Monetizing IP Communications

Carl Ford is great about updating us all on what to look forward to in the 4G Wireless Evolution scheduled for Sept 1-3, 2009. He has my absolute agreement on this intro statement: "It seems the mobile consumer can not get enough of their share of mobile applications... "

In fact, he goes on to say, "The iPhone store, Android store and similar initiatives from Nokia and RIM suggest power is shifting away from the operators and into the hands of application developers and the end user."

Half of the updates I read from those who I am following on Twitter are about mobile and mobile-related conferences, applications, equipment, services, and peripherals. Jeb Brilliant, a guy who I think does a great job identifying any kind of business potential in anything, is just one of them, and is avid on the latest in mobile anything.

In October 2008, I posted a comparison of mobile voip applications created by a very good friend that has received more hits than any other on my own personal/company blog. 

In addition, most of those that I interview at conferences around the globe as press agent or media partner at Gitex, CommunicAsia, CEATEC, CeBIT, ITEXPO, 4G Wireless Evolution, SUPERCOMM, ITU Telecom World, IIT VoIP, CTIA Wireless, Cluecon, and Astricon, approach the top that the power and direction of IT anything is more and more in the power of the actual user. Why is this? Most common answer is online social media. So... looks like a smart move to register for the event!

Early Bird pricing is in effect until July 17th for 4G Wireless Evolution and will provide for savings of up to $300 off single person passes and up to $1,000 off of group registrations.

Keep in mind that 4G Wireless Evolution is collocated with IT West 2009 in Los Angeles from Sept 1-3, 2009. And for those who cannot get enough 4G power, check out also the 4G World Conference scheduled for Sept 15-18, 2009 in Chicago, and CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment scheduled for Oct 6-9, 2009 in San Diego.  

I'll be at all three. Why? It is more productive to fly to conferences where so many of the people you want to learn from and/or do business with ... will be, than to squeeze all those calls, emails and more. You and I can still use our cell phone or netbook to email, IM, voip call, point DIDs and more and keep working while at the conference.

BTW, follow 4GWorld and TMCnet (ITEXPO) on Twitter. Add yourself to the Facebook groups here:

ITEXPO West and 4G Wireless Evolution in Los Angeles, Sept 1-3, 2009

4G World in Chicago, Sept 15-18, 2009

CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment in San Diego, Oct 6-9, 2009
 

Recorded with Pretty May, a customer of Sangoma, and voice with Skype... really enjoyed this interview with David Mandelstam, CEO of Sangoma at DIDX podcasts. We met for the first time at the Digium Asterisk Pavilion at CommunicAsia in Singapore last week, where we were serving as media partner and press agent.

What a great attitude in leadership, business, and life. That's Mandelstam!
Words to describe: ultimate is quality, longevity, warranty, promotion of customers not self, open source friendly, windows friendly, well-stocked inventory, modest but powerful leadership.

An Ezine article at ezinearticles.com/ does a good job at giving the history. I believe that much of what has been accomplished in monetizing anything in the past decade or so, can give some credit to online banking... the time it saves...

So simple and so true.
1. Make sure that the punctuation, capitalization, word choice, and spelling help the pages in the website that showcase your IP communications invention make sense.

2. Make sure that the basics of your IP communications invention work. If they do not work, label the webpages "alpha." If the basics of your IP communications invention work smoothly but the secondary and further layers have some problems, label the webpages "beta."

Please! Not doing these two, have an extremely negative effect on one's work team, one's credibility in the industry, one's sales, and of course, the bottom line. And yes, I should take my own advice.

There's a limited time promotion on IPSmarx New Wholesale Softswitch that integrates call routing, SIP and H323 handling, advanced billing, client management, taxation, traffic shaping, CDR processing and advanced reporting in one scalable VoIP traffic exchange solution. 
 
You can take a tour of their new Wholesale Softswitch. To sign up for a free web presentation please email: misti @ ipsmarx.com to book an appointment.
 
They're offering the following Limited Time Bundle Packages through July 10th:
 
Start up Carrier Package
Designed for those who are entering the wholesale market for the first time who require an upgradable and cost effective solution.
Bundle starts from ... please contact.
 
Mid-Size Carrier Package
For carriers who are already in the business and have up to 5 million minutes per month.
Bundle starts from ... please contact.
 
Enterprise Carrier Package
For larger carriers who have 5 million minutes per month or more. This package includes a consultation with our VoIP engineers to determine the best solution for network architecture based on each carrier's individual needs.
 
