Message from discussion
New project idea: Bringing back Twitter SMS
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From: Geoff McQueen <geoff.mcqu...@internetrix.com.au>
To: "silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com"
<silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:57:58 +1000
Subject: RE: [SiliconBeach] Re: New project idea: Bringing back Twitter SMS
Thread-Topic: [SiliconBeach] Re: New project idea: Bringing back Twitter SMS
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Bart,
I'm thinking you might be onto something here. There has recently been a dr=
amatic increase in the number of "unlimited" mobile plans on the market, wh=
ich include unlimited text. While there are of course going to be massive f=
ine-print caveats on these plans (haven't had a chance to read up on them y=
et), I imagine they'll come back to not running a commercial service, and a=
fair use policy that you don't go completely nuts.
As a result, buying a couple of these plans and then opening up shop would =
likely end up getting one into hot water pretty quickly, but, what if we co=
uld do something a little more "community" with it, and run the service in =
a bit of a decentralised fashion, so that a number of individuals with thes=
e sorts of unlimited plans put up their hands and take a small bit of the l=
oad in a way which doesn't breach fair use or commercial provisions in thes=
e sort of plans?
I haven't thought about it enough to consider its mechanics, but the concep=
t would probably be to have a central marshalling point where messages are =
read from Twitter (XMPP, API, whatever), and then a random user who's signe=
d in is selected and the central point sends it through to their machine vi=
a the internet at which point it is then sent out. The user could nominate =
what they're prepared to offer, so, say 250 SMS messages per month, with a =
cap of 30 per day (less than your average teenager sends, so, again, they d=
on't earn unwanted attention) could be what a user could choose, and once t=
hey have used up their quota, they're not part of the random selection list=
.
Methods that come to mind include something like the HSDPA modem you're tal=
king about, or via an iPhone application (Apple are promising to be able to=
"wake up" applications on handsets using push technology aren't they?), or=
a Windows Mobile 6 application. Ideally, the "from" number for this sort o=
f service would be changed to be the +44 UK gateway (which twitter will sti=
ll receive messages via), so the innocent are protected.
Anyway, this is a whole lot more engineering than other suggestions, but it=
could have the advantage of being a cost-less solution, and, personally, I=
'd say the world would have to be in awe of Aussie ingenuity for coming up =
with this work around (and since Twitter's domestic support is limited to U=
SA, Canada and India for the time being (I think?), open sourcing the effor=
t could result in a massive peer supported network of these gateways.
That's enough weekend dreaming for me... back to the 300+ item to do list..=
. ;-)
Geoff
From: silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com [mailto:silicon-beach-austra=
lia@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Davis Weddi
Sent: Sunday, 17 August 2008 8:42 PM
To: silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com
Subject: [SiliconBeach] Re: New project idea: Bringing back Twitter SMS
Interesting stuff here on SMS.
As a newbie here, I am looking forward to seeing this SMS idea mature into =
a realtime projection.
