Nov 032011
 

Power to the public:

So now companies don’t just need to hire people to watch Twitter and blogs and put out fires. Now they have to fear that their abusive policies will become the subject of large-scale, instant protests.

(Via BuzzMachine)

 

What company or organization will be destroyed by customers who mass cancel their accounts? This will happen someday, probably in the next ten years. Some firms live on the cash flows monthly subscribers pay them.

You have a real problem If your customers loath your organization. New options are becoming available. Some customers will do without, rather that do business with you. A good example of this is people canceling home cable TV service and not replacing it with satellite TV. These people are likely choosing video programming from the Internet. It’s also possible that they are watching over the air HD broadcasts. The power to disrupt that is broadband Internet is hard to over estimate. Many new services will come about as more people have broadband at home. Faster speeds will also enable new businesses. Old ones will decline and some will be eliminated. Online data backup might disrupt the external hard drive industry in the not to distant future.

Feb 232011
 

 

ScreenClip(29)

The above screenshot is from iTunes. This is a very large iPad app download. Didn’t think it would take an hour to download using Comcast broadband Internet. It’s after 11 PM EDT on a Wednesday. Might pause and restart the download to see if it gets a burst of speed.

Jan 072011
 

Around mid day on Thursday (1/6/2011) there were rumors floating around that Skype (an Internet telephony, instant messaging and video chat client) would be acquiring Qik (a live streaming video technology service). Apparently this was more than a rumor (See Mashable). This will make an interesting marriage.

Could see Skype creating live video channels that use Qik to stream and store data (AKA: Programs). Skype may integrate it with their IM client as well.

A few thoughts:

  • Favorite shows. This would allow for later viewing.
  • Recording of live chats (people use Skype for creating video netcasts, see TWiT and Andrew Warner interviews on his Mixergy site.)
  • The ability to chat and share a stream in real-time with friends.