Stardust Global Ventures

Pat Phelan , the king of disruption in telephony, was my guest today. He is the president and founder of Cubic Telecom. Pat’s company has developed many different things among them MAXroam, a sim card that now through partnership can be branded for any company using their own logo. MAXroam allows affordable rates for roaming when visiting a myriad of countries.

As part of this Incidental Interview I got an exclusive piece of information. Pat’s company, Cubic Telecom is partnering with ShoZu to provide freedom from worry when you’re abroad with regard to sending pictures over the air. A really great partnership! WTG Pat and ShoZu!

I met Pat at VON.x. I have grown to truly respect his great desire to champion the underdog and go out on a limb to provide a service that has been incredibly useful to so many people.

Read all about Pat here.

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Our pal Andy Abramson is all atwitter about rumors of a new iPod Touch. He’s excited about what it means for his client Truphone and Skype. Here’s what he said:

Rumored New Apple iPod Touch Will Be Huge for VoIP, Multimedia
Yesterday on KenRadio, host Ken Rutkowski and I jabbered on about the rumored new Apple iPod touch, that will come with a camera and a microphone-built in and 64 GB of memory.

This is awesome news for the likes of Skype and client Truphone and will likely start a flood of “me too” applications from the likes of Cablevision who operates a WiFi hot zone in the New York area, Clearwire and Comcast who are chasing customers in the Portland area with WiMax and elsewhere as the WiFi capability of the iPod touch means its a mobile phone without the mobile phone bill and contract connected to it, something Jeff Belk, the former Senior VP of Strategy at Qualcomm discussed in Unstrung in February of this year.
[Read Andy's Post]

Andy makes some great points. Andy and I also often come from very different perspectives. I think one of the values we bring is that we do sometimes see things from alternate views. I think Andy’s ideas are right on the mark for the view today. But the device isn’t out today. I think there’s a longer view to consider.

Because we’re both personal friends and industry colleagues, I can say unequivocally, I think Andy needs kids. He believes the iPod will become a hot item for pre-teens for Truphone and Skype. I think it’s an absolute zero. It’s a non-starter that I think will get zero traction. Sheryl and I know something about teens and pre-teens that Andy hasn’t experienced personally. They don’t use Skype. They don’t use Truphone. They don’t want or need it. They don’t talk on the phone. They use SMS for text messaging. They live on SMS. We know many teens who want nothing but the very simplest of mobile phones and unlimited text. They don’t care about iPhones or smartphones. They live in SMS. Thousands of messages a month.

This addiction to texting is global and it’s the single most common form of communications. They don’t use Skype. They don’t want to. They are simply not interested until they go away to school, usually college. Skype and Truphone, while both interesting iPod apps, as they exist today, are neither useful or interesting for that age group.

The other demographic Andy sees as a hot spot is travelers who don’t need to be “always on” but want to stay in touch cost effectively. I agree that people want that. People want to be connected. The iPod will absolutely be of interest,  but there’s a problem. I think it’s a significant problem.

Nobody wants to carry a second device and these people already carry mobile phones of some kind. Think about the point and shoot digital camera. Do you have one? How often do you remember to take it along. The mobile phone has become the camera of choice.

If there’s going to be a reason to take the new iPod along, it will be for those people who use phones that don’t include a camera. It’s the single biggest drawback on the current iPod Touch in my view. But when is the last time you saw a mobile phone that didn’t have a camera built in. Mobile phones have become the de facto digital camera that is always with us. We take them everywhere.

People  buy iPods for that second device. They’re an adjunct, but not a primary tool. And while I agree people will buy them, I’ll wager they won’t actually use them the way Andy sees for the long run. They’ll hate carrying multiple devices and they’ll almost immediately forget the iPod at home. They’ll forget to charge it and pull it out of a bag with a dead battery.

The problem with these secondary devices is that they are secondary. That means they either get left at home on the charger, forgotten, or they stay in our bag and when we reach for them, they haven’t been charged. Even when we make a conscious decision to take ours along, we still forget them most of the time because they’re one more thing to remember.

I agree with Andy, but I think the window of opportunity for the value points he describes is limited.

