Recently in Open Source Category

In 2001 when the PDA market was all the rage and smartphones didn't really exist, a company called Interactive Intelligence a leader in the contact center space saw an opportunity for a development platform called Mobilite (pronounced as if you are French) which would allow developers to develop once and have applications run on any mobile device.

The idea was genius and ahead of its time so Mobilite was shelved sometime later.

I couldn't help but think of this product as I spoke with Rhomobile Founder and CEO Adam Blum who was telling me about his company's open source mobile application framework Rhodes which lets you quickly build native mobile applications for all smartphone operating systems: iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android. Blum emphasizes that applications can take advantage of native GPS, PIM contacts and camera and that they are native, not just web applications optimized for each platform.

Another company in the space is PhoneGap and Blum explains that Rhodes focuses more on business applications while PhoneGap focuses more on consumer apps.

This graphic was chosen due to its looks and may or may not be related to the subject matter in this article -- depending on your perspective.

He went on to tell me Wikipedia rewrote their iPhone application using the Rhodes framework and used 20% of the code needed in Objective C and the resulting program also ran faster. He further went on to explain that while you may imagine his development environment is slanted heavily towards the iPhone, the reality is objective testers have shown applications run the same across all platforms.

Blum was Director of Engineering for Good Technology and explains he saw $200 million pushed into the company and as a result 200 engineers worked to get an email client on three smartphone operating systems. This lunacy (my chosen term, not his) made him decide to launch a company to stop the madness and his twelve-person company is looking to make mobile application writing more efficient.

In our conversation Blum explained that he believes it is virtually impossible to develop to more than two device operating systems beyond version 1.0 without some sort of cross-platform development application. He further explained that such an environment needs to be open-source in nature and as such his solution is completely open source.

As mentioned above there is a strong business focus here so new features are to added to the development environment with business developers in mind first.

Blum also told me his company is well-positioned in this economic environment as they are solving a pain point - one that has a high-degree of urgency. He concluded by saying, "What would you do without it?"

With that Blum and his 12-person company may have made some software development history by announcing RhoHub, perhaps the first development-as-a-service offering for mobile applications.

What are the benefits to developers? Well first of all you don't need to have a variety of development environments and disparate computers in your company in order to develop mobile applications for multiple devices. In addition, the company offers up a provisioning server and can even host the application and allow users to download the correct version based on device.

If you are developing mobile applications it is apparent you need to support the iPhone, Palm, RIM, Nokia, Android, Windows Mobile and Blum thinks Linux Mobile is going to be a contender as well soon. You obviously can't be an expert at all of these environments and you will obviously benefit from some sort of cross-platform development tool like the one his company sells.

But before you go out and trash your Mac and start developing your iPhone apps on the web, you should be aware that Apple's App Store seems to be rejecting a high number of applications which are being built on cross-platform development tools. This could have something to do with the major changes in the iPhone 3.0 OS coming soon but for now it is too soon to tell.

While it is obvious this sort of solution is necessary, we need to watch what companies like Apple and others do to existing customers of cross-platform tools before jumping in too quickly.

This entry from the company's blog may prove useful in your decision-making process.

There is nothing that builds a resume more like an award and if you are a developer, you definitely want to keep an eye on the new Dialogic Innovator Award contest which will not only give you some great bragging rights, you could win some prizes as well.


Dialogic was nice enough to ask me to be one of the judges in fact and I am looking forward to being part of this program. Winners get a free one-year service and support contract, a $5,000 credit towards future Dialogic products, t-shirts, press releases and an Innovator logo which I imagine can be invaluable in boosting a company's marketing efforts.

Sure it isn't a $75,000 motorcycle - which makes a great gift for your favorite blogger by the way, but hey, times are tough.

The catch? None really - you have to apply of course and Dialogic wants to also take a moment to invite you to participate in the Dialogic Exchange Network while they have your attention.

