Published in Interface Tech News
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. ‹ Stepping up its support of Internet micro-transactions, Clickshare has brought a financial-services helper to the table: Multi Service Corporation, headquartered in Overland Park, Kan.
Clickshare's business is centered on micro-transactions, in which Internet users pay small amounts for specific pieces of content, such as an archived newspaper article or video clip. While many companies handle the transactions themselves, Clickshare not only moves the money, but also allows a user's registration at one member site to be valid at all other Clickshare member sites.
After the transactions, Clickshare makes sure the money gets funneled appropriately. Now Multi Service, a handler of private-label credit cards, will take care of the actual movement of money, in exchange for a cut of the transaction amount.
Forrester Research analyst James Crawford is skeptical about micro-transactions in the near term. "It's a technology in search of an audience," he said. "It's been an area that's seen a lot of activity and not a lot of success."
Name recognition is a big deal to consumers, Crawford said. He expects a micro-transaction standard to emerge, but not from small startups like Clickshare.
"It's going to come from a financial services provider," Crawford said. "Consumers just don't trust Internet startups."
ClickShare needs to process more than the $10,000 in daily transactions the company has cited as representative, Crawford added, noting that the company only retains a small percentage of each transaction.
"To be profitable, they're going to have to get orders of magnitude, more customers," Crawford said.
ClickShare CTO Richard Lerner said that is the company's major focus. "Mostly what we're doing is building up our network of clients," he said, adding that each client is a Web site with many regular viewers.
Lerner said the company has "about a dozen" live clients and is in talks with "a couple of dozen" more companies, serving what he called "potentially millions of registered users." He said the company does not have many registered users at the moment.
He hopes Multi Service's strengths will meet Clickshare's needs as it expands.
"They have a lot of expertise in handling financial matters and handling customer service," Lerner said.
Monday, September 24, 2001
Friday, September 21, 2001
$20 million adds voice recognition to Nexiq arsenal
Published in Interface Tech News
MANCHESTER, N.H. ‹ A late August infusion of nearly $20 million from its investors and Manchester-based Sunrise Capital Parters led off a round of partnership announcements for telematics hardware and software company Nexiq. The first, with Salt Lake City-based Fonix, will add voice-recognition and text-to-speech software to Nexiq's in-vehicle framework for integration of electronic devices.
According to company spokesman Brian Payne, the framework allows connection of personal devices such as mobile phones and PDAs to be connected to a car, allowing access to the devices through displays on the dashboard and the console often found between the front seats.
Payne said telematics also allows electronic diagnostics to be performed from remote locations. While it is commonplace for cars to have electronic components and require attention from mechanics using special devices, it is not yet common for managers of corporate truck and car fleets to keep track of their vehicles' maintenance schedules while they are on the road.
Payne added that telematics can be somewhat like the On-Star system currently offered in GM's top-line automobiles, in which drivers can press a button and ask for directions from their location to a restaurant, gas station, or other destination.
In a report published by TechMall, USB Warburg analyst Saul Rubin predicted the rapid expansion of telematics services and devices in the near future. He said vehicle manufacturers will likely brand their own telematics services, but will outsource the building of hardware and software to support it.
MANCHESTER, N.H. ‹ A late August infusion of nearly $20 million from its investors and Manchester-based Sunrise Capital Parters led off a round of partnership announcements for telematics hardware and software company Nexiq. The first, with Salt Lake City-based Fonix, will add voice-recognition and text-to-speech software to Nexiq's in-vehicle framework for integration of electronic devices.
According to company spokesman Brian Payne, the framework allows connection of personal devices such as mobile phones and PDAs to be connected to a car, allowing access to the devices through displays on the dashboard and the console often found between the front seats.
Payne said telematics also allows electronic diagnostics to be performed from remote locations. While it is commonplace for cars to have electronic components and require attention from mechanics using special devices, it is not yet common for managers of corporate truck and car fleets to keep track of their vehicles' maintenance schedules while they are on the road.
