Look Beyond

Searching the Spoken Word

A recent eWeek.com article quotes a Yahoo spokesperson as saying that Yahoo is evaluating the potential of voice search. As Charlene Li, an analyst with Forrester, also comments on her blog, calls placed via VoIP can be recorded today using existing shareware and then run through speech recognition software, transferred into data and then indexed by say, Google’s desktop search.

Imagine the ability to search the spoken as well as written word - it offers enormous potential.  For corporates, the days of the meeting minute taker could be numbered. And voice search could simplify compliance with those existing legal and regulatory requirements (e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley) requiring the retention of call records.  Voice search does raise a number of possible privacy issues.  For example, individuals are unlikely to want private conversations to end up being searchable on the web. 

If these concerns are overcome and voice search becomes a technical reality, it could open an exciting new chapter in search.

When will VoIP go Mainstream?

Whilst living out in New York earlier this year, we signed up to a Voice over IP (VoIP) service offered by Vonage and realised significant savings when compared with Verizon, our previous supplier.  Once we had overcome the initial teething problems surrounding set-up, call quality was good and we were generally happy with the service and comfortable with its practical limitations. 

Vonage, with 1 million customers is a market leader in the USA, second only to Skype which claims 54 million users worldwide.  Its success can be partly explained by the market dynamics in the US where the telecoms industry is regionally organised.  Low cost providers are far less common than in the UK so a customer’s choice for voice services is limited to a single telco plus potentially a single cable provider, and finally any of the VoIP services now operating in their region.

This contrasts with the deregulated market here in the UK where there is an abundance of low cost voice providers.  However, there is currently another fundamental difference.  In the UK, unless you have cable, you have to have a physical telephone line in order to subscribe to a broadband service whether this broadband service is supplied by BT or anyone else.   And you must pay line rental regardless of whether you use traditional voice telephony.  From a pricing perspective, this reduces the attraction of VoIP which, theoretically at least, eliminates the need for a landline.

Given my experience of using VoIP whilst in the US, I started to explore the practicality and pricing of VoIP services upon returning to the UK.  Vonage launched here at the beginning of the year and has recently embarked on a high profile marketing campaign to acquire residential customers.  Last week Dixons, one of the UK's largest consumer electronics retail chains, announced the launch of its own service, Freetalk.  And of course there’s Skype which eBay is acquiring for $2.6bn.

Vonage charges a fixed monthly fee of £9.99 for “unlimited calls anywhere in the UK and Ireland”; calls to mobiles cost extra over and above the fixed monthly fee.  A Freetalk package including the adaptor and a year’s subscription will cost £79.99.  Subsequently Freetalk will cost £6.99 per month for “unlimited UK landline calls”.  The Skype service on the other hand is completely free when calling other Skype users.  Its rates to call non-Skype users are comparable to other existing non-VoIP low-cost services.   These pricing models don’t appear hugely attractive when compared to the low cost providers such as Carphone Warehouse’s TalkTalk and OneTel. 

So from a pricing perspective, I don’t think VoIP is yet compelling.  How about from a functional perspective?  VoIP offers exciting functionality not possible with traditional telephony – here are two examples:

·         complete number portability allowing you to continue to make and receive calls on your number whether travelling on business, on holiday or moving home

·         virtual phone numbers to allow friends and family living in other cities or countries to call you without incurring long distance charges

There’s no doubting the sophistication of these and other capabilities possible using VoIP but I believe most of them will appeal to a limited market.  On the downside, in the event of power failure, the ability to make voice calls, including to the Emergency Services, is lost.  This will make people think twice about giving up their existing landline service.  Second, for VoIP services such as that offered by Vonage, all existing telephones must be plugged into the same special adaptor which is connected into the broadband router – given the mix of telephones consumers are likely to own currently, they are almost certainly going to have to purchase new multi-set cordless phones in order to use VoIP all round the house.

VoIP offers the future promise of all telephone calls made around the world being completely free, although this is likely to be many years away.  In the meantime, it is likely to increase pricing pressure in the UK which can only be good for the consumer.  However, although there’s little doubting that VoIP is the future of voice telephony, I believe the competitive and regulatory nature of the UK consumer market, along with the existing practical drawbacks of VoIP will delay its entry into the mainstream.

