Masood Mortazavi's Weblog

Tuesday February 01, 2005

[ Web ] Another Technology Reporter Leaves to Start Dedicated Weblog

So, Dan Gillmor is not alone in his decision to leave a news organization for a different, perhaps more personal sort of reaching an audience, which is the dream of every journalist and writer. Dan seems to have built a business with his effort.

Now, Cynthia Webb, who recently announced her departure from WashingtonPost.Com and the end of her Filter column there, has launched her new technology news and views weblog, CynthiaWebb.Net.

In her last Filter column for the WashingtonPost.Com, Cynthia had summarized and picked out her top most favorite stories from Filter which ran for over 2 years.

Perhaps Cynthia will be as successful as Dan, and there may be others.

While I'd like to have cause to celebrate loudly these apparently individual acts of courage, I'm not sure what it means to separate oneself (or appear to separate onself) from a news or any professional organization for which one may be working, and instead, work alone, say on a weblog. Most people, but often not writers, feel really motivated when they are part of a larger organization. Most probably, both Dan and Cynthia have great individual capacity to keep themselves going, and it looks like other interests will not let their talents go to waste.

Journalism

2005-02-01 11:01:06.0 -- Comments [1] ; Permalink ; Trackback.

[ Personal ] Best Kebab in Town is an Afghan One

Steve White writes about his kebab story.

I am not much of a kebab eater and am often unsure of consuming meat prepared by others, but if you are in the Silicon Valley and want to eat some kebab or some other well-prepared meat dish, I would higly recommend Kabul Afghan Cuisine (833 W. El Camino Real, Sunnyvale, California). This is an absolutely unique place when it comes to the care taken in preparation.

A couple of Fridays ago, I visited it for the second time in six months, this time with an American-Afghan family friend as a way to celebrate Eid-ul-Adha with our families. All the dishes were absolutely wonderful. Come with a hungry stomach and don't order too much. A dish is often enough for two people. Order, too, some side dishes such as the manto or the eggplant preparations.

Restaurants

2005-02-01 07:55:07.0 -- Comments [2] ; Permalink ; Trackback.

[ Telecommunications ] Market Segmentation Through Generative Crossing

While new telecom technologies such as IMS have potential to become even more important and interesting, service providers and operators will want to make sure that as much of their services as possible remain (or can be developed) independent of 3G control (e.g. IMS/SIP) and bearer (e.g. 802.11/16x, CDMA, TDMA, etc.) technologies.
Mobile telecommunications carriers want to provide as much of their service offerings as possible on a varying set of mobile devices (legacy or new) operating on their networks, whether these mobile devices are SIP or Web Services enabled or not.
This is just good business sense for market segmentation.

Services are crossed (I mean an algebraic, generative "cross") with device types in order to help create distinct "service products" that allow customers to self-select themselves into market segments.

Self-selection into market segments is working very well in the mobile telecommunications market.

Each mobile network carrier simply provides enough device types and service plans to enable an "optimal" self-selection by its subscribers. Optimality becomes a trade off between supply chain costs on the one hand and customer "satisfaction" on the other.

On the one hand, supply chain, coordination, marketing and analysis costs increase as the number of (distinct) product lines increases. On the other hand, when there is greater product variety, greater value can be captured satisfying customers who have self-selected themselves into demand segments.

Greater service coverage across available devices allows for more productive, generative crossing of device and service types into virtual product "lines."
However, practical concerns will limit the service coverage over all active devices, legacy and new. Technology moves and enhances service and device possibilities.

Perfect, complete coverage across all device types, of course, is neither practical nor required nor always desirable. Furthermore, new infrastructure technologies such as IMS and SIP can provide new possibilities for service development on the newer devices. Product marketing, as I have said earlier, is a subtle art, and it becomes more subtle the more you know about a particular industry.

Take for example, Alfred Sloan's attempts to reduce product lines and rationalize product pricing in General Motors between 1918 to 1921. "A car for every purse and purpose," he wrote in the 1924 annual report.
At the time, although he did not put it that way, Sloan was actually searching for the optimal market segmentation through product line definition.
Same business problems return again and again.