The Jeff Pulver Blog: March 2008 Archives

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March 31, 2008

Internet TV may pose threat to Cable Companies by 2012

The Cable Version of “Wireless Conversion” is going to happen.

For the past eight years, billions of dollars of fixed-line revenue has been lost by phone companies around the world as their customers have given up using fixed telephone lines in favor of purchasing their primary phone service from wireless carriers. This trend is known as “Wireless Conversion” and this is revenue that will most likely never be replaced by the phone companies.

In the near future, I expect cable companies to start to suffer a similar parallel fate as the wireline phone companies. This eventually will mean billions of dollars of revenue loss without any notion of being able to replace the lost revenue. And I expect we will start to see this trend happen first in the 16-24 year old demographic.

How does this happen? It happens because there is a portion of the existing 16-24 generation which does not watch traditional broadcast TV and they are not watching Cable TV. What they are watching is TV content repurposed and available on the internet.

And when these kids leave home and go off to college, they are not signing up for cable TV service in their dorm rooms. Instead they are continuing to watch their favorite TV shows thanks to BitTorrent or are going online to the network websites to catch up with a missed show or in some cases they are also going to iTunes and purchasing the shows to watch on their video iPods and computers. This trend was one of the inspirations behind the recent alpha launch of PrimeTimeRewind.TV

So it shouldn’t be hard for many of us to fast forward to the time where there are plenty of consumer electronic devices which seamlessly take Internet TV content and deliver the content to the televisions in our living rooms. I believe the updated version of Apple TV is getting us to this and there are quite a number of other devices that I have recently seen that also do get us there. MythTV continues to be interesting too. While this model does assume basic broadband connectivity in the home, it does not assume basic cable service. And in the near future when more content owners like MLB.TV decide to go direct to the consumer and bypass traditional distribution channels, what we end up with is what Shelly Palmer and others would consider ”Television Disrupted.”

I also believe that in the next 4 years (maybe sooner), most of the major movie studios will start to look to offer viewing access to their first-run movies directly on the internet. This is already happening with Indie Films and it is just a matter of time for this to transcend to the major studio releases.

Add in the millions of “unisodes” already available for viewing on the internet and combine this with the long-tail Internet TV shows that are available for viewing, more people will start to take notice. And when the major TV studios implement their own Internet TV strategies and decide to also go direct to consumer and bypass many of the costs associated with traditional content distribution, things like basic cable service become a commodity that an entire generation of people may decide they just don’t need.

At the current rate of innovation and change, I except more and more people will start to watch Internet TV in their living rooms. This in turn will start to pose a real threat to Cable Companies by 2012

The Cable Version of “Wireless Conversion” is going to happen. We just need a name for it.

Tags: Internet TV, Apple TV, MLB.TV, Cable TV, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

March 30, 2008

Discovering the music of my kids: Panic at the Disco and The Raconteurs

This weekend my sons Dylan and Jake turned me onto the latest releases from both Panic at the Disco (Pretty. Odd.) and The Raconteurs (Consolers Of The Lonely). Seems my kids and I share the same passion for music.

Surprise yourself and go over to iTunes and download these CDs.

The new music from Panic at the Disco is nothing like their past music and is in fact a tribute to a number of the artists from the 60s. The Raconteurs is the side project of the White Stripes' Jack White. And while my kids were sharing their passion for their new music, they also spent time listening to the latest from one of my favorite artists, The Counting Crows.

These CDs were the soundtrack of my weekend. :)

Tags: Panic at the Disco, The Raconteurs, Counting Crows, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A Look at: Social Media Breakfast Singapore

At 9AM on March 29, 2008 the first social media breakfast was held in Singapore (complete with real-time social tagging). The breakfast attracted quite a number of Singapore based bloggers as well as people who were interested in connecting with others who had a shared passion / interest in social media.

It was great to see how the concept of real-tagging was used by the 40+ people who attended the breakfast. Watching Michael Cheng's video there seems to have been a number of meta social media moments captured at this breakfast. From what I can tell, a great time was had by everyone who attended Social Media Breakfast Singapore.

I hope to have the organizers of this breakfast as guests on a future edition of the "Jeff Pulver Show."

March 29, 2008

Photos from: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in NYC - Part II

More photos taken by Geo Geller and me during the March 28th 2008 breakfast that I hosted in NYC.

Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Tel Aviv, Chicago, Washington, San Jose, social media, facebook, David Kirkpatrick, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Photos from: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in NYC - Part I

On Wednesday, March 28th I hosted a breakfast in New York City that took place at the Reuters office on the 30th floor overlooking Times Square.

Special thanks to Reuters for being the sponsor of the breakfast and to everyone who joined us at the event.

My next NYC Breakfast will be taking place on April 29th. Friends are invited to RSVP for this breakfast.

The following photos were shot by both Geo Geller and me using a Nikon D80 with a 28-200mm lense and a Nikon D300 with a 50mm lense.

My friend David Kirkpatrick recently wrote about my breakfasts in Fortune.

Friends are invited to join me at one or more of my future breakfasts.

Updated "Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and Friends)" Tour Dates (as of March 29, 2008):

April 1st – Boston
April 3rd – Atlanta
April 9th – Tel Aviv
April 18th – Miami
May 1st – Washington DC
May 6th - Toronto
May 7th – Chicago
June 2nd – Amsterdam
June 5th – London
June 11th - Seattle
June 12th - Vancouver

(More dates will be added in the near future)

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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Tel Aviv, Chicago, Washington, San Jose, social media, facebook, David Kirkpatrick, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 28, 2008

Jeff Pulver and Bryan Person invite YOU to join us for Breakfast in Boston on April 1st

The April 1st Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and Friends) will be held together with Boston's "Social Media Breakfast 6" from 8-10AM the S&S Restaurant in Cambridge, MA.

Bryan and I welcome our friends from the greater Boston area to join us for breakfast and great conversations.

To RSVP, please visit this event on Facebook.

Everyone attending this breakfast will receive a "Personal Social Networking Toolkit" described below:

Looking forward to co-hosting this breakfast in Boston.

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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Boston, Bryan Person, social media, facebook, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Quote of the Day: "The Committed Person..."

"The committed person brings an energy, passion, an excitement that cannot be generated if you are only compliant, even genuinely compliant. The committed person doesn't play by the "rules of the game." He is responsible for the game. If the rules of the game stand in the way of achieving the vision, he will find ways to change the rules. A group of people truly committed to a common vision is an awesome force. They can accomplish the seemingly impossible." - Peter M. Senge

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Special thanks to Geo Geller for sharing this quote.

Tags: Peter M. Senge, Geo Geller, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 06:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today is Friday; I must be in Toronto to host Breakfast

At 8AM today I will be at the Pickle Barrel in Toronto to host "Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Toronto", the only breakfast known for "Real-Time Social Tagging."

I'm looking forward to catching up with my friends from the greater Toronto area (which today includes: Ottawa and Montreal.)

This is the last of three breakfasts I am hosting this week, after hosting breakfasts in both Baltimore and New York City.

For more details, and to RSVP for a future breakfast, please take another look at this blog post.

Tags: breakfast, SoMBAA, Toronto, social media, facebook, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 06:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Look Back at: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Chicago

Special Thanks to TheFemGeek (Tiffiany Tate) for creating and sharing the following video which captured the feeling from my recent breakfast in Chicago.

Friends from the greater Chicago area are invited to join me on May 7th when I will be hosting another breakfast in Chicago.

Breakfast with Jeff Pulver - Chicago 2008

Flash
| QuickTime

Tags: TheFemGeek, Tiffiany Tate, Social Media, breakfast, Chicago, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 06:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 27, 2008

A Quick look at Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Baltimore:

Early Tuesday morning I left my home at a time I'm normally sleeping and I headed to the Hollywood Diner in Baltimore to catch up with some of my friends.

As a person who feels as if he lives inside of a diner from time-to-time, hosting a breakfast inside the diner made famous by Barry Levinson in the movie "Diner" was a special place to be.

Joel Mark Witt was my inspiration for visiting Baltimore. After meeting Joel at a breakfast I hosted in Philly and then after seeing him again as well as others from Baltimore at the breakfast I hosted in Washington, D.C., I felt that I should visit Baltimore and host a breakfast there and I’m glad I did.

It was great to watch everyone tag each other and especially to get tagged by some of the people I met. I look forward to returning to Baltimore to host another breakfast later this year.

