Term Of The Day - Unified Communications

Unified Communications is...

Unified communications (UC) is a business and marketing concept describing the integration of enterprise communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, voice (including IP telephony), mobility features (including extension mobility and single number reach), audio, web & video conferencing, fixed-mobile convergence (FMC), desktop sharing, data sharing (including web connected electronic interactive whiteboards), call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified messaging (integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax). UC is not necessarily a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types.[1]

In its broadest sense, the UC can encompass all forms of communications that are exchanged via a network to include other forms of communications such as Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) and digital signage Communications as they become an integrated part of the network communications deployment and may be directed as one-to-one communications or broadcast communications from one to many.

Web-based computing platform for mobile phones and software delivery ?

End game ?

I had a second thought today about the thinking on Apple+iPhone+Google+Widgets and try to relay the quote.

'' Everybody's might be missing the point.

If Apple succeeds in making the 'widget' the standard app delviery service for cell phone usage, then they can succeed in delivering the first mass-market entirely web-based computing platform.

That is huge.

iPhone widget development will become the big game.

Now Google apps also have some hardware to live on where they (hopefully) get adopted as another new standard for document exchange.

If it works, then Microsoft is no longer anywhere in the picture of the future of personal computing devices and of the most interesting channels of software delivery.

This is going to be very interesting... ''

Above is a quote by someone unknown in the internet abyss.

Google Gears will work even inside Safari.

Now, everything is fine, but I have only still some issues with iPhone:

1. Battery lifecycle could be too short
2. EDGE not 3G ( what's the value of iTunes integration on a slow connection ? )
3. What kind of unlimited plan by AT & T ?
4. Personalisation of the device ( different models - hardware ''faces'')
5. Europe's and Asia plans in the future ? ( 3G ready ? )
6. Will this Apple's ''philosophy'' sell to others ( carriers, handset makers etc ) and start similar ecosystem ( Nokia, Widsets, Orange )?

7. Selling 10 million phones is not a game changer of itself !?

Call your favourite plant

Plants and humans finally talk

Botanicalls is a project of a team of four students at the ITP program at NYU.

Background notes :

The Botanicalls project is fundamentally about communication between plants and people. We are empowering both by inventing new avenues of interaction. Plants that might otherwise be neglected are given the ability to call people and request assistance. People who are unsure of their ability to effectively care for growing things are given visual and aural clues.

When a plant on the botanicalls network needs a little water, it can call a human and ask for exactly what it needs.

Brilliant.

On ot the stated goals is to keep the plants alive by translating the communication protocols of the plants (leaf habit, color of foliage, droop, etc) to more common human communication protocols (email, voice phone calls, digital visualizations, etc).

Brilliant.
Something not meant to be communicating is doing just that. I wonder, how many systems we can setup on top of Botanicalls idea ?

Related:
Botanicalls video
Botanicalls photos

Miscommunication with Twitter

San Francisco discovered SMS and short code but at the end...it's all Web

Wrapped my thoughts today about Twitter.
It's unusual social web and mobile service coming from the Evan's garage. Not pure web play, not pure mobile play, not pure IM play. It tries to be ''something'' . For many, it's pointless and useless.
But is it so ? Internet fad comes to my mind.

I had a ''second coming'' effect, just today. But my negative attitude prevailed, although I tried to be positive .

Currently, it's low profile and simple service, but way too simple service that doesn't solve much of people's communication problems.
The buzz is around, even BBC jumped on the board.
It looks like Apple ''hive mind'' is hunting this web app along with such high profiled members from SF web community participating on Twitter.

IMHO, it is niche and it is another internet fad.
Why ?
It doesn't solve communication problems. Mobile communications and Web are not married.
This service can be global only on the web and not on mobile phones, and that's what I am interested at this moment.

So, I come up with my own solution ( concept ) , but it's strictly for my eyes ;))
Effective discussion is not possible with Twitter, it's not straightforward chat tool, it's not effective group organising tool etc.
Only networking and microformatting feature is straightforward, but I'm bit tired of so many ''friends'' ( favorites ) I have never met face-to-face ;))

Yahoo already launched service that pretends to be something similar and it's called MixD.
I didn't try it out.

Currently, I can's see much metadata about location, age, interest.
When you become twitter, you feel somehow isolated and banal, and don't find it much fun either.

How many people think and are curios to find out what I am doing now or what I have done during a day ?
Maybe few, but to find out that on Twitter.... There must be some other solution for that and the one that's more mobile friendly and accessible.
The above mentioned problem should be solved with mobile web in mind and not with SMS, IMHO.
Twitter will be my ongoing research. Hope to post more in the future .

Mobile internet for TELE2 subsribers in Croatia

Tele2 Croatia online

The youngest croatian mobile operator Tele2 is finally preparing data plan for their subsribers.
Somehow I digg it up ( it's not official yet ) on their website.

MobileInternet 555 is the name of the data plan and it's combined with USB modem for desktop or laptop PC with 18 month contract.
General monthly rate for the Plan is 185,00 kunas.
It's 555 MB included in the Plan and above that user pays 0,35 kunas for 1 MB.
At first, UMTS signal is only available in Zagreb, but GPRS signal should be decent throughout the country.

I understand Tele2 hesitated for a long time to start such a service because of their agreement with VIPnet.