Insight Community

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

Following the July 4th weekend, there's still plenty of Summer vacationing time left.  But if you've taken a vacation recently, have you discovered particularly useful mobile services for touring unfamiliar cities?  Have any mobile services helped you with traveling to (or around) a vacation spot? What do you think of airline tickets via mobile phones?  If you're planning a "working vacation" or just a vacation, do you know of mobile solutions that help manage "work" and "non-work" functions on the same phone?  What sort of phone accessories do you think make traveling more convenient?  Do you have any tips or recommended apps for mobile phones that could make a vacation more enjoyable?

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

Nokia's announcement that it will make Symbian open source adds to a growing movement of developing more open wireless platforms.  So what are the consequences?  Will Google's Android platform, the Symbian Foundation, Openmoko and other mobile platform projects actually work together?  Or will they focus on different aspects and create differentiated devices?  Should consumers (not just developers) care about these projects?  How long will it take before these projects develop mainstream products?  What do these efforts mean for closed platforms (eg. Microsoft, Apple, etc.)?  What are the key components of a successful open source community -- and how do these open mobile platforms compare to each other?

In April, we began a conversation around The Future of Storage with support from Dell.  Top insights in the community were posted to http://thefutureofstorage.com/ with some making it to Ars Technica and in ad promotions. We're looking to continue the conversation with good insight into any of the following topics: Virtualization, iSCSI, FCoE, deduplification, thin provisioning, encryption etc.  

The focus of this conversation is centered on the SAN market and its current and future directions, including the aforementioned areas.  To get an idea of the type of insights we're looking for, just look over http://thefutureofstorage.com/ to see some earlier posts. Please note that while that site is sponsored by Dell, the topic for discussion is not vendor specific.

In continuing this conversation, feel free to write about any topic in this space that you think would fit on the site, such as where you think the SAN market is heading. Alternatively, feel free to write thoughtful insights that address some of the points raised in earlier posts on The Future of Storage site.

For the purpose of encouraging discussion, here are a few topics that might be interesting to explore:

• What type of storage architectures (SAN, NAS, iSCSI, FC, DAS) work well for virtualized servers and why?
• What methods are best for accessing/provisioning storage with virtual systems (virtual group service, like VMWare? software function in the virutal system? raw device interface?)
• What backup methodologies make sense for virtual server environments?

If you have personal experience with any of these, or even just want to walk through your thought process in evaluating options, those tend to make for very interesting posts.

Also, as we look to continue this ongoing conversation, please let us know what other topics you think would be good to discuss in future months.

The insights selected to be on this site will each get a "share" of the bonus pool below. You can write multiple insights to get multiple shares.

PLEASE NOTE: We are looking for unique insights that delve into a single subject concerning this topic. Don't try to cover too many things in a single insight submission. Again, look over the existing Future of Storage site to get an idea of what's appropriate.

Like last time, please get your insights in early. We will be closing the case once we feel there are enough insights (somewhere between 10 and 20 insights).

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

Redeeming online coupons usually involves printing out a barcode, but coupons sent to mobile phones could potentially be much more convenient. So where are the mobile coupon offers? Have you found good sources for mobile coupons? Have you used services like Cellfire, ZiXXo, Moblee, QponDirect, MoVoxx, etc? What are the barriers for mobile coupon adoption (for either consumers or merchants)? How will GPS on phones affect mobile coupons?

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

There is an increasing number of ways to manage voicemails, especially with providers like Sprint licensing Visual Voicemail for its subscribers. But what are your favorite ways of dealing with your voicemail? Do you use services like YouMail.com or GotVoice.com? What do you think of voicemail transcription from PhoneTag and SpinVox? Or services like CallWave, Pinger, Jott, etc? Besides all these current offerings, where do you think voicemail features are headed in the future? Will Twitter ever revive Odeo?

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

For some time now, local-mobile search services have promised to provide users with quick and easy ways to find nearby pizza restaurants and dry cleaners. So what are your favorite uses for local-mobile search? Have you used services like Dial Directions? Can you recommend any "cheap gas" services that are optimized for mobile phone users? What do you think the "top 10" uses of mobile-local search are?

Business analytics are playing an increasingly important role in helping companies gain the insight they need to make better decisions. How have you found this to be the case with your business? Please share your best examples with us of how analytics (CRM, dashboards, or other analytics capabilities) have improved the performance of your business. For an example, see this video clip by Malcolm Gladwell.

Responses for this case will be used in a whitepaper being created by Techdirt for TheCustomerCollective and included with the results of a survey we are hosting titled, "CRM Analytics."

LetsTalk's PhoneTalk blog wants to add new voices to its website, and they're posting regular Cases here for the Techdirt Insight Community to add interesting new content to their site. The winning submissions for each Challenge Case will be posted (perhaps with some editing) on the PhoneTalk blog -- with credits to the author. The following is LetsTalk's next assignment:

Symbian Ltd. turns 10 years old this June, so we're looking for some opinions on how far the Symbian OS has come -- and where it is headed in the future. If you're a developer, how effective do you think the Symbian Signed program has been? Does Google's Android platform offer a real threat to Symbian? How do you think Symbian will compete to maintain its market share as the dominant smartphone OS? Are there unique features of Symbian that will be hard to imitate? What capabilities should consumers look forward to with Symbian phones?

Last month, we kicked off The Future of Storage conversation with Dell, and now we're continuing that conversation.

Top insights in the community are being posted to http://thefutureofstorage.com/ with some also getting posted to Ars Technica's website -- as well as in ad promotions for the site.

The focus of this conversation is centered on the SAN market and its current and future directions, including things like iSCSI, FCoE, deduplification, virtualization, thin provisioning, encryption, etc. We're looking for good insight into any of those topics. To get an idea of the type of insights we're looking for, just look over http://thefutureofstorage.com/ to see some earlier posts. While that site is sponsored by Dell, the topic for discussion is the SAN market in general -- and is not vendor specific.

In continuing this conversation, feel free to write about any topic in this space that you think would fit on the site, such as where you think the SAN market is heading. Alternatively, feel free to write thoughtful insights that address some of the points raised in earlier posts on The Future of Storage site.

• For example, some are saying that the market really isn't changing that much. Do you think that's true? If so, why, and is that an issue going forward? If not, why not?

http://thefutureofstorage.com/archives/24

• How important is simplicity vs. complexity?

http://thefutureofstorage.com/archives/22
http://thefutureofstorage.com/archives/6

• What about the ongoing discussion concerning FCoE?

http://thefutureofstorage.com/archives/28
http://thefutureofstorage.com/archives/32

Also, as we look to continue this ongoing conversation, feel free to email us what types of questions you think we should be asking in future months to keep the conversation going.

The insights selected to be on this site will each get a "share" of the bonus pool below. You can write multiple insights to get multiple shares.

PLEASE NOTE: We are looking for unique insights that delve into a single subject concerning this topic. Don't try to cover too many things in a single insight submission. Again, look over the existing Future of Storage site to get an idea of what's appropriate.

Like last time, please get your insights in early. We will be closing the case once we feel there are enough insights for the month (somewhere between 10 and 20 insights).