Carl's Corner: October 2007 Archives

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October 21, 2007

Making your life easier one URL at a time

I have made bought a series of URLs for the benefit of people reaching out in the conference

The first is the total community site.

http://www.pulvermediacommunity.net

The second is the unconference VONCamp

http://www.voncamp.net

The third one is to see the Innovators track

http://www.invonate.net

In my head I see a little flash where the n and v keep circling around the o. But I am not good with dreamweaver so I am leaving it to you all.

If some does it I will give them a free pass to spring.

Kind Regards,

carl

Posted by carl at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)

October 19, 2007

VON is For Wireless

Pulvermedia Bolsters Mobile/Wireless Content at Fall 2007 VON Boston, October 29-November 1, 2007

New Speakers, Vendors, Conference Sessions and Tutorials Emphasize Mobile
and Wireless Technologies at Fall VON

BEVERLY, Mass., Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Pulvermedia today announced the
addition of several new speakers, vendors, pre-conference tutorials and
breakout sessions at Fall 2007 VON that focus on mobile and wireless
content. Now in its eleventh year, VON continues to reflect the state of
the IP-communications industry -- and as such, the upcoming Fall 2007 VON
event will feature more Mobile-VoIP and wireless content than ever before.
"The war on the Internet is over, in the sense that broadband is
pervasive in the office, as well as in the home setting -- and today, the
next steps involve making us all one-in-the-same with the Mobile Internet,"
said Carl Ford, VP of Content and Community at Pulvermedia. "This is the
next major battle in our industry, and we'll be spending a lot of time
discussing this at Fall VON."
Mobile and Wireless sessions on Tuesday, October 30th include:
-- 10:00 AM - AT&T's Vice President of Product & Strategy Jeff Webber
-- 11:15 AM - Senior VP and GM of Intel's Ultra Mobility Group, Anad
Chandrasekher will deliver his Industry Perspective session
-- 1:30 PM - the VoIP over 3G breakout session will feature: Disruptive
Analysis' Dean Bubley; FirstHand Technology's David Hattey; QUALCOMM's
John Hannan; Truphone's James Tagg; and Fring's Boaz Zilberman
-- 3:15 PM - the 4G Wireless Mobility session will discuss numerous
alternative access points: it will be led by Sprint Nextel Corp's Ali
Tabassi
-- 3:15 PM - the Voice over Wi-Fi Breakout session will feature Meru
Network's Joe Epstein; Broadcom's Robert Franzo; Polycom's Ben
Guderian; Cisco's Sherman Scholten; and the Wi-Fi Alliance's Judy
Racino-Farrer
-- 4:30 PM - Motorola's Corporate VP, Senior Fellow and Chief Architect
Dr. Hamid Ahmadi will discuss the drive to communications convergence
and its impact on the future of telecommunications
-- 4:45 PM - A FemtoCell breakout session will discuss the impact to end
users, and will feature Thomson's Stan Class; Samsung's Jim Parker; and
several others.
On Wednesday, October 31st, additional Mobile and wireless sessions
will include:
-- 9:00 AM - an Industry perspective by Nokia's CTO and executive vice
president Tero Ojanpera, discussing how "Mobility Makes People Matter
More."
-- 9:30 AM - Sprint Nextel's Ali Tabassi will deliver an Industry
Perspective session entitled: "Mobilizing the Internet"
-- 11:15 AM - an additional FemtoCell session will feature PicoChip's
Rupert Baines, ip.access' Richard Henderson; AirWalk Communication's
Serge Pequeux, and Keener Law Group's Barlow Keener
-- 2:00 PM - The Wireless Founders Coalition for Innovation's Amol Sarva
will deliver a session entitled," Using Wireless Open Access to Change
the World."
On Thursday November 1, the Chief Technologist of Nokia's Mobile
Solutions Unit, Timothy Jasionowski will participate in a session entitled
"Trend Spotting," at 900 AM.
New to this year's program is the Mobile Security Conference, which
runs across both expo days, discussing an array of topics including:
assessing mobile threats, data leakage, and strategies for creating a
mobile security policy. The premier sponsor for the Mobile Security
Conference is Nokia, who is also participating in several other aspects of
VON.
Lastly, a Pre-Conference "Femtocell" Tutorial is scheduled to take
place from 9:00 AM until 5:00 PM on Monday, October 29th. To attend any of
these sessions, or for more information about Fall VON, please visit:
http://www.von.com/2007/boston/web/. Members of the media can obtain media
credentials by contacting ally.forbes@pulvermedia.com.
About Pulvermedia:
Pulvermedia is the leading integrated media company, building
communities and providing ready marketplace access through its unparalleled
blend of trade shows, publications, web channels, and progressive
cutting-edge media. And as the foremost integrated media company,
Pulvermedia is ideally poised to deliver a vast range of messages to a wide
variety of audiences, including technology buyers and sellers, government
regulators, industry analysts, luminaries, pundits and bloggers. For more
information, please visit http://www.pulvermedia.com.

