A
surfer survived a shark bite from a 10 foot great white shark on
Christmas Eve by punching the huge fish at least once in the nose.
Apparently watching Discovery Channel shows about sharks gave Brian
Anderson the idea to punch it in the nose in the first place. Funny, when others watch those same shark specials, they get the idea to not surf.
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Florida-based OpenPeak is about to introduce a
brand new remote (most likely at CES) that can do it all. According to
their PR firm, “Simple Remote, is part movie/IM command screen, part
electronic program guide, part VoIP phone, and an all-in-one remote
that controls appliances, TVs, garage doors, and stereos. It’s WIFI
enabled and music can be streamed to it by using headphones.” Sounds a
tad too much, but it sure would be nice to get rid of everything that
clutters the coffee table….
This is the kind of remote I had imagined could be a big opportunity, but apparently the money crowd didn’t think it was a good idea then. (Read, Remote, Mouse of the Digital Lifestyle)
In case you were wondering, like I was, can this be true? We shall wait and see, but apparently, Open Peak is the company that makes the software that goes inside Philips iPronto Netx 6400 WiFi-IR Bridge, a remote-WiFi bridge. The Boca Raton, Florida based company has some heavy weights on its board of directors including former Apple CEO John Sculley; J. Tomilson Hill III, Vice Chairman of The Blackstone Group; and Mort Topfer, Managing Director of Castletop Capital and former Vice Chairman of Dell.
Certain museums see that they must deal with the debate about evolution versus intelligent design. The way to combat the controversy varies by museum. Some museums ignore the issue -- stating their purpose is not to debate visitors while others are sending museum workers to special training sessions where they will be taught how to interact with patrons who confront them with the debate or who have genuine questions. Story.
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What can Apple fans expect in 2006 from the company they so love? Les Posen, a good pal of ours and a fellow Mac addict thinks
that as broadband becomes even more pervasive, people will struggle
even more to keep their windows PCs battle-ready. The amount of
nefarious stuff on the Internet is only going to increase, many have
predicted. This will trigger off a new wave of switchers to the OS-X
platform.
It’s for this reason amongst others that 2006 will be the year of the Switcher for Apple and Microsoft. Apple’s previous Switcher campaign was clever and got lots of eyeballs, even to the point of being parodied, but I doubt it actually generated much switching.
I
agree with Les, because in last one week, I have helped three friends
buy a Mac, and four are still deciding. These are non-techies, who
popped the question: should I get a mac? I think Paul K,
will be a switcher in the near future. Les thinks that the switch to
Intel chips will be rocky for Apple, but in the end will be worth it
for the company. I would still wait for the second generation of
Intel-powered iBooks to show up before plonking down my money.
Here are my predictions for Apple in 2006…
SIP based VOIP, WiFi and Push technology. What more could you ask for in a mobile?
Randy Morin has put together the KBcafe Blog Awards
that covers everything from the best left-wing blogs and best sports
blogs to the best sci-if blogs. It's encouraging to see blogs
get some more attention at a time when The Webbys is
cautiously treading into the blogosphere. Perhaps one of the best
things about Randy's awards is checking out all the blogs that are
listed - looks like my afternoon "free time" is now accounted for! In
the absence of "institutionalized" blog awards, it is interesting to
see how individuals are stepping into the breach. The Canadian Blog Awards was recently run by (I think) Robert McClelland, whose blog is My Blahg.
Not sure whether his efforts were altruistic or
promotional/marketing-focused but he attracted a lot
of attention within Canada's small, but growing, blog
community.
In the new, exciting Web 2.0 game of who's going to acquire who, Blogspotting's Stephen Baker tossed out the idea that Microsoft could buy Technorati.
Frankly, I do think this deal is going to go down because Microsoft
seems sofocused these days on ensuring its own applications are
Web-ified and work seamlesly together. This approach is fairly easy to
glean from Ray Ozzie's Christmas message
in which he talks about service-enhanced sofware, Vista and Office 12.
