I've got the opportunity to help launch some very exciting news this morning, but there's more than just the press release below. This morning I spoke with Ragui Kamel of AOL, Bill Volk of MyNuMo, and Alec Saunders of iotum to get some extra perspective and thoughts on this "Developer Ecosystem" AOL is announcing.

Ragui Kamel is Senior Vice President & General Manager with AOL. I had the opportunity to meet Ragui over dinner at the VoIP Developer's conference in Santa Clara last month. He's one of those "scary smart" kinds of guys who's filled with incredible ideas.

Ragui had two important points to make. First, AOL is very developer driven in the whole API approach. Early on, before the public announcement of AIM Phoneline, they knew they wanted to build a developer ecosystem and support the developer community. The API's fall into three categories - (1) Personalization for things like ringback tones, (2) Call Control for presence, relevance and call handling features like Find-me and Follow-me, and (3) Devices for the addtion of cordless phones and such. They began the work, not by writing APIs, but by partnering with two lead developers for each API set. Two of those developers are My NuMo and iotum, but others will be announced at VON. The other big difference in AOLs approach is that developers aren't going to be left in the wind once they've created their products. The AIM Phoneline Store will provide an avenue to help developers sell their applications to AIM Phoneline users.

VON will be the big push to introduce the API sets and begin the growth of the AIM Phoneline developer ecosystem.

Bill Volk, CEO of MyNuMo and I chatted as he was en route to an early morning meeting. Bill said AOL has created a very flexible API the way APIs should be written, with SOAP-like interfaces. He said "AOL got it right. It's awesome."  Bill described how MyNuMo's are and developer partners will be able to integrate custom ringtones for individual callers and groups in a way that will be fun for the artists. MyNuMo has typically worked with mobile carriers provding ringtones, wallpapers and content for mobile devices. AOL's efforts in creating the APIs and building a developer ecosystem lets artists bring their work to a whole new audience of VoIP users. Bill's excitement about this initiative is contagious.

I can't make it to the upcoming VON event due to some scheduling issues, but if you're attending, make sure you stop by booth #449 to  check out the demos and getup-to-the-minute information on the developer ecosystem.

Alec Saunders at iotum said he's quite pleased with the way things are fleshing out. He noted that both the business and engineering people are committed to success in this program and that their commitment shows. They've been easy to work with and very serious about partnering with developers to build the right API toolset. Alec knows about these things. He's spent years working with a wide variety of developer programs and isn't new to this sort of collaboration. He noted that when a vendor or carrier comes early to developer partners to help build the tools, you really get the best tools possible.

Alec noted some keys that indicate success to follow:

• AOL has prvoen very easy to work with.
• They're responsive to developers needs.
• They really understand what it takes to build great tools.
• They're committed to promotional opportunities for developers.
• AOL isn't treating this program with a bigcompany mindset.
  

He's very keen on AOL's platform approach and also noted that their promotional support through the AIM Phoneline Store is fabulous.

Alec posted a blog piece entitled The Application-centric Carrier, and told me he feels AOL is leading that charge.

For developers, this program provides access to 43 million AOL users, and that's a substantial new market for VoIP developers.

And after those notes from my flurry of phone calls this morning, here's the press release:

AOL TO LAUNCH AIM PHONELINE DEVELOPER INITIATIVE

Will Show Examples of New APIs for Call Personalization, Untethered Devices and Incoming Call Management at Fall VON 2006 (Booth #449)

Call for Entries: Open AIM Phoneline Developers’ Challenge Invites Developer Community to Submit Innovative Applications for Competition

Dulles, VA – September 7, 2006 – Delivering on its commitment to provide developers with open access to its popular services, AOL announced today it is opening its new AIM Phoneline service to developers.

Through the Open AIM(r) Phoneline initiative, device manufacturers and voice application developers alike are invited to create new applications and tools that will extend the value and functionality of the AIM(r) Phoneline service, and introduce new features and peripherals to more than 43 million U.S. AIM users.

