• Why There Is No More space for new VoIP Players | LucaFiligheddu.com
  I'd add to these clones the oovoo and Voxox I looked at last week. It's a difficult market today.
  (tags: voip)
• $6K per gigabyte? No thanks, Ted. — Alec Saunders SquawkBox
  I may need to get a rebelsim still waiting for a software iPhone unlock solution. Separately, Alec organizes his bottom row for the second most used items. SMS, Twitter etc. Found it intersting as I still do topleft to top right. So many variations are possible.
  (tags: iphone rebelsim unlock)

• Why Traditional Recession Tactics Are Doomed To Fail This Time - Umair Haque
  (tags: economics sustainability recession networks)

Sometimes reminders and special conversations come out of the blue - unexpectedly. I had one of those Phweet calls today with @transitioner which pointed me back to the work of an old friend Jean Francois Noubel which is perhaps more relevant than ever today. If nothing else just read the description for the conference and think about banks, mobility, and the rise of our networks. This description resonated with me.

Conference Nov. 2008 Mexico - The Future of Money: how millions of currencies are going to change the world - TheTransitioner - Pioneers

What no one anticipates is that money is about to follow the same path the media followed during the past years; from controlled ownership of media with one-way top down broadcast systems, to peer-to-peer, participatory, open publishing. Millions of free currencies will soon circulate on the Net and through our cell phones. They will not be controlled by states or central banks, they will be issued and used by millions of marketplaces willing to free themselves from conventional debt-based, interest-based money (85% to 95% of money circulating today). Everyone will use these free currencies simply because they will be ubiquitous, easy to integrate into current media technologies, and because most people and organizations are undermonetized.

This new paradigm is likely to turn the current monetary system into a completely obsolete system. The next one will offer marketplaces the capacity to maximize their trade potential with the ever right amount of monetary mass at their disposal.

Among the current projects expressing this evolution, the FreeCurrency project is certainly the most advanced one. Next currencies platforms will be available on the Internet by 2009. It will be free and open source. It will provide the next open global interoperable infrastructure for the millions currencies to be easily issued in a peer-to-peer way. It will be easy to use via computers and cell phones, making it accessible to the majority of humanity. User interfaces will be sexy and very user friendly.

Early players such as banks, telecom companies, dotcoms, developing countries, entrepreneurs who will anticipate and accompany this evolution will get an incredible first mover advantage.

Our civilization is changing and all forecasters talk about the revolution in technology and cooperation and globalization. The shift we will see from money will be from a scarcity model to one that is sufficient. In this way, it will fundamentally shift human relationships and consciousness to a new place.

This is a short review about three Twitter apps for the iPhone. Many others (Twinkle, Twitterriffic, Twitttelator) are more complicated, do more and it seems therefore less. Twitterfon and Gyazickr really work. They also make me think about apps and features and whether they should be separate / segregated, or integrated all in one’s. I see different behaviors and there’s an advantage to having a unique button rather than an all in one button. That’s a fact that has also been brought home to me by using Qik recently. Phweets current approach is similar although it was never optimized for the iPhone and isn’t yet an app. Making things quick to use and load particuarly when switching from app to app is important.

1. Twitterfon: I want to catch up quickly on my network and respond to requests while on the move. This is simply the fastest TwitterApp I know. It makes it very easy to keep up with direct messages and @replies. It also has it’s own web browser so forwarding a URL is now possible and simple. Something I always found hard on the iPhone. I wish I could run it in the back ground all the time. Note if you like Twitterfon you may also like running Twitterfox in your firefox browser.

2. Gyazickr: I want to Tweet a pic. I can take a new one or select one from iphone’s library. BTW.. I’d like “shake” to clear the text screen. More importantly I can tweet it and upload to flickr (rather than twitpic or some other service I have to join). In fact I can post it to other microblogs too. My choice is Flickr as I have one photo service and I don’t want another! What I’d still like is for the “link” to display as a TinyURl. Currently that’s not happening.

3. Twitfire: Another with similar simplicity which I’ve kept on my iphone more for its search and tweet a URL. It too is a simple app that does pictures (although sends to Twitpic), links to URL’s, location and @replies to friends. (not quite sure how it builds the friends list however). It does have “shake” to clear the screen.