Payne added that telematics can be somewhat like the On-Star system currently offered in GM's top-line automobiles, in which drivers can press a button and ask for directions from their location to a restaurant, gas station, or other destination.
In a report published by TechMall, USB Warburg analyst Saul Rubin predicted the rapid expansion of telematics services and devices in the near future. He said vehicle manufacturers will likely brand their own telematics services, but will outsource the building of hardware and software to support it.
Thursday, September 20, 2001
Small business tucked away in Cape Elizabeth
Published in the Current
Cape Elizabeth has a few storefront businesses, mainly found in the shopping plaza in the town center. But most of Cape’s businesses are less visible, though no less active, according to town business owners.
State law requires sole proprietorships and partnerships to register with the clerk’s office of the town in which they are based.
Corporations don’t need a town license, since their papers are on file with the state, according to Town Clerk Debra Lane.
Most of the businesses on file in the town office are service businesses, with a high concentration of design firms and financial consulting businesses. For those business owners, working from Cape Elizabeth is often as much of a lifestyle choice as anything else.
“In the graphics industry a lot of work can be done via the Internet,” said Kim McClellan of McClellan Graphic Services. She works out of her home, which enables her to adapt her schedule to her family.
“My hours are flexible,” she said. “It’s been really invaluable for me to work out of the house.”
Another home-based business is the Intelligent Design Enforcement Agency, run by Thomas and Candace Puckett. They are a writer and graphic-design team who lived in Washington, D.C., for years before moving to New England in search of a more laid back lifestyle.
“We live here for the beautiful scenery,” Thomas Puckett said.
With an office behind the house and one inside, the business isn’t exactly visible from the street.
“You would never know,” Puckett said.
High-speed Internet connectivity and reasonable shipping deadlines have enabled the Pucketts to work without much trouble.
Puckett called TimeWarner Cable’s RoadRunner Internet service “the spine of my business,” and said he has learned to work around the 4 p.m. FedEx deadline for overnight shipping.
Paulina Salvucci of Self Care Connection is also taking advantage of modern communications in her business. She is a personal coach for people coping with
chronic illness and those caring for them.
She sells her booklets and advertises her services on her business’s web site. It broadens her market base so that she can live in Maine and work with people all over the country.
“I love working at home,” Salvucci said. “It gives me a lot of freedom.”
She warned that there is a danger: “When you work at home, you can really overwork.”
She has set hours for the different tasks she needs to do, and has times of the day when she does things other than work. Even then, there are other challenges.
“You work in isolation unless you connect with other people,” Salvucci said.
She keeps in close touch with other professionals in her field, in Maine and elsewhere.
She loves living in Maine, and working in her Cape Elizabeth home office allows her to do that.
“I was one of those people who summered in Maine,” she said.
In 1979 she moved to Portland and eventually bought a house in the Cape. “I wanted someplace that was quiet and rural that was close to the city,” Salvucci said.
Businesses must file a form with the town clerk’s office and pay a one-time $10 fee, town clerk Lane said. When the business leaves town or dissolves, she said, the owner must notify the clerk. Home office businesses must also get a $50 permit from the town’s code enforcement officer.
Cape Elizabeth has a few storefront businesses, mainly found in the shopping plaza in the town center. But most of Cape’s businesses are less visible, though no less active, according to town business owners.
State law requires sole proprietorships and partnerships to register with the clerk’s office of the town in which they are based.
Corporations don’t need a town license, since their papers are on file with the state, according to Town Clerk Debra Lane.
Most of the businesses on file in the town office are service businesses, with a high concentration of design firms and financial consulting businesses. For those business owners, working from Cape Elizabeth is often as much of a lifestyle choice as anything else.
“In the graphics industry a lot of work can be done via the Internet,” said Kim McClellan of McClellan Graphic Services. She works out of her home, which enables her to adapt her schedule to her family.
“My hours are flexible,” she said. “It’s been really invaluable for me to work out of the house.”
