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September 26, 2007
Carls Corner as a Newsletter
Carl's Corner
The Foreword.
I am sending this email blast because I have the least read blog in creation. It may be deserved because I am not a blogger by nature, but in the hopes of increasing my readerships to tens. I am sending out this email to friends with the hopes that each of these topics will generate some dialogue at http://carlscorner.pulvermedia.com. I want to remind you that the opinions expressed are entirely my own.
Agenda
- The Disruption Moves Slowly (but not Verizon)
- Thought Leading Innovators Track (Now I'm excited)
- Feedback on FMC
- Apology for my punny (not funny) humor
- The VON "E" Ticket
- Conclusion
----
- The Disruption Moves Slowly (but not Verizon).
Verizon is going through a series of personnel changes where the Verizon Wireless side of the company (long living isolated in their own Shangri-La) is now in charge of the company in total. Ivan may have made the move based on this information.
MediaMark stated that 14 % of the US has a cell phone with no landline phone. While approx 13% of the US has a landline phone with no cell phone.
So the writing maybe on the wall for the role of the landline part of the company.
This is lead to a discussion between some of our friends that I have asked to express here with you all. Please remember the opinions expressed do represent any corporation's perspective.
Henry Sinnreich starts with the premise that all communication services are in effect the Internet.
From this perspective, I would contend that att, Cablevision, Vodafone, etc. are offering the same thing - Access
But this simple view point can get convoluted as some service providers ride on top of others.
Or as Willie Wimmreuter points out
The basic question to that answer is how to find some sweet-spots that will be honored and payed for by the "End-User" or the"final point of convergence", as Richard Stastny would say
Willie goes on to say... about end user choice
Just for the sake of usage freedom and global reach, the Internet of course will become the network of choice and here I'm with [Henry]
We just made the mistake way to often and sold the "Internet" but not the "advantages" to the user.
So why do we not stop selling the religion and sell the advantages, help or assistance instead. A user will go for it and even pay for if he can use it to his advantage
VoIP, P2P, etc. Instead, I try to help selling things; the user is willing to pay for and by that, the Internet, P2P or whatever will sell implicitly
Henry replied that
EU regulators seem to be enlightened about competition and avoiding such conspiracies like roaming charges.
They also have sympathy for Skype and Skype in mobile phones
Willie in a series of responses gave a good perspective.
Unless these incumbents see the "Internet as a service", they will not be able operate it in an open way and thus they will see providers from other countries and continents selling to their customers whilst they can only sell to customers of their own network
- What they make their living with?
* Voice- calls, SMS, Radio, Voice and Internet access
* Pipe rental
* Power consumption arbitrage
* Interconnect fees
- What will fade away?
* Voice-Call-Charges
* Billing Cost
According to an old study of [a PTT] Billing was nearly as expensive as their voice income. (Software, staffing, stamps etc.) of interconnect and freedom of service usage.
* Customers, since they are not open for user selection
So here is my question for you?
Pretend you are Verizon Wireless executives inheriting the assets previously considered the family jewels. Do you agree that Access to the Internet is the basic service for all communications going forward? If you are involved in building applications are you concerned that one day you will have to be partner? Do you see the widgets of Google and the hosting of Amazon as part of these strategic issues? How do you keep the profits from Wireless safely away from the bundling of the fixed side of the company?
----
- Thought Leading Innovators Track (Now I'm excited)
Sometimes we are not very good at tooting our own horn. Well at least I am not. We have a very cool conference going on at the VON which is a hybrid of the unconference and the innovators track. You can find it on this link...http://www.von.com/2007/boston/web/confSchedule_gsct1182269232_icci1189592511.html
Just comes of the tip of your tongue. But seriously we always say Voice is Just an application and this is the place we will prove it. Including an expect battle of the SIP apps on the iPhone. In the unconference Tom Howe is going to be push for the developers to live up the pulver challenge
(see http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/007256.html )
But the best part of this part of the conference will be the interaction. If you come into these sessions, be part of the discussion. Not just a spectator at the revolution, but a citizen of the community.
The Innovators track has sessions looking developers tools like Ajax and Ruby (on Rails), Enterprise / Telco 2.0, Social Networking, Tossable digits, and of course the iPhone work arounds for better services.