• SMS in Gmail Chat
  This is a big deal! Add to this the india SMS experiment! People are not looking at the deeper meaning. Watch out!
  (tags: google mobile SMS)
• AMD Doesn’t Think Mobile Internet Devices Are All That - GigaOM
  I think they are right too. The package that matters is what goes in the palm of the hand. After that what and how you use portable devices as opposed to mobile devices is very different.
  (tags: PC laptop mobile)

One of the complaints about the iPhone is you can’t multitask very well. Switching from program to program terminates each one. It’s not the way we work on the desktop.

I love “Spaces” on my Mac. It’s like having multiple screens and I find no trouble managing and organizing my work using it. For those Windows lovers who miss out I just run my mouse to the bottom left, spaces appear and I can then drag any item between spaces. Then it opens in effectively a new screen. Great for working on two or more projects a time. Here’s what it looks like.

Now here’s an iPhone screen. One of the problems with the iPhone is you can only run one app at a time unless you have a jailbroken iPhone. So you know it is capable of running more although that may cost you battery life.

So my thoughts for how to put spaces on the iPhone.

1. Simple double click the round button. Rather than bring the phone to the top it brings spaces. You touch one quadrant and you get the single app that is running in that quadrant. Thus you should be able to run at least 3 apps concurrently with the fourth the home navigation page or the phone.  An X on each space could stop that app running in the background.

2. While in any app enable a 7 like swipe. eg what ever app is visible. left top to right top to left bottom in one motion. Switches space and app. Right top to left top to bottom right another switch. bottom left to bottm right to left top. Another switch. And one more doesn’t need repeating.

This would allow us to run two or three apps concurrnetly. Frankly I don’t really want or need more than that. This would allow chat to consisitently run, along with the browser and perhaps keeping a game or something else running in the background.

Nokia’s and other already allow me to run other programs in the background but frankly I almost never have as they run out of computing juice and most were two hard to switch between.

One app at a time is a real negative. A spaces approach would provide a little more choice and really increase utility for users.

• Google SMS Channels: Send SMS Text Messages to your Group for Free
  It's worth keeping an eye on what Google is doing in India. This is a Twitter challenge!
  (tags: twitter google gupshup SMS)
• Ooma adds new features, premium price — Alec Saunders SquawkBox
  Why does Ooma get all this press and talk? Phonegnome does it better? Have they actually sold any?
  (tags: ooma phonegnome jazinga)

• Some Shed Their Gadgets by Turning to One: iPhone - WSJ.com
  An interesting perspective or trend? Could it be that all we need is a 3G modem? Will this trend emerge / grow in emerging markets?
  (tags: iphone broadband mobile)
• SMS and the Mobile Internet
  SMS as the gateway to a wide array of sevices.
  (tags: SMS)
• Logitech to Buy SightSpeed for $30M | LucaFiligheddu.com
  WOW via Luca SIghtSpeed finds a buyer. Thats cool and congrats to the team there! On video it still does more than Skype. So what does that mean for Skype's valuation !!!
  (tags: Sightspeed)
• Cellphone Inventor Knocks iPhone - Forbes.com
  Does he really get where mobiles are going today? Good points re the industry.
  (tags: mobility)
• Why BlackBerry Storm Is An iPhone (and G-1) Killer - GigaOM
  Jim I just don't buy it that it is a killer. Just don't find the argument that gels with me. Yes am an iPhone fan and I'd like to get my hands on a Nokia 5800 Xpress. I don't hanker to test the blackberry however and I'm not sure why. As for apps in the background I think it is overblown. Apple would cure it in one moment by letting you run two or three in the background. Even just one extra. Then you solve your "Chat" issue.
  (tags: iphone mobile blackberry android)

I’m at the Social Media Strategies conference today. We’ve had the introduction and I’ve frankly been experimenting with QIK. I recorded most of the first session by propping my iphone against the open screen of my laptop. The video is here. I’m also tweeting along in the background.

I’m fascinated by the approach and comments that are already emerging here re Social Media. I’m pleased to be hearing comments on customers, and on improving the bottom line. That’s an interesting contrast to the KM community discussion that I participated in more recently.

One element I can’t help covering. I’m always interested in who uses what. This room is fairly full. I’d love to see some inventories. Eg who uses which tools.You know papers around the room that get people to sign up or provide details on their activities. Table discussions, a wiki etc. I’m looking to get audience stories and problems. I see lots of round tables - the format base is there. One day I will get to create a really interactive social conference. That includes making sure upfront we know the tags, the video uplinks, the blogs etc. I’m not sure where to find these.

