Sheryl and I have been at the vortex of where communications technologies and social media come together for quite some time now. But we're keenly interested in a number of other areas around the information age and economy. The Internet, and technology in general, has changed the face of business and society globally.

If we give just a moments thought to the evolution of mankind, we've gone through a number if different ages that I'll simplify and leave at a very high level -

• The Agricultural Age - We lived off the land. It doesn't matter whether mankind was living in small communities of hunter-gatherers, or tilling the land as serfs around a noble's castle, our society was based around agricultural activity.
• The Industrial Age - Machinery came into play and changed how we live and work. I'd argue that tne industrila age began with Gutenberg's mechanical printing press, but took many years to come to fruition. The industrial age gave us incandescent lighting (eliminating the need for daylight savings time) which changed the work day. We could now work around the clock. Machnery led to Henry Ford's assembly lines. Our lives were changed by machinery.
• The Pre-Information Age (I'd call this The Communications Age) - Overlapping with the Industrial Age, there were multiple evolutions progressing in parallel. In this area we saw radio and television explode as communications media. And we saw the rise of telecommunications. Voice calls at first, then long distance, but let's not overlook data, and the changes that came later.

The Information Age was never, for me, fully or even adequately defined. Some would say we've been in it for 30-40 years. Some would say we're entering it now. Maybe we're in the middle of it. It's a metaphysical question that I can't answer. But the impact of information technology and communications tools cannot be denied. We're at an evolutionary point in the information age timeline that puts us at the cusp of what I'll call The Knowledge Age for sake of argument.

I've struggled with this for a number of different reasons, not the least of which is the entire industry called Knowledge Management (KM) that's sprung up and pervaded so many business thought processes for the past couple of decades.

Here's an example of one simple KM theory that I call the DIKW Model-

I'm not going to elaborate in depth on the model here. I've done that before and will be happy to give a talk on the subject at any event. It's one you'll hear me speak passionately about as data, information and even knowledge are all attainable within the confines of information systems. Computers can do most of the work.

Wisdom on the other hand, is the human element. ASICs and ICs can't create wisdom. Humans do. Knowledge and wisdom are separated by very blurry lines and the distinction is subtle.

Knowledge can't be managed. It can be organized, compartmentalized, shared and absorbed. It can be processed.

In a recent series of conversations with friend Jerry Ash, currently the editor of Inside Knowledge Magazine, I found a set of views that mirror ours closely. We found a kindred spirit in Jerry.

Knowledge is about knowledge workers. US. People working in the information age who share knowledge about the information we've seen. One of the strongest knowledge management systems on the planet isn't a software application you can go by. It's free. Free. It's the people we know and interact with.

Twitter is one of the many social applications we use on a daily basis. It's our network. Our chat room. It's where many of our conversations take place. I recall my good friend Dan York's busness trip when he forgot his cowboy boots. You have to understand that Dan's boots are a signature note of his appearance anywhere. He posted a Twitter asking where he could buy some new boots, and within moments had the information - not from a programmatic system, but from people. People with information that came filtered with knowledge and a bit of wisdom about where the best selection and price might be had.

I've read many books that speak to how technology dehumanizes us. One that I like a great deal is Prometheus Wired: The Hope for Democracy in the Age of Network Technology by Darin Barney. But I don't agree with the premise.

The value of technology, the value in the Internet, the value in information isn't about hardware or software or databases. It's about connecting people. It's about the knowledge and wisdom we as people add to the information that crosses our radar screen in an endless flow 24 hours a day.

My knowledge management system is my knowledge network. My knowledge network is my social and business network. My knowledge library is influenced by people I know, respect and listen to. And that system is glued together with mobile and fixed, wired and wireless unified communications technologies. They're one and and same. Without one, the other doesn't hold much value.

Where's your knowledge management system? Are you living and working your daily life in the Knowledge Age? or are you still trapped in the quagmire of the Pre-Information Age chasing bits and bytes around the Internet?

Technorati Tags: knowledge management, KM, unified communications, networking, social media

Posted by Ken Camp | Permalink | Comments (0) |

Sheryl and I have been at the vortex of where communications technologies and social media come together for quite some time now. But we're keenly interested in a number of other areas around the information age and economy. The Internet, and technology in general, has changed the face of business and society globally.

If we give just a moments thought to the evolution of mankind, we've gone through a number if different ages that I'll simplify and leave at a very high level -

• The Agricultural Age - We lived off the land. It doesn't matter whether mankind was living in small communities of hunter-gatherers, or tilling the land as serfs around a noble's castle, our society was based around agricultural activity.
• The Industrial Age - Machinery came into play and changed how we live and work. I'd argue that tne industrila age began with Gutenberg's mechanical printing press, but took many years to come to fruition. The industrial age gave us incandescent lighting (eliminating the need for daylight savings time) which changed the work day. We could now work around the clock. Machnery led to Henry Ford's assembly lines. Our lives were changed by machinery.
• The Pre-Information Age (I'd call this The Communications Age) - Overlapping with the Industrial Age, there were multiple evolutions progressing in parallel. In this area we saw radio and television explode as communications media. And we saw the rise of telecommunications. Voice calls at first, then long distance, but let's not overlook data, and the changes that came later.

