Two news this morning.
They are not important per se, but for what they mean: somebody is beginning to see.
Trilingual telco TV
James Enck - EuroTecoblog
Belgacom is going to launch its Belgacom TV product tomorrow with a press conference at 10:15 AM CET, though sparing itself (and the rest of us) any analyst involvement. Pick your language of choice and tune, um, log in.
Great news, providing everybody has access to it.
It means something is changing in the content, besides the way of broadcasting.
At least the content, as stupid as it can be, will be accessible from multilingual people.
It's a first small step to build something sharable to Europeans.
If the mountain doesn't go to Maometto, Maometto goes to the mountain (or was it the other way around, it doesn't matter..it matters the meaning, if Europeans do not want to learn another language, at least they can choose among three)
It is still bad news for the Italians, they will anyway have to learn another language...
Ethnic Marketing of Telecom Services
Mark Evans
http://evans.blogware.com
In-Stat has a report suggesting carriers are taking a more aggressive marketing approach to ethnic groups.
The company cites Qwest's low-cost LD calling plans for Mexico, and Sprint's launch of Movida Communications, which also targets the large Hispanic community.
The report is intriguing as carriers try to penetrate new niches while protecting their existing customer base from cablecos. I'm a firm believer VOIP is the ideal service to be sold into ethnic and special interest groups.
This can be done by large service providers such as Vonage or Cablevision, as well as small niche players looking to establish a viable and profitable market foothold.
The big challenge facing large companies in ethnic marketing requires particular focus and may not be worth it if the audience isn't big enough. This, in theory, leaves room for small and nimble rivals to jump into unserved or under-served markets.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Monday, June 27, 2005
Able to see
Been able to see doesn't belong to us anymore.
We mostly overlook, because we have too much to look at.
Australian aborigines can tell from the tracks made by the tyre marks, the speed, type of vehicle, date and time, and even the number of passengers.
They say the melody of the song reflects the nature and contours of the land over which the singer is on "walkabout".
May be they could even understand from the post the humour of the blogger, and who knows...much more.
Good they are not on the Internet yet.
We mostly overlook, because we have too much to look at.
Australian aborigines can tell from the tracks made by the tyre marks, the speed, type of vehicle, date and time, and even the number of passengers.
They say the melody of the song reflects the nature and contours of the land over which the singer is on "walkabout".
May be they could even understand from the post the humour of the blogger, and who knows...much more.
Good they are not on the Internet yet.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
Illusions
Illusions are a wonderful thing, until they become reality.
"Although we see sun rise up in the east and set in the west we now know that actually it's angels that are busy rotating the earth around the sun.
Well, it is not really like that, or at least it was not explained like that.
It is the reason why the first man who had a glimpse about reality was called heretic and sent to jail.
If he had proposed reality as I did, probably would have been accepted by the Church.
What really pissed them off was that God had suddenly nothing to do with Astronomy.
Well, Galileo didn't understand that the way to propose something new is to show it as "a natural evolution from the old"...
"Although we see sun rise up in the east and set in the west we now know that actually it's angels that are busy rotating the earth around the sun.
Well, it is not really like that, or at least it was not explained like that.
It is the reason why the first man who had a glimpse about reality was called heretic and sent to jail.
If he had proposed reality as I did, probably would have been accepted by the Church.
What really pissed them off was that God had suddenly nothing to do with Astronomy.
Well, Galileo didn't understand that the way to propose something new is to show it as "a natural evolution from the old"...
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Blogosphere
I so much like this word.
"I am going to have a conversation in the Blogosphere", well, if somebody doesn't know the real meaning (and many do not) it is really impressive.
Finished are the days in which you had "discussions" in the kitchen, "conversations" in the living room and "arguments" usually in the bedroom.
Now, for talking or discussing you go into the "blogosphere".
You do not have any more "arguments" because they are very unpolite and do not fit in a virtual world.
In the real world, you can raise your voice, it is true in the "blogosphere" you can write in Capital Letters, but how can you calculate the strength?
How can you win the other?
OK, you could use font number 270, but then you risk, if you find an old style screen configuration, let's say 800X600, to finish out of it, or that the other should scroll, and if he doesn't?
The real world is more immediate, lets you use more expressions and, in the case of an Italian "how can you use your hands to talk?"
Yes, we will have to wait for the "Video Blogosphere".
"I am going to have a conversation in the Blogosphere", well, if somebody doesn't know the real meaning (and many do not) it is really impressive.
Finished are the days in which you had "discussions" in the kitchen, "conversations" in the living room and "arguments" usually in the bedroom.
Now, for talking or discussing you go into the "blogosphere".
You do not have any more "arguments" because they are very unpolite and do not fit in a virtual world.
In the real world, you can raise your voice, it is true in the "blogosphere" you can write in Capital Letters, but how can you calculate the strength?
How can you win the other?
OK, you could use font number 270, but then you risk, if you find an old style screen configuration, let's say 800X600, to finish out of it, or that the other should scroll, and if he doesn't?
The real world is more immediate, lets you use more expressions and, in the case of an Italian "how can you use your hands to talk?"
Yes, we will have to wait for the "Video Blogosphere".
A TV is coming to a cell phone near you...
"The concept of mobile TV - the ability to watch live, direct broadcasts on mobile handsets - is potentially one of the most disruptive technologies on the horizon for mobile operators..."
Yesterday I was asking myself:
Will TV survive or will it become, what is already for many a "nice noise in the background" when we do other things in the house?
I think that the marriage mobile phone-TV has to be postponed unless there is a little bit of hope for better content on TV.
It is true, I didn't consider the football game...
Yesterday I was asking myself:
Will TV survive or will it become, what is already for many a "nice noise in the background" when we do other things in the house?
I think that the marriage mobile phone-TV has to be postponed unless there is a little bit of hope for better content on TV.
It is true, I didn't consider the football game...
"On demand"
Can a good marketeer ignore this?
After the word "free" is the second good invention of the last years.
What is more democratic than "on demand"?
You get (almost) everything you want WHEN you want it.
The biggest success of our time (one of the biggest successes, to be more precise) is Viagra or Cialis or whatever.
It fits to "on demand"(it doesn't fit to "free", but you cannot have everything, can you?)
It is the new kind of Sex, the "Sex on demand".
You cannot have sex on Mondays for this or that, not even on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, but just on Saturdays?
And what if your biological clock doesn't want to work?
And what if biological or not it really doesn't want to work?
No problem, progress has come to your aid, now you can have "sex on demand".
Of course you also need a partner...not included in the Internet many special offers...
After the word "free" is the second good invention of the last years.
What is more democratic than "on demand"?
You get (almost) everything you want WHEN you want it.
The biggest success of our time (one of the biggest successes, to be more precise) is Viagra or Cialis or whatever.
It fits to "on demand"(it doesn't fit to "free", but you cannot have everything, can you?)
It is the new kind of Sex, the "Sex on demand".
You cannot have sex on Mondays for this or that, not even on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, but just on Saturdays?
And what if your biological clock doesn't want to work?
And what if biological or not it really doesn't want to work?
No problem, progress has come to your aid, now you can have "sex on demand".
Of course you also need a partner...not included in the Internet many special offers...
What do YOU wish Skype would do?
A lot of things that obviously Skype will never do.
"there's nothing "funny about peace, love and understanding," but I think all three will get here before zero PSTNs sing "Kumbaya."(Russel Shaw)
Everybody would agree on:
1 - Skype should add a SIP gateway as a part of its SkypeOUT/SkypeIN offering. That way, the free VoIP world will be able to make native VoIP calls to Skype customers.
But what would be Skype's earnings?
And wouldn't that lower Skype's revenues?
If you could decide between an open standard system and a proprietary one,what would you choose?
2 - Skype should also add some network infrastructure nodes around the globe, so that your Skype calls don’t have to be routed through people’s PCs. (Thanks for pointing this out, Benjamin!)
Of course, all for free, so that the SIP or H323 would be able to use them (for free of course)
"there's nothing funny in being a Pestalozzi, but one was the first and the last..."
"there's nothing "funny about peace, love and understanding," but I think all three will get here before zero PSTNs sing "Kumbaya."(Russel Shaw)
Everybody would agree on:
1 - Skype should add a SIP gateway as a part of its SkypeOUT/SkypeIN offering. That way, the free VoIP world will be able to make native VoIP calls to Skype customers.
But what would be Skype's earnings?
And wouldn't that lower Skype's revenues?
If you could decide between an open standard system and a proprietary one,what would you choose?
2 - Skype should also add some network infrastructure nodes around the globe, so that your Skype calls don’t have to be routed through people’s PCs. (Thanks for pointing this out, Benjamin!)
Of course, all for free, so that the SIP or H323 would be able to use them (for free of course)
"there's nothing funny in being a Pestalozzi, but one was the first and the last..."
What would we do with Cows, Pigs, Chicken?
Yesterday I had an alarming telephone call from my mother.
Did you see on TV the new "Vegetarians"?
They not only do not eat any kind of meat, but no eggs, no milk and so on...
"A pig is an animal like a dog or a cat!" Somebody said.
So, what will we do with cows? Just bring them for a walk a few times a day, make a nice bed on our terrace and enjoy their company?
Or we will just keep a few on a zoo and let the race extinguish...
But then, also vegetables are living creatures, and fruit too?
We better begin to think how to live out of nothing, because also the air doesn't belong to us...
This is but one of the so called (by me) stupid way to progress.
The right way to change the world in an unliveable place.
That something must be changed I agree.
That people eat too much and too much meat I agree too.
But that they do not need animals' products I disagree.
And as my friend once dared to say:
I do not care a bit about those vegetarians, I WILL NEVER give up my SALAME...
The same for:
Streaming Music to your Mobile Phone?
Dameon D. Welch-Abernathy - PhoneBoy's Blog
Om points to Ditty Bot, which is a way to send songs from your iPod to your mobile phone using SkypeOut. I'm with Om, this is a stupid idea.
However, if I *were* going to do this, here's what I'd do:
1. Set up an Asterisk server.
2. Get a SPA-3000.
3. Get a Dock n Talk that's compatible with one of my many phones.
4. Get an extra SIM card on Cingular.
5. Configure it so that I could dial into my Asterisk server from my other Cingular phone. Not too hard, but doable.
For a bit of extra hardware and a small monthly charge ($9.99 for an add-a-line on my current Cingular plan, but it's more like $14.99 now), I can stream as much music as I want from my cell phone for one low monthly price. Seems a lot cheaper than using SkypeOut to do it.
Of course, because it would absolutely kill the battery life of your mobile phone, it's a stupid idea. That and my mobile phone already plays MP3s, thank you very much. :)
Did you see on TV the new "Vegetarians"?
They not only do not eat any kind of meat, but no eggs, no milk and so on...
"A pig is an animal like a dog or a cat!" Somebody said.
So, what will we do with cows? Just bring them for a walk a few times a day, make a nice bed on our terrace and enjoy their company?
Or we will just keep a few on a zoo and let the race extinguish...
But then, also vegetables are living creatures, and fruit too?
We better begin to think how to live out of nothing, because also the air doesn't belong to us...
This is but one of the so called (by me) stupid way to progress.
The right way to change the world in an unliveable place.
That something must be changed I agree.
That people eat too much and too much meat I agree too.
But that they do not need animals' products I disagree.
And as my friend once dared to say:
I do not care a bit about those vegetarians, I WILL NEVER give up my SALAME...
The same for:
Streaming Music to your Mobile Phone?
Dameon D. Welch-Abernathy - PhoneBoy's Blog
Om points to Ditty Bot, which is a way to send songs from your iPod to your mobile phone using SkypeOut. I'm with Om, this is a stupid idea.
However, if I *were* going to do this, here's what I'd do:
1. Set up an Asterisk server.
2. Get a SPA-3000.
3. Get a Dock n Talk that's compatible with one of my many phones.
4. Get an extra SIM card on Cingular.
5. Configure it so that I could dial into my Asterisk server from my other Cingular phone. Not too hard, but doable.
For a bit of extra hardware and a small monthly charge ($9.99 for an add-a-line on my current Cingular plan, but it's more like $14.99 now), I can stream as much music as I want from my cell phone for one low monthly price. Seems a lot cheaper than using SkypeOut to do it.
