« January 20, 2006 | Main | January 22, 2006 »
ITEXPO Can't Miss Events
The worst thing you can do at an industry event is miss one of the most important things that are happening. At Internet Telephony Conference & Expo next week for example there is just so much happening that you will be hard-pressed to find something you shouldn't attend. There are just so many unique educational events that you should make sure to get plenty of rest every night.
Here are some of the things I suggest you do while at the show. First and foremost, come by and say hello to me at a reception. Please tell me what TMC is doing wrong and right. We always want to improve and listening to our customers is how we have gotten to be one of the longest running publishing and conference companies around -- founded in 1972!
Now I will do my best to make all receptions. There are three at the show -- equally divided between Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. Check out this page for more information.
Oh yeah, while I am thinking about it make sure to bring your ID to the show. Here are details on the security of the convention center:
PERIMETER SECURITY
The Center is located at the northern end of Port Everglades, the world's second largest cruise port. To ensure safety for all in the surrounding area, Broward Sheriffs' Office established checkpoints at all entrances into the Port. Photo identification is required. Contact your Event Coordinator for further details.
I will try to make all meals so if you have a pass that allows you access to meals I may see you there as well.
Oh and by the way, if you see me on my Blackberry while a speaker is talking I am actually blogging. I blogged a lot at the last show via Blackberry. It is murder on the thumbs by the way. I may try to use my laptop whenever possible.
Other than the keynotes, sessions like The Future of IP Telephony, How to make Money Selling VoIP and Battle for the Enterprise are special attractions you cannot miss.
Furthermore, if you miss any keynotes this show you may be sorry. Why? Well our keynotes are often full of information you can't find anywhere else. From unique ideas to market research you weren't aware of you will come away more educated. I suggest you make all keynote sessions.
Remember that there are keynotes at this show you just can't find anywhere else such a Tom Ridge and CNBC's Ron Insana. You just can't find keynotes of this caliber at other events. In addition we have Digium's Mark Spencer, Eric Shepcaro from AT&T, Elliot Zeltzer from General Motors, Lawrence Byrd from Avaya and more. Companies such as Time Warner Telecom, IBM, Covad, Level3 and Cisco Systems are all represented.
In order to get the most out of any conference make sure to go to the conferences (if you have a conference pass), the exhibits and all networking functions. The meals at ITEXPO are amazing learning experiences. The level of audience participation in the breakfasts and lunches at past shows has been amazing in my opinion.
I guess the last few things to tell you are to bring your sunglasses and try to get away for a day or two after the show. I get this terrible feeling that a cold spell will hit the north while we are all down in Florida so be sure to bring your gloves and hats just in case we come back bone-chilling weather.
In closing, thanks for enabling me to have perhaps the most fun job in the world. I was reminiscing yesterday about how when we launched Internet Telephony Magazine I went to Comdex in November 1997 to let everyone know about our new publication.
I was met with universal ridicule by all exhibitors who told me that IP telephony was a toy. "Why would you launch a magazine in that space?" I heard frequently. A few people understood what we were doing, companies such as Lucent's elemedia division, Vocaltec, DeltaThree and Natural Microsystems come to mind. Others thought we were just plain stupid and these people weren't afraid to say so.
Needless to say, Internet Telephony Magazine is now one of the healthiest technology magazines and our show draws more buyers than any other VoIP show in the world. Again, thank you for allowing us to be where we are and allowing me to have a very fun job. Please have a safe trip to sunny
Link this |
Email this |
Leave comment
Trackback URL: ITEXPO Can't Miss Events
Technorati
Del.icio.us
BoingBoing
Slashdot
Digg
Spurl
Furl
One Little, Two Little, Three Little Internets
Here is the unedited Publisher's Outlook from the February 2006 issue of Internet Telephony Magazine:
We live in a country that prides itself on being on the forefront of technology yet we are behind in many ways. Interestingly we seem to constantly lag when it comes to communications infrastructure. While we brag that our country invented the Internet and probably 90% of the world population realizes how important the Internet is in business and our personal lives, no one in the United States is stepping up to the plate to ensure we will have the best Internet possible in this country.
First a word on cell phones. The
Verizon Wireless is holding us hostage. They have the best wireless network in the
Holding people hostage is something you can do if you have little or no competition. Interestingly there was a time many years ago when ISP competition was pretty fierce and hundreds of service providers wanted you to connect to the Internet through them. It got so competitive that companies such as NetZero gave away Internet access for free. One would surmise this was absolutely fantastic for consumers.
Fast forward 10 years and your ISP choices for broadband are limited pretty much to cable and DSL. You likely have two providers at most in you area. Take a guess. Do you think prices are decreasing for broadband delivery? No they aren't.
We may marvel that certain parts of the country have access to broadband over cable and that people in these areas are able to receive broadband at speeds of 4 megabits per second. We call this innovation. We say, "WOW! This is so much better than dialup." What we may not consider and probably should is that in
As if we weren't behind enough already in the
The principals that govern giving all content providers fair and equal access to Internet bandwidth is called Net Neutrality and there are debates taking place right now among government officials about whether this system makes sense for our future or is a better one allowing there to be a tiered Internet system?
Our government is heavily influenced by lobbyists and incumbent providers are some of the best lobbyists around. There is a great deal of concern by those in the know that the government will allow two levels of Internet to develop.
Imagine for a second that every company that makes a living by doing business on the Internet has to pay fees to ensure their web pages come up in less than 10 seconds. The potential for abuse is staggering. Will Amazon have to pay massive fees to ensure their customers can still shop online? Would you shop online if every page on a site you tried to reach took 10 or more seconds to load?