The Information Age was never, for me, fully or even adequately defined. Some would say we've been in it for 30-40 years. Some would say we're entering it now. Maybe we're in the middle of it. It's a metaphysical question that I can't answer. But the impact of information technology and communications tools cannot be denied. We're at an evolutionary point in the information age timeline that puts us at the cusp of what I'll call The Knowledge Age for sake of argument.

I've struggled with this for a number of different reasons, not the least of which is the entire industry called Knowledge Management (KM) that's sprung up and pervaded so many business thought processes for the past couple of decades.

Here's an example of one simple KM theory that I call the DIKW Model-



I'm not going to elaborate in depth on the model here. I've done that before and will be happy to give a talk on the subject at any event. It's one you'll hear me speak passionately about as data, information and even knowledge are all attainable within the confines of information systems. Computers can do most of the work.

Wisdom on the other hand, is the human element. ASICs and ICs can't create wisdom. Humans do. Knowledge and wisdom are separated by very blurry lines and the distinction is subtle.

Knowledge can't be managed. It can be organized, compartmentalized, shared and absorbed. It can be processed.

In a recent series of conversations with friend Jerry Ash, currently the editor of Inside Knowledge Magazine, I found a set of views that mirror ours closely. We found a kindred spirit in Jerry.

Knowledge is about knowledge workers. US. People working in the information age who share knowledge about the information we've seen. One of the strongest knowledge management systems on the planet isn't a software application you can go by. It's free. Free. It's the people we know and interact with.

Twitter is one of the many social applications we use on a daily basis. It's our network. Our chat room. It's where many of our conversations take place. I recall my good friend Dan York's busness trip when he forgot his cowboy boots. You have to understand that Dan's boots are a signature note of his appearance anywhere. He posted a Twitter asking where he could buy some new boots, and within moments had the information - not from a programmatic system, but from people. People with information that came filtered with knowledge and a bit of wisdom about where the best selection and price might be had.

I've read many books that speak to how technology dehumanizes us. One that I like a great deal is Prometheus Wired: The Hope for Democracy in the Age of Network Technology by Darin Barney. But I don't agree with the premise.

The value of technology, the value in the Internet, the value in information isn't about hardware or software or databases. It's about connecting people. It's about the knowledge and wisdom we as people add to the information that crosses our radar screen in an endless flow 24 hours a day.

My knowledge management system is my knowledge network. My knowledge network is my social and business network. My knowledge library is influenced by people I know, respect and listen to. And that system is glued together with mobile and fixed, wired and wireless unified communications technologies. They're one and and same. Without one, the other doesn't hold much value.

Where's your knowledge management system? Are you living and working your daily life in the Knowledge Age? or are you still trapped in the quagmire of the Pre-Information Age chasing bits and bytes around the Internet?

Technorati Tags: knowledge management, KM, unified communications, networking, social media

Posted by Ken Camp | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

I've written countless times in the past few months about how tightly coupled I see the emerging social media tools and unified communications. For me the two are interwoven and a vital part of the business technology toolset. I do not believe a business can thrive today without leveraging social medai tools as part of its operations strategy.

With our high profile involvement in social media, Sheryl and I make some of the most interesting friends around the world. One such connect is Matthew Fraser who used to be the editor in chief at the National Post. Sheryl wrote the post below about Matthew's new book Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom.

The book just came out in the UK, and won't be available in the US for a month or so, but it's definitely one to watch for. If you're struggling with making the connection between socail media, communications and business, this is one of the best resources you'll find. Watch for it and advance order your copy now.

Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom
Tomorrow a new book hits Amazon in the UK. Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom is a fascinating book about how social networking online is changing things, not only in our daily lives, but also in the work world. Matthew Fraser and Soumitra Dutta are the authors.

Co-author, Matthew Fraser, shared with me this morning that while this book is not available in the U.S. or Canada until after the first of the year, according to their publisher if you order through amazon.co.uk, for just a few dollars more it will be shipped immediately to you.

About the Book

Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom is the first comprehensive book written for a wide audience about the powerful trend that is reshaping your life: the Web 2.0 social networking revolution.

Social networking sites are a global phenomenon. Sites like MySpace and Facebook now boast hundreds of millions of members. Online social interaction has become an indispensible part of their daily lives. This book examines the powerful forces driving this social e-revolution. It also describes the equally powerful reactions to it, and makes predictions about its far-reaching consequences. As the book's subtitle states, Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom is about how the Web 2.0 revolution is transforming your life, your work, and your world.

Endorsements
" If you want to understand why Wikipedia is changing the world, this book is a must read "
- Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia.

" This book is a must read for all - social activists, politicians or managers - who have an interest in understanding how our society is morphing"
- C.K.Prahalad, Ranked world's No.1 most influential business thinker and author of Competing for the Future.

Ken and I have talked endlessly about how we believe the world is being impacted with social trends and media. We live it. Hyperconnectivity is what we're all about.

Beyond all the hyperconnectivity, our social lives have been impacted, sure, but so have our business lives. Both of us have made a number of business connections through both facebook and linkedin. It's become a truly international world where connecting with someone in another country, on another continent is as likely as connecting with someone down the street. Our street just grew exponentially.

