• Master of 500 Hats: Fear is the Mind Killer of the Silicon Valley Entrepreneur
  Great post! Good advice! Startups are always in motion as long as their founders press forward.
  (tags: startups davemcclure)

• The Superstruct Game
  Explore the future try out superstruct!
  (tags: superstruct)
• Johnnie Moore's Weblog: Driving Identity
  "Over coffee, Adriana talked about us being able to drive our own identity, a phrase which resonates strongly with me. Most existing web spaces force us to squeeze our identity into someone else's boxes, using up our time filling and refilling standard questions and conforming to someone else's crude categories. (Think about what the idea of "friend" means in a Facebook world)."
  (tags: johnniemoore identity)
• Thomas Howe » Dinner, Anyone?
  Lee Dryburgh and Thomas are hosting a pre eComm dinner on November 12th. Instructions on how to connect are on Thomas's blog post. Look forward to seeing you there!
  (tags: thomashowe leedryburgh ecomm voip)

Yesterday I decided to use TwitterKeys to see if I could make it more obvious that phweet = a telephone option.  Could I insert a “telephone before the PhweetURL? Turns out I did and didn’t. At least I don’t seem to see it everywhere a Twitter status update appears. When it’s working it looks like this.

One day I expect PhweetURl’s will be as invisible as the URL is on a webpage. At the moment it’s a useful navigation link that enables rapid escalation to a phone call. By it’s very nature the PhweetURL carries more information and attributes than any phone number. It also doesn’t have to be tied to just one Phone number.

For now I rather like the idea of inserting a “telephone” with the link. It’s completely redundant if a solution like our GreaseMonkey script is adopted and built in. This becomes even more interesting when TwitterApps integrate a PhweetMan button. Here’s an example working on an early iPhone test / reference app.

Yesterday I wrote a post “Communications is Fragmenting” with the idea of inserting some controversy for discussion. I received a great answer from long time friend and mentor Ed Prentice of Televoce. Ed’s voice is one of reason and reflection.

Three elements that are discussed are important to me.

• Grand Central and One Number/Identity - Phweet lets you generate or in the future choose any URL rather than a number a “richer” smarter solution in my book.
• Dynamic routing of calls and the networks don’t need to have involvement in how you and I route them. Phweet enables the user to determine how they connect to their exchange. In a Phweet world the networks don’t control the routing of calls.
• SMS as a control channel is not yet exploited.

I asked him if I could reproduce his email to me here. I believe you will like his response.

Stuart,

I really like what you and David are up to. Except for stalking I have no use for Twitter, so I have not gotten close to the current rendition to Phweeting anyone. Here is my view on your post:

I don’t know if this market is fragmenting or converging in a way not like what has been called convergence. This identity question is interesting. In reality I have one identity. Others definitely have some alter-ego or disguised identity, often because of some fear. I am over fear—generally. But it seems each of us is really just one person.

What we have is way too many log-on, listing profiles, etc. that are various descriptions of what should be one person. There are several problems tied up in that. Open ID pretended that it was part of a solution—that as far as I know only a few propeller heads have any idea what it amounts to. I think Facebook & Open Social will fix this problem for most. And I can’t really disagree that many may want to have some kind of separate identities. While I don’t suffer from this problem since I have a boring life with nothing to hide, I have to agree that there is some issue here.

I think what you are addressing is that because I AM one person, eventually my phone or whatever preferred contact method will reach me, regardless of how or what identity you associate with me. This to me seems like some kind of convergence—maybe you need a new word. The multiple channel question is very real and multiplying. The “lifetime” issue is not appreciated by many—and I am not sure why. Grand Central tried to pitch that, but I don’t really think that is how it is used.

So the fragmenting part has to do with too many ways of identifying myself, one person. By solving this problem I think we have some kind of convergence. That’s it I think—why I find it hard to name what we have.

The concept/architecture of the Grand Central idea is still not appreciated, but I think it is central to making communications effective in the fragmenting/converging world. Some DMZ to let me tell the world how to find me but not quite be able to harass me. Rather than changing mobile numbers this is what should be changeable. The same is true for all modes not just calls.

Mobility and dynamic assignment seems a very useful dimension. I don’t know if most users are ready for this, but it makes sense that where I am and what time it is still are very relevant to communication. I know this has been incorporated in various UM solutions but I have not kept up with the reality of this use. Right now I do not have any mobile status that I can change to control how calls might be routed to me on mobile.

FYI – Privacy/interruptions—my personal story: I have virtually surrendered on answering my home landline. I do forward to my mobile, so I could do without that—and I am about to end that. (I am getting the U-verse bundle so I am going digital with voice mail.) Many today must be considering why to even get a home phone landline. For me it is a real 911 (no one wants to tell the truth about this), and some legacy value so if you happen to have that number and really want to find me there is a message you can leave.

