Lili's Think Telecom Blog

Invitation to Join New Telecom Essentials Social Network and Discussion Forum

Hello there everyone!    I hope all of you are preparing for a romantic and playful weekend  - afterall, it is Valentine’s Day tomorrow, and there's a whole weekend to celebrate it!  For those in the United States - a long weekend ;-)

 I have some exciting news to share with you - LIDO Telecom Essentials is well on its way to becoming Telecom Essentials 2.0!   And as readers of my blog, I am inviting you to be part of of what promises to be an wonderful adventure, resulting in dynamic knowledge exchange and potentially rich friendships between a group of people bound by their learning experiences with LIDO, as well as their interest in, if not love of, telecom and the ICT universe.

 My project now is to focus on expanding the Telecom Essentials 2.0 Learning Center – which will allow me to serve your learning and knowledge needs in a fashion consistent with how ICT technology is redefining every possible industry – going Web 2.0. 

I’ve got many of the pieces in place already – my blog, RSS feeds to selected telecom news sources, top industry blogs, and ICT podcasts.  Telecom Essentials podcasts are in production, and soon we'll be offering mLearning --  just-in -time learning for those on the go!   But right this minute,  I’m building a social network for Telecommunications Essentials – and with the members we already have, it’s a veritable ICT Think Tank!

So I have two invitations for you.  First, it is my pleasure to invite you to join me on LinkedIn!   My connections constitute the members of our social network.  And already some are inviting their connections to join as well! 

I’m also inviting you to join my Telecommunications Essentials Group on LinkedIn.  This is where our discussion forum resides.  You need to join this group in order to participate in discussions and knowledge exchange.  And I also invite you to join my Telecom Trainers Groupon LinkedIn -and its not just for those in education, there will be a lot about learning 2.0, ICT in education, and the psychology of learning, with helpful advice on how to accelrate your own learning process! 

With this project of mine, to build our network, I have now experienced first-hand, the potential, and speed, of social networking, which I’ll address below!   Meanwhile, I have the privilege of seeing the member’s profiles when they join, and I am so impressed with our network.   I already know that all of you will be able to find answers to questions that come up for you within this group – there is someone for everyone!  And I have questions for so many of you!   Let me share the highlights.

· It is comprised of the professional and academic space – it will be a multigenerational forum – which should make it all the more exciting – with the applications LinkedIn Supports, there is opportunity to address the visual and kinesthetic learners in our group by sharing presentations using SlideShare.  And I’ve just added the poll application – and your first poll – please do cast your vote!

· It is comprised of wide range of talents – executive, scientific, engineering, sales, teaching,  and more.  With personal interests to boggle the mind!

· It is comprised of a very diverse range of disciplines – software, wireless, switching, higher education, military, network operations, legal, financial, too many to mention -  although all focused on ICT. 

· It is a worldwide group – as LIDO is a global company, with members from all continents – although we are still waiting for Happy Feet to join  J   For those that may not know, Happy Feet was the name of a Penguin in a beautiful animation film, meaning I have not gone to teach in Antarctica yet, but I’m hoping!

· And, quite importantly, most of you share me in common – you have either read my book, attended my seminars, used by elearning, or visit my website – and as such, you all have something rarely found in a social network – a common foundation for what you have learned about telecom, at least from me, made special by your own knowledge and what you have learned about telecom since Telecom Essentials!  Of course this will be less the case as more people join  by virtue of recommendations, but there will always be a core of my students as well, so please do use the forum to ask questions about topics from my learning materials if you wish to!

I also see so many great matches for discussions and friendships when I read your profiles – honestly its making me feel like a matchmaker!  Hopefully you will discover each other over time, but I may, from time to time,  bring you together in the forum by introducing a question and asking for your response :-) 

 As you can see, I’m excited about my LIDO 2.0 adventure – and in a few short hours, I was convinced me that it will be a most thought-provoking, educational, and enjoyable journey! 

Just to make the point – when I say a few hours – I mean it.  When I sent out my initial heap of invitations, within 2 hours I had 60 acceptances!  Now, less than two days later, we have 200 new members in our network!  And by virtue of your connections, we have 30,000+ mind shares between us.  

