'll think. Thanks to advances in visual technology, video now has a depth that viewers couldn't have dreamed of in the past. The ultimate, of course, is 3D -- or three dimensional -- a format that has taken off in cinemas over the last decade thanks to the popularity of films such as the 2009 blockbuster "Avatar," by director James Cameron, or Ang Lee’s "Life of Pi." In the last two years, five of the top 10 grossing movies in the United States were shown in 3D. It might be just a matter of time before big brands start giving the format a similar level of attention. Andrew Murchie is a 3D filmmaker based in Edinburgh, Scotland. He says the reason brands aren't already using 3D is because the format hasn't really caught on with home viewers. Quote: "It’s obviously successful in cinema, there is no debate about that. If you make 3D films, people will come and see them. TV is the battleground at the moment. There is not really sufficient content. And I think the biggest issues are the glasses." End quote. Murchie says, unlike the cinema, where viewers are usually completely focused on the screen, home viewers tend to multitask while in front of the TV, so wearing 3D glasses can be a hindrance. That could be set to change, though. Companies such as Dimenco are working to bring 3D to the small screen… without glasses. Cameron himself was wowed by the results after seeing a demo at last year’s International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. And even if glasses-free 3D takes a while to catch on, there are signs that traditional 3D -- with glasses -- may be slowly growing in popularity in the home. When Ridley Scott’s sci-fi smash "Prometheus" went on sale in stores in the United States, for example, Nielsen VideoScan reported a quarter of the Blu-ray copies bought were in 3D. Meanwhile the Consumer Electronics Association claims 42 percent of people who own 3D-capable high-definition TV sets are now watching at least five hours of 3D programming a week. 3D is even attracting attention on YouTube. The online video site is able to encode and play back 3D films, and Murchie says the format is catching on. He recently produced a short horror movie for YouTube called "The Collection" -- in 3D and 2D. He says, quote: "45 times more people chose to watch it in 3D. The difference was phenomenal." End quote. With this growing interest, it seems logical that sooner or later advertisers might want in on it. Some are already exploring the medium for cinema ads, but so far only a few brands, such as Red Bull, seem to have woken up to the potential of 3D on smaller screens. According to Murchie, as the amount of 3D content grows, other brands will probably follow. Quote: "If there was a big enough subscriber base and enough content, then advertisers would start putting more money behind it. It is surprising more advertisers are not jumping on board because the message recall is considerably better from the 3D viewing experience." End quote. In addition, the technical barriers to creating 3D productions have fallen to the point where the cost is practically the same as for 2D. And when you shoot in 3D, you get a perfectly good 2D copy anyway. Because of the immersive nature of 3D, it can provide a more engaging advertising experience. And for the time being at least, the format gives advertisers a way to stand out

SDN, cloud, big data.  Cisco's Lew Tucker talks about the latest trends, including the Internet of Everything. iTunes: cs.co/tnp - Subscribe, listen to past episodes, rate the show or write a review. TRANSCRIPT: My name is Lew Tucker and I'm Vice President and CTO of cloud computing here at Cisco Systems. That means in many ways I'm supposed to look out on the horizon and see where the industry is going and make sure that across all of our products and services, Cisco is able to meet what our customers are looking for. It seems there are so many technology trends around cloud computing these days, what are those relevant trends and can you describe in what ways these trends are intersecting with cloud computing? Well you know it's interesting today I think we are all experiencing the explosive growth of the Internet as more and more of us get online from mobile devices from tablets. We're seeing an explosion really in the number of connections and the things that are being connected to the Internet and we characterize that as the Internet of things and in fact Internet of everything as it's both people and sensors and devices that are connecting to the Internet today. You know we are just at the beginning of that trend. We may see close to 80 billion objects being connected to the Internet in the next 10 years or so. That's fueling another part of that which is now we have enormous amounts of information that's being collected about user behavior about how our systems and services are running about how we interact with our supply chain, so this drives a real need for something called big data and big data, and big data really has to do with how we acquire all this information and most importantly, extract information out of it--analytics--and so, that then in turn, fuels the growth of cloud computing because in cloud computing we have the abilities of rapidly building and deploying new applications and also having those applications elastically scale over time, so during a certain part of the year we might double or triple the requirements in terms of the amount of computing we need on these big data sets. Yes in fact today I think we are seeing a virtual recycled being created between the Internet of things, big data, cloud computing and software defined networking, where each one of these things fuels the other and that we're creating a kind of perfect storm whereby now we are growing the overall usage of the Internet to solve these problems. Well one of the other interesting things that's happening at the same time I think is that we all look at what Amazon for example has done with bringing out it's Amazon web services. Well many companies have a need to run that kind of service in their own data center, so we've seen the emergence in fact in the open source community of something called open stack. Cisco has been heavily involved in and that is essentially Cisco and IBM and HP and Dell, about 180 companies coming together to create the open source software that allows anybody to build and run their own cloud. So in this last year I think it has been very interesting to see the evolution of open stack as a platform and also the continued interest and adoption of open stack by many of the largest technology companies and service providers. For example, one of our customers is Comcast. And Comcast is looking to deploy open stack inside of their own data center for bringing out their own Internet services that form the basis of a lot of their media plays in the market. So one of the things we noticed in car computing that was lacking was really away for the application developers to construct a kind of virtualized network, their own logical view of how they wanted a network to perform for the different elements of their application. So in open stack we created a service called quantum, which allows now a developer to make requests through the APIs of the infrastructure elements so that they can create their