Social Media Breakfast Singapore: March 29th 2008

If you will be in Singapore on March 29th, you are invited to attend the first Social Media Breakfast in Singapore that will include a version of my "Personal Social Networking Toolkit."

You can RSVP for this event on Facebook.

Watching the video below I started to smile as I realized that Bryan Person's Social Media Breakfast had found a new home in Singapore and that an idea of mine had been adopted by a group of people I have yet to meet that live approximately 9,525 miles from my home.

If I lived anywhere near Singapore I would have tried to attend just so I could experience the meta social media moments that I'm sure will be happening in Singapore during the event.

I hope Daryl Tay and his friends have a great experience during his breakfast and that they decide to continue hosting such events in the near future.

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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Singapore, social media, facebook, Daryl Tay, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

March 26, 2008

A Qik Look at: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in New York City

Earlier today I hosted a breakfast at Reuters in New York City. The following video clip was originally broadcast live during the breakfast.

Tags: Qik, Social Media, breakfast, New York City, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Watch Amit Shafrir, Matt Feldman and Geo Geller interviewed on pulverTV:

On Monday, March 24th, Amit Shafrir, co-founder and CEO of PrimeTimeRewind.tv, together with Matt Feldman, CEO, Neovids.tv and Geo Geller were my guests on "The Jeff Pulver Show."

I enjoyed interviewing Amit and the conversations that I ended up having with both Matt and Geo during the show.

You can watch the show in its entirety below:

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If you would like to be an in-studio guest on a future next show, please drop me an email or send me a message on Facebook.

Archives of past shows are available at: http://www.blogtv.com/Shows/96.

Friends of the Jeff Pulver Show can join my group on Facebook.

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Tags: Internet TV, facebook, Amit Shafrir, Social Media, Matt Feldman, pulverTV, The Jeff Pulver Show, Neovids.tv, PrimeTimeRewind.tv, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 25, 2008

Next Stop: Baltimore

At 8AM today I will be at the Hollywood Diner in Baltimore, Maryland to host "Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Baltimore", the only breakfast known for "Real-Time Social Tagging."

I'm looking forward to catching up with my friends from the greater Baltimore area (which today includes: Washington, D.C., Philly and Boston.)

This is the first of three breakfasts I am hosting this week. Tomorrow I will be hosting a similar breakfast in NYC and on Friday I will be hosting a breakfast in Toronto.

For more details, and to RSVP for a future breakfast, please take another look at this blog post.

Tags: breakfast, SoMBAA, Baltimore, social media, facebook, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 03:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

March 24, 2008

Announcing FWD's Global Communicator Project:

I meant to kick off Spring 2008 VON.x with the announcement of FWD's Global Communicator Project. But I didn't, as I spent a few minutes honoring the passing of Russell Shaw, who passed away on March 14th. I had hoped to see Russell at Spring 2008 VON.x and talk to him about this project before talking to anyone else about it.

Announcing FWD's Global Communicator Project:

I want to thank the visionary participants of the first official planning meeting of FWD's Global Communications Project.

- Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief, Wired Magazine
- Yves Behar, Founder, Chief Designer, fuseproject
- Daniel Berninger, CEO, FWD
- Tom Evslin, co-founder, CTO, FWD
- Stuart Gannes, founder, Stanford Digital Vision Program
- Mike Masnick, CEO, Techdirt
- Mitch Pergola, Managing Partner, fuseproject
- Tim Pozar, Partner, Late Night Software
- Michael Spencer, co-founder, i2 partners
- Emy Tseng, Director, San Francisco Digital Inclusion Program
- Roland Van Der Meer, Partner, Velocity Interactive Group
- Yossi Vardi, Principal, International Technologies Ventures

fuseproject hosted the meeting in their San Francisco studio toward the creation of a new category of device capable of delivering communication to the billions of people presently unserved by the communication industry.

I have suffered plenty of abuse over the years about the supposedly naive sentiment that led to the founding of Free World Dialup in 1995, so it is gratifying to see the caliber of people excited by continuing the vision. Yves Behar and fuseproject, for example, created the design of the XO Laptop for Nicholas Negroponte's OLPC and routinely gets featured in art exhibits around the world.

FWD's Global Communication Project (GCP) seeks to leverage VoIP and open standards in a device that delivers affordable communication beyond even the very rapid and ongoing price performance improvements achieved by the cellular industry. We have in mind a device costing a fraction of the $25 price point associated with low end SIP phones, and a business model without monthly service charges. The design requirements call for a device that copes with rural realities or urban environments and supports deployment scales from a few dozen to billions of devices.

GCP will need partners for all phases of the project as overcoming the connectivity and distribution challenges go far beyond what a single company can accomplish. We also hope to stimulate others to think more about the fact 70% of world's population represents a greenfield voice market. Please contact Daniel Berninger (dan@danielberninger.com) if you have ideas to contribute to GCP or we can help get visibility for your effort to reach the unserved communication markets.

Tags: Free World Dialup, FWD, Chris Anderson, Yves Behar, Tom Evslin, Stuart Gannes, Mike Masnick, Mitch Pergola, Tim Pozar, Michael Spencer, Emy Tseng, Roland Van Der Meer, Yossi Vardi, Global Communication Project, GCP, Daniel Berninger, VoIP, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jeff Pulver on pulverTV: TODAY (March 24th) at 2PM EST / 1800 GMT / 1900 CET

The next edition of the Jeff Pulver Show, my LIVE (unscripted) Internet TV Talk show on pulverTV will be airing TODAY, Tuesday March 11th at 2PM EST / 1800 GMT / 2000 IST.

During today's show I will be talking about Spring 2008 VON.x that took place last week in San Jose. I will be also available for live Q&A with our audience.

Today's show will be LIVE on pulverTV.

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If you would like to be an in-studio guest on a future next show, please drop me an email or send me a message on Facebook.

Archives of past shows are available at: http://www.blogtv.com/Shows/96

Friends of pulverTV are invited to join the pulverTV group on Facebook.

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Tags: Internet TV, facebook, Social Communications, Social Media, Social Media Living Room, pulverTV, Andrew Lipson, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 23, 2008

Beware of Business Models: They can drain the Creative Energy of ANY Startup

When meeting with an early-stage startup looking for funding, if I am interested in the company, I look to connect with the founders and find out the inspiration behind the company they are creating. I try to understand the problem they are solving and the opportunity they are seeing. I also look to see how as a team they get along, work off each other and I try to get a feel of their creative energies. I look for teams where each member is watching each other’s back and a core team whom I feel will be together for the long term. I look for people who are both smart and creative who can be focused when necessary and whose personality allow themselves to be open to change directions and re-map themselves when needed. I invest in people first and ideas second. I am not a fan of structure but I appreciate the need for it…sometimes.

While startups should have a clue as to the business they are entering and the markets they plan on serving and /or disrupting, I have learned from experience that forcing a business model on a company too early can have the effect of draining their creative energies. In reality some business models only appear years after the business is established (i.e. Google with Adwords) and sometimes the real business models were never obvious in the beginning. Yes, business models matter. However, in many cases where a startup is doing something “non-traditional” I am someone who believes in letting the entrepreneurs explore their ideas and for them to walk the paths they create. It is only by exploring and stumbling and exploring does one sometimes by accident discover the business they are really in or the real opportunity in front of them.

So in practice, when meeting a startup for the first time, if during the first 15 minutes of our meeting more time is spent by them talking about their business model than anything else, my track record is that this is a company I am not going to end up getting involved with.

From my vantage point, if the company I’m meeting with is a software company, the goal is simple. Once the product is developed, get millions of people to download and use their software. If they are successful in getting millions of downloads, there are a number of business models that can be applied. If they fail in getting millions of downloads, very few business models will work. And when meeting with people developing destination sites, the same rules apply. If the startup is able to get to a metric of millions of page views per month, there are a number of business models that can be applied. If the startup is not able to build up and maintain the necessary traffic, very few business models will work.

What I am more interested when meeting with companies isn’t so much what is their business model, but the approach they plan on taking to get to their stated goals. I want to know their social media strategy. I want to understand their approach to “bottom up” marketing. I want to know who on their team is driving the buzz and how they will be empowering their friends to help get them another step closer to their success.

