One of my biggest accomplishments for 2007 is serving as CTO for Beyond Borders iTV, a humanitarian non-profit IPTV network.
Lots of work for 2008, since there are more technology activities coming in for ExelixisNet. Working with my Web designer right now and soon interacting with AOL and Brightcove in the technology planning and integration.
Happy New Year's
Stay tuned, more to come...
...most people today are wondering, where is the best place to live, throwing several parameters or considering different priorities in each case. It happened to be as anxious as well on the topic and I managed to find a good source that compares different cities globally. The metrics are not bad, subway ticket, burger meal, cup of coffee etc.
Surprisingly many changes were made in the ranking between cities living cost from 2006 to 2007, light twists to the big cities, with Europe leading the global list and Moscow being the #1 far above NYC that is the base city. NYC went down from #10 to #15, London up to #2, Dubai went down from #25 to #34, but the biggest outsider was Athens that moved from #59 to #29, 30 positions!! Is that the Euro strength? Living cost is coming along with luxurious and prestigious lifestyle and definitely Athens is performing well with a tremendous improvement the last years. If you walk downtown in Athens, you will get the vibe. Based on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Greece is ranked #19 globally, based on the GDP/capita or the average annual income.
Berlin was also the second outsider that moved up 27 positions, from #72 to #45. Its your conclusions where you want to live based on the rankings, but the two latter outsiders definitely stand out.
Keep on you research, if interested, the suggested source/survey has tremendous amount of info
-E
As the broadband technology started to mature, it seems that its time for the killer application or service that will differentiate the operators in a win-win strategy. Verizon is still promoting HD TV on the other hand offering a free TV set, as I was watching in a commercial the other days, trying to challenge the subscribers and offer the media for the ultimate experience.
Currently, we are shifting from phase 1 - IPTV deployment into phase 2 - Content and Marketing. A One-Plus differentiation strategy is applied in Phase 2 from AT&T and Verizon promoting as much as they can the high speed broadband and the IPTV smart services. Similar is the landscape in Europe, with Telefonica, France Telecom and Telecom Italia, counting subscribers and adaptation rates. The last one, also holds a subsidiary in France competing indirectly against FT.
I have been assigned to discuss Phase 1 and the shift into Phase 2 in April during the next UltraBB IV event, in Paris. The Phase 3 follows, when IPTV matures as a product and we focus on Applications and Advanced Advertising. That would be part of my lecture as well.
Stay tuned..
E
Last Friday, have been at Columbia University to an event on the Digital TV revolution. Literally, was amazed from the technological progress in that field, discussing the 4K and 8K TV with an amazing resolution that sometimes feels like your eyes cannot handle all these details, and it feels like everything is so real or crystal clear and you cant see any pixels any more.
The Internet TV and the IPTV and the content generation have definitely changed the landscape. Now we are discussing 1 Terrabit/sec to broadcast 4K TV quality and replicate that into different countries simultaneously. The future was right there during the event, but all these new things need about 10-20 years till they get adapted from the market. The guys from CineGrid were really amazing, introducing new platforms and architectures, proving that anything can happen in the media transfer eliminating the distances. The only "struggle" they faced was the TCP/IP transfer that was replaced from the UDP protocol and variations as more appropriate for their applications.
-E
As we know the markets react to changes and they raise competition as well as innovation and new product development. KDDI from Japan proved that it does not need the iPhone since 2006, but rather preferred to dominate with a similar cool device that outbid Apple's. The revolution was there with the Sanyo Infobar 2 phone that is nothing but success. Includes design, technical features and entertainment, totally adjusted and leading the Japanese market.
More specifically, the device features a 2.6" LCD screen with 240 x 400 pixel resolution, 100M bytes of built-in storage, and a microSD slot memory cards. Also included is a 2-megapixel camera and a $172 price tag.
The Infobar 2 has an embedded Felica smart chip to enable live electronic payments, a feature used currently in Japan for small purchases, train tickets, etc. The phone beats iPhone hands down at 2.4Mbps via a CDMA2000-1X EV-DO network.
Users can also watch digital TV and download music from Japanese artists not found in iTunes collection directly to their handsets from the Lismo music store. Seems that Japan prefers the candy better following the Halloween spirit :)
-E
Check out the snapshot (click on it), my students' online evaluation - have no time for rebuttal!
There is a whole debate and criticism between the Professors and the students online via the "Ratemyprofessor" Website - a well accepted tool/platform. Now there is an option of the professor - Professor's rebuttal- to fight the comments she/he receives. Usually the comments are funny or weird or even totally irrelevant to the professor's performance.
Check the following example, where the NYU professor is trying to defend herself and the comments she receives from her students. Check how she responds to the comment "I want to be her slave"
-E
The last days, I have started realizing more and more the inflation's rise. In the store I used to buy my morning muffin for $1.25, now it costs $1.50 and a sign in the back, stating that "Food inflation has forced us to raise the prices":). Wow, these guys have taken Economics 101. Then walking in the Mediterranean store, another inflationary problem due to the Euro exchange rates, the owner, upset and worried, told me that he changed the prices 4 times in a week, WOW! Is that a random effect? Certainly not, the US prices are pushed higher either from the dollar's value decline over Euro, almost 1.43, compared to the last year's 1.21. The Americans are paying this, but their salary is not increased 4 times per week.
