Phone.com Offers Virtual Numbers

This may not be the Google Voice killer, but Phone.com's announcement yesterday is another example that innovation is alive and well, and that disruption come from anywhere.

So, what is Virtual Number? Well, it's a lot of things, and that's the beauty of Web 2.0-based voice services. I should probably call it a telecom service, since a lot of Phone.com's look and feel is very much about this. However, that's not enough to compete these days, and the real value comes from all things Phone.com offers that you can't do with a telephone service.

As the name implies, Virtual Number is a variation on Google Voice, which is a great way to go since Google has laid the groundwork for creating mass market buzz. Now the challenge is getting attention for Phone.com, and once you see what's on offer, you'll understand why it's so much more than Google Voice. To start, yes you get the Grand Central-style virtual number service and all the convenience of having all calls come to one place.

Aside from the price being right for today's economy - under $5 a month - Virtual Number has lots of other cool features that take this well beyond everyday call forwarding. Things like being able to upload your address book to enable click to call, LNP, no contract, text-based voicemail, fax, etc. Actually, I think you'll be quite surprised at how many interesting features they have - see for yourself.

Aside from this, they have some very interesting twists to encourage viral marketing, which is really the best way to grow without going broke. Two in particular would be their Reward$ Program - where you earn credits the more you use the service, along with a referral system that brings down the cost of your Virtual Number service the more new customers you bring in.

In true Web 2.0 fashion, Virtual Number will not stand still, and new features such as SMS are coming. I don't see Phone.com taking down Google any time soon, but to me they increasingly look like the prototype for a successful Web 2.0 service provider. Kudos to Ari Rabban and his team - I think they have a pretty good read what people are looking for, and aren't afraid to try new things. If you follow where telecom is going, they should be on your watch list, and if you won't take my word for it, then Garrett Smith and Fierce VoIP can vouch for me.

Nortel - the Good News: Web.Alive

Ok, ok - it's pretty hard to ignore the bombshell news that's on front pages everywhere today in Canada. It looks like Nortel is going to seek bankruptcy protection, perhaps as early as today. This may be a minor story in the U.S. business press, but it's a big story in tech/telecom, and a HUGE story here in Canada.

You don't need me to tell you what Nortel means to Canada in terms of pride and joy, although that's more of a distant memory these days. Today's news isn't totally unexpected, and Nortel is hardly alone in facing hard times. Still, it hurts, and sadly takes Canada down a notch or two in the scheme of things. Of course we have tons of successful and promising tech companies here, but if you mashed them all together, they would still be far behind all the things Nortel has accomplished over the years.

Seems that every time I have an interesting post to write, I get trumped by something like this. I had a great demo call with Nortel yesterday, and I'm probably the only one out there writing something positive about the company today. As big as this morning's news is, I don't care. My story is better, and I'm gonna give you some good news about Nortel! :-)

So, what's Web.Alive? Last week I posted about Web.Alive and Nortel's announcement at CES with Lenovo. If this is new to you, then you should start with that post. Web.Alive is Nortel's virtual collaboration platform, and was developed with help from DiamondWare, a company I know quite well that Nortel acquired last year.

Lenovo is their first commercial customer, and yesterday I got a personalized demo in the Lenovo eLounge, led by the key Web.Alive leaders, namely Arn Hyndman and Nic Sauriol. This is a very cool experience, and if you're a gamer you'll find this a lot of fun. I'm not a gamer, and it took a little getting used to, but it's a pretty intuitive experience. Everyone has an avatar - which can be personalized, of course - and once you're in the eLounge, it's like being in Second Life. You can wander around, talk to people, ask questions, and most importantly, check out all the Lenovo laptop computers there for sale.

As you read this, you're getting a mental picture, which is fine, but once you experience this and interact with others in the lounge, you'll get a much better understanding about what makes this a great application. For example, when I start looking at the features of a particular laptop, the bottom of the screen dynamically links to a spec sheet in real time off the Lenovo website. So, while I'm getting a close up 360 look at the laptop, I can also review the speeds and feeds as well as the special price if I buy it during my eLounge visit.

At one level, this will really appeal to people who love the virtual reality experience, and those who are into shopping at 3 am - wherever they are on the planet. That's pretty neat - and a great way for a manufacturer to extend their retail presence without building standalone stores. It's also an option for people who aren't comfortable dealing with sales people in person, or people who want to project a different persona when out there shopping.

On a one-to-one level, Web.Alive makes a lot of sense. But it gets even more interesting when you think about the collaborative possibilities. During the demo, I was taken to siderooms where you can have private meetings, or presentation rooms, where in depth demos were done for a seated audience. People are free to drop in and out of conversations - just like you would in a real store. The more people there are in the eLounge, the greater the chances are you'll talk with others who may share your interests, or who can help answer your questions. I could go on, but you really need to see it for yourself. You can check out the Lenovo eLounge for yourself here, although I don't know how much you can really experience without a guided tour.

Beyond selling laptops, I should add that Web.Alive has all kinds of other applications. First and foremost, sure, it's a great 3.0 platform to help companies grow their sales online. It's also a natural forum for training, distance education and meetings. At Nortel's analyst day back in May, they showed us how Web.Alive can be an effective substitute for video conferencing, and even telepresence. Taking this a step further, they envision Web.Alive replacing the PBX altogher, and becoming the native platform for all forms of everyday communication.

That last point to me is the BIG IDEA, and the next curve for companies to jump to when thinking about communications. There's a lot of exciting innovation happening here, and while it's still ahead of what the market is ready for, I think it shows vision for where things are going and what Communications 3.0 is going to mean.

To me, that sure looks like the mojo Nortel had when they were BNR, and Cisco wasn't on the map. Perhaps this is too little too late, but Web.Alive may well be the most valuable asset Nortel has that can be a game changer for someone who gets it. Am sure the Nortel watchers have much higher priorities today, but if you want to look beyond the smoke to see what will have value tomorrow, this is where I'd be going.

Microsoft Canada Analyst Day

I spent most of today attending Microsoft Canada's analyst day here in Toronto. It was led by Sean Seaton and his team, and they sure covered a lot of ground. Sean is the Director of their Communications Sector, and just about everything they talked about was of interest to me.

Today Microsoft touches every facet of communications, and the opening vision statement sums it up pretty well: "to create experiences that combine the magic of software with the power of Internet services across a world of devices."

That covers pretty much everything, and Microsoft is working very hard to straddle the worlds of software and the Web - while at the same time, steering very clear of anything to do with hardware.

We saw a series of presentations covering desktop applications, Windows Live 3, mobility, the workplace, entertainment, and Mediaroom. On its own, each of these is very interesting, but together you have tip your hat to Microsoft for being so strong in so many places.

To me, though, the strongest story was the service provider market, where they really are becoming an important player. I'd say that was the core focus for most of us in the room, so we were a pretty attentive audience. I've seen much of this before in their Telco 2.0 presentations, and written about it in some of my Service Provider Views columns.

I'm going to leave it at that for now, but will touch on many of their service provider themes in my next column, which should run on Friday. So, you'll have to come back to hear the rest of the story.

Oh - kudos also to High Road Communications for pulling this event together and hosting it at their downtown offices. They always do a good job and I'd say Microsoft is being well served by them.

Aside from this, we had a recurring distraction running all day wondering if the BCE privatization deal was going to fall apart. It was a very ugly day, as the stock fell 34% in value, driven by concerns over a negative opinion by KPMG regarding BCE's ability to meet the solvency requirements for the deal. Canada's financial sector hasn't been shaken to it core like the U.S., but the magnitude of this deal is enough to undermine confidence in our entire telecom sector. That's another post in itself, but I'll hold off until the dust settles around BCE. Phew.