The only time I will lead with “what is your business model” when meeting an early stage company for the first time is in situations where I don’t understand the market space they are going after or have a full appreciation for the opportunity they are seeing. And if they tell me they don’t know their business model yet, that is a fine answer for me. :)

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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: startups, Entrepreneur , Social Media, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

March 22, 2008

"Ask Jeff" - Q&A with Jeff Pulver on Mediacasters.tv with Startups participating in Startup Weekend Boulder II

Earlier today I was a guest on a Mediacast.tv, hosted by Laura Fitton that took place during Startup Weekend Boulder II

I had a chance to catch up with eight startups and I managed to get "Punked" by one of them in the process...

Part I:

No Title- Broadcast your self LIVE

Part II:

part 2 - Broadcast your self LIVE

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Tags: Internet TV, facebook, Social Media, Laura Fitton, pulverTV, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 03:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jeff Pulver LIVE on pulverTV during the "mediacast" of Startup Weekend Boulder II - TODAY at 2PM EDT / 1800 GMT

At 2PM EDT / 1800 GMT I will be a guest of a special "mediacast" of Startup Weekend Boulder II. I will be interviewed by Laura Fitton (@pistachio on twitter.)

You can watch the show by visiting: pulverTV.

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Tags: Internet TV, facebook, Social Media, Laura Fitton, pulverTV, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 21, 2008

A Quick Look at: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in San Francisco:

Yesterday morning I was the guest of the Social Media Club at Sears Fine Food in San Francisco. During breakfast I had a chance to catch up with: Chris Heuer, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cathy Brooks, David Spark, Debby Hindus, Rebecca Reeve, Kristie Wells, Shannon John Clark, David Mandell, Arnon Kohavi as well as a number of others during our breakfast.

It was great to watch everyone tag each other and especially to get tagged by some of the people I met. I look forward to returning to San Francisco to host another breakfast later this year.

The following video clip was originally broadcast live during breakfast:

Video from the "Real-Time Social Communications" Session at Spring 2008 VON.x (filmed by Robert Scoble)

Robert Scoble recorded and broadcast the following two clips live on Qik this past Tuesday while participating in the General Session on "Real-Time Social Communications" at Spring 2008 VON.x. This is a session that I moderated and also included: Brad Hunstable, co-founder of Ustream.tv, Ramu Sunkara, co-founder and CEO of Qik, Jonathan Christensen, the person responsible for voice and video technology at Skype and Loic Le Meur, founder, Seesmic.

I'd like to thank everyone who took part in this general session. Looking back at Spring 2008 VON.x, this session was one of the highlights of the week for me.

Robert Scoble, Brad Hunstable,
Ramu Sunkara, Jonathan Christensen, Loic Le Meur

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Tags: VONX08, Robert Scoble, Jonathan Christensen, Loic Le Meur, Brad Hunstable, Ustream.TV, Ramu Sunkara, Qik, Ustream.tv, Seesmic, VoIP, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 20, 2008

The PrimeTimeRewind.TV Widget:

Discover, Watch and Share Prime Time Network TV Shows:

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Tags: Internet TV, Amit Shafrir, PrimeTimeReWind, ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, TNT, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More Images from Spring 2008 VON.x - Day 2 - March 19th 2008:

Tags: vonx,Phil Hellmuth, Steve Pulver, Fred Seibert, Phil Zimmerman, Luca Filigheddu, von, voip, vonx08, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Images from Spring 2008 VON.x - Day 2 - March 19th 2008:

Tags: vonx,Paul Kapuska, Steve Pulver, Fred Seibert, Phil Zimmerman, Luca Filigheddu, von, voip, vonx08, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 19, 2008

Backstage at Spring 2008 VON.x

Tags: vonx, von, voip, vonx08, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 03:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

More Images from Spring 2008 VON.x - Day 1 - March 18th 2008:

Tags: vonx, von, voip, vonx08, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 02:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Images from Spring 2008 VON.x - Day 1 - March 18th 2008:

Tags: vonx, von, voip, vonx08, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 18, 2008

Introducing PrimeTimeRewind.tv: Discover, Watch and Share Prime Time Network TV Shows

Today I am launching a new company from the pulver.com Incubator, PrimeTimeRewind.TV. Amit Shafrir and I co-founded this company in 2007.

PrimeTimeRewind.TV provides one click access for consumers to watch the latest episode of their favorite Prime Time TV Shows (assuming the underlying TV Network has made the show available for free online viewing.)

The 2007/2008 television season is the first one in which each of the major US based TV and Cable networks embraced the Internet since the start of the TV season by offering complete episodes of most of their prime-time programs for free to people located in the USA. While this is an exciting development for USA based consumers (access to the online TV content is restricted by geography by each of the respective TV Networks), the discovery and viewing experience on each individual site continues to be rather challenging. Until today, there has not been any single platform available for watching all of the otherwise available Prime Time TV programs; each network requires visiting and hunting through a very different site and different user experience.

By provide one site the where people know they can go to and find any available prime time television show, PrimeTimeRewind.TV is removing the barriers and helping to improve the online TV viewing experience. Now, if you’ve missed the latest episode of your favorite prime time program, you can go to primetimerewind.tv and quickly and easily watch it at your convenience.

Central to the site is “The Cube,” a rich internet application that provides a multi-sided, three-dimensional view of all prime time television content that is available online. “The Cube” empowers viewers to sort programs by network (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, TNT and USA, with more networks to be added), and genre (action, comedy, reality, drama) to easily watch the latest episodes of their favorite programs. Users can customize “The Cube” with their favorite programs, as well as videos from YouTube and other video-centric social media sites.

Prime Time Rewind is not “stealing traffic” and viewers from the networks’ sites but rather acts as an affiliate and drives viewers their way. The Prime Time Rewind site is not a file-sharing system, nor does it contain its own video player. Instead, viewers click through “The Cube” to open a control-panel interface that brings consumers to the individual networks site, and presents the content in each network’s individual video player and presentation format, including advertisements. Viewers get the same experience as they would by simply clicking through to the sites for ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, TNT and USA, without having to hunt for the favorite episodes of their show. Ultimately, the networks receive additional traffic for their programs, while viewers have a single destination and platform from which to watch all of their favorite shows, regardless of the network or genre.

While the traditional television set serves as a common platform to easily find programs and switch between TV networks, the viewing experience on the Internet is quite different. There is no easy means to “change channels” on the Internet, other than moving from Web site to Web site; similarly, each network’s Web site organizes content in a unique, and often, confusing way.

Prime Time Rewind simplifies watching network television programming online, while adding key social media capabilities. With Prime Time Rewind, all of your favorite prime time television programs are never more than just one click away.

Please give PrimeTimeReWind.TV a try and let me know what you think.

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Tags: Internet TV, Amit Shafrir, PrimeTimeReWind, ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, TNT, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)

The Millenials Are Coming Time to Get Ready - My talk at Spring 2008 VON.x

“The Millenials Are Coming Time to Get Ready” is the topic of my speech today at Spring 2008 VON.x. I’ve been thinking about this topic for the past number of months, I have done some research and I look forward to sharing my perspective on the coming communications revolution.

In the afternoon I am hosting a general session on “Real-Time Social Communications.” Joining the discussion will be: Robert Scoble, Loic Le Meur, founder, Seesmic, Ramu Sunkara, co-founder and CEO of Qik, Brad Hunstable, co-founder of Ustream.tv and Jonathan Christensen, currently responsible for voice and video technology at Skype.

During the day when I'm not in these sessions I will be: in meetings; listening to friends speaking in other sessions; walking our show floor and catching up with friends attending VON Camp.

Since 1997 VON has been the home of Internet Communications Revolution. Over the years VON has been the place where the future was explored, ideas were shared and where a multi-billion dollar industry was born. Spring 2008 VON.x continues this tradition and IS a great place to socialize ideas, conduct business, meet with customers and explore the future of communications.

If you have a vested interest in the future of communications I hope to see you TODAY at Spring 2008 VON.x.

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Tags: VONX08, Robert Scoble, Jonathan Christensen, Loic Le Meur, Brad Hunstable, Ramu Sunkara, Qik, Ustream.tv, Seesmic, VoIP, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A Qik Look at: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in San Jose

Yesterday at Spring 2008 VON.x, I hosted a breakfast at the San Jose Convention Center. The following video clip was originally broadcast live during the breakfast.

Tags: Qik, Social Media, breakfast, San Jose, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 17, 2008

Welcome to Spring 2008 VON.x!

