Telecom Application Developer Summit Launched - Alan Quayle Business and Service Development

TADS (Telecom Application Developer Summit) is the ONLY GLOBAL MEETING place for Developers who want to learn, share, code and create with the latest technologies in free and open source telecom software, telecom APIs, unique telecom platforms, and WebRTC. TADS is also for Telcos wanting to discover new services and to understand how to work with telecom app developers to bring successful innovations to market. The global market for telecom network APIs is estimated to be as much as $157 billion by 2018, (source: Mind Commerce). Registration is now open.

TADS is a grassroots initiative from the people building this industry, Developers and Telcos can together create a sustainable and profitable telecom application ecosystem. The event will define the Telecom Application Developer Manifesto that will document what is required to make this happen. Being a part of TADS means you’re making a difference in our industry. The sponsors are: Apidaze, hSenid Mobile, Layer 7 Technologies, Microsoft, OnMobile, Opencloud, Telestax, Tropo, and Ubuntu. Many are competitors coming together to make the this ecosystem happen.

The event has two streams, one focused on telecom application developers and one focused on telcos. Here is the TADS agenda. Many more impressive names will be added to the agenda over the coming weeks:

In the developer summit you’ll see hardcore technology sessions with live coding from the leading thinkers and practitioner’s in the industry, just a few of the many highlight are: Ubuntu/Canonical demonstrating their juju charms for rapid service deployment; Dan Burnett (author of the WebRTC book) provides a WebRTC master class, followed immediately by a discussion on experiences so far in implementing WebRTC; there will be an investor session where they share insights on getting funded; and deep dives across most of the telecom development tools and platforms available. If you’re developing anything that has a communications component, TADS provides a one-stop-shop to see all the technologies available and choose what’s right for your project. Take some time and review the TADS site to see everything we have planned.
In the telco summit there are many case studies from telcos sharing their experiences deploying telecom applications from internal innovations, innovating with partners and third party innovation. Jason Noorman from Telstra who ran successful developer communities as a software guy will be sharing his frank insights. Algar Telecom and Telestax, Orange and OpenCloud, Etisalat and hSenid Mobile will all share their experiences in creating and delivering new services. The sessions will be no-nonsense providing insight gained from the coal-face, as well has independent analysis to cut through the hype. This will be a unique event, if you are focused on service innovation then TADS is a must. We’re hoping this event will be the genesis of a viable telecom application ecosystem.

I discussed in a previous article the problem the industry has in chasing mobile application developers who care about access to market which Apple and Android fulfill. Telcos need to focus on a segment of developers, and I show below some quotes shared previously in this weblog that compare and contrast the two groups:

Mobile Application Developer quotes:“There is no clear process or guidelines, decisions are made with no consistent policy, developers’ livelihoods are treated with disdain, we no longer try to sell to or work with Telco X.” And “Telco Y developer community doesn’t appear to have any support; we asked a question on one of their APIs and did not receive a response after multiple requests. Support is critical and a basic requirement for an API, they can’t even get that right.”
Telecom Application Developer quotes: “You don’t have to own everything. Running a network distracts you from customer service. Using Telecom APIs means we can focus on delivering the best service and best support to our customers.”

To define in a little more detail the different types of Telecom Application Developers, they are are building:

On their own platform built from open source projects, like Mobicents;
On a third party’s communications platform, like Tropo and Apidaze; and
Directly for the telco’s network on platforms, like OpenCloud, Mobicents, and Tropo.

As a little bit of background on why I put TADS together. Most of my working life has been spent building telecom applications within telcos (BT), vendors (Lucent, Cambridge Technology Partners), in my start-up Teltier (mobile presence applications), and working with many tens of telecom application developers as an independent. Based on this experience, telecom application developers exist and are under-served by the industry.

A couple of months ago I had a series of conversations with telcos, suppliers and developers that followed a similar lament on the industry’s failure to build a sustainable and profitable telecom application ecosystem and an explicit request for me to do something about it given my relatively unusual independent status. Since then I’ve been researching what we should do to deliver on the objective of building a sustainable and profitable telecom application ecosystem. As a first step I’ve created TADS, to bring the best and the brightest of the ecosystem together, with an interesting set of objectives.

TADS is running at the same time at ITU Telecom World where you can can see people talk about innovation, and then come over and see innovation live at TADS! By attending TADS you have a chance to win a Nexus 10 or iPad, all attendees get a questionnaire on what they want out of the event, and in there will be a question on tablet preference.