**** MY EMAIL MESSAGE WITH SUMMARY OF RESPONSES FROM ISWORLD COMMUNITY *************** From: aumar@amjadumar.com To: "ISWORLD Information Systems World Network" Subject: [isworld] Course on mobile computing and wireless communications -- summary of responses About 2 weeks ago, I placed a message about a course on mobile computing and wireless communications. Here is a quick summary of the responses (a few sample responses are included): -- Total number of responses received so far: 20 -- Responses with course outlines and suggestions: 4 -- Responses with an interest in looking at my course materials for developing/enhancing such courses: 10 -- Emails lost (my website and email was down for 2 days right after I sent my email -- my luck!): 5 to 10 (estimated by webhoster) I also got a very nice email from Leo Legorreta [legorret@csus.edu]about an email exchange that Leo had initiated. The responses from that group (2 respondents) is also included in this summary. Due to the volume, I am only including a few responses. Since some of these refer to my email posting (and take issue with it), I am repeating my email message first. The text that follows has the following format: -- my email message -- list of email addresses of all respondents (I hope I got then all, my apologies if I missed some). -- Comments, suggestions, opinions Some emails are still dribbling in. If they become significant I will post an addendum. Amjad Umar ____________________ MY EMAIL MESSAGE _____________________ From: aumar@amjadumar.com To: "ISWORLD Information Systems World Network" Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 15:47:40 -0700 Subject: [isworld] A Course on Mobile Computing and Wireless Communications Mobile computing and wireless communications is an area of tremendous growth with business as well as technical implications. Unfortunately, most courses in this area are being taught in the EE departments with emphasis on lower level physical communications (e.g., antennas and propagation, fading, error detection, error correction, signal encoding, and multiple access mechanisms such as spread spectrum, CDMA, TDMA). I have developed and taught a course on mobile computing and wireless communications in industrial settings for managers and practitioners that covers the business as well as technical issues spanning wireless applications, platforms, networks, architectures, security, and management/support. I have also taught this course at universities as a very popular course that draws large number of students from IS/IT, CS, and EE departments. The topics include recent and relevant coverage of: * Strategic management and business issues related to the regulatory and standards bodies, wireless carriers and service providers, and planning, development, deployment, and monitoring of wireless solutions. * Mobile computing applications and their role in supporting the M-Business, M- Government, and Mobile Life initiatives. Applications discussed include mobile messaging systems (e.g., SMS, MMS), mobile commerce, location-sensitive applications, mobile portals, mobile customer relationship management, mobile supply chain management systems, wireless sensor applications, and mobile agent applications. * Mobile computing platforms and how they enable the mobile computing applications. This includes a review of wireless Internet, Mobile IP, wireless middleware, wireless gateways, mobile application servers, WAP, i- mode, J2ME, BREW, Mobile Internet Toolkit, and Mobile Web Services. * Wireless networks that support and enable the mobile computing applications. This includes an examination of wireless communication principles, wireless LANs with emphasis on 802.11 and Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, wireless sensor networks, UWB (Ultra Wideband) and Zigbees, cellular networks ranging from 1G to 5G, mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs), wireless local loops, FSO (Free Space Optics), satellites communications, and deep space networks. * The architectural and security issues and their role in building, deploying and managing wireless systems in modern settings. This includes discussion of integrated architectures that provide seamless access on top of hybrid wireless/wired systems, and wireless security solutions on top of weakly secure wireless components. I had a great deal of difficulty in finding good text materials for this course. The popular books in the marketplace either cover deeply technical views (e.g., Stallings and Rappaport) or highly business views (e.g., Kalakotta and Evans), but not both. In addition, many books take a very network centric view with deep details of physical wireless communications but almost no discussion of applications, platforms, architectures, security, and management issues that are increasingly important in developing and managing wireless solutions. Although I have used Stallings book as an overall text, I developed my own notes and assembled my notes into a text book that covers the aforementioned topics. Please look at my web site (www.amjadumar.com) and follow the links to "mobile computing and wireless book" for the course outline plus the textbook contents. I am sure courses of this nature are being taught (if not, why not?). I am looking for other experiences in this area. Specifically, I am looking for other text materials, course outlines, references, suggestions, comments, whatever. If you want to review my course materials or the text, just drop me a note (umar@amjadumar.com). I will post the summary of responses. Thanks Amjad Umar _______________________________ email addresses of respondents _______________________ "Carlos S. Baradello" Krassie Petrova Michel Avital michel@cwru.edu "Dan J. Kim" dankim@msu.edu Botha Reinhard reinhard@petech.ac.za Legorreta, Leo [mailto:legorret@csus.edu] Chris Reade Chris.Reade@kingston.ac.uk "Pau, L.F." L.Pau@fbk.eur.nl Choonhwa Lee chl@cise.ufl.edu Prashant Palvia [pcpalvia@uncg.edu Tony Hooper [Tony.Hooper@vuw.ac.nz] Key Pousttchi _________________________ Sample Comments and Opinions __________________ Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 11:57:20 +0200 From: Botha Reinhard To: umar@amjadumar.com Subject: Mobile Computing and Wireless Communication course Amjad, Unfortunately I do not have any real value to add at this point in time, other than noting that we just decided to investigate a course focused on mobile technologies starting July 2005. (As you rightly mention in the first chapter of your book, in countries such as South Africa mobile communication does indeed grow at a tremendous rate and do provide these countries with interesting options… It therefore just makes sense to have specific courses addressing these technologies – I now ask myself also why we waited so long!) Anyway, I would appreciate it if I could have access to your book and slides. From the table of contents it does seem as if the emphasis might be a bit more on the network side than what we anticipate, but that is a bit difficult to judge so quickly (the students at which this course is aimed have little networking exposure – they concentrate on software development at the application level and therefore (unfortunately) just know the bare minimum about the underlying technologies. On the other hand this might be the ideal opportunity to teach them a bit more… I will forward any comments or remarks that may spring to mind when they do. Looking forward to hear from you. Regards Reinhardt -------------------- From: Carlos S. Baradello [mailto:csbaradello@usfca.edu] Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 1:45 PM To: aumar@amjadumar.com Cc: 'Legorreta, Leo' Subject: RE: [isworld] A Course on Mobile Computing and Wireless Communica tions Importance: High Amjad, I have taught exaclty that kind of course as part of an MBA elective of in ICTs at USF (University of San Francisco) I have attached the brief course description. Hope it helps. Best, Carlos Baradello ---- course outline at San Francisco --- University of San Francisco School of Business and Management Special Topics of Communications - - SPRING 2004 Unwired Businesses ….during the last century telecom operators reined in highly protected markets. Over the last 20+ years, liberalization and privatization has changed the global telecom landscape, yet the industry has been slow to adapt to a highly competitive global market dynamics. Cellular operators the last descendent of the telecom industry faces today the toughest adversary and, it comes from a formidable competitor: the computer industry….. …After the fact, it becomes almost blatantly obvious – how could they have not known? Yet it happened time after time after time… When the history of the Information Revolution, led by the computer industry, is written, Wi-Fi will be remembered as the third rocket which provided the additional boost to the Information Age in the new millennium. Likewise the prior two rockets, this new technology, had in common the ability to empower a large cross-section of society by enabling them to create economic value as well as to create development opportunities. The microprocessor and its embodiment as a PC, broke the barriers of the “glass house” and the feudal monopoly of the few incumbents to the hands of hundred millions of users of computing power. Next the Internet and the World Wide Web encapsulated multiple prior developments in software and user interfaces to provide a single paradigm to access information and communicate regardless of the geographical location. Wi Fi, now offers the promise to provide wireless high-speed connectivity, breaking all “walled gardens” and monopolistic attitudes of the incumbent cellular carriers. As with the prior two rockets, user empowerment and promotion of experimentation encourages entrepreneurs to demolish multiple barriers. Two critical factors facilitate the rapid adoption: the unlicensed spectrum and hence free access, and the benefits of Moore’s Law as the key silicon building blocks (RF Modems and ancillary router/hub functionality) continue to enjoy the promise of aggressive price reductions passed to the consumer as dramatic as it has been observed over the last 30 years. The incumbent, the cellular operators, are squeezing every penny of profit from their deployed second generation Cellular Networks optimized for voice services, while they have been slow to deliver data and higher value added services (2.5 and 3G). Europe has introduced successfully innovative services while Japan iMode. However, no killer application has yet emerged other than voice. In the US, Nextel has enjoyed two extraordinary competitive advantages: push-to-talk and a commercial/industrial customer base with the highest ARPU and loyalty of the industry, yet no obvious sign of leveraging these strengths to other fields have been observed. In this course the following key areas will be addressed: ? The underlying technical characteristics of the Cellular Networks and their evolution from 1/2/2.5/3 and 4G. ? In a parallel fashion the technical characteristics of Wi-Fi networks available in the market today as standardized products (IEEE 802.11b/g/a) and its evolution to meet power, coverage, security, and other new requirements; as well as emerging technologies such as WiMax (IEEE 802.16) and the