If Microsoft were serious about the blogosphere and RSS, it would have
been in the market snapping up many of the hot start-ups that Yahoo,
Google, et al acquired such as Flickr and del.icio.us. Microsoft has MSN Spaces
but the company is far more engrossed in transforming itself from an
old-style client-based software maker into an online application
service provider with tight integration between its products. Of
course, Microsoft has more than $30-billion of cash so it can buy
anything it wants. But the fact it has done little shopping suggests
Microsoft has bigger strategic priorities - most of them organic - so
it makes little sense to distract itself with small acquisitions (even
if Robert Scoble is "encouraging" them to do so).
Insight Research has stated that revenue for the telecom industry will amount to $ 1.2 trillion by the end of year 2006 and by 2010; it will touch $ 1.6 trillion. The analysis titled "2006 Telecom Industry Review: An Anthology of Market Facts and Forecasts" states that by the beginning of 2006, almost 1.8 billion people will utilize mobile wireless phones. Sections of the industry that have experienced growth include VoIP, Wi-Fi, IMS, etc. voip-magazine.com reports:
“Wireless communications will continue to displace wireline communications for voice calling and as the number of wireless 2.5G and 3G data services increases, wireless will continue to squeeze traditional landline calling."
Read More: Telecom Industry Revenue to Reach $1.2 Trillion in 2006
According to the analyst Point Topic, broadband access via DSL acquired 40 million customers globally over a period of one year till September 30, 2005. This adds up to a total of 125 million broadband DSL customers across the globe. voip-magazine.com reports:
This report confirms an Insight Research study, which states DSL growth as well as rapid growth of VoIP and wireless revenue are pushing the telecommunication industry's revenue to $1.2 trillion in 2006.
According to a study by Research and Markets “Hosted VoIP services in Europe”, companies in Europe are more open to the idea of hosted VoIP than companies in America. According to the report, lack of a cohesive telecom infrastructure and the absence of IP-related skills in-house are prime reasons for European companies choosing a hosted VoIP provider. voip-magazine.com reports:
This has given companies a chance to offer solutions to businesses ready to leverage the cost saving components of VoIP communications, but need assistance navigating security issues and gaps in connectivity.
Read More: Research and Markets: European Firms Likely to Outsource VoIP
STMicroelectronics will provide its expertise to the Enhanced Wireless Consortium (EWC) for the development of an IEEE high-speed wireless standard referred to as next-generation Wi-Fi. STMicroelectronics has experience in the field of system-on-chip (SoC) technology. voip-magazine.com reports:
The EWC, formed in October, has promised to improve the performance of wireless local area networks through industry-wide support of its standard specifications, based on MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technology.
Read More: STMicroelectronics Joins EWC
Yesterday I met and visited with Nava Ein-Mor who is the Executive Director of Lifeline for the Old, also known as Yad Lakashish.
After visiting Yad Lakashish, I was a bit taken back by the tireless efforts of Nava and all of the volunteers in Jerusalem who give their time and expertise to this organization whose mission is to provide a "Lifeline" for the elderly of Israel. In essence, every day, Nava's team gives a quite number of elderly people a reason to get up in the morning and a place to go and share their artistic talents in a productive and meaningful way. While I was not aware of the work of Yad Lakashish until yesterday, this organization has been servicing the elderly of Israel since 1962.
"Lifeline's philosophy and programs are based on the principles that through work, purposeful recreation and activities of self-help can the elderly and disabled lead a life of meaning and dignity. Founded in 1962, Lifeline is a voluntary community agency in Jerusalem that integrates the needy elderly and disabled, especially recent immigrants, into the mainstream of Israeli society.
Presently, several hundred men and women come to Lifeline daily from all over Jerusalem. They are from varied ethnic and social backgrounds, speaking many languages, and include immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Ethiopia and South America. All the elderly workers receive a small stipend for their work and benefit from a wide-ranging social support network. A unique feature of Lifeline's programs is the unrestricted acceptance of individuals, regardless of their difficulties and problems, and the emphasis on adapting the work environment to the capacities and limitations of each individual.
In my tour of the workshops I saw quite a number of people working on various products, all of whose projects end up for sale in the Yad Lakashish gift shop. After being around since 1962, I was surprised that this organization hasnt gotten more recognition from the outside world. I was told that part of this had to do with the fact that they were a private charity. I have to believe that the work they are doing reflects a model that can be used as a reference for others to serve the needs of the elderly in other cities around the world. To learn more about the work of Lifeline, you can visit their website.
