The Telecom Application Developer Manifesto can be viewed and downloaded below. Please send your feedback to info@tadsummit.com, thank you. This is just the first draft, its going to evolve rapidly as its a living document. In particular, the needs and responsibilities in building the ecosystem needs work. Its tone is independent and to-the-point, such frankness may cause some discomfort as the document is bridging a disparate ecosystem. Through being open and honest our aim is from the grassroots (that is the people working at the coal-face of this industry) create a sustainable and profitable telecom application developer ecosystem. Help us make the Manifesto better with your feedback, thank you.

1. Telecom Application Developer Manifesto
Telecom Application Developer Manifesto
Draft for Industry Comment
The Telecoms industry has failed its most important asset for innovation, telecom application
developers. TADS (Telecom Application Developer Summit), a grassroots initiative from the people
building the telecom application industry will foster a sustainable and profitable ecosystem.
This Manifesto documents what is required and is being made available for Industry comment.
Purpose and Objectives
● Telecom voice and messaging revenues, a $1T market, are under pressure from
web­based Over the Top service providers.
● The telecommunications industry must deliver more services faster to survive. But the
existing eco­system has failed to deliver, hence the need to recognize and develop a
sustainable and profitable telecom application ecosystem.
● This Manifesto sets out what is required to make the Telecom Application Developer
ecosystem a reality, through identifying the needs and responsibility of the three main actors
in this ecosystem: developers, vendors and telcos.
● The Manifesto reviews the history of how we got to a point where the $5T ICT industry is
missing a critical component of a profitable and sustainable telecom application developer
ecosystem; and why the web provides an important model in addressing this gap.
Why Do we Need a Telecom Application Developer Manifesto?
No other industry touches as many business sectors as telecommunications. From the legacy
1950s fixed line telephone in your grandparent’s home, through the now globally ubiquitous mobile
network that is increasingly broadband capable, to the latest 3D 4k movie delivered over a satellite
and then fiber optic link. Telecoms is everywhere and a vital part of everyone’s lives because
communications is a fundamental human need.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is a term used to describe the relationship
between the myriad types of goods, services and networks that make up the global information and
telecommunications system. Globally, the ICT industry will be about a $5.0 trillion sector in 2013,
up from $4.7 trillion for 2012.
There were 6.8 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide by mid­2013, up from 5.9 billion in November
2011, source International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Most electronic products are now
‘connected’ from tablets, through TVs, to thermostats. Telecommunications is an exciting and
influential industry, and continues to evolve with important trends such as:
● Rise of VoIP (Voice over IP), so voice becomes just an application on the internet,
accessible to any internet connected device or application;
● Democratization of telecommunications technology with open source telecom software,
easy to use and powerful telecom application platforms, and telecom APIs;
Telecom Application Developer Summit, www.tadsummit.com
Please send your feedback to info@tadsummit.com, thank you.

2. Telecom Application Developer Manifesto
● Broader competition not just between telcos but with web­based service providers;
● Global addiction to the internet for communications, information and entertainment; and
● Evolution of mobile networks towards global broadband ubiquity.
However, a gap exists in the telecommunications industry; it lacks a viable and profitable
ecosystem that fosters and propels telecom application developer. The industry has tried to attract
mobile application developers who are principally focused on building applications for handheld
computing devices running iOS and Android. Their primary need is direct access to a large (>1B
smartphone and tablet (handheld computer) owners) engaged customer base that is prepared to
pay in time, privacy or cash. Telcos cannot and remain unable to fulfill this need, so are currently
considered irrelevant by mobile application developers.
The ecosystem gap will become critical as voice and messaging revenues are under pressure
from web and app based services such as Skype, Whatsapp, WebRTC, KakaoTalk, Line and
increasingly ubiquitous internet connectivity. To respond, the telecommunications industry must
deliver more services built on the telecommunications network. This contention is not new, but the
existing eco­system of telcos and their traditional strategic suppliers have failed to deliver, hence
the need to recognize and develop a sustainable and profitable telecom application ecosystem.
The purpose of the Telecom Application Developer Manifesto is to set out from the grassroots what
is required to make this ecosystem a reality. The diagram below that shows the diversity of
Telecom Application developers across the communications services demand curve (from big
revenue services like public telephony, through services like mHeath, to focused applications
reviewed in detail here, http://alanquayle.com/category/startups­to­watch/):
● Internal innovation within telcos for telco­branded services;
● Telco’s existing ecosystem (e.g. enterprise customers, system integration, content
partners, resellers and xVNOs); and
● A segment of long­tail developers that are embedding telecoms into new ecosystems and
business processes. Think of them as a "beach­head" or "lead bowling pin" into the broader
long­tail developer community, as in the limit communications is pervasive across
everything we do.
Telecom application developers exist and include independent software vendors, system
integrators, enterprise developers and many other developers building apps that live either in the
core telecom network, enterprise data centers or public cloud. It’s not an insubstantial group, and
generally within a telco’s purview, yet they remain largely ignored by the industry. The term
developer in the context of service creation is very broad it covers hard core programmers who
write programs in their preferred programming languages to those developers who create services
with very little or no programming skills using service abstractions built in to the platform. The TAD
ecosystem must recognized this diversity of needs..
The manifesto is not exclusively focused on communication services, other capabilities such as
payments, identity, etc. are equally applicable. We’re just starting on the core service of the
telecommunications industry as it needs immediate attention.
Telecom Application Developer Summit, www.tadsummit.com
Please send your feedback to info@tadsummit.com, thank you.

