Talking Tech, Friday, October 27

0.20 – Mark brings up MacLeans’ article “The Internet Sucksâ€? which focuses on the worst of the internet, not the promise of the internet.  The guys discuss the philosophical basis for the article – is the internet over-hyped and is the technology media/blogosphere too close to the issue to realize this?

 

4.53 – The internet isn’t perfect but Mark says that, like the wild west, we will reign in the internet and make it live up to its potential.  Kevin admits that it isn’t perfect, but it does break up time and space which is a good thing

 

6.08 – Mark says that society did get caught up in the hype of a new tool in the dot com boom and there was some crazy investing going on. Now the investment landscape is very different with web 2.0 companies doing great things on a shoestring budget

 

8.08 – Check out Mark’s post, co-authored by the writer of ‘The Internet Sucks’, Steve Naich.

 

9.18 – The guys segue way into Google’s stock which is performing superbly ($488 U.S. at the time of recording) against its peers.  Kevin thinks that Google is overvalued and wonders when the investor euphoria will end

 

10.39 – Mark thinks the euphoria ends when the music ends, when the first disappointing quarter is announced.  The company will still be a leader, but the sky’s the limit attitude will be gone.  However, Google’s market cap is so huge that it can position itself to brace for the downturn – as with the YouTube acquisition

 

12.56 – Mark predicts more bold moves from Google while Kevin likes the amount they’re throwing against the walls, even if not all of it sticks

 

13.46 – Cisco video conferencing.  Mark thinks video conferencing hasn’t lived up to its potential but Kevin believes the new breed of video conferencing technologies are pretty exciting.  Synching video and audio is easy to imagine but hard to do – services like Cisco’s or HP’s Halo cost around $300,000.

 

15.13 – If you are a multinational company, having to assemble virtual teams, then the benefits could outweigh the costs.  Mark’s new company, b5media, works virtually and the team starting to use Skype video – seeing people’s expressions is invaluable

 

16.41 – Kevin is fine with a vanilla phone call.  He likes the freedom to multitask and do other things like email.

 

17.02 – Kevin hasn’t used the new, hyped, tools but says the experience that people have been promised is here.  At a price

 

17.42 – Mark wraps things up – the internet doesn’t suck, but video conferencing might

 

What do you think? Email Mark and Kevin at [e-mail] or leave an audio comment on the Talking Tech hotline: [phone].

 

As always, the music is No Mojo by Anthony Stauffer and Holy Smoke which is available on the pod safe music network.