Next week we are going to San Francisco, purportedly for an early birthday present for me. It just so happens it coincides with several industry events and we will be connecting with many of our Global friends and colleagues. I'd say this is clear support of Matthew and Soumitra's idea of how our lives are being impacted by all the social networking.

I highly suggest you get a copy of this book. Our world is changing, and in my opinion we owe it to ourselves to understand as much as we can about what's going on.

Technorati Tags: Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom, Matthew Fraser, Soumitra Dutta, Jimmy Wales, C.K. Prahalad

Posted by Ken Camp | Permalink | Comments (0) |

I've been reading so much conversation the past couple of weeks about the death of Web 2.0 (Arrington) or not (Boyd). Michael and Stowe aren't the only ones talking about it. The buzz is everywhere. Just this morning on Squawkbox, the failures of Jangl, TalkPlus were part of the conversation.

Make no mistake. Times are tough. Venture capitalists aren't throwing money away. They aren't looking for high burn rates. There's a nice perspective on Mashable (Recession is the Mother of Tech Invention). It isn't just the tech sector, VoIP or unified communications. Check out the equities market in general (thanks Don).



Times are tough everywhere. The Fed has been bailing people out, but in the tech sector, bailout is achieved by death and destruction. The last round we called the burst of the bubble, and that phrase has been kicked to death already as times have gotten tougher. But I don't htink this is all as bad as many folks are saying. Colleague John Furrier wrote Gloom in Ventureland - Try Gloom Period - Innovation Happens Now in response to a Wall Street Journal piece. I agree with John that the WSJ seems to be calling for a dogpile on the Silicon Valley. Then again, remember we don't call it the Silly Valley for nothing. There's been plenty of silliness and massive funding of some of the most absurd ideas of all time centered there. And let's not forget that in years past, the Silly Valley was the spawn of books like Po Bronson's Nudist on the Night Shift. The Silicon Valley does not today, nor has it ever, represent the reality of competitive free-market business.

SV is a microcosm of a variation of what I'd call cronyism run rampant. It's built on rumor and innuendo - smoke and mirrors - card tricks. Why is it surprising that when it comes time to actually build a sustainable business, some of those companies flounder and sink into the abyss?

What does this mean for the rest of us? It means we tighten our belts, make wise business decisions and investments, and we look at where the value is. Wild speculation doesn't do any good in "fat" times. There's just a more painful price to pay when the lean times come.

Is the industry in trouble? Not hardly. Whether you call it telecommunications, voice services, VoIP or unified communications, our sector of technology is going strong. And companies like IBM, Cisco and Microsoft continue to invest resources - R&D, marketing, sales and engineering - in building their sustainable and profitable business lines. These aren't companies that are likely to play short-sighted games for the sake of quick return.

We're in the middle of the ebb and flow of one of the largest industries ever assembled. In ebb and flow, there are going to be bubbles. There are going to be highs and lows. But the general level of the water, if you look at the horizon rather than at your feet, doesn't vary that much.

Voice 2.0 isn't dead because while we all talked about it, it was never really alive. It was an evolutionary path we've been following. I don't believe we're done following it. We're simply in a time when fiscal responsibility, profitability and smart business decisions are necessary survival skills.

I think we're going to see a number of companies, particularly small innovators, stumble and fall. For many, their cash burn rate has never been able to keep up with the investment or seed money in the first place. I expect I have some friends and colleagues in this boat. I'm sorry to see them struggle, but it's how we learn. Some acquisitions will still happen, but they'll either be very strategic, or a company with deep enough pockets may leverage a "pennies on the dollar" buyout with some measured speculation.

We've seen some acquisitions in the past year or two that I thought were pure fantasy. So far, those have proven to be non-actionable by the acquirer, so I'm sticking to that. Some money was wasted and some people will pay the price for poor judgment. I don't think we'll see any wild, speculative purchases in the near term. We're going to see people doing smart things unless they slip.

See also Reality Check: Surviving Is Always Hard for Startups.

As part of all this conversation, talk of the value of social media often seems to come into play too. In general, social media is simply another evolution of the web. Remember when people didn't have an email address on their business card? Or a web site? Social media is integrating itself into our culture of business in much the same way. And in lean times, it provides not just a source for commiseration, but a place to catch ideas and see how others are doing too. The social media tools we've come to embrace play a vital role in surviving the ebb and flow of industry trends. They're our lifeline, and something to leverage to our best power. If you aren't using them, you're falling behind.

Falling behind when times get lean and tight isn't a desirable position to find yourself in.

Now's time to engage. Get into the conversation. Publish papers that represent your good business judgment. Demonstrate your acumen by how you present your story. Be smart. Work smart.

Sheryl and I have our sights set not to survive, but to thrive. I think that's a good mindset for everyone in every business.

Posted by Ken Camp | Permalink | Comments (0) |

Yesterday a chain of events set in motion some thoughts that I've had before, but it's really been quite a long time since I've written about them. Now they've percolated overnight and come together to the point I can try to share them effectively.

My partner Sheryl and I often participate on a morning technology conference call (Squawkbox) hosted by our good friend Alec Saunders. It's an open format conference call discussing a wide range of technology news and issues of the day. Participants join from around the world. Sheryl is quite often the only woman on this call, and she typically represents us as my current schedule makes it difficult for me to join regularly at present.

