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Subject: Presence and IntComm WG

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Re: [wg-pic] My silly little cell phone idea


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  • From: Steve Blair <>
  • To:
  • Subject: Re: [wg-pic] My silly little cell phone idea
  • Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 20:45:55 -0400


Joe:

See comments below.

-Steve

Rork, Joseph (J.P.) wrote:

<soapbox>
I am a Vonage user. One of the things that I think is cool is the click-to-call feature. I just highlight a bit of numeric text on my computer, push F6, and my analog desk phone rings, connecting me to the phone number that I highlighted. Simple, stupid, cool. Easier to use then Skype.

We had this with Broadsoft as well. For a production service it is cool and also integrates
billing into one statement. No one need bring in their bill for reimbursement. The MM crowd
may not be WOWed by integrated billing but it wouldn't hurt to mention that benefit of
click-to-cell (call).

Great, what does this have to do with PIC?

I dunno. What ?

I realize that our group promotes SIP as our protocol of choice, and that we wish to promote presence and integrated communications using SIP. However, I also thing that we can achieve our goal without demanding that we are SIP end-to-end. SIP.edu, which actually likes SIP so much that it has SIP in it's name, isn't always SIP end-to-end. But people get the idea. I use SIP, I contact someone. I argue that we relax our grip on controlling all aspects of the RTC, and focus more on the PIC. All the end user wants to do is communicate with someone; we want to show them how to use PIC to communicate with that someone more effectively.

To me the message in the last paragraph is that user driven functionality is important. I see
this as a follow-on to what Jeremy & I were talking about in the conference call. I believe we
need to offer a baseline set of features at each demo. We can add to or even select from a
set of features based upon demo requirements. click-to-cell is fun and can be useful. For the demo
however I'd like to see us be able to explain why we are adding this functionality to a
Presence and Integrated Communications demo. I think we have the basis of that explanation
in your original message.

I propose that we allow the conference attendees to add their existing cell phones to their profile at the conference, mimicking what a real world implementation might look like today. Then, as part of our integrated communications package, we offer this as a voice endpoint using the SIP-to-PSTN gateway we plan on providing. It will allow he end user to make softphone to cell and cell to cell calls, depending on how we implement it.

Lets take it even further. Lets conduct this demo by using resources on PSTN gateways where the
resources are donated by participating members for the MM only. I envision the idea being
implemented as follows. Attendees can opt-in to registering their cell phone number. This number will
be known to the proxy but need not be advertised to humans.

When the owner of the originating cell phone wishes to click-to-cell, an SER to owner-cell-phone
call is originated via a participating gateway that is in the same local calling area as the cell phone
number. This avoids the long distance charges on the gateway provider. The IP call leg to the called
party is completed as usual.

We can take it one step further and allow people to not only register their cell phone number, but also their SMS contact as well.

Sorry I don't do SMS.

Scenario 1: Tarzan wants to call Jane. Tarzan is using a SIP softphone on his computer and puts in . The system sees that Jane is registered at softphone and rings her softphone. Done already today.

Scenario 2: Same as one, but Jane's battery on her laptop died and she isn't registered at all. System recognizes this, and redirects the call to the cell phone that Jane provided in her profile out the PSTN gateway. Note Tarzan still doesn't know Jane's cell, just her unique identifier.

Scenario 3: Tarzan still wants to call Jane, but Jane is sitting in a coconut opening seminar, and doesn't want to be disturbed by phone calls. The system recognizes that Jane has set Jane has set her "DND by voice" flag, and offers Tarzan the option to IM her. Tarzan decides no, but instructs the system to have Jane call him when both of them are not seen as busy by voice.
Scenario 4: Tarzan in hurry, doesn't have time to boot up old 386, runs to kiosk, logs in as Tarzan, tells system to call Jane using Tarzan's cell phone. Tarzan's cell phone rings, Jane answers either cell phone or softphone, depending on which she is using at the time.

What about Chim Chim. Oops sorry wrong show. :-)

I know that there are some that are not fans of gateways, but we are putting in a PSTN gateway because we recognize the need to expand our calling audience. It would be beneficial if we use that same gateway to extend the integrated part of our communications. I believe that it would help people 'get' what we are trying to explain. And it would also help solve that little nagging voice problem that we admit to having...


Perhaps. I think we need to be careful that we don't send the message that we are the same as the
voip-wg. We are suppose to be about more than voice calls. Plus with voice working as poorly
as it has at past MMs I am not sure I want just voice in any form as the newest PIC feature.

If we must emphasize voice then lets look at call quality using different codecs. I think there is more
value in better quality using less bandwidth then just call completion.

I have no problem adding gateways but I think either Ford will have to host it or we need
support from the community. Otherwise I think we need to line up a sponsor to pay for the
gateway service. Did anyone see Bruce from Avaya? (Just kidding Bruce). If you use Cisco
boxes for the gateway I'd be happy to help with the config where possible.

Hey I like the view from this soapbox...

-Steve

</soapbox>

Regards,
Joseph Rork
Associate Architect
Next Generation Collaborative Computing, SIE
Ford Motor Company
Phone: 313-594-6672
Email:

"There are 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't."





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