Spring 2008 VON.x will be starting in a few hours.

In a little while I will be heading over to room J3 at the San Jose Convention Center to host "Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends)" in San Jose.

If you are blogging from Spring 2008 VON.X, please use the tag: VONX08.

I am looking forward to catching up with everyone who will be in San Jose this week for Spring 2008 VON.x and VON Camp.

Welcome to Spring 2008 VON.x!

Tags: twitter, von, voip, public policy, vonx08, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 16, 2008

Announcing FWD's Global Communicator Project:

I want to thank the visionary participants of the first official planning meeting of FWD's Global Communications Project.

Posted by jeff at 01:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 15, 2008

I am looking forward to Spring 2008 VON.x in San Jose

Later today I will be leaving New York and heading to San Jose to catch with my friends attending Spring 2008 VON.x and VON Camp.

In 2008 the communication revolution continues. In my book, “Personal Communications” (both Mobile and Broadband) is one of the breakout technologies of 2008. I’m looking forward to my talk at the Spring 2008 VON.x Conference on Tuesday. My talk will look at the future of communications and will be looking at the answer to the question “How do YOU communicate?”

On Tuesday afternoon I will be hosting a general session on “Real-Time Social Communications” I am real excited about. Joining me in the general session will be: Robert Scoble, Loic Le Meur, founder, Seesmic, Ramu Sunkara, co-founder and CEO of Qik, Brad Hunstable, co-founder of Ustream.tv and Jonathan Christensen, currently responsible for voice and video technology at Skype.

Since 1997 VON has been the home of Internet Communications Revolution. Over the years VON has been the place where the future was explored, ideas were shared and where a multi-billion dollar industry was born. Spring 2008 VON.x continues this tradition and will be a to be a great place to socialize ideas, conduct business, meet with customers and explore the future of communications.

If you have a vested interest in the future of communications I hope to see you at Spring 2008 VON.x.

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Tags: VON, Robert Scoble, Jonathan Christensen, Loic Le Meur, Brad Hunstable, Ramu Sunkara, Qik, Ustream.tv, Seesmic, VoIP, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Breakfast at Jeff’s: A Mashup of Face-to-Face Networking and Social Media Concepts

Since the start of 2008 I have hosted a number of breakfasts across the United States and most recently in Israel. I am looking forward to hosting my next breakfast in San Jose on Monday at Spring 2008 VON.x.

Rather than host ”just another business networking breakfast”, where it had been my own personal experience to be a place for people to gather, look for “that person or persons” to speak with, then pretend to listen to the special guest speaker and eventually leave while asking “why did I go there?" I have been applying concepts from the online world of social media, and introducing them into the world of face-to-face meetings. To date most of the people who have attended one of my breakfasts are friends of mine on Facebook and/or twitter or are friends of friends who are.

Each breakfast continues to be both a learning experience and an experiment for me. After each breakfast I look back and think about what could be done to make the experience better and what other social media concepts I might want to consider introducing. I have been using Facebook as the platform to manage the RSVP lists for these breakfasts. One advantage of using Facebook is that during the breakfasts, business cards don’t have to be exchanged since all that someone has to do is visit the event on Facebook and “friend” the people they met and wanted to continue their conversations with.

After applying what I learned hosting breakfasts in January and February, I came up with the idea which has become my new trademark, the “Personal Social Media Networking Toolkit.”

When a guest arrives at breakfast they are asked to write down their name together with their “Personal Tag Line.” It seems the hardest part of the morning for my guests is for them to figure out their personal tag line. A personal tag line is a great conversation starter. Guests are asked to think about their personal tag lines in advance and to bring their own name badges to the breakfast. Personal tag lines I have used at past breakfasts include: "I take having fun seriously" and "I travel for Breakfast." Once the name badge is taken care of, the guests are shown the stickers to be used for “real-time social tagging”, what to do with their “personal tag cloud” and the mini post-it notes to be used to write on each of our guests personal walls.

Back in 1996 I first wrote “the more virtual we become, the more we need to have face-to-face meetings” and I feel even stronger about this in 2008. I believe there is something real special going on at these breakfasts, things which I still don’t fully see but I hope to fully understand during the course of this year.

And while most of the people who have attended these breakfasts are people who are using one or more social media platforms and/or may be a professionally involved in the social media industry, I believe the concepts shared at my breakfasts can be applied to “real-life” events where no one attending is familiar with Social Media concepts but who are people who would benefit from a better face-to-face networking experience. I am thinking about writing a book about this. (Book Editors / Publishers – please feel free send a message to: jeffp@pulver.com and let me know if you are interested in discussing this with me. )

My friend David Kirkpatrick attended my recent breakfast in NYC and wrote about it in Fortune.

For now, my plan is to continue planning and hosting additional breakfasts during the year and continue to innovate and introduce new concepts at my breakfasts as time goes on.

Friends here on Facebook are invited to join me at one or more of my future breakfasts.

Updated "Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and Friends)" Tour Dates (as of March 15, 2008):

March 17th – San Jose
March 20th – San Francisco
March 25h – Baltimore
March 26th – NYC
March 28th – Toronto
April 1st – Boston
April 3rd – Atlanta
April 9th – Tel Aviv
April 18th – Miami
May 1st – Washington DC
May 7th – Chicago
June 2nd – Amsterdam
June 5th – London
June 11th - Seattle
(More dates will be added in the near future)

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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Tel Aviv, Chicago, Washington, San Jose, social media, facebook, David Kirkpatrick, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (30)

March 14, 2008

Facebook has become my Portal for Business Communication

During 2008 Facebook has become my portal for business communication.

I didn’t set out to make Facebook my portal for business communication, but it is something that has just happened. And no, not everyone I deal with on an everyday basis is on Facebook, but enough people are that it just works for me.

Would I prefer to be using a platform whose messaging system had a great search engine, supported attachments and offered the ability to forward messages? Yes. Does Facebook offer this to me at the moment? No. But somehow, someway, something has happened during the past number of months and I have found myself interconnected with people on Facebook. When/if Facebook improves its messaging capabilities Facebook will be in a position to compete directly with Gmail. It is the social network of my friends and business associates that brought me to Facebook and that is keeping me there. A service provider who just provides email hosting does not necessarily have all of the right ingredients to replicate and enhance the experience.

During the course of each business day I find myself responding more and more to messages from people who are also using Facebook as their platform for business. It is hard for me to argue against using Facebook for business since I have managed to build a list of friends who do not spam me.

In the weeks leading up to my recent trip to Israel, I found myself confirming my meetings almost exclusively on Facebook. Looking back at my trip last week, I had a total of 44 meetings and 39 of them were scheduled and confirmed using Facebook.

While I have no intention of ever giving up my jeff@pulver.com email address, in the days of receiving too much asynchronous communication, Facebook has become my default platform of choice to use for business communication.

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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: facebook, email, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 13, 2008

URLs in Facebook Status Updates are Now Clickable

For months I have been wondering why Facebook did not support URLs to be clickable from inside of Status updates. I just noticed Facebook has enabled this new feature. By doing so, it now makes all of the twitter updates from my friends on Facebook much more readable and actionable.

Nice move Facebook! :)

Tags: facebook, status , twitter, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For Jeff Pulver, Today is “Catch Up Thursday”

Today is a day that I have dedicated to catching up with the things around me that I have fallen a little bit behind in. Every once in awhile everyone needs a day where they can catch up on the work and/or other things that matter to them. Today is that day for me.

With my current travel schedule and with Spring 2008 VON.x happening next week, I realized that if I didn’t make an effort and dedicate a day to catching up, I would be living the words of Paul Simon in his song “Slip Sliding Away.”

I highly recommend “Catch Up” days. They are great days to do the things you NEED to get done. They are great days to do things for yourself. And there are times when I use a “Catch Up Day” to do as the great poet Billy Joel once said: “Forget about life for awhile.” This all comes down to your perspective on life, and how you approach things.(If you find yourself so busy that you don’t have the time to make time for yourself, it might be time to reboot yourself.)

The rules that you follow for your Catch Up Day is up to YOU. And you can change these rules at any time. But the point of this exercise is to make an effort to put some time aside just for yourself and for you to use that time to do the things you want to do, without letting the daily distractions of your own life get in the way.