future role of Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15) ? Compare and contrast the Cellular Industry with the emerging Wi-Fi Industry: business models, market characteristics, user behavior, and the entirely different cultures of the two industries. ? The regulatory environment of each industry: pros and cons. How the FCC, ETSI and ITU operate. Leading standard bodies and industry associations: their role and impact in the business. ? Satellite Systems: LEOs, MEOs and GEOs. Services and cost structures. GPS services ? Rural communications options and alternatives. The last mile problem. ? The emerging business trends by operators in North America, Europe and Emerging Markets. Critical attention will be given to China as the largest consumer and producer of wireless technology. ? The characteristics of the equipment suppliers and their business models. Product life cycle and product design and product sourcing strategy. Product localization and world wide launches. ? Future business scenarios dealing with vertical and horizontal integration across industries and markets. Competition and convergence of wired (copper, coaxial and fiber optics networks) and wireless services. Role of new emerging technologies like RFID and Software Radio Defined Systems. Dr. Carlos S. Baradello e-mail: csbaradello@usfca.edu Tel. 954-325-4319 ---------------- Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2004 19:02:46 +0200 From: "Pau, L.F." To: aumar@amjadumar.com Reply-to: lpau@fbk.eur.nl Subject: Re: [isworld] A Course on Mobile Computing and Wireless Communications . Dear colleague ….. The Rotterdam School of Management has had for three years a set of courses in Mobile business (bachelor level, MBA level, Executive education ) taking the joint business/technical/architectural approach-As a result some of these courses have been taught elsewhere in Europe and Asia. There is also a course at the Copenhagen business school,and a new one which I am finalizing there on "Business aspects of Mobile and Internet operations".INSEAD also has an excellent executive course focussing on the marketing . Should also mention that quite many consultancies offer courses like yours ,as well as there are "high fee "tutorials in connection with industrial events . I wanted to react mostly by stating that we have given up entirely on seeking books to teach these things, as almost all books (and academic journals) do not keep pace with industrial, business and standardization developments .This remark does not apply however to science and engineering books linked to the above Mobile/wireless business subjects.There is also a healthy growth in number and quality of academic (or mixed academic/industrial) discussion fora on these subjects . So the pedagogy we use is mostly relying on :models , tools from industry ,and selected white papers/pointers from industry and government fora (including standardization and business fora).We also sometimes get some suppliers and operators to contribute internal documents or system's tutorials Also the pedagogy is emphasizing design and creative problem solving (ie :imagine you start yourself a service provider or service) ,as opposed to cases or survey reports . Best regards L-F Pau,Prof. Mobile business Rotterdam school of management ------------------------------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 18:12:29 +0200 From: Key Pousttchi To: ListManager Subject: Re: Course on Mobile Computing Dear Amjad, since 2001 we teach a course on mobile at the Business School of Augsburg University (Germany/Munich) and also for practitioners in separate courses. For any German-speaking who are interested, the course is available as a book by Springer publishers: Turowski, K.; Pousttchi, K.: Mobile Commerce - Grundlagen und Techniken http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3540005358/ Summary Mobile commerce (MC) as a new degree of electronic commerce arises from the convergence of web technologies and mobile communications. The course offers for scientists and practitioners, especially decision-makers, an MC basic knowledge from the view of business informatics. Technical and economical basics are equally weighted; they are presented in a structured, practice-orientated manner. The course provides knowledge and methods as well as practical guidance. The spectrum ranges from technical basics of mobile communications to security aspects, particularities of wireless application design, market participants, assessment of business models in B2C MC and process reengineering with the help of mobile technologies in B2B MC. Content - From Electronic to Mobile Commerce - Wireless Communication (GSM, GPRS, CDMA, WLAN, Bluetooth, IrDA, RFID) - Mobile Devices - Location Based Services - Realization of MC Applications - Security Aspects - MC Value Creation Chain - MC Business Models and their Assessment - Mobile Billing and Payment - Application Areas of MC (Commerce, Search/Information Services, Portals and Entertainment, Telemetry, Telematics) - Mobile Business Process Reengineering We made very good experiences with that and would also be interested in exchanging experiences and know-how. >> If you want to review my course materials or the text, just drop me a note. Yes, very interested. Regards, Key. ___________________________________________________________ Key Pousttchi University of Augsburg Chair of Business Informatics and Systems Engineering Head of Mobile Commerce Working Group 86135 Augsburg, Germany Tel. +49-(0)821-598-4434 Fax +49-(0)821-598-4432 GSM +49-(0)177-6319508 http://wi2.wiwi.uni-augsburg.de/mobile mailto:key.pousttchi@wiwi.uni-augsburg.de