Category: Presence
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Digium buys SwitchVox and gets presence, Web 2.0 interface, mashups to Google Maps, Salesforce.com, SugarCRM…
Continue Reading: Digium buys SwitchVox and gets presence, Web 2.0 interface, mashups to Google Maps, Salesforce.com, SugarCRM…Imagine you are a customer service rep (CSR) at a small/medium company and a phone call comes in from a customer. As your phone rings, up on your screen pops all the information about that customer, pulled from your CRM database in Salesforce.com or SugarCRM, plus other information from other databases and finally a nice Google Map showing you where that customer is located and potentially other information like the locations of your nearest offices. During the call, the CSR needs to bring in a subject matter expert so the CSR consults their web panel and looks at the presence information displayed for each of the other people in the business. The CSR can then contact someone showing as available and potentially bring them into the call.
Now imagine that all that is running on top of open source telephony… specifically Asterisk.
You can now stop imagining, because Digium just bought the company that does precisely that. There will undoubtedly be much attention today (at the very least in the VoIP blogosphere) about Digium’s announcement here at AstriCon today that they have acquired SwitchVox. I am going to bet that much of the reporting today will focus on angles…
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iSkoot – cool idea for a Skype client for Blackberry, but I don’t see me using it much because…
Continue Reading: iSkoot – cool idea for a Skype client for Blackberry, but I don’t see me using it much because…Last week I wrote some first impressions of iSkoot, a new Skype client for Blackberry, and while I still think it’s a very cool idea, I don’t see myself using it all that much. Why not? Very simply…
Battery life!
Or the lack thereof. Yes, indeed, it all does seem to come down to batteries, and iSkoot seems to certainly consume its share of power. Now granted, my Blackberry 7290 is an older model and for all I know could probably use a new battery, but in “normal” operation, I can charge it up and then have it run for a good 3 or 4 days before it needs a recharge. However, start up iSkoot and I found I suddenly needed a recharge by the end of the day!
In fairness, iSkoot is not alone in this… the other Blackberry IM clients I’ve used, both the Windows Messenger client and also most recently the IM+ client for Skype also have this same problem. I’m assuming it has something to do with the need to regularly use the data connection for updates to status and to update chat messages.
I can see this actually being most useful to me when I’m traveling and…
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iSkoot provides another Skype client for Blackberry devices… review – and my first reaction is that it has a challenge with the "instant" part of "instant messaging"
Continue Reading: iSkoot provides another Skype client for Blackberry devices… review – and my first reaction is that it has a challenge with the "instant" part of "instant messaging"NOTE: Please see the updates at the bottom of this post.
Back on Monday, Jim Courtney over at Skype Journal IM’d me (on Skype naturally) asking if he could do a test call to me on "another Skype client for the Blackberry". Naturally, I said yes and in a moment or so we were speaking. It turned out that he was using a new beta application from iSkoot. From the news release:
The new iSkoot v1.1 delivers a comprehensive mobile Skype experience on BlackBerry: With the click of a button, users can instantly chat with their Skype contacts, make and receive Skype calls, and use SkypeOut™ to inexpensively call regular phone numbers nearly anywhere in the world. iSkoot v1.1 also displays complete Skype contact status information, so BlackBerry users can see which friends, family members and business colleagues are available, as well as manage their own online presence. This latest release features a next generation, easy-to-use interface especially designed for BlackBerry users and will offer additional features soon. iSkoot works without any need for PCs, special hardware, custom phones or Wi-Fi hot spots, and utilizes the existing mobile network infrastructure to route Skype calls through the voice channel.
It…
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Rich Tehrani hops on the Mitel "Presence" tour bus… at least for a day…
Continue Reading: Rich Tehrani hops on the Mitel "Presence" tour bus… at least for a day…Scanning RSS feeds early this morning, I was pleased to see that Rich Tehrani will be speaking at our “Presence 2007” event in Costa Mesa, CA, today. I’ve known the tour was going on, but wasn’t tracking who was speaking at the various stops. Glad to see Rich there… I’m sure he’ll give a great talk for whoever attends. The good news for Rich, too, is that at least he was flying out of the New York area yesterday instead of the day before when the glorious storm played havoc with air travel all over the northeast.
Technorati tags: mitel, presence, rich tehrani, sip, unified communications -
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Friday afternoon video #2 was to be… "Alec Saunders intros iotum’s Talk-Now"
Continue Reading: Friday afternoon video #2 was to be… "Alec Saunders intros iotum’s Talk-Now"Well, I had intended that video #2 was going to be Alec Saunders demonstrating iotum’s new Talk-Now application. However, as he explains, Alec took the video down! Bummer, as it was a fun demo of what that technology iotum has can offer. Ah, well, you’ll just have to read about “Talk-Now” or even sign up to give it a spin (if you have the right Blackberry). Of course, you can read MobileCrunch, Jon Arnold or ZDNet first. It’s definitely an interesting take on how to extend presence out to mobile devices.
And Alec, do come back with a video again – I liked the first one!
Technorati tags: iotum, talk-now, alec saunders, voip, presence, rim, blackberry -
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Alec Saunders: “New Presence and the Voice 2.0 Manifesto” – how do we move to the next level of presence awareness?
Continue Reading: Alec Saunders: “New Presence and the Voice 2.0 Manifesto” – how do we move to the next level of presence awareness?Given that I view “presence” as one of the more potentially disruptive elements of IP telephony, I was pleased to see that over on his blog Alec wrote a very lengthy and insightful piece entitled “‘New Presence’ and the Voice 2.0 Manifesto“. I always enjoy Alec’s writing and this time it’s no different… it’s great when someone can make the time to write a thoughtful piece like this. Since the piece came out, I’ve wanted to write more about it, but I have to suck it up and admit that with everything else I’m trying to close off before the end-of-year tomorrow, a lengthy reply is just not going to happen.
However, some others have offered replies and they, too, are well worth a read:
- Ken Camp: The Absence of Presence (also a lengthy thoughtful piece)
- Brough Turner: Why not call “new presence” availability?
- PhoneBoy: Presence and Identity
All are well worth a read. Thanks again, Alec, for starting a worthy conversation…. hopefully I’ll find the time to chime in soon.
UPDATE: Andy Abramson has also joined in… The Doctor is In: New Presence 2.0 by Alec
Technorati Tags: alec saunders, presence, voice 2.0
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