Results matching “knapp” from Capitol Valley

Hey, Verizon! Where you at?

Alex

on March 29, 2008 11:55 PM | Permalink

Yesterday, Verizon Wireless (which I'll be referring to as VZW, as per usual) announced that it will begin offering Loopt service to its customers for $4 per month. This is a huge, huge, huge announcement for Loopt because this is only the second distinct carrier to offer their product. Loopt was originally (and is still predominantly) offered by Boost mobile. Yes, it is now available to Sprint's CDMA users, but Boost is the iDEN prepaid network which is owned by Sprint. Also, VZW has a lot more subscribers than Sprint and Boost combined (Sprint is at about 53.8 million subscribers, Boost about 4 million and VZW at about 65.7 million).

For anyone who doesn't know what Loopt is (if this is you I should probably also say "Welcome to Capitol Valley!"), it is a location-based service (LBS) that allows you to use your mobile phone to share your location with your friends. I'm pretty sure you've seen the ads with the very round people asking each other "Where you at?" That's Loopt. Some other guy wrote about them too.

Some people bring up the privacy issue, but Loopt is 100% opt in. It can be purchased directly from your handset, but it (and most services that you can subscribe to via the handset) would be almost impossible to sign up by accident. It's a really cool service that's been really well marketed and implemented. Also, Andrew interviewed their chief privacy officer, Brian Knapp. The fact that they have a chief privacy officer and that they send him apparently everywhere shows an amazing self-awareness of the fact that a lot of people could look at them as a privacy cluster-fudge.

That self-awareness coupled with a great product is why Loopt is now offered by both major CDMA carriers and available to over 100 million subscribers.

Not too shabby for a three-year-old.

Here is VZW's press release.

Here's "some other guy"'s article. Actually, it's CongressDaily's Andrew Noyes.

And here is our Andrew's interview with Brian Knapp.

Putting the Cover Sheet on my TPS report.

Andrew

on March 28, 2008 8:45 AM | Permalink

Back safely ensconced in the Eastern Time Zone, I can finally say a few things and "exhale."

Do not Red-Eye if you can help it. If you must, follow Andrew Noyes' lead and take VirginAmerica. I know I'm going to check it out.
Conferences are much more fun to cover when they are focused. I enjoyed the networking and atmosphere at SXSW in general, but in terms of things to write about, the guys at Tech Policy Summit put on a great event. Pretty much every issue that I care about and I try to bring to you, the loyal and stalwart readers, was touched on in some way. I can't wait for next year's. Not only is it in the Bay Area and closer to many of the players, it means I can crash on Alex's floor.
So far the great wireless experiment has been great. All those photos you can see on Flickr have been uploaded without the use of a single cable, in almost real time. The Eye-Fi isn't without problems, but my set-up has allowed for some cool things. I'll do a better write-up on it this weekend since several people asked about it.

A few shout-outs. Natalie Fonseca and Marc Licciardi at TPS arranged my getting there and helped me out while I was covering their great event, along with Cathy Rought from Dittus Communications, who was invaluable in putting me in touch with some great people to talk to. Mozelle Thompson and Alec Ross were great sports about getting back-to-back questioning in panels, and Jon Taplin was his usual fantastic self.

Special thanks go to my interview subjects, including Jim Williams, Brian Knapp, Prith Banerjee and Gary Fazzino, as well as the incredible Craig Newmark.

Andrew Noyes gave some good placement to our photo coverage at Tech Daily Dose, and Adam Theirer was so impressed with our coverage he didn't even bother to do any blogging himself. Plus, he had possibly the best, brightest green sport jacket I've ever seen yesterday. We have proof!

If I missed you, yell at me appropriately. Back to work.

BitTorrent Founder interview

Andrew

on March 27, 2008 5:41 PM | Permalink

Talking with Declan McCullough, Ashwin Navin scored a few cool points.

He noted that many companies are using BT distribution to distribute legitimate content, and at Declan's prodding, takes issue with the earlier claim that most P2P traffic is pirated.

For the company itself, it's still small. 55 employees, no Washington lobbyists. They want to sell their technology to companies who want to make P2P a higher margin part of their business.

Navin believes that P2P will be adopted by people who need to save money on distributing video, and they're still "working through" the cloud of illegality from Grokster, and that companies like Yahoo can use BT to distribute content.