Retailers are using Predictive Analytics to slice and dice Big Data. The goal is to give shoppers more of what they want. But what about privacy concerns? iTunes: cs.co/tnp - Listen to past episodes, subscribe or write a review. TRANSCRIPT for "Big Data Analytics and Privacy" written by Kerry Doyle: Increasing numbers of companies are employing Predictive Analytics technology to better understand their customers, and then capitalize on that information. Organizations want to use this wealth of customer data to create 360-degree portraits of their customers’ shopping habits and purchasing patterns. These predictive analytics tools are not only for specialized analysts. Marketers are using these resources and acting on this information to offer consumers special deals and coupons, identify loyal customers and increase profits. The premise is that to stay competitive, retailers need to understand not only their customers’ wants and needs, but also predict future tendencies. However, this consumer data has privacy implications that regulatory agencies, courts, rights advocates and corporations themselves are debating. The fact is that the current combination of moderate growth in domestic markets and more informed, budget-conscious consumers presents a challenge to developing profitable growth strategies for U.S.-based retailers. Partly as a result, companies are using analytics tools to tell them things that most shoppers would probably prefer to keep to themselves, if they knew about it. These behavioral snapshots are most common on the Web. You've probably noticed how when you shop online for, say, a Coach bag and then change your mind. Afterwards, ads for Coach bags seem to appear on nearly every website you visit. That’s because online retailers track users with a virtual identification number, and then purchase targeted ads for products of interest to that particular consumer. At this point, omni-channel retail—shopping that combines the Web, mobile devices and brick and mortar shops is here to stay. Frequently, consumers are both offline and online as they make purchasing decisions. Online these consumers are sharing brand information, researching, learning about products and using social media to become better informed. Offline, they’re evaluating, testing, and brand associating. And they’re using their mobile devices to compare merchandise and prices while physically shopping in a store. For marketers, the point is to engage these customers in a two-way dialogue and uniquely tailor offerings to make a sale, not just push messages and ads to users’ smartphones or tablets. As smartphone technology evolves to provide contextually sensitive information to make offers to users at the right time and place, Predictive Analytics is being extended to brick and mortar retail establishments. For example, in-store retail analysis represents one area where physical customer monitoring can reveal valuable information. Analytics companies such as RetailNext offer real-time store monitoring to better understand shopper behavior--and to capitalize on that information. Capabilities include video-tracking customer movements through stores, recognition technology to determine gender and identifying unique visitors across one or more store visits. Whether shoppers are being alerted to such profit-focused surveillance is uncertain. Counter-claims point out that retailers can use this information to offer customized and improved services and products. As a result, concerns and controls to protect consumer privacy have emerged in a number of areas. A recent report from the World Economic Forum looked closely at online privacy issues and recommended user-controlled privacy options for data. The idea is that all captured data would contain software-based personal preference tags that designated how that data could be used. Personal data, such as that gleaned using Predictive Analytics, would be registered and data

One Mexican city is using cell phones as sensors--to help fight crime and fix potholes. What else might our cell phones be capable of? iTunes: cs.co/tnp - Listen to past episodes, subscribe or write a review. Transcript for "Cell Phones as Sensors" written by Laurence Cruz: In the Mexican city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, in the state of Chiapas, an interesting experiment is unfolding that could be an early forerunner of a future trend--the use of cell phones as sensors. Under the city’s “Vigilante Taxi Driver” program, cab drivers use GPS-enabled cell phones to send photographs and messages about everything from accidents and potholes to burst water mains, downed streetlights and criminal activity--effectively acting as additional eyes and ears of government to combat high crime rates and run-down infrastructure. The reports go to a control center for routing to the appropriate government agency. The 1.15 million dollar program has been a resounding success, generating close to 10,000 reports a month from 3,500 drivers. It's helped recover stolen vehicles, identify counterfeiters, dismantle kidnapping and car-theft gangs and in some cases, save lives. It's no wonder the Chiapas government recently expanded the program to two more cities. José de Jesús Penagos Nangulari is head of the Logistics Department at the Secretary of Transportation in Tuxtla Gutiérrez. He says, quote: "It’s proving to be a great tool for the government and for drivers. The government cannot be everywhere at once." End quote. The program won recognition last year by the Intelligent Community