The Google Box

Robert X. Cringely writes about a terribly interesting concept with a VoIP angle. He writes about Google putting together a Data Center in a shipping container, and shipping them around the world. With this datacenter footprint many things could happen....

"Once you have a data center at every Internet peering point, you also have a data center in or near every major city in the developed world. That suggests Google might be interested in using the portable data centers for Voice-Over-IP telephony. Sitting 2-3 hops from every telephone and having available Google's own fiber network and traffic shaping to give priority to its VoIP packets, Google could offer world-beating telephony performance, all for less than eBay is paying for Skype."

It's like a "private" Internet with real-time apps as the central applications.

Later on in the article, he speculates on another type of Google box, one that is much smaller...

" But the most important reason for Google to distribute its data centers in this way is to work most efficiently with a hardware device the company is thinking of providing to customers. This embedded device, for which I am afraid I have no name, is a small box covered with many types of ports - USB, RJ-45, RJ-11, analog and digital video, S-video, analog and optical sound, etc. Additional I/O that can't be seen is WiFi and Bluetooth. This little box is Google's interface to every computer, TV, and stereo system in your home, as well as linking to home automation and climate control. The cubes are networked together wirelessly in a mesh network, so only one need be attached to your broadband modem or router. Like VoIP adapters (it does that too, through the RJ-11 connector) the little cubes will come in the mail and when plugged in will just plain work. "

Now _this_ is something that is not only scary, but very interesting. With a device like this, the proverbial sky is the limit in broadband-based applications for the residential consumer. I encourage you to have a read and ponder the ramifications of "The Google Box"

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac

Call Flow Requirements

Recently I was involved in exercises determining the technical capabilities of some conceptual product offerings. During that exercise, one point became very apparant to me, the point being that bi-directional call flows do NOT have bi-direcitonal requirements.

Voice is a bi-directional form of communication, but the requirements to facilitate the voice session vary greatly if you are the calling or the called party. For instance, in a previous post, I blogged the Relevance Engine by Iotum. The products that could be created by this technology are nearly all exclusively in-bound from the prespective of the subscriber. Presence, status, etc are not applicable in the out-bound call scenarios. This may be an obvious point with regards to a 'Relevance Engine' discussion, but oftentimes is not appreciated when discussion FMC, toll-free, etc.

Requirements are different for A-to-B, from B-to-A. Let it be said, let it be so! ;)

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac

Episode # 6 - voiploser and friends podcast

Episode # 6 is now published. Topics: Interview with Thomas Howe about Ernie - the "Apache for VoIP Apps"

Have a listen

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac

Presence and the Relevance Engine™

Iotum is a company that is really onto something I believe. I became aware of them via the VoIP-focused Blogsphere. Alec Saunders is the CEO and founder I believe - and I stumbled across the company through his blog. (his is a regular read for me) Iotum has created a Relevance Engine™. Here's the definition from the website:

"The iotum™ Relevance Engine™ is the world's first smart platform to intelligently filter, rank and prioritize calls based on their relevance to you.

What makes a call relevant? You do!"

So the premise is to create a tool for the "ultraconnected" individual, that is in need for a centralized, intelligent, adaptive, call-routing AI function to handle incoming calls. This is very intriguing to me.

Presence has been getting a lot of hype in the marketplace recently, but that's all it is = hype. Presence is all too often only associated with an end-users' status, and that simply is not enough to determine what action to take with an incoming session. Here's an example - there can be a standard rule-set for call handling, like routing calls from client 'X' to v-mail when in a meeting. But more times than not, there are input variables that need to be taken into consideration along with pure status. For instance, when in the midst of serious and critical contract negotiations with client 'X', it might be appropriate to be interrupted in that meeting?!?!? Another example, treatment of calls from family - under some circumstances, like when wife is pregnant, all calls get through, but when wife if not pregnant, punt to v-mail.

It appears that the Relevance Engine™ could be the solution for this predicament that presence finds itself in. I also believe that this is truly necessary presence to be adopted. The Relevance Engine™ is to presence, what the Wizard was to the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz - it gave it a brain!

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac

Ernie - open source tool for voice based applications

As I was cruising through the voip-related blogsphere the other day, I came across Thomas Howe. That little happenstance made my week! Thomas has conceived an idea that I strongly believe will foster the embryonic voip-based apps of the future. He affectionately refers to the idea as 'Ernie'. To me, it's an open-source platform that is kinda like a stripped-down and greatly improved bare-bones Asterisk/SER-like thing. It would be the foundation for SIP App development. It will also have natural and native ties into "Web 2.0" APIs.

