[mattlane]

This topic is branched from BlackBerry Forums at CrackBerry.com > BlackBerry Software, Services and Accessories > BlackBerry Apps: Wanted: Blackberry Alpha Testers for .tel address book (forums.crackberry.com/f35/wanted-blackberry-alpha-testers-tel-address-book-254712/)

A few days back we posted a request for testing of a new Blackberry app and a number of members were kind enough to respond. Many of the comments however were about the purpose of the app and more specifically the value of .tel names. These are great points, worthy of further discussion, but I wanted to move this debate away from the more mechanical aspects of simply finding out if the app performs as advertised across different carriers and devices.

A number of points were raised by members and I�ll address those specifically in a moment, but let me start out with a bit of background. I apologise ahead of time, but this is likely to get quite long, so I�ve tried to break it up with headings.

What is .tel?

A .tel name is best thought of as a unique ID like lane.tel or smith.tel to which contact information can be attached. Some people liken it to an electronic business card or wallet that makes it easier to exchange contact information with a single reference.

It also shares some characteristics of a bookmark in that referenced contact information is automatically updated when it changes or when new data is added, preventing the data from becoming stale.

Target Demographic

There are several demographics for whom the .tel name appeals, but generally speaking users are over 35, regularly exchange business cards (a dozen or more a month), have some tacit value attached to their name (like a realtor or consultant)and are not highly technical (typically they wouldn�t maintain their own web site, but might use Twitter or Facebook).

Benefits

The .tel offers several appealing benefits to the target market:

• It�s very easy to create and maintain
• No hosting or designers are required
• It creates an immediate online presence optimised for mobile and SEO
• It�s an additional electronic presence that drives traffic to existing web properties
• It�s a single point of contact � a hub for all contact points
• It�s very easy to exchange in conversation, email signatures, marketing collateral, etc

Contact Information, Not Content

.tel focuses almost exclusively on contact information. It has very little to do with content. It is not a replacement for a web site. All .tel names look identical via a web browser and cannot be altered by the user. It has a highly targeted purpose: to make exchanging contact information and keeping in touch just a bit easier.

Who Hates It?

Hate may be a strong word, but there are lots of people that don�t feel the pain of the solution being offered, can�t see the point of it or have alternate solutions that work just fine.

I�m speaking broadly, but I�d be surprised if I could sell anyone under 24 on the idea of .tel � and if they�re technically oriented, it�s just about impossible. If you�re over 40, you�ve probably moved around a bit and had the misfortune to lose touch with people you wish you hadn�t. Twenty years ago (even ten years ago), there weren�t the social networks or communication mechanisms available for keeping in touch. In a social context, and particularly in an electronic social context, .tel makes little sense (there are arguments for it, but it�s a hard sell).

In a business context it�s a bit easier. If you�re involved in business development, sales or any form of client facing or face to face networking activity that involves the regular exchange of business cards, collating and maintaining up to date information, the concept of .tel is more attractive. No more card scan, no more transcribing, no more updating stale data.

Alternatives

But I can already do this with the contact page of my web site/ Plaxo/ Facebook/ LinkedIn/ vCard/ .MOBI/FOAF/ hCard/ a sub-domain of my .com/ ENUM/ OpenID/ XFN/Etc.

There are dozens of technologies and standards that share some elements of .tel characteristics. I�m happy to argue the pros and cons of each and every one, but over the past year I�ve looked at every alternative that has ever been mentioned in any discussion and I can say categorically that none of them come close to what I need them to do. Each is good in their own way and if they work for you and address the pain, I�m not going to try convert you to .tel, but I will say that it is distinct from all of them. The closest, in my opinion is Plaxo.

The Technology

The reason I like .tel is the underlying technology. It�s robust, it�s extensible, it�s easy to integrate with any internet enabled device. It�s fundamentally simple and (largely) compliant with established standards.

At its heart, .tel is a top level domain name accredited by ICANN. It�s an innovative use of the DNS that writes contact data directly into the DNS in TXT, LOC and NAPTR record types. NAPTR records can be encrypted with 1024 bit encryption using a public key infrastructure. This allows users to make any record private and only visible to those you elect to share that data with.

A simple interface allows users to create records and write them to the DNS. Structure is added through a folder analogy that equates to sub-domains, so my Webnames.ca details for example are available at webnames.lane.tel .

Viewing a .tel via a web browser is achieved through a web proxy server that reads the data from the dsn and renders it in a predetermined format. Users are restricted and cannot set the A record for the domain name, so all .tel names look identical when viewed through a browser.

A comprehensive API allows developers to create new applications or to integrate the .tel data into existing web based applications. Applications for various devices (including Blackberry!) have begun to emerge. The dev community for .tel live at dev.telnic.org

Privacy

As mentioned under the technology heading, privacy is handled through PKI encryption of the NAPTR records. Privacy is dealt with through a separate system called TelFriends. Anyone can create a free TelFriends account without the need for a .tel name, enabling people to enjoy the benefits of .tel without the need to have one themselves.

