IMS - The Fruits of the Devil?

I attended an eye opening session with nortel recently on the next great thing for network architecture - IMS - IP Multimedia Subsystems.

I have read a bit on the subject, and initially was under the impression that it was all about converged communications. Regardless of access type, IMS would offer the ability to put applications right on the network, and have them accessible from any device, be it cell, VoIP, TV, laptop, anything. IMS would allow you to travel from different networks seamlessly. From landline to Wireless LAN to cell and back again.

Yes, IMS does that, but those things are just neat little features that are value-adds to the real technology.

IMS is all about the core network being smart enough, and tied so tightly to applications that it allows the network to become application aware. Now the network is USER aware, and protocol aware.

What does this mean? This means the network can very tightly control packets. IMS knows what kind of packets are on the network, set prioritization based on the types of packets, and even prioritization by end-user or content provider. The sneakiest component of IMS is the “Policy Management Component”. This section was just glossed over in the session, but warning bells immediately went off in my head. POLICY MANAGEMENT. Now the network can automatically discriminate and control my bits. They can control content provider bits. They can differentiate on ANYTHING and ANYONE.

All this is under the marketing umbrella of “convergence, personalization, presence, follow me phone services, video on demand, IPTV, multimedia rich content able to go to any device.” IMS sounds like a pretty neat architecture, enabling these services.

Wait a minute. I can have ALL of those features right now. Without an IMS network. For Free. From neat content providers who make neat things. My Primus home phone can follow me anywhere. My Microsoft Media centre can integrate with my primus phone service and I can interact with my phone on my TV if I want. I have a web cam, I can do web messaging. My buddy list follows me everywhere, even to my cell phone. I could use Skype for voice services and have it integrate with a zillion other things, and I could use Slingbox to get TV when I want it, where I want it. IMS will come with carrier specific features. Features you are going to have to pay for. Features that you can get now, for free. The carrier specific features likely aren’t going to be of the same calibre as the applications that are being created by innovative individuals right now. Think Web 2.0 apps. Think AJAX and XML. Carriers will be able to squash independent application development and propagation, and replace the current innovative applications with their own IMS applications. IMS allows carriers to emulate the Cable TV networks, where content providers have to pay an arm and a leg to enable distribution of their content to the end users.

IMS isn’t about converged services. IMS is about POLICY CONTROL. All those neat little features are just disguising the real impetus behind the technology. Once the network knows who you are and what your bits are doing, they can enforce user policies on what your bits are and what you can do with those bits. Full stop. Carriers can effectively shut down independent content providers, forcing end users to use THEIR applications, or no applications at all.

To learn more about IMS, and what the differing components are, I have embedded links of interest above, and created the following list:


1. Paranoid about IMS: http://www.voip-magazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1374
2. Nortel’s IMS Learning Centre: http://www2.nortel.com/go/solution_content.jsp?segId=0&catId=0&parId=0&prod_id=52540
3. Light Reading’s IMS Tutorial: : http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=70728

technorati tags:IMS, IP Multimedia Subsystems, nortel, Policy Management, net neutrality, skype, slingbox, convergence

Building Credibility in Blogging?

One of the topics I'm wrestling with is the ability or the requirement to build reputation and credibility in the blogosphere. How does one go from zero to 60 in respectibility points? Is it something that can happen over the course of time, or is it something that has to be acquired, rather than home grown?

By acquired, I'm referring to "borrowing" respectibility in other writers, guest posters, folks who "already have the badge of credibility"?
Is it about what your bio looks like? Is it about the profound things you've said before or posted elsewhere?

How does a corporate blog create credibility and reputation? Stick with me on this...


Technorati Tags: Corporate Blogging, credibility, respectibility, reputation, creed

You Remind Me of a Man

You remind me of a man.

What Man?

The man of power.

What Power?

The power of Voodoo.

Voodoo?

You do!

Do What?

You remind me of a man….

Really, Jorge made me do it

technorati tags:voodoo, floobergeist

Beta Testing the New Dining Room

Last night the wiz and I had our first official dinner event. It was essentially a beta test of the new place, and specifically the dining room. We invited over Mr and Mrs K. Mr K used to work with the wiz and I in previous lives and now he works here.

Mrs K used to work at Telus Mobility and now she’s the head web master and owner of yorkregionbaby.com. It was quite an evening full of shop talk, comparisons of managers, becoming a stay-at-home domain name squatter, hilarity over how small the tech and telecom industries are in canada, and the lack of good childcare resourses in York Region. And the recycling! I recycled 5 empty wine bottles this morning. Mrs K and I highly recommend trying the Vidal Blanc Icewine but be careful, it can sneak up on you rather nastily ;-)

A good time was had by all, despite the fact that nothing got slopped. Next time!

technorati tags:telus, oracle, allstream, yorkregionbaby.com, Vidal Blanc Ice Wine

Wednesday Rant

What better way to get over hump day than a little tyrade?

Can i tell you how tired I am of rain? How about cell phones that ring at 8 am? Guys who need to talk about their hockey pool incessantly? You'd think they were budding Mark Cuban types.

