Will Adblock drive new web business models?

September 12, 2007
FirefoxA plug-in for Firefox has been driving Mark Evans to write a couple rants in the past few weeks.

Mark calls the technology evil.

Adblock Plus enables Firefox users to surf the web without advertising. As Nick Carr writes:

Imagine that somebody has been yelling into your ear for so long that it’s come to seem normal. Now imagine that the person suddenly shuts up. That’s the effect of ad-blocking. It’s like going back to the feel of the web in the early 90s, before it was strip-malled.

But Mark Evans is with a company that produces and syndicates blogs. His firm has a business model that is dependent on an advertising model. Perhaps Web 2.0 business models will need to evolve.

Ironic, isn’t it?

Update [September 12, 11:00 am]
I had not realized that Mark is no longer with B5media and is now working at a new travel guide technology start-up, planeteye.com. Thanks Peter for the heads-up.

Technorati Tags:
,

Not competitive enough

September 11, 2007

CRTCThe CRTC has been approving applications for forbearance for Bell and TELUS and other ILECs offering local services. A number of decisions have been issued as the Commission deals with the applications in an expedited fashion.

But today, the CRTC said no to 56 out of 58 areas for which Bell had applied for forbearance.

information provided by Bell Canada and confirmed by competitors indicates that none of the competitors is capable of serving at least 75 percent of the number of residential local exchange service lines that Bell Canada is capable of serving in each of these exchanges.

The competitive presence test is critical to assure the Commission a residential local exchange services will be subject to a level of competition sufficient to protect the interests of users.

Technorati Tags:
, ,

Michael Geist on Net Neutrality

September 11, 2007
CARTTThe Tuesday interview in CARTT today is with Michael Geist on the topic of Net Neutrality.

Greg O’Brien of CARTT asked Dr. Geist why the issue hasn’t had the level of prominence in Canada that it attracts south of the border.

Michael answers:

I’d at least like to see a real debate take place… and it’s been frustrating. So you know this (diversity of voices) hearing is next week, and the fact that we had a couple people step forward, a couple major content organizations step forward and put it on the table, I think suggests that at least within some of the corporate community, there’s a growing realization that this is a relevant issue. And I think within the CRTC there is a realization that it’s an issue that they can’t avoid forever.

How should government address the issue?

From my perspective, the issues we need to be thinking about is not that the government come in and establish a wide layer of regulations for every issue under the sun, but rather recognize that the internet itself has changed dramatically really from a consumption-internet to a participatory internet. And from a policy and law perspective, we ought to be thinking about what kind of rules the government might consider to help facilitate some of that.

It is an interesting interview, worthwhile reading.

Technorati Tags:
, ,

Are payphones too expensive?

September 11, 2007

PIACIs 50 cents too much to pay for a local phone call?

Last week, Industry Canada published details about the cabinet appeals of the CRTC’s price cap decision (Decision 2007-27), focusing on pay phone rates doubling to 50 cents.

PIAC‘s appeal has been supported by Louise Thibault, the independent MP for Rimouski, the National Anti-Poverty Organization and Union des consommateurs.

The appeal acknowledges the CRTC’s original rationale:

The Commission recognizes that pay telephone rates have not increased for most ILECs for almost 25 years. The Commission considers reasonable the position of the Companies that the costs of providing pay telephone services have increased since the last increase in rates in 1981

PIAC is concerned about the social aspects surrounding continued pay phone availability and affordability for low income Canadians and those who do not have subscriptions to wireline or wireless phones.

PIAC has asked cabinet to refer just the portion of the Decision dealing with pay telephone rates back to the CRTC for reconsideration.

Comments on the appeals need to be filed this month.

Technorati Tags:
,

How good is good enough?

September 10, 2007

Alec Saunders asks “How many nines, RIM” in respect of RIM’s network outage on Friday.

Email messages to my Blackberry were off the air for about 3 hours, and it took another 16 hours for the backlog to catch up: first in, last out apparently.

It helps raise the question of “What is a reasonable service to expect from our IP applications?” Alec asks “Should we have the same expectations for reliability from the BlackBerry service as phone service?”

Let me extend that question: should we have the same expectations for reliability for new voice applications as we did for traditional phone service? Didn’t early generation cell phone service help condition us for less than pin-drop crystal clear connections? [remember those ads?]

Admit it. Haven’t you ever hung up on someone and blamed it on the network? “Sorry, must have been a bad cell hand-off.”

Are we being demanding enough or expecting too much?

Technorati Tags:
,

Scroll to Top