Conmergence

Fibonacci, the International Open Source Magazine

Fibonacci, the International Open Source magazine released on 28th September, 2009. The feedback received from the community for the magazine is highly encouraging for all of us.

In order to promote the message of open source far and wide, we further wish to make the magazine reachable especially to those who are not much aware about this global movement. The role played by the FOSS community in making up of the magazine largely led to its success.

Please further help us attain our objective of spreading knowledge unrestrained by forwarding this mail to anyone you believe needs to know about FOSS.

The magazine may be downloaded from http://sf-foss.iiitm.ac.in/fibonacci/

Fibonacci Vol. 1 attracted a fabulous participation from all over the world. The magazine features a total of 46 articles from 41 authors. Magazine committee consisted of 12 advisory board members, 22 editorial board members, 18 organizing committee members and 25 volunteers. We are further proud to announce a total contribution of 140 people from 13 countries and 46 organizations.

Download Fibonacci Vol. 1 from http://sf-foss.iiitm.ac.in/fibonacci/

Thanks and Regards,
Udit Khandelwal
SF-FOSS,
IIITM Gwalior,
http://sf-foss.iiitm.ac.in/

Journal of Information Technology & Politics 2010 "The Politics of Open Source" CALL FOR PAPERS

May 6-7, 2010 - Amherst, Massachusetts

A two-day University of Massachusetts Amherst conference jointly hosted by the:

Department of Political Science 

Science, Technology, and Society Initiative (STS) 

Journal of Information Technology & Politics (JITP)

Qualitative Data Analysis Program (QDAP)

National Center for Digital Government (NCDG)

KEYNOTE & DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS

Eric von Hippel is Professor and Head of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School.  He specializes in research related to the nature and economics of distributed and open innovation. He also develops and teaches about practical methods that firms can use to improve their product and service development processes. He is the author of Democratizing Innovation (MIT Press, 2005) and The Sources of Innovation (Oxford, 1988).

Clay Johnson is Director of Sunlight Labs. Prior joining Sunlight, Clay was one of the four founders of Blue State Digital, the progressive left's premier technology and online strategy firm. This firm, which was born out of the Howard Dean campaign, was also responsible for Barack Obama's Web presence. At Blue State Digital, Clay was responsible for developing the organization's brand and building its initial client roster. He also had a hand at building some of the company's early technical tools. Before joining Blue State, Johnson was the lead programmer for Dean for America in 2004, overseeing the development of grassroots tools like GetLocal, DeanLink and Project Commons. Prior to entering politics, Johnson was a technologist at Ask Jeeves (now Ask.com) where he helped to develop the company's Web syndication product. He also started the first Internet Knowledge Exchange, KnowPost.com, and worked as an entrepreneur-in-residence at a Venture Capital firm, but still claims that he learned the most from his first job -- as a waiter at Waffle House in Atlanta, Georgia.

Christopher M. Kelty is an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has a joint appointment in the Center for Society and Genetics and in the department of Information Studies. His research focuses on the cultural significance of information technology, especially in science and engineering. He is the author most recently of Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software (Duke University Press, 2008), as well as numerous articles on open source and free software, including its impact on education, nanotechnology, the life sciences, and issues of peer review and research process in the sciences and in the humanities.

APPROACH

Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FOSS) has made significant advances, both technically and organizationally, since its emergence in the mid-1980s. Over the last decade, it has moved from a software development approach involving mostly volunteers to a more complex ecology where firms, nonprofit organizations, government agencies and volunteers may be involved. Moreover, the production paradigm continues to expand to other areas of digital content (e.g., Creative Commons, Wikipedia, Connexions, etc.). In this conference we use the phrase “open source” to capture this broader phenomenon. The Program Committee encourages disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of open source, broadly defined.

