Jon Arnold's Blog

December 08, 2008

Podcast - Socialcast - Social Media in the Enterprise

I'm an occasional contributor to Business Trends Quarterly, and they recently invited me to do a podcast on social media in the enterprise. My guest was Tim Young, the Founder and CEO of Socialcast, an interesting company in this emerging space.

We had a pretty long chat, and covered things like what Enterprise 2.0 is starting to look like, and the role that tools like social media are playing. Tim is somewhat of a pioneer in the space and talks about what companies like Socialcast are doing to help enterprises harness the potential of social media and actually get their money's worth along the way.

The podcast is quite long - about 42 minutes - so you might want to download it to your iPod and listen to it on the go. I've got two ways for you to access the file. One way is to pick up the link from my website. Just look for the Socialcast podcast on the Media Citings section of the site.

Another way is to download it directly from the BTQ website, but you have to register first to get it. If you like podcasts from a wide range of thought leaders, it's worthwhile since there's so much good content there. To find my podcast, you need to go the Web Events section of the BTQ site, then scroll down - quite a ways down actually - to Web 2.0 podcasts. It's the last topic listed there, and once you're at Web 2.0, it won't be hard to find the link, along with my photo.

Either way, I hope you give it a listen, and would love to hear your feedback.

Technorati tags: Business Trends Quarterly, Jon Arnold, Socialcast, social media, Enterprise 2.0

Posted by jonarnold at 05:32 PM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2008

Unified Communications - is it Happening? Sheryl and Ken Have the Answer Tonight

This is one of those one-thing-leads-to-another posts.

I'll start at the beginning, then work up the action item, and why you should tune in to Sheryl and Ken's Stardust Radio program - tonight at 9pm EST - to dispel the "myths" of Unified Communications.

Here we go...

On July 9, fellow industry watcher Carl Weinschenk had a thought-provoking post on his IT-Finance Connection portal about "the case against VoIP". That should get your attention, right?

Carl made some good points, but it wasn't totally convincing in my books. I followed up with a post to add my take - a bit more pro-VoIP - as well as to draw some additional attention to his post.

I also couched the topic in the broader context of Unified Communications, which in my mind is a bigger story. That, in turn, caught Ken Camp's attention. On Thursday, he had a lengthy, informative post on his blog about the whole UC topic, including a reference to my post. So, now Ken and Carl have two degrees of separation via the blogosphere.

Included in Ken's post is an invite to join him and his partner Sheryl on their radio program tonight at 9pm EST. I have a dinner tonight and may not be back in time, but I urge you to listen in, as I'm sure they'll have some very engaging dialog about UC. And if you can't, there will be a replay available, and no doubt Ken will be sharing that on his blog soon enough.

CODA - if you're interested in more of the dialog around this, Mitel's Simon Gwatkin left a notable comment on my blog post Thursday. Basically he says that lots of SMBs are showing serious interest in UC, but there's also a very real "wait and see" attitude out there for UC to become more proven.

Technorati tags: Ken Camp, Jon Arnold, Unified Communications, VoIP

Posted by jonarnold at 10:23 AM | Comments (0)

June 27, 2008

Jazinga Squawk Box Podcast

The other day, I posted about the Squawk Box I was hosting this week in Alec's absence.

My guest was Shidan Gouran, CTO and co-founder of Toronto-based Jazinga. They're a promising startup with an easy-to-use, premises based SMB IP telephony solution. For small businesses looking for PBX-caliber telephony, and an alternative to a hosted offering, Jazinga is what they should be looking at.

We had a strong turnout for yesterday's segment - 22 participants - and lots of good questions and discussion about Jazinga and what they're bringing to market.

Iotum has been running these segments for some time as a Facebook application, and along the way, they've learned enough about doing these to develop their own branded conferencing solution. It's called Calliflower, and was just launched with great fanfare on Tuesday. Our Squawk Box segment yesterday was the second one done using Calliflower, and we had a few glitches, but everything worked out fine in the end. One of these prevented me - as the moderator - from being able to record the session. Carl Ford, who was on the call, came to the rescue and recorded things from his end - so a big thank you to Mr. Ford for saving the day.

So, with a bit of editing, our concall is now ready for listening. Alec got it posted to his blog late last night, and you can get the link here. It runs about 40 minutes, and even if you're just mildly interested in SMB VoIP, it's time well spent.

Technorati tags: Jazinga, Jon Arnold, Iotum, Alec Saunders, Calliflower, SMB VoIP

Posted by jonarnold at 08:36 AM | Comments (0)

June 25, 2008

Iotum 2.0/Jazinga Squawk Box Update

In yesterday's post, I talked about Thursday's Squawk Box segment that I'm hosting about Jazinga. I also hinted at some changes coming with Iotum, at it's pretty neat.

So, Iotum's new conferencing application is called Calliflower. Love the name. It's really a 2.0 approach to conferencing, and if this is something you do a lot, am sure you'll like it right away. I've just been too busy to get caught up in all the launch buzz, so I'll steer you two items that will fill in the blanks nicely. First, is a writeup by colleague Jim Courtney on Skype Journal. His post yesterday provides a nice summary of what it's all about. Second is yesterday's Squawk Box segment about Calliflower. In this case, Alec and Howard were the guests, being interviewed about Calliflower and how it came into being.

I mentioned Bill Shatner yesterday for good reason. Well, he's going to be the first guest on their public showcase of Calliflower. It takes place this Thursday evening, and you can sign up to participate here. Upcoming speakers include Alan Alda and Peter Senge, so these won't be your average everyday conference calls!

Finally, regarding tomorrow's Squawk Box with Jazinga, you can sign up for Calliflower and register for the call here. We'll be on at 11am EST tomorrow - hope you can make it.

Technorati tags: Jazinga, Jon Arnold, Iotum, Alec Saunders, Calliflower

Posted by jonarnold at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

May 14, 2008

Podcast on IP Telephony with Carl Weinschenk

Colleague Carl Weinschenk launched his portal, IT-Finance Connection about a month ago, and it's a great resource for anyone wanting to better understand the dynamics between the CIO/CTO and CFO/COO worlds.

Increasingly, they need to work together, and Carl has picked an important area to focus on here. Carl is basically the Publisher, and in addition to his blog posts and podcasts, there's a newsletter you can sign up for. Better yet, if you're an advertiser wanting to address this space, I'm sure Carl would love to hear from you!

Earlier this week, I was Carl's first podcast guest, and we talked about issues around how IT departments need to position VoIP and IP telephony to their finance people. My key message was that these technologies need to viewed beyond just saving money on phone calls, and that the ROI model is different from the capital intensive PBX model they've been using for so long. And of course there are the productivity benefits that begin with VoIP as a building block. Finally, on a practical level, IT needs to explain that if it's done right, VoIP should be pretty seamless to adopt, and end user behaviors won't need to change for their everyday communications.

The podcast was posted last night, and I hope you give it a listen. Carl conducts a nice interview, and I love the intro music. If you like what you hear, please leave a comment on the portal - I know Carl will appreciate it.

Technorati tags: IT Finance Connection, Jon Arnold, Carl Weinschenk

Posted by jonarnold at 09:00 PM | Comments (0)

March 26, 2008

Squawk Box - Telecom Conference Roundup/IP Comm Insights Launch

Marc Robins and I were guests on today's Squawk Box call, hosted by Alec Saunders. This was my first time on as a guest, and it sure was fun. The turnout was great, and the discussion lively - and quite earnest, especially regarding the state of the VON conference.

We went on almost an hour, first talking about our new venture, IP Communications Insights, and then about the recent conferences we've been attending - eComm, VON and Voicecon.

Many in the audience had been to these events as well, so if you want a good roundup of how a mini-sample of the market is feeling about them, the podcast is time well spent. Alec has posted the link to his blog, and I sure hope you give it a listen.

CODA: given the circles many of the people on today's call travel in, today's conference roundup was eerily timely given what a number of well-informed sources tell me is unfolding as I write with one of them --- and by the time you read this post, this won't seem so cryptic.

Technorati tags: Alec Saunders, Jon Arnold, Marc Robins, Squawk Box

Posted by jonarnold at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)

March 25, 2008

Interviewing on Squawk Box - Listen Up!

Just a short note, and I probably should have done this earlier in the day.

I'll be a guest on tomorrow's Squawk Box, which is hosted daily by Alec Saunders. We're on at 11am EST, and we'll be covering two things....

1. Colleague/partner Marc Robins and I will be doing a roundup review of the conferences we've attended over the last 2 weeks - eComm2008, Spring VON.x and Voicecon. Alec, of course will have his take, so it should be a lively discussion.

2. Marc and I will talk about the recent launch of IP Communications Insights, which is our long-gestating consulting venture. We're focused on creating a stronger voice for the independent analyst perspective, and if you join us on the call, we'll tell you why we think this is needed in the marketplace.

Alec's got a great thing going with these podcasts, and of course is a great way to showcase Iotum's free conference calling application for Facebook. Hope you can make the call, and if not, I'll post about it once the archived link is ready.

Technorati tags: Alec Saunders, Jon Arnold, Marc Robins, Squawk Box

Posted by jonarnold at 11:25 AM | Comments (0)

March 18, 2008

Russell Shaw - Podcast Tribute

Alec Saunders hosted a thoughtful, heartfelt Squawk Box segment yesterday dedicated to Russell Shaw. I had PC problems that prevented me from joining the call, but he got a really nice turnout.

The podcast runs about 30 minutes, and has several remembrances from Alec, Jim Courtney, Andy Abramson, Jeff Pulver and others. If you ever met Russell or just read any of his well-regarded blogs and journals, you'll come away from this with a warm feeling and sense of community that runs deeper than our everyday interactions. You can download the podcast from Alec's blog, and my thoughts were posted yesterday.

Technorati tags: Russell Shaw, Jon Arnold, Alec Saunders

Posted by jonarnold at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)

September 28, 2007

Podcast with Jim Burton - Zeacom and Unified Communications

The TMC ITExpo took place earlier this month, and while the show is no longer newsworthy, I did a podcast there that has just been published.

Colleague Jim Burton runs the UC Strategies portal, to which I regularly contribute and often cite. During the ITExpo, Jim and I sat down to do a podcast, and we ended up talking about the overall state of unified communications, with a particular focus on an exhibitor that caught our eye - Zeacom. They've been making some noise about having had a UC solution for years, and based on the demos we saw, they do have a pretty interesting offering.

The podcast was posted to the UC Strategies portal earlier this week, and if these topics appeal to you, I think you'll find our chat worth a listen. Having been in Ottawa most of the week, this has been my first chance to post it, but I don't think you're missing anything picking it up now.

Technorati tags: Jim Burton, Jon Arnold, UC Strategies, Zeacom

Posted by jonarnold at 08:48 PM | Comments (0)

September 06, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Brief Hiatus

I've been doing my weekly podcasts on the Canadian market for almost 2 years, and there's no shortage of interesting people to talk to.

No podcast this week, though, nor next week, as I'll be at the TMC ITExpo.

Am also on a mini-hiatus with these, as there are some internal admin issues being sorted out right now at Pulvermedia, so I don't have a production partner for the time being. This should be taken care of shortly, though, and hopefully I'll be able to resume my pods there in a week or so. Until then, you'll have to make do with my written posts, but if the spoken word is what you really want, then click on the Odiogo widget on my blog page!

Technorati tags: podcasts, Jon Arnold, Canada

Posted by jonarnold at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)

August 31, 2007

VoiceCon - Podcasts with Key Speakers

I didn't attend VoiceCon last week, but I heard a lot of good things about it. As you may know, I contribute when I can to the UCS portal - Unified Communications Strategies, which is a great resource for anyone following UC.

They were definitely busy at VoiceCon, especially Blair Pleasant and Jim Burton. Jim was telling me they had put together a number of podcasts done with key speakers, and they're now posted on the portal. Lots of good content there about trends in UC, including podcasts with Microsoft, Avaya, Intervoice, IBM and others.

I especially liked the IBM podcast with Mike Rhodin. In addition to elaborating on IBM's plans to build on their Lotus Sametime installed base for UC, Mike talks about why they just acquired WebDialogs. It's always great to see small companies with great technology being acquired by the likes of IBM, and it's a nice payoff for Lou Guercia who has taken WebDialogs to the promised land - hopefully. I've gotten to know Lou a bit through Andy Abramson, who does their PR, and WebDialogs is actually the second client on his roster to become acquired recently (the other is GrandCentral). Good news all around, and I'm hoping we'll all see other at the TMC Expo in two weeks time.

Technorati tags: Voicecon, Jon Arnold, Unified Communications Strategies

Posted by jonarnold at 11:43 AM | Comments (1)

August 28, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Elliot Katz - Microsoft Vista

This week, my guest was Elliot Katz from Microsoft Canada. Elliot is the Senior Product Manager, Windows Client, and I invited him to come speak about Vista and Office 2007. With Microsoft being so ubiquitous, I don't mind devoting a podcast to a company's product offering, since almost everyone uses it.

Elliot provided a rich perspective on the "four pillars" behind Vista, and we focused mainly on two - security and mobility. There certainly was a lot to talk about, and being a user of both products, I found this particularly interesting. Definitely a lot of security challenges when you're such a big, tempting target for all the bad guys out there, and Elliot also talked about some of the Vista features that protect corporate data on notebooks that get lost or stolen.