Forum, a New York-based smart-city think tank, prompting co-founder Robert Bell to call it, quote: "a near-perfect blend of technology and citizen participation." The concept of using a simple, ubiquitous technology like cell phones to engage citizens in improving their community is resonating far beyond Chiapas. At least one U.S. city government official has predicted that citizen-owned smartphones will increasingly form the municipal sensor networks of the future. And companies like Intuit are working to reimagine their products to be “mobile first” or “mobile only”--for example, by considering how they would take advantage of sensors in smartphones. Meanwhile, researchers are experimenting with putting sensors into cell phones to solve social problems, with little to no citizen input required--like controlling the spread of diseases, or collecting environmental data on air pollution or radiation. Over the next decade, as the Internet of Things ramps up--and its next phase, the Internet of Everything--wireless sensor networks will become an increasingly pervasive form of instrumentation for the gathering and analysis of data of all stripes. Deploying large-scale sensor networks can be cost prohibitive, especially in developing countries. But cell phone networks provide a powerful, ready-made and pervasive wireless infrastructure with massive economies of scale to boot. RJ Honicky is a former researcher at the University of California, Berkeley and Nokia. His work was a call to action to the industry to consider cell phones as sensing systems. He says, quote: "By their sheer numbers, cell phones provide an opportunity to gather geospatial data with much higher granularity and more penetration than previously possible." End quote. Some problems are better suited to mobile sensing than others. For example, cell-phone sensors have great potential for monitoring pollution, which usually concentrates in densely populated areas--where cell phones abound. "The action is where the people are,” says Honicky, who is now a senior software engineer at Tarana Wireless. He's already tested a prototype cell phone containing a carbon-monoxide sensor capable of sniffing out the lethal gas and thus saving lives. To help measure air pollution, other researchers at Berkeley have succeeded in miniaturizing a microelectromechanical systems particulate matter sensor--

Mobile education and mobile technology is transforming the student experience. What does the future classroom look like? iTunes: cs.co/tnp - Listen to past episodes, subscribe or write a review. TRANSCRIPT for "Mobile Education in a Mobile World" written by Eric S. Rabkin: Mobility is a relative concept, and it's coming to every aspect of higher education. As Air Force bases go, aircraft carriers are mobile. In the 1980s, civilian employees of the University of Maryland University College -- which now offers many online courses -- served tours on U.S. aircraft carriers, under contract to the U.S. Department of Defense, during which they offered accredited, college-level courses to the crew. Over the span of a long military career, personnel then, as now, could be reassigned repeatedly and take ground-based courses in Europe or Asia or, when stateside, in the U.S. Put together, those courses might earn a college degree. We live in an increasingly mobile world and Americans are particularly mobile, changing "permanent" residence about 14 times in their lifetime. Instead of putting together a string of courses from a single university, like UMUC, modern transplants can now present a portfolio of courses from many schools, and even life experiences, to institutions like the fully accredited Thomas Edison University in New Jersey to undergo centralized review and the receipt of degrees. Given the growth of comparatively traditional class-size pedagogy in online environments, like the public Western Governors University and the private Kaplan University, people can change schools without ever changing residences, becoming mobile learners intellectually as well as geographically, to seek the educational experiences that suit them best. Some Massive Open Online Courses -- or MOOCs -- offering non-traditional education to thousands of people at a time, offer meet-ups wherever one happens to be, in order to experience face-to-face discussion complementing the online work. Some instructors, like Professor Charles Severance of the University of Michigan, travel to attend some of those meet-ups. MOOC students in widely separated locations self-organize online study groups that may appeal to people on the basis of their native language or their goals. And MOOCs may use peer-assessment and online forums that enrich learning in whole new ways. Even the materials of education can be mobile. Instead of a fixed textbook, once one moves to a digital resource, networked technology enables constant updating. This is already the case in myriad courses, online and in person, using, for example, the TIME Magazine Education Program, which supplies fresh material on a constant basis. When education is freed from the walls, clock, and calendar of individual schools and the fixity of the single, present teacher and printed textbook, the gains are potentially enormous. The University of Phoenix with its online-only courses and its mixed-mode courses that exist mainly online but occasionally meet in person with an instructor, has the largest enrollment of any single school in the United States. This technological revolution seems destined to drive genuine disintermediation in education just as it has in other industries. The American Council of Education is now reviewing curricula, pedagogy, and proctoring arrangements in order to grant credit to courses, like MOOCs, that may carry no credit from any traditional, accredited institution. At the moment, those courses are taught by faculty who are themselves members of accredited institutions, as with the MOOCs offered through Coursera. Or they are courses that are created by the MOOC enterprise itself in collaboration with an accredited institution, like Udacity working with regular faculty at San Jose State University. But why should disintermediation stop there? In a very imaginable future, with the A.C.E. accrediting these courses, and Udacity willing to support their creation,

