May 21, 2008
Service Provider Views - Jajah, Ribbit and Ifbyphone
My latest article for Service Provider Views was published yesterday on TMCnet. The focus this time was on some variations of the platform play as a path that service providers can take in the Web 2.0 world.
In particular, I touch briefly on Ifbyphone, Ribbit and Jajah. They're all different, and illustrate varying degrees of what a platform play might look like. It's early days for all of them, but I think there will be a place in the market for each of these models.
In my view, Jajah represents the most complete solution as platform plays go, and they'll be the sole subject of my next article, including an interview with their CEO, Trevor Healy. As always, your comments on my column are welcome.
Technorati tags: Service Provider Views, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, Jajah, Ifbyphone, Ribbit
Posted by jonarnold at 08:52 AM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2008
The New Nortel - Avatars, Mashups and no PBXs
I was in Ottawa on Wednesday/Thursday, attending Nortel's Futures 2008 media/analyst event. This doesn't happen every day for me, but we were told that our group was the first to see any of this stuff outside of Nortel. So, for a change, I've got a bit of a scoop here. I'm not going to tell you everything we saw, but we received enough guidance from Nortel for me to say that the contents of this post are ok with them.
You may be skeptical to hear about the "New Nortel", but that was definitely the point about us being there. Our job is to get the vision of what's coming and what's possible as Nortel tries to re-cast itself in the post-PBX era. I don't think we ever heard any mention of PBXs or softswitches, although they haven't exactly disappeared.
Not everything we saw was totally new, but there was certainly enough on display to conclude that Nortel still has a lot to offer, and their R&D remains first rate. There is plenty here to write a great case study about how to transform a company from being hardware-based to being software-centric.
With that, I'm going to share some highlights here along with some photos of the day.
- Project Chainsaw demo (w.a) - this was the first demo, and the most impressive. This was Nortel's vision of how really good quality audio can enhance a Web-based experience. They've taken voice as a core concept to improve upon, and did a great job demonstrating how much better 44 Khz stereo voice sounds than 8 Khz mono. No surprise there, but they really brought this to life with two specific applications.
The first was ecommerce, where they showed a virtual shopping experience for Dell computers. Unlike Second Life, where you can do similar things in their world, this scenario was hosted directly on Dell's site, so the customer stays in your domain rather than leaving the Dell site to do this somewhere else. By combining highly interactive avatars with clean graphics and great sound, the experience feels very life-like and very social - which they feel is key for using virtual environments to drive ecommerce. I really liked this, as it solves a real business problem, as opposed to just creating a cool social environment for people to hang out in. To me, this is how you monetize the web.
The second example was collaboration, which is another aspect of Project Chainsaw. At first we thought this was a secret codename, but they're fine with us sharing it with you. The intended message is for the world to see that the new Nortel is still cutting edge, and intends use brute force - of innovation - to sever the past and move into the future. Time will tell, but there's no doubt this will create a lot of noise and buzz once it hits the market.
The Chainsaw demo was actually very good, and a convincing way to convey the power of virtual collaboration environments. It was very much like Second Life, but in this case, just among Nortel employees - real ones. So, we got to interact real time with Nortel avatars whose virtual presence was in front of us, but were physically located somewhere else. It's a bit surreal, and while the avatars are cool, they really serve as virtual placeholders to make the interaction feel social. What makes the experience effective is the spatial audio, which mirrors how real social interactions occur. The volume changes accordingly as the avatars move about, walking up to you, or moving away, including the pitter patter of their feet.
What's really neat is that you can participate from any broadband connection. Of course it looks best on a big screen in the conference room (see my photos below), but you can run this on your PC, and yes, your mobile device. To me, this is the real power of Chainsaw, as you extend the experience much further than a videoconferencing or telepresence session. Why? Simply because it's virtual, and the focus is on the audio not the video. Avatars don't require nearly as much bandwidth than real time video, and the technical challenges around synching up voice and video aren't there.
They really see this as the future of communications and collaboration - so much so that they believe the PBX will disappear altogether once enterprises see the power of this concept. It's definitely Web 2.0 and Voice 2.0 and many other things. To me, it's a bit like how music videos have impacted how we relate to music. Before video, we LISTENED to music - on our stereos, tape recorders, the radio, clubs, etc. With the advent of video, especially on TV, I hate to say it, but nobody listens to music any more - we WATCH it.
Don't get me started on this one - that's the topic of a blog unto itself - but you get the idea. It's the same thing here - Chainsaw is primarily a visual experience, but the real communication is verbal - that's how people are really engaging and getting things done. Like MTV, it's a new kind of experience, but one that I think has a lot of potential. How this impacts their relationship with Microsoft and the whole Unified Communications landscape remains to be seen, but it's always great to see something that's a departure from the conventional approaches to communications.
They also talked about "accidental collaboration", a term which I really love. That was the idea where these environments allow people to be together in the same place and time, where in real life this hardly ever happens. So, you're having a scheduled conversation with one peer, and then you notice that someone else you've been wanting to connect with was is there too. Now you have a chance to actually engage. It may be a virtual environment, but the conversation - using Nortel's voice technologies - is very real.
I'll finish up this disussion with a few references. Colleague David Greenfield is more familiar with these virtual community technologies than me, so I'll steer you to his post about this demo and additional commentary.
Next - if you've followed my blog for a while, you may recall a post from last year about DiamondWare, another company I got a very early sneak peek at before most anyone else. There are many parallels to Chainsaw, and if you're interested in the space - especially for gaming - you'll find my post about them to be of interest. And if you don't believe me, just ask the Nortel team. We talked offline about this, and yes, they're quite familiar with DiamondWare.
Rich Tehrani also noticed the parallels, and added a few things to the mix in his post, as he also had some early exposure to DiamondWare. Ok, let's move on.
- We saw a few demos around Unified Communications and desktop applications, all of which enforce the notion that Nortel is clearly moving away from hardware to software, and is focused on the end user like never before. Highlights included ACE - Agile Communications Environment - and a presence-based mashup they created for a client in 4 weeks that integrates a Nortel plug-in with Yahoo Messenger. We heard a lot of talk around Web-based applications and a movement to create a developer sandbox. Over the course of the day, I have to say much of this was consistent with what I've been seeing from other Tier 1 vendor analyst events. They're all embracing the end user, applications and developers, which is great news for innovation. Of course, there's the possibility they'll all come to market with the same solutions, but no doubt they're monitoring each other closely to ensure this doesn't happen.
- Moving along to yet another locale within the campus, we saw a really engaging healthcare demo. All the big vendors are building vertical market solutions, and Nortel is right there with them. They ran us through a variety of scenarios where people and things can be tracked real time inside a hospital using RFID tags and mobile devices. On a basic level, it's about asset tracking to make sure that patients or hospital beds don't go missing. But it's also about workflow improvement, with the ability to monitor patient needs and ensure they get the right treatment by the right people at the right time. Very neat stuff, and it's hard imagine why any hospital wouldn't want to be working this way today.
