Some of these folks will be posting more frequently than others; some will write longer pieces than others. All will have free run of the joint to write anytime the spirit moves them.
Cast of Characters:
* Hank Levine & Jim Blaszak--Hank and Jim are partners in Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby law firm, and they're the guys you want on your side when you go in to do battle with the carriers. They're crackerjack negotiators and they also advocate for large enterprise customers before regulatory bodies in Washington. They'll be the mainstays of our "Communications Regulation" section, but note that this section, despite its limited name, actually will encompass ALL issues relating to carriers, regulatory bodies, and procurement generally--i.e., contracts, carrier technology trends and regulatory activity. So if dealing with your service providers makes your head explode, check out Jim and Hank for some relief and ideas.
* Michael Finneran--Michael is president of dBrn Associates, and for years he wrote the "Networking Intelligence" column in BCR; in fact, when BCR closed, he was our senior columnist. Michael's main beat is wireless, but he tends to have opinions about other things, and will be free to express those here.
* Gary Audin--Gary is one of the great teachers in this industry. He does the VoiceCon tutorials that help introduce newcomers to IP-telephony and convergence, he has a long history with BCR Training, and he's a fountain of ideas, most of which, when you hear them, you wonder why you didn't think of but know you never would have. His company is Delphi, Inc. He's written for BCR and VOIPLoop.
* Matt Brunk--Matt is the best. He's president of Telecomworx, a Maryland-based interconnect, and he's been writing about IP-telephony and related topics over at VOIPLoop since the site was launched. He also wrote for BCR and is a regular at VoiceCon. Matt knows his stuff because he does it every day for a living.
* Brian Riggs--Brian is an analyst with Current Analysis. His sharp writing and incisive analysis have been appearing at VOIPLoop, and he specializes in Unified Communications and the IPT migration.
* Sheila McGee-Smith--Sheila is president and principal analyst at McGee-Smith Analytics, and she's the top expert on the contact center market. She's also coming over from VOIPLoop, and she plays a key role in the VoiceCon conference-within-a-conference on Next-Gen Contact Centers.
* Irwin Lazar--Irwin is one of the most-recognized analysts in this field; he's with Nemertes Research and covers UC and enterprise convergence. He wrote the "Real-Time" column in BCR; he speaks at VoiceCon and is a frequent speaker in our Webinars. He has his own blog, too.
* Zeus Kerravala--Zeus is another high-profile analyst that we persuaded to be a columnist for BCR just before we ended up killing BCR. Zeus is with Yankee Group, he's quoted everywhere on UC and convergence, and he's especially good at picking apart what the vendors are saying about the migration to software-based systems, as compared to what they're actually doing. I'm really glad to have him around these precincts.
* Peter Sevcik--Peter is president of NetForecast consultancy and also is the driving force behind the Apdex Alliance, which is trying to create better ways of measuring and managing application performance. He wrote the "Network Forecasts" column in BCR for many years, during which time he completely obliterated John Sidgmore's turn-of-the-millenium projections about unbounded Internet growth, single-handedly bringing the industry to its senses in the midst of the tech bubble. OK, that part about coming to their senses didn't happen, but if they'd paid attention to Peter, it would have. Application performance is a big issue for convergence, and it's only going to get bigger, so I'm really happy that Peter and his NetForecast colleagues, John Bartlett and Rebecca Wetzel, will be joining us here at No Jitter.
There's one more group of contributors I haven't mentioned here but will introduce separately, because we're working together with them on a weekly package of features and other items we're calling UC Friday. That's the UCStrategies analysts.