Posted by carl at 02:13 PM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2007

Leo Chan Asks about MVNOs

Question Details:
--------------------
Mixed signals as Disney shut down MVNO, Helio cut handset price, Virgin Mobile IPO, and did anyone notice that ILEC based MVNOs remain standing?

Did anyone notice that the ILEC based MVNOs are still alive and kicking (see recent stories from Embarq)? Which of the following do you think contribute to their success (if you can call it that)? Will they last? What could be their exit if there needs to be one or there will be one?

1) Cost efficiency thanks to the shared back office used by the ILEC.
2) Market intelligence. After all they are the phone companies!
3) Keeping it low profile. What kills an MVNO? Success! Because of the subsidies.
4) They're losing socks and pants but somehow they manage to keep it afloat by cutting in the profitability of other services.

A very interesting question, and with our former telco background in common, I know you will appreciate that I did a spit take on the second possibility.

I think the issue is that we have not understood the complexities of brand vs. trust. I believe you can make a case for the iPhone being a new type of MVNO. The web in your hand at the end will be Apple's look and feel regardless of your using att or Orange.

The other side of the equation is the brand folks had no margin management in their deals. Its rough to work that way. Embarq can build a bundle and find efficiencies or subsidies as would call it.

Last but not least the consumer is not there yet. Like the the adoption of new energy providers. People still know who it is that delivers the service. IMHO if MVNOs were to learn from some of the Thomson set top boxes for triple play and became femto MVNOs that would be very powerful.

Kind Regards,

Carl

PS big discussions about Femtocells at VON this year

Posted by carl at 08:10 AM | Comments (3)

October 16, 2007

Carl's Corner

Foreword - Carl’s Corner keeps growing smaller.

Thank you to the few of you that started reading my blog. I believe I am up to seven, but one of my relatives is ill, and may not be looking all the time ;<). Seriously, I am still posting at http: //carlscorner.pulver.com . Sorry about the bad link posted in the last issue. I am also posting to http: //pulcom.ning.com , but as you will read I think I am looking for a new social network strategy.

- NING is PINGING me off
- If I were dating Facebook
- More on the Verizon
- Standards and the Never Ending Story
- Five Interesting Aspects of VON.

- NING is PINGING me off

I have been preparing for Fall VON in Boston by setting up the templates for all the slides to be available to the delegates. I have made a commitment that almost of my time will be with the delegates in session breakouts. As the alumni know, I have been splitting my time between the exhibit floor, sales office and conference the last couple of years. We now have sufficient support in the company, I can hang out and get the immediate feedback of being with the delegates. It will be good to be in the midst of the networking again. But recognizing that I am only one person, I have been trying to set up a pulvermedia community site at http: //pulcom.ning.com . However, in the midst of setting up the templates the system gave another corrupted data error. And then Ning went to equivalent of a test pattern.

As you may have read last time, I get supported via email from these maniacs, and now that they are down as well as my site . . . I was not even sure I should waste my time e-mailing. To me an email blast saying, ”Yes we know we are down” should be basic.” I have looked at some other sites, but requirements for huge files being uploaded (e.g., powerpoint slides). If you want to join me there, you are welcome, if its not up look for information on my blog on the status and the potential relocation.

