Writer's Notebook - James Rafferty Blog

Writer's Notebook: Creative Blogs

It's been a busy Fall for me and I've been enjoying the transition from the summer here in southeastern Massachusetts.  I got back from a trip last weekend and discovered, much to my surprise and delight, that my friend Pat Bertram, author of Bertram's Blog, had been nominated for a Kreativ Blogger award for her blog AND passed the nomination for that same award and recognition to this blog.  

The award looks like this:  

I'm very pleased to be nominated for this award and it's much more meaningful when it comes from Pat, a blogger and writer who has done a remarkable job in the blogosphere and other social media in leading discussions about writing in a way that builds community among writers and helps us all get better at what we do.  

About six months ago, I recast this blog to focus primarily about writing and travel, with occasional forays into other areas such as personal technology and music.  I still find it hard to make the time to post regularly, but I'll continue to post when I've got thoughts, pictures or other cool discoveries to share.  So, to Pat Bertram and Bertram's Blog, thank you very much.  

Now for the fun part -- passing on the nomination to three other deserving recipients. My stint in the blogosphere has included lots of interaction with both the community of fiction writers and with my many colleagues in the telecommunications industry.  I blog on matters related to Voice over IP for the Dialogic Corporate Blog and like the split of keeping my business blogging mostly separate from this more personally focused blog. 

So what do I like in a blog?  I like people who are innovative and use their diverse backgrounds and expertise to comment on topics in multiple areas, bringing new insights from these connections.  

With that in mind, I'd like to nominate the following blogs for the Kreativ Blogger award:  

Fractals of Change - written by Tom Evslin - I've known Tom since we worked together on fax standards in the early Nineties and he's had a fascinating career and so-called retirement in the time since.  After leaving his post as CEO of Voice over IP startup ITXC, Tom launched his blog.  He comments on a broad range of topics ranging from the high tech world to public policy.  Like me, he is also a writer and self-published a novel a couple of years ago.  His is a fine blog that I enjoy even when his busy real life reduces the number of posts.  

Communications - written by Brough Turner - I've known Brough over ten years and he has typically brought keen insight and a unique slant to whatever catches his eye.  This past year, we've worked together at Dialogic, and it has been fun to be able to talk without the constraint of being competitors in the workplace.  In his blog, he tracks topics such as the pace of broadband development throughout the world and the social implications as people from third world countries suddenly have tools that connect them with the rest of the world.    

Coming full circle, the third blog I'd like to recognize is from a writer that I've gotten to know over the past two years from our online writing group on Gather.com.  The blog is The Paper Tiger, by Other Lisa aka Lisa Brackmann.  Lisa blogs about writing, her cats, life in Venice, California and, most of all, about her many visits to mainland China.  Lisa is a fine writer and her first novel Rock Paper Tiger, set in China, is due out next spring.  In her blog, we get a current view about what's happening in China for real people in places such as bars, restaurants, museums and so on.  It's not political so much as chronicle.  Lisa offers fascinating glimpses from a western perspective into an often hidden country. 

So, I hope my readers will take a moment to check out these blogs and see if you like what you read.  Please let me know what you think or if there are other blogs you think are a good fit for the creative blog criteria I outlined.  Until the next time  . . .

Web 2.0 and Business Communications

TMC Editor Rich Tehrani just published an interview with me in one of the TMC blogs.   The title of the article is a bit misleading, I think, but the content is fine.  

In the interview, I talk about key trends for the year in Voice over IP and related parts of the telecom industry.   I tried to be consistent with my company's view on these matters, but the opinions are my own.  

The article is:  Dialogic: Communications Developers Should Focus on Web 2.0 and Open Source

If it were up to me, a more realistic title would have been:  "Coming soon: Web 2.0 Tools for a Business Near You".   But the TMC editors saw it differently.  

If you have any comments on the interview, let me know.   It also mentions that I'll be speaking at TMC's Communications Developer Conference on September 16 in LA.   My session is called "IMS and ATCA".   If you're in town, please stop by.  

New Article on Voice over IP Gateways

Internet Telephony Magazine, from TMC, has just published an article that I wrote on Voice over IP Gateways.   The article is entitled:  Paving the Way to Next Generation Media and Signaling VoIP Gateways.  

