Coco Saves the Day

Yeahhhhh....sometimes a picture is worth 1000 words. Nothing to add - great homestand, Red Sox. Coco saves the game, and the Mets go home empty handed. Sorry Pedro....



Photo courtesty Boston.com

Canada's Top Tech 100 - IP Companies to Watch

The current issue of Canadian Business magazine was a good one. Aside from the IPTV article I just posted about, they also had their annual Tech 100 feature, which focuses on Canada's top 100 publicly traded tech companies.

Of course, the usual suspects from IP and telecom are there - Bell, Telus, Rogers, Shaw, Nortel, RIM, etc. - and it's good to see that these sectors make up a good chunk of the overall list of the top 100.

More interesting for me are some lesser-known companies in the list that I've been following, namely Aastra (ranked #16) and Ascalade (#35). I've blogged about each before - here and here - and it's great to see them getting this kind of recognition.

In addition, this issue had another cool section titled How Things Work. I love stuff like this, and one of the topics was mobile TV. There's a nice explanation there of how carriers transmit TV to cell phones, and the focus is on how a small company, QuickPlay, provides the enabling technology. QuickPlay is Toronto-based, and I've been following them for a while - with both postings and a recent podcast.

Finally, there was also a short piece about Dragon's Den, the new business reality TV show in production now for the Fall season on CBC television. I posted about this show last week, and hope you tune in - especially if you want to see startups who are seeking money grovel really well before a panel of hard-nosed investors with money to spend. Capitalism at it most entertaining --- short of The Apprentice!



Technorati tags: Canadian Business Magazine, Jon Arnold

IPTV - AT&T Following Canada's Lead

It's not often that Canada is ahead of the U.S. in the IP communications arena, especially when it comes to services and applications, but IPTV is a case in point.

Incredible as it seems, our two smallest ILECs - Manitoba Telecom and Saskatchewan Telecom - have each been offering variations of IPTV to consumers for a couple of years. These provinces each cover huge swaths of geography, but have relatively small populations - roughly a million people each. Despite this, MTS and Sasktel have been innovators on many fronts, and are touchstones for how North Americans are taking to IPTV.

Aside from the links to their offerings above, the current issue of Canadian Business magazine is a good point of reference to understand what the fuss is about. Each carrier has about 50,000 IPTV subscribers each, which is pretty decent penetration considering the population base. Short of doing some lookups with Statistics Canada, let's say there are 300,000 households in each province (on average, a HH has 3 or 4 people). That's a 17% market penetration. I'm sure AT&T or Verizon would take that any day.

The article is a good primer about why they're doing IPTV and the lessons learned along the way, and I'd recommend it to anyone looking to understand the realities of offering IPTV. The writer was good enough to cite me briefly, and I was happy to contribute to the story. I hope you like it.

I also find the article good timing in light of AT&T's formal IPTV launch of U-verse this week. It's available to 5,000 homes in the San Antonio area, and its much anticipated rollout across their footprint will really set the stage for a Triple Play showdown with the cabelcos. We're expecting the same here in Canada, as Telus is betting big on IPTV, and Bell has been testing with Microsoft for the longest time.

On a more human scale, fellow blogger Alan Weinkrantz - a San Antonio resident - has been trialing U-verse for some time. He's been sharing his experiences since mid-May in a separate blog called SAtechBLOG, and it's been getting a lot of attention, including coverage recently in the WSJ. Check it out!


Technorati tags: IPTV, Triple Play, Jon Arnold, Alan Weinkrantz

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - David Hattey, FirstHand

This week's podcast was with FirstHand, previously SIPquest. I spoke with President/CEO Dave Hattey, and we covered the high ground around SIP - where it is today and where it's going. We talked about their transition to a new name, which followed their recent funding news. Finally, we touched on why Ottawa is such a strong market for IP startups.

You can download the podcast here, and read more about David's background.

Sox-Mets - World Series Preview?/1986 Revisited

Only in Boston do they celebrate losers! I'm not sure if this is pathetic, or the mark of a great sports town with a sense of history. The answer is obvious to me, and believe me, they wouldn't be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the 1986 World Series if they hadn't won in 2004. That would be really sad.

All I can say is that if it goes well, I have no doubt next year will be the 40th anniversary of the 1967 "Impossible Dream" Red Sox, who lost heroically to the Bob Gibson Cardinals, of course, in 7. The Sox always lose in 7! I remember it like it was yesterday, as do millions of Nation followers, and if the Cardinals are slated for an interleague visit next year, it sure would be fun to see the likes of Yaz and Gibson again. I digress, but in a nice way....

