As if by magic Read/Write Web are cov…

As if by magic Read/Write Web are covering a poll run by Forrester claiming that CIOs are spurning web2.0 technology. They like the ideas and technology they just don’t trust the smaller companies to be able to deliver.

CIOs of large enterprises are conservative beasts as any small slip up can lead to a pretty sudden departure. This poll must give great enthusiasm to Cisco and Microsoft, they are perfectly placed to cash in on their recent web2.0 acquisitions and the CIOs reluctance to invest their job in smaller companies.

For a further breakdown of the numbers go take a look at Read/Write Web.

phone2 2

Here’s the technology I’ll be looking at over the coming few months:

Microsoft’s OCS 2007 server

Cisco’s Unified Communications Manager (formerly Call Manager)

A round up of various Asterisk applications

Skype Business

Possibly Google’s much vaunted office applications

All with a view to evaluating which product provides the best quality voice service while innovating at the same time.

phone2.0 – introduction

VoiP so far has been a total dud for the Telco and Network Infrastructure industry.

The reasons are simple: the technology is costly and currently not as good as the equipment it is replacing. People expect their phone to work first time every time, they don’t expect echo and complicated menu systems. Administrators want less headaches, fewer complaints and lower costs. Today VoiP delivers more problems at greater cost. Finally VoiP has delivered nothing new to the enterprise. A phone at the moment is pretty much a phone.

But all this is about to change. The battle lines are being drawn by Microsoft and Cisco, VoiP will be dragged along and then pushed aside by web2.0. Certain product teams and managers in Cisco and Microsoft have woken up to this and the acquisition spree of web2.0 has begun.

They are doing this because i’d imagine VoiP sales in Cisco are below expectations and Cisco realize that to sell more systems their sales teams need a unique argument which Call Manager has never truly had. web2.0 will provide the technology and innovation that will sell VoiP systems. Tele-working, presence, voip, personalised homepages, interactive whiteboards, RSS feeds, conference calling, gadgets, wikis, user generated content, social networking will all be integrated into the Cisco and Microsoft VoiP systems and they will sell by the bucket loads.

I don’t see web2.0 technology being adopted by any other integrated business software vendor and sold into enterprise. Given that VoiP will be a big requirement within the web2.0 technology and Cisco are looking for a sales angle it seems a match made in heaven.

So who will be the players? Cisco, Microsoft, Asterisk, Skype and Google will be the players in this market. No traditional PBX vendors? Nope the old world of PBXs may deliver reliable voice but their business model is dependent on closed, proprietary, licence dependent offers and that just isn’t going to fly in the phone2.0 world.

Welcome to the phone2.0 blog, check back soon for plenty of coverage and comment. Disagree with any of the above? Please feel free to comment below, look forward to talking with you.

Web2.0 in a Video

I’m sure many of you have seen this video as it’s been doing the rounds in the blogosphere. It will certainly divide opinion, I’m sure some people will look on in total bemusement.

Hats off the Kansas University Digital Ethnography department.

Shock Horror I prefer Internet Explorer 7

Today I finally gave up on Firefox and switched to IE7.  I’ve been a keen user and advocate of Firefox for over two years but just recently the 2.x release seems to really slow my desktop down. 

Firefox tends to drain all the RAM even with only a few tabs open.  There began to be a couple of seconds delay before I click and the machine reacts. 

Alas no more after a quick install of IE7, I don’t mind the UI, tabs are crucial and it performs much quicker than Firefox at the moment. 

So Firefox you’ve been shelved for now, I’ll check back later but IE7 is doing the job fine.

Why the Tech Industy needs Start-ups

For me the Tech industry is one of the most productive and open of all the major industries. For sure the industry can veer towards monopoly such as Microsoft and maybe Cisco but such monopolies are only temporary. This must be in part due to the fact that the Tech industry is still relatively immature but more importantly the industry is overflowing with start-up companies.

Start-ups attack the inherent stupidity generated by large company structures. Almost all major companies are bueracratic and are likely to deliberately stifle innovation. An example of this has to be HP in 1975.

Steve Wozniak worked for HP in 1975, in his spare time he developed the world’s first personal computer the Apple1. HP preferred to build calculators. Steve wasn’t underhand with HP, he informed his bosses that in his spare time he was developing a personal computer that he’d eventually like to market. They passed on his idea. When eventually HP decided they did want to build a personal computer Steve Wozniak still worked for HP yet Steve was left out of the process. Go figure, HP were developing a personal computer and employed the only man in the world that had built one and was desperate to work on the project and HP still refused.