The Internet of Things is coming, and someday, cities will be covered in dense fabrics of sensors. We can already imagine all the benefits, but how will we deal with security? iTunes: cs.co/tnp - Listen to past episodes, subscribe or write a review. TRANSCRIPT for "Securing the Internet of Things" written by Laurence Cruz: First, the good news: The Internet of Things is here, and with it, vast quantities of convenience, pleasure and benefits. And the bad news? The Internet of Things is here, and with it a variety of security concerns. On the upside, things like pervasive sensor networks promise a brave new world of helpful applications: smart lighting and heating systems in buildings, self-powered street lights that will talk to each other, raise lighting levels when needed and monitor traffic flows, even vests embedded with micro-sensors that will monitor heart rates and other vital signs. Adding even more value and relevance to networked connections is the Internet of Everything--the next phase of the Internet of Things--which will bring together people and process as well as things. But it’s the negative stuff that keeps renowned security technologist and author Bruce Schneier awake at night. Schneier's latest book, Liars and Outliers, focuses on the trust he says societies need to thrive. He says, there’s always a danger that sensor networks can fall into the wrong hands--a danger that’s magnified when the network directly manages the physical world through machine-to-machine communication. Schneier says, quote: "Certainly any time you have something autonomous or semi-autonomous, you should worry about who controls it. We have to assume that companies will adhere to any rules." End quote. But even if everyone plays by the rules--whatever those are--Schneier says securing these networks is inherently difficult. Quote: "What are the odds that any of these sensors will be secure? There has not been a piece of software written by human beings that is perfectly secure. We patch everything. Why will this be any different? And the more the software interfaces with our actual lives, the more physical danger there is." End quote. Not all data are created equal. James Brehm is a senior strategist with San Antonio, Texas-based Compass Intelligence, a decision analytics research and consulting firm. Brehm says security concerns over the Internet of Things depend not on the quantity of data traversing networks or the number of connected endpoints, but on the value of the data. Quote: "Absolutely, there are going to be unprecedented security challenges. But most of the threats aren’t going to be mission-critical." End quote. For example, hacking a few sensors buried along the U.S.-Mexican border designed to alert authorities to the presence of illegal immigrants is one thing; but hacking a sensor connected to a cooler carrying a heart or kidney to a transplant patient is quite another. Brehm says, quote: "It’s very important that organizations take a look at what matters and what doesn’t matter regarding what’s secure and what’s not secure. There are going to be mountains of pedestrian stuff that isn’t going to matter very much either way." End quote. That said, even mountains of innocuous-seeming data can trigger cause for concern if aggregated and analyzed in certain ways. Brehm says, quote: "Somewhere down the road that data is going to get contextual and I’m going to care about it. Is there potential for misuse or is it pretty harmless?" End quote. Of course, data analytics is nothing new. Today, it gives organizations unprecedented insight into people’s shopping habits, lifestyles, political persuasions and more. But imagine how this will be magnified a decade from now, when cities will be swathed in dense fabrics of sensors and "actuators" embedded in nearly everything we see, touch and feel. By one estimate, the M2M market will expand to 24 billion smart sensors and connected devices by 2020. And it wil

Context-aware computing in your pocket. How will smartphones reshape retail, and reality? And what's it mean for privacy? iTunes: cs.co/tnp - Listen to past episodes, subscribe or write a review. TRANSCRIPT for "Context-Aware Computing" written by Melissa Jun Rowley. Imagine living your life day to day with the most loyal, personal companion -- one that pays the utmost attention to your habits, anticipates your needs, makes the best recommendations and provides valuable information about surroundings at any given moment. This isn’t your spouse, your assistant or your BFF. This trusted right hand is your smartphone -- smart being the operative prefix. Thanks to context-aware computing, an onslaught of apps, and the rise of mobility, an emerging context market is poised to reshape retail for merchants and reality for consumers. According to Gartner, context-aware technologies are expected to make a 96 billion dollar impact on annual consumer spending across the globe by 2015. Gartner also predicts that in 2013, more than half of Fortune 500 companies will have context-aware computing initiatives. For marketers, having access to a consumer’s profile is no longer enough. It’s all about context -- a person’s specific situation, environment, and preferences are all taken into account. Context-aware advertising platforms, more specifically location-based services coupled with real-time data integration, can directly alert customers about special offerings when they are near or inside a store. Thanks to the advent of geotagging -- indoor positioning technology -- location is at the forefront of context-aware computing in B2C scenarios. So what are the benefits of digitally mining context for consumers? While location-based services provide valuable context for businesses and get customers some perks, both businesses and consumers can benefit when the primary context provided is information about what -- or who -- is nearby. By letting users tag people and things in their physical space, and monitoring radio waves -- such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC -- the proximity platform NewAer automates smartphones to perform specific tasks taking place among those waves. So in real life this means: you can tag your car after parking, knowing you might forget where you parked. Your smartphone will notice Bluetooth going away and see a signal of a Starbucks you parked next to. A pin will instantly drop on a map where you parked, without using GPS. NewAer CEO Dave Mathews says that for NewAer, location is elastic and not necessary. Quote: "When you search