From Mobile Voice to Mobile Web- TIE Wireless SIG event

I just came back from another interesting TIE Wireless Special Interest Group meeting held at the TIE Centre in Bunker Hill, Santa Clara, California. It was probably the most packed event I have been to at the TIE centre over the last 2 months.

The session was moderated by Sarah Trimble from San Jose Mercury News, and the panel included Gilles Delfassy from Texas Instruments, Scott Durschlag from Motorola Mobile Devices and Dipchand (Deep) Nishar from Google. Many interesting comments (check out www.getit.org for more info). This site is used to post the pictures from the event primarily.

Artists in Tennessee

Have not posted over the Thanksgiving holidays. Have been busy in Tennessee with the other side of the family. Whilst here, I explored a little and found a wonderful Art Centre run by the Tennessee Tech University (check out http://www.tntech.edu/craftcenter/index.html)

Here I met very interesting artists who were either students at the Centre or resident at the centre. I had a chance to chat with three interesting artists.

One was Stephen Spicer, has been specialising in custom made fine jewelry (you can call him at 931-319-1091 if you are interested in custom making your jewelry). It did not occur to me at that moment to take his picture too for my blog. He had a great "sun" stone set in a beautiful design and I was truly taken with it. It looked almost like a ruby but not quite. Another one also making jewelry but also fiber garments is Anastasia Azure. She is very interesting to talk to and is a native of California. She sells her jewelry and garments at www.forgedfiber.net and www.anastasiajewelry.com. Both Stephen and Anastasia are very creative and good with their hands.

Another interesting artist I met is Charlie Patricolo, who is a doll maker. I did remember to take her picture but forgot to take her contact details. Maybe Anastasia being the resident there could help you connect with her. She had very fun and playful fairies and santas. It reminded me of the wonderful Venetian dolls in Italy with a great playful twist.

A personal story shared about Google's early days

On the 25th October 2006, I had occasion to listen to Susan Wojcicki, Vice President of Product Management at Google speak at the "Women in Technology: Path to Success" meeting organised by the Harvard Business School Association of Northern California.

It was very interesting hearing her personal story of how she joined Google and how they first started off in her garage in 1998 (she has recently sold her garage to Google). She was working at Intel during that time and happened to know the CEO of Google through another friend. When she asked Google founders who their target market was, they would say "the world". They intended to be THE search engine of the world. She joked about how it was hard to believe that when at the same breath, the founders would ask her if they could use her washer and dryer at her home too!

Later when she was expecting her first child, she decided to leave Intel and explored working with Google. Even though she was known to the founders, she was made to go through several rounds of interviewing before they decided that she was right for the team. She joined Google as their first marketing professional. She was responsible for a wide range of activities, including the establishment of the corporate identity, some of the first holiday logos, marketing activities and collateral. She product managed the licensing of web search, site search and responsible for the initial development of Google Image Search. She had another 2 children working at Google and joked how when someone complained to the CEO that she was pregnant again- he looked at them puzzled and said but "Susan is always pregnant".

When joining Google, the founders were keen on having her help start up day care and other such facilities for the staff, which she has done amongst other things.

It was a great evening listening to leading women in the Valley share their personal stories. It was also interesting to see how these companies were forward thinking enough to attract such talented women, who were clear about having balance in their lives. The other women speakers included Janice Chaffin, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Symantec, Ms Kristin McDonnell, Chief Executive Officer of LimeLife, and Amy Shuen, Industry Thought Leader and Former Professor of Haas, Wharton and CEIBS.

(PS check out also www.getit.org on a story of Google's predictions about free cellphone with mobile advertising)

Fireside chat with Prof Anna Lee Saxenian and Argonauts in the Valley

It was a delight indeed spending the evening with Prof AnnaLee Saxenian, author of "The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy" and Prof at Berkeley. She was joined in a panel discussion by Arganouts, Dr. Robert P. Lee, President & CEO of Accela Inc., AAMA Chairman & Board of Trustees; Mr. Jack Jia, Founder and CEO of Baynote Inc., President of HYSTA; Mr. Vish Mishra, Founder of TiE and Senior Venture Partner of Clearstone Ventures and Mr Pravin Bhagwat, Chief Technology Officer of Airtight Networks.

