> Just got home from official friday and read (parts of) this thread...
> Decided to give it a whirl and got it working just fine...

> http://www.tjoos.com/Img/Tweet2Sms.png

> Twitter sends notifications to my email. I poll my email every 30 secs
> and if a new twitter direct mail arrives I'm sending out an SMS using
> my Huawei E220 USB HSDPA Modem. I can put any SIM in this device, so
> could load a prepaid vodafone one with $49 maxicap = $310 = 1240 smses
> = 4 cents per sms. Obviously you'd set limits on both total number per
> day/week and total number from 1 person per day/week to prevent
> someone creating a crazy bill.

> So..... who would pay something like 10 cents per received sms? Should
> I build this prototype into a real solution? Does anyone really care?

> Time for bed.

> On Aug 15, 10:09 am, Elias Bizannes <elias.bizan...@gmail.com> wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------
> > Adding Ivo's message which for some reason didn't post - Elias

> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------

> > Hi Elias and Geoff,

> > I tried posting to the group but got an error message - maybe I'm not
> > allowed post. I've joined the group on google. Does someone need to
> > set me up to post?

> > Anyways heres my email.
> > Ivo

> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > From: Ivo Brett <ivo.br...@gmail.com>
> > Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:38:12 +0100
> > Subject: Re: [SiliconBeach] New project idea: Bringing back Twitter

> > SMS
> > To: "silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com"
> > <silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com>

> > Hi there,

> > Thanks for including me on this email and thanks to Elias for
> > introducing me2mobile.com. Premium SMS and bulk SMS is an area I know
> > quite a bit about after having struggled with many different business
> > models in this area. Its interesting that you've mentioned this as I
> > have spent the last couple of weeks looking into the area of SMS
> > enabling 'life streaming' services.

> > A few things I've learnt about running a premium SMS business that you
> > might not already know. Firstly, the costs for a shortcode with a
> > carrier is expensive to setup and maintain. The revenue share is
> > stacked in favour of the operators and they take a large share for no
> > risk. Secondly, you need to be doing a large volume of SMS for any
> > business case to pay off. This  means that the only people who make
> > money out of premium SMS are the companies that can afford massive
> > marketing (e.g. late night text for a babe type services). This has
> > resulted in premium SMS being considered a slightly "grubby" service.
> > For all these reasons me2mobile has moved away from premium SMS as our
> > core offering. We now make most of our money out of selling
> > interactive SMS services to businesses (i.e. SMS campaigns using bulk
> > SMS) rather than premium SMS.

> > That being said, I think that your idea has a lot of merit. Twitter
> > have done the hard work of creating a market for this idea (they've
> > just withdrawn their own heavily used sms service). There is also a
> > sizable and well connected twitter user base so it would be relatively
> > easy to get this service 'out there'.

> > Geoff and some of the other posters correctly pointed out some of the
> > necessary mechanics of how premium SMS works so I wont go over them.
> > But you thing that wasnt mentioned was the ability to send a low
> > charged premium SMS (MT) to each follower. This could be as low as 25
> > cents. I do, however, accept the point from Silky that its a pain to
> > have to pay for incoming tweets especially since you dont know how
> > many there'll be but as Elias says you can give people the option to
> > opt out (or set a daily limit on how many they'll receive).

> > Not too make it sound too trivial as I know there'll be some gotchas
> > but I reckon I've implemented about 75% of what needs to be done for
> > this project. I also have an agreement with one of the top premium SMS
> > and bulk SMS aggregators. I selected them after indepth selection
> > process and I reckon I have the best rates and revenue share that one
> > can get. The best thing about this aggregator is that they have
> > premium SMS connectivity in 28 countries so if this offering proven
> > successful in Australia it would be very simple to roll out
> > internationally.

> > I have a good premium SMS shortcode already set up (19961996) with
> > this aggregator (its 55 cents MO). Note: If you were to set up a
> > shortcode yourself it normally takes 6 to 8 weeks to get a shortcode
> > set up and sometimes operators knock back the applications.

> > To be perfectly honest - the most expensive part of my agreement is
> > maintaining the premium shortcode and I have been considering closing
> > this part down altogether. There is one customer using it extensively
> > but I dont push our premium sms offering anymore. Therefore, ne
> > possibility is that I share my current agreement with others that want
> > to take advantage of this shortcode. I'll be a transparent as possible
> > and even share the contract details I have with the aggregator just to
> > show that I wont be creaming any margin off the top. All I'd ask is to
> > be involved in the service and any revenues generated by it.

> > I'd like to be involved in this project as I think its got a lot of
> > legs. I'm back in Ireland at the moment but I can have a call with
> > others if that helps speed things up.