Now, it is very important that you also join both our groups - Telecommunications Essentialsand Telecom Trainers .  I humbly ask that you join, and indeed participate from time to time.  With our group of almost 300 as 2-18-09, and growing daily, there are enough of us to keep a great dialogue going, and achieve the goal – knowledge exchange and connected knowledge to expand our ICT IQ! 

I invite you all to treat this as an experiment – our own personal experiment on the power of social networking, as well as the pitfalls, while also creating a rich telecom and ICT resource for questions, advice and/or collaboration!

If you aren’t familiar with the whole 2.0 ecosystem, take a look at my powerpoint presentation ‘Innovations to Gain the Edge:  The Learning 2.0 Ecosystem” – its posted on my profile page on LinkedIn.  While it addresses Learning 2.0, the concepts are the same, and the web 2.0 technologies are the same, so you will get a good summary of web 2.0, as well as what our mission with this social network is about!   You can also Download Innovations to Gain the Edge PDF[Compatibility Mode]  

Once again, I invite you to join our growing community, given the members, its bound to be a dynamic forum of telecom thinkers – I like to think of it as the LIDO ICT Think Tank – an educational cooperative of the world’s most committed telecom thinkers J

Happy Valentine’s Day

Lili

Update - Tangible User Interface resources

Hello everyone – I hope you’ve all had a restful and entertaining weekend!

As you can see, I’ve been a little busy with my blog – it is my personal mission to make up for my absent months!

I wanted to follow- up on my first blog on Tangible User Interfaces by providing you with a good list of related blogs and resources that you can monitor in order to keep abreast of developments in this very exciting area.  

For example, go to Channel 10 (by Microsoft) –  a blog for enthusiasts with a passion for technology for technology enthusiasts with a network of worldwide contributors – there’s a few great photos and discussions of surface tables, as I discussed in my previous post - like this application at this year’s Superbowl!

 

 

I gave you three examples in my blog, but there are so many many more – as a couple of slides from one my recent seminar tour in Asia illustrate.

 

 

Now you want to see more?  Then start with these resources, and they’ll lead to the “touchy-feely” side of ICT :-)

Happy exploring!

All my best,

Lili

 

Channel 10 (highly recommended for examples)

Vizoo (Cheoptics 360 3D interface)

 Smashing Magazine –Future for Gamers:  Cheoptics 360

Human Productivity Lab

The Female Perspective of Computer Science

Microsoft Surface Tables (great videos)

Microsoft Live Labs

Microsoft Photosynth

Microsoft Seadragon

Reactable - Collaborative Electronic Music Instrument

Tech Digest

Pantipicon – A Thousand Tomorrows

CScout Japan – Japan Trend Spotting and Innovative Research

Emerging Technologies - ZDNet Blog

Tactile Display – Band-aid Size

The Future of E-Paper

Flexible Computers

Illuminating Clay – MIT Tangible Media Lab

Wikipedia - Tangible User Interface

Telecom and Neuroscience and PLC and......

Greetings everyone!

I recently recieved and email from a student, a reader of my book. It led to some very interesting observations, so I want to share just a bit of what Ron Gonzales had to say - and yes, I have his permission to quote him :-)  Ron, like myself, has a degree in   Psychology. But, after reading my book, he has quite elegantly envisioned a connection between ICT networks and the human nervous system.

"Ms. Goleniewski, I really enjoyed your book. I've been taking telecom and computer networking classes after getting a bachelor's degree in psychology (I was a pre-med student), and I like this field an awful lot". "

"It's struck me for awhile now, how similar telecom and computer networks are to the human central nervous system. In the brain and spinal cord, you have discrete areas that communicate by means of specific neurotransmitters, and in computer networks, you have areas that use common signaling protocols."

"In the brain and spinal cord, you have tracts and nerves, and in networks you have trunks and conduits. In psychology, you have the subconscious and the conscious, and in networking, you have backplanes and CLI's".

"It's funny how a few good ideas get recycled all over the place in life..."

