August 2008 Archives

I read some of the wildest comments in my email. The most recent I will list here but the names have been substituted for others to avoid any declared defamation of character...

"As discussed, XXX City Chapter in collobration with XSHX and your own company can hold a session on "Monetizing Communications." XXX members are IT professionals, while the XSHX members will cover the SW houses."

WT#O? Hmm... okay, so let's play a game and if you win, you get to $tize IP communications.

Which is the IT professional, software house member or could not possibly be either?

   
 

It's one thing to invent a new technology or a new way to work with an existing technology but it's another thing to figure out how to make money from it so that we can pay our bills and take care of our families and enjoy life. A friend on Facebook just bought me the book Bootstrapping your Business by Greg Gianforte. I'm finishing up Surfing on the Edge of Chaos right now and Greg's book is next. 

Want to read more regarding Greg? Check out Sramana Mitra's blog interview.

There were over 100,000 registered attendees at ITCN Asia 2008 and at least 125 exhibitors spread over three halls. The Karachi Expo Center was filled with energy, innovation, debate, and collaborations. Our company walked away with new business development in Pakistan, China, USA, UK, UAE, and more. 

One of the highlights of my booth visits was the bionic arm project by Ali Imtiaz and other students at SSUE. (I will try to come back and revise this post with the full name of the university.) What was unique about it? The bionic arm wearer will wear a cool ballcap and the movement of his head determines what kind of hand and arm movements are made, whether to pull, push, squeeze, pick up, etc. 

Got your curiosity? Read what the world has composed regarding bionics in general on Wikipedia, and enjoy the video where I interviewed Ali on Youtube.
 

At 1 AM CST on Aug 16, 2008, I added the above post.

At 1:48 AM CST on Aug, 16, 2008, I am revising the post below with this update... i mixed up NUST project of prosthetic upper limb exhibited at ITCN Asia 2008 in August 2008, with that of the bionic hand presented by students of SSUET a year ago. The bionic hand was actually designed for limb amputees and did not require an actual hand to imitate. It in fact was an attachment for people who have lost their hands. The video I created this past week of the prosthetic upper limb by NUST students was created using either my mobile or my business partner's mobile in hall 3 of the ITCN expo center. I am trying to locate that video.

After a meeting of PASHA (Pakistan Software Houses Assocation), PSEB (Pakistan Software Export Board) and government officials of Pakistan in informaton technology and telecom, I interviewed the Secretary IT/Telecom of the government of Pakistan Mr Hifz-ur-Rahman while sharing some excellent kulfi-type ice-cream. 

We discussed the initiatives of Pakistan to enable the people of Pakistan to improve their standard of living with new work opportunities and access to Internet and other technologies as well as each of our speeches we shared on the first day of ITCN Asia during the conference.

This was during ITCN Asia 2008. You can watch the interview on Youtube.

I met Ahmed Sajjad Zaidi at ITCN Asia this week. He's the serious, thoughtful guy behind Orgoo, the one place for all your IM, video chat, SMS, email and I can't wait to see what else next. Orgoo has been reviewed by all the big names: TechCrunch, Webware, VentureBeat, Podtech, PCWorld, ZDnet, Digital Daily, Barron's...

Jehan Ara, President of PASHA, listed his company as one of the most innovative startups in the South Central Asian area during her presentation on day 2 at ITCN Asia 2008.

Sign up here for Orgoo.

Zomma Mohiuddin, executive director of PTCL, shares the excitement of Pakistan's first IPTV service in the form of smartPTCL. Watch and listen on one of my video Google galleries. (I recorded this during ITCN Asia 2008 where I was also a speaker.)

What is IPTV? Find out at http://en.wikipeda.org/wiki/IPtv. The most exciting benefit to me is the interactivity. Straight from Wiki... "An IP-based platform also allows significant opportunities to make the TV viewing experience more interactive and personalized. The supplier may, for example, include an interactive program guide that allows viewers to search for content by title or actor's name, or a picture-in-picture functionality that allows them to "channel surf" without leaving the program they're watching. Viewers may be able to look up a player's stats while watching a sports game, or control the camera angle. They also may be able to access photos or music from their PC on their television, use a wireless phone to schedule a recording of their favorite show, or even adjust parental controls so their child can watch a documentary for a school report, while they're away from home.

Note that this is all possible, to some degree, with existing digital terrestrial, satellite and cable networks in tandem with modern set top boxes."

Jeff Pulver and Daniel Berninger and the rest at FWD (also known as FreeWorldDialup) have decided to monetize with a $30 annual membership fee beginning Aug 1, 2008. See the blog post and an interesting rebuttal.

There are no USA mobile companies who offer me this opportunity, but I found it somewhere else. Zain.