How about China? Based on recent economic data, we are importing inflation from China. Based on NY Times, Chinese inflation in August was the highest monthly rate reported since December 1996. The spike in food prices, which were up 18.2 percent from August 2006, is especially worrisome because food costs particularly hurt China's poor majority. That causes lots of instability, no matter the 11.9% annual economic growth. The government has raised interest rates four times this year to try to restrain the boom and has imposed investment curbs on the auto, textile and other industries. But these measures are requiring longer than expected to take effect.
USA is in the middle, a crossroad, in the mercy of the Chinese inflation, with imports from China rising 16.7 percent, to $20.9 billion and presenting a trade surplus. Also in the mercy of the US/Euro fluctuations, a real headache for the trade dealers. We have also the housing market status that is creating a problematic and chaotic inflationary landscape.
But definitely, the Fed's role is to protect the public interest and also the consumer, but triggering the interest rates is not the solution or it is not enough. New international trade agreements should emerge and more economic consultation to China to resolve their economic chaos. EU is still looking to identify itself over the USA, but this needs to be done and ultimately increase the value of the dollar over Euro and bring it back to the reasonable 1.10 or so.
-E
Tonight I went to the "Garden of Lost Vespers", a poetry event at Kouros Gallery, a very progressive place that made me discover life's different dimensions redefining things and myself and filling up with energy and fire for success. Full credit to Prof. Nicos Alexiou, my colleague at Queens College that in a few hours made me appreciate the role of the sociology and discover the thirst for his poetry. It was an awakening, an inspiration that have been looking for quite some time. Nicos is a guy that wants to change the world or at least contribute something towards that direction. His poems are in Greek and in English, just AMAZING. My favorite part among the so many is the "Dialectic of the Lines: "Within people, with the people, with you, lines are chiseled, that bewitch us, set us free, change us". All these poems were clinking as a new Marxist's theory to me.
All this impact of this fantastic poetry made me attempt to define the "fortune hunter", as I promised a couple of weeks ago, synthesizing Alexiou's words with my imagination: "A fortune hunter is self-exiled in the shining streets of silence and success. He is committed to his shadow, but he anchors nowhere, till he finds the silver key of the haunted gate that will set him free with a crown of glory."
-E
The following story reminds me of the Genesis band and "you are not son of mine" hit song. As I was looking up for a Technology Management and Innovation book in Amazon, I crossed something really strange that I would like to share. The author's family in India has not heard from him for the last 9 years - the comment was in 2000. Hey, call your parents, you forgot for 9 years. The strange is that the family's neighbor volunteered and posted the comment. The author is in the UK, but think how insulting is the comment, bringing up someone's personal life to the readers. I would call it a very desperate action, but Amazon would never ever be the right place to post this sort of comments and should not even allow it. Where is the moderator?
Hopefully my family or my neighbors and friends will not start posting comments on my blog like "Son come back for Christmas, all we want for Christmas is you" and so on.. :)
-E
Last Friday, I visited the digital life expo. Crazy crowd with games, was really trying to figure out where the future is heading. Took me years back, when I was playing for hours with these car simulators or the sport games, basketball, Olympic games etc. When I was a kid, was so crazy with my first Atari and my friend's Amiga 5000, old days! Impressed from some TV screens, a very cool light camera and had a chance to look closer at some cell phones, especially Nokia that they had an amazing resolution to watch TV or movies and not only. Besides that, I didnt get any innovation vibe and even the high technology didnt inspire me at all.
.
My expectations were more to check out digital devices, smart devices for the next generation residence that definitely is not all about games. A robot from iRobot with a camera that could run several tasks as a household 'servant' was my highlight, but still an old technology and it was in a box, not even demo. Lastly a guy was remotely controlling a huge techie bee with some noisy wings that was flying and suddenly ended up to somebody's head, really funny!
-E
Today, I attended a Webinar with title Ethernet-Based Consumer Services: Delivering Quality IPTV, VOD & More. Lightreading is a really cool website, organizing these webinars, where an industry's expert is making comments on really nice slides and the whole event lasts 1 hour. It is an amazing source of knowledge, combining audio and picture and then the discussant is answering to couple of questions that you IM to the event's host. Cool stuff!
The future in next generation networks (NGN)goes with Ethernet, but there is no single winning networking design. That is the magic in that case,there is a plural of different architectures that each operator is deploying. The new services will make things more complicated for the operators, as there is a need for more intelligent services such as bringing video servers closer to the user to save bandwidth in the backhaul and struggle with the cost's increase. We might see multiple set-top boxes at home in the future serving different needs. Smart Metro networks solution with multi-service edge routers were discussed with dynamic broadcasting that will increase the number of HD TV channels to the end-user. The IPTV operators are the leaders in packet intelligence transportation with an ultimate need to control the per subscriber QoS. The future is in the intelligent high QoS services' integration no matter the access technology, FTTH, cable or wireless.
It was about time and Susan did that few years ago as founder of the OneWebday.org. September 22 is the official date to celebrate the Internet, an amazing tool that changed our life into an online life. We have to show appreciation and respect. But looking all over the planet, we will see that some countries are really suffering, either from infrastructure and access technologies limitations i.e. China is a huge country, difficult to cover or the government is banning access to certain Websites limiting the access to the Internet - example of Turkey and YouTube.
An interesting article is posted from Susan discussing the Internet status, especially in the USA, where the President George W. Bush promised ubiquitous high speed Internet access for 2007. Instead speeds are slow, prices are high, and competition is nominal.
