Saving the Global Economy

By: Alon Cohen

At the end of 2005, we started a journey with few partners and investors to create a nice web site to help people in the community, which are in need of human advice, and financially reward those who are willing to provide the advice.

The concept was simple but challenging in many ways. We set a directory of advisors arranged by ranking. We provided a solution to facilitate payment while evading fraud. We included a mechanism by which the advisor can chat, talk over the phone or do a video session with the client, while we measure the duration of the call and at the end, charge one user, and pay the other.

It was all good until we hit a speed bump. We found that it was hard to explain to the advisors that placing a page on a site is only the start of creating a business. It was hard to explain that an online virtual business is not much different from a physical business. I use to tell advisors that if you hang up a shiny plate on your bedroom door stating, “I am a certified consultant”, you will not get much action going. As in any other business, you have to go out and find ways to bring clients. To solve the problem, we gathered some online resources and communicated those to the advisors so they can use those tools to bring clients.

Our ranking system was a topic by itself, and the company is still perfecting it. It takes into consideration the positive and negative comments an advisor receives, but also the amount of money that the advisor made over time. We took the finical gains of the advisor as an indication that this advisor is providing a service valued by the community.

Moving few years forward and passing through a rough patch in the global economy, we noticed that the people that kept on moving up the ranks are not the Lawyers, not the Registered Dietitians, not the Travel Advisors, not the Doctors or Computer Support people. What we saw is that the most productive people are those who provide an online psychic reading. We also noticed that the bigger spenders are those who are not afraid, and that is most open to learning about the future.

Maybe Wall Street should learn from that, and use some of the advisors on the BitWine site to figure out where the things are going, and use that valuable insight to save the economy.

We did our part already and change the BitWine home page to point to our most productive people the Psychics.

Check this out you may discover something you already know.

Phone.com the Best Home & Office Phone Service I have Ever Used

By: Alon Cohen

If this post smells to you like an ad it probably is. I work for Phone.com and proud about what we offer. But I am also very satisfied with how I use the services every day. People who know me as a technologist know that I do not jump every time a new service comes alive. I do however likely to try new technologies more than the average person, and jump only when I know I get the best bang for the buck, and when I know that I get functionality that help me do more with less in order to feed my basic laziness.

In the past year and half I have been using Phone.com, Vonage, Cablevision triple play, Skype, Jajah, 1Voice, Google Voice and more. I ended up canceling or not using all of them (besides Skype which gives me free Video). At that time frame, I have created a monster phone system for my home based solely on Phone.com Virtual Office. I did not have to install anything just click my way on the Phone.com web.

Why? Well I started small, moved my home phone number and fax numbers, than added menus to make sure my family members get their calls directly to their cell phones, instead of me answering the home phone with calls that are not for me. Then I added support for my wife when she fly overseas so I can save on roaming, then I added a Global Number in Israel so my parents can call me as if the call a local call, then I added a soft phone so my college kid can call anywhere from his dorm using his MAC and save the cell phone plan minutes, then I added IP Phone, so business calls become simpler and so on and on. All the above is done by carving what I needed for my day to day, out of the Phone.com ultra flexible Virtual Office service.

None of the above is doable with a any single service from one company, and Phone.com delivers the goods in a single easy to use service. It is that simple!

Phone.com is in my mind the most flexible, most innovative VoIP service with the best Customer Support - bar none. And if you want to challenge that statement, just call, they are there 24*7, and very responsive.

If I think something is not clear on the Phone.com web feature description, I call the support as any other customer would. I use them to figure out how to best use some of the features we have or give them advice on the same topic. When I learn something new, I make sure it is added to the company’s web site so others can enjoy that knowledge as well.

Since I have joined, the company had created three new services: Home Phone Plus, Virtual Number and Chat Calls, added tons of features as per customer’s requests, improved reliability and much more. At that same timeframe Cablevision for instance (my internet provider) created very nice new commercials, and raised the price twice. I am asking you, does a new commercial help me if I was a customer? No! With Phone.com I know that I keep moving forward and improve my utility and as a result, improve my lifestyle.

From what I am seeing, none of the VoiP / Triple-play companies have the same level of drive to improve and innovate that Phone.com poses.

I am 100% sold. If you want to become a customer just like me, click the banner just above this blog and start your journey to telephony wonderland. Do not even worry about it, the first month is always free.