What does Navin see the role of Congress being? He answers that if Ed Markey called him to ask help in writing a bill, he'd be the wrong guy. He goes back to the fact that they're about the technology. He's not going to hire lobbyists, but will allow Google, etc to work the Government Relations front.

When I asked him if it was irresponsible to allow others to "carry his water" by not hiring lobbyists and letting other companies do the heavy lifting if needed, Navin was actually rather honest in his self-assessment, saying that yes, it could be irresponsible or naive, but the gist of his argument was that he's going to let the product speak for itself, and that it's "breaking down barriers." For instance, kids in China knew who he was when he visited recently. I'm not sure how that fits in, but if he's brave enough to let the software do the talking and not take a proactive approach like say, loopt, (see my interview with Brian Knapp posted earlier) especially in spite of P2P's history, well, more power to him.

Other questions were more technical in nature dealing with the recently settled Comcast issue, and one questioner pointed out the MPAA's idiotic statement that the Comcast settlement was a "step in combatting online piracy," and asked Navin how the agreement would fight privacy. He had no idea.

Navin added that BT plans to work with ISPs, content providers, IETF, and pretty much everyone in the "spirit of openness." He envisions the network as being less asymmetric, and I think that's a pretty optimistic prediction. Other suggestions included hardware-based solutions for bandwidth issues and copyright problems like Akamai's software.

When asked if ISPs could sit on BT streams and identify pirated content, Navin alluded to the fact that if an ISP and a copyright holder had a deal, it is technically feasible for an ISP to watch BT packets.

Jonathan Taplin asked if he's exaggerated the ease that Cable companies could have a symmetrical network. Navin had no idea about the cost and ease (he cites Brian Roberts of Comcast saying it would be done) but emphasizes the importance of open dialogue with ISPs.

Navin did say that identifying infringing torrent content would be quite costly in response to a question from McCullough. What he sees, though, is that rights-holders will embrace content-recognition and P2P technology that will enable new business models, not just takedown notices. In Navin's future, piracy will disappear because the free flow of video we have now will be monetized to the point that it will become a non-issue.

Next, Declan brought up the idea of blanket licenses, and Navin was not adverse to a "Rhapsody-style" license that would not "criminalize the vast majority of people in the United States..."

Good job by both.

Someone wanna know "Where you at?" This guy can help.

Andrew

on March 27, 2008 5:19 PM | Permalink

Brian Knapp is Chief Privacy Officer for loopt, the "mobile social networking" company recently promoted by Sprint-Nextel and Boost Mobile using those adds with people wearing fat suits floating in swimming pools. Knapp describes loopt as "a mashup of google maps and twitter..." (a thousand web 2.0 marketers heads just exploded, but he's pretty spot on, actually).

We took advantage of some downtime here at TPS to talk about his service, why it's cool, semantic games like "tracking" versus "location sharing", and, most importantly, how entreprenerus and innovators with potentially controversial technologies can get out in front of the doomsayers, horror stories and local news anchors. I'm very impressed by "where he's at" on how tech entrepreneurs can deal with Washington. Finally, a company that has the right idea.

Wireless Broadband - Where do we get from here?

Andrew

on March 27, 2008 12:00 PM | Permalink

(panel L-R: Calabrese, Knapp, Brandon, Wilkie with moderator Chong at podium)

Former FCC Commissioner and California Public Utilities Commissioner Rachelle Chong moderated a panel on the future of Wireless, but started by asking for comments on the Comcast-Vuze settlement.

Caroyn Brandon of CTIA started off by nothing that the market will figure out problems and the settlement is "fantastic."

Michael Calabrese of the Wireless Future Program pointed out that protocol-agnostic management is a good thing, and was quite happy to hear that Comcast will be working with the IETF, but it remains to be seen "whether it will go far enough."

Brandon asked him what that meant, to which he replied a "common sense non-discrimination principle."

Brian Knapp from Loopt noted that collaborative efforts were the only solution. Of course, Chong correctly noted that the "devil is in the details." There's a meeting next month at Stanford, we'll see if it happens.

With regard to wireless open access, Chong asked of the panel agreed with McD's assertion that Open Access discouraged bidders.

Calabrese immediately disagreed, noting that his organization asked for wholesale access, not the "wireless carterphone" and that wholesale would have helped those smaller providers. (note, Google originally wanted wholesale, not Carterphone-style regs). Calebrese said that Verizon or AT&T would have won regardless, and that Open Access was a "nice regulatory nudge" as noted by Verizon's "preemptive strike."