"Politics" in the conference title, can have many interpretations. Political issues closely tied to the free and open source software movement(s) include: national government policies related to the adoption of open source technologies or questions related to interoperability and open standards, software patents, vendor lock-in, and copyright. These are central themes we expect may be discussed in this forum. In this context, we welcome international submissions since differences in the political perspective appear in international contexts. However, topics related to how the concept of openness has led to various interpretations, adaptations, and applications of “open source” in other domains, and political issues that surround these broader innovations, are also welcome. Specific topics might include, but are not limited to:

General topics related to the politics of open source

* How open source software or its principles are changing politics

* Emerging transparencies in software, systems and society 

* Open source in the developing world and other international contexts

* The political economy of open source

* Digital divides and open source

Open source and the public sector

* Open source software and transparency in government

* Government policies toward open source and open standards

* Regulation and open source

Open source and democracy

* Open source and democratic engagement

* Open source voting systems

* Activism, political mobilization and open source

The expansion of open source into other domains 

* Understanding how open source collaboration works and how it can be extended into other areas of collective action

* Policy areas, such as the effects of free textbooks on education policy or the politics of "One Laptop Per Child"

* The political implications of open source in other cultural domains

PAPER SUBMISSIONS

Authors are invited to prepare and submit to JITP a manuscript following one of the six submission formats by January 10, 2010. These formats include research papers, policy viewpoints, workbench notes, review essays, book reviews, and papers on teaching innovation. Proposals for full panel presentations will also be accepted. The goal is to produce a special issue, or double issue, of JITP with a wide variety of approaches to the broad theme of "The Politics of Open Source." 

HOW TO SUBMIT

Everything you need to know about how to prepare and submit a strong JITP paper is documented at http://www.jitp.net/. Papers will be put through an expedited blind peer review process by the Program Committee, and authors will be notified about a decision by March 10, 2010. A small number of papers will be accepted for presentation at the conference. Other paper authors will be invited to present a poster during the Friday evening reception. All posters must include a "YouTube" version of their research findings. 

BEST PAPER AND POSTER CASH PRIZES

The author (or authors) of the best research paper will receive a single $1,000 prize. The creator (or creators) of the best poster/research presentation will also receive a single prize of $1,000.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE 

M.V. Lee Badgett, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Paul M.A. Baker, Georgia Institute of Technology

Deborah Bryant, Oregon State University Open Source Lab

Andrea Calderaro, European University Institute

Mark Cassell, Kent State University

Edward Cherlin, Earth Treasury

Gabriella Coleman, New York University

Doug Downham, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Robert English, Daystar Computing & University of Massachusetts Amherst

Joseph Feller, University College Cork

Jelena Karanovic, Rutgers University

Dave Karpf, University of Pennsylvania/Miller Center for Public Affairs

Andrea Kavanaugh, Virginia Tech

Jose Marichal, California Lutheran University

Jens Hardings Perl, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Charlie Schweik, University of Massachusetts Amherst, co-chair

Stuart Shulman, University of Massachusetts Amherst, co-chair

Megan Squire, Elon University

Krishna Ravi Srinivas, Research Information System For Developing Nations 

Louis Suarez-Potts, Sun Microsystems, Inc. & OpenOffice.org

Anas Tawileh, Cardiff University & Meedan.net

SPONSORSHIP

For information on sponsorship opportunities, please contact Michelle Sagan Gonçalves at 413 577 2354 or mgoncalves@pubpol.umass.edu  

Enterprise LAMP Network sponsored by Vaco

<ed.note>Of course, the Nashville area could truly benefit by the representation of folks from the open source healthcare community (LinkedIn group here), from such efforts as OpenVista, OpenEHR, or others commonly in the Linux Med News. Computerworld's recent take here and the Federal NHIN CONNECT project here. FYI, the Franklin-based Medical Banking Project Cooperative Open-source Medical Banking Architecture & Technology initiative history can be found here.</ed.note>

On Saturday, Nov. 7, approximately 600 top LAMP developers from around the U.S. will converge on Nashville suburb Franklin, TN, to learn from innovative companies that will share their on-the-ground reports about the latest developments in LAMP offerings and implementation.

