April 2009 Archives

Updated 7:56 PM EST, April 20, 2009

We are in what we may want to call an open-source friendly economy and in such a market companies are more likely than ever to be persuaded that free software is worth serious consideration. But what about support? Sure you can get it from your local reseller or consultant but what happens when he is on vacation in Alaska on that fishing trip where he doesn't take his phone? Even this economy may not be enough to convince that VAR with a solid customer base that he needs to communicate with you while wrangling that 25 pound Chinook salmon into the net.

If you are a self-respecting fisherman, would you give up this

To answer this?

By now we all know the Chinese symbol for crisis and opportunity is the same and as you worry about your next Asterisk crisis, I would like to present you with the opportunity to learn more about Digium's Support Services. Digium's Bill Miller and Leslie Conway took some time from their busy schedules to brief me on the new offering and were very excited to say it allows companies to get support on a subscription basis with discounts for multiple year sign-ups. Until now, support was on an incident basis and now you can have support for 12 hours a day, 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM in your local time for five days each week.

Found bugs will get entered in a bug tracker and yes, this is the first time Digium has chosen to provide support for open source Asterisk. And furthermore, even if you don't use the company's hardware, they will support you. This includes solutions such as Trixbox CE, Elastix, PBX in a Flash, etc. Of course this applies to the core Asterisk portion of such solutions. Also, if you happen to have Digium cards you get advanced replacement.

I was interviewed recently for an informative article in BusinessWeek regarding Cablevision's Optimum WiFi Service. By now I am sure you know I am a Cablevision Optimum WiFi fan and further feel WiFi is a powerful component of a service provider offering and can reduce churn.

Olga Kharif wrote the piece and did a great job integrating my comments with numerous salient points, facts and figures about the wireless and cable markets. Do all cable companies need to build out WiFi services across their areas of coverage? Probably. This makes great sense to me and if they can make the numbers work, it is a great way to keep customers loyal and in addition, makes users think hard before leaving a cable provider.

The downside is the technology is not perfect and my experience with Optimum WiFi has been mostly good and at times cuts in and out. Still, as a free add-on to my triple-play service I can't really complain and I am thankful that I have a third broadband connection when my AT&T and Verizon Wireless phones aren't in range of towers.

In the past I have equated WiFi to wireless Ethernet and Ethernet has been a technology the world has tried to kill for years. I suspect WiFi too will continue to evolve to the point where it continues to surprise us with its resilience. The need for wireless broadband is not slowing down and one imagines the more wireless pipes we have available to us, the more we will use them. I would further expect bonding technology to be applied more often to simultaneously take advantage of the mesh of disparate wireless networks permeating our world.

One last point... 802.11 is really evolving rapidly. Standards bodies are on double letters -- 802.11aa, ac, ad, etc. With the tremendous momentum WiFi has and its ubiquitous installation in devices from smartphones to picture frames, it will be tough to find a wireless standard with a larger potential market of devices.

Here is an excerpt of the story:

Rich Tehrani buys wireless calling from AT&T, but lately he's been surfing the mobile Web thanks to another provider--his cable company. In parts of Connecticut, where he lives, Tehrani logs onto the Internet by way of Wi-Fi hotspots managed by Cablevision Systems (CVC). "I was at a diner one weekend and it popped up," says Tehrani, who runs Technology Marketing, a publishing and trade show company. "I am pretty much hooked on it."

The same may be said for a growing number of customers of Cablevision, the largest cable provider in the New York metropolitan area. Usage of Optimum Wi-Fi--offered free to Cablevision's 2.4 million in-home Internet-access subscribers--has risen 50% a month since autumn 2008. In early April, Cablevision reported that consumers have used its Wi-Fi hotspots 1 million times in the past year.

Wi-Fi provides high-speed Internet access over a finite area, such as a home or hotel lobby. A group of strategically located hotspots can provide ubiquitous access over a larger region. Cablevision is using the technology in such commercial areas as malls and train stations so it can include mobile-Web surfing in a lineup that already includes TV, calling, and high-speed Internet access. It's a way to combat the encroachment of telecom carriers that in recent years have begun offering TV alongside their other services. Wi-Fi is by no means a substitute for the costly, coast-to-coast wireless networks maintained by AT&T (T) and such other wireless carriers as Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel (S). And the viability of Wi-Fi over large areas has been called into question of late, as cities across the country have shelved or abandoned plans to use the technology to blanket neighborhoods with free or cheap Internet access.