Of course, because it would absolutely kill the battery life of your mobile phone, it's a stupid idea. That and my mobile phone already plays MP3s, thank you very much. :)
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Still about softphoning
What is my softphone going to be?
A wonderful mixture of Art, Joke, Humorism, Colours, Past and Present.
All the rest is just technology...
A wonderful mixture of Art, Joke, Humorism, Colours, Past and Present.
All the rest is just technology...
The other side of tomorrow
Future's forecast is something everybody is very good at.
Everybody has his own future, because everybody has his own present.
And my future is going to happen just the way I predicted it.
At the dawn of the cellular Era I predicted cell phones wouldn't have been successful.
And I was damn right, infact, for what concerns me, they haven't been successful at all.
They are an unneeded nuisance, a useless burden to carry, a chance more to be disturbed.
It is of little importance if 97% of the population loves them and uses them, for me they still are a big bluff.
That is to say that everybody's predictions sooner or later come real.
Your future forecast is as good as mine, it is just the "Other Side of Tomorrow".
Everybody has his own future, because everybody has his own present.
And my future is going to happen just the way I predicted it.
At the dawn of the cellular Era I predicted cell phones wouldn't have been successful.
And I was damn right, infact, for what concerns me, they haven't been successful at all.
They are an unneeded nuisance, a useless burden to carry, a chance more to be disturbed.
It is of little importance if 97% of the population loves them and uses them, for me they still are a big bluff.
That is to say that everybody's predictions sooner or later come real.
Your future forecast is as good as mine, it is just the "Other Side of Tomorrow".
VoIP security
What the heck is wrong with some people?
Ted Wallingford
In a recent VoIP article linked from Google News, a writer named Dee Scrip is (dramatically and inaccurately) calling for VoIP adopters to proceed with caution, claiming VoIP telephony is a security nightmare waiting to happen. Just look at how he begins his article:
Warning! Warning! Warning!
Beware of VoIP internet service providers that operate on industry standard codec and industry standard protocols because they are PUBLICLY OPEN and INTERPRETABLE! This also includes, but is not limited to, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.
In plain terms, this means, if you subscribe to, or considering subscribing to a VoIP internet solution provider who operates on these industry standards – and over 90% do — you have inadvertently made yourself vulnerable to the criminal activities of hackers.
This is the kind of unbalanced sensational stuff that well-intentioned noobs all over the world are abused by constantly. But who ever heard of bashing industry standards? You can file it right alongside “There’s no software available for Macs” and “It’s not safe to use a credit card on the web”. The guy who wrote this is attempting a good old-fashioned SEO hack by loading a web page up with keywords and then providing disturbingly bad advice to his readers:
1. Find a VoIP internet solution provider that has their own proprietary high end encryption codec
( so you are relatively sure, since you WON'T be able to call IP to IP that much.)
2. Find a VoIP internet solution provider that has their own proprietary patented technology
(see above)
It is through better collective understanding of standards that security problems are averted, not through ignorance of them. Mr. Scrip is clearly just posting drivel in order to drive search engine traffic, and that’ s a shame. Somebody is going to read this stuff and misunderstand the legitimate concerns of VoIP security. What’s worse, I found out about this silly article through Google news.
The point being, while the article points out, in vague terms, how hackers can observe VoIP traffic, it misses a few key points:
• Old school telephony is even easier to listen in on, because it doesn’t have encrypted media streams.
The problem is not that somebody can listen to my telephone calls, at least to MOST of MY telephone calls.
The problem is that my softphone or my IP phone are connected to the NET and are on a Network with my computers.
If Voice packets easily "pass through any firewalls" like Skype's, then my firewall gets useless and there is nothing more dangerous than a useless firewall...
• Standards-based protocols for VoIP DO in fact prescribe a solution for encrypting VoIP media—namely Secure RTP (SRTP).
• It’s quite possible, and very easy, to record somebody’s traditional telephone conversations without their knowledge. All it takes is a little wiring. You tell me what’s harder, sniffing VoIP packets on the Internet, or touching a pair of wires with a pair of probes connected to a recording device?
I’m not going to do this guy the favor of providing a link to his garbage. If you really want to find the page it’s on, just google his name.
Ted Wallingford
In a recent VoIP article linked from Google News, a writer named Dee Scrip is (dramatically and inaccurately) calling for VoIP adopters to proceed with caution, claiming VoIP telephony is a security nightmare waiting to happen. Just look at how he begins his article:
Warning! Warning! Warning!
Beware of VoIP internet service providers that operate on industry standard codec and industry standard protocols because they are PUBLICLY OPEN and INTERPRETABLE! This also includes, but is not limited to, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.
In plain terms, this means, if you subscribe to, or considering subscribing to a VoIP internet solution provider who operates on these industry standards – and over 90% do — you have inadvertently made yourself vulnerable to the criminal activities of hackers.
This is the kind of unbalanced sensational stuff that well-intentioned noobs all over the world are abused by constantly. But who ever heard of bashing industry standards? You can file it right alongside “There’s no software available for Macs” and “It’s not safe to use a credit card on the web”. The guy who wrote this is attempting a good old-fashioned SEO hack by loading a web page up with keywords and then providing disturbingly bad advice to his readers:
1. Find a VoIP internet solution provider that has their own proprietary high end encryption codec
( so you are relatively sure, since you WON'T be able to call IP to IP that much.)
2. Find a VoIP internet solution provider that has their own proprietary patented technology
(see above)
It is through better collective understanding of standards that security problems are averted, not through ignorance of them. Mr. Scrip is clearly just posting drivel in order to drive search engine traffic, and that’ s a shame. Somebody is going to read this stuff and misunderstand the legitimate concerns of VoIP security. What’s worse, I found out about this silly article through Google news.
The point being, while the article points out, in vague terms, how hackers can observe VoIP traffic, it misses a few key points:
• Old school telephony is even easier to listen in on, because it doesn’t have encrypted media streams.
The problem is not that somebody can listen to my telephone calls, at least to MOST of MY telephone calls.
The problem is that my softphone or my IP phone are connected to the NET and are on a Network with my computers.
If Voice packets easily "pass through any firewalls" like Skype's, then my firewall gets useless and there is nothing more dangerous than a useless firewall...
• Standards-based protocols for VoIP DO in fact prescribe a solution for encrypting VoIP media—namely Secure RTP (SRTP).
• It’s quite possible, and very easy, to record somebody’s traditional telephone conversations without their knowledge. All it takes is a little wiring. You tell me what’s harder, sniffing VoIP packets on the Internet, or touching a pair of wires with a pair of probes connected to a recording device?
I’m not going to do this guy the favor of providing a link to his garbage. If you really want to find the page it’s on, just google his name.
The Middle and the End
There are two posts on VoIP this morning which I want to report.
One brings to me the vision of the "Middle" I predicted for Skype and this is
Cup is Half Empty
By Aswath Rao
"An updated statistics is now available from Skype (ignore the linear growth; assume no intermediate data has been plotted) and the usual round of wow is going around. Even Om is welling up and it is safe to predict that his heart will be fluttering with the release of the next round of statistics.
First a summary of the statistics that we are told so far:
Registered number of users: 35M to 40M
Concurrent users online at any time: 2M to 3M
Number of Skype minutes in a month day: 40M to 50M minutes
A decidedly trouble maker’s interpretation of these numbers:
Less than 10% of users are online at any given time, thereby reducing the “network effect” tremendously. But wait. This is good, because this means users need voice mail, a subscription service.
So a user is generating an average of less than 2 minutes per month day. Alternatively, most of the users are using Skype for text chat (because they are searching for the headset, generalizing from personal experience).
Phil is very conservative in his predictions. A Skypist (as opposed to a Skype user, known as Skyper) should hope to see at least 80% users online at any given time. Of course, the number of minutes served must be aleph-0, not any finite number (since google is spoken for). "
This is the potential of VoIP as Mass Market product, still not bad,it is better to have a huge cup half empty than a very small completely full.
Of course it also depends the money you have invested to reach that goal.
With no doubt a very small cup needs also a very small investment.
And in percentage, a revenue of 100% is MUCH BETTER than 50%.
The end comes following another post:
What impact will P2PSIP have on VoIP Peering
By Eric Lagerway
"According to Stealth Communications their VoIP Peering technology could put ILECs out of business. I would think that P2PSIP would have a similar impact and potentially more significant. If end points were smart enough not to need a "super node" or alike costs could be reduced dramatically and features could be, for the most part, maintained. Easier said than done.
In a conversation I had with an industry stakeholder I asked the same question and he commented "P2PSIP is nearing a point where product creation using the technology might make sense although features like voicemail would likely have to be delivered by way of a centralized service."
Which to me makes sense, I am not sure I would want my voicemail stored on someone else's computer."
As I already said: Mr or Mrs VC, I would be very cautious to make a long term investment in something that has short term revenues.
One brings to me the vision of the "Middle" I predicted for Skype and this is
Cup is Half Empty
By Aswath Rao
"An updated statistics is now available from Skype (ignore the linear growth; assume no intermediate data has been plotted) and the usual round of wow is going around. Even Om is welling up and it is safe to predict that his heart will be fluttering with the release of the next round of statistics.
First a summary of the statistics that we are told so far:
Registered number of users: 35M to 40M
Concurrent users online at any time: 2M to 3M
Number of Skype minutes in a month day: 40M to 50M minutes
A decidedly trouble maker’s interpretation of these numbers:
Less than 10% of users are online at any given time, thereby reducing the “network effect” tremendously. But wait. This is good, because this means users need voice mail, a subscription service.
So a user is generating an average of less than 2 minutes per month day. Alternatively, most of the users are using Skype for text chat (because they are searching for the headset, generalizing from personal experience).
Phil is very conservative in his predictions. A Skypist (as opposed to a Skype user, known as Skyper) should hope to see at least 80% users online at any given time. Of course, the number of minutes served must be aleph-0, not any finite number (since google is spoken for). "
This is the potential of VoIP as Mass Market product, still not bad,it is better to have a huge cup half empty than a very small completely full.
Of course it also depends the money you have invested to reach that goal.
With no doubt a very small cup needs also a very small investment.
And in percentage, a revenue of 100% is MUCH BETTER than 50%.
The end comes following another post:
What impact will P2PSIP have on VoIP Peering
By Eric Lagerway
"According to Stealth Communications their VoIP Peering technology could put ILECs out of business. I would think that P2PSIP would have a similar impact and potentially more significant. If end points were smart enough not to need a "super node" or alike costs could be reduced dramatically and features could be, for the most part, maintained. Easier said than done.
In a conversation I had with an industry stakeholder I asked the same question and he commented "P2PSIP is nearing a point where product creation using the technology might make sense although features like voicemail would likely have to be delivered by way of a centralized service."
Which to me makes sense, I am not sure I would want my voicemail stored on someone else's computer."
As I already said: Mr or Mrs VC, I would be very cautious to make a long term investment in something that has short term revenues.
Monday, June 20, 2005
Coming back to my softphone
I think I had the good idea.
Well, lately it looks like my mind is more and more like Fiat.
Instead of cars I produce ideas, but they have in common with the "Puntos" the fact that they are mostly unsold, it is because the demand is lower, or may be because I produce the wrong type of ideas...
Well, good marketing is enquiring what people want, the need is the mother of a successful product, so I thought:
"What would the average consumer want?"
"Yes, first he wants something like Skype, but I mean, when he is beginning to be fed up with Skype..."
"And when he is not yet fed up?"
That is exactly where the good marketing comes in.
You have to "convince him" that he is Fed UP.
The rest comes by itself.
So, how to do it?
You could do a massive campaign, but it is not sure it always works.
Or you could begin gossiping, but that would be too low level.
The best solution looks to me to propose "something different, something the consumer would like better".
