Andy who along with his PR firm Comunicano played a leading role in helping ensure the success of the inaugural eComm 2008 just pointed me to a post of his were he draws a quick distinction between the eComm conference and the Telco 2.0 conference. I hit comment and began to type a quicky reply to provide my opinion as well as clarification but when I hit around nine hundred words, I figured it was too long for reply and so decided to post it here instead.
The first focus of eComm is innovation because the telecoms innovation landscape has changed with 2007 having been the perfect storm to initiate a new conference on this topic (700 MHz, Android, iPhone Etc.). The telecoms world has changed and there is also a new game underplay. Specifically communications innovation is being democratized and at the same time for the first time ever the mobile handset is opening up in a serious way to edge innovation (plus telecom platforms are moving to being more open like Internet platforms). The combination of the two is terribly exciting and that is largely what we are focusing on. Telecom becomes software, the "phone" becomes the "computer" and the application landscape that flourishes is quite simply mind-blowing. Nothing will be the same again. The opportunities are exceptional. We are just at the start of that and eComm plans to track, promote and highlight this new era in communications. I can't wait.
I greatly respect what the Telco 2.0 lot (STL) are doing. It's a job that needs to be done. They are holding operators (and vendors) by the hand and doing their best such that as many as possible can walk thru the storm instead of fall off the sides along the way. They do a tremendous amount of quality research. They really are world class and the work they have been doing on the double-sided business model is exceptional. But their first focus is business models. This is not surprising as it is what carriers/vendors and their shareholders are having problems with. With current business models their pain will only increase whereas with the types of business models being developed by the Telco 2.0 lot, quite a few will prosper instead. I'm also an avid subscriber to the Telco 2.0 blog and newsletter!
So roughly speaking Telco 2.0 is business model innovation first and eComm is technological innovation first.
Last month at eComm I was honored to have Martin who is a Chief Analyst at Telco 2.0 open up day three with a keynote. I was so impressed with his talk that I've asked ITconversations.com to distribute it (in due course it will be - stay tuned). The reason Martin was invited aside from being loved by the eComm community (he was rated as a top speaker, was on the 2008 advisory board and is very supportive of the community even to the point of helping sell tickets), is that he had something exceptional to say in terms of innovation around telecom business models. My extremely crude take on it was that the current relationship between consumers, telecom operators, over the top providers is not healthy and is set to get worse at the current trajectory. Creative business models, in particular the two-sided model will restore balance to the ecology such that all can prosper together. Their research into how shipping atoms has evolved and using that as a reflection point for moving bits was exceptional material. So it's not that we don't care about business models (we even had Bob Frankston speak on the topic), but it's low priority unless there is something exceptionally innovative that can impact the whole innovation landscape. With the Telco 2.0 lot, I'd guess that technological innovation has a low priority unless there is something exceptional that appears there (for example so disruptive it affects business models).
Martin was also "thrown" onto the "What Will Drive Wireless Innovation?" panel just before it started with no warning! The panel also featured Skype, Vodafone, Google, Nokia/Trolltech and Christopher Allen (who initiated the iPhone Dev Camp). Martin was a great addition and did very well, particularly for someone who got added on the spot without prior warning! Martin helped open up the panel discussion by stating that the iPhone would impact the innovation landscape not because of the touch UI Etc. but because it broke free from the current business model (it reversed the current handset subsidy model, such that the handset manufacturer receives money back rather than the consumer). He also played the provocateur by saying that it was changes in business models that would drive innovation!
So trying to make a dichotomy that Telco 2.0 is about "big company perspective" while eComm is about "emerging start-ups" is untrue. We had Skype, Microsoft and Google keynote and ordinary sessions from the likes of Orange, Vodafone, Intel and British Telecom (i.e. clearly not start-ups). We don't care if a company is an international corporation or two men in a garage; what we care about is whether they are driving forwards communications innovation or reducing the barriers to communications innovation. That is the benchmark.
The distinction as outlined is that Telco 2.0 puts its emphasis on business model innovation whereas eComm puts its emphasis on technological innovation. Any overlap is really at the fringes. Rather there is a great interplay between the two, i.e. the two are complimentary. As one can imagine larger corporations tend to have more interest in business models than smaller companies and smaller companies tend to be the most ahead-of-the-curve in terms of innovation, so from that perspective, I see where Andy is coming from.