We also touched briefly on the Canadian experience in adopting Vista, which not surprisingly lags the U.S. Elliot also talked about the roles and contributions Microsoft Canada provides in developing Vista.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Elliot.

Technorati tags: Elliot Katz, Jon Arnold, Microsoft Canada, Windows Vista

Posted by jonarnold at 08:34 PM | Comments (0)

August 21, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Mark Farmer and Mobile Email for the Masses

For some reason, I seem to do podcasts with a lot of wireless companies, many of which are in Toronto, which otherwise is not really a VoIP hotbed. Tons of new media and video for sure, but it's a little lonely here otherwise. So, I always enjoy doing podcasts with someone in my own area code.

This week's guest was Mark Farmer, making his second appearance with me. He was previously with another wireless company, and has stayed in that space, but with a different focus. Recently, he went over to OceanLake Commerce, who has just launched meemo, a new offering of mobile email service to consumers using their existing handsets. It's not exactly the BlackBerry experience, but it's a very economical alternative that makes mobile email much more accessible without changing your handset or provider.

Mark and I talked about the broader market opportunity for consumer-based mobile email, which is still pretty much untapped. Solutions like meemo open up some interesting new markets and we explored what the end user experience is like as well as some possible business models that may emerge.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Mark.

Technorati tags: Mark Farmer, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Meemo

Posted by jonarnold at 08:21 PM | Comments (1)

August 14, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Mike Fox and High Tech Recruiting

On this week's podcast, I spoke with Mike Fox, who runs a local recruiting firm here in Toronto, Brightlights Inc. I really try to mix things up on my podcasts, and I think recruiters are a pretty important part of the tech sector ecosystem. After all, we can't all be startups and indies, and when you least expect it, a call from a recruiter can be the best thing that's ever happened for your career.

Mike knows the local tech recruiting market pretty well, and he shared some pretty interesting insights on what companies are looking for, and the realities faced by startups in landing senior level people. He also had some good words of advice for people starting out and looking at tech as a career option.

I should also add that Mike's a pretty good marketer, and I recommend his monthly e-newsletter, especially if you want to stay current on the Toronto scene.

You can listen to the podcast here, as well as read more about Mike and his company.

Technorati tags: Mike Fox, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Brightlights, tech recruiting

Posted by jonarnold at 08:43 AM | Comments (0)

August 08, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Dave Dobbin and Toronto Hydro Telecom

On this week's podcast, I spoke with Dave Dobbin, President of Toronto Hydro Telecom. I've been wanting to do this for a while, as THT has a pretty interesting WiFi offering in Toronto's downtown core. Downtown Toronto has plenty of broadband as it is, but not so much on the WiFi front, and Dave provided some very interesting perspectives on how this is going for them. He shared some of the realities of providing service as well as the usage patterns of the service among different types of subscribers. Dave also made a point of mentioning that THT provides some of the fastest bi-directional WiFi broadband speeds in North America.

More broadly, Dave provided an overview of the events that led up to THT coming into existence, and the rationale behind Toronto Hydro's fiber optic buildout that runs over their power line infrastructure. We also made the distinction between their fiber based capabilities for voice and data service, and broadband over powerline, which instead relies on the power grid for transmission. Dave explained that regulatory issues, more than anything keep them out of the BPL market, and for now, WiFi is their technology of choice for offering broadband services.

You can download the podcast here as well as read more about Dave.

Technorati tags: Toronto Hydro Telecom, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Dave Dobbin, municipal WiFi

Posted by jonarnold at 09:19 AM | Comments (0)

July 25, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Espial and the IPTV Middleware Market

My guest this week was Brian Mahony, VP of Marketing at Ottawa-based Espial Group. Espial is one of the leading indie IPTV middleware vendors, and are very much connnected to the market and technology issues around IPTV. Brian provided a great perspective on the IPTV market and some of the better-known deployments.

Espial also just had a successful IPO, and Brian touched on some of the realities of being a public company, as well as what makes Ottawa such a viable market for tech startups.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Brian.

NOTE - no podcast next week - family vacation...

Technorati tags: Espial, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, IPTV

Posted by jonarnold at 04:18 PM | Comments (2)

July 18, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Iain Klugman - Waterloo Tech Community

On this week's podcast, I spoke with Iain Klugman, CEO of Communitech. This is an interesting entity that serves as a hub for supporting Waterloo-based tech startups. Iain has a deep perspective about what makes Waterloo such a great spot for tech companies, and explained more about the role Communitech plays, as well as how it compares to similar initiatives in other tech centers in Canada and the U.S.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Iain.

Technorati tags: Communitech, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Iain Klugman, Waterloo technology

Posted by jonarnold at 02:05 PM | Comments (0)

July 16, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Rod Piukkala and Emergency Communications

This week's podcast focused on emergency communications and the role that Web-based solutions can play for first line responders. My guest was Rod Piukkala, Director for Telus Business Solutions, Ontario Public Sector.

Rod has an extensive history in public service, and knows what emergency communications are all about, both from the front lines as well as what carriers like Telus are offering to the market. We talked about the various challenges around emergency communications, and he provided a good example of this in the health care sector.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Rod.

If you're interested in learning more about emergency communications, Rod let me know that Telus has a white paper on this. It's quite good, and if you've like to get a copy, please drop me a line.

Technorati tags: Telus Business Solutions, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, emergency communications

Posted by jonarnold at 08:55 AM | Comments (0)

July 10, 2007

Telepresence Podcast with Teliris and BT Quarterly

I recently posted about a podcast I did with Teliris on telepresence for Business Trends Quarterly. I've become a contributor to this publication, and I urge you to subscribe if you're interested in reading what analysts are thinking about various technology trends.

In my previous post about this, I cited the transcription of my written Q&A with Mark Trachtenberg, the CEO of Teliris, which ran in their Q2 issue. We also did a feature-length podcast, which has been produced and is posted now on the BTQ website. You need to be a member to download this, but that just takes a minute, and it's free. You can find the link on this page, and from there, it won't take long to access it. If you're following telepresence, I think you'll find Mark's perspective very interesting. I hope you give it a listen, and I'd love to know what you think.

Technorati tags: Teliris, Jon Arnold, Business Trends Quarterly, Telepresence, J Arnold & Associates

Posted by jonarnold at 10:50 PM | Comments (0)

July 05, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Rob Moffat and Mobile Business Continuity

On this week's podcast, my guest was Rob Moffat. Rob is the President and co-founder of Toronto-based Wallace Wireless. His company focuses on mobile applications to support business continuity, a space that's starting to get more attention.

Rob talked further about what's behind this trend and why it's important to provide a mobile solution. We also talked about how being in Toronto has been a real plus for their largest customer, RIM, as well as some of the factors that make Canada a good market to support companies focused on the wireless space.

You can download the podcast and read more about Rob here.

Technorati tags: Wallace Wireless, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, business continuity

Posted by jonarnold at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)

July 02, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Don Albert - Skype - Canada Update

With a handful of exceptions, I've been maintaining a weekly podcast schedule for almost two years. Last week I was away at Mitel's conference, and being Canada Day weekend, one thing has led to another, and I'm simply way behind on blog posts. I even planned ahead and did last week's podcast before leaving, but have not been able to post it until now. Best of intentions....

So, without further ado - I spoke with Don Albert about Skype and the state of the nation here in Canada. During a recent press tour, Don was in Toronto, and I had a thorough update with him at eBay Canada's office, which is close by to me. I decided it would be a good idea to follow this up with a podcast and share a more detailed discussion about how Skype is doing in Canada, and that's just what we did a week or so ago.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Don.

Technorati tags: Skype, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Don Albert

Posted by jonarnold at 03:54 PM | Comments (0)

June 22, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - New Media, with MyThum Interactive and Deloitte

On this week's podcast, the focus was Canada's New Media community. I've never had 3 guests on together before, but somehow, we made it work. This podcast was a follow up to my coverage of the Canadian New Media Awards held last month in Toronto, and I wanted to do something with the Company of the Year winner. So, one of my guests was Michael Carter, President and CEO of MyThum Interactive, and we talked about what winning this award has meant for the company.

Joining us was Gary Gluckman and Richard Lee, both from the Toronto office of Deloitte, where they are key leaders of their Technology, Media and Telecommunications practice. Deloitte has been on previous podcasts of mine, talking about their Fast 50 and Fast 500 programs, but this was the first time we talked about their involvement in the new media space. Deloitte is a major sponsor of the CNMA, and Gary and Richard shared their views on the new media space in Canada, along with the winning qualities they saw in MyThum.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Gary, Richard and Michael.

Technorati tags: MyThum Interactive, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Deloitte,
Canadian New Media Awards

Posted by jonarnold at 09:44 AM | Comments (0)

June 15, 2007

Waterloo Mini Tour - 3 Podcasts

Last week I had a mini-tour of the Waterloo region as a means of getting closer to their tech community. I posted a brief entry about my visit a few days back, and I'm following that with some podcasts that were created from interviews I conducted during my visit.

I've got 3 podcasts to share with you here:

Podcast #1 is with John Tennant, CEO of Canada's Technology Triangle Inc. You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about John, CTT, and what we talked about.

Podcast #2 is with Linda Fegan and Mark Whaley. Linda is the Director of Marketing and Communications for CTT, and Mark is a Councillor for the City of Waterloo. You can download this podcast here, as well as read more about Linda and Mark, and what we talked about. Apologies - the photo shown with the podcast does not include Linda - it's John Tennant, myself and Mark Whaley. Somehow I missed getting a photo of Linda during my trip, which I intend to fix on my next visit, hopefully in July.

Podcast #3 is with Dave Bullock, President of LiveHive Systems. This is a very cool company that's doing great stuff in the area of interactive entertainment. You can download this podcast here, as well as read more about Dave, and what we talked about.

Finally, here are a few more photos from my visit courtesy of my Nokia N93. The first two podcasts were done in the Seagram Museum, which was an old whisky barrelhouse, but has been beautifully restored, and is home to Canada's Technology Triangle Inc., among others. It's got a great heritage feel, and made for some neat photos.

The House of Seagram - nice historical touch here...

I don't know about you, but it's hard for a guy like me not to think about all these barrels as large packets rolling along in a network...

My visit to LiveHive, home of NanoGaming....

A photo taken during a presentation that Dave gave about NanoGaming during a College baseball game. It's not that illustrative, and you should go to their site to see it for real - they have a demo there.

Technorati tags: Waterloo, Jon Arnold, Canada's Technology Triangle

Posted by jonarnold at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

June 12, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Mike Barry - Vecima Networks and WiMax

On this week's podcast, I spoke with Mike Barry about the current state of WiMax, and what his company is doing to move it forward. Mike is the CFO of Saskatchewan-based Vecima Networks, one of the few publicly-traded Canadian IP communications vendors. It was nice to talk about a TSX-listed company now, given how Espial just went public there last week. I'm working on them for an upcoming podcast, so stay tuned.

Mike and I talked about where fixed WiMax is today, including issues around standards, in-building coverage, what's driving adoption and what types of operators are embracing it. Mike also commented about emerging trends and applications, especially around video. He also touched on elements that make Saskatchewan a good place for their company to be based.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Mike Barry.

Technorati tags: Vecima Networks, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, WiMax

Posted by jonarnold at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)

June 06, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Chris Lyman - Fonality and Open Source Telephony

On this week's Canadian IP Thought Leaders podcast, I spoke with Chris Lyman, CEO of Fonality. The topic was open source telephony, a space that Fonality has become a leading player in. We talked about the state of open source telephony, and how using Asterisk, Fonality has been driving adoption not just in the business market, but in the home as well.

Looking ahead, Chris also talked about how new features will be the key to growth, and how over time, open source will become increasingly stable, which itself will set the stage for broader adoption. On the Canadian front, Fonality has a local footprint, and Chris talked about the market opportunity he sees there, as well as how Canada differs from the U.S.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Chris.

Technorati tags: Fonality, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Chris Lyman

Posted by jonarnold at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)

June 01, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Jim Glover and BDC Venture Capital

On this week's podcast, my guest was Jim Glover. He's the Investment Director for BDC Venture Capital, the venture arm of the Business Development Bank of Canada. Their focus is to support the small business sector, and venture capital is one way of doing this.

Jim and I spoke about the state of the market for venture funding among Canadian telecom and tech companies. He addressed the challenges facing VCs in finding good opportunities, and the types of companies and technologies that are getting funding now. Jim also shared his thoughts on what he looks for in companies seeking funding.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Jim Glover.

Technorati tags: BDC Venture Capital, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts

Posted by jonarnold at 09:09 AM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2007

Telepresence Podcast with Teliris and BT Quarterly

I recently was asked to be a contributor to Business Trends Quarterly, which is a great read on the current thinking from the industry analyst community. For their Q1 issue, I contributed an article, and for the upcoming Q2 issue, we did a feature on telepresence.

This was a two-part feature, consisting of a written Q&A between me and Marc Trachtenberg, CEO and Co-founder of Teliris. It will be published in the Q2 edition, but you can read it here now.

In addition, we did a pretty lengthy podcast about the telepresence market today, and I'll post it once it's ready for release. If you're following the telepresence space, I think you'll find this worth listening to. And until then, I hope you enjoy the written version, and if you like what you see, I'd urge you to subscribe to BTQ.