- The Telepresence demo was next, and after Project Chainsaw, this was the highlight of the day. I've been a fan of TP since Cisco came to market with such a big splash in 2006. You might want to think they invented TP, but far from it. They've done a lot with it, but there are many other solid offerings, including Nortel's. Whenever you see TP in action, you can't help but be impressed, and this was as good as anything I've seen. Nortel provides all the network services and management for this, but the hardware is Polycom's. I don't have a problem with this - I think it's a great combination, and being standards-based, they're not just locked in with Polycom. Nortel also supports and re-sells Tandberg and Microsoft's Roundtable, so they have many ways to participate in this growing market space.
Telepresence is one of those things you have to experience first hand to appreciate, and I just want to add a few things that really stood out for me.
- Nortel was refreshingly candid about the realities around TP. The demo was led by Hugh McCullen - GM Multimedia Services - and he said that Telepresence is not plug and play. That was really great to hear since it looks so easy when you see it. Of course, Nortel needs to say that since they don't make the hardware, and they need some form of value-add. Fair enough, but Hugh walked us through a long list of what they bring to manage the service and deliver a great QoE - Quality of Experience.
- Their TP sessions can be recorded. Not sure if all the other solutions do today, but they didn't earlier on. By recording the sessions, Hugh talked about how TP helps video become an "information asset". Sounds a bit geeky, but I can see the value of that.
- The TP studio we sat in had a stadium-style layout rather than the conventional boardroom that I've seen elsewhere. It's a bit different experience since you're not sitting as close to the screen, but it's still very effective.
- The tabletops we watched from had pop-up PC screens embedded in the tables. Very neat design. When not in use, the desktop is flat, but when you need the screen to follow a presentation while the speaker is talking, the monitors pop up, like the overhead screens in airplanes. I've got a photo of this down below.
- Nortel's TP comes in two flavors - 2 screens or 4 screens - photos of both are below. This was really neat to see, and with 4 screens, it's even more impressive. Seems simple, but this is another way to differentiate. Cisco is 3 screens, so we'll do you one better with 4. Ok. A bit like Gillette - I think we're up to 5 blades for shaving now. I sure hope TP doesn't get quite this out of hand.
- Finally - the TP room can be used for other things. How simple was that? The Cisco rooms I've seen are dedicated 100% to TP - you can't really use them for anything else. As mentioned, this room was stadium-style, but there was also a functional conference table down at the front.
One more thing. I've mentioned Cisco a few times, and for sake of comparsion, I'll refer you to my post about their demo, including a video clip.
I'm going to stop now. There were other demos too, including their recently launched Unified Communications solution for SMBs, and their 4G WiMax solution. I think you get the idea - lots of things coming down the pipe from Nortel, and I'd say they're in as good a position as any incumbent vendor to make the transition to the 2.0 world. Definitely time well spent, and I feel lucky to be included in this early look at what's coming. Hopefully with this post, you'll be getting the next best thing. I'd love to hear your thoughts, especially if this has changed your perceptions of Nortel.
Nortel campus in Ottawa
Glass cupola - great symmetry. Hard to tell if you're looking up into the spire, or down from the tip of the peak.
Great way to start the day. Mike Z wasn't there - he rarely is - and the Nortel AR team had us camp out there.
Feels a bit like a palace coup. Nortel's Sami Asiri getting our agenda updated using Mike Z's desk. Sure was comfortable there...
Andrew Lippman from MIT's Media Lab, giving us more perspective on what Nortel brings to voice in the 2.0 world, using Mr. Z's whiteboard
A few of our demos took place in the Executive Briefing Center. Even based on Ottawa, this sure looks like an American company, huh? Up here, we would spell that "Centre". That's Andy Lippman with Rich Tehrani.
Project Chainsaw
Unified communications demo
Healthcare vertical demo
Enroute to the telepresence demo - felt like the beginning of Get Smart, going through all the secret doors...
Two screen demo
Pop-up monitor
Four screen demo
WiMax demo
Technorati tags:
Nortel, Jon Arnold, Ottawa, Rich Tehrani, David Greenfield, Project Chainsaw
Posted by jonarnold at 08:41 AM | Comments (1)
May 13, 2008
Next Stop - Ottawa
I recently had a stretch of 4 events in 3 weeks, which is a lot for me, so it's been great to be around for a bit. This week, though, I have a short trip to Ottawa where I'm attending an event by Nortel for the analyst/blogger community. I'll be flying to Ottawa tomorrow and will be there all day Thursday.
Am looking forward to catching up with Nortel and to see how they're positioning themselves in a world where incumbent vendors are struggling to find terra firma - if that's even possible any more.
Should be quite interesting, as we'll be seeing presentations and demos about what what they're up to with virtual reality conferencing, mashups, Unified Communications, social media and vertical market applications. These things are quickly becoming table stakes for all major vendors, and I'll share my thoughts once I'm there and get the ok from Nortel as to what we can discuss publicly.
Technorati tags: Nortel, Jon Arnold, Ottawa
Posted by jonarnold at 09:07 AM | Comments (1)
May 08, 2008
VoIP Now - Am On Their "Top 100" Telecom Blogs
I'm having a good week. Yesterday, VoIP Now posted its list of Top 100 Telecom Industry Blogs.
Not sure why this list is coming out at this particular time, but it's always a good time be included in these things. Am happy to say that my blog made the list, and is in the group of 24 blogs categorized under VoIP. The blogs are listed alphabetically, so there's no rank-ordering here. They've wisely stayed away from that, so I guess they like us all, which is fine by me.
The top 100 blogs are spread out over 7 categories, of which VoIP is the largest. There are a few anomalies to the list and the groupings, which I've shared with VoIP Now, but I'll just leave it to you to make your own assessment. On the whole, the list includes just about everyone I can think of, but I have passed along a few who are conspicuous by their absence. By all means, have a look, and feel free to do the same.
If you follow my blog, you'll know that I also got a #1 rating the other day from Blogged.com, so I'm on a bit of a roll right now. No industry list is perfect, but it's great to get some recognition from more than one place. Good things often come in threes, so maybe there's another list coming around the bend...
Technorati tags: Blogged.com, Jon Arnold, telecom blogs, VoIP Now
Posted by jonarnold at 08:57 AM | Comments (1)
May 07, 2008
IP Convergence TV Updates Posted
The latest major update for IP Convergence TV is out now, and I just wanted to draw attention to the new content that's being featured there.
- Comverse white paper on multi-play service bundles
- Intel technical paper on IMS performance benchmarks
- European video interviews with Blueslice Networks and Yankee Group
- US video interviews with SIP Forum, IMS Forum and other industry experts
- Guest Opinion pieces from 3 new contributors - Brough Turner, Peter Csathy and Luca Filigheddu
- my lastest Convergence Blog post about trends I'm seeing from recent conferences
We've also got a great Q&A interview coming very soon that I did with Ariel Barlaro from TVTelco Latam, where he provides an overview of what's happening in Latin America with video and IPTV.
As always, your input, comments and suggestions are welcome, either here or at the portal. Hope you like it!
Technorati tags: IP Convergence TV, Jon Arnold
Posted by jonarnold at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)
May 02, 2008
eComm Presentations
For those of you who couldn't/didn't attend eComm2008 this March - and that's probably most of you - I just wanted to say that the content is slowly making its way to the eComm website.