And since there are "many consumers", why not proposing "many softphones", almost one for every taste?
It costs less than what one could think and it WOULD BE successful.
What are the most requested items from a consumer?
1) Sex. I think Botero would fit.
He has an ironic view of sex and his women would fit to a softphone.
You have one of those fat, lazy girls and the buttons on their body.
It would be kind of funny and "different".
2) Cell phones.
A picture or drawing of a small, cute, cell phone would make a nice coloured softphone.
3) Nostalgic I have an idea of an old style softphone, metallic looking, with those old style "Telecom's" buttons.
It is like using one of those old street coin phones.
May be while dialling you could also put in the background the noise of the coins dropping. I have to check with the "programmer" if that is possible.
May be I will do a VoIP call...
Well, lately it looks like my mind is more and more like Fiat.
Instead of cars I produce ideas, but they have in common with the "Puntos" the fact that they are mostly unsold, it is because the demand is lower, or may be because I produce the wrong type of ideas...
Well, good marketing is enquiring what people want, the need is the mother of a successful product, so I thought:
"What would the average consumer want?"
"Yes, first he wants something like Skype, but I mean, when he is beginning to be fed up with Skype..."
"And when he is not yet fed up?"
That is exactly where the good marketing comes in.
You have to "convince him" that he is Fed UP.
The rest comes by itself.
So, how to do it?
You could do a massive campaign, but it is not sure it always works.
Or you could begin gossiping, but that would be too low level.
The best solution looks to me to propose "something different, something the consumer would like better".
And since there are "many consumers", why not proposing "many softphones", almost one for every taste?
It costs less than what one could think and it WOULD BE successful.
What are the most requested items from a consumer?
1) Sex. I think Botero would fit.
He has an ironic view of sex and his women would fit to a softphone.
You have one of those fat, lazy girls and the buttons on their body.
It would be kind of funny and "different".
2) Cell phones.
A picture or drawing of a small, cute, cell phone would make a nice coloured softphone.
3) Nostalgic I have an idea of an old style softphone, metallic looking, with those old style "Telecom's" buttons.
It is like using one of those old street coin phones.
May be while dialling you could also put in the background the noise of the coins dropping. I have to check with the "programmer" if that is possible.
May be I will do a VoIP call...
The fox and the grapes
Vonage CEO's Thoughts on Skype
He tells telcom industry publication Light Reading:
"Skype says it themselves, they are not a replacement for your home telephone - they are an ancillary communication service. What Skype does is allow you to make a cheap telephone call using your PC- so as an ancillary communicaitons provider, who are they impacting?," Citron asks.
"They are certainly not impacting Vonage," he sniffs.
I do not know why, but it reminds me the nice Aesop's fable: "The fox and the grapes..."
He tells telcom industry publication Light Reading:
"Skype says it themselves, they are not a replacement for your home telephone - they are an ancillary communication service. What Skype does is allow you to make a cheap telephone call using your PC- so as an ancillary communicaitons provider, who are they impacting?," Citron asks.
"They are certainly not impacting Vonage," he sniffs.
I do not know why, but it reminds me the nice Aesop's fable: "The fox and the grapes..."
Why to make it simple when it can be complicated, why to make it cheap if you can make it expensive?
DittyBot is a script for OS X that uses a clever combination of mobile email and VoIP to stream music from your iTunes collection to your cellphone.
Using your phone, email the title/artist info for a song in your iTunes library to DittyBot, which is running on your Mac, pulling down mail every minute. DittyBot receives the request, calls you with Skype, and plays the song back to you over voice-over-IP using iTunes.
Wow.
You send a text message from your mobile phone to your POP email account. Your text message should contain the keywords of a song title (and possibly an artist name) that you want to hear. DittyBot finds that email (he checks Mail every 45 seconds) and copies the song name into a text file. The song name is then copied into iTunes and a playlist is created from your search. Next, DittyBot loads Skype (the internet telephony app) and begins calling your mobile phone. Your mobile phone rings and when you pick it up, you should hear your song start playing in all its compressed glory. DittyBot will play your selection to you over your phone until you hang up. Mind you, this all should happen within 1 minute of sending your song request (depending on the speed of your POP server). Sometimes it's even quicker!
Once you had a tape player and you put your favourite songs in it and you listened to your music.
Later you had a CD player which was much better.
You put a CD and you listened to your favourite music.
But then they invented those small MP3 players with thousands of songs.
They worked in the same way, you usually always listened to the same music, but YOU HAD a bigger choice
WOW
And you also didn't have to pay your mobile phone provider AND your Mobile Internet Provider
WOW
But now everything is going to change.
It is very "IN" music on demand...
Using your phone, email the title/artist info for a song in your iTunes library to DittyBot, which is running on your Mac, pulling down mail every minute. DittyBot receives the request, calls you with Skype, and plays the song back to you over voice-over-IP using iTunes.
Wow.
You send a text message from your mobile phone to your POP email account. Your text message should contain the keywords of a song title (and possibly an artist name) that you want to hear. DittyBot finds that email (he checks Mail every 45 seconds) and copies the song name into a text file. The song name is then copied into iTunes and a playlist is created from your search. Next, DittyBot loads Skype (the internet telephony app) and begins calling your mobile phone. Your mobile phone rings and when you pick it up, you should hear your song start playing in all its compressed glory. DittyBot will play your selection to you over your phone until you hang up. Mind you, this all should happen within 1 minute of sending your song request (depending on the speed of your POP server). Sometimes it's even quicker!
Once you had a tape player and you put your favourite songs in it and you listened to your music.
Later you had a CD player which was much better.
You put a CD and you listened to your favourite music.
But then they invented those small MP3 players with thousands of songs.
They worked in the same way, you usually always listened to the same music, but YOU HAD a bigger choice
WOW
And you also didn't have to pay your mobile phone provider AND your Mobile Internet Provider
WOW
But now everything is going to change.
It is very "IN" music on demand...
Saturday, June 18, 2005
Discussing
What I like about discussions is that at the end both parts have the same ideas as in the beginning.
And one thinks:
"How can somebody be so stupid as to insist on this?"
While what he says is:
"I really understand your point of view, but this or that..."
Because one doesn't want to look stupid or which is even worse, antidemocratic... you have to give others the chance to say what they think, even if you already know they are wrong...
Discussing is really mostly just reorganizing one's own prejudices.
That is why Blogging is so much better.
It's like a monologue, "it saves time and prevents arguments".
And that is also why there is a button called "comment" which nobody presses.
People have since long understood the difference between a dialogue and a monologue.
And one thinks:
"How can somebody be so stupid as to insist on this?"
While what he says is:
"I really understand your point of view, but this or that..."
Because one doesn't want to look stupid or which is even worse, antidemocratic... you have to give others the chance to say what they think, even if you already know they are wrong...
Discussing is really mostly just reorganizing one's own prejudices.
That is why Blogging is so much better.
It's like a monologue, "it saves time and prevents arguments".
And that is also why there is a button called "comment" which nobody presses.
People have since long understood the difference between a dialogue and a monologue.
Softphone
My husband hates seeing me idle.
Also because when I have nothing to do I tend to "torment" him with questions, new ideas, new projects, and he is ALWAYS busy.
So, he likes to give me tasks to do.
The last one was:
"If you have nothing better to do, you could begin to "think" to a nice suit for a nice softphone".
Well, this is a real challenge.
Do I have to design a softphone for an Italian or for a German?
Because there is a main difference: the Italian is happy if it looks nice, the German wants also that it works.
Not only nice, but useful.
And here "casca l'asino" as we say.
Which is "The donkey falls down" which I am sure doesn't sound as nice and clear as in Italian.
But every translation is always a challenge.
Going back to my softphone.
The problem is that I do not like the look of any of the existing ones, because in this case it would be very easy: I would just copy it...
So, this time I really have to begin from scratch, without even having a good idea.
I could do something "Leonardo" style, with small "putti" angels which could press the numbers with their wings, but beside being complicated, I do not think it would look nice and I am SURE not so useful, so let's think of something plainer...
What about a Botero style, very rounded phone like?
I wish I could be that good, but I am not, so let's think of something else.
The problem is I have plain and normal tastes, but how can you be original if you are so plain?
Dali' would make a distorted phone, may be with numbers that bleed.
Not bad for an Italian, but how can you easily press the numbers, if the buttons are distorted?
That wouldn't fit I am sure with a program, and especially with a program made by a German...
I said that a programmer can be an artist, but now I begin to doubt it.
It is always easy to pontificate, but when it comes the moment to do, you begin to see the difference.
Well, if you do not have other resources, you can always play with colours.
What about those nice pinks and greens and blues?
Now that I think I once bought a phone for Alberto.
It was from Benetton, who is somebody who is an expert about colours(remember, UNITED COLOURS OF BENETTON?).
He wasn't an expert about telephones.
Infact, it didn't work so well, but it was really a nice looking phone...
OK, I will try to copy the Benetton's phone and integrate German virtual mechanics in it, may be I can make something NICE (and useful too)...
Also because when I have nothing to do I tend to "torment" him with questions, new ideas, new projects, and he is ALWAYS busy.
So, he likes to give me tasks to do.
The last one was:
"If you have nothing better to do, you could begin to "think" to a nice suit for a nice softphone".
Well, this is a real challenge.
Do I have to design a softphone for an Italian or for a German?
Because there is a main difference: the Italian is happy if it looks nice, the German wants also that it works.
Not only nice, but useful.
And here "casca l'asino" as we say.
Which is "The donkey falls down" which I am sure doesn't sound as nice and clear as in Italian.
But every translation is always a challenge.
Going back to my softphone.
The problem is that I do not like the look of any of the existing ones, because in this case it would be very easy: I would just copy it...
So, this time I really have to begin from scratch, without even having a good idea.
I could do something "Leonardo" style, with small "putti" angels which could press the numbers with their wings, but beside being complicated, I do not think it would look nice and I am SURE not so useful, so let's think of something plainer...
What about a Botero style, very rounded phone like?
I wish I could be that good, but I am not, so let's think of something else.
The problem is I have plain and normal tastes, but how can you be original if you are so plain?
Dali' would make a distorted phone, may be with numbers that bleed.
Not bad for an Italian, but how can you easily press the numbers, if the buttons are distorted?
That wouldn't fit I am sure with a program, and especially with a program made by a German...
I said that a programmer can be an artist, but now I begin to doubt it.
It is always easy to pontificate, but when it comes the moment to do, you begin to see the difference.
Well, if you do not have other resources, you can always play with colours.
What about those nice pinks and greens and blues?
Now that I think I once bought a phone for Alberto.
It was from Benetton, who is somebody who is an expert about colours(remember, UNITED COLOURS OF BENETTON?).
He wasn't an expert about telephones.
Infact, it didn't work so well, but it was really a nice looking phone...
OK, I will try to copy the Benetton's phone and integrate German virtual mechanics in it, may be I can make something NICE (and useful too)...
Il paese dei mandolini
Once my country was called "Il paese dei Mandolini" "The country of the mandolins" and it was very poetic thinking of a place where you had always a nice music in the background.
Almost like in a movie, music really makes the difference.
Now that the Progress has arrived also here (and Progress is something Italians cherish very much and couldn't live without) what you hear is a mixed sound of ring tones.
From the most exotic to the most colourful.
What you never hear is a too-too, which is the ringtone of mine, but it is always either disconnected or to be recharged.
Anyway, I would feel kind of ashamed for my "normality", they would look at me:
What kind of an Italian, not even able to copy or invent an individual Ring tone?
Yes, individuality is what I lack.
I am normal and being normal is a kind of suspicious.
How can somebody in the year 2005 still like the plain, normal stuff?
In that I am really not Italian.
Because ring tones or mandolins, we are talking about a "musical" country...
Almost like in a movie, music really makes the difference.
Now that the Progress has arrived also here (and Progress is something Italians cherish very much and couldn't live without) what you hear is a mixed sound of ring tones.
From the most exotic to the most colourful.