Gadget of the Month (GotM)

A few of my friends and I are gadget obsessed and like to out-do each other – in fact we have what has become known as the “gadget of the month" (GotM) competition, although it’s neither held monthly nor a competition!! When any of us acquires a new gadget, we email each other in anticipation of adulation, but more often than not jealousy prevails and there is only grudging acceptance of the worthiness of being awarded “gadget of the month”, or GotM!

These gadgets can take the form of high-tech hardware, software or some other device.  Some gadgets are completely impractical and useless like the and end up gathering dust in a cupboard.  In other words, unworthy nominations to gadget of the month.

Others such as FileBox eXtender (quickly navigate Windows file directories), Anagram (semi-automated capture of contact or calendar details for Outlook) or Orange's SPV C500 mobile (soon to be replaced by the SPV C600) have real practical use, providing productivity or functional gains.

Periodically, I will share the worthy entries to our gadget of the month competition - and I know myself and my friends welcome your own personal entries too!

So having given you a teaser, onto my latest gadget of the month nomination...

I have a large music collection, numbering 500+ CDs most of which I have ripped to iTunes which allowed me to take my music collection to the US where I spent much of the last year.  Now back in the UK, I find myself listening to music in my office on my laptop and have grown quite fond of iTunes' Party Shuffle feature which really invigorated my collection.  But the only way to use this Party Shuffle feature on my hi-fi was to hook up my laptop via an audio cable to the amplifier.  A pretty impractical solution for me and in my thirst for a neater technical solution I started to research possible gadgets which might meet the challenge...

There are a number of solutions enabling music to be played via a PC over a wireless network - all of them have pros and cons.  The primary con currently is that no solution plays songs downloaded from any digital music store, thus restricting your choice of online music supplier.  As a consequence, I plumped for the cheap but smart option of Apple's Airport Express with Airtunes.  Costing £90, it has no remote control or display but integrates seamlessly with iTunes.  It also doubles as a wireless router in its own right (useful for when travelling) and supports wireless printing.

As with all Apple products, it comes impeccably packaged.  However, the instructions are brief to say the least and initially I had problems getting the Airport to connect to my Netgear wireless router.  Taking a look on the web, it seemed a number of people had suffered from similar problems and after a couple of hours I was resigned to taking the device back to the store.  As a last resort, I called Apple's technical support and was at first told it was very difficult to connect the Airport to a different manufacturer's wireless router.  I was amazed this would be the case, especially given the advice in-store and information on the packaging.  The support consultant redeemed himself when he advised that a newer version of the administration software was available on Apple's website.  Having installed this updated software, I had the Airport attached to my network in minutes and music pumping from my B&W speakers - music to my ears!

Despite the initial teething problems, a worthy entry to "gadget of the month" and one I'd recommend to every music lover!

My First Post

I’ve sat on the sidelines for quite some considerable time watching as the blogging phenomenon has continued apace.  Having spent my entire career exploiting technology and information within business, I’ve been observing as blogging changes the dynamics of information dissemination, consumption and debate, empowering anyone with an internet connection to communicate their passions, opinions and observations on any topic to potentially millions of people around the world.

No longer is the world of media controlled by the few, often attempting to influence public opinion with their own agendas.  Now any individual can.  And millions do.  Perhaps most fascinating for me, Blogging provides insight where previously secrecy reigned.  An example.  I was introduced to Fred Wilson, a New York based venture capitalist (VC) earlier this year and he publishes a blog - A VC - which provides a fascinating insight into the mind of a VC – his view on technology trends, deals, what makes a successful entrepreneur etc.

Access to this inside track is not only of great value when conducting background research on an individual prior to an initial meeting, but also in the broader context.

When I learnt this weekend that Fred typically spends an hour blogging most mornings from 5.30am I decided - unlike the early adopter I usually am - I must belatedly join the party, although my dedication is unlikely to result in me getting up so early!

So here it is - with this inaugural post I’m starting my own blog, Look Beyond where I’ll be sharing some of my own passions, opinions and observations.  I’m not quite sure what route the journey will take but hope you’ll enjoy the ride at least as much as me!