Technorati tags: Microsoft Canada, Jon Arnold, BCE

Calliflower Premium Launched

Regular readers will know that I've followed Ottawa-based Iotum for a long time, and have some news to pass on for their latest incarnation, Calliflower. This is a Web 2.0-style platform that's trying to bring more intelligence and value to audio conferencing.

At the recent Under the Radar event, Calliflower had two announcements of note. First is their integration with the iPhone. This is good news for two reasons. First, it exposes Calliflower to a huge market of tech-savvy consumers, some of whom will no doubt find this service of great value. Second, since Calliflower is mainly a business application, it makes the iPhone more relevant to the enterprise market - SMBs as well - and that's a big market that Apple very much wants to crack.

Secondly, Calliflower launched its Premium service, which comes with a modest monthly fee that will be attractive to power users, especially those doing international conference calls. I believe that companies like Calliflower/Iotum need fee-based offerings to survive long term, and it's great to them do this. The introductory pricing is $50 per month for two organizers, and with this you get file sharing, and local inbound dialing for North America and 4 other countries, plus the use of Voxbone's iNum global area code (883). You can read more about it in the press release here.

There's a lot of Web 2.0 here, and you can imagine how much more engaging these calls can be, layering file sharing and IM on top of the audio service. Plus, with the flat monthly fee, the per minute dialing charges are eliminated, making conferencing much more affordable for regular users - as well as attractive to everyone else who thinks that conference calling is expensive.

Oh - if you're keen, and are among the first 400 to sign up before November 30, Calliflower will add a 3rd organizer at no extra cost.

Technorati tags: Calliflower, Jon Arnold, Iotum

SaaS Model for VoIP - Ari Rabban's View in IP Convergence TV

I haven't had much to report lately for the IP Convergence TV portal, although the video interviews I conducted at the recent IT Expo have now been posted there as well.

In addition, however, I do regular outreach with industry thought leaders to contribute Guest Opinion articles to the portal. The most recent piece comes from long-time colleague Ari Rabban, who should be familiar to my regular readers. Ari's been in VoIP as long as anybody, going back to the early days of VocalTec. He's currently the CEO of Phone.com, an interesting VoIP startup I've talked about previously.

Phone.com is a great example of a VoIP SaaS solution, and they have pretty cool offerings for both residential and SMB environments. I've used the SMB service a bit, and it's great having an 800 number to give out to people.

In today's economy, SaaS makes a lot of sense, and Phone.com looks to be in the right place at the right time these days. I'm sure we'll be hearing more good things in due course, and until then, I encourage you to give Ari's article a read. It was posted earlier today on the IPCTV portal, and is also runing now on the Phone.com blog.

Let me - and Ari - know your thoughts, and if you like it, you should sign up for the service!


Technorati tags: IP Convergence TV, Jon Arnold, Phone.com, Ari Rabban, VoIP

Service Provider Views - BroadSoft as a Platform Play

My latest Service Provider Views column is running now on TMCnet. It's another variation on the platform play theme, and my focus this time is on BroadSoft.

This may not be what comes to mind right away for most of you, but you might just think otherwise after reading my article.

I've followed BroadSoft for ages, and after spending time with them last week at Connections 2008, I'm sure seeing a lot of Web 2.0 and mashups, and that says platform play to me. What do you think?


Technorati tags: Service Provider Views, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, TMCnet, BroadSoft

eComm 2009 - Call for Speakers

As things develop with eComm 2009, I'll be posting, as will others on the Advisory Board who blog. Last week was tough on blogging for me, and I didn't get a chance to get the word out about the Call for Speakers.

We've been steadily reviewing submissions throughout the week, and they continue to come in. A handful are quite good, some are pretty good, and some are off the mark. It all comes with the territory, and our job is to pick the best of the bunch and make them all fit into an overall program.

There's a lot of interest to present at eComm, both from previous speakers, and loads of people just coming around to it who want to be part of the conference. We'll do our best to give fair consideration to all entries, but the roster will likely be set in the next week or two. So, if you're interested, you'd better get a move on, and follow the procedure here.

And if you just want to stay up to date with eComm, visit the website, and check out the blog for news.


Technorati tags: eComm, Lee Dryburgh, Jon Arnold

BroadSoft Connections - Day 2

Day 2 zoomed by, and I'm going to hit the high points with photos and some brief commentary. Things started with Show Me The Apps, which was a great showcase for how Web 2.0 style apps are being developed and integrated into the BroadWorks platform. Most of these were oriented to consumers and targeted at hot spaces such as Google Apps or the iPhone. This stuff sure is fun and sexy, but I'm not so sure carriers will make money there. Others like Tom Howe (the mashup competition winner)focus on business applications that solve specific problems and have identifiable value for subscribers. That's where I think carriers will want to look a bit more closely.

Regardless, I think this is a great direction for BroadSoft, and it shows the power and value of an open platform that can give any type of carrier a competitive advantage serving either business or residential subscribers. And that, of course, may be what really makes this work. As our home and work lives become increasingly blurred, carriers are going to need offerings that cater to our overall communications needs - not one thing for home and another for work.

After this session, I spent time at the Solutions Showcase, getting hands-on demos from both BroadSoft partners, and their own offerings. Otherwise, the day was taken up with meetings, and oh, blogging!

I should also add that I was briefed in advance on an announcement that BroadSoft released Tuesday morning about a partnership with Microsoft for an integrated hosted SMB Unified Communications solution. It's an interesting item in that it allows for a completely hosted offering with BroadWorks providing the hosted softswitch/UC solution, integrated with Microsoft's HMC offering - Hosted Messaging and Collaboration. The idea here is that this should be very attractive to SMBs who lack the infrastructure and/or resources to manage these pieces themselves. It gives them lots of flexibility in terms of scaling the services up or down, and adding features that will work seamlessly with their everyday Microsoft business applications.

So, here are some photos from both days, starting with Day 2...

Show Me The Apps












Now for some Day 1 photos....




Showing us how the Xtend platform can be used to build community - right in our midst...



Very slick video before the opening keynotes - fast-paced and highly visual - getting you in the mood for the new world of apps and their Xtend platform experience...



Mike Tessler (very tricky lighting - apologies for the poor photo - best I could get). Lots of good messages from Mike, with the driving theme for carriers being the need to open up your networks and see the value of what the Web developer community can bring.




Dr. James Canton (again, apologies for the poor photo quality). Interesting speaker - futurist - great look into how the mobile web will evolve and change not just communications, but the essence of business itself. Good food for thought about how important collaboration is in this new world, and how there is a great opportunity here for carriers to "lead their customers into the future".



Walt Mossberg - boy, what a treat. He talked mostly about how important the iPhone and Android are to the future of communications, and I couldn't agree with him more. I especially liked his take on the iPhone really being a mobile PC - the phone is just incidental. I've been of that view from Day 1 and as I don't hear many people talking this way about the iPhone, it was great to hear validation from someone like Mr. Mossberg. Plus, he's an avid Red Sox fan, so he's way up there on my list!



Solutions Showcase, including the 24 Hour Communications Experience. This was a guided tour walking us through how BroadWorks applications can touch our lives at every stage of our waking/working/walking day. I thought it was a great way to make all of this very real for carriers, who I believe need to see this big picture and how they are no longer in the business of just selling phone services.








Thanks, Tom...



Finally - what a great view - wish you were here...





Technorati tags: BroadSoft, Jon Arnold, Connections 2008

New Article - Social Media in the Enterprise

I'm an occasional contributor to Business Trends Quarterly, and recently wrote an article for them on the impact social media is having in the enterprise. It's a sprawling topic, with no easy answers, and hopefully you'll find my article a good starting point for futher exploration. I'm hoping to continue this theme with BTQ in upcoming issues.

The article has now been posted to their website, and you can read it here. Let me know what you think.