Hey Paul, Isn’t this a good enough reason to switch to you know …. Mac! What two large ones for peace of mind, and sharp focus on “pithy insights?”
We're all being ripped off. Om. Me. Tom and a host of others. It's called plagarism. Read Om's post first though, then read the comments.
While
I can't go into Kinkos and copy a page in the newspaper about a
friend's daughter (who is also an agency client of mine) someone can
easily lift and rip off a blog's RSS feed and run it on their site
without permission. That's a crime.
The former (Kinkos) is more
than likely a case of misunderstanding regarding the right of "Fair Use
Copyright" while this obvious rip off of Om and all the rest is a clear
cut violation of the DMCA and can end up costing the author, their
company and the ISP big dollars according to some sources.
Let's
all do our part this Christmas Day to say Bah Humbug to all those in
the food chain, including the ad supporting engine that's helping to
fuel this plagarism based industry.
Terry Eaton thinks that 2006 is when broadcast television will eventually meet its maker. His essay, The Unbundled Awakening is a good read in how the video business might shake out in the year to come. via Doc Searls’s IT Garage.
Update: Thanks to reader suggestions, some aggressive reporting by Dave Burstein and Andy Abramson, along with a quick response by the said site’s host, the xb90.com has been shut down. Thank you all for moral and technical support.
Last week, Mike over at Crunch Notes was complaining about Josh Stomel, who was making slight changes to Mike’s posts and reposting them as his own writing. Well, at least Stomel made some effort. This morning, Andy Abramson sent me an email about this website which is lifting and reposting the posts from GigaOM wholesale, images and everything.
These guys who call themselves a magazine network are so dumb, they even took the categories. Apparently, these people are not just ripping my content, but also the content of other bloggers. The design seems to be inspired by “Weblogs Inc” and clearly, this site is created to make money off other-people’s work. Think of this as a new kind of a splog. All right folks, I need some suggestions on how to make this shit stop. The domain is registered to someone in Texas, and the email address on the domain registration information goes to RezGlobal, a wholesale luxury travel agency. Global company, which has a website, but no executives.
VoIP Security will be a big issue in 2006 IMHO. Dan York and his
sidekick Jonathan Zar, are taking a leadership position on the subject.
If your not reading their blog
or listening to their podcast, you're missing out on early warning
signs about what is happening with Security and just what is or could
be impacting VoIP and VoIP users.
In an absolutely riviting and attack dog like post yesterday Tom Keating rips Vonage from end to end on all things related to PR, Product Management, Product Development, Partner Relations and more.
If
he was alone then some might think he's wrong. But he's not. I've
received the same reaction or inaction and it seems that the mainstream
press, especially in the financial sector seems to be casting a blind
eye to all of these continual faux pas.
On the plus side Vonage
knows how to attract users by using the equivilant of Cisco style swarm
marketing, but where Cisco does that with live bodies, Vonage does it
with ever intrusive online and offline media assaults. As a result they
are the largest non-cable company VoIP player in North America. They
get huge props for that.
But they are without a doubt playing
the PR game all wrong and it dates back to before the E911 issues. For
as long as I can remember their approach has been "comment on the
positive, but spin or avoid the negative."
Tom's post points
to what is a huge and growing credibility issue since Vonage is neither
good at spining bad news into good and ducking never gets any company
into anything but in a heap of hurt eventually.
Okay now that I have your attention, let me tell you about a little drama that played out while we were busy celebrating Christmas. Earlier this week, MySpace decided to cut off YouTube videos from their site. (YouTube folks wrote about it on their blog, but later erased it.) You could not even use the URL of YouTube, a Sequoia funded video sharing company, inside of MySpace webpages. MySpace is a social network owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. This led led to a whole lot of bitching and moaning from the MySpace community.
One very upset YouTube user wrote
I can not mention Youtube and I can not link to my videoclips on Youtube on Myspace.com. This is ironic and a very sad picture of the future of social networks and shows what kind of social networks todays teenagers are trapped and fenced into.
Nothing social about that. It reminded me of Robert Young’s on whose community is it anyway?
After all, a community, by definition generates its own content, its own style and culture… it’s all by the people, for the people. So as time goes by, the foundation of ownership and control for content and distribution is increasingly shifting from corporate entities to people and communities. A phenomenon that will cause countless sleepless nights for old media and old-line technology leaders who don’t fully comprehend the significance of the dynamics at hand.
