August 2008 Archives

The financial news networks seem to thrive on giving us the negative news regarding the economy. Jobs being lost; wages decreasing and all sorts of other negative bits and pieces.

Well there is something you won't hear about if you focus all your time and attention on the network news. It seems in fact that there is some great economic news in the world of IP communications. In fact, VoIP jobs are rising in salary at a time when so many other jobs are not.

OnForce Inc., is an online jobs mart where employers and workers meet on the Internet and agree on an hourly rate and a recent report from the company shows growth in VoIP rates have increased from 1.5 to 1.95 between Q1 and Q2. This basically means VoIP jobs are now paying twice the average of all IT jobs.

Get this... Jobs in the field of printers and point of sale systems (cash registers, etc) command 1/3 the salary of those in VoIP!

If you are in the VoIP space, your time is now. Sure these salary levels may not be this high forever but it is great to see demand and salaries increase so rapidly in a time where news in other markets is generally not as good.

If you are looking to get into the VoIP market or enhance your skills, the time is now. Don't wait... Don't delay.

There are many certifications you can look into and many are very good but only one is offered by TMC -- the company which publishes the only VoIP-related magazine -- Internet Telephony and puts on the world's only IP Communications event ITEXPO...

And of course that would be TMC University. Frankly, you cannot find a better certification anywhere IMHO and as you may have noticed it is tough to be humble when you think your product is so great.

Below is a list of VoIP-related courses and certifications which will be available to you September 16-18, 2008 in Los Angeles, CA. By the way, these courses come with a satisfaction guarantee and I have heard many times that resellers and others have found the certifications at past events valuable and responsible for increased business and rates.

I hope to see you at the show.

	Date	Course	Hosted by
Tuesday, September 16, 2008 Microsoft OCS Tuesday, September 16, 2008 FMC/Mobility   Tuesday, September 16, 2008 Open Source   Tuesday, September 16, 2008 SIP in the Contact Center   Wednesday, September 17, 2008 IP Network Security   Wednesday, September 17, 2008 SaaS Thursday, September 18, 2008 Unified Communications   Thursday, September 18, 2008 SIP: The Foundation for Building Enhanced Services Thursday, September 18, 2008 Next-Generation Call Center Management

Here's a really good CNET article detailing the death of Yahoo's social network Mash and further analysis of the social networking landscape. It would seem we have a saturated market and if you are looking to break into the space with a new social network you need an angle.

One of these angles is clearly to link together existing applications and services in new and innovative ways such as allowing a news reader to automatically share links which are tagged. There are really millions of permutations of sites and services and uses which together certainly make the entire internet more social.

This is where a tremendous amount of excitement will be in the Internet space going forward.

I made a logical leap in my headline -- inferring you can get famous -- in this case, written up in Popular Science Magazine if you come to TMC's Los Angeles ITEXPO conference in just over two weeks. Let me explain.

About a year and a half ago, Ari Zoldan, CEO of Launch 3 Communications -- a company installing global WiMAX networks came to ITEXPO and won an Toyota FJ Cruiser at the show. Now he seems to be popping up everywhere.

I just read an article in Popular Science Magazine (a great pub BTW) where Zoldan in his new capacity as CEO of Quantum Networks, LLC explains to inventors the best way to go about getting VC money from a firm like his. A few points to consider are -- call the CEO directly and don't give up majority interest.

Here is the article (look to the right side of the page).

Oh, and in just over two weeks, ITEXPO will be in full force and this year we are giving away a Toyota Prius to one lucky winner. Will it be you? Perhaps. Come to the show and find out.

If you haven't been paying attention you just may have missed the fact that bloggers have been going crazy lately about VoIP blocking on planes and the associated ways of getting around said blocking. Long story short -- SIP was being blocked on American Airline flights but Flash widgets were not blocked.

Andy Abramson has an original post on the matter and PhoneBoy has thoughts on why airplane broadband providers can likely block anything thrown at them.

