Take August back are three words that echo in my head as my fingers tap out the first sentence of this issue of the Viodi View. An article in last weekend’s Wall Street Journal sums up my thoughts. Beyond the inconvenience for families, it points out the economic impact of kids returning to school in what used to be the month that was synonymous with vacation.
It’s ironic that, for as efficient as technology has made us, it seems like those who are working are working longer hours than ever and we have even cut short the lazy days of summer for our kids.
Focus on Doing What Is Right
“Focus on doing what’s right,” says Colleen Abdoulah, CEO & chairwoman of Wide Open West (WOW!) and Chairwoman of the ACA. Putting the consumer first is Abdoulah’s message in our video interview. She indicates that all parties, whether from industry or the legislative world need this focus to get past the issues that are ultimately harming the consumer.
Click here to read more and view.
OTT & Pay TV Blending
“Consumers just want to consume their content,” said Albert Lai of Brightcove. The challenge is making it easy for the consumer to select and view content while adhering to the business rules of the content owners, regardless of location and type of device the viewer has. In our video interview, Lai suggests some methods, beyond email authentication, that would allow automatic viewer identification by the content distributor, simplifying the experience for the viewer.
Click here to read more and view.
Ciena and Research Network Partners Work to Make Carrier WAN-SDN Realizable by Alan Weissberger
Ciena has teamed up with three research networks to build the industry’s first SDN based carrier-WAN, which will be accessible “on demand” by researchers. The venerable optical network equipment company is working with CANARIE, Internet2 and StarLight on this intriguing research project. When completed, this network will unite all the key packet, optical and software building blocks required to demonstrate and prove the optimization and monetization benefits of SDN OpenFlow-enabled, multi-layer WANs.
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Past, Present and Future of Mobile at the Computer History Museum by Alan Weissberger
On August 8th, Computer History Museum CEO, John Hollar engaged in a spirited conversation with Qualcomm’s Chairman and CEO, Paul Jacobs. A wide variety of topics were covered – from the early days of CDMA to the present dominance of wireless data technologies (3G+ and 4G-LTE) throughout the world, to what the wireless future might bring. Mr. Jacobs also provided a glimpse of what new R&D projects Qualcomm was working on. He touched on wearable computing devices and briefly showed a smart wrist watch he was wearing to the audience.
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Looking Ahead to the Wireless Future- Paul Jacobs at the CHM- Part II by Alan Weissberger
This second piece examines our wireless future and some of the research projects underway at Qualcomm. It also addresses the potential impact of the end of Moore’s Law on Qualcomm and the mobile communications industry.
[Editor’s note: Alan reports on some thought-provoking developments where science fiction is becoming science reality. It leads one to think that the smart phone and tablets are version 1.0 of the human integration into the Internet of Everything.]
Click here to read more.
Some Tweets and Short Thoughts:
- Facebook Question Exposes Email Addresses – A seemingly innocuous question from a trusted source is enough for people to reveal their name and email address via Facebook and only to expose part of their profile for anyone to see (Club Viodi).
- Home Security Goes to the Dogs (& Other Pets) Independent operators, who offer security services, might be able to one-up this press release by working with the community in multiple ways. (Club Viodi).
- What makes Silicon Valley special. The scrappy start-ups in the nondescript buildings that individually and collectively help change the world.
- Toasting for Teal. Mark Phillips is back as emcee. That alone is worth the price of admission for this great cause.
Wireless Needs Fiber, Not Pixie Dust
“It’s very difficult for policy makers to keep up with what the industry is actually doing,” said Shirley Bloomfield, CEO of NTCA. The implication is that it is unclear how rules will change due to slow reaction of policy makers to fast-moving innovation. As a result, operators face uncertainty, which, to some extent, holds back investment in their networks. This was a common view-point on the panel, which Bloomfield participated in at The Independent Show. Her interview leads to our next story.
Click here to view Shirley’s comments on rural broadband.
The Korner – Full STEAM Ahead to the Next Frontier
One of the highlights of my summer vacation was the detour made from the journey from Silicon Valley to San Diego for The Independent Show. The detour was well worth the time and the hour or so spent with Levi Maaia left an impression on me and perhaps an even bigger impact on my two young colleagues. Maaia is multi-faceted, as he is an innovative and award-winning broadband operator, a ham radio enthusiast, a student and a teacher.
Maaia has been working with the Anacapa school to develop a program called STEAM – Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. By mixing hands on work with academic disciplines, he hopes to make abstract concepts real, which will motivate kids to learn these very important subjects. His innovative approach to learning is, in some ways, a step back to what learning used to be. He incorporates hands on to not only make the learning process fun, but to stretch other parts of the brain beside that which is used for interacting with a screen.
He is the kind of teacher that inspires kids to want to go back to school at the end of summer; which should still start after Labor Day weekend!
Click here to read more and view the associated video.
