Just finishing up here for today. I’ve been wandering the Demo Pavilion area, chatting with the various vendors. There’s a nice reception sponsored by Intercall and Microsoft Office LiveMeeting.
It seems like so many of the people I spoke to are pushing the same thing, some sort of conferencing software. I feel like asking everyone “But what makes yours different from that guy? And that guy? And those twelve other guys?”
At least I got a lot of free shwag 
Siemens showed me a closer look at their excellent HiPath OpenScape V2.0 software, while giving me a retractable phone extension cord and light-up keychain. They showed off the call-to-click by grabbing two people and hooking them up on their cell phones on their system. One smart idea: If you’re making a call on their system, it knows to say you’re busy in everyone else’s buddy list. They say they are working with cell phone carriers so that the networks report your status, so the program can note whenever you are on a call, or when you have no service.
I also got a retractible extension cord from Raindance, who are also giving away 3 Sony PSPs to random people they spot with their sticker on. You can bet I’ve got that sticker prominently displayed (maybe I should stick it to my forehead?). Raindance has the most difficult info kit I’ve ever seen, since the printer cut the flap in such a way that it can’t open without bending it, and it can’t close without some fingernail action. Thankfully, their product doesn’t suffer the same UI problems. They’ve got a good platform for meeting and conferencing.
Every conference I’ve ever been to with AT&T, they’ve been giving out their blue flashy cubes, and this one does not dissapoint. I talked to the AT&T guy, and he seemed very interested in blogging, wanting to get into it himself. He also made sure to remind me that I’d get better performance using AT&T as my webhost, and that they have competitive rates. I wonder how competitive it is with my $8 a month?
I got a CD of Microsoft Communicator 2005 at their booth, and some weird squishy thing (weird, but I like it). I lamented that I can’t get the IM compatibility of Communicator (it lets you IM AOL, Yahoo and MSN users) for myself, since Communicator is for volume licensing customers only. Someone should buy a volume license and resell individuals on the net. Did you know that as part of Microsoft’s agreement with Yahoo and AOL, it must display little AOL and Yahoo logos whenever an AIM or YM contact is shown onscreen?
GoToMeeting has some good stuff in their version 2 release, due July 28.
Finally, I completely raided InterCall, getting a coffee mug, paper cube and pen, while hearing a demo of their conferencing software. InterCall has been around since 1991, so I bet there’s a good story in how that company evolved as technology did. I also talked about blogging with their guy. Everybody loves blogs.
Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.
Visit the InsideGoogle blog.
