Making the Wave

Google has just released the Wave, a new way of combining email, short messages, video, and documents into a mesh of information and collaboration in real-time. It also has functionality to replay the wave to see in which order things were added.

Here'e why I think this will actually take off:

• Meshup of well-known technologies. Utilizing well-known and widely used technologies uptake will be a matter of usability. Combining them together in one user interface simplifies life dramatically. I can hardly keep track of all my Yammers, Twitters, Skype, Y!, MSN, gmail and audio and video clients. Combining them together will make Wave a killer. Even my grand father could use it together with users of Twitter for example.


• Fosters Collaboration. Going from one lonely user sending an asynchronous mail into a virtual cacophony of voices that together discusses using all sorts of tools. Together creating, analyzing and acting upon ideas and thoughts collectively brought together.


• Done in Realtime. No more waiting, no more typing in darkness and no more faceless thoughts. Welcome to a world in realtime where together has a new meaning. I'm looking forward to when I can read as my friend is typing and responding on an instant. Sharing media and documents where editing and changes are visible instantly.


• Open API's from D-day. Integration with my favorite document editor, mobile phone, chess-game, presentation, and the likes will make Wave the number one choice for anyone creating similar software.


• What about video and document sharing? I think I've seen information that Wave will include video and audio streams as well. For this to take off we would need realtime document sharing as well. Is it included?

And finally some thoughts on what the telecoms missed out once again:

• Where's the revenue stream for the telco's?


• Where's the new service models?


• Where's the use of IMS and SIP? Yet another service that has totally bypassed the IMS.


• When will Telco's start to innovate?

Rich Communications Suite, Pimp My PC

What's wrong with Skype, MSN, Yahoo, and the other IM, chatt, and voice over IP providers? Why are you not using them everyday in the same way as your mobile phone? Skype and their likes are after all pretty useful still they aren't part of your DNA. And then why will Rich Communications Suite, RCS, be the one-stop-shop pimping your PC and mobile?

RCS was founded by the gorillas and the sharks in the mobile telecom industry to fight the competiton from internet Web 2.0 and software giants like Microsoft and IBM with their enterprise solutions. Day-by-day the average telco operator transforms like a maggot into a frozen puppet only offering low value commoditized access. They all want to become as cool and hip as Google while still milking the minutes from the traffic-cow, eating and keeping the cake at the same time. The answer was to bundle together some key applications that are as common as opening your eyes in the morning saying "Ahh, another fantastic day!". By including the ever present telephony and mobile access in the package they are creating a milk-and-honey bundle where the sweetness of the honey makes it attractive. None of the other vendors have such a compelling story to offer as the mobile operators and equipment vendors. So now finally the telecom industry have gathered their forces to offer a complete stack of communication tools to combat the evil of internet. Is this good for you?

I think this might be good if the RCS implementations contains at least these levels of freedom and playgrounds for old grandma, Joe-the-plumber and Einstein Jr.

• Intuitive userinterfaces similar, if not identical, to what we have today
• Plug-in concept allowing old grandma to create her own hearing-capability improvements
• Fast communication in reality that leaves no room for WAP-like overselling dissapointments.
• Flat-rate subscription models
• Ad-supported subscription models
• Fully integrated with existing operator B/OSS - not one more invoice from a new silo offering
• Babel's tower of instant translations between protocols and applications
• Developer business models supporting active and creative application and plug-in development

The beauty of RCS is that it is based on IMS and SIP which means any SIP application can be integrated. If the walled garden would just be opened and the snake of wisdom and opportunity be set free. Then it would be a creative chaos contrasting today's God like operator creatures knowing it all.

Greetings RCS, may we all have done our homework and learned the Web 2.0 lesson of collaboration and contribution. Then there will be a lot of Enriched Calls, Enhanced Messages and  Enhanced phone book lookups, even so embedded with Joe-the-plumber's task assignment scheduler. A time when my PC speaks like Babel's tower - all the languages and applications in the world communicating through one standard interface - SIP and IMS pimping my PC. I'm not sure it will ever happen, with the right approach and openness it has the possibility to succeed if the operators open their mindset.