::.. Timing ..::

:: 2003/02/15 ::

RIM Network Outage

The RIM Mobitex network -- run over Cingular data services -- went down for hours on Thursday, 13 February, leaving many users without access to wireless email services.

Turns out to be a database error led to the shutdown of the network. As reported in C/Net News.

"The outage was especially unwelcome on Wall Street, where the devices have become practically ubiquitous. One Wall Street analyst said he was without his device on Thursday from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.

A representative for Cingular Wireless, which runs the Mobitex network on which the majority of U.S. BlackBerry devices run, said the wireless
carrier was notified by RIM of the problem late Thursday.

"Cingular was informed by RIM there was a network interruption based on a database error," the Cingular representative said. "Cingular and RIM went right to work to identify and resolve that problem."

The BlackBerry nodes on Cingular's network were restarted, and the network was back up and running by 10:30 p.m., Cingular said. Some bounced messages were still in the process of being restored on Friday, Cingular said.

In the past, it has taken days before service is fully restored following an outage because a backlog of messages in the network can cause the congestion."

I have had some firsthand experience, building an instant messaging client for the RIM. One issue we discovered was that neither RIM nor Cingular are monitoring the network very closely. It was only through our own analysis of network data performed by my software architect that we discovered that one of th two transponders in the Reston VA tower was down, and that all network traffic in that area was being slowed to a crawl.

Shouldn't something as time critical as the Cingular network have failover provisions? If businesses begin to rely on the service on a mission critical basis, there is an implicit requirement to provide uninterrupted service. On the other hand, like everything else on the Internet, it will always be a little bit broken.


:: Stowe Boyd 2/15/2003 08:26:03 AM [link] ::
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My Blog, My Outboard Brain

Cory Doctorow makes a case for blogging as a brain amplifier in his piece My Blog, My Outboard Brain (thanks to a mention by Clay Shirky).

This adds some meat to a discussion I have been having with Adam Viener, namely, why blog? Doctorow's first argument is that your blog can be the equivalent of a scientist's lab book -- a place where "infovores" can track links and snippets of info, and why they seem inportant or relevant. The author -- and others, if the blog is public -- can follow the thead of reasoning, and build on it.

His other arguments are really about being made a pundit through the feedback system that the blogosphere is -- like every other social system. But the core message is compelling, and harkens back to the Vannevar Bush article about the omnipurpose "Memex" device. Bush (yes, he is related to the presidents) was Secretary of the Navy in 1945 when he wrote As We May Think, and conjectured a nifty tool for information management: "A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory." He posits -- based on the technology of the time -- use of microfilm and other media, but the usage of the device sound startling like Doctorow's Outboard Brain.

As Bush states "Presumably man's spirit should be elevated if he can better review his shady past and analyze more completely and objectively his present problems. He has built a civilization so complex that he needs to mechanize his records more fully if he is to push his experiment to its logical conclusion and not merely become bogged down part way there by overtaxing his limited memory. His excursions may be more enjoyable if he can reacquire the privilege of forgetting the manifold things he does not need to have immediately at hand, with some assurance that he can find them again if they prove important."



:: Stowe Boyd 2/14/2003 09:54:07 AM [link] ::
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A Nation of Voyeurs

Interesting and in-depth piece at the Boston Globe -- A Nation of Voyeurs -- (thanks to Biz Stone, self-styled genius), about the social impacts of Google. Your past is instantly available to anyone -- your DUI, comments ex-significant others post on lamentation sites, everything.

I was rear-ended a year ago by an apparently nice woman, that is, aside from her driving behavior. She provided her name and address, and suggested she would rather pay me for the damages directly, to avoid insurance issues. I googled her, and found out that she was a prominent local advocate for victim's rights -- found her address, phone number, email address, everything. It lessened my concerns a lot, since all I had was a phone number and a name. Who knows if she was trying to scam me? At the time, I felt very self-satisfied about my Internet PI prowess.

I disclosed to her -- in an email, when I informed her of the cost to have my bumper replaced -- that I had found her email address through Google. The chill in her voice when we later spoke on the phone let me know, instantly, how creepy I must have seemed from her perspective. The fact that she was very attractive probably complicated things, too.

Instant access to the open book of people's lives is problematic, and social approbrium is not strong enough a deterrent to stop people from poking around in our internet closets. McLuhan said that the global computer network would shrink the world into a global village, and just like in a small town, everyone knows your business and there are no secrets.

:: Stowe Boyd 2/14/2003 09:27:07 AM [link] ::
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AOL's "Hot Gossip" Shuts Up

The blendo concept of streaming video interviews coupled to live chat has apparently not proved to be a winning formula for AOL's Hot Gossip, which has been terminated.