I have had almost NO abuse of my mobile number and I am not sure why, but it is encouraging me to live dangerously with my mobile number. I do use forwards to my mobile so that is some shield, but I have my mobile on my business card. I get plenty of junk email because of my business card, but no phone calls which is very interesting.

I am sorry I have no sense of SMS for setting up calls. I think IM is just fine—whether it is used or not. Speaking of SMS, I do not have a mobile data account. This is partly because I am cheap and am not mobile enough, but also I have observed being not totally connected all the time is NOT a bad thing. SMS is a very country/regional thing in my observation. I would be happy to be in touch via SMS as a control channel, but I rarely use that. For the typical US SMS user, it seems to me to simply be an alternative time-effective communication channel. I don’t believe SMS is yet exploited in the US market, and not anywhere as far as new dimensions of communication are concerned.

One more thought—remember that all the conceptual work I had into TeleVoce concepts was to control various modes from my PC. All the same can be done from anywhere in the network. The TeleVoce concept was that the networks did not need to have any involvement in how I controlled my connection. I think that is still the case even where a server solution is provided.  Each channel does not need to know anything about my control means. That is my business.

I may have rambled a bit. I hope this is useful.

Ed

• Finally Fring reveals how it wants to make money
  Markus Göbel provide a really useful insight into Fring numbers and business direction. He says it should get us to one click connectivity despite what I see as multiple names for each person on different services. What is means is Fring wants to control your ID or one ID for all communications.
  (tags: fring voip SIP)
• The T-Grid: BlackBerry Storm vs. iPhone 3G | Technologizer
  If you need a table to compare these two. Here it is.
  (tags: iphone blackberry)
• Disruptive Telephony: Voxeo switching from Blackberries to iPhones… (even as Blackberry releases the touch-screen Storm)
  Dan York is about to get an iPhone. Yeah! Points to the latest reviews of the Blackberry Storm and comments on Voxeo's decision to move the corporate accounts to iPhone. That's quite a switch.
  (tags: voxeo danyork iphone blackberry)
• Unified Communications and Social Media
  Ken Camp makes the point that unified communications have to include the emergence and integration of social media tools. I like to think of this as the new directories, the names rather than numbers. Add in location and the mix becomes more interesting and powerful.
  (tags: socialmedia voip phweet presence status)
• Call direct from Twitter with Phweet
  @jfouts captures the features and simplicity of Phweet in one post. I like that! Thanks Janet.
  (tags: phweet skype talk communications)

Next year’s preparation for eComm2009 is already underway. In the two years since it replaced an O’Reilly conference on Emerging Telephony it has become the destination to go to meet and talk to others equally passionate about the future of communications. This is a list of the initial topics. Lee Dryburgh is still seeking additional presenters and topics. Come and join many of us. It isn’t just geeky communications; it’s what people are doing on the fringe, on the edge, that is likely to shake up the way you think about communications.

eComm2009: Emerging Communications Conference

Major topics of 09 (so far) will include:

* Mobile Social Networking (MoSoSo) more…- demos of the emerging applications which promise to turn the phone into a social radar. Seek to answer whether the majority of text messages sent through cellular networks will eventually relate to online social network interaction; and whether all operators sooner or later will offer a Facebook plugin? The emergence of socially aware devices and networks
* Open Handsets & the Open Ecosystem more…- the latest iPhone Apps strut their stuff, Google Android Prize Winners demo. The impact of increasingly open handsets on the entire mobile value chain; and who is best positioning to monetize it?
* Both Voice and Video Evolution more…- does standalone consumer VoIP still have a future - at least one which is profitable? If not, where does it go next? What opportunities does threaded video conversation bring? How much smarter are Codecs getting?
* Convergence of media with personal communications
* Open Spectrum more…- the fight for open spectrum will significantly determine the future of communications. What if anyone could access spectrum anywhere at anytime; a world with no spectrum scarcity? It’s often claimed that established interests are fighting to prevent widespread access to the public airwaves. We’ll explore the regulatory issues, technologies, and key players involved in this critical inside-the-beltway battle.
* Open Communication Platforms more…- demos of applications which show the power of convergence of Web, Telco and mobile technologies
* Leveraging Cloud Computing more…- is the time ripe for a new wave of mobile applications that tap into near unlimited processing, storage in the cloud? Are telcos better positioned to offer that infrastructure?
* Social Computing more…- what is the trend and how is it already starting to displace telephony?
* Towards 4G Wireless more…- will networks move quickly to LTE, or will we see continued development of HSPA and CDMA? Where do innovations like WiMAX and femtocells fit? And how will these new wireless technologies enable new services & applications?
* P2P and Decentralization of Telecoms
* Communications enabling business processes, especially B2C more…- how can we make money from organisations who wish to interact and transact with end users? What does Freephone 2.0 look like?
* Emerging Markets

The next time you use Phweet I’d like you to consider how it improves communications in a world that is rapidly fragmenting.