Technorati tags: Business Trends Quarterly, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, Teliris, Telepresence

Posted by jonarnold at 05:14 PM | Comments (0)

May 23, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Stephane Marceau - Mobivox and Mobile Skype

This week, my guest was Stephane Marceau, who was returning for a second time on my podcast series. Stephane is the CEO of Montreal-based Mobivox - formally known as Voxlib. Mobivox is a pretty interesting company that enables Skype on any mobile phone - so, no downloads are needed. They also have a strong voice recognition component, so you can use Mobivox hands-free to see who's available on Skype, and then to initiate a call to any endpoint that's in your Skype directory.

That's enough about Mobivox. Aside from this, Stephane and I talked about the bigger picture market around mobile VoIP, and why Skype is such an attractive audience for applications such theirs. Stephane talked further about how mobile phones are the preferred mode now for how many people communicate, and all the ways that VoIP and presence can make for a better user experience. In particular, he cited the convenience of continuing a mobile conversation on a landline connection without having to drop the call and dial back in. Another example was initiating a group call with multiple parties while on a mobile call - something you can't do with regular wireless service.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Stephane.

Technorati tags: Mobivox, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Stephane Marceau, mobile Skype

Posted by jonarnold at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)

May 17, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Stefan Dubowski on Open Source and Web 2.0

My guest this week was Stefan Dubowski, returning for his second podcast with me. Stefan is the Editor of Telemanagement Magazine, one of Canada's leading telecom pubs.

We both attended the IT360 conference here in Toronto recently, and shared our thoughts on the event, including Don Tapscott's keynote. From there, we talked about Open Source and Web 2.0, both of which were prominent at the conference. Stefan has been covering telecom for quite some time, and he shared his views on why large enterprises aren't quite ready yet for Open Source.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Stefan.

Technorati tags: IT360 Conference, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Stefan Dubowski, Telemanagement, Open Source

Posted by jonarnold at 04:42 PM | Comments (0)

May 10, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Oz Communications and Mobile Messaging

My guest this week was Hilmar Gunnarsson, the EVP of Sales and Marketing for Oz Communications. Oz is a Montreal-based company doing a lot of good things in the mobile messaging space, and I've been wanting to do a podcast with them for some time. They got some healthy funding a few months back, and continue to announce deals with major wireless carriers. Late last month, they made an interesting acquisition of Thumbspeed, which helps push them beyond SMS and into the realm of mobile social networking.

Hilmar provided some background on the popularity of mobile messaging in Europe, and some thoughts as to why it's been slower to gain acceptance here in North America. From there, we discussed the value proposition around mobile messaging for both subscribers and carriers, and then broadened the discussion to how mobile messaging is evolving towards being a social networking platform. Oz is certainly a company to watch in this space, so if you're following mobile messaging, I think you'll enjoy our conversation.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Hilmar.

Technorati tags: Oz Communications, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, mobile messaging

Posted by jonarnold at 01:49 AM | Comments (0)

May 04, 2007

Good Week for Sangoma and Open Source

I've been a fan of Sangoma for a while, and so is fellow blogger/industry watcher Ken Camp. Earlier this week I did a podcast with their CEO, David Mandelstam - our second one - and just today, Ken has posted up his podcast with David.

So, if you can't get enough of Sangoma from me, tune in to Ken's interview.

Stepping back, I should also say it's been a good week for Open Source, at least in my circles. I presented at the IT360 conference on Tuesday, and as you can see from my post, there was a lot of Open Source there, including a roadmap update from Sangoma's chief competitor, Digium.

Technorati tags: Sangoma, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Ken Camp

Posted by jonarnold at 02:34 PM | Comments (1)

May 01, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - David Mandelstam and Open Source Telephony

On this week's podcast, my guest was David Mandelstam. He's the President/CEO of Sangoma Technologies, one of the leading hardware vendors supporting Open Source telephony. Sangoma is based in Toronto, and I did a podcast with David a little over a year ago, and it was time to re-visit things.

Open Source telephony continues to gain momentum, and David provided a good update on what's moving things forward. Of particular interest was Sangoma's recent news to partner with Montreal-based Octasic for their echo cancellation software. Octasic was also a podcast guest here last year, and they have a good story of their own that I plan to re-visit soon. Echo cancellation is a key feature for anyone providing business class VoIP, and David talked about what this means in terms of how Open Source telephony is evolving.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about David.

Technorati tags: Sangoma, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Open Source Telephony

Posted by jonarnold at 09:52 PM | Comments (0)

April 26, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Mario Belanger - Avaya Canada and IP Telephony

On this week's podcast, my guest was Mario Belanger, President of Avaya Canada. I try to have a mix of large and small companies on my podcasts, and it was nice to hear how an incumbent vendor sees the market. Mario and I spoke about the state of IP telephony from Avaya's position, and the issues around getting enterprises to see the vision and value of IP as business transformation tool.

That's an ambitious agenda, but it's certainly one Avaya is banking on - as are other vendors. It's not easy migrating from PBX to IP PBX to business transformation - for both the vendors and the customers, but that's where IP is heading. There's a good story here, and I urge you to hear it for yourself.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Mario. Enjoy.

Technorati tags: Avaya Canada, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, IP Telephony

Posted by jonarnold at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)

April 17, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Craig Betts and Intelligent Content Routing

On this week's podcast, my guest was Craig Betts. He's the Founder/CEO/President of Solace Systems, which is based in Ottawa, one of Canada's major tech hubs. Actually, they're based in Kanata, but for most people, Ottawa will suffice.

Craig's company focuses on intelligent content routing, which is something I haven't had much exposure to, so this was a good learning experience. Basically, Craig explained how solutions like his help service providers and enterprises better manage the flow of content over IP networks. This means a lot of things, such as speed, scale, reliability, security, and intelligent routing. Better for Craig to explain this, which he does quite well during the podcast. We also touched on where he sees the market going, especially in terms of shifting from real-time data to multimedia, which is far more complex.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Craig and Solace Systems.

Technorati tags: Craig Betts, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Solace Systems

Posted by jonarnold at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Kate Morgan - Business Uses for Podcasts

For my current podcast, we talked about... podcasting. Never done one like this before, but why not. My guest was Kate Morgan. She's a Toronto-based entrepreneur, and her company, Podwise Social Media, is all about helping companies use new media tools like podcasts and blogs to build their businesses.

Kate and I talked about various facets of blogging - what works, what doesn't work, how best to use them, etc. She also provided good examples of how she's using them with her clients, especially in helping personalize their business for their customers. If you want to learn more about this and how Kate is building a business around this, you'll find this podcast of interest.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Kate.

Technorati tags: Kate Morgan, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, social media

Posted by jonarnold at 03:29 PM | Comments (0)

April 10, 2007

Unified Communications Podcast - MetaSwitch

I've had a number of posts recently regarding the Unified Communications Strategies portal, and some of the content I've contributed there. Most recently was a podcast done by Blair Pleasant, interviewing me about Unified Communications.

Since then, I did a podcast of my own with Andy Randall of MetaSwitch, where we talked about their UC9000 conference server, and how applications related to UC figure into their product mix. Pretty interesting stuff, and it was just posted to the UCS portal the other day. I'm still in catch-up from last week's Cisco event, so I'm just getting around to posting about it now. Hope you like it.

Technorati tags: MetaSwitch, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Unified Communications Strategies

Posted by jonarnold at 07:00 PM | Comments (0)

April 02, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Steve Mast and New Media Marketing

For my latest podcast, I spoke with Steve Mast of Delvinia Interactive. He's their VP and Managing Director, and Delvinia is one of Canada's leading digital marketing shops. They have a lot of experience with new media, and we spoke about how they're using it across a variety of client situations.

We focused in particular on a contest run by the Royal Bank, which is Canada's #1 bank, and if they're ready to embrace new media, you know it's arrived. Delvinia created a program for them called The Next Great Innovator Challenge, where college/university students submit ideas for getting the youth market more in touch with financial services. It's largely a web-based contest, which included a blog that served as a useful resource for the contestants. Steve spoke about how the program was put together and how it's delivering value for their client.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Steve.

Technorati tags: Delvinia Interactive, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Steve Mast

Posted by jonarnold at 08:39 AM | Comments (0)

March 28, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - David Cork and Hosted IP for SMBs

My guest on this week's podcast was David Cork, someone I've known for quite some time. David is the CEO and co-founder of Natural Convergence. They're based in Ottawa, and are part of the Terry Matthews fold, whose IP communications success stories include Mitel, Convedia and Ubiquity.

Natural Convergence focuses on hosted IP telephony for the small end of the SMB market, and David shared his views on the market opportunity here. I have done other podcasts on this space recently, but none of these have addressed this partcular segment with a hosted offering. David talked about the challenges facing these businesses, not just in terms putting IP technology to work for them, but also in terms of finding the right partners to provide VoIP.

The Canadian market is particularly skewed towards small businesses - typical under 40 lines and using a key system, so David's insights were close to home. To address this market, he spoke about his company's role in the recently announced service that Rogers will be offering here in Canada to SMBs. MSOs like Rogers are ideal partners for Natural Convergence, and if things go well there, you can expect to see other hosted SMB offerings from MSOs elsewhere.

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

Technorati tags: Natural Convergence, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, hosted VoiP

Posted by jonarnold at 04:01 PM | Comments (1)

March 27, 2007

Unified Communications Podcast

This is one of those better-late-than-never posts, but it's not really time sensitive. So if you're interested in unified communications, it's still relevant.

Back in December, during Cisco's analyst conference, I sat down to do a podcast on Unified Communications with colleague Blair Pleasant, who runs her own consultancy, CommFusion.

Some things take time to come to market, and this podcast is one of them! It was just posted the other day on the Unified Communications Strategies portal, where I'm becoming a bit of a regular contributor. You can access the podcast here, and if you're not registered, it's free and just takes a minute to do. Hope you like it!

Technorati tags: podcast, Jon Arnold, Blair Pleasant, unified communications

Posted by jonarnold at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

March 15, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Yves Laliberte/Aastra Telecom and IP Telephony

On this week's podcast, I've gone back to the IP telephony market, and featured a company I've long been a fan of - Toronto-based Aastra Telecom.

Not only are they Canadian - and based in Toronto, where it gets pretty lonely for VoIP or IP vendors - but they're public, and they have a strong international presence. I can count on one hand how many companies there are like this in Canada, and I'm not even thinking about Nortel. Aastra actually took some good Nortel business off their hands a while back, and are doing very nicely with it.

Anyhow, these podcasts are about markets and technologies - not the vendors - so that's enough about Aastra from me. My guest was Yves Laliberte, their EVP, and he knows this space quite well. We've been trying to get a podcast done for a while, and the timing is good. Aastra just launched a line of SIP phones, and to step back, there are other vendors with SIP phones in the market, so this isn't just an Aastra story. However, it was a good time to hear from Yves what SIP phones bring to the market, and how enterprises are adopting IP telephony.

We also covered the SMB market and how IP telephony fits into their thinking. Yves also provided some interesting perspectives on how OEMs are working with Open Source, and it's surprising to hear just how much it is taking hold among the vendors.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Yves.

NOTE - no podcast next week, as the Pulvermedia crew will be at Spring VON, which unfortunately, I won't be attending. I'll be back the following week, though, with another podcast.

Technorati tags: Aastra Telecom, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, SIP phones

Posted by jonarnold at 09:27 PM | Comments (0)

March 12, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Brian O'Higgins and Network Security

For my latest podcast, the focus was network security. This is a hot area, and has many flavors. In this case, the topic was intrusion detection, and my guest was Brian O’Higgins. He’s the CTO of Ottawa-based Third Brigade, and has a lot of experience in this area. We talked about the network security challenges facing enterprises, and the different ways these threats can impact networks. Brian also spoke to the difficulty of protecting networks today, especially with the numerous way in which the public Internet connects to the enterprise.

On a related note, I also did another podcast recently on this space, but from a different perspective. That was with fellow blogger Dan York, and his affiliation with VOIPSA, the VoIP Security Alliance.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Brian and Third Brigade.

Technorati tags: Third Brigade, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Network Security

Posted by jonarnold at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)

March 01, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Claude Galipeau - BlogTV Canada

For anyone interested in disruptive broadcasting and social media, I think you'll find this week's podcast worth listening to.

I spoke with Claude Galipeau; he's the SVP of Digital Media for Toronto-based Alliance Atlantis Communications. The company is one of Canada's largest and most progressive media players, and is the driving force behind the introduction of BlogTV to Canada. In January 2007, BlogTV.ca was launched, and Canada was the first market that Israel-based BlogTV has expanded into. I posted about the launch, and am in the process of evaluating the service for them. I'm even planning on producing a regular technology review segment with my son Max for one of their channels. Why not?

Claude and I first talked about BlogTV.ca - what it is, what it is not, and why it came to Canada first - and not the U.S. I also am hung up a bit on the idea of calling it TV when it's web-based. My theory is that people will do anything to get on TV - even it's really just the Internet, and nobody may be watching. That's ok - we're all figuring this out, and blog TV is still just a science experiment, even for the likes of Alliance Atlantis. We touched on the idea of BlogTV being a talent feeder for more traditional media, and I couldn't help but reference the SightSpeed Guy story, which Claude hadn't heard about until now.

