Carl Ford 3.0

Carl Ford is one of my favorite people in this business, and few people make more of an indelible impression than Carl. He has long been the Mutt half of VON's Mutt and Jeff combination, and one of the first questions that came to my mind with the demise of VON was what would Carl do?

For better or worse, Carl is not shy, and most of us have stayed in touch via his various Facebook pages, and he's been working his network to keep busy in this brave new world. Like me, he's got a bunch of things on the go, and with an unparalleled network of industry contacts, Carl has many avenues to pursue.

I'm just doing my part here to help keep Carl in the spotlight, just in case you were wondering what he's been up to. So, I've got three things to share, and on all these fronts, I'm sure Carl would be happy to hear from you.

First - for everyday musings, there's Carl's blog. You can find the link on my blog roll, or if that's just too much bother, here it is. Also - for more occasional commentary, Carl is a contributor for Fierce VoIP, which is a great forum for us indie types.

Second - Carl's portal - we all have to have one, right? - thevoipsme.com. A bit of an odd name - and not to be confused with voipsme.com. So, either use the link, or don't forget to include "the" in the name if you're typing this out the old fashioned way.

It's definitely worth checking out. First, you'll find a parallel blog on the site that includes news items and podcast interviews that aren't on his personal blog. He's going to be doing one with me and my son Max about the iPhone later this week, so stay tuned for that one.

Two other important items to note on Carl's portal - the SME VoIP Alliance, and VoIP Blogs. The first is a networking resource for those of us focused on the SME VoIP space, and the latter is an expansive directory of top VoIP blogs. Pretty self explanatory, I know, but they're pretty useful resources. You can find me in both places, but fyi, the blogs portal is a bit tricky to navigate unless you're an experienced Mac or iPhone/Touch user.

Third - you can file this under "believe it or not" if you like, but hey, life goes on. I'll be seeing Carl again a month from now at TMC's IT Expo. Yup. Like me, he's moderating a session on SMB, and possibly others. Six months ago, this would have been as likely as Microsoft being invited to speak at a Google event. His session is titled "Making the Business Case for VoIP", and takes place just before my session on the Thursday of the conference. Can't wait!

So, in a nutshell, those are three things that more or less say "Carl 3.0" to me. We're all in this together, folks, so I'm happy to update the world, and am really looking forward to seeing Carl in September and supporting his initiatives along the way.



Technorati tags: Carl Ford, VON, Jon Arnold, thevoipsme.com, IT Expo