Whether you are an executive considering the switch to LAMP or a developer already deep into the code of Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Python or Perl, the Enterprise LAMP Network will be your destination for resources involving the LAMP stack and addressing its readiness for enterprise use.

The Enterprise LAMP Proposition

Today's enterprises need reliable, secure, highly functional, high performance, portable and scalable internet service applications, yet CTOs face intense pressure to develop these powerful systems on the leanest of budgets. Even five years ago, options for accomplishing these business goals were limited to well-known proprietary offerings. Few high-profile technology leaders trusted open source software to provide viable resources for the demands of a large-scale enterprise.

Now, however, because of the maturity, velocity, security and scalability achieved in particular by the LAMP stack and the training, certification and support offered by a solid array of providers, we believe that LAMP has proven its ability to provide performance that CTOs at the world's largest enterprises can rely on for global deployment.

Further, LAMP has transcended its origins as a stack strictly comprised of Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Python and Perl. Today, LAMP as an acronym is more symbolic than literal.

L - Open Source Internet Enabled Operating Systems (Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Darwin)

A - Open Source Internet Application Servers (Apache HTTPD, JBoss, Tomcat, Zimbra)

M - Open Source Databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, CouchDB, MongoDB, Ingres)

P - Open Source Internet Focused Programming Languages (PHP, Python, Perl, Java, JavaScript, Ruby, Erlang)

In addition, the hardware infrastructure on which LAMP used to run has matured beyond its legacy. While not a fit for every enterprise, innovations such as IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service), $aaS (Paid Software as a Service) and oSaaS (Open Software as a Service) now offer CTOs even more flexibility in how they structure systems.

Because of these software and hardware advances, we believe that Enterprise LAMP will become a mainstream choice for enterprise use.

The Enterprise LAMP Network

The Enterprise LAMP Network, planned for launch August 3, 2009, will be a year-round resource of both high-level strategic information for technology decisionmakers and highly technical information for coders about developments across the LAMP spectrum.

Planned resources include:

• Rotating critical commentary from industry leaders
• Aggregation of news content about LAMP topics
• Podcasts
• White papers
• Tutorials
• Product announcements
• Case studies about firms that have made or are making the move to LAMP
• Information about LAMP Users Groups
• Opportunities for technology firms to reach developers
• Registration for the Enterprise LAMP Summit, Camp and related events

Date: November 7th, 2009
Location: http://enterpriselamp.org/

Knight News Challenge Competition Offers Up to $5 million for Community News Innovation

<ed.note>Thing one: O P E N  S O U R C E Thing two: I reiterate Thinking About Citizen Journalism Content Aggregation Combined with Author (vs. Content) Recommendation Model: If you can only see author recommendation status with a paid online subscription then you can monetize the new news model (along with targeted ads, of course) -- assuming, as does the old news model, that folks actually value (i.e., are willing to pay for) an author's background and experience. Of course, tip jars would go directly to the authors. An alternative tip jar could be split between the platform provider and advertisers to directly acknowledge their contributions. Do Drupal, Elgg, Identi.ca, Joomla, and/or Pligg have author recommendation engine modules a la Bloggersbase?</ed.note>

Contest now allows private applications -- deadline is Oct. 15

MIAMI – The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is accepting applications for the 2010 Knight News Challenge, a contest awarding as much as $5 million for innovative ideas using digital experiments to transform community news. The deadline for applications is Oct. 15.

Do you have a big idea for informing and inspiring a geographic community? Does it include innovative use of new digital tools or processes such as social media, mash-ups or wikis? How about new ways to exchange information via hand-held devices like cell phones? Knight Foundation wants to know. “You invent it. We fund it!” is the 2010 contest slogan.