All told, we covered a lot of ground, including a few thoughts on the business models around BlogTV - but could have gone on a lot longer. Let's save that for another podcast, and by then, we'll probably do this as part of a video segment right on BlogTV.ca. Stay tuned!

I should also mention that since we're talking about TV and video here, Claude has his own live broadcast on BlogTV.ca, and I was able watch him, fishbowl-style, during our podcast. Pretty strange experience, but kind of fun. I've included a couple of photos here, so you can see what I was seeing while were doing the call.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Claude. Hope you enjoy it, and your comments are welcome!

Photos of Claude on BlogTV.ca, courtesy of my Nokia N93....

Technorati tags: Claude Galipeau, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, BlogTV Canada, Alliance Atlantis, Social Media, video blogging

Posted by jonarnold at 09:33 AM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Joe Warnement, Digital Fairway Corp.

On this week's podcast, I spoke with Joe Warnement. He's the CEO of Toronto-based Digital Fairway Corp. This company is new to me, and it's great to find these companies who have a local presence. Digital Fairway is in the OSS space, but my particular interest is their focus on providing solutions to help large enterprises better manage their communications infrastructure and expenses. This is certainly becoming more important as companies struggle with the proliferation of wireless devices, and ways to integrate this with existing wireline communications systems.

It's a big challenge, and it's multi-faceted, and that what Joe spoke to on the podcast. There are many angles to this, and Joe provided an overview of the problems, and the difficulty enterprises have coming to grips with them. A lot of classic network convergence issues here, and Joe has a very good perspective on what it takes to make this work.

I should also add that Digital Fairway is getting some nice market recognition these day. For the past 2 years, I've been posting about the Deloitte Fast 50 and Fast 500, and in 2006, Digital Fairway made on both lists. For the Fast 50, which is Canada-only, they ranked #16. For the broader Fast 500, which includes both the U.S. and Canada, they ranked #95.

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

Technorati tags: Joe Warnement, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Digital Fairway

Posted by jonarnold at 09:40 AM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Don Smith, Mitel and IP Telephony Trends

SMB VoIP has been a hot topic lately, and that's one market - but just one - that Kanata, Ontario-based Mitel is very strong in. I've been wanting to do a podcast with Mitel for some time, and the closest I've come so far is with Mitel's Dan York, but we talked about VoIP security, and not Mitel.

Well today, I've really got Mitel, and my guest this week is their CEO, Don Smith. He's done great work with Mitel, and having been on the leading edge of IP telephony for the business market for ages, I long wanted to get this done.

In particular, I wanted to talk a bit about their news with Rogers and Natural Convergence to offer hosted IP telephony to Canadian SMBs, which is a North American first for a major cableco.

From there, we talked about bigger picture issues, such as what's driving businesses to adopt IP telephony, as well as how things like presence and unified messaging are delivering new types of productivity, especially, as in Don's words, to enhance "in the moment" communications.

To find out what Don means by this, as well as everything else we talked about, you can download the podcast here.

Wearing my Pulvermedia Podcasting Network hat for a moment, I should also add that if you want to hear more from Don, VON Magazine's Bob Emmerson did his own pod with Don last week. It's not posted yet, so please check back at the PPN site shortly.

NOTE - am skipping a week for my pods, as the PPN producer is away next week. I'll be back the following week, and am hoping to have BlogTV Canada as my guest. If you're into social media, you'll want to hear this, as they haven't brought BlogTV to the U.S. yet - only in Canada - you can get a sneak peek about them here.

Technorati tags: Don Smith, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Mitel

Posted by jonarnold at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)

February 02, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Mark Whaley and the City of Waterloo

My podcast this week was with Mark Whaley, who is a Councillor with the City of Waterloo, which is an hour or so west of Toronto. This may seem like an odd choice for a "thought leader", but our paths crossed recently at PTC, and the whole story can be found in my post about that trip.

Basically, Waterloo is a great tech story, and the city was recently recognized by the Intelligent Community Forum as one of the top 7 intelligent communities in the world! For the second year running to boot. Well, that's enough reason for a podcast, and you can listen to the whole story here, as well as read more about Mark, the City of Waterloo, and the ICF.

Technorati tags: Mark Whaley, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, Waterloo

Posted by jonarnold at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2007

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - SMB VoIP With OneConnect

This week's podcast was with Gianni Creta, the CTO of OneConnect. They're Canada's first hosted VoIP provider focused on the SMB market, and are based here in Toronto. I've been following SMB VoIP for some time, and have been looking forward this podcast. Gianni provided his perspective on the SMB market for VoIP in Canada, and we talked about the challenges of providing this service, especially from an operator who does not own the last mile.

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

Technorati tags: Gianni Creta, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, OneConnect

Posted by jonarnold at 05:50 PM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2007

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

Posted by jonarnold at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)

January 04, 2007

Podcast Updates - From Both Sides of the Mike

Just a quick note about 2 posts about podcasts – one about one of my recent pods, and one about a podcast where I was the guest for a change.

First, during Cisco’s C-Scape Analyst Conference, I was interviewed by Blair Pleasant of COMMFusion. She and I are both contributors to Jim Burton’s Unified Communications Strategies portal. The topic was current trends in UC, so if that’s of interest, you might find this a good listen. It runs about 18 minutes, and you can access it from the UCS portal. If you’re not a member, it just takes a minute to register, and it’s free.

Second, just before the Xmas break, my most recent podcast was with fellow blogger Dan York, who is a great go-to guy for VoIP security. Dan was nice enough to do his own posting about it to the VOIPSA blog page, called Voice of VOIPSA. Thanks Dan – what goes around…

Technorati tags: Podcasts, Jon Arnold, Unified Communications, VoIP Security

Posted by jonarnold at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

December 21, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Dan York and VoIP Security

On this week's podcast, I spoke with Mitel's Dan York, who is well known in IP and blogging circles. We didn't talk about Ottawa-based Mitel though - we focused on Dan's other claim to fame - VoIP security. He's been quite active in that area for some time, and talked about the current issues and state of the nation for VoIP security, especially in regard to VOIPSA, the VoIP Security Alliance. Through VOIPSA, Dan gets a good insight into how vendors approach VoIP security and how carriers view it. Sometimes they see eye to eye, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

In addition, Dan is active in this space through the Blue Box initiative, and maintains a couple of blogs not yet mentioned in this post - his new blog focused just on VOIP Disruptive Telephony, and the Voice of VOIPSA blog companion to the VOIPSA website.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read up more on Dan and the various websites and blogs he's connected to.

Dan - have I missed anything? You're a busy guy.

NOTE - this will be my last podcast for 2007. It's been a busy year, and I hope you've enjoyed these weekly posts. There are many more good Canadian stories to tell, and I've got a number of podcasts in the pipeline for next year.

NOTE #2 - I see from my Moveable Type home page that this is my 500th blog posting. For me, that's a big number, and I'll note it with a smile. I'm not an uber blogger, and many bloggers have done thousands of posts, but that's not my thing. I intend to keep up what I've been doing in 2007, and hope to post daily through the week as best I can.

For those of you who follow me regularly, I'll just use this small milestone to say THANK YOU. There are millions of voices out there in the blogosphere, and it's practically impossible to manage tracking it all. So I really appreciate each and every one of you who reads me - it means a lot. I still have very little sense of who's out there, so please feel free to drop me a line and tell me about yourself, and what else you'd like to see from me. Thanks!

Technorati tags: Dan York, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, VoIP Security

Posted by jonarnold at 09:29 AM | Comments (1)

December 12, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - James Wanless and Talkster's Enterprise Mobility Solution

On this week's podcast, I spoke with James Wanless, the President/COO of Toronto-based Talkster. This is a pretty interesting startup that's come up with a very interesting solution for enterprises to better manage both the cost of mobile telephony and the management of all these accounts. Lots of startups are chasing the "cheaper LD calling" market, but that's a commodity game, and doesn't really help the business market.

That's where Talkster is focused, and John gave a good overview of the nature of these problems and how he's trying to address them now. He also provided his perspective on how the Canadian and U.S. wireless markets are different, and why their service makes more sense in Canada.

Turns out our timing was good for this podcast. Today was Talkster's beta launch, so James has been working overtime to get it right, and you can read more about it here. Small world - I just saw James - he and I were on the same flight yesterday to San Francisco, and I'm in San Jose now, waiting for the Cisco analyst conference to start tomorrow. Can you guess what I'll be blogging about next?

Another item of note - fellow blogger Ken Camp included Talkster in his "Magnificent Seven" posting - which has been getting a lot of attention. His post is noted on Talkster's home page, which makes me feel good. This is one company that "gets it" with bloggers.

To download our podcast, click here. At this link you can also read more about James.

Technorati tags: Talkster, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, James Wanless

Posted by jonarnold at 01:57 AM | Comments (0)

December 07, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Michael Weening/Microsoft Canada and Network Mashups

This week's podcast was with Michael Weening of Microsoft Canada. He's the Director of their Communications Sector here in Toronto, but was physically located in Redmond for our call. We were going to talk about the Canadian market and how enterprises here are working with Microsoft's various IP initiatives. However, we got pre-empted a bit by the announcement made during ITU about Microsoft's Connected Services Sandbox.

The timing was good, since the Sandbox idea covers a lot of the ground we were going to talk about. So, that's where we went, and put as much of a Canadian spin on things as we could. Turns out that wasn't hard to do, since Bell Canada is a founding participant, as are two leading Canadian vendors, Nortel and Ubiquity. We both agreed that Canada is very well represented in this initiative.

The podcast and press release both tell the story pretty well about the sandbox concept, but in short, it's very much a Web 2.0 story. Microsoft is creating a digital sandbox, of sorts, to support "managed network mashups" among software applications and platforms to help service providers create new and exciting offerings for subscribers. In this regard, the sandbox is part of their bigger vision termed "Telco 2.0", which is probably going to be another podcast.

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

Technorati tags: Microsoft, Jon Arnold, Connected Services Sandbox, VoIP podcasts, Web 2.0

Posted by jonarnold at 09:25 AM | Comments (0)

November 29, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - TalkSwitch and VoIP for SMBs

On this week's podcast, my guest was John Cunningham. He's the VP of Business Development with TalkSwitch, an Ottawa-based vendor who has been focused on small business telephony since 1990.

I've been trying to stay close to this market, and was looking forward to hearing John's thoughts on the opportunity he sees there and what PBX replacement solutions like his brings to SMBs. We also talked about the challenges of educating the market as well as why adoption of VoIP in the Canadian business market has lagged the U.S.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about John.

Speaking of TalkSwitch, fellow blogger Garrett Smith just posted about them today, commenting about their just-launched IP PBXs. Good timing, Garrett.

Technorati tags: SMB VoIP, Jon Arnold, TalkSwitch, VoIP podcasts, John Cunningham

Posted by jonarnold at 09:03 AM | Comments (2)

November 22, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Cisco and Unis Lumin on Unified Communications

This week's podcast was a bit more ambitious than normal, but I think the results were worth it. For the first time, I had two guests, one based here in Toronto, and the other in the U.S.

My guests on the podcast were Glenn Mowat, the CEO and COO of Unis Lumin, and Richard McLeod, who is Cisco's Director of Unified Communications Solutions for Worldwide Channels.

The podcast was a follow up to a recent posting I did about Cisco's new Master Specialization Channel Partners program. The program is their highest level of certification for channel partners, and this particular edition focuses on Cisco's Unified Communications platform.

On the podcast, Glenn provided the systems integrator perspective as well as some Canadian flavor, and Richard added the Cisco view and where they see the opportunity to help enterprises leverage IP solutions and applications into making their businesses more successful. If you're interested in where unified communications is going, and what this means for the vendor-systems intetgrator relationship, I think you'll find this podcast of great interest.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Glenn and Richard.

Technorati tags: Unis Lumin, Jon Arnold, Cisco, VoIP podcasts, Unified Communications

Posted by jonarnold at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Mark Evans and b5media

This week's podcast featured a familiar face, but wearing a new hat. Mark Evans has done pods with me before, while covering tech for the National Post here in Toronto. He was certainly one of Canada's top tech writers for the big papers, and it won't be easy for the Post to fill his shoes.

Well, Mark very recently made the jump back into startup-land, going to b5media, which is a pretty cool blogging venture, backed by some pretty smart money. It's a great story, and I wanted to do this pod with him to hear it ASAP.

So, Mark talks about his journey on the pod, but we also touched on some of the tech issues around this, such as the impact of the Internet on newspapers (Om Malik is another journalist who recently made a similar move to Mark), what b5media is doing, and how being a tech startup is different this time around from the bubble days, which Mark was a part of.

In addition to his move, Mark still maintains his main blog (plus 2 others), does his TalkingTech weekly podcast with another ex-Post writer - Kevin Restivo - and will be back again next May with the second Mesh conference. Got all that? Never a dull moment, eh!

You can download the podcast here, and read more about Mark and his blogs.

Technorati tags: Mark Evans, Jon Arnold, b5media, VoIP podcasts, Pulvermedia Podcast Network

Posted by jonarnold at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)

November 09, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Mark Goldberg on Canadian Income Trusts

On this week's Canadian IP Thought Leaders podcast, I spoke with Mark Goldberg about the impact of last week's Income Trust Decision on the Canadian telcos. For those of you outside of Canada, this story got very little attention, but believe me, if this happened to Verizon or AT&T it would be front page news every day, just like it was here. For the basic story and my own take, I'll steer you to my posting about it last Tuesday.