The quantity of presentations was overwhelming, and the quality was excellent, and despite seeing almost everything, it's impossible to really digest the whole ball o' wax. Lee was forward-thinking enough to video tape the presentations, and he's even gone to the trouble of getting some of these transcribed. Wow - that's impressive! He's not doing this to get rich, folks - it's there for anyone to access, no charge. I've been talking with Lee about this, and he genuinely feels the communications sector is undergoing an historic transformation, and he simply wants to chronicle the proceedings.
So, to see what's there, go to the eComm Blog, where he's got a few of the presentations - video and text - up now. More will be coming in time, so come back soon if you haven't found what you're looking for.
Lee - friendly suggestion - put a Tip Jar on your site! This stuff is great, and I'd like to think at least a few people would like to send something good your way for all this hard work!
Technorati tags: eComm, Jon Arnold, Lee Dryburgh
Posted by jonarnold at 04:13 PM | Comments (0)
April 30, 2008
Jajah, Yahoo, Jahoo, Whoohoo....
I made a conscious decision to take most of yesterday off because of my birthday. I'm the boss, and what I say goes.
Invariably, something interesting always seems to happen when I do things like this. So, better late than never, but yesterday's news with Jajah and Yahoo sure is a goodie. It's been well covered by now, and for reference I'll steer you to the mainstream press - Business Week - and some blogs - Andy Abramson, Irv Shapiro, Gary Kim, Garrett Smith, Alec Saunders.
And if that won't keep you busy enough, Alec interviewed Jajah's co-founder Roman Scharf on his Squawk Box program yesterday.
Tons going on with this news, and it's one of the best examples I've seen about bringing telephony and the web together. To sum it up, I'd just use one word: SCALE.
This news validates web based calling for the masses like never before. Jajah has hit 10 million customers. Yahoo's IM base is 97 million users. They've basically outsourced the voice element to Jajah, who now has a turnkey hosted platform that could be used on a wholesale basis by any carrier/operator looking for someone to take LD voice off their hands. Plus, Jajah has opened their platform up to the developer community. I should also add that Jajah is more about using the phone to make calls than the PC, the latter of which is really Skype's domain. Oh, and let's not forget Jajah's relationship with Intel, which could make them the default voice service embedded into their chips. Etc., etc.
If this isn't Voice 2.0 and Web 2.0 all rolled up into one, I don't know what is. On the side of caution, Andy rightly notes that Yahoo is still potentially in play with Microsoft, and if that comes to fruition, Jajah may need to yield to Microsoft's voice technologies. That aside, this news is serious validation that the world is ready for 2.0, whether you call it voice, web or just applications. Scale is the final frontier for making these things mainstream, and with this news we sure have it now. Whoo hoo!
Technorati tags: Jajah, Jon Arnold, Yahoo, Alec Saunders, Andy Abramson
Posted by jonarnold at 04:55 PM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2008
Dimension Data Analyst Day
UPDATE - this post was written on Monday to summarize this analyst event. Due to the unavailability of broadband at our hotel, I'm only now able to get this posted...
Am in Boston for Dimension Data's analyst conference. It's the first time they've held an event like this in North America, and is part of their efforts to become better known here, especially among the analyst community.
Dimension Data is based in South Africa, but is truly a global IT services player, with revenues in the $4 billion range and customers in about 45 countries. They have quite the global footprint, and offer a complete set of solutions to help enterprises do the right things with IT. We've been hearing executive presentations about their full range of capabilities and their vision of how they pull all these services together and create value for their customers.
They're a public company, they're profitable, and are growing fast. Their solutions are heavily based around Cisco and Microsoft, with a lot of integration between them. Over the course of the day, they've been sharing lots of case studies across various geographies and vertical markets. There isn't much they can't do, so it's a great story in terms of what IT services providers need to be doing today to really add value for enterprises.
Was also nice to hear about their recent expansion into Canada. Their presence is small, but growing quickly. I'll certainly be spending more time with them locally once I'm back.
Good time to be here, and a good day to keep our attention. I was here over the weekend, and it's all sports right now. Last night, both the Bruins and Red Sox were playing here, and the street scene around the Fleet Center nearby was a blast. There's hasn't been this level of intensity around the Bruins for ages, and it was great to see a sea of Bruins and Habs jerseys everywhere. Bruins finally beat Montreal, and I think they've solved them, and just might make this a memorable series. Sox beat the Yankees again, so all is good here. And there are no games today, so Dimension Data truly has my undivided attention!
Jere Brown, Americas CEO
Brett Dawson, Group CEO
Technorati tags:
Dimension Data, Jon Arnold, Boston
Posted by jonarnold at 06:15 AM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2008
IT-Finance Connection Launches
Carl Weinschenk is a veteran tech journalist I've long admired and have done a number of stories with. I know him best through the publication IT Business Edge, and he's now got a portal of his own, called IT-Finance Connection.
He just gave me the news about it yesterday, and I'm happy to give it some attention. Carl covers a lot of ground, and as the name implies, he's using this portal to build a better bridge between the Finance and IT functions within organizations. They have long operated under different sets of rules, but as IT becomes more of a strategic resource on many levels, it's important that these two groups work more closely together.
I get that, and think that Carl is on to something good here. Hopefully he can build a business model around it, at least enough to build a base from which to grow. I'm not quite sure how he's going to engage these communities, but I'll certainly be willing to help, and would urge you to do the same if you like what he's doing here.
Technorati tags:
IT Finance Connection, Jon Arnold, Carl Weinschenk
Posted by jonarnold at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)
April 03, 2008
Mobile VoIP Review - New Site - Cool Idea
Blogging colleague Garrett Smith has just launched a really interesting site, and is a side venture to what keeps him 110% busy over at VoIP Supply, which is booming in its own right.
His new site is called Mobile VoIP Review. One reason I like it is that the name says it all - nothing obtuse here. Very simply, it's a portal for people to post their own reviews about mobile VoIP services they've been using. There are placeholders there for all the major offerings - Truphone, Mobivox, Skype, iSkoot, Jajah, Fring, Rebtel, etc.
I should add this is very timely with CTIA happening this week!
Definitely a Web 2.0 idea here - let the reviewers provide the content, and if there's enough traction, the site becomes a great magnet for very useful information about these offerings. And of course, if that happens, advertisers will follow, and then Garrett just may have a nice business on his hands.
It's not totally commerce-driven, as there's a very handy FAQ section where the basics of mobile VoIP are explained in plain English (with a few typos along the way). So, the site can also be a vehicle for educating the market, and if this starts to build a following, I can see all kinds of potential for online demos, community building and richer content from across the industry. Plus, the site has a section for comparing mobile VoIP services, which will be quite interesting once it's developed.
So, if you're a mobile VoIP user, the site is open for business, and I'm sure Garrett would love to get your reviews! Great idea, Garrett - not sure if there's anything like this out there, but the time is certainly right.
Technorati tags: Mobile VoIP Review, Jon Arnold, Garrett Smith
Posted by jonarnold at 11:17 AM | Comments (0)
April 02, 2008
IP Convergence TV Updates Posted
I just wanted to draw attention to some recent content updates to the IP Convergence TV portal. On my Convergence Blog, we finally posted a lengthy Q&A I did with Ryan Olsen, who covers the VoIP infrastructure space at Synergy Research. This was my coverage area when I was at Frost & Sullivan, and I still follow it, so I have a natural affinity to Ryan's research.