In the end MySpace decided to roll back the ban, or so it seems if you read the YouTube blog
Well Tubers, thanks to all of your emails and blogging, we have been able to get in contact with Tom from MySpace. Turns out this was a simple misunderstanding, and MySpace has re-enabled all YouTube embeds. Everything should now be back in working order.
What exactly was that misunderstanding? I would love to know …. Given that its the long weekend, it won’t be up until Monday we can get some answers!
Washington Post: Agenda at FCC Depends On Powers of Persuasion
'At a conference of VOIP executives in September, Jeff Pulver, who
helped found the company that later became Internet phone provider
Vonage Holdings Corp., suggested that the FCC was being run like the
KGB, according to a Pulver aide. Martin made light of the comment at
an industry dinner earlier this month, joking that "the KGB-like
atmosphere grows on you after a while."'
Tags: FCC, KGB, Jeff Pulver
James Enck who rides heard over the European Telcom world for
Daiwa Securities has some laser like insight on the non-death of PSTN.
A
friend, Mark Walker, came over today for a little holiday cheer,
and we started talking about his next entrepreneurial idea. (Mark's a
real dyed-in-the-wool entrepreneur who has left a career in law
far behind.) Without getting into the details of what he plans to do
(which will address a huge point of pain), we talked about the key
ingredients you need these days to create a Web 2.0 start-up with a
good shot of becoming successful. Surprisingly, way down on the list is
money. These days, it's more important to have a really good idea, a
crack development team (you can do it in-house but it's probably
cheaper to hire a crack developer or development team from
overseas), and first or second-mover advantage. If there's a real
problem to be solved, you run as hard as you can to generate a critical
mass or community of users. The key elements during this phase are
user-friendly technology that simply works well, and a general idea of
how to make money. Once a lot of people start digging your application
or service and you make some revenue, then you need to think about
introducing other fee-based services that a portion of your user base
will buy into. At this point, the VCs come into play but until then
there's really not a lot of money that needs to spent given
distribution costs over the Web are minimal and a good service will be
your best sales tool thanks to the power of online viral marketing. If
you think about it, the best example of this formula is Skype, which
didn't raise a lot of money ($18.8-million
in venture capital) but had an excellent service that millions of users
loved. Of course, the downside of the Web 2.0 start-up environment is
the barriers to entry are pretty low, which explains why there are
dozens of companies chasing the same Web 2.0 dream. Look at the
photo-sharing market, which SiliconBeat put the spotlight on recently. The only people really thriving from this start-up phenomena are Michael Arrington (a.k.a. Tech Crunch) and Emily Chang
(a.ka. eHub), who spend much of their time chronicling all the new cool
services being unveiled. Given the intense competition, a
successful Web 2.0 start-up needs a really good idea that addresses a
point of point; some money at the right time and a lot of luck to
hit it big. Rick Segal (a.k.a. Post Money Value) has had some excellent posts recently on the worlds of VC and entrepreneurs. Check out "Build to Flip=Build to Fail", "The New VC Handbook" and "Inside the Process". Perhaps the most encouraging development of 2006 - putting aside all the hype and hand-wringing about Web 2.0
- is the return of the entrepreneur. After several years of
hibernation, it was encouraging to see optimism and enthusiasm come
back into the technology world. Entrepreneurs are a different breed of
cat that bring sizzle to business. Without them, life is dull. We
should all celebrate that Web 2.0 or whatever's going on within the
tech world has brought the entrepreneur back to life!
Martin's issues a challenge to the VoIP companies to speed up progress and make things more 2.0 like.
What do you do with 250 million in new money? Go out and spam someone.
Now before I go off half cocked, the last time I pointed this out to Vonage PR VP, Brooke Schulz, she blamed it on the third party marketing company they had working for them. While I know that's likely true, one would think that Vonage after being caught once, would take better control of their brand.
But no. Today, in my wine email account, that I don't use for VoIP matters, I received an offer from Vonage. Now to add insult to injury, I still have a Vonage account so not only is it a SPAM, it's an email to someone who is already on their account list.
In database marketing, your supposed to do what's called a merge and purge. This was something Schulz and I also spoke about the last time Vonage spammed me.