Another home-based business is the Intelligent Design Enforcement Agency, run by Thomas and Candace Puckett. They are a writer and graphic-design team who lived in Washington, D.C., for years before moving to New England in search of a more laid back lifestyle.
“We live here for the beautiful scenery,” Thomas Puckett said.
With an office behind the house and one inside, the business isn’t exactly visible from the street.
“You would never know,” Puckett said.
High-speed Internet connectivity and reasonable shipping deadlines have enabled the Pucketts to work without much trouble.
Puckett called TimeWarner Cable’s RoadRunner Internet service “the spine of my business,” and said he has learned to work around the 4 p.m. FedEx deadline for overnight shipping.
Paulina Salvucci of Self Care Connection is also taking advantage of modern communications in her business. She is a personal coach for people coping with
chronic illness and those caring for them.
She sells her booklets and advertises her services on her business’s web site. It broadens her market base so that she can live in Maine and work with people all over the country.
“I love working at home,” Salvucci said. “It gives me a lot of freedom.”
She warned that there is a danger: “When you work at home, you can really overwork.”
She has set hours for the different tasks she needs to do, and has times of the day when she does things other than work. Even then, there are other challenges.
“You work in isolation unless you connect with other people,” Salvucci said.
She keeps in close touch with other professionals in her field, in Maine and elsewhere.
She loves living in Maine, and working in her Cape Elizabeth home office allows her to do that.
“I was one of those people who summered in Maine,” she said.
In 1979 she moved to Portland and eventually bought a house in the Cape. “I wanted someplace that was quiet and rural that was close to the city,” Salvucci said.
Businesses must file a form with the town clerk’s office and pay a one-time $10 fee, town clerk Lane said. When the business leaves town or dissolves, she said, the owner must notify the clerk. Home office businesses must also get a $50 permit from the town’s code enforcement officer.
Cape Fire Department raises $25,000 for NY relief effort
Published in the Current
In seven hours on Saturday, the town of Cape Elizabeth donated over $25,000 to help firefighters and rescue personnel in New York City.
Immediately upon hearing the news of Tuesday’s tragedies, the firefighters and rescue workers in Cape Elizabeth wanted to go to New York to help, said Fire Chief Philip McGouldrick.
“The frustration level was high,” he said. “They wanted to do something.”
McGouldrick checked with state emergency officials and learned that the rescue efforts had enough people. Cape’s crews are, he said, on a backup list if
they need more help down the road.
The department explored several options for fundraisers, but none of them seemed right. A bottle drive might have worked, if not for the recent Cape high school field hockey bottle effort.
Friday afternoon, McGouldrick said, Deputy Chief Peter Gleeson suggested a boot drive.
The department got approval from the town manager to do the drive, and on Saturday morning, members, the water extrication team and fire police fanned out across
town: by the town office building, at Fort Williams and near the town dump.
The major effort was in the parking lot next to the town building, McGouldrick said.
The idea was to have people pull off into the parking lot and give donations, he said. But traffic backed up, and firefighters headed out into the street with boots outstretched.
“The traffic got backed up a little but nobody seemed to mind,” McGouldrick said.
Donors, he said, were very generous.
“People would open their wallets and put all the money in,” he said. Donations included three $100 bills, and checks for $500, $300 and $100. Other donors
drove by again and again, dropping money in boots each time.
People responded well, McGouldrick said. “They were so happy that we were doing it.”
The effort was supported by several town children who set up their own fundraising sites and brought the money to the fire department, McGouldrick said.
The coins donated filled a five gallon bucket, he said.
“I’ve never seen so much change in my life,” McGouldrick said.
The coins have gone to be counted and are not included in the $25,000 total, McGouldrick said. The total includes only bills and checks.
The department is continuing to accept donations, but will not be soliciting on the town’s streets.
“The community gave and gave generously,” McGouldrick said.
In seven hours on Saturday, the town of Cape Elizabeth donated over $25,000 to help firefighters and rescue personnel in New York City.