His latest coverage is for the Q4 2007 period, and their report provides very extensive analysis and data points about the various equipment categories - gateways, softswitches, application servers, etc. The Q&A addresses the trends along with some data points that Ryan is seeing in each major category along with the overall state of the VoIP infrastructure market. Hope you enjoy it, and Ryan's contact information is provided for further follow up on his report.
We're also finally getting the last batch of videos posted that were done at the ITExpo. My interviews with TMC's Rich Tehrani and Manuel Vexler of the IMS Forum have now been posted, and before the week is out my interview with Eric Burger and Marc Robins of the SIP Forum should be posted as well.
Another video that was recently posted was conducted by Erik Larsson with David Carnevale of iSuppli during the Mobile World Congress.
Since my last blog update, I should mention there are also new video interviews with analysts David Yedwab and Will Stofega, as well as Part 2 of my interview with Greg Galitzine.
We have a number of Guest Opinion contributions coming very soon as well, with some being familiar names and some being new ones. All told, the quality of content we're getting on the portal remains quite high, and I hope you come spend some there, propose new content, leave a comment, and of course, subscribe.
Technorati tags: IP Convergence TV, Jon Arnold, J Arnold Associates
Posted by jonarnold at 11:55 AM | Comments (0)
April 01, 2008
IT360 Conference Coming Next Week
Time flies when you're busy, and I've been one of many people working in the background for the past few months on my part of the IT360 Conference coming here in Toronto next week. There aren't many conferences here in town for me to participate in, so I'm glad to have a chance to be part of the programming mix for this event.
I've posted about IT360 before, and along with Henry Dortmans, I'm co-chairing the Unified Communications track.
We've got a great lineup in place, and across the 3 days, you'll learn more than you need to about UC. If you're attending, I sure won't be hard to find, and I'll be most visible during two sessions in particular.
On Monday, I'm running a UC Overview tutorial from 1pm to 4pm, along with Simon Gwatkin of Mitel. Complementing my presentation, Simon will be doing some live demos of UC in action, so this should prove to be a very hands-on, multimedia session. Sort of like UC....
I'm also moderating a panel on Wednesday, bright and early at 8:30, on Vertical Market Scenarios. Simon will be with me on this one as well, along with Jeff Lowe from Telus. This will be another multimedia session, and by having both a vendor and carrier on the panel, we'll give the audience a pretty complete perspective on how UC can be tailored to add value for a specific line of business.
If you're in town, I hope you can make it!
Technorati tags:
IT360 Conference, Jon Arnold, Unified Communications
Posted by jonarnold at 04:56 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 08:11 PM | Comments (0)
March 25, 2008
How VoIP Bloggers are Using VoIP
I was recently contacted by VoIP-News as part of a story on how bloggers and "VoIP VIPs" are actually using VoIP and VoIP-related applications. Great idea. Of course, there are no ends to the permutations, so it's fascinating to scan the landscape for what people are doing.
I'm actually a pretty pedestrian VoIP user, mainly because I'm at my desk most of the time, and don't have much need for mobile or conferencing applications. I'm also not much of a gadget guy, so you won't see me raving about the latest tech bauble to velcro to my utility belt. Just for the record, I don't have one, but I love having VoIP!
Anyhow, the article came out today, and I was included in the writeup, which I highly recommend you read. Others of note in the article include Andy Abramson, Mark Evans and Henning Schulzrinne (one of the originators of SIP). Pretty interesting writeup, and am pretty sure anybody reading this will learn something new. It's also a good testament to the fact that VoIP is not a one-dimensional technology/application, and when you mix it up with web services and mashups, things start to get really interesting.
Technorati tags: VoIP-News, Jon Arnold, VoIP
Posted by jonarnold at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)
March 05, 2008
VoIP, Vonage and Skype - 3 of my Favorite Things - Ike Elliott Too
I've done plenty of blogging, writing and podcasting about these 3 topics - VoIP, Vonage and Skype - over the years, and sometimes I feel I'm the last one standing pointing to any signs of hope for Vonage.
Well, I may have a kindred spirit in Ike Elliott, whom I've been getting to know better recently. He's turned up in a few of my posts, and his blog, Telecosm - love the name - is really starting to find its voice. Ike has a long history in telecom, and many people associate him with Level 3, but for me, it's been our common focus on these VoIP topics. Oh - and music. We're of the same vintage, and our musical tastes are very similar. Maybe we'll come out with a blog about that some day - now THAT would be fun.
Anyhow, his posts from today and yesterday have dug a little deeper into this territory, and he's put together some nice trend data showing how well everyone is really doing with residential VoIP. "Everyone" is basically 3 parties - the cablecos, Skype and Vonage.
In today's post, Ike shows that the trend for residential VoIP is actually slowing down across the board, which is very interesting. The exception is a big Q4 uptick from Skype, but otherwise, the revenue growth rate is decreasing. He speculates that competition is one cause, and wireless substitution is another. I agree with these, and he also cites Vonage's shaky existence, which is probably giving a black eye to all the remaining pure play VoIP providers. Lots to talk about here, but let's move on.
Yesterday's post has Ike digging into what Skype's numbers really mean, especially around the definition of "registered users". Very interesting reading, and a topic that deserves exploration, for both Skype lovers and nay-sayers. On that note, you should also bookmark Skype Journal, which touches on this topic from time to time.
All good stuff here, and I just want to shine some light on Ike and the good work he's doing. Am sure he and I will find a way to tease these ideas out further another time - maybe here, maybe on his blog, maybe on a podcast. And if you want a bit more, come visit the IP Convergence TV portal, which I am the Editor of. Ike has just written a Guest Opinion article on this topic, and it will be posted in the next day or so.
Technorati tags: VoIP, Jon Arnold, Ike Elliott, Vonage, Skype
Posted by jonarnold at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)
February 29, 2008
Ike Elliott's Update on the VoIP Market
Been trying to get to this one all afternoon.
Ike Elliott had a really great post earlier today about the state of the US residential VoIP market. He's provided keen insights around a few sets of data points showing how the market shares break down. He and I follow this space quite a bit, so it's great to share his thoughts with my readers.
Basically, Ike is showing how the cablecos have strengthened their grip on this market since last year, and at this point, Vonage is a distant #3 with 15%. That's still a very respectable position, but aside from the cablecos, there's nobody else other that Skype. I'm glad Ike has listed them, even though Skype is not competing with the others in terms of providing a landline replacement service. Still, it's interesting to see where they stand, especially for revenues, which track at 8% of the market.
My only question is this - is this US or global revenues for Skype? I'm pretty sure that most of Skype's revenues are outside North America, and it's not clear to me what's being reported here. Regardless, as popular as Skype is, the revenues don't add up to much when compared on an absolute basis to the network-based competitors. On the other hand, of course, Skype's infrastructure, operating and marketing costs are next to nothing, so their margins are much healthier.