Yesterday we were both on the call and observed something that made us both take a step back and think. Sheryl wrote about it first in her post ...with my tail between my legs. Here's an excerpt -

I learned some interesting things this morning while sitting in on a conference call where I actually had some thoughts and opinions. It wasn't a very nice observation, but a valuable lesson, nonetheless.

I was on a call with a variety of men, up to 17 different men at various times. As the lone female voice I learned how difficult it is to be heard when mens voices are louder. I learned how easy it is to be overlooked by a group of intelligent men who are larger than life, used to scrapping and vying for center stage. I learned that even when I tried to say something, frequently my points were not taken seriously or merely overlooked. Why?

Why is maybe not as simple to conclude as it might seem. It could be because I am a female and not as used to asserting myself. It could be lack of experience. it could be so many things but my thoughts are a little less clear. I really suspect it's because of something very simple, something we learn at a much younger age and pay little attention to.
[Read Sheryl's full post]

I need to point out that Sheryl's a recognize author, interviewer and keen industry analyst whose opinion is sought by a number of business leaders. She's well connected and highly regarded.

The conference call is an environment of close friends and colleagues. None of us are sexist, and none of these men looks at Sheryl as anything less than a trusted peer and colleague. So why the disconnect?

I had my own personal reaction that I wrote in Women are from Mars, but Men are from the Good Old Boys Club Still. Among other things, I said -

In our heads we openly acknowledge that everyone has knowledge, opinion
and value to bring to the conversation. But in our circles of
technology, we too easily and too often shut outsiders out. It's been
hard for me at many times to see Sheryl as any kind of an outsider, yet
this morning, I too was on that call and saw what she saw.

There have been a range of comments, mostly from men in the tech sector. To all our credit, there's nothing going on here but honest and genuine attempts to understand the group dynamics within the tech community. We're all supporting one another in trying to understand this because we are all trusted friends and colleagues.

Is this an issue of women in the tech sector (or the larger workplace)? Is it an issue of dynamic, opinionated people talking at full pitch because we all want to ahve the answers, want our opinion to be heard, and sometimes some people are just more forceful at dominating a conversation? I think it's both.

I won't attempt to speak for other men, only myself. I know that as a technologist with many years in the industry, I don't listen well. When in a conversation I find that I often begin to answer the question before it's been fully asked. It's easy to talk over people becuase I have strong opinions and am not shy about spouting them. That's a personal development issue I've always struggled with. It doesn't matter if I'm talking to a man or a woman or a group. It's natural tendency that I have. And I'm not alone.

There is a set of people in the tech sector who are frequently on platform either presenting, participating in a panel, teaching or some such. We condition ourselves to shift into that mode. We're used to being center stage and sometimes we struggle shifting out of that mode into real conversation.

We need balance between listening and talking.

There is another issue that is not related to personal development for any of us. There's the other notable reality that Sheryl is frequently the only woman on that call. She's an underrepresented minority, and I'm not sure that's really representative of our industry. I fear it is. I fear we remain a staunchly male dominated industry across the unified communications set of technologies. When I think about my contacts and connections, as Sheryl noted in her post, they are primarily men.

The PR industry that supports unified communications is clearly well-balanced with a large number of women, but Sheryl's words resonate with painful accuracy -

I realized with this how difficult it is for women to be seen as
important in the world of VoIP and technology. Oh, certainly many of
them are eye candy, but how many are taken seriously? How many are
truly viewed as players in this world dominated by men? I'm not talking
about the many PR women. Those women are accepted, but they aren't seen
as needing to have anything to say in the industry. They are viewed as
eye candy and that is frequently why they are young and gorgeous.

So I'm going to issue a challenge and call to action here, and women in PR are quite specifically excluded other than to coordinate anything.

Sheryl is often involved in my blog posts and the eJournal series here in our Digital Library. I'm sure at some point in the past she's been involved in a podcast or two here. I'm going to extend an invitation of a different sort.

I'd like to invite women across the unified communications sector to respond. Contact Sheryl via email. I'd like to here her chat with you in a set of podcasts that highlight your roles in the industry. I'd also be interested in hearing how you feel you fit as a woman in a male dominated sector of business. We'll post the podcasts here as guest hosted by Sheryl. She and I may also post them on our site. I expect they'll post on her own Incidental Interviews too.

Anyone in PR can contact Sheryl to coordinate the calls. Or contact me and I'll pass them to her. But no men for the podcast interviews; only women. And I'd love to hear from women in a number of roles. It doesn't really matter what your role is. We'd like to hear from you. I'd like to hear your view on whether you feel there's a "glass ceiling" in your career path too.

Posted by Ken Camp | Permalink | Comments (5) |

My friends David Beckemeyer (the brains behind PhoneGnome) and Stuart Henshall (the brains behind a lot of things) recently launched something new called Phweet. It's really in a very early, but public, alpha mode right now, but I thought it was interesting enough to write about.

