Smart Grid Portal Traffic - On Track for 1 Million Views

The October traffic stats for the Smart Grid portal are out now, and the trend remains very strong. October page views were just under 600,000, and unique visits were almost 200,000. Based on the growth to date, we're on track from 1 million page views and 400,000 unique visits by year end. Not bad for a venture that just started in July. This is a hot market for sure, and we're doing our best to be in the middle of it, and ultimately put on a successful event in January.

For more detail, I wrote a short article about the news today for the portal, and TMC issued a press release earlier as well.

Deloitte Technology Fast 50 - Canadian Tech Leaders

I've been following Deloitte Canada's Fast 50 listings for a few years, and it's a great barometer of success for our tech sector. The 2009 list was just published as the cover story in Backbone Magazine - you can read the full feature here - and you won't have to look far across Canada's PR landscape today for announcements from the companies that made the list.

Actually, there are a few lists, but the Fast 50 is the big one. It's my duty to wave the Canadian tech flag where I can, and I'd like to highlight companies from the list that I'm familiar with. Some are clients, and I'd love for the others to be clients, but let's keep the focus on them!

So, here they are in rank order from the Fast 50 list: Impact Mobile (5), BelAir Networks (10), Immersive Media (12), Sandvine (17), RIM (19), TelcoBridges (21), March Networks (24), BlueCat Networks (27), MyThum Interactive (39), and Sangoma (40). Congrats to all!

Also, wearing my Smart Grid hat, Toronto-based Ecobee made the Green 15 list. That's great news, and we've already posted a writeup about it to our portal.

You can review the lists via a separate link, which includes basic details about the companies as well as their percentage growth rates over the past 5 years. Many of the growth rates are astronomical - 4 figures and 2 with 5 figures - but that's to be expected from startups and smaller companies. However, you really have to tip your hat RIM, for continuing to rank so high, with a 910% 5 year growth rate. They're probably bigger than all the Fast 50 combined, and it says a lot about how a company of this size can sustain such fantastic growth year over year.

What Service Providers Can Learn From Utilities

My latest Service Provider Views article is posted now on TMCnet. With the above title, it's no surprise that they've featured the article on our Smart Grid portal, and you can read it here.

In short, my article talks about ways that service providers could apply Demand Response principles to their business. The ideas may not be that obvious, as the dynamics of the energy business are very different, but not entirely off the table.

I'm also doing this to show that utilities aren't the only ones who could stand to learn from others in the Smart Grid space - telcos have far greater competitive pressures, and should be willing to take good ideas from wherever they come.

August Media Roundup

August was a bit slower than July, but my focus was also shifted to Smart Grid as well as vacation time. All told, though, I managed a handful of citings for both IP comms and Smart Grid along with a few other things.

First, some Smart Grid citings. There were others, plus my own Smart Grid portal contributions, all of which you can peruse on the portal.

- "Smart Grid Consortium Ramps Up in New York"

- "Smart Grid Summit at ITEXPO to Address Telecom's Role in Expanding Smart Grid Space"

Then, some citings for IP comms:

- "Trouble Ahead for Microsoft Reponse Point?"

- "Three reasons you should consider the Twitter bandwagon. And one note of caution."

On TMCnet, I had my regular bi-monthly Service Provider Views columns:

- "4G Wireless Evolution - Fall 2009 4GWE Preview - Q&A with Carl Ford"

- "Smart Grid - What it Means for Service Providers"

For TechTarget, I did three Ask the Expert segments related to Unified Communications and VoIP (registration required - just takes a minute)

- "What is more cost efficient -- VoIP or an IP telephony system?"

- "What are some good ways to measure VoIP ROI?"

- "What are some best ways to save money on a VoIP deployment without losing too much quality?"

On the podcast front, I managed to participate in two segments run by UC Strategies:

- "UC Experts Discuss Google Voice"

- "UC Experts Discuss Cloud Computing and UC"

Finally, I did a White Paper for Tekelec on Telecom 2.0 that was published in August. It's available for download on their site, but if you can't get it, I have a soft copy.