As reported in the WSJ 13.02.03, this element of AOL's "fall lineup" of programming, has gone bye bye. "Now, the gossip show has gone off the air and the eight-person staff that produced it and other live chats, has been laid off. The AOL unit says the change was because of cost-cutting, but it continues to provide live and original programming. Shows like "Hot Gossip," which followed a TV format, are supposed to to attract viewers with high-speed Internet connections known as broadband. But America Online is in a difficult position: It needs to lure broadband subscribers but can't afford to spend too heavily on broadband shows."

I reserve judgement on the concept -- audience involvement through live chat -- which I think has real merit. But with television viewing plummeting because of internet use (see Internet Use means Less TV Viewing) what's the point of perpetuating the TV format, or more specifically, the superficial approach used in gossip shows?

What's missing is a better synthesis of things that work. The IM side of the equation is good. Perhaps they should look at booming media concepts like blogs, and see how to meld video, blog, and IM. Instead of putting gossip columnists on the "air" why not work out how to create synchronous connected journalism. That's a breakthrough opportunity.



:: Stowe Boyd 2/14/2003 08:35:17 AM [link] ::
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Internet Use means Less TV Viewing

If there was ever a strong case for getting your kids onto the Internet, this has got to be the best: Internet users watch 5.4 hours less TV than non-users, every week.

Note that the top five activities were email and instant messaging, Web surfing or browsing, reading news, shopping and buying online, and accessing entertainment information.

UCLA reports on a study of Internet use, now in its third year.

"Year Three of the UCLA Internet Report found that television viewing continues to decline among online users.

"The trend across the three years of the UCLA Internet Project shows that users are 'borrowing' their time to go online from hours previously spent watching television," said Cole. "While survey respondents typically underreport their television viewing, the trend in viewing time is very definitely on the decline, while Internet use is rising."

Regarding television:

· Overall, Internet users watched less television in 2002 than in 2001  11.2 hours per week in 2002, compared to 12.3 hours in 2001.

· In 2002, Internet users watched about 5.4 hours of television less per week than non-users -- this compared to 4.5 hours in 2001.

· Almost one-third of children now watch less television than before they started using the Internet at home -- up from 23 percent in 2001.

· The decline in television viewing becomes even more pronounced as Internet experiences increases; more than twice as many of the very experienced users than new users say that they spend less time watching television since using the Internet."


:: Stowe Boyd 2/13/2003 03:31:42 PM [link] ::
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In-Flight IM

AP new story today by Rachel Konrad on a new in-flight WiFi service being debuted by Boeing and Intel suggests that the bandwidth restrictions -- with all the webheads on the flight sharing a single 128k satellite connection -- will make the service impractical.

"I then noticed that both instant-messaging applications I had launched several minutes earlier — Yahoo's and America Online's — were not working. Both were attempting to connect, seemingly to no avail.

A Boeing engineer explained that bigger applications might be slow to start. Everyone within a confined area shares the WiFi network, so if one or two people download digital movies or send high-resolution photos, all passengers suffer slower connection times.

With about 40 people sharing a 128k connection, access seemed about as slow as a conventional telephone dial-up — if not slower. Having enjoyed a high-speed line at home for two years, I was annoyed by the plodding pace in the air.

But as my pessimism peaked, I received a smiley emoticon from my friend David, who was working from his home in San Francisco. Yahoo IM had finally connected, and it performed solidly, albeit a bit sluggishly.

As we chatted, I glimpsed the potential of in-flight access: I could alert friends that my flight would arrive early or late, arrange dinner reservations, update my boss on a project or simply pass the time chatting with the many IM junkies in my life.

I'm willing to give Boeing and Intel the benefit of the doubt, presuming they'll work out the kinks. And I can definitely see in-flight access taking off — particularly among business travelers with expense accounts.

But until the service comes with a money-back guarantee, I'd refrain from forking over my own cash.

Next time I have to watch a bad movie in coach, I'll be more appreciative."

Definitely too slow.


:: Stowe Boyd 2/13/2003 03:20:15 PM [link] ::
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Reining in on IM: Big Brother is Watching

A recent article in Darwin, Reining in on IM, by Scarlett Pruitt, is riffing on the recent announcement by Blue Coat Systems on an application that can monitor, manage, and log employee's IM use.

The fear factor related to "unsanctioned" IM use is kind of silly. Its very similar to companies' fears about personal use of company telephones in the fifties, when they were being rolled out in the corporation. Ultimately, companies have come around to a sensible policy about telephones, namely that a certain amount of personal use of phones is fine -- calling your kids when they come home, setting up dentist appointments, etc. -- and that companies only have to audit periodically to be sure that no one is abusing the privelege by taking to the old folks back in Armenia.

In the final analysis, productivity is enhanced by ease of personal communication, since people would otherwise have to break out of corporate tasks to talk to friends and family. If you make them leave the building to use a pay phone, they will waste time. Its the same logic that motivates companies to provide free coffee. So, ultimately companies will get over this fear of personal abuse of IM, and move on.