There is most definitely such a connection – much like multimedia strives to enable computers and machines with the sensory systems we use to perceive the entire world – physical or virtual!  And if you haven’t noticed – telecommunications is as much about psychology today, as it was about engineering in the past!  One of the greatest knowledge sets ICT companies should be investing in, is introducing more pshychologists – in particular from the sensory & physiological, development, cognitive, and organizational disciplines.  Okay, we could probably use some good clinical psychologists in the industry as well –and will need more for technology induced disorders!

Interestingly, a couple of weeks later, I got a note from another reader - who also saw a relationship - but in his case, as an electrical contractor, it was to PLT systems.  Here's what Alex had to say......

"I just wanted to thank you for writing Telecommunications Essentials 2nd edition.Im learning alot and you are a great teacher.Im an elecrical contractor/engineer, and decided to detour in depth to the communications field.Some of the subject matter is common with process control technology im familiar with such as that with PLC's.

I also have been involved with digital audio and own a project recording studio .The common thread between these technologies is amazing.

anyway ,awsome book.now if i can just remember all these

acronyms...........:-) thank you!”

I'm hoping Ron and Alex continue this discussion, and  as this group comes to life, we'll have many such intriguing discussions - while also talking about what you’re learning, and what you’re interested in, when it comes to building your telecom knowledge!

Meanwhile, let me know what you’ve discovered about telecom that came as a surprise to you!

All my best,

Lili

Tangible User Interfaces

For those of you that know me, or have read my books, attended my seminars, or partaken of the eLearning – you know that one of my personal favorites in exploring the ICT universe is to delve into the “futuristic” applications.  I put futuristic in quotes because these days, they are not some far off future visions – they are technologies and products that are very much real, albeit not a part of everyone’s life yet.

I find that studying future trends provides me with much enthusiasm for what at times can be an awfully dry topic – but when I learn about how ICT is poised to rapidly change our lives, I get motivated - and, so do my students!  That’s why I always begin my seminars and presentations with a glimpse into what is coming J

So, as I was preparing my new materials on “New Rules in the 2.0 Ecosystem:  Transformation, Next Generation Networks, and Multi-service Convergence”, my first step was to research what’s new and what’s hot.  One of the areas of intriguing developments is the area of Tangible User Interfaces”.

Wikipedia defines tangible user interfaces (TUI) as a user interface in which a person interacts with digital information through the physical environment.  The characteristics of TUIs include

1.  Physical representations that are computationally coupled to underlying digital information.
2.  Physical representations that embody mechanisms for interactive control.
3.  Physical representations that are perceptually coupled to actively mediated digital representations.

The physical state of tangibles embodies key aspects of the digital state of a system.
On my quest to find examples, visual examples I could share with my students, I uncovered the most amazing world – and I want to share my findings with you, and encourage you to visit the many blogs written by those committed to what defines how we will interact with all things digital going forward.  After all, when a user interacts with something real, something tangible, they understand it immediately, and there are heaps of applications where this simply makes sense! 

So here are just a few examples I what I found – I’d love to hear your comments on these!

Illuminating Clay - This TUI, developed for landscape architects, bridges the physical-digital divide between 3-dimensional clay models and 2-dimensional computer models.  There’s no better way to explain it than to provide a scenario, as presented in the paper presented by its creators – the Tangible Media Group at MIT’s Media Laboratory - Illuminating Clay – A 3-D Tangible Interface for Landscape Analysis. 

“A group of road builders, environmental engineers and landscape designers stand at an ordinary table on which is placed a clay model of a particular site in the landscape.  Their task is to design the course of a new roadway,housing complex and parking area that will satisfy engineering, environmental and aesthetic requirements.  Using her finger the engineer flattens out the side of a hill in the model to provide a flat plane for an area of carparking. As she does so an area of yellow illumination appears in another part of the model. The environmental engineer points out that this indicates a region of possible landslide caused by the change in the terrain and resulting flow of water. The landscape designer suggests that this landslide could be avoided by adding a raised earth mound around the car park. The group tests the hypothesis by adding material to the model and all three observe the resulting effect on the stability of the slope.”

