By the time you read this, I will have been in Barcelona for a week. While I was coming to Barcelona anyway for Mobile World Congress, I came early since the Video Convergence Forum was launched the Thursday before MWC started. Next week, I will report on Mobile World Congress.
 

So what's with the Video Convergence Forum? Why did Dialogic feel so strongly about it that we wanted to be a founding member? 
 

As readers of this blog know, Dialogic has been a proponent of enabling mobile video applications. The time is right in that the networks can generally handle the bandwidth requirements, the phones are very capable, consumers have a big thirst for mobile video and the application innovators are thriving. So when we were approached about this forum -- where the objective is to enable the streamlining of media delivery and its monetization over any type of network to any type of device by developing open APIs and MIBs where required and coordinating between existing standards bodies and solutions available in the market -- it fit right into what we were trying to do. The VCF will be able to drive all of these initiatives faster. So we are a big supporter and you'll hear more from the forum -- and from me, since I am a marketing-co chair of the VCF -- in the future. I invite you to visit their Web site to see more.
 

While it's hopefully not related to the VCF, it's important to note some relatively bizarre happenings here. First of all, it's been snowing on and off in Barcelona since I've been here. Well, what they call snow here is really flurries to me. But nonetheless, it's cold and there are snowflakes which is not that normal in these parts. And in wandering around Barcelona on Saturday, there were multiple people in costumes. It seemed like their version of Halloween to me. But then again, I'm not used to celebrating Carnival. 
 

And finally, I've been all around the world and have had little problem with Internet connections the past few years, but that all came back this time around. It culminated with me finding the hotel's "communications closet" and putting an Ethernet line into their router to get some e-mail out. And then when they locked the closet since I was noticed hanging around in a closet with wires all around me, I figured out the bright idea of taking the data from my BlackBerry and downloading it to my laptop. But alas, you can only download 3MB to the BlackBerry (at least my BlackBerry) so I wasn't able to get or send various PowerPoint presentations I was working on here. Finally, I absconded with a Dialogic employee's 3G wireless card (thank you, James). All in the name of work!