• We want Multiple Identities: Our directory listings are increasingly fragmented, outdated and dispersed. Where once a white pages or yellow pages listing was enough we now have profiles on social networks, corporate profiles, personal websites and more. Each serves a different purpose, each a different share and a different way of revealing ourselves. No one wants one identity for all communications anymore!

• We use Multiple Channels: Communications channels are often not synchronized or updated. It’s a guessing game where you will find me. This results in lost opportunities and failures. The fact is you don’t know my number anymore anyways. You click on a name in your address book or an IM handle and we talk. The end point doesn’t matter. What matters is that the communication channel is a good connection and that it costs nothing or almost nothing. More importantly why should you have to judge or guess where to send the message or make the call.

• We want privacy without Interruptions: Sharing your mobile number may result in unwanted interruptions. Routing all calls to your mobile is the future. The problem is interruptions. If I give you my mobile number and you share it there is no way for me to ‘expire’ that connection and I may suffer further breaches of privacy. As a result, we are often highly protective of our mobile numbers. When it gets really bad people get a new mobile number. That’s not a solution.

• Desire control over access: Callers dictate when the calls happen without context and often without identification. It’s even worse as I wrote yesterday when it is an unknown number calling. We send those to voice mail and then may later have to listen to it or clear it. Let’s face it SMS is more and more popular for setting up calls and the “Available”, “Away” etc. that we have seen on IM accounts has become almost irrelevant.

• Broadcast and escalate conversations: It is hard to spontaneously escalate calls to conferences particularly if people are on different networks. This is one of the things that has always impressed me most about Skype and moving Skype multichats to conference calls with three to five people. We’ve enabled this with Phweet without number exchanges in multiple formats. You can even broadcast what you are talking about in real time. The future where you control the bridge and determine the services on the bridge is here. It’s a key differentiator. There’s more controls and power we will be offering to users.

• Communications on-the-move: Location based services are limited by access to numbers and concerns about sharing proximity info. The future is not going to be limited by the cost of the call or the need to know the communications channel. It should be about whether or not I want to allow access to me and under what circumstances and context I am willing to share. I feel I will share different profiles / directory listings and broadcast them to different destinations. The status update is key and so are my public profiles. At the end of the day it is my directory listing that will put you in touch with me. My listings on the move may be many and varied. They may or may not relate to each other. That’s fine by me.

I beleive Phweet addresses communications in a fragmenting world. We still have a way to go. Let me know which of these items are important to you. Which one’s you think really make a difference. If you were Phweet how would you use these attributes to move forward? Look forward to your comments.

Join me and others at the Social Media Strategies Conference in San Francisco on Oct 29 and 30. I will be doing a little live blogging there.

Social Media Strategies Conference - Overview

This Conference will focus on how organizations can leverage Social Media to achieve their business goals. Social Media technologies such as blogs, micro-blogging, wikis, podcasts, video, RSS, forums, social networks, online communities, and social bookmarking are increasingly being leveraged by companies to:1) Build brand visibility and equity
2) Gain insight into customers
3) Promote products and services
4) Influence communities
5) Increase Web site traffic and leads
6) Drive product innovation

If there is one element I’d like to see more in the mix it is “conversation”. We all too quickly focus on the tools rather than sharing the value and stories from the conversations that they can produce. Many of these tools help companies learn faster and more rapidly escalate to “voice” or “face to face” conversations. For me these tools are about more productive communities and more collaborative work forces. I’m looking forward to participating and particularly meeting up with Jim McGee, Shel Israel, and Francois Gossieaux.

I can see it is going to be harder and harder to gain visibility for new apps on the iPhone. I learnt about Fring via Pat Phelan’s tweet. I’m also hearing that while many are adding many many apps to their iPhones not many are being used regularly. In Fring’s case they may be one of the breakthrough popular apps that stays on.

Fring Brings Skype to iPhone

I’ve done a series of tests and they all passed with flying colours, first up was Skype and a quick call to Robin Blanford went perfect with 7/10 quality, This was a Skype call over wifi on the iPhone, really quite amazing

Like Pat I did a series of tests. It’s not the first time I’ve used Fring. I was an early trialist of Nokia versions and ran their jailbroken iPhone version in the days before the app store and 3G iPhones. The number one thing I like about Fring is the dialer. With SIP and Skype integrated it just works. Where I have problems with Fring (and other solutions like it that combine multiple accounts) is the complexity and duplication that exists in the buddylist. I end up with more and more duplication and really I don’t know which account is Skype (yes worked it out but dislike the colors). I must have easy a list of 1500 names when I turn on just a few accounts. Using search can turn up five or six possible connections for a single person. These connections tell me very little about the person.

Fring proves to me more and more the complexity of forcing me to manage which channel I should contact you on rather than just reaching out to you as a name or a profile. If I want to ensure I get a hold of you directly I should just ring your mobile. It’s most likely that I’ll connect with you, interrupt you or at least leave a message where you are most likely to get it. In fact that’s what most people are doing already. It’s one reason why SMS is now so popular. Unless the connections are global or the numbers are unknown why make your desire to talk known any other way?