There are two upcoming events/expos I am going to attend in Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. The first one is "Digital life" Sep 27-30 2007, which is the #1 annual event in Consumer electronics exhibiting cutting edge technology. Definitely a high of interest event and very entertaining.
The other one is on Business IT solutions in the same center, "Interop New York 2007" Oct 22-24 2007. This event is more for IT savvys and professionals.
Both are excellent events, have invited also friends to go together; its really amazing how futuristic is the technology and what we actually use today. Barriers? Sometimes, price, or technology unawareness or we even needs unawareness and where the technology could fit and make our life easier. The more we expose ourselves to similar events, the better we understand the role of high-tech solutions in our personal and business life.
-E
Unlimited, the most catchy ad keyword with millions of different interpretations. As we are discussing at the CITI about the unlimited bandwidth networks based on the consumers rising needs, I realized that exactly the same pattern could be identified in the human networks. We have unlimited bandwidth/capacity to satisfy our personal and the others' also needs. Where are your limits - hard to know - and when do you say no, refusing to do something? Hardly never, you download everything to your brain, trying to entertain your life in one way or the other forcing yourself to do it for money, for glory etc. Ever thought how much bandwidth you use for your real needs? Usually limited, what a waste, since most of the time you are the victim, sacrifying it to pay for the societal needs. But everybody likes the unlimited. Most of the time an unlimited service is a waste, cause it makes no sense, unlimited phone calls, so what? Old news!
Are you unlimited? Define yourself. Does unlimited love exist? Extremely rare phenomenon, described only in books as an altruistic illusion of the last decade.
Attributes of the leaders? I can do everything, working 24/7 proving your unlimited style. Thats the one and impatience is the other. Quick decisions are for the experts and still they might have a high-risk factor included, proving them wrong! Day by day we realize that this unlimited bandwidth curve is like an S-curve that reaches its saturation level and then drops. Everybody wants your bandwidth, as they dont have theirs! After that flat point, you refuse, you have more time for yourself and your hobbies and sometimes you reinvent life or you regret! Where do the fortune-hunters belong? Definitely not in the free dictionary. To be continued..
-E
Finally MTA awakes and is going to start a new pilot program in 2007 in deploying wireless booster signals in the subway stations only.. I t was about time, hello NY, the center of the world to catch up, offering to the millions of business warriors and not only a communication relief that we are so desperate, when we lost connections for hours, when traveling underground. In a global survey, isnt that a surprise that Tokyo, Berlin and other developed European cities are already ahead in wireless technology solution and subway coverage, when MTA, a profitable business, is struggling to implement a solution since 2005?
And on the other hand we are always discussing best business practices, but when it comes to technology, we are cell-ebrating old-fashioned solutions that are already adapted years ago.
-E
Lately things are getting more and more difficult for the US Cable operators. After the CableCards story where cable operators had to give up the conventional cable boxes they so profitably lease to subscribers, containing technology for functions such as video-on-demand and HDTV, a new hurricane is urging, making them to sweat even more. The FCC has proposed -- somewhat at the telecoms' urging -- that the owners of apartment buildings and condos be prohibited from entering into exclusive deals with cable operators.
It is a fact that the next 3 years, maybe even sooner, the cable will become an old technology, unable to keep up the price war against the Telcos and follow the households bandwidth needs pushed by IPTV, online gaming and more new applications. Regulation is cleaning up the competition and is removing all the exclusive rights the cable used to hold in equipments and communities. The Telecom Act is keeping up with a fair competition and giving more choice and power to the consumer. And the cable operators started realizing that they need to replace their old infrastructure with Passive Optical Networks, a strategy that will bring them years behind Verizon and AT&T.
-E
....and I have a license to kill. Reminds of James Bond attitude, as he easily kills the 4Gb iPhone model.Steve Jobs Offers Rare Apology,Credit for iPhone. You are loyal to buy our hell expensive product, but now we need more market of a cell phone that you carry most of the time only for prestigious reasons. My marketing class in a brief survey I did the other days, is desperate for the iPhone. There you go Steve, your new market! How about of a student discount, as you cut the price? -:)
But it is not only that technology is bumpy, he would rather say that they overpriced the product and some consumers paid a premium for a 'basic' cell phone, cause consumers have most of the time limited knowledge of what the product can do and of the other products in the same category and price. Apple's pricing reminds more of Google's IPO and definitely a market show off with a strong new entry that will soon lead into a bubble. Whats the point to discontinue the 4Gb version that was getting even more affordable now? Apple and At&T are in panic with a series of mistakes, without giving real answers to the consumers
But, for example Nokia has 3G cell phones at 5Mpixels with 8Gb capacity that are superior compared to the Apple's device i.e. N95 and the Europeans know that. My personal opinion especially after that price shake is that iPhone has no luck in the European market to compete against Nokia and Ericsson. And Apple realizes this now and they drop the US price to gain more market share especially the average incomers. Merging the two models into one, with more capacity, Apple leads the market into one choice, reasonably priced; looks like a favor to the consumers with an OK cell phone. But not only that, after the iPphone's market reaction, criticism and feedback Apple realized that they will start soon to loose market share, cause it is not worth to pay all this money for that product and they cut off the price.
Good job guys!
-E
The Mayor of San Francisco wanted but Earthlink this time stops Google's ambitious plans to offer free Wi-Fi to the city and use it as a testbed for new products and new business models with an edge to online advertising - what else?