:: Stowe Boyd 2/13/2003 01:01:40 PM [link] ::
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DCI Executive Summit on Real-Time Collaboration

DCI, the well-known and highly regarded leader in high-tech education, tradeshows and management consulting, launched a new tradeshow in December: Creating the Real-Time Enterprise (www.dci.com/events/rte). The show was well received, with sponsorships including companies such as Accenture, Siebel, HP, and Microsoft.

The RTE conference will be held three times in 2003: June 10-12 in Chicago, August 18-20 in San Francisco, and November 11-13 in New York.

At a recent Advisory Council meeting held in Boston, I met with George Schussel, DCI’s CEO, and discussed the possibility of a track on real-time collaboration technologies (especially instant messaging, real-time conferencing, and related collaboration tools), and their role in the emerging real-time enterprise. After a few minutes discussion, and a subsequent phone conversation we had resolved to structure – at the least – a real-time collaboration track for all three events. In subsequent discussions, we have moved forward with the concept of a full-day executive summit on the topic of real-time collaboration.

Given the press of events – the brochure for the June conference will need to be finalized before the end of February, and a separate brochure for the Summit would need to be developed within a few weeks later – I have moved very quickly to contact the leading companies in the industry, and to motivate them to participate in this opportunity.

A Working Model for the Executive Summit: Get Real

I am using the theme Get Real as a provisional theme for the Summit. The intent is to carry across the key value propositions for the adoption and roll-out of real-time collaboration technologies. The goal is to motivate C-level executives to, first, attend the Summit, and later to take action to bring these technologies into the enterprise.

Case studies are the generally considered the best source of authoritative information by conference attendees. No surprise, since practitioners are most likely to trust fellow technology users, and, sadly, discount the bold pronouncements of vendors. As a result, I would like showcase case studies that demonstrate the value of real-time collaboration to the enterprise: hard cost savings, accelerated responsiveness, and higher levels of communication within the company, and across the extended enterprise.

While panel sessions can be messy and contentious free-for-alls, when well moderated and tightly focused, panels can serve a great function within the context of a conference: to create a point-counterpoint on important and controversial topics. I intend to structure a few such panels, which are likely to be on topics such as The Role of Public Instant Messaging Networks, Standards and Security, Collaborative Application Integration, and Wireless Collaboration.

:: Stowe Boyd 2/13/2003 09:58:15 AM [link] ::
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Microsoft XP Instant Messaging part of new EU Anti-Trust Case

The Computer & Communications Industry Association, or CCIA, whose member companies include AOL Time Warner, Sun Microsystems, and Nokia, assembled a new case for Microsoft monopolistic practices based on the bundling of key technologies into the Windows XP operating system. Along with music software, instant messaging was cited as one of the key technologies bundled with the operating system.


There is no doubt that instant messaging's presence management capability will prove to be the killer app for the next generation of communication software. The creation and maintenance of global presence networks has embroiled AOL, Yahoo, and Microsoft in a war for future dominance of the world's presence information. By bundling the XP Messenger into XP -- and now, breaking the application up into a suite of XP components -- Microsoft is positioning itself to become the default presence service for those transitioning to the most modern operating system that the company offers.


The lack of interoperability between these services is just as painful and costly a social issue as monopolistic practices. Actually, I could easiliy make the case that a single monopoloy for presence would be in the public interest -- subject to cost controls by governments -- since at least there would be a means to communicate with any instant messaging user. At the very least, while the courts are looking at these anti-trust issues, perhaps they will finally move on the value of interoperability between the various IM services.

:: Stowe Boyd 2/11/2003 02:25:25 PM [link] ::
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Notes from Lotusphere

Wow! The new general manager of Lotus, Ambuj Goyal, announces a plan to invest $1B this year in collaborative technologies. Of course, many Lotus developers were concerned that much of that money is apparently being directed to the "Next Gen" software initiative, which is principally based on the Websphere technology, rather than the Domino/Notes platform.


Personally, I think the existing Lotus developers are whining too much, and are failing to get with the modern world of web services based software development. While Notes/Domino has a lot of attractions -- most obviously ease of development -- those features should not dominate product strategy for IBM. The costs of programming in Java will be offset by the open integration with other IBM and third party systems.


Sametime and Quickplace are being rapidly 'refactored' from applications into platforms onto which new apps can be jiggered, and the move to Websphere technologies -- Portal and Application Server -- is everywhere evident. The demonstration of Sametime-enabled Websphere Portal examples is definitely a view into the operations of tomorrow's business.


Lotus announcement of the "Next Gen" email solution was surprising -- not because they have built such a solution, but because they made such a fanfare about it. A new email solution, targetting those companies with significant staff that are not served by today's email solutions. Clearly not intended for white color or professional staff, but field, factory, and other users who may need to have web-based occasional access to email.


Attendance -- big surprise -- was way down from the go-go years, but the energy was still there. IBM is strongly committed to collaborative technologies, and is trying once again to reach out to the partner channel to make new inroads in the market.

:: Stowe Boyd 2/11/2003 01:20:56 PM [link] ::
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