I’m meeting with the commercial manager of Mainpower New Zealand in a couple of weeks. I (of course) put the meeting into Google calendar and sent him an invite. Upon his acceptance I received an SMS direct to my smart phone advising me that the meeting was confirmed.

His reply by email got me thinking of the intersection of disparate themes. He said “..Google really are taking over the world…”. But what does this mean for Mainpower – very much an enterprise concerned with moving atoms around the place (or electrons anyway…)

Sure Mainpower (I guess) uses associated business services such as email, project management, calendering etc etc, but the question to be asked is where is the intersect between their core business and the “new paradigm”? In the same way that SaaS is arguably trying to subvert the dominant paradigm and create something that did not exist before (a least it is when it’s done right), is there a similar space for infrastructure companies.

Kordia buying an ISP, Fronde doing the mobile stuff they’re doing are on-the-cusp examples but what would a truly connected business 3.0 model look like. Electricity distribution via IP? User generated electricity distribution channels?

Or maybe the traditionals will always keep on doing their business traditionally – just utilising technology as a tool rather than a paradigm changing agent.

Thoughts anyone???

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

2 Comments
  • Falafulu Fisi |

    Ben said…
    Google really are taking over the world…”.

    Umm, I don’t know for how long would that be. I believe that Microsoft, will be the huge threat to Google’s number #1 spot. Knowing what I read about the new cutting edge research publication produced from Microsoft Research Center (especially Asia Division), I think that Microsoft is not that far behind Google. So, lets see in the next 3 or so years ahead if Google can still withstand Bill Gate’s assault. My inference here is based only on what I have seen in published research , since I haven’t talked to anyone inside either from Microsoft or Google to give me a definite answer on this. The stuff that Microsoft is publishing, I don’t know if Google is doing anything on those topics or not, but again, I could be wrong, that may be Google is working on them at the same time as that of Microsoft R&D team.

  • of course it could be that neither Microsoft or Google dominate other than their ability to buy anything that is half decent. The whole essence of the next generation of the web is relevance and efficiency.

    Distributed networks may be the answer here and large mega companies may not work well in that structure unless they embrace it which they may well do.

    So in terms of energy a grid may develop where we are all energy users and generators taking out and putting back into the system. We may all have solar and wind generators on site (commercial and residential). We may power ours cars also AND have the stored energy in the car batteries as a possible back up in case of grid failure.

    There is huge efficiency improvements to be made in all aspects of our life. My feeling is that this process has barely begun. Web 1.0 was simply the emergence of the technology base that will take us there.

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