During the sales call on the XX Company, Pat, the sales representative for Bosco Hot Air Balloons, was asked to demonstrate her new product. Pat requires an assistant for the demonstration,and she needs to check with her colleagues before committing to a date. She turns on the her Hand-held PC (HPC) which connects, via infrared link (see IrDA Futures later in this issue), to the XX Company LAN. Using the HPC, Pat accesses the corporate scheduler for both companies, requesting a free-time-search for herself, members of the demo team and Company XX executives. She is informed that one of the demo support team and all of the Company XX executives are available next Wednesday. She confirms that she is also available that day. She books the meeting on everyone's calendar. As a result, Pat can respond immediately to the request for demonstration, rather than "I'll get back to you on that."

Salutation Behind the Scenes

1. Salutation Protocol is independent of the transmission layers. Therefore it can be used within and across different transmission protocols. In the scenario, Salutation spans an infrared -> Company XX LAN -> Internet -> Bosco LAN network.

2. At the start of the scenario, Pat's HPC is foreign to the Company XX's LAN: both the brand of the HPC and Pat's authority to access the LAN. Salutation protocol is used to determine the capabilities of Pat's HPC, allowing tailoring of applications and services to the device. Salutation protocol also determines the end user profile for information access. Non-employees like Pat are granted limited access to scheduling data.

3. Salutation can do more than determine device characteristics. Pat's free time search request is made through Company XX's scheduler. Through Salutation dialogues between Pat's HPC and the XX Company scheduler, the URL of Pat's scheduler is determined. Using the Salutation capability exchange protocol, the Company XX's scheduler determines the capabilities of the Bosco company scheduler, setting up a negotiated session for Pat's free time search.

4. Since the Company XX scheduler and the Bosco company scheduler are different, no common query/exchange protocol is available. The Salutation message management and job control -- known as the Salutation Personality -- are used to communicate between the two schedulers.

Salutation Megatrends

The second in a series by Robert A. Pascoe, former president of the Salutation Consortium. Pascoe now operates Senior Technical Staff, a consulting firm focusing on interconnection technologies and interworking.

Remember MEGATRENDS, a 1982 best selling book by John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene which posted prophecies for the decade to come? The authors described ten major shifts in social, economic, political and technological trends, with the premise that these shifts would have wide ranging effects on our lives. We have been reviewing these trends to see if the authors visions have come to pass and what it has meant to our life and lifestyle today. In this issue of Greetings we will take a look at the second and third trends:

2. Forced Technology to HighTech/High Touch

3. National Economy to World Economy

2. Forced Technology to HighTech/High Touch

The Trend: The authors of MEGATRENDS asserted that, as technology spreads throughout the population, it must be provided in a non-threatening way. This would be accomplished by disguising technology through improving easy-of-use, simplifying user interfaces, and providing single function devices. Doing so would give users the benefits of technology without requiring extensive knowledge or training. The trend would move away from requiring training on sophisticated technologies to having information appliances that are as easy to install as a toaster and as easy to use as a phone.

Today: Since MEGATRENDS was written, the Personal Computer has gone from the dream of a few IBM engineers to a commodity product. This innovation has moved computing from the 'glass-house' to your house. And in that short time, controlling the computer has changed from the cryptic command languages understood only by computer scientists to the point-and-shoot, iconic interface even Dilbert can use. And voice activation is on the horizon for many information appliances. Advances in phone technology allow us to re-dial, speed dial, return last call, block calls, talk with several people at once and, my personal favorite when my kids were in their teens, call waiting, all at the touch of a couple of buttons. Motorola added High Touch to its line of pagers by offering colorful cases; auto dealers added High Touch by offering road side assistance.

Technology will continue to respond to the need to provide the simplest access to information. Just in time for last Christmas' buying season: TV Web browsers, portable telephones with built-in pagers, and a resurgence of personal digital assistance with a new standard operating system -- Windows CE -- for palm-top or hand-held PCs (see Excerpts from "A Conversation with Microsoft's Robert O'Hara" later in this issue).

However, most of the latest innovations continue to be forced technology, requiring the user to purchase, then learn, then carry around, a specific appliance. The real advance in HighTech/High Touch will come when we are able to walk up to any fax, copier, electronic kiosk, or other device, and access the information we desire.

