2:00 PM – Is Jeff Pulver's media empire confusing or what?

Looking ahead to the tradeshows in '07, I notice the lineup for Spring VON 2007 is hard to understand. Is it still a VOIP show?

Maybe. Maybe not. The show recently changed its moniker from "Voice on the Net" to "Voice, Video, and Vision."

It used to be VON. But now it's VON. And next year, it will be VON. Got it?

It's clear the Pulver folks have nimbly made the shift from being all about VOIP to being somewhat about everything.

Pulver's team has done a lousy job explaining itself lately. Heck, links to the VON conference's infomercial site, Vonosphere, can't be found on the main VON Website or the Pulvermedia site.

So which VON will VON be this year? The VOIP industry insider? The video industry outsider? A vision industry observer?

Whatever the case, changing the acronym of a previously well-defined brand seems like a bad idea. And I should know. I have bad ideas all the time.

— Phil Harvey, News Editor, Light Reading

[Disclosure: I'm employed by Light Reading. Light Reading, and its parent, CMP, run several events that compete with VON and Pulver's other shows. Does that make me a bad person? That's a rhetorical question. Stop moving your lips when you read.]