There’s one thing Andy said that I simply don’t get at all. He said “This and a MiFi would be awesome too, as my friend Phil Baker pointed out in an email.” So Andy, help me understand, because I just went and looked. $99 for MiFi ($59 with rebate) is a nice price, and yes it lets me connect multiple devices. But I have to buy a service contract. With Verizon, that’s 250MB for $39.99/month or 5GB for $59.99/month on a new 2-year contract? I just don’t understand how his is remotely more effective than an iPhone. Help me see the light please? And, didn’t we just add yet one more device to carry? Another widget to remember to charge and pick up when we leave the house?

And then there’s the iPhone. Prices are dropping. The iPhone is the object of desire. Today I can get an iPhone cheaper than the current iPod. Why pay more for an iPod? Where’s the value? I know there’s the issue of mobile contracts, but I don’t think that’s nearly as big an issue as we make of it. Minimalized contracts and heavy WiFi usage of the iPhone simply make it a far more powerful and attractive device in my view.

The iPod Touch is a fun device. It’s great for some things. It’s the perfect computer for the family room while watching TV and for casual computing. But the iPhone is the iPod killer and beyond the initial frenzy (because anything new from Apple creates a short-term frenzy), I think the iPod simply no longer represents a growth market. I think the numbers will be disappointing and I don’t see a long life ahead for any generation iPod. I think it’s an end-of-lifecycle product before it even comes out the door.

This evening we were sending out a few emails to folks in our new community of Walla Walla. It gave us a chance to think about how we fit in the tech sector and some of the things we hope to bring to our new friends and neighbors.

We believe that the Internet, social media technologies, and mobile computing tools are approaching the vortex of the next generation of the Net. Society is changing. Internet users range from toddlers to grandparents, families to enterprise businesses, students to entrepreneurs.

The tools we use range from email and the web to IM and text-messaging. We incorporate voice calls, pictures and video into every aspect of our lives. We manage our relationships through social networking applications and the communications tools we carry with us. For many today that provides an environment of casual computing, but the world of work is changing quickly.

We’re watching this evolution closely, staying as close as possible to the bleeding edge of tools, technologies and resources, while hanging on tightly to the human and social aspect of how these tools provide stronger relationships with friends, business colleagues and each other.

Our goal is to share what we learn out here on the bleeding edge, and to help others reach to the future effectively.

I knew a WP app was coming for Blackberry, but somehow I missed the actual release. It’s in beta, but for people as reliant on mobile solutions as Sheryl and I, this is a hot product.

As a beta product, not everything works just yet. Notably the app ’s camera photo and video support for my Curve isn’t here. When we get a chance, well install it on Sheryl’s Bold to test there too.

As someone who’s blogged conference sessions, and given our extreme mobile life, I’m looking forward to this! Very cool stuff for us Blackberry lovers.

A post from colleague Martin Geddes reminded me once again just how important an event eComm in Amsterdam is to our industry. We’ve been running like crazy, but I want to take a moment to point this out.

First to Martin

eComm Amsterdam

I’m on the (unpaid) advisory board for the upcoming eComm conference in Amsterdam. These days as an in-demand speaker I always get into conferences for free. In the days of yore, before I was wildly famous beyond the dreams of Michael Jackson, I used to pay for the ones I thought were really good. eComm is one I’d pay for with my own money if I had to. ‘nuff said.
[Read Martin's post]

Read what Martin said carefully “eComm is one I’d pay for with my own money if I had to.” Martin’s on the advisory board and a speaker at eComm. I don’t know yet if I’ll be speaking, but as the Director of Conversations, it’s important for me to echo Martin’s words. I’d pay my onw way to eComm too. I expect to.

eComm is the pivotal point in the redical transformation of the communications industry. Consider the tagline:

Those are not empty hollow words. They’re a promise. A mission. What’s next is what eComm is all about. It isn’t about history. It isn’t about the good old days of the telco Centrex cash cow, ARPU and holding on to the customer base. Here’s a blurb from the web site:

October 28-30, 2009, Amsterdam The Emerging Communications (eComm) Conference & Awards was created to promote and accelerate communications innovation across Telecom, Mobile & Internet Communications.

Telecom is in the process of being re-written. You either stand on the side to be written into the past or instead join with the growing community to write the future.

Opportunities to profit from the radical restructuring and in accelerating the development of how humanity connects, communicates and collaborates have never been so great.

You stand on on the side of being written into the past. Written off. Flinging yourself knowingly into the deadpool.

Or you can join the thriving and growing eComm community and writing the future of the biggest industry on the planet. Yes, telecommunications is a huge industry. It’s being rewritten, rearchitected, and redesigned to meet the needs of tomorrow, not the needs of 1984.

