Spring VON ended a week ago. I flew back home on Friday and promptly came down with the flu. All week I’ve been recovering, and playing catch-up on assorted work deadlines that my illness had delayed. But finally tonight I have a moment to sit down and reflect on a pretty incredible week for IP Communications and the VON franchise.
The theme for this VON was “the eve of disruption”, and this was the show where I would say the other V in VoIP, that is to say Video, finally shared equal billing with Voice. The Slingbox was front-and-center (and in fact available as a take-home prize to a few hundred fortunate souls of which I am one, but more on that in another post). This device hooks to your cable box, and rebroadcasts your video feed over IP — to other rooms in your house, to your hotel room, to your friends, in fact to anywhere you want it on the internet. But, beyond the slingbox what really blew me away even more was BrightCove’s Industry Perspective talk.
BrightCove is a video broadcast platform for IP video. Think of it as a broadcast station to run your own ipTV station. What it enables it truly amazing. Put your clips up, and the world can come and watch your streaming video. Build a brand, syndicate other video content. Roll your own TV station. And, anyone could do it, even my brother. Check out what these two guys have cooked up at barrio305 (and also here).
Broadcast industry — watch out. The day has come where I as a TV watcher can go to interesting places with just my browser and broadband. The day has come where a garage outfit can reach a viewership. In a word: (massive) disruption. (OK that was cheating cause I snuck in the word massive so it was really two words). The long tail is about to be applied to TV, an area that desperately needs more choice than 150 channels of cable trash.
This was the theme of Jeff Pulver’s kickoff perspective. Jeff went on stage naked without powerpoints, and I think it was one of the most engaging talks I’ve heard him give. He introduced the theme the perfectly, making the segue from Voice-over-IP to pervasive IP communications in an impassioned and at times improvised talk, spinning his 3×5 notecards onto the ground when he was on a roll. He knows disruption is here and he’s loving every minute of it.
Other perspectives of note:
- Richard Notebart, CEO, Qwest — Richard used his session to present a carefully constructed argument for a two-tiered internet, and threw Qwest’s hat in the ring as moving in this direction. I found this ominous, at the same time I respected his style and his courage for travelling to this particular venue to unveil Qwest’s position
- Brough Turner, CTO, NMS — Brough gave a “new” talk, in that he talked about trends he hasn’t touched on before. Mobile. Asia. What happens in society when you have 100% broadband penetration, and true broadband (100mbps symmetrical)
- James Enck – I am like James Enck’s biggest fan. He had a hilarious presentation that started with pictures of people saying “I’m gonna destroy telco” in one way or another. Bill Gates. Niklas Zennstrom with Meg overwriting his words. I was dying laughing, but I noticed not everyone else was and I think I got a few funny looks. Anyway, do not miss James delivering a presentation on the state of telecom.
- David Isenberg’s Dr. Suess poem about net freedom and telling people to come to Freedom to Connect (but that’s also another post) (but, in case it takes me a couple days to get to that post, sign up quick, the event is selling out)
On another note, VON always has a great party and this year was no exception. Check out Jeff’s pics of the Counting Crows. Kellan and some friends from odeo came down, and we had a great time.