What you never hear is a too-too, which is the ringtone of mine, but it is always either disconnected or to be recharged.
Anyway, I would feel kind of ashamed for my "normality", they would look at me:
What kind of an Italian, not even able to copy or invent an individual Ring tone?
Yes, individuality is what I lack.
I am normal and being normal is a kind of suspicious.
How can somebody in the year 2005 still like the plain, normal stuff?
In that I am really not Italian.
Because ring tones or mandolins, we are talking about a "musical" country...
"Middle Range" friends
"I know why you are so pessimistic, mum"
Says my son Alberto
"Why?"
"Because you do not have a portable phone.
"What would I need a portable phone for?"
"You could call your "Middle range" friends"
" I have "Short Range" friends that I can call with my voice, I have "Long Range friends" that I can call with a Softphone and VoIP (which is very "in"), what do I need "Middle Range" friends for?
"For example, you could know the weather in Milano."
"If I live in Carmagnola, and it is sunny, what do I care if in Milano rains?"
"You could become optimistic and think, how lucky we are in Carmagnola!"
"But if it is the opposite?"
"Then you call Sanfre's "Middle Range" friends and they confirm it is raining there too, and you feel immediately happy, because your zucchini will get enough to drink and will enjoy it and will get bigger."
You cannot really discuss with an Optimist.
What a bore his life must be, never being able to complain about something.
A propos of complaining, "Middle Range" friends wouldn't be such a bad idea.
I could complain with the "Short Range", the "Long Range" and also the "Middle Range" friends!
Says my son Alberto
"Why?"
"Because you do not have a portable phone.
"What would I need a portable phone for?"
"You could call your "Middle range" friends"
" I have "Short Range" friends that I can call with my voice, I have "Long Range friends" that I can call with a Softphone and VoIP (which is very "in"), what do I need "Middle Range" friends for?
"For example, you could know the weather in Milano."
"If I live in Carmagnola, and it is sunny, what do I care if in Milano rains?"
"You could become optimistic and think, how lucky we are in Carmagnola!"
"But if it is the opposite?"
"Then you call Sanfre's "Middle Range" friends and they confirm it is raining there too, and you feel immediately happy, because your zucchini will get enough to drink and will enjoy it and will get bigger."
You cannot really discuss with an Optimist.
What a bore his life must be, never being able to complain about something.
A propos of complaining, "Middle Range" friends wouldn't be such a bad idea.
I could complain with the "Short Range", the "Long Range" and also the "Middle Range" friends!
Friday, June 17, 2005
API, TAPI, CAPI
API is what you need to make a TAPI and CAPI is nothing else than a more sophisticated TAPI.
API is for the programmer like ornithology is for the bird.
In Greek tecne meant skill.
The ancient Greeks didn't separate art from tecne, but called all artists, scientists, philosophers tecnital (makers).
Today we would define them thinkers.
The scientist is more concerned how the whatever it is will perform, while the artist or the philosopher are more concerned of how the people will feel about it.
The scientist is more a tecnital and the artist more a thinker.
But both work with their brain.
The divorce of art from technology is completely unnatural.
It's gone on so long you have to be an archaeologist to find out where the two separated.
I would declare as art a sublimation of tecne.
Some scientific programs could be declared as a kind of Art, as some artistic outputs could be declared as science.
Leonardo's masterpieces were possible thanks to his genius in making the colours.
A painting can become "alive" if the colours are LIVING colours.
Good music needs good instruments.
Art and Science go together and need each other.
Man is a scientist and an artist at the same time.
The best API is the one that allows an artistic TAPI to be developed.
API is for the programmer like ornithology is for the bird.
In Greek tecne meant skill.
The ancient Greeks didn't separate art from tecne, but called all artists, scientists, philosophers tecnital (makers).
Today we would define them thinkers.
The scientist is more concerned how the whatever it is will perform, while the artist or the philosopher are more concerned of how the people will feel about it.
The scientist is more a tecnital and the artist more a thinker.
But both work with their brain.
The divorce of art from technology is completely unnatural.
It's gone on so long you have to be an archaeologist to find out where the two separated.
I would declare as art a sublimation of tecne.
Some scientific programs could be declared as a kind of Art, as some artistic outputs could be declared as science.
Leonardo's masterpieces were possible thanks to his genius in making the colours.
A painting can become "alive" if the colours are LIVING colours.
Good music needs good instruments.
Art and Science go together and need each other.
Man is a scientist and an artist at the same time.
The best API is the one that allows an artistic TAPI to be developed.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
The Internet and copyrights
Is it better to write something originally stupid or something unoriginally intelligent?
I think QUALITY should ALWAYS prevail.
The whole world is built on each generation handing on the results of their experience to the next generation.
And I was taught on the whole five years of high school how to best copy what the others before us did.
First the Greeks, then the Latins, then what came after.
A cultured man is nothing else than somebody who studied a lot and learned a lot by imitating and copying.
You learn to talk by copying the ones who talk to you.
You learn to write by copying the ones who wrote before you.
And if you are really good, then you can even go a little bit further and writing something new and intelligent...
And if you are not, it doesn't matter, there are so many who already write...
I think QUALITY should ALWAYS prevail.
The whole world is built on each generation handing on the results of their experience to the next generation.
And I was taught on the whole five years of high school how to best copy what the others before us did.
First the Greeks, then the Latins, then what came after.
A cultured man is nothing else than somebody who studied a lot and learned a lot by imitating and copying.
You learn to talk by copying the ones who talk to you.
You learn to write by copying the ones who wrote before you.
And if you are really good, then you can even go a little bit further and writing something new and intelligent...
And if you are not, it doesn't matter, there are so many who already write...
G.O.K
Patrizia
What a wonderful lyrical posting !
Many good points. First you ask how can I be sure. Obviously if you read my actual forecast posting at my blogsite (or were there in Ottawa to hear me) you'll see that I clearly state that I expect these forecasts to be wrong. All forecasts are wrong. You try to minimize the errors. But nobody can know the future.
And for what its worth, I was invited by the Canadian cellphone industry association (CWTA) to predict 20 years into the future. The reason they invited me is that I am the acknowedged global guru in this space, from chairing the various forecasting conferences to authoring the first business book on this topic to lecturing on the busines of cellphones at Oxford to my previous frequently sited famous predictions and forecasts for the industry, ranging from the 3G revenues forecasts to the global 3G association (UMTS Congress) and how services evolve from 3G to 4G which I was invited to do at the CTIA in New Orleans by the IEEE. So yes, I know these are guesses as much as those from anybody else, but I do have a history of being more right than wrong on my cellphone related forecasts in the past.
Item 1 - what is the present. I agree totally with you. The future will change MORE in ways we cannot anticipate than in any projections of trends from today. Even so, we can make many useful projections using Moore's Law, emerging technologies, disruptive business models etc.
Item 2 - What is content? What is good content. Patrizia, to save space I refer to my previous posting comparing fixed internet paid content and wireless internet cellphone paid content. I argue the cellphone kind is way better..
Item 3 - free. You state that "He didn't understand it" which I assume you mean is me, that Tomi Ahonen didn't understand free. First, I am totally a business and money person (all of my books have that as its guiding principle) and believe fervently in that there is no such thing as a free lunch. What is provided on the fixed wireline internet "for free" is not sustainable. If the content or service is sponsored or paid for by advertising, then it is not truly free. By truly free I mean shareware, freeware etc. That cannot sustain itself. But yes, advertising can sustain business, as we see in American TV, radio, newspapers etc. Of course. And I try to make it clear when I talk about truly free and when mean free inside quotation marks, ie "free".
I did discuss the free vs paid content and services again in great detail in the previous two replies to Martin, I trust you and I, Patrizia, can agree that I am not that ignoarant an Economist that I would propose free business models. And that my thread throghout all these postings is to seek actual payments (ie mostly via cellphone) rather than free.
Item 4 - Communism. Probably not really worth getting into a discussion of this mostly discredited economic model?
Next item (not numbered) on "commercial internet is coming... but why on a cellular phone". This actually is a very good point, and in my last two books and in most of my public speakerships I have repeated my theory of the bi-centric convergence. We have two convergence points. The battle for the pocket - already totally won by the cellphone. And the battle for the home living room - where the battle is only now being joined by Microsoft, Playstation, TiVo, the cable companies, the PC, the TV, etc.
Like I've been saying for three years, we have 30 minute tasks and 30 second tasks. Any 30 minute tasks we plan in advance, we do seated ie we want a confortable chair, we want a large screen and good keyboard (or control) etc. But 30 second tasks come interrupting our lives, we often multitask with them (ie drive car), do it standing, walking, on the small screen, in a hurry, with the avaiable tools meaning tiny keypads etc. Both will co-exist easily for the next 5-10 years. One will not subsume the other.
Not until we get projection ability from the cellphone (and thus large screens) and overcome the user interface (10-15 years into the future) can the cellphone take over from our plasma screens..
But again - my key point. THE MONEY will migrate to the cellphone. Check out Habbo Hotel and SMS-to-TV chat (and while you are at it, also Oh My News). These are all case studies in my latest book, Communities Dominate Brands. The cellphone becomes both the interactivity tool of preference and the payment tool of preference.
Dominate !
Tomi Ahonen :-)
Tomi,
what a good practical posting!
In principle I guess we look at the same thing, we see it in the same way, but you see one part (the money revenue) and I see the money revenues and the machine behind the money revenues.
I remember we sat on a Turkish cafe' and we sipped a nice coffee.
When we were leaving we also saw the kitchen.
If we had seen it before, I am sure we wouldn't have enjoyed the coffee that much...
I am an Italian, I live in Italy and I still have good eyes and good ears.
What you mostly hear, wherever you are, is an infinite miriade of ring tones and people talking about stupidity, not caring who listens and hears.
I begin to be really concerned, because on TV you just see Spots of this or that cellular provider promising this or that.
The reality is that they want, and they will be succesful with all the tools they have, is to drive the telephone traffic from fix to mobile.
It is exactly what they did in the last 50 years with cars.
Since Fiat and the other cars manufacturers had to sell cars, they neglected the public transportation in favour of the private transportation.
We have arrived to a point where traveling is getting a nightmare, because our towns are mostly 500 years old and more and our roads are made for pedestrians and carriages, while they have to handle so many cars.
Parking is getting impossible.
In addition we had the Mont Blanc closed for several years and the Frejus had a big fire some weeks ago and will be closed for several months.
They do not know where to put all the trucks and with the holidays season it will be better stay home.
Exactly the same will happen to the mobile industry.
I insist it is a fashion, because nothing is so important it cannot wait a few minutes necessary to find the nearest fixed phone.
The real emergencies are much less than what you can forecast.
But they built the infrastructures and they are enormously profitable.
So much that nobody talks about the possible danger to health.
Nobody knows for sure.
And that means many know it is not healthy, but the money behind is so huge it is better to ignore the subject.
I do not say that the cell phones are not useful or nice to use.
I say that when it is too much, it is too much.
And I also say that everything in life has a beginning, a middle and an end.
Also what looks ethernal.
All the nice things in life, to be really enjoyed, must be sipped.
Sex included.
Thanks for listening (even if not mobile)
Patrizia
PS And the Future? G.O.K.
That stands for:
God Only Knows (in every sense)
What a wonderful lyrical posting !
Many good points. First you ask how can I be sure. Obviously if you read my actual forecast posting at my blogsite (or were there in Ottawa to hear me) you'll see that I clearly state that I expect these forecasts to be wrong. All forecasts are wrong. You try to minimize the errors. But nobody can know the future.
And for what its worth, I was invited by the Canadian cellphone industry association (CWTA) to predict 20 years into the future. The reason they invited me is that I am the acknowedged global guru in this space, from chairing the various forecasting conferences to authoring the first business book on this topic to lecturing on the busines of cellphones at Oxford to my previous frequently sited famous predictions and forecasts for the industry, ranging from the 3G revenues forecasts to the global 3G association (UMTS Congress) and how services evolve from 3G to 4G which I was invited to do at the CTIA in New Orleans by the IEEE. So yes, I know these are guesses as much as those from anybody else, but I do have a history of being more right than wrong on my cellphone related forecasts in the past.