Open to community-minded innovators worldwide, the contest has just three rules. Projects must use digital, open-source technology, distribute news in the public interest and be tested in a local community.

“We want entries to push the bounds of the imagination,” said Gary Kebbel, Knight Foundation’s journalism program director. “But they don’t always have to involve the invention of something completely new. We’re also searching for innovative twists on familiar tools.”

This is the fourth year of the Knight News Challenge competition. So far, 300,000 people have visited the project web site, at newschallenge.org, a total of 7,000 people have entered and the foundation has picked 35 winners.

This year, applicants can enter in one of two categories. In the “open” category, submissions are available to the public for viewing and commenting. These entries can use others’ comments to revise and submit their application or proposals. In a separate “closed” category, solely Knight Foundation staff and contest reviewers will see applications. Applicants who aren’t ready to share their ideas publically can use this category. 

“We wanted to have an application process that is broad enough to accommodate people’s preferences,” Kebbel said.

Want an insider’s edge to the application process? The newly launched News Challenge blog features lessons from past winners and a behind-the-scenes looks at the contest judging. Also, Knight staff will answer questions during a live chat at 2 p.m. Sept. 9 and Oct. 8. Read the blog and participate in the chat at newschallenge.org.

In its first three years, the contest produced individual, private and public winners ranging from 20-something journalism innovators to the inventor of the World Wide Web. 

One project, hyper-local news experiment Everyblock.com, was recently purchased by MSNBC.com – highlighting the market potential for innovative community information projects. Before it was purchased, Everyblock.com’s code was published as open source, a challenge requirement that allows the public to benefit from the experiments.

The News Challenge is part of Knight Foundation’s $100 million plus Media Innovation Initiative, which strives to help meet community information needs by, in part, seeding experiments that the market will ultimately sustain. Other projects address media innovation on various levels, including national media policy, broadband access and the evolution of the World Wide Web.

For more on the News Challenge, visit www.NewsChallenge.org

For more on Knight Foundation’s Media Innovation Initiative, visit www.mediainnovation.org. 

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Since 1950, the foundation has granted more than $400 million to advance quality journalism and freedom of expression. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote community engagement and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.

Media Contact: 

Marc Fest, Vice President of Communications, 305-908-2677, fest@knightfoundation.org
Gary Kebbel, Journalism Program Director, 786-863-5171, kebbel@knightfoundation.org

The HIMSS HIE Open Source Task Force is seeking volunteers!

The purpose of the FY10 Open Source task force is to develop a white paper focused on open source deployments and opportunities of this technology solution within HIE. The monthly call is the first Thursday of every month at 1:00pm (ET). Contact Holly Gaebel <hgaebel@himss.org> to join this task force.

Please check out previously completed deliverables from this task force at the following links!

Evaluating Open Source Software for Health Information Exchange <http://www.himss.org/content/files/HIE_FY08_Open_Source.pdf> was prepared by the HIE Open Source Task Force as a primer on open source deployment in health information exchange environments.

Exploring the Use of Open Source Software for Health Information Exchange <http://www.himss.org/content/files/HIEOpen%20SourceWhitePaper071709.pdf> is a follow up white paper to 2008’s Evaluating Open Source Software for Health Information Exchange that was prepared by the HIE Open Source Task Force as a primer on open source deployment in health information exchange environments. This white paper focuses on assessing how open source software is used or planned to be used by HIE organizations.

Holly Gaebel
hgaebel@himss.org
Coordinator, Healthcare Information Systems
HIMSS
Transforming Healthcare through IT
230 East Ohio Street, Suite 500
Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: (312) 915-9227
Fax: (312) 915-9511

Mentoring in Open Source Communities: What Works? What Doesn't?

Esther Schindler wrote: 

Open source offers amazing opportunities with almost no barriers to entry. If you want to try creating a new-to-you kind of application or use the latest technology, you can just barrel right in with an open source project and get involved. Once you become proficient, you can apply those skills in the next phase of your career. Even better, you can choose a community with a comfortable culture where your contributions matter. 

