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August 31, 2007
An Apology
- Apology for my punny (not funny) humor
I was on conference calls with Friends who were at VoiceCon. And they voiced the opinion that my pun in the E-mail blast promoting our Unified Communications Conference was out of turn.
I often get asked to write something from scratch and the easiest way for my writing to start is with a pun. 80 % of the time my puns get edited - thank G-d. This time it did not.
I have a tendency to see jokes as heckles (at someone's expense) and insights as appreciative. I apologize for my error in not recognizing the pun was a heckle.
Posted by carl at 02:15 AM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2007
Observations found in a Bathtub
With apologies to Stanislav Lem and Jeff Pulver. This is what I got when leaving my hotel shower.
Thoughts on toiletries...Why is...
1) The bar of soap on the tub but the shampoo is by the sink?
2) The bar of soap is enough for a week, the shampoo enough for a day?
3) The more expensive the hotel, the more elaborate the display, but the same amount of stuff?
4) The shoe mitt included?
5) The hand lotion included?
6) The toilet paper taped shut?
Got any more to add?
Posted by carl at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)
You Really need to explore the Site to know what is happening
Hey Team,
I am not sure you are aware, but EVERYONE who has attended VON has an invitation privileges to join me on this online community. You can use this handy dandy button below.
VON this year is going to be very different, but I am hoping that those of us who are long term members of the community will find value in being there. So for this reason I have some interesting changes to mention.
1) Some of the VON Theatre stuff should be a lot of fun for regular members. Timothy and Brough in particular are in a session called trend spotting.
2) I have already discussed the Innovators track. Which will run against the normal VON programming.
3) I am hoping that the local crowd will guide us to the fun stuff in Boston on Halloween.
( Note: I tried to organize a Salem trip, but was told that a bus would not make it back in time given how crazy Salem gets on Halloween.)
My hope is that we all stay together for the entire show, but I realize that some of us have children that are into Halloween.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Posted by carl at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)
August 13, 2007
Have Some Backbone! Show me your PLATs
Recently, the discussion between some select friends and myself centered around the Minneapolis bridge collapse. As too often happens the PSTN network performed poorly.
While my friends, were using this to discuss why end to end IP was our inevitable future. I was looking at it and wondering what the cables were like. Did the bridge cut any cables across the river? What is the real (physical not logical) routing between the local switches and the network tandems?
The reason I ask is that for all the redundancy we brought into the network with SONET, I believe we still have network tandems that are not paired. Nor are we using IP (or ATM) to move traffic as a distributed network should. I believe that for some bizarre reason (which probably translates to "billing"), we are letting the PSTN guide the routing of calls rather than putting IP to the test.
From my own experience, I was embarrassed when Hurricane Floyd flooded the tandem by me in Northerb New Jersey and no outbound calls could be made. If it had happened in the New Jersey LATAs the result would have been no 911 completion. IP could have solved this problem easily.
On the other side, the submarine fibers that broke due to an earthquake in January showed the corollary. No commitment to the Internet's backbone resulted in poor service locally. It was not a priority for many policy makers. All the PSTN circuits were restored in a timely manner while the Internet was a secondary goal.
So, here I am asking for the layout of your network. Proof to me I am wrong and the commitment to IP is there. Have some Backbone.
Posted by carl at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)
August 09, 2007
The Innovators Track Revealed
Below are the guidelines I propose for the 5th Track (also known as the Innovators Track, unconference, etc.)
I would like to have most of the agenda set before the event. I have divided the agenda into a set of time blocks that match roughly to the VON conference and indeed I have some sessions mixed into the track.
I have schedule with 8 open sections called time blocks for the participants to speak.. These time blocks break into fifteen minute increments.
The selection of speakers for these time blocks is aimed at providing a loose format of topic sets. The topic sets represent broad categories for the speakers to self identify their interest and participation. A total of 5 discussants will be selected as leaders for their discussion. As leaders list themselves in their topic sets other individuals may identify their desire to contribute. The slots can be shared and bonded but each is subject to the tight time restraints. As topic sets are filled up they get placed in time blocks.
I have Tom Howe doing an Introduction and giving the discussants a chance to engage in a little agenda bashing.
I have identified six topic sets. They appear in no particular order (honest)
Rapid Apps on Rails:
A discussion about the impact of Ruby on Rails, Ajax and other tools that aid the developer in building new services rapidly and how combined with Amazon and Level services represent a new era in service deployments.
Enterprise 2.X
This is a discussion that looks at how the Enterprises are finally gaining the ability to provide services across a network and how it changes service models.
Social Networking
According to Cisco its working. Social networks are eating up the bandwidth and the Internet is again growing. What makes these services compelling and who is going to gain from these changes.
The New Age of Communication
We have talked about the concept of these new services now let’s look at some of them and let’s talk about why this is the perfect time to offer services in the marketplace. Is the price of rollout so low that adoption can be small and niche, or do we all need massive viral adoption?
New Services with old lines
Single Number is thing of the past, now we have disposable numbers and with the ILECs having to watch the Cable companies expand into their space the time may be ripe for these kinds of services. Best of all by extracting the person from the number the service is much more intriguing.
The Pulver Challenge
What companies stood up and said they were ready to accept Jeff’s challenge and show real innovation. Did they make the grade of bringing something new to IP communication or are we still at a point where we are replicating what we have seen before. Warning a wiseman said that there is nothing new under the sun, but we expect great things from this panel.
Obviously things can be added where time permits. We should allow people to add topics.
The time blocks are broken down as follows.
Schedule
Tuesday
9:00 AM - 10 AM Welcome to the Discussants
10 AM - 10 45 AM Agenda Bash
11 15 AM to 12 30 PM Time Block 1
12:30 PM to 1:30 PM Lunch
1:30 PM to 2:45 PM Voice over 3G
3:15 PM to 4:30 PM New Age Service Creation
4:45 PM to 6 PM Time Block 2
Wednesday
9 AM to 10:15 AM Time Block 3
11:15 AM to 12:30 PM Going mobile with Skype
12:30 PM to 1:30 PM Lunch
1:30 PM to 2:45 PM Time Block 4
3:15 PM to 4:30 PM Time Block 5
4:45 PM to 6:00 PM Time Block 6
Thursday
9:00 AM to 10:15 Time Block 7
10:30 AM to 11:45 Time Block 8
11:45 AM to 12:45 PM Lunch
12:45 PM to 2: 00 PM BOF Plus Minus Delta of this Format
2:15 PM to 3:30 PM The Secret Life of HD VoIP
3:45 PM to 5:00 PM The Wrap Up
So this is the plan, but I am looking for your feedback.
Let me know what you think.
Posted by carl at 02:02 PM | Comments (0)
August 04, 2007
Join Me
Posted by carl at 03:15 PM | Comments (0)