 In this video we'll be looking at distributed systems, as we analyse some of the factors that have given rise to a new set of distributed IT enabled technologies, which are increasingly becoming mainstream solutions and having a highly disruptive effect across almost all technology industries. We'll talk about some of the key characteristics of these alternative technologies and how they flip our traditional industrial age model around, resulting in what is called inverse infrastructure. Finally we'll look at the emergence of a new hybrid platform model for integrating centralised and distributed infrastructure systems. As we've previously discussed, our traditional industrial systems of technology are based around a centralised model designed to leverage economics of scale through batch processing. As centrally controlled systems like power generation plants, factories and broadcast media produce technologies and services that were pushed out to end users. Although distributed technologies have always been there on the fringes, today a number of factors are working to fundamentally change this centralised model to a more distributed one where capabilities and production can also take place at the edges of the network by many different actors. The set of factors that are enabling this include firstly the emergence of alternative technologies like solar cells, wind turbines and 3D printers as increasingly efficient enough to compete and become mainstream solutions. Secondly information technology that allows end users to set up their own networks of coordination and collaboration at very low costs. And lastly the deregulation and privatisation of many previously state-owned monopoly infrastructure industries that is currently taking place around the world through economic globalisation. As previously vertically integrated national systems are being unbundled allowing for a multiplicity of private actors to enter the value chain as producers, traders, brokers, retailers and many more actors in a complex ecosystem. A good example of this shift from centralised to distributed systems is mobile telephony. If we look at the emerging infrastructures in rural Africa or Asia today, they often bypass the centralised copper telephone network altogether instead implementing a decentralised cellular network. This helps to demonstrate how distributed technologies thrive particularly in areas with low population that lack the critical mass required for traditional centralised batch processing systems. But also where there is a lack of formal administration and pre-existing incumbents and this goes back to our previous discussion about the need for lack of regulation in order to enable distributed self-organisation. The emergence of renewable smart grids is another example of this. Information systems and distributed technologies are working to fundamentally re-architect the network away from the centrally controlled traditional power grids that delivered electricity to end users. Towards a distributed architecture where end users are central both as consumers and producers but also as managers of the system through smart devices and information about prices and consumption. In a recent article in Bloomberg magazine talking to David Crane the CEO of a wholesale power company on the east coast of the US he said this about the reshaping of the US power grid. What's afoot is a confluence of green energy and computer technology, deregulation, cheap natural gas and political pressure that poses a mortal threat to the existing utility system. He says that in about the time it has taken cell phones to supplant landlines in most US homes the grid will become increasingly irrelevant as customers move towards decentralised homegrown green energy. Rooftop solar in particular is turning tens of thousands of businesses and households into power producers. Such distributed generation is certain to grow. He also added that some customers particularly in the sunny west and high coast northeast already realise that they don't mean the power industry at all. Mr Crane may be slightly overstating things here but the same factors that are driving the re-emergence of distributed systems in power grids as viable competitors to the centralised model are emerging across all domains from digital fabrication in manufacturing to organic farming in agriculture to car sharing services in transportation and voice over IP within the telephone industry. Distributed systems are no longer the fringe phenomena that they've always been but increasingly accepted into the mainstream as a viable and scalable solution. These distributed technologies have a number of common features to them including the fact that they're typically user-generated informal networks involve non-professional producers with no one in control of the entire network system. We'll take a look at each of these characteristics separately. Firstly they are typically user-generated. Century designed infrastructures are part of the whole paradigm of industrial age organisation based around the nation state and bureaucratic top-down organisation where the end user is seen as a passive recipient of the service. They are defined as consumers and that is essentially their role within the system. These distributed technologies flip this paradigm on its head actively engaging end users to become both producers capable of managing their own resources and capable of setting up their own networks of collaboration through information technology. These distributed networks are informal arrangements, large mass processing industrial systems like motorways, broadcast media or factories required a significant level of social, political and economic organisation over a prolonged period of time through a very formal process of development and management. Due to this they had a very high threshold to entry as a producer. In contrast to this these distributed systems are informal with very low barriers to entry. For the cost of a solar panel individual homes can become power producers. They can also become media producers for virtually nothing through new media channels. They can become manufacturers through digital manufacturing systems. They can become transportation providers through car sharing all at a very low level of capital investment and organisational management meaning that you can do it without needing to be a formal, well-defined, well-capitalised organisation. There is also a shift from