Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Jim Harris on CES and Disruptive Technologies

Incredibly, it's been a month since my last podcast. Time sure flies, and between the holidays and 3 last minute cancellations the first week back, I've finally got my first pod of 2007 ready, and I'd like to think the wait will be worth it.

I've known Jim Harris for a few years now, and he's a very interesting guy, based here in Toronto. He wears a few different hats, and for this podcast, I've got him wearing his author/technology futurist hat. Jim is a best-selling author, best known for his most recent book, Blindsided, which is a great read about how the pace of technological change has caught many companies off guard, and in some cases put them out of business.



CES may seem like a long time ago, but I still think Jim's recap is worth listening to. I wasn't there, but when I found out Jim was going just before New Year, I said we should do a pod about it when he got back. Given my travel schedule, this is the quickest we've been able to get this done and posted.

We both love talking about the same things, and didn't actually get around to CES until later in the podcast. Until that point, Jim shared some very interesting insights about various types of disruptive technologies, with some surprising factoids about things like MP3 players and digital cameras.

In time, we got around to CES, and talked about the iPhone, but little about the event itself. Jim's key takeaways were two companies he found particularly disruptive - SanDisk and SpeechGear. Among other items of note at the show, what really stood out for Jim about SanDisk was their 32 Gigabyte solid state hard drive, which has all kinds of implications for laptops. SpeechGear is altogether different but equally interesting. Their focus is real time, bi-directional speech translation software, in 12 different languages. You don't have to think too much about how that could become a very cool app for VoIP.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Jim. He's in a very interesting space right now - clean technology ventures (including a blog), and is a regular columnist for Backbone Magazine up here in Canada. Enjoy!


Technorati tags: Jim Harris, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, SanDisk, SpeechGear

AT&T's Unity Plan - Size Matters

I haven't had time to blog today as I've been in total catch up mode following PTC. However, I wanted to bring attention to Andy Abramson's insightful post today about AT&T's Unity plan that was just launched.

Andy's headline suggests this is the "worst nightmare" for the MSOs and pureplay VoIP providers, and I think there's a lot of truth to this. AT&T's Unity plan is a great defensive move and is the ultimate FMC deployment, but I'm not sure if it really involves a lot of heavy lifting on the network side. Basically, AT&T is offering a bundle of wireline and wireless voice service, on an unlimited usage basis for domestic calls. It's a great move to retain their wireline customers, and to keep customers in the fold by giving them what they want - lots of affordable talk time for both landline and mobile services.

This is a different kind of a bundle - no triple play - just voice, and it's really simple to understand. Going back to Andy's post, sure, this is a strong counter to the pureplays like Vonage, Packet 8, SunRocket, etc., who have had a lot to do with AT&T's mounting landline losses. More importantly, it's a pre-emptive strike against the MSOs, who are much stronger competitors, not just size-wise, but in terms of service offerings. They've all been working with Sprint/Nextel to get their mobile services to market, and guess what? That's exactly what they announced today. Coincidence - I think not.

So, now all the gloves are off, at least until the fiber buildouts get done. The MSOs had their chance to be first to market here, as AT&T had to get the BellSouth deal approved before launching Unity, so there was a window of exclusivity, and I think they missed it. Regardless, AT&T - via Cingular - has a massive subscriber base, and it's now a game of keep-away. The Unity plan will go a long way toward keeping AT&T's subscribers away from the like of TWC, Cox and Comcast. Can you imagine how this would be playing out if AT&T had kept Comcast???

Botttom line - I've always believed that the ones who own the networks and the subscribers win. AT&T will win out against the VoIP pureplays because they own the network and can simply offer a better quality of service and customer experience. AT&T will also win out against the MSOs because they have the subscribers. The MSOs may have their own networks, but for telecom - esp mobile - they only have a small slice of the subscriber pie. When you have both of these trump cards, plus a combined subscriber base of over 100 million voice customers, I'd say you're in the driver's seat. There was a reason why AT&T was broken up in 1984, and one has to wonder if it will happen again with the way things are going.

So what about VoIP and their CallVantage service? Good question. I'm not sure myself, but Andy has some good ideas, and what he says makes sense to me. And finally, what about Verizon? No doubt, they'll be matching suit with AT&T, making it that much harder for everyone else to get at what was once Ma Bell's crown jewels.



