Canadian Conferencing.

Canada continues to show its strong telecom roots - this time leading the way in the next wave of voice conferencing. Yes, voice conferencing. What's old seem to be new again. Dare I say, Conferencing 2.0? No.

Two start-ups, located on opposite sides of that vast country, made news this week. Iotum - led by a group of overly passionate VoIP preachers - made a splash on Facebook this week by holding the first ever conference call launched out of Facebook itself. Now that I have officially lost 20 years and joined Facebook myself, I can see that this is a killer app among many we will see from inside the pages of Facebook this year and next.

Focused similarly on the industry-old problem that making a conference call is too difficult, the founders of Gaboogie are launching Lypp (into Beta) this month, a voice conferencing service that will leverage simple interfaces like IM (including mobile) to make collaborating from anywhere - with anyone - simpler. And Lypp will call you. No dial-in numbers, no PIN's. Brilliant. Read more about it here.

I seem to writing a lot about Canada these days. Could it be time to go home? No, again.

Fog-ust is over.

The sun is setting - we hope - on Winter here in San Francisco. The days of morning, afternoon and evening fog are giving away to just morning and evening. Some days none at all.

Only since I moved to San Francisco have I actually looked forward to Fall. Putting kids back into school doesn't hurt either.

For anyone who has never been here but would like to, the next 60 days are it.

My Big Video Day

What a day for video conferencing. At least in my life. This morning I caught up with Peter Csathy, CEO of SightSpeed - a superb IPVT start-up in Berkley - and got a heads up on his new 'For Business' solution. Some early details can be found here. Looks to me like they have hit the sweet spot by delivering collaboration features that SMB's need at prices they can afford. Worth a try for anyone who hasn't yet.

This afternoon I met with Tandberg, a leading manufacturer of enterprise video conferencing solutions. In fact, as of just recently, now the leader in market share. Ahead of Polycom. Wow - what a user experience. It was like being next door. The meeting I had with them was without question one I would have normally travelled 5,000 miles for. Not necessary. Sorry, United Airlines, not this week.

Video continues to emerge.

Maybe it's true that the PBX is dead. At least the term.

I was lucky some 15 years ago. Almost by accident, I ended up selling phone and voice mail systems for a wonderful, family-run communications company. Multinet Communications, the company was and - after 20 years in business - still is called (a feat in itself). I 'cut my teeth' as they, selling PBX's and it's accessories as various ones came to market. But the term PBX was central to everything we did and and everything we sold.

Fast forward to last year when an industry veteran - Pat Howard (serial CEO) - told me in no uncertain terms that the term as we knew it was on its way out. Unified Communications would replace it, particularly once MSFT arrived in the space. I remember being unsure which I had more trouble believing; that PBX would be no longer or that Microsoft would sit firmly in the telecom world. Well - and I should know better to trust Pat - I can confirm from my visit to VoiceCon this week that both are indeed fact now.

VoiceCon was the purest 'Voice' show I've ever attended and I could not find the letters PBX (together) anywhere. UC are today's letters. There may be many foot soldiers out there who disagree but the marketing people have surely moved on. PBX is no more. One less acronym for which I have to pretend to know the meaning of.

GotVMail Gets Going - Inc. 500

A quick congratulations to my friends (and recent clients) over at GotVMail. Inc. 500 announced their Fastest Growing list and GotVMail landed at 66. Not bad for a couple of twenty-somethings in Boston. Having been around them, I can tell you that they have earned it.

In these times of 'Unified-this' and 'VoIP-that', GotVMail has stuck to the basics in chasing the small business prize. Simple, easy-to-buy, easy-to-use services that deliver an immediate and tangible impact on the customer's business. For a very small business, sounding big can mean more than most people think.

The virtual pbx space is a very crowded one but somehow, GotVMail has managed to stay way above the fold. Nice going.

Canada is still Great. And still Cold.

When I left Montreal 10 years ago, it was not because of the weather. And it could have been, surely. After all the winter – with its sub-zero temperatures – goes well into extra innings while summer just drops in for a cup of coffee. Worse though is the unpredictable nature of the weather. The weathermen don’t stand a chance; they are about as adored as dentists.

Conversely now, the weather would most probably stop me from moving back. I just visited a most beautiful part of Quebec – referred to as the Eastern Townships – and the temperatures ranged from 40 to 60 degrees on three of the days. It reminded me what separates a cool August day in Quebec from a foggy (and equally cool) day in the Bay Area. In Quebec, we panic when it’s cold in August as we calculate the days left before real cold takes over. In the Bay Area though, we grin and look ahead to better weather to come. Imagine - we get to look forward to winter. The weather Gods are forever against you up North.

Weather aside, I still love Canada and very proudly tell people it is my place of birth. It’s a friendly nation that, more than anywhere in the world, looks after its own. I have often thought that if we could mix a little of the US (i.e. customer service) with Canada (i.e. not classifying maternity leave as a disability), we would have pretty special place. Never going to happen.

Too many Americans don’t visit Canada. You’re missing out.

Life without Skype.

Wow. A Skype meltdown. While I was buried in the Canadian woods with only dial-up to choose from – which I chose against – Skype finally went down. Microsoft mistake, it seems.

While I was sheltered from the meltdown, millions other were not so lucky. Bad timing, really. Skype and its partners are increasingly trying to convince business users that they are more than just a family and friends solution. But in business, we have little – if any – patience for service interruptions. If we can’t put up with dial up anymore, we certainly can’t be without our dial tone.

