The night before starting to write the first ever item for my first ever so-called blog, an incisive Alec Saunders (http://saunderslog.com/), Founder and CEO of Iotum (iotum) and one of the deservedly more prominent members of the so-called VoIP Blogosphere, laid down the gauntlet.

At a whiskey bar in Boston, where we both are attending the Fall VON show, I was yapping away (as I probably too often do, whiskey or no) about the sorry state of media coverage of VoIP and internet communications, which I causally linked to the fact that blogs and VoIP entered the mainstream at about the same time.

Here’s the life of a typical VoIP story, I told Alec (BTW: Any semblance to the actual conversation I had with Alec is intentional).

A new super cool gadget is built in a city somewhere near Guangzhou and a Public Relations Agent in Santa Monica sends out a press release to thousands of media workers (a list which, naturally, includes bloggers these days) in a language that closely approximates English but not enough so that the typical editor at newspaper can actually understand without having to consult Wikipedia every three words or so.

In the mean time, one VoIP blogger wakes up first after a long night of talking to his (sorry, in the world of VoIP blogging, it is almost always a he) new best friend in Hamburg using the latest super-cool, can’t-miss, USB-device for Skype that everyone … EVERYONE … should be using (until next week, of course, when a more super Skype device comes out).

The early canary (let’s call him Tim) reads the press release and understands instinctively that this new super cool gadget will solve all of VoIP’s problems (except, he forgets, all of the ones that actually matter). Through the magic of Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V (readers: replace CTRL with Command if you use an OS that works), Tim puts the press release online in a language that now more closely approximates Flemish. “Remember, you read it here first,” Tim types in at the end, knowing that, at least for one morning, the click-throughs to the PPC ad on the top of his blog are going to double from three to six and he’ll actually net 37 Google cents).

A half-hour later, a second blogger (let’s call him Alfred) wakes up and glances at the RSS reader that has been churning all night long at the Ikea desk in his bedroom. Alfred sees Tim’s entry, and knows instinctively that he has a job to do (afterall, being second is second-best to being first), and he gives “kudos” to Tim for breaking this all important story and then reprints the press release in a language that approximates no known language.

As the other VoIP bloggers come online and see that, to salvage any portion of the daily Google take, they have to comment on the new gadget Tim discovered in his email.

“I’ll be getting one of these babies soon,” writes one.

“Not me,” writes another. “How can they be using the Bluetooth stack 1.1? I have a version 2 dongle on my core duo with 32 gigs of memory and five 500-gig discs of RAID 10 SATA. The throughput on this dinosaur is 4 percent lower than it should be.”

“An interesting toy, but will it pass the “wife test?” asks a particularly boorish wannabe journo. (Note to wives of bloggers who ever use that term: The Nolo Press book on divorce is a lot less expensive than a lawyer and just as good.)

Another blogger who sees the press release, decides to write up the item without having checked to see if his fellow commentators on all things voice have covered it, at which point an indignant and clearly ego-bruised Tim fires back a 15 paragraph tirade against this blogger for not having mentioned that Tim had reprinted the press release first. “This is the problem with the liberal MSM,” writes Tim, in language and intellect shaped by a third-grade teacher at a New England prep school. “And now the problem is making its way into the blogosphere?!?!?!? How very very very … VERY … sad.”

When the king of all VoIP bloggers — you can call him EF Hutton, I’ll call him Omar — weighs in from his MacbookPro sitting at a wi-fi enabled espresso house in a city too blue to be carrying around a Texas Dell in — the VoIP blogosphere comes to a nano-second of silence.

“No real story here,” writes a non-impressed Omar as he sips on a Splenda-laced quad latte.

End of story in the blogosphere, which immediately moves on to the more important continuing question at hand of how the Vonage IPO killed VoIP and whether Voice 2.0 can save it.

By this time, it’s close to noon, and the news story is no longer news and has no place in a newspaper until Markoff or Mosberg mention it in passing a few weeks later, giving Tim more fodder to rant about. And the story hits the blogosphere again for another few hours.

Now Alec is a very nice man (he’s from Canada, where nice is still a good thing), and he allowed me to finish my monologue and then said to me that, given the fact that I toiled in the written word biz (at a couple of those so-called liberal MSM rags) for many years, I should do a blog myself and just STFU (or something like that, but much more tactful).

Challenge taken, Alec. Item #1 done. I’ll write about VON as soon as I find something newsworthy.

There are other interesting things happening in the VoIP universe besides AOL’s new developer program. Here are a few on display at this week’s VON show.

While Skype got its start with people looking for cheaper overseas calls, there are still plenty of people who just aren’t going to leap the paradigm hurdle of making phone calls with a computer. Recognizing this, several vendors have debuted Skype-enabled handsets in the past year. But Richmond, VA-based Ascalade is the first to write the computer out of the equation altogether.

Ascalade’s Skype-certified VoIP phone – which was announced in June - lets users access Skype contact lists (including presence), make Skype calls, change their online presence, and get Skype voicemail - all without any computer connection. The phone also connects to ordinary PSTN lines, according Ascalade’s website, so theoretically your granny can use her 1950s rotary phone to make Skype calls.

Another company jumping on the Skype bandwagon is Boston-based VoxLib. On Monday, the company announced Vox for Skype – a “voice over instant messaging” application - which the company says will enable users to access Skype through any fixed or mobile device. The benefits, according to VoxLib, are shrinking mobile phone bills and more flexibility.

As WiFi VoIP grows, San Jose, CA-based startup Hellosoft wants to minimize the number of gadgets you carry around. At VON, Hellosoft will be showing about half a dozen phones using its dual-mode VoIP-cellular technology - including one currently being deployed by French Telecom company Neuf Telecom that allows subscribers to make GSM and WiFi calls.