Technorati tags: AT&T Unity, Jon Arnold, Andy Abramson

PTC 2007 Highlights - Part 2

Got back early this morning, and my body clock is definitely out of whack, so not much got done today. I did want to post a few more photos from PTC, as I got to attend a few sessions on Day 2 and the morning of Day 3 before flying out.

As with Day 1, the presentations were quite good, and gave the carriers a lot to think about in terms of things like peering, security, FMC, and municipal WiFi. I also attended a number of networking events and receptions, which seems to be the real reason why so many carriers come here.

On a local level, the highlight for me was the Wednesday session with the Intelligent Community Forum. I've only recently learned about this group, which focuses on recognizing leadership in communities/cities that are using broadband as a driver of growth and to create a better quality of life. Each year they recognize the "Smart21 Communities" around the world, and from that, they select the top 7 for further recognition.

Well, the good news is that 2 Canadian cities made the top 7 this year - Waterloo and Ottawa/Gatineau. The top 7 were announced at this session, and the press release went out today. You can read more about the ICF there, as well as what went into their thinking for each city. So way to go Waterloo, and Ottawa/Gatineau, eh!

What made the session particularly friendly for me was the presence of Mark Whaley on the panel. We've become fast friends, and Mark is a councillor for the city of Waterloo, so he came a long way for his 15 minutes, but it was worth it. He presented a short video extolling the virtues of Waterloo's high tech community, and if you're interested in seeing it, let me know. I plan to do a podcast soon with Mark to talk more about ICF, and some of the cool things that are going on in Waterloo.

It's also worth noting that Waterloo made the top 7 last year, and other Canadian cities have also made the grade in recent years, namely Toronto, Calgary, and - drum roll - Western Valley, Nova Scotia. Who knew?

Enough said. I'll finish off with some photos, again, from my Nokia N93. Still experimenting with low lighting settings, but it's getting better.



Voice Peering session, led by Hunter Newby




Mobile Trends session, w/John Melick of Voyport speaking




Intelligent Community Forum session; Mark Whaley




Muni WiFi session, w/Heather Hudson/city of San Francisco




Diamond Head - wide angle and full zoom shots from the same point




It's always better by the pool...




Wandering around the beach at night - pretty interesting light and shadow effects - or maybe it was the Blue Hawaiians I had earlier...





Wanna buy a ukelele? Already have one, but I did buy some strings...








Technorati tags: Pacific Telecom Council, Jon Arnold, Intelligent Community Forum, Hawaii

PTC 2007 - Day 1 Highlights

Hawaii is pretty far away from Toronto, and it's pretty hard to keep things on schedule while I'm here. This is quite the place, and with all the snow we're having back home, it's very tempting to just head down to the beach, and well.....

This is my first time attending the Pacific Telecom Council conference, and so far, it's been a great experience. Very different crowd from the shows I usually attend, but a very keen interest in all things IP for sure. There are some exhibitors here, but it's mainly about the content and a chance for Pacific Rim telcos to hear about the state of the industry, primarily from the U.S. vendor's point of view. Nothing radical or cutting edge here, and no big announcements or launches. The presentations and sessions have been pretty high level but well done. Lots of dicussion about FMC and peering, and today, I'm expecting to see more of the same.

With that out of the way, it's just a sea of Hawaiian shirts and khakis. Very casual and fun atmosphere, and Jeff Pulver would be right at home here wardrobe wise! :-) Finding a fun Hawaiian shirt for myself here is high on the to-do list for later, but not until I go shopping for the requisite peace offerings for my family who are in deep freeze mode back home, while I think about how to find time to get to the beach. Gotta go....

Here are a few photos of the show, courtesy of my Nokia N93....



"Future of Voice" session...




Ken Zita, PTC Chaiman, and Claudine Naruse of PTC




Vitaly Potapov, Mera Systems




Aloha....



Well, it's not snowing HERE....




Technorati tags: Pacific Telecom Council, Jon Arnold, Hawaii

Iotum's Talk Now Release - Moving Voice 2.0 Forward

I'm a bit late posting about this, but hey, there's a lot going on this week.

So, Iotum has announced its latest application, called Talk Now. What a great name, huh? Iotum is a good name for a company, although it's hard to tell what they do from the name alone. Well, I think Talk Now is a great name, because it concisely describes what it does, and it's an active phrase that is meaningful to anyone who uses a telephone. Just on the name alone, I think they've hit the mark.

