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THE VIODI VIEW
by Ken Pyle (ken.pyle@viodi.com), Viodi, LLC
In this Issue: Beyond Comfort, Dream Big, Virtual Golf......
May 26th, 2004 Issue
San Diego in May is paradise; of course, just about every month is paradise in San Diego. Whether on business or pleasure, I highly recommend the San Diego area for a visit. My family’s personal favorite is Legoland, which is in Carlsbad, just north of San Diego. Of course, San Diego is a great place for a conference, which is where the California Telephone Association held their first Focused Technical Symposium.
I was extremely honored to be the closing speaker at this conference which had some pretty interesting speakers. The range of topics included regulation, business, technology and content. I attempted to sum up a day and a half of a three track conference in my closing remarks. Of course, once I got up on stage, I went off script and was probably pretty incoherent. So, whether or not you were actually at Friday’s last session, please take a look at the following comments to read what I meant to say regarding living “beyond your comfort zone.”
While I was in San Diego, I had the chance to produce the Local content workshop. As with the Atlanta workshop the week before, I found myself trying to cram 12 hours of content into 8 hours. There is just so much good stuff going on in terms of local content and these workshops are a great place for telcos to share there activities. I am certainly learning a great deal from the participants. I would be remiss if I failed to thank the generosity of ETI Software of Norcross, Georgia and Irdeto Access in San Diego for opening their doors to us and providing us with true Southern and Southern California hospitality. The next stop for the Local Content Workshop is Portland on June 9th, so please try to join us.
Dream Big, Work Hard, Have Fun
A very special treat for me and the attendees of the San Diego workshop was the appearance of Dave Hood. Dave joined us for lunch at the Local Content Workshop and taught us a great deal about the challenges an independent producer faces in funding, distributing and promoting their videos. Two days later he made an even grander entrance when he flew a helicopter to CTA’s Focused Telecom Symposium.
Ok, so he didn’t really fly to the show, but we repurposed the video introduction to his live show so, hopefully his appearance was memorable. Dave then joined me on stage and we discussed the background of his series and how he has created the live show as a way giving back to his community. As follow up to the last issue, the review of his live show can be found by clicking here.
The Freedom to Choose Any Telecom Provider
Many of you may have remembered my experience with Vonage earlier in the year. As a result of that experience, OPASTCO asked me to write an article for the April issue of their newsletter, the Advocate. In that article, I probe the reasons why I made the temporary switch to Vonage and look at the importance of customer education as a means of fighting churn. OPASTCO has made this article available to Viodi to share with its club viodi members. Of course, the best way to get the useful information provided by OPASTCO is to join them. Click here to read [MUST BE CLUB VIODI MEMBERS TO VIEW]
Kudos to SureWest for securing an exclusive with their home town paper the Sacramento Bee regarding a partnership that will make SureWest the exclusive online yellow pages provider for their web site, www.sacramento.com. This is a great example of how a telco can work other community businesses to create opportunities that generate new revenue streams, while providing new promotional opportunities. It is critical to work the local angles, in any way possible, to gain or retain a competitive marketing edge.
Lastly, I encourage you to check out the latest agenda for the IP Video @ Supercomm conference in Chicago. There is a long list of distinguished speakers who will be talking on a variety of subjects that independent telcos will find interesting. What really pleases me is the number of operators sprinkled in throughout the day. I look forward to hearing their perspective, especially with regards to some of the new approaches of delivering content over broadband.
Krazy Ken’s Korner: Virtual Golf - a New Service Offering?
As you will see in the article about CTA’s Focused Telecom Symposium, I had an epiphany that I am now on the old side of a generation gap. The presentation from Joshua Hong of K2 Networks left me with the realization that the whole gaming experience is one that I will never quite understand, at least in its current incarnation.
Whether or not I am adaptable, I am sure the technology and concept will adapt to me. To prove my point, there was an article I saw somewhere this week about QMotions golf mouse. This is essentially a golf ball tied to a bunch of sensors that connects into an electronic golf game, such as EA Sports, Tiger Woods PGA 2004 Tour. It is designed in such a way that the player gets the feeling they are really playing golf.
I remember playing 18 holes like this in about half an hour in an arcade in the Reno Hilton over a decade ago. It was enjoyable as the real thing, maybe more so, as I didn’t lose a half dozen balls. Plus, it saved me a great deal of time and it was much cheaper than the alternative of playing real golf. The only downside would be for those folks who throw their clubs in anger, as the clubs might hit their television instead of a tree or lake.
I guess the addition of this new electronic golf service to the mix of a telco’s offering could be called a “fore-play”, instead of a triple play…….drum roll anyone?
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