So, which do you prefer - high revenues/decent margins, or low revenues/high margins - or in Vonage's case, high revenues/decent margins, but huge OTHER costs? One thing is clear to me - it's tough to make a go selling just landline VoIP. Ike shows the ARPUs, which come in higher for the cablecos than Vonage, but that can be trickier territory. When you're selling the bundle, you can be more arbitrary allocating where that $99/month goes from each subscriber. It's very easy to bury voice in the mix as a loss leader, but with Vonage, you can't hide anything.
Lots of angles to explore here, and it's great that Ike has taken the time to put these numbers together. I also find his post to be a nice reprise to my recent Service Provider Views article about Vonage and their recent Q4 numbers. Ike was nice enough to start some dialog with me about this, and now that he's posted his views, you're welcome to jump in and join the conversation.
Technorati tags: Service Provider Views, Jon Arnold, Ike Elliott, Vonage, Skype
Posted by jonarnold at 04:45 PM | Comments (0)
February 28, 2008
eComm2008 - Q&A with Lee Dryburgh/Discount Offer
Got two updates to share with you about the eComm2008 conference, which I did a background post about on Monday.
First is an interview I did with Lee Dryburgh that just ran on IP Convergence TV the other day. Lee mostly talks about his views on convergence technologies, but also a bit about what you can expect to experience at eComm2008. Hope you enjoy it, and comments are welcome.
Second is a special discount offer I can share with you to save 15% on registration for the conference. Hopefully, you've heard by now from many sources how promising this event will be, and if you're thinking about going, please drop me a line, and I can pass on the information you'll need to save 15% on your registration.
Technorati tags: eComm2008, Jon Arnold, Lee Dryburgh
Posted by jonarnold at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)
February 26, 2008
Skype's New CEO - Big Shoes to Fill
Been a real full day, and had a few posts I wanted to get out, but I'm only going to get this one done today. It's verging on old news by now, but I still think it's worth noting, and hey, not everybody is an uber-blogger, so it just might still be news to you.
So, the search for a new CEO at Skype is over, and I got the news yesterday morning from Jim Courtney, a Toronto-based colleague who is a prime contributor to Skype Journal. His post tells the story pretty well, and it's good news all around. Skype has been rudderless since Niklas Zennstrom abruptly resigned late last year, and parent company eBay now a stable leader in place to hopefully guide the company back into the winner's circle, at least as far as eBay's books are concerned.
Niklas is one of those one in a million guys, and it's hard to imagine following up his act, but the new CEO, Josh Silverman seems well suited for the task, especially given his eBay pedigree. I don't know him - but I do have some history with Niklas - but Jim offers his thoughts, and raises a good question. With Skype's HQ being in London, but the R&D being in Estonia, why would he move to work out of Estonia? Perhaps this is a signal that Skype plans to revert inward to become more R&D focused, much like in their days before becoming a household name. After all, Estonia is really the heart and soul of the company - always has been.
That said, Andy Abramson has a later posting about the news, and explains that the move to Estonia is short term, and looks like a good move to build bridges with the core development team, and then shift focus to corporate HQ. Andy also offers some further insights about why this is a good move all around.
Wherever he ends up, Josh has a big job ahead. After taking its writedown from eBay, and looking a bit like a corporate orphan, Skype remains in the eBay fold, and perhaps this is their last chance to make the marriage work. If it does, everyone wins and eBay becomes a market driver and bona fide innovator again. Otherwise, Skype will become a liability for eBay, making it certain to be acquired, perhaps at a bargain price. I sure hope the latter doesn't happen, as the market needs disruptors like Skype, and having just passed the 100 billion minute mark last week, you really want to believe their star is still rising.
Technorati tags: Skype, Jon Arnold, Jim Courtney, Andy Abramson
Posted by jonarnold at 08:37 PM | Comments (1)
February 25, 2008
Next Stop - eComm2008
Next conference for me is eComm2008, coming up March 12-14 in Mountain View, California.
Got a few things to convey about this event in my post...
For background, eComm has picked up where eTel left off last year, and is largely the vision of Lee Dryburgh, who I have recently gotten to know a bit, and am looking forward to meeting next month.
I'm late posting about eComm as it's taken a while to formalize my participation, which I'll get to in a moment. So, if you haven't been reading up eComm, you should start with the press release, and then move on to some of the recent blog posts, including today's from Thomas Howe and Andy Abramson, and earlier ones from Martin Geddes and Alec Saunders' Squawk Box interview, which includes Lee Dryburgh as a guest.
Myself - I've got small part, but at least I'm there, and am really looking forward to hearing from such a first-rate roster of speakers. I'll be moderating the Mobile Mashups panel, which currently includes Tom Howe (oh, what a surprise!), Dean Bubley, Irv Shaprio, Boaz Zilberman, and James Body. If you're coming, the session is on Thursday, from 2:00 to 3:00.
Finally, being on the West coast, I was really hoping to participate in Spring VON - now known as VON.X - which is the following week in San Jose. Very hard decisions to make here, but my circumstances just don't make it possible to do both. Turns out eComm takes place during our March break, and the plans have unfolded such that my 15 year old son, Max, is coming with me and will be with me at eComm, at least for as long as he finds it interesting. So, if you've ever wanted to meet Max, here's your chance. He'll be with me at eComm, but we're flying back after that so he can get back to school. Will have to miss VON this time around, but I certainly plan to be there in the fall.
Technorati tags: eComm2008, Jon Arnold, Lee Dryburgh, VON
Posted by jonarnold at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)
February 20, 2008
Skype is on a roll - 100 billion minutes and counting...
Skype has recently hit a couple of big milestones, and for all the problems around their marriage with eBay, you have to step back and give them some credit for doing things that have never been done before.
First off is the recent news that Skype has passed the 100 billion minute mark. I don't know about you, but I sure can't count that high, and it's a huge number, especially for a service that's only been around a few years. Anyone know how long it took the PSTN to get this? Of course, that's where the discussion ends, as the telcos have made billions over the years, and for the most part, have had the regulators on their side.
Skype, on the other hand, is making decent money on fantastic volume, but they have a long way to go to become the money maker that telcos have long been. There's more to discuss here, of course, but basically, Skype has had a hard time finding market acceptance of their business model and vision within the eBay fold, and it's anyone's guess as to whether they will stay with eBay, or pass into the hands of someone like Google. Oh, so much to talk about here, but let's move on...
That aside, the legacy of Skype so far has been one of disruption, and making the communications pie bigger. Maybe not more profitable, but bigger. Whether Skype becomes a money-maker or not, there's no turning back the clock. VoIP is here to stay, and the PC-based flavor that Skype has done so well with has changed the way we communicate. And if they do nothing else, that's enough for me. Rich Tehrani adds his thoughts from earlier today here as well.
The second item is equally encouraging, and was posted today on Skype Journal. On Monday, Skype hit the 12 million online user mark for the first time. It may not sound like much, but it's an awful lot of concurrent VoIP calls going over a single platform - way more than anybody else is doing. If there's a better validator out there about VoIP's ability to scale, let's hear about it.
