Posted 10:01 p.m. by Jim Courtney

When reviewing business business plans investors want to know "What is your sustainable competitive advantage"? For technology companies this is always associated with some unique technology -- but, hold it -- hasn't the development of more efficient devleopment tools made it easy to "reproduce" software?

The real answer requires a look at the entire business proprosition -- management team, potential partnerships, networking contacts, market strengths, etc. Alec Saunders has put "sustainable competitive advantage" into its proper perspective when looking at why Firefox will not displace MS Internet Explorer in the overall market. He outlines five factors to consider:

- Cross-functional excellence
- Sustainable business models
- Stakeholder focus
- Corporate culture
- People

In the end its the how you manage and present the mosaic of people, teamwork, customer focus, commitment to a mission, service delivery as well as the technology that build a sustianable competitive advantage.

Posted 9:33 p.m. by Jim Courtney

Over the past few months I have been involved in the development of a new Personal Business Communications service that will combine Instant Messaging/Presence, Audio Conferecing and WebConferencing in a highly secure, highly user-friendly environment.

One of the questions that arises is "What do we really mean by Presence?" MSN Messenger allows us to indicate our "presence status" via seven pre-determined descriptions. But within a WebArrow web conferencing session, the Meeting Control window indicates presence in the meeting through (i) our Login Name (or email address) and (ii) what services each participant is currently using (Desktop Viewing/Sharing, audio status (VoIP or, with one of their OEM clients, traditional TDM/POTS), File Sharing and Chat.

But in this newest service (that includes WebArrow for Web Conferencing) the Instant Messaging/Presence window allows us to indicate one of three states: Online/Away/Do Not Disturb -- but, should we want to provide additional information, there is also an optional In/Out Status indicator where the user can arbitrarily provide a general indication [In/Out/Around/@Lunch/@Loo/] or whatever brief descriptor we want to leave; for those who want to provide more information they can leave it in a full In/Out board to state where one can be reached, time of return and even a text Note.

So what is Presence? Well another perspective can be found in a discussion on Telapocalypse; Alec Saunders comments that "Presence, today, is an artificial construct for a very real world problem - how do I let people know whether I am available?"

Go, figure!

Posted 7:06 a.m. by Jim Courtney

This RSS thing is exploding. Traffic via RSS feeds is doubling monthly. So what is it? and how does it become a socialization engine?

Dave Winer (one of the pioneers in weblogging) has started a site devoted to the community of people who create and use RSS - to explain RSS to non-technical personal. He starts off by building a definition that shows how a single format can explode into an entire community builder:

RSS is...
1. A format.
2. Content management tools that generate feeds in the format.
3. Aggregators and readers that subscribe to the feeds.
4. Search engines and utilities that crunch the information and ideas.
5. Services from technology companies like Microsoft and Apple.
6. Authoritative publications like the BBC, The New York Times, CNET, InfoWorld, PC World, Time, Wired, Salon, Yahoo, Reuters -- that distribute news and opinion in RSS.
7. Many thousands of weblogs covering virtually every aspect of life on this planet.
8. A vast and growing community of thinkers, writers, educators, public servants, and technologists.

The revolution of RSS is what people are doing with it, what it enables, the way it works for people who use technology, the freedom it offers, and the way it makes timely information, that used to be expensive and for the select-few so inexpensive and broadly available.

RSS is the next thing in Internet and knowledge management. It's big. A lot bigger than a format.

This is the inaugural post for a new website devoted to the community of people who create and use RSS. It's just a beginning.

Let's have fun!

Then Robert Scoble talks about how RSS is becoming a community socialization tool:

It also does something even more crazy than that, though. It builds community. In a way that opening a Web forum or joining a newsgroup never has. Why is that? Because people love being noticed. Dave Sifry, founder of Technorati, told me once that getting a link is like receiving a gift. It's a social gesture.

We live in a world where communications is divided along the lines of asynchronous and synchronous activities. RSS is rapidly becoming the engine driving personalized asynchronous communications; look for VoIP services to become the engine driving enhanced personalized synchronous communications.

Posted 11:29 a.m. by Jim Courtney

While there are many reasons to be proud to be a Canadian, I have long felt that Canadians with a strong "nationalist" sentiment have had their hearts misplaced when it comes to supporting national institutions. This past week three events in Canada have demonstrated that technology, and specifically Internet technology, will trump misplaced nationalism every time. This is the second in a series of three postings bringing awareness of the changes that are coming.

eCommerce: Two years ago Amazon launched an operation targeted at the Canadian market (note I did not say "a Canadian business in the traditional sense"). Canadian booksellers ranted and, in their emotional fury, came together to launch a lawsuit. It was especially galling since the Seattle-based Amazon.ca "operation" had cleared their intent with Heritage Canada to ensure they were on the legal side of Canadian bookseller law and contracted a Canadian Crown Corporation, Canada Post, to distribute product. But they did not set up any employees in Canada nor open any physical office. The entire operation is run out of Amazon's headquarters in Seattle. There is lots of history of non-Canadian businesses setting up Canadian-based logistics contractors to handle delivery to Canadian addresses; this came in very handy recently when I had to order a new backup battery for my PC's power backup device -- got it the day after placing the order from a warehouse based in Mississauga.

