May 2007 Archives

I've been visiting several telecommunications companies over the last couple of years about the difficulty in getting to the convergence nirvana. Recently I've been discussing the development of the service network with colleagues of mine, including Tony Parker and Brian Whittaker. One of the exciting developments is the idea of opening up their networks for third party applications offered as services. It's the idea of providing your network as a marketplace for Software as a Service (SaaS).

One of the overriding themes Tony, Brian and I have been hearing lately is the idea that while the technology is more or less available for the rapid deployment of services on the network, consumers of those services will have difficulty trusting these services and the network. And service providers are wary of the impact that consumers or other service providers can have on their services. In order for the network provider to be successful the consumers of services must be confident in the quality of the services on the network. These consumers include the produces of new services based on composites (mashups) of other services.