The focus of the article is to review the paths that service providers can take in developing a voice infrastructure that builds on existing circuit based investments, but still supports a way forward in developing new services based on protocols such as the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).  

The particular thrust of the article is to consider the evolving role of the media gateway.   Such gateways typically offer both media translation and some degree of signaling translation.   Going forward, customers will have a variety of choices, which will include distribution of gateway functions among many elements and a more consolidated type of product that is known as an Integrated Media Gateway.  

Speaking In Hawaii on Media and VoIP Signaling

I'm in Hawaii for the Pacific Telecommunications Council, also known as PTC '08.   This is the 2nd time I've attended this conference.   It is set at the very picturesque Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach in Oahu.   

I'll be speaking on January 14 in the afternoon on the topic of "Media and ISUP Signaling Translation for IMS and other Next Gen Networks".   I have found that the nuts and bolts of translating media and signaling are an important part of what is needed to effectively deploy Voice over IP.   I wrote a paper on this topic for the conference and will present it in slide form as part of a Next Generation Platforms session tomorrow.   If you are at the conference, please join us. 

I had a fascinating discussion on where Telecom is going tonight with a woman professor in Telecommunications from Syracuse University.   We were in general agreement that the innovation in Telecom is tending to come from upstarts that change the rules and force the bigger carriers to accelerate the move to new technologies.  As an example, when Vonage started to prove that VoIP was viable, this caused the US cable companies to move from talk to execution in their VoIP strategies.   In a like manner, Apple is proving that an innovative handset can create lots of excitement in a part of the business that many companies view as a commodity item.   As is the case with much innovation, Apple moved into a vacuum and changed the UI experience for phones in a way that is likely to have a far reaching ripple effect.   Too bad that they've tied it to an exclusive with AT&T in the US and not let consumers choose their own wireless phone vendor.   I'm still waiting for more aggressive deployment by carriers of phones that can support both Wifi and 2G/3G; for internet access, the higher bandwidth available via Wifi is a game changer that customers should be allowed to take advantage of. 

As I write, the wind is howling.  We've had pretty good weather the last 2 days, as it has been mostly sunny despite predictions of rain.   There was a downpour overnight last night, but it was followed by morning sun with a mix of clouds.   

Going Online with 3G

As noted in one of my other posts today, I am in Los Angeles on business.   Up until now, my way of connecting to the net would be to look for a WiFi connection and hope for the best.   

Now, I have another way.   A colleague passed on their Sprint 3G card to me.  Voila!  I can now connect to the Net even if Wifi is either not available or only available at cost.   Already, I can see that this is very nice.   Like most techies, I like to be able to connect to the net with a minimum of hassles.   

As I sit here, I'm listening to a speaker from Nokia, who is talking about what he calls the transition to holistic mobility.   Key message: we are in the early days of mobile connectivity, but there is much more to come.   

This is good.  Most of my internet use for business is pretty lightweight, consisting of sending / receiving emails and checking the web; this card is really doing the job. 

For the most part, we are still not yet at the point where my mobile device also has a Wifi access in addition to 3G.  Ideally, both my PC and mobile device (in my case, a Treo) would be able to access both the cell network and the IP network.  We're not quite there, but there are some good signs.   The Iphone has taken steps in this direction, but still does not allow users to run VoIP apps over Wifi, which is purely an artificial restriction.    However, the iPhone web access works over both Wifi and GSM 3G. I can only hope that the bonds between the "dual mode" phones and the US network providers loosen, so that the user can choose which applications they want to run and do so without interference.   

Internet Telephony in LA

It is a clear day in Los Angeles as the Internet Telephony Fall conference begins today.  I got up at 6:30 after a good night's sleep, had breakfast and then headed to the show. 

I spoke on SIP and SS7 to an audience of about 35 people at 10:00 am.   This talk built on themes which I'd previously written about in an article for SIP Magazine earlier this year.    In essence, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) has won the standards wars, but there is a still a lot of Signaling System 7 (SS7) in the network, so there will be a need for carriers to support both SIP and SS7 for years to come.   

As usual, this is a good networking show.  I have already run into many of my friends from the industry here and have also had numerous conversations with new acquaintances.  If you are in the LA area and have an interest in next generation communications, stop by and check it out.   I have a speaker pass, so I'll be roaming  both the show floor and attending conference sessions. 

