Comunicano

Discussions on Restructuring Global Telecoms to Highlight Debut eComm 2009 European Conference & Awards

Forum for disrupting status quo, promoting innovation in emerging communications

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, Oct. 22, 2009 —The Emerging Communications Conference & Awards (eComm Europe 2009) brings its forum for disruptive free-thinkers in telecom, mobile and Internet communications here for its first-ever European event over three days next week.

Panel discussions, keynote addresses and presentations by individuals have been selected for their promise to provoke new ideas, new directions and new opportunities in emerging communications, said Lee S. Dryburgh, organiser and co-chair of eComm.

“Our first two events in the United States proved to be highly effective platforms for highlighting significant opportunities and, on the flip side, pointing out industry hype,” Dryburgh said.  “We expect the first European event to carry on the push of ideas for accelerating communications technology and business innovation across the entire communications spectrum.”

As examples, he cited scheduled panel discussions for eComm Europe 2009:

• Wednesday -- Are the Current Ecosystems of Wireline and Wireless Still Relevant? - Moderated by Andy Abramson, of Comunicano.  Panelists include Martin Geddes, of BT; Moray Rumney, of Agilent; Brough Turner, of Ashtonbrooke, and Dean Bubley, of Disruptive Wireless. 
• Thursday -- Investing in the Telecom Value Chain for a Post-Meltdown World - Moderated by James Enck, of mCAPITAL.  Panelists include Umair Haque. of Havas Media Lab; Hjalmar Winbladh, of RebTel;  Michael Jackson, of Mangrove Capital, and Sean Park, of Nauiokas Park.
• Friday -- Spectrum 2.0 - What's Really Happening? - Moderated by Brough Turner, of Ashtonbrooke.  Panelists include Dean Bubley, of Disruptive Analysis;  Robert Horvitz, of the Open Spectrum Foundation; Prof. William Webb, of Ofcom; Phillipa Marks, of Plum Consulting, and Aaron Kaplan, of FunkFeuer.

Dryburgh said he is especially pleased that eComm Europe 2009 has attracted the headline sponsorship of Skype, a company that he said exemplifies the spirit of innovation the conference strives to foster.

He pointed out that attendees at eComm Europe 2009 also will be offered a glimpse into another step forward in emerging communications with presentations from core members of the Google Wave™ team.

The debut event in Europe is being held in Amsterdam’s unique Westergasfabriek cultural zone.  Attendees may still register online at http://www.amiando.com/ecomm2009-europe.html.

The event headline sponsor is Skype. Platinum sponsors are Voxbone, Voxeo, Global IP Solutions and VoiceSage.  RebelVox and Dialogic have signed on as gold sponsors.

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Google Wave™ is a trademark of Google Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contact:

Sue Huss

Comunicano, Inc.

sue.huss@comunicano.com

619-379-4396 

eComm 2009 Signs Skype As Headline Sponsor Of European Conference & Awards Debut Event

Inventive company supports theme of innovation in emerging communications

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands (October 15, 2009) — Skype has signed on as headline sponsor of the Emerging Communications Conference & Awards (eComm Europe 2009) first-ever European event to be held here October 28-30, the company and the conference organizer said today.

Announcing its role, Sten Tamviki, Skype’s Chief Evangelist & GM for Estonia, said: "As headline sponsor of this month's Emerging Communications conference, Skype is pleased to support the independent and innovative community that eComm represents.  Skype disrupted a traditional industry to enable the world's conversations and is proud to be part of a thriving community of innovators."

Lee S. Dryburgh, organizer and co-chair of eComm, added:  "Back in 2003, Skype sent shock waves through the telecommunications industry by heralding a new software-only, edge-centric approach.  Six years later, Skype is still launching innovations that will vastly increase the value of its platform and further disrupt the industry. I'm totally thrilled that Skype recognizes the value of the communications innovation community by taking the eComm headline sponsorship position."