Skype may have its share of challenges, but they have definitely taken telephony where it's never been before, and of course are trying to do the same now with video. You only hit 100 billion once, and it's a great testament to what Niklas and Janus started only a few years ago, and I'd say it's definitely worthy of recognition. And for what it's worth, I've used Skype more today than I have in ages, so in my very small way, I'm helping the cause.
Technorati tags: Skype, Jon Arnold, VoIP, Skype Journal
Posted by jonarnold at 06:48 PM | Comments (1)
Service Provider Views Article - Vonage
My latest column for Service Provider Views was posted yesterday.
This one's about Vonage, and my view on their prospects following last week's Q4 results. Very mixed bag, and with cable VoIP getting stronger by the day, their margin for error gets smaller and smaller. As usual, your comments are welcome.
Technorati tags: Service Provider Views, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, Vonage
Posted by jonarnold at 01:29 PM | Comments (1)
February 19, 2008
Bell and Cisco Partnering on Managed Services
Today started off with an early briefing at 8:30 with Cisco and Bell Canada. That's what this post is about, and I had every intention of getting this written and posted by 9am, but boy has the day zoomed by. I'm off to New York for the next two days on consulting work, and there has been a non-stop stream of things to tie up, so here we are.
So, when Bell and Cisco asks you to be on a briefing at 8:30 the morning back after a long weekend, you gotta figure this is big news. In some ways it is, but I wouldn't say it's earth shattering, so I don't feel you've missed too much hearing about from me at this point in the day. Haven't seen anything about this from the bloggers, although to be fair, many of them are blogged out after last week's mega conference in Spain, MWC - Mobile World Congress.
Closer to home, today's news is somewhat interesting at face value, but I think it's more interesting for it may represent. At face value, Bell and Cisco have partnered to provide managed services to Bell's customers - high level details are in the press release. This is a win-win - more or less - in that Bell comes to market with a complete solution to leverage their nationwide network and deepen their customer relationships. Cisco wins by getting the upper hand into Bell's enterprise customer portfolio with managed services, deepening their existing relationships on the networking side. Two Tier 1 players working together makes for a very strong proposition. Fair enough - that's just the way the markets go these days - the big get bigger, and hopefully that's good for the customers. Time will tell.
The other interesting part of the story is the 'knowledge gap' they referred to a few times. IP is advancing quickly, and it's no surprise there is a shortage of well trained, qualified technical people to deploy, manage and maintain these wonderful technologies. To address this, Cisco and Bell are opening two 'Knowledge
Centres' - Montreal and Toronto. Makes sense. Not only will enterprises gain more Cisco-certified staffers, but these centres will become test labs where new features, applications, etc. can be trialed before being launched in their networks. Good idea, and a great way for Cisco to further embed itself in these networks.
All good, right? It is for these companies, but am not sure what this means for others. I can't imagine this is good news for Nortel, and maybe even Microsoft - two companies that have an alliance of their own. These companies are all vying for the Unified Communications vision, whereby they have a chance to control most if not all of the customer relationship. The stakes are high here, and I think Cisco has made a savvy move here to get the inside track with Bell, who has the lion's share of Canada's enterprise business. Let's not forget that the privatization track for Bell is a bit shaky these days, and they need all the good news stories they can get. I'm sure Cisco recognized they could help Bell's cause with such a move, as they need to do whatever it takes to hold on to their customers. It will be interesting to see what MTS Allstream and Telus do in response.
Technorati tags:
Cisco, Jon Arnold, Bell Canada
Posted by jonarnold at 03:34 PM | Comments (1)
February 12, 2008
IT360 Conference Agenda Posted
Been meaning to post about this for a while. The IT360 Conference is coming here in Toronto from April 7-9, and the agenda was recently posted to their website.
It's still a work in progress, but will give you a good idea of the range to topics being covered. I'm Co-Chairing the Unified Communications track with colleague Henry Dortmans. Most of our program is set, but we still have some adds and changes coming. We've been at this for a while, and have a strong roster in place, and you can get a sense here for what we'll be talking about. I'll have more updates as we get closer to the date, but can tell you now it's a strong program, and should be a great opportunity to get apprised on where Unified Communications is going in Canada.
Technorati tags:
IT360 Conference, Jon Arnold, Unified Communications
Posted by jonarnold at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)
February 07, 2008
IP Essentials Webinar Summary Document
Just a short note to pass on a summary document from my webinar with America's Growth Capital last Friday.
A copy of the presentation as well as Catharine's full report are still available from either of us upon request. In addition, Catharine has put together a nice 8 page summary of the high points from our webinar, and you're welcome to download that here.
Technorati tags:
J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, America's Growth Capital
Posted by jonarnold at 10:09 AM | Comments (0)
February 05, 2008
Phonetime Graduates to Toronto Stock Exchange
Well, here's a good news item I'm pleased to share, especially as North America teeters on the brink of recession.
One of our local companies - Phonetime - has graduated from our venture exchange to our big board, the TSX. The news was announced today, and I say that they've graduated for a good reason - their trading symbol is PHD. Hah - can't get any smarter than that!
This is a really positive sign for a company that doesn't get much attention and operates a pretty simple, Voice 1.0 business. They've been on the venture exchange since 2000, and I've been friendly with them for a few years, so I can say first hand this is a good story.
Phonetime is basically a one-stop-shop for long distance telecom services across Canada. They operate their own national network, and have a healthy mix of both wholesale termination/origination business as well as retail offerings, primarily through calling cards. Sure, it's a low margin/high volume business, but if you establish your network and maintain a reasonably loyal mix of customers and distributors, it can be a decent business.
Not very sexy, but with Toronto's unparalleled mix of cultures and immigrants, this is a great market for these types of products, especially the calling cards. VoIP may not mean much to this audience yet, but calling cards make a lot of sense, especially for people who do not even have the luxury of their own landline.
For sake of transparency, I'm not a shareholder, but it's been on my to-do list for a while. I think I'll follow their progress on the TSX for little bit first and then see about becoming one.
Technorati tags:
Phonetime, Jon Arnold, TSX
Posted by jonarnold at 08:31 PM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2008
Busy Week/IP Essentials Webinar Recap
It's been a very full week, and I'm pretty tired.
Following the wake of many good things from last week's ITExpo, I've been quite busy managing the latest round of content updates to the IP Convergence TV portal, including 10 video interviews I conducted last week. 2 have been posted so far, and the rest will be coming in the next week or so.
Independently, I wrote my next column for TMCnet, which will probably run on Monday, and finalized a feature-length Q&A print interview, which will run in the next edition of Business Trends Quarterly - a magazine I highly recommend if you want the latest in industry analyst thinking. I've recently been asked to join their Editorial Advisory Board, and am quite looking forward to that. I've also been laying the groundwork for some upcoming industry events, including a few that I've had to turn away - can only be in one place at a time.
As most of you know, conferences usually have a long lead time, and this week has also kept me busy on an April event here in Toronto. It's the IT360 conference, and I'm the co-chair of the Unified Communications track, along with confrere Henry Dortmans. We've been putting a lot of time into this, and this week, the brochure finally came out. It's posted now on their website, and there's a lot going on there. We still have to flesh out a few spots, and we'll be back on track with this next week.
I also have some side things simmering along - some of which I've posted about before - that will become blog-worthy over the next couple of weeks. Plus, several business development seeds are set to come forth this month that will keep my business going in the right direction - gotta have that.