I don’t know why we don’t build conferences like this differently. Socially!  I sit here and want to hear how others use Twitter. I want to see people using it on cellphones. I want to see the Qik team doing stuff. I want it to be clear to everyone how and where we can create content. I won’t profess to knowing how to use all these tools better than someone else. I know many use Facebook better than I do. Other have great frontline stories or are implementing new programs.

We need to move beyond the blog mistakes and the legal issues. I believe there are large issues in how organizations adopt these tools. What we are failing to do is train the attendees on how to take it back into their organizations. That begins with getting them familiar and confident using the tools. We are failing in the immersion element.

I’d like to offer a five day mobile social media immersion program. Or even a week! It will be hands on. It will be discovery. It would have some provocative experts inserted from time to time. Its would be limited to less than 100 people. It would be intense and it wouldn’t just focus on PC or mobile Skills. It would certainly start by listening to each other. That’s something we keep forgetting. The first rule of social media is to start learning to listen. It would be primarily focused on giving the individuals the skills stories and personal materials that lets them loose.

• Facing the future at Skype - Oct. 15, 2008
  What's the market value of Skype? Is it more than the 1.4v it was written down to? $600m rev annualized now. Was called by a reporter today.
  (tags: skype technology ebay)
• Griffin Technology: iTalk
  Get iTalk and record on your iphone. Cool nothing more to plug-in.
  (tags: griffin italk iphone)

• Apple - Web apps - iWebKit 3.0
  I may need to pay some atention to this.
  (tags: iphone webdesign)
• iPhone Dev Team Crack iPhone 3G's Baseband; Closer to Unlocking iPhone 3G - iPhone Hacks
  I'm looking forward to the day it is unlocked. I have no reason really to want to jailbreak my phone. However international travel means unlocking which AT&T refuses to do for me (I have called them) will happen and thus no doubt spur on the jailbroken market. Big demand for unlocking!
  (tags: iphone)
• Twitter Goes Mainstream - WSJ.com
  No new insights and still the same examples. I like the MD's example of trying to get his staff engaged and they didn't pick it up. It relates the the notifications!
  (tags: twitter wsj)
• Time to Leave the Laptop Behind
  Yep! The days for the laptop in its current format are numbered. In a world where it seems so obvious what we want next we are still getting netbooks. Meanwhile perhaps with the exception of Apple not one mobile handset manufacturer really knows how to fill the gap and challenge the laptop manufacterers. Mobile companies have a competitive advantage particularly in the third world when thinking about development opportunities.
  (tags: portable mobile computers laptops technology trends smartphones mobility)

I’ve been testing QIK over the weekend. QIK let’s you stream live video from your mobile phone. In my case I’m testing a version that is almost ready for public release on a 3G iPhone. This is an embed of my live streams although I’m not sure how public longer term I’m going to be.

QIK is simply fantastic! You might ask me why I’d be so positive! It traces to behavior more than just the app and there is great learning for Flickr in this app. I’ve had video in Nokia cameraphones for years. With one exception when I was testing an N90 some years ago I’ve not had the same sort of ‘aha’ moment and satisfaction with video. Two things made me really think differently about it on the iPhone.

First Impressions:
1. It’s a simple single button to launch and then one more press starts the recording. The iPhone is easy to hold in this format and for the most part I found it easy to hold relatively steady. In some of my examples from today I was walking around.

2. It posts them to QIK automatically. Either publicly or privately. It’s posting them in almost real time. I did see quite a buffer build up on some of the videos I was taking this am. I was supposedly connected via AT&T 3G. It will also send them to YouTube and send notifications to Twitter and other social networking services like Seesmic.

So how’s this better? Launch to publish in seconds. When it’s on everyone’s phones sharing videos will be easy. In fact video messaging could be very very simple!

Here’s what I noted about the QIK iPhone client. Note the first screen… ready to go.

Hold your finger down and you can adjust some settings. Eg give the video a title before you start recording. I’ve not worked out the “share this” on the iPhone yet. It may not be quite ready. I also had some problems with Twitter streaming alerts this AM although I think I have that sorted for future videos.

The management and general settings are easy to get to. Everything is logically laid out.

