Asterisk' Glass Ceiling

I have been following the Adhearsion project for some time, under the advice of a colleague - and its tech guru Jay Phillips has crafted a masterful essay on the limitations and technological glass ceiling Asterisk it currently has. It is a must read.

I concur 110% with all of Jay's conclusions, and having worked with several IP/PBX vendors and start ups over the past few years, the underlying theme of my suggestions have been as follows. MAKE it easy, and I mean drop dead simple - to develop an ecosystem of applications.

Time and time again - I am met with the same answer - Yes, we have to do that - and then they never do.

Hopefully Adhearsion makes it a reality.

Dr. Randy Pausch - RIP

It is with great sadness I learned today that Dr. Randy Pausch, the CMU professor whose famous "Last Lecture" motivated and inspired millions has lost his battle with Pancreatic cancer.

If you haven't seen this lecture I urge you to spend the time and watch it. It is one of the most inspiring things I have ever had the pleasure of watching. Dr. Pausch had appearances on Oprah, and countless other TV shows over the past 6 months to present his most inspirational words.

The world is a better place having had Dr. Pausch as part of it.

Donations in memoriam at the request of his family can be sent to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, 2141 Rosecrans Ave., Suite 7000, El Segundo, Calif. 90245, or to Carnegie Mellon's Randy Pausch Memorial Fund

Vonage - replaces CEO, continues to screw Canadians

Vonage the deeply troubled VoIP carrier or (PoIP - Plain old Phone over IP) as I like to call them, have replaced Citron as there CEO and by some grace of investment deities has managed to secure another 210M$.

It is truly astounding how anyone can see this as a good place to park money. Even if Vonage stopped all marketing and expenditure for 10 years, they would still not be profitable - considering the massive debt the operate under.

As my grandma used to say - Never throw good money after bad.

In other news, Vonage still screws Canadian customers with an ridiculously priced unlimited plan that is still 50% more expensive than our US counterparts pay. This is exacerbated by the weak US dollar.

Note to anyone in Canada - there are many many alternatives to Vonage, whom offer better prices and better service.

Andy recognized by The Standard

Congrats are in order for pal and uber Blogger Andy Abramson - his blog Voip Watch was just recognized as one of the top B-Z blogs by The Standard. Personally I consider Andy an A blogger of the highest caliber in the Communications field, but these accolades are a bit different as The Standard is an all business encompassing publication - VoIP is crossing over from niche to mainstream and Andy is at the head of the pack.

Andy and I both share a passion for Bleeding Edge communications. Although I can't speak for Andy, I believe he shares the following sentiments. The driving reason we are in this field is simply what the Standard is recognizing here. VoIP and related IP communications can radically change the way you do business, it is so much more than cheap phone calls. It is empowering and exciting to take SMB's and show them inexpensive solutions that can give them an incredible advantage over their competition, thus changing the way they do business forever. It is that aha! moment when the CEO or VP of Sales of a company sees the possibilities of how this stuff can help them, which drives us.

Congrats Andy!

Kudo's from Alec here.

Skype chat with eBay buyers? Not a chance

Being probably the most vocal proponent of Skype in NA (I mean I love this software) - I drive people nuts talking about it, rarely do any of my business conversations not have an exchange about Skype - or a username etc., with a client or partner, or the inevitable 'oh you have to try it, let me send you a headset...

But I found myself in an interesting predicament today: I dabble in eBay, I sell used movies and assorted media, games etc., and replace it with new stuff occasionally. Not having listed an item for sale in probably 6 months - I put a few up to be bid on as I head out for vacation next week. I was presented with an option I had not seen before in eBay Canada - which was to list my Skype username for voice and chat connections with potential buyers. Well in a work, NOT BLOODY LIKELY. The beautiful part about eBay lies in the fact I have to do nothing after I put up the auction - no contact (maybe a question or two) with any buyers and that is fantastic. There are no expectations from either party to provide that level of support, mostly due to the fact the stuff is greatly discounted and quite frankly self explanatory.

This probably doesn't hold true for super high value items like cars, or property - but in those cases I still want that seller to have a storefront and a 1800 number - it gives a sense of legitimacy to the purchase - I am not sure why.

Until I was faced with this question - I didn't fully understand the confusion and skepticism I heard from eBay powersellers back in 2006 at the eBay live devcon and show in Vegas - they didn't understand why eBay wanted them to talk to their buyers - now I get it.

Note to eBay - get out, there is no fit, don't wait a year. Google and Apple can do something grand with Skype. Get out of the way and unload it.

Power of 3? yeah right.

GrandCentral and Google starting to synergize (is that a word?)

via Mashable ~ GrandCentral the 1 number to rule them all voice provider (and just an all around awesome service) has finally started down the path of integration with Google. You will see in the top right of my blog - a button that was auto generated and installed from inside my settings page of my Grandcentral account. By clicking it you can enter a phone number and it will contact me, complete number privacy and find me follow me, is a very compelling solution for web based calling.

A hearty congrats to Craig Walker, the CEO of GrandCentral on not only the sale to Google, but keeping GrandCentral a separate and growing business inside the Google ecosystem.

Craig - we discussed Canadian DID's at CES in 2005, we really need to get that done! GrandCentral needs some Canadian flavour! I will leave you a message on your GC account.

Cheers.

Paul Potts at the Royal Variety Concert, happy beginning to a great story of 2007

The first time I saw the Paul Potts video on Youtube, my jaw dropped. Here was this ordinary guy who can sing like Pavarotti. The world fell in love with him over the internet and he went on to win the Britain's Got Talent competition.

Since his 'outing' on Youtube, Paul's first album has gone onto sell 2 Million copies and is number 1 in 15 countries.

This is my favourite story of 2007 - Congrats Paul, it is great to know there are people like you out there. When are you coming to Canada to perform?