- If I were dating Facebook

I have gotten some grief in the past, for a gender bias in these types of discussions, so I am going to be gender neutral. If a gender neutral person went out to dinner with Facebook, what would be your impression. Well the conversation would be about people you know in common and there you could feel the discussion turn competitive. Do you know so and so, they were just here or there and they did this and that. You would get the sense that Facebook knew them. But then you would inevitably find a person or two in common. “Oh yes, I know them too.” But Facebook would show less interest in that specific person. Like an Attention Deficient Disorder victim, the conversation could not turn to focus on that person.

The result of the date would be an memorable experience, but would you want to have a permanent relationship. As I am discussing my troubles with Ning, the universal response is Facebook. But it’s not a real solution. IMHO, at the end of the day the group is not a location on Facebook, it’s a passing fancy for Facebook. I have joined several groups on facebook, and it’s a great way to meet people with common interest, but I don’t think the interest lasts.

- More on the Verizon

I mentioned that Verizon was going through a regime change, I just want to tell you about the new players. The Top Post under Ivan is no longer the fixed line side but Dennis F. Strigl
President and Chief Operating Officer Verizon Communications. Now remember Verizon is in the process of selling off a good chunk of northern portion of what was formerly known as New England Telephone.

Dennis F. Strigl “is responsible for the operations of Verizon's network businesses -- Verizon Wireless, Verizon Telecom and Verizon Business -- as well as Verizon Services Operations, which provides financial, real estate and other functional services to all of the corporation’s operations.” “Strigl is widely recognized as one of the most prominent architects of the wireless communications industry.”

And speaking of architects, Richard J. Lynch is now the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer atVerizon Communications, who in “this role he is responsible for technology direction and network planning for [ALL] the Verizon business units.” He led the company in its move to Cellular Digital Packet Data [CDPD], Code Division Multiple Access [CDMA] and EV-DO; his profile goes on to say that “Under Lynch, the Verizon Wireless network attained the distinction of quality and reliability which has formed the basis for the very well known “Can you hear me now?” advertising campaign.

Which brings us to John G. Stratton, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, who introduced [Verizon]’s well-known “Can You Hear Me Now?” campaign and established itself as the number-one brand among wireless consumers in the United States. These gentleman are leading the blending of the fixed and wireless companies, which has resulted in the first quad play offer. Its should be interesting to see what else they deliver in the next few years. These moves in place, convergence of management is happening.

PS Gentleman there is a free pass waiting for all of you to come to VON

- Standards and the Never Ending Story

The e-mail dialogue between some friends yielded this gem, thanks to Jiri Kuthan of Tekelec. The discussion was about the standards bodies collecting useless standards that take a serious turn for trivial. He suggested that what happens is analogous to the Nothing destroying the possibilities in the Never Ending Story. .

In, Michael Ende's "The Never Ending Story", the kingdom is destroyed by folks without fantasy, the main character michael is pressured to give up the fantasy and focus on nothing but process. Often is how the standards get thwarted since the focus goes to process and not to the merit of a concept.
If the Nothing had consciousness, you could see the move to the standards was genious. So many brilliant ideas materialize out of the "thin air", the Nothing looks to be conscious. Those who think the way to brilliance is to focus on thin air... See Nothing and declare it good.

- Five Interesting Aspects of VON.

Jeff and I had a discussion about the show and what is new, we talked about five specific areas that are interesting.

First was the Innovators track which has some new service demos, a live mashup and an unconference.
Can you embrace the pulver challenge being worked in a Mashup?
The second trend is the battle for the Internet is not over its just migrated to the wireless network. While Google is not speaking at the show; Google's efforts for a net neutral WiMax will be in the midst of the discussion by the IPs.. Including Anand Chandrasekher the SVP / GM of Intel; Tero Ojanpserä the CTO of Nokia, Ali Tabassi the WiMAX master of Sprint, and Adrian Scarse the 3GPP Secretariat from ETSI. These are not lightweight speakers and collectively represent half a trillion worth of investment strategy.