What’s lacking or perhaps not clear to me?
1. iPhone needs a better camera. Nothing to do with QIK although I’m sure QIK could integrate a digital zoom and it would be great to stop and start it via the apple bluetooth headset. Eg a pause perhaps and then back to streaming. The real downside is Apple needs a second lens for the self-portrait situation. I also wasn’t sure when I was recording this am whether it was using the speaker phone mic or my bluetooth headset as the audio source. I think is was using the speaker phone setting. QIK manages 15fps which is not bad although when I was taking pictures of runners… it lacks a little clarity.

Second thing I’m thinking about getting. One of those simple windshield clamps with the suction cups so I can QIK while driving. I’ve often wanted a simple tripod type mount for the iPhone. Does anyone know of one?

2. Groups: I quickly wanted to work out how to say share with my family or with friends. So when I got home I took a look at QIK and found I could create my own groups. So I could create a group family and then share the private video I’d taken. Similarly I found I could send a video link via an email and still keep it relatively private on QIK. Now it looks like you can do this from the iPhone client but so far I’ve not been able to make it work. That’s certainly one area I’d like  it to be more integrated. There’s a section in profile which I think should take you to the MyAccount page and I’d like to see the last video’s listed there. Clicking on them should take me to my YouTube account. It will probably come.

I’d note the groups feature is way better than the sharing controls in Flickr at least since the last time I looked. I’d also add that Flickr could learn something from QIK and “Exposure” and other iPhone clients. They should just create their own Flickr app and provide additional photography tools.

Depending on how “sharing” on QIK evolves it should be easy to use it as a video messaging service as well. (See also Phweet below). I’d also like to be able from the phone (rather than the website) to send a simple video message, that is share with an iPhone contact.  I can probably do this with a group although I’m not sure yet.

3. Notifications and Chat: I was a little confused by the notifications and chat. Dina picked up on one video that I doing live. I got a message on my screen while shooting but I still have no idea how I could have typed an answer at the time and held the iPhone steady. So I said that and responded by talking during the live the video.

4. Length of Video: I’m not sure yet what the average length of video on QIK is. Fairly short I’d think. So the live chat function tends to confuse me in that regard. There’s huge latency in Twitter updates depending on how you receive your notifications. So if a Qikker is streaming (I see Pat Phelan, Scoble, Beth Kanter and others) doing this most often then then you may not be able to physically get to QIK, log-in and start chatting before they stop the video. It has happened to me a few times and thus it seems I never get a response. (I’d have to test more in this area to be certain about chat responses. Hope to find someone this week to try it with.). The result I no longer follow QIK links.

5. Neat Things: QIK does a great job with some little things. Eg an add to iTunes link. In fact it is fairly well integrated. I decided to go back and open my Seesmic account. Seems with QIK I can send my video straight there too. Not sure I need to. However, the mobile rather than the laptop is definitely going to be the longterm video entry/update point.

6. Phweet URL:
Every QIK video could also be a PhweetURL. QIK video links persist just like Phweet’s persistent URLs. (They are now called Twitter Talk Topics when you log in to Phweet). So what am I thinking here?

a. When using QIK on the iPhone over WiFI the link could instantly enable others to dial in to the Phweet bridge and talk to the video operator. (Note I’m not suggesting that their voice streams be synced into the video feed.) This one… real time Phone and Video conversations really gets to the talking live about what you are looking at. In some countries we already have video calls on mobile. The difference is this is not a conference enabled capability it is one to one. So in this example two or more people can talk to the live Qikker.

b. The video is short and now it is finished. Rather than putting in a chat why not just call the Qikker. With the Twitter integration Phweet could simply power each QIK with a persistent URL for a period before expiring. Thus anyone viewing could click on the link and the Qikker would get a Twitter Direct notification from Phweet on the URL, the title and description. Now the video becomes a potential talking point as well. This would create new opportunities and potentially enable conversations to emerge around the content.

c. For me this example of bringing QIK video together without breaches of privacy or any need to exchange phone numbers or even unwanted interruptions makes for something that is more natural and for some perhaps even more entertaining. For if I am already broadcasting live there is a good chance I’d be willing to talk too and certainly in some content situations.

d. I’d hypothesize that talk may create better community around the groups. Certainly when someone is live and you get a notification then you are more likely to tune in if you have talked to someone in the past.  I’d note that Phweet also uses Twitter to send SMS notifications (at least in US/Canada/India) when a conversation like this becomes active.

e. How difficult is this? Phweet has an API. Rather than sending the notification to Twitter you would activate and post to Twitter via Phweet. Anyone on QIK could pop a Phweet Talk session around the video. Talk to us! In short order you could be talking either while you are Qikking or just after. I certainly would like to understand the sound / streaming constraints when both WiFi and AT&T are available. If not… taking videos and then being able to take calls about them could be fun.

