Intel and Yahoo announced a partnership (also with Comcast) that they will be providing the embedded technology for set top boxes to provide widget for a TV environment. I’m here at IDF and had a chance to talk to a few Intel super geeks and basically it’s all vapor at the moment. It’s mainly a developer oriented showcase so it’s not meant to be a shipping product. The demo they are showing is very sexy but it’s vapor - at least for now.

The demo really shows the benefit of the user experience. The notion of having prefabricated widgets coming from Yahoo will make for a compelling experience. What’s more interesting is the idea that users or families will be able to create their own widgets. I can see this really working well for parents putting together microcontent widgets for their kids - a kinda set top box playlist concept.

So as of today it’s concept and this offering should attract developers with the open architecture. The Intel guy said that developers can integrate any clients side innovation directly into the stack. This makes sense for emerging areas that need innovation - like video acceleration and other problem areas like managing the storage issues. Today big video content providers have to to store multiple file formats like Flash, Windows, and Silverlight. This is a big problem and generates a ton of costs. At least the CDNs can make more money.

I love this concept with the Intel set top box and think that this is where Yahoo needs to be successful. By pushing out content from their system to the edge the users are happy. Yahoo goes to where the users are instead of today where Yahoo makes the users come to them.

The question in my mind is what is the video user experience like when there are so many problems in delivering video over the Internet (speed, cost, concurrency).

Though the company is still a relative newcomer to the political lobbying game, Google showed Monday it knows how to get everyone’s attention with its creation of a public-advocacy organization aimed at freeing up the so-called “white spaces” of empty wireless spectrum between TV channels. Though we’re still years away from anyone being able to use new gizmos to connect via white-space channels, the conversation about finding new spectrum for communications in the U.S. seems to be a good one to have.

Why is this a big deal? If you remember the $19.6 billion the FCC raised in the recent 700 MHz auctions, you know that wireless spectrum is a precious and scarce commodity. If the white spaces bandwidth gets released into the unlicensed realm, it could be a lot cheaper for service providers to set up new networks.

And even though Google is upfront about why it wants to help free the white spaces — “Google has a clear business interest in expanding access to the web” — some like Om and Cynthia are publicly doubtful that we’re getting the full picture of Google’s intentions. My take is that in these times of duopoly broadband services, any conversation about getting more spectrum is a good one to start having, no matter what the motivation is.

The next big thing in the white spaces arena is likely to happen next month, when the FCC releases the results of its latest round of device testing. Google, along with device builders like Motorola and chip vendor Intel are behind making white spaces open and free, while TV broadcasters and folks who build wireless microphones (who both say there will be too much interference) are in opposition. Let the lobbying begin!

Paul Kapustka, former managing editor for GigaOM, now has his own blog at Sidecut Reports, which has recently published a report on the state of the Net Neutrality debate.

According to Eric Eldon Android is more than just a phone platform. It’s the weapon on choice in Google’s quest for world domination. The prevailing wisdom is that mobile is the future; that’s no surprise. “Android” has been the codename for google’s mobile phone platform but Eric and John speculate it’s part of a much larger strategy.

Google is one of the founders of consumer-oriented cloud computing. It’s one thing to be the leader in free webmail but quite another to be the sole provider to an untapped market. Currently mobile devices have limited non-phone capability. I use mine for email mostly but occasionally for searching, mapping and web browsing as well. I wish I could do more and my device, Samsung i760, certainly has the potential but the services don’t exist or at least aren’t optimized for mobile devices. In steps Google.

With the Android platform Google controls the full application lifecycle. The platform can be minimal, much like an old WYSE terminal, as long as “the cloud” can supply everything from apps to content. Google has a formidable backend and is growing their cloud at an alarming rate. They’re building SkyNet, a la the Terminator. More than a T-1000, Android is a delivery device to get Google’s cloud “virus” into the hands of millions of fanboys worldwide.

Unlike John, I don’t think this effects UC… yet. Google doesn’t own much, anything really, on the voice side. GTalk’s a joke. Would Google be interested in picking Skype up cheap from eBay? That would certainly give them the foundation of a compelling UC strategy! Why am I the only one talking about this?

Android is looking like a possible Unified Communications killer. Google is changing the game here. Eric Eldon has a fantastic reporting piece that Android isn’t just for phones.

Some snips from Eric’s piece…“this is where some of Google’s other initiatives could come in, one source speculates. If the wider-ranging operating system is really what Google is doing with Android, well, the App Engine, Google’s web hosting and support service for developers, wouldn’t just be about helping web developers, it would provide services for Android developers. And, Google is also constantly improving the artificial intelligence capacity of its search engine, its spam filtering in Gmail, and a range of other services — Google is creating a supercomputer, driven by artificial intelligence. Through Android, it could let these developers build applications that use its brain. What’s more this could explain why Google has been experimenting with free WiFi in Mountain View (which is pretty great, by the way), and with other wireless transmission experiments. It wants to create an ecosystem that relies on communication between any two devices.”

