The Times: Tech column - In-Q-Tel/War-inspired games/Voice portals
By David Rowan
IT'S time for a radical rethink of your counter-terrorism strategy, chaps. The technology that could help you is evolving at what used to be called "Internet speed", yet you're hearing about developments too late, and missing out on the talent that's driving innovation. Have you ever considered entering the venture-capital business?
Wait, it's a serious proposal. Set up a private company wholly owned by MI5 and MI6, and use it to invest in technology start-ups that could help to deliver what the Americans so quaintly call homeland security. Before you know it, hundreds of small British firms will be clamouring to meet your ever-changing needs - at a pace that will let you achieve results.
The CIA has had its problems lately, but you can learn from Langley's private-sector experience. Two years ago the agency launched a venture-capital arm to give it access to the commercial market's IT innovations. In-Q-Tel, as it's called, openly advertises its needs - from face-recognition software to powerful search engines - and invites firms to pitch for investment. Its website (in-q-tel.com) even has a "Submit your business plan" form: it has received more than 750 applications, from which it has picked 23 and invested around $30 million (£21 million). The money has gone into firms such as Intelliseek, which finds patterns in the vast amounts of data the agency monitors, and Safeweb, which allows "secret" surfing of websites.
Suddenly that investment looks rather smart. The war against terrorism has created huge demand for technologies that small private firms have pioneered: sensors that detect biological hazards, software that predicts cyber-attacks, programs that find patterns in Arabic as well as English data. By getting in there early, In-Q-Tel sets the agenda and is first to exploit the solutions.
In recent weeks some of those who know In-Q-Tel well have been wondering why Britain does not replicate the model to tap the energy of our own high-tech prodigies.
"It would be a very smart move for the UK," says Larry Meador, who chaired a six-month study (at www.bens.org), which concluded that the venture makes good business sense. "A British In-Q-Tel could integrate ideas from multiple small companies and put them together in a portfolio that addresses today's challenges," he says.There are plenty of "hot" research areas being pursued by small firms which the Government ought to know about first.
It might require a cultural change within Whitehall, but then much has changed in the past six weeks. "It's a frightening question," says Larry Meador, "but if we were really good at combing all these sorts of data, we could prevent a September 11 in the future."
++++
INEVITABLY, online games developers are capitalising on the current mood - with poor taste the clear winner. At huntandpunish.com, you can play the President of the US shooting at bin Laden as he falls from the sky; at wtue.com you can "put bin Laden out like a cheap cigar"; elsewhere, you pursue him through a mosque until his head explodes. Other sites let you download bin Laden or George Bush "skins" to use on your own games system; a Tony Blair "good guy" is due this week.
Mercifully, the chat boards have started to question these games as "very childish" and rather "offensive to our national pride in this time of crisis". Would the Alliance mind taking out "Taliban Twister", "Whack a Terrorist" and all the others?
++++
"VOICE PORTALS" were briefly fashionable last year, when you would still hear such words as "monetise". So the 365 Corporation is going against a declining trend by pushing its phone and web-based portal, Eckoh, in a current advertising campaign.
Callers to a national-rate number speak to choose a range of news and entertainment services, or pre-register (online) to send and receive e-mails by voice. The voices you can choose as your guide, such as "Chantal, our gorgeous au pair", are valiant if over-perky attempts to humanise Philips Speech Processing's software; and if you're patient enough, you can say "Yes" or "Go back" enough times to hear the sports headlines or traffic updates.
But once the novelty wears off, only the most patient will favour voice recognition as a way to "organise their life more efficiently". It's another solution in search of a need.
www.eckoh.com; tel: 08701 101010
(The Times, October 15 2001)
IT'S time for a radical rethink of your counter-terrorism strategy, chaps. The technology that could help you is evolving at what used to be called "Internet speed", yet you're hearing about developments too late, and missing out on the talent that's driving innovation. Have you ever considered entering the venture-capital business?
Wait, it's a serious proposal. Set up a private company wholly owned by MI5 and MI6, and use it to invest in technology start-ups that could help to deliver what the Americans so quaintly call homeland security. Before you know it, hundreds of small British firms will be clamouring to meet your ever-changing needs - at a pace that will let you achieve results.
The CIA has had its problems lately, but you can learn from Langley's private-sector experience. Two years ago the agency launched a venture-capital arm to give it access to the commercial market's IT innovations. In-Q-Tel, as it's called, openly advertises its needs - from face-recognition software to powerful search engines - and invites firms to pitch for investment. Its website (in-q-tel.com) even has a "Submit your business plan" form: it has received more than 750 applications, from which it has picked 23 and invested around $30 million (£21 million). The money has gone into firms such as Intelliseek, which finds patterns in the vast amounts of data the agency monitors, and Safeweb, which allows "secret" surfing of websites.
Suddenly that investment looks rather smart. The war against terrorism has created huge demand for technologies that small private firms have pioneered: sensors that detect biological hazards, software that predicts cyber-attacks, programs that find patterns in Arabic as well as English data. By getting in there early, In-Q-Tel sets the agenda and is first to exploit the solutions.
In recent weeks some of those who know In-Q-Tel well have been wondering why Britain does not replicate the model to tap the energy of our own high-tech prodigies.
"It would be a very smart move for the UK," says Larry Meador, who chaired a six-month study (at www.bens.org), which concluded that the venture makes good business sense. "A British In-Q-Tel could integrate ideas from multiple small companies and put them together in a portfolio that addresses today's challenges," he says.There are plenty of "hot" research areas being pursued by small firms which the Government ought to know about first.
It might require a cultural change within Whitehall, but then much has changed in the past six weeks. "It's a frightening question," says Larry Meador, "but if we were really good at combing all these sorts of data, we could prevent a September 11 in the future."
++++
INEVITABLY, online games developers are capitalising on the current mood - with poor taste the clear winner. At huntandpunish.com, you can play the President of the US shooting at bin Laden as he falls from the sky; at wtue.com you can "put bin Laden out like a cheap cigar"; elsewhere, you pursue him through a mosque until his head explodes. Other sites let you download bin Laden or George Bush "skins" to use on your own games system; a Tony Blair "good guy" is due this week.
Mercifully, the chat boards have started to question these games as "very childish" and rather "offensive to our national pride in this time of crisis". Would the Alliance mind taking out "Taliban Twister", "Whack a Terrorist" and all the others?
++++
"VOICE PORTALS" were briefly fashionable last year, when you would still hear such words as "monetise". So the 365 Corporation is going against a declining trend by pushing its phone and web-based portal, Eckoh, in a current advertising campaign.
Callers to a national-rate number speak to choose a range of news and entertainment services, or pre-register (online) to send and receive e-mails by voice. The voices you can choose as your guide, such as "Chantal, our gorgeous au pair", are valiant if over-perky attempts to humanise Philips Speech Processing's software; and if you're patient enough, you can say "Yes" or "Go back" enough times to hear the sports headlines or traffic updates.
But once the novelty wears off, only the most patient will favour voice recognition as a way to "organise their life more efficiently". It's another solution in search of a need.
www.eckoh.com; tel: 08701 101010
(The Times, October 15 2001)
posted by David Rowan at Monday, October 22, 2001
<< Home