Month: June 2011
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Broadcasting LIVE From eComm at 7:45am Pacific TODAY
Continue Reading: Broadcasting LIVE From eComm at 7:45am Pacific TODAYWant to know what is going on at eComm, the “Emerging Communications Conference” this week in San Francisco?
In about 75 minutes, at 7:45am US Pacific, I’ll be joining Andy Abramson for a one-hour live broadcast on the VoIP Users Conference (VUC) audio and video bridge.
Details to join are found on the VUC site … but basically involve connecting to http://bluejeans.com/vuc using either Skype, H.323 or GTalk. You also can simply call in and listen via either:
- SIP: 200901@login.zipdx.com
- Skype: vuc.me
- Regular old PSTN phone: +15672522286
We[1] are doing this all three days of eComm and are planning to somewhat randomly pull in speakers and others that we see in the eComm breakfast area, but Andy tells me that this morning (Monday), we’ve already lined up:
- Alec Saunders of the new Voice 3.0 Manifesto fame
- Todd Carothers of CounterPath
- Erik Lagerway of HookFlash and other VoIP ventures
Not entirely sure what we’ll cover, but you can be sure that Alec and I will probably get into my response about what’s wrong with his Voice 3.0 piece 🙂
It should be fun, regardless…
We’ll also have the IRC backchannel active at #vuc on Freenode. More info on how to…
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The 2 Big, Glaring Failures of the “Voice 3.0” Manifesto
Continue Reading: The 2 Big, Glaring Failures of the “Voice 3.0” ManifestoToday Alec Saunders posted a truly brilliant piece: Voice 3.0: The Emergence of the Voice Web. It’s a much-needed update to his 2005 “Voice 2.0 Manifesto” and very nicely brings together much of the thinking about telecom today. (And yes, I had a chance to review it and provided feedback before it went live.)It’s brilliant. It’s long. You really need to go and read it. It includes many of the themes we’ll be talking about next week at eComm. It’s right about so many things.
IT’S ALSO VERY WRONG.
The document as written has two big, glaring omissions.
Voice Doesn’t Matter… As Much
First off… the piece is all about voice. Which is great. But here’s a reality check:
People do NOT want to communicate by ONLY voice.
I spend my day communicating with people all over the world… in pretty much constant “real-time” communication. But almost NONE of it is by voice.
Instead it is by IM… by Twitter… by Facebook… by SMS… even by email. All text-based mediums.
No voice.
Now occasionally I do actually speak with someone – and usually get startled when my phone or Skype actually rings. But the majority of my…
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Is Skype for iPad Coming Soon? (Updated: YES!)
Continue Reading: Is Skype for iPad Coming Soon? (Updated: YES!)UPDATE: I’ve had multiple confirmations that this rumor about Skype for iPad is true… and CNET is running a story with screenshots that indicates Skype for iPad will be available in the AppStore on Tuesday.UPDATE #2: There are a number of other stories now appearing up on Techmeme confirming the rumor.
If this video, reported by MacRumors, is true, this would truly ROCK! I hardly ever use Skype on my iPad2, because the iPhone app just doesn’t work all that well on the iPad.
When is this coming, Skype? We want it! 🙂
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Google TechTalk: A Brief Prehistory of Voice over IP
Continue Reading: Google TechTalk: A Brief Prehistory of Voice over IPWant to understand the history of Voice over IP (VoIP)? To learn about the various protocols and standards efforts that got us to where we are today?Shawn Merdinger recently posted to the VOIPSEC mailing list the link to this Google Tech Talk back in August 2010 about the history of VoIP. The video runs close to 2 hours but provides a really good background in terms of the protocols and efforts starting with ARPA work back in the 1970’s and moving up to today… well worth a viewing if you want to gain some historical context for where we are today.
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eComm Starts June 27 – The Event Showcasing Emerging Communications
Continue Reading: eComm Starts June 27 – The Event Showcasing Emerging CommunicationsWill you be out in San Francisco next week for eComm, the “Emerging Communications Conference & Awards“? If so, I’ll see you there, as I’m speaking on Wednesday. If not… are you interested in going? I still have a pass or two available as a speaker. (Drop me a note… quickly!)
I’ve always enjoyed eComm as it truly is a gathering of the thought leaders of the communications space… whether those people are working with VoIP or mobile or unified communications or whatever. It’s where the “alpha geeks” of comms go to hang out… to network… to listen and learn as they share with each other what they are working on truly out there on the bleeding edge of communications.
Some people have called eComm the “TED of Telecom” and in many ways that’s an apt comparison… quick, focused presentations to a high quality audience.