Wrap-Up:

It is headed towards being a must-have app on the iPhone. While I believe there is a “broad” public aspect to sharing and shooting video I also believe there is a more private aspect too. I’m not sure yet how well I can shoot and share a video with one or two people (particularly if they are not Qik members/users) rather than the whole world. I personally would be a lot more comfortable doing that. Better account management within the app would probably make this easy.

I remain impressed by the mobile social implications. This is not about just uploading videos or taking them using a laptop cam. It’s mobile video anywhere as easily as the camera-phone. In fact easier than most solutions with the automatic upload. I’d love to have a few more accounts to test it with my daughters friends.  How does one get Qik’s into Facebook?

Qik just announced a version for Blackberry. So now many Nokia’s, iPhone (almost) and Blackberry. I’m sure the dev team has their hands full.

Lastly, there’s that question that everyone asks…. What’s the business model? I declare I don’t know. It makes it interesting in these times.

• Mobile 2.0? Tim O’Reilly Interview #1
  The comments were what really interested me. I'll be at www.mobile2event.com next week. Will I see any of you there?
  (tags: mobile2 timoreilly)

Had this thought today that I’d ask my Twitter followers what I should blog about tonight. I got some great challenges from VoIP to social media analytics and work! They are topics I must have an opinion on although potentially each is like crawling into a minefield. I’ve fortified myself with a glass of Cognac.

So my blog post today is on “New Work” compliments of @tonykarrer. Tony referenced a post of his and asks for my POV. I’ve rambled on below. I have summarized his thought points at the end. Tony makes me ask myself, how undisciplined am I? Very I think.

Ad Hoc Work & Learning:
The element that really resonated with me is the adhoc nature / the real-time learning that we do today. I also sense that it’s in no way the same for everyone. Eg some can ask questions and harness a network. Others can hit Google up and find things you never could. Then others are already tracking and writing about it and you can just talk or write to them.

What’s intriguing to me tonight is these aspects when applied to an organization are also substantially different and have different impacts on the way organizations learn.

How Customers Learn Matters More:
As a marketer I used market research as a tool to shape the way the organization thinks and directs their strategy. However today potentially any employee could generate a ready and better network than 1000’s of dollars spent on market research and get better answers and innovations. They just happen to enjoy a conversation and are connected with people that enjoy the same. I think I see this in mobile phones, gaming, car products and around environmental issues. So a key learning point is getting the organization connected and listening to these stories.

Learning Happens Outside the Core:
When someone is seeking to learn about anything (learning task) it’s usually more efficient again to go outside the organization. The employee goes to Google, dives into Wikipedia and other open source efforts. Wherever these communities of experts are active and committed to sharing, things happen. It often doesn’t happen inside the corporate information system and even if it was captured somewhere, few organizations have a way to extract it. That’s a problem for both learning and the corporate experts. This learning only adds to competitive advantage when assimilated. Assimilation of new information is a huge problem in most organizations. Let’s face it organizations that learn faster win. Those that learn faster at lower cost win even more. Those that enable the acceleration of learning outside and around the organization get even better leverage on learning. Examples are beta programs and developer communities.

Invite Highly Personalized Exchanges:
I had a third category too. Identifying those that already are doing the research for you. That’s where an organization should be paying out more. These external learners are often far more knowledgeable than those inside the organization. They simply don’t see the same constraints. Some organizations do a great job of extracting stuff for free. Google is a great example of asking people to present for nothing or on the basis of a promise. My view is those that have written about subjects and continue to talk about them daily should be simply paid a fee and brought in. The learning challenge for the organization is to get the brain dump. I don’t think you should look at these individuals using traditional criteria. Whether industry, education, work history etc. I believe the skill required is to find ways for the organization to effectively interview these individuals. I think I’m arguing this because it personalizes the exchange.

Interpretive Insight not Content:
In fact all of the above (if I think about it) personalize the learning experience. I’m always bothered by elearning as some form of label. Smacks of tick boxes on computerized tests to me. I don’t think the new work is about tests. If you must apply these things give them to your customers. It is more about agility and flexibility. If we want to teach new work we should embed more in complexity theory. Rather than content which we are swamped in, what we lack today is interpretive insight and meaning.

