Carolyn Schuk
| News and views on the world of IP communications from the VoIP Princess, Carolyn Schuk.
Effectively Telling Your Product's Story
One of the most interesting aspects of my career is watching the thousands of companies I have met over the years make...
Full Story »
Dialogic and Cisco Round Out Day's NFV News
It’s been a busy week regarding NFV and the software telco (R)evolution. First off Dialogic had some solid thoughts on six of...
Full Story »
The Big Deal about Big Data Analytics
By Greg Owens, Senior Director Customer Experience Solutions Marketing, Alcatel-Lucent
The rise of big data is causing service providers to ask some big questions: How should we store our data? How long should we keep it? What parts of it are relevant to our business? Most importantly, how do we get value from it? To turn big data into a big deal, service providers need to extract insights that can help them make smart business decisions and improve the customer experience.
The value of big data is all in what useful and actionable information it can provide. I find it exciting to see how service providers use big data analytics to gain new insights and solve complex problems. With this post, I’ll look at some new research by industry analysts and three key opportunities that big data analytics presents to service providers.
<
WebRTC: The Revolution Won't Occur Without a Media Server
Next Thursday at the WebRTC Conference and Expo, I’ll present a conference keynote that might not be exactly what attendees expect...
Full Story »
Software Telcos Based on NFV Want Less Equipment Provider M&A
Mergers are nothing new but about a decade ago in the telecom market they reached a fever pitch when SBC purchased AT&T...
Full Story »
Linux Foundation Embedded Solutions Director's Case for Open Source and Connected Car
The car of 2013 is different from the one I learned to drive, a 1974 Ford Maverick with rear federal bumpers, aluminum...
Full Story »
Business Video and Queen Lead Guitarist Brian May
"A good video can make all the difference," says Brian May (Ph.D. Astro-Physics and Queen lead guitarist). Such is true for business!Even...
Full Story »Another brick in Google's VoIP wall
May 18, 2010This morning Global IP Solutions announced that it has entered into a $68 million buyout agreement with Google. Add that to Google's February, 2010 announcement that it was undertaking an "experiment" to build 1-Gbps FTTH networks, and it's clear that Google has plans to become a serious telecom infrastructure player.
In the last two years, Google has made several forays in the voice market. After buying VoIP startup GrandCentral in 2008, Google went on to buy the peer-to-peer softphone Gizmo5.
FCC's Modest Broadband Oversight Proposal Not Cause for Hysteria
May 17, 2010I checked in this morning to see how the FCC's latest Net neutrality proposal last week was faring with the unhinged fringe.
Fox News, with its customary fair and balanced perspective, offers "FCC Goes For Nuclear Option - Seeks To Control Interent," and "Genachowski's 'Third Way' Is a Washington Internet Takeover."
Over at Whited Sepulchre we have: "The announcement last week by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski that the agency planned to assert authority over the Internet raises all kinds of red flags...Every street in America should look like one of Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution Rallies."
FCC's Modest Broadband Oversight Proposal Not Cause for Hysteria
May 17, 2010I checked in this morning to see how the FCC's latest Net neutrality proposal last week was faring with the unhinged fringe.
Fox News, with its customary fair and balanced perspective, offers "FCC Goes For Nuclear Option - Seeks To Control Interent," and "Genachowski's 'Third Way' Is a Washington Internet Takeover."
Over at Whited Sepulchre we have: "The announcement last week by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski that the agency planned to assert authority over the Internet raises all kinds of red flags...Every street in America should look like one of Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution Rallies."
Skype slights Mac community, Dan York bristles
May 13, 2010
Mac users just don't get no respect, as Disruptive Telephony's Dan York points out today in his kvetch about Skype's video group calling: Mac users need not apply for this Windows-only beta.
Oh sure, we'll get a separate-but-equal version "later in the year," Skype says. They just neglected to mention which year.
Much of Skype's success can be attributed to individuals who use it, like it and go on to insinuate the service into their work lives. It's certainly not Skype's talent for PR.
May 13, 2010
Mac users just don't get no respect, as Disruptive Telephony's Dan York points out today in his kvetch about Skype's video group calling: Mac users need not apply for this Windows-only beta.
Oh sure, we'll get a separate-but-equal version "later in the year," Skype says. They just neglected to mention which year.
Much of Skype's success can be attributed to individuals who use it, like it and go on to insinuate the service into their work lives. (It's certainly not Skype's talent for PR; I was once dis-invited to a Skype event when someone realized I was a journalist, not a system integrator.)
Microsoft Kin: Another Misadventure in the World of Can't
May 5, 2010
I just read a review of the Microsoft's - what was it called? Now I remember - Kin at PC World.