AOL will introduce three new application programming interfaces (APIs) in the fall that will give developers and manufacturers the ability to:

• Personalize the AIM Phoneline service by adding ringback tones and unique ring tones for frequent callers.
• Enable a wide variety of USB devices such as speakerphones and phone adapters that will allow standard cordless phones to initiate and receive calls with the AIM Phoneline service.
• Build new call management functionality into the AIM Phoneline service such as context and relevance-based call handling that could treat each call on the basis of rules that use Caller ID, online presence, calendar activities and more.

At next week's Fall VON 2006 in Boston, AOL will be showcasing examples using these APIs from the following companies: iotum™, a Voice 2.0 company that will show intelligent handling of incoming calls using their iotum Relevance Engine™, and MyNuMo, an online content community that enables artists to create, show, and sell digital content will be demonstrating ringback tones allowing for personalization by caller. The hardware device API will also be featured, and Mvox Technologies will demonstrate examples of its handsfree and wireless MV900 and USB MV100 speakerphones with AIM Phoneline.

In addition to these demonstrations, more information on the Open AIM Phoneline program will be available at AOL’s booth - #449 – at Fall VON 2006, which is being hosted at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center from September 11-14, 2006.

“AOL recognizes the value of the developer community in driving innovation and rapidly delivering new and compelling services,” stated Ragui Kamel, senior vice president and general manager of AOL’s voice services. “By building on the popularity of the Open AIM program and opening the AIM Phoneline platform we are excited about helping to unleash the creativity and bring about new and unique voice communication services to one of the largest online communities."

As part of the Open AIM Phoneline program, AOL will promote its partners’ applications and devices at an online store that users can assess by simply clicking the “Shop” link off of the AIM Phoneline dashboard.

The Open AIM Phoneline initiative builds on the success of AOL’s Open AIM® program (http://developer.aim.com/), for which more than 50,000 developers have already registered, and empowers companies, communities and independent developers to build customized plugins, communications clients and mash-ups that access AOL’s global instant messaging network.

Calling All Developers for Fall Competition
AOL also announced today the Open AIM Phoneline Developers’ Challenge. Leveraging the Open AIM SDK, developers are encouraged to create the most innovative and useful applications that will enhance the AIM Phoneline experience. A panel of AOL judges will vote on the submissions and highest scores will determine the winner. The AIM Phoneline Developers' Challenge will award $3,500 for first place and $1,000 for the second place. Enrollment and rules will be posted at: www.aimphoneline.com/developers . The contest will run from September 11, 2006 through November 30, 2006, and the winner will be announced by January 31, 2007.

Launched in May of this year, the new AIM(r) Phoneline service (www.aimphoneline.com ) gives AIM users a free, local phone number, free online voicemail, and the ability to receive unlimited incoming calls online through the popular AIM® service. It also provides an unlimited outbound calling plan for $9.95 a month, with calling to the US, Canada, and 30 other countries.

About AOL
AOL and its subsidiaries operate a leading network of Web brands and the largest Internet access subscription service in the United States. Web brands include the AOL.com(R) website, AIM(R), MapQuest(R) and Netscape(R). AOL offers a range of digital services in the areas of education, safety and security, communications and music. The company also has operations in Europe and Canada. AOL LLC is a majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. and is based in Dulles, Virginia.

For More Information:
Cindy Harvey
Jayna Kliner
AOL
(703) 265-1746

I see while I was writing this all up that Jeff Pulver beat me to posting about this announcement, You can see Jeff's cogent commentary here.

Matthew Ingram, technology writer with The Globe and Mail in Toronto, talks specifically about how iotum's working with AIM Phoneline in more detail here.


Technorati Tags: AOL, AIM Phoneline, MyNuMo, iotum, VoIP, unified communications, ringback tones

Technorati Tags: AOL, AIM Phoneline, MyNuMo, iotum, VoIP, unified communications, ringback tones