Oh, and there's a Honda CRV that has been parked on my street, across from my driveway for the past 8 days now. It hasn't mvoed once, but it's come very close to being backed into. I'm to the point that if it does't move in the next 24 hours, it may need to be towed away.

Who am I kidding, i don't have much to rant about ;-)

technorati tags:rant, rain, ringing cell phones

Making a Whitelabel Wholesale VoIP Solution

How would you make this beast? it changes shape hourly. Yesterday it was consumer focused, with enhahnced communications features, and no requirement for the last mile, as the service provider would piggyback off existing internet services. Today it’s facilities based (meaning I have to come up with the last mile), and it’s got a decidedly business focus, with a hosted IP PBX component, DIDs and LD. Plus it’s got to be dead easy to replicate, and has to be able to service hundreds of wholesale customers, and THEIR customers. It’s got to be turn-key and positive revenue generating. I like the looks of Fonality, but I’m not sure how easy it is to implement as a wholesale offering. Alec Saunders has a great folder full of Fonality info that I’m going through now.

The market is clammoring for something easy. Something plug and play that doesn’t take 9 months to roll out. Something to stem the loss of subscribers that are jumping to free, and/or suspicious quality internet only plays.

Is anyone in Canada doing this? Ideally, I’d like to create this solution from canadian-made technology. Hints would be appreciated - suggestions adored.

technorati tags:VoIP, IP-PBX, whitelable VoIP

StarWars and IMS

I picked out the nugget I liked, you need to read the article to get the Star Wars Reference ;-)




Open Gardens: Of Sith lords and the dark side of IMS

It (IMS) attempts to capture the flexibility and ubiquity of Internet Protocol whist ditching much of the Internet's design philosophy.Thats spot on! The Internet succeeded precisely because it was designed as a dumb pipe with the intelligence concentrated around the periphery. In other words, intelligent nodes and dumb pipes go together. 'Dumb pipes' means : all packets are created equal. There is no intelligence in the network, only in the nodes.IMS uses IP , BUT adds some intelligence in the network because it does NOT treat all packets equally.IMS promises to improve the quality of service, reduce SPAM, provide better quality rich applications(such as video) and so on. The often hidden caveat of this promise is the understanding that packets may not all be treated equally. In financial terms, it translates to premium prices for premium connectivity.

Technorati Tags: IMS, SITH, Net Neutrality

Interesting Google Mashups - Palomino

I was lucky enough to get to see a demo yesterday of one of the neatest Google Mashups ever. EVER. Palomino Systems is working on MANY cool applications, but I was able to see one of their coolest by far.  That being said, there was also an NDA involved with the demo - and that means I’m unable to say too much abot it.  Suffice it to say, people will take to this like a duck on water. Like a dog on a T-Bone.

Sorry - when they launch, I’ll be able to say “I saw it first”.  ;-)  Trust me, you will love it.

technorati tags:Palomino, Google Mashup

IE 7 Goes to the Mat with Firefox, Can Trailfire Mediate?

Someone who shall remain nameless upgraded to IE7 on Day 1. On Day 2, his helpdesk managed to get him out of the slippery slope he found himself in. Myself, I chug happily along, sharing the love of Firefox. Until today. I bit the bullet and tried out IE7 on an older, its-ok-if-it-gets-screwed-up computer. And it was interesting. Not exactly good, but interesting nonetheless.

I missed the extensions that I have plugged into Firefox. I missed the snappy themes, the customizable searchabilty, the hotkeys that seem to make so much sense. Oh the blog integration, and the photo integration is still always going to be superior. I like the ability in IE to breeze through all my open tabs, just like one would with PowerPoint, but that’s likely because I am a Powerpoint whore. ;-)

Really, it does indeed come down to the Extensions. No, they AREN’T Add-ins. Add-ins are like remote relatives, nice to see once in a while, but they never get the hint on when to leave… and even after they are gone, there are traces of them around for ages that you need to clean up after.

The one snappy extension/add-in that seems to bridge the gap between both browsers is Trailfire.

Trailblazer plays double duty as both a Firefox Extension; Internet Explorer 7 add-on. In either browser, Trailfire dances right along, capturing the best of both camps, and may be the first smart extension that doesn’t care what browser you use, you can still play along with the rest of the kids.

Trailfire is the first to actually make use of “notes” on websites. Notes that other folks can see, engage with and follow. It opens the door to serious collaboration, and at the same time, there’s nothing stopping the insane from leaving a blaze of flames across your site. It will be interesting to see the impacts of such a viral, social service.

 

For this one, I might even switch from Flock

technorati tags:IE 7, Firefox, Trailfire, Flock

Electric Fruit

Fruit Powered Clock - It’s Alive!

The fruit clock is a digital clock/calendar powered by fruit. While emulating the original battery invented by Alessandro Volta over 200 years ago that utilized lemon juice, the creation of whole fruit in the mid-1900s has allowed the experiment to be perfected with artistic flare.