It seems that the Kin is the dumbest smartphone in a competitive lineup of contemporary devices that almost-but-not-quite do things.
"You can't watch Web video, you can't send photos or video on Twitter," writes PC World's Jared Newman.
Other computer makers following Apple into the smartphone market?
January 30, 2009
Imitation, as they say, is the best form of praise. So it's no surprise that following on the heels of Apple's iPhone triumph, other computer makers are eying the handset to boost their bottom lines. The buzz is that Acer and Dell are working on high-end smartphones, according to Juniper Research's Analyst Xpress blog today.
The Wall Street Journal has a story on Dell, as well, saying that "people familiar with the matter" indicate that Dell may launch a smartphone "as early as next month."
I say, the more the merrier. Computer makers bring a different POV to the table, as we saw with the iPhone. And that can only be a good thing.
The Wall Street Journal has a story on Dell, as well, saying that "people familiar with the matter" indicate that Dell may launch a smartphone "as early as next month."
I say, the more the merrier. Computer makers bring a different POV to the table, as we saw with the iPhone. And that can only be a good thing.
While You Were Making VoIP Calls on Your TV at CES, Mobile TV Was Calling Your Phone
January 12, 2009In his Fierce VoIP post on Monday, Doug Mohney reports that one of his takeaways from last week's CES is that your TV is morphing into a phone. Maybe so, but another - and potentially bigger - story at CES is how your phone is turning into a TV set.
The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) debuted the new ATSC candidate standard for broadcast - free-to-air - mobile TV rolling toward final approval later this year. At CES, the OMVC was showing live broadcasts on prototype handsets, mobile video players, PCs, and in-vehicle video players.
Obama's "Scary" Telecom Policy - We Used to Call it Public Policy
December 2, 2008
I know it's a little late to be offering commentary on the recent election, but I just got back from the RealClearPolitics.com Recovery Center.
So I have to crow a little - OK, more than a little - about being right that Obama would win, and win big. And I do not think it was only because the financial system collapsed, turning everyone into a "socialist."
I'm sticking to my guns that the pollsters' November surprise was due in part to the "cell phone effect" I noted last summer. Of course, it's hard to prove - after all, it's logically impossible to take a telephone poll of people who don't have telephones. Maybe the pollsters will cotton to that by 2012.
But the fact of how communication has changed is indisputable - at least to those of us who know how to find the power switch on a computer.
Barack Obama has been hailed for his brilliance in using new media. But as highly as I rate the president-elect's intelligence, this gives credit where none is due. It's the folks who think Obama's use of new media is breathtakingly clever who are out of the mainstream.
Personally, I rejoice that actuarial tables say there is virtually zero probability that anyone who remembers when direct dialing was state-of-the-art will ever again be president.
And speaking of guys who yearn for the bygone days of "Number please," the $50 transatlantic phone call, and the Bell System monopoly, Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse told the Washington Post last month that "his [Obama's] stated position on network management 'should scare' executives the most."
Perhaps Hesse failed to notice that ominous warnings of Stalinism on the March haven't been winners lately, or that we've recently nationalized the banking industry and the domestic automotive industry is asking for their turn at the public trough.
The Post continues: "Industry observers and executives say they believe Obama will focus strongly on telecom issues such as network management, as well as bringing broadband service to rural and other underserved areas."
Talk about scary.
So I have to crow a little - OK, more than a little - about being right that Obama would win, and win big. And I do not think it was only because the financial system collapsed, turning everyone into a "socialist."
I'm sticking to my guns that the pollsters' November surprise was due in part to the "cell phone effect" I noted last summer. Of course, it's hard to prove - after all, it's logically impossible to take a telephone poll of people who don't have telephones. Maybe the pollsters will cotton to that by 2012.
But the fact of how communication has changed is indisputable - at least to those of us who know how to find the power switch on a computer.
Barack Obama has been hailed for his brilliance in using new media. But as highly as I rate the president-elect's intelligence, this gives credit where none is due. It's the folks who think Obama's use of new media is breathtakingly clever who are out of the mainstream.
Personally, I rejoice that actuarial tables say there is virtually zero probability that anyone who remembers when direct dialing was state-of-the-art will ever again be president.
And speaking of guys who yearn for the bygone days of "Number please," the $50 transatlantic phone call, and the Bell System monopoly, Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse told the Washington Post last month that "his [Obama's] stated position on network management 'should scare' executives the most."
Perhaps Hesse failed to notice that ominous warnings of Stalinism on the March haven't been winners lately, or that we've recently nationalized the banking industry and the domestic automotive industry is asking for their turn at the public trough.
The Post continues: "Industry observers and executives say they believe Obama will focus strongly on telecom issues such as network management, as well as bringing broadband service to rural and other underserved areas."
Talk about scary.