Salutation technologies are at the heart of this advance. With Salutation, an information server can determine the characteristics of the device being used to access the information. The server can automatically adjust its interaction with the device to assure the highest level of information fidelity.

There is a resurgent interest in single-purpose, easy-to-use appliances. Such devices become more viable as interconnectivity and information sharing mature. The information infrastructure is available today, as is the technology for building communication between dissimilar devices. This market is ripe for commercial exploitation. Can consumer products be far off? And Salutation will be a key technology in interconnecting these appliances.

3. National Economy to World Economy

The Trend: Naisbitt and Aburdene noted that national economies would no longer be self sufficient. Third world countries would be competing aggressively for market share through cheap labor and abundant natural resources. As business became more dependent on these new sources of labor and materials, national economies would become more interdependent.

Today: It is evident that this prediction has come to pass. Japanese cars are now assembled in the US. American cars have parts made in Japan and Mexico and are assembled in Canada. National boundaries were ignored to form the European Economic Community, and we no longer talk about the economic power of Japan or China, but rather the Pacific Rim. A global economy (or rather the lack of access to it) caused a change in political power in South Africa and the Soviet Union. Financial markets are also intertwined. A rise or fall on the New York Stock exchange is usually duplicated on the Tokyo and London stock exchanges within the next business day.

The world economy has also changed the focus of our social conscience. We are now concerned with the orphans of Rumania, the child sweat shops in Honduras, and the rain forest of the Amazon.

In the early 1960's I worked for Bell Labs in New York City. I remember a 'futures' film shown during the lunch hour, extolling what the future would bring to the plain old phone. One scenario in the film had a consumer place his hand written shopping list under the phone after calling his local grocer. Through the futurist's eyes, a copy of the list was retrieved from the grocer's phone. The grocer discovered that the list contained a request for French Champagne. Not having any in stock, the grocer placed a telephone order to his French counterpart and, through the vision of the film maker, the Champagne was loaded on a rocket and sent flying back to the US. This was all great fun in the early 60's. However, on-line grocery shopping was introduced by the Prodigy on-line service, and international, next-day delivery services give us access to fresh Norwegian salmon, fresh Russian caviar, and fresh Peking duck.

As the world grows smaller, global communications will become an increasing factor in business success. Salutation Technology will play a two fold roll in global communications. First, Salutation will enable discovery of the capabilities of 'foreign' devices, applications, and services. Second, Salutation will enable data pipes to be created even though a common communication techniques is not available.

Product Focus

IBM NuOffice

IBM is among several companies announcing products in May that support and build momentum for the Salutation Consortium's open standard for locating and controlling Internet devices to facilitate information exchange. The introduction of IBM NuOffice Version 1.0 has expanded the ability to share information locally and remotely for Lotus Domino and Notes users, whether they are in the office or on the road.

IBM NuOffice gives users of Lotus Notes clients access to a wide range of information appliances such as online copiers and scanners, whether they are attached directly to a local Lotus Domino Server, or connected remotely through mobile computing access technologies. It also offers the Domino information workers new information capture, storage, and retrieval techniques. IBM NuOffice is one of the planned software offerings that will be based on the IBM Salutation Manager, announced earlier this year. Using the IBM Salutation Manager enables the majority of the world's PCs to communicate more readily with peripherals, office machines, applications and services across the Internet.

IBM NuOffice enables Lotus Domino and Notes users to:

* Directly input information into a Domino database or server from online copiers, fax machines, and scanners and then view, paste into another document, or email the image.

* Send documents from the Notes client database to a Salutation enabled printing device and enjoy full printing capabilities including sorting, stapling, high speed and volume printing and feedback such as print completion or error reports.

* Easily download required printing device drivers from a Notes database and receive notification via email when any printing drivers are updated.

The first release of IBM NuOffice is available today in Japan with U.S. availability planned for later this year.

Future releases of IBM NuOffice will focus on providing worldwide availability, adding support for Windows NT as a server platform and providing support for Salutation enabled facsimile devices.

In addition to IBM, five other Salutation Consortium member companies today either announced Salutation enabled products or announced their intention to provide Salutation enabled appliances.

- Canon Inc. and Canon Sales Co., Inc. announced today the Salutation enabled model of Digital Copier GP30F.

- Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. announced today the intention to support Salutation on the "Network Able series".

