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Quick Jump Menu to this Month’s Articles February Overview A Little Help From Our Friends Independent Telco Video Content Conference News Video Conferencing on Demand: Video Chat – a Sticky Service for IOCs? iMagic Purchase by Alcatel – the Start of a Trend? Call for Materials from IOCs Involved with FRED <\/p>\n
February, 2003<\/b><\/p>\n
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A Little Help from Our Friends\u2026..<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n by Ken Pyle<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0 <\/p>\n This Beatles song keeps going through my head as I try to put some order to all of the things going on right now. The big focus for Viodi right now is the upcoming Independent Telco Video Content Conference<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Of course, this conference and most everything else we do is pretty insignificant compared to threats we face from the terrorist scum that would like send us back to the seventh century.<\/p>\n Clearly, we are relying on and owe a great deal of debt to our brave friends<\/strong> in the military<\/strong>, police<\/strong> and intelligent agencies<\/strong> that protect us every day. It sometimes seems like there is very little that we can do amidst a world of uncertainty. But to paraphrase President Bush, the best way to defeat these thugs is go about our business as usual. And so that\u2019s what we will all do! <\/p>\n And I would be remiss if I didn\u2019t mention the friends who are helping me to keep the Viodi business “going as usual” and who are playing a key part in this month\u2019s conference. Peter Lowten<\/strong><\/a>, Russ Breault<\/a><\/strong> and Brian Stevenson<\/strong><\/a> have been very helpful in tying together the many loose ends that are inevitable in organizing a conference. <\/p>\n Of course, the conference couldn\u2019t happen without the fine line-up of friends, who will be enlightening us regarding cable television, iTV and VOD, or without the generous support of our friends<\/strong> who are sponsoring<\/strong> this conference. Our sponsor friends all have technical roots in the spirit of Silicon Valley, even if they may have sprouted in places far away from here. The tech field is such that one meets a great number of people through the course of a career and many of those people become friends. <\/p>\n A great deal of cross pollination occurs in tech because of these friendships and that makes the magic that continues to be the spirit of Silicon Valley. I have had the good fortune to see some of this Silicon Valley magic<\/strong> in the past few weeks in the form of some interesting video products developed by different friends in different companies right here in this former \u201cvalley of the heart\u2019s delight\u201d. <\/p>\n I hope you have enjoyed this issue of the Viodi View<\/em><\/strong> and I hope to see you in LA at the end of the month. In the meantime, <\/p>\n we will all get by with a little help from our friends\u2026..<\/p>\n