The time to register is right now. As I write this, the ticket prices are at the rock bottom lowest rate they will ever be. Use the code ‘KenCamp’ when registering to save 20% on the price. You can click here to have the discount code applied automatically to your registration.

You can’t afford to wait. And you can’t afford to miss it. Sheryl and I plan on being there. And we expect to see you there. If you believe you matter to our industry like we believe you do, today is the day to get your ticket ordered and start planning.

Don’t delay. Register today!

That’s right we’re moving again. Our friends know we’ve had our fair share of moves in the past year or two. Now it’s time for one more move. When we came to Spokane, it was for a job that looked really awesome for Ken; and it was for a while. But the company ran into some financial troubles and our life changed.

Sheryl’s Incidental Interviews have really gained momentum in the past few months. They’re a labor of love that Sheryl’s very committed to. Interviewing people for podcasts is one of her passions. One of the things she loves about them is the ability to do them from anywhere.

Ken recently joined forces with Lee Dryburgh as the Director of Conversations (and Marketing for you old skoolers) for eComm, the hottest conference in the communications industry. One of the things he loves about this role is that it can be done from anywhere.

Are you sensing a theme? Remember the old New Yorker cartoon that said “On the Internet nobody knows you’re a dog.” Well on the Internet, nobody knows where you are really because geography has zero impact. Zero.

We’re moving this weekend to Walla Walla, WA. Some of you may think that sounds farther off the beaten path than Spokane, but you’d be very wrong. Walla Walla is a stable and thriving community with two prestigious colleges, a great symphony, wonderful performing arts, and is home to 90 wineries. Walla Walla is the secret wine country in Washington, and it’s been growing steadily for the past 12 years.

We’ve worked with winemakers on digital media and social media tools in the past. Walla Walla, while home to some vibrant tech companies, isn’t entirely up to speed on Internet digital tools. But the connectivity is there, the interest is there, and the market is there. We’re going to bring social media to the region, and the great people and businesses of the region to social media. It’s an area we see as full of opportunity.

There are a number of other personal reasons, but the heart of it is that we’re thrilled to be getting out of Spokane, and we’re really jazzed to be moving to a community we both think is fantastic. We’re planning on moving this coming weekend, so we’ll be in and out online as we take care of packing, working and getting ourselves moved. Like always, even if we aren’t at the computer, we’re only a Blackberry away. We’ll be as involved as ever on Twitter (@SherylBreuker and @kencamp), and checking in on everything we’re working on.

And then we’ll be taking Walla Walla by storm.

We got word this morning that our pal Pat Phelan has yet more good news out today. I met Pat several years ago and was struck by his passion and commitment to bringing low cost phone services to people who were working as expats, away from their homes. Since that time, he continually delivers new ways for people around the workd to take advantage of low cost calling.

Pat’s a committed entrepreneur and driven to lowering the cost of calling. He’s got a fascinating story to tell when you hear about his life and how he got started in telecommunications too. Hey, that sounds like a potential interview for somebody I know.

Buzzroam brews up a storm with up to 80% mobile bill savings for Asian travellers

Buzzroam, a strategic partnership between internationally respected telecom companies Global Roaming Solutions Ltd (Hong Kong) and Cubic Telecom (Ireland) has unveiled a mobile roaming SIM card that will save consumers a small fortune on their mobile bills. Buzzroam is the only GSM SIM card available in Asia which not only allows you to access cheap voice and data roaming using one dedicated international number, but also gives you the ability to forward your regular mobile number to your Buzzroam SIM card. Using strategic partnerships in over 200 countries around the world Buzzroam has the potential to save thousands of dollars on the cost of roaming charges just about anywhere in the world.

Stuart Cloete, Managing Director, says: “This is extremely convenient for the traveller who can’t afford to miss a call – your contacts won’t even know you are overseas.”

Utilising the latest technology from Cubic Telecom, Buzzroam users can also ‘rent’ local numbers from over 50 countries direct from the Buzzroam website, meaning their contacts around the world can call them at local rates whenever they want and wherever they are.