This was Mark's first podcast with me, and he brings a long history of telecom experience to bear on the topic. Like me, Mark is an independent consultant, DBA Mark H Goldberg & Associates, and has a blog, titled Telecom Trends. Mark also co-produces the annual Canadian Telecom Summit, which by most counts is Canada's biggest telecom conference.

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

Technorati tags: income trusts, Jon Arnold, Mark Goldberg, VoIP podcasts, Pulvermedia Podcast Network

Posted by jonarnold at 12:27 PM | Comments (0)

November 01, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - John Ruffolo and the Deloitte Fast 50

In late September, the Deloitte Fast 50 winners were announced, and the list included some IP communications companies that I follow to varying degrees, namely Espial, Aastra and Tira Wireless. They also announced a list of "Companies to Watch", which included other familiar companies such as Objectworld, Oz Communications and Impact Mobile. So, with all this common ground, I wanted to do a podcast about it, and brought back John Ruffolo for his second podcast with me.

On the podcast John talked about the Fast 50 and Companies to Watch, explaining what they look for in companies, and the trends that Deloitte is seeing. They also have a broader Fast 500, which includes US and Canadian companies. Of the 500, 56 are Canadian, as are 5 of the top 10. I think that says a lot about Canada, although none of the top 5 are in the IP space.

John noted another interesting finding about how the two countries differ. He said about 75% of of the US-based Fast 500 companies are venture backed, whereas the opposite is true for Canada - about 75% are NOT venture-backed. John feels this goes a long way to explaining the quality of these Canadian companies, as they've had to really bootstrap themselves, and focus heavily on R&D and product development rather than marketing and promotion.

He feels this will give Canadian companies more staying power, and it also makes them good acquisition candidates for companies looking to enter new markets. I think he's right, and Canadian companies like Convedia come to mind right away. They were recently acquired by US-based Radisys for a very nice valuation, and their hard work to build up a single-focus, R&D intensive company really paid off. This is a textbook example of what John is talking about.

Back to the Fast 50, John noted a growing trend in that the upper half of winners are shifting away from software companies to those focused on the wireless marketplace. That's pretty evident when looking over the list, and certainly validates the growth of wireless in the IP communications sector.

Finally, the podcast touched on the next round of nominations, which will start early next year. For any companies considering applying, you should bookmark Deloitte's site, and check back regularly starting in January.

You can download the podcast here, and read more about John and his practice at Deloitte.

Next week my guest will be telecom consultant Mark Goldberg, and we're going to talk about yesterday's Income Trust decision, which as expected, was bad news for our big incumbents, Bell and Telus, and is really too big of a story to not discuss further.

Technorati tags: Deloitte Fast 50, Jon Arnold, John Ruffolo, VoIP podcasts

Posted by jonarnold at 08:25 PM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Ross MacLeod and Voice 2.0

This week's podcast gave me a chance to hear first hand from one of the organizers of last week's Voice 2.0 conference in Ottawa. I wasn't able to participate due my previous commitment to be at the Sylantro customer conference, so this was the next best thing. Indie consultant Ross MacLeod provided a great reprise of the event for me, and if you want a 15 minute primer on what was behind the Voice 2.0 event and what took place there, I think you'll really enjoy this podcast.

To download the podcast and learn more about Ross, click here. I'd also urge you to check out Ross's blog, which also has a nice running commentary about the event.

Speaking of successful Canadian "2.0" events, it's official. The Mesh conference, held here in Toronto last May will be back next May. Mesh was a very good starting point to bring the Web 2.0 community together, and enough good things certainly came out of it to warrant a sequel. Mark Evans is one of the movers behind Mesh, and his blog is a good starting point to follow the news. It's also worth following to see how Mark is faring in his return to startup land, having recently left his steady gig at the National Post and gone all-in with B5 Media.

Technorati tags: Voice 2.0, Jon Arnold, Ross MacLeod, VoIP Podcasts

Posted by jonarnold at 08:26 PM | Comments (0)

October 04, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Fredericton's Free Muni WiFi

Anyone following muni WiFi will want to give this week's podcast a listen. My guest was Don Fitzgerald, Executive Director of Team Fredericton - you gotta like that title! Don is really the public face and evangelist for Fredericton, New Brunswick's muni WiFi service, which is Canada's first free WiFi offering, and has been running since 2003.

They have a lot of experience over just about any other North American muni WiFi deployment, and if you listen in, you'll hear why Don believes free is the way to go, lessons learned along the way, as well as some of the creative applications they are bringing along to facilitate closer communitiy ties between municipal government and the citizens of Fredericton. Teaser - one of these has to do with hockey - are you surprised?

This podcast is actually the sequel to a blog posting I recently did after inteviewing Don at length about this topic. You can download the podcast here, and learn more about Don's role and background.

NOTE - due to upcoming travel plans, I'll be taking a 2 week podcasting hiatus. My next scheduled podcast is w/o October 23, when I'll be speaking with Ross McLeod. He's one of the driving forces behind the Voice 2.0 conference being put on by OCRI in Ottawa the week before. I had to pass on speaking there due to a conflict with another conference. That's too bad, as this looks to be a terrific show. So, I'll be looking forward myself to hearing first hand what I missed.

Technorati tags: Municipal WiFi, Jon Arnold, Fredericton, VoIP podcasts

Posted by jonarnold at 09:24 PM | Comments (0)

September 28, 2006

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

Posted by jonarnold at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Vonage Canada

On this week's podcast, I spoke with Joe Parent, Vonage Canada's VP of Marketing and Business Development. I've been wanting to podcast with Vonage for a while, and the time has finally come.

The big picture Vonage story is well covered everywhere, but the Canadian operation doesn't get as much attention, and there's a good story here that needs to be told. I've been following them from Day 1, and one of my very first blog postings was about their open house celebrating their new offices and 1st anniversary back in April 2005.

Joe and I talked about the state of the VoIP market up here, and the challenges all the pureplay VoIP providers face. Aside from what you'd normally expect us to talk about, Joe also focused on the marketing realities up here, and how it's so much tougher than what Vonage corporate faces in the U.S. Imagine if Verizon had a tie-up with MSN or Yahoo, and blocked VoIP competitors like Vonage from doing online advertising on those portals? Or if AT&T owned the NYT and CNBC and wouldn't let competitors advertise there?

Well, that's what it's like here in Canada. We have a very high degree of concentrated ownership in many industries, and the lines between media properties and telcos are blurred in many areas. In short, Vonage's lifeblood is mass marketing to attract subscribers, and many of the best channels that are widely used in the U.S. are closed to them in Canada. This is a problem that won't get fixed any time soon, and it forces Vonage Canada to be more creative in reaching the market with their message. Of course this also holds true for their competitors up here, so it's not just a Vonage story. However, at least you'll get some sense about what the Canadian VoIP players are up against in this podcast.

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

Technorati tags: VoIP, Jon Arnold, Vonage Canada, VoIP Podcasts

Posted by jonarnold at 09:32 AM | Comments (1)

September 19, 2006

Fall VON Podcast #2

I have 2 things left to post from Fall VON, and was hoping to do them at once. The podcast is ready now, but not the video segment - I'll post the latter as soon as it's up.

So, this is my second podcast done from the floor - both with colleague Jim Courtney. The first one was about our impressions of the show, and that was posted the other day.

This podcast focused on the Canadian presence at the show, which I'd have to say was pretty good. Jim and I basically talked about the Canadian exhibitors, and some of the good things that are happening for them.

To hear the Canadian flag being waved at VON, download the pod here.

Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, Fall VON, Jim Courtney, VoIP podcasts

Posted by jonarnold at 05:50 PM | Comments (0)

September 18, 2006

TalkingTech - More Canadian Podcasting

Fellow Canadian Mark Evans cover tech as well as anybody up here, and he's been doing so with the National Post for several years. His blog is great reading, and Mark covers a lot of ground very well - both for the paper and on his blog.

He's also been podcasting for a while, doing so as a duo with Kevin Restivo. Until recently, Kevin has been on staff with Mark at the Post, but starting this month, he's moved to the analyst world, and is with Seaboard Group.

I didn't get to track the blogs much last week while at Fall VON, and it was nice to see Mark's post the other day announcing a new and improved podcast, now known as TalkingTech. I really like the name, and he's continuing on with Kevin, which is good news. As the post explains, they've got some branding help behind them, so the look and feel is very nice. Catchy intro music too! Looks like last week's pod was their first under this new moniker and persona. Way to go, guys.

Their pods are quite different than mine, as theirs is more of a tech news roundup for the week, and mine features a different interview guest each week. It's all good, and if you're looking to get more of your Canadian podcasting fix, please check out TalkingTech.

Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, Mark Evans, podcasts

Posted by jonarnold at 10:00 PM | Comments (1)

September 15, 2006

VON Recap - the Rest of the Story

Just a few multimedia tidbits to share from the show. In case you get tired of reading about VON, you can also listen or watch more commentary! I did a couple of podcasts and a videocast from the floor at the Pulvermedia setup.

For now, only the first podcast has been posted, and you can download it here. I'll post the second one and the videocast as soon as they're up.

This podcast was done with fellow Canadian Jim Courtney. We're often at the same shows, and he's got a great blog on Skype Journal. We shared our overall impressions of the show. The second podcast was about all the Canadian companies we saw at the show - stay tuned for that one.

Speaking of Jim, I was asked to comment on a Skype/Mac story for MacNewsWorld during the show, and since he's so close to this space, we did the interview together. Here it is, if you'd like to read it. Thanks for helping out on this one, Jim.

Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, Fall VON, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jonarnold at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)

September 08, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - NewStep and FMC

This week's podcast was with Kevin McCracken, NewStep Networks's Director of Product Management. NewStep is based here in Toronto, and is a Bell Canada spinoff, now making their mark in the FMC space. Kevin and I talked about the current trends in FMC, and how it is gaining good traction in a pre-IMS environment. We also compared market conditions between U.S. and Canadian wireless opeators and how that impacts their FMC plans.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Kevin and NewStep Networks.

FYI - I'll be at Fall VON next week, and my regular podcasts will resume the week after, with Vonage Canada being my scheduled guest. I'm hoping to do a podcast or two from the show floor at VON, so I should have something in the podcast bin next week for those need their weekly podfix.

Technorati tags: FMC, Jon Arnold, NewStep Networks, VoIP Podcasts

Posted by jonarnold at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)

September 05, 2006

Podcasts Are Being Heard

As readers of my blog know, I do a weekly podcast series for Pulvermedia titled Canadian IP Thought Leaders. Podcasts are a great vehicle for discussion, but unlike live radio, it's pretty tough to tell who your audience is. I have a rough idea of how many people listen to my pods, but very little sense as to who listens or what people think, other than the comments that come back. It's also great to see that many of my guests are featuring the pods I do with them on their websites, so that's another form of validation.

Having said that, it was nice to see this blog post from Bruce Stewart of O'Reilly Emerging Telephony. It ran last week, but it just crossed my path over the weekend. He's got a great blog, and it was nice to see his good words about my last pod - with Jim Van Meggelen on Open Source - and my podcasts overall. It's nice to be heard, and I hope you keep on listening Bruce - I've got lots of good ones lined up for the Fall!

Technorati tags: VoIP podcasts, Jon Arnold, O'Reilly Emerging Telecom, Bruce Stewart

Posted by jonarnold at 10:21 AM | Comments (2)

August 29, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Jim Courtney on VoIP and the Skype/Google News

On this week's podcast on the Pulvermedia Podcast Network, I spoke with Jim Courtney, industry colleague and fellow blogger. Jim wears a few hats, mainly as an industry consultant, and an Associate Editor of the widely-read blog, Skype Journal.

Jim has a long history in tech/telecom, and offered his perspective on the trends he's seeing here in Canada's IP communications market. Also, having posted earlier in the day about the Google/Skype news on Skype Journal, the podcast was a timely opportunity to explore the implications of that development more deeply.

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

Technorati tags: Jim Courtney, Jon Arnold, Skype Journal, VoIP Podcasts

Posted by jonarnold at 09:59 PM | Comments (0)

August 25, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Jim Van Meggelen on Open Source

If you’re interested in Open Source telephony, this is the podcast for you. Jim Van Meggelen is here in Toronto with me, and is as involved as anybody in this space.

We got to know each other earlier this year while I was helping put together an Open Source event as part of VON Canada. It was a very successful event, as it really helped get the Toronto Asterisk developer community (North America's largest) better exposed to the broader IP communications community.

Jim and I talked about current trends in Open Source telephony, as well as some of the cool things it can bring to add all kinds of innovative functionality. Along those lines we touched on the Asterisk plug-in developed by Iotum, an Ottawa-based vendor that readers of this blog should be familiar with. It's another great example of how Canadian companies are at the forefront of IP.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Jim. He's also the co-author of the best-selling book, Asterisk, The Future of Telephony, published by O'Reilly. It's a great read, both for techies and everybody else who just wants to know where Open Source is coming from and where it's going.

