y European friends and colleagues talk a lot these days about the US deflation - the decline of prices of goods - and current counter measurements by the government, like adjusting interest rates and other diverse stimuli packages.

I get a new J. Crew (appareal) coupon every day, together with ’special’ offerings by SnapFish (online photo printing), Burlington Coat Factory (coats, baby, maternity stuff), Fandango (movie tickets online), and OvernightPrints (online printing of business cards and brochures). So every day I have a “80% off”, “no shipping costs”, or similar offering, all of which make me wait even longer, because maybe there is a better deal coming along. Lesson learned: the price alone will not increase demand. Kind of a no-brainer we knew already.

So what is creating demand? Talk. That’s how advertisment works. Sometimes with price, but most of the time with emotions. Even low-price offerings appeal to you in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity way, not by price. That’s why Whoot and similar pages have such a success, or why Frank Kern, Ed Dale, or Dan Raine have such a huge success with their 30day challenge (Go to http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com/ to find out more about Internet launches of products). The German MediaMarkt advertisement for electronics and kitchen appliances (”ich bin doch nicht bloed!” - “I’m not stupid!”) makes it clear: this is not about the price, it’s about you not being the idiot who doesn’t get it.

Barriers for Broadband Internet Access Subscriptions (Source: Connected Nation)

ook at the research result by Connected Nation on the right: from the roughly 50,000 individuals that were asked why they didn’t have a broadband subscription at home, only 23% answered that price was a matter, and only 14% said that they didn’t have broadband available (multiple answers were possible, hence the >100% sum).

That tells us a couple of things:

• The cry of analysts for better broadband access is only half the story - actually it’s only 14% of the story.
• I’m pretty sure that more than 80% of the 32% without a computer have a cell phone - a huge opportunity for femto cells (see also WiMax Femto and WiMax Mobile Opportunities) or other home-connected devices such as TVs, set-top boxes, or home automation and surveillance.
• 52% of the individuals get their entertainment, news, gaming, and communication needs from somewhere else and don’t yet see the need or the availability at the their private homes.

A reason for Internet-TV

his is exactly the reason why Broadband-based TV, Video-on-Demand, and similar offerings are so important, while they might not make any money by themselves: Advertisement of these services in non-Internet media will reach people who up to now did not see a need to get Internet access. Broadband-based TV is a service even’”offline people’ will understand. If they ‘get’ the value of such a service, they might actually sign up (if they own a computer - and that’s the reason why for a while Internet Service Providers started selling and bundling laptops and other PCs with their Internet Access offerings).

Of course ISPs could advertise things like YouTube (or RedTube, YouPorn, or PornoTube for that matter), Twitter, LinkedIn, Xing, Facebook, etc. - but would the non-subscriber understand the value, and would the value be enough to substitute or supplement his existing ‘offline’ TV subscriptions, news sources, communication means,  and social networks? I guess not.

So why are ISPs engaging in price-wars? Because any advertisement or campaign that generally awakens the demand for broadband Internet access also advertises for any competing ISP, so the price-war is there to finally win people over to a specific provider. It’s like asking for a “Kleenex” after sneezing, but actually meaning any kind of soft tissue for your nose; or for putting “Saran Wrap” onto your shopping list, while you actually mean any kind of plastic wrap / cling wrap / cling film.

Should the government start twittering?

ack to our economic crisis: In order to increase demand of goods and services and stop the deflation the government needs to address more than the prices. We were joking around at the office whether the Government should hence start twittering to increase demand. But then again: what and how would the legislative, judiciary, and executive branch tweet? For “products” like medicaid or education? Buy homes? Order things? While this seems like a joke, did you notice how government messages shifted from

“Reuse. Repurpose. Recycle.”

to

“Invest into the future. Invest in green energy.”

Right, you get it: reusing and repurposing does not increase consumption. Investing does.