At one point in my career I was a programmer and I wish I had the time to participate in this contest. If I did, I would write an app that taps into all my social networks and then monitors my cell phone's GPS to determine when I am in the car. When I am driving, I would want it to call me every 15 minutes and update me on what's happening with my friends and relatives. I would want my news alerts tapped as well in case there is breaking news I need to know about.

Oh and of course I would want WAV file to social networking integration in this app so I could speak and have the files live on the net with links from Twitter, etc.

But that's just me and you don't need to do what I said to win. It wouldn't hurt of course. You have until September 30^th 2009 to apply so open a new window right now and get started. Good luck!

Google Wave is an ambitious project from Google which allows true real-time communications by integrating chat, email, a wiki, social networking tools and more. In many ways it competes with other services such as Facebook and as such it really isn't that new. Still, it does seem slicker and it is more open than many other services which provide communications solutions (a promotional plug -- you may want to check out TMCnet's newest news-driven Global Online Community called Communications Solutions). It also allows real-time IM sessions meaning you can see what the other person is typing before they hit enter.

Some think the company is being arrogant with this launch because as usual they seem to think about products first and profits second. Others think the breadth of features included in Wave could mean that Gmail and Docs are history.

My thoughts are that Google has done a poor job in the social networking space to date and initiatives like Google Voice haven't blown us away. Gmail of course is a solid product and took share from Yahoo! and Microsoft and allowed Google to show targeted ads to millions of users while they viewed their email.

So from where I stand, if Wave becomes successful and is somehow integrated into the Google product family, it could indeed give a Google-sized boost to the bottom line because you can bet that your communications will have embedded ads which are selected based on the keywords you use in the communications.

Google still owns the world's largest ad network and subsequently has relationships with more global advertisers than any other company. This means they have all the incentive in the world to make Google Wave a very popular service and even if the new offering achieves a few percent penetration, it will offer millions and millions of new page views for advertiser monetization.

One last point - the timing of this product is especially curious as it seems to put Google more in the space occupied by Microsoft at a time when the operating system leader is focusing more on search and will launch a new marketing campaign to push it. Moreover it reminds me a bit of the Palm Pre in the way it integrates various services and is open... And the Pre should roll out next week.

Finally, today - it was announced that AOL will be spun out of Time Warner and to me AOL was the original service which allowed real-time communications between its members. Now it is a shadow of its former self.

My view is that communications is continuing to evolve and this move is good for consumers - even if Wave fails and some of its concepts get rolled into other platforms.

Last week at Interop my team conducted over 100 interviews with thought leaders at the show. Topics discussed include green switching, testing, Ethernet, cloud computing and more. So far, half a dozen of the videos have been posted and more are being added continually. I hope you find them helpful.

I have embedded some of these for your immediate viewing pleasure. Here is the page which will store all of these videos.

Chris Loeffler, Global Applications Manager and Lennart Jonsson, Vice President Technology, Eaton

Kevin Goulet, Senior Marketing Director, Enterprise WLAN, Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions, Motorola

Kevin Ryan, Director, Data Center Solutions, Extreme Networks

Cloud computing is one of the hot sectors of the information technology space. Without a doubt it is emerging as a trend which has the potential to change the way corporations operate. Already consumers are becoming comfortable with clouds as they upload their photos, videos, email, blogs, documents and spreadsheets to a variety of services which live somewhere... everywhere. Just as consumers have pushed companies they work for into accelerating deployment of VoIP and smartphones, expect cloud computing to become popular in part because we are all comfortable using the technology in our personal lives.

Recently at Interop 2009 in Las Vegas I spent some time with Jason Liu the CEO of Univa, a company which is at the heart of the cloud computing market. A conversation with Jason - and I had two, one where I was taking notes and yet another which was on video camera and will be posted soon, is like drinking from a garden hose of valuable cloud-based information. This is Liu's fifth venture backed company (he came onboard 2 years ago) and being able to articulate a vision is obviously one of the reasons investors seem to be drawn to him.