So, what is it? Basically, it extends Presence to the mobile space, namely with Blackberry. While iPhone has taken all the thunder away from the mobile device vendors this week - and short term, hurt their stock prices - RIM is the dominant player in the business mobile messaging market with Blackberry, and of course is making its move into consumer with Pearl.

So, if you can push all the hoopla around iPhone aside for a minute, you'll see a pretty interesting application that Blackberry users will immediately find valuable. With mobile Presence and integration into your directory - as well as your planning calendar - you can achieve a much better success rate of actually speaking to someone when you call them - as in.... Talk Now. Works for me.

I wish I could tell you so first hand, but I can't. I was asked to trial Talk Now, but I only use my Blackberry for data, so I'm not really in their target group. However, the benefit is clear to see, and I think can really help get Iotum on the map.

For more about Talk Now, I'll first steer you a to a terrific review by Oliver Starr in MobileCrunch. Then, fellow blogger Tom Howe's post, and finally to Alec Saunders's view using video on what his company has done with Talk Now.

Whle I've got you, I'd also like to mention that Tom Howe's website has just gone live - quietly - but I expect you'll start seeing some interesting things there soon. Keep an eye out....



Technorati tags: Iotum, Jon Arnold, Alec Saunders

CES Perspective - Security Issues Being Glossed Over

Anyone following CES is by now overwhelmed with commentary, especially from bloggers. I don't even know where to begin, and haven't ventured much outside my regular sources.

I just wanted to throw one piece into the mix that I would say has been largely overlooked. Shane Schick, who is the Editor of Computing Canada wrote a nice guest piece in today's Globe & Mail that I think is worth drawing attention to. Shane has been writing about tech up here for ages, and knows the terrrain pretty well. He's stepped back from the hype and buzz and offered a sane perspective that I agree with.

In short, he's raising the issue that as consumers adopt all these anywhere, any time, always on gadgets, and begin integrating them across all their endpoints and devices, there is an increased risk of security-related threats that the vendors aren't really talking about. This becomes especially relevant for people who routinely share personal and work information on the same device. Whether it be small business/SOHO operators, or people using large corporate networks, the vendors are touting a rather carefree approach to making the flow of bits and bytes so fluid.

Shane cites a great example with Hitachi's one terabyte hard drive. It's not hard to imagine cases where individuals store all their personal and business information on this gigantic hard drive - but also not taking the necessary precautions to protect it or even back it up. It wouldn't take much for a virus or a worm embedded in a music download to wipe out the data for an entire business if it was stored in the same place.

Well said, and I hope people are listening!


Technorati tags: CES, Jon Arnold, Shane Schick

Apple's iPhone and Cisco's Blog Page

I'm not following CES that closely, but the iPhone news with Apple is pretty big. It's getting tons of much-needed attention, and I'm not going to add another post about how cool it is, and what it means for all the other mobile device vendors. A good starting point on this would Tom Keating's post from this morning, which ranks very high on Google, so he got a good jump on this one.

There's lots to talk about just on the name. I just love how it works both ways - the iPhone for the iPod set, and IP phone for the VoIP crowd. The wrinkle, of course, is that Cisco has owned the iPhone name since 1996, so the interesting story is how Apple has come to use it now, and I'll leave that for others to tell. And just to complicate matters, Cisco launched its own iPhone product family under the Linksys brand last month.

All I want to add here is a blogger angle - it's peripheral to the story, but it's another step along the way for how blogs are playing a more important role in the dissemination of news.

During Cisco's C-Scape analyst conference last month, I posted about how they have set up a corporate blog and that they are embracing new media to be more accessible and reach the online community. They were nice enough to invite me to post there, and I'm definitely one of the early adopters supporting their blog initiative.

Regarding Apple's use of the iPhone name, Cisco made a brief public statement yesterday. I see that this statement has also been posted to their blog page. It's just a neutral comment, so there's nothing to read into what's being said. However, I just find it noteworthy that Cisco is using blogs as part of the mix to get their side of the story out. It's not much of post, but it's a start, and I expect their blog will take on more of a profile as it evolves.


Technorati tags: Cisco, Jon Arnold, Apple, iPhone, Tom Keating