Like I said a while back -- isn't it amazing how much effort airlines throw at stopping passengers from talking on phones when they don't get paid by the minute? I remember how they used to push us to use the in-flight phones in years past. Now it is easier to hack into the Pentagon's IT systems than talk on a flight.

I have mixed emotions about the Comcast cap of 250 GB/month of bandwidth. On the one hand, it is good the company is telling users what is acceptable and what is not. At least we now have a number and not an arbitrary amount the service provider gods don't share with us. Furthermore, it is good the company will communicate with customers about how much bandwidth is being used if users do actually go over.

Although I am not happy that ISPs limit bandwidth use that is the consumer in me talking. The business person of course understands the need to limit the potential for some users to hog all the bandwidth. Having said that, I believe ISPs who limit bandwidth should be required to provide a portal to users so they can see at least on a daily basis how much bandwidth they have used as well as a computer estimate of whether they are on track to exceed their alloted bandwidth.

This should apply to all service providers -- wireless or wired.

In fact the FCC should request/require service providers who cap bandwidth provide such a portal with the option of e-mail alerts at preset threshholds like 25, 50, 75% etc.

Seriously... Five years already? That is how old Skype is? Well time has really flown and I agree with Tom Keating that Skype really made VoIP a household name -- thanks to Vonage too of course who reminded us all of VoIP every time we turned on a TV.

I also agree somewhat with Andy Abramson that Skype is more VoIP 1.0 than 2.0 but what are you going to do? They are theoretically focusing on the things that make instant revenue today and synergy between Skype and eBay doesn't seem to be important. If it was, you would be able to Skype eBay customer service (see item #10).

I am really happy that Skype's Jonathan Christensen will be keynoting ITEXPO on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. It will be very interesting to hear what he has to say and see if the company has a new direction as a result of the new CEO they recently put in place.

The immense potential Skype has is almost impossible to fathom -- at any given point, millions of Skype users are online. As the company looks to the next five years I wonder if we will see a slew of new 2.0 type services or as Andy surmises, will we see less?

I find the ad campaign by AT&T Wireless regarding more bars in more places to be one of the more interesting ad campaigns because as far as wireless data is concerned, the network's 3G coverage is not nearly as good as Verizon's EVDO.

I've also experienced fast and very slow download speeds with the iPhone 3G - even in 3G mode. All in all the iPhone' UI makes up for connectivity issues but it is understandable that class action suits have developed as a result of the slow 3G performance many blame on AT&T... You see, the wireless carrier forces you to purchase a wireless data plan and then for many, the speed of the network is slower than their expectations.

The question is now, will this lawsuit pave the way for even more lawsuits targeted at service providers.

Blogged via wireless handheld.

If you thought the battle for the newest computer input method was between gesture-based, keyboard, speech, etc -- you would be missing out on one of the more recent advancements in computer input which is being used by the disabled. And that would be your tongue. Using a magnet and sensors, disabled people can communicate quite well with a computer.

I spent some time watching my tongue move in a mirror as I imagined the potentially infinite ways the tongue can move. It is quite possible that the tongue could become a more common method of input but then again, the idea of connecting a magnet to the tip of your tongue is probably not so appealing to the masses. I suppose swallowing these things could become a problem.

I should also mention this article appears on one of TMCnet's newer sites -- robotics. Take a look and let me know what you think of the new site.

While reading Michael Dinan's article on the HTC Dream which discusses the advanced services we can expect on this device, I can't help but wonder if Google's strategy is to ensure their cell phones are able to run Google services better than other phones. Right now, I can't imagine how any device could be more optimized for YouTube videos than the iPhone so I wonder if for Google, the services are more important or the phone.

In other words, is it better to have services run well across as many platforms as possible and if so, then what differentiators with the HTC Dream based on Google Android bring to the table? Time will tell of course but this article does discuss what features we can expect in greater detail.