Davis
On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 8:59 PM, Bart Jellema <bart.jell...@tjoos.com<mailt=
o:bart.jell...@tjoos.com>> wrote:
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 =3D $310 =3D 1240 smses
=3D 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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto:silicon-beach-austra=
lia@googlegroups.com>"
> <silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com<mailto:silicon-beach-australia@=
googlegroups.com>>
>
> Hi there,
>
> Thanks for including me on this email and thanks to Elias for
> introducing me2mobile.com<http://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<mailto:geoff.=
mcqu...@internetrix.com.au>> wrote:
>
> - Show quoted text -
> > Elias,
>
> > Sounds interesting. As someone who's messed around with premium SMS bef=
ore,
> > 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 n=
umber
> > 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 mobi=
leme
> > (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 Tw=
itter
> > (unless people agree to cop a fee per message they get delivered a la l=
ate
> > nite adult tv commercials)
>
> > I see aspect 3 of the requirements above as the hard bit financially; t=
his
> > is why Twitter is removing support for international 'sending', and unl=
ess
> > 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 out=
bound
> > 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-aus=
tralia@googlegroups.com>
> > [mailto:silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com<mailto:silicon-beach-a=
ustralia@googlegroups.com>] On Behalf Of Elias
> > Bizannes
> > Sent: Thursday, 14 August 2008 9:46 PM
> > To: Silicon Beach Australia
> > Cc: ivo.br...@gmail.com<mailto: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
--_000_D8D25AE89091A348AF840CCAC9BB1EE14F7A9E7F8Dwin2k3localin_
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<div class=3DSection1>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Bart,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>I’m thinking you might be onto something here. There h=
as
recently been a dramatic increase in the number of “unlimited” =
mobile
plans on the market, which include unlimited text. While there are of cours=
e going
to be massive fine-print caveats on these plans (haven’t had a chance=
to
read up on them yet), I imagine they’ll come back to not running a
commercial service, and a fair use policy that you don’t go completel=
y
nuts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>As a result, buying a couple of these plans and then opening=
up shop
would likely end up getting one into hot water pretty quickly, but, what if=
we
could do something a little more “community” with it, and run t=
he
service in a bit of a decentralised fashion, so that a number of individual=
s with
these sorts of unlimited plans put up their hands and take a small bit of t=
he
load in a way which doesn’t breach fair use or commercial provisions =
in
these sort of plans?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>I haven’t thought about it enough to consider its
mechanics, but the concept would probably be to have a central marshalling =
point
where messages are read from Twitter (XMPP, API, whatever), and then a rand=
om
user who’s signed in is selected and the central point sends it throu=
gh
to their machine via the internet at which point it is then sent out. The u=
ser could
nominate what they’re prepared to offer, so, say 250 SMS messages per
month, with a cap of 30 per day (less than your average teenager sends, so,
again, they don’t earn unwanted attention) could be what a user could
choose, and once they have used up their quota, they’re not part of t=
he
random selection list.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Methods that come to mind include something like the HSDPA m=
odem
you’re talking about, or via an iPhone application (Apple are promisi=
ng
to be able to “wake up” applications on handsets using push
technology aren’t they?), or a Windows Mobile 6 application. Ideally,=
the
“from” number for this sort of service would be changed to be t=
he
+44 UK gateway (which twitter will still receive messages via), so the inno=
cent
are protected.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Anyway, this is a whole lot more engineering than other
suggestions, but it could have the advantage of being a cost-less solution,
and, personally, I’d say the world would have to be in awe of Aussie =
ingenuity
for coming up with this work around (and since Twitter’s domestic sup=
port
is limited to USA, Canada and India for the time being (I think?), open
sourcing the effort could result in a massive peer supported network of the=
se
gateways.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>That’s enough weekend dreaming for me… back to t=
he
