Orient Expression

Way back in June 2006 I posted this entry on using Gizmo with Asterisk as a SIP gateway. Skype have just released their latest Beta version of Skype for SIP which can be used with any PBX that supports a SIP service, this could be freePBX , but I still think there is room in the non-Enterprise space for Asterisk on a WiFi router (see the original post ). As we still talk about service and device convergence there is certainly a role for mobile handsets, like Nokia's E series phones, that support a SIP service. This can be used in the office as your desk phone. Skype for SIP will help build the momentum in their foray into the enterprise space. I would still like to think that mobile handsets can be used to fill the void in mobile and unified comms for the office roamers, it would certainly make life easier in the office I currently work in and save a mile or two of cabling running around the desks.

I now have my Snapper Card and eagerly waiting to use it on the bus for the first time. I still believe that Micropayments are due some further disruption where time and convenience would benefit from a payment card. My take on three candidates: 1. Taxi payment - not really a micropayment as typically fares will exceed $10 but this is included due to convenience. In a society where cash is no longer king you still need some to pay for your taxi home. You have the option of a credit card but you can't use EFTPOS. An ideal payment method would be the Snapper Card if the technology could be successfully integrated with the taxi itself. An extension of this would be a general rollout of GPS into cabs to help the drivers navigate around Wellington. If you combine GPS and Snapper properly you have a predictive cost tool based on point A to point B by road. 2. The cable car - in many ways integrated into the Wellington transport sphere enabling payment by Snapper must be a log...

A couple of weeks I took myself along to a seminar hosted by Google "Google in the Public Sector". They gave a run down of how government bodies across Asia Pacific are starting to use Google products. Of particular interest to me was the use of Google Maps integration. I have drawn on the idea before in some of my discussions for the Techdirt Insight Community but the seminar got me thinking about specific application to New Zealand. 1. Snapper Mapper: Snapper is the new RFID stored valued card that can be used on Wellington's Buses and Trains. The system uses GPS to keep track of the charging zone for the payment. An outward facing use for this would be to show which routes are now Snapper'd and of those where the bus currently is. Overlay this on Google Maps and you've given your customers a real time view of which bus they can use Snapper on and where the bus is. Good news for commuters looking to plan their journey. Here is an example of what is achieva...

This year's Olympics should be the best ever for coverage. Fring are looking for onsite commentators and as a means to encourage people are offering a 3.5G phone as your reporters tool. I hope that this will be the games of the micro blog. The potential for services like Twitter or Jaiku to open up access to the games in a way never seen before is encouraging. Essentially there are three dimensions to the games: Nation Event Athlete Typically broadcast of the games ha content defined by the nation. The USA channels closely follow the USA squad, the same for UK, NZ Australia etc. This is targeted at the national pride. For those people who are actively engaged in an event themselves, marathon, it's the event that is king. There will still be an element of "my country" but this is equally balanced by "my sport". The final element is the followers of a specific athlete. Friends, family and fans may elect to follow all of the events surrounding a person. ...

Less than 6 months after I posted my EFTPOS meets the Wellington public transport idea Snapper is now on the hook. Snapper is the Wellington take on the EZLink card with RFID payments for transport and micro payments. After seeing the first on-bus terminal on Tuesday today I witnessed the ANZ branded snapper keyring being used by a customer to buy their lunch. Back to the drawing board.

While many cities have already dabbled with, and in many cases shutdown, city WiFi projects Bangkok is just rolling theirs out . The speeds will be low, around the 64K mark, as the service is designed to allow employees to check their email and use IM. This is all in an effort to give people an alternative to the daily commute in the time of high fuel prices, lack of supply for NGV cars (Taxis) and the general congestion problems on the capital's roads. Having worked from home on ADSL and dealing with large attachments typically sent my email today the low speed will be impacting on adoption. Overall I wish the operator every success but feel that the service is doomed from the start. The main concern is how much business, even general business, can be conducted in a hands off approach in Thailand. The Wai is still a powerful sales and business tool. Face-to-face meetings will continue to be the core of the decision making process and distance from the Pu Yai's office ties i...

New Zealand, although small, is a long way ahead in many aspects compared to the UK. Some of their new schemes are being adopted by the UK government. What I remember from my first trip here 6 years ago was the impact of the EFTPOS system. Long before the UK was using Chip and PIN New Zealand was moving towards a cashless society with the ubiquitous EFTPOS (Electronic Funds Transfer Point of Sale) cards and terminals. The system is good and robust. But the one place you can't find it for some of those micropayments is on the public transport system. Buses would benefit from some form of electronic payment system. There is one drawback of the system in it's implementation today, the time taking to pay. For small payments, say a Moro (think Mars) Bar at the local dairy (corner shop) is the time taken for the system to recognise the card and for the user to select the account (Cheque, Savings or Card) and input their PIN. This would certainly slow down the boarding process...