Time is precious. Time waits for no one. This is something it seems we know but sometimes ignore until it is too late. Carve out the time for yourself and just “do life.”

So whenever YOU recognize that you are falling behind in getting the things done that matter to YOU, make an effort to correct that. Stop. Think. Listen to yourself. Pick a day. Any day. And make that day your “Catch up day.”

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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: Catch Up Day, VON, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 06:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 12, 2008

Event: Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and Friends) in San Jose at Spring 2008 VON.x

On Monday, March 17th, I am hosting a breakfast (complete with real-time social tagging) in San Jose.

This breakfast is part of a series of Breakfasts I am hosting around the world in 2008.

For more details, and RSVP, please visit the event on Facebook

Tags: breakfast, SoMBAA, San Jose, social media, facebook, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Video on the Net: NYC - May 13th-14th 2008 (UPDATE 3)

Video on the Net is now taking place May 13-14 at 55 Broad Street in New York City.

The focus of Video on the Net is to look at the effects of the Internet on the future of TV, Film & Broadcasting. From my perspective, on the Internet, "Video is just an Application." Video on the Net is a Media Industry focused event. My goal is to provide a platform for great dialog / discussion for the attending delegates and speakers and bloggers attending this event.

Some of the sessions I am currently working on include:

- Roundtable discussion with Execs of TV Networks about their Digital Media strategies
- Mashups of Social Media + Internet Video. What's next?
- The Impact of Internet Video on the 2008 US Presidential Elections
- Future of Internet Video Advertising: A Look at Companies Changing the Landscape
- Personal Broadband broadcasting: Building NextGen TV Stations and Networks
- How does IP Distribution Change the Professional TV Production Landscape
- Personal Mobile Broadcasting: Millions will be sharing; who will be watching?
- Internet TV: Approaches to Public Policy
- The State of Indie Internet TV
- The Future of Video Search
- A look at how Not-For-Profits are using Internet Video
- Delivering High Quality Mobile Video
- Content Syndication

(These sessions are in a state of flux. Some will make it to the final program and others will be replaced by other sessions. I am still confirming speaking for this event.)

Also, instead of having a session on “Internet Video Startups to Watch”, I will be inviting Internet Video Startups that I find interesting to be part of a Technology showcase / Cocktail Reception that will be held together with NY Video 2.0. Companies interested in being considered to be one of our “Internet Video Startups to Watch” should directly contact me ASAP (send email to: jeffp@pulver.com).

Seating at this event will be extremely limited. At the moment there are less than 100 seats left to fill. If you would like to participate in this Internet Video revolution, you should consider registering TODAY. Once these seats are filled, the event will be SOLD OUT.

Looking forward to seeing YOU at Video on the Net.

If you use twitter, please follow VideoOntheNet. Video on the Net is one of the first “twitter aware” conferences.

Tags: Internet TV, twitter, Video on the Net, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recap of the 2008 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony:

Friends of mine may know my passion for music.

During the past few years I've been a supporter of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and have been fortunate to have a seat at the annual induction ceremonies at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies held at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York City. ( 2007, 2005, 2004 pictures ).

On Monday night I attended the 2008 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. This event continues to offer a totally surrealistic experience...mostly because none of my relatives or close friends were inducted and I'm not a music industry insider.

Yes, it was great to see: Madonna, John Mellencamp, Leonard Cohen, The Ventures, The Dave Clark Five, Little Walter and songwriters Gamble and Huff get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And this was a moment that was great to see shared by their close friends and family and the music industry executives who contributed to their respective careers.

The Rock Hall Induction Ceremony is one of the annual events I look forward to attending. And like wine, some years are just better than others. I have to agree with what Billy Joel said about this event during his induction speech of John Mellencamp - "It used to be a lot more fun before it became a TV show."

I would have liked to have seen more performances by the people who were being inducted. Yes it was great to see both John Mellencamp and The Ventures perform, but why didn't Madonna or Leonard Cohen also share their music directly with us? Or why not ask Lou Reed to perform Hallelujah?

While the media has written a lot about Justin Timberlakes's induction speech of Madonna, I enjoyed Billy Joel's induction speech of John Mellencamp so much more. And with all due respect to both Leonard Cohen and The Dave Clark Five, the induction speeches of both Lou Reed and Tom Hanks seemed to have rambled on and on.

Guests attending the event were given a bag that contained a commemorative program, a CD with some of the music of the people being inducted and a package of 30 blank CDs. I am still trying to understand what the meta message was from the Rock Hall of giving everyone the package of blank cDs. Do they want us to copy the CD they gave us and give it to 30 of our friends? I found that give way just wrong for a music industry event...even if everyone can benefit from having some extra blank CDs in their home.

Next year the event will be moving from the Waldorf=Astoria in NYC to Cleveland the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It should be another GREAT night for music. I hope to have the opportunity to attend next year's event in Cleveland.

The following are some of the images I was able to capture from sitting at table 52 at the event. These pictures were taking using a Nikon D80 with a 18-200mm lenses. Some of the people in these pictures include: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Chevy Chase, Larua Dern, Iggy Pop, Damien Rice, Madonna, Justin Timberlake, John Mellencamp, Billy Joel, Patti LaBelle, Lou Reed, Leonard Cohen, The Ventures, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff.

Tags: Rock Hall, Billy Joel, Lou Reed, Dave Clark Five, Leonard Cohen, Madonna, John Mellencamp, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 07:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

March 11, 2008

Guest Blogger: Jonathan Kinger - "Help Stop the Censorship of the Internet in Israel"

Last week the Israeli Knesset approved an Internet Censorship act proposed by MK *Amnon Cohen *and supported by the Minister of Telecommunications, *Ariel Atias*. This act is now at the first stage of three votes on the Israeli Parliament and is a national threat for the free economy and speech in Israel.

While the act is presenting itself as "Protecting Children", it has no relevance to on-line child protection. This act creates an ISP based filter to screen all internet traffic, causing proxy-related security flaws and allowing shaping, spoofing and monitoring of all Internet browsing. Moreover, according to the new act, all internet users will be censored and filtered unless they specifically request to be removed from the filtering and be added to shame list (further commentary see http://2jk.org/english/?p=47).

Our main objective in our struggle against Israeli Censorship is to present an alternative which assists children and allows adults free flow of information.

*It is highly important to note that censoring the net may be a trade barrier to Israel and may prevent businesses and start-ups from dealing with the EU & US*. We, as bloggers eager for free speech, understand the implications of a slippery slope and hope that you can assist us in our struggle by either writing to your elected official (either in the US or Israel) or help in any other way: Mail this post to your friends, prepare viral videos for distribution or even organize rallies in your area.

Feel free to contact me to get more information.

Jonathan Joseph Klinger, Attorney at Law;

Tel : +972-52-3436436
Email : info@jonathanklinger.com
Website : http://www.jonathanklinger.com
Blog : http://2jk.org/english ; http://2jk.org/praxis
Skype : JonathanKlinger

Tags: Jonathan Klinger, Israel, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jeff Pulver on pulverTV: TODAY (March 11th) at 2PM EST / 1800 GMT / 1900 CET

The next edition of the Jeff Pulver Show, my LIVE (unscripted) Internet TV Talk show on pulverTV will be airing TODAY, Tuesday March 11th at 2PM EST / 1800 GMT / 2000 IST.

During today's show I will be talking about my recent trip to Tel Aviv and will be discussing Spring 2008 VON.x taking place next week in San Jose. I will be available for live Q&A with our audience.

Today's show will be LIVE on both UStream.tv ( http://www.ustream.tv/channel/jeff-pulver-show)
and BlogTV ( http://www.blogtv.com/Shows/96 ).

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If you would like to be an in-studio guest on a future next show, please drop me an email or send me a message on Facebook.

Archives of past shows are available at: http://www.blogtv.com/Shows/96

Friends of pulverTV are invited to join the pulverTV group on Facebook.

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Tags: Internet TV, facebook, Social Communications, Social Media, Social Media Living Room, pulverTV, Andrew Lipson, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 07:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 10, 2008

Getting the Most out of Spring 2008 VON.x and VON Camp

With Spring 2008 VON.x just a week away, I am investing time this week confirming my on-site meetings and working on my schedule so I am able to have time to attend the sessions I want to be at, spend time on the show floor and have also have time to contribute to VON Camp.

(If you are planning on attending and have not yet registered, visit the website, register and continue reading below.)

