Alec Saunders SquawkBox

This evening I participated in a conference call with 6 people using a traditional conference calling bridge.  It was a horrible user experience.  HORRIBLE.  I had forgotten how bad conference calls can be because I’ve been using Calliflower for so long.

What was so bad?

1. Where was the agenda for the call?  Without an easy to tick through agenda on the screen, we just wandered.  With Calliflower, the agenda would have been mailed out with the invitation.
2. Who was on the call?  The call started with a bunch of disembodied voices, and no clue who was on the call or not.  Then, at one point somebody said goodbye and I thought the call was over. So I hung up.  But the call wasn’t over.  With Calliflower, I would have seen that everyone was still on the line.  With this other service, I had no idea.
3. Where was the chat window?  There were a couple of times that would have been really handy.
4. How about the hand raise?  We kept talking over each other.
5. Where was the mute?  One person came on the line and introduced a huge amount of echo to the call.  It would have been so handy to just hit the mute button and shut it down.

And you know what the worst part about it was?  The conference call originator was paying for this horrible experience, and happy to do so.

Calliflower is free, and it’s an amazing experience.  I didn’t realize how amazing until I had to go back to the stone age of conference calling tonight.

From now on, if anyone wants me to join a conference call, we’re doing it on Calliflower.  No exceptions.

Try Calliflower, and let me know what you think.

Looks like there’s a new show in town.  Apparently TMC’s Rich Tehrani has teamed up with ex-VONners Scott Kargman and Carl Ford to produce a 4G wireless event for next February.  February 2-4, 2009 at the Miami Beach Convention Center, this will be the first event dedicated solely to 4G technologies.

Congratulations!

A couple of articles appeared yesterday on ways to benefit from VoIP.  VoIP-News 12 ways to benefit from mobile VoIP is about all the great convergence applications for mobile VoIP handsets, and TMCNet’s 21 Different Ways to Use VoIP is a whimsical look at difference uses for cheap place shifted calling.

One of the most practical uses for VoIP is in collaboration.  With Calliflower, for example, our clients can hold six or more high quality meetings per day on Calliflower Conference Calls without having to leave the desk.  Compared to traditional face to face meetings, there’s an immediate and substantial productivity benefit.  And, of course, there’s the substantial cost saving of making those conference calls for free.

Ooma is putting out some new enhancements to their VoIP telephone system for the home.  Their $12.99 per month premium release now includes:

• The ability to add up to 9 virtual phone numbers for the home.  You could put in a virtual home office, or add a line for each member of the family.
• The ability to have Ooma drop copies of your voice mail into your email inbox.
• Simultaneous ring with the users cellular phone.
• Private voice mail boxes, call logs, and community blacklists.

It’s beginning to sound a lot like a small business unified communications system, isn’t it?  Many of these features that are new to Ooma are already available on small business phone systems like Jazinga.

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This morning we talked with Global IP Solutions about the future of video conferencing. You may remember Global IP Solutions as the company that teamed up with Skype to deliver high quality voice over IP from the desktop when everyone said it couldn’t be done. Today they believe we’re on the cusp of the same kind of revolution, but this time for desktop video.

VP Jan Linden and Product Manager John Hermansen discussed desktop video technologies, the challenges associated with delivering quality desktop video experiences, and what GIPS is doing to address them.  To help promote the work that they’ve done, GIPS has put out a whitepaper and video demonstration.

On the Calliflower Conference Call today: John Hermansen, Jan Linden Hudson Barton, Brad Jones, Nabeel Jafferali, Carl Ford, Jim Courtney, Jeanette Fisher, Adam Somer, William Volk, Todd Spraggins, Sheryl Breuker, Terry May, Sergio Meinardi and Yusuf Motiwala

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• Desktop video space sizzles!
• Global IP Solutions Coming Back to Life: Driving the Desktop Video Space

 

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