But with 250 million in the bank on top of what was already there, maybe they can afford the waste. I mean, every wasted effort only drives up, not down the cost of acquisition. The effort also blows large holes in the idea that some potential investors may have about them being smart marketers.
For Vonage, with all the money they've raised, it's really the law of Large Numbers. In this case, spending money via third party mailers who use non-opt in lists to spam.
I wonder what the FTC (Federal Trade Commision) thinks about this? More importantly, I wonder what would happen to their online marketing by email efforts if I reported Vonage to SpamCop...nah, I'm not that evil--but someone else may be.
\
Rich has some interesting thoughts
on the two keynoters that highlight the Internet Telephony Conference
& Expo show next month which includes Tom Ridge and Ron Insana -
neither of which really need an introduction. Rich also reminds his
blogging audience about the speech given by former FCC
chairman Michael Powell at the last Internet Telephony Expo, which
earned Michael some surprising rave reviews from the blogosphere and
the mainstream media.
I saw Michael's speech and I concur with
Rich's positive sentiments on Michael Powell's speech which even earned
some heartfelt applause. I hope Tom Ridge and Ron Insana can live up to
expectations set by Mr. Powell's excellent speech. Regardless, I will
certainly enjoy being in warm & sunny Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in
January!
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(www.technolog-gadgets-review on Dec 26, 2005 2:09 PM) WISH U HAPPY CHRISMAS AND A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR
(varun on Dec 26, 2005 2:14 PM) HAPPY CHRISMAS TO ALL
I got a chance to speak with Governor Tom Ridge yesterday regarding his upcoming keynote at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo
(ITEXPO). In case you aren't aware he is currently sitting on the board
of Vonage and he says he is working hard. He is on the boards of a
number of companies and is doing a lot of consulting.
During the
conversation, the Governor (a title you keep for life) was energetic
and charming. I got the feeling he is very happy.
At ITEXPO he will discuss terrorism and security
and how communities deal with disaster situations. He will discuss a
number of disaster issues and how they relate to communications. He
will also be available for questions from the audience and he is
especially excited about the Q&A at the end of his session. As the
Governor says it the Q&A is usually the best part of a speech.
We
are so excited to hear what Governor Ridge is going to say at ITEXPO
and we believe he has a unique perspective on VoIP, disaster
communications and 911. As you know these issues are huge right now and
if you are involved in communications in any way at all you will be
likely be affected by his unique perspective.
Governor Ridge is
uniquely qualified to speak on these topics and since he is not in
office at the moment he is subsequently able to speak freely on
disaster communications and 911. There is nothing like hearing someone who was recently in politics speak freely. You will learn a great deal from this presentation.
I can say this with a high level of confidence because Chairman Michael Powell spoke at ITEXPO in
Los Angeles earlier this year and he was able to tell it like it is. It
was the most refreshing speech he had ever made according to the many
reporters and others who spoke to me afterwards.
The fact that the Governor is not in office is one of the reasons we have invited him to speak in the first 
place. You will likely be delighted to hear him in person.
As
always Internet Telephony Conference & Expo remains the place to
come if you want to learn about VoIP and how to deploy this technology
correctly and effectively. Whether you are looking to save or make
money from VoIP or learn how the technology can enable your business to
do more with less, you should come to this conference and be part of
this vibrant and rapidly growing VoIP community.
We remain the only VoIP show I am aware of in the world that has a guaranteed conference.
ITEXPO has the best educational experience bar none. We also feel we
have the best speakers. This sentiment is echoed throughout the VoIP
community as I often hear our show focuses on objectively educating our
audience. TMC really puts its resources into finding speakers you can
learn from.
Remember that Ron Insana
is also speaking at the show and once again I believe we have chosen
two speakers that generally aren't speaking at other events. You have
to come to Ft. Lauderdale next month in person to hear what they have to say.
Your
time is precious. We appreciate your consideration. We promise you will
get the best educational experience in the VoIP world with the least
amount of fluff at ITEXPO. Oh and by the way, Florida is just a great
place to be in late January. I just can't wait to escape the cold for a
few days.
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What's wrong with Vonage? Oh let me count the ways...