“This is great news for businesses in Asia, as they often have customers in countries like the USA and the United Kingdom,” says Cloete. “Their customers will now be able to contact them for the price of a local call, Americans get an American number, UK customers get a UK customer and they all go direct to a single mobile phone, an international phone network all on one SIM”

Buzzroam has deliberately targeted Hong Kong for its launch into the Asian market due to its status as the gateway between the East and West. In 2008 over 48.5 million passengers passed through Hong Kong International Airport.2, most of them on business making it a key financial hub.

Cloete says: “We are extremely excited to be launching Buzzroam in Hong Kong, as we believe it is the perfect market to show consumers the benefits and savings of using Buzzroam.”

He continues: “In the current economic environment international firms could make significant savings to their bottom line. The average business user roaming abroad for 3 days could easily spend over HK$1000, with Buzzroam that could be reduced to as little as HK$200. “

Pat Phelan, CEO Cubic Telecom, says: we are delighted to find a partner with the quality and vision of Stuart’s team, we have long admired the company and are delighted to make our first strategic move in Asia with a team of this calibre.

[1] A Hong Kong resident travelling to Singapore using a standard mobile phone contract will pay HK$11.20 per minute to receive a call using Smartone Vodafone, with Buzzroam they would pay HK$1.84* – that is a saving of HK$9.36 per minute (84%).

That same traveller on a trip to the USA (New York) would pay HK$16.50 per minute versus HK$2.71* with Buzzroam – a saving of HK$13.79 per minute (84%)

www.buzzroam.com
www.cubictelecom.com

Just yesterday I wrote The Value in Social Media Isn’t ROI. QOE = Value, referencing some of the powerful thinking from Clay Shirky and others. This evening, I noted this piece by Shirky, and found it a compelling read that everyone who’s interested in social media, social networking, new media, old media or journalism (by either professionals or citizens…or crowds or computers) simply must read.

Not an Upgrade — an Upheaval by Clay Shirky
The hard truth about the future of journalism is that nobody knows for sure what will happen; the current system is so brittle, and the alternatives are so speculative, that there’s no hope for a simple and orderly transition from State A to State B. Chaos is our lot; the best we can do is identify the various forces at work shaping various possible futures. Two of the most important are the changing natures of the public, and of subsidy.

As Paul Starr, the great sociologist of media, has often noted, journalism isn’t just about uncovering facts and framing stories; it’s also about assembling a public to read and react to those stories. A public is not merely an audience. For a TV show with an audience of a million, no one cares whether it’s the same million every week — head count rules. A public, by contrast, is a group of people who not only know things, but know other members of the public know those things as well. Both persistence and synchrony matter, because journalism is about more than dissemination of news; it’s about the creation of shared awareness.
[Read Clay's full post]

This post is driven from a series of conversations I’ve had over the past few weeks. The key point, the real core value I hope you take away from this post comes from Ronald Gruia (@rgruia). If you don’t know Ronald, you should listen to Sheryl’s Incidental Interview with him from last week. He’s a highly respected analyst with Frost & Sullivan, and one of the most thoughtful, insightful people I know. A recent video of Clay Shirky talking to the State Deparment also heavily influences this post.

Ronald and I had a riveting conversation around social media and Return on Investment (ROI). In the telecom world, like much of business, managers look for monetary return on investment. As old skool media has been in what I see as death throes, new media has stepped to the forefront. Old media was about broadcast. New media is about conversation.

Clay pointed out that this moment we’re living through is the largest increase of expressive capability ever seen in human histroy. The Internet is the first media to have native support for groups and conversation at the same time. Because of this, the many-to-many pattern of conversation replaces the old one-to-one and one-to-many broadcast approaches to message marketing and delivery. New media communications is DIFFERENT and many people don’t understand they must engage at a different level.

All media messages get digitized. The Internet is simply the transport for every type of medium. But now every medium is next to another medium. Messages are adjacent to other messages, other markets, other conversations.

Every new consumer today is a new producer in this new media world. It’s like every book turning into a printing press. And the Internet is still changing even among us early adopters who know how to use it. Change is constant. Change is accelerating. The old skool cannot keep up.

Today the transmission ecosystem is a complete new organism. In the past, we distributed a message to the edges. From the inside out, we bundled and sent the same message to everyone. That’s very expensive. That is OVER!

Now the audience can talk back. Yes, it is freaky, but you get used to it. The most insane part of this change is that the the audience is no longer disconnected from each other. They can talk to one another. They will. They do. And you have no control over that conversation. All you can do is join in and be part of it.

Social media has no direct correlation to ROI. If you’re asking what the value of a tweet is, how many sales will come from a Facebook fan page, or how quickly you’ll recoup the marginal production costs for a YouTube video, you are absolutely barking up the wrong tree. That return is not something you can measure today with any degree of usefulness. If you’re working with some self-proclaimed social media expert who’s telling you otherwise, spit in their eye and send ‘em packing. You’re being sold a bill of goods.

The value in social media is the way it enhances the Quality of Engagement (QOE) with customers, partners, and colleagues. Even with competitiors. As a father and grandfather, I’ll put a different spin on this. Which engagement has quality in your personal life, a text message from your son asking what you’re up to, or an in depth chat while fishing or playing golf? Social media gives the opportunity for depth of conversation, raising the quality of the engagement. Quality engagements will be something we can measure over time. They will lead to partnerships, collaborations and sales.

QOE is the real power of social media. To gain higher QOE, we can’t blurt advertising. We can’t link dump in Twitter. We don’t spam. Broadcast is dead. Broadcast doesn’t work. Broadcast pisses people off.

QOE is engagement, conversation, and meaningful exchange of ideas. And even it it isn’t your idea, people have ideas that you may want to contribute valuable thoughts to. So contribute them. You, as a person, as a company, as a brand are known by the public conversation you engage in. You can’t do it by proxy. Nobody else can do it for you, especially not a consultant or expert who’s focus is building his or her own brand.

You own it. Don’t just accept that. Embrace it. Seize it. As Sheryl would say, take global accountability for you.

In a world where media is global, ubiquitous, social and cheap, everyone is a participant. Supporting groups through engagement is the key to unleashing your power in social media. The quality of your engagements will rise. And with increased QOE, the bottom line will take a positive turn. When you get good at that, you’ll discover a new metric developing that you will be able to measure. But what you’ll also find is that the more you invest of yourself, the more engaged you are, the higher your value becomes.

The epiphany hits home when you realize that measuring the ROI value of social media degrades your value. Why punish yourself that way when you could focus on building more value?

The choice isn’t whether we want to operate in this media. The question is how can we make best use of this media. It’s what we have to work with.

What can I say about Ronald Gruia? One of the smartest men I have ever had an opportunity to talk to. Almost intimidating because of his brain, though he is quite humble. Ronald is the Principal Analyst for Emerging Telecom at Frost & Sullivan.

Ronald and I talked about many things, not the least of which is Nortel’s latest difficulties. Will they bounce back in some new iteration or die a miserable death? And what is LTE? 4G versus 3G. Listen and you will hear some amazing thoughts by a man who is one of the brightest analysts in the industry.

Ronald Gruia’s Bio:
Ronald Gruia is the Principal Analyst for Emerging Telecom at Frost & Sullivan. His main focus areas include NGN migration strategies, IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystems), 4G (LTE, WiMAX), FMC, VoIP, Next-Gen Carrier Messaging Platforms, IPTV, Triple Play Services, IP Centrex, Enterprise Communications Systems and Unified Communications, among others. He has authored several reports and has also played a key role in strategic consulting projects in these areas.

The rest of his story is here.

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It’s fairly common knowledge by now that I’ve joined eComm as the Director of Conversations supporting the thriving and growing eComm Conference and Awards. I thought this was a good opportunity to give a perspective on why I joined eComm.

There’s an old adage that says “Lead. Follow. Or get out of the way.” There’s another that says “Unless you’re the lead dog, the view never changes.” The traditional telecom industry really needs to wake up and take those two saying very seriously. They are rules to live by in the current communications market. And those who don’t live by those words need to prepare to exit the competitive playing field.

One of the things I love about eComm, is that following and getting out of the way simply are not options. eComm is all about leadership. eComm is thought leadership at full volume; no holds barred driving toward the future. I’ve been to hundreds of industry conferences in my life, but eComm embodies one of the most important mindsets of our time – disruption.

I’ve openly talked about the arguable death of VoIP, because I see VoIP as standard infrastructure today – something I call plumbing. I do not see VoIP as disrupive today. VoIP is a vibrant, sustaining technology that isn’t treated as new, emerging, or frightening any longer. It’s simply part of the voice services infrastructure.

I also drove some conversation with my premise that Telco 2.0 is a bad idea. That the paradigm of a telco is obsolete and must be redesigned. I feel that’s true in many ways. Thetelco paradigm of the past and mindsets like those of the old Bell System are dead. They’re not gone, but they are dead. There is simply no place for that sort of thinking in today’s communications industry

eComm began with the premise we’re going into a post-telecom era. For me, this becomes more true every day. eComm is about distruption, innovation, and creation of something new. That makes eComm stand out as a premier gathering of the best and brightest in the networking sector. Whether it’s voice, data, Internet, wireless, or mobility, eComm is the vortex of innovation.

Make no mistake, when we speak of emerging communications. we are embracing and encompassing an array of communications tools:

• Voice services
• Data and communications enhanced business processes (CEBP)
• Video – all video from video calls to collaboratio to YouTube to Hulu
• Blogs and wikis. Every form of online community.
• Instant Messaging (IM) and SMS texting
• Presence tools – Twitter, FriendFeed, Identi.ca, Google Talk and Googe Latitude (and yes, impending tools like Google WAVE)
• Social Media of all kinds (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace)

These are all communications services and they are all emerging rapidly right now. Today.

eComm is the world’s best, and most highly regarded communications conference and brand. More and more people understand and respect its core mission. Every day in conversations today, I see people articulating the eComm vision in their own words across many business sectors. I see it in Twitter and FriendFeed conversations and blog posts. People who we think of as primarily social media leaders are saying the same things eComm members have been saying for years.

I confess I like being a disruptor. I love being in the middle of where all the change is taking place. I like to shake things up. I like ideas, especially ideas that distrubt our old assumptions. I want to play a part in the game-changing mission that eComm embodies. I’m honored and pleased to join eComm as the Director of Conversations & Marketing.

I’m keen to put my experience and weight behind Emerging Communications as a catalyst for change; change for the better. eComm promotes opportunity and innovation. One thing that matters to me greatly is the impact our technologies have on people in their daily lives. The social impact of our tools For some that means efficiency in work flow. For others it simply means ease of sharing their lives with family. The innovation that comes from eCOmm members accelerates innovation for the common good of all. It is changing how we live, and work. It’s changing how we interact with family, friends, colleagues and customers. It’s changing home like, education and how we work.

I’m keen to also nurture a passionate, engaged and thriving community. I challenge myself and others to think outside the box. To disrupt. Sometimes that means we upset people But eComm is not about maintaining the status quo. It is not a community of people selling some boring “me too” service. The speakers at the conference are not aiming their talks and the small room down the corridor. They’re innovators and leaders clamoring for center stage in the big room in front of their colleagues, peers and competitors. They’re driving change, and eComm is all about change. It’s about real advances and seizing the immense opportunities now available in the communications space. eComm is about taking risk to do something bigger and better. It’s about what’s next in terms of services and products. It’s about our future and I’m excited to be in a position to help this community grow.

I’m excited and already working on some ideas to get us all moving. I’m not usually shy and reserved, so many people across all walks of the industry are going to be hearing a lot more from me as we move toward eComm in Amsterdam this October and the USA 2010 conference in San Francisco. I’ll be challenging us all to not hold back and shake things up with our words and actions.

I just happened to see a tweet by Drew Olanoff, @drew. It was really sweet because it mentioned his fiance, @SarahCooley and that we should all watch her sing. I clicked through and that was my mistake.

Most of you know Ken and I got engaged at VONx. Ken talked to a few people in advance and set me up, essentially. We have lived our love affair very publicly, and most people are aware our twitter stream is rather heavily laden with ‘I love you’s’ and ’sweetie’. To see another couple share something like what we have is a heart warmer. Such is the case with Drew and Sarah.

Here is the most recent public display they have shared. See if it doesn’t bring a smile to your face, too – right after the tears.

Yesterday I posted a link to a chat with Gerd Leonhard (@gleonhard), renowned media futurist. If you haven’t heard Gerd speak, or read any of his work, one of the best points of entry is the video I shared recently here. Sheryl and I follow him closely and definitely pay attention to what Gerd says.

In the transcript, Gerd makes some points I want to call your attention to.

I wrote a book called The Future of Music and a second book called Music 2.0.  It’s about how to solve the music problem.  If you want an actual copy a deb3 version, you can get one from me; I have free books.  If you prefer to download, it’s www.music20book.com.  It’s a free PDF.  My third book coming out later this year is The End of Control.  Why is it called The End of Control?

Music is changing and Music 2.0 is proving to be a roadmap for the music industry; at least for those who will succeed in the long run. But the ideas there apply across all media content. It really doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about music, movies, podcasts or videos. Rich media isn’t delivered the way it was in our parents world, or when we were teenagers. The last ten years have reshaped industries. As Leonhard says.

Convergence. Integration. Change. Disruption. Sectors that were distinctly separate have collided and forever changed how we receive, listen, and view media. Unlike the broadcast styles of the past, blasting from a big antenna on a mountain top, medie is now delivered to a cornucopia of devices, from homes to cars, computers to mobile phones. It’s delivered any time, anywhere, on demand.

The genie is out of the bottle and can’t ever go back. Old media struggles understanding and embracing reality. Old commercial models, the economic engine of old media, simply don’t work today. That means advertising has also been disrupted by the revolution in communications.

In my role with eComm, one of the most exciting aspects is that we’re part of a revolution in communications.  But beyond that, communications is at the core of our daily life. We are being disrupted and many aspects of our lives are changing. How we receive, share and discuss news and entertainment is a large part of our lives. Leonhard does a fantastic job of lighting the way to new models of what our world is becoming.

I’ve counted Luca Filigheddu  (@filos) as a friend and colleague for a number of years now. When his company Abbeynet first released Sitofono, I was among the first to deploy their reliable click-to-call Sitofono solution for early testing.

Sheryl and I have had very little personal time with Luca, although we share in the pictures of his children and his persona life when we can. We were very jealous recently when another friend, Rich Tehrani, visited Sardinia where Luca lives on vacation. We really hope to visit one day, and enjoyed the pictures of personal time they shared.

Beyond the vacation time, Rich got to visit Abbeynet and  dig in firsthand to the growth and success Luca and his team are finding with Sitofono among businesses. In particular, the solution seems to be finding wide adoption in the hospitality industry with hotels.

Rich posted a nice piece giving lots of details and insights, not just on Luca’s team and their work, but on how a company can thrive even in a weak economy. It’s a worthwhile read.

Abbeynet: From Carrier to Twitter Development

While in Sardina recently I had a chance to spend time with Luca Filigheddu the prolific blogger of all things communications, tech and more recently Twitter. I have known Luca for years via his blog and I met him live for the first time at ITEXPO in Los Angeles a few years back. When I heard I was going to be in Sardinia I contacted him.

As part of my island tour I stopped by his company Abbeynet to learn more about what his company does. Located in a thoroughly modern looking office located a stone’s throw from a group of really great outlet stores the company makes its living consulting and doing development for global carriers. But what seems to excite Luca most is his product Sitofono which consists of a call-back button and sophisticated back-end for websites allowing companies to more effectively communicate with customers.

While in Sardina recently I had a chance to spend time with Luca Filigheddu the prolific blogger of all things communications, tech and more recently Twitter. I have known Luca for years via his blog and I met him live for the first time at ITEXPO in Los Angeles a few years back. When I heard I was going to be in Sardinia I contacted him.

As part of my island tour I stopped by his company Abbeynet to learn more about what his company does. Located in a thoroughly modern looking office located a stone’s throw from a group of really great outlet stores the company makes its living consulting and doing development for global carriers. But what seems to excite Luca most is his product Sitofono which consists of a call-back button and sophisticated back-end for websites allowing companies to more effectively communicate with customers.
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Fabulous transcript of a conversation with Gert Leonhard on the future of content and telecom.

For anyone paying attention to the revolution underway in communications, Leonhard provides a crisp and clean vision of the future and what is changing. This is something everyone involved in any aspect of communications from old traditional telephony to learding edge social media must read.

Transcript: Gerd Leonhard (The Future of Content & Telecoms)
Chair: Gert Leonhard to talk about the future of content and telecoms.

Gert: Thanks very much. That was a great presentation. I hope that with I want to talk about, in fact, one would think we have synchronized as far as the dress is concerned – two guys in black – but we did not. It was just an accident.

I’m from Switzerland. Is anybody here from Europe? Interesting, I work as a futurist. I run a site called www.mediafuturist.com. You can download this presentation sometime in the afternoon or later when I get to upload it.

I want to talk about a few things. I work as a futurist for companies that are interested in figuring out how to use content and technology in the future. Here are some of my clients. I work with a lot with telecom companies, handset manufacturers, record labels, and publishers; even though you would think it’s impossible to work with both of them.
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