Communications

Speaking at next week's IP-Based Communications Policy Summit

I'll be in Washington DC on Wednesday May 4th to participate in the "Peripheral Visionaries IP-Based Communications Policy Summit."  As Jeff Pulver comments there is a significant divide between the communications policy debate that happens inside the beltway and the discussion that goes on at a VON conference.

I'm participating on a panel of IP-centric folks but, looking at the participants in the other panels and at the DC-centric set of sponsors, the policy folks are more than adequately represented. It should be an interesting day.

Passion

I generally like people who are passionate. But in such a crowd, the question comes up, "How can you spend all your time on telecom when our world is facing [...fill in a serious world problem...]?" Well, I don't have a way to solve world hunger, at least not directly. But I can contribute to improved communications and, in the long term, that is really, really significant.

Communications is the prime enabler of human progress. It was our ability to speak that originally separated humans from other primates. And whether it's written language, the printing press, telegraphy or television, each subsequent advance in communications has helped humans develop -- economically, politically and culturally. Communications exposes us to new ideas, in real time today -- think TV or mobile phones -- and across generations -- think books, paintings, photographs and now the Web. Communications supports collaboration, both person-to-person and in groups, and two minds are better than one.

Today, two global communications revolutions are in progress -- mobile phones and the Internet. They are converging, but it could be more than a decade before telephony becomes just another application running over the mobile Internet. For now, both revolutions are vital.

In the past 6-8 years, the cost of mobile phone infrastructure has dropped to the point where mobile phone adoption is sweeping many developing nations. Phone service provides immediate social and economic benefits to the individuals who get the service, and to their friends and neighbors.

Meanwhile the Internet has revolutionized the developed world and is making inroads in developing nations. 

If anything, we are vastly underestimating the benefits this combined communications revolution will produce for mankind in the coming decades.

So, I may not be directly working on a solution for world hunger or human disease, or for world peace, but to the extent I'm making a small contribution to the global communications revolution, I'm helping enable long term solutions to all these problems.

Welcome

This blog will focus on issues at the intersection of telecom, mobility and the Internet. I won't overwhelm you with daily commentary, as there are many others who do a good job of tracking and commenting on breaking news. Instead, look here for occasional posts, of substance I hope, and with information you may not have seen in the normal industry buzz.

I am Chief Technology Officer at NMS Communications and this blog is hosted by NMS, however the content here is mine alone. Of course, many of my interests overlap with topics of interest to NMS Communications, but if you're looking for official NMS information please look at our website.  And of course, if you are looking for NMS "insider information", don't expect to find it here!

I have a long history with telecom and the Internet, beyond what's mentioned in the official bio. I entered the telecom industry when some friends and I started NMS Communications (originally named Natural MicroSystems) in 1983. (It's true, there were also some college-era telephony activities :-), but you'd have to buy me a beer to learn about those). I only got serious about the Internet in the early 1990s, but I've been heavily involved in VoIP since 1996 and I've benefited from the views of several friends and acquaintances who can rightfully be considered Internet pioneers.

Finally, despite my engineering origins, I've been speaking and writing on industry subjects for many years and I keep getting invited back, so hopefully there's some value in some of the things I have to say. Stay tuned.