iConverged

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Yahoo recently launched Fire-Eagle, which is essentially an ‘open platform’ that allows two simple things:

A) Users can update the system whenever they want with their location

B) Application Developers can access the system whenever they want to know the location of consumers and do anything with it (i.e. serve any application that can make use of that information)

Of course, ‘Users’ can explictly set permissions on who can or cannot view their location.

For a long time, I have wanted to see such an open and simple platform, where ‘executing a service based on location’ is completely independent of ‘the technology used to provide the location’. Because I believe providing individually accessible repositories of data is the key construct to building a hierarchy of innovative products. You collect data, expose it to others so they can transform your data into information. And your information, is data for the next application. So turns the wheel of the Web 2.0 circle. And a location repository is one key missing element to personalize services.

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If you are in this emerging ‘applications’ market, and are in the business of building applications for OEMs/ISVs or Service Providers (yes, some Operators actively invest in R&D work), the term ‘Rapid Prototype’ is not new to you. In short, people are always looking at ‘quick and dirty’ demonstration code that shows off a cool concept which they can take to prospective customers as a viable product or service to be rolled out. Customers who ask for this are not sure if that idea will go anywhere, but are willing to test the waters with you (if you are willing). A typical software development organization follows the ‘Build Rome one stone at a time’ model whereas this particular market needs the ‘pre-fab modular home in 1 month’ model and therefore struggles with this particular market. I know of many organizations who  believe this is not an area to be in, because of the limited scope and length of such projects. The problem however, is that they fail to understand that this market is actually very attractive and profitable, but only if you look at it the right way, and approach it the right way. Last week, I was chatting up with a friend on the same issue and was sharing some insights into what one should try and institute to make this model work. He suggested a blog post, so here goes - some common problems, pitfalls and solutions:

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I had the opportunity to do a sneak preview of Microsoft’s popfly mashup platform a few months ago. Based on the quick look, at that point of time, it was just a prettier looking  version of Yahoo! Pipes. However, another peek a few months later and I am much more impressed. I must admit that till now, of all the mashup editors I have evaluated, Google Mashup Editor has been my favorite. And that was because I truly feel powerful mashups which are globally useful will be written by developers, not my grandmom, so the interface need to provide more powers and not just pretty ‘connectors’.

I must admit, Popfly on second look has good potential.

So here is my quick analysis of why I think it is like Pipes, like GME, like Facebook and somewhat different. In other words, I think Microsoft has been watching how the others do it, and picked some good features from all, along with some very irritating ones.

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Update: I have now created a sidebar widget titled “Tech Blogs I read” instead of updating this post. Please continue sending me quality tech blogs (with more focus on concepts and less on marketing) as you come across them and refer to the sidebar for updates and not this post - thx.

Total number of ‘market reporting’ VoIP blogs = k+1

where k=number of times you can blink in a day.

However, there are very few blogs that talk about more technology & architecture details and less market details for all things VoIP, SIP, IMS, web 2.0 (with focus on telecom).

So here is a call to unite!

We need a list of what I call ‘geek-talk’ - those that provide more technical insight into how things are.

Here is my list so far. Please update me /comment here with more tech-blogs and I will update this list

Many of these blogs are a mix of techno-marketing, but are written by people who are neck-deep in actually developing/architecting many of the talked about solutions themselves, and hence offer a more detailed insight.

last updated: Apr-30-2008

1. TurnGeek - focus on P2P, SBC, etc.
2. IMS Lantern - IMS architecture related
3. Voice of VoIPSA - VoIP Security
4. IMS Quality - Testing and Monitoring with focus on IMS
5. VoIP Survivor - general voip, with significant focus on their company products
6. TelCAB - IMS B/OSS
7. iConverged - this blog

I recently wrote a paper that investigates how SDP vendors can provide AJAX based telco-aware libraries and mechanisms to interface these libraries with existing telecom application servers. I personally believe that this is a gaping hole in the market. While AJAX libraries have evolved significantly, no one is currently working on adding functionality that makes it telecom aware (in terms of understanding what UI, actions, events are typically associated with telco services) thereby making t he job much harder on developers who are trying to grapple with what it really means to “web 2.0″ their SIP call control app.

Abstract:

With the increasing acceptance of AJAX as a mechanism to deliver real-time user experiences without the need of proprietary local clients and the increasing demand from consumers to have a better user experience with more features, both the Telecom and the Internet world are looking at means to be able to converge their offerings. However, being able to provide converged services is a challenge largely due to the fact that Telecom players already have existing applications they would like to monetize in addition to having limited know-how of Web 2.0 related technologies, whereas the Internet players, while proficient in Web 2.0 technologies have limited understanding of wireline and wireless networks to be able to offer ubiquitous service access. The author believes that middleware SDP providers can help bridge this gap and provide “convergence” building blocks that would allow developers on both sides of the world develop functionality, or integrate existing functionality with ease. Specifically, this paper, proposes the concept of “TelcoAJAX” – a set of building blocks that are aware of telecom primitives and how to represent and interact with users using a browser interface which developers can implement on top of SIP/Presence based applications.