Technorati tags: Open Source, Jon Arnold, Asterisk, Jim Van Meggelen, Podcasts

Posted by jonarnold at 08:24 AM | Comments (0)

August 09, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Barry Fogarty, Diginiche

On this week's podcast, I spoke with Barry Fogarty. He's the President of Toronto-based startup Diginiche. This is a very interesting company I came across at the Canadian Venture Forum back in May, and have been wanting to pod with them ever since.

Their focus is on real time, interactive web-based collaboration. It's one of those Web 2.0-type apps that you really have to see. The best I can do is steer you to a video clip I made of a demo that Barry gave me at the Forum. You can get to the clip via my blog posting about what I saw at the Forum.

On the podcast, Barry spoke at greater length about the opportunities he's seeing in the collaboration space, and how a simple, browser-based application like his really opens up the possibilities for creative forms of online collaboration.

You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Barry.

I should also note that my podcasts can also be accessed at the Vonosphere, a portal just launched last week for a variety of Pulvermedia content, including the Pulvermedia Podcast Network.

FYI - no podcast next week - am away on the second leg of our summer vacation. Will be back with a new pod the following week.

Technorati tags: podcasts, Jon Arnold, Diginiche

Posted by jonarnold at 03:11 PM | Comments (0)

July 26, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Tom Flak, Soma Networks

On this week's podcast, I interviewed Tom Flak, SVP of Marketing and Product Strategy with Soma Networks.

Soma is a hybrid U.S./Canadian company, with HQ in San Francisco, but development centers here in Toronto and Ottawa. I've visited their Toronto facility a couple of times, and Soma has a good story that's largely untold.

They're a leading light in the WiMax space, and Tom provided a good perspective about the state of WiMax and some comparisons/contrasts with WiFi. All indicators points to 2007 being the year when WiMax becomes real, and Soma looks to figure in this in a nice way.

You can download the podcast here as well as learn more about Tom and the company.

FYI - no podcast next week - family vacation! We'll be going our Great White North road trip, and I'll be totally offline until early August.

Technorati tags: podcasts, Jon Arnold, Soma Networks

Posted by jonarnold at 07:30 PM | Comments (1)

July 21, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Owen Matthews, NewHeights

This week's Pulvermedia Podcast Network pod was with Owen Matthews. He's the CEO of Ottawa-based NewHeights Software, as well as EVP of Wesley Clover, the investing arm of Sir Terry Matthews.

Owen shared his thoughts on the evolving area of advanced applications for enterprises, and how companies like his are developing solutions to help end users get the most out of the features available in their communications tools. SIP is a big part of this, and Owen talked how SIP has evolved from being something he didn't see being much help to something this is now quite relevant to what NewHeights is doing.

To download the podcast, click here. You can read more about Owen's background there as well.

Technorati tags: podcasts, Jon Arnold, NewHeights

Posted by jonarnold at 03:50 PM | Comments (0)

July 12, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Dilshan De Silva, Espial

This week's podcast on the Pulvermedia Podcasting Network was with Dilshan De Silva, Marketing Director for Espial. This yet another Ottawa-based company, and Espial is a leading vendor providing middleware for IPTV. They've been at it a while, and are providing IPTV solutions for the likes of Siemens, Scientific Atlanta and Thomson.

On the podcast, we talked about where IPTV is going, and how companies like Espial are enabling a more dynamic user experience. Dilshan also addressed some of the technical issues IPTV still needs to address as well as the merits of DSL as a last mile solution. You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Dilshan.

Technorati tags: podcasts, Jon Arnold, Espial

Posted by jonarnold at 09:49 AM | Comments (0)

July 06, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Sean Wise, Wise Mentor Capital

This week's podcast was with Sean Wise, of Wise Mentor Capital. Sean is one of the most connected people helping startups become successful in Canada, and he knows the landscape as well as anyone. He wears a lot of hats, and wears them very well.

We talked about what he's seeing in the telecom startup space from both sides of the table, and for anyone interested in knowing why this is a good time to be a startup, you'll find this most useful. Also, Sean's website and blog are great resources for startups, and once you drop in for visit, you'll see that he's not hard to find.

Technorati tags: podcasts, Jon Arnold, Sean Wise

Posted by jonarnold at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)

June 28, 2006

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.

Posted by jonarnold at 05:20 PM | Comments (0)

June 21, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Stephane Marceau, Voxlib

This week's podcast was with Stephane Marceau, President and CEO of Voxlib, a Montreal-based startup. Voxlib is another up and coming vendor focused on bridging mobility with PC-based communications.

My previous podcast was with EQO Communications, and both companies are honing in on Skype as a key voice application to demonstrate their technologies. Stephane talked about the benefits for both operators and subscribers, and explained how they are using voice recognition as a key enabler for the seamless handoff of calls from one device to another, as well as from one network to another. Pretty neat stuff, and worth a listen. You can download the podcast here, as well as learn more about Voxlib.

Technorati tags: podcasts, VoIP, Jon Arnold, Skype

Posted by jonarnold at 10:16 PM | Comments (0)

June 19, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Bill Tam on Bringing Mobililty to IM

The most recent segment of my podcast series was with Bill Tam. He's the CEO of EQO Communications, one of the cool startups I've been coming across at some recent events.

EQO has come up with a way to integrate Skype with your mobile phone and take your buddy list to go. It's pretty neat, and I can see this being a lot of fun for the mobile set. On the pod we talked about the attraction of mobile IM, and who it will hold appeal for. You can download the pod here, and find more about EQO.

Posted by jonarnold at 05:57 PM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2006

Globalcomm Podcast - w/Carl Ford

Last week's podcast was done from the floor at Globalcomm with Carl Ford. Didn't talk much about Canada, though. We shared our impressions of the show and talked about Carl's current topic of interest - feature interaction. Last week, Carl had a guest post on Jeff's blog about this topic, and he raises some valid concerns about why features can't migrate from handset to handset when a call is passed off from one device to another. Carl's view is that endpoints are intelligent enough now to handle this, and if features are IP-based, it should be easy to port them along with the call. There's a revenue opportunity there for carriers, but it doesn't look like they're ready for this yet - and Carl will tell you why!

You can listen to the podcast here.

Am back to my regular Canadian schedule now, and today my guest was Bill Tam of EQO Communications. Pretty interesting chat about presence and mobility, esp for apps like Skype. Look for it here in the next day or so.

Posted by jonarnold at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)

June 02, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Mathew Ingram, Globe & Mail

This week's podcast was with Mathew Ingram, who's a technology writer for the Globe & Mail here in Toronto. Mathew is one of the people behind the Mesh Web 2.0 conference that was just held here. He's got a pretty good perspective on this space, and we talked about various issues around what makes Web 2.0 interesting and about how strong the interest seems to be. Inevitably we went on the blogger vs. journalist tangent that I'm so fond of, and Mathew speaks very well to the issue.

You can listen to the podcast here, as well as read up more on Mathew and his blog.

Next week I'm hoping to do a pod or two live from the floor at the PPN booth - #31048 - at Globalcomm. Hope to see you there.

Technorati tags: Web 2.0, podcasts, Jon Arnold

Posted by jonarnold at 09:39 AM | Comments (0)

May 25, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Stephen Marshall, ZoneZ Wireless

I was offsite most of the day at an event put on by Telus, so I haven't been able to track much of the Vonage buzz. I'll have a few post-mortems to add on this tomorrow, along with my guest post on Om Malik's blog, and Mark Evans's piece in today's National Post. Sounds like things went from bad to worse today, down another $1.85 to close at $13.00. Oooooh. Will there be a bargain-hunting bounce, or is the stone still sinking? Tune in tomorrow....

Tomorrow I'll also have a brief post about the highlights of the Telus event. It's been a long couple of days, and it will just have to wait.

The main event for this post is today's podcast that I did with Stephen Marshall for the Pulvermedia Podcasting Network. They had a hiatus last week as the PPN crew were in Stockholm doing pods at VON Europe. But I'm back on track now, with lots of new and interesting companies to podcast about in the weeks ahead.

Zonez Wireless is an interesting company that I've known about for a while, and got to know a little better at the Canadian Venture Forum earlier this month.

Today's podcast was with their President, Stephen Marshall, and he talked about why cablecos are keenly interested in wireless broadband, and how they're finding all kinds of neat applications most of us probably don't think about every day like RV trailer parks and landing docks for cruise ships. You can tune in to our chat here, as well as read up more about Stephen and Zonez.

Technorati tags: wireless broadband, Jon Arnold

Posted by jonarnold at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)

May 09, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Brian Cappellani - Sigma Systems

Today's podcast was with Brian Cappellani, CTO of Toronto-based Sigma Systems. Sigma is a market leader in OSS/back office platforms, and are especially strong in the cable market. Brian covered the key issues facing carriers as they migrate to IP, and the challenges of creating an effective OSS infrastructure to support cross-platform applications. We also talked a bit about what makes Canada a good market to create companies like Sigma, especially with all the telecom talent in cities like Toronto and Ottawa.

Click here to listen to the pod, or subscribe to my podcasts, as well as learn more about Brian.

NOTE - no podcast next week. The PPN crew will be at VON Europe, and won't be producing any remote pods. I'll be back on the 23rd, if not sooner.

Posted by jonarnold at 07:05 PM | Comments (0)

May 04, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Ray Vilis, Versatel Networks

This week's pod was with Ray Vilis of Versatel Networks, which is based in Ottawa. Versatel has been a leading proponent of pushing intelligence out to the network edge, and on this chat, we focused on opportunities they are seeing in the social networking and conferencing areas. Ray talks about how the IM companies like Google and Yahoo are ahead of the traditional service providers on this front, and how they see value in the kinds of applications Versatel has developed. Another good example of Canadian telecom ingenuity at work!

You can download the podcast and/or learn more about Ray here.

Posted by jonarnold at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)

April 26, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Mark Farmer, QuickPlay Media

This week's podcast was all about mobile media. Definitely a hot space, and QuickPlay Media is doing some interesting things on that front. This is a Toronto-based startup, and I spoke with their Marketing Director, Mark Farmer.

So, if you're interested in how the mobile media space is evolving, and closer to home, how a Canadian company is faring in this space, you'll find this podcast a good listen. You can download it here, as well as learn more about Mark and QuickPlay.

Posted by jonarnold at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Michel Laurence, Octasic

This week's podcast was with Michel Laurence, CEO of Octasic. They're based in Montreal, and are an innovative semiconductor vendor, doing very nicely in VoIP. Not a household name, and I've long felt they're a great untold Canadian story. I wanted to get Michel on a pod to share his view of how the components space is evolving, as both carriers and OEMs require more sophisticated performance to support nextgen services. You can download the podcast here, and read more about Michel and what we talked about. Thanks for listening and supporting the Pulvermedia Podcast Network!

Posted by jonarnold at 08:57 AM | Comments (0)

April 12, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Salim Teja, Brightspark Ventures

This week's podcast was with Salim Teja, VP at Brightspark Ventures here in Toronto. I really value the views of VCs, especially Brightspark, as they focus on early stage financing. They see a lot of what's new, and we talked about the realities facing Canadian startups, particularly in the IP space. Their portfolio includes three IP/telecom plays, all of whom I like - VoIPshield, Tira Wireless and VoxLib.

Another neat thing that I like about Brightspark is that they're opinionated! Not really a renowned Canadian trait, but that's ok. Along these lines, then, they just launched their own blog this month. If you like what you see, you just might want to add it to your RSS feed.

To listen to our podcast and read more about Salim, click here. You can also access all of my podcasts there at the Pulvermedia Podcast Network website, or subscribe if that's easier.

Posted by jonarnold at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)

April 06, 2006

VON Canada - Walking the Floor and Podcasting

I mentioned in yesterday's post about the podcast I did with Ronald Gruia during the show on Tuesday. It's posted now on the Pulvermedia Podcasting Network web page, and you can listen to it here. Ron and I had some fun with this, podcasting on the fly on my cell phone as we walked the floor and shared our impressions of the show.

Next week I'll return to my regular podcasting format in my ongoing Canadian IP Thought Leaders series. One great thing about VON Canada this year was how it attracted a pretty broad spectrum of people who are new to the VON community. I've got a whole new batch now of people I want to podcast with, and in time, I hope to get to them all.

Later today I'll post my written impressions as a wrapup. Others have done the same already, and you can check them out via Jeff Pulver's posting this morning.

Posted by jonarnold at 09:05 AM | Comments (0)

March 29, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - David Mandelstam on Open Source

This week's podcast was with David Mandelstam, President/CEO of Sangoma Technologies. Toronto doesn't have that many IP vendors, and Sangoma hasn't traditionally been in that space, but they are now, especially in open source.

They're a very interesting company - and public to boot - with a lot of historical perspective. So, I wanted to have David come on to talk about what he's seeing in open source and how that market is evolving in the voice arena. David also provided his views on being a Canadian vendor, and the realities of embracing open source for their company.

You can read more about David and listen to the podcast here. Next week, David will be speaking on two panels at VON Canada, so if you're attending, you'll have a chance to meet him there.

Posted by jonarnold at 03:26 PM | Comments (0)

March 24, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Erik Lagerway on Spring VON

For this week's pod, I had Erik Lagerway back for a second time. I believe Erik was my very first podcast guest, and he's got a new home now. Erik recently left Eyeball and is now CTO of Calgary-based Shift Networks, and from what he's telling me, he's loving it there. That's great to hear.