Google, location information is being used to help with the results. Can you imagine using a map and it not taking into consideration where you are? Our platform allows apps to have that sort of granularity of filtering, but using proximity versus location. We can get even more macro in the data, and allow users to keep their location private." So how much of our lives will context-aware computing affect? For users who want to stay on time and organized via context-aware technology, SRI International recently launched Tempo, a smart mobile calendar that pulls together contacts, e-mails, documents and all the data a person needs to be fully prepared for meetings and events. Mikael Berner is co-founder and CEO of the recently launched, context-aware app Easilydo, which taps user-generated data to get things done for people. Berner says, in time, context-aware computing will begin to infiltrate almost every facet of every digitally connected consumer. Quote, "Many of the context-aware tasks that consumers perform are based on information that is readily available online, such as finding restaurant suggestions or mail carrier services in a foreign city. Contextually-aware computing is most beneficial to consumers when the service proactively searches and presents tasks and information that users plan to perform, before they think to do so. Companies like Easilydo are taking

Inexpensive and easy to access, video conferencing is set to explode. Will it become the future of healthcare? iTunes: cs.co/tnp - Listen to past episodes, subscribe or write a review. TRANSCRIPT for "Video Conferencing Meets E-Health" written by Kerry Doyle: We’re moving into a "perfect storm" of healthcare-related issues. Just look at the aging population, reforms such as the Affordable Health Care Act and an increasing premium on healthcare workers. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, the demand for physicians in the US is growing, with a predicted shortage of over 130,000 physicians by 2025. Yet medical advances and technical innovations, such as mobilization, also represent the perfect intersection of opportunity for healthcare providers and patient/consumer health. In fact, mobile technology is a large part of the curriculum for trainees at the Weston, Massachusetts-based Regis College School of Nursing. It mandates that every incoming student adopt an iPhone. Students at Regis use their mobile devices as reference tools at the point of care and as a way to interface with electronic medical record systems. Face-to-face video conferencing is one more extension of that mobile innovation set to transform how healthcare providers interact. Today, cloud-based services and Web browsers offer video conferencing access to anyone with a mobile device. That’s because technology advancements such as cloud services, wireless connectivity, mobility and browser-based conferencing are making video inexpensive and accessible, moving it closer to the brink of widespread adoption. Gone are the underused video conferencing rooms found in many hospitals. Those dedicated room systems are expensive to maintain, requiring staff expertise and maintenance. They're also limited by built-in fixed capacity and an inability to communicate across platforms. For example, a PolyCom user may not be able to communicate with a ShoreTel user and vice-versa. In contrast, cloud services and browser-based video conferencing allow inexpensive face-to-face interoperability, regardless of the system being used. In a healthcare environment, texting can be crucial in certain situations due to its brevity and fast response times. However, video conferencing offers a richer, more nuanced collaboration possibility for a wide span of providers, from nurse practitioners and caregivers to neonatologists, cardiologists and other acute-care specialists. In terms of patient care, video provides access to telemedicine for remote locations that otherwise lack access. The electronic transmission of images could also be beneficial for consultation and examination purposes in fields of medicine such as teledermatology and opthalmology. Nurses and care providers, especially, are at the center of an information network related to patient health. Lab results, tests, patient requests and physician interactions all rely on effective contact with these primary caregivers. In the age of mobility, cloud services and web access enable clinics and smaller facilities--even doctor’s offices--to match the communications capabilities of large hospitals with sophisticated IT teams and ample budgets. And remember house calls? Physicians can now check in with patients at home who have a smartphone or a PC with internet access, providing an additional level of assurance for both doctor and patient. But while the long-term prospects of video conferencing in healthcare continue to develop, issues still need to be resolved. Currently, doctors are allowed to consult with patients only in the state in which they’re licensed. This impacts wider adoption, especially in denser regions. In terms of further deployment, service providers must work with healthcare advocates and professional associations to quantify the benefits of video conferencing and to account for the widely differing healthcare systems. Service fees and reimbursements also re

Telehealth services are on the brink of taking off, with the UK and France leading the way. But can governments balance the moral and social benefits with the cost of technology? iTunes: cs.co/tnp - Listen to past episodes, subscribe or write a review. TRANSCRIPT for "Telecare's Rise in Europe" written by Joanne Taaffe: Streets of half-timbered houses with steeply sloping red-tiled roofs suggest change comes slowly to Colmar, the city at the heart of France’s Alsace wine region. But when it comes to providing healthcare its authorities are breaking with tradition. Since January residents of Colmar’s care homes for the elderly have been trialing an ambulatory video-conferencing service that links doctors via a high definition camera to patients under their care. Nurses wheel the video-conferencing unit, which is installed on a trolley, between patients and help them with the consultation. Alsace hopes the video-conferencing service will cut the time doctors spend traveling between eight nursing homes, thereby enabling them to see patients more regularly, and improve access to remote specialist care. Christine