I've done a number of different podcasts here over the years. Today another very special one went online that I'd like to share with you.

EXCLUSIVE PODCAST: The State of Unified Communications in Business Realtime's Ken Camp interviews IBM's Alan Honor Sponsored by IBM

In
this podcast, Ken Camp speaks to Alan Honor, Business Development
Executive for Business Systems in the Systems and Technology group at
IBM, about his perspective on what the term unified communications
means and how unified communications and collaboration tools can help
companies grow their business. Alan also addresses differentiators that
clearly distinguish IBM from other industry solution providers. Alan
addresses these issues from the perspectives of the software, hardware
and services teams within IBM.

Topics in this discussion include:

• The definition of unified communications
• How a powerful unified communications tool can help grow business
• Examples of hardware, software, and services that deliver real benefit
• The importance of moving towards a UC solution now

Access to this exclusive podcast is offered at no charge. Please log in above to listen!

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The past two or three months have presented an odd lull in some of the news coming out in our industry. As a result, I haven't been doing as much with our podcast series here recently.

That's going to be changing in the coming weeks. This week the ITExpo kicks off in Los Angeles. Sheryl and I had really hoped to be there for a number of reasons. Last year's ITExpo in September was a milestone for Sheryl and I. It was our debut as a team working together. We'd like to do a series of 10-12 podcast interviews at this year's event, but budget and schedule just prevented us from attending.

In the coming weeks, I'll be doing some podcast briefings here, and I've invited Sheryl to join so that we can tag team some of our guests.

We know we're planning to chat with Jeff Hicks from NetQoS in a week or two. We're also looking to chat with the folks from SightSpeed, Jazinga and others.

If there's an company or individual in the industry that you're interested in hearing from, please leave a comment here and help us fill our dance card with guests you'd like to hear from.

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It's been quiet here for a couple of days. Sorry for the lack of updates. For those who follow the industry, you know who our good friend Jeff Pulver is. Jeff has been doing a series of breakfast meetings around the world as he promotes social media in real life. We had the pleasure of attending one at Spring VON in San Jose, but well before that we had been prodding him to come to Seattle for a breakfast. Jeff hadn't been to Seattle since 2002.

Since that breakfast was scheduled, we've moved from Olympia to Spokane across the state. Tuesday evening we set out on the drive to Seattle. Our drive was better than Jeff's flight, which didn't arrive until 3am. We all went to breakfast on Wednesday, but that was only the beginning. As part of our GeekSpeakTV series, Sheryl and I ran a poll on our site looking for who readers would like us to shadow for a day. We're embarking on an occasion Day in the Life of series of shows. Jeff was the first choice selected by our readers and viewers, so the breakfast presented an opportunity to spend some quality time alone with Jeff too.

The three of us spent Wednesday running from place to place, then driving to Vancouver where Jeff hosted another breakfast yesterday morning. For Jeff, it was New York and back in two days. For Sheryl and I, it totaled up to a 940 mile road trip in two days. And while we did carry Blackberries, Nokia N95, N800, Nikon, Sony video cam and a Marantz digital recorder, we did not take a PC. That's a good thing, because there just wasn't time for writing and blogging much.

This weekend we'll get the pictures all uploaded and go to work on putting the show together. Once the show is done, I'll post it here as well because Jeff is such a pivotal figure in the development and evolution of VoIP, unified communications, and now video that he's one of the bright lights in our industry.

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Posting an update while I have a chance. Tomorrow we leave late in the afternoon for Breakfast with Jeff Pulver in Seattle. We'll arrive in Seattle late and grab dinner along the way. After breakfast on Wednesday there are meetings at Real Networks and Microsoft. Then off to Vancouver.

Wednesday evening there's a BBQ in Vancouver and the breakfast Thursday morning. Then Jeff's on a plane back to New York and we're on the road back to Spokane.

Blogging, pictures, video and audio will follow. Stay tuned!

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On Monday Jeff Pulver hosted one of his legendary breakfasts at the San Jose Convention Center for people in the San Jose area. Since VON was getting ready to start, there were plenty of people around. About 70 people showed up for breakfast. Here's some video of the event.

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I realized this morning that next week it's time to start getting things ready to head down to San Jose for Spring VON.x. Sheryl and I are both really excited about this conference. It's a chance to see some great personal friends and colleagues. They're people we talk with all the time, but never seem to get to spend enough real-life time with. Beyond that, we'll be talking with some of the thought leaders in unified communications - the real movers and shakers in the industry.

We arrive in San Jose on Sunday, so we have some time to get ourselves situated before things kick into high gear. We're looking forward to dinner Sunday evening with our close friend Andy Abramson and his wife Helene. That's been our plan for a while. It will be the first time Helene and Sheryl get to meet. I think Andy and I will have to plan our shopping defensive strategy when the two of them get together.

On Monday morning, we're going to start with a bang. Jeff Pulver is holding one of his famous Breakfast with Jeff get togethers as part of the conference. On Monday, Sheryl and I will also be doing some live GeekSpeakTV with other friends. We know we have Pat Phelan from MAXROAM (a fitting St. Paddy's day guest), and James Body from Truphone on video. That evening the gang from MAXROAM, QIK, and Global Roaming are having a party that's sure to be a blast. We anticipate live streaming video from that event as well. And before the party we're meeting a bunch of friends for the VoIP User Dinner. Monday's going to be a long day.

Tuesday is shaping up to be a full day. We'll be meeting with folks from Intelliverse and Agito Networks at some point. We can't miss Jeff's opening talk on the future. And then there's the VONCamp Unconference. Sometime in the Unconference opening times, I'll e doing a brief talk on the Real Life Impact of Social Media. That's a surprise-filled talk that's sure to get some unexpected attention at the conference. The exhibit hall reception event in the evening will

Tuesday evening is Jeff's big all-conference party. He told us yesterday that The Herding Cats will be performing, as they often do at VON conferences. Tuesday will be another long and frenzied day.

