January 22, 2008
November 09, 2007
Web 2.0 and the Telecom Smashup
Mashups have no place in telecom today. There is no substantive interconnection between telecom services and internet “widget” technology. This is because, unlike Web 2.0, internet oriented technology and content companies, telecoms continue to be top-down organizations, in both their philosophy and management structure. Yet the multitudes—not just Gen X’s and Y’s—are becoming more familiar with mashups, blogs, social networking, VoIP, gaming, and the personalization and collaboration of communications and content. People are now making their own content and building their own communities without telecom involvement.
So, what are telecoms doing to approach this new world? They are converging networks, consolidating operations, building SOA (service oriented architecture) software infrastructure, streamlining processes, etc…all to deliver services and content they can deliver. The operative word here is “deliver”. Telecoms think about services that they can deliver rather than enabling consumers to create their own experience. Telecoms talk about personalization, but they want to personalize stuff for us--not work “with” us or enable capabilities structured “by” us.
Think about it. Let’s compare AT&T Wireless Services and Facebook. Would you consider your mobile service from AT&T to be provided to you or by you? How about Facebook’s capabilities...provided to you or by you? The customer experience is very different between telecom and Web 2.0 companies. Ultimately, which model do you think will engender the greater value and the longer-term customer loyalty?
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