So I contacted Thomas, and gave him some props. I also natually asked if he would participate in a podcast. I can't wait to get into this with him. He asked if I could think up some Apps as examples - which I did and I had a lot of fun doing it! Here's what I came up with:

How about this one...think houseingmaps.com - I am a person that is looking to buy a house in an area that I do not know. So as I am driving around looking at the general areas, I enable Ernie as my "housing agent". I get fed not only the location of houses that are for sale in the area that I just stumbled on, but I also select the one that interests me, and I get an IVR that calls me up and spews info about house - like a verbal walk-thru. This Ernie-app was invoked once I found the area of interest. Could couple in a "click to call rep" like feature - though I do have to say that I think Real Estate Agents aren't worth what they get paid - but I digress....

Another one might be a weather advisory service, similar to the old sirens that would sound when there was a Tornado sighting. (I grew up in Michigan) Ernie is tied into some local weather source, and based on input from that, a SIP-based "siren" alerts subscribers.

How about via Paypal API - and some PINcode-like authorization, being able to make a purchase somewhere, with a audio and textual confirmation. This one I am not so sure about - but just brainstorming.

I betcha there's a TON of applicability in the gaming world. Think of a 'Live game' that involves location, SIP-based calls, and live status on a frappr map. DND-like: (Phone) "You have an alley within a mile, and an enemy also within a mile in the opposite location." (/Phone) and you have to decide where to go. Treasure Hunt: (Phone), "Your getting warmer..." (/Phone).

Stay tuned for more on this one from Thomas! This is exciting stuff.

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac

Sony puts Video over IP on Laptops

Packaged Video over IP

"The electronics giant launched a free Web-based phone service called Instant Video Everywhere on Wednesday, designed to link users of the service via their computers. According to an advertisement on Sony's Web site, the new service will ship with the company's latest version of Vaio BX laptops, which are equipped with built-in video cameras."

voiploser's Spring VON Breakout Sessions

Today Jeff Pulver blogged about his Spring VON conference. I was at Fall VON Boston this past Sept, and just can't imagine that enough has changed to warrant another VON just 6 months later, but as I looked at the Breakout Session titles, I was just wrong - take a look at some of the titles:

3/15/2006
"So You Can Spell VoIP; Now What?" - Enough said about the technical depth of that one.
"Re-Direct TV" - Is this a witty SIP reference, or just channel surfing?
"Working with Remote Workers" - What exactly is a remote worker? This session could be about working with co-workings in the Yukon. Or is this a warning that most telecommutors don't shower, therefore IP Video Conferencing is just not an option?"

3/16/2006
"System Integration: The Missing Link" - The missing link is the missing profit in your companies numbers.
"Security in an Insecure World" - aka a Teddy Bear
"IMS: Where Do We Go from Here?" - It's the quesiton she asks once the rapture subsides. Sometimes it's the door, and other times it's a key to her apartment.

3/17/2006
"IMS Applications: Are They Real?" - Can't VoIP, and VoIP features be IMS Applications? Aren't they real?


I am sure there are going to be some more hum-dingers as the schedule fills out. Stay tuned.

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac

Psion rediscovered

I was recently digging through some old computer junk that I have in some boxes looking for a USB cable that I just knew I had. As I was digging through old 14.4 modems, ISA card and power supplies - I rediscovered a tool that used to be my most trusted companion in this digital age we live in. My Psion 5mx hand-held computer. I loved this device. It had a keyboard that I could type on, not just thumb stumble across. It ran an OS called EPOCH. It was instant on, Flash memory-based. It had all the estential applications from a Word Processor, to all the contact management that one would ever need. It fully sync'ed up with every MS related, like Outlook and Excel. I got this in 1999, and about a year and a half later, Psion exited the PDA market. I was devistated. Support was about to come to an end, application development would dry up. I reluctantly moved on. Oddly enough, I went back to notepad and pen, instead of a Palm-like device that have very limited input capabilities. So here I am with this newly rediscovered Psion 5mx. I decided to put in some batteries and see what happened. Wouldn't you know it, the device came up without a hitch and there was all my old data from 1999-early 2001! I used to take copious notes at technical meetings. Reviewing those notes was like looking through an old diary. Anyways, I just wanted to blog about my old Psion, as it's one of those truly excellent examples of fine engineering.

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac

ps - the Psion never did VoIP nor had the capability, and I believe that was the reason it fell out of favor for me.

E911 for gaming? You have to be kidding me...

