Month: September 2011
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Speaking Next Week on IPv6 and VoIP Security at 7th Real-Time Communications Conference in Chicago
Continue Reading: Speaking Next Week on IPv6 and VoIP Security at 7th Real-Time Communications Conference in ChicagoIf any of you will be in Chicago next week, October 4-6, 2011, for the 7th Annual Real-Time Communications Conference & Expo, I’ll be there on the 5th and 6th as a speaker.I’ll be speaking twice. First on Wednesday the 5th at 4pm on “The Current State of VoIP Security“, wearing my VOIPSA hat and leading off a series of talks about security. I’ll be providing an overview of the main threats to VoIP and communications security in general, leading the way into the two more specific talks following mine.
I’m rather excited that my second session will be my first public appearance wearing my new Internet Society hat (if you are not aware, I’ve posted details about my recent move) and will of course be about IPv6… more specifically “How IPv6 Will Impact SIP And Telecom“.
Due to ongoing events on the personal front, I wasn’t sure that I was going to make it out there… and quite frankly there’s still a chance that I won’t… but I should be out there.
If you look at the conference schedule, the speakers include outstanding people involved with so many different aspects of real-time communications. It should be truly an…
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The Economist Asks: Who Should Run The Internet?
Continue Reading: The Economist Asks: Who Should Run The Internet?Who should run the Internet? Should it continue in the “multi-stakeholder” way it has operated so far? Or should governments have more of a say in how it is run?The Economist captures that argument in a piece out today entitled “A plaything of powerful nations” that reports on the meeting this week in Nairobi of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). The article rather succinctly covers some of the tension and challenges around public policy issues I briefly mentioned in my recent post about joining the Internet Society.
A key point for me is this (my emphasis added):
The multi-stakeholder approach dates from the beginnings of the internet. Its founding fathers believed that more openness would be both more secure and better for innovation. What is more, since the internet is a network of independent networks, it is hard to construct a form of governance that allows anyone to dictate things from the top.
Yet as the article notes, many governments would like to try – and the power struggle is really only beginning.
There are definitely going to be some interesting times ahead…
NOTE: While I am now employed by the Internet Society, I am NOT involved with…
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Did Amazon Just Fork The Android Operating System?
Continue Reading: Did Amazon Just Fork The Android Operating System?Did Amazon just fork the Android operating system with their Kindle Fire? That’s the question asked at Mashable today in a post “Amazon Kindle Fire Just Hijacked Android where it was noted that all the promotion around the Kindle Fire did not mention Android. The key piece to me is this:Amazon is not the first company to use Android for its devices, only to customize the UI and add its own App Store…
Still, Amazon’s customization of Android goes above and beyond re-theming the interface. Amazon has created its own apps for email, video playback (using Amazon Instant Video), music and books…
Amazon is using Android 2.3 as its base, not the tablet-specific Honeycomb, and we expect that the company has taken the opportunity to optimize 2.3 specifically for the Kindle Fire’s hardware.
Likewise, instead of applying tweaks to the basic Android web browser, Amazon chose to build its own: Amazon Silk…
The tragedy here is that the Amazon Kindle Fire will undoubtedly be a very popular device. At $199, I can see many people picking these devices up.
And it could be a great opportunity to bolster the Android ecosystem.
To encourage and nurture a further competitive…
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Congrats, I think, to Alec Saunders as RIM’s New VP of Developer Relations
Continue Reading: Congrats, I think, to Alec Saunders as RIM’s New VP of Developer RelationsCongratulations (I think) to my friend Alec Saunders for taking a new role as “VP of Developer Relations and Ecosystem Development” for Research In Motion (RIM), makers of the Blackberry line of mobile devices.Or perhaps condolences are in order… somehow he has to make developing for the Blackberry sexy again to all the app developers who focus these days on the world of iOS/iPhone/iPad and the Android platform.
Alec certainly has his work cut out for him. As he writes in his post today announcing the news:
Over the last few days I’ve been in San Francisco at the Mobilize conference, and speaking with developers. It’s clear from those conversations that the primary problem we face is lack of support from application developers. My team’s job is to correct that – to win the hearts and minds of mobile developers again.
