Telecosm Gorilla Safari

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Posted to the Gilder forum - May 23, 2000

Telecosm Gorilla Safari.

In The Gorilla Game they draw a map to help them locate gorillas. Here is what it looks like (I did not include all the companies :-)

Microcosm Gorilla Hunting Grounds				Global and Enterprise	Campus, Department and Workgroup	Personal and Consumer
Software
	Application
		End User
			OLTP	SAP	PeopleSoft	Intuit
			DSS	Cognos	Arbor	MS Excel
			Productivity		AutoDesk	MS Office
			Edutainment		Jostens Learning	Electronic Arts
		Communications
			Mail and messaging	Lotus Notes	PictureTel	AOL
			Information	Netscape	Reed Elsevier	Netscape
	Systems
		OS		UNIX	Windoze NT	Windoze 95
		Networking		Novell	Novell	Mac OS
		Database		Oracle	ODI	MS Access
		Middleware		Security Dynamics	Wang	Progressive Networks
		Tools		Computer Associates	Visual Basic	Symantec
Hardware
	Networking			Cisco	Cisco	3Com, USR
	Computers			IBM	Compaq	Apple
	Peripherals			EMC	Xerox	HP
	Office Equipment (obsolete)				Xerox	FAX

Let's draw a similar map for the Telecosm. On the horizontal axis there are the three main markets: Long Haul, Metro and Local Loop. On the vertical axis are the 7 layers of the Open System Interconnection (OSI)

Layer	Name	Function
7	Application Layer	Program-to-program communication.
6	Presentation Layer	Manages data representation conversions. For example, the Presentation Layer would be responsible for converting from EBCDIC to ASCII.
5	Session Layer	Responsible for establishing and maintaining communications channels. In practice, this layer is often combined with the Transport Layer.
4	Transport Layer	Responsible for end-to-end integrity of data transmission.
3	Network Layer	Routes data from one node to another.
2	Data Link Layer	Responsible for physical passing data from one node to another.
1	Physical Layer	Manages putting data onto the network media and taking the data off.

The Gorilla Game in the Microcosm does not include semiconductors. I am also excluding semiconductors and optical components. I also think we should exclude computers and LANs which fall more properly in the domain of the Microcosm.

I think that for the first few rounds we should concentrate on companies that deliver final product to the end customer.

The table should include all the companies that work in each sector. After filling the table, we have to analyse each company to see if it has "Proprietary Architecture" and "High Switching Costs." This analysis together with the market characteristics of each cell will determine the final classification of the companies into:

Classification
		Proprietary Architecture
		YES	NO
Switching Costs	High	Gorilla	King
	Medium	Chimp	Prince
	Low	Monkey	Serf

Here is my first go.

Telecosm Gorilla Hunting Grounds
		Long Haul		Metro	Local Loop
7	Application Layer				Wireless	Nokia, Ericsson, Kyocera, Motorola
					Satellite	Globalstar
					Copper	Telcos
					Cable
					PDA	Palm
					TV	Broadcast, PBS, Cable
6	Presentation Layer
5	Session Layer
4	Transport Layer
3	Network Layer
2	Data Link Layer
1	Physical Layer	Land	Lucent, Nortel, Ciena	Lucent, Nortel, Ciena	Fiber
					Fiberless Optical	Terrabeam
					Copper
		Sea	Lucent, Nortel, Ciena, Tyco, Global Marine		Wireless	Qualcomm?
					Cable	Terayon, Conexant, 3Com
					Satellite	Loral, Globalstar
					Others

Help me place all those switches, routers and multiplexors from Cisco, Juniper and Sycamore in the right pace.

Denny
"Demand creates queues. Supply gets rid of them."

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