One of the most popular social networking tools around is Twitter. I've written about Twitter a lot since I began using during its very early days. Twitter provides a messaging and status sharing tool that often leads to conversations that get moved to other domains. Since Twitter began as an SMS-based tool (now it supports the web and a multitude of IM clients), messages (called tweets) are limited to 140 characters.

When a conversation gets into any detail, the brevity of Twitter messages may become an impediment.

We often talk of time-shifting or place-shifting work. Telecommuting and working on the road in mobile mode are perfect examples. Many of the industry thought leaders in unified communications have bandied about the idea of what I'm calling domain shifting. In this case, shifting a conversation from the SMS/Web domain of Twitter to the voice domain of a person-to-person conversation.

The concept is interesting, and up until yesterday Twitterfone, by Pat Phelan, was my primary example. I wrote about it in Twitterfone - Giving Voice to Twitter back in May. Twitterfone moves the traffic from the voice domain to the Twitter domain using speech-to-text translation technology.

Phweet does the opposite, moving a Twitter message into a click-to-call voice domain.

Note - Click on any of the images to hyperlink through to the full-size screen captures.

Here's the basic screen to sign up and start the process -

All you need is a Twitter account and you can send messages that generate a phone call using VoIP services and some nifty integration of technologies. I set up a call and here's what my partner Sheryl sees -


Sheryl received a message with a clickable link to the Phweet call. Here's what I got on my screen once the message sent -


My account is setup to route calls to the SIP number associated with my Gizmo account, but you can route calls to any SIP phone that has a public address. And you can load a Flash tool that allows you to have the voice call right in your browser.

I'm sure this is something you'll be hearing a lot more about. Sheryl and I chatted with David about this on a Phweet call last night. He and Stuart took a very open approach and invited people to start trying it, knowing there would be problems at the alpha testing stage. So far the problems sound like they've been pretty minimal and the feature requests have already started rolling in.

I think it's something that anyone who uses Twitter and ever has reason to move a conversation over to the telephone will find really useful. Another friend, Chris Brogan, does just that sort of thing regularly. Chris is famous for posting "Call Chris for the next two hours at..." and giving out his cell phone number. With Phweet, Chris can invite specific people, but he cal also easily host an open Phweet conference where the bridge call is established and people can come and go as they please, talking with him via voice while his time is free. I've exchanged a couple of messages with Chris and hope to show it to him later today or this evening.

Keep in mind this is just the beginning, but I encourage readers to think about where you might find value in shifting conversations from one domain to another. As we look at Communications Enhanced/Enabled Business Processes (CEPB), these are the sorts of tools we'll see migrating from the open web for fun and experimentation into enterprise business applications of the next generation.

Posted by Ken Camp | Permalink | Comments (2) |

As we head into 2008, there are several aspects of the unified communications evolution that I think are going to be key areas to watch - my personal watch list. This time of year, we all share our predictions and the things we think are going to be hot in the coming year, so I'm going to share a few of mine.

Mobility
Mobile solutions are going to be one of the hottest communications areas in the industry in 2008. This year we saw the iPhone and a handful of advanced handsets from Nokia, notably the N series. Together, these new generation handhelds have set the bar higher for mobile phones. They have more memory, faster processes and enhanced functionality. WiFi is rapidly becoming the norm too.

What was once a mobile telephone has become a far more robust Internet device. Web browsing, text messaging, playing audio and video media files have become routine features that users expect in a mobile device. Beyond that, synchronization is quickly becoming more important. Google's recent enhancement to allow tighter sync between Google Calendar and Blackberry. That's a step ahead. Gmail has already been pretty accessible from a number of handhelds. Those advances will continue, although I don't really expect we'll see an exponential leap from Google - just continued advances over time.

RIM will become a larger force in 2008. Nokia dominates the mobile handset market, but the truth is that Nokia's strength is in consumer devices. The highly acclaimed N series I've had the pleasure of testing (N73, N93, N80i, N95 and N81) are fabulous, feature rich handhelds, yet they all fall short of being a useful enterprise business phone. I haven't had access to a Nokia E61 or E62 that have full QWERTY keyboard, but Nokia's lack of depth in competing with RIM in the business market is pretty clear.

RIM's new WiFi-enabled handset is rumored, but they've been partnering and working with a lot of other companies. RIM dominates the business market and has become the de facto standard. Windows Mobile fell dormant and isn't really a factor in the market today. I've spoken to friends at a couple of the wireless carriers. Windows Mobile is also plagued by flawed hardware that runs the highest customer return rates of any. The Motorola Q, for example, has proven a huge disappointment.

I expect to see RIM start eating into Nokia's consumer customer base in 2008. For many of us, carrying both a work and personal cell phone has become something of a pain. It might seem trendy to carry multiple phones. It might make some people feel important. Ego aside, it's another device to keep charged, another gadget to worry about losing, and a general hassle. Nokia may have to race to catch RIM in finding the right mix of business and personal use.

The iPhone, or iPod Touch are neither one at a point they're viewed as suitable business devices. They play directly to a different market. And while that market will continue to thrive, it's only a piece of the mobile handset market.