“Lack of support” probably doesn’t go far enough as a statement. Any of a zillion charts will show you Blackberry’s rapidly declining marketshare (particularly in the US). iPhones are dramatically outselling Blackberries and Apple is poised to launch iPhone 5 / iOS 5 / iCloud next week, pretty much assuring even more of a boost to…
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Video: Using an iPad to Create Tropo Applications
Continue Reading: Video: Using an iPad to Create Tropo ApplicationsStuck somewhere without a computer but with an iPad? My former colleague Chris Matthieu just posted this amusing video today of how he used only his iPad to create and deploy an application using the Tropo cloud communication service. I don’t know what amused me more – that he wrote the app using his iPad… or that he filmed himself using his iPhone! Quite a deft bit of handling to make it all work:You can, of course, register for a free Tropo.com account and start creating your own voice/SMS/IM/Twitter apps using languages like PHP, Python, JavaScript, Groovy and Ruby…
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Mitel Rolls Out UC Apps for iPhone and iPad
Continue Reading: Mitel Rolls Out UC Apps for iPhone and iPadGood to see that Mitel is joining the iOS application space with Unified Communications apps for the iPhone and iPad. These apps will work with Mitel’s “Freedom” architecture to allow people to use their own iPhone or iPad device with the Mitel corporate phone system.Per Mitel’s news release, the app allows users to:
- Search the corporate directory and click-to-dial from corporate contact list to place calls through the corporate network.
- View missed, dialed, and received calls.
- Access visual voicemail from your office extension and manage messages by preference rather than sequence.
- Automatically update presence status and call routing preferences based on your location, or time of day.
Given enterprise users’ desire to use their own devices, it is not surprising to see these type of apps coming out from a vendor like Mitel. It will be interesting to see how this helps Mitel in the marketplace.
Kudos to the Mitel team for creating the apps.
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Ch-changes – Taking A New Job At The Internet Society To Join The Fight For The Open Internet
Continue Reading: Ch-changes – Taking A New Job At The Internet Society To Join The Fight For The Open InternetIn the end, my impending job change is perhaps best explained by two quotes: this prescient quote from the 1992 film Sneakers:
“There’s a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it’s not about who’s got the most bullets. It’s about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think… it’s all about the information!”
and this quote from poet Mary Oliver:
“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
For a longer explanation, read on… but perhaps not on a mobile phone… this one’s a bit on the lengthy side…
Bleeding “Voxeo Blue”
Just shy of four years ago, I wrote here about joining this incredibly remarkable company, Voxeo, that probably none of you had ever heard of.
I hope I changed that a wee bit. 🙂
Around a thousand blog posts later, a hundred videos, too many speaking engagements and webinars to count, many articles, a ton of analyst briefings and media interviews … and countless tweets, Facebook posts and other updates later… it has been truly an amazing journey.
Along the way I have come to truly love the company -…
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Video: My Talk on “How IPv6 Will Kill Telecom” from eComm2011
Continue Reading: Video: My Talk on “How IPv6 Will Kill Telecom” from eComm2011At eComm 2011 this year, I spoke on “How IPv6 Will Kill Telecom – And What We Need To Do About It“. I enjoyed giving the talk and have received great feedback about the session (including being asked to give a similar session at other conferences). Organizer Lee Dryburgh has now posted the video:
If you are interested in learning more about IPv6, I put together an IPv6 Resource Page over on Voxeo’s Speaking of Standards blog. Enjoy!
P.S. And yes, those of you who have seen previous videos of my presentations will note that my running has paid off… 🙂
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Awesome 1954 Bell System Video – How To Dial Your (Rotary) Phone
Continue Reading: Awesome 1954 Bell System Video – How To Dial Your (Rotary) PhoneStarted off this morning getting a great laugh out of this classic 1954 Bell System video tweeted out by Larry Cannell. Amazing to think back to the time when the system was changing from just picking up the phone and speaking with an operator to a new system where you “dialed” the phone.Really the start of the self-service automation of the phone network that we take for granted today.
Fascinating to see the glimpses, too, of the “internal networks” as they “pulled the fuses” from the manual systems and flipped switches on the dial systems. I love the guys pointing a “Go!” finger at the teams to make the transitions!
Of course, you have to wonder how many young people growing up today in the United States have even seen a true rotary dial phone! (We who used them should write down some of our memories before they are forgotten…)
Anyway, enjoy this window into a different time:
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Video: Chris Pirillo to Emcee Voxeo’s Customer Summit, Oct 10-12
Continue Reading: Video: Chris Pirillo to Emcee Voxeo’s Customer Summit, Oct 10-12As I mentioned previously, Voxeo’s annual Customer Summit 2011 is coming up October 10-12 in Orlando, Florida. One of the latest bits of news is that Internet entrepreneur and über-geek Chris Pirillo will be the emcee for the event. He recently recorded this video intro talking about his upcoming trip to Orlando:Chris is a high-energy and highly entertaining guy… and it will be fun to see him in action at the event!
P.S. If you want to attend Voxeo’s Customer Summit 2011, space is filling up quickly but there are still a few slots open – register today!
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