Its really amazing to have the public interest on your side and to lose your industrial partner. Is that a plan against Google from the other competitors - perhaps. However, I am not sure if Google wants to take over AT&T's ISP empire and headache that I personally doubt it, thats not their field at all. But I agree with some analysts that they need a larger platform such as San Francisco to test their products, giving away free Internet. But in any case Earthlink was not the right partner to carry out that project with all the internal financial problems and the recent layoffs. Perhaps Earthlink was the last ISP that accepted to help Google to implement its plans, but really was or turned out to be a very weak choice
-E
Greece has been slammed from fire waves the last 4 days that have destroyed land and killed citizens. Over 60 people were killed either cause they got surrendered from the fire flames or fighting the flames. The worse curse or nightmare is happening in Greece. Peloponnese is experiencing one of the biggest historical disasters. The sun is obscured, people cannot breathe and the fire is racing all over leading its anger to the main cities, Athens and Patras.
Whole villages and land were destroyed. Freaking scenes and stories of people burnt alive or having their relatives watching them dying, in a case a son was watching his father, a sheep man dying slowly, cause he couldnt reach him for help and save him. Last minute they managed to save the Olympic Games birthplace and the museum from the fire. But part of the Olympic Stadium was destroyed and the Kronos hill was engulfed by fire. The strong wind and its changes are transforming the flames into a non-mercy killer. Fire crews from Cyprus and France are helping tackle blazes in Greece.
Its really depressing; the Greek economy is going seriously to struggle the following years. This disaster will bring the country at least 10 years back. Greece is a country that mostly depends on tourism and agriculture, and all these now belong to past due to the disaster. Anger and frustration of the citizens helpless in some cases trying to save their property or running scared to save their lives.
A nation with no strategic planning, when they know that this happens every August and weak coordination between the firemen and the army. It is obvious that is lacking leadership, a few weeks before the national elections.
At least the last time I visited ancient Olympia back in 2000, I had the opportunity and time to take a huge tour in the green amazing ancient area, but now..ashes all over.
Lets pray and wish that no more people will get killed!
-E
The other days, my buddy Panos was getting inpatient and nervous on a 5 hours train ride back to Newcastle, IMing me how boring his trip was. Always believing that Europe is ahead in wireless services and digging into the British rail services, I found that rail passengers on the London-to-Scotland east coast main line will get free Wi-Fi. A service that was offered for free only to first class service, now it will be free for everyone as British Rail decided, since it is taking over GNER's London-Scotland line.
Now, how cool is that, if it expands over Europe, now thats a huge difference, convenience and the technology is there - combination of 3G-GPRS-satellite broadband and Wi-Fi. Hopefully the news will travel to our Amtrak and start thinking of that one day..Heading to the future with high speed trains- TGV that inter-connect Europe and now also with high speed Internet-Wi-Fi, seeking for more!
-E
I was reading the other days, that AT&T is deploying 500 new U-Verse connections per day, serious rush, the picture is talking by itself. Fire to Fiber To The Node (FTTN) equipment in Houston. It can get worst, when in Japan NTT uses the Fire, sorry Fiber To The Basement (FTTB) technology, finishing the last much less than a mile with VDSL.
Do you feel safe now? On the one hand we have the gas pipe explosion in Mid-Town, cause it was old and on the other Alcatel-Lucent's on fire cause its new and the technician perhaps did not pay attention to the safety installation rules..
-E
Recently, I did some research on Passive Optical Networks and I realized that it is a hot engineering topic with many dark areas. There are 2 different lanes, the Asian fast lane, Korea and Japan on the one hand and the Western lay-back world that are a little behind, cause everything will be accomplished in life in a type of magic, trust me! The latters click though on the IPTV deployment. In some cases lacks national standards. Alcatel-Lucent is participating in almost 70% overall of the IPTV deployments projects, implementing exclusively Microsoft TV solutions.
My personal take is that the future is in interactive TV, with careful network planning, advertising and triple play pricing. Since I hardly ever watch TV, dont want to be a poor cable TV fan, only news, perhaps some smart ad spots that could be also YouTubed in most of the cases, rarely sports and the rest is boring or stupid. It turns out that UK is ahead in this game with various recent accomplishments. But I am also excited about the IMS based IPTV that will extent tele-education, tele-gambling, and online shopping, enabling person-to-person and person-to-content communications. Even new services, similar to Video on Demand Karaoke on Demand, Dating on Demand, Fitness on Demand, My Bad Luck on Demand, Get Lost on Demand, iWant More! bla bla
Perhaps, more TV excitement the next decade then, always on Demand!
-E
The future of the cell phone market is in the data services. For 2006 in the USA, the average data ARPU climbed 50% while the average voice ARPU declined 7% since EOY 2005. Overall ARPU declined 1% from 2005 levels, with Verizon having made impressive stride with its data revenues up 101%.
Google is making the right move, helping out the cell phone market and itself, creating specs for cell phones to increase revenues through the ad market, where traditionally is a source of wealth in the media industry. It is investing millions of dollars in collaboration with the wireless operators. The cell phone advertising market is new and has amazing opportunities of a tremendous growth till 2011 with a projection of $14 billion in spending compared to the $1.5 billion today.
