Deviant Abstraction

Today is my last day at Buongiorno. It is sad since it is also one of my last days in France.

I worked as a Project Manager there for three years. Overall those were good years where I could study and work. The team was great: they let me work part time to study while financing my college. I have learnt a lot there and I wish them all the best.

Now a whole new life is starting. Cool.

Here is an interesting link (in French) on mobile predictions. Of course in 2008, I will look at them and laugh/congratulate the winners.

Link

This study cites Buongiorno as an emergent global player

http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/pdfs/Webtwopto2006.pdf

He states what he wants from his cell phone. A refreshing post to everyone in the industry.

Link

The link below summarizes classic issues with telcos.

This is nothing new. For instance, in the 70s, telcos have spun a massive computing innovation wave through the invention of Unix and the C language without ever being able to monetize it. (It was a useful invention for them though since it launched some of their providers.)

Currently they are stuck between VoIp and mobile data. Instead of letting innovation happen and users/subscribers select what they want (through a market), they are trying to analyze and understand what to do with them. Besides, they put an expensive QoS burden on top of all services which inherently limit “try out” strategies for their providers.

At the same time, those issues are at the heart of telcos successes. Those “rigidities” explain why they have been able to drive down cost and respect their legal obligation (mainly for emergency dials).

The next few years should be interesting for observer but hard for the telco industry.

Link (via GigaOm)

Here are his slides (torrent).

Of course US people needs to understand, one of the reason mobile is King in Japan is the time spent in public transportation.

Link

“I don’t mean to make a show of such an horrific event, but I couldn’t help noticing the number of people with a camera phone at hand, even in the deprived West Bank and in the middle of a brutal execution.”

There is a lot to be said about this and I won’t.

Link

(Via Technokitten’s blog)

This software from Voylent Software encrypts on the fly your phone conversation. It forbids anyone to overhear it or intercept it. There is the same issue for landline. Maybe they should port their software there too?

Question: their website do not specify the encryption algorithm used. Is it a strong one? Breakable? We know GSM conversation interception is really hard to achieve (because of frequency hopping) but really easy at the carrier center as landline. How strong is the encryption? Is it legal to use in France or anywhere else?

On a marketing side, if you use it, all your friends have to use it too if you want to have a secure talk.

One last issue: this software is political. GSM encryption is weak and phone interception is easy because of political and security issues. It is really a good idea. The old issue between security and privacy might be solved by the market. I am not sure it is the best solution for both sides.

Link

Via Boing Boing

One of the few blogs understanding mobile content and market. I work in it so I know a few things about it and this blog has a really deep and interesting vision. I don’t say this only because I think the same myself.

Link

Business 2.0 has an interesting article on mobile future. Nothing new. Nothing revolutionnary. But a nice article to summarize and evangelize.

Mainstream is catching on.

Link