Item 1 - what is the present. I agree totally with you. The future will change MORE in ways we cannot anticipate than in any projections of trends from today. Even so, we can make many useful projections using Moore's Law, emerging technologies, disruptive business models etc.
Item 2 - What is content? What is good content. Patrizia, to save space I refer to my previous posting comparing fixed internet paid content and wireless internet cellphone paid content. I argue the cellphone kind is way better..
Item 3 - free. You state that "He didn't understand it" which I assume you mean is me, that Tomi Ahonen didn't understand free. First, I am totally a business and money person (all of my books have that as its guiding principle) and believe fervently in that there is no such thing as a free lunch. What is provided on the fixed wireline internet "for free" is not sustainable. If the content or service is sponsored or paid for by advertising, then it is not truly free. By truly free I mean shareware, freeware etc. That cannot sustain itself. But yes, advertising can sustain business, as we see in American TV, radio, newspapers etc. Of course. And I try to make it clear when I talk about truly free and when mean free inside quotation marks, ie "free".
I did discuss the free vs paid content and services again in great detail in the previous two replies to Martin, I trust you and I, Patrizia, can agree that I am not that ignoarant an Economist that I would propose free business models. And that my thread throghout all these postings is to seek actual payments (ie mostly via cellphone) rather than free.
Item 4 - Communism. Probably not really worth getting into a discussion of this mostly discredited economic model?
Next item (not numbered) on "commercial internet is coming... but why on a cellular phone". This actually is a very good point, and in my last two books and in most of my public speakerships I have repeated my theory of the bi-centric convergence. We have two convergence points. The battle for the pocket - already totally won by the cellphone. And the battle for the home living room - where the battle is only now being joined by Microsoft, Playstation, TiVo, the cable companies, the PC, the TV, etc.
Like I've been saying for three years, we have 30 minute tasks and 30 second tasks. Any 30 minute tasks we plan in advance, we do seated ie we want a confortable chair, we want a large screen and good keyboard (or control) etc. But 30 second tasks come interrupting our lives, we often multitask with them (ie drive car), do it standing, walking, on the small screen, in a hurry, with the avaiable tools meaning tiny keypads etc. Both will co-exist easily for the next 5-10 years. One will not subsume the other.
Not until we get projection ability from the cellphone (and thus large screens) and overcome the user interface (10-15 years into the future) can the cellphone take over from our plasma screens..
But again - my key point. THE MONEY will migrate to the cellphone. Check out Habbo Hotel and SMS-to-TV chat (and while you are at it, also Oh My News). These are all case studies in my latest book, Communities Dominate Brands. The cellphone becomes both the interactivity tool of preference and the payment tool of preference.
Dominate !
Tomi Ahonen :-)
Tomi,
what a good practical posting!
In principle I guess we look at the same thing, we see it in the same way, but you see one part (the money revenue) and I see the money revenues and the machine behind the money revenues.
I remember we sat on a Turkish cafe' and we sipped a nice coffee.
When we were leaving we also saw the kitchen.
If we had seen it before, I am sure we wouldn't have enjoyed the coffee that much...
I am an Italian, I live in Italy and I still have good eyes and good ears.
What you mostly hear, wherever you are, is an infinite miriade of ring tones and people talking about stupidity, not caring who listens and hears.
I begin to be really concerned, because on TV you just see Spots of this or that cellular provider promising this or that.
The reality is that they want, and they will be succesful with all the tools they have, is to drive the telephone traffic from fix to mobile.
It is exactly what they did in the last 50 years with cars.
Since Fiat and the other cars manufacturers had to sell cars, they neglected the public transportation in favour of the private transportation.
We have arrived to a point where traveling is getting a nightmare, because our towns are mostly 500 years old and more and our roads are made for pedestrians and carriages, while they have to handle so many cars.
Parking is getting impossible.
In addition we had the Mont Blanc closed for several years and the Frejus had a big fire some weeks ago and will be closed for several months.
They do not know where to put all the trucks and with the holidays season it will be better stay home.
Exactly the same will happen to the mobile industry.
I insist it is a fashion, because nothing is so important it cannot wait a few minutes necessary to find the nearest fixed phone.
The real emergencies are much less than what you can forecast.
But they built the infrastructures and they are enormously profitable.
So much that nobody talks about the possible danger to health.
Nobody knows for sure.
And that means many know it is not healthy, but the money behind is so huge it is better to ignore the subject.
I do not say that the cell phones are not useful or nice to use.
I say that when it is too much, it is too much.
And I also say that everything in life has a beginning, a middle and an end.
Also what looks ethernal.
All the nice things in life, to be really enjoyed, must be sipped.
Sex included.
Thanks for listening (even if not mobile)
Patrizia
PS And the Future? G.O.K.
That stands for:
God Only Knows (in every sense)
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Blogging: Whenever, wherever, however you like it.
"Blogging is a form of on-line personal publishing that allows individuals and companies to articulate and 'broadcast' their message into the cyberspace."
It is in my opinion the form that best reflects the society of the Internet Era.
The Internet made possible the impossible, allowed the single,little, small nobody human being to express his thoughts, to show his qualities, to display his performances and made them known to a public he wouldn't have reached before.
Before the Internet Era you could write and express yourself on a piece of paper just if you were a journalist, if you belonged to this or that, in a few words, if you were lucky to be allowed to.
The same was for all other "performing arts".
We are just in the beginning, but I foresee a future where a one man enterprise with little means will be able to play an orchestra, to direct a successful movie, to fund a telecom and so on.
"The economy of means is founded on the richness of technology"
Blogging is doing what a journalist does, but whenever, wherever, however you like it.
It is in my opinion the form that best reflects the society of the Internet Era.
The Internet made possible the impossible, allowed the single,little, small nobody human being to express his thoughts, to show his qualities, to display his performances and made them known to a public he wouldn't have reached before.
Before the Internet Era you could write and express yourself on a piece of paper just if you were a journalist, if you belonged to this or that, in a few words, if you were lucky to be allowed to.
The same was for all other "performing arts".
We are just in the beginning, but I foresee a future where a one man enterprise with little means will be able to play an orchestra, to direct a successful movie, to fund a telecom and so on.
"The economy of means is founded on the richness of technology"
Blogging is doing what a journalist does, but whenever, wherever, however you like it.
X-ray of my country
In Italy now a day you have two main entities:
1) The Mafia
2) The "pizzaioli"
The first one is the bunch of politicians who get the percentage of the country's income depending on the percentage of the votes they get.
The second is the bunch of people who live happily ever after because they have a portable phone and a Stadium where to go on Sundays to watch the Soccer game.
There are also women who are not interested in the soccer game, but they still have a cell phone to play with and a lot of "Soaps" on TV.
That is the explanation why Italy is heading for the bottom and nobody does anything to prevent it.
Politicians in first row...
1) The Mafia
2) The "pizzaioli"
The first one is the bunch of politicians who get the percentage of the country's income depending on the percentage of the votes they get.
The second is the bunch of people who live happily ever after because they have a portable phone and a Stadium where to go on Sundays to watch the Soccer game.
There are also women who are not interested in the soccer game, but they still have a cell phone to play with and a lot of "Soaps" on TV.
That is the explanation why Italy is heading for the bottom and nobody does anything to prevent it.
Politicians in first row...
The Future
To attempt to study the market without studying man is as impossible as to study light without studying the eye.
"But yes, I did say that by 2020 the “free” internet model will be extinguished and confined to the heaps of history."
"There are more users on the (paid) mobile internet. There is no built-in payment mechanism on the fixed (free) internet (ie you have to use a credit card etc) but there is built-in payment on the mobile internet. And the users on the mobile internet are totally agreeable to paying for content, while on the free internet the content owners are beggars."
I wouldn't agree with the first point.
"There are more users (who pay for content) on the (paid) mobile internet.
But here comes the point:
"What is content, what is good content?"
And besides:
How can he be so sure to know the Future?
To be able to predict the future you must consider parameters that he doesn't.
1) The Present
And very likely the future, at least the far future (because 2020 is very far for technology) won't be like the Present.
"Everything must change, so that everything is always the same"
What never changed and never will change is what goes under the name of "Human Nature".
History, at least the history of humanity was made by men and History ALWAYS repeats itself, because man always repeats himself (or herself in the case of women).
Mobile phones are very successful today, even too much and THAT is why in a very near future they will disappear, leaving the place to something "new" and "different".
They are not a necessity, they are not something you cannot live without.
They are a fashion and as a fashion someday, somebody will decide they are "OUT".
2) What is content? What is good content?
"Ask a toad what is beauty...he will answer that it is a female with two great round eyes coming out of her little head, a large flat mouth, a yellow belly and a brown back..."
Certainly very far from what WE would define beauty.
The same applies to "content".
3) Free
That is a magic word, so magic that people haven't understood yet that there is nothing really free.
Even on the Internet.
And it looks like HE didn't understand it too.
4) Communism
That is a theory that works perfectly on the paper and doesn't in reality.
Because Human Nature is not "communist" in its substance.
All men think they are different, and as different, they want to prevail, and wanting to prevail kills the communist theory.
Besides, it even goes against the "Survival Instinct" which is the one that drives men's life, so not only is anachronistic, it is also against life.
Communism has very little to do with the Internet, I would see them as two opposite. (even if in both the word "free" has the same meaning "something to catch people and better fucking them")
"A robust, money and profits based, fully commercial internet is coming."
In that I agree.
But why should it be on a mobile phone?
In an Era where the tastes are getting so sophisticated, where a Plasma screen is getting obsolete even before becoming widespread, in an Era where the size of the screens is getting everyday bigger, because virtual reality will be the only real reality, DOES STILL SOMEBODY THINK that people will like to read a Blog, to watch a football game, to look at a movie, to listen to good music, on a small, lousy screen, with small lousy earphones?
Yes, the screens are getting better, the earphones are getting better, but at the same speed the OTHERS, the big, normal size, are.
Who is going to win?
Quality or NON Quality?
I bet on the first.
Patrizia
PS Virtual reality will be the only reality for many of us.
Isn't it better to enjoy it on a big screen, with the best Dolby surround, may be sipping a good drink?
And the content?
It is good WHAT you think is GOOD.
"But yes, I did say that by 2020 the “free” internet model will be extinguished and confined to the heaps of history."
"There are more users on the (paid) mobile internet. There is no built-in payment mechanism on the fixed (free) internet (ie you have to use a credit card etc) but there is built-in payment on the mobile internet. And the users on the mobile internet are totally agreeable to paying for content, while on the free internet the content owners are beggars."
I wouldn't agree with the first point.
"There are more users (who pay for content) on the (paid) mobile internet.
But here comes the point:
"What is content, what is good content?"
And besides:
How can he be so sure to know the Future?
To be able to predict the future you must consider parameters that he doesn't.
1) The Present
And very likely the future, at least the far future (because 2020 is very far for technology) won't be like the Present.
"Everything must change, so that everything is always the same"
What never changed and never will change is what goes under the name of "Human Nature".
History, at least the history of humanity was made by men and History ALWAYS repeats itself, because man always repeats himself (or herself in the case of women).
Mobile phones are very successful today, even too much and THAT is why in a very near future they will disappear, leaving the place to something "new" and "different".
They are not a necessity, they are not something you cannot live without.
They are a fashion and as a fashion someday, somebody will decide they are "OUT".
2) What is content? What is good content?
"Ask a toad what is beauty...he will answer that it is a female with two great round eyes coming out of her little head, a large flat mouth, a yellow belly and a brown back..."
Certainly very far from what WE would define beauty.
The same applies to "content".
3) Free
That is a magic word, so magic that people haven't understood yet that there is nothing really free.
Even on the Internet.
And it looks like HE didn't understand it too.
4) Communism
That is a theory that works perfectly on the paper and doesn't in reality.
Because Human Nature is not "communist" in its substance.