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After the last post I got some comments / questions on WiMax and 802.11n, mainly: “What’s the real difference?”, with the emphasize on “real”. I read up a bit on it and asked around, here my summary (yes, I know, in a nutshell, so apologies for the ‘simple’ answers):

1. 802.11n is a draft, but WiMax is drafter – adoption-wise. Ok, WiMax is standardized already, but not widely used, while with anything that sounds like Wi-Fi - or 802.11a/b/g - the entrance barrier is much lower.
2. 802.11n also works in an unlicensed 2.4Ghz so called “ISM band” and “5GHz “U-NII band”, while WiMax requires licensed spectrum. As far as I can read, that is even true for WiMax Femto cells.
3. 802.11n uses multiple antennas and two (2) 54Mbps channels, while WiMax dynamically adapts to frequency bands and modulation requirements.
4. 802.11 is limited to the 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz frequency spectrum, while WiMax can use bands between 2Ghz and 11Ghz – depending on the licenses an operator has!
5. Points 2-4 lead to the assumption that interferences might be far less as problem in WiMax than in 802.11n.
6. WiMax will allow higher client velocities than 802.11n – you can actually be mobile, not nomadic.
7. WiMax supports QoS natively, important for voice and streaming video, while the QoS in the 802.11 family is provided by 802.11e – and non-mandatory for 802.11n to use, as far as I can read.
8. WiMax can have higher reach than 802.11n because of fewer (anticipated) interferences and because the regulator allows higher transmission power for WiMax – so fewer cell-towers to hop.
9. WiMax is connection-oriented, centralized controlled, and scheduled. However, an 802.11n operator could provide similar features (but rarely does – you have to have a multi-service provider subscription such as BoingBoing to have a similar “seamless” service, and your video stream and voice conversation will be gone with that next hop.)
10. Currently, WiMax equipment is primarily being developed by telecommunications infrastructure vendors (Alcatel Lucent, Alvarion, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, etc.) while 802.11n equipment is being developed by consumer/edge technology companies (Apple, Cisco).

One questions that I in turn came over is about WiMax beiing called an “open” standard – what exactly is open? The specification? Like 802.11a/b/g/n?

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As I’m sitting relatively close (location-wise) to Comcast’s senior VP for wireless and technology, Dave Williams, a friend of mine asked me why Comcast would investigate the options of WiMax Femto cells when even traditional vendors such as Nokia Siemens Networks have not yet committed themselves. I’m no expert on WiMax at all, definitely something I have to catch up on, but from a quick review of some research, I would say that

1. Comcast could avoid wholesale charges it would have to pay for using ClearWire’s WiMax network, using existing Internet back haul at the customer’s premise;
2. If mobile (non-in-home) WiMax customers have bandwidth-requiring services or applications and are no longer satisfied with the shared bandwidth of a Clearwire tower, Comcast’s Femto cell could become an argument for selling Internet access without a laptop or other PC in the house – in-home security and utility management, anyone?
3. While wireless in-home communication can definitely be solved with 802.11n or similar, WiMax has a much lower power consumption. Of course it might compete with powerline in-house communication, like the new TVs of Apple, Panasonic, LG, or Samsung.

Sure, we can all wait for LTE, leapfrogging WiMax, but who knows when that will be rolled out in Richmond, where we still have no 3G, and I dearly hope LTE will have a better power consumption pattern than 3G.

I just found a neat overview study by Unstrung Insider called “The Future of Mobile WiMax: Where, When, and How Much?”. It’s a bit older, from September 08, in a news release they talk a bit about the content…

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Music Ally has an awesome list of 200 digital music startups from 2008.

2008 has been a startling year for innovation in digital music. We’ve been covering startups all year in our daily bulletin, not to mention our work with the Popkomm-IMEA and MidemNet New Business Showcase awards. So we thought we’d round up some of the most interesting startups from this year.

We ended up with 200 everything from social networks to streaming sites to recommendation engines to mixtapes to online games to… well, you get the picture. They weren’t all successful (or, indeed, legal), and they’re presented in no particular order within their categories. Oh, and some are less startups and more projects from established firms.

But even so, we thought the list below provides an overview of some of the innovation around music that’s happened this year. Bear in mind this is startups or projects we’ve written about this year for the first time - so the likes of Imeem, Project Playlist, Napster, SpiralFrog and the rest aren’t included, because we covered them in 2007 or before.

Idris Mootee has recently posted a couple of most interesting, insightful, and intelligent articles on his Innovation Playground blog. On December 6th he writes about Creativity and Business Innovation

Creativity Is NOT Innovation. Although the two have connections. Here’s a good definition from Fast Company: There is a difference between creativity and innovation. Creativity is the process of generating something new. It is a prerequisite for innovation. Innovation however, is the practical application of creativity. A good idea is a great thing, but if the idea is not implemented, for whatever reason, we simply have creativity. Innovation is therefore, in effect, proof of an idea. This makes implementation part of the mix.

