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Technological innovation is manifested in the development of new products, processes and techniques such that emerging technologies often substitute for more mature technologies. The interaction between technologies is typically referred to as competition, implying a confrontational interaction. The setting of technology strategy is thus often concerned with issues relating to the competition between emerging technologies and the response of mature technologies to the offense from emerging technologies -strategies for attack and defense. In this paper it is argued that the interaction between technologies should be viewed in a broader sense than mere competition, and it is suggested that a multi-mode framework provides a much richer setting for assessing the interaction of two or more technologies. This concept has been successfully applied in biological and organizational ecology, and it is shown that it can be equally useful when applied to the dynamics of technological interaction. It is proposed that the effect that one technology has on another's growth rate be taken as a classification criterion.Examples are given to illustrate that three major modes of interaction exist, viz. pure competition, symbiosis and predator-prey. In addition, the notion that the interaction between technologies can in general shift temporally from one mode to another is motivated. It is suggested that, since the characteristics of the three modes differ from one another, it is appropriate to develop managerial strategies that apply specifically to each of the three modes, instead of just applying generic "competition" strategies. AcknowledgmentsThe authors wish to thank two anonymous reviewers and Dr. Theodore Modis for their insightful comments, and the graduate students at the University of Pretoria who helped in identifying some of the examples. Multi-mode interaction among technologies

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Background: Research on the development and functioning of technology platforms specifically for health applications in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), is limited. The healthcare sector has also been resistant to platform adoption due to characteristics such as sensitive data and high cost of failure. A framework for the design, development and implementation of technology platforms in the South African health context could therefore contribute to the gap in research as well as provide a practical tool that platform owners could use to potentially increase the adoption of platforms in this context. Methods: The research design for this study was based on the Grounded Theory Conceptual Framework Analysis process. The process focused on mapping and investigating data sources, categorising and integrating concepts, synthesising these concepts into a framework and iteratively evaluating the framework. The first stage of the evaluation process was a preliminary evaluation exploring an existing Health platform in South Africa (MomConnect). The second evaluation stage included local and international interviews with nine experts to identify any missing concepts in the framework. Stage three included a case study and case study interviews which led to the formulation of the final framework and management tool. Results: The developed and evaluated framework comprised three components, namely the pre-use component, which includes considerations the platform owner should be aware of prior to using the framework. The framework comprises of two dimensions, 1) an ecosystem dimension to guide the platform owner to consider different ecosystem actors before embarking on designing a platform 2) a platform development dimension that include typical platform development components and presents an interpretation of the viewpoints included in the ecosystem levels. Conclusions: The final framework can be used by platform owners as a management tool. A unique contribution of this study is that the framework draws from two platform perspectives, namely the engineering and the economic perspectives to provide a holistic understanding of platforms. Finally, a contribution of this article is the tailoring of the framework for the South African health context.

This Letter discusses the computation of the scattering and radiation by thin wires with a nondispersive dielectric coating using the finite‐difference time‐domain method. A Fourier transform is then performed on the time‐domain results to obtain the scattering and antenna radiation patterns in the frequency domain.