Thanks to the internet's open standards, extreme specialisation is now emerging in outsourced business services, just as it did earlier in consumer electronics.

ECONOMIST: Men and machines

Rented applications fit beautifully with Oracle's vision of a simpler and more reliable form of computing based on the open standards of the Internet and the Java programming language.

ECONOMIST: Computer outsourcing

There have been previous efforts to build sensor nets by various private companies, but, like the Internet and Wi-Fi, Zigbee uses open standards, lowering the costs and risks associated with building the technology.

FORBES: The Wireless Boom That Won't Need Us