300+ item to do list… ;-)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Geoff<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><span style=3D'font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",=
"sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div style=3D'border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in =
0in 0in'>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><span lang=3DEN-US style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-f=
amily:
"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span lang=3DEN-US style=3D'font-siz=
e:10.0pt;
font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> silicon-beach-austra...@googlegroups.co=
m
[mailto:silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Davis
Weddi<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Sunday, 17 August 2008 8:42 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [SiliconBeach] Re: New project idea: Bringing back Twitter =
SMS<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<div>
<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'margin-bottom:12.0pt'>Interesting stuff here =
on SMS.<br>
As a newbie here, I am looking forward to seeing this SMS idea mature into =
a
realtime projection.<br>
<br>
Davis<br>
<br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<div>
<p class=3DMsoNormal>On Fri, Aug 15, 2008 at 8:59 PM, Bart Jellema <<a
href=3D"mailto:bart.jell...@tjoos.com">bart.jell...@tjoos.com</a>> wrote=
:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><br>
Just got home from official friday and read (parts of) this thread...<br>
Decided to give it a whirl and got it working just fine...<br>
<br>
<a href=3D"http://www.tjoos.com/Img/Tweet2Sms.png" target=3D"_blank">http:/=
/www.tjoos.com/Img/Tweet2Sms.png</a><br>
<br>
Twitter sends notifications to my email. I poll my email every 30 secs<br>
and if a new twitter direct mail arrives I'm sending out an SMS using<br>
my Huawei E220 USB HSDPA Modem. I can put any SIM in this device, so<br>
could load a prepaid vodafone one with $49 maxicap =3D $310 =3D 1240 smses<=
br>
=3D 4 cents per sms. Obviously you'd set limits on both total number per<br=
>
day/week and total number from 1 person per day/week to prevent<br>
someone creating a crazy bill.<br>
<br>
So..... who would pay something like 10 cents per received sms? Should<br>
I build this prototype into a real solution? Does anyone really care?<br>
<br>
Time for bed.<o:p></o:p></p>
<div>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><br>
On Aug 15, 10:09 am, Elias Bizannes <<a
href=3D"mailto:elias.bizan...@gmail.com">elias.bizan...@gmail.com</a>> w=
rote:<br>
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
----------------<br>
> Adding Ivo's message which for some reason didn't post - Elias<br>
>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------=
----------------<br>
><br>
> Hi Elias and Geoff,<br>
><br>
> I tried posting to the group but got an error message - maybe I'm not<=
br>
> allowed post. I've joined the group on google. Does someone need to<br=
>
> set me up to post?<br>
><br>
> Anyways heres my email.<br>
> Ivo<br>
><br>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p class=3DMsoNormal>> From: Ivo Brett <<a href=3D"mailto:ivo.br...@g=
mail.com">ivo.br...@gmail.com</a>><br>
> Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:38:12 +0100<br>
> Subject: Re: [SiliconBeach] New project idea: Bringing back Twitter<br=
>
><br>
> SMS<br>
> To: "<a href=3D"mailto:silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com">=
silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com</a>"<br>
> <<a href=3D"mailto:silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com">silico=
n-beach-australia@googlegroups.com</a>><br>
><br>
> Hi there,<br>
><br>
> Thanks for including me on this email and thanks to Elias for<br>
> introducing <a href=3D"http://me2mobile.com" target=3D"_blank">me2mobi=
le.com</a>.
Premium SMS and bulk SMS is an area I know<br>
> quite a bit about after having struggled with many different business<=
br>
> models in this area. Its interesting that you've mentioned this as I<b=
r>
> have spent the last couple of weeks looking into the area of SMS<br>
> enabling 'life streaming' services.<br>
><br>
> A few things I've learnt about running a premium SMS business that you=
<br>
> might not already know. Firstly, the costs for a shortcode with a<br>
> carrier is expensive to setup and maintain. The revenue share is<br>
> stacked in favour of the operators and they take a large share for no<=
br>
> risk. Secondly, you need to be doing a large volume of SMS for any<br>
> business case to pay off. This means that the only people who ma=
ke<br>
> money out of premium SMS are the companies that can afford massive<br>
> marketing (e.g. late night text for a babe type services). This has<br=
>
> resulted in premium SMS being considered a slightly "grubby"
service.<br>