I was pleased to see Amazon.ca arrive as Amazon.com often had books which could not be found in Canada or had unrealistic delivery times. Like many others, I would pay the premium on delivery charges just to have the relevant book in a timely manner. Finally the delivery and customs issues associated with ordering from Amazon.com were being addressed. Internet technology had once again eliminated business limitations imposed by geographical boundaries.

Yesterday, in a single article in the National Post, it came out in the news that the Canadian booksellers had dropped their lawsuit. (Note - this link may require a paid registration; when the story appears elsewhere I will fix this.) Why? Aside from the legal costs, it was becoming apparent that Canadian authors were starting to get much wider distribution of their works through Amazon's worldwide operations ... low cost distribution well beyond Canadian boundaries. The Canadian publishers and distributors of these books did not want to lose their newfound business.

As an aside. according to the same article, it seems that Chapters/Indigo is doing just fine, thank you, in both their physical bookstores as well as their online business. Amazon.ca brought the competition necessary to trigger Chapters/Indigo to become a more effective physical and online bookselling operation.

I have often felt that our restrictive Canadian cultural policies have done more to hinder the spread of Canadian culture than to encourage it. Sure, we have the rare breakthrough with a Shania Twain or Celine Dion but what about all those other Canadians who would love to share their talents with others around the world. When are we going to be able to see CBC (and/or CTV and/or Global, etc.) on satellite channels in the U.S. or elsewhere? Promote and Sell Canada! Maybe Heritage Canada should be focusing on the external promotion of Canadian culture instead of how to restrict Canadians' access to various cultures emanating from around the world.

Oh, and as a more appropriate outlet for showing your Canadian nationalism, support our Olympic athletes in Athens this summer!

May 31 Update: It is interesting to note that the dropping of the lawsuit story only appeared once in the National Post; there is no press release at the Canadian Booksellers Association website and the only follow up story appeared last Thursday in the Toronto Star. Seems like the failure of Canadian policy is not something that sells newspapers. At the same time I find several Canadian news channels are relying on Amazon.ca for tracking BestSeller lists.

Posted 6:33 p.m. by Jim Courtney

While there are many reasons to be proud to be a Canadian, I have long felt that Canadians with a strong "nationalist" sentiment have had their hearts misplaced when it comes to supporting national institutions. This past week three events in Canada have demonstrated that technology, and specifically Internet technology, will trump misplaced nationalism every time. This is the first in a series of three postings bringing awareness of the changes that are coming.

Voice communications: (the technology "formerly known as the telephone") The arrival of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as a consumer and business service is about to uproot the conventional revenue underpinnings of the traditional telcos. This was articulated in many sessions at the VON Canada event in Markham, ON earlier this week. (Check out The Jeff Pulver Blog for May 2004 for some highlights - Jeff is the producer of these VON conferences).

The icon: The Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CRTC) is responsible for ensuring the "Canadian" public interest is served through its licensing of radio and television spectrum as well as its regulation of public telephone services. Over the years its role as a regulator has often crossed the technology boundaries involved to also become a gatekeeper for ensuring the existence of channels for promotion and distribution of Canadian cultural content. Their regulatory guidelines have now come into conflict with technologies that have no inherent infrastructure involving geographical boundaries.

VoIP incorporates tehcnology that transcends geographical barriers; it does not differentiate between local and long distance calling; it is transparent to political boundaries. I currently use a VoIP service that provides me with a US-based phone number that is answered in my office outside Toronto, Canada with a phone set that I purchased at the local Costco. My cable ISP provider does not even know they are my long distance provider since my VoIP phone looks like just another computer to them. Yet I can call anywhere in the world and only have to pay minimum charges beyond a monthly flat rate when I call outside North America. It can be call forwarded to conventional land line phones and/or mobile phones. VoIP brings new challenges to regulatory authorities since the technology brings transparency to the geographical aspect of voice communications. Both Vonage and Primus have recently started offering VoIP services targeted to the Canadian market.

But this is only the beginning of a new communications world. Here are my predictions for the next couple of years.

