October 2008

Squawk Box October 15: The State of Voice 2.0

October 15, 2008

One of the persistent stories making the rounds over the last couple of weeks has been the failure of Voice 2.0 startups. Fierce wireless characterized EQO’s staff cuts reported October 12 as “the latest of the Voice / Phone 2.0 facing imminent disaster”, while techvibes and GigaOm chose a similar tone.

This morning’s discussion was about the state of Voice 2.0, and some of the successes and failures in the space. The Voice 2.0 Manifesto described Voice 2.0 as being driven by directory, presence and a number of other characteristics. Today the simplest way to describe it as the intersection of the Web and voice, because in so many ways the web has the same characteristics as the Voice 2.0 model.

Squawk Box October 15: The State of Voice 2.0 [ 33:47 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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SquawkBox October 14: Election Day in Canada, plus new MacBooks

October 14, 2008

It’s election day here in Canada.  Today on the SquawkBox we talked about the impact of digital media and the web on the election campaign, both here and in the United States where they’ve got a little less than a month to go on their election. After a little bit of good-natured ribbing from my [...]

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On Election Day in Canada, which parties are offering the best digital rights policies?

October 14, 2008

Michael Geist has been doing some amazing work on digital issues during this election campaign. 1. Earlier in the campaign, Michael released the 2008 Copyright Pledge which simply asks candidates to agree to support balanced copyright reform.  You can read the full details of the pledge on his website.  As of election day, the Green [...]

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4 Calliflower Updates

October 12, 2008

You may have noticed some changes to the Calliflower conference call service in the last couple of days.  We’ve made some updates which are designed to improve the experience for our users, and I think you’ll agree that they do! 1. SMS notifications are back.  Now, when you’re invited to a call, and 15 minutes [...]

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Squawk Box October 10: Friday Wrap

October 11, 2008

First up — the economy.  On Wednesday and Thursday, VC’s in the US started to warn their portfolio companies to tighten belts.  Are there safe ports in this storm? Which companies are most likely to crash? BlackBerry Bold quality has been another issue this week.  AT&T have delayed deployment, Orange has dropped deployment, and  the [...]

Squawk Box October 10: Friday Wrap [ 28:28 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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Squawk Box October 9: Regulatory Thursday!

October 10, 2008

InterCarrier compensation battles continue at the FCC. Most recently, Verizon has sent their view.

Guest host Carl Ford takes a look at the last six months of petitions and discussions and ask the question “What is the impact of the election on the commissions decision?”.

Squawk Box October 9 [ 1:07:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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VC Crisis? What VC Crisis?

October 9, 2008

I dropped into the Ottawa Network at the Code Factory last night to hear Shirley Speakman from Ontario’s Ministry of Research and Innovation, Matt Williams from IPeak, and Paul Dawalibi of Montreal’s St. Lawrence Capital (formerly Garage Canada) speak on Seed Funding.  It was well worth attending, although I doubt that Paul’s presentation was as [...]

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Telecom industry also vulnerable.

October 9, 2008

Laura Holson, in yesterday’s New York Times, wrote: Communications companies like AT&T and Verizon have long been considered a safe bet in troubled times. But Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, predicts the economic downturn will take its toll on those companies next year as credit becomes harder to get and customers tighten [...]

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SquawkBox October 8: Touch phone smack down!

October 8, 2008

This morning the news is all about RIM‘s Blackberry Storm. Today is the day that has been officially announced, not that there haven’t been leaks galore. And last week, Nokia announced their MusicXpress 5800. Both touch phones, with music, these devices are designed to go up against Apple‘s iPhone. Each of these phones, and the [...]

Squawk Box October 8 -Touchphone Smackdown [ 41:14 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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The Canadian economy is just fine, thank you.

October 8, 2008

I’ve been reading the paper this morning and thinking about next week’s Canadian election.  I had planned to vote Green.  My rationale? I’m deeply opposed to the Conservative copyright legislation introduced earlier this year; I can’t see Stephan Dion as Prime Minister of Canada; and I like the idea of supporting the Green party because [...]

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