Author: Ken Pyle, Managing Editor

  • In Memoriam:  John P. Messmer

    In Memoriam: John P. Messmer

    John Messmer had a passion for engineering. A Cal Tech graduate and someone 13 years my senior, I looked up to John. Messmer was never interested in money or material things. His passions were books and electronic device design. His seemingly contradictory anti-establishment and conservative viewpoints definitely provided me with a more nuanced view of…

  • Back to the Future – Software as a Service & Managed Services

    Software as a Service (SaaS) is a popular Web 2.0 buzzword. It struck me at NTCA’s panel, Software as a Service: Creating New Revenue Channels, that Independent Telcos have been providing a sort of Software as a Service, really a Managed Service since their inception. Independent Telcos are starting to add on Software as a…

  • Viodi View – 02/07/2009

    The Super Bowl is the ultimate social networking facilitator. This year the actual content (i.e. the game) made for good water-cooler talk. Of course, as written before, the Super Bowl is as much about the ads as it is football and a big part of the post-game buzz was discussions of the various commercials. Ironically,…

  • Viodi View – 01/23/09

    Something is different this third week in January. No, I am not talking about the historic inauguration of the first U.S. President born in the 1960s, but I am referring to missing this week’s OPASTCO’s Winter Convention. Unfortunately, we did not get our act together and, consequently, did not produce ViodiTV at this OPASTCO Convention.…

  • Viodi View – 1/7/09 Issue

    As we enter the last year of the first decade of the third millennium, it seems like it was just yesterday that we were at the dawn of Y2K. Then we had the big tech meltdown, along with what was the biggest tax cut in history. Here we are again with the start of another…

  • And the Independent Telcos Suggest Stimulus

    Further reinforcing the idea that a broadband stimulus may be happening sooner rather than later and that it will involve rural telcos, OPASTCO released a letter written to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid outlining their proposal in a white paper. This white paper, authored by the Digital Policy Institute, an…