All men think they are different, and as different, they want to prevail, and wanting to prevail kills the communist theory.
Besides, it even goes against the "Survival Instinct" which is the one that drives men's life, so not only is anachronistic, it is also against life.
Communism has very little to do with the Internet, I would see them as two opposite. (even if in both the word "free" has the same meaning "something to catch people and better fucking them")
"A robust, money and profits based, fully commercial internet is coming."
In that I agree.
But why should it be on a mobile phone?
In an Era where the tastes are getting so sophisticated, where a Plasma screen is getting obsolete even before becoming widespread, in an Era where the size of the screens is getting everyday bigger, because virtual reality will be the only real reality, DOES STILL SOMEBODY THINK that people will like to read a Blog, to watch a football game, to look at a movie, to listen to good music, on a small, lousy screen, with small lousy earphones?
Yes, the screens are getting better, the earphones are getting better, but at the same speed the OTHERS, the big, normal size, are.
Who is going to win?
Quality or NON Quality?
I bet on the first.
Patrizia
PS Virtual reality will be the only reality for many of us.
Isn't it better to enjoy it on a big screen, with the best Dolby surround, may be sipping a good drink?
And the content?
It is good WHAT you think is GOOD.
Monday, June 13, 2005
Digital Identity Management Exploring Identity in the Internet Age
What is going to be a "Digital Identity"?
It is going to be numbers that talk, pictures that walk, noises to be smelt, colours to be heard.
We will feel a smell and hear a colour. With the click of a mouse on the person's name we will be introduced in a virtual world and travel through the "identity" of the person.
Little matters if the identity is given or taken or whatever.
It won't be the finger prints, it won't be what the others think of that special identity, it will be the dreaming world where the identity lives.
Is not what is around, is not what they say about you, it is not what you look.
It is that million of things that make an identity that special identity.
It is going to be numbers that talk, pictures that walk, noises to be smelt, colours to be heard.
We will feel a smell and hear a colour. With the click of a mouse on the person's name we will be introduced in a virtual world and travel through the "identity" of the person.
Little matters if the identity is given or taken or whatever.
It won't be the finger prints, it won't be what the others think of that special identity, it will be the dreaming world where the identity lives.
Is not what is around, is not what they say about you, it is not what you look.
It is that million of things that make an identity that special identity.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
What is connectivity?
Once there was just the easy simple word: connectivity.
That used to mean to connect two or more devices in something that was called a "Network" and exchange whatever between or among them.
Then The "Spam" arrived and so it was necessary to add the word "intelligent".
And thus connectivity became "intelligent connectivity".
But then the adjective "intelligent" had to be better specified, because too generic and so apt to be understood in the right/wrong way.
That is: following the human brain "intelligent" has a meaning, following computer's logic it can have a totally different one.
The programmer declares something as Spam and the spammer changes his weapons.
The programmer redeclares it and the spammer changes it again.
And the computer follows directions.
Then connectivity became "communication".
Because voice was included in connectivity.
So that connectivity became a "transport mean" and nothing more than that.
There were new protocols and new wars about protocols.
Spamming changed the name in "spitting" which actually gave a better idea of what it was.
So, "voice connectivity" needed to change in "Spitting-free voice connectivity".
Programmers made the Junk-spit folder and all the spitters should have finished there.
But spitters, for their fluid nature can pass randomly from one folder to the other and the programmer needs to be always on alert.
At this point connectivity looks almost like TV broadcasting.
At the beginning we had just one channel and a lot to look at.
Now we have millions of channels but "there is nothing on TV anymore".
Once we could talk, now that we have million ways to communicate, we have nothing to say...
That used to mean to connect two or more devices in something that was called a "Network" and exchange whatever between or among them.
Then The "Spam" arrived and so it was necessary to add the word "intelligent".
And thus connectivity became "intelligent connectivity".
But then the adjective "intelligent" had to be better specified, because too generic and so apt to be understood in the right/wrong way.
That is: following the human brain "intelligent" has a meaning, following computer's logic it can have a totally different one.
The programmer declares something as Spam and the spammer changes his weapons.
The programmer redeclares it and the spammer changes it again.
And the computer follows directions.
Then connectivity became "communication".
Because voice was included in connectivity.
So that connectivity became a "transport mean" and nothing more than that.
There were new protocols and new wars about protocols.
Spamming changed the name in "spitting" which actually gave a better idea of what it was.
So, "voice connectivity" needed to change in "Spitting-free voice connectivity".
Programmers made the Junk-spit folder and all the spitters should have finished there.
But spitters, for their fluid nature can pass randomly from one folder to the other and the programmer needs to be always on alert.
At this point connectivity looks almost like TV broadcasting.
At the beginning we had just one channel and a lot to look at.
Now we have millions of channels but "there is nothing on TV anymore".
Once we could talk, now that we have million ways to communicate, we have nothing to say...
Skype, Yahoo
There are rumors that Skype is selling to Yahoo, or alternatively, that Yahoo is buying Skype...
There is one thing we can all do to know it for sure, it is called waiting.
There is one thing we can all do to know it for sure, it is called waiting.
Friday, June 10, 2005
H323 versus SIP
I like to read Martin Geddes' Blog, because I get daily new ideas for my Blog.
I just need to comment:
All over the World the graves are full of bones of the people who wanted to build an Empire, Latins included.
The big problem is not BUILDING it, but KEEPING it.
You can win a War and still not being able to rule a country (and the Americans should know a lot about it).
Skype's quality is good, but you never tried the latest H323 phones.
And they have a lot of advantages.
1) Open source
2) Priorization of the voice packets
3) QoS integrated
4) Security issue with encryption via VPN
5) Stunning quality of voice that doesn't dip to low level cell phones
And I want to be objective.
Skype is great because it is free, because everybody knows it and many use it.
But what I mostly dislike is:
1) Lack of privacy that will surely lead to "spit" and I wonder nobody has thought of it yet.
2) Lack of security. Something that passes through all firewalls makes the firewalls useless.
3) Proprietary nature. I hate the actual monopolies and I AM NOT WILLING to build the next one.
"Dadaist Francis Picabia observed that our heads are round to allow thoughts to change direction.
But the same happens to fashions and technology.
That is why everything has a beginning, a middle and an end. "
And since I like to be provocative, I cannot resist to suggest him to rename HIS Blog:
Skypepocalypse it would suit better the subjects he is daily talking about...
I just need to comment:
All over the World the graves are full of bones of the people who wanted to build an Empire, Latins included.
The big problem is not BUILDING it, but KEEPING it.
You can win a War and still not being able to rule a country (and the Americans should know a lot about it).
Skype's quality is good, but you never tried the latest H323 phones.
And they have a lot of advantages.
1) Open source
2) Priorization of the voice packets
3) QoS integrated
4) Security issue with encryption via VPN
5) Stunning quality of voice that doesn't dip to low level cell phones
And I want to be objective.
Skype is great because it is free, because everybody knows it and many use it.
But what I mostly dislike is:
1) Lack of privacy that will surely lead to "spit" and I wonder nobody has thought of it yet.
2) Lack of security. Something that passes through all firewalls makes the firewalls useless.
3) Proprietary nature. I hate the actual monopolies and I AM NOT WILLING to build the next one.
"Dadaist Francis Picabia observed that our heads are round to allow thoughts to change direction.
But the same happens to fashions and technology.
That is why everything has a beginning, a middle and an end. "
And since I like to be provocative, I cannot resist to suggest him to rename HIS Blog:
Skypepocalypse it would suit better the subjects he is daily talking about...
Thursday, June 09, 2005
The many places to put Skype
Among the many ways to use Skype I talked about the last two in the following posts (that cronologically were before this one)but the really last one is the one I talked about a few minutes ago with my friend in Barcelona.
He IS NOT a computer guru and wanted to configure Skype on his Laptop, where he already has a good collection of the latest softphones.
Something must have happened because he managed to screw up the whole thing.
I KNOW where I would put Skype! IN THAT PLACE WHERE IT BELONGS!
Now, I thought that was typically Italian, but then we share the Latin Blood with the Spanish!
He IS NOT a computer guru and wanted to configure Skype on his Laptop, where he already has a good collection of the latest softphones.
Something must have happened because he managed to screw up the whole thing.
I KNOW where I would put Skype! IN THAT PLACE WHERE IT BELONGS!
Now, I thought that was typically Italian, but then we share the Latin Blood with the Spanish!
Fisher Price Communication
Some time ago I thought:
I will really begin to be old the moment I will think "at my times...this was better, that was better..."
I am afraid that moment has come.
When I read articles as the following I think I do not understand the world anymore
Baby babble
Martin Geddes - Telepocalypse
What I want: a Skype “phone” I can give to my daughter which is battery powered and lets her talk to her grandparents and — in future — her cousins.
Up to five buttons, one for each person. When they’re online, the button glows green. When you’re talking to that person, it glows red. Press the button to connect and disconnect. Press multiple buttons for a conference call between all grandparents. Totally under the initiative of your kid, no parents needed. Incoming calls? Probably not, or at least a parent-selectable option (naturally, only from pre-approved buddies). Auto power-off after 5 mins of relative silence. More... (http://www.telepocalypse.net)
I always believed in teaching my children to do intelligent things (and I was only partially rewarded).
I NEVER would have liked my daughter or my son playing with a stupid phone, talking about weather conditions or what they had for lunch or "are you going for a walk?" because those would have been the topics to discuss with their grandparents.
Far away are the times when grandparents read nice stories to grandchildren and they discussed about them.
Far are the times when they could teach them things they would have never learned in another way.
Now the important is to see if the button is green, that means the others are talking, or red, that means you are talking.
And may be in a near future it will also be possible to see the grandparents face on a small video.
But then, you must be careful, and the INCOMING CALLS?
"Probably not, or at least a parent-selectable option (naturally, only from pre-approved buddies). Auto power-off after 5 mins of relative silence."
And the important:
" Should be tumbling out of Chinese factory for $10-15 or less. Retail for $80-100 this year, $49.99 in Costco next year, $29.99 in Wal-Mart year after. (Undine can sell me 2 cordless phones and a base station for $80 at retail right now, and Wal-Mart 2 FRS radios for $8. This is a high-margin device in year 1.)"
Because it should also be cheap.
But still the cheaper way to communicate is face to face, how nice it was when children could see their grandparents and talk to them!
Yes, my old age is definitely on the door...
I don’t want a smartphone for Christmas. I want a Fisher Price phone that works.
There’s still time. Anyone dare?
If I really have to choose, I prefer it on a stick:
Skype On A Stick
VoIPStick may be the first out the door with an idea like this, but U3, a Redwood City based company is taking things a lot further, with a whole line of on USB memory stick based applications. The one with Skype is the most appealing to me simply because it means that you can leave the laptop at home and only carry a headset and the memory stick.
Andy Abramson - VoIP Watch
I will really begin to be old the moment I will think "at my times...this was better, that was better..."
I am afraid that moment has come.
When I read articles as the following I think I do not understand the world anymore
Baby babble
Martin Geddes - Telepocalypse
What I want: a Skype “phone” I can give to my daughter which is battery powered and lets her talk to her grandparents and — in future — her cousins.
Up to five buttons, one for each person. When they’re online, the button glows green. When you’re talking to that person, it glows red. Press the button to connect and disconnect. Press multiple buttons for a conference call between all grandparents. Totally under the initiative of your kid, no parents needed. Incoming calls? Probably not, or at least a parent-selectable option (naturally, only from pre-approved buddies). Auto power-off after 5 mins of relative silence. More... (http://www.telepocalypse.net)
I always believed in teaching my children to do intelligent things (and I was only partially rewarded).
I NEVER would have liked my daughter or my son playing with a stupid phone, talking about weather conditions or what they had for lunch or "are you going for a walk?" because those would have been the topics to discuss with their grandparents.
Far away are the times when grandparents read nice stories to grandchildren and they discussed about them.
Far are the times when they could teach them things they would have never learned in another way.
Now the important is to see if the button is green, that means the others are talking, or red, that means you are talking.