Business innovation is NOT dependent on creative people. Creative people often cannot handle the complexity associated with innovation.  Complexity and coping with changes are the core of any innovation effort. Ideas are easy. Ideas are cheap these days. Any innovation often need to dealt with many complex elements that make bringing any innovation to market so difficult.

It reminds me again of another quote (and please help me out to attribute the author correctly, and excuse my paraphrasing):

Everyone who ever had a shower had at least ten awesome ideas. But it is more difficult to get out of the shower and execute them.

I remember a recent other posting by Fred Wilson at A VC about how to build successful startups – same idea – I’ll look it up once I’m out of this airplane…

Personalization and recommendations are a hot topics for many telecoms right now, regardless of tier 1, 2, or 3.  Two months ago I stumbled over a snipped by Big Research, an independent consumer-research firm, looking at a traditionally advertising-free and uncluttered environment and how brand engagement works:

Of the 3,389 U.S. employees surveyed in the study, 68% admitted socializing with co-workers during work breaks, and another 42% said they phoned, texted or e-mailed friends and family from the office during the work day.

[...]

Before they make a purchase, 93% of Americans consult their co-workers for advice.

Another advertisement and research service opportunity that is left aside by telecoms like a bad stepchild when working at their currently oh-so hyped great business services. While subscriber numbers are churning quickly, telecoms are again focusing on access and data services. While the first can be a real differentiation, the second is often provided cheaper, quicker, and more flexible by more specialized companies with far more detailed tailoring to customer needs.

It is also intriguing for me that that Big Research’s results are based on research data from December 2007 - a year old - by WorkPlace Media’s “proprietary permission-based network” of over 920,000 U.S. companies across a variety of industries to gain brand insights from the at-work consumer. While their research and methods are actually quite refined, the website reads a little lofty with lots of buzz words:

Our custom online end-user research capability is designed to enhance our clients’ knowledge of the at-work consumer and can be tailored to retrieve data of value to companies utilizing our program. We work closely with our clients to understand transaction level results, folding them into ROI calculations that guide future programming.

I can just recommend sending out an email to them…

While Thomas L. Friedman was talking about the bail-out program for various industry, the same is true for the dwindling telecom subscribers and telco business:

John Kennedy led us on a journey to discover the moon. Obama needs to lead us on a journey to rediscover, rebuild and reinvent our own backyard.

via Op-Ed Columnist - Time to Reboot America - NYTimes.com.

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PHL airport start page

irport websites are a missed opportunity to increase sales and make for a pleasant stay. While many people browse the airline websites for travel tips on baggage, security checkpoint details, and of course flight details and schedules, very few people would actually go to the airport website to look up flight schedules. Indeed, most visitors come to the website while already at the airport (72%).

The bounce rate of non-on-site visitors is 95% (go figure that!), versus 54% on-site visitors. On-site visitors spend about 4.2 minutes on the site (versus 22 seconds).  For obvious reasons the pages most views with off-site visitors are the directions, parking, and public transportation (quite uncommon for Americans). I wonder how much information one could possible gather after 22 seconds.

ut a detailed view into on-site visitors reveals the real terror: the 4.2 minutes are spent looking for food & shops and terminal maps, but never get there! they are trying to click the right maps, but downloads never succeed. A quick look at their browsers shows why: over the last 3.5 months we see a rapid (and I mean rapid!) increase of mobile browsers: iPhones, G1, Opera Mobile, Windows Mobile, etc. Generally no big deal, but most of them didn’t don’t have the right flash version installed, and drop-down menu lists are not really helpful.

The PHL website does have a “ADA Compliant Text Only” version — for everyone wondering: ADA stands for Americans with Disability Act. Note that there is only an english version available, no international choice (great for an international airport). In fact 24% of the visitors had a German or otherwise foreign OS or browser installed (mobile and PC-based browsers). At least it says “Text Only” in the title, so I can kind of guess what that means.