This should be a fun set of sessions for those people looking to develop the new, disrupt the old or just think about the phone network of the future.
- Feedback on FMC
At the last few VON's our FMC tracks were very well attended. In part this was thanks to the excellent help from Alan Duric of Telio and perhaps it was in keeping with the fact that VON is a destination event that attracts the world.
In organizing the event, we got a lot of feedback that FMC had a specific meaning associated only with European deployments.
Mind you this was from the folks selling FMC to Europe
One suggestion that was made is that FMC was a misnomer in the end everything will be wireless.
Another perspective given was that FMC is the migration of the infrastructure for Unified Communication
The event was a huge succession and featured a lot of excited business people. One new area that is becoming a hot topic is Femtocells.
Femtocells back haul wireless calls to your wireless provider. In the US T-Mobile is offering this alternative and Sprint has a trial going on as well.
To me this looks like an ATA for Wireless.
It also looks like a next generation of Jeff's CellSocket. [It's amazing how long it takes for some things to come into vogue.]
For those interested we are going to have a preconference on FemtoCells as Fall VON, plus it will the subject of the Tuesday General Session.
For those wishing to continue the dialogue on FMC I am experimenting with a social network on Ning that you can get to by the url http://pulcom.ning.com. Feel free to join us.
- 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.
- The VON "E" Ticket
Speaking about my E-mail blasts, I went on a rant to several thousand linkedin friends about an e-mail blast I sent out regarding Amol Sarva.
On the weekend, I watch/listen to C SPAN often and in listening to Amol speak I heard a strong position that needed to be heard by the community
As a former exec of Virgin Mobile he represents an interesting view that works for an MVNO as well as the more portal like players looking to make a new future for the wireless Internet
So we invited him to the VON Conference, but he is speaking to the delegates of the conference.
Not as part of the Keynotes open to all attendees
I am not sure people have understood the benefit of being a delegate and since most of the content is for delegates I want to state the distinction.
A delegate at VON gets to go to anything and everything
A delegate at the new events gets the benefit of the conference and the VON exhibit floor.
These conferences include Digium Asterisk World, Mobile Security, Unified Communication, Video on the Net and VONDex.
Exhibits Only attendees have the benefit of the content on the floor which is also valuable
I personally will be spending most of my time in the breakout sessions at VON including the innovators track.
- Conclusion.
Thank you for taking the time to read this far.
I allowed this email to go out via our mail system in case anyone wants to unsubscribe.
I hope you join the dialogue either on http://carlscorner.pulvermedia.com or http://pulcom.ning.com
Kind Regards,
Carl Ford
VP Content and Community Development.
carl@pulver.com
631-961-8955
PS Just in case you need the links for all the shows they are as follows
http://www.von.com/2007/rome/web/confSchedule.php
http://www.von.com/2007/boston/web/confSchedule.htm
http://www.digiumasteriskworld.com/2007/boston/web/confSchedule.htm
http://www.mobilesecuritycon.com/2007/boston/web/confSchedule.htm
http://www.unifiedcommunicationscon.com/2007/boston/web/confSchedule.htm
http://www.videoonthenet.com/2007/boston/web/confSchedule.htm
http://www.vondex.net/2007/boston/web/confSchedule.htm
PPS my apologies to marketing but I am starting people on the content pages. ;<)
Posted by carl at 06:26 AM | Comments (0)
September 25, 2007
Here I am in Rome
VON Europe Autumn, AKA VON Italy is getting started. Henry has been scaring the known world with equality for all as soon as the engineering meritocracy finishes the specs.
Bogdan and Adrian arrived in preparation for the openSER BOSS Integration tutorial.
And Malcolm Wardlaw from BT and I have been discussing the business of keeping the next generation and the old... I mean my generation working together.
Lots of work ahead of us.
Posted by carl at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2007
An Invitation to our exhibitor community
VON used to be a show where the exhibitor and the conference attendee were in the sessions together. I would like have the exhibitors and the delegates in the conference better involved and for this purpose I am offering you a free delegate pass.
VON has grown to match the market. As you know VoIP has gone mainstream. The impact to VON is that we are following the threads a variety of ways. For our traditional community it can look confusing because the show has some the elements better segmented. Which makes the sum of the parts harder to see as a whole.
