re: Why Sonet Chips Are SexyI took that as the point to this story and yes it is a plug for a paid report but I see nothing wrong with that.
I would feel much more comfortable with such "stories" if they were labeled as "editorial" or "self-sponsored advertisements" than as 'stories'. While I'm no expert in journalistic ethics, I have a hard time seeing someone like Walter Cronkite delivering a plug for his work and claiming that it was a 'story'. I think that LR could do a great deal to improve its repuation by actually trying to be an unbiased, balanced part of the media.
re: Why Sonet Chips Are SexyActually, Peter's column was editorial. He was sharing his opinion and analysis of what was going on, based on some proprietary research our research division had done. I thought there was a lot of value in what he said. And at the end of the column, yes, he plugged a written report that was for sale, which we produced. And he said that (wasn't like he had some big hidden agenda).
Guess I'm missing stuff here folks but yes, we do create and sell premium telecom research -- some parts of which we often share with the readers of our FREE Web sites. It's not like we're trying to sell you Ginsu knives or Abflex machines.
Do you really want that feature of the Web site to go away?
re: Why Sonet Chips Are SexyGuess I'm missing stuff here folks but yes, we do create and sell premium telecom research -- some parts of which we often share with the readers of our FREE Web sites. It's not like we're trying to sell you Ginsu knives or Abflex machines
I think Lightreading needs to make a decision whether they are going to be a telecom reporting company, or a telecom research company. Its very difficult to be both without losing journalistic integrity. When we read an article that seems to be persuading us to purchase a research report, we really have to wonder about the motives behind the article.
If Lightreading wants to be known as the New York Times of Telecom, it has to start acting like it.
re: Why Sonet Chips Are Sexy" think Lightreading needs to make a decision whether they are going to be a telecom reporting company, or a telecom research company....If Lightreading wants to be known as the New York Times of Telecom, it has to start acting like it."
I don't get it. Don't reporters do research? New York Times sells books, magazines, newspapers. Lightreading sells their research reports and gives everything else away for free. What's the point here? Do you think they should start charging for their website?
When a Disney owned television station does a 'news' report about an upcoming Disney movie you can argue about the objectivity of the news group. But this is different.
They are not doing a 'news' report about the research report--they are excerpting the research report. It's like New York Times excerpting from a book they publish--something that happens all the time.
re: Why Sonet Chips Are Sexy>>Has the internal HR domains (operations) of service providers changed much to accommodate multiservice? To me, this has always been the bottleneck. Does anyone have a good example of where this has happened?
Abbey, I'm not aware that it has happened. But I think it would be very valuable if it did. I think operations are somewhat held up by availability of integrated/interoperable solutions between vendors(many reasons for this) in addition to cost considerations and network evolution.
I would like to see a single intraoffice switching domain servicing all the different I/O services (TDM and PDU). Of course this would require a standardized way to arbitrate traffic inband between I/O services provided by different equipment vendors. But it would eliminate the need for multiservice boxes and allow true pay as you grow scalability. And give carriers (operations and planning) alot more control.
re: Why Sonet Chips Are SexyWe write stories about market research conducted not just by our own division but also by other market research organizations.
There's an added incentive to write about our own research because (a) we have access to all of the data and (b) it oils the wheels of our whole organization, which in the end is good for everybody including our readers (because it enables us to maintain higher editorial standards than would otherwise be possible).
re: Why Sonet Chips Are SexyI don't get it. Don't reporters do research? New York Times sells books, magazines, newspapers. Lightreading sells their research reports and gives everything else away for free. What's the point here? Do you think they should start charging for their website?
When a Disney owned television station does a 'news' report about an upcoming Disney movie you can argue about the objectivity of the news group. But this is different.
Ok, how?
Peter's column appears in a section that sometimes contains in-house editorials, opinion pieces and bits from industry experts. It's given a prominent place on the home page, and marked as a 'column', not as advertising. What is the Gentle Reader supposed to make of this? Other text publications will put "Advertisement" in the border around almost any ad that can be possibly misinterpreted as a "story".
If you Google "journalism code of ethics" you'll find that one of the points of the code is:
"Distinguish news from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two."
I'd like to see a bit more distinguishing and shunning and a lot less blurring. This is why conventional media have "OpEd" pages
re: Why Sonet Chips Are SexyRather than belabor the issue of advertisement vs. editorial vs. "story" (we all understood that the column was basicly a teaser for a more detailed, paid report - who cares), a more interesting discussion might be can one build a sustainable system company using commercial silicon or to make a truly differentiated box does one need to do ASICs?
I'm hard pressed to think of a succesful start-up that used off the shelf silicon. To me this has always been one of the differences between the east and west coast start-ups. West coast start-ups seem to invest more in ASICS to differentiate on features and price (Cerent, Catena and many others come to mind) while many east coast companies appear to use the lastest merchant silicon and try to get product to market fast (Sycamore, Sirocco and Mangrove).
While there is certainly higher development cost and risk associated with ASICS, if they are done right it can provide a true competitive advantage (features and cost) for at least some period of time.
A broader question might be the viability of new box vendors for the carrier market period. With rapid price reductions, standardization and competition from China and India accelerating can a sustainable box vendor be created in the US?
re: Why Sonet Chips Are SexyDoes anyone have a view on how these relatively low priced CPE boxes that extend SONET to the the customer premises will sell? What kind of demand do you envision?
There was some talk at Supercomm of trying to push price points even lower--perhaps ultimately a sub-$1000 access box. Any thoughts how this might expand volume?
>I agree that SONET should evolve and solve new >problems as Tony mentions. But just like DSL was >invented as a digital transport layer to enhance >the value of the existing copper infrastructure, >new technologies can and have been developed to >enhance the value of SONET. I have written about >and think more needs to be done to integrate >SONET, Packet, and Multiservice boxes into a >single intraoffice switching domain to provide a >more scalable and cost effective mix of services.
We did just this at Onex Communications, made a chipset that melded together an Sonet ADM/Switch and a IP/ATM TM/SWITCH into a two chip solution, lots of hard work, long hours and Intellectual property developed, but at the end of the day, you had the SONET ( AKA BELL HEADS) and the IP ( AKA NET HEADS) who saw only their side of the religion and any combination of the two was heresy and we were burned at the stake (at the market place rather). The chips didnt sell, we had one visionary customer polaris networks (founded by ray kuo who also founded stratacom) who couldnt sell the convergence story and now focus on the SONET ADM/SWITCH side of the story.
So there you have it, the two will not merge, you will have the SONET folks push some data features, aka LCAS onto it and the NETHEADS who will push carrier grade ethernet, when if the two worked together we could get a more seamless integrated network and have a seamless transition from the TDM to the IP world, without re-inventing the wheel, forklift upgrades, ie metro ethernet and RPR stuff.
I would feel much more comfortable with such "stories" if they were labeled as "editorial" or "self-sponsored advertisements" than as 'stories'. While I'm no expert in journalistic ethics, I have a hard time seeing someone like Walter Cronkite delivering a plug for his work and claiming that it was a 'story'. I think that LR could do a great deal to improve its repuation by actually trying to be an unbiased, balanced part of the media.
Tony