And speaking of Nokia, Tero is talking about the all the opportunities represented from an open socially mobile Internet. While the battle about Net Neutrality has calmed down the battle of the Titans: Cable vs Telco will be well represened by the ILECs Triple Play speakers. Note: Open invites for Cable Operators has been extended..

Which brings us to the fifth theme, the use of the home network to support a personal base station. These base stations which back haul on your broadband Internet access are called femtocells. Daniel Hesse, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Embarq Corporation may be sharing some of his thoughts about how they are integrating to this nascent technology. This technology is so recent we have a hidden sixth track you can find including its own tutorial preconference.

So at 60,000 feet VON is converging the cool applications folkd with the Mobile Internet transport that makes for a good future. Should be a great show.

- I thank you for the notes.

If you have a comment, engage with me on the websites. Some friends responded with links and notes to me. However, I would rather you post to the blog [http://carlscorner.pulver.com and / or the social network http://pulcom.ning.com .

I look forward to hearing / seeing from you.

Kind Regards,
carl

PS The VON Umbrella is extensive this Fall Here are all the shows

http://www.von.com/2007/boston/web/
http://www.digiumasteriskworld.com/2007/boston/web/
http://www.mobilesecuritycon.com/2007/boston/web/
http://www.unifiedcommunicationscon.com/2007/boston/web/
http://www.videoonthenet.com/2007/boston/web
http://www.vondex.net/2007/boston/web/

PPS Jeff is going out partying on Halloween if you are joining him go to this link http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=5865456793

Posted by carl at 11:24 PM | Comments (2)

October 15, 2007

Should we make the V in VON a W?

On the Cook report, my ears were burning. I talked to Gordon and this is the aftermath.

Gordon, again thank you for your kind words.

Just a point of clarity on these lines from Gordon.

I have the impression that carl is limited in the independence from von that he could achieve for an implementors track

it seems there is a branding problem

Here was point. We have built this year's conference around the issues associated with applications and the mobile subvergence (never mind covergence / FMC) of the Internet.

If you think IMS is evil, its because of the way the Internet is delivered on the platform. If you think we should be Web 2.0 all the way -vfine, but look how badly the Internet is delivered to most cell phones.

VON has made the transition to bring these issues into main confernence. Sprint and Intel on Wimax, ATT and Alcatel Lucent on 3 screen TV strategies, Nokia and Motorola on WiFi, Dual mode and everything else with the letters RF near it.

VON is now Wireless... But we cant call it WON. So VON is still VON... at least for today...

As for the Innovators, they get tired of listening to the Titans claim they control mortals. They are Promotheus playing with fire and daring to look in Pandora's box to see if Hope has gone. They will be content anywhere.. Hopefully, the innovators track fits there need.

Now the second part of the problem.

I ask everyone are you coming to VON. Some say Yes, Some say No...

I get a mixed answer... I then say have you looked at the schedule?

I never hear Yes. So I have a wireless show that everyone says VON is VoIP. But VoIP is not VoIP its everywhere now, and yet VON is being branded as only voice on fixed lines. SS7 ad nauseaum. Even with Jeff's recent activities in Video and Social Networking.

Brands constantly migrate up the food chain. VON should be allowed the same experience.

Posted by carl at 04:15 AM | Comments (2)

October 08, 2007

The Newsletter vol 2.

Foreword - Carl’s Corner keeps growing smaller.

- NING is PINGING me off
- If I were dating Facebook
- More on the Verizon
- Standards and the Never Ending Story
- Five Interesting Aspects of VON.

- NING is PINGING me off

- If I were dating Facebook

I have gotten some grief in the past, for a gender bias in these types of discussions, so I am going to be gender neutral. If a gender neutral person went out to dinner with Facebook, what would be your impression. Well the conversation would be about people you know in common and there you could feel the discussion turn competitive. Do you know so and so, they were just here or there and they did this and that. You would get the sense that Facebook knew them. But then you would inevitably find a person or two in common. “Oh yes, I know them too.” But Facebook would be show less interest in that specific person. Like an Attention Deficient Disorder victim, the conversation could not turn to focus on that person.