Finally, we had our IP Essentials webinar today. Catharine Trebnick of America's Growth Capital co-hosted this with me, and given this was our first webinar together, I think it went really well. A few hiccups with WebEx, but nothing we won't get right next time around. The turnout was quite good, and pretty much as expected.
If you missed it, there will be a full audio replay available in the next few days, and will be accessible at both AGC and my websites. The webinar was inspired by - and largely based on - Catharine's latest research report on the IP infrastructure space. I've cited this in an earlier post, as well as how to get a copy.
You can also get a copy of the presentation we used today, which includes excerpts from her report as well as my bullet talking points. We're happy to oblige, and you can request it from Catharine or me - just drop me a line. Looking ahead, we'd like to do this on a regular basis, and if this is of interest, let us know - we'd love to know there's support for it.
Technorati tags:
J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, America's Growth Capital
Posted by jonarnold at 08:16 PM | Comments (0)
January 30, 2008
IP Convergence TV Updates Posted
One of the recent hats I've been wearing is the Portal Editor for IP Convergence TV. We've been doing quite a lot of work recently to get the next major update done, and things went live today. We're steadily building a following, and the content is getting better all the time.
There's quite a bit of new content there, some we've had ready for a while, and some that's fresh from last week's IT Expo. If you're interested in what we cover - IPTV, VoIP, FMC and IMS - then I think you'll find our updates very worthwhile.
Here's a short-form list of the new content that's there now:
- 2 video interviews I conducted at the show last week - Greg Galitzine of TMC, and Matt Lukens of Comverse. I did 10 interviews at the show, and the others will be posted in due time.
- 4 new Guest Opinion pieces, all from strong voices in their spaces - Ike Elliott, Markus Goebel, Bob Emmerson and David Hattey. Our roster of contributors continues to expand, and there are more new voices coming soon.
- 2 new feature articles - 1 from BEA and 1 from Comverse
- a few recent posts from me on the Convergence Blog, including my review of the IPTV roundtable I hosted last Friday
As always, I'd love to hear your feedback on the portal, as well as suggestions for new content any time.
Technorati tags: IP Convergence TV, Jon Arnold, J Arnold Associates
Posted by jonarnold at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)
January 28, 2008
Reminder - "IP Essentials" Webinar on Friday
Last week, I posted about a webinar I'm co-hosting with America's Growth Capital this Friday. Registrations have been strong, so we definitely know there's interest out there.
Am just getting my week in order after returning from the ITExpo last week, and have lots of interesting things in the pipeline, both on the business front, and things coming to my blog.
Again, if you're interested, the webinar is this Friday at 1pm, and it's by invitation. Here's the link for how to register and to find out more about what we'll be talking about.
Technorati tags:
J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, America's Growth Capital
Posted by jonarnold at 11:31 PM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2008
Where's voice going? Ask Tom - Mr. Mashup
Mashups can mean many things, but in the world of voice and VoIP mashups, Thomas Howe is the guy. He's carving a great niche for his company in this space, and I want to point you to his latest thinking which was just posted the other day.
Thomas did a long, but thought-provoking interview (34 minutes) with Lee Dryburgh, the main force and vision behind the upcoming eComm 2008 conference. It's been posted to their blog page in podcast form, and includes some summary comments and excerpts from the interview. Definitely worth a listen. As an aside, the eComm event looks very promising, and you'll be hearing more about it from me soon. I should also add that Lee has posted an even longer interview there on the outlook for telecom and broadband with the renowned Martin Geddes, who is quite involved with the eComm event.
For those of you following the mashup space, I should note that this builds on another recent podcast that Thomas did a couple of weeks back with Iotum, on their inaugural ConCast. It's also worth a listen, especially since it's a group discussion featuring other notable and familiar voices.
Technorati tags:
Thomas Howe, Jon Arnold, Lee Dryburgh, eComm
Posted by jonarnold at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2008
Upcoming Webinar - "IP Essentials" - with America's Growth Capital
This is heads-up post to tell you about an upcoming webinar that I'm pretty excited to be part of. Boston-based investment bank America's Growth Capital is hosting a webinar titled "IP Essentials", and I will be providing the independent analyst perspective along with their Senior Research Analyst, Catharine Trebnick.
Together, we'll be exploring, discussing and analyzing key trends impacting the communications infrastructure space. The target audience is the investment community, and is by invitation only. You can read more about the webinar and how to request an invitation at their website here.
The webinar is scheduled for Friday, February 1 at 1:00 pm, and we're anticipating a good turnout. If things go well, we may extend this to a regular series, which I think would be a great vehicle to inform and educate the investment community about the latest trends in our space.
Technorati tags:
J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, America's Growth Capital, Catharine Trebnick
Posted by jonarnold at 12:57 AM | Comments (0)
January 14, 2008
New Coverage on Acme Packet and Veraz Networks
Just a quick post to draw your attention to some great coverage on two companies I've been a fan of for a long time - Acme Packet and Veraz Networks.
Colleague Catharine Trebnick has followed our industry for many years, primarily as a financial analyst. She knows it quite well and is currently a Principal at Boston-based investment bank America's Growth Capital.
They recently initiated coverage on these companies, and Catharine's reports have just been published. I've had a chance to review them, and aside from her strong company-based coverage, her reports provide a solid overview of the markets these two pure-play companies compete in. Basically, she's saying that Acme is still a good growth story, and Veraz is on it's way, but is definitely in a tougher environment.
Catharine has been nice enough to share her reports with those who are interested, and I'm nice enough to extend this to my readers. So, if you'd like to follow up, please contact Catharine directly by email, and she can take things from there. And if you do, I'd love to hear your thoughts on her coverage.
P.S. Look for another post in the next few days about something else I'll be doing with her firm...
Technorati tags: Catharine Trebnick, Jon Arnold, America's Growth Capital, Acme Packet, Veraz
Posted by jonarnold at 08:35 PM | Comments (0)
January 11, 2008
My 2008 Q&A with Rich Tehrani
Rich Tehrani has been doing a series of these Q&As with various industry thought leaders, and I think it's great way to get a collective read on what's coming in this market for 2008. My Q&A with Rich was published today, and you can read it here, on their VoIP Services channel. Hope you like it, and I'd love to hear from you if it piques your interest.
Technorati tags: Rich Tehrani, Jon Arnold
Posted by jonarnold at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)
January 09, 2008
Hey, I'm #26 on the Top VoIP Bloggers List...
VoIP-News is one of the best portals out there for tracking trends in our space. A couple of weeks back they posted their 2007 list of top 25 VoIP blogs. The usual suspects were there, and most of them noted the kudos on their blogs - why not?
As you likely know, I don't follow the news as closely as most bloggers do, and I post when I can and when it makes sense. So, true to form, I'm late to the party with this item as well, as the buzz is long passed for most 2007 lists.
However, at least I'm at the party, and wanted to share this update with you. VoIP-News updated their list the other day, and I've been added, which makes me #26 on a list of 25. Am not sure what that really means, but I'll take it, and am certainly very happy to be included in such stellar company. I guess this means I've got nowhere to go but up - if I want to crack the top 25 list, I'll need to improve/expand my coverage this year. Guess I'll put that on the to-do list....