Immediately upon hearing the news of Tuesday’s tragedies, the firefighters and rescue workers in Cape Elizabeth wanted to go to New York to help, said Fire Chief Philip McGouldrick.
“The frustration level was high,” he said. “They wanted to do something.”
McGouldrick checked with state emergency officials and learned that the rescue efforts had enough people. Cape’s crews are, he said, on a backup list if
they need more help down the road.
The department explored several options for fundraisers, but none of them seemed right. A bottle drive might have worked, if not for the recent Cape high school field hockey bottle effort.
Friday afternoon, McGouldrick said, Deputy Chief Peter Gleeson suggested a boot drive.
The department got approval from the town manager to do the drive, and on Saturday morning, members, the water extrication team and fire police fanned out across
town: by the town office building, at Fort Williams and near the town dump.
The major effort was in the parking lot next to the town building, McGouldrick said.
The idea was to have people pull off into the parking lot and give donations, he said. But traffic backed up, and firefighters headed out into the street with boots outstretched.
“The traffic got backed up a little but nobody seemed to mind,” McGouldrick said.
Donors, he said, were very generous.
“People would open their wallets and put all the money in,” he said. Donations included three $100 bills, and checks for $500, $300 and $100. Other donors
drove by again and again, dropping money in boots each time.
People responded well, McGouldrick said. “They were so happy that we were doing it.”
The effort was supported by several town children who set up their own fundraising sites and brought the money to the fire department, McGouldrick said.
The coins donated filled a five gallon bucket, he said.
“I’ve never seen so much change in my life,” McGouldrick said.
The coins have gone to be counted and are not included in the $25,000 total, McGouldrick said. The total includes only bills and checks.
The department is continuing to accept donations, but will not be soliciting on the town’s streets.
“The community gave and gave generously,” McGouldrick said.
Monday, September 17, 2001
Phone service snafu pits ISPs against Verizon
Published in Interface Tech News
CONCORD, N.H. ‹ Phone customers in New Hampshire have had problems getting telephone dial tones since 1999, leading to dangerous situations when even 911 is unreachable in some towns. The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission has been discussing the situation for two years and, despite the filing in May of a Verizon New Hampshire proposal that could alleviate the problem, the commission has not yet determined a course of action.
"We're still analyzing the filing," said PUC chief engineer Kate Bailey, who predicted there could be a technical review session before the commission rules on the proposal, and offered no projected timetable for a ruling.
High telephone circuit use has clogged some Verizon New Hampshire central office switches, causing dial-tone delays for outbound callers, fast busy signals for inbound callers, and, in some cases, lack of any dial tone.
The N.H. PUC requires that a dial tone be available within three seconds after a customer picks up a phone. If too many other phones are in use on the same circuit, this standard cannot be met.
The congestion, which the PUC, Verizon, and the New Hampshire Internet Service Providers Association (NHISPA) attribute primarily to increasing use of dial-up Internet services, has only worsened in the past two years. Verizon New Hampshire has been installing equipment at affected switching offices throughout the state and has been experiencing a form of rolling blackouts in the phone system: as congestion is eased in one place, another location becomes overloaded.
One proposed solution is for New Hampshire ISPs to reduce their use of dial-in, or "switch-side" access to the Internet, and move instead to higher-bandwidth, dedicated-circuit systems like DSL, which are called "trunk-side" services.
The ISPs like the idea, saying they do not presently have access to trunk-side lines. "We don't have alternatives to the dial-up. They're not cost-effective for us," said Brian Susnock, president of the Nashua, N.H.-based Destek Group.
Destek has a federal suit pending against Verizon New Hampshire alleging the company engaged in improper procedures regarding exceptions to standard tariffs.
Susnock said there are, however, cheap workaround products available from Verizon New Hampshire, including alarm circuits intended to maintain constant contact between a burglar alarm system and a security company or police station.