ADA Compliant Text Only Version of PHL.org

But here comes the text-only website: the first items are

1. Airline Tickets: leads to external booking sites, bye bye.
2. FAR Part 150 Noise Study: maybe interesting, but only few clicks here, most of them actually mis-clicked and wanted to select item 3
3. Traffic Report: also external, with more drop-down lists, 90ties animated gifs, etc. bye bye.
4. PHL Facts: Standing in the middle of the terminal, I bet you always wanted to know how many vsitors PHL has, just to explain why so many people bump into you
5. PHL Phun Facts (no spelling error): a dead link. Phunny.

At least the next ones are interesting (Flight Info), and then of course any visitor wants to learn something about the history and management team of PHL (about 0.2% of the visitors actually did!).

The News and Community page is also very 90ties like, nothing like a social community, or such… and at the very bottom, hurray, we get to the Directions & Parking, Help Desk, Food & Shops, and the Visitor’s Guide.

BTW: if you were looking at the “Terminal Maps and Airlines” link in the text-only sitemap, make sure you have your glasses on, because that link you’ll only find in the fine-print at the bottom of the page, in a font-size=-2 html attribute. While I understand that this is a “text-only” part of the page, I will not have any idea about the terminal map, because there is no description about it. Funny that directions is something that Americans with Disabilities don’t need.

BTW^2: I hope you have flash installed for the graphics-version of the terminal map, or at least can display PDF files. Or you go to Google and click the respective deep-search link to the html version of the document, just to discover it’s a wrapper to a graphics element that Google will not display - if it’s a graphic, why not say so and display the graphic? why wrap it in PDF? Yes, a downloadable high-def version is nice, but not for a quick lookup, a quick navigation, etc.

Of course, the Food & Shops site is also an external link to the Philadelphia MarketPlace Food, Shops & Services at http://www.philamarketplace.com/. And that is English-only, of course, lots of graphics, and roll-over / roll-down menus, which are really hard to invoke with touch-screens and mobile browsers that don’t understand what a “rollover” action is (unless you have a Blackberry Storm, of course).

Fangs Screen Reader Output of PHL Food & Markets Website

twiddle along with the trackball of my G1, just to find out that the navigation structure is not in the right order, and <h1>, <h2>, and <h3> html tags are used arbitrarily, I guess screen readers will have their fun with that site, too.

All in all a desperate experience, while they could really capitalize on the situation and circumstances of international travellers, with web-site discounts, coupons, treasure hunts, advertisements, etc. But I guess government regulation prevents most of such customer-oriented approaches…

The original plugin had a few drawbacks:

1. Default settings for fonts were in a dark red, and the shadow was enabled by default.
2. Images always had the css style ‘ttf’, which was limiting for me, as I needed different kind of css classes.
3. obviously, you cannot easily enter the function above in the “write post” textarea, as php code will not get interpreted unless you have some extra (and dangerous) plugin installed.

I edited the ttftitles.php file to address 1. & 2. and created a quick and dirty plugin for 3.. You have to rename both files’ extensions to “.php” - ttftitles.php goes into the TTF Titles plugin subdirectory, thinkstorm-ttf.php goes into your plugin root directory. (You will have to activate the newly created “Generate Text To Font” Plugin). Now you can do two things:

1. The TTF Titles settings page for styles will have a new entry field ‘css_classes’. You can enter several classes separated by a space, just like in html code, for example “ttf aligncenter”, which would then apply both classes “ttf” and “aligncenter” to the <img> tag.
2. Within the textarea for writing posts, you can enter “¦¦your text goes here¦[style, optional]¦[overrides, optional]¦¦” (without the quotes) to insert the the_ttftext() function. All pipe symbols are mandatory, you cannot ommit any of them. So for selection the default style and just enter some text, you’d have to enter “¦¦some text¦¦¦¦” (without the quotes). Yes, a bit odd, and dirty, but it works as long as you don’t need the pipe symbol.

“¦¦Hello, World¦heroin¦font_size=16&css_classes=right¦¦” produces the image shown on the right. There are a few issues with this quick and dirty hack:

• You have to enter the pipe symbols in the “HTML” mode of the textarea, the “Visual” tab will not work, as the pipe symbols get encoded. After you entered them, you can switch back into “Visual” mode.
• The most common mistake is missing some pipe symbols in the beginning, middle, or end. There are 2 (two) of them at the beginning and end.

Have fun!

New blog layout, based on the "Trevilian Way" theme, by Artisan

After The last design kind of blew up with the new Wordpress 2.6.7 release I spent the last two days adjusting a new theme to my needs. Let me know what you think…