I came across a new presentation solution which has the potential to change the way presentations are created. PowerPoint has served us well for years and while many have complained about how this Microsoft software is responsible for putting more people to sleep than tryptophan and melatonin combined, I think presenters themselves could be part of the problem.

But maybe the detractors have a point and better tools will make better presenters.

That is the hope of Flash-based software/service Prezi and thanks to Robin Wauters at TechCrunch I learned about it this morning and have had a chance to look at some of the sample presentations and play with the editor as well. A few examples worth checking out are this one which shows just how graphics can really become a larger part of telling an overall story and this one where you can see how a great deal of text can be organized fairly cleanly.

Here is a demo of the software/service in action

The company calls Prezi a zooming presentation editor and the description is accurate as a presentation seems to flow more cohesively via the presentation of numerous free-flowing ideas instead of being linear in nature.

If for example I was giving a presentation on HD Voice I might have a central theme which discussed how this technology is a natural evolution of telephony and I could have a few surrounding slides which focus on companies in the space such as Polycom, AudioCodes, Microsoft, TI, GIPs, etc. I could choose to have the presentation come back to the central theme occasionally as I explore each company and what they are doing in the space. So you could say Prezi works more like the human brain which is multidimensional and more interconnected.

You can try a free version which contains the company logo or 39 euros per year gives you more storage space and the ability to share your presentations online. For 119 euros you get a Mac and Windows desktop application which allows you to design and edit presentations offline - on an airplane perhaps?

The desktop Prezi Editor

With any new software there is a learning curve and as I played with the editor I realized although there is an intuitive interface, I was a bit tentative about trying the service myself because I am so familiar with PowerPoint. But over time I may just get up the nerve to spend some time learning it and perhaps the next time you see me onstage I will be demoing Prezi in all its glory.

In tech, one of the best punch lines around was "the year of videoconferencing." Since 1990 we heard the year of videoconferencing was coming soon and dozens if not hundreds of video companies have disappeared while waiting to take advantage of this new age of visual communications. I have been meeting with videoconferencing companies for many years and over the last few it has become evident that video is here to stay and it will become a bigger and bigger part of our lives.

The most recent conversation which drove this home was with Tandberg where I spoke with Tony Cook VP Marketing Americas and Rick Snyder President Tandberg Americas. The pair went on to explain how their business is doing well and that market research shows they are taking share of market from others. While spending has slowed in many segments of the market including tech, the communications market has proven more resilient. But it is evident that when you lose more than 1.5 million US jobs per quarter (not to mention elsewhere) for a prolonged period, the need for endpoints decreases.

In the face of this endpoint pressure it is worth pointing out that Polycom recently saw its telepresence services grow 45% in the most recent quarter. The reason of course has to do with travel budgets being slashed and the need to communicate more effectively over distance.

Tandberg credits the quality level of their solutions as the reason for their growth in video market share as well as a focus on interoperability with a variety of solutions. They also happened to mention their acquisition of Codian which brought them a variety of high quality solutions such as an HD multipoint bridge. I discussed the company back in June of 2007.

Another point the execs made was that in the last few recessions video just wasn't where it is today. They went on to point out their 1700 MXP personal telepresence solution (pictured) costs around $10 thousand and can be paid for with the savings of two international trips. I was told a typical ROI for the company's customers is 6-9 months with one seeing a savings of 11 million euros over three years.

But for Tandberg, typical enterprise videoconferencing is only one of the solutions they provide as they offer cameras which integrate with a company's supply chain to allow more efficient and in many cases real-time problem solving. Other clients use the Tandberg solutions to monitor oil rigs. Yet other companies utilize their solutions to save money while becoming more carbon neutral.

The key Tandberg catchphrase from the meeting was definitely, "We call this the new way of working. This will replace a lot of other means of communications."

The company as you might expect uses its own solutions and they tell me once you get used to using video it is difficult to go back to audio - video allows you to sense people's passion they explain. It is tough to get the true story without it they say. In addition, more tangible benefits include acceleration of the decision-making process; the ability to bring together globally distributed work teams, the scaling of knowledge, work life balance improvements and an increase in productivity while lowering costs.

Another concept the pair discussed was the ability to perform training sessions over video which can be recorded and used in the future to train others. In this case your video solution basically becomes a training DVR.