Canceling a Vonage Account

By: Alon Cohen

As someone who works for a somewhat competing phone company I would probably not think about publishing my own horror story of getting disconnected from Vonage on the company’s blog. However, since I do like Vonage I hope they take some hints from this blog post. After all Vonage have created a huge service from scratch and lead the fight to de-regulation of VoIP, sometimes they win and we all win and sometimes they loose and we all pay the price, consumers and VoIP phone companies as one.

Since I have encountered a somewhat similar story to mine about canceling a Vonage account on a respectable site I have decided to share some of it, by reference, on my personal blog and offer a potential solution for a tormented customer.

Just as an FYI, knowing about the cancelation situation, Phone.com (which I work for) was established on the principals of providing the best customer support possible, best service possible at the most affordable price, while providing customers a simple way to move in and out from the service. Apparently it pays off. People come to us just because they heard we provide the best customer support.

So if you are leaving Vonage to any carrier here is a small advice:

First go to the winning company’s site, register, and start the process of number porting.

(You will normally need to have the last bill from the loosing company sent over)

Once the number was ported and only after it was ported, call the loosing company to disconnect.

If you do not call, you may keep paying the loosing company even if the number was ported!

If you happen to like Phone.com and choose them (us), simply press the banner above to start the process. The banner will take you to the Phone.com Virtual Office page which is designed for small businesses, but you can move around the site and select Home Phone Plus which is a direct replacement to Vonage.

Check it out.

Looking for Programming Power

By: Alon Cohen

From time to time I come up with an interesting idea that needs either a proof of concept to get funding or some developers who are willing to shell some free time to be part of a dream.

When Lior Haramaty & I started VocalTec 1989, the company who created the VoIP industry by launching the first Internet Phone in Feb 1995, it was nothing but a dream. We couldn’t have imagined how the future will unfold. We invested our free, and not so free, time at VocalTec in hope that we can make something out of it. And we did, with the help of a very dedicated team that joined over time we managed to go public by 1996.

Today’s internet is much faster, and results show up much quicker.

As I often do with new Ideas, I run them by my close friends to see if they hold water. Not every idea is a go. This time it seems to hit a soft spot. The idea has the potential to solve a big Internet security problem for each one of us.

If you are a web programmer / thinker / technologist / social network animal, that can take an idea and make it work by starting simple and thinking big, I have an idea that I am willing to make you part of. There are no rewards besides bragging rights until we actually make money.

Contact me if you think you are that person alonchook@gmail.com .

The Nanites are here

By: Alon Cohen

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has organized the second “soccer under glass” event at the RoboCup games at the international competition in Graz, Austria, from June 29 to July 5, 2009.

NIST, the federal agency that advances U.S. innovation and competitiveness, partnered with industry, universities and other organizations to move the world closer to the future where robots smaller than the eye can see are put to work in a variety of ways.

In the Nanosoccer event, computer-driven “Nanites” the size of dust mites challenge one another on fields the size of a grain of rice. Everything is happening under a microscope, while the nanobots are operated by remote control and move in response to changing magnetic fields or electrical signals transmitted across the arena.

The mass of the “Nanites” is just a few nanograms. They are manufactured from materials such as aluminum, nickel, gold, silicon and chromium.

The future application range from cleaning water reservoirs in third world countries to medical application fixing defects in our bodies on the cellular level.

You may have seen the potential use and potential risks associated with using such technologies in the science fiction world:

“In 2366 Wesley Crusher experimented with Nanites aboard the USS Enterprise-D to see if he could enhance their capabilities, by letting them work together. When these Nanites escaped they entered the Enterprise computer core were they multiplied and interfered with almost all ship operations. When Doctor Paul Stubbs tried to kill them, the Nanites retaliated by taking over control of the Enterprise life support systems and even tried to kill him. At that point the escaped Nanites were considered "alive." The destruction of the Enterprise was prevented by Data who was able to talk to the Nanites and as their spokesman was able to come to an agreement with Captain Jean-Luc Picard. The enhanced Nanites were eventually transferred to the Kavis Alpha IV where they founded their own civilization. [http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Nanite]”

We are not there yet, but the good thing is that etiquette and protocols of handling such nano technology particles and devices, are also evolving along side the technology itself to ensure the safety and constructive interactions with the technology as it matures.

The Nanosoccer contests drives innovation in this new field and is designed to inspire young scientists and engineers to get involved.