First, they've been promising the Viseon video phone
for I about a year and it's still hard if not impossible to get. In
fact, I checked my trusty email archives and found this email dated
December 4, 2004 - "Vonage(R) Announces Partnership with Viseon to
Develop Videophone Service". Ok, you announced the partnership in 2004
and it's almost 2006? C'mon already!
On September 30th of this
year, I emailed a "certain" PR firm that invited me to check out the
Viseon's videophone called the VisiFone. She wrote me saying, "We
invite you to be one of the first editors to check out Viseons
VisiFone, the first Digital Home Telephone for broadband. If you are
interested, we will send you a set of two VisiFones. The trial VisiFone
will come preloaded with a Vonage/Sipphone.com test account, a Quick
start guide, and tech support for assistance." Sure, I said - send me
the two VisiFone review units. I waited and I waited and yep, I'm still
waiting. Nothing in the mail. Rich Tehrani
also emailed her and also didn't hear back. If both Rich and I, two
well-known VoIP journalists can't get our hands on the Viseon VisiFone,
then who can?
A couple days earlier (August 29th) I also emailed someone directly at Vonage
with the initial "B" and inquired about getting a VisiFone. No reply.
What gives? Did one of TMC's competitors (who shall remain nameless)
but who currently has thousands of Vonage stock options tell Vonage
not to speak to me? Ok, maybe that was harsh, and I doubt that is the
case since for the most part this competitor has taken the high road in
competing with us. Maybe B's spam filter ate my email.
Anyway, so that's my first gripe - they promoted a product you can't
even get your hands on a full year in advance. That's shady marketing
in opinion.
My second gripe is that if you get a Vonage softphone not only do you have to pay extra, but you have to get a separate phone number. Why? Why can't Vonage
let you have one number and simulataneosly ring both your home ATA
device and the softphone (if online)? I have enough numbers to deal
with than to have to have two separate Vonage phone lines.
My third gripe is their WiFi phone which is yet another product that was announced but took forever to actually ship.
Sure it looks good, but once again you must get a new line and cannot
add it to your existing account. So you need to pay a minimum of
$15/month just to have the WiFi phone. Yet another fee? Vonage
is becoming more and more like a phone company every day. Why can't I
just buy the WiFi phone, or another third-party Wi-Fi phone and install
the softphone config info into the phone without paying another fee and
having yet another phone number? Are you telling me if I want my Vonage
home line using an ATA, a WiFi phone, a Viseon videophone, and the
softphone, I need 4 separate numbers with separate account fees for
each? Sheesh!
Now granted, Vonage has to be careful since someone could ask a friend who uses Vonage to sign-up for a WiFi phone and then ship the WiFi phone to the friend. Thus, you'd have two people sharing one Vonage account and Vonage only collects 1/2 the revenue. It could especially hurt Vonage
if the original user is using the unlimited plan. But I say, if the
customer is using one of Vonage's limited plans, i.e. set number of
minutes free, then you pay-per-minute, then Vonage should let the Vonage
customer have the WiFi phone for the cost of the hardware only. After
all, friends or not, who is going to let a friend "rack up" minutes on
a limited account where the friend doesn't have to foot the bill? And
even if the friend does rack up minutes, Vonage collects it's share of revenue anyway.
And
even if the two friends "share" a single unlimited account, they'd be
sharing the same inbound phone number. Who wants to share their home
phone number with a friend? What if the friend answers the line
remotely via the WiFi phone you gave him? Oh wait, I forgot, Vonage assigns you a different phone number per device (ATA, WiFi phone, etc.)
Vonage really needs to start thinking "out of the box" and stop modeling themselves as a carrier replacement.
It's
crap like this that will drive users to switch to "pay as you go"
pre-paid VoIP. In fact, while pondering my 2006 predictions (I've yet to make),
one of the predictions I planned on making was "pay as you go" pre-paid
VoIP and cellular taking really off in 2006. With more competition in
the VoIP space, price is still the primary factor as much as industry
pundits want to "push" enhanced services and enhanced features. Sure,
people want advanced features, such as a WiFi or videophone but not if
they have to pay for a full account. I really should go work on those
predictions. So much to do, so little time...
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(Andy Abramson on Dec 25, 2005 11:04 AM) Well add to the list: They spammed me. They are way behind on their IP-PBX for SMB market. Great piece, Tom..Awesome.