VON is covering Voice Communication, Video and IP, Wireless Mobility, Presence and Positioning and the Innovator’s Track.
We also have Video on the Net, an unconference going on for our developers in the Innovator's Track and VONDEX for the exhibitors expanding their channel.
Adjacent to VON are the events that match specific needs of business customers including SMB and Enterprise. These events include the open source Digium Asterisk World, Unified Communication, and Mobile Security.
I would love to get your feedback and hope to see you in the conference.
Posted by carl at 10:44 AM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2007
A Name You Can Trust?
I got this spam in my in box and I fell in love with the absurdity. If a name that you trust has to use 2 different web portals and no URL for itself, what good are they.
From: Joan Vera [mailto:rafaelalberto12@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2007 5:50 PM
To: Carl Ford
Subject: Looking for emaployees!
Hello,
We are a major international company E-Trust
According to the appearance of new vacancies, we are looking for the people who are ready to cooperate with us.
Our rules:
1. You need no more than one hour a day on the first stage of the work.
2. During the probation period (1 month) your salary will be $3800. Also you will get your interest from each deal.
3. In the 1st month after the probation period we will conclude the contract with
you and provide you with the opportunity for the career development.
Requirements:
1. People of 18-60 that live in the USA.
2. Home computer with e-mail
3. Responsibility, diligence
Apply for job at: E.TrustCompany@gmail.com
We will answer to all who is interested. Hurry, the number of vacancies is limited.
Yours respectfully,
E-Trust Company.
Posted by carl at 05:53 PM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2007
A New Years Gift - FMC slides.
A little experimentation. If you join me on this pulvermedia community website, you can view all the slides from the FMC event.
The slides are at the bottom of the page of the discussions that equal the session titles from FMC and that the discussions are in the FMC Group?
Aidan Dillon of Accuris Networks
Akshay Sharma of Gartner on VoWifi
Akshay Sharma of Gartner on FMC Video
Barlow Keener of Keener Law Groupl
Dororthy Stanley of Aruba Networks
Fanny Mlinarsky of Octoscope on Mesh Networks
Fanny Mlinarsky of Octoscope 802 Tutorial
Geri Mitchell-Brown of Polycom
Graham Celine of Azimuth Systems
Martin Levetin of Strix Systems
Stephen Horvath of Teleplus Consulting
Tony Hylton CIO of Cook County
Posted by carl at 09:58 AM | Comments (0)
September 11, 2007
Google Groups vs Social Networks
Some ironies in putting the slides up for the FMC in the two different groups has left me laughing.
Google is Storage restrictive! From the same company that gave a free GB mailbox comes two restrictions on storage. The file can only be 10M, so some graphically intense presentations I had to break up into 2 or 3 parts.
NING is Pretty to look at and Ugly to Navigate! So I can all the slides uploaded on to Ning, and I have the former session content visiablly up there including pictures, bios, abstracts, but giving people a guide to find the speaker they want is harder than I would want.
I need to find a way to display a map and make it link
Posted by carl at 02:47 PM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2007
Google's Do No Evil
We just had a great show in Chicago and everyone wanted the slides.
I decided to put them into a google group for the participants and have sent to almost 300 registrants.
Well, guess what. Google has flagged my invitation and wants an explanation from me.
So in effect, they are supervising me.
Is that evil? Maybe maybe not. But it is judgemental as to who is evil and who is not.
Good Luck to them in their efforts to have the wisdom of Soloman.
Posted by carl at 02:11 AM | Comments (0)
September 03, 2007
Before the unconference we were there
- Thought Leading Innovators Track
Sometimes we are not very good at tooting our own horn at pulver. Well at least I am not. One of the problems we have had is that Jeff’s concept of purple minutes was stated long before Web 2.0 and Telco 2.0 came into vogue and we have not been good at embracing those terms. Additionally they belong to other people’s efforts and we don’t want to steal their IPR. But the world has adopted those terms and they are being used more generically and few people remember the purple minutes statement.
Additionally the concept of an unconference has come into vogue. Jeff and I have run our Executive Summits like the basic format of an unconference in the fact the goal was a dialogue between speaker and audience. We even seeded the audience with “discussants” to make sure no slide deck was safe.