Susnock said those circuits are not engineered for data transmission, and can have reliability problems when carrying data, but he uses them anyway because they are so much cheaper.
The PUC's solution is for Verizon to sell so-called "dry copper loops" to ISPs for data traffic. In response to a PUC request, on May 29 Verizon New Hampshire filed a so-called "illustrative tariff" to show the PUC and others what a tariff for dry copper might look like.
The proposal, still being examined by the PUC, has come under fire from the ISPs for charging excessive service fees, being inconsistent with Verizon Online's pricing practices, and for being exclusionary to ISPs.
The proposal would allow Verizon New Hampshire to charge ISPs between $200 and $2,200 in one-time fees to condition a copper loop for data transmission.
Verizon spokesman Erle Pierce said removal of these devices is time-consuming and expensive. "It's a lot of work to go out and unload those copper pairs," he said. Susnock said there is no need for Verizon workers to remove hardware from existing cables, and said there is a database which will tell engineers whether dry copper lines already exist in an area.
"Are there records which will tell you whether a cable pair is loaded or unloaded? Absolutely," Pierce said, but said they are only available for lines which already carry Verizon New Hampshire voice traffic, not for cables which currently carry no traffic. And the records are available only to what Pierce called "authorized CLECs." Pierce added, "Generally speaking, [the ISPs] want all the advantages of being a regulated company, without the regulation."
Chip Sullivan, a lawyer for Destek and for the NHISPA, said the ISPs are willing to pay for access to Verizon's engineering database, but balked at having to pay Verizon $5,000 per month in registration fees, just to be able to place orders for dry copper. On June 6, the NHPUC agreed and waived the monthly fee.
As for the alleged pricing discrepancy, Verizon Online offers DSL service in New Hampshire for $49.95 per month, less than the $64 proposed monthly cost of dry copper Verizon New Hampshire proposes. The dry copper service does not include actual Internet access, Web hosting space or e-mail, which are included in Verizon Online's fee. Pierce said the price difference is because Verizon Online buys "pre-qualified" copper, which does not need to be unloaded, and gets volume discounts.
The proposal would also prevent ISPs from buying dry copper in areas where Verizon and collocated CLECS are offering DSL service. If ISPs were operating in an area and a CLEC extended service to that area, the ISPs would be cut off. In the proposed tariff, Verizon's justification is that the ISPs have no regulation and therefore could use non-standard protocols over their wires which would cause interference with the regulated companies' services.
While the PUC has been investigating and discussing the matter and its related issues for over two years, Sullivan said much of the wait has been due to understaffing at the PUC. The deadlines for commission responses to Verizon filings, he said, are "faster than staffing allows." And even Verizon filed its illustrative tariff in 60 days, rather than the 30 days ordered by the PUC on March 29. The PUC's order promised a response from the staff within 30 days of the filing, which was on May 29.
Because there is no timetable for the next step of the evaluation process, New Hampshire telephone customers will have to hope they have a dial tone when they pick up the phone to call 911.
CONCORD, N.H. ‹ Phone customers in New Hampshire have had problems getting telephone dial tones since 1999, leading to dangerous situations when even 911 is unreachable in some towns. The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission has been discussing the situation for two years and, despite the filing in May of a Verizon New Hampshire proposal that could alleviate the problem, the commission has not yet determined a course of action.
"We're still analyzing the filing," said PUC chief engineer Kate Bailey, who predicted there could be a technical review session before the commission rules on the proposal, and offered no projected timetable for a ruling.
High telephone circuit use has clogged some Verizon New Hampshire central office switches, causing dial-tone delays for outbound callers, fast busy signals for inbound callers, and, in some cases, lack of any dial tone.
The N.H. PUC requires that a dial tone be available within three seconds after a customer picks up a phone. If too many other phones are in use on the same circuit, this standard cannot be met.