Another topic of discussion was their HD video desk phone the E20 (pictured) which is a sleek device with an impressive 10.6" screen, resolution of up to 1280x780 and a $1,500 list price tag. They see this phone as a conduit allowing them into more applications and vertical markets such as healthcare, government, education, etc. While I have to say the E20 is one of the nicest videophones I have seen if not the nicest, one has to wonder if we aren't at a point where netbooks can be turned into desk phones. Why not? Isn't a high-powered videophone more or less a laptop with a few functions added and a bunch of functions removed?

Although our conversation didn't mention it explicitly, it seems that the year of video has come and gone without the mention from the press I thought it would receive. Then again in retrospect which year was it? 2008? It might have happened so slowly that we didn't notice but the trend is in place and more and more calls are going to utilize video and while doing so, increase productivity and provide a better user experience while reducing carbon emissions. Am I am the first to notice? Probably not. But I am still happy to be sharing the good news.

Other than solving a breath quality issue, I am not sure what the benefits of the videoconference in this Tandberg supplied photo are.

For over a decade TMC has covered AVST and their wonderful unified messaging solutions - which in the nineties were the talk of the industry. But as is sometimes the case, when the industry talks about the next big thing, it doesn't always take off overnight. While UM was slow to catch on in the nineties, the last few years have seen an explosion of interest in both UM and UC. While you may think this is a long time to wait, remember some are still waiting for the glorious age of OS/2 to finally arrive.

To catch up on what the company is up to since the release of CallXpress 7.1 I met with Tom Minifie - Chief Technology Officer and Denny Michael - Vice President of Marketing.

They have spent a great deal of time, effort and energy on the latest release of their CallXpress Version 8.0 which will be available this Summer and include Neverfail technology making it more resilient to outages. The entire architecture of the product has been improved allowing multisite organizations to centralize servers or distribute them with higher levels of availability. And this is crucial for a company which provides the backbone for the communications of companies worldwide, including law firms in the UK.

One benefit of using this new architecture is users will be able to transfer calls and perform other call management tasks - even if a WAN link fails. 40,000 users will be supported and there are multiple PBX integrations as you likely know or expect.

The new architecture of AVST CallXpress Version 8.0 makes it more resilient

There are new applications available as well which support mobility - with "Wildfire-like" speech recognition/personal assistant features. Presence is also supported allowing intelligent call routing - and there is FMC - allowing calls to be transferred back and forth between cell and landline.

Users can benefit from a single mailbox and phone number and corporations can more easily integrate UC into their business processes allowing for CEBP - yes the term that has more lives than the entire global feline population. An example of the CEBP prowess of CallXpress is sending SMS alerts to people within an organization if an item is on backorder.

Personally I would like my server to be notified if something on the menu is out before I order that fancy tilapia special which I later learn is not available. I think this new version of CallXpress could be a tasty addition to the restaurants I visit.

Perhaps the most maligned term in telecom is communications enabled business processes or CEBP. It is funny how just so many companies tell me they have a new CEBP solution and then go on to say they despise the term. What is more interesting to me is how so many companies are actually relying on CEBP for quick ROI on the solutions they sell. For example doctors using CEBP to help increase the number of patients which show up to their appointments can yield an ROI of a few months.

You remember the term just in time communications I came up with years back? The term gained little traction but I still wonder if it isn't better than CEBP. Then again I am not one for an acronym urinating match. Who has time anyway -- I am too busy memorizing what every flavor of 802.11 does (The insanity   802.11z, 802.11aa, 802.11ac,802.11ad).

It does seem however, love it or hate it - CEPB is here to stay.

Companies in the IP communications space have never been so laser-focused on ROI as they are today. Avaya for example makes sure to mention the cost savings benefits of IP communications every chance they get. According to David Giangano President of Global Channel for Nectar Services, today's corporations need his company to allow them to best-in-breed Avaya features on a hosted basis. And what's not to like about hosted solutions? I've written endlessly about how companies are embracing SaaS solutions in this economy as such solutions allow maximal productivity benefits afforded by the latest technology without the CAPEX previously associated with such solutions.

The company has three primary solutions - a Converged Management Platform for converged monitoring, an Enterprise Session Manager which provides SBC-like security and a Hosted Telephony System discussed above which allows smaller companies to get the power of Avaya solutions without the capital expenditures.

It was good to catch up with Giangano in Florida... I met him for the first time at Nectar's parent company Juma Technology and in the September 2007 issue of Unified Communications Magazine (PDF) I published an interview with company CTO Joe Fuccillo.

