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Showing posts from January 27, 2012

Network madness

The technology to connect two (mobile) parties by voice or message has been solved a long time ago. Whether it's GSM, PCM, VOIP or whatever, it's all passe. Messaging is even simpler. What makes a solution useful is, not news, the network effect.  Remember the old story about that super fax machine that can transmit a full color page in 0.01s and you are the only one with the glorious privilege of owning one?  It's totally useless until you can find another person with the same machine.  And its value increases proportionally, if not astronomically, with the number of people owning the same fax machine. Part of the network effect is also the directory system.  Besides having to be technically compatible, you need to know the address of the other party you want to talk to, when you need to.  It is a joke if you have to frequently use another communication network in order to find out the number/address of the person to whom you want to communicate. The only networks