- More on the Verizon

PS Gentleman there is a free pass waiting for all of you to come to VON

- Standards and the Never Ending Story

- Five Interesting Aspects of VON.

Jeff and I had a discussion about the show and what is new, we talked about five specific areas that are interesgting.

So at 60,000 feet VON is converging the cool applications folkd with the Mobile Internet transport that makes for a good future. Should be a great show.

- I thank you for the notes.

I look forward to hearing / seeing from you.

Kind Regards,
carl

PS The VON Umbrella is extensive this Fall Here are all the shows

PPS Jeff is going out partying on Halloween if you are joining him go to this link http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=5865456793

Posted by carl at 12:35 AM | Comments (1)

October 05, 2007

Thought for the Day

Equality is never about balance
Its about change and adoption.

Posted by carl at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

October 04, 2007

Nice Write UP from a Friend on Wireless

1. Introduction - How to create a successful business with the mobile internet

2. Adopt email, instant messaging and other Internet based messaging media - why the SMS, the text message,is a barrier to mobile growth

3. Build bridges between different messaging media

4. Move from transaction based to tiered and hence to flat rate pricing - why migrating away from transaction based pricing is key to success

5. Find the early adopters

6. Create a commons using flat rate access and build a Long Tail Business on top of the commons

7. Some suggestions to the user

8. The Scientific argument

9. Why was Japan successful and why is success hard to achieve in the West

10. About the author of the website

11. Publications

12. Feedback and contact information

Posted by carl at 07:25 AM | Comments (0)

October 03, 2007

IMTC: Content Delivery Discussion

Is this just about the Legacy?

I am looking forward to the IMTC content at Fall VON, because I hope to understand more about the issues with implementing content delivery.

Some of the community of VON are strictly Web 2.0 types and are not looking to the network as a support system. Their view is that the Internet enables their services and as long as you can use their service via the Internet thats enough.

Some of these folks I think have a business model that makes sense, but more often than not its a land grab story, all based on acquistion and customer good will.

Once you are connected to a traditional network provider. The service becomes more sticky and in theory more valuable. As a bundle the free becomes embedded cost to existing service.

So as a former carrier, I want these folks to be part of my network, or I want them to fear my implementation. But now here is the question?

Do I have an advantage in delivering services?

I know that sounds ridiculous. For the Netheads, it sounds ridiculous because the network provider is holding on to a walled garden that maintains isolation and can not be a sustaining model. For the Bellheads, it sounds ridiculous because the network always has value and the question is only about maximizing value.

So cutting to the chase?

I am going to sit in the sessions asking myself, am I truly maximizing my networks value when delivering content? Or am i fighting a loosing battle trying to add value via network based services.

I look forward to the summit.

Posted by carl at 05:57 AM | Comments (0)

October 02, 2007

Facebook Falling Star

Okay here is an interesting feature dysfunction.

I am playing a scrabble-like game with a friend and while I can get to the game from her facebook profile, my account does not work. Obviously, its a feature ;<)

Just one more of the mounting frays in the facebook tapestry.

Some of my coworkers are complaining about the annoyance of Facebook sending email. Double the work for often marginal messages.

Bad apps and sad signalling.

I think we can do better.

Posted by carl at 10:25 PM | Comments (0)

What can a Network do for you?

A quick debriefing from VON Europe Autumn is that the IMS folks are committed to supporting the legacy network in its migration to being application friendly.

The applicaton side of our community is not committed to IMS, and as a matter of fact is not particularly interested in telecom.

So is the emphasis in the right place.

I would contend that the IMS advocates need to convey the vision for a network API that is compelling to a widget developer.

Something that makes the expanded use of call control logic a valuable addition.

Right now services such as ccube, fring, jangl, and others use basic call control. They are not particularly feature rich SIP User Agents. I believe however that none of them would suggest the right answer is a network service.

Since in all their cases they were built to overcome a network limitation.

So here is the queston. What can a Network Do for you?

Posted by carl at 07:40 AM | Comments (0)

October 01, 2007

The Enemy: He is Us

He is Us

Posted by carl at 07:08 AM | Comments (0)