You can download it from here.

(Search for paper titled “A Concept Approach at bringing Legacy Telecom Application Servers to Web 2.0″)

In one of my conversations with Carl Ford, I was told that VON is now actively trying to create an “unconference” in their next shows. For those who know unconference, it is a pretty old concept, often used in hard-core geek gettogethers. The concept here is to set up an “ad-hoc” speaking environment, where a ‘leader’ stands up, talks about a topic and attendees interact. The interesting part about unconferencing is that there is no ‘one-leader’, like traditional speaking slots. You don’t get to talk 1-way while your viewers listen, snore or just ignore. You are all peers. If you can defend your idea, so be it, or you may just be hissed (sort of like how the IETF meetings work).

The problem with un-conferences, however, is that without some moderation, it can go nuts with personal agendas, general confusion and so-forth. Furthermore, generally, for companies to fund you to travel, they want to gain some marketing mileage from it. Which is why most main-stream conferences avoid un-conferencing.

This is where is looks like VON is likely bridging best of both worlds. They have set up a wiki called “VONCamp” where you can suggest your own topics. But to keep some sanity, it is moderated, and limited to 12 or so slots. Futher, they also ensured that unconferencing does not conflict with any other panel, so people are encouraged to attend. In addition, they are also looking at being able to advertise the unconference topic leaders, just as they would be advertising conference speakers (I hope they carry this thought through to execution!)

So naturally, with all things “2.0 and social networking” I am in. I am likely going to talk about connecting Social Networks and IMS (a topic which I’ve done a lot of work on). I will also be speaking at a regular panel in VON amsterdam, so between the two I’ll get a good idea of which works and is better!

So anyway, head on to VONCamp and support these folks!

At one of the panels that I participated in at VON Fall 2007, we pesented our opinions on “Will there be such a thing as a hard phone”. The Panel had interesting representations from Plantronics, Adobe, Ayalogic and others in addition to mine. Naturally, this is not directly related to IMS, but speaks more of ’service convergence’ and whether there will be radical form factor changes to what we know as a phone today. My slides are available here

I spoke at the Internet Telephony conference in Los Angeles last week on IMS, hWiMAX, how they all work together (or not) and what it really means to applications. You can see a copy here

1. Horizontal vs. Vertical: LinkedIn is a ‘vertical’ tool. It is meant for networking of business professionals for buisness needs. Facebook seems to be a ‘horizontal’ tool - it allows business networking as well as networking for non-business needs, like say, going for movies, planning a party and what-not.
2. East is East and West is West: My business life and profile is different from my personal life and profile. I’d love for my buddy to see my mood as ‘What the heck is wrong with the world today’, but don’t see any reason why the same mood needs to be ‘exported’ to my connected business colleagues
3. Credibility of network: It seems everyone joins Facebook. Be it a college dude, a stay at home mom or a seasoned professional. By nature, due to the marketing of LinkedIn, it seems to me that mostly business professionals join. Now ask yourselves this “How many invites do you actually reject ?” If the answer is none or close to none, well, then if you want to use Facebook for business referrals, why would you go for a horizontal tool ?
4. Lack of features a good thing: I am a strong believer that specific relevant features are better than a potpourri of irrelevant features mixed with relevant ones. LinkedIn offers targetted, easy to understand business networking features, such as their Q&A, In Mail, Reccomendation system etc. Facebook, on the other hand has hundreds (thousands?) of plugin applications made by developers, and honestly, I have no idea how one will react till I actually use it. Again, honestly, for business networking you need simplicity and clarity of representation
5. Clean and relevant interface: Finally, I find the facebook layout to be terribly confusing and dosed with over-information. For example, from a business networking perspective, do I really care to see “Mr. Foo Foo is currently at work” or “Mr. Foo Shoo just added the OhIluvIt application” ?

So net-net, I just don’t get why people think facebook will replace LinkedIn as a ‘BUSINESS’ networking tool. As a ’social’ networking tool, sure, I get it.

FaceBook = Linked In (parts) + orkut (parts) + whole bunch of customizable apps

As facebook’s website says “Facebook is a SOCIAL utility that connects you with people around you”

Presenting the most powerful framework for conceptualizing your company.

Credit: here
Source I read it from: here

See this: http://www.tdbspecialprojects.com/

Click on the central ’shuffle’ button for ‘innovation’.