According to Cisco it's working. Social networks are eating up the bandwidth and the Internet is again growing. What makes these services compelling and who is going to gain from these changes?

Mark is driven by working with teams and building products that positively impact the way we learn, interact or entertain ourselves. Prior to Rebtel, Mark ran a 200-person diversified products business in the Middle East. Previously, Mark was with Skype which he joined when it was still small and relatively unknown. He was involved in many of the early strategic product decisions and online and technology deal negotiations. Prior to Skype, Mark was at Digeo in Palo Alto. While at Moxi and Digeo, Mark was responsible for technology licensing and business development of the software platform to the largest US cable companies, including Time Warner Cable & Cox. Mark holds an MBA from Stanford University and a BA from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School.

Dean Elwood is co-founder and editor of VoIP User, a community site offering a self-funded SIP network and PSTN gateway. VoIP User is a reference point for the industry and consumer alike, acting as a platform for the exchange of ideas and technology as well as the presentation of industry news.

Well recognised as a thought leader for the industry, he is an active writer and conference speaker on next generation telephony. Dean is a named inventor on several VoIP patents and a non-executive director for a number of VoIP companies.

As Chief Technology Officer and a co-founder of Vringo, David brings over 20 years of industry expertise in the development of cutting edge and innovative technology.


David founded Degel Software Ltd. a software development and consulting company, in 1988. He served as a consultant and coder extraordinaire for a variety of firms, offering software management, technical direction, and programming services.

From 2001 through 2006, Degel offered technical guidance and implementation of mobile application development at dozens of companies, ranging from AOL, Orange Group, and Sun all the way through pre-funding startups. David is proud that his clients and award-winning products have led the mobile industry for the past five years including near-continuous listings since 2002 on the Handango "top-10" lists.

In the early years of Degel, David specialized in artificial intelligence, network protocols, graphical user interfaces, image processing, and Internet information retrieval.

In 1996, he co-founded 2AM Development Ltd., and served as VP of Technology, heading its software development and design, patent coordination, and technical strategy practices.

David left academia and got his professional start in the early 1980s, at Symbolics, Inc. (Nasdaq:SMBX), the foremost manufacturer of artificial intelligence (AI) workstations and holder of the world's first .COM address.

In 1980, David worked with a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) group to develop the Internet TCP/IP protocols. David graduated from MIT in 1984.

As architect and chief executive officer of Ccube, Mahesh's founding mission is to use Ccube's innovation to break down geographic, economic, and societal barriers that often prevent people from connecting with each other. He debuted Ccube's personal privacy solution that enables consumers to make and receive free nationwide Instant Calls (IC) in May 2007, garnering a "Top 25 Hot Start-Up" award from the California Tech 100.

Using his technical background Mahesh also founded Pacview, a technology consulting firm specializing in Internet and database technologies. Pacview has worked with companies ranging from small start-ups to big corporations, such as HP, EDS and Genentech.

He holds a master's degree in electrical engineering from Concordia University in Montreal and a bachelor's in electrical engineering from GEC Rewa, India.

Aswath has 25 years of R&D experience in the technology field. For the past 9 years he has been working on IP Communications. For the past few months he has been guiding and supporting a small team that is developing a distributed/federated social networking application ( www.enthinnai.com) that is currently undergoing a public test. He expects that this application will allow everyone to "run their own social network". He maintains a blog at www.mocaedu.com/mt.

Alec Saunders is a visionary technology evangelist with 15 years of leadership in technology marketing and product management. During nine years at Microsoft Corporation Alec launched Internet Explorer, and the Microsoft Plus! Windows companion. As Microsoft’s Director of Marketing for Home Networks, Alec also launched Universal Plug and Play and recruited more than 300 vendors to the UPnP industry working group. Before Iotum, Alec was Marketing VP for Versatel Networks, the developer of intelligent, easy-to-operate media gateways, and voice applications. Alec was also Marketing VP at QNX Software Systems where he spearheaded the creation and launch of the critically acclaimed QNX Momentics development suite. Alec is a graduate of the University of Waterloo Mathematics Faculty.