It is the time I invest the week before a VON event that determines how good the upcoming event will be for me. The more effort I make in my own planning of VON, the better the chance I will leave VON meeting or exceeding my own personal goals for the event.

While my notes were prepared with our event delegates in mind, many of the ideas can be applied to just about any conference / tradeshow / event you will attend this year. Please add your own suggestions to the comments sections below.

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Jeff Pulver’s Guide to Getting MORE out of the Events you Attend:

JOIN the Community. Being registered to attend the event is entry pass. But why wait for the actual event to start to network with some of the people who plan to be there? If you will be joining VON Camp, make your presence known on the Wiki. If you will be in San Jose the morning of March 17th, sign up for a very social breakfast taking place. On the evening of March 18th I’m hosting the VON.x party and you are invited to RSVP for this.

Every event has its own time Time Horizon. It is up to YOU to maximize the opportunities presented and minimize your own down time when you get on-site.

If you wait until the last minute to work on your on-site “Play List”, you will get a lot less out of the event then your peers and your competitors who spend the week before the event planning their on-site meetings. You will also find that many of the people you want to meet with are already committed with their own schedules.

Set your GOALS. This is my number one “thing to do.”
Why are you attending? Who are you looking to meet? What competitors do I want to check out? Who did I promise I would get together with? Who do I want to share a cup of coffee with? Who would I like to share a meal with? Who amongst my contacts do I want to get to know better? Who do I want to have dinner with? What technology do I want to learn more about? Am I spending enough time on the show floor to discover new companies and new products? Who can I meet to possibly recruit into my company? What sessions at the conference do I want to attend? What time am I scheduled to speak? Who from the Media do I want to have a casual, ad-hoc conversation with? Who do I want to get to know better? Which hotel(s) are the host hotels? (Chances are much better you will meet people in the lobby of the on-site host hotels than any of the recommended off-site venues.)

Whether I’m speaking a conference or attending as a delegate, when I’m on-site at the event, I am there for a reason. Most likely it is to meet one or more of the people speaking at the conference. A major advantage a conference delegate is that they can get to the session room early and be in the room before their designated “target” is in the room and position themselves to be first in line at the end of the session to be part of an ad-hoc meeting. Over the years, I’ve sent myself and others to events all around the world just for the opportunity of the ad-hoc meeting / business card exchange. Once you exchange cards, ask for an on-site meeting. Don’t put off getting together until after the event. Many times the follow up meetings NEVER happen. Take advantage of the opportunity presented and seize the moment.

Not that I’m advocating any form of “stalking” here – but your ad-hoc meetings are a lot more efficient if you know what your target looks like. Social networks are great for this. Google Images is also a good way to do some quick research, at least for people who have spoken at other events in the past.

Say HELLO - DO NOT WAIT. How often is it that you see someone at the start of an event with the intention of catching up with that person later in the day/week and that additional meeting just never happens? For me – all the time. This is why I say hi as soon as I can. My meetings are usually brief so that I can spend more time networking with a variety of people rather than let my time be dominated by just one person. This is not a suggestion to be shallow. Just an opportunity to be time efficient. The more aware you are about this, the better the chance you have to meet more people. Avoid getting yourself corned by one person who wants to dominate your time.

CHANGE your eMail Habits - Rather than walking around with your email in your pocket and constantly looking down and checking your messages, make it a point to pick two times during the day to be your time for messages – say 6am and 4pm and do not look at your messages in between. When you are looking down, you are distracted and may miss seeing the one person you are looking for. And when you are doing your messages while walking down a hallway you are also sending a message to others to leave you alone and not engage in conversation. You are at an event. You do not have to immediately respond when you are away. People will understand.

VON Blur Happens - There is a moment of time when I fall behind in my outbound electronic social communication and the hours and the days start to blend together. Rather than fight the blur, I just accept it. While it takes me up to a week to recover from VON Blur, knowing it is going to happen has helped me better prepare for the time I spent on-site. These days I am using facebook a try as a means to “stay connected” with my friends while I’m on-site at an event.

STUDY the Map of the Convention Center - You are able to spend the next 3 to 4 days at this location. Familiarize yourself with the venue and you will have an edge up on everyone else who is also attending.

Be AWARE of the Event Schedule - Write down the times for the conference breakfast, scheduled breaks and conference lunch. These are some of the best times to engage on on-site ad-hoc networking. If you also plan on visiting the show floor, best to know the exhibit hours as well. And know the times and room locations of the people who you want to hear speak and the people you want to meet.

Be in CONTROL of your Schedule. Allocate your time wisely. How often is it that you look back after an event, wishing you had more time to network, more time to walk the show floor, more time to meet with the people who you actually wanted to meet with? When you recognize that “time waits for no one”, after a while you may want to start to work on your on-site time management plan today and take responsibility for at least 12 hours a day of your time – the 7am to 7pm time grid. Don’t become a victim of poor time allocation. Take control and follow your schedule. Make everyday your own.

ALLOW for serendipity - (thanks to Shannon Clark for this addition) “Almost without fail the best contacts I make at a conference are unplanned - yes I talk with a lot of speakers and attendees I knew would be there, but almost always it is a random person I meet at a dinner, or while waiting in a line for an event, or just taking a shared ride in an elevator that ends up being the contact that sticks post-event.

One thing which I always try to do, which also helps greatly with serendipity is to plan on at least one and usually more than one meal during the week which I can extend an open invitation to lots of folks to join me at - especially useful is to invite others who don't have plans for dinner at one of the dinners that is not organized by the conference - or if the conference has organized dinners, make sure to be inclusive in inviting people to join you at your table.

It can be hard for many people but at conferences I usually find the folks I share meals with end up being the richest contacts from a given event - so a personal gauge of my own attendance at an event is whether or not I eat any meals alone, if I do, I'm likely doing something wrong.”

Don’t be SHY. If you have a hard time meeting new people, now is a chance to break out of your shell and give the rebooted version of YOU a try.

Be SEEN - It is real hard for you to enjoy ad-hoc meetings if you are spending your time in a hotel room on conference calls or all of your time at convenient off-site meetings. You have budgeted the time to be in Boston for a reason. So take advantage of it. Make an effort to be visible.

Be SOCIAL - As a conference delegate, make it a point to go to the social events the event organizer and/or some of the event sponsors are hosting.

BRING Business Cards - Bring cards with you and keep a stack with you all the time. Exchanging business cards is still a face-to-face social experience and something you should be prepared to do just when you least expect it. It could be that you are about to run into the person you are there to meet on a cab line at the airport, while checking into the hotel, while in the elevator, while on the conference registration line or maybe sitting right next to you at a conference session.

Make sure your social media contact details are included on your cards. Make it as easy as possible for the person you are exchanging cards with to continue the conversation with you. And after you exchange business cards, look to exchange relationship links on the social networks the two of you frequent.

Understand that some meetings will not HAPPEN - Apply the 15 minute rule and move on. “Things happen” and not everyone is as efficient with their on-site schedule as you are. It helps to keep the cell phone numbers of the people you are meeting handy. (And it is ok to blow off a meeting or two in favor of something that just came up, so better to text/SMS the person and tell them you are running late and need to reschedule.)

ENJOY yourself - Give “having fun” a try. At our VON events, I’m the one of the people who “takes having fun…seriously.”

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Good luck with getting the most of the conferences you attend. And please feel free to share your own tips on how to get more out of conferences. Your feedback and comments would be appreciated.

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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: conference, VON, trade show, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jeff Pulver and Bryan Person invite YOU to join us for Breakfast in Boston on April 1st

The April 1st Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and Friends) will be held together with Boston's "Social Media Breakfast 6" from 8-10AM the S&S Restaurant in Cambridge, MA.

Bryan and I welcome our friends from the greater Boston area to join us for breakfast and great conversations.

To RSVP, please visit this event on Facebook.

Everyone attending this breakfast will receive a "Personal Social Networking Toolkit" described below:

Looking forward to co-hosting this breakfast in Boston.

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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: breakfast, Personal Social Media Toolkit, Boston, Bryan Person, social media, facebook, Social Media Breakfast, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 09, 2008

Jeff Pulver reporting from: "Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Tel Aviv"

On the morning of March 5th, 2008 I hosted a breakfast at Aroma in the Port of Tel Aviv. It was great to see 125+ of my Facebook friends from around Israel join me for breakfast.