I can be fairly adhoc and undisciplined. Yet I wonder how much of that being open to peripheral vision, having some sense of ambient intimacy and being open to new connection is a pre-requisite for learning today.

I know there is another set of learnings. The metrics on how the organization is doing. But those tend to be repetitive without new input. Oh no the profits and sales are going down!

Actually how can I bring this post to a close? I started with Tony’s premise. I ranted about how customers learn and going outside. Then followed personalized and interpretive insight. In summary I still think the most valuable skills today are “facilitation” when applied to an organization and what everyone working for it needs to learn. Great facilitation empowers organizations and communities. Why - because the learning is extracted, created, leveraged etc when facilitated. Facilitation can be taught, although I believe it is really learned, modeled though example and iterative exchanges.

In the end I’ve pointed to “facilitation” as it is a skill for handling ad hoc situations where we should have coverage. I think my question Tony is -  Are you sure that it is format learning programs that are required. Or should the organization be more effective at facilitating questions that force the organization to learn?

Initial Read of Tony’s Post:
The post focuses on new work skills and what we should be learning. He starts with a survey which takes us back years to a card catalog and microfiche reader. WOW! As in I can hardly identify them!

He writes “a big part of education is learning how to do research” and remembers the euphoria we used to feel when we found some relevant content. Information was scarce!

He asks if our work skills are keeping up. As he suggests I must be as I did get this post off Twitter and visited his blog. So we probably are alright.

New Work and New Work Skills : eLearning Technology

the foundations of knowledge work are changing fairly quickly and most of us learn completely through ad hoc mechanisms that are not likely to yield good coverage.

Bonus link: IFTF has published a set of papers on the Future of Work - Technology Horizons. (BTW - got this off their twitter stream!)

There are days when a number brings home the real reality of VoIP and it’s real irrelevance. Should I perhaps too be celebrating that Skype crossed 14 million users concurrently online?  What does this number mean in real terms and is it important?

So my point tonight re irrelevance relates to size. 14 million online at one time does not mean 14 million are calling or talking at the same time. It does mean Skype remains the largest VoIP consumer play. I’ve been online for 12 hours today and I’ve made 4 Skype calls. All were international. All used Skype because its a convenient way to save dollars or make them for free. Not all required a PC. Still i used phones too.

By ways of comparison 14 million concurrent users online is less than the number of new mobile phone connections signed up in India in two months! Nokia sells most of them. Skype’s own blog says like having everyone in the city of London using Skype which they obviously don’t. Thus a very small piece of the world really uses Skype. Although possibly quite a few rely on it’s economics.

There was a time when I could point to Skype and say… “look there is a possible plausible future” for the future of telephony. It was supported by costs. I’d ask… “What’s your Skype strategy?”.  We know that Skype going from one million to two million (years ago) was many times more impactful in the boardrooms everywhere. It had and displayed dimensions that traditional telephony didn’t do well. It’s directory was better. It had presence, it had a buddylist and some privacy controls. Over time it has become more like a telecom and less like a piece of software set to revolutionize the world. A fact supported by the lack of API development and telecom communities that have sprung up around other more open solutions.

The growth of Skype hasn’t really changed telecom. It may have helped accelerate the move away from landlines and changed pricing strategies but fundamentally hasn’t impacted on mobiles. Today the growth of Facebook is more likely to change telecom. Telecom directories are obsolete in a networked world. In fact the whole idea of dialing is obsolete too. We’re looking for new methods and new services are emerging. However they are coming where telephony is more open and more likely to adapt to change. Location based services are about to explode. Strategically the “thought experiment” that Skype enabled 5+ years ago is simply no longer relevant. Today, you simply can’t point to Skype in a way that creates the same power that it did then.

Disruptive Telephony: Skype crosses over 14 million simultaneous users!

I didn’t notice the number of simultaneous users in my Skype client today, but the folks over at Skype Journal did notice and Skype Numerologist Jean Mercier captured the occasion with a screen shot. Mercier writes:

“We needed only 35 days to go from 13 million concurrent users online to 14 million.”

It is indeed an impressive statistic. (Confirmed by Skype’s own blog.)

Congrats to the folks at Skype!