I got an email today with a link to an article in a Ridgefield, Connecticut newspaper discussing how telepresence is allowing a school to continue teaching a language which was thought to be cost prohibitive to learn. This is really big news as it reminds us telepresence has tremendous potential to help children learn about many subjects where cost was once an issue. In addition, the technology allows greater interaction with students in other classrooms around the world and gives access to museums and other interactive exhibits.

All in all this is great news for the telepresence market and moreover gets our children used to advanced technology which will no doubt be commonplace when they enter the workforce.is expense.

Of course school boards need to approve the initial costs of telepresence systems but once they see the potential I would imagine most will.

Thanks to Bob Liu for sending the link.

I have often discussed how well the open-source communications market is doing and certainly the success of Asterisk/Digium is a good indication of how the market is today and where it might be headed. A while back I visited Digium's Huntsville, Alabama headquarters just before they were moving to their new building. I even had a chance to take pictures of the building as it was in the process of going up.

Well, fast forward over a year and the building is up, running and just received a visit from TMC. Tom Keating was on hand to take dozens of photos and reminisce about the history of open source telecom and where things are heading.

You don't want to miss his post.

Looking for call center software by chance? If you are and/or you want to keep up to date on the latest happenings in the call center space then you should be bookmarking the new Call Center Software -- Global Online Community or GOC.

The sponsored communities are news driven meaning they receive a tremendous amount of related content on a specific subject area such as call center software in this case.

Some of the articles on the site so far deal with self-service growth in contact centers and new regarding the latest version of OAISYS Tracer.

Expect dozens of our best articles on this site within the next few weeks.

Data -- even if it is unclassified, can be a problem for our government or any organization-- if it gets in the wrong hands in sufficient quantities. I was reminded of this fact while reading this article from Kevin G. Coleman on TMCnet.

According to the article:
As data levels continue to grow exponentially, the protection of this information becomes even more important. Remember, CIO stands for chief information officer -- it is the information which needs protecting and many times protection of the computers is the focus of company officers when the protection of the data should be.

I received an email reminding me the Outrageous Interactions contest has almost come to a close. Only days remain in fact for you to submit your story and potentially win a trip to Hawaii. Here is an email Interactive Intelligence just sent me and I am passing it along as a reminder to those of you with seriously funny stories who haven't had a chance to share them with us yet.

You have to give Interactive Intelligence credit. They are always doing things which make my job and your career more exciting.

Interactive Intelligence's "Outrageous Interactions" Contest Counting Down

Call Center Agents Invited to Submit For a Chance to Win Trip to Hawaii

Another contest submission stated: "Another interesting set of [wrong-number] calls came from people calling our call center for basically the Maytag repairman. This took a little investigation and again we started asking callers where they found our number and after drilling a couple of the callers and having them read back the number they were trying to reach we discovered that the number they were reading to us didn't contain a toll free number such as 1-800 but an area code instead. After explaining to one of them that they were calling 1-800-XXX-XXXX instead of the area code they were reading off to us, the caller said, yes, but I didn't want to have to pay for the long distance so I used 1-800 instead of the area code."

Interactive Intelligence is still accepting submissions and counting down on TMCnet until the closing date Aug. 31. Keep watching TMCnet for more outrageous stories from the contest. The winner will receive airfare and hotel accommodations for a trip for two to Hawaii.

If you think you have the winning story with one of your crazy interactions, you can submit it or get more information.

Finally, after weeks/months of waiting I got an iPhone 3G. You may recall the mix-up I had at the AT&T Wireless store which seemed like it would keep me from ever getting one. Well, the store manager had been emailing me regularly this past week and when the phone came in yesterday, I thought it better to get it quickly before they give it to someone else again.

The store manager gave me a free iPhone case and screen protector for my trouble and the funny thing is, I really wasn't that upset about the whole situation. After all, it gave me some good writing material. Apparently the person working the day my phone was "borrowed" didn't check ID... I am sure they figured -- Tehrani, how common a name could that be? I checked whitepages.com and there are 13 records matching my last name in Norwalk, CT alone so it is more common than I thought.