If it is not Google, and its funny part, that even might suck, then who else can it be? This is something that we use today as a candy. Google tries to be always the first mover and they do not hesitate to spend as a much capital as needed, with Yahoo a follower, learning lessons and acting as the skeptical one. The cell phone market is suffering and there is need and space for innovation. It looks like the ad market is the way to go, with lots of negotiations, 3G networks decisions and agreements and user rights and regulator's approval on the content etc.
This goes along with my current research, targeting to prove empirically what directly affects the ARPU in the USA and the EU zone.
Google is preparing the industry for a big bomb, it sounds like its phone project is reaching out different sides of the Telecom to achieve the best and flexible outcome without depending on operators as Apple did.
Check out how a media guru is scanning the iphone's functionalities in the best review I 've ever read so far.
-E
"my blog was blocked for spam, the last weeks and finally was released - lol"
As a member of the Greek Orthodox Young Adult League, I invite you at our summer meeting/reception next Thursday, 07/19/07.
WallSt./Manhattan Hellenic Professional Society
Kellari Restaurant 19 W. 44th St. b/t 5th and 6th
Thursday, July 19, 2007
5:30-9:00 pm.
Complimetary mezedes
For planning purposes, please RSVP if you expect to attend, drop me an email or a comment.
Sounds like an interesting event, you should attend, if you are around and not on vacations. Mr. Progressive will be there, if you wanna chat.
-E
As in my research, same in life I always discuss progressivism and innovation. In my opinion these are two complement concepts. Coming from a historical country, I always supported the idea that as the EU residents should respect but cant live with the history and the traditions forever or for the favor of a nation, a concept well developed and applied in Germany and Holland respectively. Digest the legend and generate your own. If you are progressive its all about new lifestyle, a blend maybe i.e. European-American, well defined and led by YOU, and defining the new ideology and the unknown as the Greek philosophers did, escaping the "well known, but always boring path". Progressivism means non-stop excitement for the new ideas and things in life, a flexible and value-driven lifestyle.
Prophet Elias was a progressive and innovative Saint that I am proudly carrying his name and on coming Friday I celebrate my names day. The story goes that Prophet Elias came from a fishing village and wanted to do good beyond his known world,(heading to the unknown, how cool)somewhere that had not known the life that he was accustomed to, the life of the sea. So, he set off from his home, carrying an oar across his shoulder (keep walking). Days walking inland were spent asking 'Do you know what this is?', to be met with 'Yes, it's an oar. Are you nuts?' Eventually he was in the mountains, far, far away. On one high peak he reached a place where the oar was not recognized and there he founded a church. Churches of Prophet Elias are now usually found on the highest peaks with an amazing view, how romantic, innovative and progressive for those years!
The Bible declares, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17)! Lets shoot for the new and risky!
More to come..
-E
Is the iphone a one way product? Stop and think, are the competitors going to sit and watch Apple selling out, piling up its revenues? Certainly not, LG in collaboration with Google is attacking, taking advantage of iphone's weaknesses that are quite a few. They will develop a 3G YouTube focused mobile phone that will allow users to record videos on their mobile phones then upload them immediately to YouTube through a streamlined interface.
It sounds to me like a fusion among the YouTube and the ipod users. I am sure that LG phone will offer similar media services with iphone and they might raise a price competition. My guess is that Verizon will grab the deal this time, its gonna be fun. On the stock market side we havent seen any tremendous changes in Apple's and AT&T's stock that were in decline last week.
In France, the Wi-Fi cell phones are a big hit, supported by Orange. Wi-Fi phone with the right Java and media applis is certainly the future.
More to come soon
-E
More updates, as my readers requested..its time to smile and enjoy the fame, almost 5 years of hard work with limited vacations, still looking forward to them, one day!
Networking is one of my favorite sports in NY and not only, after the NYSC and swimming. My recent accomplishments:
-Successful organization of the 3rd International conference on Ultrabroadband Networks, covering one panelist's absence, presenting his work on broadband forecasting; Napstering the Content and YouTubing the P2P applis did my magic again in the Big Apple.
-Telecom advisor of the European Institute of Law, Science and Technology, Greece - couldnt miss that. A new institute that is non-for-profit, research organization that seeks to improve international and national legislations through better integration of scientific and technological achievements in laws.
-A few months ago, I became member of the Program Committee of the 17th International Telecommunications Society Biennial Conference, Montreal, Canada, June 24-27, 2008.
An empirical paper of my research will be presented there. All are invited to submit a research paper.
-Finally next year, we might be organizing with CITI and Roma University in Rome a conference on "Media and Telecommunications". Our Italian speaker, Armando Calabrese, at the recent CITI conference initiated the idea, thinking to give a talk there
.
-"...I want also an iphone!" lol
Lots of work and accomplishments as I am heading towards my birthday:)
E
P.S. But, “After crosses and losses men grow humbler and wiser” B. Franklin
On next Thursday, July 12, first preview of my research proposal at Columbia Business School, following the Visiting Scholars’ Brown Bag Lunch Seminar Series of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information. The event is scheduled from 1:30 to 3:30 at the Calder Lounge conference room, 1st floor,perhaps accompanied with sushi, sponsored by CITI.
Time for final countdown, as all of my Dr. buddies do and did, panos, argy, panagiotis
All of my ambitions in a degree, philosophizing the Telecom is not easy. I feel like the F-1 qualifiers; ready to defend my research and my beliefs in front of the public for the first time, sounds fun. Debate Time, my party!