I’m a believer that our communications needs have changed and it is becoming increasingly obvious. iPhones and their ilk move all communications into the palm of the hand. Only three channels really matter.  SMS, Talk and email. The first two are real-time and the latter is for asynchronous communications. Add to this group notifications which increasingly matter. Thus Twitter style status updates are a powerful accompaniment when delivered via SMS. The problem we have to solve is not the aggregation of channels. Rather it is how access should be interpreted. In my book the channel could be invisible, what I want is text, talk and sharing capabilities and an easy understanding of when to use each type.

No question I come at these with a Phweet POV. Fring is the most powerful combination of calling and IM that exists. It works well and I’ll show you how you can leverage / connect Fring and Phweet in another post.

• Has Apple redefined "phone"? — Alec Saunders SquawkBox
  This thougtht deserves more of a writeup. It's true and you see it everywhere. The iPhone has fundamentally shifted how its users use their PC's or Mac's. That means next generation portables and laptops have to start serving us in new ways!
  (tags: iphone laptop mobility alecsaunders)
• Fring Brings Skype to iPhone
  Pat Phelan beat me on the post and I'll write more on Fring later. It was impressive when I used it on an unlocked iPhone. Now it works on the latest generation 3G phones straight from the App store. Cool!
  (tags: skype SIP fring mobile iphone patphelan)
• H-P Plans to Unveil Smart Phone - WSJ.com
  No surprise to me that HP is extending their IPAQ range although I doubt that Windows mobile will make this one very exciting. I think the learning is every PC manufacturer is looking at phones and realizing that their business is threatened.
  (tags: hp mobile laptops ipaq)
• loose wire blog: The Scam Potential of Presence Messages
  Yep, we all wonder about this and yet increasingly the benefits of sharing including location make it more and more important we find solutions that we are comfortable with. It's why I prefer Twitter "location" apps to those that more precisely position you.
  (tags: presence status mobility location)

Late last week I tweeted “I hate getting calls from unknown numbers.  Find it rude too. What do you do with them? It was a simple question and I felt I had a reasonable handle on it.

I received answers from both fellow tweeters and Facebook friends responding to my status update. The answers received covered the I have to take them as I serve external customers to ignore them and silence the ringer and stick the phone back in my pocket. No one responds positively to these calls.

I’ve long thought there has to be a better solution to “unknown number” interruptions. The telecom services certainly haven’t provided them. Yes we have a sort of CallerID that displays the number and that can help if you know the number in the first place. In fact the good old PSTN still makes mega dollars on “CallerID”. The mobile carriers at least make it clear to me “number calling” (if my smart phone can’t identify the caller from my address book) or “unknown” number. *67 would suggest there is still a demand for anonymity and yet shouldn’t that anonymity be crafted so it can remain yet announce the reason for the call.

Still none of these services help solve who is calling much less why. Further they don’t solve the interruption problem. Without context or a name these calls are unceremoniously dumped into voice mail. If it was urgent that’s probably a failure case. The real problem is the caller rather than the receiver is in charge.

If you had the following calling rules…

• Only present calls from people I have approved before.
• Present calls from new callers when they provide a full profile and context for the call.
• Check their reputation; do they pass simple rules?

If you could…

• Choose your own profile from one of the major directory services; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.
• Use one of these services for status updates and thus context sharing
• Use to set up and request calls and minimize the likelihood of unwanted interruptions.

Many have begun to understand that Phweet set out to solve this problem. Providing the users with access and interruption controls while enabling the ability to provide context and their own caller ID to set up the call. With the latest version including persistent Phweets we’ve shown how you can do away with the telephone number.

This is a theme I’m going to bang the keys on some more. If you have data on “interruptions”, CallerID, and how you think status and relationships should impact on access then drop me a line. I’d appreciate it.

I sat in earlier on a session on the Future of KM. There are three very different people on the panel. I’ve been listening with half an ear. This means what I write may have nothing to do with the context of the session. However, part of the reason we come to events like this is to spark other thoughts and tangents.

So far today I’ve not heard the word “flows”, I don’t hear “lifestreaming” I still feel what I am hearing is that knowledge is to be managed, moved, manipulated. Plus I just heard Dave Pollard say that SARS, 9/11, Katrina etc were all failures of classic knowledge management. I can’t quite put my finger on why KM isn’t learning and moving forward more quickly. It suggests to me that there remains a bigger problem.

Individuals are increasingly using personal tools, blogs, wikis, social networks, mobile phone, etc. As they move into this realm publicly they create more information about themselves. I’m increasingly seeing these tools being put to use by marketing / PR. KM seems to be missing these social media implications. Thus adoption of these tools is not being driven by the need to manage knowledge. Rather it’s driven by responding faster, being more adaptive, building on what others do, opening up systems so they can find that they need just in time. It’s a learning centric approach. I see it when I go to blogging sessions and talk to people there. The difference is they are believers.

