Alec Saunders SquawkBox

Clearly Robert Depatie has been spending too much time in Alaska.  His arguments for why studios and content producers should subsidize his network were put forward by US Senator Ted “It’s a series of tubes” Stevens months ago. They’re just as wrong now as they were then. 

Depatie wants content providers to pay extra for access to the Videotron Network.  He calls it a “transmission tariff”.  Mais, Robert, mon frère, we already pay!  Content providers who wish to put their content on the network pay a fee to be connected.  Content consumers who wish to consume that content pay another fee.

What it really boils down to is that Monsieur Depatie doesn’t have the stones to pass a price increase on to his customers.

I just got a call from Peter Childs asking if I’d be willing to share some of my experiences with blogs as a marketing vehicle at CaseCamp Ottawa next Monday.  For those of you who don’t know, CaseCamp is a marketing unconference open to anyone. Presenters share case studies of their work, with the goal of creating a commons for discussion, learning and networking.

CaseCamp comes to Ottawa on November 6th. Part education, part bragging and all fun - it’s an opportunity for marketers, digital media and PR people to get together and show what they’ve done to connect with and inform/influence people. It’s campaigns, cases and strategy - each presented in 15 minutes and answering a few simple questions - Who, How, and What did you learn.

Sounds simple. And it is - especially because you can be involved two ways - presenting what you’ve done and learned - or learning and discussing how to apply it to other projects. Sounds Interesting - there’s still room for presenters and participants. To sign-up use the CaseCamp wiki.

Like all “camp” unconferences, it’s an opportunity to meet some of the people in the Ottawa tech marketing community, share a beer and some laughs, and learn a little through exploration and discussion.

It seems just a few weeks ago that Telus’ Darren Entwistle, and BCE’s Michael Sabia announced that they would be converting both their companies into income trusts.  Share prices soared at the prospect.  Income trusts, for those who don’t know, pay out the majority of their profits, with tax favorable treament, to unit holders. Designed for business which have no need to invest in future products or technologies, they are best suited for distributing profits of commodities businesses like oil pipelines.

What in the world were the captains of the Canadian communications industry thinking when they announced that the two largest telephone companies in the country would become income trusts; that they would pay out the majority of their profits rather than investing in the future, at a time when the future has never been brighter for this industry?  Was it nothing more than a cynical manipulation of stock prices?  Or was it an admission that these businesses are unlikely to be able to compete with the new telecom?  Either way, it was a singularly visionless act by both parties — a tacit declaration that they have no plan for the future.

Whatever happened to building shareholder value, for goodness sake?

As they say, you can run, but you can’t hide.  Tuesday, finance minister Jim Flaherty gave them a solid boot in the seat of the pants, announcing that the government would begin taxing trusts.

My suggestion to Darren and Michael?  Call my friend and fellow blogger Martin Geddes, who has been preaching for the last two years that value is shifting to the edges of the conversation, and out of the network.  Tomorrow’s value will come from applications that help people connect before and after the conversation.  It will come from the business of facilitating conversations between people who want to converse — the kinds of things we’re doing at iotum.  It won’t come from bit carriage.  Bit carriage is a dead business.

But you already knew that.  You admitted as much a few months back when you lumped the pipeline carrying bits into the same tax status as the pipeline carrying oil. 

More commentary from Mark Goldberg, Mark Evans, and Jon Arnold. 

GPS systems can be really handy.  When you’re travelling, and driving around a city that you really don’t know, there’s nothing better than that mechanical voice telling you where to turn left, turn right, and how far you are from your destination. The only downside is that at $15 or so per day with your rental car, they’re pricey.

Several people I know have gone out and purchased GPS systems in order to avoid this expense.  You can get a nice TomTom, or Magellan unit for under $1000 now.  Again, pricy, unless you’re a very frequent traveller.  But, if you travel more than 60 days in a year, it would be worth it for you.

For those of us who travel, but not as frequently, there are nice alternatives.  Pictured at the right is the Nokia LD-1W Bluetooth GPS receiver.  It’s about $100 on EBay, and comes with a 3 month trial of Wayfinder Navigator, a GPS package for Smartphones, including the Blackberry 8700, and the Nokia N70, both of which have.  Wayfinder Navigator will set you back about $200, if you decide keep it. 

To use it, you just turn the GPS unit on, throw it on the dashboard of the car, and run the Wayfinder Navigator software on your mobile.  Once you’ve typed in a destination, it does the rest, guiding you turn by turn to where you need to be going. 

The UI, especially on the very bright Blackberry 8700 screen, is nice. This image shows a typical Wayfinder screen, navigating from my home to my office.  On the left you can see an image of a satellite, with three spheres below to show GPS strength.  None, when the picture was taken.  The GPS was inside.

Beside that there is a right turn arrow to signify that the next turn will be a right and that it will be in 290 metres.  The whole thing is overlaid on a nice clear map, with the route laid out as a red line.

So how good is the combination?  Well, surprisingly excellent. 

• On both the Blackberry 8700 and Nokia N70, the GPS module is easily found by the Wayfinder software. 
• Searching for a particular address is a nuisance on the N70 because of its T9 keypad, but it’s a breeze on the 8700.  In both cases, it’s easier than the dedicated GPS units car rental companies give you. 
• The software can be easily configured for either metric or imperial units.
• The turn by turn directions are clearly articulated, although in a very crisp female English accent.  She quickly earned the nickname “the Bionic Bitch” at our house.
• The maps are easily viewed and read on the screen. 

Downsides?  There are a few:

• It can be a little slow to respond.  Maps are downloaded over the air, and if the system is loading a map it can take a few seconds.  This has the advantage, however, of allowing traffic information to be sent to the mobile as well, but I was unable to test this.  Not available where I am. 
• If you receive a phone call while navigating, the Bionic Bitch can’t vocalize new directions to you.  that’s not the case with a dedicated unit.
• And finally, if you wilfully ignore it, and deliberately drive off route for prolonged periods of time (as I did, to see what would happen), Wayfinder continuously loads new maps, and eventually will crash. It was hardly fair to the poor thing, though, to confuse it like that.

There are few differences between the Nokia and Blackberry versions of the software. It can be difficult to find your way back to the Wayfinder application if you receive a telephone call on the Nokia version, for instance, while it automatically resumes on the Blackberry.   The Nokia software is prettier to look at, however, and has a nicer user experience. In contrast, the Blackberry software is a little more usable, and a little more stable. 

All in all, Wayfinder and a Bluetooth GPS unit gets an enthusiastic thumbs up from me.  For $300, it’s a helluva fine navigation tool.

An intriguing new communications agency launched at midnight, Halloween night.  Led by Eastwick Alumnus Giovanni Rodriguez, HubbubPR aims to create a community for writers, PR professionals, marketing consultants, social media mavens, designers and so on.  On his blog, Giovanni describes the community as “Facebook for communications pros”, and goes on to say:

with the advent of social media — blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasting, videocasting — many people in the public relations world can now do what they profess to do — “relate to the public.” The mandate for PR is getting broader, and so has the need to tap people from various, related disciplines.

Open to the public, the community goes live this winter.