The title of my talk is “Technology projections and innovation forecasting, with a specific focus on the mobile wireless diffusion across countries, social implications and the policy impact”. The lecture will last for about 1 hour and a half. All of the loyal fans are invited to support my effort. The next 'show' will be at Queens College(will be also announced) ending up my tour at Stevens Institute of Technology, with my official and final research proposal submission in front of my Research Committee - tough match.
stay tuned..
the 'eligible Greek' :)
Well, let me tell you something about the iPhone. Everybody is talking about the digital divide, then who can afford the $600 to buy this phone? Premium price for what? $499 for a model with 4 gigabytes of storage and $599 for one with 8
gigabytes, hmmm and $59.99/month for 450mins and $36 activation fee.
The value of this phone in most of the cases is becoming a luxury good. Should the regulator jump in and ask them how they setup this price? It sounds way monopolistic to me.
Should I buy a Porsche or a Huyndai? I can drive them both, but the experience is different. Its a preference or an income statement question?
How about the network? AT&T’s network comes in for criticism. It’s signal strength isn’t strong in some cities and the EDGE cellular network is “excruciatingly slowly".Nice, iPhone is only for cities. Great,imagine driving a Porsche on Pennsylvania turnpike, uphill-downhill, its not fun, right?
But overall, the phone is a superbly engineered, cleverly designed and imaginatively implemented approach to a problem that no one has cracked to date: merging a phone handset, an Internet navigator and a media player in a package where every component shines, and the features are welcoming rather than foreboding. The iPhone is the rare convergence device where things actually converge.
-E
I was reading an article on ERT.gr about the Greeks back in 1857, when they came to the USA. Really cool stuff, between 1857 and 1910 183,000 Greeks came to New York, always big sailors no matter the ocean distance.
In 1857 the first Greek restaurant opened in NY, called "Peloponnese" and the first Greek Newspaper called "Atlantis" started in 1894; the Greeks have some serious roots with NY. Maybe that is the reason that this summer I will stay in the Big Apple and work than lying in the beach...
It is said that today in Astoria live 75,000 Greeks. cool! The owner of the 20th Century Fox is a Greek family, named Skuras, proving that Greeks were into the Hollywood as successfully as they were with the dinners business. Perhaps its the same mentality or business model:)
-E
The European Parliament voted yesterday overwhelmingly in favour of new regulations to dramatically cut the cost of using a mobile phone abroad. Under new EU regulations, proposed by the European Commission on 12 July 2006 and broadly supported by the 27 EU member states last week, mobile roaming charges within the EU will come down by as much as 70%. The new rules are expected to enter in force in time for the traditional European summer vacation season.
The maximum charge, excluding VAT, for regulated roaming calls will be capped at EUR0.49 per minute for outgoing calls and EUR0.24 for calls received.
Isnt that innovation or what? EU finally took the action as it was so long discussed. Regulation, pricing, anything that could assist the product diffusion is innovation in the Telecom. Innovation is certainly a concept with so many dimensions that is a real challenge to delve into it.
-E
Isnt that fascinating? The magic of the stock market, as I was discussing Apple's stock a few months ago at $85/share. The share is booming to $114, a very respective growth, making shareholders to smile against Microsoft that is still trying to build up the Vista market. I think in the future Apple will buy Microsoft or the latter will borrow some of Apple's innovation under a business deal :)
The amazing with Apple is that is a typical example of Paul Romer's theory that I discuss with the QC students. Innovation and ideas lead into the growth in the long run and Apple is doing exactly that. Weird, the whole USA is doing the same, but the economic growth is declining. Perhaps politics, culture has to change to release the innovation waves that could boost the US economy, construction and the rest of the microeconomic headaches.
-E
Beginning Jan. 1, it will be illegal for drivers in the state of Washington to read, type or send a text message from a wireless device while behind the wheel.
At least the law won't apply to emergency personnel, tow truck drivers who use wireless devices that are permanently attached to their vehicles, or drivers using wireless devices to report illegal activity, call for medical assistance or
other emergencies. Users of "hands-free" devices are also exempt, feel better now!
The weird in the whole case or policy is that the drivers can be cited for breaking the new law ONLY if they have been stopped for another traffic violation. The fine for violating the new law could be as high as $250.
Why did that happen? Here is the weird story that caused the government's reaction and shouldn't have been the first time but for sure the last!
An accident in December was caused by a 53-year-old
man using his BlackBerry while driving a minivan in the express lane
of Interstate 5 near downtown Seattle. Te man was so focused on his cell, who was unaware that the traffic ahead of him had stopped,
smashed into the car in front of him, causing a chain reaction
involving three other cars and a bus carrying 28 passengers. Imagine a subscriber/driver that just got his i-phone..
Expect similar policies in other states too, following Washington's example..
-E
Panathinaikos won last Sunday night the 4th European title in basketball beating CSSKA from Russia 93-91. The final was in Athens, big feast in Athens downtown.
A green machine takes 2007 Euroleague title
This title was the follow up title after the 2nd title that Greece won in the World League last summer. Still remember that big game and the glorious victory against the US national team.
We are the European Champions again, GREECE is making the rules!!
Last Wednesday night, we were hosting Ed Richards, Ofcom's CEO from UK, as he was discussing Telecom policy, mostly on the Internet. He said that consumers need more control on the Internet and content and the regulators have to convince the providers to prioritize traffic based on applications.
The guy was a lord, sharp and he presented Ofcom's new book, where Eli contributed an essay arguing that the TV regulation will become Telecom regulation and other crazy and innovative ideas, asynch with the present but perhaps synch with the future.