Lecomte is director of Alsace E-Santé, Alsace’s telehealth project. She says, quote: “It allows doctors to see patients more often and for shorter periods, which allows for better overall patient care. We’ll do an economic study…but cost will not necessarily be the most important aspect. We will also be looking at quality of care. Life expectancy decreases with each hospital admission.” End quote. During 2013, Alsace E-Santé will extend trials to five additional organizations, including prisons and care homes for the handicapped. Alsace E-Santé is one of several trials in France, and recent research suggests telehealth is finally on the brink of growth. According to InMedica, a division of IHS Research, in 2012 only 308,000 patients worldwide were monitored remotely for conditions including congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, hypertension and mental health conditions. InMedica forecasts telehealth services will reach 1.8 million patients worldwide by 2017. Europe’s most ambitious program is in the UK. Unlike France, where private insurance pays for a percentage of an individual’s medical cost, the UK’s National Health Service acts as both the payer and provider of healthcare, giving it greater freedom to undertake trials that have unproven financial benefit. Theo Ahadome is senior analyst at InMedica, IHS. He says, quote: “Healthcare providers want to do it for the quality of care, but the financial side doesn’t always add up, so the insurance company doesn’t want to get involved. The UK can take a longer-term view.” In January 2012 the UK government announced the “3 million lives” project which aims to extend the uptake of telecare and telehealth services. Three million represents the number of people with long-term medical conditions and/or social care needs whom the government estimates can benefit from such services. The 3 million lives program grew out of the UK’s Whole System Demonstrator, a randomized set of telecare and telehealth trials involving 6,191 patients across 238 medical practices which began in May 2008. The trials showed a 20% reduction in emergency admissions, a 15% reduction in A&E visits, a 14% reduction in elective admissions, a 14% reduction in bed days and an 8% reduction in tariff costs, according to the UK government. Perhaps most strikingly of all, it claims the trials demonstrated a 45% reduction in mortality rates over the period. Ahadome says large scale trials are essential if the medical and financial benefits are to be proven. Paul Rice, Telehealth Lead at the Yorkshire and Humber HIEC, agrees. Quote, “Unless there is a robust evidence base for remote telemonitoring one would struggle with detractors.” Authorities in the Yorkshire and Humber region have run multiple telehealth trials and projects, which have involved between 1

From haircuts to food trucks, more and more businesses are going mobile. But what's so attractive about them? iTunes: cs.co/tnp - Listen to past episodes, subscribe or write a review. TRANSCRIPT for "Mobile Business for Busy Lifestyles" written by Mary Ann Azevedo: TiVo employee Greg Oncina is a busy man. The events coordinator and just about everyone else in Silicon Valley struggles trying to juggle a hectic work schedule with, well, having a life. So when TiVo added haircuts to its list of employee perks, Oncina was thrilled. Now he gets haircuts at his office in Santa Clara -- in the middle of his work day -- in an RV operated by San Jose-based Onsite Haircuts. Founded in 2003, the company services many of the Valley’s major tech firms including Google, LinkedIn, VMware and Yahoo. The company has a fleet of five large RVs that have been retrofitted to be mobile hair salons. And they're certified by the state board of cosmetology. Staff use iPads for a register. And they accept credit card payments with Square -- a mobile payment technology developed by a San Francisco startup. They also take cash. Onsite Haircuts is an example of a growing trend of small businesses taking their products on the road, instead of having customers come to them. These days, many business owners can accept payments and advertise their offerings with just a smartphone and social networking accounts. They can also operate with lower overhead by avoiding expenses such as high rent, costly utilities and print advertising. And it seems that more and more people are getting used to the idea. Forrester Research predicts that over the next five years, U.S. consumers will spend 90 billion dollars using mobile payments by the end of 2017. That's compared with 12.8 billion dollars in 2012. Leanna Trambino is Onsite Haircut’s vice president of sales and marketing. She said the mobile company was founded mainly to offer Silicon Valley workers more convenience. Also, as companies compete fiercely for talent, they've been increasingly more creative with their perks. Onsite Haircuts wouldn't give exact revenue figures, but Trambino did say that from 2011 to 2012, revenue surged by 33 percent. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Valley, the number of food trucks is growing as retail rents continue to climb and companies seek lively ways to spice up workers’ days. New Orleans native Dione Uht has always loved to cook and recently decided to take her passion to the streets –- in the form of a food truck dubbed "Cajun Persuasion." The bright and colorful truck made its debut in San Jose in early 2013. And it features what Uht describes as "authentic" Cajun meals such as gumbo and etouffee. Having a mobile restaurant helps you take control of the business in a unique way, she says. Quote: "I started catering here and there and wanted to open a restaurant but that just wasn’t economically feasible. So I thought 'what better way than to have a food truck and go to the people?'" End quote. Uht believes the popularity of social media is helping fuel the food truck industry as many owners use social media to advertise where they’ll be next. Jeremy Goldman is founder of Firebrand Group and author of the book "Going Social." He says the types of people who gravitate toward food trucks, or other mobile businesses, are often inherently social, and so they're are great at having conversations with customers. Quote: "That's something Twitter is built for. The fact that these mobile businesses keep moving around gives them something they need to communicate on an ongoing basis, which gives an 'excuse' to communicate." End quote. The increasing number of companies trying to offer creative perks to employees is also helping fuel demand. But not all mobile business revolve around employee perks. Charlotte Swancy’s family runs Riverview Farms in Atlanta, Georgia, where they raise organic vegetables, pork and beef. In 2011, it occurred to Swancy that inst