By using the company's SIP-based trunking solutions which came to the company via the acquisition of AGN Networks they can ensure your disparate PBXs talk to one another and moreover allow them to pool trunks so your trunk to user ratios decrease dramatically. If you have five trunks at 1,000 retail branches you are paying for 5,000 trunks when perhaps a few hundred would yield the same benefits with drastically lower cost. Not surprisingly, this is the economy when many companies are realizing the wasted money they spend monthly on trunks which are hardly used.

Another area the company is seeing as ripe for growth is the teleworker market where companies are asking Nectar Services to manage their remote workers worldwide. Currently the company sells indirectly and is looking for resellers with strong voice and data experience. If you fit this description or are looking to learn more, give them a call at 888-811-VoIP.

Last night I saw Seal in concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York City and as I watched and heard some songs which I didn't like, I pictured myself clicking the thumbs down button on Pandora - the user-configurable online radio station which allows you to choose which songs you don't want to hear. The ability to choose what I listen to and watch - via DVR technology has transformed the way we want to consume content and this unprecedented flexibility continues to shatter media consumption habits.

The idea is not lost on Shiva Rajaraman, a senior product manager for YouTube who says, "We think the prime-time slot of the future is very much user-programmed." Shiva is absolutely right and this concept is a natural evolution of user-preferences blended with content delivery systems which will allow us to watch what we want, when we want.

I have discussed the idea of having Pandora become the conduit for video in the past and while the company obviously has technology which allows users to experience new music of a similar nature to other songs they like, it will take time and lots of money for Pandora to become the TV of the internet.

In the mean time, YouTube backed by the tremendous resources of Google has the potential to become the site where users go to when they are looking for high-quality network programming. The problem is the site is on track to lose just under half a billion dollars this year because it is a treasure trove of user-generated video which may not be suitable for ads.

As I mentioned four days ago, YouTube needs to strike a deal with networks to show more high quality content they can show ads on. Last night, when I got back from the concert I saw that YouTube has in fact inked deals with Sony, Lions Gate, MGM and others to do what I discussed earlier this week.

Content is content and to be honest there is a good chance I will find that ancient episode of MASH if I really want to see it. But YouTube brings to the table the ability to show me massive amounts of related content as it stores so much of it. It is this similar content which has the potential to excite viewers. For example a late-night YouTube video watcher could see a half-dozen spoof suggestions of a program they are watching.

In addition, Google can quickly emulate Pandora's technology using Google's engineers and massive database to help a viewer watch an endless stream of shows which are similar in nature. Horror? Comedy? A blend of both? It doesn't matter... These engineers can likely ferret out whatever exists on the net and stream it to you.

This assumes of course YouTube gets access to all the high-quality programming on the internet - or at least a significant portion of it.

Google through YouTube owns the most popular video site in the world. The success of Hulu shows us that people will find the content, wherever it lives. What Google needs to do to win in the video advertising wars is provide a better viewing experience by utilizing content targeting technology to give the users what they want and when. They then need to continue working with small advertisers to get them into the video advertising market. You see, even networks which are scared of Google may have to capitulate if Google has relationships with thousands of small video advertisers they can't reach. In the text advertising world, Google is the winner, but can they do the same in video? Time will tell.

AT&T service makes a come back.

AT&T not working and no unlocked WiFi to be found. Verizon is working
- no surprise there. When this gets posted you can assume I have left
this theatre and entered civilized society again. 10 minutes to Seal.

Here is a lobby shot. The mood is festive and high energy. Everyone
wants me to say hi to Heidi Klum but I haven't seen her yet. Still
looking.

:-(

Can't wait.

I have some good and bad news about the green movement. The bad news first... If you buy a car that is very small and hit a car that is bigger and/or heavier, the smaller vehicle will likely be worse off than the larger/heavier vehicle as a result of the impact. So if you are being exceptionally green by picking a car based on small size, you are more likely to get hurt or killed in an accident.

Granted, if you have a typical midsize car and hit an SUV the same principles apply.

Here is a great article and video on the matter. A must watch if you are considering a purchase of the smallest car you can find. Quick details: See a Smart Fortwo hit a Mercedes C class and in doing so fly into the air while the engine compartment disintegrates.
 

The good news? TMC, the company which I am president of had our Green Blog ranked 24 on a list of the "100 Best Blogs for Those Who Want to Change the World."

Let's just keep in mind the pitfalls of decisions we may make in life. One of the best lessons I learned at the University of Connecticut was from my chemistry teacher's assistants when they told me, "Everything in moderation... Including moderation."