And may be in a near future it will also be possible to see the grandparents face on a small video.
But then, you must be careful, and the INCOMING CALLS?
"Probably not, or at least a parent-selectable option (naturally, only from pre-approved buddies). Auto power-off after 5 mins of relative silence."
And the important:
" Should be tumbling out of Chinese factory for $10-15 or less. Retail for $80-100 this year, $49.99 in Costco next year, $29.99 in Wal-Mart year after. (Undine can sell me 2 cordless phones and a base station for $80 at retail right now, and Wal-Mart 2 FRS radios for $8. This is a high-margin device in year 1.)"
Because it should also be cheap.
But still the cheaper way to communicate is face to face, how nice it was when children could see their grandparents and talk to them!
Yes, my old age is definitely on the door...
I don’t want a smartphone for Christmas. I want a Fisher Price phone that works.
There’s still time. Anyone dare?
If I really have to choose, I prefer it on a stick:
Skype On A Stick
VoIPStick may be the first out the door with an idea like this, but U3, a Redwood City based company is taking things a lot further, with a whole line of on USB memory stick based applications. The one with Skype is the most appealing to me simply because it means that you can leave the laptop at home and only carry a headset and the memory stick.
Andy Abramson - VoIP Watch
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Great many people think they are thinking
Since Aristotele, logical thinking has been exalted as the most effective way to use the mind, but it's not much help in generating new ideas.
You have a chance to look at things from different angles if you manoeuvre the mind like that Australian bird which, can fly upside down and backwards.
Turning problems on their head can frequently convert them into solutions.
"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."
You have a chance to look at things from different angles if you manoeuvre the mind like that Australian bird which, can fly upside down and backwards.
Turning problems on their head can frequently convert them into solutions.
"A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices."
He who seeds a thought, harvests a destiny
"We like things for what they represent, not for what they are. A distinction confirmed by the statistic that he person you love is 72.8% water. Status usually takes precedence over function and appearance over performance."
This could be the explanation of most successes of our generation.
The placebo effect on the use of a new drug counts for 50% of its success, that meaning the therapeutic effect of most of therapies depends on our mind and the way our mind thinks it will heal the body, not the therapy in itself.
We have really come a long way since the first form of life appeared on this planet.
And this is what makes us different from animals: the power of thinking that we think, the power of the thought over the body.
But to think is not enough, we must think of something.
He who seeds a thought, harvests a destiny.
This could be the explanation of most successes of our generation.
The placebo effect on the use of a new drug counts for 50% of its success, that meaning the therapeutic effect of most of therapies depends on our mind and the way our mind thinks it will heal the body, not the therapy in itself.
We have really come a long way since the first form of life appeared on this planet.
And this is what makes us different from animals: the power of thinking that we think, the power of the thought over the body.
But to think is not enough, we must think of something.
He who seeds a thought, harvests a destiny.
Monday, June 06, 2005
Déjà vu
George Bernard Shaw wrote: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
Well Jeff Pulver is really the "unreasonable man" of the day.
"How Can SIP Compete with Skype? The Best of Both Worlds:
Skype is without doubt the most successful VoIP download in the history of the Internet and Skype has established themselves as the biggest VoIP service provider on a global scale. Skype has the fastest adoption rate ever recorded. We have to ask ourselves why Skype is working so well.
So I have discussed with Henry if and how the SIP community can leverage SIP to make the best of both worlds into something that is greater than the sum of both. This would imply using SIP in both client-server and peer-to-peer mode, using the IETF standards for NAT traversal, auditable security, providing equal or better than PSTN sound quality, presence, IM and last but not least providing the ultimate user experience overall."
"We HAVE TO ASK OURSELVES why Skype is working so well."
I think I humbly have an answer to it.
I myself have a very successful website of ebooks: www.easymediabroadcast.com
I began it as a hobby and wouldn't have believed that in spite of HAVING NO COMMERCIALISATION, in spite of being an amateurish website made in English by a mother tongue Italian, with no experience of publishing it could be so successful.
But the reason I guess is in a four letters magic words: FREE.
And I am sure if I began charging for it the number of visitors would dramatically slum.
Of course it is also an interesting website, with more than 800 nicely done ebooks.
But going back to the main issue. It all has a touch of Déjà vu and Déjà expected.
Was I expecting too much?
I was hoping for a fight at "the last knife" and what do I see?
The usual mixture of nice big words, "This would imply using SIP in both client-server and peer-to-peer mode, using the IETF standards for NAT traversal, auditable security, providing equal or better than PSTN sound quality, presence, IM and last but not least providing the ultimate user experience overall"
which mean the same old thing:
Let's share the number of customers...
Well Jeff Pulver is really the "unreasonable man" of the day.
"How Can SIP Compete with Skype? The Best of Both Worlds:
Skype is without doubt the most successful VoIP download in the history of the Internet and Skype has established themselves as the biggest VoIP service provider on a global scale. Skype has the fastest adoption rate ever recorded. We have to ask ourselves why Skype is working so well.
So I have discussed with Henry if and how the SIP community can leverage SIP to make the best of both worlds into something that is greater than the sum of both. This would imply using SIP in both client-server and peer-to-peer mode, using the IETF standards for NAT traversal, auditable security, providing equal or better than PSTN sound quality, presence, IM and last but not least providing the ultimate user experience overall."
"We HAVE TO ASK OURSELVES why Skype is working so well."
I think I humbly have an answer to it.
I myself have a very successful website of ebooks: www.easymediabroadcast.com
I began it as a hobby and wouldn't have believed that in spite of HAVING NO COMMERCIALISATION, in spite of being an amateurish website made in English by a mother tongue Italian, with no experience of publishing it could be so successful.
But the reason I guess is in a four letters magic words: FREE.
And I am sure if I began charging for it the number of visitors would dramatically slum.
Of course it is also an interesting website, with more than 800 nicely done ebooks.
But going back to the main issue. It all has a touch of Déjà vu and Déjà expected.
Was I expecting too much?
I was hoping for a fight at "the last knife" and what do I see?
The usual mixture of nice big words, "This would imply using SIP in both client-server and peer-to-peer mode, using the IETF standards for NAT traversal, auditable security, providing equal or better than PSTN sound quality, presence, IM and last but not least providing the ultimate user experience overall"
which mean the same old thing:
Let's share the number of customers...
Skype's future
If you ask an Italian what communication means he will answer you, everything but telephony.
And the classic example was this Italian waiter who, when asked the way to the toilet, apologized saying he couldn't explain because his hands were full.
But then we are the country in Europe with the biggest number of cell phones.
That is:
To communicate you need to have a place where to, and you need to tell where the place will be...
This is going to be the "short term" of Skype's future in Italy.
The cheap way to communicate where the communication will be...
And the classic example was this Italian waiter who, when asked the way to the toilet, apologized saying he couldn't explain because his hands were full.
But then we are the country in Europe with the biggest number of cell phones.
That is:
To communicate you need to have a place where to, and you need to tell where the place will be...
This is going to be the "short term" of Skype's future in Italy.
The cheap way to communicate where the communication will be...
The "middle term" of Skype's future
The Chinese view all animals in term of food..
After all, the Chinese don't greet you by saying "good afternoon" but ask "have you eaten?"
There is a Chinese axiom that you can eat everything if you cut it up into small enough pieces. This not only applies to dogs and snakes but metaphorically can be applied to any tissue.
After all, the Chinese don't greet you by saying "good afternoon" but ask "have you eaten?"
There is a Chinese axiom that you can eat everything if you cut it up into small enough pieces. This not only applies to dogs and snakes but metaphorically can be applied to any tissue.
The "Long Term" of Skype's future
Dadaist Francis Picabia observed that our heads are round to allow thoughts to change direction.
But the same happens to fashions and technology.
That is why everything has a beginning, a middle and an end.
But the same happens to fashions and technology.
That is why everything has a beginning, a middle and an end.
Connection between coition and pregnancy.
"I am told that the Tully River Aborigines never made the connection between coition and pregnancy.
For them the ultimate act of creation-childbirth-is one of divine chance."
This seems ridiculous to us, but we are ridiculous the same.
We see a lot, but not what is in front of our eyes.
We have seen for many years a future that was not actually The Future and we are speechless and disoriented seeing we got all wrong.
We were (and still are in certain nostalgic parties of our old Europe) "trying to preserve a 35 hour work week in a world where Indian engineers are ready to work a 35-hour day, "and where Indian families are ready to sell their children into sexual slavery to survive." Now, THERE'S a standard to reach for."
Are we going to try to reach that standard or are we blindly going on believing in a future which will never exist?
Do we still believe in a 35 hours work week?
Do we still believe we are entitled to it, while millions struggle to survive?
History teaches us that is much better to share a piece of the cake instead of loosing the full one...
But, as usual, nobody listens to History.
For them the ultimate act of creation-childbirth-is one of divine chance."
This seems ridiculous to us, but we are ridiculous the same.
We see a lot, but not what is in front of our eyes.
We have seen for many years a future that was not actually The Future and we are speechless and disoriented seeing we got all wrong.
We were (and still are in certain nostalgic parties of our old Europe) "trying to preserve a 35 hour work week in a world where Indian engineers are ready to work a 35-hour day, "and where Indian families are ready to sell their children into sexual slavery to survive." Now, THERE'S a standard to reach for."
Are we going to try to reach that standard or are we blindly going on believing in a future which will never exist?
Do we still believe in a 35 hours work week?
Do we still believe we are entitled to it, while millions struggle to survive?
History teaches us that is much better to share a piece of the cake instead of loosing the full one...
But, as usual, nobody listens to History.
Saturday, June 04, 2005
What will be of Europe now?
They shouldn't do the usual mistake. (But of course they will)
It is like changing the Coffee Brand wanting to make a better coffee, but in reality what you should change is the coffee machine...
(Why not trying an expresso machine?...That at least WOULD improve Italy's economical situation, since, at least for now, the Chinese haven't thought to copy it...)
It is like changing the Coffee Brand wanting to make a better coffee, but in reality what you should change is the coffee machine...
(Why not trying an expresso machine?...That at least WOULD improve Italy's economical situation, since, at least for now, the Chinese haven't thought to copy it...)
What is the meaning of no?
No can have a lot of uses and a lot of meanings.
It can also be the result of making stupid referendums.
They are not stupid per se, but for the fact that they ask to vote people who do not understand what they are voting for.
Saying no to an unwanted and unshared Constitution would be a wonderful reason why to say no, the problem is that the majority who voted no probably didn't even read it.
They said or they informed or they convinced...that voting no was undoubtedly the best way to vote.
What in reality that no meant was:
We want a better life, you promised that Europe would bring us just nice things and look what we had:
1) The Euro was the best way in many Nations to fuck once more the consumers.
2) Europe for now instead of meaning a new beginning meant just new taxes
3) Our economy is going worse instead of better
4) It looks like our politicians cannot do much to improve the situation
5) Once and for all, we would like a Europe and being European, but we still are too stupid to understand that having a common language doesn't mean to loose one's individuality, having a common currency doesn't mean that everybody gets immediately richer, having a Union doesn't mean that the rich gets richer and the poor gets richer too.
It means that the rich gets less rich and the poor less poor.
That is why the poor welcomes it and the rich doesn't...
It can also be the result of making stupid referendums.
They are not stupid per se, but for the fact that they ask to vote people who do not understand what they are voting for.
Saying no to an unwanted and unshared Constitution would be a wonderful reason why to say no, the problem is that the majority who voted no probably didn't even read it.
They said or they informed or they convinced...that voting no was undoubtedly the best way to vote.
What in reality that no meant was:
We want a better life, you promised that Europe would bring us just nice things and look what we had:
1) The Euro was the best way in many Nations to fuck once more the consumers.
2) Europe for now instead of meaning a new beginning meant just new taxes
3) Our economy is going worse instead of better
4) It looks like our politicians cannot do much to improve the situation
5) Once and for all, we would like a Europe and being European, but we still are too stupid to understand that having a common language doesn't mean to loose one's individuality, having a common currency doesn't mean that everybody gets immediately richer, having a Union doesn't mean that the rich gets richer and the poor gets richer too.
