Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches 
Americans invented the Internet, but …… What does the data provided in the two tables below 
portend for you, the entrepreneur? Opportunity? Why them and not us?
While you’re musing the future of our bleak Internet performance, check out Ed Mugg’s Purdue Research Park company, www.covideo.com. What do you think about what the company is offering? Are they solving a pressing business problem? Are they ten times better than the alternative? - which is, BTW? Your impression(s) of Ed’s company? (I’m going to meet with Ed later today.) Hank
A quick Google search on “video messaging” turned up a couple of potential competitors to covideo:
3. www.orb.com/videomail - Thunderbird & Outlook addins
CoVideo seem like a really cool idea and it could work for things like meetings where it might not be worth the drive to be there in person. I don’t know if I would use it as an alternative to email. Lots of people, including myself, check their email while they’re at work and if they play a video message, the sound could distract or annoy those around them.
As for the Internet, I can understand why so many fewer members of the American populace have broadband. Lots of people live in the country in America and the technology just isn’t good enough to reach further than two or three miles from the nearest substation. My parents just recently (as in 2 weeks ago) were able to get high speed at our house by way of a technology that connects the house by dish to the substation which has broadband. The future of the internet and the opportunities for entrepreneurs seem to me to be in the area of technologies that are actually able to reach those who live more than 3 miles from their substation. In reference to the speed of the connection, I can’t really argue that America is too slow–I spent the first 20 years of my life dealing with dial-up (and slow dial-up at that), so everything else seems like a speed demon to me.
Even though we Americans say we’re on top of the global market of technology is actually false. After reading the book, The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, I was changed on the idea of America in the new global economy. Thomas describes such things as what took place in different countries after the turn of the century. From his research and personal experiences, he says that America, as of 3 years ago, was 10 years behind other global competitiors. In Japan, people can surf the internet at 110 mph on the Bullet, while here in American we can’t get internet in the subway stations. I do believe that America will on top of things again, but this will take a few more years. I believe American had all the good ideas, but wasn’t fully prepared to live with their ideas.
I think that the video messaging is great, but if I could get it for free then that is the
way I would go. I think that the video was great today; it was however a little slow and
complicated to get running. It could be distracting but it is a perfect for messages like
the one we saw today. I am just not sure if video messaging is 10 times greater than regular
email.
So I went to covideo.com, clicked on more information for video email, video rep, and video outlook, but no information came up when I clicked on “Read More.”
I’d be interested in knowing who are the primary consumers of this product (or in business plan talk “who’s the target market?”)?
CoVideo systems has a big opportunity in my mind to take advantage of it’s innovative idea. I do see another problem that wasn’t discussed in class today though. Everyone agrees that this form of email is a lot more personal and better for business than the 2D email we send and receive every day. The problem is that for someone to pay for a service like this, it needs to be practical for every day use. I think the best way I heard this new feature describes as was cool. It’s an upgrade for sure but I don’t think it’s drastic enough for somebody to pay for it unless they’re using it for business.
“Why buy the cow when the milk is free?” I am a firm believer that people probably wont pay for a service or product that they can get for free. If the same service is offered free of charge you would have to be out of your mind to pay for it but since the majority of america is a little off this probably could turn some type of profit. This idea totally depends on the market if it is marketed to home users then it would have to be affordable and and create enough buzz to gain popularity for success. If marketed to businesses you could probably charge a little bit more but stil it would be hard to build a multi million dollar empire off this alone. Even with the program integrated into outlook you would have to take into consideration what type of businesses and or institutions use outlook on a regular basis.
Eric, I also read the world is flat and I totally agree with you. It changed my preception of business and gave me a sort of behind the scenes effect.
The fact that you only googled and within minutes found viable free alternatives to the product seems to worry me. I tried to find information on their site about some things, but couldn’t. Perhaps they are offering greater support for companies and integration, and that’s is what is being paid for, or perhaps not.
As for America being so far behind the technology gap on average, it is often due to our size.
It is much easier to have a working rail system in such a small country as say England or Japan, than it is for the entire U.S. Same goes for high speed internet access.
Cost drives the internet, one way or another. Today’s users really go out of their way to find the cheaper (or in most cases free) alternative. The only thing a web based company can do is offer something unique that really make users willing to pay that extra few dollars for a subscription or service. I am highly doubtful of the longevity of a company like covideo.com because even if you don’t use a competitor’s service you could just as easily film yourself via webcam and add the video as an email attachment.
On a side note, microsoft isn’t the only way to go for all of your word/spreadsheet/powerpoint needs. Those of you who don’t want to shell out for microsoft office can just as easily get the free knock off called open office.
here is the link for those of you who are interested: http://www.openoffice.org/
*and it is compatible with all of microsoft’s programs (or all that I have encountered)*
I was really shocked to see that the US download speeds
**were so much slower that the rest of the world. I figured we would at least be in the top 2 or three. Co video seems like a good idea. A video email is more personal than a written one, but I’m not sure if I would actually use something like that. Something about talking to my computer to create a message to someone seems kind of weird to me. How did your lunch go with him, Hank?
We didn’t do lunch. We met in Ed’s office and he demo’d several of Covideo’s products, one of which I’m running now - video email. More later and/or in class.
I might sorta buy Co Video’s idea on Video e-mail as a corporate customer since it will greatly speed up communication flow but not as an individual coz just like Jacque said, I would feel wierd talking to my monitor even though I am actually not! And that is one hell of disruptive technology there! Keep up the good work!
Co-video is a great idea, but not 10x better than any other video solution out there. Sometimes video messages are nice, but I’d like to find out the average time it would take to make such videos, rather than writing an email. I’m curious to know what exactly are the features other than video messaging. A lot of people look for the versatility in products and if this product can stand the test of time and evolve as the internet does than maybe it could be extremely profitable.
Here are some reasons the U.S. is behind in mbps. Besides Canada our country is alot bigger than all. We also have a lot of major metro areas that are spread out, i.e. Chicago in the midwest, N.Y. on east coast, Huston in the south, and L.A. in the west.
Also the way are economy works is different as well. I have a friend studied in Paris. One of the things he told me was they didnt have the chance to choose from 5-10 different cell phone companies like we do. Also there wasnt a variety of cars like here in the U.S. What Im saying is that we americans, as of right now, have so many things to choose from. So many people choose to stick to dial up cause its cheap or dsl isnt in there area.
A solution would be for the government to get involved. I know that mayor Daley announced that the whole city of Chi-town, Illinois would have free wifi in about a year. It really isnt free since the taxes would be paying for it but this is and example of a solution.
I think that the video messaging is an effective idea but at the same time it doesnt seem logical as to that you’re going to be paying for it. Why is this I wonder? The message itself isnt bad though becaus it’s much more effective to see the person than just be reading it because actions always say more than words but I don’t know that it would be productive to implenting this feature to the U.S. because I mean look how slow we are at downloading things. This video would just continue to slow us down even more because then bigger files of information would be being processed at one time