Headline sponsorship means Skype will receive premier marquee billing at the conference site in Amsterdam’s unique Westergasfabriek cultural zone, as well as on all conference materials.  Further, Sten Tamviki is among the featured speakers.

“Again, we’re so very pleased to see the most disruptive communications technology companies take a leadership role in bringing eComm to Europe for the first time,” Dryburgh said.

He also hinted at some of the details that members of the team developing Google Wave™, an application designed to change the way people communicate and collaborate on the Web, will share during eComm.

David Wang, technical lead and architect of the development project, will describe what a wave is and provide a theoretical description of what it means to share waves and details of the protocol. In a joint presentation, lead project manager Stephanie Hannon and Lars Rasmussen, a member of Google’s technical staff, will talk about the product and share insights such as how early users found and used public waves, and how enterprises are using Google Wave.

In showcasing innovation, eComm attracts thought leaders who offer disruptive ideas about what’s next across telecom, wireless and Internet communications.  The debut event in Europe will be held in Amsterdam’s unique Westergasfabriek cultural zone.  Attendees may register online at http://www.amiando.com/ecomm2009-europe.html, with discounts still available.

The headline sponsor of eComm Europe 2009 is Skype. Platinum sponsors are Voxbone, Voxeo, Global IP Solutions and VoiceSage.  RebelVox and Dialogic have signed on as a gold sponsors.

 

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Google Wave™ is a trademark of Google Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Emerging Communications Conference & Awards (eComm Fall 2009) Event to Feature Google Wave Creators in Keynotes

Discussion of paradigm-changing app highlights event’s innovation focus

 

 

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands – Sept. 7, 2009—eComm (eComm Fall 2009), organizers today announced that the team developing Google Wave™ have joined the stellar speaker lineup for its three-day event October 28-30 here.

 

The eComm conference showcases innovation and answers “what’s next” across telecom, wireless and Internet communications. The show has already built a solid roster of sponsors, many of which are U.S.-based firms eager to establish a presence in the fertile European market.

 

Google Wave (http://wave.google.com) is an application designed to change the way people communicate and collaborate on the Web. The company has already previewed it for developers and will extend the preview to more users later this year.

 

“We’re excited to have the Google Wave team at eComm Fall 2009,” said Lee S. Dryburgh, the organizer and co-chair of eComm. “I hope attendees will be among the first to grasp the seismic shift that Wave represents, and as such, the associated opportunities.”

 

Google Senior Product Manager Stephanie Hannon, Google Wave Co-Founder Lars Rasmussen and Google Wave Architect David Wang join the list of visionaries from infrastructure, research, developer and capital markets industry sectors set to present views of the future of communications at eComm Fall 2009.

 

“Google very much deserves to be applauded for working to build such a revolutionary platform; and for supporting federation along with open protocols,” added Dryburgh. “Google is innovating rapidly in the communications space and helping to drive new, more open business models forward.”

 

The inaugural eComm conference in Europe, to be held in Amsterdam’s unique Westergasfabriek cultural zone, follows highly acclaimed events in two successive years in the San Francisco area. 

 

Attendees may register online at http://www.amiando.com/ecomm2009-europe.html, with discounts available for early registration.

 

Platinum sponsors of eComm Fall 2009 include Voxbone, Voxeo, Global IP Solutions and VoiceSage, while RebelVox and Dialogic have signed on as a gold sponsors.

 

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Google Wave™ is a trademark of Google Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Emerging Communications Conference Europe (eComm Fall 2009) To Be Held October 28 – 30, 2009, at Amsterdam’s Westergasfabriek

Event Aimed at Visionaries, Executives, Developers and Entrepreneurs Spanning Telecom,  Mobile and Internet Communications

AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands – June 25, 2009—The huge success of two annual industry events in the U.S. in identifying opportunities, promoting genuine innovation and spreading a vision of the future of communications has spawned the first Emerging Communications Conference Europe (eComm Fall 2009) to be held here October 28-30.

The conference will be held in Amsterdam’s unique Westergasfabriek cultural zone to provide the special context and space for the open and free flow of ideas, vision and debate over what’s next in telecom, mobile and Internet communications.

