Carriers' Own Brand OTT Social Sharing Service

Aswath Rao  

EnThinnai

Call for Action 

• Dan Berninger's blog post in Fractals of Changeo Regulatory framework is not suitable for the new Networko Telecom services are no more exclusive franchiseo Voice is not a distinct service anymoreo Communication has become

multimodal part of other applications

o Need to avoid becoming a "bit pipe"o Move up stream and offer new communications serviceso Exploit managed federation expertise 

Carrier Services in IP Network (Current)

• EMailo Offered with Access Serviceo But anemic mindshare

• User Generated Contento Not offeredo Dominated by Flicker and You Tube

• Professional Contento  Netflixo Pandora

• Social Sharingo Not offered, yeto Dominated by Facebook and Twittero  ... and now Google Plus

Two Big Issues

OTT players• Backed by risk loving

Venture Capitalo Mostly startupso Quick entryo Fast exit (up or down)

• Worldwide presenceo Viral adoption 

Carriers•  Dividend seeking

shareholderso Established serviceso Need to worry about

cross-elasticity• Regional presence

o Peers in out-of-regiono Lack of network effecto Federation is easier

said than doneo Day 1 problem 

Rethink the Problem 

• Avoid the weaknesseso Don't use capital intensive architectureso Don't aim for global presenceo Don't depend on federation

• Exploit core strengthso Use the existing and deployed infrastructureo Emphasize traditional values of customer care and

privacyo Focus on data ownership

• Redefine Services and Architecture• Example service - Social Sharing

EnThinnai

• Web Application• Front-end to a database consisting of

o Profile informationo Social data like photoso Status updates

• Access control using user-centric identityo OpenID/OAuth

•  Also a Real-Time Communications Servero Facilitating 2nd parties to initiate a sessiono Strictly permission-basedo Presenceo Multi modal (Text, voice, video)

Escalation of modeso Dynamically downloaded plugin (anticipating WebRTC)

Platform Requirement

EnThinnai can be run on many varied platforms• Home based

o Plug Computers (1GHz ARM SoC, 512MB RAM)o Efika (800MHz Cortex A8 ARM SoC, 512MB RAM)o Wi-Fi routers, Media serverso Carrier supplied boxes like Home Gateways

• Amazon EC2 instance

EnThinnai and Google+/Facebook

EnThinnai and Google+/Facebook

EnThinnai and Google+/Facebook

EnThinnai and Google+/Facebook

Users' Benefits

• Privacy• Ownership of content• Portability• Full Network Effect from Day 1

o Minimal requirements on 2nd partieso Internet connectivityo Browsero OpenID/OAuth 

Value Proposition to Carriers

• Full Network effect from day oneo As sharing is allowed with non-members any member can

share with all their friendso No need for any elaborate federation agreements

• Minimal capex requiremento Leverage existing CPEo No need for large risky capital investment

• Low opex• Compelling alternative to existing social networks

o Customer-centric architectureo Privacy focusedo Data portabilityo Customer friendly B2C service 

Digging Deeper ...

EnThinnai as a Personal Data Store (PDS)• Fully owned and controlled an individual• Store personal digital information like

o Profile informationo Fileso Photos ando yes Status updates

•  Each piece of information has a permitted listo Only people in that list can access the informationo Permission to a single person can be withdrawn at any

time• Can easily delete an item

o Once deleted, it can not be accessed by others• In short it is like a personal SN where "friends" are "visitors"

EnThinnai as a Federated Social Web

• Individual ET servers federate on an as needed basis• Use of webhooks to notify new postings

o Only notifications are pushedo 2nd parties pull them

• Non ET users may be notified by emailo Only the notification portion with an URL

• This form of federation has fewer drawbackso Maintaining control of contento Privacy across domainso Access log

EnThinnai as a VRM Tool

• There is more to life than just social interactions• We deal with business as part of our daily life

o Get quotes from plumberso Do comparative shopping for a good price

• These ideas are captured in a developing concept called Vendor Relationship Management (VRM)

• PDS can be an individual's VRMo Explored further at http://xth.in/ETVRM