Tom Keating captures an interesting thought from Redmond, Wa - With the FCC's tremendously broad definition of VoIP in E911 rulings, it's not completely off the wall to think that Microsoft will have to support E911 in their Xbox.

Also on that blog is a transcript of Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf recent letter to Congress.

-Adam "voiploser" Uzelac

Episode # 5 - voiploser and friends podcast

Topics: CALEA & Regulation, SBC's CEO Whiteacre & his greed, County Exec in Westchester, NY "protecting" the public is another example of misguided legislation.

Have a listen.

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac

Tags: CALEA, voip, regulation, Whiteacre, Greed

IMS enables SPs to be ebay

There's been a tremendous amount of hype in the industry to date about IMS, and the fervor doesn't appear to be dying, but rather taking a darker path. The "walled garden" label is being applied to it.

Henry Sinnreich [henry@pulver.com] on the SIPPING IETF mailing list responds with the following when IMS is brought up recently:

"You are describing technology promoted by companies and consortiums to support their business development plans, in this case putting the "operator" in the middle between the content provider and the user.

While this is perfectly legal business, it is hardly in the Interest of the IETF to promote any particular technology in support of a business model.
There are far too many other stakeholders on the Internet, not even counting users that may not happen to like your business plans in the first place, since it empowers carriers over end users and negates the e2e Internet control principle."

As I have a lot of respect for what Henry has to say, I have giving his opinion a lot of thought. He points out, in a negative light, that IMS puts "the 'operator' in the middle between the content provider and the user." Isn't this general retail model? Doesn't Target/Wal-mat/JC Penny/etc make buying merchandise easier for us as consumers? Those "operators" package, present, support the content so the content-providers don't have to. I believe that the content providers would rather focus on that content, than the distribution methods. Does Henry think that ebay is evil in that they are "in the middle between the content provider and the user"? Possibly, but I think there's room for both the pure e2e model Henry subscribes to, as well as the SP-enabled e2e model that IMS can support. It's all about organization, presentation, and support. These are the value-adds that the Service Provider can offer. Without IMS, or some other structural framework to content delivery, there's no chance at reality. IMS is the supply-chain and organization of the Targets of the world.

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac

Tags: IMS

Sprint/MSO = faster FMC? I don't think so....

I don't know what to think about the Sprint + MSOs announcement earlier this week. Part of me believes that this is a logical step towards a MSO-marketed FMC play. Another part of me believes that this is will serve more of a stumbling block for FMC adoption. When large companies band together to leverage each other's assets for a co-marketed solution, sometimes there are political and internal squabbles that hinder the offering.

Here's what might happen that would not be good for FMC development and adoption....Sprint/Nextel provides MSO customers with MSO-branded cellular service. So now on one bill, a subscriber would get wireless, data, cableTV and VoIP. But this starts as "paper-convergence". Should that "paper-convergence" strategy be successful, then the urgency for a true "convergence" model which includes FMC, wouldn't be there. Why break something that's not broken.

Should a 3rd party, like a Vonage, come to the market with an FMC offering that is agnostic to the broadband carrier, than adoption rates would increase faster. Time will tell, but I would be willing to bet all the money in my front right pocket that this SPRINT/MSO partnership will only slow things down.

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac

Tags: FMC MSO Sprint VoIP

SIP/IMS = "Walled Gardens"?

I would like to take a minute to challenge the notion that SIP/IMS and Session Border Controller interest and ultimate adoption by service providers will lead to "walled gardens" in the telecom space. In order to subscribe to such a premise, one would have to believe that by SIP/IMS empowers only the service provider, and not the subscriber to the service. I argue that IMS will lead to more control of the SP's delivery of services because that's what the market wants.

I believe IMS _enables_ the service provider to empower the subscriber. Ultimately, the service provider has to meet the wishes of the subscriber, or the subscriber will spend there money elsewhere. With this in mind, it's the subscriber that will demand control of the infrastructure, with the SP providing that ability to control. The core functions of IMS are the HSS, the S-CSCF and the AS(es). Within the HSS, the subscriber is identified and services/features that the subscriber has signed up to are recognized by both the SP and the subscriber. The S-CSCF provides the fundamental call control necessary to "blend" the services, and/or supply the necessary services, like session routing, treatment, etc. The AS houses the applications, being either on demand, or pre-provisioned.

I don't understand the fervor around the "walled gardens", as it's counter intuitive to what the marketplace will ultimately demand. At the end of the day, IMS will be the enabler for a consumer controlled service delivery platform.

Adam "voiploser" Uzelac

Tags: IMS Walled Garden HSS S-CSCF