(www.technolog-gadgets-review.blogspot.com on Dec 26, 2005 2:17 PM) HAPPY CHRISMAS TO EVERYBODY
I figured it was easier to talk than to type. we are in a 2.0 world after all.
Give a listen.
Here is an excellent article on IMS that Laura Stotler wrote. It is definitely worth reading.
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Is
France becoming the most tech savvy country of the west? Perhaps not
but Frances lower house has agreed to legalize peer-to-peer file
sharing. In a surprise decision, just 2 out of 58 votes decided the
outcome.
The measure, introduced as two amendments to a
government bill designed to toughen digital copyright protection, would
deem that downloading copyrighted files is legal as long as it is for
private use only and the downloader pays a general fee for royalty
payments, the AFP report said.
The report said such a fee could,
for instance, be added on to the monthly subscription charge for
broadband Internet access at the cost of a few euros.
This is
pretty progressive and would allow everyone to share files and just
kick back a bunch of money that can be shared by the artists. In
theory, one can surmise the more of an artists songs are downloaded,
the more of the fund you receive.
This is pretty interesting and
opens up all sorts of worm cans. For example does Microsoft get a cut
of every illegal MS Office file flowing through he network. How about
porn movies. Is the French government going to cut checks to porn
studios?
I get the feeling we wont get to see this play out as
government has called for a second vote and will likely pressure the
National Assembly to rethink their stance.
Full story.
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Hat tip to Greg Galitzine, Editor of Internet Telephony Magazine who forwarded me an email with a video attachment titled "A Very Cisco Christmas". Greg got it from a friend who works at Cisco. For a little holiday fun, check out the video.
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One
of the exhibitors at the last Internet Telephony Conference & Expo
in Los Angeles took a survey of people who came to their booth and one
of the questions asked from people who havent deployed VoIP was which PBX Vendor would you choose if you are going to deploy VoIP. These were the responses. 
I
was pretty surprised to see how high Cisco ranked. There are a number
of companies missing from the results. Perhaps they are placedin the
other category. I cant vouch for how scientific the survey was but I
thought this worth passing along.Cisco 51% Avaya 14% Nortel 11% Siemens 9% Shoretel 3% 3Com 0% Other 11% Asterisk 0%
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We all know Microsoft is positioning the Xbox 360 as the central hub combining games, home entertainment and lifestyle, but today Microsoft
took it to a whole other level by offering their Xbox Live Diamond card
"perks card" for all Xbox Live members. I just got the email at 6pm
last night. Best of all, it's free to get one if you are an Xbox Live
member. Won't be long now before Microsoft offers a credit card I suppose, especially considering their rival Sony already offers a SonyStyle credit card, and in fact I already own one. Used the Sony points to buy a Sony VAIO PC running Microsoft Windows MCE 2005.
Here's the info from Microsoft's site on the Xbox Live Diamond Card:
Calling
all Xbox Live gamers! You're about to experience a whole new level in
entertainment. Yes, we're talking about the launch of Xbox 360, but
we're also talking about the brand new-and free-Xbox Live
Diamond Card, an unprecedented merger of your entertainment activities,
online and off. Never heard of it? Well, here's what you're in for:
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Is Bill Gates looking to buy some Opera for Christmas? The rumors are loudly rumbling that Microsoft is looking to bolster its browser technology by acquiring Opera,
the third most-popular Web browser behind IE and Firefox. In theory,
the deal makes sense because it will give Microsoft access to Opera's
technology, which, in many ways, if superior to IE. It could - and I
stress could - help Microsoft put a stop to the decline in IE's market
share declines. As important, it would give Microsoft a stronger
foothold in the mobile browser market where Opera has been thriving
recently as it looks for growth beyond the desktop. On the other hand,
a Microsoft-Opera deal would come as a surprise because Opera has
worked so hard to establish itself in the browser market. The Norwegian
company seems on the verge of participating in a vibrant and
competitive browser market with the emergence of Firefox and new
entrants such as Flock. At the
same time, Opera has a pretty tight relationship with Google and it
generates several million dollars by sending traffic to Google's search
engine. As a result, it makes you wonder if Google would step into the
fray and purchase Opera to create the much anticipated G-browser. What
do you think Bill Gates would have to say if Google trumped him again
in the wake of the $1-billion Google investment in AOL? The big
questions facing Opera is: why sell and why sell to Microsoft? Perhaps
money talks but it would be shame to see Opera disappear given the more
competition there is in the browser better, the more likely we will see
more innovation.