> For all these reasons me2mobile has moved away from premium SMS as our=
<br>
> core offering. We now make most of our money out of selling<br>
> interactive SMS services to businesses (i.e. SMS campaigns using bulk<=
br>
> SMS) rather than premium SMS.<br>
><br>
> That being said, I think that your idea has a lot of merit. Twitter<br=
>
> have done the hard work of creating a market for this idea (they've<br=
>
> just withdrawn their own heavily used sms service). There is also a<br=
>
> sizable and well connected twitter user base so it would be relatively=
<br>
> easy to get this service 'out there'.<br>
><br>
> Geoff and some of the other posters correctly pointed out some of the<=
br>
> necessary mechanics of how premium SMS works so I wont go over them.<b=
r>
> But you thing that wasnt mentioned was the ability to send a low<br>
> charged premium SMS (MT) to each follower. This could be as low as 25<=
br>
> cents. I do, however, accept the point from Silky that its a pain to<b=
r>
> have to pay for incoming tweets especially since you dont know how<br>
> many there'll be but as Elias says you can give people the option to<b=
r>
> opt out (or set a daily limit on how many they'll receive).<br>
><br>
> Not too make it sound too trivial as I know there'll be some gotchas<b=
r>
> but I reckon I've implemented about 75% of what needs to be done for<b=
r>
> this project. I also have an agreement with one of the top premium SMS=
<br>
> and bulk SMS aggregators. I selected them after indepth selection<br>
> process and I reckon I have the best rates and revenue share that one<=
br>
> can get. The best thing about this aggregator is that they have<br>
> premium SMS connectivity in 28 countries so if this offering proven<br=
>
> successful in Australia it would be very simple to roll out<br>
> internationally.<br>
><br>
> I have a good premium SMS shortcode already set up (19961996) with<br>
> this aggregator (its 55 cents MO). Note: If you were to set up a<br>
> shortcode yourself it normally takes 6 to 8 weeks to get a shortcode<b=
r>
> set up and sometimes operators knock back the applications.<br>
><br>
> To be perfectly honest - the most expensive part of my agreement is<br=
>
> maintaining the premium shortcode and I have been considering closing<=
br>
> this part down altogether. There is one customer using it extensively<=
br>
> but I dont push our premium sms offering anymore. Therefore, ne<br>
> possibility is that I share my current agreement with others that want=
<br>
> to take advantage of this shortcode. I'll be a transparent as possible=
<br>
> and even share the contract details I have with the aggregator just to=
<br>
> show that I wont be creaming any margin off the top. All I'd ask is to=
<br>
> be involved in the service and any revenues generated by it.<br>
><br>
> I'd like to be involved in this project as I think its got a lot of<br=
>
> legs. I'm back in Ireland at the moment but I can have a call with<br>
> others if that helps speed things up.<br>
><br>
> Ivo<br>
><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p class=3DMsoNormal>> On 8/14/08, Geoff McQueen <<a
href=3D"mailto:geoff.mcqu...@internetrix.com.au">geoff.mcqu...@internetrix.=
com.au</a>>
wrote:<br>
><br>
> - Show quoted text -<br>
> > Elias,<br>
><br>
> > Sounds interesting. As someone who's messed around with premium S=
MS
before,<br>
> > could I confirm the idea is:<br>
><br>
> > 1. A "short code" or 19 number be registered in AU<br>
> > 2. People who send to this number pay a premium to send their SMS=
<br>
> > 3. Some of this premium is revenue that goes to the "owner&q=
uot;
of the 19 number<br>
> > 4. This revenue be re-invested in the community, in whatever form
that is?<br>
><br>
> > If that is the plan, this would require:<br>
> > 1. Account setup with a carrier, which I take it you're suggestin=
g
mobileme<br>
> > (although [3] wasn't referenced in your post)<br>
> > 2. Some glue to tie submission posts to the short code as submitt=
ing
to the<br>
> > Twitter API<br>
> > 3. Resolving who's going to pay for broadcast/outgoing messages f=
rom
Twitter<br>
> > (unless people agree to cop a fee per message they get delivered =
a la
late<br>
> > nite adult tv commercials)<br>
><br>
> > I see aspect 3 of the requirements above as the hard bit financia=
lly;
this<br>
> > is why Twitter is removing support for international 'sending', a=
nd
unless<br>
> > I'm missing something, the premium SMS creature is more to collec=
ting
a form<br>
> > of premium revenue on the user sending you a message, not the oth=
er
way<br>
> > around.<br>
><br>
> > Of course, this AU gateway could truncate the messages and fund t=
he
outbound<br>
> > transmissions via advertising, but that might be a bit hard to
swallow.<br>
><br>
> > Or, am I missing something really important here?<br>
><br>
> > Geoff<br>
><br>
> > -----Original Message-----<br>