The title of the book is "Communications:The next decade" . I got a complementary copy, killer book; really heavy,with very sharp edges, but very good content.
Going to the juicy and funny part, the audience thought that this guy knew everything on policy, although he was really cool with his answers, the last question bomb was hilarious. As we know France is ahead in the last mile ultrabroadband deployment, when BT is struggling to deploy a 24Mb network. The 'poor' CEO that think was my age, had to defend himself against all this traditional debate between the two countries and having the Americans teasing him and asking him all the tough questions why UK is behind France, even about Ofcom's relationship with Brussels. It really needs guts to give a speech in front of the CITI gurus and fans.
What I really like is that Ofcom is totally independent, so they can blame the politicians, as Ed did for the ultabroadband strategy. UK and BT still live in the box, conservative and secure technology deployments, expected.
E
Last Friday, I was at the NETinst conference on the Network Economics at NYU. Most of the papers were on modeling demand for games, licensed software issues and competition. The keynote speaker was David Heiner, VP in Microsoft that I really enjoyed his talk about Microsoft's future platforms and strategies. The whole conference had a very smooth flow and researchers came from Europe and the US, networked most with some guys from Harvard and Spain that had an interesting model on P2P networks, looking forward to bring them in the UltraBB conference at Columbia in June.
Professor N. Economides has a Call for Proposals, funded from his Institute up to $15k for summer research. Whoever might be interested..
Nick is a very interesting guy that knows everything about Microsoft's current and history, has strong relations with them and gets also funding.
E
Mobile TV is one of the burning issues carrying a lot of complexities
and headache for the engineers,as they have to compete against the traditional TV screen quality and content delivery offer of ever better viewing experiences.
What are still the problems?
In Europe the debate continues to rage over what standard should be adopted for mobile TV, holding back the adaptation rate.Some 3G networks are struggling to cope with the capacity needed to stream live video and TV.
But I would really like to focus on the EU forecasts, European Commission estimates that the world mobile TV market will be worth a whopping 11.4 billion euros (15.5 billion dollars) by 2009. That makes things to move faster, more R&D investing to meet the number, but is that a pragmatic goal? It is really a growing industry, since the mobile content industry today is worth some 20 billion dollars, nearly as much as the 30-billion-dollar Internet business. Most of that revenue, though, continues to be ringtone-driven rather than mobile entertainment content. Imagine the boom when the content becomes the king and the mobile commerce grows as well! Might grow far beyond the Internet revenues.
Mobile TV is a new platform for advertising. The Korean service is free and ad-supported.The two mobile Korean TV broadcast platforms together have a staggering 4.5 million subscribers.
France Telecom reports that clients would be willing to pay around seven euros a month for the service. SFR clients pay 12 euros a month to subscribe to its 3G mobile TV service that offers 80 channels experiencing a 50% subsribers' growth the last 3 months.
E
We are on for a new call for papers toward the book on Ultrabroadband networks, I prepare with Eli Noam. The next CITI conference is on the June 22nd and the CFP is already out, with deadline May the 1st.
France Telecom and the International Journal of Law and Communications Policy are our collaborators, looking forward to bringing more big names in the project.
France Telecom is one of the big thinkers, far ahead than British Telecom, planning soon to deploy ultrabroadband speed home networks.
Although I was in Greece during Christmas, am gonna spend Easter holidays in the Big Apple.
Lots of work on the UltraBB III event, as we are on the propaganda phase, developing the collaborations and the Web interface. Spring break in Queens College, allows for some emphasis on my PhD work and catch up on some business deals and opportunities. Next week I am visiting Virginia for a CRM seminar. CRM and ERP are hot topics in the industry now, they are on demand. This seminar and the material will support my Marketing classes and expecting some good networking too.
Catching up with friends in the traditional Easter dinner in Astoria, after the church, with plenty of wine and Greek music, a real Greek happening.
E
Verizon starts deploying G-PON technology to implement its FTTH plans, having as major provider Alcatel-Lucent. This company is seriously back after the restructuring, winning major deals in the US but also in other markets such as the deal with Australia's Telstra. FiOs services are now improved, since the end-user has over 1Gbps (2.4Gbps) network capacity. It might not be a bad idea to reserve some ALU stock, the stock is not doing great righ now, but it might pay off some attractive marginal profits in the future. I have the feeling that very soon they will get back in demand threatening Cisco's throne.
E
Although MasterCard lost major market share and deals against Visa, now is trying to bounce back in new markets, trying Mobile Commerce, expected soon to take off after the current trial phase.
Discussing about a high-tech trend that in Japan is already adapted from 19 million users.
Currently Finland-based Nokia, the world's largest cell phone maker, is partnering with MasterCard to offer two cell phone payment
services. One of them will be tested at
7-Eleven stores, the other, at Cingular Wireless and Citigroup. Currently, another cell phone maker, Motorola, has three
trials underway, one involving Discover. Still security and theft could hold back the serious penetration in the USA.
E
Google is breaking the news again with a rumor about a new cell phone that will enter the market soon and certainly it will be the 'smart' one that will compete against Blackberry and iphone and there is no doubt that there is market for another phone. I am in the same position probably like other mobile wireless users to find the ideal handset that will satisfy my needs and the more Internet applications if from Google the more the convenience, especially if it is about VoIP applis and low marginal costs per call.