However, because FOSS is so self-motivated, there aren't always a lot of opportunities to consciously improve your skills, except on your own. In a regular office, you might be lucky enough to work with someone who'll take you under her wing, and give you specific advice about how to improve your code. 

Many open source communities do mentoring, even if they don't think of it with that label; others don't. Some make a concerted effort to connect newbies with more experienced people. They provide opportunities for people to work together in smaller teams such as in sprints. 

For a feature article at ITWorld.com, I want to hear about your FOSS mentoring experiences. My goal here is to explore what's involved in a successful mentoring effort, and also find out what DOESN'T work. I hope this can help open source communities that want to attract more participants.

Specific questions: 

* What have been your mentoring experiences in FOSS communities? 

* If you developed mentoring relationships in a FOSS community, how did they come about? Was it a deliberate effort to connect people (how did that work?) or did it evolve on its own (how?)? 

* What did you learn? What did you hope to learn? 

* Knowing what you do now, what would you do differently? 

* What advice would you give FOSS communities in regard to mentoring?

Please identify: 

* your FOSS project(s) with optional URL 

* your name, role/title, and company in the way you prefer me to refer to you.

http://www.linkedin.com/answers?viewQuestion=&answerLevel=fullAnswer&questionID=543754&askerID=10138

8th Annual Summer Programme of Mini-courses in Advanced Topics from 4 Jan - 26 Feb, 2010, Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Brazil

The National Laboratory for Scientific Computing of Brasil (LNCC) will host it's 8th annual Summer programme of mini-courses in advanced topics from 4 Jan - 26 Feb, 2010. The activities are developed by researchers from LNCC and guests from other institutions. The objectives of the program are the generation of scientific exchange and dissemination of the knowledge base and borders. The target audience consists of students at the end of undergraduate, graduate students, teachers, researchers, and professionals from companies and industries.

Among the 13 courses (listed below) is a 5 day course on openEHR. Since our first openEHR workshop in Brazil in 2007 we have seen a steady increase in interest at a national level in this open source friendly country.  In fact one of the pillars of the Ministry of Health is to utilize open standards and open source whenever available and whenever possible.

MC03.OpenEHR: An Open Standard for Information Management in the Area Health

Professors: Luciana Tricai Cavalini (UFF), Timothy Wayne Cook (UFF), Sergio Miranda Freire (UERJ) Working Hours: 14:30 hours

Period: 2010-1-18 to 2010-1-22

Schedule: monday - tuesday - wednesday - thursday - friday from 9:00 pm to 12:00 pm

Location: Lab 5

Purpose: The basis of the openEHR specifications,as implemented in the project Open Source Health Information Platform, and the corresponding methodology for developing information systems in health.

Syllabus: 

1. Fundamentals of information technology in health 1.1. Overview. 

1.2. The specifics of health information. 

1.3. Challenges present in developed countries and that developing countries should not follow these examples. 

2. Free software in health

2.1. Free software and e-government. 

2.2. The relevance of free software for health system. 

2.3. Requirements for sustainability of free software projects health

3. openEHR 

3.1. The model in 2 levels. 

3.2. The openEHR specifications. 

4. Open Source Health Informatics Platform (OSHIP) http://launchpad.net/oship 

4.1. Overview of Python, Zope, Grok, CLIPS and PyCLIPS. 

4.2. The implementation of openEHR specifications in the project OSHIP

5. Concrete cases of implementation 

5.1. The project Epidemiologic Surveillance Support System (EpiS3) 5.2. Integration clinical and radiological data. 

5.3. How to implement your project in OSHIP. 

Bibliography:

1. The openEHR Primer (Last access: Jan 7, 2008) http://www.openehr.org/shared-resources/openehr_primer.html

2. Garde S, Hovenga E, Buck J, Knaup P. Expressing clinical data sets with openEHR archetypes: a solid basis for ubiquitous computing. Int J Med Inf 2007, 76 (S3): S334-S341. 

