<p>------------ PBXL is Business Communications --------------<br>
#2 in a Series - 'Service & Support in the Cloud'</p>
<p>Use CLOUD CALL CENTER POWER<br>
TO GET INDEPENDENT AGAIN!</p>
<p>Insourced service and support desks enabled by PBXL's<br>
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If you have between 3 and 30 operators, and you contact<br>
us in March, you will receive a credit for two months service.</p>
<p>PBXL, an official Salesforce Japan Partner, is now offering<br>
another first - the subscription based Cloud Call Center.</p>
<p>What does the Cloud Call Center mean for Support?<br>
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<p>There are no hidden software, hardware or IT costs.<br>
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<p>------------ PBXL is Business Communications --------------</p>
<p>J@pan Inc Newsletter<br>
The 'JIN' J@pan Inc Newsletter<br>
A weekly opinion piece on social, economic and political trends in Japan.<br>
Issue No. 522 Thursday, April 22, 2010, Tokyo</p>
<p>Much like the ill-fated rollout of Facebook's Beacon initiative (an
ad system that sent user data from partner websites back to Facebook in
hopes of harvesting marketing information), the global social
networking powerhouse has just unveiled plans that will, at best, sink
its long term future in privacy-first, non-U.S. markets, and at worst
open the field for a new global social networking player to emerge,
sans the overreaching for the control of one's entire Internet
experience.</p>
<p>The company's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, took to the stage yesterday
during Facebook's f8 tech conference in San Francisco to outline
Facebook's plan to wrap Internet websites within a framework of "Social
Plugins" and as well as an "Open Graph Protocol."</p>
<p>What this means is that a site can now embed code that will allow
any user logged into Facebook to instantly click on a page to indicate
that s/he likes that page. That "like" notification will immediately be
displayed when that person's friend accesses the person's Facebook
profile (while logged into Facebook), or the associated website.</p>
<p>According to Facebook, none of the data sent to Facebook in this new
framework will be shared with the original site--which begs the
question, other than occasional traffic bumps, what's really in it for
sites to embed this code? Testing out the new framework, I signed into
Facebook and visited a couple of the external partner sites (The
Washington Post and ABC News). The system worked as advertised, but the
one thing I noticed after about 20 minutes is that I still had not been
prompted in any way to sign into The Post's own registration system
located at the top of every page. Using The Post as an example, it
seems the participating sites will likely get the benefit of sporadic
traffic bumps, but only Facebook will enjoy the potential stickiness of
user interaction.</p>
<p>While some have called this move on Facebook's part a shot across
the bow of Google's plans to occupy every part of your Internet
experience, the first thing that came to mind for me was the notion
Steve Jobs presented a couple of weeks ago when introducing Apple's new
iAds platform. Jobs laid out a vision of an Internet driven by apps
rather than search. The apps-driven web is a place in which the user's
experience is highly curated and controlled by the content sites'
mobile app (basically, a mini-walled garden) rather than through the
brand's website (a dynamic that allows the user to control how s/he
consumes the brand's content and ads).</p>
<p>By rolling out the new website plugin and social bar, Facebook is
attempting to reinvent itself as a ubiquitous kind of "web app," rather
than just another popular website. Unifying this framework with
Facebook's mobile apps could essentially give a frequent Facebook
user--perhaps too lazy or unaware to log out of the site daily--a view
of the Internet wholly framed and driven by Facebook's network tools
and advertising inventory.</p>
<p>In addition to framing your entire Internet experience, Facebook
also hopes to upend our the current paradigm of hyperlinks driving user
attention with social recommendations, wrapped in contextualized
advertisements based on your confirmed interests culled from your, and
your friend's, Facebook account.</p>
<p>Sure this is a tall order of Orwellian proportions, but it's an
entirely realistic enterprise. If these initiatives had been launched
by a lesser player, it would be easy to label this plan DOA, but with
over 400 million registered users worldwide, any move Facebook makes to
change the overall web experience of users must be examined and taken
seriously.</p>
<p>The other issue at hand is that of privacy. Above all, this is
probably the most important aspect of Facebook's new initiative that
could stymy the SNS leader when it comes to international adoption.
Considering Google's problems with the EU and Japan regarding privacy
concerns, it seems Facebook's latest move will probably be a hard sell
for Japanese websites as well as local users.</p>
<p>Adding to Facebook's uphill climb is the fact that future of the
world's most popular social network is already looking a bit dim in
Japan. According to NetRatings Japan, at the end of 2009, Facebook had
logged just 1.39 million unique visitors per month, compared to Japan's
SNS leader, Mixi, at 9.2 million unique visitors per month.</p>
<p>The opportunity here--while Silicon Valley firms navel gaze and
ponder the English Internet--is for other SNS heavyweights like Japan's
Gree, Mixi and China's Renren.com (formerly Xiaonei.com) to cast their
gaze abroad and ply their substantial wares to a Western audience
primed for something new from the East. Recent history says this isn't
likely, but if it somehow comes to pass, the new competition will
ultimately benefit those who fuel all SNS sites: the users.</p>
<p>-Adario Strange</p>
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<p>Start a Company in Japan</p>
<p>Entrepreneur's Handbook Seminar 22nd of May, 2010</p>
<p>If you have been considering setting up your own company,<br>
find out what it takes to make it successful.<br>
Terrie Lloyd, founder of over 13 start-up companies in Japan,<br>
will be giving an English-language seminar and Q and A on<br>
starting up a company in Japan.<br>
This is an ideal opportunity to find out what is involved,<br>
and to ask specific questions that are not normally answered<br>
in business books.<br>
All materials are in English and are Japan-focused.</p>
<p>For more details:<br>
<a href="http://www.japaninc.com/entrepreneur_handbook_seminar" title="http://www.japaninc.com/entrepreneur_handbook_seminar">http://www.japaninc.com/entrepreneur_handbook_seminar</a></p>
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