Upcoming Webinar on Cloud Voice Services - Join Me and RingCentral

I've recently started contributing regularly to the Focus.com portal, and am now a Focus Adviser, which gives me a bit more profile than the regular contributors. Aside from being a community hub for buyer's guides, expert commentary and chat threads, Focus.com also hosts webinars.

I'll be presenting on one of these later this month - Tuesday, April 27 at 1pm EST. Titled "Voice in the Clouds", this webinar is focused on cloud voice services, and I'll be joined by RingCentral, who is a provider of these services. This is my first shout-out about it, and if this topic is of interest, you can read more about it and register here. Hope you can join us.

Focus.com - My First Brief Published

Blogging has been sporadic the past week or so, but for good reason. I've noted recently that I'm working on some new things, and these are starting to take root now. Some of you are seeing me pop up now and then on Twitter, and it's great that so many of you are welcoming me - or asking what took so long? I'm still trying to normalize myself to this, and I can see already how it's cutting into blogging time, and that's going to take a while to balance out.

Focus.com is another new front that I'm enjoying quite a lot. They have a pretty extensive and engaged community, and it hasn't taken long for me to find topics to comment on. It's a great portal - among other things - and if you follow me, you should hang out more on Focus.com. I'm now a Focus Expert, which means I'll be regularly writing Focus Briefs. These are short analyses of various IT/IP comms topics, and I just published my first brief, which talks about things to consider when looking at hosted services. As with everything on their portal, comments are welcome, and I hope to see you there soon.

Spring News - I'm a Focus Expert

Technically, Spring is a week away, but I've been in renewal mode for a while now. We all evolve at different times and speeds, and this is the first of several posts I have coming about the new things I'm up to.

As the weather gets warmer and the Bruins and Celtics both lose relevance with each passing/passive defeat, things come into sharper focus. To finish the thought, my sports focus is now almost entirely on the Red Sox, who are having a good spring training, and a promising season ahead. Not only has Ortiz finally hit a HR, and Casey Kelly looks like the second coming of Roger Clemens, but RSN - Red Sox Nation - has quietly scored a coup that will be sweet payback for the Yankees luring Johnny Damon away. He may be on the Tigers now, but we have long memories, especially when things like this happen.

In case you missed it, renowned Irish tenor Ronan Tynon - who sings God Bless America at Yankee games - has been abruptly cut loose by NYY, and yup, he's singing for the Red Sox now. It's an incredible story, and comes just in time for St. Patrick's Day, and will make the season opener against the defending-WS-champion-but-aging Yankees extra special. Sure wish I could be there!

Now that I've completely switched gears, let's return to the main focus - Focus. I have been affiliated with Focus for some time, and we are now working more closely together. If you don't know them, Focus runs a family of widely-followed portals, a few of which fall into my everyday sphere.

As of today, I have been added to their roster of Focus Experts, and you'll be hearing from me regularly, particularly about VoIP, SMB communications and marketing strategies. Their portal is well worth exploring, and it's hard to visit and not find a topic you want to jump in on and add your thoughts. I hope to see you there soon, and if I can't answer your question, I'm sure someone there can.

Nice Blog Recognition - Top 15 VoIP Blogs of 2009

Tippit Inc. has become one of the better-known sources of IP communications news and insights, and I've done a few things with them from time to time. One of their portals is called Focus.com, and yesterday I became aware of their list of Top 15 VoIP Blogs.

I commented earlier today that this list came out on August 5, but that's not correct. While I only found out about it then, it was published back in May - mea culpa!

Anyhow, I didn't see it before a few people pinged me to say congrats, and I'm very happy to be in such good company again. All the familiar names are there - Jeff Pulver, Andy Abramson, Rich Tehrani, Alec Saunders, Brough Turner, Irwin Lazar, etc., so no big surprises, really. Was nice to see my name in the #1 spot, but I wouldn't read too much into that (it's not in alpha order) - unless you'd like to!

I mentioned that it's nice to be back, as they last published a list like this in late 2007, and my blog was there as well. I've made a few other top blog lists along the way, but it's always nice to repeat from the same source. I'll take that as a sign people continue to follow me, and for that I thank each and every one of you. My job is to continue the dialog, and once again, thanks to Focus.com for the recognition.