  

Microsoft Surface.  As described on their website, Microsoft Surface turns an ordinary tabletop into a vibrant, interactive surface. The product provides effortless access to digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects. Today, it's a 30-inch diagonal display in a table-like form factor that's easy for individuals or multiple people to interact with in a way that feels familiar, just like in the real world. In essence, it's a surface come to life for exploring, learning, sharing, creating, buying and much more. Today Microsoft Surface is available in the retail, hospitality, automotive, banking and healthcare industries. Consumers can interact with Surface at select AT&T retail locations, at the iBar located in the Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and at select Sheratons in the U.S.  

Its still on the expensive side, at roughly US$15,000 per surface, but its only a matter of a little time before you engage in surface computing!  There a heap of great videos on the website, illustrating the applications – make sure to take a peek!  

And then there is one of my personal favorites – Intra-Body Communications!  KDDI is now displaying one of its latest achievements called Intra-Body Communication which can use the human body to transmit high-volume data such as video and music!  This is done at a frequency less than or equal to 40MHz (which has less transmission loss).  The video on the monitor in the photo below is going right through the woman from her hand to the glasses and out to the monitor!

KDDI envisions this technology as yet another way to interact with the world physically and without using the airwaves.  Just imagine being able to download a video simply by touching a movie poster while holding your phone.  Or getting coupons through your restaurant’s seats?  And of course, giving someone your business card merely by shaking their hand!

There are many many more examples I found in my research, but I can’t post all of them.  Instead I hope what I’ve illustrated tickles your imagination, and prompts you to make sure you do your research on the very fascinating and immersive topic of Tangible User Interfaces!

Here's to feeling the future!

Lili

 

Welcome to the Zettacosm!

Salutations telecom thinkers !   In the past I posted a blog to explain the measurements of the digital era.    What I want to tell you about today, is how traffic trends are quickly moving us into the Zettacosm.  So, the first order of business is to explain just what this means – and provide you with a solid footing to understanding how the zettabyte flood is affecting our lives going forward – whether professional or personal.  New forms of data are transforming the Internet, in terms of usage and capabilities.  The dominance of rich media, video, and interactive multimedia traffic are driving the transformation of network architectures as well as commercial business plans.  It is this world of visual and sensory communications that signals the need to prepare for the Zettabyte flood.

So – what exactly is a “zetta”?   Technically, Zetta means 10 to the 21st power – that is, a billion trillion.  When dealing with content and storage - the measure is Zettabytes – when talking about data transmission, we talk about Zetta bits per second.  But –how many of us truly relate to the mathematical definitions?  What we need are examples in real world terms.  So to help you understand these dimensions, I offer these real-life examples.

•  1MB = one digital chest x-ray, or one minute of high-fidelity sound

•  1GB = one pickup truck full of books, or one symphony in high-fidelity sound, or one broadcast movie   

•  1TB = all the X-ray films in a large technological hospital, or 50,000 trees made into paper and printed, or daily rate of EOS (Earth Orbiting System) data (1998)

•   1PB = 50,000,000 trees made into paper and printed

•   1EB = one billion pickup trucks full of books, or one trillion books (400 pages each)

•   1ZB = 250 million DVDs

Now that you understand what the measurements mean – the next question is what is the source of all this data?  By 2015, estimates of annual traffic in the U.S. alone are projected to equal over 1 Zettabyte.  According to the Discovery Institute, the sources of this traffic are as follows:  (these are annual figures)

Movie downloads and P2P file sharing                   100EB
Video calling and virtual windows                           400EB
Cloud computing and remote backup                       50EB
Internet video gaming and virtual worlds                 200EB
Non-Internet IPTV                                                  >100EB
Business IP traffic                                                    100EB
Phone, web, email, photos, music                              50EB
The result will be an U.S. Internet that is 50x larger than it was in 2006!  And that is just in the U.S.