VoIP levels the playing field; finally a cost effective way to allow competition in the local carrier market: in addition to the traditional telcos, the cablecos (Rogers, Shaw, Videotron) and even ISP's will be able to offer voice communications services with relatively low capital expenditures

Watch for new services associated with VoIP offerings. Just as the Internet became the base platform to transform business and to allow individuals to express themselves as well as research their individual interests, VoIP allows the telephone handset to become the base platform for many new services from one number "follow me" to social and business collaboration services.

Voice conferencing will become a routine service. VoIP offers the potential to allow "friends and family" conferencing at a moment's notice.

WiFi Telephony: WiFi will become a complementary wireless telephony offering to cellular that brings the benefits of VoIP to the wireless world. Watch for new WiFi/GSM phones in the next year; here's a WiFi-only version.

But all of these services transcend political boundaries and will offer new regulatory challenges (as well as new challenges for, say, integrating 911 Public Services Agency access). Look for a totally transformed Bell, Telus, MTS and Aliant in the next two years as they replace their traditional revenue streams. But what does the role of the CRTC become in a VoIP world? Or is there even a role for a regulatory agency? Is there a "public interest" to be protected?

And vent your nationalism through your support of the Calgary Flames in this spring's Stanley Cup final.

Next: eCommerce finds new markets for a key cultural resource.

May 25, 2004 Update: AT&T recently commenced a VoIP service, CallVantage, in selected areas of the U.S.; here is an initial review that outlines many of its features.

Posted 7:48 p.m. by Jim Courtney

For the past few months I have found the tracking of weblogs to be a much more user friendly way of tracking not only weblogs but also many email subscriptions to information of interest. With respect to the latter, wherever an email subscription offers one of those orange "XML" or "RSS" buttons, I take that alternative as the subscription delivery option.

Automated delivery of weblog information is normally carried out through a "RSS reader" interface using the RSS protocol. Personally I use one that is actually called RSS Reader but there are potentially many others out there that perform variations on the same task.

Today's New York Times business section included an article, Techno Files: The Twilight of the Information Middlemen, on the impact of the RSS protocol's role as a disintermediation tool within the chain of information dissemination. This "RSS-based " technology threatens long standing traditions associated with research publication as well others who have traditionally made a business out of disseminating publicly funded works.

As an aside, some of these RSS readers, such as Newsgator and intraVnews, are really plug-ins for Outlook. Personally I find it more ergonomically satisfying to use an RSS reader that is independent of my Outlook setup. Easier to navigate amongst the various weblogs, less cluttered interface and faster to find information on what are the latest hot topics of general interest being discussed.

Posted 4:07 p.m. by Jim Courtney

Robert Scoble is not only an industry veteran; two recent developments have defined his role in the rapidly emerging blogging world:
1. He recently joined the Microsoft development team for Longhorn.
2. He has become probably one of the most respected Microsoft employee bloggers. Why? Because he has figured out the fine line of building credibility with a (potentially skeptical) external audience while maintaining internal respect amongst his corporate peers at Microsoft. Yet he does not hold back on initiatiing discussion of controversial issues.

These days he is encouraging debate on the role of "employee bloggers" within the overall Microsoft corporate communications activity (note I did NOT say "strategy") where there is the potential for "free thinkers" to embarrass the company. (Having participated in an employee cc:Mail bulletin board for free thinkers a decade ago, that potential is real.) So he is seeking a Bloggers Best Practices code.

In this discussion is reference to a Corporate Weblog Manifesto he authored a year ago. Employee weblogs can be a powerful force in demonstrating the human side of what are seemingly corporate monoliths. If you want to study how Microsoft works and how to work with Microsoft The Scobilizer makes an excellent reference piece.

Weblogging is here to stay. Just as ten years ago the corporate world had to figure out a role for the Internet as a enterprise communications medium, today the world needs to figure out the role of blogging within the enterprise marketing environment.

Posted 10:32 a.m. by Jim Courtney

We incorporate collaboration into our business activities at TechTransform in various ways: email, QuickBase for asynchronous information sharing and archiving, WebArrow for synchronous desktop sharing. Rafe Needleman makes some excellent points that are reinforced by our experience:

effective collaboration requires a high degree of spontaneity -- make it easy to access and to work into the participant's workflow.

make the collaboration technology appear transparent - it needs be a concierge, not an inhibitor to smooth information exchange

presence is an important element; the list of your commonly accessed colleagues needs to be readily available (as in instant messaging interfaces) along with some indication of the participant's status

personal relevance - the participants need to see something "in it" for themselves. We are too driven to focus on our personal goals established to contribute to business success to be diverted by irrelevant discussion.

All Take, No Give: Why Collaboration Fails.pdf