I’m hearing from my industry friends that Android is more than phone platform. It’s common knowledge that Google is powering their back end with LAMP stacks so it makes so much long term sense to make Android the centerpiece of a bigger competitive strategy - Internet Operating System ..oh yeah Powered By Google.

I’d love to hear Alex Lewis chime in on this topic.

Eric also writes … “Microsoft, meanwhile, has a similarly grand vision of connecting all your devices with its Live Mesh platform, but it isn’t focusing on mobile, and the realization of this goal is a long way off.” …

I would add that their Unified Communications piece is far away too. Ken Camp has been writing about the lack of serious pilots in UC and he’s correct. UC could be a pipe dream with freight trains like Google coming down the track….

Recently I sat down with Eric Swift of Microsoft’s Unified Communications team and asked him directly the Google question...How does Microsoft UC strategy compete with Google’s moves (as a threat to UC). Here is the interview

I am constantly seeing new players moving into what is looking like Unified Communications to me but completely open. I am wondering what IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, and others are thinking… they got to be worried. Google has a huge platform and no legacy issues to deal with. It has a clean sheet of paper. If they get the developer community then what we now know as UC vendors ..well they all could be “toast”.

Platform wars continue….

Padmasree Warrior, is the new CTO of Cisco Systems of San Jose, and former CTO of Motorola.

Padma’s interview with Peter Shaplen in this recently released podcast is dripping with overtones from the term “collaboration”, but vows to maintain the company’s commitment to its core.

An interesting podcast and a must-listen for those watching Cisco and their reach out into Unified Communications. She mentions market shift opportunities, and innovation as well. It is worth the short listen.

She ties it up nicely with her vision of Cisco as the “iconic incubator”. I believe Padma has excellent points and a sound perspective of the history and position of the company and its future direction. She brings her expertise in mobility to Cisco’s table as well. She entered into the position amidst some elements of controversy to an office vacant for about 2 years, but she has much to her credit and she has the careful tutelage of John Chambers.t Let’s face it, with a name like Padma Warrior, it would be hard to not be behind her.

Reaching beyond traditional managed services, Adobe systems selected OpSource’s On-Demand Web solution for its Acrobat.com online services offering. OpSource, which I covered before, is a leading SaaS or Software as a Service provider based in Santa Clara, CA.

The release indicates Adobe’s Acrobat.com services include file sharing, storage, PDF conversion, online word processing and web conferencing. Utilizing OpSource’s unique cutting-edge operations, Adobe’s offering will likely be significant. No timeline was established in the release, but expect an establish offering phase quickly. Treb Ryan, CEO of OpSource is quoted as well.

This is a big win for OpSource and Adobe and big news for those of us are watching the cloud. Who will be the next company to step up?

Convio, an online startup based out of Texas no less, has withdrawn its IPO. They mentioned a “weak economy” and “skittish stock market”, but what may have really spooked them was the fate of Rackspace, who had their IPO last week. Rackspace had all indicators going for it yet has pretty much tanked, not completely, but surely not as successful as had been hoped. There is no shortage of theories or analysis why this has happened to Rackspace, but what is clear is that something affected this company’s fate.

Solid performances and sustained financial success could get the company back to what they had hoped, barring futures unforeseen factors. It just seems that this has not been a tech year for IPO’s thus far..

I’ve heard a lot of buzz on social media and even mashups in the workplace. John would call it “sizzle”. And I say “Where’s the steak?”. With a few exceptions the enterprise is ignoring social media in the workplace. And, though it may surprise you, I tend to agree with that strategy. Although there are certainly some organizations where social media can provide substantial benefit I don’t think it fits into the critical business processes of most enterprise environments. In my opinion, where it does fit is in the startup environment. Building a successful startup is all about communication and networking. LOTS of both. I’ve been involved in a few and the “non-work” of networking and getting your idea out there can often take up more time than the actual work of building a product.

