September 2013 archive

TDYR #035 – WiFi Cafés And Shaking Up The (Home) Office Routine

Do you sometimes need to change your location to break up your work routine? Maybe work from a different place? Or a different part of your office? In this episode I talk about this a bit from my perspective of working out of a home office...

“Impact IPv6″ Aims To Expand IPv6 Usage Throughout Cameroon

cameroon-ipv6How will IPv6 improve Internet capabilities in Cameroon?  In a recent post on our main Internet Society blog titled “Preparing Cameroon for the future“, Victor Ndonnang speaks about part of the rationale for the work he and a team of people are doing as part of the “Impact IPv6″ project:

‘Imagine, in the next two, three or five years, when more of the people of Cameroon have the ability to connect to the Internet, and we can’t, because the Internet is “full”!’ says Ndonnang.

With funding from an Internet Society Community Grant, Victor and his colleagues have trained over 100 people and already have several local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) working with IPv6, with more committing to do so soon.  As noted in the article:

… engineers and managers from Cameroon’s National ICT Agency have been trained through the project and are now working to activate a National IPv6 Task force transition. If the trend continues, the country will build its new technical infrastructure based on the latest internet protocol technology, making national networks far better prepared for growth.

It is incredibly inspiring to read of the work of the group in the Cameroon and we hope that it will serve as an inspiration for other regions who are looking to bring Internet access to more people.  If those new networks can be planned from the start with IPv6, they will be so much more successful in the future!

Congratulations to Victor and his colleagues… and we look forward to hearing of their continued success!

P.S. You, too, can apply for an Internet Society Community Grant -  the next deadline is October 1, 2013! Read more about the community grants application process and submit your idea today!

TDYR #034 – Initial Thoughts On Apple’s iPhone 5c, 5s Announcement

With Apple's announcement of the iPhone 5c and 5s today, I spoke about my initial thoughts on the news... and desire to play with the fingerprint sensor on the 5s. What do you think about the news? Interesting? Just "meh"? Will you upgrade? More info: http://thenextweb.com/apple/2013/09/10/heres-a-complete-roundup-of-everything-apple-announced-today/ http://gigaom.com/2013/09/10/apple-shows-the-lte-love-going-for-near-global-4g-support-in-the-iphone-5s-and-5c/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/09/10/apples-touch-id-a-500ppi-fingerprint-sensor-built-into-iphone-5s-home-button/

IETF Chair’s Statement On Security, Privacy And Widespread Internet Monitoring (Featured Blog)

This weekend Jari Arkko, Chair of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and Stephen Farrell, IETF Security Area Director, published a joint statement on the IETF blog titled: "Security and Pervasive Monitoring"... They go on to outline some of the IETF's general principles around security and privacy as well as some of the new developments. They also point out a vigorous (and still ongoing) discussion within the IETF around how to improve the security of the Internet in light of recent disclosures. More...

New DNSSEC Deployment Maps Available

2013-09-09-2013-09-09Curious to see where DNSSEC is being deployed around the world? I’m pleased to note that we’ve updated the DNSSEC deployment maps we have available at:

http://www.internetsociety.org/deploy360/dnssec/maps/

These maps are produced by the team at Shinkuro, Inc.  The data on the map should line up with other sources of DNSSEC statistics, such as ICANN’s TLD DNSSEC Report, although the Shinkuro maps do reflect additional information about planned deployments gathered from industry sources and ccTLD operators.

Note that these maps represent signed top-level domains (TLDs), which you need before you can sign your domain using a registrar and DNS hosting provider.  Additional sites with statistics about the number of signed domains under various TLDs can be found on our DNSSEC statistics page.

We’re pleased to see the continued growth of DNSSEC around the world.  Have you signed your domain and/or set up DNSSEC validation yet?  If not, how can we help you get started?

Microsoft Buys Nokia – Was There Really Another Choice?

Techmeme microsoftMicrosoft accomplished something today they haven't done for a while (at least in my memory) - they dominated the main page of Techmeme and had a great amount of the tech media talking about them.