Check out the schedule and the long list of speakers… some truly great people will be there. I expect to be learning a good bit.
My own talk on Wednesday will be on the IPv6 theme I’ve been on lately. I titled it “How IPv6 Will Kill Telecom – And What We…
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What Should You Consider When Choosing A Cloud Communications Platform? Join this June 22 session
Continue Reading: What Should You Consider When Choosing A Cloud Communications Platform? Join this June 22 sessionWhat factors should you consider when considering moving your communications applications to the “cloud”? What are the advantages of hosting in the cloud? The disadvantages? How can the cloud help you scale your applications? How can the cloud connect you to other communication channels beyond voice?Tomorrow, Wednesday, June 22, 2011, at 1:00pm US Eastern, I’ll be speaking in an online webinar on this topic called:
“Taking Customer Service to the Cloud“
The session will begin with industry analyst Daniel Hong from Ovum discussing what he found in his new 2011 research report, “Decision Matrix: Selecting a Provider of Cloud-based Speech Self-Service Solutions in North America.” I will then follow discussing what you need to consider when choosing a hosted provider (such as that of my employer, Voxeo). Next Debbie Diersch from Chrysalis will discuss factors to consider when choosing an application developer… and then we’ll throw it open to questions.
Daniel’s got some great data and Debbie and I are both aiming to provide some solid educational material (i.e. it’s not just sales pitches), so if the topic is of interest, the hour will be a good use of your time.
You can…
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Skype Fires 8 Executives: Pre-Acquisition Cleanup? Or Investor Payout?
Continue Reading: Skype Fires 8 Executives: Pre-Acquisition Cleanup? Or Investor Payout?Over the past couple of weeks, those of us watching Skype have become increasingly puzzled by the whack of terminations of senior executives at Skype. David Gurlé, a very public face of Skype, was perhaps the most prominent departure for those of us in the VoIP/telecom space, but the list includes a good number of prominent folks (source:Skype Journal):- David Gurlé, VP and General Manager of Skype for Business
- Doug Bewsher, Chief Marketing Officer
- Anne Gillespie, Global HR Director
- Russ Shaw, VP and General Manager (focused on telecom)
- Don Albert, VP and General Manager for Americas and Advertising
- Christopher Dean, Head of Consumer Market Business Development
- Ramu Sunkara, Executive VP for Carrier Relations for Qik
- Allyson Campa, Senior VP for Marketing for Qik
Why? And why now?
Phil Wolff over at Skype Journal started writing about the issue last week and is out today with a longer post today, “Why did Skype fire 8 execs? Why them? Why now?“, where he dives into potential reasons at great depth.
His primary suggestion is “Microsoft has better teams/talent in those departments” although he also has an interesting theory around a potential for buy-back of stock by investors.
Business Week also…
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Free Webinar Today – “How Do You Hear Me Now? The Power of Wideband (HD) Audio”
Continue Reading: Free Webinar Today – “How Do You Hear Me Now? The Power of Wideband (HD) Audio”You know how great the audio quality can sound in a good Skype call? Almost like you are right there in the room with the other person?That’s possible because Skype uses what is called “wideband audio” (or “HD audio” by some).
In about 3 hours I’ll be presenting a Voxeo Developer Jam Session on “The Power of Wideband Audio“. The session is at:
Thursday, June 9, 2011
11:00 AM US Eastern, 8:00 AM US Pacific, 5:00 PM Central European
I’ll be talking about why you should care about wideband audio, what you can do with it, and how you can get started. Here’s the abstract:
What is “wideband” or “HD” audio? What are the benefits of wideband audio? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using wideband? With all the buzz out there, what does wideband or “HD” audio really do for you in a business setting?
In this Developer Jam Session, Dan York, Director of Conversations at Voxeo will explain the basics of wideband audio, discuss the various versions of wideband audio deployed in the industry, explain why it is important in terms of business value. Additionally, he will talk about how wideband audio is implemented in…
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Skype Is Back For Me – But Only 2 Million Users Are Online (versus normal 25+ million)
Continue Reading: Skype Is Back For Me – But Only 2 Million Users Are Online (versus normal 25+ million)Skype seems to be coming back up… s..l..o..w..l..y..My Skype client just started working again, as the Skype Heartbeat blog post indicated, I did not have to login again or do anything else. Once in, though, my Skype client shows only a bit over 2 million users online:
Considering that on a normal day there are usually 25+ million users online during the day (and often closer to 30 million), I would say that more than just “a small number” of users were affected!
As I wrote this post, though, the number of connected users dropped to 1.8 million… let’s see how this recovery goes!
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