VoIP
I mentioned mobility before VoIP for a reason. Not long ago I wrote a couple of posts describing VoIP as plumbing. I think the key for me in the coming year is that VoIP for VoIP's sake will fall off the radar. VoIP is simply another transport mechanism for something more important - voice services. While voice services will rise in importance and evolve, VoIP as a technology has reached the level of what would typically be called a sustaining technology. It's no longer a disruptor in the voice services industry. It's simply another facet of the architecture.

There are areas within VoIP that will continue to make huge advances. Session Border Controllers (SBCs) will become more important than ever. SIP peering will continue to rise and more and more enterprise establish a SIP-connected presence with voice services. Companies like Covergence and Acme Packet will continue to lead the advances in these areas. Edge control of voice services will migrate to IP at a steady pace.

Mobile VoIP will continue to rise, as more handsets are WiFi-enabled. I don't think most users will care. The quad-band handset will be the norm before the end of 2008, with many handsets providing some integrated support for some VoIP-based voice service. What users will want, what they'll really buy, isn't a technology, but seamless integration that provides the most functionality for the lowest cost. Ease of use, especially in accessing VoIP for less expensive services, will be a market driver that the solution providers will finally understand. We'll see some companies really leverage that.

Video
In 2007 we saw Skype move up to high resolution video for a limited set of users. That will expand rapidly in 2008. We also saw SightSpeed evolve beyond the consumer to embrace business use. Even Gizmo began to embrace video in a new way. I expect to see video services couple more tightly with voice services in 2008. Whether the industry settles on VVoIP or V2oIP as the acronym of choice still remains to be seen, but we'll see video rise a couple of levels in importance. I don't think we'll see any exponential innovations in video, but several incremental improvements. I think we'll see some of those start to be announced at CES in a couple of weeks.

Software Oriented Architecture (SOA) & Software as a Service (SaaS)
I struggle with these terms, but not with what they embody. They've been used, and misused, by a number of companies grappling with how to describe unified communications.  I expect the industry will slowly leave both terms behind, but there are a couple of solution providers who will hang onto them for years. I think Forrester's terminology of Communications-Enabled Business Processes (CEBP) will become the most widely adpoted view. Here's how Forrester defines CEPBs -

...business processes and applications tightly integrated with unified communications technologies to enable concurrent or consecutive communications among customers, suppliers, and employees within the context of business transactions.

That's a mouthful really. It's something I'll be writing more about soon. I'm already working on a series of papers on the topic. CEPB will be the convergence point that really integrates communications tools with business processes, and Forrester touched on several vital business processes -

• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
• Customer Relationship Management(CRM)
• Supply Chain Management (SCM)
• Sales Force Automation (SFA)
• Human Resources Management (HRM)

I expect to see huge advances in this evolution of convergence in the year ahead.

I also expect to see some disappointments. I'm not overly optimistic today about the innovation we'll see from major players like Cisco and Microsoft in the unified communications area next year. I'm confident they'll make noise. They're likely to bombard us with new words that mean old things. What I don't see coming from them today is real innovation. Real innovation comes from aggressive, small, entrepreneurial companies.

Social Media & Social Networking
In 2007 social tools (Facebook, LinkedIN, Plaxo, Jaiku, Twitter, etc.) leaped into high visibility, yet none are really new technologies this year. They've been with us for a while. This year they achieved some critical mass, but it's really just a start. I don't even see it as an explosive start.

Marketing and PR organizations still see these tools through a distorted lens. They're still looking for a way to deliver a message, but their universe is changing. Rather than broadcasting a message (spoon feeding marketing to a demographic audience), they're struggling with the concept of participating in a larger conversation in a new way. I think in 2008 we'll see more of these groups start to make a fundamental change in how they operate and converse with the world at large.

I think the social media and social networking are going to be explosive in 2008. So much so that my life and business partner Sheryl and I launched Stardust Global Ventures recently, with a focus on mobility and social tools. We think those are the two most exciting areas within the industry.

2008 is shaping up to be an exciting year with lots of real innovation from many companies. The small innovators are still going to be the ones to watch. They'll be where the really hot action is. They always are.



Technorati Tags: unified communications, mobility, VoIP, video, business integration, convergence

Posted by Ken Camp | Permalink | Comments (1) |

I make no bones about being a Siemens fan. One reason I like them is that they take great pains in providing solid information prior to their major announcements. To that end, I had the opportunity to chat on the phone last week with Ross Sedgewick.

The visuals here are stored in my Siemens OVCC set on Flickr. You can see them in larger detail by clicking the visuals themselves. I didn't upload the PDF document that was shared with me, but you can certainly find more information on the Siemens web site.

Today Siemens is announcing a new Open Virtualized Contact Center solution. I think it's big news. One reason I think it's big is that it's a major effort in supporting contact centers in a new way. It's based on Siemens' very successful HiPath 8000 platform. It's available immediately, and globally in 70 countries and 6 languages.

This OVCC conforms to SIP and OpenSOA standards and provides an open path to enterprise evolution in call center technologies. And coming from Siemens, it's a carrier grade solution based on the IT data center model. That's right, a telephony call center solution based on the model we use for IT data centers.

You really need to click the next visual to get a feeling for the evolutionary nature of the OVCC solution. It provides a path from the traditional site-based call center, geographically tied within the four walls of a building, through the distributed call center based on the converged IP network, to an open virtualized SIP softswitch approach that complements Siemens fixed mobile convenience philosophy for the revolution in unified communications.