Technorati tags: Business Trends Quarterly, Jon Arnold, social media

Fonolo - Top Pick by Judges at Mobilize

Here's another very good news story from another colleague, and this one is closer to home. Fellow Torontonian Shai Berger, and his company Fonolo made it to the list of companies presenting at GigaOm's Mobilize event this week in San Francisco.

It's ok if you're doing a double take here. Turns out that Mobilize and the IT Expo are the same week, and a number of people split their time at both shows. I saw Shai several times during the Expo, and wished him good luck when he left for SF on Wednesday.

So, it's been a good week for people I try to keep close to - Shai and Tom Howe, whose good news I just posted about earlier this morning.

Back to Fonolo. Twelve companies were selected to present their story at Om's Launchpad, with each being reviewed by a panel of 4 judges. I wasn't at the event, and am just getting this off the GigaOm post, which I strongly recommend you read to see how everyone did. Each company is summarized in the post, and goes on to show that Fonolo was the top pick overall among the judges, and rated third overall by the audience.

I don't know about you, but it's great news, and another in a growing list of accolades that Fonolo is compiling in its very short history.

Even though I'm an Advisor to Fonolo, I think it's pretty fair to say this is a company to watch, and I have no reservations about waving the flag too. We've got a lot of great companies in Canada, and it's especially nice to see one in my own back yard of Toronto doing so well on a big stage like Mobilize.


Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, Fonolo, Shai Berger, GigaOm, Mobilize

BroadSoft's Mashup Contest - Thomas Howe Takes Top Spot

Call me a homer, but I think it's great news to hear that colleague Thomas Howe took top prize at BroadSoft's voice mashup contest. Readers of my blog will no doubt know Tom, and I've spent a fair bit of time with him this week at the IT Expo.

I actually had an advance copy of the press release on Wednesday, and Tom didn't know he had won until I told him later that night. Whoo hoo. The press release was released yesterday, but I haven't had a chance to post until now.

As the press release explains and as the name implies, Disaster Dispatcher is targeted at emergency workers. It integrates Twitter with the BroadWorks platform to centralize all the information needed to do their jobs more efficiently. The payoff is very nice, as Tom gets $5,000 cash, a trip to their Connections event next month, and an exhibitor showcase to profile his company at the event. I'll be attending Connections as well, and look forward to buying Tom a drink there.

I'm very happy for Tom, and want to congratulate him here, and share the news with anyone who hasn't heard. I also want to give kudos to BroadSoft, who have really embraced voice/web 2.0 and recognize the value of mashups for their customers, as well as the importance of nurturing an ecoystem of avid developers.

I should also mention that the second and third place prizes went to Project ARTCTIC and QuickSet. I'm not familiar with either, but that should change once I get out to Connections.


Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, Thomas Howe, BroadSoft

Toronto Tech Week - September 22-26

For a change, I get to talk about a local event!

Last year saw the debut of Toronto Tech Week, which is a great initiative to create some community here, something I have long found lacking, at least in my line of work.

This year's event is coming up, running from September 22 - 26. The program has something for everyone, including a focus on startups, career options for tech, and competing priorities facing IT. There is also quite a bit of technology-oriented content, with three strong tracks - Web 2.0, software as a service, and new media/social media.

Colleague Dave Forde of Profectio has been the driving force behind this event, and in Year 2 it's scaled nicely, most due to the hard work and vision of Dave and his team. He was nice enough to invite me to participate, and I'll be moderating the Mobile Marketing 2.0 session on Thursday at 1 pm. We'll be exploring the role of mobility in marketing campaigns, and we have speakers lined up from Yahoo!, Silverback Wireless and Canoe.ca.

Should be a good session, and if you're attending the event, I'd love to see you there.


Technorati tags: J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, Toronto Tech Week, Dave Forde

Fonolo Gets Some Airtime

For regular readers of my blog, you probably know I'm a fan of Fonolo. I'll be upfront and say I'm an Advisor, but that aside, you have to admit they've got a pretty cool application.

I don't do their PR, but feel obliged to share some great mainstream exposure the company got yesterday. As you may know, Fonolo is based here in Toronto, and CBC is our major national broadcaster. They do great work and have a wonderful radio program called Spark. It's got a solid following and they are a great showcase for how technology is impacting modern life.

The CBC produces first-rate public programming, and I have to say it's one of the nice things about Canada. The media is more democratized here and it's more open to varying points of view. NPR is the closest I can think of for a comparable service in the U.S., but I suspect CBC has a more mainstream and very loyal following. If I'm sounding a bit too pro-radio, I'm showing my true colors. Radio has always been my favorite medium - nothing beats it for immediacy and intimacy - and it's sooo low tech - and it's free!

With that little op-ed out of the way, let's get back to Fonolo. Their CEO - Shai Berger (who is on his honeymoon right now - congrats!) got a great feature spot to open up yesterday's program. I missed the broadcast, but you can listen to the podcast here. Fortunately it's the first segment of the show, and runs about 5 minutes. So just click and enjoy - and then go check out the video demo that Shai talks about during the interview.

And if this doesn't explain why Fonolo has got a good idea, let me know and I'll do it myself.


Technorati tags: Fonolo, CBC Spark, Jon Arnold, Shai Berger, Canada

Micromethod Acquired by Voxeo

Got some nice news to share about a former client that hit the wires this morning. Micromethod Technologies is a tiny company most of you have never heard about, and they've been quietly doing some leading edge work in the SIP server space.

Today, at their big industry event - SpeechTEK - Voxeo announced the acquisition of Micromethod. The news was a key highlight from their event today, and colleague Dan York provided a more detailed take on the Voxeo blog.

Last year, Micromethod engaged me to help find a buyer, and Voxeo was one of several companies we entered into discussions with. During this time I got to know Voxeo, and have since become a fan. Without getting into the details, it's a great fit for both companies. Micromethod gets exposure to a large customer base to put their applications/platform to work, and Voxeo gets some entry points into Asia as well as a tightly-knit developer team in China.

This deal came to fruition after my time with Micromethod, but I'm still very glad to see them get an exit and a home to keep their technology evolving. It's a good news story all around, and some nice validation that small startups can do well for themselves if they stick to their vision and hone in on the right targets.

Since we all have to make a living, I'll just leave you with this thought - if you're in a similar situation as Micromethod and need the benefit of a third party in this space, drop me a line. Similarly, if you're in Voxeo's shoes, and are looking for emerging companies with promising technology, I can probably be of help.


Technorati tags: Micromethod, Voxeo, Jon Arnold, SIP server, Dan York

Service Provider Views - Updates on Jajah, Ribbit and Ifbyphone

My latest Service Provider Views column is running now on TMCnet. I've decided to revisit some companies from earlier columns who embody various aspects of the platform play - Ribbit, Jajah and Ifbyphone.

They've all had important news announcements recently that show how quickly this space is evolving. Actually, the news from Jajah was only announced this morning, so it's very fresh. I don't want to divert you from reading my article yet, but for convenience, you can pick up the press release from Jajah and Intel here - it's pretty interesting stuff.

Hopefully that will pique your interest in my article, and you can read that here. As always, comments are welcome, as are suggestions for other platform plays you'd like me to look at.

Technorati tags: Service Provider Views, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, TMCnet, Jajah, Ribbit, Ifbyphone

Post-Vacation News Roundup - XConnect, Jajah, Mobivox, Fonolo, magicJack

Things always happen when you're on vacation, so I'm just catching up on industry news now. Didn't seem to miss a whole lot while I was gone, but I wanted to note four items that have just hit the market in the past couple of days.

They're all different and probably warrant separate posts, but I have too much new stuff to move on to, and wanted to at least give them some attention. So, in no particular order, here are some items that you should be aware of, if not already through other sources.