I have a feeling I wrote something about this last year. I did. I wrote a post on use it first then talk to me. I wrote in that post about Flock and said “the social browser” why isn’t it commented on. This year I’m fairly certain I won’t hear a word about Chrome. I summed up that post with the following.

There is no KM2.0 model today. Perhaps that is the way it should be. Fragmented. Fragments certainly fit with Dave Snowden’s theories. Maybe we should just throw out the concept and go back to me, you, and us? When you use these tools everyday it’s easy to forget that the rest of the world isn’t quite there yet. Sharing and creating the stories of what could be.. I think that is exciting.

I had listed a year ago Facebook API, and tried initiating some Twitter activity. Today Twitter is more visible although most I’ve spoken to want to run a mile from it.  Although I’d be pressing forward recommending that the future is now emerging with the social iPhone, and the app environment that it is now creating. That’s where you can accelerate your learning. Note many of the successful iPhone apps were generated off the Facebook learnings which were obvious a year ago. At each phase or evolution of social media learnings are being aggregated. Being successful requires more of the person and their understanding to be successful. This is not just about dollars. Today I look at the iPhone which is now rapidly creating location based opportunities that will redefine business interactions.

I’m thinking more and more that the social media experts are likely to usurp or overturn many KM practices in time. The fact that SAP, Oracle and IBM are today all working with Twitter like updates is at least encouraging. Maybe they can still sell a knowledge platform?

Dave Pollard has been writing a blog even longer than I have. His “How to Save the World” is in my view a classic and still hosted on Salon. His most recent blog post was on Happiness and Dave does seem a lot happier this year. Now I have his slides I can quickly read ahead and then think about points I may want to make. Before reading it I like the shift to Connection!

Key Points
Dave dates KM to 1994 through 2003 and relates it as management information systems. However this is very much a US centric point of view. The Europeans had a much more “people” centric POV. At the time the early conversation was often about Intellectual Capital. This was at time depersonalized by calling these routines Knowledge objects etc. Books I read in those times included Karl Erik Sveiby, Leif Edvinson, Tom Stewart.

I agree with Dave that these repositories didn’t help much and the reality is they created little real value. Quotes Davenport on work that most spend 50% of their time processing information. These workers lacked reserach skills. The paucity of positive results was accredited to the lack of networking. Of course that created other problems like who is talking to who and who doesn’t talk.

In Trying Again with KM2.0 Dave focuses on personal content tools. I think the key thing is write and share for the many rather than the few. Updating a wiki benefits the many. Updating a blog is better than an email it is more transparent and todays tags etc can make sure it is directed at someone. The individual needs to be freed to contribute. More importantly boundaries aren’t fixed anylonger. My experience says organizations are still not opening up. Outside software and small startups few companies can really capture their communities to help and enable them to create value. Think Facebook API, iPhone Apps, Microsoft and many smaller cos which are exposing more and more of their information stucture.

On to Improving Connection. I believe one of the largest challenges facing organzations is how to raise the conversations efficiently and effectively. There’s lots of friction in finding someone and even if you find them they may not be able to talk. Routing the conversations that matter are increasingly less and less likely  to take place desktop to desktop. Just like face to face the real value is in the moment. This happens to be a “thing” for me as the co-founder of Phweet that aims rapidly escalate conversations without the need to exchange numbers  etc.

JIT canvassing. I’d simply call this Twitter. (Yes their are others Oracle, SAP and IBM all are working on them. Yammer, Presently, and Identi.ca are also example heading into this space). Short messages saying can you help me with… Re Environmental Scanning I’d like to think about this in terms of Mashups! Eg putting data on maps is a most obvious one. However as companies open their information processes new forms of value can be created.

Anyone that know me knows I’m already totally entrenched in these tools. I like Dave’s evangelism of the new tools and finding new practices. Yet I have the same fear I had last year that the audience doesn’t either have much control or isn’t bringing these tools quickly into their organizations. I hope I’m proven wrong as I have more conversations with others here. Makes me fearful of “telling” others buy an iPhone, Tweet, and use some of the location based solutions.

I’m going to say I think Twitter or similar signaling systems are going to have the most impact. If there is one new behavior to go away with it is that. Use Twitter. Experiment.

John Kao is kicking off KMWorld 2008 with the initial keynote on Innovation and Knowledge Management. His basic premise is Innovation is now part of a Global competition and America is falling behind. It reminds me in themes and similarlies with Michael Porters “Competitiveness of Nations” some 20 years ago. I’ve paraphased many of his comments. I won’t claim they are all perfect quotes. America the country has no real Stewardship for Innovation and the candidates aren’t talking about it. We don’t have a “face” or way to focus innovation in the US at a national level. Have we lost our innovation edge? What do you think?