Siemens demonstrates a three-fold approach with their OpenPath offerings:

• Optimize to maintain and maximize performance
• Enhance to add incremental improvement while proving viability in the real world
• Transform from legacy, proprietary systems to open communications
  

The arrow along the bottom of this visual shows the continuum from traditional telecommunications to new open communications.


Siemens' whole idea behind virtualization is ro break down the four-walled barrier that's been the contact center world for many years - to move from site-based contact centers to globally distributed ones. This approach to extending the enterprise is somewhat analogous to turning the HiPath 8000 into a "mainframe for voice," allowing the solution to be deployed for up to 5,000 users in this release,anywhere on the network.

Here's a large visual to give a sense of what the OVCC might look like in a real world deployment.



For anyone who's ever worked in the call center environment, one of the key indicators of success is first contact resolution of every problem. The OVCC approach to contact center virtualization is a step down a path that I believe lays the framework for a new paradigm in call centers. In the past, the four-walled call center was in place to perform a very specific function, like reservations or collections. I believe the next generation enterprise, using converged unified communications services, will also become the next generation virtual contact center. I believe enterprise employees will belong to multiple "agent groups" based on their role in the organization, their expertise, and their geographic location. This is the sort of technology that presents the forward-thinking enterprise with the tools to build a first contact resolution culture, not just in the call center, but across the enterprise.

Why Siemens? For me, one of the bigger factors I look at is thought leadership. Another is a company's commitment to open standards. (Note: Open source and open standards are very different things). This visual is larger, and laps underneath the right sidebar, but I'm showing it this size to show you Siemens commitment to open standards. not just in this announcement, but across their whole solution set. Search the blog for other Siemens posts and you'll find a thread of commitment to openness that's vital to our industry.,



The full press release is below the line for convenience.

---

Siemens Announces SIP-Based Open Virtualized Contact Center Solution for the Enterprise
Groundbreaking solution offers on-demand enterprise service for virtually any existing corporate infrastructure

BOCA RATON, Fla. — April 17, 2007 — Siemens Communications, Inc. [NYSE: SI] today introduced its Open Virtualized Contact Center, addressing the traditional limitations of the hardware intensive site-based contact center. Siemens’ groundbreaking overlay software approach makes it easier and faster for organizations to distribute expanded functionality to agents in any location equipped with no more than headsets and minimally configured desktops. The new solution integrates two of its most popular and award-winning products: Siemens® HiPath® ProCenter® Enterprise contact center solution and Siemens HiPath 8000 SIP-based enterprise softswitch. The new blended solution supports environments from as few as two attendants to up to 5,000 concurrent agents and provides a platform to enhance customer interactions across every segment of an enterprise, on virtually any existing communication or network infrastructure.

Well-suited to hosting in a data center, this solution provides centralized administration while delivering global enterprise-based or outsourced contact center functionality as an on-demand service anywhere that secure IP network access is available, unconstrained by legacy PBX or Centrex infrastructure. It delivers scalable, strategic communications coordination and intelligent load sharing by linking multiple Siemens HiPath ProCenter systems on a single HiPath 8000. Furthermore, HiPath ProCenter CRM-Ready IT integration and Software Development Kit tools facilitate incorporation of contact center capabilities directly into communications-enabled business processes and applications.

“Siemens’ large-scale virtualization of the enterprise contact center represents the next step in business extending its capability beyond traditional office-bound agents and effectively leveraging the knowledge of expert resources throughout the organization,” said Joe Outlaw, Principal Analyst of Contact Center Solutions with Current Analysis. “It can be a much more effective way to deploy agents when and where they’re needed, with the potential to lower costs.”

The Open Virtualized Contact Center leverages the open SIP capabilities native to the HiPath 8000 and the presence-enabled multimedia application services in ProCenter. Going beyond Siemens’ industry-first presence and collaboration agent desktop capabilities, new presence services empower contact center agents to confirm the presence and availability of the best support resources among all HiPath 8000 users in the enterprise. With one mouse click, agents can then initiate collaboration that enhances resolution of customer issues during the first contact. In addition, Siemens extends this presence and connectivity to mobile users with Voice over Wireless LAN solutions.

“The Open Virtualized Contact Center extends the Siemens Open Communications strategy to the large enterprise customer,” said Eve Aretakis, CEO, Siemens Communications, Inc. “It offers tremendous flexibility across almost any network, client, device or IT environment, along with business process integration and highly effective agent tools. It can help agents resolve many more customer issues the first time around, boosting overall contact center performance and providing companies the opportunity to lower costs and enhance customer service.”

Siemens’ Open Virtualized Contact Center solution is now available globally through direct sales channels and value-added resellers.

About Siemens
Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) is one of the largest global electronics and engineering companies with reported worldwide sales of $96 billion in fiscal 2005. Founded nearly 160 years ago, the company is a leader in the numerous fields, including medical technology; power systems; automation and control systems; transportation; information and communications; lighting; building technologies; water technologies; and services and home appliances. Based in Munich, Siemens AG and its subsidiaries employ 460,000 in 190 countries. Eleven of Siemens' worldwide businesses are based in the United States and are supervised from Siemens’ U.S. corporate headquarters in New York City. Siemens’ American operations produce annual sales of $18.8 billion and employ approximately 70,000 people in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. For more information on Siemens in the United States, visit www.usa.siemens.com.