> > From: <a href=3D"mailto:silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com"=
>silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com</a><br>
> > [mailto:<a href=3D"mailto:silicon-beach-austra...@googlegroups.co=
m">silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com</a>]
On Behalf Of Elias<br>
> > Bizannes<br>
> > Sent: Thursday, 14 August 2008 9:46 PM<br>
> > To: Silicon Beach Australia<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<div>
<p class=3DMsoNormal>> > Cc: <a href=3D"mailto:ivo.br...@gmail.com">i=
vo.br...@gmail.com</a><br>
> > Subject: [SiliconBeach] New project idea: Bringing back Twitter S=
MS<br>
><br>
> > Boys and girls,<br>
><br>
> > <rant><br>
> > Since our discussions, things have predictably settled. It was ne=
ver<br>
> > the intention that this mailing list becomes a 'chat' forum - the=
re<br>
> > are plenty of other places for that. Instead, it's a way for us t=
o<br>
> > have a central node as a community to collaborate on. I'm quite p=
roud<br>
> > of what's become of it.<br>
><br>
> > One new initiate has been born - the distributed database - which=
<br>
> > several silicon beacher's having picked this up and are experimen=
ting<br>
> > with now. It's going to be interesting to see what we can cook up=
for<br>
> > release later this year.<br>
> > </rant><br>
><br>
> > But I've now got a new proposal. Building on some thoughts I twee=
ted<br>
> > before[1], I have a solution that will do three separate things t=
hat<br>
> > will help our industry.<br>
><br>
> > Background<br>
> > Twitter has become the most important social networking site for =
the<br>
> > Australia tech community. It facilitates meet ups, keeps people u=
p to<br>
> > date, breaks news, and generally builds community.<br>
><br>
> > Today - news was announced that twitter would be shutting off its=
SMS<br>
> > service for international numbers because they now long can<br>
> > sustain[2] . This leaves Australian users completely out in the c=
old<br>
> > on one of the most valuable features of the technology. Separatel=
y,<br>
> > the micro-blogging revolution that Twitter has created is going t=
o<br>
> > create transformative impacts on the industry. The embrace of Plu=
rk<br>
> > and Identi.ca by Australia's twitter community to name but two<br=
>
> > examples, of how things are happening. However what these open so=
urce<br>
> > solutions lack is an SMS solution.<br>
><br>
> > The idea<br>
> > What I propose, is that as a community, we create a SMS solution =
that<br>
> > brings back Twitter to the phone for us as well as supporting oth=
er<br>
> > twitter clones.<br>
><br>
> > SMS gateways, including an Australian startup in Sydney, allow yo=
u to<br>
> > set up premium SMS plans. So for example, if people subscribe to =
your<br>
> > plan - it will cost you 55 cents. However, as the organiser of th=
at<br>
> > plan, you get 18 cents for every message you get. It's an innovat=
ive<br>
> > revenue model, which I have explored in the past as part of my<br=
>
> > research into the mobile web opportunity.<br>
><br>
> > If we can hack together something that links the twitter API and =
a
SMS<br>
> > gateway API like that of Ivo Brett's startup[2], we can restore S=
MS<br>
> > functionality. Oh, and make a bit of money.<br>
><br>
> > Sure, this is a market opportunity for a entrepreneur. I reckon y=
ou<br>
> > could make a quick buck, until a phone company or Twitter wakes u=
p.<br>
> > But personally, I think it's too small scale an idea to launch a<=
br>
> > business, but too big an opportunity to pass up.<br>
><br>
> > So by building this service, as Silicon Beach - we've now got a<b=
r>
> > revenue stream...for the comunity. The revenue raised, will be 10=
0%<br>
> > reinvested into the community. Sponsoring conferences, meetups - =
heck<br>
> > wherever there is value to support effort in the community.<br>
><br>
> > Twitter becomes useful + we make opensource microblogging useful =
+ we<br>
> > fund our community without realising it. Three bigs things, and a=
ll
it<br>
> > takes is a bit of API hackery as some Jelly-a-thon.<br>
><br>
> > Thoughts?<br>
><br>
> > [1]<a href=3D"http://twitter.com/liako/statuses/887005932"
target=3D"_blank">http://twitter.com/liako/statuses/887005932</a><br>
> > [2]<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class=3DMsoNormal>> ><a
href=3D"http://blog.twitter.com/2008/08/changes-for-some-sms-usersgood-and-=
ba."
target=3D"_blank">http://blog.twitter.com/2008/08/changes-for-some-sms-user=
sgood-and-ba.</a>..<o:p></o:p></p>
<div>
<div>
<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'margin-bottom:12.0pt'>> > [3]<a
href=3D"http://www.me2mobile.com" target=3D"_blank">http://www.me2mobile.co=
m</a><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<p class=3DMsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'margin-bottom:12.0pt'><br>
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