Irwin Lazar's "Real-Time" Blog

What is SOA?

Just when you thought you've educated your voice teams on data and vice-versa, along comes unified communications, and the need to educate application developers on SIP, SIMPLE, presence, and VoIP as well as the communications application managers (what we used to refer to as the "voice guys") on application standards such as XML, SOAP, and W3C. At VoiceCon a couple of weeks ago I lost track of how many times I heard speakers mention these terms, and vendors note how their platforms were evolving into a communications web service as part of a service oriented architecture (say that 3 times fast).

For those of you new to SOA, Ken Camp has linked to a nice introduction. There is also the WIkipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-oriented_architecture

Has SPIT arrived?

In almost every VoIP security discussion I've seen or read, the topic of SPIT (Spam over IP Telephony) comes up. Usually the scenario is someone using VoIP to flood IP phone systems with unwanted calls, similar to the way spammers flood e-mail systems.

The general counter-argument is that VoIP isn't like SMTP-based e-mail. VoIP services are still closed, with calls only being allowed into the system from trusted peers.

I bring this up becauseJames Enck's EuroTelcoBloghas a post this morning which references an incident in Memphis in which an individual took advantage of a service called SpoofCard, which allows you to forge your CallerID information, to harass one of his neighbors.

I don't think this qualifies as "SPIT", since it wasn't an attack on IP telephony systems, but it does expose just another way that the PSTN isn't quite as secure asmany think it is.

Collaboration Loop: Fantasy Sports and Collaboration

My latest posting for Collaboration Loop is now available, it covers how on-line fantasy sports leagues are becoming drivers in the usage of real-time collaboration technologies.

Video Conferencing Web Cast

My colleague Robin Gareiss will be co-presenting a webinar on video conferencing with LifeSize on September 12, 2006.

Robin will be presenting trends in the video conferencing market as gathered from our past research efforts, including why enterprises are adopting VC, and what their experiences have been. I've had the chance to see the slide deck and there is a ton of information that will be of interest to anyone either evaluating or deploying IP video conferencing in their organization.