SunRocket Axes Most of its "C" Titles

Andy Abramson says he also has gotten confirmation that SunRocket has laid off its gets CTO, CIO, CFO and CPO. The founders, including Paul Erickson, Joyce Dorris and Chris Koehncke all left in February. It's a shame. The founders had brought some of that old MCI marketing flair to the independent VoIP space.

Convergence Spells Opportunity for Managed Services | PodTech.net: Technology and Entertainment Video Network

Convergence Spells Opportunity for Managed Services | PodTech.net: Technology and Entertainment Video Network

Jajah for iPhone

First Jajah said to ditch your headset. Now Jajah says to "free your phone." Jajah earlier had optimized its site for smart phones, so it obviously works with the Apple iPhone. Yes, you can pay a monthly fee of $4 for the privilege of making 23 cents a minute calls to the United Kingdom. Or you can use Jajah for three cents a minute. The site is mobile.jajah.com.

Practical Anthropology at Swisscom and Microsoft

An anthropologist at Microsoft points out that when instant messaging and other social networking tools are taken away from people (especially people under the age of 35), productivity drops. That's an indication that social networking is becoming a key problem solving tool, not a "time waster" as many managers seem to believe. Swisscom Innovations anthropologist Stefana Broadbent points out that use of written channels, ranging from IM to text messaging to email is growing, while voice growth has slowed where text communications are possible.

Broadbent theorizes that written channels allow constant interplay and availability without creating an information overload. A person without online social tools averages about 20 contacts with whom they keep in touch. A person with online tools can maintain 70 or more contacts, she notes. She theorizes that IM, for example, is both fast and non-committal, allowing a wider circle of contacts without overload.

That's an interesting perspective as more people start to worry we all are too connected, too much of the time. Broadbent argues that people should not have to unplug. In fact, she rhetorically asks, "why would I want to unplug?"

And she questions the notion that most people actually are overloaded with communication requests. "Most people we interview get five emails a day," says Broadbent. "They are thrilled to get one more friend on Facebook, for example."

Though the common perception is that most people are overloaded with communications, Broadbent says that isn't true. "Not many people are overloaded," she says.

"I'm opposed to the notion of unplugging," Broadbent says. "I don't want to lose my social intelligence network." To Broadbent, "IM is like bringing your dog to work."

Though I don't see lots of evidence that "always connected" behavior is all that important to most people over the age of 40 or so, I am beginning to see how most of the social networking tools can increase knowledge diffusion and make possible a wider degree of casual monitoring of one's environment. I wouldn't say I find it as helpful as RSS. But part of the reason is that most of the people I normally want to interact with do not seem to be heavy social networkers.

It's a Wireless World

Wireless revenue passed landline revenue internationally in 2006 and will be 59 percent greater by 2010, says the Telecommunications Industry Association. In the global markets, that means wireless customers outside the United States will increase by 975 million people by 2010, when the wireless total will reach 3.13 billion.

Wireless customers in the United States, meanwhile, will total 270 million in 2010, up from 216 million last year and 135 million just five years earlier. Wireless customers in the Asia/Pacific region totaled 963 million at the end of 2006 and are expected to total 1.58 billion by 2010, more than twice the number expected to be in Europe by then.

Wireless data revenue in the United States was nearly $13 billion last year and is expected to reach $44 billion in 2010, TIA notes.

Layoffs at SunRocket

SunRocket apparently has laid off a third of its workforce; between 40 and 60 people, sources say. The independent VoIP provider has been trying to raise another round of funding, and the effort appears to have failed, up to this point.

iPhone line New York Apple Store

Waiting in line for an iPhone...