Three basic questions about innovation… comments this audience “traffics in innovation” useful to address

Innovation Nation:
How America is Losing it’s Innovation Edge, Why it matters and What can be done to get it back?

Innovation Nation:
1. What is it?
It’s not a well defined process. I started off with a perspective of innovation at the individual level and then later moved into how it works with teams. Then how does innovation work in the Enterprise. Of late have looked at innovation from the POV of large scale, society, country, global level. The solution set to these problems are global and must be owned by all of us. How do you look at stewardship, investment etc?

The tools that we use to look at an individual or enterprise level innovation don’t transfer to a global system.

He’s now saying that innovation tends to come out in the space in between traditional silos. He’s providing the example he refers to as the Finish Innovation University which brings tech/science, design, business processes all together. You need actors across all stages and the right culture in order to make it happen. Innovation comes from conversations across these disciplines. The notion of a value chain for innovation. Many countries are contributing to the global economies. Innovation is non linear on a global scale. It’s why a number of hot spots are relatively small countries. Finland, Singapore like the greater Bay Area. Even Viet Nam is now known as a place to do certain types of testing in a global market place.

2. Why should we care?
Countries are now focused on innovating at the global level. Example on the outskirts of Shanghei is a 3million sq ft Innovation University about to be opened. By 2020 China’s goal is to become an Innovation Society. There’s an innovation system there. There’s a stakeholder strategy. In Sweden there is a Govt Agency that has 300 people that manage and have a long term POV on where Innovation strategy is going. Contrast this with the US. Is there such a department? There is no strategy. The assumption that we can muddle through flys in the face of what is happening with the rise of innovation capability in the rest of the world. In the US we have taken our foot off the gas.

Models that were invented in the US. Venture Capital, WallStreet etc. Now VC’s are global, Universities are running global programs by opening in other countries. At the national level support of innovative ideas is becoming globally distributed. Today living in Shanghei or Mumbai can be very rational choices. The whole notion today is that there is high cosmopolitan live style in any of these places. The so called American dream exists in many parts of the world. I’d certainly agree with this.

At the end of 1945 the US was leading the world of innovation. In 1957 Sputnik launched. Eisenhower earned his salary that month by pointing to study science and math. NASA and DARPA got started. Sadly that is the last time the US had an innovation agenda. Now fast forward to 2008. In all the ratings the US comes out as number one. Based on the current installed base the US is probably the leader. What I’m talking about is long term, something more catatrophic that might happen down the road. How do we get a more expasive view on innovation. Who’s the talent, Whats the resources?

You can make talent or seduce it. K1-12 education is stressed; spend more than anyone and aren’t even in the to 20 in math and science. Lots of reasons and the report card says 1/3 don’t finish high school in the US. The jobs that they may have done years ago.. many of these are now offshored. At the higher level we graduate a lot less engineers than China, India. They want millions of engineers. The exceptional end of the bell curve will continuously improve and grow. So making the talent is a big issue. Asks why don’t our youth ever want to work out how to make an iPhone?

How can you acquire talent? The serial kidnapper. Imagine you are an imminant life scientist in the US. I have a proposition. You apply 50% of your time applying for grants. In my system you just get the money and we will build you a new lab and get you lots of graduate students. Oh and we will pay you 4 times as much. What does this lead to? Our National Institue of Cancer Research … gone to Singapore. That’s been done many times. What you need is a handful of the right people rather than lots of people. William Gibson said 20 years ago that wars will be fought over the rights to employ the brains / talent. If you are Singapore now do you attract the global creative class. Flip it around America is losing it’s luster. Over in China everyone will support my work. Now the US is in the talent attracting business.

Look at resources. Eg new Universities in Finland or China. Our economy is now trillions of dollars poorer, we have a geopolitical situation that is a drain on funding. Public infrastructure roads, highways, dams etc. gets a grade of a D. To bring it up to an acceptable level will take 1.3 trillion dollars. Pretty soon it adds up to real money. The money you bring in vs spend is Free Cash Flow. China has lots of FCF. The US is in a bind and the problem is daunting.

3. How to do it?
National strategies. Countries are adopting differentiated strategies. Singapore is a focus strategy. For the US and the Bay Area the future probably lies in the Systems Integrator role. We are in the position to continue to be the originators. Where do we sit. Friend started a travel related business. The way he started this company this time is spent a year in his office with 300 contractors all located outside the US. He had smart ways of finding them. He never met any of them. He didn’t incorporate until a year after he incorporated. The strategy was born global. He’s the systems integrator. Another friend in the life science area. Today no laboratory work done in the US with it today. Again systems integrator model. These people mix and max from a global market of innovation inputs. It is fundamentally transforming how things get started. That’s also true for big companies. Oh they have a user centered design system in Finland. As the unit af action decentralizes to the individual you have the opportunity to mix and match from a global array of resources. You are basically all Citizens of Innovation Nation.