3. Hanna KE, Anderson SM, Maddox SD. Fall 2005 White Paper: Think research - Using electronic medical records to bridge patient care and research. Washington DC: FasterCures (Last access: Jan 7, 2008) http://www.fastercures.org/pdf/emr_whitepaper.pdf

Other course topics include:

Complex Networks

Introduction to Computational Geomechanics to Reservoir Oil

Introduction to Quantum Computation

Coding Audio - Principles and Standards

Introduction to the Classical Theory of Computational Complexity 

Knowledge Representation

Social Networks

Modeling Computational Diffusion of Knowledge

Biology, Information and Knowledge

Dynamics of food webs

Mathematics and Computational Neuroscience Modeling

Shell Script Programming

For complete information about the courses and how to apply please see:

http://www.lncc.br/ingles/eventoSeminario/eventoconsultar.php?idt_evento=723 

Sincerely,

Timothy Cook, MSc
Health Informatics Research & Development Services LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/timothywaynecook
http://timothywayne.cook.googlepages.com/home
Skype ID == timothy.cook

Open Source For America Listservs

List	Description
acquisitions-wg	Acquisitions and Competition Working Group
advocacy-wg	Advocacy Working Group
cybersecurity-wg	Cybersecurity Working Group
education-wg	Education Working Group
elections-wg	Elections and Voting Technology Working Group
energy-transport-wg	Energy and Transportation Working Group
geospatial-wg	Geospatial Working Group
healthcare-wg	Healthcare Working Group
infrastructure	[INTERNAL] OSA infrastructure coordination discussions
Mailman	[no description available]
Marcomm-wg	[no description available]
marketing	[INTERNAL] Marketing coordination discussions
military-wg	Military Working Group
Osa-announce	General announcement list (low traffic)
Osa-founding-announce	General announcement list (low traffic)
press	[INTERNAL] Press and Public Relations
referenceability	[INTERNAL] Assembling OSS success stories.
report-card	Open Government Report Card Project
state-local-wg	State and Local Working Group
transparency-wg	Transparency Working Group
working-groups	[INTERNAL] Administration of the OSfA working groups.

Technology List for Gov 2.0

List of technology providers for Gov 2.0. Keep in mind this is a very partial list. Government 2.0 does not have a finite definition. It is a buzzword that indicates a new way of communicating between government and consumers. Any piece of software that allows people to communicate could realistically be considered part of Government 2.0:

Community Building

• Govloop
• CYN.IN (open-source)
• Liferay (open-source)
• Jive Clearspace
• Neighborhood America
• Ning
• KickApps
• Pligg (open-source)
• Facebook
• laconica (open-source)
• Awareness
• Mzinga
• IBM Lotus Connections
• MS SharePoint
• Oracle BeeHive
• Telligent Community

Content Management Systems

• Liferay (open-source)
• Drupal (open-source)
• Joomla (open-source)
• Telligent Community Server
• Plone (open-source)
• Alfresco (open-source, with optional support)
• Autonomy Interwoven TeamSite

• LimeSurvey (open-source)
• SurveyMonkey

Idea Generation/Voting

• Pligg (open source) City of SF is  using this and it works very well
• Google Moderator
• User Voice
• Spigit
• IdeaScale

Wiki Engines

• CYN.IN (open-source)
• Liferay (open-source)
• Socialtext
• Mediawiki (open source)
• Atlassian Confluence
• Mindtouch
• Twiki (open-source)
• XWiki (open-source)
• TikiWiki (open-source)
• IBM Lotus Connections
• MS SharePoint
• Oracle BeeHive
• Telligent Community

Blogging Platforms

• Liferay (open-source)
• CYN.IN (open-source)
• Wordpress (open-source)
• Typepad
• Movable Type
• IBM Lotus Connections
• MS SharePoint
• Oracle BeeHive
• Telligent Community