On Wednesday, we'll doubtless pick up a couple of briefings in the morning, but we're on an early afternoon flight back home. I'm sure we'll be exhausted. We'll have load of blog posts, podcasts and video from the VON conference and we're ready to hit the road!




Technorati Tags: VON.x, VON Conference

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Regular readers know I've been keeping an eye on the striking and ongoing success at SPIRIT DSP for a while now. Here's a significant announcement from Mobile World Congress about a new relationship between SPRITI and Toshiba. I think there's another layer of significance here because it brings Toshiba back into the news. We haven't heard a lot from them lately.

Toshiba Licenses SPIRIT's Audio Software to Evaluate New Semiconductor Designs

BARCELONA, Spain (Mobile World Congress, booth #2H11) - February 11, 2008 - SPIRIT DSP, the world's leading provider of voice and video software engines, announced today that Toshiba Corporation has licensed SPIRIT's audio software for evaluating Toshiba's next generation semiconductor designs.

Mr. Nobu Matsumoto, Senior Manager of Software Design Platform Dept, Center For Semiconductor Research & Development, Toshiba's Semiconductor Company commented, "Optimized hardware is only as optimized as the software that runs on it. In order to evaluate newly developed hardware, we were looking for high-performance audio software which has been already proven in practical use. The speed of the audio software, offered by SPIRIT, meets our requirements."

SPIRIT software brings the highest audio performance to mobile devices. SPIRIT's software makes everything possible for the hardware, serving as the ultimate benchmark when comparing different hardware platforms, and ultimately proving the true performance of the hardware.

"SPIRIT's power efficient software solutions are optimized for standard ARM CPUs as well as ARM's dedicated audio processors and enable consumer electronics manufacturers to bring compelling, next-generation multimedia products to market, quickly and with low risk," said Patrick Willekens, audio product manager, Media Processing Division, ARM. "SPIRIT, a member of the ARM Connected Community, has been a reliable partner to ARM for several years. Their clear market leadership and dedication to best-of-class software solutions is well aligned with ARM's goal to maintain competitive advantages in all areas of mobile multimedia, including audio and voice applications."

Alex Kravchenko, VP Sales at SPIRIT commented, "We're pleased to receive such recognition from Toshiba, a technological innovator and market leader, by serving as Toshiba's benchmark setter. To address the market requirements for portable multimedia players, we developed a complete high-performance, low-MIPS, small footprint audio solution incorporating state-of-the-art software components. Our audio and video software will help OEM/ODMs stay ahead of competition by delivering better products to the consumer marketplace. SPIRIT has been working with Toshiba for a long time. The SPIRIT-Toshiba partnership started in the late 90s. In 2004, we licensed SPIRIT's audio solution to Toshiba Electronics Europe GmbH to increase the functionality of its processors. And today, we're happy to prolong the relationship with Toshiba's Semiconductor Company."

Only SPIRIT has voice and video engines that span all communication devices and all market segments, including mobile OEMs/ODMs, semiconductor vendors, VoIP service providers, software vendors, online gaming and social networking (including PC and mobile softphones, WiFi and 3G phones, cordless IP phones, IMS platforms, Web conferencing, social networks and set-top boxes). Today, SPIRIT mobile OEM customers jointly exceed 55 percent of the worldwide smart-phone shipments.

About SPIRIT
SPIRIT DSP (www.spiritDSP.com) employs 140 professionals, and has been in the international software licensing business since 1992. A bootstrap company, SPIRIT has been profitable for 15 years. For the last 10 years, SPIRIT's focus has been on voice and video communication software products. SPIRIT counts among its customers Adobe, Agere, Arima, ARM, Atmel, BT plc., Cisco, Compal, deltathree, Flextronics, Ericsson, HP, HTC, Huawei, Importek, Korea Telecom, Kyocera, LG, MediaRing, Microsoft, NEC, Nortel Networks, NXP, Oracle, Paltalk, Polycom, Quanta, Radvision, Reigncom, Samsung, Siemens, Texas Instruments, Toshiba, Trinity Convergence and Veraz, and among 200+ other communication OEMs and software vendors. SPIRIT communication software is used in over 80 countries and powers more than 100 million embedded voice channels. SeeStorm is a SPIRIT affiliate for synthetic video conferencing.

TeamSpirit is a registered trademark of SPIRIT DSP. All other trademarks and/or registered trademarks are registered to their respective owners.
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As part of the work I'm doing to bring some direct updates from the VON conference underway in Boston, I'm gearing up for a series of briefings. It's likely that some will be posted here as podcasts as well. Just to give you a flavor for what's ahead this week, here's who we'll be talking with.

• Stephane Marceau at MOBIVOX
• James Tagg at Truphone
• Cyril Matthews at IntelePeer
• Tony Mascarenhas at Voxalot
• Peter Csathy at SightSpeed

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NOTE - Somehow the intro and exit segments of this podcast got reversed. Rather than pull it and leave it offline while I completely revamp, I'm just noting it here. Please do listen. It was a great conversation. - Ken

At the ITExpo in Los Angles last September, I had the chance to meet Stéphane Marceau. President and CEO of MBOIVOX over dinner. I can only say it was a load of fun and I've looked forward to the chance top talk with him again. The other day we spoke on the phone and I recorded the conversation.

Stéphane's one of the most interesting people I met at the ITExpo and someone I hope will be a great friend. Please join me and listen in on our conversation.

Technorati Tags: MOBIVOX, Stéphane Marceau

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