Lee S. Dryburgh, organiser and co-chair of eComm Fall 2009, said he expects the event here to attract Europe’s leading visionaries, influencers and entrepreneurs to push telecom, mobile and Internet communications toward new frontiers in seizing the immense new opportunities on offer.

Dryburgh said he is accepting suggestions for topics and speakers, as well as various levels of sponsorships, for the three-day event, which promises to be a tightly packed programme that stimulates, inspires and informs delegates.

“With the amazing success of our second consecutive eComm in the United States last March, it had became evident that the global community of communications professionals wished to keep growing and expanding. With that in mind, eComm Europe was born,” said Dryburgh.  “I look forward to seeing many familiar faces and new faces in Amsterdam. Together we’re shaping the future of communications at the most exciting period in telecommunications history.”

Attendees may register online at http://eComm.ec, with discounts available for early registration.

Dryburgh said developments causing waves of change across the global landscape include:
•    Telecom is becoming a software business.
•    “Phones” are becoming general-purpose computers.
•    Applications innovation is being democratised.
•    The cash cows of telephony and text messaging will dry up long term.
•    Application downloads; media content and even communication streams are increasingly routing around operators’ billing systems.
•    Search engines and computer manufacturers are encroaching into the space.
•    The traditional telecom kingdom is becoming increasingly fragmented.

He said particular topics of interest for eComm Fall 2009 so far include:
•    Voice and messaging 2.0+.
•    Operator futures: bit-pipes, platforms or supermarkets?
•    Improving efficiency thru communications innovation.
•    The fusion of media, informational and conversational worlds.
•    Open communication platforms.

Although sponsorship only opened two days ago, all Platinum positions have been snapped up by visionary sponsors Voxbone, Voxeo, Global IP Solutions and VoiceSage.

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eCOMM 2009: COMUNICANO CLIENT PRESENTATIONS

This collection of presentations from eComm 2009 indicates the diverse expertise of our clients. From "deep dialing" to CRM over voice, from video on the iPhone to cloud telephony -- there's something for everyone's taste in tech.

Fonolo: Shai Berger's Presenation at eComm09

View more presentations from ShaiBerger.

Mobivox: Peter Diedrich’s Presentation at eComm 2009

View more presentations from eCommConf.

Global IP Solutions: Jan Linden’s Presentation at eComm 2009

View more presentations from eCommConf.

Alec Saunders’s Presentation at eComm 2009

View more presentations from eCommConf.

IFBYPHONE CREATES IPHONE DEVELOPER ‘STIMULUS PACKAGE’

Promotion Puts Money Directly Into iPhone Developers’ Pockets

CHICAGO—March 3, 2009—Ifbyphone today announced an economic stimulus package for iPhone application developers. The most innovative iPhone application developers will each receive $1,000 from Ifbyphone for the development of an Ifbyphone-to–iPhone mashup that is selected and released by Ifbyphone on the iTunes App Store.

“We want to empower developers, so rather than hope that other stimulus packages would prop them up, we decided to use a direct stimulus approach of our own,” said Ifbyphone CEO Irv Shapiro. “With the release of our iPhone template, we’ve taken iPhone application development to a new level. Offering this opportunity is an enticement for developers to test their high-impact ideas on our already-proven iPhone platform.”

Ifbyphone has previously released two iPhone Apps on the iTunes App Store:  a voice broadcasting application that enables iPhone users to schedule and deliver voice messages to multiple recipients and a conference-calling application that enables iPhone users to initiate impromptu or scheduled conference calls.

The company is soliciting applications from developers for consideration now through April 30, 2009. Apps need not be complete and fully tested, but they must be working prototypes that deliver innovative calling features to consumers and/or integrate telephony into other Web services and applications. The Ifbyphone team will select the best, most innovative candidates from submitted designs, finish development and testing, and make the app or apps available in the iTunes App Store—ideally at no charge to consumers, just as other Ifbyphone iPhone apps are.

