As I woke up in Dallas today, I didn’t know that today would be the day of AOL.

First, Alec spanked AOL pretty hard. I mean, hard. A note to Alec’s five sons - don’t mess with Dad. In an attempt to bring the pendulum back to the center for a bit, let me relate a story I first heard as an engineer at PictureTel:

So, a company is a lot like rock. You can go outside in the yard, get a rock, and do anything you want to it. Love it. Care for it. Polish it. Put it on a pedestal. Write poetry about it, kiss it and worship it. Go ahead, it’s OK. Nothing wrong with that. But, never expect it to love you back. It can’t. It’s a rock.

To amplify and to mitigate Alec’s story, AOL is a rock. No real use blaming it for being a rock, but don’t kid yourself either.

That’s not the end of it. I got an e-mail today from an AOL staffer clarifying my recent post about the “twice a day” limitation, and pointing me to their “credit and payment” page. He also reports that “This is an anti-fraud measure that we’ve instituted to help keep our rates low. There is no limit to the number of calls made using AIM or a SIP device” and further added that “The details of our limits… are not rare among VoIP providers.” Yes, indeed, and thank you for the clarification. I wish I had been more clear in my original post. And, in the spirit of the day, my particular human being who works at AOL seems like a really good guy, and not a rock.

Now for the clarity. I realize that, in my haste and confused state, I failed to make my point. I’ll try it again. Ahem.

My name is Thomas Howe, and I write voice mashups. When a company like AOL announces a voice API, I pay attention. My customers pay me a boatload of money for knowing this stuff (thanks, guys). However, for all practical purposes this API is unusable. Since the word on the street is that the API is made so developers like me can make applications with it, I felt as though I should comment on it. I’m really not impressed, and I made an immature attempt to gently guide and educate not only my fellow voice mashers, but AOL as well. There’s a big difference in approaching the market as a provider of a good API (like Jadukah, IfByPhone and especially Lypp), and approaching the market like a VoIP provider. AOL looks and acts like a VoIP provider, not an API provider. But hey, it’s a rock.

Now, here’s the lesson taught to me by the venerable Andy Abramson: Let’s make this fair, and I’ll tell you what they SHOULD do:

• AOL should worry less about fraud, and more about customer adoption. AOL should have some self esteem and prepare for success instead of bracing for failure.
• AOL has the clout to be truly innovative, yet it looks backwards not only in it’s mission, but in the way it approaches the market. It’s so 2005. AOL SHOULD be looking to provide communications enabled business process to small businesses, not only because the market will be much bigger, but because it’s innovative. It’s a good habit to get into.
• AOL has the internal talent to do better (or it least, it used to). AOL should go down (or rehire them) to the team that brought us Boxely and get them on the case. Apparently, they aren’t doing anything else these days.
• Ummmmmm…. Dan York is right. This isn’t an API. This is a SIP trunk, and bad one at that. Give us a RESTFUL API so we can do something cool with our web applications, not do something generic with underperforming softclients and ATAs.

I think I’ll have a Broadsoft day tomorrow. Some people are apparently upset with me because I’m not upset with them. Or rather, the variants of the old “If you love _____, you can’t love me” story really are infinite. You know, there’s a wonderful beach at the end of my street in West Barnstable, full of sand ready for the pounding. As for me, I’m just calling them as I see them. It’s the only thing I do well.

Posted by Thomas Howe @ 12:58 am | Filed Under Lead Stories |

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