New smartphone apps make it easy for parents to track their kids' whereabouts. But should safety come before privacy? iTunes: cs.co/tnp - Listen to past episodes, subscribe or write a review. TRANSCRIPT for "Tracking Kids with Smartphone Apps" written by Jason Deign: If you're a parent, it's hard not to stress about what might be happening to your kids when they're out of sight. Missing children cases are often seen in the media. So every time a youngster steps out into the world, unaccompanied, it can drive a mom or dad crazy. Thankfully, the digital age has a handy solution to this dilemma: turn their mobile phone into a personal tracking device. It's relatively cheap and easy to do this using opt-in services. And it gives kids a degree of autonomy while allowing concerned parents to track their whereabouts. Companies such as Life360, Securafone and SMS Tracker offer free apps that can be downloaded onto a smartphone. With kids now toting smartphones at increasingly young ages, it's a seemingly perfect way for parents to check where they are, at all times. It's no wonder that the market for so-called "family locator services" is booming. Recent research by Berg Insight, a Swedish telecommunications analysis firm, indicates the market will see a compound annual growth rate of 34 percent in the next four years, taking the number of North American and European users from 16 million in 2011 to 70 million in 2016. Berg Insight also notes that this trend is in parallel to other personal locator services. Some organizations have employees that may be at risk. Take social workers, for example. Mobile devices with tracking services -- and some with push-button alarms -- are increasingly being handed out to protect employees. People who are elderly or weak can also benefit from having a personal locator service so they can be tracked by relatives or care providers. In these situations, the person being tracked rarely questions the value of the service. But the same can't always be said of family locator services, especially when children are concerned -- children who are old enough to expect a certain amount of privacy and independence. André Malm is a senior analyst at Berg Insight. He says tech-savvy teenagers will not have much of a problem quitting or uninstalling the app. Quote: "All parties should understand what is possible, and the drawbacks and benefits." End quote. It's also important for parents to know the limitations of personal locator services, which depends on the type of technology used. Cell ID services, which are available worldwide, can only pin handsets down to a radius of around 200 meters in urban areas and perhaps not even a kilometer in remote locations. In the United States, about 50 percent of mobile users are on Code Division Multiple Access networks. And they can benefit from GPS tracking. GPS is more accurate than cell ID, but sometimes it does't work well if you're inside a building. So it's not of much use if your kid is inside a shopping mall, for example. With smartphones, the accuracy of these services has been slowly improving. But since apps are handset rather than network based, they may be more susceptible to failure. After the limitations are taken into account, it's up to each family to decide whether to trust their children on the streets with a personal locator. And here it turns out, there is a big difference between the United States and other western countries. Based on his conversations with app developers and device manufacturers, Malm says, quote: "In the United States, privacy does not seem to be so much of an issue and the fact that parents can track children and control their habits seems to be OK. You can have deep control of texts and voice calls and it is considered alright to do that without the consent of the child." In Europe, on the other hand, Malm says, quote: "That level of control is not even available, and you definitely need the cons

Online education is tearing down the classroom walls, making way for new ideas and business opportunities. What will the future of education look like? iTunes: cs.co/tnp - Listen to past episodes, subscribe or write a review. TRANSCRIPT for "Online Education and the Virtual Classroom" written by Eric S. Rabkin: Sometimes the best inventions happen by accident. Sometimes those are the best inventions. One of the world’s great storehouses of biological knowledge is the Animal Diversity Web. In 1995, University of Michigan biology professor Philip Myers needed a textbook for his course, but the book he wanted did not exist. So he decided to use the new medium of the World Wide Web to engage his students in producing the textbook. Myers believed researching, writing, checking and posting information about animal species and their habitats could not only teach students about animal diversity but also help them better understand the science involved. He was right. What he didn't see coming, though, was that ADW would spawn a set of overlapping worldwide communities. Today, over half a million users consult ADW each month -- borrowing information from the crowd-sourced website, as well as adding to it. Myers’ success went well beyond the walls of his university. ADW serves as a key tool in elementary and secondary schools all over the world. And it motivates research in more than 50 universities and colleges. The site continues to grow and has created whole new studies in how one learns and teaches. The most famous intramural project to burst beyond its original walls is Facebook. The story, told in the widely admired 2010 film called "The Social Network," began as an attempt to facilitate dating at Harvard. Today, there are more than one billion active Facebook members -- that's a seventh of the human population of our planet. "The Social Network" was based on Ben Mezrich's 2009 book called "The Accidental Billionaires." It points to the frequent connection on the web between accidental community formation and economic opportunity. Forrester Research did a study last year which noted the rising importance of "accidental