A more interesting development in the works at Hellosoft is “seamless hand-off” software – the ability to move a call from a WiFi network to the cellular network without breaking the call. The technology is now going into field test with four large service providers, according to Ron Victor, Hellosoft General Manager, Marketing and Business Development. “Every single cell operator is looking at dual mode phones,” he says. “They’re looking at WiFi covering indoors and cellular outdoors.”

Two years ago, instant messaging applications vendors wouldn’t have been at the VON show. Attesting to the accelerating convergence of communications – and the growing importance of SIP – New York City-based enterprise instant messaging provider Antepo will be showing its new SIP-compatible Rivoli instant messaging and presence server. Antepo is also adding support for a slew of other applications via SIP as well.

In the race to drive down the cost of the “next best thing to being there,” New York City-based deltathree just raised - or is it lowered? - the bar with its new iConnectHere World Plan starting at $6.99 a month. The program is targeting international callers with highly competitive rates for international calls.

It’s often said that the small things make all the difference. In the case of the new Linksys SPA962 IP phone - announced today at VON - it’s the phone’s larger, color display that makes all the difference between the SPA962 and its closely related sibling, the SPA942.

So what’s the big deal? Why does a phone need a bigger screen, let alone a color display?

Quite simply, it makes the phone a whole lot simpler to use. A brighter background and more contrast mean no more squinting to see the display. And more real estate on the screen – in this case about four times as much - means a much more intuitive user interface.

For example, instead of cryptic abbreviations in small black letters, the SPA962’s six-line, high-resolution display is roomy enough to print out full words. The letters are large and clear enough against the light blue background so you can read the screen without magnifying glasses.

“Most people never will have to look at the user guide with this phone,” comments Ken Moll, Linksys Product Manager for IP Phones and ATAs. And this is just a start. Linksys plans further enhancements to make it even more user-friendly, according to Moll.

Those people who actually mastered the Byzantine sequences of keystrokes needed to operate the SPA841 needn’t worry that their skills are outdated, though. They will still work with the SPA962. The important thing is that new users never have to learn those sequences.

The SPA962 will retail for about $320, which makes it pricier than the SPA942. The price is also about $100 more than the comparable Polycom 601.

But the additional cost is justified, says Moll. “The functionality is much higher than Polycom’s top of the line phone,” he says, “and it [the SPA962] has a nicer user interface and a nicer ‘look and feel.’”

Linksys is initially targeting the SPA962 at small-to-medium sized businesses with high call volumes – for example large law or medical offices. However, its use is certainly not limited to those environments.

“It’s a phone can span from SOHO all the way up to enterprises,” says Moll. For budget-conscious operations, the SPA942 remains an economical choice, he adds.

The phone can be used with any SIP-based IP-PBX or hosted service. Deals with service providers are currently in the works and will probably start rolling out early next year.

Still not convinced you need the SPA962? Consider this: the pretty picture on the screen will at least improve the feng shui of your office.

The BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP of propane forklifts aggravated my mood for most of the day today, as hundreds of Teamsters and employees of many of the world’s most important IP Communications companies banged and whirred and taped and hammered together display booths and tradeshow paraphernalia on the cavernous exhibit floor of the Boston Convention Center.

Now, a little less than an hour from the VON Conference’s Opening Reception, the fork lifts are in clean-up mode at the far reaches of the hall’s rear corridors, and just the buzz of the occasional power screwdriver can be heard as I roam up and down the Exhibit floor’s 16 aisles, surveying the advance mood of perhaps the industry’s most important conference.

And the mood seems one of decided maturity. Almost everyone has been here and done this for the past several years running and the atmosphere strikes me as more “carny” than “rock show,” despite the new play being given to companies and concepts focused on video, as opposed to the conference’s former fealty to voice.

Tomorrow is another day, however, and until the big glass doors of the convention center’s mezzanine open to the paying attendees, it’s probably not fair to start pinning labels on the personality of this year’s show.

As for Martha, Eric, and I in the Voxilla booth, we’ve got our network up and running, our booth display erected, the CommunigatePro Mini Mac server registering a Polycom IP601 and a brand new Linksys SPA962. I’ve also got my cell phone hooked up to a PhoneLabs Dock n Talk and we are ready to talk the talk for the next three days.

I’ve already had a very interesting conversation with a service provider who claims to have the SIP WiFi puzzle solved and operational on some high quality hardware I’ll be able to identify after I get my test units, so maybe there will be some new and good news out of this conference after all…

I tossed a huge pile of paper into the big blue recycling bin on my way out of the office Friday, a housekeeping move designed in part to actually clear away the non-essential detritus of a life in commerce, and at the same time, create room for more.

We’re decamping over the weekend to Boston for the Fall VON Conference, which begins on Tuesday. Martha, Eric, and I head out Sunday, to be joined by Amin and Marcelo on Monday evening. Next week our East Coast peeps could see better response times to comments and queries. Anne and Julio will be holding down the fort from both sides of the Pacific.

For the first time ever, each of us will sport Voxilla-branded shirts. I hesitate to say uniforms since Martha got something more in keeping with her sense of style than the polo shirt we guys will be wearing.
Last year at VON we taped up banners we had done at Fast Signs, and this year we’ve got a pop-up booth with groovy graphics — but more importantly, we’ve got a focus, and a vision of where IP Communications is growing.
We’re looking forward to vibing this year’s tilt toward Video On the Net, to seeing old friends, and showing off a few of what we think are IP Communications’ best solutions.

I’m looking forward to seeing my buddy Doc and to spending a few days in one of America’s greatest cities. It’s a hard life, but one has to enjoy it.