About Siemens Communications, Inc.
Siemens Communications, Inc. is one of the world’s leading vendors of Open Communications solutions for enterprises of all sizes, enabling business processes to be more productive, faster and more secure – with any device, network or information technology infrastructure. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Siemens AG with about 15,000 employees globally and headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla. For more info, visit www.usa.siemens.com/communications

Note: Siemens, HiPath and ProCenter are registered trademarks of Siemens AG or its subsidiaries and affiliates. All other company, brand, product and service names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

This release contains forward-looking statements based on beliefs of Siemens management. The words "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "forecast," "expect," "intend," "plan," "should," and "project" are used to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the company's current views with respect to future events and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the actual results to be materially different, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions, changes in currency exchange rates and interest rates, introduction of competing products, lack of acceptance of new products or services and changes in business strategy. Actual results may vary materially from those projected here. Siemens does not intend or assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
###

Technorati Tags: Siemens, Open Virtualized Contact Center, call centers, VoIP, unified communications, HiPath 8000

Posted by Ken Camp | Permalink | Comments (1) |

Some of you may know that I'm in the process of writing an e-book, The Definitive Guide to Converged Network Management. If you visit the web site, you may have noticed it mentioned in the sidebar, but if you only read here via an RSS feed, you don't see that.




This e-book is being published chapter-by-chapter. There will be ten chapters when the work is all completed. Yesterday Chapter 4 went online. If it's something that interests you, you can click the link and download each chapter as it becomes available.

Technorati Tags: Definitive Guide to Converged Network Management, Ken Camp, unified communcations, VoIP, network management

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This post from Christopher Carfi's blog caught my eye today as I was catching up on reading. Cristopher's one of the Principals at Cerado, a company that helps companies with competitive intelligence and other tools to use the network more effectively.

Maybe it's because I've been offline for several days, but there's a whole deja vu theme playing in my head as I catch up on reading.

For Your Radar: The "Economics Of Abundance"

In a nutshell: Economics, economies and economic theory have all been based on economics of scarcity. That is, scarcity drives the "laws" of economics. A number of things have hit the radar over the last few months that are of note:

Chris Anderson (author of "The Long Tail"): The Economics of Abundance -- The speech that Anderson made at Pop!Tech this year.

Mike Masnick: The Scarcity Myth

Nick Carr: Knockoffs roil Second Life - A great example of what happens when one tries to force-fit an economic model based on scarcity into an environment where information is free.

David Hornik: Tough Choices

This idea is going to hit the mainstream press and boardrooms in a big way in 2007.

The whole idea of a network economy of abundance isn't new. And while Chris Anderson's Pop!Tech presentation made and big splash, David Hornick has been talking about this for a long time.

Let's think about it. When was it exactly that we ran computers on slow dial-up connections, equipped with 20 meg hard drives and 640K or RAM? Not that long ago. What changed fundamentally was that Microsoft, and as a follow-on, the entire tech sector, quit treating computing resources as scarce commodities. We treated memory, CPU, storage and network connections as limitless resources. We ignored the illusion of scarcity and assumed abundance.

Operating systems and software applications bloated to enormous size, and nobody cared. long gone are the days of tight assembly code optimized for size and memory utilization. Now we develop programs and simply tell users they have to upgrade to the latest OS, add memory, and get a bigger hard drive. Abundance ignores pre-existing barriers.

The economy of abundance ignores preconceived notions. And it's been around in networking, but downplayed by the carriers, for years.

One example - optical networking. Dense Wave Division Multiplexing technology in networks isn't new. I was teaching DWDM classes in 2000. If we can multiplex light spectrum, by color, to carry multiple OC-192 (That's transmission speeds of up to 9953.28 Mbit/s (payload: 9621.504 Mbit/s; overhead: 331.776 Mbit/s)) (It's probably the fastest commonly available connection to the Internet), why are we still talking about DSL and broadband in terms that make T1 speeds seem revolutionary?

Simple, the carriers haven't found a way to monetize the higher speeds at a high enough profit ratio. Sure, Verizon talks FIOS, and it absolutely requires investment, but the bottom line is the technologies in widespread use today provide a glut of capacity in the backbone. We have an abundance that we don't fully utilize.

We don't use it because we wait for carriers to provide it at a cost we'll pay. The economy of abundance tells us that is fundamentally the wrong approach. We've seen it historically time and again with CPU speeds, memory and storage.

The way to drive costs down is to burn bandwidth like there's no tomorrow and load up every potential stream with more and more information.

Assuming abundance and using resources as if they're abundant, creates abundance. Check the history.

I agree with Christopher, but I also feel like this isn't new. I think said these same things in talks five or six years ago, Time to quit talking and start consuming. Voice, video and unified communications will be most successful of we get off the dime and use them.

In the Kevin Costner movie Field of Dreams, the premise was "if you build it they will come." In the abundance economy of the Internet, the corollary is reversed, If we use it, they will build.

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