Globally, Internet traffic is estimated to show a CAGR of 42% from 2007-2012, and Non-Internet IP traffic  will show a CAGR of 55% from 2007-2012.  For a comprehensive analysis of these trends I refer you to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index – Forecast and Methodology, 2007-2012.   And for a wonderful review of the changing applications, make sure to read the Discovery Institute’s Estimating the Exaflood. 

It is estimated that implementing the required changes will require a global new investment in the worldwide Internet infrastructure of US$137 billion by 2010. At least US$50 billion in the U.S. alone, which is currently lagging Asia.  The next few years will require a capacity increase in access networks by a factor of 10 to 100, replacing today’s 1 and 10 Mbps links with 25 Mbps and 100 Mbps links.

So, welcome to the Zettacosm – and prepare for the Zettabyte flood!

I'm back - Introducing LIDO Telecom Pvt. Ltd.

Greetings all!   And my profuse apologies for being absent for such a long time.   Life and time – heaps of life, and not enough time in the day!   But I’m back now, and planning to devote much energy to this blog – all in the name of sharing with you what I think is vital to your knowledge of telecom, as well as learning in the 2.0 ecosystem!

The first order of business is to reflect on the earlier blog entries – and update you on them.

You know the saying – “ask and you shall receive”?   Well, my very first blog entry resulted in magic – I had started my blog with a message on how to build telecom wealth – and the key was education.  I shared an old, but very much alive, Indian tale – of the two goddesses, Saraswati  (knowledge) and Lakshmi (money) – and how if you embraced and followed Saraswati, Lakshmi, being ever so jealous of Saraswati, would knock your door down to find her place in your heart, and in so doing, bring you great wealth.

I’m thrilled to report that this simple reflection  resulted in a new venture in India – LIDO Telecom Pvt Ltd – run by my brilliant new partner, Ms. Pavithra Ratnakar.   In fact, you can see Pavi’s initial comments to that very first blog. 

 

Pavi, a sharp businesswoman, had been observing the growing importance of telecoms in India, and also recognized that there was a lack of telecommunications education in the academic system.  She also had the vision to realize that elearning was the modality required by today’s millennial learners.  And so we put our heads together and decided that it was the right time to introduce LIDO Telecommunications Essentials elearning, seminars, and books to all those hungry minds in India, seeking  telecom knowledge.

The company was officially launched in September 2008, at the 14th Annual India Telecommunications Summit in New Delhi.  LIDO Telecom will be focusing on serving our learners in India, the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, and Africa. 

 

We are now available to serve you, realtime, no matter your timezone!  And remember – “be careful of what you ask for, you might just get it”!  :-)

Namaste,

Lili

Key Measurements of the Digital World

Good day Telecom Thinkers!  Telecommunications is an enormous, expansive, and seemingly limitless universe of technologies, infrastructures, applications and regulations.  So how can one communicate effectively about it?  For one thing, it takes a big vocabulary!  And anyone who has even dipped one toe into perusing telecom literature quickly learns, the first challenge to understanding telecommunications is actually understanding the telecom language.

Since this blog is devoted to building your telecom knowledge, it make sense that we start early on by defining something as simple as the key measurements of the digital world.  And that's what we're going to do today - examine the measures of performance and success in the digital era.  They are pertinent to advances in platforms, devices, applications and infrastructures.

There are three key measurements in the digital world:

- Processing power, measured in the number of transistors and operations per second

- Storage, measure in the number of bytes

- Bandwidth, or digital data transmission, measured in bits per second

Processing Power

Moore's Law says that the number of gates on a chip-hence the power of the microprocessor-doubles every 18 months. Intel's original microprocessor, introduced in 1971, had 2,300 transistors. Top-of-the-line computers in 2001 contained some 42 million transistors that performed 100 billion operations per second.

Today, Intel's high-end chip contains more than 1.7 billion transistors, and that number is expected to exceed 10 billion by 2010.  Meanwhile, the Teraflops Research Chip is the latest development from the Intel(r) Tera-scale Computing Research Program. This chip is Intel's first silicon tera-scale research prototype. It is the first programmable chip to deliver more than one trillion floating point operations per second (1 Teraflops) of performance while consuming very little power.

