Disruptive Telephony

I learned a hard lesson today that Google+ Hangouts On Air (HOA) are limited to 4 hours in length.... and to read the rest of the story, visit Disruptive Conversations...

(Good lesson that I shouldn't be posting articles at 1:00am! But leaving this post up here for a bit because there are now social media links out there pointing to this URL...)

It rather staggers my mind that it was two years ago today, on September 19, 2011, that I began work for the Internet Society (a.k.a. "ISOC"). Longtime readers and friends may remember my impassioned (and naturally long) post at the time, "Ch-changes - Taking A New Job At The Internet Society To Join The Fight For The Open Internet".

Two years later that passion has only grown stronger! The events of recent months with the massive Internet surveillance disclosures have only reinforced the need for organizations like the Internet Society to be out there doing what they can to preserve the open character of the Internet.

Whether it is the excellent work on leading Internet technologies - and support for the IETF... the incredible work of our public policy team ... or the great work going on to to expand access to the Internet in regions where there is limited connectivity... or the global work of our chapters helping at a local and regional level... or the programs to develop the next generation of Internet leaders... or the many, many other activities going on around the globe... it's been an absolute pleasure to be a staff member for the Internet Society and I look forward to many more years ahead!

For me, being involved with the creation of the Deploy360 Programme has been an amazing experience. Working on Deploy360 has enabled me to unite my writing and communication skills with my passion for and knowledge of technologies such as DNS, IPv6 and routing technologies - as well as my enjoyment of social media as a way of distributing content and engaging in conversations. Plus, I've had a chance to continue my work with WordPress and so many other social tools.

I've had the opportunity to work with an outstanding team ... and I've had a chance to meet some of the most amazing people all around the world. With Deploy360 our goal is to find out what challenges people are having with deploying IPv6, DNSSEC and routing technologies - and then find or create the appropriate resources to answer those challenges and help people overcome those issues. To do that, you have to go out and meet people... to talk to to them... to hear their questions and to ask them questions.

And so there is this exquisite irony that someone who works for the Internet Society winds up spending an insane amount of time on airplanes traveling to places all around the world to meet with people responsible for deploying these open Internet protocols. And sometimes it's admittedly a bit absurd... such as the trip to Singapore where I spent more time in airplanes traveling there and back then I did actually on the ground in Singapore! (I was only there about 36 hours.)

But it's the people that make the travel worth it! I've met incredible people doing great work to keep the Internet open in so many different places... and in places that quite honestly I would never have even imagined that I'd wind up going! Sure, I've traveled through North America and Europe, but I mean... Russia? (see also: my thoughts on walking in Red Square) China? South Africa? India? Colombia? Poland? Singapore? Brazil? It's been a privilege to be in those places and meet these people doing such great work.

I hope that in some small way I've been able to help them with their efforts. I've certainly learned from what they are doing... and that's been fed directly back into what we're doing within the Deploy360 Programme.

Two years into the role there is still a great amount of work to do... we have content roadmaps that outline MANY documents we want to either find or create... we have new topics that we want to add to the site... we have code we want to help get created... we have new best current operational practices to help document... we have other groups we want to engage with...

The two years seem to have flown by rather quickly - it's been rather a whirlwind ... but I'm looking forward to where the next two years go. Lots to do - and the challenges ahead for the open nature of the Internet are only going to get tougher and more demanding!

I know I haven't been writing here on DisruptiveTelephony as much as I used to... but I'm hoping to do a bit more in the time ahead. Much of my writing these days is on the Deploy360 blog and sometimes over on CircleID. You can always track my writing via my danyork.me site... or of course follow me on any of the social networks.

Thanks for all the support and help that so many of you have given me over these past two years - and I look forward to working with so many more of you in the months and years ahead!

P.S. One great way you can help is to join the Internet Society to stay up-to-date on current issues affecting the Internet - membership is free for individuals. You can also subscribe to my infrequent email newsletter where I hit many of these topics.

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Audio commentary related to this post can be found at:

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Microsoft accomplished something today they haven't done for a while (at least in my memory) - they dominated the main page of Techmeme and had a great amount of the tech media talking about them.

The news, of course, is of Microsoft's purchase of Nokia's Devices and Services business and licensing of Nokia's patents and mapping services.

Is anyone truly surprised by this?

Consider:

• Microsoft is being beaten in the market by Apple and Google as everything moves to mobile. Their only hope was Nokia, who provided a hardware platform that would run Windows Phone.
• Nokia is being beaten in the market by Apple and Google as everything moves to smartphones. Their only hope was Microsoft, who provided a different mobile operating system for their devices that gave them a competitive angle.

Given those conditions, the marriage makes a certain amount of sense.

But... you only have to scroll down that Techmeme page (captured at 1:30pm US ET today) to realize how desperate a situation this is for both companies.

First, news is out that Apple is holding an event one week from today on September 10 where they are widely expected to announce new iPhones, including potentially a lower cost iPhone 5C. They are also expected to announce a release date for iOS 7 ... and who knows what else is in store.

Second, Google announced the next version 4.4 of the Android operating system, named "KitKat", along with a branding deal with Nestle, makers of the KitKat candy. The first link also points to a Google+ post from Google's Sundar Pichai where he states that over 1 billion Android devices have been activated.

Third, Amazon announced the 6th generation of their Kindle, and while it is not a phone, per se, it is a massively used mobile device. Amazon continues to learn and evolve their devices and has been rumored for years to be contemplating entering the smartphone space. Jeff Bezos thinks in the long term and so could easily be biding his time.

Meanwhile, Nokia sold a whopping 7 million Windows phones last quarter (per IDC).

Microsoft and Nokia need each other, if for no other reason then they don't really have a choice. They bet on each other... and it doesn't seem to be working out so well. Their only hope is really the "synergy" or whatever other marketing buzzwords you want to apply to the merged entity.

I agree with much of what Om Malik wrote today, "Why I think the $7.2 billion Microsoft-Nokia deal is a terrible idea", largely for the reasons I wrote earlier... while Microsoft and Nokia work to make this deal happen - and then the actual integration - Apple, Google, Amazon and others will be rolling out the next versions of their massively successful mobile devices.

Microsoft's "Strategic Rationale" document lays out a glowing plan... let's see if they can execute on it - and whether it turns out to be too little, too late. I wouldn't completely count Microsoft out, as they do have great resources and capacity, but they are definitely far behind.

As a consumer, I definitely would like to have a third major ecosystem for mobile devices. The question is whether Microsoft/Nokia can emerge as that third ecosystem...

What do you think? Smart move? A yawn? Or the proverbial rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic?

P.S. The most entertaining take on today's news definitely has to be the "Dear MR NOKIA!" post written in the style of the emails probably all of us have received. :-)

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An audio version of this post is available at:

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