Need an example? Think about IM in the context of what it reall is…delivering text messages. How much revenue do you think the Netheads make from IM? Combine AIM, MSN and Yahoo all together. How much revenue do you think the wireless carriers make from text messagin? Who wins the revenue war?

That isn’t the only place the Bellheads win. Look to political process. I’ve often wondered about our own ranks. Jeff Pulver. David Isenberg. Tom Evslin. Several others. Leading voices fighting the battle from without rather than stepping into the political fray of politics to redirect the system from within. If we’re going to win some measure of control away from the Bellheads, there is only one way. The political power base needs to shift. Netheads have to become the influencers of policy, something we are clearly not today.

One way to do this is for many of use to run for office. To shift from the things we love to the things we want changed. Most of us are loathe to do so. I know I have no interest in political office. My passion for change isn’t so great that I care to make that change.

I personally have taken a different path. The grow your own Senator approach. My oldest son has intense political interests. He’s also in a different generation than I. The next generation of influencers. The next generation of leaders. The next generation of Senators. He doesn’t often talk of his personal politcal aspirations, but down inside, I know they exist. I do what I can to encourage that personal growth and pursuit of passion. And I try to help him bridge the gap to my generation by promoting new technologies and using technology from with the political process. For change. For new campaigns. For new public services. For good.

Today this appeared in the Daily Kos. Note this is a reference to my son, not to me -

Ken Camp’s The Revolution Has Begun looks at the use of newer technology - text messaging podcasts, etc. - in various campaigns.

I’d encourage the rest of you in my generation to chase your options. You can invest of yourself in making change, or you can foster change in the next generation of politics. Either will bring change. You can also blog about it, talk about it, post about it and whine about it. That will feel good perhaps, but it won’t bring change. Be an agent of change rather than a strident voice raging against the machine to no productive end.

This public service announcement brought to you by one too many cups of coffee after dinner.

Amended 15 minutes after I posted to add this link http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/7/25/233213/844

Technorati Tags: politics, Ken Camp, Net neutrality, be an agent of change

Jangl This

Written By Om Malik

Hello, this Is Wildfire… how can I help you…

It was a bubble ago, when I was first introduced to Wildfire, a follow-me, find-me telephone service, that tracked me down by serial dialing  all my phone numbers: office, home or mobile phone. Its simplicty is what made it more than memorable, and it is a damn shame it did not catch on with the masses. It was also an early window into the concept of presence, on wireless and wireline networks.

The transition towards an all-IP network might have flattened the network layers, but it has also increased our communication options.From instant messaging, email, Internet phone numbers, wireless numbers and what not. We are becoming instantly reachable, which is great, but it also poses strange problems. Embarrassing IMs projected on the big screen right in middle of a big presentation! It has happened to us before. Those Schmiddy ads by Verizon are very very real.

Perhaps, that is why we need a way to manage our presence. Presence - which determines how we are going to be contacted, by whom, and how much access we can provide to those who want to reach out and touch. Presence, would be our first line of defense in this hyper connected age. I for one use the Cisco Call Manager features that come with my hosted IP-PBX account from M5 Networks. (I have managed to set-up rules to better manage my call-inflow.) Others use Skype to manage their communications flow. But the presence nirvana is still ways off.

So jangl looks interesting, but very oriented towards the singles scene and non-business users. In short, the hip, young, trendy sort that I am most assuredly not. But what did catch my eye is that their VP of Engineering is Douglas Cheline. Not sure if it’s the same Doug Cheline I had some dealings with in years past when he was at Genuity or not. We’ve lost touch over time. But that’s enough of a potential link to have me keep an eye on jangl. And Douglas, if that’s you and you’d like me to take a whack at telling the jangl story, drop a line or call me

Technorati Tags: jangl, Douglas Cheline, unified communications