Unfortunately, there's also an awful truth about Moore's Law. Today's transistors are about a micrometer in overall length, which means dozens of them could sit on top of a human red blood cell. This very success is bringing chipmakers to the brink of a new, steep obstacle to further gains in performance.  The good news is that the industry is working on several solutions, including low k films and silicon photonics.  We can't really do justice to the topic in a blog, but you can get all the details and more by viewing my elearning tutorial on the subject.  Select the segment titled "Measurements of the Digital Era".  This is a complimentary offering, and I encourage you to view the entire "Understanding the Broadband Era" module - it will open your eyes to the key trends driving the ICT industry.  Please note, you need to first register on the LIDO Learning Center if you are not a member yet - there are no fees!

But, back to our discussion of processing power.  On the positive side, thanks to Moore's Law, network endpoints today are small, powerful, inexpensive devices. With such power in the endpoints, the need to embed the functions of a network in the network's core shrinks. In addition, smart end devices can set up and manage calls far better than a centralized network can. In fact, implementing voice in end devices makes it possibly to mix it into other kinds of interactions as well, such as online game play, collaboration, and shared Web surfing.

Storage

Fast processors that support today's visualization and multimedia applications are just one piece of the puzzle. The second element is storage. The industry is currently seeing a doubling of storage density every 12 months. Emerging solutions promise incredible improvements in storage density and size.  New storage devices are going to enable up to 1TB (terabyte) of storage; such a storage device would be able to contain 250 full-length films!

The developments in storage are a most interesting area, promising a future of holographic memory.  Personally, I am fascinated by what a simple bacteria may mean to the future of memory. Bacteriorhodopsin, more affectionately known as BR, is one of the first forms of life on our planet; a protein grown by salt marsh bacteria at least 2.3 billion years ago and it is likely to become the wave of the future in computer data storage and manipulation.  BR is a tiny, rugged protein that has improved through billions of years of evolution to become extremely efficient at converting light into energy.  As a biological substance, the protein also enables data to be stored in three dimensions, just like the human brain.

To put this into context, holographic storage devices in general, could address the growing gap between the capacity of storage devices and the speed with which they access data. As an example, transferring a full-length high definition movie, a 30-gigabyte file, to a computer's hard drive may currently take up to 30 to 45 minutes. Holographic devices have the potential to reduce that time to less than 10 seconds.  For additional information about holographic and other developments in storage technologies, please view my elearning tutorial on "Measurements of the Digital Era" .

Bandwidth

Along with processing power and storage, the third of the three key measurements of the digital world is bandwidth. The term bandwidth comes from the visualization of the electromagnetic spectrum, where the spectrum is divided into bands. Each band and the channel within it has a width, expressed in Hertz (Hz), or cycles per second. The wider the band, the more information it can carry. The information transfer rate is expressed in the number of bits per second.   Each transmission medium operates within a specific portion of the spectrum, which in turn determines the maximum bandwidth associated with that medium.  To learn all the details about the characteristics associated with copper, coax, microwave, satellite and fiber transmission media, please download a free copy of the chapter "Transmission Media" - all you need to do is fill out a short registration form to access the resources available in the LIDO Telecom Essentials Learning Center.  You can buy the book, Telecommunications Essentials:  the Complete Global Resource by clicking here.  

The table below lists the units that are commonly used in describing the data rates of various bandwidths.

Particularly over the past decade, networks have begun carrying greater and greater data rates. Gbps networks are now common, Pbps networks are beginning to emerge, and Ebps networks are expected to make an appearance within the next 3-5 years.  But, in my experience, while most people are impressed by the large numbers we talk about relative to bandwidth, the measurements alone do not convey just how much data can be transferred at these speeds.  So let me provide you with a few examples.  At 10 Gbps, you can transfer the entire set of Encyclopedia Britannica, comprised of some 30 volumes, in the blink of an eye!   Of course if you wanted to transmit the entire contents of the Library of Congress, at 10 Gbps it would take about 2.35 hours.  But, at the speed of 1 Tbps, it would take only 1.41 minutes, and at 1 Ebps, it would take a mere 0.826 seconds!