Item 1 - XConnect

On Wednesday, XConnect announced some breakthrough news on the peering front. XConnect has developed a peering solution for cable operators in the Netherlands, and as far as I know, this is the first of its kind in the industry. This stems from XConnect's big win back in 2006 to handle all the peering among Dutch cable operators. By routing all this traffic across a common platform, the cable operators in effect create an alternative to the PSTN that could largely bypass the local telcos altogether. This was a great proof point for VoIP and the ability for a commercial peering solution to work on a reasonably large scale.

The big news now is that XConnect (along with partner Kayote Networks) has achieved interoperability with the Nokia Siemens hiQ VoIP platform. This builds nicely on XConnect's 2006 peering win, which led to the development of SIPX, the Dutch SIP Exchange project for cablecos. With Nokia Siemens being so strong in the EU, and cable penetration being 97% in the Netherlands, this news means that cable operators have a pretty complete solution for VoIP. Not only is this great validation for XConnect's vision, but it allows cable operators to offer true end-to-end SIP-based VoIP. This should translate into a superior offering, not just in terms of more affordable service for subscribers, but a better quality experience, especially with high fidelity voice codecs and video telephony.

Item 2 - Jajah and Mobivox

On Wednesday, Jajah actually had two really cool announcements. First is Jajah Babel - wow, this is neat. Released just in time for the Beijing Olympics, this service provides real time translation from English to Mandarin (and vice versa) on the phone. Of course you need to use Jajah's platform, but it's not hard to imagine how popular this is going to be over the next few weeks! Let's not forget that Jajah is now running Yahoo's voice platform, so they've got a pretty large global market at their disposal, and like the Tower of Babel, this will no doubt be the first step towards adding other languages and getting everybody talking to everybody. Just when you thought voice was getting boring.

Jajah also had a second announcement, this one being a partnership with Mobivox, a Canadian company I have followed for ages. This one is a bit smaller scale, but still pretty interesting. Not to confuse you, but there are two stories here. First is Mobivox's move to partner with Jajah to be the platform for their own offerings. Second is Jajah's launch of their Concierge service, which uses Mobivox's voice recognition technology to enable voice-activated telephony. This will be a handy value-added feature for operators using Jajah's platform, especially when targeting mobile users. As the press release notes, states like California now require hands-free calling in the car, so it's easy to see where Concierge will be of value. Sounds like a good partnership to me.

Item 3 - Fonolo

Yesterday, Toronto-based Fonolo announced the release of its API at the ClueCon developer conference in Chicago. The developer community is really the beta audience for Fonolo, but the early reactions - there and just prior to ClueCon have been just great.

Check out this post from The Consumerist for a starting point. Andy Abramson's Fonolo post provides more detail along with links to other industry responses.

If the term "Deep Dialing" is news to you, it won't be after reading this, and I guarantee that you'll get the idea right away. I'm not going to spoil this and tell you here - just read it and see for yourself. Then, go ahead and sign up for the beta yourself. I've been using it a bit, and it's pretty cool. This is a definitely an application everyone has a use for, and I'm pretty sure it will be finding its way into a telco near you, hopefully by early 2009.

Item 4 - magicJack

If you follow my blog, you may recall my post about magicJack back in early June. I provided my candid thoughts after learning about it following a magicJack story I was interviewed for. It has turned out to be one of my most enduring posts, as I'm still getting comments about it - both pro and con.

Anyhow, I smiled broadly when I saw that colleague Thomas Howe put up an even more candid post about magicJack while we were away on vacation. Looks like magicJack is in the midst of a big TV campaign, and Thomas just couldn't believe what he was seeing in their ad the other day. So, if you liked my post, you'll really like his! The Analyst in me can't help but try to be balanced, whereas the Engineer in Thomas sees things more black and white - that is, all problem and no solution. Read 'em both, and tell me what yout think - I'd love to keep this dialog going.


This sure has turned into a long post, but now you're up on all the news that's keeping me up at night.

Disclosure - I am an Advisor to both XConnect and Fonolo, but in all fairness, I'm not the only one out there blogging about these news items.

Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, XConnect, J Arnold & Associates, Jajah,Mobivox, Fonolo, magicJack

Social Media Article in Unified Communications Connection News

I've been quite busy writing recently on a number of fronts, and this is one I think you'll enjoy - not just for my thoughts, but all the other good content that's there as well.

A couple of months back, I was approached to contribute to Tech Target's Ask the Expert series, and I've done a few of these for them. I'm actually doing a few more for them now, and will post about them in due course.

Since then, they've bumped me up a bit and have also asked me to contribute when I can to their In The Know columns. My first article focuses on social media and how enterprises should be looking at this phenomonon. It's a great topic, and I hope to revisit it in future columns.

Aside from my article, there's lots of other good content in their current UC Connections newsletter. You can peruse it all here as well as sign on for RSS feeds, which is a great way to stay on top of this topic. Tech Target covers many other IT and network-related topics on their portal, so you may want to explore things a bit further.


Technorati tags: social media, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, Tech Target, Unified Communications News

Service Provider Views - Microsoft Telco 2.0

My latest article for Service Provider Views came out yesterday, and focuses on Microsoft's Telco 2.0 strategy. My recent focus in this column has been on the platform play approach for service providers, and I'd have to say that Microsoft could be the biggest platform play of them all.

There are lots of ways to define and execute a platform play, and clearly, Microsoft has a lot to offer. This article provides an overview of what's driving their Telco 2.0 roadmap, and I'll touch on some of the specific offerings and bundles in the next writeup. You can read the article here, and as always, your comments are welcome.

Technorati tags: Service Provider Views, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, Microsoft, Telco 2.0, TMCnet

Teleforum - Web 2.0 and Impact on SMBs

Colleague Mike Fox is a local tech/software recruiter, and has recently started doing a series of Teleforums to create some thought leadership around his practice. I'm big fan of this type of outreach, and I've blogged about Mike's teleforums before.

I always seem to have a conflict when these come up, but not this time. So, I'm just putting the word out there that his next teleforum is this Friday - the 30th at 1pm EST. The title is self-explanatory -- Web 2.0: Its Implications and Use In Small and Mid-Sized Technology Firms, so if you're interested in Web 2.0 and what it means for SMBs, this should be time well spent.

Mike's guests will include Eli Singer of Segal Communications - the "exclusive Canadian representative" of Facebook. I'm not what that really means, but I hope to find out on the call. His other guest is Cindy Gordon, CEO and Founder of Helix Commerce.

I'll be on the call, and hope you can join us. To find out more or to register - no charge - just check out this link.

Technorati tags:

Mike Fox, Jon Arnold, Web 2.0

Service Provider Views - Jajah, Ribbit and Ifbyphone

My latest article for Service Provider Views was published yesterday on TMCnet. The focus this time was on some variations of the platform play as a path that service providers can take in the Web 2.0 world.

In particular, I touch briefly on Ifbyphone, Ribbit and Jajah. They're all different, and illustrate varying degrees of what a platform play might look like. It's early days for all of them, but I think there will be a place in the market for each of these models.

In my view, Jajah represents the most complete solution as platform plays go, and they'll be the sole subject of my next article, including an interview with their CEO, Trevor Healy. As always, your comments on my column are welcome.

Technorati tags: Service Provider Views, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, Jajah, Ifbyphone, Ribbit

The New Nortel - Avatars, Mashups and no PBXs

I was in Ottawa on Wednesday/Thursday, attending Nortel's Futures 2008 media/analyst event. This doesn't happen every day for me, but we were told that our group was the first to see any of this stuff outside of Nortel. So, for a change, I've got a bit of a scoop here. I'm not going to tell you everything we saw, but we received enough guidance from Nortel for me to say that the contents of this post are ok with them.