Update: One more thought about an
Opera-Microsoft marriage. There is a history of animosity between the
two companies over Microsoft's decision to make some MSN sites look bad
if you were using Opera. When Opera threatened a lawsuit last year,
Microsoft made it disappear with a $12-million payment.
For some other views on Opera-Microsoft, check out Jupiter analyst Michael Gartenberg and Mathew Ingram.
Click here for a very funny Cisco Christmas video that the geek in you is certain to enjoy.
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I'd never heard of William Morrison,
an analyst with JMP Securities, until this morning when I read he has
raised his 12-month target price on Google to $575 from $400. Morrison
became more bullish about Google following the AOL deal,
which will give Google "multiple entrées into the branded market, which
is important for the company's long term growth outlook." His
bullishness and a dot-com company and willingness to throw out such an
eye-catching number reminds me of Henry Blodget, who was a little-known analyst with CIBC Oppenheimer, until he boldly suggested in December 1998
that Amazon.com would hit $400. Within several weeks, Blodget's target
was reached, and he was soon snapped by Merrill Lynch. (As an aside,
Blodget wrote a column in January 1999 that "Unlike with other famous
bubbles...the Internet bubble is riding on rock-solid fundamentals,
perhaps stronger than any the market has seen before.") Perhaps
Morrison is trying to be the next Henry Blodget by jumping out ahead of
the pack to capture some attention. If Google rockets forward, then
Morrison will be seen as prescient, his status within the analyst
community will be enhanced, and he may land himself a new gig. Then
again, stock price targets are strange beasts because in many cases
they are based as much on emotion than fundamentals. If people believe
a stock is going to hit a certain target because analysts issue
specific targets, then investors will buy the stock - and it
becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Google is a no-lose opportunity for
an analyst looking to make his mark. It's easily the dot-com
play right now and the sky is the limit. If you ask me, hooking your
future on a rising star doesn't seem to be that much of a gamble.
This report from Taipei makes
reference to the overwhelming demand from manufacturers that Skype is
facing. Some cite slowdowns in receiving licenses since eBay took over
Skype. That's part of growing pains.
It can also be a sales
strategy, called SRO (standing room only.) That's where you create the
allusion of so much demand and interest that you can extract the price
and terms you want.
Knowing the way the Skype folks think, and something about what is going on with them, I'd say it's a little of both.
Posting may be a bit thin for a few days. Enjoy the sacred or secular seasonal observance of your choice, or not (that should cover all the potential sensitivities).
Peace on earth and IM goodwill
Blessed be the third party interoperability geeks. A mega-uber value reader pointed me towards this big announcement yesterday, and I was just starting to post on it when I realized that Thomas has already done a great job with it. I would only add that Google has the GAIM-master
on board, so clearly the company itself will undoubtedly also have
something exciting in the works beyond the AIM deal. It's also nice to
see Skype dragged (undoubtedly kicking and screaming) into this process
without the need for the usual niceties. Meanwhile, in Mac-land, Om and Andy have both written on developments around Gizmo (for what it's worth I am seeing a lot of VoIP geeks who have always refused to use Skype turning up on Gizmo).
In
all the years that I have been pestering clients about VoIP/IM, I have
never once said that the PSTN would be killed outright as a result.
Rather, I have argued that if VoIP/IM communities got big enough and
interconnected their various closed platforms, the PSTN would be
progressively less relevant. It will be a death of 453 million cuts,
and in 2006 it will move into higher gear.
Fancy a change of scenery in '06? BitTorrent is hiring... Intriguing desired competencies: Design and implementation of large scale search engines Experience in algorithmic video processing I bet the Friday afternoon office quiz is brutal.
Take the EuroTelcoblog holiday challenge As we're nearing the peak of the silly season ("I'd like to discuss razor stubble, please."), let's indulge in a little silliness ourselves. This morning I woke up, inexplicably, with the word "WiBro" in my head, and I started thinking about how telcos around the world might "overbrand" WiBro in the future (let's ignore the fact that spectrum availability may render some of these infeasible in any event). So, I have put together a list of 10 fictitious