- "Telecom 2.0: Guidelines for Service Provider Success"

Smart Grid - Where Service Providers Meet Utilities

My latest article for Service Provider Views is running now on TMCnet. Not surprisingly, the focus is Smart Grid. With the Smart Grid Summit being a week away, that's what's on my mind right now.

With this article, I'm adding another dimension to my focus on the service provider space. The Smart Grid Summit is all about where energy meets communications, and with every passing day, we're convinced this is going to be a major trend in 2010. If you're not there yet, this article is a good place to start, and as you'll see, TMC has published it on our Smart Grid portal, so hopefully it will serve as a jumping off point to explore all the other content we're putting up there.

With all this being so new, I'd love to hear your thoughts or suggestions, and if you're coming out to the IT Expo next week, I sure hope to see you there. The summit runs only on the Tuesday, and we're starting at 9am sharp.

New Venture and Conference Launched in Smart Grid Space

Been a very busy day, but the news is out now. I've launched a new venture in the Smart Grid space, and there are a few pieces to this.

First, I have teamed up with Shidan Gouran to form Intelligent Communications Partners. Shidan is a Toronto-based tech entrepreneur that some of you will know, and we share an interest in Smart Grid. We have formed ICP as an entity to partner with TMC and build a new community around Smart Grid, with a focus on bringing the worlds of energy/utilities, telecom and IT together.

The news release went out this morning, and there are two key items:

1. We have launched the Smart Grid Summit event. This will be a 1 day event running during TMC's IT Expo in Los Angeles. Our event runs on the first day of the Expo, Tuesday, September 1. We are in the process of putting together the sessions now, and are actively engaged with lining up speakers (and sponsors of course!). Response so far has been very supportive, as there really isn't a forum like this to brings these worlds together. Later in the week, the event site will be ready, at which point people can register to attend.

2. We have launched the Smart Grid portal. This will be our home base from which we intend to generate ongoing thought leadership about this space. As with most TMC portals, the content is heavy on news feeds, but we will soon be adding original, exclusive content to make this a destination for Smart Grid players, especially in thinking beyond what the utility sector is trying to do on their own. We see telecom and IT having a key role in making Smart Grid successful, and the portal will focus on bringing these worlds together.

There's lots more to come, and I'll be posting details and updates as we bring this venture along. Would love to hear your thoughts any time!

Smart Grid - Smart Utilities, Smart Homes, Smart Opportunity

Just a quick update on my new venture. I have formed a new partnership and on Monday, we'll be announcing a first-of-its kind event focused on the Smart Grid space. Our vision is to bring the worlds of energy, telecom and IT together with a common focus of creating the opportunities and ways forward into this huge new world.

Unlike telecom and the seismic shift to packet networks, Smart Grid has the force of government policy and funding behind, and there's no doubt this transition is going to happen. We believe the time is right to create a forum and community to bring these worlds together, and you'll hear more about it for real on Monday. In addition to the event, we'll also be launching a portal dedicated to Smart Grid thought leadership, and you'll be seeing lots of content from myself and others there quite soon. Should be a pretty exciting next few weeks - hope you'll check this out, and by all means I'd love to hear your thoughts.

New Venture - Smart Grid Meets IP

I posted the other day about a new venture I've been working on, and it's just about ready to go. It's been a busy few weeks on a few fronts, as I've been exploring some new avenues to grow my business.

For now, I can just tell you I'm about to launch a new venture with a couple of partners that's focused on the Smart Grid space. We believe there's a great opportunity waiting to happen at the intersection of energy and communications. Smart Grid is a big deal, not just to bring the massive infrastructure side of energy transmision and distribution into the 21st century, but also the whole new world of communications services that's going to open up, especially in the home.

To me, it sounds like telecom/VoIP all over again, as utilities need to bring IP and digital technologies into the fold, and with it a whole new business opportunity on many fronts. We think we're on to something good here, and feel the time is right to build the community as well as provide a forum to drive change and shape the future.

There's a unique opportunity to integrate the best of IP communications technologies with intelligent energy management, and we plan to be in the middle of it. This venture will be the bridge to bring these worlds together, and we think a lot of you out there will want to be part of it.

That's all I can say for now, but more detail will be coming very soon!