3. Telecom Application Developer Manifesto
We Must Learn from the Web and from History
The Web is the model for TAD ecosystem success, and web­style simplicity rules:
● Ubiquitous, free platform (HTML)
● Unified mechanism for accessing resources (URIs)
● Developer­friendly
○ No software to buy or set up
○ Free documentation on the web for developers to self­train
But we must recognize that the telecommunications industry is regulated with an entrenched
legacy. So a balance must be found in managing compliance and a culture adverse to risk. These
are not insurmountable barriers to the creation of the telecom application developer ecosystem.
Rather they highlight the important role that some members of the telecom application developer
ecosystem will play in mediating (brokering) between the web­centric developers and
telecommunication service providers.
History has shown we must continuously make telephony simpler, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol)
was not simple enough, and is now considered legacy within WebRTC standards.
Standards like CallML / CCXML / VXML made telephony and communication services simpler but
not simple enough, given their lack of adoption. Today we have REST APIs which in general are for
many developers still far too complex; they prefer simple web scripting in languages like Javascript,
PHP and Ruby, with documentation and code samples freely available, and development sandbox
access in less than 30 seconds to try out new ideas.
Telecom Application Developer Summit, www.tadsummit.com
Please send your feedback to info@tadsummit.com, thank you.

4. Telecom Application Developer Manifesto
This history demonstrates we must continue to make telecom services easier for developers to use
and like the web, let their needs drive its evolution and adoption.
A Common Vision
The Telecoms Industry needs to deliver more value to its customers based on its core product of
communications. This can only be achieved through working with all types of telecom application
developers, as shown in the above diagram.
Telcos must retake control over service innovation and foster innovation internally. In many
countries Telcos are one of the largest employers in their country. There is no excuse but to have a
strong internal telecom application development capacity creating new services for customers.
Democratization of technology empowers everyone. It is a fallacy that innovation can only come
out of the Bay Area; while, it is far easier to raise capital there, we should recognize that innovation
comes from everyone everywhere to create and deliver services that meet their customers’ and
employees’ needs.
The Telco’s existing ecosystem must also create and deliver new services for customers.
Examples of members of this category include telco’s enterprise customers, system integration
partners, content partners, resellers and xVNOs. There is a vast untapped potential being opened
up as businesses realize the power of embedding communications into their business. Telcos are
a channel to market for innovations from telecom application developers, their coverage of
businesses and consumers in their countries of operations has value. The opportunity for Telcos is
to understand this and systematize how they take new services to market.
In recent years developer focus has been the handheld computer, whether that is a smartphone or
tablet, and the applications that run on it. But the majority of the world remains connected through
other devices, and that is not going to change given the “internet of things” means communications
will take place across an ever growing range of devices such as TVs, set­top boxes, watches, cars,
fridges, and smartphones. What has been under­appreciated is the individual real­time
communications cloud every telco provides is interconnected into a global real­time
communications cloud.
There are a broad category of technology providers making telephony easier to use across internal
innovation, innovation within the existing ecosystem, and innovation with new partners. Today, this
cadre of technology providers and their communities are focused on building their individual
businesses. Through recognizing and supporting the critical role this cadre play in mediating
(brokering) between the regulated and conservative telecoms world and the open and free web
development community we can create at an industry level a profitable and sustainable global
ecosystem.
Culture change is required within Telcos, the formation of ‘Digital’ groups is a step in the right
direction but more is required. Telcos must recognize and support the telecom application
developer ecosystem. They must build the go­to­market models that supports hundreds of new
services every year on their real­time communications cloud.
Telecom Application Developer Summit, www.tadsummit.com
Please send your feedback to info@tadsummit.com, thank you.

