Technology news from Tennessee
Wire World
A Tennessee company's FlatWire aims for easier connections
If we're headed for a future where everything in your house is wired to everything else, where are all those wires going to go?
It may seem like a trivial question—unless you've ever tried to figure out how to connect the speakers in the dining room to the receiver in the living room without creating a spiderweb of copper wires. Or where to hide all those power cords from the TV set, the computer, the stereo components and the desk lamp.
DeCorp Americas Inc., based just outside of Nashville, thinks it has the answer. Within a few weeks, the company will begin selling its FlatWire Ready wiring on its website (www.decorp.com). FlatWire is exactly what it sounds like—flat, conductive copper wire that, in its various forms, can carry anything from audio signals to A/C electrical currents.
"It is less than the thickness of your standard business card, and it adheres to the wall," says DeCorp marketing director Brenda Sexton.
The first product scheduled for release is the audio wire, called DeWire, with other applications (including television cable and the A/C carrier) scheduled to come out by the end of the year.
FlatWire is the invention of DeCorp company president Robert Sexton (no relation to Brenda Sexton), an engineer who—in classic entrepreneurial form—was installing audio wire in his own home about 15 years ago.
"He started to ask himself, 'How do I hide the wire? I don't want to run it in my wall,'" Brenda Sexton says. His conceptual breakthrough was realizing that conductive copper wire does not have to be round. Nine years later, he patented FlatWire. The copper band, insulated on each side by polyester film, unspools like a ribbon and runs flat along the wall. You can even paint over it.
It has already attracted attention. Popular Science named FlatWire Ready one of the best new products of 2001. "People seem to be very anxious for it," Sexton says.
She says DeCorp also holds a patent for flat fiber-optic wiring, positioning the company well for the digital future. Of course, some technology gurus predict a move away from wires altogether to wholly wireless operations. Sexton isn't worried. For one thing, too many wireless applications running close to each other create the possibility of interference.
Also, Sexton adds, "How many waves are we actually going to have bombarding one individual? We need to be conscious of our [domestic] environment."
"While there are a lot of applications for wireless," she continues, "the wire application has been around for 100 years, and we're ready to take it forward for the next 100 years."
—J.F.M.
Web Switch
A local web design company goes international and changes its name
When WebCentric formed four years ago, the company never imagined that its name might be a stumbling block down the road.
But as the company begins to make a push for the international market, it decided to change its name to WebServio. The switch is needed because the domain webcentric.com is owned by a man in Virginia, and he doesn't want to sell it.
"The person who owns it in Virginia was sitting on it. He wasn't using it," says April Cox, the company's co-owner.
Although it's illegal to squat or speculate on a domain name of other companies—i.e. registering pepsi.com or sony.com when you have no connection to those companies—this wasn't the case here. "He had it registered two years before WebCentric was even created," Cox says.
WebCentric had been using the site www.wdgonline.com. But for marketing reasons, the company wanted a similar domain name for its international push. (Their website can now be found at both wdgonline.com and webservio.com.)
Jason Epstein, an attorney who started the e-business and technology group at Baker, Donelson, Bearman & Caldwell, says disputes of this kind are becoming more and more common.
Epstein, who represented WebServio, says names are becoming particularly scarce under the top level domains of com and net, the two most popular. "It's a question of marketing," Epstein says. "It's more and more difficult to find a domain with something familiar in your name to it. Which is why these battles over domain names are becoming more popular."
"Some people just have domain names and don't want to give them up. In other cases, people are holding domain names with trade names in them, and holding them for ransom," he says.
Companies do have recourse if they think someone has hijacked their names. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (or ICANN) has a dispute appeals process, Epstein says. Companies can also sue under the Anti-Cybersquatting Act.
But even when faced with a squatter, many companies will simply buy the domain, because it can be cheaper than going to court, he says.
In WebServio's case, it was easier to pick a new name.
The company, with Kingston Pike offices, hosts websites and can also develop and design websites for companies. It's moving more toward an emphasis on hosting. So now, it's likely to be doing business with web developers it used to compete with.
"A lot of people can do web design now," Cox says. "We've put design and development on a lower pedestal, and we're pushing our hosting 100 percent."
However, the company is set up so that it could design and develop a website for a company anywhere in the world, without ever needing face-to-face contact. They're targeting small to medium sized businesses.
"With the economy the way it is and people getting more and more educated about web development, we wanted to be less dependent on the local market," Cox says.
—Joe Tarr
February 21, 2002 * Vol. 12, No. 8
© 2002 Metro Pulse
| 