You may be skeptical to hear about the "New Nortel", but that was definitely the point about us being there. Our job is to get the vision of what's coming and what's possible as Nortel tries to re-cast itself in the post-PBX era. I don't think we ever heard any mention of PBXs or softswitches, although they haven't exactly disappeared.

Not everything we saw was totally new, but there was certainly enough on display to conclude that Nortel still has a lot to offer, and their R&D remains first rate. There is plenty here to write a great case study about how to transform a company from being hardware-based to being software-centric.

With that, I'm going to share some highlights here along with some photos of the day.

- Project Chainsaw demo (w.a) - this was the first demo, and the most impressive. This was Nortel's vision of how really good quality audio can enhance a Web-based experience. They've taken voice as a core concept to improve upon, and did a great job demonstrating how much better 44 Khz stereo voice sounds than 8 Khz mono. No surprise there, but they really brought this to life with two specific applications.

The first was ecommerce, where they showed a virtual shopping experience for Dell computers. Unlike Second Life, where you can do similar things in their world, this scenario was hosted directly on Dell's site, so the customer stays in your domain rather than leaving the Dell site to do this somewhere else. By combining highly interactive avatars with clean graphics and great sound, the experience feels very life-like and very social - which they feel is key for using virtual environments to drive ecommerce. I really liked this, as it solves a real business problem, as opposed to just creating a cool social environment for people to hang out in. To me, this is how you monetize the web.

The second example was collaboration, which is another aspect of Project Chainsaw. At first we thought this was a secret codename, but they're fine with us sharing it with you. The intended message is for the world to see that the new Nortel is still cutting edge, and intends use brute force - of innovation - to sever the past and move into the future. Time will tell, but there's no doubt this will create a lot of noise and buzz once it hits the market.

The Chainsaw demo was actually very good, and a convincing way to convey the power of virtual collaboration environments. It was very much like Second Life, but in this case, just among Nortel employees - real ones. So, we got to interact real time with Nortel avatars whose virtual presence was in front of us, but were physically located somewhere else. It's a bit surreal, and while the avatars are cool, they really serve as virtual placeholders to make the interaction feel social. What makes the experience effective is the spatial audio, which mirrors how real social interactions occur. The volume changes accordingly as the avatars move about, walking up to you, or moving away, including the pitter patter of their feet.

What's really neat is that you can participate from any broadband connection. Of course it looks best on a big screen in the conference room (see my photos below), but you can run this on your PC, and yes, your mobile device. To me, this is the real power of Chainsaw, as you extend the experience much further than a videoconferencing or telepresence session. Why? Simply because it's virtual, and the focus is on the audio not the video. Avatars don't require nearly as much bandwidth than real time video, and the technical challenges around synching up voice and video aren't there.

They really see this as the future of communications and collaboration - so much so that they believe the PBX will disappear altogether once enterprises see the power of this concept. It's definitely Web 2.0 and Voice 2.0 and many other things. To me, it's a bit like how music videos have impacted how we relate to music. Before video, we LISTENED to music - on our stereos, tape recorders, the radio, clubs, etc. With the advent of video, especially on TV, I hate to say it, but nobody listens to music any more - we WATCH it.

Don't get me started on this one - that's the topic of a blog unto itself - but you get the idea. It's the same thing here - Chainsaw is primarily a visual experience, but the real communication is verbal - that's how people are really engaging and getting things done. Like MTV, it's a new kind of experience, but one that I think has a lot of potential. How this impacts their relationship with Microsoft and the whole Unified Communications landscape remains to be seen, but it's always great to see something that's a departure from the conventional approaches to communications.

They also talked about "accidental collaboration", a term which I really love. That was the idea where these environments allow people to be together in the same place and time, where in real life this hardly ever happens. So, you're having a scheduled conversation with one peer, and then you notice that someone else you've been wanting to connect with was is there too. Now you have a chance to actually engage. It may be a virtual environment, but the conversation - using Nortel's voice technologies - is very real.

I'll finish up this disussion with a few references. Colleague David Greenfield is more familiar with these virtual community technologies than me, so I'll steer you to his post about this demo and additional commentary.

Next - if you've followed my blog for a while, you may recall a post from last year about DiamondWare, another company I got a very early sneak peek at before most anyone else. There are many parallels to Chainsaw, and if you're interested in the space - especially for gaming - you'll find my post about them to be of interest. And if you don't believe me, just ask the Nortel team. We talked offline about this, and yes, they're quite familiar with DiamondWare.

Rich Tehrani also noticed the parallels, and added a few things to the mix in his post, as he also had some early exposure to DiamondWare. Ok, let's move on.

- We saw a few demos around Unified Communications and desktop applications, all of which enforce the notion that Nortel is clearly moving away from hardware to software, and is focused on the end user like never before. Highlights included ACE - Agile Communications Environment - and a presence-based mashup they created for a client in 4 weeks that integrates a Nortel plug-in with Yahoo Messenger. We heard a lot of talk around Web-based applications and a movement to create a developer sandbox. Over the course of the day, I have to say much of this was consistent with what I've been seeing from other Tier 1 vendor analyst events. They're all embracing the end user, applications and developers, which is great news for innovation. Of course, there's the possibility they'll all come to market with the same solutions, but no doubt they're monitoring each other closely to ensure this doesn't happen.

- Moving along to yet another locale within the campus, we saw a really engaging healthcare demo. All the big vendors are building vertical market solutions, and Nortel is right there with them. They ran us through a variety of scenarios where people and things can be tracked real time inside a hospital using RFID tags and mobile devices. On a basic level, it's about asset tracking to make sure that patients or hospital beds don't go missing. But it's also about workflow improvement, with the ability to monitor patient needs and ensure they get the right treatment by the right people at the right time. Very neat stuff, and it's hard imagine why any hospital wouldn't want to be working this way today.

- The Telepresence demo was next, and after Project Chainsaw, this was the highlight of the day. I've been a fan of TP since Cisco came to market with such a big splash in 2006. You might want to think they invented TP, but far from it. They've done a lot with it, but there are many other solid offerings, including Nortel's. Whenever you see TP in action, you can't help but be impressed, and this was as good as anything I've seen. Nortel provides all the network services and management for this, but the hardware is Polycom's. I don't have a problem with this - I think it's a great combination, and being standards-based, they're not just locked in with Polycom. Nortel also supports and re-sells Tandberg and Microsoft's Roundtable, so they have many ways to participate in this growing market space.

Telepresence is one of those things you have to experience first hand to appreciate, and I just want to add a few things that really stood out for me.

- Nortel was refreshingly candid about the realities around TP. The demo was led by Hugh McCullen - GM Multimedia Services - and he said that Telepresence is not plug and play. That was really great to hear since it looks so easy when you see it. Of course, Nortel needs to say that since they don't make the hardware, and they need some form of value-add. Fair enough, but Hugh walked us through a long list of what they bring to manage the service and deliver a great QoE - Quality of Experience.

- Their TP sessions can be recorded. Not sure if all the other solutions do today, but they didn't earlier on. By recording the sessions, Hugh talked about how TP helps video become an "information asset". Sounds a bit geeky, but I can see the value of that.

- The TP studio we sat in had a stadium-style layout rather than the conventional boardroom that I've seen elsewhere. It's a bit different experience since you're not sitting as close to the screen, but it's still very effective.

- The tabletops we watched from had pop-up PC screens embedded in the tables. Very neat design. When not in use, the desktop is flat, but when you need the screen to follow a presentation while the speaker is talking, the monitors pop up, like the overhead screens in airplanes. I've got a photo of this down below.

- Nortel's TP comes in two flavors - 2 screens or 4 screens - photos of both are below. This was really neat to see, and with 4 screens, it's even more impressive. Seems simple, but this is another way to differentiate. Cisco is 3 screens, so we'll do you one better with 4. Ok. A bit like Gillette - I think we're up to 5 blades for shaving now. I sure hope TP doesn't get quite this out of hand.