It means that the rich gets less rich and the poor less poor.
That is why the poor welcomes it and the rich doesn't...
The Internet revolution is just "warming up"
I recently had a discussion about the telcos' revenge over VoIP..
They were talking about the big Telcos in a few years devoring Skype or similar services.
The big Telcos haven't understood yet that the time of the dinosaurus has finished since long.
Since somebody invented the thing that goes under the name of "computer".
That makes everything cheaper including services and infrastructures.
Big corporations need too much food to work, while small companies need just a computer and few devices around and if the brain that is behind the computer is good enough they can function much better than a million employees company.
They can object you need investments to commercialize your service.
But another thing came out in help of the computer: Internet.
There is nothing cheaper and more effective than a good campaign on the Internet.
And this is the second stroke.
The Internet revolution began long ago, but it is not finished, it's just "warming up"...
They were talking about the big Telcos in a few years devoring Skype or similar services.
The big Telcos haven't understood yet that the time of the dinosaurus has finished since long.
Since somebody invented the thing that goes under the name of "computer".
That makes everything cheaper including services and infrastructures.
Big corporations need too much food to work, while small companies need just a computer and few devices around and if the brain that is behind the computer is good enough they can function much better than a million employees company.
They can object you need investments to commercialize your service.
But another thing came out in help of the computer: Internet.
There is nothing cheaper and more effective than a good campaign on the Internet.
And this is the second stroke.
The Internet revolution began long ago, but it is not finished, it's just "warming up"...
Here come Les Blocs
By: Nick Danger · Section: Diaries
Richard Stastny VoIP and ENUM
According to C|Net, France's Commission generale de terminologie et de neologie ("the monkeys of surrender with the new words") has decided that the term "blog" is an affront to the long noses of the French people [I told you no more Babelfish -- ed.] and will henceforth be replaced in French class with the more pleasing bloc-notes.
It will be permissable, at least in France, to use the short form "bloc." And so France will soon have blocs and presumably bloceurs and bloceuses.
At presstime it was not possible to determine whether bloc is a 'le' or a 'la,' which is the same problem we have always had with all French words.
The Germans, meanwhile, are expected to go the other way. They always do. Instead of coining an entirely new — and consequently short — word, they are expected to follow their usual practice and deem these entities komputerdailynotesgelisters.
Nick made this up: the official word is Zwischennetztagebuchaufzeichnung
In Brussels, the EU Ministry of Technologie reacted with alarm to this proliferation of 'blog' terms unique to each country, especially after they learned that the Poles intended to call them gzybrgrlz.
The EU has consequently appointed a commission to draft a plan to hold a meeting to prepare an agenda. Officials are hopeful that a single, Europe-wide standard term can be introduced in time for the 2104 Olympics.
They are being, as usual, too optimistic, we won't be ready, they forget we will need Referendums, and what if they say NO?
Patrizia
Richard Stastny VoIP and ENUM
According to C|Net, France's Commission generale de terminologie et de neologie ("the monkeys of surrender with the new words") has decided that the term "blog" is an affront to the long noses of the French people [I told you no more Babelfish -- ed.] and will henceforth be replaced in French class with the more pleasing bloc-notes.
It will be permissable, at least in France, to use the short form "bloc." And so France will soon have blocs and presumably bloceurs and bloceuses.
At presstime it was not possible to determine whether bloc is a 'le' or a 'la,' which is the same problem we have always had with all French words.
The Germans, meanwhile, are expected to go the other way. They always do. Instead of coining an entirely new — and consequently short — word, they are expected to follow their usual practice and deem these entities komputerdailynotesgelisters.
Nick made this up: the official word is Zwischennetztagebuchaufzeichnung
In Brussels, the EU Ministry of Technologie reacted with alarm to this proliferation of 'blog' terms unique to each country, especially after they learned that the Poles intended to call them gzybrgrlz.
The EU has consequently appointed a commission to draft a plan to hold a meeting to prepare an agenda. Officials are hopeful that a single, Europe-wide standard term can be introduced in time for the 2104 Olympics.
They are being, as usual, too optimistic, we won't be ready, they forget we will need Referendums, and what if they say NO?
Patrizia
Friday, June 03, 2005
No from Paris and Brussels
So let’s invite Turkey to join the US, Canada, and Mexico in NAFTA (North American Free Trade Association). NAFTA is not as embracing an economic and political union as EU but that fact makes it easier, not harder, to add members. We don’t have to coordinate currencies and internal policies; we have neither the benefits or drawbacks of fully open borders. But we do have liberalized trade and limited ability to work in each other’s countries (which ought to be expanded). We have been negotiating to add some Central American countries to the trade agreement for a while.
Tom Evslin
Undoubtely the No had more a meaning of NO to Turkey than to something else.
Undoubtely Turkey has done a lot to be able to be part of the EU and undoubtely the EU owe that to Turkey.
But they are still Muslim, and the problem is not the majority of Muslims, because they are people like you and me who want from life the best, which is a job and a honest way to make a living for them and for their family.
The problem which haunts the Eurpopean people who said no is the minority of Fanatic Muslims that think their religion is the only one on Earth (and our fanatics in that are the same) and are willing to do everything, including to loose their life to achieve their goals.
And it is their goals the most scaring part.
And YOU are willing to INVITE them into NAFTA, but I am 1000% sure you would never invite them to be US citizens.
So, please, down the mask, yes you "we do have liberalized trade and limited ability to work in each other’s countries (which ought to be expanded)." but you are far away even of "thinking" to make any of them as members of your Union.
And with this I am far from criticizing, every nation has the right to behave the way they want, but please, do not want to look more magnanimous than what you are.
US is made from a collection of immigrants, immigrants were welcome as long as they needed them to build a new country.
They are not so welcome right now, escecially Muslims, so, please refrain from critizicing the others.
I am Italian, I think I would have voted NO, but my reasons are not regarding Turkey.
I myself, believe that everybody must have a chance to live on this globe honestly and peacefully and if that means we ALL have a smaller share of the richness of this globe, I willingly agree.
I do not believe a good life means a big bank account, but to be able to wake up in a world where most of the people live in peace.
Patrizia
Tom Evslin
Undoubtely the No had more a meaning of NO to Turkey than to something else.
Undoubtely Turkey has done a lot to be able to be part of the EU and undoubtely the EU owe that to Turkey.
But they are still Muslim, and the problem is not the majority of Muslims, because they are people like you and me who want from life the best, which is a job and a honest way to make a living for them and for their family.
The problem which haunts the Eurpopean people who said no is the minority of Fanatic Muslims that think their religion is the only one on Earth (and our fanatics in that are the same) and are willing to do everything, including to loose their life to achieve their goals.
And it is their goals the most scaring part.
And YOU are willing to INVITE them into NAFTA, but I am 1000% sure you would never invite them to be US citizens.
So, please, down the mask, yes you "we do have liberalized trade and limited ability to work in each other’s countries (which ought to be expanded)." but you are far away even of "thinking" to make any of them as members of your Union.
And with this I am far from criticizing, every nation has the right to behave the way they want, but please, do not want to look more magnanimous than what you are.
US is made from a collection of immigrants, immigrants were welcome as long as they needed them to build a new country.
They are not so welcome right now, escecially Muslims, so, please refrain from critizicing the others.
I am Italian, I think I would have voted NO, but my reasons are not regarding Turkey.
I myself, believe that everybody must have a chance to live on this globe honestly and peacefully and if that means we ALL have a smaller share of the richness of this globe, I willingly agree.
I do not believe a good life means a big bank account, but to be able to wake up in a world where most of the people live in peace.
Patrizia
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Communication is our goal and our despair
The more you think that something is a problem, the more you make it a problem.
If we could define the Era in which we are living, we would as "The Era of Communication".
Nobody talks of anything else.
Everything is created to make "communication" easier, and that was after somebody found out that "communicating" was one of the goal of man.
Marketing is not understanding the needs of people, but understanding the psychology of people and then creating needs into them in order to fill the needs with new products...
Nobody had the need for video games before somebody understood it could have been a good business creating the need to play video games...
And that could be said about all the best selling gadgets of today's market.
We have so many means of communication that we are not able to communicate anymore.
When you talk too much then you have nothing to say anymore.
Because you do not havee the time to read, you do not have the time to think anymore.
You just look at the sky and the only thing you can say is:
Here the weather is nice, how is it there?
In my times, when telephoning was so expensive, when letters took one week to arrive, we spent our time reading the others' thoughs, and some time to think about them too.
May be it was a some kind of "autism", we had time to live in our own world and understand what we were and what we wanted from life, and what we would have liked to be.
And when we wrote a letter, and the letter took one week, we had more to say, because in one week many more things happen than in one minute, and we have more time to think and more time to see and so more things to say...
Speed is not good for the best things in life, yes also for what you are thinking right now...there is no worse enemy than speed especially for that...
Patrizia
If we could define the Era in which we are living, we would as "The Era of Communication".
Nobody talks of anything else.
Everything is created to make "communication" easier, and that was after somebody found out that "communicating" was one of the goal of man.
Marketing is not understanding the needs of people, but understanding the psychology of people and then creating needs into them in order to fill the needs with new products...
Nobody had the need for video games before somebody understood it could have been a good business creating the need to play video games...
And that could be said about all the best selling gadgets of today's market.
We have so many means of communication that we are not able to communicate anymore.
When you talk too much then you have nothing to say anymore.
Because you do not havee the time to read, you do not have the time to think anymore.
You just look at the sky and the only thing you can say is:
Here the weather is nice, how is it there?
In my times, when telephoning was so expensive, when letters took one week to arrive, we spent our time reading the others' thoughs, and some time to think about them too.
May be it was a some kind of "autism", we had time to live in our own world and understand what we were and what we wanted from life, and what we would have liked to be.
And when we wrote a letter, and the letter took one week, we had more to say, because in one week many more things happen than in one minute, and we have more time to think and more time to see and so more things to say...
Speed is not good for the best things in life, yes also for what you are thinking right now...there is no worse enemy than speed especially for that...
Patrizia
VoIP is a transport...not an application
VOIP is a transport, not an application (actually I did say that...)
Leonardo Faoro - The VoIP Weblog
VoIP is a bunch of protocols to transport and display packets of voice from one end to the other.
HTML is similar, but its data are text and images.
The alphabet was the precursor of all.
It displayed thoughts.
The voice was the transport.
It was (and luckily it still is) the protocol to transport audio waves that converted from one ear to the other expressed thoughts.
We had a protocol for silent thoughts and one for noised ones.
That is one for the eyes and one for the ears.
The Internet tranports boths.
And may be that is the revolution inside the revolution.
That a sound can travel as a text.
But in principal the alphabet was that: to transform a sound in a letter, to put together letters to make a word and mixing words to make a language.
Maybe the next revolution will be a universal language transported in a universal protocol with which we will be able to express universal thoughts.
Then we will need again some sort of individuality and will find out it was better when it was worse... well why make it easy when you can make it complicated?
Where would the fun be?
Patrizia
Leonardo Faoro - The VoIP Weblog
VoIP is a bunch of protocols to transport and display packets of voice from one end to the other.
HTML is similar, but its data are text and images.
The alphabet was the precursor of all.
It displayed thoughts.
The voice was the transport.
It was (and luckily it still is) the protocol to transport audio waves that converted from one ear to the other expressed thoughts.
We had a protocol for silent thoughts and one for noised ones.
That is one for the eyes and one for the ears.
The Internet tranports boths.
And may be that is the revolution inside the revolution.
That a sound can travel as a text.
But in principal the alphabet was that: to transform a sound in a letter, to put together letters to make a word and mixing words to make a language.
Maybe the next revolution will be a universal language transported in a universal protocol with which we will be able to express universal thoughts.
Then we will need again some sort of individuality and will find out it was better when it was worse... well why make it easy when you can make it complicated?
Where would the fun be?
Patrizia
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