"The Argonaut's Journey" Conference and Business Networking Event, organizedby NUSEA (National University of Singapore Entrepreneurs' Association), with support of SABA, TIE, East West Bank and IDA, was held at TIE centre in San Jose. The turnout was excellent and it was great to meet so many interesting people. According to Prof Saxenian's definition, Argonauts are successful immigrant entrepreneurs who return to fuel thegrowth of entrepreneurship in their home countries by influencing government policies, starting businesses, funding new businesses and mentoring other start-ups.

Some very interesting ideas were shared as well as personal experiences of the panelists. What I found interesting was the concept that argonauts usually left their own countries either in search of better opportunities elsewhere or because there was not enough opportunities in their own countries. After all "necessity is the mother of invention" as it is said. There is a theory that innovation comes out of scarcity and I think there is much validity to it. That to me is one of Singapore's challenges with the generation that has grown up with abundance. Complacency does tends to set in if things are comfortable ( I think my growing up as a minority in Singapore and of immigrant parents shaped my entrepreneurial self as I never took things for granted.)

Anyway, Mr Mishra mentioned that he came to the US 40 years ago when opportunities were not as available back in India, and perhaps today he may not have been as pushed to come over as he was 40 years ago. The new business opportunities motivates him to connect back to the "homeland" and he did advise people to keep business fundamentals in anything they do. Don't ever start a business just to be patriotic- it does not work. It is still important to keep in mind what is your competitive edge, etc. Mr Jia also mentioned that when the "homeland" is just developing it could be harder to do business for a variety of reasons (bureacucracy etc) but it is also more forgiving of you having lesser skillsets. Those who went back much earlier with less skills are doing well. Those going back at the height of the boom, will find that higher skillsets and experiences will be needed to survive. Mr Bhagwat also warned people not to try things by themselves. Having been away from the "homeland", you are often not as in tune with the local environment, so it is important to partner with locals for success.

Personal stories shared by the panelist showed that their going back to the "homeland" has less to do with patriotism and more to do with a comfort level (dealing with a known environment), personal reasons (coming back for family reasons and then looking for ways to use their connections abroad to do business at home), or looking for new opportunities as their own countries begin to grow. Many of the panelists did not go about trying to be argonauts but it just happened (as was in my case- I am a Singaporean in the Bay Area who has been running a business in the US and Singapore for the last 8 years and my reasons were a combination of these). They also shared that having supportive governments that do not try to regulate, but rather promote and get rid of restrictions that also helps argonauts. Mr Mishra and Mr Jia mentioned how today many city and state governments even within countries are competiting to be more entrepreneur friendly as possible. These are all good developments.

Prof Saxenian and Mr Mishra shared that whilst immigrants have always been going back and forth, cheaper transportation, telecommunications, etc may have created a new Argonaut revolution. Today, realtime communications and the argonaut phenomena has transformed the Bay Area. As Taiwan succeeds in manufacturing, there is less manufacturing done here in the Valley. As India succeeds in remote software engineering, there is less of that done here in the Valley. Rather than being threatened, it complements developments here in the US and enables the Valley to move up the value chain. Meanwhile, as Mr Mishra pointed out, the Sultan of Brunei who used to be the richest man 15 years back, is now surplanted by Bill Gates who basically created wealth out of a concept as opposed to natural resources such as oil. This new wealth opportunities is also transforming the traditional forms of wealth creation and so creating new opportunities for everyone.