Ms. Brandon jumped back in on open access and said that it defeated the FCC's own objectives, and that the market demonstrated that the requirements were irrelevant.

Chong asked Mr. Knapp about loopt, where they allow people to "share their location." and what difficulties they had getting adopted by carriers, and if they expected regulatory problems. He responded that he didn't want to have all six carriers rolling out at once, and that they are still very much a "start-up." They're on Sprint-Nextel and Boost, and their cooperative partnership has been beneficial, regardless of Open Access because it allows them to hold each other to high standards.

Next question from Chong: does Wireless have enough spectrum? She brings up White Spaces, and that Sprint and AT&T wanted White Spaces licensed, while others want them to be left open on an unlicensed basis. What is better? Unlicensed, or auctions?

Simon Wilkie responded to the previous question that he isn't allowed to express his opinion on it. On White Spaces, he thinks we should "Split the Baby" and that in response to NAB opposition, we should make use of it. He also noted that licensing it would lead to less use based on economic principles, and pointed to the 700mhz auction as an example. It would be a bad idea to allocate all that spectrum to one provider, especially considering how useful it is.

Calabrese agreed, saying that "the greatest innovation and consumer welfare results from diversity in technology and business models" and that he believes that a mixture of licensed and unlicensed spectrum will lead to the best space for innovation. He says that we need good spectrum available for multiple uses.

Chong moved onto municipal Wi-Fi, noting that Earthlink has killed its' municipal Wi-Fi operations, but Comcast might invest in that sector. She asks if the movement will survive.

Brandon (CTIA) jumped in quickly and noted that the problem is not technological, but a failure in business models.

Another question concerned "all you can eat programs" and whether they would take over for voice and replace "minute" charges and many wired services. The panel seemed to agree that this would be a positive movement. On the other hand, Wilkie asked if wireline services could respond and innovate and converge more.

One question from the audience was on mobile advertising, and was is the "holy grail" in that regard. Brandon said that many advertisers want mobile eyeballs, and advertisers' frustration is with purposing the ads to be consistent across platforms, and what is the right revenue model? She noted that it's important that customers not pay for ads.

Knapp said that ads could be a fantastic development allowing for lower cost service. He expressed sympathy for Facebook's Beacon, and noted that advertising to phones are coming, but they have to be provided as part of a service and that user experience with the ads is key. He's very excited about the potential for mobile advertising.

When a Tony Wasserman from CMU described the U.S. as a "third world country" wirelessly w/r/t location based services, Loopt's Knapp replied that location based services were coming. Brandon blamed the problem on the FCC's E911 rules. Simon Wilkie noted that much of the 3G spectrum is still tied up in Government users who won't say when they're giving up the spectrum they've been required to have vacated for years.

Robert Pepper from Cisco jumped in to quickly note that despite the lack of a D block auction success, there is a large block reserved for public safety.

Larry Magid asked why people should trust companies to make agreements vis-a-vis Comcast-Vuze, and Brandon noted that FCC should be a last resort, and there are not just two companies involved, that there would be a whole consortium. Calabrese pointed out that the complaint is still before the FCC, and that they still may act.

Tech Policy Summit - Day 2 Starts

Andrew

on March 27, 2008 11:11 AM | Permalink

Well, no live video, but we're about to get going. Leading off is FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell (R). On deck are some luminaries in Wireless like Loopt's Brian Knapp, Former FCC Commissioner Rachelle Chong, "The" Craig Newmark of Craigslist, Verizon's Richard Lynch, and more.

Of course, we'll have some live reports, and the ubiquitous Flickr feed.

You're free to link or use my photos if you provide attribution to Andrew Feinberg and Capitol Valley, and a link back to the site if you're feeling generous. I hope you enjoy it.

Oh yeah, first off we've got a video from Vivian Redding (EU/ICT). She's espousing the virtues of convergence and inter-European cooperation.

Interesting claim: convergence is defined by the choices that we make as industries, and the winners will be those who listen to their customers, and who innovate.

"Listen and Create...we therefore need to be open, flexible, and keep looking forward."

She correctly notes that the regulations on technology need to gybe with each other, and allow for innovation.

Proposed in EU:

Secures Consumer Rights

Better Regulation (simplify and give better tools for national regulators)

Secure the market by giving power to a central EU authority that doesn't diminish regulator's power.

Example w/ online content - make it possible to license online cntent across countries. Also, excited about the spectrum available as DTV ramps up there.

Good video, on to McDowell!