Liu started the conversation with his definition of cloud computing - there are five categories...

1)      Boundless applications

2)      A pooled set of shared resources

3)      A service based approach

4)      A virtualized environment

5)      Metering (Liu says this is an addition from analyst firm Gartner Group and billing could be tied to this attribute)

He went on to explain that future clouds will be a mesh of private/public information and the primary driver for keeping private clouds will likely be security concerns.

His company is involved in providing intelligent dispatch, a term which describes cloud computing middleware which handles application prioritization. The founders of Univa were the founders of Grid and as such they have been at this game for a decade. And the experience counts as there are tremendous levels of complexity in dealing with masses of servers, software and users while trying to optimize application delivery and performance based on preset rules.

Univa adds intelligence to clouds and Liu feels carriers need a solution like their Reliance product so they can more rapidly roll out cloud-based offerings which offer the ability to more easily provide service-based pricing. Liu further explained Reliance 3.0 has decoupled the "brain" from the provisioning meaning you can now use their solutions on virtually any infrastructure.

Cloud computing has tremendous potential and is also one of the more complex solutions in the enterprise and carrier technology space. If there is one constant that came out of my conversation with Jason Liu it is that that as cloud computing becomes even more complex, laden with applications and users, you will eventually have to add intelligence. It would seem Univa is well-positioned as the world comes to it.

For nearly 13 years, Greg Galitzine has been a tremendously valuable part of the TMC team. His career started as an editor for CTI Magazine in 1996. Where he reported on the collision of the computer and communications spaces including what we called IP telephony back in the day. In 1997 we convened a meeting with Greg to explore whether it made sense to launch a publication in the IP telephony space. The outcome of the meeting was to launch what we hoped would become a cornerstone of what we hoped would be a new industry - Internet Telephony Magazine.

Greg became the editor of this publication and had the vision to see this is where the industry was going. Many companies in the communications space told us we were nuts for launching this publication as at the time there was no industry, just a few nerds calling each other on softphones.

Lo and behold, over the past decade this nerdy, niche technology revolutionized telecom to the point where business models have changed, new entrants have come into the telecom market and entire industries were transformed through international outsourcing made possible by inexpensive VoIP-based telephony.

In the last few years, Greg did a great job helping transform TMCnet into a major web force in communications and technology news. We are grateful to him for the years he has put in.

I am very happy for Greg as recently he has been given a great opportunity which involves a move to a new industry altogether. Galitzine has accepted a position with ISA, Inc., a prime contractor to the National Nuclear Security Administration and working in about 18 countries through Central and Eastern Europe to identify and interdict the illegal movement of materials for weapons of mass destruction. Greg will be taking his analytical and editorial skills to a higher level, contributing to national-level policy and operational support analysis for these major international nonproliferation undertakings.

While we all selfishly wish Greg wouldn't move on, we are happy for him and are sure he will make a tremendous impact in his new position.

While wandering around VoiceCon recently, I was struck by how many different kinds of communications platforms are available for organizations, and many companies attempting to tackle unified communications must eventually find themselves in a multivendor environment needing "unified management". How does one administer and do "Moves, Adds, Changes and Deletes" (MACDs) under such conditions?

Fortunately, I ran into Unimax at the show, a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based, privately-held company specializing in unified voice administration applications. Their flagship product, 2nd Nature, replaces the native interfaces of your multi-vendor PBX, voice mail and other business systems with a single, easy-to-use administration tool. 2nd Nature can unify the management of MACDs, password resets (assisted and self-service), automated provisioning, automated voice mail list management, transaction auditing, reporting, and other things. Unimax' 2nd Nature also makes possible integration between your voice network and business systems such as Active Directory, HR, call accounting, E-911, and so forth. By concentrating such administrative abilities into a single point, companies can further reduce operational costs, strengthen security, increase visibility and control, and improve internal customer service.