The same rumor that was posted on the today's WSJ reports that the potential manufacturer could be Samsusng Electronics Co.
Final comment, Google proves one more time that 'reinventing the wheel' could be a very profitable business, supported with the right capital and business models.
Google reinvented the Internet, applis, online entertainment and now perhaps a new smart phone converging different services and functions.
There is no doubt that we enter the recession, hard to believe, but certainly its not the first time for the US economy the last decade, November 2001, making it not a surprise.
The Fed will certainly play a significant role, triggering the interest rates upwards, if needed, bringing them in smoke again after the last summer's super-record. Oil and gas prices are actually with oil prices once again topping $60 a barrel.
Some oil analysts at Barclays Bank are forecasting worries of $65 in the near future due to the increased petroleum demand compared to the last years' pressing OPEC's efforts to stabilize the prices.
The CPI showed nationwide fruit and vegetable prices increased 4.7% in February. This is partly because of the government's push to develop the ethanol-fuel market. This has raised the price of corn, which trickles down to everything from livestock feed to candy bars. Also, a deep freeze in California led to lower crop yields. However, following the government's new strategy on the energy, and in order to satisfy ethanol goals, food prices will keep rising modestly for the foreseeable future, causing inflationary worries.
Finally the consumers confidence is not the best due to the housing slump, high gasoline prices and the volatile stock market.
E
George - my friend - is leaving Queens College and joins Accenture as a consulting analyst, all the best. For me, no more Greek happy hour at work now..:(
Ping us at LinkedIn.com
...the other days I met with my new friend, another Dr.Panos, 2nd Panos CIS with a PhD of my friends. He works for Mckinsey (big hit), when the other Panos is hanging out in conferences somewhere in UK, Newcastle, I think. We had an amazing discussion about strategies and high-level consulting, but it is a big trade-off working 80hrs/week. Funny thing, we graduated the same year from Patras Polytechnic, he is CIS, I am EE.
But enough with the PR, the cafe we went upper East side was the best, amazing people and atmosphere, nice sofas and the best cappuccino. Highly recommended alternative place, really cool..on the process to discover more places in the big Apple.
Little work last night on France Telecom issues, as my Columbia boss, Eli, travels to France. Ended up creating a nice report delving into the Ultrabroadband described with Gigabit Passive Optical Networks, still under standardization but a hot topic! France Telecom is the first incumbent that is using that, when BT cant even think of that. Wrote up a nice deliverable backing up Eli, maybe some more funding for the CITI and its affiliates!
E
I was always supporting the idea that women and not only should be smart with their money. Think that money gives power, but also can take power away. No matter the circumstances women today make more money than before and they should be the wise investors too.
Its not only a matter of culture to plan on the idea, take care of the money cause the money will take care of you in the future, but it is a life attitude. According to Suze money could be a the baby-sitter, but also the big disconnect. Having a healthy relationship with the money as the article raises is not only a female topic. Both genders have the same problem. Even within a couple, my money, your money, whose the heck money?
As we grow up we are becoming, hopefully, more sophisiticated and skeptic with our money in general. My 'favorite' are people with money that are scared to spend them or are clueless how to invest. There is no excuse, folks, in this country, having everything in front of your eyes not to be able to grow your money and wealth.
If you have the cap do the property, if you dont, go with the stock market and enjoy some small marginal profits, good enough for your Starbucks latte. Good luck with your bucks..
Took a step back from Apple's share, dropped already, due to the overall stock market drop and the oil price increase. But there is a lot of potential, it keeps up with a strong EPS and the Apple TV that will be introduced sometime in March should add more value
Another snowstorm in the Big Apple...
Going to class to teach tomorrow is going to be an adventure, hopefully QC will cancel classes, cause the professor is bored :)
Thinking of my friend Panos, who is waiting for the spring to come and visit. I owe him a couple of pool and backgammon games, major activities for sluggish..and not only
E
After having a discussion today with my friend George on CRM, I realized that CRM is all about people and visonaires.
Its all about fishing as it goes along with leadership and getting them to bite. Another maketing opportunity approach, as I am teaching to my Marketing class, where you need to design the right plan combining customer experience and new business model to achieve the desirable result. Be patient, a visonaire, measure your result and attack with your tools - Web 2.0 is an amazing tool. Dell has seen the Web2.0 light and is starting to engage real customers in conversations around future product innovation. These are still early days in Dell's customer-driven innovation makeover, but it is good to see that Dell is finally following the lead set of other companies.
But still business models are missing, no amazing or promising ROIs. Hard to measure..when free services are all over. Maybe more advertising at what price?
Is that the future business model based on ads, is that how YouTube will make money?
However, there is more to see, already bloggers are asking "but will it make any money?". Donna Bogatin asks this very question in her blog post "Will Web 3.0 Be In The Green?".
The game and the solution comes up to 'stick' the customer with you, offer him multi-services taking advatage of the one-to-multipoint management and lower your management cost.
Create the Ecosystem, the trusted source, that will raise your revenues and give you a secure future ROI.
Telekom Italia is measuring innovation and success of their services based on their customers satisfaction, when they call the helpdesk. A satisfied customer will buy more services from the Ecosytem. A survey always after the end of the call or use of an online agent is the best way to understand the customer and his needs, since your customer is the long-term strategic business asset.
Weekend coming up and more study on the way. Just purchased the book "Blown to bits", amazing fundamental strategic book by Phil Evans (BCG), strongly recommended..
E