So, tonight - weather permitting - interleague play continues, and the Red Sox host the Mets. Normally this wouldn't merit a blog post, but the stars have lined up to make this a special event. At this point in the season, these are arguably the two best teams in baseball, and I think there's a pretty strong chance they will meet again in October.

With all this good karma happening, it's no surprise the Red Sox are making a big deal about the 20th anniversary of the 1986 World Series, which does not bear repeating here. But in case you need to know, I'll reprise the box scores, and you can draw your own joyous or painful conclusions...





Perhaps things will be different this year - the season is barely halfway over - lots can and will happen. If you thought Johnny Damon's return to Fenway was fun, I can't wait to see how things go on Wednesday when Pedro makes his return, squaring off against Beckett.

I'm going to close out with two short references to 1986. It's hard not to get pulled back to this today, so this is a form of catharsis to get it out of my system. Then I can serenely return to the 21st Century and think about what today's heroes - Papi, Manny, Papelbon - might do in this series.

First, an anecdote. I watched Game 7 of that series at a friend's house. I lived in an apartment building then (in Toronto), and after parking my car in the garage (following a very quiet, pondering drive home), I get on the elevator up to my floor. I'm joined by someone else, who I recognized as a neighbor on my floor. Yeesh - I remembered, he was from Boston too, and we both had this sullen, hollowed-out look of defeat. It was obvious we had both come home from watching the game, and never raised our heads to make eye contact. Just stared blankly at the floor - WE KNEW - there was nothing to say, just silent suffering. Never saw him again...

On a visual note, Jeff Pulver's office is quite a site. Amidst all the rock momentos, cool posters, gadgets and knick knacks, this sits quietly in the corner, propped up against the window...





Oh, cruel ye gods. Captured at the moment of humility, the Buckner Incident that in an instant tore the heart out of New England, because we knew then and there that victory had been snatched away again by the baseball gods. There was a lot more baseball to be played before the series was over, but you just knew then it was over.

Not only is this picture a painful reminder, but it's autographed by both Buckner and Mookie!!!!! It's hard to see from the photo, but it's there. Jeff is a lucky guy to have this, and I hope he enjoys it. I could never do the same. Mind you, I need to be nice to Jeff because he has Mets tickets! If our teams meet again in October, I'll make sure to let him know that if he needs company, I'm there.....


Technorati tags: Boston Red Sox, Jon Arnold, Jeff Pulver

Microsoft's Big News - Maybe Not So Big

Today, Microsoft had their well-publicized Unified Communications Group Strategy Day. The Big Idea is that MS is adding voice to Exchange, and will be re-branded as Communications Server. It's a big step for sure, although voice has already been integrated into so many other platforms industry-wide, it's hard to tell just how much impact this will really have. Just as MS is investing heavily in IPTV, they want to be sure they have a big stake in voice, if for nothing else, to be a key player in each leg of the Triple Play. Integrating them all is another story, and I'm sure they're hard at work there too.

I was not on the call, but Iotum's Alec Saunders was. His posting today tells the story pretty darned well, and it's a great assessment about what's good about the news, and why it's not a game changer, at least right now. Alec is in as good a position as anyone I know to make that call - he was with MS for many years, and is now CEO of Iotum, who you all know by now. The relevance of Iotum to this story (no pun intended!) is that much of what Microsoft is talking about delivering - next year - Iotum is offering today. For reference, I also had a post to this effect on Friday, and today's news validates what we were expecting.



Technorati tags: Microsoft, Iotum, Jon Arnold, Alec Saunders

Andy's Got a Brand New Blog - Hey!

He's not James Brown, but Andy Abramson is arguably the "hardest working man in show business". At least for IP communications, his presence is pretty hard to miss, and his client base is A-1.

To keep building that rep, Andy has launched a new blog, titled Working Anywhere. As explained in his inaugural post, this blog is a great way to track how Andy utilizes IP-based technologies and tools to stay in touch and be available wherever and whenever he's needed.

So, for those who are trying to figure out how leading edge guys like Andy manage to stay in touch whether on the ground or in the air, whether stationary or mobile, and whether wired or wireless, you should bookmark Working Anywhere now.

Technorati tags: blogs, Andy Abramson, Jon Arnold