Redknee public on AIM

Redknee has NO offices in the United States. Really. Look here at their info page. And now they have chosen to go public on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange.

While liquidity is not as good on the AIM as on NASDAQ, it is easy to understand why Redknee (AIM : RKN) would make this decision in just two words -- Sarbannes Oxley. As ThinkBlog points out:

SOX compliance can easily cost $2 million for a small, emerging growth company.

I think that number is on the low side. When I was an executive officer at Borland we estimated that Sarbannes Oxley was costing us $1 million per quarter when you took into account lost time from employees and executives due to compliance issues.

ThinkBlog explains a few more of the benefits:

Besides escaping SOX and other choking US regulations, AIM gives listing companies other benefits as well. In general, it takes 12-16 weeks to get listed on AIM as opposed to the typical 4-6 months in the US. Listing fees are 1/3 or less of what they are on the NYSE or NASDAQ.

Reporting requirements are 2x a year as opposed to 4x, and shareholders aren't required to approve most actions.

I suspect we will be seeing a lot more companies choosing AIM over NASDAQ... and maybe avoiding a US office altogether. At least until we can recover from the abuses of the few and reinstate rational business practices here in the Stats.

Twitter: Why you should care

I have been playing with a new service from the folks who created Blogger. There new company is called Obvious, I guess because from where they sit, the idea behind twitter is obvious...

And what is that idea? That people would love to blather all day long about what they are up to and that other people (presumably their friends) would like to read this blather... So you can post to your twitter page from IM, SMS, or from a web page (there are also some interesting native apps like twitterific) and your running stream of consciousness comes out on your page (or rss etc):

http://www.twitter.com/tshelton

Then, your friends (or stalkers) can subscribe to your stream and get ongoing updates in their IM or SMS or web page on what you are up to... You can even "nudge" someone who hasn't posted in awhile to find out what he/she is up to...

Why should you care? Pay attention you old farts! This is where the youth are spending their time. This is the next evolutionary step beyond IM. Our children will live in a world in which the barriers of time and space have been demolished by technology. Our children and their friends will have a constant ongoing connection with their friends whether they are in the same room together or on different continents. Text is the first way that it will be done, though services like radar hope to make it about photos and videos as well. The future of ubiquitous IP connectivity is applications like twitter that just let us be digitally touching each other all of the time...

Making Voice Mails Public

The crazies over at GotVoice are about to piss off a whole bunch of people by providing an intriguing new service that will let you take a voice mail you have received through their system and make it public... for anyone to hear! From their PR spam:

VoiceMagnet will allow consumers to post nasty, mean, crazy, or just downright weird voicemails to a central place online for all the world to hear! This could make voicemail the newest “smoking gun”.

I hope they have figured out the revenue model on this one -- get a cut of the legal fees as stupid people leaving wicked messages decide to use the US legal system to get the messages removed from the Internet (and punish the posters...)

GrandCentral and Gizmo Project

I generally do not blog the random press releases hurled my way, but as I genuinely love Gizmo Project, I am dutifully reporting that GrandCentral and Gizmo Project are announcing a deal tomorrow morning... from the PR folks:

Tomorrow morning, GrandCentral Communications, Inc. will announce its service is now interoperable with Gizmo Project, SipPhone’s popular Voice over IP (VoIP) service that allows users to make and receive free phone calls worldwide over the Internet on personal computers as well as select Nokia mobile phones and Internet Tablets.

What does that mean for the average Gizmo Project user? Access to the cool "next-generation" features of GrandCentral - "One number, for life." GrandCentral basically call redirects based on your preferences - with some nifty features like caller specific greetings.

The future is WiFi

3GSM time of year, and a worthwhile time to reflect on the future of wireless communications. I have written before about AWN - anarchic wireless networks. It is interesting to reflect once again about the advantages of WiFi vs. commercial 3G networks as the champagne flows in Barcelona.

Presuming coordinated access that rivals 3G networks for ease of access (via FON or something similar) why would a consumer ever wish to utilize a high fee commercial wireless network? Today there is really only one reason, and even it points out an opportunity for technology to improve as opposed to a fundamental flaw in WiFi.

There are two core use cases for mobile IP connectivity -- stationary and in-motion. For stationary mobile users (let's say you have stopped at your local coffee shop), WiFi is as good if not better than other wireless technologies. Only when you are in motion does the superior connection handling technology of a 3G network offer an advantage over simple WiFi connectivity.

Sure, you could argue that 3G does a better job than WiFi when handling high demand situations or you could argue that 3G will always be more ubiquitous than WiFi. But the cost advantage of a free wireless network would far outweigh these marginal inconveniences.