professionals to non-professionals. The formal centralised system required a very high level of technical capability and specialisation in order to produce, operate and maintain the industrial systems. As technologies become commoditised they become cheaper, more accessible and easier to operate. Distributed manufacturing is an example of this. Digital manufacturing processes such as 3D printers and CNC numerically controlled technologies were first used by a minority of technicians in factories. As the technology matures and comes to the consumer market they're increasingly accessible to any end user without professional experience in manufacturing or engineering. Again this goes back to a reduction in barriers to entry. A recent study done by IBM showed that the cost of capital to start a new factory is going to be reduced by 90% in the next decade which will inevitably drive a democratisation of manufacturing. Many distributed technologies like photovoltaic cells are enabled by sophisticated science and engineering but are also accessible for use by non-technical end users. Lastly no one is really in control of these distributed systems. The centralised infrastructure systems of the nation state were centrally controlled and managed in a hierarchical fashion. The privatisation of infrastructure like water, roads and rail networks added many more actors as they became managed through market mechanisms. But with truly distributed technologies management of the system may become fully distributed out to the local level of the end user. In some circumstances clear ownership may not even apply. Fully distributed technologies are also managed in a distributed self-organising fashion. Mesh networks and peer-to-peer file sharing are examples of this. Every user supports the provision of the network service. They have a swarm-like dynamic and control of the system's behaviour and functionality is in the hands of many. Distributed technologies are also called inverse infrastructure as they have an almost inverse effect on the makeup to our infrastructure to that of the industrial model. If you've spent any time in the technology industries you would have heard the word disruptive repeatedly and it is this structural transformation that is a large part of where this disruption is coming from. Because these alternative technologies simply do not fit into our pre-existing model and they're not about to simply go away something has to give the whole landscape has to change and this is the scale of disruption that we haven't had for a number of centuries since the industrial revolution. Key to this transformation is designing new frameworks for integrating centralised top-down systems with these bottom-up distributed technologies. All of these previous mentioned factors that differentiate the two architectural paradigms creates a tension between a top-down and a bottom-up model. Progressive companies are leading in creating a new architecture that is better suited to this emerging reality where traditional large centralised players reinvent themselves as platform service providers, providing the infrastructure, protocols and other coordination mechanisms for individuals and small organisations to co-create solutions. Going back to our original theme of the smart power grid a new model for power grids is emerging called virtual power plants where centralised wholesale power companies use information technology to integrate and coordinate a number of distributed micro generators thus providing a stable supply of energy to the market at the scale required. This is an example of a hybrid model that may well represent some kind of solution to the top-down bottom-up core constrained. It is built on the design paradigm of platform technologies that we previously mentioned. Apple's App Store is a good example of a platform technology. The centralised organisation provides the platform for end-users to create the solutions. Another example might be Zipcar who provide the platform for car sharing. These are examples of engineered systems that have managed to integrate a centralised and distributed model to create a highly successful hybrid system. And of course, probably the most successful technology of our time, the internet, is a classical example of a distributed modular system. With the advent of web 2.0 and technologies like social networking, over a billion people now contribute to its making with highly successful companies like Google working by providing centralised platforms for accessing this mass of distributed user-generated content. Distributed technologies are having a radical, pervasive and unstoppable effect on our technology landscape. The infrastructure systems of the 21st century will not be like that of the 20th century centralised structure. But also, it is unlikely to be fully distributed. It will be a much more complex interplay at both. Within the industrial model, we had mainstream centralised systems like factories and motorways that dominated. And we had alternative distributed systems that lay on the fringes like organic farming and artisan production. It was a strong dichotomy, the two never really fitted together. But with the move of distributed systems into the mainstream, this strong dichotomy is becoming more fuzzy. Going forwards, there will very likely be a whole spectrum from highly centralised systems like mega cities to radically distributed systems like Bitcoin. And all kinds of hybrids in between as we develop new methods for integrating them. As previously mentioned, this breakdown of the barrier and greater interconnectivity between the two models is a key source of complexity. In this module, we've been talking about distributed engineered systems as increased efficiency in alternative technologies and the rise of information technology have worked to bring them into the mainstream of our technology infrastructure. As they are increasingly able to provide solutions on the large scale that our global economy of the 21st century requires. We looked at some of the common features to these distributed systems, including the fact that they're typically user-generated informal networks involving non-professional producers with no one really in control of the entire network system. Finally, we talked about platform technologies and new hybrid models that are emerging to integrate legacy centralised industrial systems with these new distributed networks through IT-enabled platforms.