Go out and contribute! Take on the challenge!

I’m a little dissatisfied with the end. I’m concerned that saying we will be the systems integrators will let the system off the hook. This is a problem that needs addressing. As someone who’s seen it work and studied it in New Zealand I’ll also say it is very different to measure the impact on a short term basis.

Last year I really enjoyed KMWorld 2007. I came as a blogger to report of what I saw and heard. I wrote a series of posts. However the most insightful for me definitely was this one on Dave Snowden who will again be presenting later this morning. In a few minutes we’ll be starting with John Kao.

This year I’ll again be blogging and Twittering. Add a hash tag #kmw08 to your tweets and you can see related tweets on TwitterSearch. You can find me on Twitter @stuarthenshall and I’ll be cross-posting some details to my blog as well.

• Smart Calls, a New Way to Make and Receive Phone Calls | LucaFiligheddu.com
  Always better when someone else tells your story and sees it from their perspective. Thanks Luca, it was a great session on Friday. I like how you present Phweet as a "Smart Call" and even better to see your examples.
  (tags: lucafiligheddu phweet)

• VoIP Watch: A Couple of Predictions
  VoIP and T-Mobile should go together in the US. Unfortunately they left it too long and now leading edge customers that were dyed in the wool T-Mobile data plan users are now on iPhones and AT&T. That's a two year contract boys! My VoIP will continue to be independently sourced or used on unlocked phones like the N95.
  (tags: voip tmobile att andyabramson)

• Mozilla Labs » Blog Archive » Introducing Ubiquity
  Via Luca …. check this out. Very cool!
  (tags: mozilla firefox)
• You've been noticed: Human - Machine Interaction, When and Why.
  Ok so we want some voice reminders. But we will want to control them, not let reminders be provided by just anyone. Do we opt-in or opt-out?
  (tags: voicesage)
• Skype Journal: Michael Robertson responds
  I agree with Michael's POV. I've even offered to pay for a Skype SIP account in the past. We are now providing a SIP to PSTN bridge as a Phweet Option. It would be better if everyone just provided their users with a SIP account. Eg mobile operators, Skype etc.
  (tags: skype gizmo5 michaelrobertson voip mobile)

• iPlot: Sarah Palin: Ready to be the World's Laughing Stock
  Tim I couldn't agree more. I tried to run away from Sarah Palin questions while down in New Zealand last week. Laughing stock sums up my thoughts exactly.
  (tags: sarahpalin democracy)
• iPlot: Who is Sterling Cooper?
  As a Mad Men fan who's just caught up via AppleTV I've enjoyed being followed by @peggyolson and seeing the links. Is this the next level?
  (tags: madmen marketing branding)
• ThreeDimensionalPeople: i want a "mylist", not craig's list
  "we need a way of brokering interesting connections between people based on their collective set of interests that delivers a marketplace with enough liquidity (ie most people participate), but also keeps privacy and spam at bay." Hmmmm…. Phweet!
  (tags: craigslist collective marketplace)
• Andi Mobile Store
  Why do I see an iPhone 3g 16gb unlocked here for $359? What's the catch? Even quantity discounts.
  (tags: iphone)
• Unlock iPhone 3G / 2.0 Today with Apple Unlock iPhone Unlocking Software Solution
  Who's tried this? What's the best way to currently unlock a 3G iPhone? Where's the free solution?
  (tags: iphone unlock jailbreak)
• Peer To Peer: Using P2P Technologies For Collaborative Work
  Robin Good provides a through review of Michel Bauwens work. Worth taking a look at. Anything that puts more control in the hands of peers is heading in the right direction.
  (tags: P2P)
• /Message: Fred Wilson Is Dreaming
  The airline shall we talk in the air story continues.
  (tags: airtravel)
• Three ways to tweet later
  Time delayed Tweet pointers by Alec Saunders.
  (tags: twitter)
• Mobilize: Thinking Experientially: User Experience Panel - GigaOM
  I listened in on this session for awhile today. I liked what Rachel Hinman had to say.
  (tags: rachelhinman mobile mobilize)
• ASUS AiGuru SV1 Skype videophone shown off in London
  "Asus are claiming that the SV1 will offer 20 minutes of talk time and 30 minutes of standby on a single charge." This product just doesn't inspire me.
  (tags: skype mobile)
• Mobile Marketing Keynote
  "The Net has not become a utility in our lives because something else has. The mobile has become our lifeline. It is the way we connect, communicate, share and increasingly, surf. "
  (tags: mobility india")
• VoIP Watch: Gizmo Project's Michael Robertson Sounds Off
  I couldn't concur more with Michael and Andy on the lack of Skype openness. I've been asking for a Skype SIP address for years. Now I just use Gizmo5 with Phweet.
  (tags: Skype sip voip)

Last week I was away in New Zealand and it’s taken me some time to catch up. While away David, Dina and I began experimenting with a new type of Open Phweet. It is powerful new way that Phweet demonstrates how to escalate from short message exchanges into broader deeper voice conversations with people you may only know through their tweets. Everyone retains total control over their numbers and privacy. Importantly people can come and go as they please. We believe it may also open up some powerful new applications.