The breakfast was held outdoors and the weather cooperated and the morning temperatures were in the mid 70s. The setting for this breakfast was the nicest one to date.

Friends attending the breakfast had seen my recent Video that described the Real-Time social Networking toolkit that I gave to each person who joined us. One of my friends, Dror Gill, took it upon himself to pre-print a bunch of various stickers, with words like: "Personal Broadcaster", "I spent too much time on Facebook", "Investor" and so on. The level of interaction was raised up a notch or two at this breakfast.

Special thanks to EVERYONE who came out for breakfast. I look forward to hosting another breakfast when I am back in Tel Aviv in April.

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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: Dror Gill, Qik, Social Media, breakfast, Tel Aviv, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Jeff Pulver on pulverTV: Tuesday March 11th at 2PM EST / 1800 GMT / 1900 CET

The next edition of the Jeff Pulver Show, my LIVE (unscripted) Internet TV Talk show on pulverTV will be airing on Tuesday, March 11th at 2PM EST / 1800 GMT / 2000 IST

If you would like to be an in-studio guest on a future next show, please drop me an email or send me a message on Facebook.

Archives of past shows are available at: pulver.tv.

Friends of pulverTV can now join the pulverTV group on Facebook.

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Tags: Internet TV, facebook, Social Communications, Social Media, Social Media Living Room, pulverTV, Andrew Lipson, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 08, 2008

Qik Video from Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Tel Aviv

On Wednesday, March 5th I hosted a breakfast at Aroma in the Port of Tel Aviv. The following video clip was originally broadcast live during the breakfast.

Tags: Dror Gill, Qik, Social Media, breakfast, Tel Aviv, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 09:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Help stop the Censorship of the Internet in Israel

Back in May, 2007 I first wrote about the Internet Censorship Law Proposed in Israel. Since then the situation has gotten worse (if you believe in an uncensored Internet). Jonathan Klinger and Gadi Shimshon are some of the Israeli bloggers who are speaking out against the Censorship of the Internet in Israel.

Yesterday afternoon during a friendly game of poker, the topic of the censorship was raised by me and I took out my Nokia N95 and broadcast the conversation live on Qik. Heard in the conversation were the voices of Jonathan Klinger, Gadi Shimshon, Nimrod Kozlovski, Yotam Tavor and Gilad Zirkel.

(I won the hand in play without looking at my cards.)

Tags: Gadi Shimshon, Jonathan Klinger, Israel, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 06:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A Meta Moment from "Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Tel Aviv

filmed by Dror Gill:

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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: Dror Gill, Qik, Social Media, breakfast, Tel Aviv, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 07, 2008

Voice on the Net Coalition Announces New Leadership

"A Voice For The VoIP Industry And The Policy Framework That Enables It"

Back when I founded the VON Coalition in 1996, I had hopes that one day the VON Coalition would represent the leading companies on the cutting edge of developing and delivering voice innovations over the Internet. The VON Coalition was on my mind today when they announced new leaders to help promote a policy framework that will allow consumers, businesses, and the economy to take full advantage of VoIP benefits.

The VON Coalition elected Caitlin Clark-Zigmond of New Global Telecom as its Chair of the Board, Angela Simpson of Covad as its President, Kathleen Ham of T-Mobile as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Staci Pies of Skype as Vice President of State Affairs, and Paul Kenefick of Earthlink as Treasurer. The Coalition also re-elected Jamie Hedlund of Yahoo! as Vice President of Legislative Affairs; and Kevin Minsky of Microsoft as Vice President of International Affairs.

In addition, the VON Coalition held board elections and confirmed for 2 year terms the following board members: Caitlin Clark-Zigmond of New Global Telecom, Carl Ford of Pulver.com, Kathleen Ham of T-Mobile (re-elected), Paul Kenefick of Earthlink (re-elected), Christopher Libertelli of Skype (re-elected), Ellen Schmidt of iBasis, and Angela Simpson, Covad (re-elected). These are in addition to the Coalition's existing board members which include: Paula Boyd of Microsoft, Jeff Campbell of Cisco, Margie Dickman of Intel, Chris Reese of i3networks; and Rick Whitt of Google.

In a prepared statement, Jim Kohlenberger, the VON Coalition's Executive Director said, "As VoIP continues transforms the way we communicate, I am delighted the VON Coalition will have such an impressive group of forward-thinking industry leaders helping to shape the future. On the horizon are a set of transformative improvements in the way we communicate that harness the power of the Internet to deliver new voices, choices, and services. These leaders recognize that with the right policy framework, emerging Internet-based voice communications can boost broadband demand, make talking more affordable, businesses more productive, communications more accessible, and Americans more safe and secure."

If you have an interested in VoIP Public Policy concerns, please make sure to attend the "Town Hall Meeting" taking place at Spring 2008 VON.x on the evening of March 17th in San Jose.

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Tags: VoIP, Public Policy, FCC, VON, VON Coalition, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 03:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hope you will be joining me at Spring 2008 VON.x in San Jose

I’m looking forward to being in San Jose the week of March 17th and catching up with my friends attending Spring 2008 VON.x and VON Camp.

Since the first VON event that took place in San Francisco in April, 1997, VON has been the home of Internet Communications Revolution. Over the years VON has been the place where the future was explored, ideas were shared and where an industry was born. Spring 2008 VON.x continues this tradition and will be a to be a great place to socialize ideas, conduct business, meet with customers and explore the future of communications.

In 2008 the communication revolution continues. Leveraging the seeds planted by friends like David Gurle when he managed to get Microsoft to support SIP in Windows XP, we are now seeing Unified Communications quickly becoming the accepted in Corporations around the world. And in my book, “Personal Communications” (both Mobile and Broadband) is one of the breakout technologies of 2008.

I will be speaking at the Spring 2008 VON.x Conference the morning of Tuesday, March 18th. My speech will be about the future of communications and will be looking at the answer to the question of “How do YOU communicate?”

In the afternoon of March 18th I will be hosting a general session on “Real-Time Social Communications” I am real excited about. Joining me in the general session will be: Robert Scoble, Loic Le Meur, founder, Seesmic, Ramu Sunkara, co-founder and CEO of Qik, Brad Hunstable, co-founder of Ustream.tv and Jonathan Christensen, currently responsible for voice and video technology at Skype.

If you have a vested interest in the future of communications, please register for the Spring 2008 VON.x conference. And if are a blogger, please drop me a line and you join the list of bloggers attending Spring 2008 VON.x

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Tags: VON, Robert Scoble, Jonathan Christensen, Loic Le Meur, Brad Hunstable, Ramu Sunkara, Qik, Ustream.tv, Seesmic, VoIP, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 02:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Qik: Good morning from Tel Aviv

Tags: Tel Aviv, sunrise, startup, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 05:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Listen to my Spring 2008 VON.x Preview on Sqawk Box:

Yesterday afternoon I was a guest on Alec Saunders's Squawk Box Show. My 30+ minute interactive interview where I spoke about innovation, IP Communications, VON Camp and Spring 2008 VON.x can be heard by clicking here.

I am looking forward to catching up with friends attending Spring 2008 VON.x in San Jose March 17-20th.

Tags: voip, Alec Saunders, von, VON Camp, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 02:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 06, 2008

Notes from: “Confessions of a Parallel Entrepreneur”

On Tuesday night I spoke at the March 2008 meeting of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Entrepreneurship Club (eClub) which had their meeting at Tel Aviv University. The name of my talk was “Confessions of a Parallel Entrepreneur.”

During the talk I enjoyed the opportunity to speak about growing up as a Ham Radio operator and about my direct involvement in the development of the IP Communications industry from 1995 to the present. Some of the milestones covered included: the founding of the VON Coalition in 1996; the first VON Conference in April 1997; and the steps which lead to the FCC’s issuance of the “Pulver Order” in February, 2004.

I also had an opportunity to discuss my unique approach to entrepreneurship. A world where anything was possible and one where “Fear, Greed and Disruption” have become my three favorite words.