The kit includes jumper wires, time display, rubber stop and frame for its $14.95 pricetag. And don’t feel bad while people are starving in the world as you destroy the food supply for a “conversation piece”. You read Gizmodo, and are therefore a decent person (though you probably smell a little funny, honestly). – Mark Wilson

Product Page [via newlaunches]

technorati tags:Electric Fruit

Canadian Military Scrambles to Fill Boots?

The military is lowering its fitness standards for new recruits and moving training and administrative personnel into combat units.

O’Connor says military ‘scrambling’ to find soldiers for Afghanistan

Imagine thinking you had a nice, cushy, relatively safe admin job with the Canadian Military. One day, poof, you are handing out soccer balls in Afghanistan. Silly Canadian military. Changing the fitness standards, so more people could enlist? Military standards are standards for a reason, methinks. Perhaps this could be a wake up call. If no one wants to fight, maybe Canada won’t have to fight any more?

Can we have a new election now, please?

technorati tags:Canada, Military, Harper, Reduced Fitness Standards

Harder to Deposit Than You Think

I was awarded a cheque on Thursday.

A “really big” cheque…. No, I wasn’t counting the number of digits. It was four feet long, and presented by Karen Radford.

It was one of those nifty things that you don’t really expect. A good cheque.

Karen joined us at a sales rally, and managed to engage the entire wholesale division for 2 hours on various topics, from Net Neutrality to Income trusts. This is one VERY smart chick. This was my first meeting with her, and I am convnced I could have listened to for days. Did I mention how smart she was? Engaging? Down to earth? Disarming?

Wow.

technorati tags:Karen Radford

Find Your Carnival and Get Your Blog On

What an outstanding idea!

Darren Rowse at ProBlogger has stumbled and shared the most interesting concept - Blog Carnivals.

As far as I can tell, it’s like a very focused forum, and a travelling road show, all in on. What a way to build traffic, awareness and create good conversations!.

What is a Blog Carnival?

A Blog Carnival is a particular kind of blog community. There aremany kinds of blogs, and they contain articles on many kinds of topics.Blog Carnivals typically collect together links pointing to blogarticles on a particular topic.A Blog Carnival is like a magazine. It has a title, a topic, editors,contributors,and an audience. Editions of the carnival typicallycome out on a regular basis (e.g. every monday, or on the first of themonth). Each edition is a special blog article that consistsof links to all the contributions that have been submitted, often withthe editors opinions or remarks.

technorati tags:blog carnival

A Sign of Internet Stupidity... Utube vs YouTube

YouTube Newbies Clog UTube.com
Flood of traffic caused by a domain-name homophone shuts down an Ohio tube and rollform equipment site.October 13, 2006If the Internet really was a series of pipes and tubes – as U.S. Senator Ted Stevens famously suggested earlier this year – then Ohio-based Universal Tube and Rollform Equipment Corp. would have been well positioned to handle all the internet traffic it received this week following Google’s eye-opening acquisition of video sharing site YouTube.

As it turns out, the Internet is really a series of cables and routers and the Ohio company, which sells used and remanufactured machinery to make pipes and tubes, was ill-prepared for the flood of traffic it received on its utube.com website. Ralph Girkins, president of Universal Tube and Rollform Equipment Corporation, said traffic to his site shot through the roof over the past week as huge numbers of confused YouTube wannabes logged on to the internet to check out all those videos they’d heard about on the news. Internet users continued to surf his site looking for videos as late as Friday, and some seemed unable to understand they had reached the wrong website. On Friday alone, Mr. Girkins received more than 100 emails from people asking where the videos were on utube.com.

RED HERRING | YouTube Newbies Clog UTube.com

Funny, the fact that the great unwashed Internet actually emailed the poor, hapless owner of utube.com to ask where the videos where. As if the front page of the website didn’t clue the visitors that they may simply be at the wrong destination. I would think that landing at the Universal Tube and Rollform Equipment site would be a hint that you had the wrong address. Silly internet people.

technorati tags:utube, youtube

Blogged with Flock

When You are Too Angry to Blog

It must be a sign that i’m growing up, when I’m even too angry to blog about a subject, an unjustice, or a ridiculous notion. I suppose it’s a good thing. Life Lesson Number 26: Beer, anger and blogging never mix.

Suffice it to say, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me….

We are at strike one, and right now, I’m not convinced that there can be an opportunity for a strike 2.

technorati tags:Anger, Compensation

The Influencers - Canada's Take on PayperPost?

Welcome to The Influencers - Canada's Word of Mouth Community. You've landed on your personalized My Campaigns Page. In this area, you've got privileged access to join and participate in Word of Mouth Campaigns, earn Influence points for your honest opinions and involvement, access fresh content on interests you care about, share your knowledge with the rest of the Influencer community & track your development as an Influencer.

The Influencers: Canada's Word of Mouth Community

Hmmm, leave it to the Canucks to come up with a decent, "canadian flavoured", word of mouth advertising application.  Instead of just getting paid to say what advertisers want you to say, you are rewarded with "influence points".  Points that are then redeemable, or that you can donate to the charity of your choice.  It's an interesting concept, and one that will likely cause less of a revolt in the blogosphere. I'll keep you posted on my "influence" status.

technorati tags:The Influencers, PayPerPost, Canada, Influence