The medium is the business

With new startups delivering distributed infrastructure, and old models failing, dot-com promises are finally coming true Sitting at Demo08 in Palm Desert, Calif., was quite a change from my normal northern New England digs where the meteorologist calls 20 degrees Fahrenheit a warming trend. In contrast, Palm Desert's temperature is usually in the mid 60s to mid 70s during the winter months. The contrast in weat

With new startups delivering distributed infrastructure, and old models failing, dot-com promises are finally coming true

Sitting at Demo08 in Palm Desert, Calif., was quite a change from my normal northern New England digs where the meteorologist calls 20 degrees Fahrenheit a warming trend. In contrast, Palm Desert's temperature is usually in the mid 60s to mid 70s during the winter months.

The contrast in weather made it crystal clear to me that there's a change in the air as well when it comes to technology direction. You would have to have been sleepwalking throughout the entire two days at Demo08 to have missed it as startups demoed their new ideas and services hoping to attract VC money.

It's apparent that a major shift in business models is taking place due to the Internet and Web 2.0 applications and services.

Demo08 gives an inkling of the future: distributed infrastructure
Two companies at the conference exemplified this shift more than any others: Toktumi and Ribbit. (See the slideshow to learn more.) Both companies are offering small to medium-size businesses a complete package of telecommunications services without partnering in any way with the traditional giant carriers.

I spoke with an old friend I always meet at Demo, John Jordan, executive director at Penn State's Center for Digital Transformation, about this. Jordan describes the change as the move to a "distributed infrastructure."

"Everything will be on the desktop, not in a centralized location," says Jordan. In other words, Toktumi and Ribbit have no need to own and manage a 10-story building that houses a 10-story telecom switch or a vast support system of technicians, linemen, operators, and other customer service workers.

Thanks to the distributed nature of IP networks and the Internet, the need for a new business to run such a massive, expensive telecommunications infrastructure is fast disappearing.

Lest you think I am a bit naive, I understand that somehow companies will have to tithe to the giant network providers who help make this happen or else their backbone or the Internet wouldn't exist.

But it won't exist the same way as in the past, even if the new way is still sorting itself out.

Not only that, but Toktumi and Ribbit can actually assign you a telephone number and offer your company the same features, and more, than what most of the traditional telecoms provide. (And for less money: At the moment, Toktumi can charge something like $12.95 per month and 2 cents per minute for calls.)