Technorati tags: VoIP-News, Jon Arnold, VoIP blogs
Posted by jonarnold at 11:09 AM | Comments (1)
January 03, 2008
2007 Highlights - Part 2
Yesterday was Part 1 of my 2007 highlights, and here's my review for the second half of the year. Hope you enjoy these, and maybe you were at some of these.
That's it for my 2007 review. Time to move ahead and get going on 2008.....
My Kitchener/Waterloo Mini-Tour, Waterloo - with John Tennant and Mark Whaley (he was on the ICF panel from the PTC event that was in yesterday's post - and now winner of world's most intelligent broadband community!)
Telus/RIM launch of their worldphone BlackBerry, Toronto.
Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown. We all need a break, and this was one of mine this summer. The "Red Sox Holy Grail" was a personal highlight for me, and I just had to put it in here - the bloody sock, Curt's cleats (say that one 3 times fast), and the ball, all from their 2004 WS championship. I can die happy now.
Fall 2007 TMC ITExpo, Los Angeles. Chris Lyman, enthusiastically telling me the virtues of his company, Fonality!
IT Expo, Los Angeles - Andy Abramson's client/blogger dinner.
Ottawa Venture Technology Summit, Ottawa
BroadSoft Connections, Phoenix. Scott Wharton moderating a session, and a view of the grounds where the event was held at the Biltmore. I sure could get used to that...
Fall VON, Boston - Jeff Pulver's keynote
My Skype Mobility session
Happy Town - talk about being in the right place at the right time...
Nokia Siemens Mobile Experience Demo, Toronto. Very cool FMC apps, done here in real time.
Avaya Canada Analyst Day, Toronto. CEO Mario Belanger kicking things off.
Cisco C-Scape Analyst Conference, San Jose. John Chambers doing a Telepresence demo on stage with 3 different speakers.
Technorati tags: J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, blogging
Posted by jonarnold at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)
January 02, 2008
2007 Highlights - Part 1
Am slowly getting back to a working groove, but really won't be fully back til Monday once everyone's out of the house and back at school. Don't know about you, but I've been using some of this down time to not just reflect on 2007, but also about where I'm looking to go in 2008. It's both easy and hard being an independent, and a priority for me this year will be to deepen many of the relationships that I built in 2007, and that's already happening in the first few days of the new year.
I'm also trying to find a better way to balance all the proprietary consulting work I do for clients along with the public things I do that keep me visibily involved - conferences, blogging, podcasts, etc. With all the back and forth with my recent posts about whether the Facebook phenomenon is good or bad for blogging, I've really got to consider this more closely and see if FB can help me manage that balance. All suggestions are welcome!
Ok,enough self-reflection - time to move on to the scripted part of this post. I've been off the blogs for most of the break, but have seen a few year-end summaries, predictions, etc. I could spend a lot time doing the same, but I've decided to do a photo review instead. Others have already done the same - really liked Jeff Pulver's photolog post - and I'm doing mine in two parts.
Over the course of 2007, I've mostly been using the Nokia N93 and Nokia N95, and that's what these photos were taken with. The fun part of being an indie is attending a variety of events - some are very analyst-centric, and some are very media/press-centric. I'm a bit of a chameleon, and work out of both camps, so I get to a wider range of things than a straight-up analyst or journalist would get to. And sometimes I get to go to things just because I'm a "blogger" - although these days I'm not really sure what that term really means.
This is especially true since I'm based in Canada. Most of the industry people my paths cross up here are only focused on the home market, whereas I try my best to keep on top of the U.S. as well. So, this is one of the few blogs where you'll see a healthy mix of what's going on in Canada as well as the U.S.
Whatever - listen - I'm just one guy. I don't have a company sending me places - it's up to me to make all this stuff happen, and I'm grateful to have been able to see so many things in 2007. I can only hope that the song remains the same in 2008, and I look forward to sharing my adventures with you as they happen.
So, in today's post, here's Part 1 - my year in pictures - basically the first half of 2007. It will give you a flavor of the events I participated in and the places I was lucky enough to travel to. I could tell you a lot more and show you a lot more pictures about any of these, but not here. By all means, feel free to search my blog for the original posts these came from for more. Otherwise, maybe there's a book in this somewhere.....
Aloha! Can't think of a better way to start 2007 being based in the Great White North, eh - the Pacific Telecom Council conference in Hawaii. And, yes, I got an authentic Hawaiian shirt there that I hope will come in handy one of these days...
The ICF panel at PTC. This is the Intelligent Communities Forum, where they were announcing the finalists for their annual awards. As it turns out, Waterloo, Ontario came out the winner, chosen as the #1 intelligent community in the world. Go Canada.........
TMC's ITExpo, Fort Lauderdale. I chose this photo of colleague Moshe Maeir (with Rich in the background)since he was nice enough to post it on his year-end review - thanks Moshe!
Deloitte's 2007 Predictions event, Toronto. Group shot of their team, including keynoter Guy Kawasaki. He's quite the hockey junkie - and he's from Hawaii - who knew?- so they gave him an customized Leafs jersey as a nice thank-you. I'm starting to see a Canada-Hawaii theme happening here - strange....
Launch event for BlogTV.ca, Toronto. This sure was fun, and Canada was the first market Israel-based BlogTV expanded to. Unfortunately, the project was canned in the fall - easy come, easy go. BlogTV is going strong in the U.S., but it came later. I guess we were the guinea pig, but didn't quite get it right - gee, where have we heard that before here in Canada?
Microsoft Canada's launch event for adCenter, Toronto. Don't mean to nitpick, but if this is for Canada, shouldn't they spell it "adCentre"? I'm told life is in the details.....
Cisco's Channel Partner Summit, Las Vegas. From what I've seen, nobody stages a big event like Cisco.
MetaSwitch Forum, Orlando, with Martin Taylor. If you're into Harleys, you should check out my post about this event - really...
IT360 Conference, Toronto. Don Tapscott talking about Wikinomics and his vision for our Web 2.0 world.
ANPI AGM, San Diego, with CEO Dave Lewis.
Canadian New Media Awards, Toronto, with Adam Froman, CEO of Delvinia
Microsoft Surface, Toronto. We were lucky enough to get a private, 1 on 1 demo of this very cool look at what being connected will really mean, and what the coffee table of the future is going to look like. Max got to have the fun, while I took the photos.
Aftermath of a heavy summer storm, Toronto. Taking a drive about our neighborhood following a very intense storm, I came across some of the damage and for 5 minutes, felt like a roving TV reporter. Here's one shot of a mature tree being fully uprooted and crashing on top of van in someone's driveway. Thankfully, nobody was hurt, but as you can see, it also took down all the Hydro wires, and went a long way to explaining why our phone lines went dead - but of course, my VoIP lines were working fine...
Microsoft Canada's Unified Communications launch, Toronto. With Michel Burger, CTO and a glowing Microsoft blue cocktail....
Mitel Forum 2007, Las Vegas. Mitel's brain trust taking questions from the analyst community.
Part 2 is coming tomorrow, stay tuned....
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