Robin's Hood

Here is a very interesting interview with Martin Illsley, director of research at Accenture Technology Labs. This kind of insight into the future of IT technology is very valuable to know in my industry. I have worked in the area of collaboration technology and as my regular readers will know I am an expert in blogs and wikis (is an expert just a drip under pressure?) When I worked at PA Consulting we all thought that Accenture were the enemy. It looks like I fell foul of Amara's law.....

Accenture's king of blue-sky thinking - ZDNet UK: "Amara's Law, which also goes by other names, is that people overestimate the short-term effects of an action or technology, while underestimating the long-term effects."

Well your correspondent doesn't know as much about hydrogen as he should. This hydrogen car is clearly aimed at getting Honda to the forefront of technology again and staying there. Although I don't drive a Honda any more I have long been a fan of these ultra reliable cars. Paradoxically I gave up my most recent Honda this summer due to concerns for the environment (I now have a Smart Fortwo diesel).

When Honda came out with the Insight it was one of the greenest cars in the world, yet it is Toyota who are the darlings of the industry for the Prius. Now Honda are embarking on a journey into a 'hydrogen economy' you may think that they are susceptible to making the same mistake again in assuming that being first to market means you can make a load of money out of it. Here are two reasons why I think Honda will make a success of the FCX:

1. Toyota have too much of a vested interest in hybrid technology - why give up such a big cash cow
2. Honda want to sell the home fuelling station for making hydrogen out of domestic gas.

Honda offers FCX for '08, bitchslaps Google | The Register: "Honda has confounded green-motoring analysts by announcing that it will offer a hydrogen-powered car for general sale in 2008, years earlier than expected."

Well this survey from Cardiff University shows my car as the second greenest after the Smart Roadster which isn't made any more. I have a feeling that had they included the diesel variant of the Smart Fortwo, which isn't sold in the UK and which I had to import from France, then my car may have been top of the poll?

Smart Fortwo Roadster is 'greenest car' - What Car?: "
Greenest cars
1 Smart Roadster
2 Smart Fortwo cabriolet
3 Citroen C1 1.0i
4 Peugeot 107 1.0
5 Citroen C1 1.4 HDi
6 Fiat Panda 1.2
7 Ford Ka 1.3
8 Toyota Yaris 1.0
9 Fiat Panda 100hp 1
0 Peugeot 206 1.4
11 Mini Cooper D
12 Toyota Prius 1.5 S
ource: Cardiff University/Clifford Thames"

OpenID looks a promising way of federating your identity, reducing multiple logins, etc. Where I work at the moment they have an Active Directory which you can use on all company systems whether internal or external facing (Internet). I think these systems only work when lots of people trust them. I will track this one.

OpenID: an actually distributed identity system: "In short, OpenID is a way for individuals to create identity online and use it anywhere OpenID is supported."