Broadband Developments

Unified Communications definition debate rages.  It can mean different things to different people.  Some of the iPhone apps are showing some new presence capabilities.  The question is how to integrate the presence across platforms and technologies.  What are some success stories?  The waters are very muddy in this area.  I like where the iPhone is going and as a consumer I don’t want lock in but instead a good experience and choice.  The user shouldn’t do all the work figuring out presence information.  The network should push presence information that’s out there to me.

BroadDev’s Alex Lewis writes about what is UC on Hyperconnectivity blog?

He says.. “I get this question a lot, “What exactly is Unified Communications?”. The answer is a bit like the old supreme court debate, I can’t define it but I know it when I see it! The core lies in that UC means different things to different people. I’ll try to clear the muddy waters a bit.”

“My general definition of unified communications would be: A process, platform or architecture that unites or connects traditionally diverse modes of communication.”

“Although it would be nice for presence information to be via standard, open protocols I don’t think we’re anywhere close to presence federation. We’ll get there eventually, but probably not in the current or even next generation of products. As we saw initially with messages left on BBS bulletin boards transitioning to email to mobile I think UC will be the next evolution. Everything from services like Live Mail and Gmail to corporate product like Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes will have a standard method of sharing presence and communication either federated or open. The question is whether the enterprise or the social computing cloud will drive the process. I used to be sure it would be enterprise but I’ve begun to rethink that lately.”