Disruptive Telephony

FYI, I will be down at VoiceCon Orlando on March 17-20, 2008. I'm moderating two panel sessions (see the schedule). First, up, bright and early at 8am on Tuesday, March 18th, I'll be moderating a panel on "Top VoIP Security Threats". This should be a fun one as it has VOIPSA Chair Dave Endler, Mark Collier of SecureLogix and Sachin Joglekar of Sipera Systems. I know all three of the guys, particularly Dave and Mark who have both worked on VOIPSA matters, and this session should be a good bit of fun. I'm planning on making it a rather interactive session. :-)

At the other end of the show, on Thursday, March 20th, at 11:45am, I'll be moderating a panel "Open Source for Enterprise Voice: How Much, How Soon?". This would should be interesting because it has Bill Miller from Digium (makers of Asterisk), who I know well, and M Raza from 3Com... and then Tony Pereira from Nortel! 3Com's presence on the panel isn't particularly surprising given their relationship with Digium, but it will be interesting to see Nortel's view on the matter.

All in all it should be quite an interesting show. Lots of good sessions and, I'm sure, interesting people to meet. If you're going to be down there, please do drop an email as I'm always interesting in meeting readers of the blog.

Technorati Tags: voicecon, voxeo, voipsa, securelogix, sipera, 3com, digium, asterisk, voip security, open source

What are you doing at 10am Eastern time tomorrow morning? (Friday, February 15th) How about joining us for a "Squawk Box" conference call to discuss the upcoming eComm 2008 conference?

The call will take place using Iotums Facebook app called "FREE Conference Calls". You can just visit the show web page and RSVP (and add the Facebook app if you need to). I'll be hosting the show tomorrow while Alec Saunders is flying back from Barcelona and Thomas Howe and I will be interviewing Lee Dryburgh about the upcoming eComm 2008 conference... what it is, who is speaking and why people should attend. It should be a lively conversation with a great group of folks.

Bring your questions and join us!

P.S. The show will be posted later in Alec's blog and I'll provide a link here.

Technorati Tags: alec saunders, applications, etel, ecomm, ecomm2008, lee dryburgh, dan york, thomas howe, squawk box

As we enter into the final month before eComm 2008, I would suggest that the interview with Jonathan Christensen, Skype's general manager of audio and video, should be required reading for anyone seriously interested in this space. Why? Well, in part because Jonathan Christensen does provide some good information about what Skype has done and is doing but also because it provides some good insight into what one of the people driving Skype's agenda is thinking about this space. Take one of the final paragraphs where he answered Lee Dryburgh's question about what he saw as the the future of communications (bold emphasis added by me):

Well, a big question I guess and, having worked on the space for quite a while, I think that it's only going to get more interesting over the coming years since, well, like this open spectrum for example. You know, I just have to reiterate, I think that anybody who has not figured out that the Internet is the platform and that there isn't any such thing as walled gardens that will survive, or sub-networks [such as AOL tried] that are going to survive, those people are doomed. The intersection of these worlds is going to be chaotic. It's going to be violent. It's going to be messy for a while but it is going to happen, and the Internet will survive as the one open platform. You are going to see a trend towards extreme innovation at the edges - on the devices, in the PC platform, in software, all around the edge of the Internet.

I think that you are only going to see further disruption of the telecom industry and the emergence of totally new businesses that we can't imagine today. I think that [the] net result, that drives me every day, is that we're going to have this very rich, open, cheap and accessible communications. This is going to be not just a game changer for the telecom industry, but will be a change agent for all of humanity. So, a platform that allows us all to see each other and hear each other more clearly maybe makes us a little bit less crazy, less polarized and more open as a world society.

Good stuff... and the whole interview is worth a read. Given my recent criticism of Skype, I'm particularly pleased to read the comments I emphasized in bold. Jonathan Christensen will be giving one of the keynotes at eComm 2008, March 12-14 in Silicon Valley and if you haven't considered going, I would encourage you to do so. It should be a great event!

P.S. I also wrote about this interview in relation to SIP over on Voxeo's "Speaking of Standards" blog.

Technorati Tags: skype, ecomm, ecomm2008, telecom, jonathan christensen

Over on his Saunderslog site, Alec Saunders previews the new phones announced by Nokia today over at the Mobile World Congress (formerly "3GSM") in Barcelona:

When you think of companies who really understand mobility and mobility use cases, there's only one contender, and it's Nokia. Even Apple's iPhone, as pretty as it is, is a sophisticated expression of ideas that others pioneered first. If you want to know where mobile is going, the company to watch is Nokia.