So I hate sounding negative on this one. Skype is still a favored tool for many reasons. It’s the best voice video service there is too. I just don’t see the ! on 14 million as really changing anything. The Skype promise that existed five years ago that also embraced a more egalitarian more secure form of P2P based telephony hasn’t found the way to become universal and certainly not mobile. If anything that story has become corrupted. Today, looking at Skype it has not been the CD to the record or DVD to the VCR and it won’t be.

I still believe we are on the cusp of a telephony and communications revolution. The learnings we have had should now be taking us forward. As a VoIP group and industry though we better look for another counter. Looking at Skype is looking at a downstream rather than upstream indicator and that’s always a mistake.

There are new emerging services that still have just a few thousand users. They are the ones we should focus on test and write about. The gamechanges are already out there.

• NEW Google SMS Channels launched in India to challenge twitter.
  This is a very interesting development with huge implications for location based services. I'd have to say I was expecting it. Twitter - this is a challenge for you! Note Google provides group functions. Am using it now on my Indian SIM.
  (tags: twitter google)
• Qwitter: Catching Twitter quitters
  I have no idea what impact Quitter has on API calls. It could be bad if you have a lot of friends.
  (tags: twitter quitter)

• Find the latest Performance Upgrades, Firewire and USB Hard Drives, SATA, Memory, Laptop Battery, and more at OWC
  It may be time to upgrade my macbook pro. bigger hard drive and double the memory? Tempting.
  (tags: macbook upgrades technology)
• Convergence 08: Home
  For those that want a good conference on the edge of new things this could be the one for you. I can't make it this year unfortunately.
  (tags: foresight conferences technology innovation)

• Incompatible with a free country
  Matt Mower points to a BBC report on telecom snooping. It is time "we" took control of our communications!
  (tags: security telecom communications)
• What's Next After Web 2.0? Here's What You Told Us… - ReadWriteWeb
  It's the user centric, user will have more control that interests me. Unless the user gets more control they won't share. Sharing is fundamental to a web2.0 economy.
  (tags: web web2.0 trends readwriteweb innovation)
• Edge Perspectives with John Hagel: Exploring New Forms of Economic Leverage
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Back on October 21, 2005 Alec Saunders pulled a post together (Voice 2.0: A Manifesto for the Future), that built on many of the VoIP innovations we were seeing at the time. More recently there have been presentations “VoIP is Dead” by Skype’s CEO and questions that lead one to ask whether the Voice2.0 manifesto is indeed dead? I’ve also been part of some discussions recently asking whether the iPhone factor and mobility have radically impacted on Voice2.0 concepts.

To recap. Voice 2.0 was described as the titanic clash between the internet and the telecommunications industry. Where ultimately voice will just become part of internet applications. The things mentioned then continue; including continued landline losses to VoIP and mobile solutions. The VoIP PSTN clones are still in trouble if they have not folded. Lots of money has been burned (Vonage) and value written down (Skype).

Alec outlined some key elements, some fiction, and some fact at the time. My purpose today is to contrast the then with Phweet now. It is not alone in taking VoIP forward; however for me, it is a useful update and simple positioning exercise.

1. Talk is the Foundation and Metering is Dying or Dead:
Skype took minute costs to zero and expanded the market for conversation. However by design and privacy settings Skype is not really open and much of its success traces to its PSTN interconnect revenue. It works best with a closed circle of buddies.

2. Three Billable Entities: Connectivity, Directory, and Applications
Alec wrote connectivity and directory will be low margin commodity businesses. Applications will be the value creators. The voice web is still very relevant to applications. It suggested that we want applications that can enable and escalate to new voice connections with both, more context and improved background data. Concurrently, most web applications will be built on top of sharing rules that are already understood by you and me.

• What we’ve seen is users route to lowest cost. Where users can route around tariff barriers they will, although they also trade-up for quality and convenience.
• I’d take issue with directories as being low margin. Directories were worthless as long as they are controlled by the telecoms. Richer directories have now clearly emerged amongst the social networking services. They provide complex identity layers and controls over how data is shared. However, these directory services (Facebook, LinkedIn, Bebo remain evolutionary from a business model perspective.) Their current biggest issue is lack of an effective method to escalate to voice without exiting the system or creating a value added session component.
• Web apps were seen as creating a market bigger than the web itself. This is still likely in my view when the apps work for you and me.

3. Signaling and Control Components
“Presence, to determine availability; directory, to determine addressing and routing;  and XML web services for call control, and integration with computing assets.  These are the true value creation components in
the architecture.” Alec then laid out Presence, Directories, Web Services and Value Networks. I’ll provide my take on these today.

