OCCASION This publication has been made available to the public on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. DISCLAIMER This document has been produced without formal United Nations editing. The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this document do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries, or its economic system or degree of development. Designations such as “developed”, “industrialized” and “developing” are intended for statistical convenience and do not necessarily express a judgment about the stage reached by a particular country or area in the development process. 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Box 300, 1400 Vienna, Austria Tel: (+43-1) 26026-0 · www.unido.org · [email protected] (v), 6 9 p · 21850 EMERGING TECHNOLOGY SERIES 3/1996 Info1mat1on• Technology UNITED NATIONS INDUSTRIAL DEVEWPMENT ORGANIZATION Vienna, 1997 TO OUR READERS EMERGING TECHNOLOGY This issue of lnfonnation Technology brings a cover paper on intranets. lntranets, although they ori9inated as offspring of the Internet, are being SERIES introduced for essentially different purposes. They are for organizing cooperative work and are therefore profoundly changing interactions in the INFORMATION organizations that use them. For users of the Internet, it is not too difficult TECHNOLOGY to adopt and utilize intranets. What intranets are, and what they are not, is 3/1996 discussed in the paper. Generally speaking, intranets can be considered as a possible response a company may adopt in order to maintain its position in an ever more CONTENTS competitive environment. It is not, however, an universal and omnipotent solution leading automatically to a company's success once it is adopted. SPECIAL ARTICLE As all other solutions offered in the past by information technology, and perhaps all solutions to be offered by IT in future, intranets also, as well as TOWARDS INTRANETS the results they can bring, depend on the human factor. Only people at by M. Muraszkiewicz every level of the organization or enterprise can transform what IT offers into success. Nevertlleless, the adoption of an intranet by itself invokes NEWS AND EVENTS changes both in procedures and structures of an organization, which when properly maintained, proves profitable to the organization. NEW DEVELOPMENTS From the beginning of the 1980s, when I became a scientific editor of this MARKET TRENDS AND publication, I maintained the opinion that the mix of opportunities which COMPANY NEWS information technology offers, in spite of several negative effects they render, generally increase the prospective relative advantage of APPLICATIONS developing countries. Especially recently, information technology offers developing countries the access to information platforms which, when SOFTWARE properly used, put companies from the developing countries on a more equal footing with those from developed countries than ever before. COUNTRY NEWS lntranets are one of those platforms. Their potential should not be AUTOMATION overlooked by developing nations. STANDARDIZATION & On a subject that is becoming increasingly important in UNIDO's work, namely networking, the Organization has recently taken steps to improve LEGISLATION such activities in Africa so as to ensure that new networking capabilities RECENT PUBLICATIONS offered by modern information technology are not bypassing the continent. Access to information and effective networkin~ are crucial to successful business, in particular to small-and medium-sized enterprises. The Organization is undertaking national assessment studies on information UNIDO's Emerging Technology Series is established as a mechanism of current networking for business in 18 of the least developing countries in Africa, awareness to monitor developments in within the framework of the recently set up Alliance for Africa's the microelectronics sector and inform governments. industry and academia, Industrialization. These studies are to be expanded to cover other least primarily in developing countries. developed countries in Africa, as well as those in Asia and the Pacific regions. The outcome of these studies will pave the way towards The Series on Information Technology is issues four times a year and distributed establishing a self-reliant national information services network in each free of charge to readers in developing country. countries. It is not a formal document and has been reproduced without formal editing. Opinions expressed here do not I am also pleased to inform readers that a new investment partnership necessaril( reflect the views of UNIDO Mention o the names of firms and scheme has recently come into being, namely a $1000 million window of commercial products does not imply an opportunity for British investment and technology. The new two-year endorsement by UNIDO. Copyrighted project between UNIDO and NIMTECH (the UK's leading private-sector material reproduced in the Series may be quoted only with permission of the technology transfer network) represents a major step towards helping journals concerned. Other material may private firms in developing countries meet new business partners in the be quoted or reproduced without further permiss10n Due acknowledgement is United Kingdom. The project will build on the success of an initial requested cooperative arrangement between UNIDO and NIMTECH, and aims to sharpen the focus of commercialization of new and emerging technologies Scientific editor Konrad Fialkowski to which viable markets have been identified. Emphasis so far has been Compiled and edited: Diana Rhind on cleaner production techniques, biotechnology and nanotechnology. Editorial Board V Podshibyakin; P Makin; A Spina; R Bullington, C Gurkt'lk For readers who may be interested in the globalization of industry and the Published in 1997 by the United Nations implications for developing countries beyond the year 2000, UNIDO has Industrial Development Organization published a paper that assesses recent developments in the world (UNIDO) Industrial Information Section (ITPD) economy while highighting the measures taken by UNIDO in response. In Vienna International Centre particular the paper addresses the growing concern that increasing P 0 Box 300 globalization poses a potential threat to developing countries as a result of A-1400 Vienna Austria the liberalization of world trade. The paper, entitled The Globalization of Industry: Implications for Developing Countries Beyond 2000, may be Tel. (43-1) 21131-0 Fax: (43-1) 230-7355 had free of charge and on request from UNIDO's Documents Distribution. e-mail. drh1nd@unido org Printed in A11st11a Konrad Fialkowski Scientific Editor Information Technology and Microelectronics 199613 CONTENTS Page Page A. SPECIAL ARTICLE 1 c. NEW DEVELOPMENTS . • . • . • 19 TowARDS INTRANETS Nanostructure self-formation of high­ density Si-doped GaAs thin film Abstract . 1 observed . 19 1. Introduction . 1 Fujitsu develops wavelength extraction 2. Definitions . 1 device . 19 3. Business context . 3 Suspended particle display offers advan- 4. Computing context .........- . 5 tages . 19 5. Intranet architecture . 6 Unknown crystal phase with magnetic pro- 6. Basic development hints . 9 perties discovered . 19 7. Conclusion . 10 MPEG-2 encoder includes HDTV . 20 8. References . 10 Instant pictures . 20 Single-frequency laser oscillation using glass microspheres . 20 B. NEWS AND EVENTS . • . • . • . 11 Step-flow etching and diamond growing for diodes . 20 Internet: which future for organized know­ Detailed observations of molten silicon ledge? . 11 with turbulent flow . 21 Surfing for corporate intelligence . 11 High-Tc superconductor joint research . 21 Information professionals in the corporate Chromium cyanide thin films form elec­ sector . 11 trically tunable magnets . 21 A framework for information policy MBE process of organic optical film with analysis based on changes in the global large nonlinear susceptibility . 22 economic forces . 11 Tougher chips . 22 Legal and ethical issues of information . 12 SGS-Thomson eases MOSFET process . 22 Cheap Internet PCs . 12 Heat makes a ceramic shrink . 22 How to help developing countries . 12 Chaos theory enables less switch-mode Charging, paying and copyright- interference . 22 information access on open networks . 12 Chips that encrypt data transmission . 23 Simply faster (chip design) . 13 Researcher reduces silicon need 100-fold . 23 Wafers cleaned without chemicals . 13 Chip has logic and DRAM . 23 SuperJournals deliver the goods . 13 Thin film carbon transistor technology Business process support: data warehouses developed . 23 that reinvent the business environment