Was just speaking to someone over at the VON conference, and he sounded, well, a bit bored by it all. Was enjoying it, meeting good people, but not having his worldview shaken.
It occurs to me that now that the technology for VoIP more-or-less works, the raison d’etre for VON is going away. “VON” — “Voice On the Net” — is really a synonym for VoIP. It’s a technology-centric focus. But can you imagine attending a conference called “Web Pages Expo 2005”? “HTTP World 2005”? I suspect not.
This isn’t to disrespect the essential work that’s been done. Until this last year or so, there have been too many gaps in the technology, so it was the right problem to attack. But Skype has since provided an existence proof of the usability, quality, scalability and mass adoption of VoIP. I don’t know if Skype will be a long-term success, but it provides a lower bound on the value of VoIP. I suspect there will be another year or two of growth of VON — it takes time to get the word out — but after than the real action is all in the IT, connectivity and consumer electronics businesses.
Just like the HTTP example, this step change doesn’t mean web pages or VoIP calls aren’t critically important technologies. It’s just we not need to start looking at the problems they can be used to solve. Instead of a supplier-centric conference, it becomes a user-centric one. I’m sure Pulver will manage the inflection point just fine.
Notably absent from VON are mobile carriers. The “problem” for consumers is the sense of “being there”, and keeping in social touch with friends and colleagues. Picture taking, messaging, advanced presence, identity and other value components come into play. But this “conference” for personal mobility solutions is staged daily in Radio Shacks, Best Buys and Carphone Warehouses. At best some users will come to a show like CES.
Enterprise end-users probably aren’t as well represented at VON as they could be; much of the action at VON is suppliers in the supply chain working together, not customers hunting for applications. But the theme for the conference won’t be telephony; more like “efficient team communications”, although doubtless somewhat snappier.
Finally, the wonkier policy issues will get thrashed out in other forums. You are coming, aren’t you?
Posted by Martin Geddes at 07:20 PMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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VON - New Agenda? from Skype Journal
Richard Stastny picked up on Martin's VON insights, for which I'm at least partially accountable. VON Spring was my second VON and I really had a great time. Martin's captured the "user-centric" thrust that needs to happen. While many suppliers use the...
[Read more]
FYI: MediaLive is launching a collaborative technologies conference in NYC in June (www.ctcevents.com) that will sort of take a step up the food chain, and focus more on communications and collaboration applications, rather than the narrow view of VoIP. As an advisory board member for the event, I believe that we're finally ready to move beyond simply focusing on VoIP and instead shift our focus to how enterprise communications will evolve, with voice being just one part of an ecosystem that includes presence, IM, video, conferencing, and collaboration.
Posted by: at March 11, 2005 03:25 PM