The following list are some of the things I cover when coaching friends who are thinking about launching a new startup:

- Believe in yourself. Find your own identity. Don’t conform. Be passionate. Share your passion. (It is very hard to get outside money for a project where the passion of the founder isn’t felt.)
- Nothing is Impossible. “Impossible is a frame of mind.”
- Follow your heart. Explore the opportunities which feel the BEST to you.
- Find your inner “Super Hero.” Those who do are able to stand apart from those who haven’t. In my book just about everyone is a “superhero.” It is just that for some people it takes a lifetime for people to discover what their special abilities are while others discover their abilities at an early age.
- Just because it hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be done. Or can’t be done.
- Embrace your creative spirit. Encourage the discovering the unknown. Your “bad mistake” could be your discovery of a new technology; a new technique; a new solution to an existing problem.
- Know when to reboot your personal buddy list. If you have friends who don’t support your dreams or your efforts or your vision it may be time to find new friends.
- Avoid hiring people with negative energy; avoid the people who tell you what you are trying to achieve just can’t be done.
- Imagine the possible. When needed, close your eyes, “see your future.”
- Don’t let business models corrupt your dreams. Remember what inspired you to launch your business before allowing yourself to get distracted by trying to rationalize the business opportunities that may exist around you. Sometimes it can take years before a business model materializes.
- Be positive. Stay the course. Believe in yourself.
- Do the Unexpected. Challenge yourself, your team and your industry.
- "Being paranoid is ok."
- Understand that being lucky is also ok; don’t apologize. Being smart and lucky is a good thing too.
- Help make fun happen.
- Invest in your dreams
- Remember to give back to the community that helped you become you.

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So what about you? What is on your mind when you are living the startup lifestyle? How do YOU approach the challenges of being a startup? What kind of advice would you offer to would be Entrepreneurs?

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Readers of my blog are invited to join me on both twitter and Facebook.

Tags: startups, Entrepreneur , VON, VoIP, Internet Communications, Social Media, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

March 05, 2008

innovid closes 3 million dollar round lead by Genesis Partners

Congrats to the innovid team for closing this round of funding.

I was an early believer in innovid and provided the initial "early-early stage" seed capital for innovid, a company co-founded by Zvika Netter and Tal Chalozin. Others members of the team include Yuval Tal and Zack Zigdon. I know Zvika, Tal and Yuval from their on-going activity at Garage Geeks, a place which supports the Israeli Hi-Tech industry and is a place where people can be found getting involved in a wide range of digital arts, design and technology projects.

Tal and Yuval were my guests at Fall 2007 VON where they brought the Guitar Heronid from Garage Geeks to showcase at VON.

“Innovid provides a platform that enables the seamless injection of targeted interactive objects into predefined virtual real-estate within the physical space of a video scene.

Their patent pending technology allows the injection of interactive, creative objects ranging from advertisements and virtual product placement to wild creative expansions of the video content, story and characters.

The innovid platform allows producers to define and own virtual, reusable real-estate within a ready-to-release video, while keeping the original video file and its content intact. While the video is being viewed, targeted objects and content are injected into this predefined real-estate, enabling viewers to meaningfully interact with parts of the video content and setting. By combining cutting edge algorithms with innovative creative spirit, we focus on opening a new world of creative possibilities for producers, publishers, advertisers and viewers.”

The innovid Team:

Yuval Tal, Zvika Netter, Tal Chalozin, Zack Zigdon

Tags: Guitar Heronod,Guitar Hero, GarageGeeks, innovid, Tal Chalozin, Internet Video, Yuval Tal, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 01:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 04, 2008

Looking forward to Spring 2008 VON.x and VON Camp

I'm looking forward to spending the week of March 17th at Spring 2008 VON.x and some of my time co-hosting VON Camp.

During Spring VON.x, I am hosting a breakfast on March 17th and a party the night of March 18th.

A number of the VoIP Digirati will also be with me in San Jose at Spring 2008 VON.x, including: Andy Abramson, Jonathan Askin, Carl Ford, Ken Camp, Luca Filigheddu, Alec Saunders, Dameon Welch-Abernathy, Martyn Davies, Brough Turner and Pat Phelan.

If you are involved in the IP Communications Industry, please make it a point and spend the week of March 17th with us.
To register, please click here.

Tags: voip, von, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

The TV 2.0 Session from the 2008 BRITE Conference is now Online

Special thanks to Amanda Mooney for the heads up that the video she took of the "TV 2.0 panel" that I participated on during the 2008 BRITE conference is now available online.

The session focuses on “TV 2.0, Online Video, and the Future of User-Generated Content” and includes myself, Aaron Cohen, CEO, Bolt.com; Steve Rosenbaum, Founder and CEO, Magnify.net, Stephen Voltz, EepyBird.com; and the session was moderated by: Yaron Samid, Co-founder, Pando Networks.

(Another perspective of my opening remarks - filmed with my Nokia N95)

Tags: Internet TV, TV 2.0, Brite, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 12:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 03, 2008

Invitation to Blog Spring 2008 VON.x and VONCamp

If you are involved in the Internet Communications community and maintain a blog and/or podcast about communications, you are invited to come to Spring 2008 VON.x taking place in San Jose, March 17th-20th and/or
VONCamp taking place March 18-19th.

For consideration, please drop me a line and include a URL to your blog.

Tags: voip, von, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 02, 2008

Being 11 Years Old Again...

Last night I had the unique opportunity to travel back in time, at least in my mind. The school I went to until I was 11 had a fund raiser and decided to "honor" the class I was a part of and host a “reunion.”

For more than a moment in time I felt like I was 11 years old again, hanging out in a sea of strangers.

I left the reunion with mixed feelings. I realized that seeing people after all this time who were not really my friends back when I was 11, didn't mean much. I also learned not to expect much from past memories. Seems I confused past memories with past realities. Somewhere in between are song lyrics waiting to be written.

The reunion would have been more exciting for me if more of the people who were my friends from school were also there. But that wasn't the case. So just like that, I was transported back to an awkward time of my life and remembered what it was like to me back then.

I tried talking to people but I quickly realized I had just about nothing in common with them and while it wasn't the same thing as spending time in a place with all strangers, in this case the names of the people were not strangers but only the people who grew up inside of them… and this is coming from someone who had a lot of practice from growing up talking to strangers on his ham radio.

One highlight for me was broadcasting a portion of the reunion live on BlogTV to help a few people, including the person who helped track everyone down, who couldn't join us, have a chance to see some of their friends and chat directly with them.

Once I left the reunion I realized that I enjoyed being the person who I became and I had a greater appreciation for everyone who is a part of my life today.

One of my friends who joined the reunion on BlogTV wrote the following words earlier today that resonated with me: “We are the same people we were as kids. Probably the same intrinsic qualities that made us friends as kids, lets us still want to reach out to each other.” Glenn, I agree. I am looking forward to getting together with you when I’m in Atlanta in early April.

I’m Jeff Pulver and I am just glad I am no longer 11 years old. :)

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Tags: school, reunion, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 03:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Christine Cavalier interviews Ewan Spence and Jeff Pulver

Christine Cavalier: 11 Questions: Ewan Spence and Jeff Pulver

"Due to the little tiny bit of controversy in my “riding fences” post, I asked a few media mavens to answer a few quick questions about their reading habits and how they see themselves as readers."

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Tags: PurpleCar, Christine Cavalier, Ewan Spence, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 03:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On my way back to Tel Aviv...

I'm flying to Israel tonight and I will be spending this week meeting mostly with early-early stage startups.

When I'm not in meetings, I will also be attending the following meetings:

March 4th - eClub Meeting at Tel Aviv University

March 5th - Breakfast with Jeff Pulver (and friends) in Tel Aviv

March 6th - Garage Geeks: Rock Band Party

Tags: Tel Aviv, startup, Israel, Jeff Pulver

Posted by jeff at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

March 01, 2008

David Kirkpatrick shares his perspective on attending a recent Jeff Pulver Breakfast in NYC

David Kirkpatrick from Fortune Magazine attended my recent breakfast in New York City and shared his thoughts about the breakfast in the story "Geography, social media and breakfast"

"Combining social networks with geographic information was one of the big ideas at a gathering this week of uber-techies and media digirati in New York."

Below are some pictures from our event:

My next New York City breakfast will be taking place on March 26th. To RSVP for the March NYC breakfast, click here

Some of my other upcoming breakfasts are:

March 5th - Tel Aviv
March 17th - San Jose
March 25th - Baltimore
March 28th - Toronto
April 1st - Boston
April 3rd - Atlanta
May 1st - Washington, D.C.
May 7th - Chicago
June 2nd - Amsterdam
June 5th - London

(Additional Cities/Dates will be announced in the near future.)

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