- Mita Industrial Co., Ltd. announced today "Mita Network Connection Kit for Notes".

- Murata Machinery, Ltd. announced today "FAX Server F-120/150".

- Ricoh Company, Ltd. announced today a digital copier "imagio MF-P series" and related products compatible with Salutation.

All of these products are initially available in Japan only.

Perspectives

IrDA Futures

The Infrared Data Association (IrDA) has proposed a set of interoperability standards that would enable pagers, personal computers (PCs) and cellular phones to exchange data at high speeds over short distances. According to IrDA Executive Director John LaRoche, this is one of the few times that cellular phone, pager, PC and office machine industries have agreed on a worldwide standard. He said that between 20 and 30 million devices now have infrared data ports on them, but very few are used. LaRoche said this has become a kind of low-cost "checklist item," which manufactures throw in because they are afraid not to. The main reason for light usage has been the lack of interoperability standards.

Now anything from a pager to a PC to a digital camera will be able to beam across a short distance at speeds ranging up to 4 megabits per second. Eventually, the IrDA standard could become part of hundreds of millions of everyday communications and entertainment appliances. LaRoche predicted a day when people will attend a meeting and, rather than exchanging business cards, will beam their names and addresses to each other' hand-held devices. Standards such as vCard will allow the electronics business care data to be exchanged by contact manager and phone book software.

Commentary:

Salutation Architecture already supports IrDA and vCard. With the possibility for diverse devices to interconnect via IrDA, Salutation will provide the basic capabilities discovery mechanism to determine the highest level of interchange fidelity.

Excerpts from "A Conversation with Microsoft's Robert O'Hara"

Moblis - the mobile computing lifestyle magazine

by John Jerney, mobilis Editor,

[email protected]

Robert O'Hara, Development Manager of the Consumer Appliances Group at Microsoft. O'Hara graduated with a degree in architecture, but found his home in the world of computers, first at IBM's prestigious T. J. Watson Research Center, later at Lotus Development Corp., and finally in 1993, as part of the WinPad project at Microsoft (before it became the Windows CE project).

Jerney:

"How will the Internet and Web affect handhelds, including Windows CE?"

O'Hara:

"We have a Web browser in Windows CE, but I don't think you're going to be doing a lot of recreational browsing on a tiny little device. I mean, if anything, you want to do it on your big screen TV or something. But what the Internet and Web really do well is data -- access to information - such as price lists, stocks, company information, airline schedules, and all that kind of stuff, especially timely information.

"Imagine my flight having just been canceled. Wouldn't it be neat to be able to pull out this little handheld device and, with a couple of taps, get all the other flights that are going where you want to go. A couple of screens and you can book yourself on that flight. And you don't have to run down to the other gate and get in line again. You can just do it standing there.

"Another one of the things I think we'll see within five years is a local RF [radio frequency] system that activates whenever you walk into a supermarket or hardware store. Remember, the only kind of reminders we can set using our handhelds today are time-based.

"I can be reminded next Tuesday to do something. Well, what I really want is a reminder the next time I'm in the hardware store: i.e. don't forget to buy the twelve penny nails. What I want is a place-based reminder.

"With wireless, we can have that. So when you walk into the store, the machine's communicating and it knows you're there. You're a regular customer so it beeps and says welcome. And since you're a regular customer, here are three coupons. Here are today's specials and here's a map of the store based on your shopping list. I think those kinds of things can happen."

Commentary:

Salutation Architecture supports Mr. O'Hara's vision. With Salutation, you can build networks where networks don't exist. The capability exchange, message management, and job control functions of Salutation allow one device, application or service to find out the capabilities of another entity and build data pipes between them.

Upcoming Events

Networks 97 - June 24-26, 1997 at the NEC Center, Birmingham, UK

Salutation will share the IBM booth, also meetings with the press.

Salutation Consortium Annual Meeting - July 8, 1997 at Cisco Systems, San Jose, CA

Dataquest - Document Management Conference - August 5-6, 1997 Fairmont Hotel, Chicago, IL.

R.F. Pecora will speak on August 6, 15:00-15:30 "Making It Easy to Connect to the Network",

CAP Ventures'- Converging Digital Peripherals Conference, September 11-12, 1997, Copley Plaza

Boston, MA.

R.F. Pecora will speak.