- Finally - the TP room can be used for other things. How simple was that? The Cisco rooms I've seen are dedicated 100% to TP - you can't really use them for anything else. As mentioned, this room was stadium-style, but there was also a functional conference table down at the front.

One more thing. I've mentioned Cisco a few times, and for sake of comparsion, I'll refer you to my post about their demo, including a video clip.

I'm going to stop now. There were other demos too, including their recently launched Unified Communications solution for SMBs, and their 4G WiMax solution. I think you get the idea - lots of things coming down the pipe from Nortel, and I'd say they're in as good a position as any incumbent vendor to make the transition to the 2.0 world. Definitely time well spent, and I feel lucky to be included in this early look at what's coming. Hopefully with this post, you'll be getting the next best thing. I'd love to hear your thoughts, especially if this has changed your perceptions of Nortel.

Nortel campus in Ottawa

Glass cupola - great symmetry. Hard to tell if you're looking up into the spire, or down from the tip of the peak.

Great way to start the day. Mike Z wasn't there - he rarely is - and the Nortel AR team had us camp out there.

Feels a bit like a palace coup. Nortel's Sami Asiri getting our agenda updated using Mike Z's desk. Sure was comfortable there...

Andrew Lippman from MIT's Media Lab, giving us more perspective on what Nortel brings to voice in the 2.0 world, using Mr. Z's whiteboard

A few of our demos took place in the Executive Briefing Center. Even based on Ottawa, this sure looks like an American company, huh? Up here, we would spell that "Centre". That's Andy Lippman with Rich Tehrani.

Project Chainsaw

Unified communications demo

Healthcare vertical demo

Enroute to the telepresence demo - felt like the beginning of Get Smart, going through all the secret doors...

Two screen demo

Pop-up monitor

Four screen demo

WiMax demo

Technorati tags:

Nortel, Jon Arnold, Ottawa, Rich Tehrani, David Greenfield, Project Chainsaw

Posted by jonarnold at May 19, 2008 08:41 AM

Nice posting, captured the event well. It's amazing what a commitment to research can do to move the ball downfield. As a "swing candidate" -- I am both at the Media Lab and a visiting fellow at Nortel, naturally, I am a bit of partisan. But in spite of that bias, I think we are all now poised to think beyond telephones into the richer world of social audio and a realtime web.

andy

Posted by: Andrew Lippman at May 21, 2008 09:16 AM

Jeff's Social Media Breakfast - Toronto Edition

Bright and early today, Jeff Pulver brought his world tour social media breakfast to Toronto. Lucky me, it was held at my neighborhood deli, so it was a quick 5 minute walk. I'll take that commute any day.

Jeff has been doing these for a while now, and even a casual visit to his blog will tell you how important these have become for his regimen as well being an incredible way to leverage the energy he has been putting into Facebook.

The turnout was great - about 40 or so came, including a number of familiar faces. That said, there wasn't a lot of social media going on, but the traditional sitting at the table over breakfast human networking was just great. Many of the people attending were new faces for me, and they looked to be more of a Facebook crowd than a VON crowd. Jeff is a master at creating grass roots communities, and this was a great example. If there was time I would have eventually gotten around to everyone, but I ended up having productive chats with just a few people.

The takeaway for me was having more inspiration and purpose for making greater use of Facebook, and I hope to use it soon to connect with some of the people I didn't spend time with this morning.

Jeff, thanks again for bringing this event to town. Funny how it takes a New Yorker to come all this way to get a bunch of local techies, bloggers, VCs, etc. together in one place. If that's what it takes, so be it - beats staying here at my desk all day!

Photos courtesy of my Nokia N81...

Jeff welcoming us in his standard issue attire - Hawaiian shirt - summer or winter, you can bet on him wearing one...

Jim Courtney chatting with Dan York via Skype on his Blackberry 8320. Love it - hi Dan!

Technorati tags: Jeff Pulver, Jon Arnold, Toronto, Facebook

Geosign - what a story!/Welcome Kevin Restivo

This is a two-for-one post. First item is Geosign, a very mysterious company based in Guelph, Ontario. I posted about them last March after they quietly received a humongous funding of $160 million. This kind of money is unheard of in Canada, especially for an obscure company in an obscure town. In the IP communications space, most ventures are lucky to scare up a few million, and this raise is probably more than the whole space has received combined. I've never seen anything so out of whack at this level of magnitude. It just didn't add up.

After hearing about the funding, I approached them for me to come out and do an interview with their CEO. Initially, they were receptive, but suddenly the trail went cold - they were no longer giving interviews. Over the course of last summer, I had a dialog going with a journalist who was trying to get the story, and she had all kinds of interesting tidbits that were difficult to substantiate, but you just could tell something wasn't right. We fell out of touch, and Geosign has been off my radar for a while - but I've always wondered what the real story was.

Well, the other day I got my answer. Last weekend, the Financial Post Business Magazine ran a cover story on Geosign, penned by Robert Thompson. It's one of those you-have-to-read-this-to-believe-it stories, and I'm not going rehash it all for you here. I'll just say this was the classic Google pay-per-ad-click model on steriods, with hundreds of bogus websites set up as landing pages with nothing more than online ads on them. The scheme worked well enough for Geosign to attract $160 million - incredible! - but once Google caught on to their M.O., they changed the rules of the game, and the whole thing collapsed practically overnight.

Someone should make a movie of this. Canada is such a nice, modest, polite place, and you'd hardly ever suspect something like this would come out such a wholesome place like Guelph. Incredibly, as you read through the story, no crimes were committed, and the founders have simply moved on to other things - as if nothing ever happened.

I just want to say enough here to tempt you into reading the article. It's a great read, and I don't want to take away from Robert Thompson's good work.

Now for Part 2 of my post. I never would have seen this if it weren't for fellow analyst Kevin Restivo. He actually used to cover tech for the same paper as Robert, the Financial Post here in Toronto. He left a few years back for the analyst world, and is currently at IDC. We see each other at local events, and more recently, he's made me aware of his blog, which was started back in the summer.

While scrolling through his recent posts yesterday, I came across his post about Geosign. That was the first news I'd heard about Geosign in ages, and I'm so glad he referenced the magazine article, as I never see the Post. So, now I have the full story, and am happy to share it here.

More importantly is a shout-out here to Kevin and his blog. It's really good, not just for local and Canadian coverage, but Kevin is a strong analyst, and has keen insights on technology trends in general. We have very few analysts blogging about the Canadian market, and I'm glad he is. We have reciprocated links on our blog rolls, and I'm happy to introduce Kevin to my readers.

Technorati tags: Geosign, Jon Arnold, Kevin Restivo

Posted by jonarnold at March 19, 2008 11:53 AM

Jon: Thanks for the kind remarks. The story was very well received -- and what a tale it is!

Posted by: Robert Thompson at March 23, 2008 07:31 PM

Webware 100 - I'm Voting for Octopz and Mobivox

CNET's Webware 100 voting commenced last Monday, and I'm just coming across this now.

This initiative sure looks like a great barometer of Web 2.0, and I would think that anyone following this space would want to be watching this group of companies closely. In some ways this reminds me of Demo, with the idea being that any company making this group is in good company. However, this a very different process where the nominations are determined by Webware's Editors, and the winners are chosen by readers/visitors to the site who make the effort to vote. So, it's not as gruelling as Demo, but it provides a great forum to recognize up and coming - as well as established companies.

To vote, the Web 2.0 space is grouped into 10 categories, and there are about 30 companies nominated in each category. Scrolling through these, there are lots of familiar and large names - Google, Facebook, Blogger, Flickr, etc. - so there's always a risk of this being a popularity contest. Sure, they'll get their share of mainstream votes, but for those of us watching smaller companies more closely, this is your chance to speak up.