Full details of the program and the tools to begin development are available at http://public.ifbyphone.com/iphone_stimulus. Recently re-designed, Ifbyphone's developer bulletin board, www.phonemashup.com, now serves as a discussion center for the API and iPhone development tools.

“We’re hopeful that a broad spectrum of developers will give our tools a look and put their creativity to work,” said Shapiro. “We are particularly excited to announce this program at 360iDev and eComm, as these conferences have attracted many of the best and brightest iPhone developers.”

To learn more about Ifbyphone’s affordable suite of online telephony applications, such as Voice Broadcasting, Call Tracking and Hosted IVR, visit http://www.ifbyphone.com.

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About Ifbyphone

Ifbyphone is a telephone automation application company that provides small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with tools to enhance customer conversations, drive sales and lower costs. Leveraging Ifbyphone's extreme usability, developers and marketers can quickly create solutions ranging from simple click-to-call links to sophisticated call routing and interactive-marketing systems. Ifbyphone's solutions are available directly to SMBs and through a network of resellers. For more information, visit www.ifbyphone.com.

Contact:
Cheryl Cink, for Ifbyphone
ccink@comunicano.com
+1 530-756-4630

VOXBONE’S iNUM LAUNCHES IM & PRESENCE WITH GOOGLE TALK

Global Phone Number Service Now Enables Users to IM and Talk Immediately, Beginning with Google Talk

SAN FRANCISCO–March 3, 2009—Voxbone today announced a series of enhancements to iNum™, its global phone number service. The enhancements include support for presence, enabling iNum users to tell instantly whether fellow iNum users are available on their voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) phone or instant-messaging (IM) client.

iNum uses numbers from the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) new +883 country code, so users maintain a single phone number no matter where in the world they are. The new enhancements expand that reachability by adding presence: iNum users now can tell at glance whether a contact is best reached by phone or by IM.

“iNum’s new features leverage the fact that many people now IM each another before calling,” said Rodrigue Ullens, co-founder and CEO of Voxbone. “This is the same behavior we see with SMS in parts of the world where texting is popular.”

The enhancements also include support for cross-client messaging, starting with Google Talk™. This new feature initially allows Google Talk users to dial and send IMs to any iNum number for free. Voxbone partners will be adding this functionality so that a customer of one provider can IM an associate who uses another provider to see if she has time for a call.

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About Voxbone

Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, Voxbone provides worldwide DID numbers and toll-free phone numbers over its own private intercontinental network. The all-IP architecture of the Voxbone core network enables customers to rapidly deploy new communications services with local presence, while simultaneously reducing costs. It delivers high-quality call origination from 47 countries and 4,000 cities, as well as “iNum” numbers that are billed as local calls when dialed through participating carriers anywhere in the world. Through its number inventory, network and self-administered provisioning, Voxbone’s global infrastructure enables its customers to expand to international markets quickly and efficiently. For more information, visit www.voxbone.com. For more information on iNum visit www.inum.net.

Contact:
Sue Huss, for Voxbone
sue.huss@comunicano.com
+1 619-379-4396

MOBIVOX UNVEILS ‘CRM OVER VOICE’

Mobile Services Platform Adds Key Customer Retention and Growth Tools

SAN FRANCISCO–March 3, 2009—Mobivox today announced that it has enriched the capabilities of its powerful voice-activated mobile services platform with CRM over Voice, an innovative set of business growth tools that makes Mobivox│PL all the more valuable to its growing community of service provider and online community partners.

Mobivox CEO Peter Diedrich introduced CRM over Voice in a presentation at the Emerging Communications Conference (eComm2009) here today.

“Mobivox partners can now perform all-important CRM in the course of service delivery, rather than before or after it, by dynamically inserting context-sensitive, unobtrusive messaging into user interactions,” said Diedrich. He added that this latest Mobivox innovation allows its existing and future platform partners to make voice-based interactions a powerful tool for containing marketing costs, retaining users and growing revenue, while improving the overall user experience.

