British Telecom Go Funky
Written by dean on Jul 05, 2007 - 03:52 PM
Further to Martyns post about the new British Telecom 21CN API and development environment, I've now had a chance to take a deeper look and it's really quite impressive.
You can sign up for a "sandbox certificate" and get limited of the following facilities on 21CN in a development environment:-
That's plenty to get something interesting built. If you're happy with it, and BT are happy with it, you can then take your application onto a commercial footing, with bulk purchase discounts available (the BT price list can be seen here).
The functionality available through the API is pretty detailed, with presence, call initiation, call connection and something they call "information about me".
Presence and call connection could be used, for example, to build a lightweight Click-To-Call system, perhaps combined with some click to call code of our own design. You'd have to find a way to finance it, but I would imagine a managed system with you running the web services backend (on Apache for example) could produce an interesting angle through which to add value and charge a fee.
Information About Me is an interesting development that's slightly underplayed on the BT website in my opinion. Here's what they say:-
Yes, it's basically Facebook. A user controlled and maintained collection of data about themselves. That could be nicely coupled to all sorts of interesting things. Perhaps even an authentication system such as openID.
I'm a big fan of openly accessible (via an API) "profile" type pages which is why I've taken an interest in Facebook. I think there's a lot of scope in this single point collation of data. Many of us, for example, are registered on multiple forums. We all have a profile page on them, or at least many forums offer that functionality. How about a forum engine that pulled data in through the Facebook API or the BT API? That would create a single entity that you only need to edit once and any changes are automatically replicated. Couple that to openID for authentication and you have what Microsoft tried, and failed, to create with it's "Passport" system. Social data is where Web 2.0 is at.
Speaking of Web 2.0 and going back to my original title, something is changing at BT, for the better in my opinion. Go to the 21CN API website:-
http://sdk.bt.com
... and then go to the blogs section. Yes, BT have gone blog! And not just any old blog, they even have names like "Robbies Ramblings" and "Thoughts of Dr Pepper".
This builds a community around the BT name and brand. There's even a forum for developers.
What BT are doing here is not just brilliant in terms of their backend network engineering (I'm in awe of 21CN). It's also very intelligent marketing designed to put them in a position to become a community portal with the community themselves designing and building their own applications through the API.
It's Facebook with a cutting edge hardware network behind it. This is something that rightfully deserves the moniker "Voice 2.0".
You can sign up for a developer account "sandbox certificate" here.
You can sign up for a "sandbox certificate" and get limited of the following facilities on 21CN in a development environment:-
| Quote: |
| If you're using a sandbox certificate, we are providing access to some capabilities at no charge to you or your users. Use of the relevant Services, however, is limited as follows:
SMS - 10 international messages / day. 160 Characters / message Voice Call - 10 international calls of 2 mins / day. Conference Call - 10 international calls (upto 4 participants max) of 2 mins / day. Location - 10 requests / day. Authentication - 100 requests / day Information About Me - 100 requests / day. |
That's plenty to get something interesting built. If you're happy with it, and BT are happy with it, you can then take your application onto a commercial footing, with bulk purchase discounts available (the BT price list can be seen here).
The functionality available through the API is pretty detailed, with presence, call initiation, call connection and something they call "information about me".
Presence and call connection could be used, for example, to build a lightweight Click-To-Call system, perhaps combined with some click to call code of our own design. You'd have to find a way to finance it, but I would imagine a managed system with you running the web services backend (on Apache for example) could produce an interesting angle through which to add value and charge a fee.
Information About Me is an interesting development that's slightly underplayed on the BT website in my opinion. Here's what they say:-
| Quote: |
| The Web21C Information About Me Service provides an access-controlled, persistent store for information about an individual. Control of that information, including access control, can be managed by the individual himself. We believe that this model of user profile information-controlled by the individual- is a powerful one. |
Yes, it's basically Facebook. A user controlled and maintained collection of data about themselves. That could be nicely coupled to all sorts of interesting things. Perhaps even an authentication system such as openID.
I'm a big fan of openly accessible (via an API) "profile" type pages which is why I've taken an interest in Facebook. I think there's a lot of scope in this single point collation of data. Many of us, for example, are registered on multiple forums. We all have a profile page on them, or at least many forums offer that functionality. How about a forum engine that pulled data in through the Facebook API or the BT API? That would create a single entity that you only need to edit once and any changes are automatically replicated. Couple that to openID for authentication and you have what Microsoft tried, and failed, to create with it's "Passport" system. Social data is where Web 2.0 is at.
Speaking of Web 2.0 and going back to my original title, something is changing at BT, for the better in my opinion. Go to the 21CN API website:-
http://sdk.bt.com
... and then go to the blogs section. Yes, BT have gone blog! And not just any old blog, they even have names like "Robbies Ramblings" and "Thoughts of Dr Pepper".
This builds a community around the BT name and brand. There's even a forum for developers.
What BT are doing here is not just brilliant in terms of their backend network engineering (I'm in awe of 21CN). It's also very intelligent marketing designed to put them in a position to become a community portal with the community themselves designing and building their own applications through the API.
It's Facebook with a cutting edge hardware network behind it. This is something that rightfully deserves the moniker "Voice 2.0".
You can sign up for a developer account "sandbox certificate" here.
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