> > Ivo

> > On 8/14/08, Geoff McQueen <geoff.mcqu...@internetrix.com.au> wrote:

> > - Show quoted text -
> > > Elias,

> > > Sounds interesting. As someone who's messed around with premium SMS
> before,
> > > could I confirm the idea is:

> > > 1. A "short code" or 19 number be registered in AU
> > > 2. People who send to this number pay a premium to send their SMS
> > > 3. Some of this premium is revenue that goes to the "owner" of the 19
> number
> > > 4. This revenue be re-invested in the community, in whatever form that
> is?

> > > If that is the plan, this would require:
> > > 1. Account setup with a carrier, which I take it you're suggesting
> mobileme
> > > (although [3] wasn't referenced in your post)
> > > 2. Some glue to tie submission posts to the short code as submitting to
> the
> > > Twitter API
> > > 3. Resolving who's going to pay for broadcast/outgoing messages from
> Twitter
> > > (unless people agree to cop a fee per message they get delivered a la
> late
> > > nite adult tv commercials)

> > > I see aspect 3 of the requirements above as the hard bit financially;
> this
> > > is why Twitter is removing support for international 'sending', and
> unless
> > > I'm missing something, the premium SMS creature is more to collecting a
> form
> > > of premium revenue on the user sending you a message, not the other way
> > > around.

> > > Of course, this AU gateway could truncate the messages and fund the
> outbound
> > > transmissions via advertising, but that might be a bit hard to swallow.

> > > Or, am I missing something really important here?

> > > Geoff

> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com
> > > [mailto:silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Elias
> > > Bizannes
> > > Sent: Thursday, 14 August 2008 9:46 PM
> > > To: Silicon Beach Australia
> > > Cc: ivo.br...@gmail.com
> > > Subject: [SiliconBeach] New project idea: Bringing back Twitter SMS

> > > Boys and girls,

> > > <rant>
> > > Since our discussions, things have predictably settled. It was never
> > > the intention that this mailing list becomes a 'chat' forum - there
> > > are plenty of other places for that. Instead, it's a way for us to
> > > have a central node as a community to collaborate on. I'm quite proud
> > > of what's become of it.

> > > One new initiate has been born - the distributed database - which
> > > several silicon beacher's having picked this up and are experimenting
> > > with now. It's going to be interesting to see what we can cook up for
> > > release later this year.
> > > </rant>

> > > But I've now got a new proposal. Building on some thoughts I tweeted
> > > before[1], I have a solution that will do three separate things that
> > > will help our industry.

> > > Background
> > > Twitter has become the most important social networking site for the
> > > Australia tech community. It facilitates meet ups, keeps people up to
> > > date, breaks news, and generally builds community.

> > > Today - news was announced that twitter would be shutting off its SMS
> > > service for international numbers because they now long can
> > > sustain[2] . This leaves Australian users completely out in the cold
> > > on one of the most valuable features of the technology. Separately,
> > > the micro-blogging revolution that Twitter has created is going to
> > > create transformative impacts on the industry. The embrace of Plurk
> > > and Identi.ca by Australia's twitter community to name but two
> > > examples, of how things are happening. However what these open source
> > > solutions lack is an SMS solution.

> > > The idea
> > > What I propose, is that as a community, we create a SMS solution that
> > > brings back Twitter to the phone for us as well as supporting other
> > > twitter clones.

> > > SMS gateways, including an Australian startup in Sydney, allow you to
> > > set up premium SMS plans. So for example, if people subscribe to your
> > > plan - it will cost you 55 cents. However, as the organiser of that
> > > plan, you get 18 cents for every message you get. It's an innovative
> > > revenue model, which I have explored in the past as part of my
> > > research into the mobile web opportunity.

> > > If we can hack together something that links the twitter API and a SMS
> > > gateway API like that of Ivo Brett's startup[2], we can restore SMS
> > > functionality. Oh, and make a bit of money.

> > > Sure, this is a market opportunity for a entrepreneur. I reckon you
> > > could make a quick buck, until a phone company or Twitter wakes up.
> > > But personally, I think it's too small scale an idea to launch a
> > > business, but too big an opportunity to pass up.

> > > So by building this service, as Silicon Beach - we've now got a
> > > revenue stream...for the comunity. The revenue raised, will be 100%
> > > reinvested into the community. Sponsoring conferences, meetups - heck
> > > wherever there is value to support effort in the community.

> > > Twitter becomes useful + we make opensource microblogging useful + we
> > > fund our community without realising it. Three bigs things, and all it
> > > takes is a bit of API hackery as some Jelly-a-thon.

> > > Thoughts?

> > > [1]http://twitter.com/liako/statuses/887005932
> > > [2]
> > >http://blog.twitter.com/2008/08/changes-for-some-sms-usersgood-and-ba.
> ..
> > > [3]http://www.me2mobile.com