“Over time, the platform’s multilingual voice user interface, or VUI, establishes a unique and very cost-effective relationship with the user,” Diedrich said. “Our network-hosted address book and user database allow for insightful user profiling throughout the customer lifecycle. By mashing the VUI with rich and relevant behavioral database information, we have created an unprecedented set of highly contextual CRM processes, executed in real time.” 

In a white paper assessing Mobivox CRM over Voice, consultant and analyst Jon Arnold wrote that the Mobivox|PL solution—with its built-in CRM capabilities—“transform(s) the voice channel in a way that can render it as effective as a Web-based channel and complement the operator’s overall CRM efforts. 

“Mobivox|PL provides the added benefit of real-time touch points that engage subscribers in more meaningful ways, and it can add new revenue-generating services to the operator’s portfolio of offerings,” Arnold added.

Please see below to download a copy of Arnold’s white paper.

Diedrich said Mobivox has already proven-in these CRM over Voice capabilities in its own consumer voice-activated mobile services offer, a “living lab” with millions of voice-activated calls connected and messages delivered to date.

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About Mobivox
Mobivox provides its partners and customers a host of voice-activated mobile value-added services, including worldwide inbound and outbound calling, group communication and voice-to-text services. No complex PIN numbers or software downloads are required. Its voice-activated mobile services platform, Mobivox|PL, seamlessly combines an optimized voice user interface; rich “in-the-cloud” contact storage; and a comprehensive, network-agnostic telephony infrastructure. Carriers and communities alike rebrand and resell these services as a way to quickly differentiate their offerings, enhance revenue generation and user retention, and leverage existing investments in contact or customer databases and proprietary networks.

The company is privately held and headquartered in Montréal. For more information, please visit http://www.mobivoxpl.com and http://www.mobivox.com.

Contact:
Laura Abbott, for Mobivox
+1 203-869-8217
laura.abbott@comunicano.com  

Download a PDF copy of "CRM Over Voice: Using Voice in New Ways for Service Providers to Retain Subscribers and Strengthen" by Jon Arnold.

ECOMM 2009 SET TO KICK OFF NEXT WEEK IN SAN FRANCISCO

Number of Registered Attendees Already Exceeds Last Year’s Level

SAN FRANCISCO–Feb. 26, 2009—Final preparations for next week’s Emerging Communications Conference (March 3-5 at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel) are wrapping up as organizer and chair Lee S. Dryburgh reports that registered attendees have already surpassed last year’s numbers.

“We’re seeing that more companies are sending the more senior level executive and fewer middle level execs,” said Dryburgh. “That’s consistent with audience composition at other recent industry conferences, as we all weather the economic storm.

“I’m glad that eComm has been able to exceed last year’s revenue and participation levels before the conference’s first day,” continued Dryburgh, “even when we’ve provided discounts only for early-bird sign-ups and to speakers. We made the decision early on to limit the number of complimentary conference passes to ensure that the event’s premium status was maintained.

“This clearly shows that what started largely under the banner of a VoIP revolution more than a decade ago is not dead, and that there is strong community eager to drive the next revolution within the realm of emerging communications.”

Included among the dozen keynote speakers and scores of other presenters over the three days of eComm2009 are:

•    Ge Wang, assistant professor at Stanford University and co-founder, CTO and chief creative officer of Smule.com;
•    Jonathan Christensen, general manager for audio and video at Skype;
•    John Forsyth, vice president of strategy at Symbian;
•    Malcolm Matson, founder of the OPLAN Foundation and entrepreneur;
•    Michael Calabrese, vice president, and Sascha Meinrath, research director, both of the wireless future program at the New America Foundation;
•    Tony Jebara, co-founder and chief scientist at Sense Networks and assistant professor of computer science at Columbia University;
•    Media futurist Gerd Leonhard;
•    Richard Whitt, telecommunications and media counsel for Google in Washington, D.C.;
•    Martin Geddes, head of strategy at BT Design;
•    Benjamin Joffe, founder and CEO of +8*;
•    Mark Rolston, chief creative officer of Frog Design.