Erik and I did a recap of Spring VON, talking about what we liked, the highlights, and directions we'd like to see for the future. You can read more about what Erik's up to and listen to the podcast here. For everyday stuff, you can keep tabs on Erik via his blog, SIPthat.

Posted by jonarnold at 09:20 AM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Bogdan Materna, VoIPShield

My second podcast for the week was with Bogdan Materna, CTO of VoIPShield, an Ottawa-based vendors focused on VoIP security. This is a hot topic for sure, and Bogdan addressed many of the key issues and challenges faced by both vendors and carriers.

You can download the podcast and read more about Bogdan here.

For those of you attending VON Canada next month, Bogdan will be speaking on the VoIP Security session - hope to see you there.

My other podcast from this week was with Matt Stein of Primus Canada.

No Canadian IP Thought Leader pods next week as I'll be at Spring VON, but things will be back to schedule the week after.

Posted by jonarnold at 09:56 AM | Comments (0)

March 08, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Matt Stein, Primus Canada

This week is a podcast double-shot as I won't be doing one next week since I'll be Spring VON.

The first segment is with Matt Stein of Primus Canada. Matt and I spoke about the residential VoIP market in Canada, and how it compares to the U.S. We also touched on net neutrality in the context of this week's news about Vonage Canada contesting the QoS surcharge that Shaw Cable is offering for third party VoIP services going over their network. It's familiar ground for Matt, as Primus Canada addressed this issue with Shaw last year.

You can download the podcast here, and find out where Matt is speaking at Spring VON next week as well as VON Canada next month.

My second podcast for this week should be posted tomorrow.

Posted by jonarnold at 08:12 PM | Comments (2)

March 01, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Stefan Dubowski, Telemanagement Magazine

This week's podcast was with Stefan Dubowski, Editor of Telemanagement, one of Canada's leading publications serving the enterprise communications market. This was Stefan's second appearance on the Pulvermedia Podcasting Network, and this time we talked about the market opportunity for cablecos offering IP services to enterprises. It's certainly an untapped market, and Stefan shared his thoughts on the pros and cons facing MSOs. To date, it has taken a back seat to residential telephony, but it's just a matter of time until this becomes a priority. I'd say give it a year, or as much time as they need to get a lock on residential VoIP, and then they can turn their sights to enterprise. I suspect they'll need to some key partners to do this, but time will tell. You can pick up the podcast link here, as well as learn more about Stefan.

We'll both be at VON Canada here in Toronto next month, and if you're there, he'll be moderating the session on the use of IP in contact centers.

Posted by jonarnold at 05:16 PM | Comments (0)

February 23, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Dave McCarthy, BCE Capital

This week's segment on the Pulvermedia Podcasting Network (PPN) featured Dave McCarthy, who's based in the Ottawa office of BCE Capital. Dave's been backing companies for a long time, and knows what works for tech startups. Some of the notable IP companies in their portfolio include NexTone, Bridgeport Networks, and Sylantro.

We talked about investing landscape for Canadian startups, and Dave noted that we have some market leadership in areas like video and wireless. You can download the podcast here, and read more about Dave's background. Dave will be attending Spring VON, and is a speaker on the VC panel at VON Canada in April.

Posted by jonarnold at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Iotum Becomes a Demo God!

This week's podcast recounted Iotum's Oscar moment at Demo last week. As posted here and elsewhere, Iotum came away with the highest honor from the event - Demo God. That's a pretty lofty title, but that's what it's called, and it's cause for celebration for the Canadian tech community. It sure would be great to see this serve as a wake-up for more support up here for our tech startups, but for now, just listen and enjoy! Click here to get to the pod link and some background on the story.

Just a quick coda - during the pod, Howard Thaw mentioned a great sign of the times. While driving around Phoenix, they noticed a gas station sign showing not just the price of gas, but the price of prepaid long distance. Now that's what I call going mainstream. Here's Alec's post about it - great photo.

Posted by jonarnold at 06:16 PM | Comments (0)

February 07, 2006

Canadian Podcast Series - John Ruffolo on High Tech Investing

This week's Canadian IP Thought Leaders podcast was with John Ruffolo, of Deloitte management consultants. John leads the firm's Canadian Telecom/Media/Tech practice here in Toronto, and knows the investment landscape quite well. Today, we talked about the dynamics of the market here, particularly the differences between larger and smaller startups, as well as Canada/U.S. contrasts. Very interesting, especially for U.S. VCs looking at Canadian startups, or vice versa. The market is different here - not better or worse - just different! Sort of like a lot of other things in Canada.....

You can pick up the podcast link and John's profile here. John will also be speaking on the VC panel at VON Canada on April 5. Hope you can check it out - I won't miss it.

Quick sidebar - I finally met John at last week's Deloitte event, which featured RIM's Jim Balsillie - you can read about that here.

Posted by jonarnold at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)

February 01, 2006

Canadian Podcast Series - Henry Dortmans on Enterprise IP

Happy February!

Apologies for not podcasting last week - was just too difficult being away at the TMC show.

This week's Canadian IP Thought Leaders pod was with Henry Dortmans. He's the President of Angus Dortmans Associates, one of Canada's top telco consultancies.

The other half of this firm is Ian Angus, another well regarded telco consultant. It's a small world - I was with Ian this morning at the BCE 2005 Review event here in Toronto. I'll be posting about that later today, along with a photo of Ian in a suit - something he doesn't wear very often. Stay tuned.

Henry has seen it all, and had some great insights about why and how Canadian enterprises are adopting IP, as well as what goes into their decision-making about it. We could have gone on and on - will have to have him back soon. Here's the link - posted now on the Pulvermedia Podcast Network. And if you really like these podcasts, there's a link there for you to subscribe or open iTunes.

Posted by jonarnold at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)

January 19, 2006

Canadian Thought Leaders Podcast - Skype From Someone Who Knows

This week's podcast for the PPN - Pulvermedia Podcasting Network - was with Andrew Hansen. He's a "serial entrepreneur" - where have I heard that before? - but one of his main focus areas right now is Jyve, one of the leading applications developed for Skype. Andrew is based in Collingwood, Ontario, a small resort town about 2 hours North of Toronto, and Jyve is a major client of his. He knows the Skype culture quite well, and Jyve won the global competition for Skype developers this summer - really!

Andrew was my guest on this week's Canadian IP Thought Leaders series, and we talked about the Skype culture, and how it's evolving in the eBay world. Pretty interesting, and I plan to revisit this later this year to see how things really are panning out there. Andrew was also at CES, and he shared his impressions of the show with me. To listen to the podcast, and learn more about Andrew and his blog, click here.

If you go to the site, you'll see there's a link at the bottom of the post to subscribe to my podcasts on iTunes. I think that's neat! I'd love to hear from anybody who'd doing this.

NOTE - no podcast from me next week. I'll be at the TMC show, and the PPN facility won't be available anyway. Pods will resume the following week, where my guest will be Henry Dortmans of Angus Dortmans Associates, one of Canada's leading telecom consultancies.

Posted by jonarnold at 09:14 AM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2006

Canadian IP Thought Leaders Podcast - Alec Saunders Recaps CES

This week's segment on PPN - the Pulvermedia Podcasting Network - got that? - was with colleague Alec Saunders, fresh back from CES and the Pulver Consumer VoIP Summit to tell us all about it. Alec should be familiar to readers of this blog, and if not, you can find out all about him on the PPN posting, which also has the podcast link - view it/hear it here. Alec also has a great blog, and if you're of the techhie persuasion, you'll really enjoy it. Go there.

By the way, Alec had an enjoyable posting the other day about something I think about a lot - the way technology impacts our behavior, and tends to make us, well... less human and more machine-like. Not really a stretch considering how dependent many of us are becoming on machines, automation, and of course computers and all that flows from there. Anyhow, aside from raising some real concerns in the post, Alec of course has a solution to the problem, namely the Relevance Engine, which is the focus of his company Iotum.

Posted by jonarnold at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)

January 10, 2006

OCRI Radio - Keeping Ottawa on the IP Map

I recently posted about this intiative by OCRI, where they launched a podcast network and blog to support the thriving high tech sector in the Ottawa area.

I've been developing a relationship with OCRI, and soon we should have links to each other, and will explore ways to share content to amplify our efforts to support Canadian tech.

I just wanted to update you on how their initiatives are coming along. The website is looking good, and the content is starting to happen for both podcasts and blogs. OCRI had its best event ever last month, and it featured a presentation by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. That's one way to get attention, and you can check out the podcast here.

A quick scan of the comments posted there shows that fellow IP blogger Alec Saunders has been following their blogs. Alec's company, Iotum, is a classic example of the kind of leading edge ventures coming out of the region these days, and if this is your cup of tea, I suggest you bookmark OCRI now. And keep coming back here - you'll be seeing more about them on my blog as we put some of our ideas into motion.

Posted by jonarnold at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)

January 06, 2006

Canadian Podcast Series - Mark Evans on 2006

This week's podcast was with Mark Evans, Sr. Tech Reporter for the National Post. Mark is one of the best ears and eyes on the tech sector here in Canada, and it was great to talk about the outlook for IP in 2006. The newly-branded Pulvermedia Podcasting Network is up and running, the web site is looking good. You can download the podcast here, and read a bit more about Mark's background as well as a synopsis of our talk. Mark also maintains one of the best tech blogs going - it's a must read, esp for the Canadian market.

Quick sidebar - the sound quality of the podcast was spotty and garbled at times. We were on VoIP at both ends - Vonage at mine, and M5 at the Pulver end. Mark has previously speculated that the cablecos here have been tinkering with VoIP calls run by competitors over their networks. Well, since we were talking about VoIP, maybe the MSO VoIP police were listening and figured it was a good time to meddle. Think so??? Lots of people are in this camp - it makes for great conspiracy fodder. Anyone who wants to share their stories along this vein are welcome - leave me a comment....

Next week's podcast - am working on lining up a segment with Alec Saunders and Howard Thaw from Iotum. They're at CES, and it will be great to hear their take on the show, esp from the perspective of a Canadian IP startup trying to crack this market. Until then, the blog posts on CES are coming along - Mark's blog today cites Andy Abramson's rant about the poor WiFi coverage and subpar treatment of the 6,000 media folks covering the show. You heard me right - 6,000 media people - sure gives you an idea of just how big this show is.

Posted by jonarnold at 10:06 AM | Comments (3)

December 20, 2005

Canadian Podcast Series - Ron Gruia's Analyst Outlook

Today's Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series focused on the analyst perspective, and my guest was Ronald Gruia, from my alma mater analyst firm Frost & Sullivan. Ron is their Practice Leader for Emerging Communications Solutions and is steeped in both telecom and IP.

We quickly went to IMS, which is a core focus area for Ron, and he shared his views on how the North American and European markets are progressing. Closer to home, we talked about the state of things among Canada's main operators, and how they are adapting to IP. Finally, Ron gave us his outlook for the key trends he's watching in 2006. I'll look to have Ron back around Q2 to revisit his crystal ball and test his predictive powers!

You can read more about Ron, our podcast, and get the link - - here.

I should also add that VON Radio has re-branded itself now as PPN - the Pulvermedia Podcasting Network. So, no more confusion with the Voice of Nevis Radio, mahn - it's PPN now. I don't think that's going to conflict with much of anything!

Posted by jonarnold at 10:05 PM | Comments (0)

December 14, 2005

Canadian Podcast Series - a Legal Perspective on Lawful Intercept

This week's Canadian IP Thought Leaders segment introduces a relatively new voice to this space - Rob Hyndman. Rob runs his law practice here in Toronto, and focuses on the tech sector. He's got a great blog, and like me, didn't make it to Round 2 of the Canadian Blog Awards. IP cohort Alec Saunders did make the cut, so congrats to him! Maybe it will be our turn next year...

On the podcast, Rob and I spoke about issues around legal intercept and privacy for IP communications, and how they are treated in both Canada and the U.S. Rob explained the history leading up to the current state of regulations as well as where things seem to be going. He also talked some of the grass-roots efforts underway in both countries that are trying to get the voice of citizens heard in the process as government bodies learn to navigate the choppy waters of regulating the Internet.

VON Radio turned this one around real fast, and you can get the link and learn more about Rob here, where the podcasts are archived on the new VON Radio website. Please check it out. If you just want the podcast link, here it is.

Posted by jonarnold at 09:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 09, 2005

Canadian Podcast Series - Ash Chopra on the ILEC Landscape

This week's VON Radio podcast was done...LIVE, FROM NEW YORK. I was in NYC for 2 days, and Monday was spent in the Pulver.com office in Melville, which is out on Long Island. Seemed like a good time to do my weekly segment, so I was actually in the VON Radio studio for a change.

My guest was Ash Chopra, an independent IT/telco consultant with a lot of hands-on experience working for and with major Canadian carriers. We covered off some of the recent developments taking place with Bell, Telus, Rogers and others. Basically, none of the big ILECs have it easy, and each has their own particular set of problems.

You can listen to the podcast from this link, and you can also access it from the brand-new VON Radio website, which was just launched TODAY! This is a much more user-friendly format for archiving the podcasts, and as you can see, it's got color, and provides a nice photo and bio of Ash - and other podcasters if you look around. It's also got a link to Ash's blog, which is a good read, esp if you like the finer points of the technology.