Virtual Environments

• Second Life
• Forterra

Twitter Apps and Clients

• Tweetdeck
• Twollow
• Tweetbeep
• CoTweet (great for 311 - city of SF uses this)

Structured Data Sinks

• MySQL (open source)

Semantic Search

• Wolfram Alpha

Mashup Engines

• Liferay (open-source)
• JackBe

Real Time Q&A Software

• Wondir (deceased, but I liked the idea of a streaming question widget on the desktop.) 
• Aardvark

Collaborative Mind Mapping

• Mind42
• Mindmeister

Don't Skate To The Puck, Skate To Where Jeff Pulver Is - RE: HD Voice

<ed.note>I've learned about a decade ago if you want to know where the world is going to be 5 years from now in terms of technology that affects the average citizen you watch Andy Abramson, Ken Rutkowski and Jeff Pulver. Jeff watches and creates all things telephony and he recently sent this missive out re: HD Voice. My advice: if you have traditionally poopooed eHealth, telehealth, and ROWE in healthcare -- your game is about to change; your boat is about to be refloated; your canary is about to molt; your scotch is about to hop -- well, you get what I mean, or literally -- you HEAR what I am SAYING.</ed.note>

Putting the Cable Industry on notice. HD Voice is happening.

I had an interesting time at the CableLabs Summer Conference at Keystone Resort, Colorado. When I first arrived I had a chance to catch up with the teams from both AudioCodes and IP Gallery and a few of the familiar faces I have gotten to know over the years involved in the communications industry.

Looking around the reception on Monday afternoon, it was clear to me that the telecom recession was over, with the room packed with vendors and about 1,000 people from around the world who made the trek to Colorado for the CableLabs Summer Conference.

This was a closed conference with the majority of the sessions only open to the members of Cablelabs.

If there was one session at the CableLabs Summer Conference that a Cable company’s Chief Strategy Officer should have been at, it was the HD Voice session which I greatly appreciate being invited to be a part of. I say this because after listening to Orange’s Vivek Badrinath, Executive Vice President, Networks, Carriers, and Platforms, it is clear to me that consumer HD Communications is a reality, it IS happening and it is going to happen faster than anyone may have otherwise expected.

Vivek was welcomed warmly and embraced by the CableLabs delegates. During his talk I was thinking of the Twilight Zone Episode “To Serve Man” where (according to Wikipedia) a race of aliens known as the Kanamits lands on Earth and promises to be nothing but helpful to the cause of humanity. Initially wary of the intentions of such a highly advanced race, even the most skeptical humans are convinced when their code-breakers begin to translate one of the Kanamit's books, with the seemingly innocuous title, "To Serve Man."

Sharing their advanced technology, the aliens quickly solve all of Earth's greatest woes, eradicating hunger, disease, and the need for warfare. Soon, humans are volunteering for trips to the Kanamits' home planet, which is supposedly a paradise.

All is not well, however, when a code-breaker discovers the Kanamits' true intentions: Their book, "To Serve Man", is a cookbook, and all their gifts were simply to make humanity complacent.” (if you haven’t seen this episode - you can watch it here).

Given the fact that France Telecom / Orange already has over 500,000 customers who have subscribed for their HD Voice offerings and that their numbers are going to continue to grow as Orange rolls out their HD Communication offers across Europe, I couldn't help but make the connection between Vivek and the leader of the Kanamit's.

If I were involved with a cable company, I would have categorized his talk as an early wake-up call and understand the worldwide Cable industry was put on notice to be on the lookout for other incumbent operators who have both a broadband offering and wireless offering to follow in the footsteps of France Telecom / Orange and use HD Communications as a platform to retain and grow their customer base.

Now is NOT the time for the Cable industry to continue to take a “wait and see” approach with HD Communications but rather now is the time to commit to residential trials for HD Voice consumer if the cable industry wants to protect what has become their multi-billion dollar monthly cash cow known as “digital voice services.”

