Looking back at 2009, a seismic shift has occurred in internet usage, both for businesses and individuals, one that it is very hard to imagine will be reversed. With more smart phones, mobile applications and services establishing themselves as the points of access and services of choice for those wishing to communicate or interact with each other, the line between traditional web services and mobile-based widgets is blurring.
The pace of change and development is often unnerving as the media hype up the ‘next big thing’ in technology. Yet the speed of adoption also seems to be accelerating, with the older generation and those on Main Street, traditionally more conservative in their adoption of technology, embracing new services more rapidly, leading to the conclusion that technology, finally, is becoming mainstream and more accessible.
It’s hard to remember however that all of this has been developed over a long period of time. 2009 saw the 40th anniversary of the development of the internet, as well as the 20th anniversary of the development of the World Wide Web. The first generation mobile telephone from Motorola was demonstrated in 1973. And the first domain name was sold commercially in 1985.
Everything today has been made possible by the long-term development in infrastructure and devices that have taken decades to refine, re-engineer and be made robust. The products, services and applications that sit on top have been brought to market through a process of incremental innovation, using development tools and languages that are bringing standardization, essential for different services to talk to each other better, to enable a more consistent experience.
And yet, there is still a huge amount to be achieved, as meaningful services that contextualize and understand people’s business and social life begin to emerge. Location-based services, that are aware where you are and where your friends or potential destinations may be; augmented reality applications that provide further, layered information over real-time visual data, helping you get to where you want to be or provide a new and fresh learning experience; and new, low-cost and more user-friendly communications solutions that enable you to communicate with people how they and you want to communicate.
It is within this context that .tel was born. Until 2009, .tel was very much a theoretical ‘what if?’. What if people could use names instead of numbers to connect with others? What if people could simply and securely publish all of the ways that others could reach them under one universal point of contact? What if you didn’t need to learn how to build a website simply in order to be found online? What if you could access this point of contact from any device – PC or smartphone – with a browser and automatically see it in the right format? And what if all of this could be done using the system behind the web, storing the information as data, so that it was cheap to access, quick to download and simple to update?
2009 realized Telnic’s vision in bringing this incremental innovation, built on standards and using proven technology, to anyone who wished to be found, no matter where they were and what services others were using. Internally we refer to .tel as ‘Web 0.0’ as it uses the system behind the web – the DNS – to provide a personal, fully-owned platform from which an individual can share all of their traditional and Web 2.0 communications methods. But at the same time, we have stripped away and simplified the ability for people to have a place online from which not only can they be discovered but also, as more developers see the power of one single place under a users own control, a place where in the future individuals can better manage their own personal web experience.
.tel has been alive for nine months and we’re proud to have an extended family that spans the globe. Individuals and small businesses from all walks of life and professions are telling us their stories of how they use and benefit from .tel, simply either as a point of contact or in a more complex manner. Some of these uses are already saving lives, such as clamptime.tel, which provides medical professionals with essential information regarding organ donation.
.tel is still very young but Telnic is committed to helping it develop and grow into a strong, vibrant and helpful service. As the proud parent, we are not too internally focused to know that we have all of the understanding required to bring a socially-aware new entrant to an ever-changing community. We have been listening over the past nine months to opinions, advice and concerns from you, and we continue to be grateful for this, as we help .tel develop. In the next few issues of .telegraph, we’ll be talking further about how .tel will change in its looks, become friendlier and begin playing well with others.
We’ve learnt that it’s important to make sure that .tel can walk before it can run. However, we’re confident that it is learning quickly and its speed of development will accelerate. We’re looking forward to 2010 and the challenges and opportunities that it will bring, and we hope that you are too. Once again, thank you for your support and we hope that you will be proud of the development you see next year.
