Convergence Conversation

September's Convergence Conversation topic:

Location is Dead, Long Live Location - all hail the rise of location based services

Everybody knows that the top three success factors for retail, and by extension, any consumer sales proposition, used to be 'location, location and location.'  Then the Internet came along and we were all shopping from home and suddenly location seemed to matter less and less. But thanks to mobility and broadband everywhere, a whole new chapter in the location story is being written.

In this convergence conversation we explore the coming tidal wave of Location Based Services – from retail, to advertising, to service delivery

Join us here at Intellect after work - to listen, learn, contribute and network.  The Convergence Conversation format is always deliberately informal, with a chance for everyone to put forward their views in an open discussion and network over a glass More...

There is a simplistic view of what is happening in the world of advertising – and it goes thus: burn up your Television centric media plan and switch all those gazillions to online ads. Better still throw it at Facebook, Google and VOD. Apparently, this will magically solve your problems and oh, also give you get you to the Shangri-la of measurability in your media spend.

Needless to say that following this mantra will only get you to through throw good money after bad. There are more fundamental changes going on in the world of advertising and indeed the science of marketing itself. Some of these were appropriately highlighted in the Convergence Conversation on the 26^th of August. More...

I have been meaning to write about that for a while, and have always postponed.

In http://www.broadbandmap.govt.nz/map/ there is a  map that gather data available from various sources to provide information about the demand and supply of broadband infrastructure across New Zealand. The first instance of the map has been online since 2007 and has been revised after consultation with users and potential users. It provides an overall view of broadband in New Zealand, making easier for Government to engage in aggregation of demand and for any interested party to check on the broadband coverage of each operator in the country. More...

OFCOM recently announced a fast-track consultation as regards K-C, the incumbent telecoms operator in Hull and parts of East Yorkshire, being able to bundle together lines, call and fixed access broadband.

If other interested parties wish to make their views know, please be aware the consultation closes this Sunday 5th September 2010.

There follows the NextGenUs response.

“NextGenUs UK CIC would genuinely welcome the introduction of bunding of retail telecommunications services in the Hull SMP area as soon as there is equivalence of wholesale access and pricing as available from BT Openreach in the rest of the UK. More...

Taken from Wikipedia:

The term “bobbins” appears in northern English slang, meaning “rubbish”, i.e. something worthless or incorrect. Taken from the cockney “bobbins of cotton”, meaning “rotten”. This may be related to the contemporary British slang usage, where “bobbins” can be used to denote something negative, particularly in theatrical circles.

Not so long ago, I was having a Chatham House chat with a certain Political Advisor when the subject of Final Third Lobbying came up.

The point was made that “if you spent as much time at Portcullis House as XYZ, then you would understand why XYZ gets such a hearing”. More...

Vodafone 360 was meant to be a new, social-network centred approach to managing the customer interface. Unfortunately, it was also bug-ridden and dogged by a lack of clarity of purpose. Now, its availability on Android Market and iTunes may create a strategic opportunity for Vodafone to access more customers. More here.

[Ed - we will be discussing issues raised in this article at the Telco 2.0 AMERICAS (27-28 October, LA) and EMEA (9-10 Nov, London) events, as part of the 'Managing the Co-opetition/Facing up to Facebook' sessions.]

More...

Telco 2.0 Top Stories

• Voice & Messaging 2.0: Google voice (if not Google Voice) in your Google Mail is here!
• Technology Disruptions: Let Google control your life with Priority Inbox
• Online Video: BBC iPlayer Mobile - 230,000 viewers on iOS
• Broadband Connectivity: DTAG LTE surrounds the cities from the countryside
• Developer Communities: Apps that heal, kill, and govern

It's heeere...Google integrates voice into GMail. At the moment, they're offering cheap international calls to US customers (which may imply that this shares common infrastructure with Google Voice), although some UK users (including this one) saw a phone icon briefly appear in the GMail window. More...

There are many proposed definitions of NGA, Next Generation Access:

Ranging from an uninspiring 5Mbps asymmetric through 20Mbps to 100Mbps symmetric and beyond (the latter being the NextGenUs NGA 2010 benchmark, i.e. real-time world-class, itself increasing to 1000Mbps symmetric in 2012 inline with the current world leaders, our cousins in Japan and South Korea).

In order to deliver the 4th Utility the UK needs, we must look beyond the pseudo-equality of so-called technology-neutrality and recognise that the only infrastructure capable of upscaling to meet any bandwidth demand scenario that local communities can call for, is Fibre to the Home. More...

According to a June 2010 survey by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42, a remarkable 72 percent of the polled American business leaders said that they now had a social media marketing strategy.

eMarketer reports that the companies surveyed 457 U.S. marketers and managers -- 52 percent of respondents were in the publishing, media, advertising and marketing industries.

Those findings are among the highest percentage from surveys that polled whether U.S. marketers had a social strategy. In May 2010, Digital Brand Expressions found that 52 percent of marketers had no plan -- similar to the 50 percent of poll participants in an April 2010 study by R2integrated. More...

Telco assets and capabilities could be used much more to help Film, TV and Gaming companies optimize their beleaguered business model. There's an extract here from our new 38 page Executive Briefing report examining how.

These themes will also be examined and discussed at our Oct 2010 Americas and Nov 2010 EMEA Executive Brainstorms.