Posted by jonarnold at 11:34 PM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2005

Canadian Podcast Series - Technology and the Electoral Process

This week's Canadian IP podcast had yet another interesting twist. Our Liberal government has been on shaky ground lately, and on Monday, they did not survive a non-confidence vote. This was not a huge surprise, and much to the public's chagrin, Canada enters the Xmas holiday season with an election on its hands.

All of a sudden we're in election mode, and I had the good fortune to speak with someone yesterday who's very connected to how technology is impacting the electoral process. So, the topic was very timely, and it was a nice way to dovetail another aspect of how technologies like IP are playing a role in daily life - sometimes visibly, and sometimes under the hood.

My guest yesterday was Ed Hetu. He's in independent IT consultant in the Ottawa area, and has been doing electoral work for many years at both the federal and provincial level. Ed provided some great insights on how IP and IP-related technologies are making the process of managing elections easier. He noted that the real problems are more social and psychological than technical, since most of what he's involved with is behind the scenes.

Most people are quite comfortable and familiar with manually-completed ballots, and there is still some suspicion around electronic or online balloting. While the potential for abuse and security leaks is real, Ed notes that there is a silver lining to all these advances. If used effectively, technology can enrich the democratic process by making it easier for the public to vote more often and on a wider variety of issues. Elections, polls, referenda, etc. can be conducted quickly and inexpensively, opening the door for wider participation in our daily political life. This isn't all about IP, but it's certainly a part of it, and I have no doubt that IP will find a good home in the government sector once its potential is better understood and issues such as privacy, integrity and security are properly addressed.

The VON Radio folks managed to turn this one around in record time, so the post is ready for listening now. Thanks Mikey!

Posted by jonarnold at 10:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 28, 2005

Canadian Podcast Series - Stefan Dubowski on Enterprise IP

Last week's VON Radio podcast was with Stefan Dubowski, Managing Editor of Telemanagement magazine. The long weekend has delayed getting the link ready, but it's available now - click here to listen.

Stefan has covered the Canadian telecom market for a long time, primarily on the enterprise side, and we talked about the state of IP adoption. He's got a pretty good feel for the pulse of the market and what his readers are looking for with IP.

We both agreed that takeup has been weaker than anticipated, and that our market lags the US considerably. Stefan's outlook is more reserved than mine, but we both agree more needs to be done from all sides to educate and stimulate the market for IP.

Posted by jonarnold at 05:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 23, 2005

Canadian Tech Podcasts Expanding

I was pleased to learn today that the Canadian podcast landscape is about to expand in an exciting way, at least for those following the tech sector.

Canadian institutions - especially public ones - are big on using acronyms, and tech is no exception. Today's acronym, folks, is OCRI - Ottawa Center for Research and Innovation.

OCRI is exactly what the name describes - a gathering point for those wanting to support the Ottawa tech community. Over 600 entities support OCRI, including the academic community, government, R&D labs, and the private sector.

Today, OCRI launched OCRIRadio.com, dubbed as a "new, social media channel". Am not so sure how new this really is, but they're definitely jumping on the Web 2.0 bandwagon, utilizing web-based tools like podcasts and blogs to help build their community. I think this is a great initiative, and it's a cool example of the true spirit of IP - building communities - using tech to help the tech community. Works for me.

I see some nice parallels and complements to my Canadian IP Thought Leaders podcast series for VON Radio, and will be exploring common ground with OCRI tomorrow. Stay tuned, and perhaps I could soon be sharing links and feeds with them to bring you a broader picture of the Canadian market.

Posted by jonarnold at 11:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 18, 2005

Canadian Podcast Series - Upgrading from PBX to IP PBX

This week's Canadian IP Thought Leaders podcast for VON Radio was a bit different, but one you'll find most interesting if you want to know how IP looks to someone doing the buying and deploying. The podcast is available for listening now.

My guest this week was Peter Lamb, the Director of Information Services for Torys LLP . Torys is one of Canada's largest law firms, with offices in both Toronto and New York. Peter runs their IT group, and is going through the process of replacing their antiquated PBX with IP.

This is a very interesting perspective as to how IP is viewed from the user community, and what VoIP means to a law firm. Peter discusses the issues around the need for IP and what is most important to a mulitnational law firm for voice communications. In many ways, this is a classic forklift upgrade scenario, but the subtleties around what's really important are quite interesting.

The best takeaway message for me was the importance of having applications that cater to the specific needs of a law firm. Peter explains how it's great to use VoIP to replicate what they had before - law firms are not early adopters, and are not looking for the multimedia richness of IP - at least now. However, what he's looking forward to are third party apps that can help him address specific problems, such as billing - something lawyers are quite fond of. In the TDM world, this simply wasn't possible or practical, but with IP it's easy, and Peter looks forward to being able to pick and choose apps from various developers that suit him just right.

Peter certainly echoes the importance of apps being the real drivers of value, and the same story will hold for countless other vertical markets. So, for all the developers out there, this podcast should be a good listen.

Posted by jonarnold at 04:50 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

November 14, 2005

Canadian Podcast Series - Anuj Sethi on Being a Reseller

Last week's VON Radio podcast is now posted.

This is my continuing weekly series on Canadian IP thought leaders. My guest was Anuj Sethi, Director of Carrier Services for Phonetime International. I recently visited Anuj and his executive team here in Toronto, and Phonetime has quietly built up a nice business.

We spoke about the realities of being a reseller of voice services. The retail business has been a good place to be, especially in Canada with such a diverse ethnic population, which is tailor-made for prepaid calling. But now as rates keep falling, and competition coming from all over, it's tough to make a go, especially with so little customer loyalty.

Phonetime has gotten around this by becoming a wholesaler as well, and as Anuj explains, this has been a good move. Phonetime is not well known outside of Canada , but they've invested in their own network buildout, and that's enabled them to branch out into into wholesale. This is a public company, by the way, and being one of Canada's leading IP resellers, seem like a good one to watch.

Coming attractions - this week's podcast is with the Director of Info Services for one of Canada's largest law firms. We'll be talking about what their firm is going through as he takes them down the IP garden path, and away from their antiquated PBX. This is what VoIP looks like from the front lines where time is money.

Posted by jonarnold at 04:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 08, 2005

Canadian Thought Leaders Podcast - Bob Mimeault, Versatel Networks

Last week's podcast in my Canadian IP Thought Leaders series for VON Radio is now available.

I spoke with Bob Mimeault, CEO of Versatel Networks. Versatel is another innovative IP company from the Ottawa region - Gatineau, Quebec to be more precise. Bob has really taken this company forward, and they are strong advocates of putting network intelligence out to the edge, especially in their gateway, which has been designed around this principle. Versatel is finding their niche, and a recent round of funding provides further validation of this.

Bob articulates his thinking on this during the podcast, especially in terms of the kinds of problems he's seeing from carriers. Aside from some friendly Toronto/Ottawa hockey talk, Bob also talked a bit about what makes Ottawa such a vibrant community for IP companies. Check it out!

Posted by jonarnold at 09:49 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Canadian Thought Leaders Podcast - Bob Mimeault, Versatel Networks

Last week's podcast in my Canadian IP Thought Leaders series for VON Radio is now available.

I spoke with Bob Mimeault, CEO of Versatel Networks. Versatel is another innovative IP company from the Ottawa region - Gatineau, Quebec to be more precise. Bob has really taken this company forward, and they are strong advocates of putting network intelligence out to the edge, especially in their gateway, which has been designed around this principle. Versatel is finding their niche, and a recent round of funding provides further validation of this.

Bob articulates his thinking on this during the podcast, especially in terms of the kinds of problems he's seeing from carriers. Aside from some friendly Toronto/Ottawa hockey talk, Bob also talked a bit about what makes Ottawa such a vibrant community for IP companies. Check it out!

Posted by jonarnold at 09:49 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 27, 2005

Canadian Thought Leaders Podcast - Alec Saunders on Relevance and Voice 2.0

This week's VON Radio podcast was with Alec Saunders, CEO of Iotum. This is another good IP story coming out of Ottawa, and they've made some good announcements this week at the Internet Telephony Show in Los Angeles.

One thing I try to do in this series of Canadian podcasts is draw attention to how our vendors are providing some of the best innovation for IP, and that a number of these companies are based in Ottawa. Alec and I talked a bit about what makes Ottawa such a hub for IP, and of course, hockey. We also talked about the concepts of relevance in voice communicaiton, and emerging spaces such as Voice 2.0 and Web 2.0. Iotum is one of those companies that is very much built around these ideas that are certain to shape the voice market in the near future. Have a listen....

http://vonradio.pulver.com/podcasts/VONradio-jon_arnold_alec_saunders.mp3

If you want to learn more about what's behind Iotum's thinking and where they're going, here's a terrific profile that ran last week in the Ottawa Citizen.

Ottawa Citizen_Iotum

Posted by jonarnold at 04:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 19, 2005

Canadian Thought Leaders Podcast - Jeff Dionne on Open Source

Last week's Canadian Thought Leaders podcast was with Toronto-based Arcturus Networks's CEO and visionary, Jeff Dionne. Jeff is the co-author uClinux, and has been close to the Open Source community for some time. He was a speaker at the Open Source Summit that was part of Fall VON, and shared his views with me last week. The podcast is now up on VON Radio, and you can also hear it here.

By the way, for those of you wanting to know more about VON Radio, and the ever-growing archive of podcasts, make sure you go to the right place! There are actually two VON Radios. The Pulver.com version is best found through the Pulvermedia.com website, and you'll find the link there.

However, if just lazily type in www.vonradio.com, you'll quickly discover another flavor of VON radio altogether - Voice of Nevis Radio. Ya, mahn - this is the place for the latest and greatest from this tiny island in the Caribbean. Now you know!

Next week's podcast is with Alec Saunders, CEO of Ottawa-based Iotum Corp. Alec will be calling in from the Internet Telephony show out in LA. Good luck out there, Alec!

Posted by jonarnold at 11:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 29, 2005

Canadian Podcast Series - Mark Evans on Fall VON

This week's Canadian podcast for VON Radio is with Mark Evans. He's the Senior Technology Reporter for the National Post, which is one of Canada's national business dailies.

Mark and I reprised our impressions of Fall VON, and added our Canadian perspectives where we could. We were also on the Blogger's Panel, and revisited some of the topics covered. Our call wrapped up with a look at the financial aspects of the market, and a review of Canadian vendors to watch, including New Heights, Versatel Networks, Iotum, and Eyeball Networks.

Mark is one of Canada's top tech journalists, and frequently breaks the cool stories ahead of the pack. His blog is well read and widely cited - if it's not on your blog roll, it should be.

Posted by jonarnold at 08:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 14, 2005

Canadian Podcast Series Underway - Erik Lagerway on SIP

I recently initiated a series of weekly podcasts on VON Radio with IP thought leaders based in Canada, or those with a keen Canadian perspective. The first one was done last week with Erik Lagerway, and we built the conversation around his recent full length interview with Gizmo's Michael Robertson and where SIP is going now.

Erik does a regular series of his own podcasts, including a regular series entitled "The Future of VoIP". It's all good, and I urge you to check these out.

With all the activity around VON, it's taken until now for the podcast to be posted. Click here to download - your comments are welcome!

These podcasts will resume after VON, and I look forward to sharing with you a steady stream of interesting perspectives from Canada.

Posted by jonarnold at 11:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 01, 2005

Google Talk Revisited on VON Radio - Podcast

Yesterday I did a VON Radio podcast about Google Talk with fellow industry watcher, Mac Taylor. Mac runs the Moriana Group out of London, and his group produces some pretty interesting research. I recently blogged about their current report on IMS, which is available at no cost from their website.

The podcast runs about 15 minutes - hope you enjoy it - your feedback is welcome!

Look for more podcasts on this blog, especially on the state of IP in Canada. Am planning to start a weekly series of these, and will be drawing from an ever-expanding roster of locals who will shed light on the Great White North. Please drop me a line if you want in - jon@jarnoldassociates.com

Posted by jonarnold at 09:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 31, 2005

Fall VON Session - VoIP Friendly Firewalls - Hear All About It

At Fall VON in Boston, I'll be doing a few things, including moderating a session on VoIP Friendly Firewalls.

To help spread the word, the Pulver team is putting together podcasts to describe each session. This is a really great idea, and I think I'm the first one out of the gate to do one.

So, if you want to hear a bit more about what we'll be doing at this session, click here, and you'll get my 3 minute commercial. This podcast is produced by VON Radio, and to access the full set of archives, click here. If you are radio-challenged, click here for a text-based summary of the session.

Our panel will be on Tuesday, Sept. 20, from 3:30-4:45. Hope you can make it.

I'll also be sharing my IP views at the Analyst Roundtable, which is on Wednesday, from 10:30-11:45.

See you in Boston!

Posted by jonarnold at 08:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 23, 2005

VoIP Taxonomy - Part 2 - Podcast

In my July 20 posting on VoIP taxonomy, I mentioned we had done a VON Radio podcast about this, and would post it once it was ready.

So, for those who want to listen in, here's the link:

http://vonradio.pulver.com/podcasts/VONradio-tom_howe_jon_arnold_pt2.mp3

Posted by jonarnold at 12:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack