Stardust Global Ventures

Imagine awakening only to learn there’d been a major earthquake in Chile, where you have family. We did.

Many of our friends know Sheryl’s brother Brian and his wife Mariali. We’ve all been friends for quite some time (Jaiku, Facebook, Twitter), but now we’re also family. She lives just outside Santiago, not far from where the big earthquake hit this morning.

We immediately tried calling, texting, online, but no contact. Power, water, and phones are out there. In many areas the devastation is severe. We simply didn’t have any idea. We reached to social media. Everywhere.

People responded, mostly by retweeting. The power of the retweet is something we take for granted. A man we didn’t know in any way sent a simple tweet that he was in Chile and
asked how he could help. We scrambled to give him every bit of useful information that we could come up with.

He messaged several times that phones were out and he couldn’t get through. Then, amazingly he said “as soon as I get a chance I will go to the address you gave me.” Through Twitter, we made contact with someone in another continent, but close enough to go physically check on our family.

If that isn’t magical enough for you, if you really don’t understand the power of human communications through technology, the power of what we can do together, within two hours of our first contact with this man, I got a DM in Twitter than said “found her! she is OK…. she told me to tell Twinkie to stay cool, she is fine!” And an email with more info on how to try to contact her directly.

Twitter’s a tool. The power is in the people, but the reach and potential is far bigger than you understand. Until your life is personally and directly impacted, you simply can’t truly appreciate that power.

Technology gives power to communications tools. Communications tools give power to people. People impact one another and change the world.

Our deepest heartfelt thanks to @jpcoderch. You are our hero of the Santiago earthquake JP. Now we’re connected. At some point Sheryl and I hope to visit Mariali in Chile. It’s a part of our family. I hope we can take you to dinner one day and get to know each other in person as well

Side note: Many of you know our dearest and best friend, JP. What an interesting bit of serendipity that our new friend and hero is also JP. John Paul and Juan Pablo. Two gentlemen and friends who touch our lives.

I was just reading an article by David Reinhardt entitled Think There’s No Room for Social Media in the Workplace? Think Again!. It gives some great points to consider, but I think the issue goes far deeper. Reading David’s piece is a great starting point for thinking, so go do that first. I’ll wait. When you get back, I’d like to share some added comments on on his seven points.

Before we go further, let’s debunk one of the great delusions of the day. Social media is in the workplace already. In nearly every workplace you can think of. It’s already there. Be honest with yourself. Social media is in schools. It’s in planes, trains and automobiles. It’s in restaurants. It’s even in the bathroom, as troublesome as acknowledging that may be.

To deny social media is already in the workplace is to bury your head in the sand. If that works for you, continue. But before you do, consider this. if you bury your head in the sand, you’re in a very dark place with nothing to see. And, note the picture. Your ass is a target. A big target. If you’re comfortable in denial and placing your ass in the air as a target, just remember you’ll never see what’s coming when your ass gets blown out of business. You’ll remain blissfully ignorant as you fly into the abyss of that long, dark goodnight.

Or, you can pull your head out.

People naturally gather around common points of interest
Humans are social creatures. We gather in communities, tribes, enclaves and neighborhoods. We share stories of the events in our daily lives, both business and personal. It’s ingrained in our nature socially back to the the early origins of our race.

In the workplace, we gathered at the break room, coffee pot and water cooler. Today, we can gather and share space online without being physically colocated. We can and do. And we will. The workplace cannot change our nature.

People like visuals
Not only are we social creatures, we’re visual creatures. Those early clans in caves told stories around the fire and left pictographs of their world. The social web is our canvas. It’s where we paint the pictures of our world and our lives.

We share pictures, words, music, what we had for lunch, and personal snips from our lives. We also share what we do, what we think, our ideas and ourselves in the workplace. To stop that would dehumanize us. In today’s information economy, dehumanization simply doesn’t fit. We are not drone workers in a factory and will never be that again. We, as a species, have evolved.

People are increasingly able to use complex websites
The web has become our natural home. For many, it’s what we’d refer to as our third place. Home is our first place. Our job is our second place. Our third place is where we choose to spend time. With the information age and communications technologies, the delineation between these places has vanished. Just as we can timeshift and placeshift our work to any time and any place, we all integrate our social selves into our work life as well. And we do.

People want to be able to add their own content
The old broadcast media world is dying. Quickly. The gatekeepers of news, information and entertainment have lost the reins. No matter how the clutch at them, that horse has run away from the old media cart. Everyone is an author. Everyone is a mdeia producer. We add content to the global body of knowledge constantly. And we like it. The concept of 15 minutes of fame is very much relegated to the abyss alongside the legacy broadcast media that promulgated the very idea. Why should you or I be relegated to 15 minutes when we have something to share every day? We shouldn’t. We aren’t. And we won’t.

Different people have different styles of working together
Just as there have always been loners and teams, there are different working styles among individuals in the connected world. Some people love to share; others do not. But companies have said for years, “our greatest asset is our people.” Really? And how do you encourage that asset? Not by trying to control how they work together. The greatest productivity comes from letting all that brainpower that works for the company unleash something new and innovative. That comes from the personal freedom to kick ass, not from the handcuffs of being told how do to every little thing.

Micromanaging people by telling them how to work, and how to work together has never been effective. It never will be. Today people will change jobs 20 or more times during the course of their career. The old model of taking a job “down at the plant” where dad worked, then spending 40 years there simply doesn’t fly. The workplace is changing and many of us are simply independent contractors who choose who we work with and how. The smart business leverages this reality by giving people the ability too work together in ways that are effective. For many of us, that must include social media and networking. It’s our lifeblood in our career. It has replaced the old human resources career guidance process. Like what McKinsey called Frogs in a Wheelbarrow, the best performers will jump to the most suitable work environment.

Even that model is evolving. That model applies to digital immigrants – those of us who grew up in the legacy analog world, but today live in the digital world. Digital natives entering the work force have always had open and unfettered access to the digital tools of now. They simply aren’t interested in working without the tools they view as basics of life. A business is going to have to embrace digital natives or shutter the doors over time as baby boomers exit the workforce.

Information that is not found might as well not be published
Publish or perish is no longer just a rule in academia. It’s a reality we all live with every day of our lives. We feed the Internet machine with so many routine actions. We publish our lives without thinking. Even those who don’t know their lifestream is published, are publishing in some fashion.

Use your ATM card. Swipe your employee ID. Enter a door code. Private transactions, though private they may be, are published somewhere.

If you aren’t on the Internet, you don’t exist. If you don’t publish, there is no record of your existence. Publishing in the now, is the word of mouth stories our ancestors told by the fire in caves. It is our record. Our existence.

As a business manager or executive, if you’re asking how to control social media, you are asking the wrong question. You cannot control social media. You cannot contain conversation. You cannot dictate. It’s far too late. Just as China cannot contain the vocies seeking expression, you are fighting a hopeless cause. In business, that’s counterproductive and costly. Not smart business. So be a smart business person. Pull your head out of the sand, and quit exposing your backside.

It’s easier than you think.

Adopt social media technologies with an open mind and thoughtful steps.

Adapt to the world as it changes. You have to be flexible.

Adjust work flows, business processes and management oversight to make the best use of the power of social media. Don’t expect to control it. You can’t. Slip into the groove. Like driving down the highway, and sliding into the slipstream of that big 18-wheeler, find your comfort zone and slide into the fit the brings value to every involved.

It’s easier than you think. Need help? Contact us.

We suffer from a bad case of technological obesity. I know the is the perfect time to go with “a fat man gets onto a plane” but that’s not where I’m headed at all. Actually my train of thoughts was triggered by an encounter with Notes. Yes, I use Notes every day. It’s one of the most unsatisying experiences of my day. But this encounter, like many others, was positively draining. No I’m not going to elaborate. If you’ve used Notes, you’re already nodding your head; if not, count your blessings.

Glut and gluttony have made people in the US fat and lazy. It’s a problem impacting the health of our children. Information glut coupled with technology are suffering serious obesity problems and the business enterprise is,today plagued with obesity, clogged arteries, hypertension and general poor health. Lean and mean can only describe the smallest percentage. Enterprise business has become a middle age fat man.

Our emerging technologies are, in some ways like homeopathic medicine and healthy living. Service Oriented Architectures leverage cloud concepts to eat light in the corporate information buffet. Mobile solutions encourage exercise for the corporate mind, working outside the lines of the cubicle farm.

Today’s technologies in communications, broadband, mobility, cloud computing and the like offer a holistic life style for a healthy enterprise. An enterprise that can sustain a healthy lifestyle, making the most of each day.

I’ll be writing more on these thoughts in the weeks ahead. In my work as an enterprise architect defining next generation services and networks, I’m writing enterprise prescriptions for healthy living. I guess…the doctor is in.

Caveat: This is Ken’s opinion and post about Google Buzz. Sheryl and I have pretty different opinions and experiences. Don’t infer that she agrees with anything said here.

Last week the buzz hit the Internet to a flurry of very mixed reactions. My own reactions have been pretty mixed thus far too. Mostly the Buzz feels like a rug burn, but I want to be open about it and really give it a fair chance. I really really want to give it a fair chance.

Then there’s this:

Excuse me? Is Schmidt channeling Jerry Yang and leading Google to be the next Yahoo? Take a hundred days Eric. You can afford it. Get out of the way and let your team fix the damage. The worst thing an exec can do is pour gas on a fire, and you sound like a kid with a gas can and a book of matches. Go have a long conversation with Jyri Engestrom. By conversation, I mean go ask him what you should do, shut the hell up and listen. Take notes. Then get out of the way.

Up until today Schmidt was a long way from my list of executives in dire need of a smack with a clue-by-four. But he fought and clawed his way onto the list. Yes, one of these days, I’ll disclose who’s on the list and why. If you’ve followed for any length of time, you already know some.

Where was I? Oh yeah…Buzz. I’m left with questions. No answers. Ideas. No warm fuzzies. I see possibility. I see ego. I see the GOOG in a new light, and it’s not pretty. I could wax sarcastic about doing no evil. I could compare the sly and underhanded way Microsloth makes users de facto beta testers. I could point out how Google made a move to out Microsoft the big M by doing so openly, with a brash attitude. I could.

But that would take effort. Like Buzz, it would take more effort than any return could deliver today. I’ll save it for another time when I’ll get more out of it. And I’m saving Buzz until some time when I’ll get more out of it. More return for all the draining work it takes. Maybe. But really I’ll just step back and wait for some indication that the voices of reason, like Jyri, have been heard and somebody down at the Googleplex has done something really smart.

Creating and unleashing Buzz just because the technology made it possible does not creating a winning solution. For me, today, Buzz isn’t as big a flop as Wave, but it’s all fizzle, no sizzle. I’m putting Buzz in the hold file as something to dabble with when I’m very bored.

Since we’ve made the switch to iPhone, partly out of necessity after my Blackberry died, we’ve spent a bit of effort exploring apps. In my view, many are a great waste of space. They’re a variation of digital noise cluttering the app store, vying for attention.

Some, but not all. Bleam is an app that recently caught our eye. As it turns out, a friend (Dean Landsman @DeanLand) is partnered up pretty close with their marketing efforts. Bleam’s new, and their pitch is, I’d say, understated. Hugely understated. Here’s what they say:

Bleam
Local Instant Messaging

Mobile social networking just got a whole lot easier – thanks to Bleam for the iPhone™ and iPod touch™.

Because Bleam uses Bluetooth and/or WiFi to create an instant network, you don’t need a service signal to connect with the people around you. Just turn on Bleam and chat publicly or privately, share photos and exchange contacts with other Bleamers.

You don’t need to know someone’s ID or phone number to start Bleaming. Just be within range. And since Bleam networks iPhones together, your range will extend much further than with other Bluetooth messaging apps.

We have just submitted Bleam 1.1 to the App Store. Bleam 1.1 will let you set up multiple profiles. It’s the perfect feature for Bleamers moving between a variety of social settings – from business conferences to conference championships, lecture halls to concert halls.

So get Bleam now!
WHERE YOU ARE IS WHERE IT’S AT!

Neat and simple, but it’s an app that made me think. Walk with me down the path a ways…

Let’s begin with an appreciation of the etymology behind Bleam, because that alone hearkens to our roots, the jargon of our heritage, and for some of us, simply brings a smile. From the Free Dictionary:

(jargon)

bleam – To transmit or send data. “Bleam that binary to me in an e-mail”.

Ok, so perhaps it’s just nostalgic for guys like Dean and I who’ve been there and back. Still, it feels like a respectful hat tip from the iPhone generation to the past, and I like that. I won’t show you all the screen shots. I’m not here to do a review. I’m here to acknowledge the door Bleam flings open.

The opening screen sets things in motion. it simply says, I’m hunting. Seeking a connection media and peers (Bleamers) on that media. ‘Nuff said.

Bleam is an ad hoc chat tool. Think of it as a back channel you put up , take down, join or leave at will. Any time. Any place. You are the network if there isn’t one.

You can exchange information either in public or private. Here’s a sample:

I picked this shot simply to show how you can transfer text messages, pictures and contact cards. Certainly the obvious future ideas could include other media – video or music.

It’s interesting. A tidy little program that fills a gap. Sheryl and I tested it and were quite pleased.

I can’t do Steve Job’s impressions, but allow me to channel him for a moment…and another thing

Bleam portends a future that isn’t here today. I’d challenge the Bleam developers in ways I’m pretty confident Dean has, is and will continue to challenge them. This is a nice point of entry. Don’t let it be the end game, because there is so much more. Think about how Bleam does what it does, through options of WiFi and Bluetooth, and let your imagination stretch a bit further than chatting with your BFF.

As a speaker and presenter, I see my iPhone, iPad, device of choice using Bleam’s core to connect with a Bluetooth-WiFi enabled projector in a conference room. I don’t want or need a laptop. Let me Bleam my presentation to the projector while I walk around the room giving my talk.

As a listener, let me Bleam music to my speakers. In my car or my house. Or let me Bleam it to Sheryl’s nephew’s audio system, properly enabled of course, when we go visit.

When we get on a plane because we’re traveling to some exotic destination (no we are not going back to Waseca, MN), why don’t you let me join the Bleam driven network on the plane to send me movies and audio.

In fact, just Bleam enable my house and appliances. We’re still waiting for Smarthome 1.0 to become a reality. Let’s skip it and go to Bleamhome instead. Let me use WiFi and Bluetooth in my really smart home. I can control lights, fixtures, temperature, turn on the oven (and check how long the roast has left to cook) and all manner of wireless controls. Without wires. Without infrastructure. Simply enabling the connector widgets.

Widgets? Yep. Hardware and software widgets. Bluetooth/Bleam enable a lightswitchand sell it for $25 instead of $1.95. I’ll buy one for every room. Don’t build a supersmart home nobody can afford but the elite. Widgetize the process making migration a consumer owned and operated experience.

I recently wrote some pretty favorable things about another app service…Foursquare. I think Bleam is bigger and has more potential than Foursqare. Go to Bleam and check it out for yourself. Or go on your iPhone and get it from the app store. But don’t overlook it. It could be your future.

Disclaimer and note to Dean and the Bleam Team: I haven’t been paid or asked to write this. We bought the app. That’s right we shelled out the whopping 99 cents for each of us. No compensation or external motivators. That said, Dean…Bo… when you get ready to move into new areas, I’d love to help with strategy, direction, biz dev and what Bleam might do  in a bigger way. Keep me in mind.

I’ve been busy this morning, but reading peripherally the twitstorm about user counts of tweets sent and inflated numbers. Mine currently shows I’ve tweeted 55,553 times. I know reality to be more like 18.5K, and I’m a heavier user than most Twitter accounts.

I haven’t researched this deeply. I’m not inclined to. As an enterprise architect and strategist, guiding business decisions, I can simply react. Twitter as a business tool or infrastructure element simply doesn’t exist.

We’ve all read how important Twitter is to business, although we mostly wonder if that’s true.  We may be just making it up as we go. I’ll admit that, while many won’t. But let me follow through with my thought.

If’ I’m in business and using Twitter, I want metrics. ROI. WIIFM – What’s in it for me is the biggest metric of all.

The dirty little secret of Twitter ROI and metrics is that today everyone of them is bullshit. Statistically inaccurate whimsy, fantasy and lies. Anyone who tells you otherwise should not get a piece of paper from you that says “pay to the order of.” Remember that.

If however, I am a business using Twitter, the tightest measure I’m going to track will be average return per tweet. It will be valid when it can be tracked. However, if Twitter stats inflate my numbers, Twitter invalidates itself as a tool. If my perception is that I make 4 cents on each tweet at 15K tweets, and suddenly the stats say I’ve done 60K tweets, I no longer know what Twitter’s value is. Or maybe I do. Maybe the value just went to zero, or even negative.

Twitter’s cavalier attitude about issues like this has been widely seen over three years. As they said in the  Twitter support forums, “this bug is a low priority issue because it does not prevent users from fully using Twitter. We do not expect to have this issue fixed in the immediate future for this reason.” You might read that to say “we don’t really believe we’re business capable infrastructure and neither should you.” That’s how I read it.

Think Twitter’s for business? Think again. For some business yes, but for many, it isn’t even on the radar scope. For good reason.

Is Twitter social? Absolutely
Is Twitter fun? Much of the time.
Is Twitter for business? Maybe
Is Twitter infrastructure you can either rely or measure? Not a snowball’s chance today.

Is it a technology issue? Not really. it’s a management issue. Twitter management wants to be core infrastructure at the vital level without putting in the work to earn it. They want a gimme. A pass.

I won’t give them a pass for business enterprises I advise and counsel. Play straight and call them the way they are.

For some readers, this post will feel like scraping the asphalt, then rubbing rock salt in the wound. If it feels that way, you might want to get used to the feeling. It’s here to stay.

I’ve written about communications technologies for many years, from every angle. But that isn’t all I do. While I’ve worked in small startups, unlike many of my colleagues, I’m deeply entrenched in enterprise architecture at the Fortune 100 mindset too. I see things from more than one angle. Working as the advising technical architect to a very forward-thinking CTO of one such company, my views of the enterprise embrace new technologies like cloud computing, mobility, netbooks and the iPad in different ways. Hanging with my enterprise architecture colleagues sometimes heightens the chasm I see between emerging technologies and reality. Hence, this rant.

Enterprise 2.0 is bandied about far too often these days and I want to debunk it. Enterprise 2.0 is the Johnny come lately, gotta get on Web 2.0, geez we’re so current mantra that’s overly popular in some circles today. So let’s be clear. Web 2.0 is dead. It’s last decade. It was nothing but fantasy to begin with. Web 2.0 is PR spin for keeping current with technology. Keeping current with technology isn’t forward thinking. It won’t future proof your business. Keeping current is not rocking the boat while you’re motionless in calm water.

The real next generation enterprise never uses the phrase Enterprise 2.0. They’re too busy building the next generation. They’re impatient. They’re agile. They’re looking to run major project initiatives with a lean team of a handful of people, re-architecting global networks in shortened time frames. And they’re succeeding. They’re doing more, more quickly with a team of 6-8 people than they used to do with project work teams of 40 or 50. And they’re improving the bottom line while they do it.

This isn’t the enterprise where your daddy worked for 30 years. And neither will you.

This next generation enterprise is a lean and mean behemoth. Sounds like a contradiction, but it isn’t. It’s made up of a hundred thousand people. Not employees. Contractors. Oh sure, there are maybe a thousand core employees, but the new enterprise doesn’t lease or own office space. They contract with cottage workers around the world. They know timeshifting and placeshifting work to where the talent is leads to lower CapEx, lower OpEx, higher margins, and more profitable business. They know the best and brightest aren’t interested in moving to BFE to work on some boring account-focused project. These people want 12 projects at once. They are nimble, intelligent, proactive and aggressive.

This new enterprise understands cloud computing for what it really is – yet another buzz phrase that means something or nothing different to everyone, but has some key values at its core.

• The data center can be anywhere or everywhere. It doesn’t even have to exist. The data center can be web services connected to a server here with a database there. Anywhere.
• People can be anywhere and everywhere. And they are. They don’t have to work for you permanently. They just need to give you the right slices of their time and talent.
• The cloud can be anywhere. It is. It isn’t a cloud. It’s a network of clouds. It’s the Internet – a network of networks. It’s the same story we’ve been selling for 30 years, but it’s real.

Cloud computing is not about putting data centers in the cloud really. It’s not about putting services in the cloud either. It’s about the ubiquitous access of the cloud. I can get to the cloud from any device, any time, wherever I choose to work. That, my friend is cloud computing. Access to anything and everything. And that’s the real power behind openness. Not risking your data, but enabling the people who need access to have access. Cloud computing isn’t about the core of the cloud, but the access to the ends, wherever they may be.

Often the ends will and do exist inside the cloud. That’s what makes them most accessible.

In this new enterprise, things like this will happen:

That’s what Lotus Notes replication might look like on an iPad. Say what? Yeah Notes on the iPad. Or iPhone. Or netbook. Or anything that you use to access the cloud. From anywhere. Any time.

How? The cloud baby. It’s in the cloud. It’s called desktop virtualization and it’s spreading across those old enterprises in prototypes, beta tests and early implementations right now. Sure you hear about server virtualization, and it’s a big deal. A really big deal. It’s the green initiative those enterprises are talking about. But you know what? They don’t care about green, they care about money. And for a big enterprise with multiple data centers that green is the color of money. They’re reducing electricity costs by millions with server virtualization.

Desktop virtualization is green money colored too. No longer will the enterprise sign a master agreement to buy new laptops every 3 years from Dell, HP or anyone else. Why? They don’t need to. They won’t have to. Businesses hate that relationship and this is a profitable way out. It’s as green as a thousand dollar bill. A shipping container full of them.

There’s another green effect in play. Employees require real estate. In the old enterprise, they have to have a place to go. It’s where check boxes get checked. Attendance. Tardiness. Vacation. The old enterprise, The dying enterprise. The model that’s quietly starting to fade.

The new enterprise employees are mostly teleworkers, but even that term holds less meaning. Mobile solutions deliver cloud connectivity to the resources. Today’s teleworker may spend several hours a day at a coffee shop. IM, SMS, VoIP telephony, online video provide more than just alternatives to cubicles and travel for meetings. Today’s worker is either a digital immigrant or digital native. For us it’s the preferred method of work. It’s incentive. It makes a job more appealing. It’s so very now.

For the aging worker, it’s not an invitation to leave. It’s an invitation and incentive to keep working. Companies are finding this truism every day. They call it retention of institutional knowledge. It’s a powerful, valuable tool in hanging on to the older workers who know the business details because they helped build it from the ground up over the past 30 years.

Where do these virtual workers go if they don’t have a cubicle to call their very own? Home. Starbuck’s. Portugal. Ireland. The beach. An island. Any place they like. Where they are doesn’t matter. Place shifting lets them be wherever they like. I say virtual workers because teleworkers don’t need to be employees. They can be contractors. Many are. Many more than you probably think. Pick a number. Think higher. Higher. You’re close. But it’s a growing number and the pace of adoption for this approach is accelerating.

Desktop virtualization will lead to the desktop being whatever the enterprise chooses for tools. The workstation? Whatever that contracted employee chooses to use, or within some supported set anyway.

Enterprise 2.0 as a Web 2.0 carryover? It’s not dead. It was never born. It’s just spin doctor hype from enterprises trying to gain some attention and hang on to relevance. There are many of these. BUT, there are many enterprises that are well into the migration toward the real future. In The Third Wave by Alvin Toffler laid out the vision of the electronic cottage back in 1980. Toffler looked at early personal computers and saw into the future. That future is here, and our electronic cottage today may be as small as a Blackberry or iPhone. The choice of personal computing tool is filled with options.

As for employer, who do you work for really? Your father’s company? Your employer? Do you go report in every day to your cubicle just so they can verify you’re still alive? I work for me. For my family. I work to make our life better. That might mean long hours, many projects, bureaucracy and BS. But it doesn’t have to mean imprisonment in an 8×8 cell so a supervisor can watch me to make sure I’m still breathing.

More and more, the power of business, from very small companies to the biggest global enterprise is the value of human resources. The staff. The talent. The brains. The engineers, sales pros, writers, designers, relationship managers who really fuel the stream of money. Not employees, but people who receive value in pay for providing value. The value proposition of permanent staff employees is changing. The equation is changing. The balance of power is changing.

It’s happening right now. Every day. In more major enterprises than you probably think. Why do I think this? I live there, and I’m helping make it happen. I’m changing the world of work for me, and by extension for you. Get ready.

Every writer blogger feels compelled to spew at times. It’s one of our inner demons. We must write. This is my spew as we leave 2009 and look to the next year. If something I say here doesn’t make you angry, I will have failed miserably. If something I say here doesn’t motivate you to change how you view the world for at least one day, I will have failed miserably. If one of you reads this and takes some small action to change our world, even one, I will have wildly succeeded. Read on if you dare.

I’ve been focused on a word the last week or two that echoes in my brain. Transformation. I’ve used it a number of times lately, and as I begin writing this, I think of a friend who asked “what are we transforming?” Thank you Eran, for making me reach for an answer that came effortlessly, without thinking…the world. We are going to transform the world.

I’ve spent 30 years of my life in the tech sector. Telecommunications and networks, switches and routers, bits and bytes. Bullshit and dollars my friends. Bullshit and dollars.

Depending on how you count the decades, we’re wrapping of the decade of decadence. Gadgets and toys, we’ve got plenty.  As the song says “whoosits and whatits galore.” And with any collection of gadgets and gizmos, we’ve been awash in a sea of marketing/sales/pitch babble that has threatened to drown out our own humanity. Threatened and failed dismally.

I work in sector that’s all about information movement. It doesn’t matter whether it’s voice or data, pictures or video. It’s information and we hunger for it. Or so we tell each other. We need more. More more more. Faster. Bigger. Cooler, Slicker. New UI. Broadband. Wideband. High Definitiion. Let’s concentrate the bullshit so we can inject the essence of crap directly into our brains and a concentration of 1 million ppm. That’ll sell right? People will buy it. We’ll get rich. Then we can have more!

What a crock!

If I learned any real lessons in 2009, it came as a result of being laid off in January and spending almost the entire year looking for work. Not very successfully I might add. God has this mysterious way of slamming us to the ground hard before he let’s us bounce back. Crying uncle isn’t enough. Not really. But I’m not alone. I won’t call out the names of friends and colleagues who are unemployed or underemployed. You know I’m pulling for you every day. Just like you do for me. And every day is still a scary new beginning. But the lesson I learned this past year, is that I’m alive. I’m well. I have a wonderful woman I love by my side, and she loves me back. I have dreams. We have dreams. We have friends far and wide.

I’m not decrying technology. Not at all. We’re geek freaks and admit it. I’m a geekaholic, and it’s been 2 hours since I last lusted after some new gadget. We’re human. It’s our nature. But with technology comes a price if we pay it. We don’t have to pay it, but sometimes it’s easy to choose to pay the price. Let me explain, and I’m going to use a phrase I will abandon this year. It’s something I intend to speak about in the past tense. It was a bubble, and I’m just the prick to call bullshit and burst the damn thing. That’s right, I’m talking about the elephant in the room, social media.

There are very few more ill-conceived terms in use, but they do exist. Web 2.0. SEO. SEM. Convergence is another. They are the cornerstones of buzzword bingo. Designed to either befuddle us or set our salivary glands to drooling so we’ll write a check and buy something. Dammitall stop that foolishness. Now.

Is social media about technology? No
Is social media about business? No
Is social media about marketing? No

Dictionary.com has a number of meanings for social. Let’s just look at the first nine:

1. pertaining to, devoted to, or characterized by friendly companionship or relations: a social club.
2. seeking or enjoying the companionship of others; friendly; sociable; gregarious.
3. of, pertaining to, connected with, or suited to polite or fashionable society: a social event.
4. living or disposed to live in companionship with others or in a community, rather than in isolation: People are social beings.
5. of or pertaining to human society, esp. as a body divided into classes according to status: social rank.
6. involved in many social activities: We’re so busy working, we have to be a little less social now.
7. of or pertaining to the life, welfare, and relations of human beings in a community: social problems.
8. noting or pertaining to activities designed to remedy or alleviate certain unfavorable conditions of life in a community, esp. among the poor.
9. pertaining to or advocating socialism.

I used to talk a lot about what I called digital common sense and it’s time to get back to that. Look at the definitions and you’ll see that social is all about people and human society. It’s not about bits and bytes. It’s also not about how many followers we have or how often we get retweeted. It’s not about whuffie in any way shape or form.

Forget media. Your voice is media. Writing a grocery list uses media. Think about the core. Social is about people. What we practice online, badly for the most part, is a form of digital socialism. Did that make your back teeth hurt? That same dictionary defines socialism as

a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.

Ouch you say. Why? Does that hurt. What the Internet has given us is real democratization where every individual has voice. The real question is not what toys you have. It’s not whether you have an iPhone or Blackberry, tablet or netbook, Kindle or Nook. The question that matters is how are we using our voices?

I know you’re wondering where I fell off the planet and lost my theme of transformation right about now. So put your thinking cap on and hang on. It’s about to get bumpy for those of you selling trinkets, gadgets, and yes, services.

Fire did not transform the world. How we used it did.
Gutenberg’s printing press did not transform the world. How we used it did.
The light bulb didn’t transform the world. How we used it did.
Same for the automobile, the airplane, and countless other inventions and discoveries.

Radio and television changed us into receivers. We became fat, dumb and happy. Spoon fed by an industry created of greed that became the choke point of information that fed us what was popular. And we know that because people (advertisers) paid lots of money to spoon feed us that stuff. They changed the world in ways that are neither good nor bad at this point. Some of each.

The iPhone did not transform the world. How we use it hasn’t either. But it can.
Netbooks did not transform the world. How we use them hasn’t either. But it can.

Technology, used by people, can and does transform the world. And let me give you some examples. First, remember the story of the little girl throwing starfish into the ocean. A man told her she couldn’t make a difference in the number of starfish dying. She simply tossed another one back into the see and said “it made a difference for that one.“

Now I’ll give you some off the cuff examples of some people I met online this year. People who make a difference one person, one child, one village, one cause at a time. Transformation heroes who are out to make a difference. They’re using social tools for social causes. Helping fix broken pieces of our society and make the world a better place.

Jeff Power – Schools in Africa
Lotay Yang – Cause after cause
Pete Miller – Children, our most precious resource
Mark Horvath – Homeless people and their value
Drew Olanoff  – Cancer awareness
Alex Plank – Autism education

These folks are simply a tiny handful of the people I’ve met this year who through either little things every day, or major investments of their lives are transforming our world by using the tools of technology to bring about awareness, involvement and change.

We, yes we the people of the world, can transform the world in ways technology cannot. We’ll do it in the ways we come together to support causes, to support one another, make friends, engage, and share our lives. Technology won’t do that.

Used one way, technology is a great enabler for mankind. Lose sight of that and it becomes a great obstacle driving lust and greed. In the tech sector, I see fartoo much lust and greed. I’m too often guilty of it. If you’re honest with yourself, so are you.

What we have every day is something best illustrated by Hugh.

We reinvent ourselves every morning when we awaken. Are you awake? Who are you inventing today?
Are you inventing a marketer? Are you selling snake oil or making the world better?
Are you inventing a maker of products? Are you distilling snake oil or making the world better?
Are you inventing a commercial service? Are you selling illusions or making the world better?
Are you inventing a conference to promote hype? Are you selling tickets on a carousel or making the world better?

Many of you…many of us are far too busy building a house of cards. We chase money, success, prestige, and objects rather than real good.

2010 is a year of transformation. It’s a year of change. When we leave it on December 31, 2010, the world will be transformed. How are we all going to help?

One thing I’m going to do is pay far more attention to real change, real transformation and real commitment. Companies that do things that can changes our lives will get far more attention than bit twiddlers who can shave a penny off the cost of a phone call. Gadgets and services that are me too responses aren’t creators or innovators. I’ll do my best to either ignore them or call them out. I want to focus on the things that matter in the world.

Sure, I’m a geek. An enterprise architect. Technology strategist. Business professional in marketing and sales. But before all those things, I’m a person on this planet we call home. In 2010 I’m going to do something to make it a better place for you and me.

Sheryl’s pretty well known for her Incidental Interviews. And she’s always engaged in conversations on Twitter and Facebook. What doesn’t always get enough visibility is her writing. So I thought I’d take a moment to give you my pick of Sheryl’s Top Ten posts for 2009. Enjoy. And you’ll get to know her better in the process.

• Passionate about Social Media? Me too and here’s why!
• Investment versus Engagement or Pancakes versus Crepes
• How Social Media Makes a Difference for People!
• The sum of Twitter
• Should your Business be on twitter?
• Who are your influencers? I hope you know
• Small Business Does Not Use Social Media….Yet
• I Have A Dream And What’s Wrong With That?
• All Roads Lead To Walla Walla
• Who’s in Your Network?

I’ve been thinking about the power many of us grant Twitter lately. It’s been fueled by a number of conversations and articles I’ve read. I’d like us to consider something I’ll call the Zen of Twitter.

In the visual, the little blue pie slice represents our network – our real network – the people we know that we know. Large numbers or small doesn’t matter. It’s a finite set of people we know we have an established connection with.

The larger coral section represents a larger group – the people we know that we don’t know. We aren’t connected, but we know they exist. We saw someone speak to them or of them. They were on some video we saw and mentioned their Twitter name. We know these people use Twitter, yet we have no connection. We’re simply aware they’re outside our network.

The largest slice, the green one, represents most of Twitter. The people we don’t know that we don’t know. They’re there on Twitter. Some are more active than we are. Yet we don’t know that they exist. We don’t know what they do. We don’t know their value. They could easily become part of our network, but we’re unaware of each other, so far.

Consider how much effort is spent in follower counts. It’s the holy grail for the clueless on Twitter. More is good, more is better, I need more. More, more, more.  I won’t name anyone, but the misconception that more has higher value is rampant among even the most elite of the Twitterati. And many speak of little else at times.

I’m not denigrating the value of enlarging your network, but I am going to make a point.

Twitter exists inside that pie. It’s a closed ecosystem. True, the barrier to entry is zero but let’s be realistic and not give Twitter more power than it has. I know you want me to explain that, right? Read on. (more…)

I operate under the assumption that, like many, many bloggers have half-written, partly formed (or ill formed) blog posts that never quite see the light of day. I know many people who write drafts and then never finish them. I generally don’t. Rather, I leave the ideas rattling around in my head, half-baked and unwritten. Sometimes they come back to to haunt me, demanding attention. Lack of interest, insufficient motivation or some other vague notion simply prevents me from completing my thoughts and writing the post.

Here are some examples of topics and ideas that just haven’t made it out to see the light of day for one reason or another.

• Quality of Service vs Gigabandwidth – I’m a pretty staunch advocate of QoS, which is nothing but a prioritization scheme for deciding what traffic to throw away first. How do we really determine the effectiveness of QoS given the reality of gigabandwidth? And aren’t we really almost to a transition to petabandwidth? And how useful will QoS really be in that mode?
• Why do we think 4G/WiMAX/LTE are such a big deal when we really should be talking about the future of mobile gigabandwidth? That’s our real future.
• Due diligence in development. When did we give up the idea of alpha/beta testing and decide to let others test for us? Has market demand for immediate gratification really offset the value of QA testing? It seems so in many cases, but do we have empirical data to support that. Or are we just intuiting it because it’s what we’d like to believe. And are we really just taking the lazy way out? 
• The evolution of what we call journalism. There are implications of citizen journalism and the now media that get discussed, but is there a change in journalistic integrity we simply don’t talk about? Prior research and fact finding have always been cornerstones of good journalism. Today bloggers and journalists alike seem to often simply show up for the story, with expectations that a story will present itself. Prior research and the art of investigative journalism seem to have lost their way in the NOW media. Instant gratification and the demand for “realtime news” seem to be superseding the motivation to put in the effort to investigate and prepare for many, especially bloggers who aren’t legacy journalists. And I plead guilty to being one of that group often.
• What’s happened in the culture of collaboration that led us to the idea of a team requiring UN-like consensus to move forward? When did we give every member of a team veto power with a vote. If we’re doing something innovative, new, next-generation, or exciting, shouldn’t we expect some percentage of the team, user population or audience to not like it and feel uncomfortable? Isn’t healthy disagreement still a good thing? If two people are in business and always agree on everything, isn’t one of them unnecessary?
• Why do we emotionally invest our support in startups that either don’t listen to feedback or don’t respond/acknowledge customer input and then complain? What made us so shy about pulling the plug. Instead we hang on and harp about what sucks and why we wish they’d listen or change. Why don’t we simply go somewhere else? What makes us stay so fiercely loyal to products and services that don’t give us what we want?
• Where is literacy headed? Books are being written on Twitter and Wave. Our literary world has become a 140 character sound bite. There’s an old Sioux adage about the impact of our actions on the next seven generations from now. So what will the William Shakespeare of seven generations now write in 12 characters and two emoticons that will impact generations to follow and be studied in school?

These are just a few things that rattle in my brain and haven’t made it out to posts yet. Will they? Maybe. And they may just remain half-formed thoughts and questions that never get fully explored.

Ripples of shock went through the Twitterverse last night when I said I was sleeping on the idea of an iPhone to replace Blackberry as my next mobile phone. Rest easy. All is well and harmony has been restored to the universe. But there were enough comments from friends and colleagues that I thought I’d explain why the consideration, and why I’ve eliminated the iPhone yet again as the phone for me.

First, why consider an iPhone?

Like most people, I’m impressed by the application platform. More importantly, I’ve been considering doing some development work again; something I haven’t done for many years. The iPhone is a far easier platform to develop for than other mobile devices. RIM has been my platform of choice, but frankly, I don’t see doing RIM development as being worth the headache and heartache it involves. Developing an iPhone/iPod app is doable, and could lead to other new things.

But, I have an iPod Touch. And most of the apps in the app store are garbage. I don’t want to create more garbage. Still, that isn’t what led me to back away from the iPhone.

What kills the iPhone for me, is the iPhone itself, in a number of ways, partly coupled to the Apple culture.

1. It’s a 3G device, but I live in a 2G community. 3G won’t be here before 4G hits much of the US. I haven’t seriously been considering a 3G device because they suck power when there’s no 3G available, and battery life is a big concern for me.
2. The iPhone is quirky and unreliable. I only say this based on how many times I’ve seen my friends and colleagues complain that they lost this or that and had to do a complete, tedious restore process. Or they were off to the Genius  Bar. That’s nice, but the nearest Genius Bar is a 6 hour drive for me. I won’t go there. Ever. So any failure of that sort, means shipping my phone into space and doing without until it returns; not a good solution.
3. Battery life is at a premium. My Blackberry has the best usable battery life I’ve ever seen. It’s better than my iPod Touch, every Nokia since the N73, my older WinMobile Treo. And it’s easily swapped. The iPhone doesn’t have good, let alone stellar battery life from all I’ve read. But at least if the battery in the iPhone dies, I can go sit and do nothing. A non-swappable battery is simply stupid beyond belief.
4. External memory is a concern. Sure the current 3GS has a 32G option, but there’s no microSD support, which seems terribly shortsighted and something that can’t be fixed without a new iPhone. Not good for me.
5. The keyboard on the iPhone isn’t really a keyboard. I’ve used my Touch for a year and hate it. Yes, I’ve learned I can get used to it. Getting used to it and liking it are personal things. I don’t like the iPod keyboard and I don’t believe I ever will. The Treo, with it’s combination of touchscreen and keyboard were my favorite solution. Maybe one day the iPhone will incorporate a slider keyboard. That would make me reconsider.
6. Contract lock. I’m already an AT&T customer, but I’m not under contract. I’d like to keep it that way and an iPhone means signing a 2-year contract. I don’t have to do that.

No, I don’t expect to do dev work on any mobile platform at this point. The iPhone is the only one I was considering, and if I don’t use an iPhone, why bother? It was a nice idea, but that motivation is gone for the time being. Maybe it will resurface at some future point.

Reality is that my work is largely in enterprise network and communications space. And government space. And security space. Areas where the mobile of choice is a Blackberry. The iPhone hasn’t penetrated my core target client base, and it isn’t on track to any time soon.

Windows Mobile hasn’t penetrated anywhere really. Except Redmond. There are pockets of use, but it’s simply not the OS for me.

Nokia has deeply penetrated the cheap phone market. Standard mobile phones, a new model every week. Some weeks every day. But in the high end, and the enterprise space, they’re a non-event in my target client base. The E series might be big in European enterprise markets, but in the US, it doesn’t exist. The N series seems to only exist in the die hard Nokia lovers segment. While I can get an E71 at a reasonable price, even cheap with a contract, why would I? It’s a phone that’s at de facto end of life just by virtue of how Nokia rolls out new ones. Nokia doesn’t make sense for me.

My opinion of ‘droid phones and Android is already well known enough. Not for me.

To be fair, I do love the iPhone browser. I love some apps, but not all. But the Touch is enough. There’s plenty of WiFi. It’s a great sofa computer for casual computing. The iPhone would be too. A great computer, but not a great mobile phone as a single device for my personal requirements,

Blackberry. Simple, obvious, and expected. And the choice is pretty easy for me. There’s either the Curve 8900 or the Bold 9700. The only differences I can see are the Bold comes preloaded with OS5. I may have to load that by hand on an 8900. And the Bold is a 3G device in my 2G world. I already know my Curve 8310 gets better battery life than Sheryl’s Bold 9000 and 3G searching for network is one big driver. The other is WiFi, which both the models I’m considering have. But I manage WiFi pretty judiciously on the N95 when we use it. I learned how to do that without even thinking about it when I  started testing the Nokia N series phones.

Winner – Blackberry Curve 8900. The biggest changes and enhancements for me? WiFi, 3.2MP camera and a faster processor that my older 8310. All things I want and need.

Interesting that over 6 months after picking the 8900 as my next phone, I’m still sticking with that decision. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m running out today to part with money and buy one. My 8310 is on its last legs, but it’s limping along and gets the job done. It’s my primary device for communications of all forms for about 14 hours a day.

When’s the last time you got 14 hours use out of your iPhone without plugging in to keep it alive?

The other day I posted 2009 – Ken’s Year in Review and promised I’d follow up with this requisite annual blogger’s rite, my look ahead. There may be some bumps in the road and unexpected twists here, so hang on dear reader. Put your tray table in the upright and locked position, raise your seat back and make sure your seatbelt is securely fastened. I’ve never been particularly shy or softspoken about my look at the future, and I probably won’t be now.

Disclaimer: These are my opinions alone. They don’t necessarily reflect the opinions of any employer past or present, my lovely partner Sheryl, the companies named herein, or anyone else on the planet. Your opionions and mileage may vary widely. Cheap shot comments will be tossed into the abyss, but open conversation and debate is always welcome.

Disclaimer 2: This is not only an opinionated post, it’s a long one. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Early in 2009 I predicted it was going to be the year Cisco took a big black eye. I agree, that didn’t happen. Instead they’ve taken a light bruising all year long. 2009 was a year when Cisco excelled at absolutely nothing that mattered in the market in my view. They were vanilla custard and simply didn’t matter in the market. They got off easy, and in 2010 they won’t. I said a black eye in 2009. I’ll predict a savage beating in 2010, the likes of which they’ve never felt before. I bet you’re curious where, aren’t you?

First in unified communications and VoIP space. I’d say Cisco is going to get their lunch eaten by multiple players. The Cisco solution set is pretty decent (Call Manager and the like), although their phones are forgettable. It won’t matter. I think they’ll get beaten repeatedly by Lucent, Asterisk, Mitel, and others. Even IBM, yes IBM, will cause pain for Cisco. 2010 will be the year Cisco learns how much they don’t know about telecommunications. It will be a bitter pill to swallow.

They bought Pure Digital for the Flip and they’re about to get a bunch of hype for the new Flip with built-in WiFi. I give that buzz six weeks and then they’ll take a good old fashioned, bare knuckles ass whuppin from the likes of Kodak’s Zi8 and a handful of others. More importantly, the current generation of cameras built in to mobile phones, notably iPhone and Blackberry, are likely to shift up taking another huge bite out of the whole dedicated camera market.

Then there’s Cisco’s core business – switching and routing. Coupled with some repercussions of the recent Starent acquisition and Juniper getting serious about the market, I expect some big moves in this space. Juniper will play big and strong. The big dog, Cisco, is going to get rocked back on their heels in some major networking deals in 2010. People will start to think about other options more often before simply choosing Cisco.

Oh, and John Chambers, the Rupert Murdoch of networking, will finally move on. I’ve seen his leadership at Cisco as ineffective in recent years and I expect him to move on, flying off with his golden parachute.

Then we have Yahoo. The worn and beleaguered Yahooligans will continue trickling out the door at every opportunity. There’s still a lot of talent at Yahoo and they are ripe for the picking. They don’t have that many execs left from the old days. Jerry Wang’s departure was really good for Yahoo. Replacing him with Carol Bartz was, IMHO, not a good move. Other than trying to prove her balls by swearing, she’s done nothing that I’d expect from a CEO leading a company. She needs to go. I believe in 2010 she’s out the door. She can take the flying monkees with her too.

Of course there’s Microsoft, the Gorgon with more snakes in its head than Medusa. (Yes, the irony of Gorgons being female is intentional, for a reason…read on). I expect more layoffs at MS. Significantly more. Microsoft is still a very fat company, with plenty of trimming to do. In 2010, I think they’ll do some in the right areas. They’ve missed the mark a time or two with cutbacks, and some course corrections will happen this year. OCS will do well, especially against Cisco. Momentum will gain there.

Most importantly, I think Steve Ballmer will depart. He isn’t good for MS. I think many people feel that way, but nobody says it. I expect him to leave MS and land somewhere equally visible. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s somewhere near either Redwood Shores or Pleasanton in California. ‘Nuff said.

Oh, and MS in an effort to prove they’re not evil and soften their image will place a woman in a very visible leadership role, perhaps Ballmers. We should hope it won’t be Carol Bartz, although she certainly seems to cast a flirtatious eye toward Redmond every now and then.

Yes, there is plenty more if you’re still here. (more…)

We’ve been big fans of location based services for quite some time now. We both think they’re a vital part of the future, but we’ve also had plenty of reason to think about the reality of LBS in our world, privacy concerns, and a number of factors that tie into the general concept.

We were early adopters of Brightkite a long time ago.  We had a few moments of “do we really want the world to know what restaurant we’re at” thoughts. While it’s a bit of a no-brainer for me, as a woman, Sheryl has the random whackaloon stalkers that show up every now and then. I remember an instance in particular that gave us pause to think about how we use those services, and how public to make the information. Brightkite never gained enough critical mass to really catch fire. I was seriously frustrated with it on our recent trip to DC, and have pretty much lost hope for its ongoing success at this point.

Before we move to the others, there’s a sidenote on privacy to consider. The devices we carry, from iPhones and Blackberries, to those we drive, and many we carry are all easily trackable. And these tracking devices can be used for a number of purposes beyond what we’re sold as consumers. For example:

• Did you know your EasyPass toll booth token can easily be used to issue speeding tickets? It tracks the time you pass toll gates, and if you exceed the speed limit, this information is easily passed to law enforcement. Yes, I’ve actually been in conversations where law enforcement agencies talked of this in terms of fully automated revenue generation that the consumer pays for.
• Your cell phone is a GPS device, and it tracks to a pretty fine granularity on the planet. And while the paranoid of the world rant about the boss knowing they’re on the golf course when they’re claiming they’re working, other uses have been explored. The automotive insurance industry has invested a great deal of consideration into mobile phone tracking for the purposes if dynamic insurance rates. Imagine exceeding the speed limit and having your coverage costs go up because your carrier monitors your location in realtime.

Privacy. It’s an illusion. You have no right to privacy. It’s not in the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights or the Constitution. We have no right to privacy. It is an illusion. It’s a courtesy, non an inalienable right. The question with this sort of privacy, and Internet privacy in general is not whether or not we can be seen. We can absolutely be seen. The Internet sees all. Whether or not we’re being watched is a more interesting question that I’ll leave for the conspiracy theorists among us.

The reality is, our location provides good information to the world about us, and sharing it opens the door to the world giving us good information in return.
(more…)

A few weeks ago I wrote about The Yamaha PSG-01S – USB Speakerphone for Skype. After some ongoing use, I’m as satisfied as ever. It’s turning out to be a great tool for conference calls, and lately I’m spending hours every day on those.

In some conversations with other folks testing this, there are some other differentiators that warrant brief mention here -

• The PSG-01S is the only Skype-certified Speakerphone that has a client interface to the hardware supported by Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 at this point. Given early popularity of Windows 7, that’s a point wirht noting.
• The PSG-01S delivers four microphone array for full 360 degree  participation in a call. This speaker array makes it nice for around-the-table calls. And they contribute to echo cancellation and background noise reduction.
• The PSG-01S supports 300 KHz to 20KHz audio for not only local music and voice recording but also for listening to music, podcasts and other audio. On a Skype call, the microphone is spec’d to 7KHz, sufficient for support of wideband audio – but the speaker continues to operate over the 300Hz to 20KHz range. 

On of the points I made in my post was that at a US$249/€199 price point, it was just a touch pricey for many potential customers. That point was taken seriously as many of us made similar comments. Now there’s promotional pricing for the holiday season to December 31, 2009: US$199.90/£179.90/€179.90. Keep in mind that the pricing includes shipping and VAT/sales taxes. .

For those of us testing this unit, it’s been the personal experience and real use in the filed and on the road that’s caught our attention. Many people I’ve talked to find themselves just using it so often it’s become a habit. Sheryl and I sometimes fight over it, moving from one PC to another.

As a result of the positive feedback, In Store Solutions wants to encourage user trials and is extending its return policy so that anyone purchasing during this promotion can return it, shipping prepaid but no questions asked, for a full credit until January 31, 2010. This gives purchasers a chance to make their own mind about the value with no risk.

If you were on the fence, now’s a chance to try one of these out for yourself. You’ll find it under Phones at your local country Skype Store.