There are tons of interesting companies in here, but I want to note two in particular - Ocotopz and Mobivox. Aside from being Canadian, these are the ones from all the nominations that I follow the closest. Toronto-based Octopz made the short list for voting, as did Montreal-based Mobivox. Readers of my blog will know I've followed both companies for some time, and have posted about them previously, here and here.

Whether I'm waving the Canadian flag, or you want to support a couple of really great companies, I would urge you to check both out and decide for yourself if they're worth your vote. I have voted for both, and would gladly recommend them to others if you wanted a second opinion.

At this time of writing, the Webware 100 has tallied around 1 million votes, so this thing is pretty popular. Voting ends March 31, and the winners will be conveniently announced just before the Web 2.0 Expo, which starts April 22.

Technorati tags: Webware 100, Jon Arnold, Octopz, Mobivox

eComm2008 - Q&A with Lee Dryburgh/Discount Offer

Got two updates to share with you about the eComm2008 conference, which I did a background post about on Monday.

First is an interview I did with Lee Dryburgh that just ran on IP Convergence TV the other day. Lee mostly talks about his views on convergence technologies, but also a bit about what you can expect to experience at eComm2008. Hope you enjoy it, and comments are welcome.

Second is a special discount offer I can share with you to save 15% on registration for the conference. Hopefully, you've heard by now from many sources how promising this event will be, and if you're thinking about going, please drop me a line, and I can pass on the information you'll need to save 15% on your registration.


Technorati tags: eComm2008, Jon Arnold, Lee Dryburgh

Next Stop - eComm2008

Next conference for me is eComm2008, coming up March 12-14 in Mountain View, California.

Got a few things to convey about this event in my post...

For background, eComm has picked up where eTel left off last year, and is largely the vision of Lee Dryburgh, who I have recently gotten to know a bit, and am looking forward to meeting next month.

I'm late posting about eComm as it's taken a while to formalize my participation, which I'll get to in a moment. So, if you haven't been reading up eComm, you should start with the press release, and then move on to some of the recent blog posts, including today's from Thomas Howe and Andy Abramson, and earlier ones from Martin Geddes and Alec Saunders' Squawk Box interview, which includes Lee Dryburgh as a guest.

Myself - I've got small part, but at least I'm there, and am really looking forward to hearing from such a first-rate roster of speakers. I'll be moderating the Mobile Mashups panel, which currently includes Tom Howe (oh, what a surprise!), Dean Bubley, Irv Shaprio, Boaz Zilberman, and James Body. If you're coming, the session is on Thursday, from 2:00 to 3:00.

Finally, being on the West coast, I was really hoping to participate in Spring VON - now known as VON.X - which is the following week in San Jose. Very hard decisions to make here, but my circumstances just don't make it possible to do both. Turns out eComm takes place during our March break, and the plans have unfolded such that my 15 year old son, Max, is coming with me and will be with me at eComm, at least for as long as he finds it interesting. So, if you've ever wanted to meet Max, here's your chance. He'll be with me at eComm, but we're flying back after that so he can get back to school. Will have to miss VON this time around, but I certainly plan to be there in the fall.


Technorati tags: eComm2008, Jon Arnold, Lee Dryburgh, VON

Where's voice going? Ask Tom - Mr. Mashup

Mashups can mean many things, but in the world of voice and VoIP mashups, Thomas Howe is the guy. He's carving a great niche for his company in this space, and I want to point you to his latest thinking which was just posted the other day.

Thomas did a long, but thought-provoking interview (34 minutes) with Lee Dryburgh, the main force and vision behind the upcoming eComm 2008 conference. It's been posted to their blog page in podcast form, and includes some summary comments and excerpts from the interview. Definitely worth a listen. As an aside, the eComm event looks very promising, and you'll be hearing more about it from me soon. I should also add that Lee has posted an even longer interview there on the outlook for telecom and broadband with the renowned Martin Geddes, who is quite involved with the eComm event.

For those of you following the mashup space, I should note that this builds on another recent podcast that Thomas did a couple of weeks back with Iotum, on their inaugural ConCast. It's also worth a listen, especially since it's a group discussion featuring other notable and familiar voices.


Technorati tags:
Thomas Howe, Jon Arnold, Lee Dryburgh, eComm

Iotum's Voice Mashup "ConCast"

Today, Iotum put a great idea into practice, and may have a new product on their hands - the "ConCast". I love it, and think they're on to something good here. This was their first ConCast, and is a great way to demonstrate their conference calling application that's been running on Facebook for a few months now.

The idea was this - a half hour scheduled concall/audio webinar - with a roundtable speaker format. Voice mashups was the topic, and the call was led by none other than Thomas Howe - who else? Joining Thomas was Alec, Andy Abramson and Jim Courtney. They all chimed in at various points, and about two dozen people were in and out listening to the discussion. You could tell they were doing that because in the background you kept hearing that "ping" sound that tells you when someone has joined or left the group.

I wasn't able to be on the call as I had a concall of my own going this morning, but I got a chance to listen to the replay, which you can do as well. You can find it on Alec's post, along with his post-game review. The session runs about 27 minutes, and if you're interested in mashups, this is about as good as it gets for listening to people who are living it.

Great going, guys, and I hope you have more of these soon! And, the faster you build up your numbers, the faster you'll attract sponsors and then you'll have a money-maker on your hands - that's the kind of mashup we're all after...


Technorati tags: Alec Saunders, Jon Arnold, Facebook, voice mashups, Thomas Howe, Iotum

Alec Saunders' Privacy Manifesto

Really thoughtful post today from Alec Saunders that I want to draw your attention to.

Anyone who is concerned about what Facebook's Beacon initiative could lead to, or how they recently handled uber-blogger Robert Scoble should read Alec's post. Actually, it's a guest post on GigaOm, which is a great way for Alec to give back and support Om Malik as he recuperates - am not going to go there right now. I certainly wish a speedy and safe recovery for Om, and in his absence, people like Alec are stepping up and providing fresh content for his site.

I don't have much to add, and Alec does a great job laying out some of the key issues around Internet privacy, and more importantly proposes some rules of conduct and engagement - his manifesto - that would have prevented these from becoming bad situations.

As with any good blog post, the best indication of its impact is in the comments, and there are quite a few of them - well worth reading, and an indication that Alec has tackled this issue very well.

Furthermore, if you surf over to Alec's own blog, you'll see an updated post where he talks about the aftermath of this morning's post, and how the very comapanies he discussed are now part of DataPortability.org, a working group to establish guidelines and best practices for porting data from one site to another.

Great stuff, Alec - all in a day's work....


Technorati tags: Alec Saunders, Jon Arnold, GigaOm

IP Convergence TV Updates Posted

Wearing my Community Advocate and Portal Editor hat for the IP Convergence TV portal, it's my duty - and pleasure - to let you know the latest update is running live now.

Not only is there new content, but the look and feel of the website has been updated. It's more user-friendly, but still a work in progress. I can tell you that traffic has been building nicely, and we're getting some great feedback from both vendors and carriers.

Two things in particular to draw to your attention....

1. My feature has been been converted from a podcast to a blog. So, my existing podcasts have been transcribed, and can be found in a new section called the Convergence Blog. My latest posting is an extended review of some recent research from Deloitte that I posted about here on my own blog a couple of weeks back.

The Convergence Blog is very early stage, though, and the look/feel will definitely be evolving - please bear with us. For those of you who were following my podcasts on the portal, I should add that all the posts on this blog can still be heard. Just like I do on this blog, the Convergence Blog posts are audio-enabled courtesy of Odiogo. I think this is a great application, and recommend it for any blogger.