Over the next few years, the growth of consumers who subscribe for HD Communications offered by both wireless and broadband service providers will help lift the communications industry.

“Fear, Greed and Disruption” remain my three favorite words and I am enjoying this moment in time in the history of communications. I remain a big fan of France Telecom for continuing to lead and innovate with HD Communications.

Friends who would like to learn more about HD Communications are invited to attend the next HD Communications Summit taking place on September 15th in New York City.

http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/009008.html

The HD Communications Summit Agenda (Update #1)

On September 15th 2009 at New World Stages in New York City, I am producing HDComms, the HD Communications Summit. HDComms will bring together the emerging worldwide HD Communications ecosystem and we will explore the state of "HD Communications" and where things are headed. If you have a vested interested in the future of communications, please consider joining us in New York City next month.

HD Communications Summit Agenda
(as of August 18, 2009)

- Welcome - Daniel Berninger, Executive Director, HDConnect
- Jeff Pulver - CEO, pulver.com - "Accelerating the Conversion to HD"

Step 1 - The HD Technology Roadmap

- Nimrod Borovsky, VP Marketing, Enterprise Business Group, AudioCodes
- Martyn Humphries, VP/GM, VoIP Line of Business, Broadcom
- Jan Linden, VP Engineering, Global IP Solutions

Case Study: Lessons Learned from SD to HDTV
Robert Graves, Chairman, ATSC Forum

HD Innovations Panel: Moderator - Slava Borlin, VP Products, SpiritDSP
- Mike Eastman, VP Sales, WYDEVoice
- Alan Percy, Director Business Development, AudioCodes
- A. Ryan Heidari, Director Technical and Product Marketing, Qualcomm

Step 2 - Triggering End User Demand

Jeff Rodman, co-founder, CTO Voice Division, Polycom
Rick Krupka, VP Business Communication Services, Uniden

HD in Action Panel: Moderator - Daniel Petrie, CEO, SIPEz
- Joyce Kim, VP Marketing, Global IP Solutions
- Chalan Aras, VP of Product Marketing, Polycom
- Dave Frankel, CEO, ZipDX

Step 3 - Toward a Fully Functioning HD Ecosystem

- Josh Bottum, Director Business Development, Cisco
- Mike Rude, VP Business Development, DSPGroup

The HD Value Chain Panel Moderator - Michael Stanford, WireEvolution
- Michael Jablon, VP Digital Phone Strategy, Time Warner
- Tony Stankus, Product Manager Emerging Technologies,Gigaset Communications USA
- Mike Storella, Director Business Development, snom

HD Carrier Interconnection Panel:
Moderator - Daniel Berninger, Executive Director, HDConnect
- Eli Katz, founder and CEO, XConnect
- John Butz, Director New Product Development, Neutral Tandem
- Alan Bugos, VP Advanced Technology and Engineering, iBasis (invited)

Step 4 - The Path to HD Mass Market Adoption

- Rod Keller, CEO, Gigaset Communications USA
- Alla Reznick, Dir Product Management, Global Advanced Services, Verizon

Mobile VoIP Panel: 
Moderator - Brough Turner, Chief Strategy Officer, Dialogic
- Tobias Kemper, VP Social Media and Communication, Nimbuzz
- Diego Besprosvan, CTO, MailVision
- Mahesh Makhijani, Director Technical Marketing, Qualcomm

Perspectives on HD Tipping Points Panel
Moderator - Doug Mohney, Editor in Chief, HDConnectNow
- Anatoli Levine, Director Product Management, RADVISION and President, IMTC
- Richard Buchanan, Chief Marketing Officer, Ooma
- Jake MacLeod, VP and CTO, Bechtel Communications(invited)

Networking Reception

Interested in the future of communications? Register TODAY for next month's HD Communication Summit.