So it was with a great deal of anticipation that I accepted the invitation to sit down with a few of Nokia's product managers to preview their announcements for today - the Nokia 6210 Navigator, 6220 Classic, and the newest members of their multimedia computer line, the N78 and N96. These products are at the confluence of the two major mobile trends today - social networking and multimedia. They represent, in my opinion, both the future of mobility and the next logical expression of many trends that have been emerging for the last several years.

Alec goes on at some length explaining the new features of the various handsets and the new applications that are coming out along with the handsets.

Alec also discussed the new phones in his daily "Squawk Box" podcast that should be up on his website soon (and I'll provide a link here when it does). It all sounds quite interesting and I'd suggest giving Alec's post a read.

Technorati Tags: alec saunders, mobile world congress, 3gsm, nokia

Those of you interested in Asterisk and open source telephony may be interested in the "Asterisk & Open Telephony Conference" in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on April 7-9, 2008. Part of the larger IT360 conference, this Asterisk conference is being organized by members of the Toronto Asterisk User Group which is one of the largest Asterisk user groups in the world. Because of the TAUG influence, I expect it to be a solid show from a technical point of view with lots of practical information. I'm not currently planning to be there, but it looks to be a good one if you can get there.

Technorati Tags: asterisk, conferences, open source, voip, ip telephony, taug, toronto, it360

I haven't really written any blog posts on any of my blogs today (until this one) largely because I've been straight out trying to get everything tied up before flying out tomorrow morning down to Orlando, Florida. Once in Orlando, I'll be driving down to Miami Beach tomorrow afternoon/evening to speak at Internet Telephony Expo on Thursday, go to a SIP Forum meeting on Friday and then drive back up to Orlando to spend some time at the Voxeo office. I'll be in Orlando over the weekend and then there through next Wednesday, January 30th.

I am very much looking forward to trying out Jet Blue's new direct, nonstop service between Burlington, Vermont, and Orlando tomorrow. Flight leaves at 8:20 in the morning and arrives in Orlando at 11:50am. I am looking forward to NOT having to make a stop in JFK or any of the other hub airports.

If any of you will be in Miami next week for Internet Telephony Expo, I will be speaking on VOIPSA's behalf at Ingate's SIP Trunking Seminar Series held in conjunction with IT Expo. Predictably, my session from 8:30-9:45am on Thursday, January 24th is titled "Seminar/myth 1: VoIP is not secure".

If you are going to be down at IT Expo, do check out the full schedule for Ingate's SIP Trunking Seminar Series. They have a good range of speakers and the seminars are free.

If any of you are attending either IT Expo or the SIP Trunking Seminar Series, please do drop a note as I'm always interested in meeting readers.

Technorati Tags: sip, sip trunking, ingate, itexpo, conferences

I was up way too early out here in Vancouver, so I wandered over to the show hotel and recorded a little greeting:

Technorati Tags: ietf

Today at Fall VON in Boston, Jeff Pulver hosted a special version of his Pulver TV show where he interviewed a number of people from the conference including me. First up was Jason Calcanis of Mahalo fame. Next was James Tagg, Founder and CEO of TruPhone. I followed and then the show wrapped up with Bob Frankston who is perhaps most widely known as one of the inventors of VisiCalc.

My part of the show starts at 14:30 and goes until 23:24. (When I nicely leave the stage without taking off the lapel mic! Oops! Sorry about that... ) We talked about my presentation at VON (on Thursday), application platforms like Facebook, my new role with Voxeo, social media in general and much more. It was a good bit of fun to do and I have to thank Jeff for giving me the opportunity to participate.

Technorati Tags: applications, danyork, facebook, fallvon, socialmedia, socialnetworking, voip, voip security, voipsa, von, voxeo

Here at VON in the "Innovator's Forum", we've now bashed out a schedule for the "unconference" portion of today's schedule. For those interested, it is posted on the VONCamp page and is:

• Social Networking Conversation 1:30 PM - 1:55 PM
• Residential VoIP - Can it be Sold as a Product? Dennis Peng, Ooma and Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates (M) 1:55 PM - 2:20 PM
• The Ruby Way / Watch a mashup in real time 2:20 PM - 2:45 PM

Should be fun...

Technorati Tags: conferences, fallvon, voip, von