The two Steve’s went ahead and formed Apple Computers and the rest is pretty much history. But lets not pick on HP all big tech companies are stupid and long may start-ups attack the large incumbents.

With Enterprise 2.0 the innovation cycle is starting again and Microsoft will have to buck the trend if they are to be the dominant IT company tomorrow as they are today. What will also be interesting to see if the System Integrators such as IBM, EDS, etc can also respond or will new System Integrators develop providing Enterprises’ with greater technology and reduced cost?

Alpha UK Member of Parliament Google Map

Inspired by the Google Earth US election file last year we’ve been developing a UK equivalent. The current development is raw and in an alpha phase but ready to put on our website (without links for the moment).

We want the Google Earth and Map to provide a wide range of information, such as MP newsletters, links to their website, possibly skype numbers, interactive surveys about national and local issues to name but a few.

We’d also like to add a simple search so you find your local MP however I think the Ordanance Survey’s flagrant stance on postal codes may restrict this for some time.

You find your local MP at our page here: find your mp

As already mentioned this is very much alpha so here is the current issue list:

move MP names to constituency within menu
add in Northern Ireland
add a total uk picture
update kml file
clean up information boxes
move scale back one?
can new window be any better?
find distinct url
add wufoo forms
special majority map
evaluate what content can be driven
find a space for front page theyworkforyou.com
add in geocoded MP search (fat chance)
v0.1

This pretty much could not have been completed without the great work completed by www.theyworkforyou.com.

Google and Apple: Match made in heaven?

Wow, the must have gadget for christmas 2007 in the UK has already been accounted for.  I’m sure you all know already that Apple has released details of the much touted iPhone.

Now we know one of the reasons why Eric Schmidt gets a seat on the Apple board.   Schmidt and Jobs demonstrated Google applications (google maps were shown) on the phone along with many other featrues, obviously itunes integration but the input mechanism seems to be unique as well.  We’ll have to wait until the hype dies down a little before we get the full picture I guess.

I think I’ve read that is isn’t 3G enabled but is wifi, I imagine the lack of 3G coverage in the US has driven the decision not to go with 3G capability straight away.

Although aimed at the consumer will the iphone turn into the must have business phone?  Clearly Datacom need to get one for ‘R+D’ asap!

Google and Sony: Match made in heaven?

A little off topic but given Bill Gates’ CES speech today we thought we’d discuss the impending xbox360/PS 3 duel for the home entertainment crown.

Gates today confirmed what most people already knew. The Xbox brand is more than just a games console for teenagers but a Trojan horse designed to be the centre piece of home entertainment – streaming TV, movies, music, gaming, voip, file sharing all in one box.

Sony while traditionally being way ahead in PS2 install base has struggled to compete against Microsoft’s XBOX live service. Sony doesn’t seem to be able to cope with the infrastructure demands of providing such a service. They also seem to lack a business model to actually drive revenue from the online facilities (unlike Microsoft) which is bewildering especially given they own content from Music and Pictures.

This is where Google could really help Sony in three distinct areas:

1 – Google understand network infrastructure, they are building data centres around the world that could be used to house a central cohesive PS3 online service removing a massive headache for Sony and a competitive advantage for Microsoft.

2 – Google could deliver ad-sense to the PS3 service, providing revenue to Google/Sony/Content provider and free movies/music/TV shows to PS3 users trumping the paid for Microsoft service.

3 – How about viewing Youtube and other Google content on a PS3? Given that the PS3 comes with a Linux distro it must be possible to deliver Youtube and all other Google services such as Docs and Spreadsheets/Gmail etc etc over an online service for PS3.

Sony get an online service to match or surpass Microsoft, as well as becoming the de facto hub of home entertainment in the living room with an ad generated business model for content.

Google get access to 75 million users (the PS3 account could be a Google account) and sell ad-sense to deliver new content.

But best of all, wouldn’t it be good to see a good fight between Microsoft and two of its biggest competitors?

(disclaimer: we own all available consoles on the market today and love them all, there are no fan boys here!)

Amberjack Tour button

Amberjack is a great open source tool that allows you to provide a hosted tour of your website.

We’ve used it here to provide a tour of our Prisoner database and we plan to use it again to explain how to deliver great interactive maps to a website with the help of our Google Map template.

For now here’s the button for the Prisoner Database tour.