Alec Saunders SquawkBox

VoIP News published its round up of the top 25 VoIP blogs for 2007.  I was flattered to be included on the list. Readers will note that this has happened despite the fact that over the past 12 months I've written less and less about pure VoIP and more about the web, social networks, and other technologies. I even changed the tagline of the blog part way through the year to include the web and other technologies. Pure VoIP is now old news.  No doubt there's a market for moving more bits more cheaply but that's an incremental improvement as opposed to a disruption.  At this point, minutes are cheap or free for most people, and that market is self limiting.  

The coming disruption is the next phase of VoIP.  When we first set out to create iotum in 2003, we saw quite clearly that VoIP would commoditize the existing telecom market before it could move to an innovation phase.  We believed that this innovation phase would be the creation of new voice applications built around the fusion of the web, PC's and voice via web services.  That phase is now underway and much richer than we originally thought it might be as mobile has become part of the picture, despite the lack of regulatory pressure to open.  In addition, there's a growing interest in "social communications", which is the fusion of social networks and real time communications.  As does Luca Filigheddu, I believe that 2008 will be about "solving a problem", as opposed to making voice cheaper. 

 Three of the most important voices in this new market are:

1. Jeff Pulver — his blog has evolved from VoIP to social communications with a strong focus on social networks and how voice and video fit with these.
2. Tom Howe — his company, the Thomas Howe Company, and his blog are focused on the the mashup of business processes and voice via web services.  These guys are leading practictioners in this new area.
3. Andy Abramson — he continues to provide daily, up to the minute coverage of what's happening in VoIP.

Happy disruptive New Year to you all!

Jeff Pulver’s holiday post gave me a smile today.  He and his family are at the beach in Florida.  He posted some photos of palm trees on his blog and Facebook. 

We’re at the beach too… in Cape Cod. The beaches are cold, but utterly deserted.  Many of the buildings are boarded up as well, but the place has an undeniable charm.  For a photographer, the low sun casts a warm contrasty glow over everything.  Here are a few of the photos I shot today with the Nokia N95, as I had neglected to bring our Nikon SLR on the walk.

Beach at the Marconi Station.

Rescue station at Race Point.  Boarded up for the season.

Buggy tracks on the beach at Race Point.

Cape code winter beach fashions. 

Trying to avoid the waves.

And the beautiful Cape Cod sunset illuminating Provincetown and the Pilgrim’s monument.

It’s almost like Florida, isn’t it?  Merry Christmas!

Buckingham Palace has decided to create a YouTube channel.  The Queen's Christmas Day message will be available after 3PM GMT on YouTube, to the world.  In addition, archival footage dating back to Queen Alexandra is also available, including Elizabeth II's first televised Christmas message, and her coronation.

In her 1957 Christmas message she expresses the hope that the new medium of television will allow her to be closer and more familiar to her people in an age when the monarchy had become more and more distant.  And here we are 50 years later, airing that now familiar Christmas message not just on television but on the internet. Who says the Monarchy can't adapt?

We'll be watching it via YouTube, as I suspect that the cable station here in Cape Cod won't be carrying it. 

I think Henry Blodget is a clueless hypster.  Seizing on Apple's good Mac numbers, he has pronounced the end of Microsoft and Windows.  He writes:

Unlike the last go-round, when Apple got clobbered by the Wintel keiretsu, the macro personal computer trends now favor Apple, suggesting that Macs are going to continue to gain share at the expense of Dell, HP, Microsoft, and others.

What has changed? The dominance of Windows and Office have waned. The most important personal computer application by far these days is the Internet, and there's no advantage to having Microsoft Windows when you use the Internet. The other most popular personal computer apps, web-based email and instant messaging, as well as the advent of Google Apps and other web-based Office clones, there's also a lot less reason than there used to be to use the PC platform that most applications are developed for.

In my opinion, these are baseless, factually-starved ravings from the same analyst who drove the dot-com bubble while at Merrill Lynch, was later bought out by Merrill after the collapse of the same bubble, charged with securities fraud by the SEC, and subsequently settled without admitting wrongdoing after agreeing to a ban from the securities industry for life.

Blue Man Group's show Tubes is currently running in Boston.  We went to see it last night.  An hilarious mixture of music, drumming and mime, it kept us laughing the whole show.  In fact, I honestly can't remember the last time I laughed so hard, or for so long.  By the end of the 90 minute show, I had sore ribs.

While they drummed on all kinds of low tech surfaces (PVC pipe was a favourite), the sheer quantity of technology required to pull off all the gags and stunts must have been enormous.  The fibre optic cameras, wireless controllers and microphones must have required a huge amount of preparation. At one point, a computer "animation" stepped out of a projection screen and onto the main stage and performed, illuminated as a line drawing performing on the drums.  Fortunately, the technology faded into the background, supporting the show but not becoming the show.

This shot is the boys, afterward, posing with one of the blue men.