The ultimate telecom conference on Earth would be an eComm and a Telco 2.0 co-hosted. Anyway, I hope I clarified things!
The first focus of eComm is innovation because the telecoms innovation landscape has changed with 2007 having been the perfect storm to initiate a new conference on this topic (700 MHz, Android, iPhone Etc.). The telecoms world has changed and there is also a new game underplay. Specifically communications innovation is being democratized and at the same time for the first time ever the mobile handset is opening up in a serious way to edge innovation (plus telecom platforms are moving to being more open like Internet platforms). The combination of the two is terribly exciting and that is largely what we are focusing on. Telecom becomes software, the "phone" becomes the "computer" and the application landscape that flourishes is quite simply mind-blowing. Nothing will be the same again. The opportunities are exceptional. We are just at the start of that and eComm plans to track, promote and highlight this new era in communications. I can't wait.
I greatly respect what the Telco 2.0 lot (STL) are doing. It's a job that needs to be done. They are holding operators (and vendors) by the hand and doing their best such that as many as possible can walk thru the storm instead of fall off the sides along the way. They do a tremendous amount of quality research. They really are world class and the work they have been doing on the double-sided business model is exceptional. But their first focus is business models. This is not surprising as it is what carriers/vendors and their shareholders are having problems with. With current business models their pain will only increase whereas with the types of business models being developed by the Telco 2.0 lot, quite a few will prosper instead. I'm also an avid subscriber to the Telco 2.0 blog and newsletter!
So roughly speaking Telco 2.0 is business model innovation first and eComm is technological innovation first.
Last month at eComm I was honored to have Martin who is a Chief Analyst at Telco 2.0 open up day three with a keynote. I was so impressed with his talk that I've asked ITconversations.com to distribute it (in due course it will be - stay tuned). The reason Martin was invited aside from being loved by the eComm community (he was rated as a top speaker, was on the 2008 advisory board and is very supportive of the community even to the point of helping sell tickets), is that he had something exceptional to say in terms of innovation around telecom business models. My extremely crude take on it was that the current relationship between consumers, telecom operators, over the top providers is not healthy and is set to get worse at the current trajectory. Creative business models, in particular the two-sided model will restore balance to the ecology such that all can prosper together. Their research into how shipping atoms has evolved and using that as a reflection point for moving bits was exceptional material. So it's not that we don't care about business models (we even had Bob Frankston speak on the topic), but it's low priority unless there is something exceptionally innovative that can impact the whole innovation landscape. With the Telco 2.0 lot, I'd guess that technological innovation has a low priority unless there is something exceptional that appears there (for example so disruptive it affects business models).
Martin was also "thrown" onto the "What Will Drive Wireless Innovation?" panel just before it started with no warning! The panel also featured Skype, Vodafone, Google, Nokia/Trolltech and Christopher Allen (who initiated the iPhone Dev Camp). Martin was a great addition and did very well, particularly for someone who got added on the spot without prior warning! Martin helped open up the panel discussion by stating that the iPhone would impact the innovation landscape not because of the touch UI Etc. but because it broke free from the current business model (it reversed the current handset subsidy model, such that the handset manufacturer receives money back rather than the consumer). He also played the provocateur by saying that it was changes in business models that would drive innovation!
So trying to make a dichotomy that Telco 2.0 is about "big company perspective" while eComm is about "emerging start-ups" is untrue. We had Skype, Microsoft and Google keynote and ordinary sessions from the likes of Orange, Vodafone, Intel and British Telecom (i.e. clearly not start-ups). We don't care if a company is an international corporation or two men in a garage; what we care about is whether they are driving forwards communications innovation or reducing the barriers to communications innovation. That is the benchmark.
The distinction as outlined is that Telco 2.0 puts its emphasis on business model innovation whereas eComm puts its emphasis on technological innovation. Any overlap is really at the fringes. Rather there is a great interplay between the two, i.e. the two are complimentary. As one can imagine larger corporations tend to have more interest in business models than smaller companies and smaller companies tend to be the most ahead-of-the-curve in terms of innovation, so from that perspective, I see where Andy is coming from.
The ultimate telecom conference on Earth would be an eComm and a Telco 2.0 co-hosted. Anyway, I hope I clarified things!