For more information on our New Wholesale Switch please visit:
http://ipsmarx.com/english/solutions/wholesale.htm

Call your Sangoma expert at VoIP Supply today and save big on shipping charges!
Sangoma provides quality hardware products that enable telephony applications including legacy PBX, IVR, auto attendant, next generation gateways, media servers and application servers.

Sangoma's unmatched voice optimized hardware is well-known in the Open Source PBX market. In fact, they raised the bar in TDM voice communications with on-board, Telco-grade, hardware echo canceller DSPs available on all Sangoma voice cards and the most optimized, scalable, cross-platform device drivers available.
Check out Sangoma's full line of analog telephony cards, digital voice and data networking cards, digital-analog hybrids and more.

Call a VoIP Supply sales representative at 800.398.8647 for more information re: Sangoma products including free ground shipping between 6/23/2009 and 6/29/2009! Products this applies to are on VoIPSupply website.

Sangoma and VoIP Supply are DIDX partners. We'll be adding our video interview here with David Mandelstam, President of Sangoma, in the press lounge of CommunicAsia in Singapore as soon my business partner Rehan Allahwala sends me the 30+ videos and 100+ photos I took while in Singapore. If you see Rehan, remind him to send them to me. Desperate here.

Always on the lookout for the coolest events, services, products, people, and groups on the net and what a goldmine Open Silicon Valley Forum is!

Enjoy listening to Dilawar Syed, president* of Open Silicon Valley Forum on a recent DIDX podcast interview, share the exciting activities you can participate in at the Forum on June 13, 2009 in Mountain View, CA at the Computer History Museum across from the Google Campus. Mr. Syed serves as CEO of Yonja Media Group. He also commands an impressive professional background.

I list the last few companies.
- Member, National Finance Committee at Obama for America
- Head of Platform Business Strategy & Operations at
Yahoo!
- Director, CRM Solution Marketing at SAP
- Product Marketing, Communications & Media Vertical at  Siebel Systems

Two activities that really impressed me when browsing the event site are the first Clean Tech Pitch with top tier investors listening in and the Entrepreneurial Idol Competition sponsored by Sun Microsystems (Season 3). The Forum has a rich quality of speakers, too. Register at http://www.opensiliconvalley.org.

Sign up to participate at Open Silicon Valley Forum registration. At $100 or less, it's the opportunity for entrepreneurs and professionals to mix, develop business, and make an impression on potential investors.

 It takes place at...
The Computer History (not very far from the Google campus) 
1401 N Shoreline Blvd
Mountain View, CA 94043
(650) 810-1010

Hotels nearby? I checked Mapquest.

* Please note, I made a mistake in stating on the podcast that Dilawar is executive director of Open Silicon Valley Forum. Dilawar Syed is the president of Open Silicon Valley Forum.

DIDXchange is a media partner for this Forum, and we are honored to be a part of promoting Open Silicon Valley Forum.

I met so many great companies at ISPCON 2009 in San Jose and IP Possibilities 2007 in Chicago who meet the strict criteria of those who would qualify to take part in the Rural Stimulus Programs, so let me get the word out.

Webinar: Winning Strategies for Rural Broadband Stimulus Programs
Sign up for the webinar.
Date: June 11, 2009
Time: 11:00am EDT

Wireless operators and municipalities and have a unique opportunity to leverage the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) which authorized the investment of $7.2 billion for broadband network infrastructure development in the US. This Webinar features a case study of one wireless broadband operator that recently secured RUS funding to build a WiMAX network in rural Georgia and Northern Florida. 

The Webinar will help applicants to understand how to integrate network planning and financial modeling to provide visibility and make strategic decisions regarding services, coverage and network requirements as they prepare broadband stimulus proposals. With responses due in the next few months, presenters will share some key factors that could help applicant develop a successful funding proposal. 

Sign up for the seminar.
Date: June 11, 2009
Time: 11:00am EDT

Thanks, Alvarion!

Carol Davids, Director of VoIP Activities and the ITM program at Illinois Institute of Technology, and Warren Bent, co-founder and Vice President of Business Development with InCharge Systems, were my guests this past week on the DIDX podcast channel. Carol shares with the listeners information about the Internet Telephony and Telecommunications courses at IIT and the 5th Annual VoIP Conference scheduled for Oct 28-29, 2009 in Wheaton, Illinois.