entrepreneurs." These may be tech-savvy white collar professionals, or stay-at-home spouses. But they understand the new economy and are driven by profits, not passion. "Accidental entrepreneurs" see opportunities to offer better products and services, and then take advantage of those opportunities, often using consumer technology. According to Forrester, the enterprises of these accidental entrepreneurs, quote: "are growing significantly faster and at the expense of less technically-confident, less agile, less 'connected' small business owners." End quote. Although correspondence courses have existed since the 1840s, when Englishman Isaac Pitman began teaching his new shorthand method by mail , the World Wide Web has enabled an explosion of educational options. To date, most have mimicked so-called "residential courses." The Art Department is a born-digital art school in which six to 20 students per course -- who may live in a dozen different time zones -- meet in real time via educational software. They discuss fellow students' artwork, and receive individual instruction from live staff. Recently, though, virtual education has taken a quantum leap in magnitude and methods. Udacity, Coursera and edX all host MOOCs -- or Massive Open Online Courses -- that, so far, are free for the taking and also free of admissions criteria. They are just beginning to experiment with ways to validate credentialing and to develop models for economic support, at least partially supplied by students, their employers or school districts. Individual MOOCs can have thousands of students per course. This sort of education must depend on an automated process, crowd-sourcing or both. To the extent that crowd-sourcing is involved, MOOCs facilitate the development of accidental communities. Eric S. Rabkin,

As more people get connected, many young children now have the chance to tinker with code. Can they resist the dark side of hacking? iTunes: cs.co/tnp - Listen to past episodes, subscribe, rate the show or write a review. TRANSCRIPT for "Young Hackers and Cyber Security" written by Jason Deign: Back in the early 2000s Luis Corrons received a strange series of emails. The sender's name was Jordi, so Corrons guessed he came from Catalunya, in north-east Spain. Jordi seemed keen to help in the fight against malware, sending Corrons examples of viruses he said he had found on the ‘net. Corrons is now technical director of PandaLabs, an antivirus laboratory owned by Spanish IT security firm Panda Security. He says, quote: "What was odd was that these viruses were really shabby. When we looked at them closely we found some of them even had Jordi’s signature on them. It was clear he was just a kid who was getting a kick out of creating these things and sending them to us to be 'discovered'. Obviously, we didn’t report him." End Quote. Jordi is not the only young person who has had a fascination with malware. Since the earliest days of the Internet, that same creative spirit that has led some young people to build online business empires has incited others to investigate the darker side of computer code. And not all of them have had the same low profile as Jordi. In 2000, for example, there was a high-school student from Quebec, Canada, named Michael Calce, alias MafiaBoy. MafiaBoy launched a denial of service attack that brought down the websites of Yahoo!, Ebay, CNN, Amazon and Dell in a matter of days. And in 2003, 18-year-old Jeffrey Lee Parson was arrested after he created a modified version of the Blaster worm that was wreaking havoc on Windows XP and Windows 2000 operating systems. Recently, though, experts note that young coders have largely been overtaken in the malware space by a more sinister force: organized crime. Corrons says, quote: "Previously people did this because they were looking for new challenges. Now we are talking about criminals." End quote. Ram Herkanaidu is Education Manager at Kaspersky Lab. He says his company currently tracks around 125,000 unique malware samples a day, pointing to the existence of a clear profit motive. Quote: "The bread and butter of the malware that we see out there is done by cyber-criminals and not younger people looking for kicks." End quote. But that doesn't mean young hackers have disappeared. They are alive and well. And one could be trying to bring down the 'net right now, from a bedroom near you. Herkanaidu says, quote: "Kids nowadays from the age of three or four are growing up with new technology." End quote. Children are naturally inquisitive, he says. And they don't have the same techno-fear of their elders. With plenty of ready-made hacking tools now available for free online, children can be well down the path to cyber-crime by the age of 10. Last year, the global hacker conference DefCon even had its first special event for children, DefCon Kids, which attracted young attendees as well as plenty of media attention. The aim of the event, repeated this year, was to help young people understand the value of "white-hat" hacking. But keeping track of kids who may not know the difference isn't necessarily easy. From a relatively early age, kids are now toting not just computers, but also smart phones and tablets. It can be difficult to tell whether your children are simply staring intently at the screen as they update their Facebook status, or, are in fact trying to knock out NASA. Herkanaidu says there isn't much research on the behavior of young hackers. And potential tell-tale signs of a youthful malware writer, like spending large amounts of time closeted in a bedroom, are too similar to the tell-tale signs of any kid approaching or going through adolescence. As a result, the best advice for parents is simply to try to steer their child

In the Finnish city of Oulu, people are hard at work trying to make 3D internet happen — with virtual worlds, life-like avatars and a better social experience. But when will it be here? And will it replace our 2D internet? iTunes: cs.co/tnp - Subscribe, listen to past episodes, rate the show or write a review. Photo credit: flickr.com/phrawr

In just one year, mobile internet usage in Brazil jumped by more than 300 percent. But Internet speed and the cost of data plans are still a concern. Is the world's fifth-largest country prepared for the mobile revolution? iTunes: cs.co/tnp - Subscribe, listen to past episodes, rate the show or write a review. Photo credit: flickr.com/vernieman