My Blog

The workshop, called "The Future of the Internet," had a similar feel, with researchers David Clark, professor at the MIT Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and Taieb Znati, division director for the National Science Foundation, talking up the idea of virtualizing communications networks in order to create several networks optimized for delivering different types of applications. By the way, this focus on the ability to deliver a specific application vs. delivering a set speed is a sticky topic when it comes to defining broadband. Going forward, we’re going to be hearing a lot about it.

And I turned around to look at these 10, 12 AT&T suits, and they were all laughing. And it was in that moment that AT&T became my bête noire, because I realized in that moment that these sons of bitches were rooting against me."

The end goal seems to be figuring out how to build a network that knows what the content it’s delivering is and where it came from rather than a packet-based network focused on getting unidentified bits from machines. How this will relate to the National Broadband Plan that’s due next year is unclear, but the ideas expressed in the panel are worth listening to. So if you’re curious about what’s out on the fringes for the future of the Web, check out the Webcast of this panel, which, sadly, I could not embed here.

For e-Book Readers, the Price Is Not Right

Scott Shenker, a professor of computer science at UC Berkeley, added that such a re-imagined network could be created by mirroring some of the wide area networks used by the likes of Amazon and Google to send information around their data centers. As he noted, today’s telecommunications networks are built atop of specialized hardware with routers running proprietary software. He argued that if the Googles and Amazons of the world could take their focus on deploying commodity hardware and open-source routers to the telecommunications industry, the entire infrastructure of the Internet would change—including allowing for lower-cost networks that could be virtualized.

Also from the GigaOM network:

Sony’s Sweet DSC-HX1 Zooms into HD

iStat Menus Now Purrs Like a Snow Leopard

I am looking forward to more Mophies and Squares!

O.K., you can see I am just way too excited about this stuff. Why not? I am encouraged to see such experimentation. It ties in with my big belief: The marriage of computing and connectivity without the shackles of being tethered to a location is the the biggest disruptive force of our times, and it will redefine business models for decades.

For a long time, companies like Symbol Technologies, a division of Motorola (MOT), have been making point-of-sale and handheld computing devices for non-office environments such as retail locations and warehouses. It is becoming obvious by the day—they are among those being disrupted.

Mophie, a Los Angeles-based company that makes accessories for the iPod/iPhone devices will release a credit-card reader at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2010. The device is going to have a reader and a software that would allow small businesses to take credit cards. No more details are available just yet.

Also from the GigaOM network:

Where Are Oil Prices Heading in 2010?

By focusing on the consumers, these companies can overcome a somewhat finite number of likely small business customers and get scale, which would allow them to get cheaper. And this would also help them overcome the slower adoption rates normally encountered when chasing the small business market. In fact, companies such as Visa (V), MasterCard (MA), and large banks should be trying hard to figure out how they can put these kinds of readers in the hands of both merchants and consumers, thus shifting even more transactions into the electronic realm.

I, for one, would like to see Mophie or one of these other startups come up with a way for me to scan my own credit card to enter it into an app or Web site. Even better, I’d love it if they married their hardware with the functionality of something like 1Password. In doing so, they could enable e-commerce via the iPhone apps. Think of it as the iEconomy.

I know, I know—it’s easier said than done, considering it would need some deep, system-level mucking around, and Apple (AAPL) isn’t going to let that happen. But it should! By opening up, it would make the iPhone an even more useful platform. While I can understand Apple’s hesitation at opening up the iPhone, it can start with the iPod touch, which is not tethered to a wireless phone company’s network.

Are You Ready for the iEconomy?

Jack Dorsey’s Square, Incase, VeriFone (PAY), and now Mophie—these companies’ credit-card readers are turning the iPhone/iPod touch platform into an e-commerce engine.

Scaling Up Via Consumer Use