Presence:
Available, busy, or away are not going to work in a presence-centered world. In 2006 I worked on a context-aware telephony project. I’ve also written papers on a “Sense of Presence” which today is more meaningful when I look at Twitter streams which are contextual in the aggregate, and we are coming to understand how to use them more effectively. What we have learned is voice mail is a failure case. What’s also been impossible is broadcasting who you are talking to and even what that is about. More importantly unless you use IM or SMS it is impossible to set up an integrated voice call request today.

Phweet addresses all of these issues. It enables contextual updates and talk requests which may be managed by the recipient based on their context and choices at the time. This shift in behavior is likely to increase the number of calls people make. Presence was always more important when mobile. Mobile is much more personal and more intrusive. Privacy and interruptions are growing issues. Telephones weren’t originally built or designed to address presence.

Phweet doesn’t make calls - it creates an exchange where two parties may escalate to a call without further exchange of channel information. It requires “context” to set it up.  Tell X why you want to talk!. It then attaches a directory listing and creates a URL that can be augmented with other data that will add to the richness of the exchange. In the future this may be customized by the individual or organization to context and much more complex rules and filters which suggest the additional opportunity for apps.

Directories
Alec was clear that in a 2.0 world we own our directory listings and thus our identity. We will want to manage it. The directory is the enabler for value-added conversations. In fact when we can bring directories or individual listings together for the call we augment the session with real-time sharing of additional information. I first saw this in the simplest way with Skype. You got a picture when the phone rang! Then you began sharing links over IM. But nowhere (I know of) is it done where the dating site combines two profiles and presents “options” that you may both like or information that you have each bookmarked today etc. and translates this to mobile. That’s because directories have been static and thus they have little real value after the initial and periodic networking flurries. After a while you have your listing of your friends etc. However, for the great majority these directorise and their data don’t play a role in everyday life.

Phweet currently uses a Twitter profile however there is no reason you cannot craft your directory listing from a myriad sources. I can see a future where you reveal yourself in layers or filter the connection for a “sharing contract”.  This is important where location based services are involved. Directories have a huge role to play, increasingly they are solving our identity layer problem. In the end I’m not going to rely on just one service and they too will relate to my context. What I believe I’ll want is much more seemless controls over what I’m sharing based on relationships.

XML based Services:
A world of API’s and mashups will emerge. “In the voice 2.0 world any application, within the bounds of permissions set by the subscriber, can access presence; initiate, accept, and redirect calls; and query directories”

Phweet does much of this already. It started as a mashup and we have plans to expand our API. Managers of large-scale directories are yet to see the real opportunity. Basically the more your directory service is used to augment real-time conversations and create new sharing space or add value the more valuable your directory. If you already know that calls are happening off and around your directory then you are missing an opportunity. Without a PhweetURL to create an exchange point there is no way to merge disparate profiles or to begin creating Alec’s next stage of new Value Networks.

User Centric World View:
YES YES YES! Then many of us have screamed and plotted this element for years. What Alec said then and we we are working to  address with Phweet is providing users with control over communication in a world where communications are more complex and yet the delivery must remain as simple as the old number system.

Alec wrote. All of the technical underpinnings I’ve described so far exist today. One element still missing is a common, standardized, presentation layer.  Standards exist for this layer — VoiceXML, SIP, SALT etc all read on presentation.  However, at this point there is no ubiquitous equivalent of the HTML browser.  The closest yet are Skype (completely proprietary) and Gizmo Project (well below ubiquity, but very complete standards implementation).  It’s most likely that one of the VoIM players, (Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, AOL) will drive this.

Phweet shows a way forward with its solution. We have a common and simple approach. Phweet turns every exchange into a relationship contract with a URL. That URL need not be a PhweetURL after the session signal is delivered and operating. Importantly it reverses something that we’ve not thought about overturning much until now. The user can only be in control when the receiver is in control. That can still be seamless and immediate, however it means that the “setup” of the exchange and who controls it will be the defining factor.

WHY Phweet is Voice 2.0:
Phweet provides the bridge between directory services and communications channels. A world of names with a world of numbers. It does this without owning any channels rather by merely defining the exchange controlled by the users as a URL.

By changing the signaling method we have enabled the shift to user centric communications without clumsy privacy controls or adding to personal exposure to interruptions and breaches of privacy. This is only the beginning.

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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