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September 07, 2006
AOL’s AIM Phone Line Developer Program: An example of the VON Community@Work
Since 1996 the evolving IP Communications industry has gathered at pulver.com events to gain industry insight and answer the questions: “what is now?, what is new?, where are we going? and who’s making it happen?” Throughout the years we have played the role of “connector” and did whatever we could to help advance the industry. Over time we have seen startups get funded and turn into market leaders and market leaders merge to form industry powerhouses.
Next week in Boston, while VON is going on, I fully expect to see the attending delegates benefit from the community that VON has helped foster over the years. At any moment there will be: people sharing ideas; people debating points of view; while others will be initiating and fostering new relationships. VON continues to be the place for people to meet their colleagues, friends and build their businesses. In many ways VON is also an ecosystem that breeds other communities, making it possible for new ideas to come to life, and in turn, new opportunities getting turned into realities.
Today’s announcement from AOL about their AIM Phone Line Developer Program is an example of how that ecosystem can work when it’s approached the right way.
Take iotum, a company run by my friends Howard Thaw and Alec Saunders. The two began bringing their idea of a “Relevance Engine” to VON, just about two years ago. Over that time they refined their product, have participated and presented at our conferences and received attention from the blogging community, and others. Along the way they also caught the attention of some of the bigger players in the game.
At Spring 2006 VON, AOL’s Senior VP, Ragui Kamel began talking to some trusted industry insiders about his desire to build an ecosystem around developers who could support AIM PhoneLine, the VoIP softphone based on AOL’s Instant Messenger (AIM), not the recently mothballed TotalTalk. Kamel is one of the speakers at Fall 2006 VON next week, and his vision ties totally into my concept of “Purple minutes”.
Kamel’s idea was to find companies who could be part of an ecosystem which he and his team are building around a set of API’s. It’s those API’s that make it easy for developers to be able to leverage and easily reach the AOL installed user base of AIM Instant Messenger users. One of the functions high on Ragui’s list was an advanced version of Find Me/Follow me that could make AIM Phone Line different. The iotum platform does all that (and more), and since Phone Line is SIP based, the ability to be a plug in was only a few months of work, not years.
For iotum and for MyNuMo, (a company that’s delivering ring back tones to AIM Phone Line), the whole idea of being able to work with a giant like AOL only happens when the ecosystem is in place to support it. AOL’s AIM team is building that by being an integral part of our VON events.
As someone who has watched many of these relationships get formed at VON over the years, it is always rewarding to see the “boy meets girl” and “boy marries girl” Cinderella stories happen.
Tags: VoIP, VON, iotum, AOL, Jeff Pulver
(c) 2006 Jeff Pulver. All Rights Reserved.
(This blog posting is copyright protected by Jeff Pulver. Portions of this blog posting may be quoted or abstracted if attributed.)
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Posted by jeff on September 7, 2006 08:00 AM | Permalink
Additional resources: Internet TV Online Guide @ Network2.tv | Voice on the Net Conference | Video on the Net Conference
Comments
Hello
Thanks for giving us information.
Posted by: aashish (Cogent ) at April 11, 2008 04:12 AM
I believe their system made the error in cancelling my service, but of course, they will never admit it. Their 'Terms of Service' states that AOL CAN CANCEL YOUR PHONELINE AT ANY TIME WITHOUT REASON.
Posted by: speed dating at March 19, 2008 03:30 AM
good day all
Posted by: chattr team at November 23, 2007 10:10 AM
Can I use x-lite or other sip softphones with aim phoneline? If so, what are the proxy details?
thanks
Posted by: Thomas at September 2, 2007 10:13 PM
Can I use x-lite or other sip softphones with aim phoneline? If so, what are the proxy details?
thanks
Posted by: Thomas at September 2, 2007 10:11 PM
Can I use x-lite or other softphones with aim phoneline? If so what are the proxy details?
thanks
Posted by: Thomas at September 2, 2007 10:07 PM
Absolutely positively DO NOT use this service for Business Purposes, as AOL suggests. I spent close to $500 in advertising costs for my business using my AOL AIM PhoneLine Number -- only to have it cancelled without reason by AOL. I thought this service would be reliable.
What was their response when I contacted them? They said that I had cancelled the service and not them. I *never* cancelled my phoneline in any way whatsoever. But whatever their "system" says, goes.
I believe their system made the error in cancelling my service, but of course, they will never admit it. Their 'Terms of Service' states that AOL CAN CANCEL YOUR PHONELINE AT ANY TIME WITHOUT REASON.
For a secondary fun line, this is fine. But please... do not rely on always having your phone number. I just lost business revenue because of this -- which included a 1-year Advertisement in the Yellow Pages.
Bottom Line: Okay for Fun. Too Risky for Business.
Posted by: M. Edwards at June 18, 2007 10:54 AM
new job
new job
Posted by: asdfasd at October 5, 2006 10:59 AM
Thank you for mentioning us. I will add that the power of the API enables us to go beyond the "choose a ringback for all" to allow the user to set ringbacks for individual callers. Not something you would find on most telephone systems.
Thank you,
William Volk
CEO, MyNuMo
Posted by: William Volk at September 7, 2006 09:20 AM