2. In terms of new content, there's a new white paper from AudioCodes, 3 new video interviews conducted by Erik Larsson, and 3 new Guest Opinion pieces from some very good writers/industry players... Thomas Howe, Dean Bubley and Bob Emmerson.

I hope you read 'em all, and sign up at the site to get alerts on our updates. Got a lot in the pipeline already for the next update, so if you're following convergence technologies - IPTV, FMC, IPTV, IMS - you should find this a useful resource.


Technorati tags: IP Convergence TV, Jon Arnold, J Arnold Associates

Cisco C-Scape 2007 ? Parting Thoughts

I mentioned in passing in my earlier post that compared to last year, Cisco has certainly come a long way in its focus on video and network-centric solutions. Lots of talk last year about unified communications and SMB ? not so much now. Telepresence is front and center, which is not a bad thing. And why not? I don?t know how much traction Halo or Tandberg or Polycom are getting, but Cisco wasn?t shy telling you how many deployments they have in less than a year?s time. If the numbers are to be believed, it?s pretty hard not to conclude that Cisco has bet right with Telepresence.

There really are 2 major story lines related to TP. The first is telepresence itself and the second is how this fits into the broader constellation of video-based solutions that Cisco seems to be betting its future on. Many presentations and sessions ended with the reassuring messaging that Cisco is ?uniquely positioned? to deliver video and bring customers into the Web 2.0 world. Well, if you say so, then it must be true. There was a lot of Kool Aid served at C-Scape, but on this count they just may be right. To the extent you believe that - it?s too early for me to tell - Cisco is poised to become a force in the video a lot faster than you might think.

So, first to TP ? Telepresence. The big message there is that if you just think of this as high end videoconferencing, then you have very 1.0 view of things. Absolutely, that?s what it does, but from day 1 Cisco has not called this videoconferencing, and has staked out higher ground trying to get the world to see this as an entirely new category. The Cisco view is that this a tool for business transformation, that changes the way people communicate, and more importantly, the way we do business. They provided pretty good examples of this, particularly in health care, and we?re not just talking about cutting down on travel. It?s about enabling new processes and accelerating workflow. I?m just an indie, so I can?t really envisage this in my world, but can definitely see where this really can happen.

If you want to see the wow factor of where they?re coming from, check out this much-watched video off of YouTube. It runs about 4 minutes, and was mentioned often at the event, and gives the term virtual reality new meaning. In this session, John Chambers is speaking live in Bangalore, and Marthin De Beer appears hologram-like on the same stage as if he was right there with him. This isn?t from a Hollywood special effects magician ? it can happen at your next board meeting. An interesting example they provided was how an Arab Emirates country wants to use this as a way to virtually bring Western celebrities into their local events. Well, that makes sense ? a lot of rich and famous people will not ? or cannot ? travel to this part of the world, so TP is the next best thing. I get that.

Also, if you want to see a more extensive video from which this demo was done, there's an official version running on Cisco's website. It runs about 11 minutes, and has John Chambers telling the TP story in more detail.

I should also add that as good as the TP story is, there was no mention made of some interesting news from late last week. Cisco announced they?ll be opening up TP to interoperate with other standards-based videoconferencing systems. I?m all for that, and it positions Telepresence as more of a 2.0 solution, making it even more interesting. Not sure why they didn?t play this angle up at C-Scape.

Lots more to talk about here, but you get the idea. Anyhow, the second idea is the bigger picture of video. This is Dan Scheinman?s world, and Cisco demonstrated on a few levels how committed they are to video. They see it as the killer app of the Internet, and they just might be right. And of course, to do video right, you must have the right network, and who knows networks better than Cisco, right? Networks are not my forte, so I really can?t challenge on this front. What I do know is that 2008 will see the launch of EOS ? their Entertainment Operating System ? which puts all the pieces to together, including search capabilities that are a big part of their secret sauce.

I agree with Dan?s premise that there?s simply too much content out there, and people generally don?t know what they?re looking for most of the time, and when they do, they really don?t know how to find it. So, a big part of what will make video a big deal is having search tools that don?t just help you find things, but that help you discover things. It?s a subtle difference, but a big one in my books, and again, I get that. If EOS lives up to its promise, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo will have some catching up to do.

Missed opportunities? One comes to mind for me. One of the quiet stories that I think is cool is their focus on digital signage. I see lots of interesting applications, and once Cisco Field is built you can bet it will be a living test lab and showcase for this. Anyhow, given the size of the main hall for the big presentations, there were large video screens flanking the stage so everyone could see what was going on. At the back and the edges of center stage, however, were several smaller display screens draped in semi-random fashion to give the feeling of a more intimate, home-theater type setting. I?d guess they were each approximately the size of a flat screen TV you might have in your home.

Ok ? I get it ? video is the big message, so sure, the more video displays the better. Unfortunately, for the most part, these display screens only had static images - usually the conference logo. Ugh - not very exciting and, to me, a missed opportunity. Not only could those screens have been used to enhance the overall video message with streaming media, but even more so, they could have been a great vehicle to demonstrate their digital signage technology. It?s pretty neat stuff, and like TP, you really need to see it to get the idea.

Of course, you could argue that having too many screens showing streaming video/media ? using both big and small screens - would be too distracting from what?s going on center stage. That may be true, but hey, we?re all smart, media savvy analysts. I?d say a little Hollywood razzle dazzle ? even at just a few choice break points throughout the day ? would have made a great impression to show off not just the power of both video and digital signage, but also to make a statement about how much of media company Cisco is becoming.

I can?t help but mention at this point that doing something like that ? and it couldn?t have been that hard to do ? would have been far more effective than the morally ambiguous Telepresence commercial they ran to close out the morning session. If you saw this, you?d know what I mean, and after a morning full of interesting and engaging presentations, it?s hard to see what they were thinking here. On a brain-dead level, the commercial was very sentimental and touchy-feely about an everyday American family keeping in touch with their son who is in some far-away place. That?s an easy message to send about the power of Telepresence. But it sure was hard to tell whether their son ? who was holed up in some form of a tented base camp in the middle of nowhere ? was doing noble Peace Corps type of work ? or was in the military doing other types of work.

Maybe it?s just me, but I found this commercial confusing and a bit suspicious rather than uplifting and singing the praises of TP. I didn?t hear anyone else reading it this way, so I guess it?s just me. So either it was just way too subtle for everyone, or I spend too much time reading meaning into things where there?s nothing really there. The latter is probably closer to the truth, although I spent a lot of time thinking and writing about this stuff as a Psychology undergrad enroute to my Marketing MBA. Or maybe I should switch fields and go into advertising....

Much more to talk about, but that?s about all that will make it to my blog. To sum up, instead of hearing talk about VoIP, IP telephony, unified communications, SMB, the language this time around was about collaboration, Web 2.0, blogging, social networks, innovation, content, community, personalization and the experience. If it was just words like these, you?d be right to be sceptical. But they sure seem to be walking the talk, and even though their Web 2.0 Kool Aid was pretty strong - if you were there you?d know what I?m referring to ? I do share their vision and can see how the pieces fit.

John Chambers loves to talk about never losing a battle where they?ve had a head start and how they?ve had a good track record capitalizing on market transitions. It?s also pretty clear that innovation is a major mantra at Cisco, and they?re living it as an organization, signs of which became increasingly apparent the more time I spent talking with them during the event.

Well, video sure is one of these ?market transitions?, and they seem to be right on target for what?s coming in 2008. In short, his vision is to transform Cisco from a plumbing play to a platform play, and if they do, their branding message ?welcome to the human network? will ring true, and give them the one thing they don?t have ? cachet in the consumer market. Apple has it, Microsoft has it, and Cisco?s dying to have it. If I?m a betting man, I say they?ll get it in 2008.


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