StockIM - Serving the Small Cap Sector - Another Place to Find Me

There are many communities of interest out there that are somehow connected to IP communications, and there are also many ways to connect these communities together. This is something I enjoy doing, and am always looking at ways of doing this.

One of my current explorations is with StockIM, whose focus is serving the small cap sector.







What's neat about StockIM is that their portal has a Voice 2.0 flavor in that it marries various forms of news,research and analysis about small caps along with an IM platform to enable real time discussion among the community following these companies. I have no doubt that these features will evolve, and maybe they'll move from chat to voice or even video. The technology is there, and this is a community that lacks for good information and knowledgeable experts.

My blog is linked to their site, and hopefully this will drive traffic in both directions - from the small cap crowd to the IP blogosphere, and vice versa. You can also read more about my offerings to this community in the Partnership section of their website.


Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, StockIM, J Arnold Associates

Unified Communications - Ken Camp's New Initiative

My path doesn't cross enough with Ken Camp, but he's got a lot of great things going on, which is why he's on my core blog roll. Just a heads-up to say Ken has re-positioned things here, and his new site, Unified Communications is the successor to Realtime VoIP, which came out last year. So, for those who follow Ken please take note of this, and update your blog rolls.

Also, have a visit to the new website when you can. There was a terrific posting yesterday about all the attention the likes of Jajah and Rebtel are getting, and how this fits into the Voice 2.0 vision Ken is evangelizing via his broader focused unified communications umbrella.

Sidebar - I've not met Ken, and am looking forward to doing so next month when I come out his way at TMC's ITExpo in San Diego.


Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, Ken Camp

Skype Blocking/San Jose U. Story Addendum

I haven't been commenting directly on this story, where San Jose State University had been pushing to block on Skype on campus, and by extension, other broadband-based applications stood to be at risk. On that note, I mentioned about how this could include video calling services such as SightSpeed, an emerging market leader that I have been following.

This comment happened be part of a post where I was lauding SightSpeed's recent success as being chosen the top video calling app by PC Magazine. That issue is now online, and you can read more about it here.

I'm revisiting this because some clarity is needed on the SJSU issue. I won't get into the technical details - that's not my thing - but in short, not all forms of peer-to-peer are based on the Skype model. Others can explain this better than me, but I wanted to share some commentary on this from Peter Csathy, SightSpeed's CEO. In true Web 2.0 fashion, Peter walks the talk, and provides a nice update on things via a video message.

Aside from the fact that this clip demonstrates SightSpeed's quality very nicely, about halfway into the message, Peter provides a short explanation of how SightSpeed does not use super nodes the way Skype does, which makes theirs a purer, more direct form of P2P. One benefit here is that SightSpeed will not have the firewall blocking problems that Skype runs up against in large institutions. Since SightSpeed does voice as well as video, it stands to be a better enterprise solution. By all means, watch the clip - it's just a few minutes, and you'll see for yourself.

While I've got you, SightSpeed is really on a roll. Check out this posting from Andy Abramson that just broke late last night. MTV is now using SightSpeed on its Total Request Live program. This demographic will totally get what SightSpeed is all about, and it's an ideal place to showcase the technology. This is a great company to watch, folks.


Technorati tags: SightSpeed, Jon Arnold, Andy Abramson

Nokia N90 Blog Site - VON Highlights on my Phone

I've cited the Nokia blogger program a number of times before. It's a great initiative that Andy Abramson has put together for them, and I'm one of the beneficiaries who gets to try out these really cool phones.

I'm not a gadget guy, and there are endless posts on the N90 blog site about all the features, so I really don't have anything to add on that count. However, the N90 is my everyday phone, and clumsy as it is to carry around, I really use it more as my camera and camcorder. It allows me great freedom to be spontaneous and capture a moment on the fly, and I find myself using it as much for in-the-street shots/videos, as I do for more formal settings. Of course, the photo quality is wildly uneven, but being digital, it's so easy just to delete the duds and keep the good ones.

On that note, I recently posted my visual highlights of Fall VON here, and the post was picked up on the Nokia N90 blog a few days ago. I'm a bit late getting around to this, but it's still worth citing here. For those of you who want to dive deep into what this phone is all about, this blog is the place to go.

FYI, there is a separate blog page for the Nokia N91, and other blogs are coming for the next wave of Nokias. The N91 is a sleeker version of the N90, and followers of this blog may know that my 13 year old son, Max, uses this as his everyday phone. How many 13 year olds can top that? His review of the N91 was recently posted to the Nokia blog.


Technorati tags: Nokia N90, Jon Arnold, Andy Abramson, Nokia blog

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Andrew Hurrell on OSS

This week's podcast was with Andrew Hurrell. He's the Marketing Director with Ottawa-based Atreus Systems, one of the leading IP plays focused OSS. Andrew provided a good overview on the evolving role of OSS in the IP world, and how it's enabling carriers to deploy and support new services. On top of that, IP-based OSS enables bundling for various types of services, and Andrew talked about some of the ways carriers can now create customized service bundles for specific markets or verticals. We also talked about what makes Ottawa so conducive for so many vendors focused on the IP sector.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Andrew's background.



Technorati tags: OSS, Jon Arnold, Atreus Systems, VoIP Podcasts

Fall VON - Video Posting - One Last Look

The buzz for Fall VON is pretty much over now, so this is not a news item. I wanted to share it with you anyway, since VON is so much about video now.

One of Jeff's new ventures is PulverTV, and during the show, they did a number of vidcasts from the floor. I managed to squeeze one in on the last day, and it's finally been posted on their site. Jennie Bourne is behind the camera, and she's handling most of the production work for PulverTV. Hope you like it - just runs about 4 minutes. Thanks for asking me over, Jen!

UPDATE - the clip has also been posted to the Pulvermedia Podcast Network site as well, so you can access it from there as well.

Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, Fall VON, Jeff Pulver

Red Sox Fade to Third - Down and Out

The Red Sox season has been over for a while, and I'm not going to get into that now. Last night they played the finale of a 4 game set here in Toronto, and it was the Jays's last home game of the season. The Sox played like they cared in the first two games, but went out meekly and quietly in the last two. Taking 3 of 4, the Jays slipped past the Sox, moving 1/2 a game ahead into second place. Oy.

Sorry folks, but I can't remember the last time the Sox were in 3rd place this late in the year, and the same for the Jays being in 2nd place. Well, being a Sox fan living in Toronto, it was a strange game last night. I was in the cheap seats courtesy of a baseball buddy who talked me into coming out to the game. I expected the Sox to be flat, boy, did they deliver.

So, that's all I'm gonna say - I'm sad to say I was witness to this trading of places in the standings. It may not last, but for a least a day, the Jays can be pretty happy about where they are. Actually, they've had a great season considering their injuries, and they will definitely be a factor next year and beyond.

For what it's worth, the combined payrolls of the Jays and Sox are a touch less than the Yankees. I think if you took the best 10 guys from each team and put them together, the Red Jays could give the Yanks a good run for the money. But that's not gonna happen, and boy, do the Sox have some work to do in the off season.

Here's the view from 500 level seats in the Rogers Center courtesy of my Nokia N90 - I can't imagine being this far away from the action in any ball park, and I've been to quite a few.








Technorati tags: Boston Red Sox, Jon Arnold