Prof Saxenian briefly touched upon how many countries have tried to recreate Silicon Valley. She mentioned how the Singapore delegation had come to ask questions here in the Valley on how to create entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship cannot be created. The Valley has a unique infrastructure whereby the specialisation of big business, enable smaller businesses to thrive and develop. Argonauts too have added the ability to to add to this entrepreneurial opportunities as they go back to their "homelands" to take advantage of building bridges between the "homeland" and the Valley. Singapore is good at infrastructure, rule of law etc said Mr Bhagwat. He felt that they had an opportunity to be a hub for innovators and entrepreneurs to congregate and create there. Mr Jia mentioned how Singaporean entrepreneurs were the first in China building first class hotels even before anyone else were doing so and so there are many opportunities for Singapore entrepreneurs or even argonauts (if you also count Singaporeans as a nation of immigrants going back to their "homelands" to do business).

Carpe Diem at a good business opportunity is ultimately what it is all about. At another Harvard Business meeting I attended in the Bay Area, it was also discussed (aside from driven by opportunity or lack thereof, business plan, etc) there are also certain personality characteristics of entrepreneurs. Not sure it works, but one of the speakers did suggest checking out http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/ to learn more about yourself. If you are not the "entrepreneurial type" then don't torture yourself trying to be one just because it is the new fad or just because you are motivated to be the next Bill Gates. Mr Mishra wisely pointed out that it is the combination of business opportunity, perseverance and passion that is needed to succeed.

Telecom India 2006

First time ever an international exhibition and conference being organised by Department of Telecommunications (DOT), Govt. of India in association with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Telecom Equipment Manufacturers' Association (TEMA) scheduled from December 14 - 16, 2006 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi which will focus on technology development & advancement in the Telecom sector including the equipment suppliers, component manufacturers, hardware & software solution providers. The possibilities for collaboration in the networking system shall also be explored where the local networking service providers can join hands with the global players in this field. Special emphasis will be given to the highly advanced telecommunication systems in defence sector (see www.getit.org for links to the official site where this info was taken from).

When I was in Tunisia at WSIS, what really fascinated me was not the booths from Intel or Microsoft displaying technologies they felt were useful to developing countries, but rather booths tucked away in corners that had small attempts by developing country companies to display technologies they had developed. Here are some photos of Indian companies. I had previously posted one regarding Wi-Fi Mesh technologies from South Africa.

Check out Tejas Networks from India photos with this post (equipment to light dark fiber) . They will also be exhibiting at World telecom in HK. Another company I met there was into DECT phones for "broadband access" and yet another village kiosks.

New Directors at ITU

The ITU Plenipotentiary in Turkey today voted in their new Directors to head the ITU-T (Telecommunications Standardisation), ITU-D (Telecommunications Development) and ITU-R (Radiocommunications).


Director of the BR elect
Mr Valery TIMOFEEVRussian Federation


Director of the TSB elect
Mr Malcolm JOHNSONUnited Kingdom

Director of the BDT elect
Mr Sami Al-BasheerSaudi Arabia

New ITU Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General

Mr Hamadoun Toure, from Mali, former Director of the Bureau for Telecommunication Development, was elected Secretary General of the International Telecommunications Union. Mr Houlin Zhao, from China, former Director of the Telecommunications Standardisation Bureau, was elected Deputy Secretary General of the ITU. The elections were held in Turkey, during the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference.

Mr Toure has been very actively involved in Development, and I had the opportunity of knowing him since early 90s (INTELSAT, ICO and ITU) and have always been impressed with his dynamism and integrity. Meanwhile, I had occasion to also know Mr Zhao since 1999 and have been very impressed with his dynamism and team spirit as well. I think he and Mr Toure, having worked together for the last 8 years and accomplished much in their own spheres of influence, will lead ITU forward with new dynamism and with a renewed sense of team work.

ITU World Telecom 2006, 4-8 Dec, Hong Kong

Just thought I would mention the upcoming ITU World Telecom conference and exhibition, which will be happening in Hong Kong from the 4-8th December. Check out www.itu.int under World Telecom. Will post more details on this conference on www.getit.org as well and some photos from the regional equivalent of the conference. It is the place to be for telecom players, especially in the business and regulatory arena.