Although most of my clients are more established, the valley is filled with startups using a “by any means necessary” strategy to get noticed. If you’re one of those, I urge you to check out Chris Brogan’s post on Twelve Ways to Sell Social Media to Your Boss. I’ll repost here for you lazy folks that don’t want to click the link:

Twelve Ways to Sell Social Media to Your Boss

1. Social media tools like blogging, social networks, and social bookmarking are more effective in reaching the millions online than a traditional website.
2. Blogging can act as a way to reduce customer service calls (if there’s helpful how-to information on the blog).
3. Cost of implementing a blog is free or cheap. No more than $100 for a year of hosting. And most software is free. (There are some benefits from professional blogging software, but for most people, free is plenty fine).
4. Social networks are now used frequently by your customers, your prospects, and your competitors. Connect with people, learn their business needs, and respond more simply and flexibly.
5. Social media provides robust tools for listening, ranging in price from free to inexpensive, to reasonably expensive. Even the free tools help an organization find out who’s talking about them, so they can choose to respond.
6. First steps can be simple, like establishing a blogger relations process to go along with your press relations process. You might find bloggers who will want updates on your space, and even this is a good first step.
7. Internally, social media tools can be used to help with status information, training, project collaboration. Most tools like blogs, twitter-clones like identi.ca, etc can be set up internally instead of used on the public web, for more privacy.
8. Building an online social media component to most marketing and PR efforts ensures a better reach for the media created, and potentially better tracking through clicks and other metrics captured online versus in traditional media (like TV, newsprint, magazines, radio).
9. Blogging helps a business differentiate and establish a thought leadership position.
10. Using social network sites helps in customer prospecting, HR background checks, product marketing, and community awareness.
11. Building a social network group (either on someone else’s platform or around your primary site) encourages customer retention (a huge metric for lots of companies).
12. Another way to help is to find other companies or organizations, either in your vertical, or similar, and present information on how they’ve used social media.

One thing’s for sure, there’s at least some money in social media. Check out this analysis on a user who tried to sell his twitter account.

Everybody’s talking about the Olympics, including a post I recently made .

Avaya has announced their Unified Communications solution to NBC Universal in support of their coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The press release, dated Aug 12, 2008 goes into details:
"NBC Olympics operates under a unique set of IT circumstances: every two years the organization needs a complete, business communications network set up in a new location that is in use for little more than a month. Demands for high-availability, resiliency and cutting edge technology are weighed against cost, since once the Games are over the equipment goes into storage ."

Described are some specifics such as:
"integrating existing analog and digital phones allowed NBC Olympics control over the pace and price of implementing new technology. For peace of mind, however, the company elected to run communications and data along separate, parallel paths."

It’s great to see the technology being adopted and approach to adoption particularly the election to run parallel technology. What we need to see is more success stories like this and rest assured they will be coming. The Olympics has provided an ideal scenario to deliver dynamic, robust solutions in a very visible way. What will be the next big opportunity and who will jump on it?

Kudos to Avaya on this announcement. Their position in the market looks very strong. One look at the press release section of their website tells the story of a company that is a market leader.

VMWare is posting about a major issue with VMWare.  I’m calling around to find out what the heck is going on.

Here is information from Mattjk on the VMWare community forum (I think it’s a blog):

serious bug with our ESX cluster - serious enough that I thought I should post about it here as a prior warning for others running ESX 3.5 Update 2.

The VMWare tech support person we spoke to wouldn’t 100% confirm whether this was / would be affecting all ESX3.5u2 installs, but he strongly alluded that it was widespread. For others sake I hope I’m wrong and it’s limited.

The bug:

Starting this morning, we could not power on nor VMotion any of our Virtual Machines. The VI Client threw the error “A general system error occurred: Internal Error”.

Further digging lead us to messages like this one in /var/log/vmware/hostd.log, and the log file for any virtual machine we tried to power on or VMotion:

Aug 12 10:40:10.792: vmx| http://msg.License.product.expired This product has expired.
Aug 12 10:40:10.792: vmx| Be sure that your host machine’s date and time are set correctly.
Aug 12 10:40:10.792: vmx| There is a more recent version available at the VMware Web site: “http://www.vmware.com/info?id=4″.

A call to tech support confirmed this as a known problem with a temporary workaround.

The work-around: turn off NTP (if you’re using it), and then manually set the date of all ESX 3.5u2 hosts back to 10th of August. This can be done either through the VI Client (Host -> Configuration -> Time Configuration) or by typing date -s “08/10/2008″ at the Service Console command line on the ESX hosts.

As soon as the date was reset to the 10th - problem solved.

Note that running VMs were operating fine, this only seems to affect initial VM power-on (including from suspended state) and VMotion.

So, it sounds like a serious licensing bug has crept into 3.5u2. Further testing shows that the problem begins as soon as the date hits 12th August - 10th is fine, 11th is fine, 12th and the problem appears.

There wasn’t any real reference to similar problems in the forums as far as I could see, but it’s quite possible we’re seeing this before most of the rest of the world as we’re in Australia, and therefore the date here ticked over to the 12th “before” those in Europe, America, etc.

Hope this helps others… took us a couple of hours to get this far - at least we can power on VMs again though!