Interview by Rich Tehrani

A few weeks back, I was speaking the Communications Developer Conference, put on by TMC.   I had a nasty cold while there, but still managed to speak in a one hour session on Media and Signaling Translation, and to take about twenty minutes to talk with Rich Tehrani, the Editor-In-Chief of Internet Telephony magazine.   

We had a pretty wide ranging discussion about Voice over IP industry trends and the product that I manage for Cantata Technology, the IMG 1010 Integrated Gateway, as well as its sister product, the MSP or Multi-Service Platform.   

For a link to Rich's blog and the interview, please go here. 

Speaking about VoIP Signaling Transition

Next week I'll be out in Santa Clara, California to speak at the Communications Developer Conference sponsored by TMC.   The topic will be on Media and Signaling Transitions for IMS and Next Generation Networks.   The date is May 15th.   

TMC was kind enough to provide a press release on the speaking engagement which can be found here.

Lately, I've been writing and speaking on a variety of related topics.   For example, the current issue of SIP Magazine has my article on "Integration of SIP & SS7 for Voice-Over-IP: Opportunities and Challenges".   

Based on the hype, one might believe that nobody is using SS7 anymore and all new networks are fully SIP enabled, but we are actually a long way from this state of affairs.   In fact, SS7 is widely deployed and is a linchpin for a number of services that are widely used such as Caller ID, Local Number Portability and so on.   Hence, there is a real need for products that can translate between SS7 ISUP and SIP.   My company Cantata provides such a product, the IMG 1010 (for which I am the product manager), and there are other vendors as well.  However, as the article notes, the features of media and signaling translation are often handled in separate devices, which generally adds to the overall cost for a carrier.   

Next week I'll speak for one hour on this topic and cover a variety of network scenarios for media and signaling translation, including use on the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and on other non-IMS networks.   I hope you can join us in sunny Santa Clara. 

Cloudy Day in San Jose

I got into San Jose last night to attend the VON show here.   It was rainy this morning, but is supposed to be clearer later.   I'm staying at the Sainte Claire, which is a really cute old style hotel, just across from the Convention Center.  It has in-room WiFi and other amenities like sitting rooms with brown leather furniture; pretty cool.   

After breakfast on the go at the little Italian eatery here, got my badge and went to the keynote by Jeff Pulver, venture capitalist Vinod Khosia and the master of telecom disruption, Niklas Zennstrom from Skype.   All of them seemed to be in agreement that IP Communications is in the process of changing yet again, as the widespread penetration of broadband is now making the addition of features like video as a media type possible and many companies are going out and seeking to innovate in both VoIP and related spaces.   Zennstrom showed the broad penetration of new apps for Skype, which has shown remarkable dexterity in the last year or so as a platform for innovation.  While the IMS community is talking about new services, the Skype community is making it happen, today.   There was also the interesting note that Skype can now be used to send money; this is one of the fruits of the EBay ownership, since Skype has been integrated with Paypal to produce this service, which should be a popular one between countries.      

Later in the show (Thursday the 22nd at 1:00), I'm on an pretty hot panel where we'll be looking at IMS vs. Peer to Peer for VoIP.  The participants include Jonathan Christensen from Skype, along with Moderator Stephane Teral of Infonetics, Ken Osowski from Pactolus and Frank Salm from Sylantro.   Hope to see you there. 

Miami Bound - Voice Peering Forum Coming Up

I'm taking time out from the theme of my last few posts (on the first novel contest at gather.com) to make note of my next trip. 

Starting Wednesday March 7, I'll be at the Miami version of the Voice Peering Forum.   I will be speaking on a panel Thursday on Routing and Peering using Session Border Controllers and Media Gateways.   From what I can see, I'll be holding down the fort for the Media Gateway camp, as my other colleagues on the panel seem to be from the SBC side.   

This should be a good event.  I went to the December VPF in Los Angeles.   The attendees are predominately carriers as are the VPF members themselves.  My company Cantata Technology sells enabling technology such as Media Gateways and Media Servers to carriers, so the show is a good fit.  We'll also have a tabletop exhibit.   

In the meantime, it is 8 degrees out in the Boston area, so a few days in Miami Beach has its attractions.  Time to get out the florally decorated Hawaiian shirts and dig up some of my summer wardrobe.   I hope to get some pictures while I am there.