As for an open format where people inserted themselves in, Marni reminded me of the SIP summit we were running when 9/11 occurred. With half the speakers stuck between countries or grounded at home and another group rushing home to love ones, the rest of us built a conference on a whiteboard. It was a good event and certain members of the community I have a special place in my heart for because of their participation.
So those Executive Summit alumni and those were either at the SIP summit or on their way when 9/11 occurred are invited to be discussants at our first Innovators Track.
The Innovators track is for the community that is working on the new and innovative strategies that progresses because its part of the bigger trend. We know that computing will integrate all communication and that Internet is the ultimate network. This track follows these trends. Here are the sessions which are available to VON Delegates only
Posted by carl at 02:10 AM | Comments (0)
September 02, 2007
Femtocells
- Feedback on FMC
At the last few VON's our FMC tracks were very well attended. In part this was thanks to the excellent help from Alan Duric of Telio and perhaps it was in keeping with the fact that VON is a destination event that attracts the world.
Running the conference as a spin off seems to have come at interesting time.
In organizing the event, we got a lot of feedback that FMC had a specific meaning associated only with European deployments.
Mind you this was from the folks selling FMC to Europe
One suggestion that was made is that FMC was a misnomer in the end everything will be wireless.
Another perspective given was that FMC is the migration of the infrastructure for Unified Communication
One new area that is becoming a hot topic is Femtocells.
Femtocells back haul wireless calls to your wireless provider. In the US T-Mobile is offering this alternative.
To me this looks like an ATA for Wireless.
It also looks like a next generation of Jeff's CellSocket. [It's amazing how long it takes for some things to come into vogue.]
For those interested we are going to have a ˝ day tutorial on FemtoCells with a few panels on the subject on November 1st.
For those wishing to continue the dialogue on FMC I am experimenting with a social network on Ning that you can get to by the url http://pulcom.ning.com. Feel free to join us.
Posted by carl at 02:12 AM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2007
Disruption Creeps Along
- The Disruption Moves Slowly (Part 1)
Note: I will publish part 2 just before VON Europe Autumn.
One Interesting result of these wireless ATAs is the service piggy-backs on the landline broadband service.
A Tipping point in the home was pointed out this week by MediaMark.
MediaMark stated that 14 % of the US has a cellphone with no landline phone.
While approx 13% of the US has a landline phone with no cellphone.
This is lead to a discussion between some of our friends that I have asked to express here with you all.
Henry Sinnreich starts with the premise that all communication services are in effect the Internet.
From this perspective, I would contend that att, Cablevision, Vodafone, etc. are offering the same thing - Access
But this simple view point can get convoluted as some service providers ride on top of others.
Or as Willie Wimmreuter points out
The basic question to that answer is how to find some sweet-spots that will be honored and payed for by the "End-User" or the"final point of convergence", as Richard Stastny would say
Willie goes on to say... about end user choice
Just for the sake of usage freedom and global reach, the Internet of course will become the network of choice and here I'm with [Henry]
We just made the mistake way to often and sold the "Internet" but not the "advantages" to the user.
So why do we not stop selling the religion and sell the advantages, help or assistance instead. A user will go for it and even pay for if he can use it to his advantage
VoIP, P2P, etc. Instead, I try to help selling things, the user is willing to pay for and by that, the Internet, P2P or whatever will sell implicitly
Henry replied that
EU regulators seem to be enlightened about competition and avoiding such conspiracies like roaming charges.
They also have sympathy for Skype and Skype in mobile phones
Willie in a series of responses gave a good perspective.
Unless these incumbents see the "Internet as a service", they will not be able operate it in an open way and thus they will see providers from other countries and continents selling to their customers whilst they can only sell to customers of their own network
- What they make their living with?
* Voice- calls, SMS, Radio, Voice and Internet access
* Pipe rental
* Power consumption arbitrage
* Interconnect fees
- What will fade away?
* Voice-Call-Charges
* Billing Cost
According to an old study of [a PTT] Billing was nearly as expensive
as their voice income. (Software, staffing, stamps etc.)
of interconnect and freedom of service usage.
* Customers, since they are not open for user selection
So here is my question for you? Do you agree that Access to the Internet is the basic service for all communications going forward? If you are involved in building applications are you concerned that one day you will have to be partner. Do you see the widgets of Google and the hosting of Amazon as part of these strategic issues?
Posted by carl at 02:13 AM | Comments (0)