I spent yesterday at the pre-show for ETel. This truly is a VoIP hacker-fest. Part way through the day, for example, someone came running out with a Treo running a Linux shell.
There are a lot of old friends, and new faces here. For instance, I had dinner with Phil Wolff from SkypeJournal. We had a spirited discussion about the future role of the incumbents in a Voice 2.0 world. How long, I asked, until they are simply resellers for content coming from the portal players?
I also ended up in a deep discussion of identity with John Todd, and some folks proposing a new identity standard.
The next two days are looking very meaty, and very interesting. The focus here is a contrast to the other VoIP shows I attend (VON, and IT Expo). This event is very much about the possibilities of emerging VoIP apps — tomorrow vs today.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