At the show, Unimax "pre-announced" their release of 2nd Nature Version 6.8. This most recent version of 2nd Nature will have support for AVST's CallXpress and Cisco's Unity Connection. Version 6.8 also enhances existing compatibility with PBX and voicemail systems from Avaya, Cisco, and Nortel. For example, there's now compatibility with Avaya's Modular Messaging Version 5.0 and Cisco's UCM Version 6.1.3 and 7.0.1. Support will also be added for Nortel's 1200-series phone sets. It also enhances compatibility with Microsoft Active Directory, contains a few new workflow productivity enhancements, and other types of business systems will also be supported and enhanced in the new version. Hence, Unimax 2nd Nature is now compatible with systems from quite an array of vendors: Avaya, AVST, Cisco, Nortel, Aastra, Microsoft, and others.

Todd Remely, Director of Marketing at Unimax Systems, says, "In addition to having 2nd Nature support AVST's CallXpress, we're also partnering with AVST. Adding AVST and Cisco to what we're compatible with has come in response to industry demand. Enterprises and managed service providers now have a way to inexpensively unify and simplify administration of complex multi-vendor voice systems. In terms of cost reduction alone, 2nd Nature now not only offers multivendor visibility and management of PBX and voicemail systems, but customers can use their system to gain visibility and control and management of all those platforms. There's improved internal customer service, password resets are easy, security has been improved, and 2nd Nature now has a single sign-in. In this way password proliferation is kept under control, since there's easier password management now available."

Unimax' only competition are genuine native systems, the administration of which are still independent. But don't worry, Unimax' partners are helping to get the message out.

If you look at TMC from the outside and find yourself asking how you can get a job as an intern at this global integrated media company which builds communities online, in print and in person while gaining marketshare regardless of economic climate, I have some great news to share. We are looking for a small army of interns who want to learn what it's like to take on major multibillion dollar media companies with infinite resources and consistently win.

We will teach you how to sell collaboratively - how to listen and to be loved by your customers (well most of them anyway).

We will teach you integrated marketing and online marketing - not theory but ever-evolving practice.

If you love media and want to work at the company that is light years ahead online, contact us ASAP. We are very picky so if you aren't a super-hard worker and collaboration and hat-wearing are not your middle names, let's end our relationship now as friends (it's not you it's me).

One last thought about TMC - our culture is unusual - we have the financial stability of a 37 year-old company with the energy and enthusiasm of a start-up.

Let's just say if you're thinking of contacting us, please don't delay


Here's more:

The Sales & Marketing internship position at TMC is designed to provide hands-on experience that will be mutually beneficial for both the intern and the organization. The internship position is designed to challenge students and provide them with practical experience in the advertising and media industry.

TMC is looking for a dynamic, creative, enthusiastic, high energy professional to support the Sales organization, to help build advertising and marketing presentations for prospects and clients.

• Work with sales & marketing team to assist in the implementation of various campaigns
• Contribute to the creative input in building campaigns and support the campaigns
• Copyediting and proofreading
• Communicate with customers and peers
• Minimum Qualifications:
• Working towards completion of a college degree program in business, marketing or communication
• Excellent communication skills verbal and written
• Proficient in Microsoft Office suite, specifically PowerPoint and Excel
• Excellent communication skills
• Detail Oriented
• Initiative and proactive thinking
• Team player
• Ability to multi-task and work in a fast paced environment meeting deadlines

Adtran has nearly two thousand products in its catalog and is in a good position to tell us where the business hot spots are.

I just had a conversation with Chris Thompson and Tammie Dodson at the company regarding the bright spots in their business and they tell me the optical side is doing well, partially because of the broadband stimulus activity which carriers are seeing. They expect this to continue as more details come out regarding this initiative.

Also they say their VoIP gateway business is strong as a result of companies exploring the cost cutting benefits of SIP trunking. They think there needs to be more education in the market about SIP trunking and we agreed there seems to be more of it every day.