As an offshoot, it has been fascinating to watch as competitors move without hesitation to take advantage of others’ failures. AT&T win-backs from Vonage. Everybody soaking up SunRocket’s customers. SightSpeed and others reaching out immediately to Skype users. Sometimes we forget that the Internet is in fact a double edge sword; it enables to business to both win and lose at warp speeds.

Mr. Chambers has spoken.

When John Chambers speaks, people listen. (For the life of me, I cannot remember the company that used to run that ad campaign.) But if Cisco (Cisco entering new boom period) sees the future as bright, all seems good in the Valley. It's different from when the mock turtle-necked Apple Boy speaks, because so much of Cisco's business lives and dies on B-B deal flow. And while Apple is a shining example of how an already large technology can innovate its way into new markets, John Chambers has vision - coupled with sheer determination - like no one else.

What caught my attention most about what he said this week, was what he didn't say. This wasn't a growth rant about the Internet and its traffic. This was about voice, video and other Web 2.0 services. Nice - voice and video in the same breath as Web 2.0.

When I look back to around 2000, I'm not sure Cisco could have planned it any better. They have the product and services to lead every growth area - especially voice and video - and increasingly have the channel organization to become a broadly trusted source in the race to win the SMB. Their acquisitions, large and small, will pay off nicely. From Orative (voice mobility apps) to WebEx, they got it all. Not to mention a little thing called telepresence.

I so want to believe in this pending boom period. Then I go to dinner with guys working in 50 people-deep start-ups with no revenue. Time will tell. But for the moment, life in the telecom lane is good.

The Shot Heard Around the Bay.

Finally. A regularly tested Barry Bonds hit 756. The powers that be may have preferred it took a little longer (read as: Park will be empty now) but supporters and the anti-Barrys are surely happy it's over. Ironically, I only knew it happened because of the thunder-like noise out my window last night. That it never thunders here tipped me off. Frankly, I was busy preparing for own celebration - packing my kids to leave to see their grandparents in Canada - so I missed the live version. SportsCenter did replay for me 47 times though.

Barry's made his own bed as it relates to the less than friendly welcome he gets from around the country, but from where I sit, I see a 43 year-old still capable of hitting 30 homers a years and freezing 40,000 people when he comes to bat. Innocent until proven guilty, and even if guilty, this is one spectacle I consider myself lucky to be a part of.

Next up: What will the ball be worth? A 22 year-old guy from New York will surely never forget this trip by the Bay. And, of course, where will he play next year...

Can you make a conference call?

Growing up in Canada, there was really only one phone company. Bell. Even when long distance de-regulated, there was always a bastion of buyers (affectionately called BellHeads) who just wouldn't go elsewhere, no matter how much you could save them on a phone call. It seems the same can still be said about conference calling. To this day, many a telco counts conferencing among its dwindling stable of high-margin services, not withstanding the less costly (free) service options that abound.

Well, if free is not enough, maybe ease of use and productivity features will be. A whole slew of like services have recently come to market. SmallBizResources reviewed Foonz this week, a free 'Group' calling service that makes it easy to send messages to multiple phones at once. More importantly, it includes a package that targets today's complicated process that is making conference calls from your mobile phone. My only beef - it's easiest only when the group includes other cell phone numbers. Just the same, it's an excellent step towards merging Web 2.0 with Telecom 1.0 (which is probably a generous term for the days when monopolies prevailed).

Conference calling is the all time killer collaboration app, and finally multiple start-ups are giving it an upgrade. Also check out Gaboogie (the conference call that calls you - and is Canadian) and Radio-Handi (that promises the advent of flat-rate monthly packages). Both of these were built by industry veterans with track records.

So when overpriced or under-featured conferencing is no longer good enough, I suggest giving your money to those that are innovating. Give these a shot and tell me what you think.

Wrigley Wrocks!

This says it all. For a life long baseball fan - and one relegated to endless days of BBB (Barry Bonds Baseball) - spending a night at Wrigley Field is a reminder of what baseball is really about. And while PacBell Park (now named, but not known as AT&T Park) counts among the prettiest in baseball, a Cubs game on a steamy Mid-West evening is in a league of its own.

Remarkably small and compact, you can walk around this stadium's four city blocks in 10 minutes. Wrigley is more than a baseball park; it's a culture. You don't have to like baseball or even know who's playing. Just absorb the steep history around you, the sheer beauty and colossal strength of the building and, with a strong stomach in tow, a polish sausage covered in more than seems necessary.

Every city should be so lucky to have a shrine like this where once inside, race, political orientation, net worth and even team allegiance don't matter. At Wrigley, all is well with the world.

Thanks to my good friend Keith for bringing me to a real baseball game. Go Cubbies!

Voice 2.0 in Chicago?

Thirty months can be a long time to work at anything, except maybe when it ends with a large money transfer from VC's nibbling at their piece of the 'new voice' pie. Ifbyphone, a wonderful company located in the distant (at least for telecom) land of Chicago, announced a closed round of financing this week.

I was fortunate enough to be present during some of the 30 months since Irv Shapiro decided that building telecom applications wasn't just for telco guys anymore - or the enterprise for that matter. More than anything I have seen so far, Ifbyphone brings the web world into the telephony one and with it a whole new set of distribution channel opportunities.

Great product and vision notwithstanding, raising money in Chicago for a
voice play was not for the faint of heart. It was indeed a fresh reminder
of why more companies move to or get started in the Bay Area - it's still where the money is. All the more reason to believe that ifbyphone is doing something special.

Congratulations to Irv, Josh, Cindy and everyone else at ifbyphone. You earned it.