The congestion, which the PUC, Verizon, and the New Hampshire Internet Service Providers Association (NHISPA) attribute primarily to increasing use of dial-up Internet services, has only worsened in the past two years. Verizon New Hampshire has been installing equipment at affected switching offices throughout the state and has been experiencing a form of rolling blackouts in the phone system: as congestion is eased in one place, another location becomes overloaded.
One proposed solution is for New Hampshire ISPs to reduce their use of dial-in, or "switch-side" access to the Internet, and move instead to higher-bandwidth, dedicated-circuit systems like DSL, which are called "trunk-side" services.
The ISPs like the idea, saying they do not presently have access to trunk-side lines. "We don't have alternatives to the dial-up. They're not cost-effective for us," said Brian Susnock, president of the Nashua, N.H.-based Destek Group.
Destek has a federal suit pending against Verizon New Hampshire alleging the company engaged in improper procedures regarding exceptions to standard tariffs.
Susnock said there are, however, cheap workaround products available from Verizon New Hampshire, including alarm circuits intended to maintain constant contact between a burglar alarm system and a security company or police station.
Susnock said those circuits are not engineered for data transmission, and can have reliability problems when carrying data, but he uses them anyway because they are so much cheaper.
The PUC's solution is for Verizon to sell so-called "dry copper loops" to ISPs for data traffic. In response to a PUC request, on May 29 Verizon New Hampshire filed a so-called "illustrative tariff" to show the PUC and others what a tariff for dry copper might look like.
The proposal, still being examined by the PUC, has come under fire from the ISPs for charging excessive service fees, being inconsistent with Verizon Online's pricing practices, and for being exclusionary to ISPs.
The proposal would allow Verizon New Hampshire to charge ISPs between $200 and $2,200 in one-time fees to condition a copper loop for data transmission.
Verizon spokesman Erle Pierce said removal of these devices is time-consuming and expensive. "It's a lot of work to go out and unload those copper pairs," he said. Susnock said there is no need for Verizon workers to remove hardware from existing cables, and said there is a database which will tell engineers whether dry copper lines already exist in an area.
"Are there records which will tell you whether a cable pair is loaded or unloaded? Absolutely," Pierce said, but said they are only available for lines which already carry Verizon New Hampshire voice traffic, not for cables which currently carry no traffic. And the records are available only to what Pierce called "authorized CLECs." Pierce added, "Generally speaking, [the ISPs] want all the advantages of being a regulated company, without the regulation."
Chip Sullivan, a lawyer for Destek and for the NHISPA, said the ISPs are willing to pay for access to Verizon's engineering database, but balked at having to pay Verizon $5,000 per month in registration fees, just to be able to place orders for dry copper. On June 6, the NHPUC agreed and waived the monthly fee.
As for the alleged pricing discrepancy, Verizon Online offers DSL service in New Hampshire for $49.95 per month, less than the $64 proposed monthly cost of dry copper Verizon New Hampshire proposes. The dry copper service does not include actual Internet access, Web hosting space or e-mail, which are included in Verizon Online's fee. Pierce said the price difference is because Verizon Online buys "pre-qualified" copper, which does not need to be unloaded, and gets volume discounts.
The proposal would also prevent ISPs from buying dry copper in areas where Verizon and collocated CLECS are offering DSL service. If ISPs were operating in an area and a CLEC extended service to that area, the ISPs would be cut off. In the proposed tariff, Verizon's justification is that the ISPs have no regulation and therefore could use non-standard protocols over their wires which would cause interference with the regulated companies' services.
While the PUC has been investigating and discussing the matter and its related issues for over two years, Sullivan said much of the wait has been due to understaffing at the PUC. The deadlines for commission responses to Verizon filings, he said, are "faster than staffing allows." And even Verizon filed its illustrative tariff in 60 days, rather than the 30 days ordered by the PUC on March 29. The PUC's order promised a response from the staff within 30 days of the filing, which was on May 29.
Because there is no timetable for the next step of the evaluation process, New Hampshire telephone customers will have to hope they have a dial tone when they pick up the phone to call 911.
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