5. Telecom Application Developer Manifesto
Developer Needs and Responsibilities
Simply, not make the assumption popularized by some that the telecoms industry is irrelevant.
Developers’ needs include:
● Modern and easy to use development tools and documentation;
● Testing and simulation tools and a deployment “sandbox”;
● Community support and code examples;
● Go­to­market support where appropriate; and
● Viable business models.
● A scalable model that will help them to expand quickly at a reasonable cost
Developers’ responsibilities include:
● Communicate their technical preferences;
● Communicate their needs of capabilities exposed by Telcos;
● Communicate business models that work for their applications; and
● Innovate.
● Create incremental value for the Telecom ecosystem
Telco Needs and Responsibilities
The Telecom industry has some challenges with respect to service innovation. They must: retake
control of internal service innovation and instead work directly with telecom application developers;
work with their existing partners to deliver service innovation in cooperation with telecom application
developers; and focus on a subset of long­tail developers, telecom application developers that can
extend telecom into new ecosystems and business propositions.
Telcos’ needs include:
● Access to vendors’ communities of developers and their innovation power to launch more
services under their own brand, in partnership with their existing ecosystem, and in
cooperation with individual developers;
● Safely expose assets while meeting regulatory and compliance requirements; and
● Help from vendors in building the necessary go­to­market support and business models for
developers, and in launching hundreds of new services per year.
Telcos’ responsibilities include:
● Go to market support for developers and vendor developer communities given the telco’s
unique strengths within their local markets;
● Support vendors with publicity to enable best practices and success to be publicly shared
across the industry;
● Expose assets for developers; and
● Build a process that supports the launch of hundreds of new services each year.
Telecom Application Developer Summit, www.tadsummit.com
Please send your feedback to info@tadsummit.com, thank you.

6. Telecom Application Developer Manifesto
Vendor Needs and Responsibilities
Large established industries can tend towards inefficient structures, where individual vendors’
interests are not aligned with the competitive health of the industry. Vendors naturally want to
maximize sales through selling as many “boxes”, licenses or consulting hours as possible. They
tend to keep other vendors ‘at bay’ through delivering highly complex solutions helping them
shipping more components and more consulting fees. As a result, Telcos become dependent on a
few vendors making it difficult for other vendors to even complement never mind replace the
incumbents. The end result is supposed interoperable standards­based solutions that take months
to interoperate, if at all. Every small change causes the issuance of a change requests with
purchase orders and elongated timelines to deliver.
A virtuous circle is required to break this situation, similar to the one created by Apple and Google
for mobile devices and applications. In a virtuous circle the interests of all parties are aligned. The
platform providers deliver a rich platform (iOS and Android) with direct access to the end users; the
OEMs use the platform and ship devices to a high number of users (Apple and Samsung); the
mobile app developers continuously innovate on the ecosystem created; and the end­users enjoy a
rich experience that results in more sales and use of devices and applications.
In the telco app world, a similar virtuous circle can be created:
● Telcos provide the communication resources and the large audience as we all use
communications every day;
● Vendors deliver easy to use platform for developers and critically brokering. Brokering
makes it easier for telco app developer to deliver across many operators, and manage the
cultural gap that exists in the industry;
● Telco app developers create a multitude of communication enabled services making the
telco more useful; and
● End­users enjoy a rich experience which keeps them consuming communications services
with a variety of business models.
Vendors needs include:
● Telcos must allow open promotion of the joint successes. Publicity is essential to advertise
success in a public forum where critical comment is possible, and to help the industry learn
and meet the innovation challenge.
Responsibilities include:
● Meeting telecom application developer diverse needs from hard­core programmers to those
who create new services on application platforms that require little programming knowledge;
● Providing systems that support and protect the operators’ networks;
● Brokering between Telcos and developers to enable a service innovation engine; and
● Creating a community of developers for Telcos to access.
Telecom Application Developer Summit, www.tadsummit.com
Please send your feedback to info@tadsummit.com, thank you.

7. Telecom Application Developer Manifesto
Roadmap to the TAD Ecosystem
The above needs and responsibility when fulfilled create the TAD ecosystem, see figure below.
The Vendor plays a critical role in brokering this ecosystem through meeting the needs of developer
and telco needs; and ensuring the go­to­market and business model needs are aligned. With this
alignment innovations from developers can deliver hundred of new services to the telcos’
customers. And critically we must not forget the vendor’s and the industry’ need for transparency
and publicity to share best practices, rather than remain divided and hence conquered by
web­based service providers.
The steps to create this ecosystem include:
1. The first step is to publish this draft of the telecom application developer Manifesto for
industry comment.
2. The second step is at TADS (Telecom Application Developer Summit) to bring the
ecosystem together to see if we can build a telecom application developers ecosystem
together. And through the event revise the Manifesto given the discussions and learning to
deliver the first formal issue of the Manifesto.
3. The TADS website will be an independent repository including videos from the developer
summit, an active weblog with case studies of telecom application success, and where the
Manifesto resides and is revised as we learn what it takes to create this ecosystem.
4. Beyond this is for the industry to decide.
Telecom Application Developer Summit, www.tadsummit.com
Please send your feedback to info@tadsummit.com, thank you.