Now, you may say, yes, but how many times do we need to download the entire Library of Congress?  Do today's applications really require so much bandwidth?  The answer is yes, as we begin to utilize more applications involving online virtual reality, 3-D holography, grid computing and web agents, we will require networks that operate in the Exabit per second range.  Also, it is important to note, broadband access lines create a need for more bandwidth in the core - and with the number of broadband subscriber lines growing daily, not to mention the speed of broadband access alternatives destined to reach 100 Gpbs, it is only a matter of a few years before we find ourselves demanding networks operating in the Petabit and Exabit per second range!

Fortunately, advances in optical and wireless technologies promise to provide us with the necessary bandwidth, and more.   Similarly, photonics will be key to the next generation of computing and storage.  But to truly understand the broadband evolution, you must appreciate the developments in embedded devices, intelligent wearable, man-machine interactions, the full range of virtual reality technologies, grid computing and real-time communications.

To this end I invite all of you to take part in my elearning tutorial entitled "Understanding the Broadband Evolution".  This is a complimentary offering, the only requirement is that you register to use the LIDO Telecom Essentials Learning Center.  I promise you 98 minutes of a highly enjoyable exposure to the trends driving the broadband evolution.  It will not only educate you on the key ICT trends, but it will also inspire you to learn all that you can about next generation networks and the broadband generation.

Click here to register if you are not yet a member of the LIDO Learning Center.  Click here to access our free elearning tutorials, including "Understanding the Broadband Evolution".  Open your eyes to what the future holds for you, professionally and personally!  As I note in the introductory chapter of my book - I love telecommunications. It is powerful and it empowers, with far-reaching consequences. It has demonstrated the potential to transform society and business, and the revolution has only just begun.  

Understand the Broadband Evolution - and go on to create wealth - all you have to do is "think telecom" ! 

 

 

HelpDesk Humor

There are not a huge number of opportunities for humor in telecom, so when someone does a great job at creatively addressing an issue that plagues the industry, it deserves to be shared with everyone!

I recently found the “HelpDesk Humor” video on YouTube – and it is an absolute must see!   We’ve all got a heap of war stories about our experiences with less than adequate tech support.  But this little video let’s us get a glimpse into the frustrations brought about by less than skilled users.  I suspect most of us rarely think about that side of the equation!

HelpDesk Humor

Not only will this video give you a great moment of laughter today, it also speaks to some truly critical issues in the broadband era, the least of which is the importance of training!  Customer and tech support is a two way relationship, with each party bearing some responsibility for being properly educated and prepared!  The interactions and steps demonstrated in this video clearly highlight the need for not only technical training for support reps, but also softskills training.  These days, what gives a company a competitive edge boils down to two things – how knowledgeable their people are, and how well they interact with their customers, in other words, their customer service operations!

The video also makes a giant point about the fact that the industry is very quick to sign up new customers and subscribers, but then leaves them to flounder about on their own, without the slightest bit of knowledge as to how to use the wondrous tools of the information age.  One of the greatest added value services a vendor or service provider can offer to its users is education.  If you invest in educating your customers, you’ll find you’ve created not only a more loyal user, reducing customer churn, you’ll also create a customer with the knowledge to order and use new services as you introduce them!

A little bit of education can go a long way in securing your relationships with your support staff and customers!  Knowledge is power, so empower your personnel, and empower your customers – create an educational program that will provide them with the basics they need to understand the nature of computing and telecommunications. 

To wind up today’s post - there’s a wonderful quote by Edgar Watson Howe (1853-1937) that really speaks to this “bits of humor” episode –  ”If you don’t learn to laugh at trouble, you won’t have anything to laugh at when you’re old.”

So have a good laugh at the world of Internet help desks, and remember……

“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.”  e.e.cummings (1894-1962)

LIDO Telecom WebCentral   www.telecomwebcentral.com

The Key to Creating Wealth - Think Telecom

Greetings telecom thinkers – and welcome to the magical world of telecom! Why magical? Between 2001 and 2002, investors saw approximately $2 trillion of market value simply vanish – twice the damage done when the Internet bubble burst. Poof, it’s gone! but Abracadebra……its back, stronger than ever! Today, the telecom industry has not only recovered, but is expected to reach an all-time high! According to a recent Business Week feature article – “Telecom: Back from the Dead” (June 25, 2007),industry profits are expected to reach $72 billion this year - exceeding the previous high-water mark of $65 billion in 1998!