33rd meeting of APEC Telecom working group, Calgary, Canada

I had written a blog several months back at www.getit.org on the 33rd meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Telecom Working Group meeting held in Calgary, Canada. See that site for inputs about the meeting. Since then, the group met again in New Zealand for the 34th meeting but unfortunately, I could not attend.

I share some pictures of the 33rd meeting. Hope you like it. One of the key features in these pictures for me, is that you will observe how most of the government delegates have laptops and are very comfortable using it. Back in the late 80s and early 90s, most government delegates would not have used technology and even their emails were screened and received by their secretaries. It is key that they are users themselves, as they get increasingly involved in formulating policies for ICT.

(Believe it or not, I had my first laptop back in 1989- a very heavy Toshiba using word perfect with DOS commands. My first email account also in 1989-an MCI mail account).

Women and ICT

I had occasion to evaluate IDRC (International Development Research Centre) of Canada's projects in Asia. IDRC has been a great pioneer in Asia, starting up Internet Service Providers and telecentres. As part of the project, I was able to travel to telecentres in Indonesia and India. What really impressed me was to see the various women involved in these projects.

In India, I visited 5 village centres, and many were run by women with only elementary school education. These were women who had never dealt with computers before, but decided to take on the task of running these telecentres, because they were motivated to teach these new skills to their children. Some of these women even learnt how to repair computers, how to give school children lessons in how to use the Internet, whilst others started small businesses (running accounting services using these computers for other women NGOs). All very exciting efforts and very grassroots. It was even more exciting to run into some of these women at WSIS Tunis and to meet many other interesting ones.

Kudos to IDRC and the NGOs they support (e.g. the MSSRF in India, Universitas Terbuka in Indonesia etc). Here are some interesting pictures to share during my visits.

Great African wireless technologies

This is a cross posting from www.getit.org on Africa telecom liberalisation. I have not figured how to put pictures up on that site yet, so I use this site to cross post my pictures. So here goes, these are pictures I took during the WSIS Tunis in 2005. Uninet is a South African company that has developed the coolest Wi-Fi Mesh technology that has already been successfully deployed in many regions in South Africa. Many other African countries are showing greater interest in this technology and some claim it is a better and cheaper alternative to Wi-Max. Here are pictures to share.

Upcoming session on Peering in Bali, Spring 2007

Catching up with Bill Norton of Equinix after 4 years, was good. The last we saw each other was at the Asia Telecom'02 in Hong Kong (see picture). I plan to interview him later for www.getit.org on his views of the hot issues but for now am posting a quick update on him. He has written several interesting whitepapers, including A Business Case for ISP peering http://www.equinix.com/pdf/whitepapers/Business_case.pdf and is now is working on IP video and its impact on backbone providers. Very interesting and good work indeed. He initiated many peering meetings here in the Valley as well as during APRICOT (Asia Pacific Rim Conference on Operational Technology) in Asia. The next APRICOT will be in Bali, Indonesia in Spring next year, and he will be doing another peering roundtable session there. For those of you in the peering community, his meetings are great networking and a place to get things done.

13th ITU Subregional Meeting, Myanmar, October 2006

I was invited to present a paper on Advanced Boradband Wireless Technologies at the 13th ITU subregional meeting for Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar. The attendees were mainly Heads of regulatory bodies and Vice Ministers of the Communications Ministry. The meeting was held over 3 days, where good frank discussions were conducted and many new initiatives were started. This was the first meeting that has a Business Forum held the day before. Overall it was a good experience and I have recorded some notes on this at www.getit.org.

TIE fireside meeting with Sanjiv Ahuja, CEO of Orange

Despite it being Halloween and my birthday, I still went to attend the TIE fireside chat with Sanjiv Ahuja, CEO of Orange. I am so glad I did. It was an enlightening talk indeed. For more details on my insights on this meeting, check out www.getit.org. I am posting my pictures here as it is easier to do it here than on wordpress.

Best,
Laina