The IIT lab offers instruction and practice in VoIP, telecommunications, SIP, Asterisk, IP PBX and more. Check http://voip.itm.iit.edu/ for more information such as a list of current and completed projects and a photo gallery at http://voip.itm.iit.edu/gallery.php. (I really want our local Pensacola Junior College Telecommunications instructors to attend the VoIP conference in Wheaton.)

Warren Bent, Co-founder and Vice President of business development of InCharge Systems shares his thoughts on the value of collaboration among the university, the VoIP Lab, the students and professors such as Carol Davids and private industry. His company is an active supporter of the conference and the VoIP Lab. Those listening in are encouraged to get involved by visiting http://voip.itm.iit.edu/ and participate. There are opportunities to exhibit, present, attend and sponsor the conference and to be involved with IIT's VoIP Lab.

Visit www.inchargesys.com for information about InCharge Systems and how they are a support for the IIT VoIP Lab and register for the conference directly at http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Summary.aspx?e=31a8c7fe-a5b5-4da7-99ab-8e110eae0312. Contact information for the VoIP Lab is at http://voip.itm.iit.edu/voipcontact.php.

(My voice is broken up at times on this podcast, but the guests who are most important are quite clear and I know you will enjoy the news and information from Carol and Warren.)

ZRTP is a protocol that does not require prior shared secrets. It doesn't need a public key infrastructure (PKI). What happens instead? Ephemeral Diffie-Hellman keys are automated at the beginning of each session start. You no longer have to depend upon a trusted third-party. Brian West completed successful setup and availability of ZRTP in one day. Of course, he says this was nothing big and he got a few pointers from Tony. But, I say, this says a lot for the flexibility of FreeSWITCH and Brian West's modesty.

Listen to a conversation between me and Michael Collins on the DIDX podcast channel about ZRTP and FreeSWITCH. Michael began working more closely with the FreeSWITCH development team in December 2008, but he's been involved in the community for quite a while.  And so what is ZRTP? How does it related to SRTP? How does SRTP and ZRTP protect our phone conversations? What devices support ZRTP? 

This is just a teaser. Mix directly with Michael Collins, Brian West, Anthony Minessale and other open source developers (and monetizers) at Cluecon Aug 4-6, 2009 at the Wyndham Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. 

Other podcasts with FreeSWITCH:
Interview with Anthony Minessale
Get in on Cluecon 2009

Now, if only 8x8 would start offering DID and DDI from more countries,

Forget the cartridges and attend the Social Media Academy and other great sessions at Open Silicon Valley Forum in Mountain View on June 13th, 2009. Listen and mix with the experts from RockYou, SlideShare, Zoosk, Sharethrough, and Eduify. A miniscule entry fee of $55 for the full conference right now will place you in an inspirational circle of movers and shakers at the forum's venue the Computer History Museum.

The main categories set for this event include cleantech, global affairs, and tech and media. See the full conference schedule. Fantastic opportunities include pitching for the Entrepreneurial Idol award (application deadline Monday June 1, 2009) and Clean Investor Pitch Lunch. (application deadline Sunday May 31, 2009).

The conference registration includes:

• Access to Keynotes

• Access to world-class professional development workshops & panels, covered in three parallel tracks

• Access to networking sessions with global business leaders

• A three-course, delectable lunch buffet

Everything we do on the Internet and make available on the Internet involves some form of communication.  Monetizing IP communications, to me, means making the best us of available resources to add new customers, keep them, over-please them,  for the and have them refer more. The Open Silicon Valley Summit has a great combination of world Internet leaders, topics and opportunities for interaction, collaboration, and business. Sign up at http://www.opensiliconvalley.org.

Hotels in the area...

The Computer History Museum address is 1401 N. Shoreline Blvd, Mountain View, Califonria 94043.

Let's make more of the web accessible to mobile phones, okay? Some companies don't make sure that they are delivering valid XHTML. I discussed this with Jessica Zhu, an expert in XML and XHTML*, at ISPCON last year. World Wide Web Consortium can help your company check to see if your websites are mobile-friendly. Check their best practices published in January 2009. W3 is also looking for your feedback. 

Come hang out with more experts on mobile applications and technology at the following conferences. I'll see you there.

Sept 1-3, 2009 ITEXPO and 4G Wireless Evolution

Sept 15-18, 2009 4G World

Oct 6-9, 2009 CTIA WIRELESS I.T. & Entertainment®

* Check Surfin' Safari for the relationship among XML, XHTML and HTML.