Sponsors include Skype, MetaSwitch, NEC Sphere, Voxbone, Global IP Solutions, Voxeo, Jaduka, Ribbit and Broadsoft.

Those wishing to register online may do so at  http://www.amiando.com/ecomm2009.html. For an additional $100, attendees may register on site.

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'OCARINA' DESIGNER WANG TO KEYNOTE AT ECOMM 2009

 

Smule Co-founder One of

12 Keynote Speakers in Stellar Lineup

SAN FRANCISCO–Feb. 19, 2009—Computer science researcher and entrepreneur Ge Wang is slated to deliver a keynote address that promises to be one of the most audibly and visibly stimulating sessions at this year’s Emerging Communications Conference (eComm 2009).

 

Wang, an assistant professor at Stanford University and co-founder, CTO and chief creative officer of Smule.com, will speak on “Creating New Expressive Social Mediums on the iPhone” on the second day of eComm2009, March 3-5 at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Hotel.

In explaining his exploration of the iPhone as a unique platform for creating new expressive, social mediums, Wang will describe and demonstrate his company’s innovative “Ocarina” and “Sonic Lighter” applications.  Wang calls them "social sonic artifacts" that, respectively, turn the Apple iPhone into a musical instrument nearly everyone can quickly master, or a synthetic flame that lights the dark and responds to a user’s breath and hand gestures toward the iPhone’s screen.

 

Wang will relate some of the possibilities to be achieved by taking full advantage of the iPhone's intersection of technologies – multi-touch, powerful mobile CPU and GPU, full audio pipeline, GPS/location and persistent data connection via 3G/Edge -- to provide a unique experience for users that is both expressive on a personal level and social on a global scale.

 

Smule's “Ocarina” was released in the iPhone App Store in early November and within four days reached the top Paid App spot in more than 40 countries, remaining there for three weeks.  Since then, more than half a million users have downloaded “Ocarina,” playing and listening to more than 30 million “Ocarina” performances worldwide via the app's geo-tracked social features.  The app was declared Macworld 2009’s best in show.

 

“Smule’s success with ‘Ocarina’ demonstrates that, through the intersection of the mobile, expressive and social, it is possible to achieve massive scale almost immediately, while creating global communities overnight,” said Lee S. Dryburgh, eComm 2009 organizer and chair. “We are pleased to showcase the creative ideas behind such innovations at eComm.”

 

Wang received his PhD in Computer Science at Princeton University and now is an assistant professor at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.  Smule is a startup exploring interactive sonic media and intensely exploring expressive audio, enabling creativity for a wide population and new social interactions.  The company recently received $3.9 million in a second round of venture capital funding.

 

Wang is one of a dozen keynote speakers and scores of other presenters over the three days of eComm2009.  Other keynote speakers include:

·         Jonathan Christensen, general manager for audio and video at Skype;

·         John Forsyth, vice president of strategy at Symbian;

·         Malcolom Matson, founder of the OPLAN Foundation and entrepreneur;

·         Michael Calabrese, vice president, and Sascha Meinrath, research director, both of the wireless future program at the New America Foundation;

·         Tony Jebara, co-founder and chief scientist at Sense Networks and assistant professor of computer science at Columbia University;

·         Media futurist Gerd Leonhard;

·         Richard Whitt, telecommunications and media counsel for Google in Washington, D.C.;

·         Martin Geddes, head of strategy at BT Design;

·         Benjamin Joffe. Founder and CEO of +8*;

·         Mark Rolston, chief creative officer of Frog Design.

 

Sponsors include Skype, MetaSwitch, NEC Sphere, Voxbone, Global IP Solutions, Voxeo, Jaduka, Ribbit and Broadsoft.

 

Dryburgh announced that the Wireless Innovation Alliance (WIA) has become a media partner of eComm2009.

 

Full details about the conference are available at http://ecommconf.com/2009/. For online registration, visit http://www.amiando.com/ecomm2009.html.

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