The news, of course, is of Microsoft's purchase of Nokia's Devices and Services business and licensing of Nokia's patents and mapping services.

Is anyone truly surprised by this?

Consider:

  • Microsoft is being beaten in the market by Apple and Google as everything moves to mobile. Their only hope was Nokia, who provided a hardware platform that would run Windows Phone.
  • Nokia is being beaten in the market by Apple and Google as everything moves to smartphones. Their only hope was Microsoft, who provided a different mobile operating system for their devices that gave them a competitive angle.

Given those conditions, the marriage makes a certain amount of sense.

But... you only have to scroll down that Techmeme page (captured at 1:30pm US ET today) to realize how desperate a situation this is for both companies.

First, news is out that Apple is holding an event one week from today on September 10 where they are widely expected to announce new iPhones, including potentially a lower cost iPhone 5C. They are also expected to announce a release date for iOS 7 ... and who knows what else is in store.

Second, Google announced the next version 4.4 of the Android operating system, named "KitKat", along with a branding deal with Nestle, makers of the KitKat candy. The first link also points to a Google+ post from Google's Sundar Pichai where he states that over 1 billion Android devices have been activated.

Third, Amazon announced the 6th generation of their Kindle, and while it is not a phone, per se, it is a massively used mobile device. Amazon continues to learn and evolve their devices and has been rumored for years to be contemplating entering the smartphone space. Jeff Bezos thinks in the long term and so could easily be biding his time.

Meanwhile, Nokia sold a whopping 7 million Windows phones last quarter (per IDC).

Microsoft and Nokia need each other, if for no other reason then they don't really have a choice. They bet on each other... and it doesn't seem to be working out so well. Their only hope is really the "synergy" or whatever other marketing buzzwords you want to apply to the merged entity.

I agree with much of what Om Malik wrote today, "Why I think the $7.2 billion Microsoft-Nokia deal is a terrible idea", largely for the reasons I wrote earlier... while Microsoft and Nokia work to make this deal happen - and then the actual integration - Apple, Google, Amazon and others will be rolling out the next versions of their massively successful mobile devices.

Microsoft's "Strategic Rationale" document lays out a glowing plan... let's see if they can execute on it - and whether it turns out to be too little, too late. I wouldn't completely count Microsoft out, as they do have great resources and capacity, but they are definitely far behind.

As a consumer, I definitely would like to have a third major ecosystem for mobile devices. The question is whether Microsoft/Nokia can emerge as that third ecosystem...

What do you think? Smart move? A yawn? Or the proverbial rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic?

P.S. The most entertaining take on today's news definitely has to be the "Dear MR NOKIA!" post written in the style of the emails probably all of us have received. :-)


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TDYR #033 – Microsoft Buys Nokia: Is Anyone Really Surprised?

See: http://www.disruptivetelephony.com/2013/09/microsoft-buys-nokia-was-there-really-another-choice.html

Video Interview: Matt Larson on the Future of DNS and DNSSEC

What needs to be done to get DNSSEC further deployed? What is the future of DNSSEC and DNS in general?  At IETF 87 in Berlin we had a chance to sit down with Matt Larson, formerly of Verisign and now Chief Architect at Dyn. Matt shared his thoughts with us:

We appreciated Matt’s time and wish him all the best in his new role at Dyn.

FIR #719 – 9/2/13 – For Immediate Release

Craig Jolley interview this week; Neville to moderate Scoble-Israel CIPR appearance; Quick News: News from WordPress, Twitter and Facebook; social media brand banter, multiple Twitter profiles common with brands, Google preps Hangouts for the enterprise; Ragan promo; News That Fits: when bad comments happen to good websites, encouraging civility among customers, Michael Netzley's Asia report, Media Monitoring Minute from CustomScoop, listener comments, the line between safety and survellance, Dan York's report, paying to amplify earned media; how to comment; music from Reggae Far East; and more.