Tag: networking

Building the next Internet of Things network

Investment in French networking startup Sigfox shows the need for the IoT to develop new networks.

Earlier this week we looked at Cisco’s claim that Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) networks will handle much of the world’s mobile data traffic by the end of the decade.

French company SIGFOX showed how investors are looking at the opportunity in these systems with a $115 million funding round two days ago.

What’s particularly notable about SIGFOX’s investors is how many of them are telcos themselves with Spain’s Telefonica, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and South Korean SK Telecom being key shareholders.

Along with the telcos, who SIGFOX hopes will help them expand their footprint outside Spain, France, the UK and the Netherlands, there’s also a collection of industrial companies including Air Liquide and infrastructure giant SDF Suez.

That a diverse range of companies are moving into the LPWA market shows how important the stakes are for providers in securing a position in the the technologies that will define the Internet of Things as industries brace themselves for the massive rollout of connected devices.

Creepy business

There’s a place and time for business networking

In Entrepreneur magazine, writer Alina Tugend suggests we forget networking and become connectors and gives the reader some ideas on how to build connections.

One of the suggestions is, quite reasonably, to eschew networking events and join organisations you have a real interests in, like a sporting club.

Alina quotes Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone, who says he has never been to an official networking event.

“I have a friend who is the executive vice president of a large bank in Charlotte,” he writes in his book. “His networking hotspot is, of all places, the YMCA. He tells me that at 5 and 6 in the morning, the place is buzzing with exercise fanatics like himself getting in a workout before they go to the office. He scouts the place for entrepreneurs, current customers and prospects.”

Prowl gym locker rooms for business prospects? Sounds a bit creepy and you may end up with not quite the connections you expected.

I guess we could call it the Village People model of business development.

ABC Nightlife Computers: The Internet Name Wars

How the Internet’s name wars can affect you

The online empires want our names and identities, are the real costs of social media now being exposed? Our September ABC Nightlife spot on September 22 from 10pm looked at these issues and more.

Paul and Tony discussed how Google’s “Name Wars” or “nymwars” came about, why social media sites like Facebook and search engines want you to use to use your real names.

The podcast from the program is available from at Nightlife website, more details of Tony’s programs can be found there as well.

Is this a good thing or are there costs we should consider before handing over our intimate details to a social media or free cloud computing service?

Some of the topics we covered included;

  • What are the “name wars’?
  • Why do companies like Google and Facebook want us to use our ‘real’ identities?
  • How can they use the information they gather?
  • What problems does that cause for Internet users?
  • Can these problems spill into real life?
  • Are all web services doing this?
  • What are the risks to businesses using social media?
  • Is this the real cost of social media?

Some of the information we mentioned can be found here;

The cost of lunch: Google and Information Revenue
Google’s real names policy explained
Google’s Eric Schmidt on being an “identity service”, not a social network
Google’s company philosophy (note item two)
Why Twitter doesn’t care what your real name is

We’ll be adding more resources in the next few days, the next ABC Nightlife spot is on 20 October and our events page will have more details. If you have any suggestions for future programs or comments on the last show, please let us know as we love your feedback.

Growing your business with Tweetups

Like most social media meetings in any big town these days, people from all walks of life gathered to meet and become more than just a Twitter handle or obscure forum name.

It’s hard to resist the offer of a free sandwich in Sydney’s Hyde Park on a beautiful spring day, so a“tweet up” offering was always going to be successful.

Like most social media meetings in any big town these days, people from all walks of life gathered to meet and become more than just a Twitter handle or obscure forum name.

Any idea that your average internet user is a pasty, overweight, underemployed 20-something is quickly dispelled as you meet all sorts of interesting people who are doing interesting things.

The hundreds of “tweet ups”, coffee mornings and social media dinners across the land are creating new networks which are changing business and society.

This is opposite of the stereotype being used to reinforce the mindset that blames the internet and social networking sites for everything from schoolyard bullying through to street riots and arrested brain development.

Over the last few days we’ve been treated to stream of stories about the views of professors and researchers detailing how the world and our minds are being destroyed by the internet.

My favourite is an English professor currently visiting Australia who claims computer game addled 20-something market traders may be responsible for the global financial crisis.

Perish the thought that good old-fashioned greed and hubris, the cause of every market crash since the Bronze Age, may have had something to do with the GFC.

The weekend press mentioned the professor applying for a study grant from an American university to prove her theory.

If that is true, it’s a shame the she didn’t take the time to check out the Twitter hashtag to join us for a sandwich in Hyde Park.

Had she done that she’d have had a nice sandwich, caught some sun and seen her theory disproved.

She would have met a far more diverse group than a bunch of stuffed shirts huddling in a cosy lunch club, desperately trying to validate their deliberate ignorance of the changing world outside.

It’s those stuffed shirts, along with their newspaper columnist friends, who are isolated. By choosing to demonise the internet and ignore the opportunities social media tools present, they are being left behind in a fast changing world.

The options for entrepreneurs and business owners are clear – you can lock yourself up with the stuffed shirts and rage about your dying business or you can use the net to help your business grow. The choice is yours.