Anyway, I brought the phone to TMC last night and showed our designers how TMCnet looks in your pocket. They did some checks on their more esoteric designs and reported all pages looked good... Nothing looked too out of whack.

So now I have the famous Blackberry sandwich I have heard so much about... You know a Blackberry and iPhone in your pocket. It seems like many of us us techies have one of each. In my case, my Blackberry is an XV6800 from HTC.

I have obviously used iPhones before but with prolonged exposure to the latest OS I can tell you it is light years ahead of all other wireless phones available in the US.

And here is the problem for every other company in the space. They are working on dozens of phones at a time and the software sucks on all of them. Don't they know this?

I was in the local mall today and I passed by a line of ten people waiting to buy iPhones and then I walked past the Verizon Wireless store where there were a few people checking out the phones they had on display. The LG Dare was one of the company's newest offerings and as I tested it, I just couldn't help thinking how could they "dare" to sell this phone.

The phone is a direct knock off of the iPhone but the UI is worse in every way. It is as if they took an iPhone and told an engineer to copy it -- and I am sure that is what happened.

But getting back tot he iPhone, as I have complained about before, the on-screen keyboard is a major limitation. In addition, it was a bit of a hassle to get it to work with my Exchange server. Nothing insurmountable but I did receive a certificate error which threw me. Once working though, my contacts and appointments came in very smoothly -- perhaps more smoothly than on a Windows Mobile device.

The other iPhone downside is the lack of a clipboard to cut and paste data between applications. This would be quite useful if you are looking to blog and you want to point readers to a URL.

I am really not thrilled with the email interface either but I am getting used to it and viewing individual emails on this phone blows away other devices because you can zoom in and out of HTML email allowing you to actually read even complicated pages.

I used to have to wait until I got to a PC to look at much of my HTML mail and now I can deal with it on the road. What a time saver.

So while other phone companies like Motorola (and analysts) think it makes sense to launch more and more devices to be like Nokia, I want to express my extreme caution at such an approach. The mobile phone world has changed and users now understand that the crap most manufacturers pass off as web surfing devices is just that. Oh and one important point... They really do want to surf on the go. I recently saw numbers pointing to a 5:1 ratio of iPhone surfing to Windows Mobile surfing. The solution to this obvious problem is not to come out with 30 different types of crap in assorted colors, shapes and smells.

For some reason this all seems strangely obvious to me and I wonder why this message isn't being espoused more often by others.

If mobile phone companies want to compete against Apple they need to understand that cell phone design is more art than science and designers who are really good need to be involved in how they look and more importantly, function. The mobile browser is a crucial element here. Skyfire and Opera are doing a good job but I think partnerships with Mozilla might be the only way to compete effectively with mobile Safari. Germany's Debitel partnering with Opera to install the browser software company's "Mini" browser on their devices may be a smart model to follow but there also needs to be tight application integration.

One other point... If you can't come up with one cell phone as useful and easy to use as the iPhone, don't launch even more devices. Sure I understand why you might want to make a line of cheap phones for emerging economies but Apple is getting to the point where they will sell so many iPhones that their cost model will allow them to sell their iPhones at a price point close to your entry level device. Then what do you do?

It is amazing to me to see how cell phone providers and service providers have joined the touch screen frenzy. Verizon Wireless even has a touch screen category at the top of their device list and guess what -- all of the phones on the list are inferior to the iPhone.

So Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, SonyEricsson, etc you are forewarned. Oh and to the Microsoft Mobile team, you have done a good job until now but you have obviously just had your rear ends kicked. How will you respond? Will the Samsung Omnia help you overtake Apple's momentum?

Many of my readers and audience members at speeches tell me they won't buy Apple devices because they are closed. To this I answer, I buy my device to solve a problem... In this case to boost my productivity so I can be more successful in my job and have a better quality of life. If the price for reaching this goal is a loss in device openness, who cares?