Will customers have to start using dialup to access their favorite sites? This is probably far fetched but what safeguards are in place to ensure service providers won't abuse their powerful monopoly positions?
Service providers are arguing that they have spent considerable amounts of money on their networks and they need to recoup their expenses. The irony is that they also told the government that sharing their lines with the CLECs was unfair because they are spending so much money building their networks, it isnt fair to share. So the FCC decided to more or less demolish the CLEC market which now sets the stage for cable and phone companies to exclusively control our access to the Internet. Now we have a duopoly and with the potential for abuse.
The phone companies are in the process of developing their own content and also signing distribution deals with content producers to ensure they can become competitive with the cable TV companies. The more content they produce the more money they will be able to make. They also are in a position to ensure that content providers are at a disadvantage in providing service while their services receive priority.
How does anyone monitor how much priority traffic actually gets? If your Vonage calls start to sound lousy, you may switch to a competitive service from the LEC… Is this not a compelling reason for LECs and cable companies to tinker with the quality of packets you receive?
Indeed, would a service like Vonage or Skype ever even get off the ground if these restrictions were in place 5 years back? The answer is likely no.
We know that any sort of restriction on bandwidth and the holding of content providers hostage is just bad business for the Internet community as a whole. It is just beyond my understanding how our government can even entertain such conversations.
If service providers are allowed to threaten content providers, we will enter a new world of web extortion where everybody loses, especially consumers.
I hope there are people in the government monitoring these issues very closely and these same people realize how well the Internet works today. Any changes to our system that will allow service providers to hold content providers hostage is a giant step backwards. If anything, in order for service providers to be allowed to keep their government-sanctioned and actually encouraged monopoly status, they should be forced to provide consumers a better price/speed ratio than any other country in the world.
This is what we desperately need. We are a competitive country. We shouldn't ever lose at anything, especially not the performance of Internet service. If the government were to adopt such ideas, we would all enjoy ever-faster Internet speed and this whole argument would go away altogether.
Link this |
Email this |
Leave comment
Trackback URL: One Little, Two Little, Three Little Internets
Technorati
Del.icio.us
BoingBoing
Slashdot
Digg
Spurl
Furl
AT&T
This past week was pretty busy with communications news and announcements. For example, AT&T made a number of headlines by providing large-scale videoconferencing in
I am still a bit mystified at the company's branding campaign. I think the ads themselves are great but I would imagine there isn't a much better-known brand than AT&T already. Might it make more sense to spend this money to go head on with Vonage?
I believe in branding a great deal. I have seen companies with no brand name make one for themselves through strategically placed ads. A smart marketer can take a company from 0 to 60 in no time flat. One wonders why CallVantage which has virtually no brand recognition hasn't been turned into the world's telephone service by AT&T.
I would think that for about $300 million CallVantage could lock up so many international countries, Vonage and others wouldn't know what hit them. AT&T will spend much more than this on branding themselves by the way.
I am sure the AT&T execs know what they are doing, I just get curious about such things. Still, time may be limited for CallVantage. The service seems to be a hit with the few customers that use it and the old and new AT&T seem to have their reasons for keeping it secret.
In the mean time Vonage is marketing like I have never seen before. Every marketing department in the world should learn from this company.
I am certainly not saying that Vonage is profitable or marketing in away where they are generating black ink. I don't have the inside track on the company's financials. What I do know is that their ads are pure genius and they are leaving little mindshare for others.
Still, I wonder what the other competitors are waiting for. There are so many companies who want to be the Vonage of tomorrow who seem to be waiting to market. What are these companies waiting for? I can't understand it. If you aren't marketing your VoIP service on all cylinders today when will you start?
If AT&T does become serious about being number one in VoIP, do you think that will be a better time to start your marketing campaign? If you manage the marketing department of a VoIP service provider today and you aren't attacking the market now, when will you?
Link this |
Email this |
Leave comment
Trackback URL: AT&T
Technorati
Del.icio.us
BoingBoing
Slashdot
Digg
Spurl
Furl
TMCnet in Top 1,000 Sites in World!
I had decided not to say anything about TMCnet's Alexa ranking until we hit triple-digits. We set a few new records since our 1,151 daily record back on January 5 of this year but I wanted to keep quiet until we hit 999 or better.
Well to my amazement someone sent me our new daily number today and boy was I thrilled. We have hit 1,000! This number is not unexpected as our servers are under full load and we are continually buying new equipment to keep up with the massive demand. Our in-house T3 is maxed at times as we deliver news to potentially over a million unique visitors in the month of January.
Traffic Rank for tmcnet.com (what's this)
Today | 1 wk. Avg. | 3 mos. Avg. | 3 mos. Change |
1,000 | 1,493 | 2,378 |
I also heard this weekend that a former TMC team member was quoted as saying Your site is amazing and the number one resource for Technology News." The good news is this person is happily employed and isn't fishing for a new job. ;)
As always, thank you for reading my blog and being part of the TMCnet experience. We appreciate you being part of the largest worldwide community of communications and technology professionals on the planet!
The TMCnet team is always looking to improve and your comments whether positive or negative are always welcome.
In conclusion, whether you are part of the group of 8,000+ people that will attend Internet Telephony Conference & Expo next week or you are just a casual reader of TMC's publications, we are eternally grateful for your continued support.
Link this |
Email this |
Leave comment
Trackback URL: TMCnet in Top 1,000 Sites in World!
Technorati
Del.icio.us
BoingBoing
Slashdot
Digg
Spurl
Furl