Zain Group ( formerly MTC or Mobile Telecommunications Company) is Multinational Corporation specializing in Mobile Telecommunications. Its area of operations include the seven countries in the Middle East, Kuwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Sudan ,and in Lebanon as mtc touch, and in 15 sub-Saharan countries in Africa Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon,Ghana Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Free roaming in 22 countries!
 

Listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange, Zain's market capitalization exceeded US$29 billion as at March 31, 2008. There are no restrictions on Zain shares as the company's capital is 100% free float and publicly traded. The largest shareholder is the Kuwait Investment Authority (24.6%).

Check out the milestones they have reached. Their most recent one...

Monetizing IP communications... I'm looking forward to my meeting with some reps from Zain at the ITCN Asia tomorrow where I am also giving a presentation.

First, in case, you're not familiar with USF. Wikipedia does a good job among its global contributors in defining and describing it. USA "was created by the United States Federal Communications Commission in 1997 to meet the goals of Universal Service as mandated by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The 1996 Act states that all providers of telecommunications services should contribute to federal universal service in some equitable and nondiscriminatory manner; there should be specific, predictable, and sufficient Federal and State mechanisms to preserve and advance universal service; all schools, classrooms, health care providers, and libraries should, generally, have access to advanced telecommunications services; and finally, that the Federal-State Joint Board and the FCC should determine those other principles that, consistent with the 1996 Act, are necessary to protect the public interest."

I'm in Karachi for a couple weeks to participate in ITCN Asia and visit with some of the 10,000 or so extremely valuable ITSPs we serve with DIDX. After a few phone conversations on Skype, Gizmo5 or my Nokia e61i using Zong, I've learned that USF is much debated here in Pakistan as it is in the USA.

Here's an article from the net that Tariq Mustafa added for discussion of USF on the Pakistan Telecom Grid Google Groups list.

ISLAMABAD: All cellular companies of Pakistan have proposed to the Ministry of IT and Telecom to eliminate Universal Services Fund's (USF) share in Access Promotion Charge (APC) and let cellular companies enjoy all of APC to increase their revenues and lower the Average Revenue per User (ARPU) levels.

APC is the portion of revenue that currently equals US$0.05 per minute on all international calls terminating on landline or cellular networks of Pakistan. Fixed line operator, PTCL, gets all of APC ($0.05) for all calls that are terminated on its network. However, cellular companies are getting only 1.57 cents per minute on all calls that terminate on cellular networks. This 1.57 cents or Rs1.10 is PTA's determined termination rate per minute for all calls that land on cellular networks. Hence, cellular companies are entertained with Rs1.10 for calls that land on its networks whether domestic or international. Remaining cost of 3.43 cents per minute (for international traffic) goes to the USF.

The proposal said that mobile companies share the largest amount of incoming international traffic that is being terminated on mobile networks, it is only fair that the portion of APC, which is being currently mopped up as USF contribution, be granted to mobile companies, so that they can further increase their revenues and support the expanding network demands through out the country.

All mobile companies believe that they are already contributing 1.5 per cent of their revenues to USF, which is much more than the amount that could be actually spent by USF Company.

The proposal sent to the Ministry of IT and Telecom and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority was signed by CEOs of all mobile companies and PTCL.

and really just about anything. I first participated in a debate regarding the concept, benefits, and disadvantages of ethnocentrism in 1980 during an Economic Geography class under a professor Dr. Doerr at the University of West Florida. In Wikipedia, it is defined as "Ethnocentrism is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one's own culture. Ethnocentrism often entails the belief that one's own race or ethnic group is the most important and/or that some or all aspects of its culture are superior to those of other groups." Laura Guevin refers to it in her 2000 article, in a positive way.

This is one of the biggest blocks to moving a company ahead in the global economy of IP communications. We don't want to talk about it, but I read the evidence of it every day in my work email for DIDX among 1000s of industry leaders and newcomers. Here are some examples of statements included by them in emails to me.

Watch out for the Chinese. They are sneaky.
Japanese will only do business with Japanese.
I don't do business with Jews. He's Jewish. I don't trust him.
How come you have so many Paki customers?
She's a blonde, so she can't possibly understand.
A woman just joined the list. OMG.
We don't trust Muslims. They're all you know... 
Indians take years to make a decision. It's a waste of time.
All the scams are Nigerian-based.
Mexicans are not reliable.
Americans are Godless spoiled bullies.
Argentians are too good for themselves.
Caribbean business people are lazy.
That company is just a bunch of rednecks. The CEO even has a Hummer.
Don't wear red or people will think you're communist at the conference.
"Fill in the blank" is the only protocol we will ever use.
We can't because they're based in a socialist country.
He's so unprofessional, always in shorts and tshirts.

My final comments here: what a loss of market share, partnerships, customers, revenue, friendship, innovation and more...

for every single one of these people from these companies who make the comments and actually believe them.