And what does that have to do with the Telecom Essentials Blog? Simply put - telecommunications knowledge is essential to your future. Why? Telecom is the most important infrastructure of the 21st century. Every business, and just about every human activity depends on it. In fact, it is fair to say that is has become more important than power, water, transportation and even education. As noted by R. Brough Turner, CTO of NMS Communications, “Investment in telecom is more productive than investment in other kinds of infrastructure. The impact is particularly noticeable in developing nationsDownload Large Productivity Benefit of Telecom Investment in Emerging Markets If you want to create wealth, think telecom! No matter what industry you work in, telecommunications and information technologies are vital to its operation and survival. Consider that for a moment – healthcare, education, entertainment, government, transportation, finance, national security, defense, public utilities – all these industries and many more are dependent on their ICT infrastructures. In future posts we’ll explore specific applications and technologies impacting all these industries, as well as what exactly is driving the telecom industry today. But for today, let’s continue examining the role of telecom in creating wealth.

As I mentioned above, wealth can mean different things to different people. Most certainly, possessing telecom knowledge can lead you to the financial rewards of cold hard cash, and as indicated by the $72 billion of industry profits expected this year, many are reaping such rewards as we speak! But there are a multitude of other ways in which telecom can build your wealth. The reality is that telecom is good for mankind – not only is it more productive than other kinds of infrastructure investments, but perhaps more importantly, it can dramatically improve the human condition – from bringing expert medical attention to remote and/or impoverished parts of the world, to introducing the luxury of world class education where teachers and facilities are not readily available. Some will become rich as they accumulate intellectual wealth in their quest for scientific truth, while others, in pursuit of environmental protection and social justice, will feel the richness of being empowered to actually make a difference, benefiting many generations to come. And let us not forget the artists and entertainers who enrich our senses and imaginations through wonderful new forms of arts and entertainment, infusing the world with the gift of joy and laughter, while producing an enormous amount of revenue in the process! Whatever wealth means to you, telecom is there to serve you!

The purpose of this blog and the LIDO Telecom WebCentral website, as well as my personal mission, is to enlighten and educate the world about telecommunications. With each post I will share insights – striving to build your telecommunications knowledge. But today, I’d like to finish our discussion of telecom and wealth creation by sharing a charming Indian tale with you…….

Once upon a time in a faraway land, a young man went to the forest and said to his spiritual master, “I want to have unlimited wealth, and with that unlimited wealth, I want to help and heal the world. Will you please tell me the secret to creating affluence?”

And the spiritual master replied, “There are two Goddesses that reside in the heart of every human being. Everybody is deeply in love with these supreme beings. But there is a certain secret that you need to know, and I will tell you what it is. Although you love both Goddesses, you must pay more attention to one of them. She is the Goddess of Knowledge, and her name is Sarasvati. Pursue her, love her, and give her your attention. The other Goddess, whose name is Lakshmi, is the Goddess of Wealth. When you pay more attention to Sarasvati, Lakshmi will become extremely jealous and pay more attention to you. The more you seek the Goddess of Knowledge, the more the Goddess of Wealth will seek you. She will follow you wherever you go and never leave you. And the wealth you desire will be yours forever.”

I thank Deepak Chopra for recanting this tale in his book"Creating Affluence" - for it not only reminded me of the power of knowledge, which I've always worshipped - but it also caused me to reflect on how, today, knowledge of telecommunications is fundamental to creating affluence and wealth - regardless of your industry or passion! 

Knowledge is power, and knowledge invites wealth. Seek telecommunications knowledge and you will create wealth – for yourself and for mankind. I am here to serve you in your quest.

 Welcome to Lili's Think Telecom blog and the wonderful world ot Telecommunications Essentials!