Alec Saunders SquawkBox

We discuss the Wall Street Journal Business Technology blog piece on whether virtual worlds have a place in business communication.

We also talked through some of the latest insanity from the entertainment industry:

Quote Unquote records is a label that provides it’s music under a creative commons license. For the last week, their website has been down, the target of an RIAA copyright complaint.  Naturally, they’re furious, but their ISP isn’t putting the site back up.

And… Blu-ray is bombing.  Because of the economic downturn, consumers simply aren’t moving to the new, and more expensive, format.

The RIAA now wants to avoid trial in Maverick v. Harper.  They’re worried, apparently, that a trial might undermine the bedrock of their copyright infringement cases, which is that “making a file available on a P2P network” constitutes infringement.

And finally we discussed the US election, and Barack Obama’s promise to appoint a CTO for the USA.

On the Calliflower Conference Call: Dan York, Jeb Brilliant, Bill Volk, Sergio Meinardi, Mark Hewitt and Phil Wolff.

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 Squawk Box October 20 [41:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This morning one of the hot stories is about cell phone botnets, and the cybercrime economy. The theory is that bots invading cell phone handsets could be used to perpetrate massive denial of service attacks. Should we be worried, or is just science fiction?

Another security story is about several state-level legislatures passing laws requiring businesses to encrypt consumer data before transmission. Presumably this is to prevent identity theft, en masse. To me, however, it seems like one more bandaid in the patchwork of bandages already in existence. We discuss it. I’m unwilling to be dissuaded except by a cogent argument.

Lastly, there are a number of stories out this morning about Google’s G-1, their new handset. Reviews are comparing it to the iPhone, Walt Mossberg has declared a new category of pocketable computers lumping iPhone, G-1 and others into the category, and none other than eWeek’s venerable Microsoft Watch has declared Windows Mobile an “also-ran”.

On the Calliflower Conference Call today: Bill Volk, Jim Courtney, Jonathan Jensen, Sergio Meinardi, and Jeanette Fisher.

 

 Squawk Box October 17 [38:45m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Shouldn’t VoIP be perfect for delivering more media and information to emergency services than just plain 911? The problems facing the VoIP service provider are the issues of bringing the new into the old paradigm. Rick Jones of National Emergency Number Association joined Jim Kohlenberger and Carl Ford in discussing the current market. Other participants also share their first hand implementation issues across the globe.

On the Calliflower Conference Call: Carl Ford, Jim Kohlenberger, Brita Strandberg, Rockford9, Bill Volk, Sergio Meinardi, Tom Orr, Mark Hewitt, Rick Peters, and James Body

 

 Squawk Box October 16 - Regulatory Thursday [58:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

One of the persistent stories making the rounds over the last couple of weeks has been the failure of Voice 2.0 startups.  Fierce wireless characterized EQO’s staff cuts reported October 12 as “the latest of the Voice / Phone 2.0 facing imminent disaster”, while techvibes and GigaOm chose a similar tone.

This morning’s discussion was about the state of Voice 2.0, and some of the successes and failures in the space.  The Voice 2.0 Manifesto described Voice 2.0 as being driven by directory, presence and a number of other characteristics.  Today the simplest way to describe it as the intersection of the Web and voice, because in so many ways the web has the same characteristics as the Voice 2.0 model.

We discussed the cuts at EQO, briefly, and the failures of Jangl, TalkPlus. As Om Malik noted in his piece, the current economic climate doesn’t allow for free rides for startups without revenue any longer.

We also discuss Skype as a Voice 2.0 player.  The suggestion was made that with Skype’s new Asterisk integration, it has become much more open than before.

Mashups, and mobile were topics of conversation as well including a discussion of BT’s acquisition of Ribbit.

Our conclusion?  Voice 2.0 is alive and well. Companies without business models, however, are suffering, and not just in the Voice 2.0 arena.

On the Calliflower Conference Call this morning: James Body, William Volk, Shai Berger, Tim Panton, Jonathan Jensen, Sergio Meinardi, Warren Bent, Carl Ford and Sheryl Breuker.

 

 Squawk Box October 15: The State of Voice 2.0 [33:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It’s election day here in Canada.  Today on the SquawkBox we talked about the impact of digital media and the web on the election campaign, both here and in the United States where they’ve got a little less than a month to go on their election.

After a little bit of good-natured ribbing from my American friends ("what? you guys are having an election?"), we got down to business.  Topics covered included the role of Twitter, Steve Gillmor’s Newsgang Live Podcast, Barack Obama’s use of advertising in xBox and the iPhone, Facebook, strategic voting, and the much speculated about Conservative database projects.

Later in the call we switched to the updated Mac’s that have been released today.  Speculation about the cool new features was running strong, and it turns out that the rumour mill was mostly right.  We chatted a little about the fact that the rumoured $899 model was in fact a new monitor, rather than a new PC.  And we also dove into Microsoft’s Apple Tax argument.

On Today’s Calliflower Conference Call: James Body, Dan York, Jeb Brilliant, Steve Madigan, Hudson Barton, Brad Jones, Carl Ford, Dameon Welch-Abernathy, Jeff Black, Thijs Shoemaker, Randall Howard, William Volk and Sergio Meinardi

 

 Squawk Box October 14: Elections and New Mac's [45:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download