I’ve been thinking of this as a watercooler or “Coffee Talk Cafe”. How’s it different? Like all Phweets it ties the conversation to a URL. However in this case it is persistent and creates a different type of communication experience. I put these screens together on Flickr to help with the how to get started. Or you can just join our PhweetCafe by clicking the image above.

Have you ever..

• needed a talking place where people can come and go? A virtual watercooler or VoiceIRC.
• wanted to have an hangout or virtual cafe to visit for talking and chatting with friends or family?
• worked from home and just wished you could drop in to a conversation?
• been part of a group of experts or help desk that answer customer inquiries?
• wanted to run a open focus group around a discussion item
• had to manage disaster management and needed a quick point of contact?
• invited people to talk about a topic?
• run a 24hour talkathon?

Then invite your friends and colleagues and watch the conversation grow. Each time someone joins “visits” you will get a direct notification from @phweet with the name of who joined and and you can jump into session with them. At first you will want to do this everytime. But later when others are jumping in and you are busy you may just want to skip it. From time to time you may want to promote your URL and bring new people into the conversation.

I have a few guesses about how many people you may need to create or make a successful Phweet Cafe. Some groups can even work with channels open like this all the time.

We need your feedback. Tell us how you want to use it. Help us make it better. More thoughts on PhweetTalk.

• Twitter is Growing Like Crazy: Up 422% in 12 Months - Mashable
  Does this data include or exclude updates and views via the API? That's something that is unclear to me.
  (tags: mashable twitter statistics socialnetworks socialmedia)

Did you know many people prefer to Phweet with their phones rather than talk over their laptop. Others just want to get it working on their Nokia’s, Blackberries and iPhones. So I wrote some how to posts over on the Phweet Talk blog. I’ve followed this with a few Examples, Then links to “how to” screenshots and finally observations on why Phweet is refreshingly different.

Posted to PhweetTalk:

• Dial-in to Phweet - Use Your Phone
• Using Phweet Dial-in on the iPhone
• Using Gizmo5 with Phweet

Examples:

1. You just received a Phweet and you don’t have a mic or headset available. You don’t want to decline you simply must take this talk request. Never fear.. just dial-in and make the connection. Phweet makes it easy to “dial-in” and accept calls rather than taken them on your PC. You can call in with any phone that will display an accurate callerID (including Skype).
2. You don’t understand all this stuff about SIP and you want the freedom to direct Phweet to ring your mobile or desktop phone. Then use Gizmo5 and buy a few minutes there. We will have even more solutions available soon.
3. You just want to dial-in from your mobile. You can today and an example using the iPhone is linked to below.

How to Links:

• Dial-in to Phweet and use your phone or mobile Phweet Detail Step by Step
• Dial-in to Phweet Slideshow (turn ‘info on”)

• iPhone and Phweet Detail Step by Step.
• iPhone and Phweet Slideshow (turn ‘info on”)

• Gizmo5 and Phweet Detail Step by Step
• Gizmo5 and Phweet Slideshow (turn ‘info on”)

Observations:
It’s about Names not Numbers: Phweet is charging ahead to create a world where you choose your callerID and that callerID is not a number. Nobody needs your number anymore and in the end even if they have it we will help you manage those interruptions. More importantly there is a huge new world of conversations emerging where you don’t have someone’s number. Whether on Twitter, or another network or in close proximity to others. Proximity buddies, location based services etc. These conversations will all thrive in a world that is not brokered by phone numbers. More importantly in a numberless world you must control whether or not a call is even presented to you. The idea that you can ring someone out of the blue is now officially dead unless you are their mother, father, brother, sister, boss, lover, emergency doctor, etc.

Phweet is channel agnostic. Our aim is to let you use the communication providers and tools you want to use. We are not in the business of selling minutes. In fact whether hosting or accepting a Phweet you determine how you want to interconnect. The parties that are speaking have no need to know whether I’m on Skype and you are on your home phone or mobile, unless you want to share this context with them.

We designed Phweet to have low/no switching costs. The reason there will never be another Skype is we already have our buddylists’ there. The cost of moving that list to another service is high. The cost of getting another “skypeout” account is less attractive when you already make a lot of calls there and with rates the way they are there is no real financial benefit for moving. So Phweet lets you use the services you already have. Plus as more and more VoIP companies enable SIP to PSTN interconnects (provide you the freedom to simply direct a VoIP system to your Phone) you will find it becomes simpler than ever to take talk via Phweet anywhere and anytime.

Choice, Privacy and Control: Today as communications fragment a