Each individual needs to determine a balance between what information they want to make public and private. Public information can clearly be scraped and one of the main concerns is that developing a bot to scrape the DNS for email isn�t overly taxing. We have a number of honeypot .tel names with public email addresses to test for this, but so far we haven�t seen this activity. I�ve chosen to make my email public but I suggested that my mom make hers private.

In fact, my mom�s .tel is completely private. Because I have a friending relationship, I see 8 contact data points, but anyone that�s not friended sees nothing other than a self reference back to the .tel name. Her .tel is jacquilane.tel, for reference.

Problems

.tel is new and not without problems. The key thing for me is that none of them are insurmountable. Here are the problems I see:

• It�s still too complex. There are a lot of advanced features that could be hidden for the average user
• The friending process needs a lot of work. It�s a wall rather than a hill, so once you�ve set it up, you�re golden, but you do have to get over that wall
• Simple stuff like password retrieval is non-standard and needs to be simplified
• LOC info needs to be encrypted
• Sub-domain NAPTR records need the ability to be encrypted
• Labels need to be longer

A lot of this is being worked on and new builds are being deployed regularly. The vast majority is UI and easily addressed.

Final thoughts

It got late, so I�ll need to save specific responses for tomorrow, but I wanted to sign off with a few final thoughts.

I believe that .tel will be to telephone numbers and email as domain names are to IP addresses. At the end of the day I want to Call John, Email Cindy and IM Tom. I don�t care what their telephone numbers are. This is one of the great things about the Blackberry and other smartphones. 90% of the calls I make are straight from the dialler and based on the name. What .tel will do is ensure that behind the scenes, data for John, Cindy and Tom is complete and up to date. I enter their .tel name once and everything else is automatic.

I (somewhat) believe the wild predictions that there will be 1 billion .tel names within five years or so (actually I believe there will be 150 million+, but a lot nonetheless).

I believe that within two years, you�ll start to see .tel names shipping with your mobile plan. Your carrier will use them as a differentiator to win or keep your business and you�ll simply get a .tel name along with your standard issue telephone number. The .tel you choose and what you elect to do with it will be up to you.

Final, Final

If anyone actually gets this far down this post and wouldn't mind heling out with feedback on our .tel address book app, we'd really appreciate the feedback on whether it works as expected on your carrier/device. The original thread is at the top of the post or do a forum search "Hornet".

Thanks


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lane.tel

[si_chindo]

Woooow....that's a long thread. Isn't .vcf kind of what this .tel is trying to achieve?

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[Dihce]

From what I understand the .vcf is nice for sending the information around. But .tel will auto update the info so you wouldn't have to resend it everytime there is an update.

If it gets off it's feet a little more and really takes off I think it sounds like a great idea personally.
I don't use my BB as my main phone anymore, but I would be happy to test it and get some other BB friends of mine to try it out!

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[mattlane]

Woooow....that's a long thread. Isn't .vcf kind of what this .tel is trying to achieve?

Yeah, sorry about that.

Its been many years since I did anything detailed with vCard and definitely not an expert, but I agree the underlying goals are similar.

However, I believe vCard lacks a defined name space, so whereas I can tell someone lane.tel or si-chindo.tel in conversation, I'm not sure the same continuity is there with vCard. It's great for inclusion in email or on a page, but for the most part it, implementations appear to create static data. If the data changes, it still requires an external update. I believe its possible to define a URL within the specification and keep the data live, but I'm not aware of an accepted way of achieving this. If you use si-chindo.tel, I know that providing you keep the base data up to date, I'll always get the latest data.

I don't believe vCard supports a privacy model. If you include your vCard data in a signature, everyone sees the same data. With your .tel, I could be a web contact and see limited contact information, whereas your business colleagues, friends and family can all be permitted to see different data sets.

vCard offers a structured format which is missing from .tel. Each .tel owner can effectively define their own record labels, leading to issues with developing simple models for the import and export of data. Current solutions require custom mappings per record. There is support for vCard from the web proxy pages, but it's not particularly elegant at this time.

[mattlane]

@Dihce - Thanks, we'd really appreciate any feedback you have.

I agree with your point that .vcf tends to be static, rather than dynamic. I believe it's possible to make it dynamic by defining a url, but I've never see it implemented. I believe the URL is user defined, so continuity would be an issue.

[mattlane]

(Responding to morrow95's comments from the original request for alpha testers thread.)

Maybe its just me, but I don't get the point of this... there is no way I am going to put my personal address, cell phone, email, etc on a website for people to lookup, find, etc. Not to mention a lot of people change their number for the sole reason that certain others will not know how to contact them any longer (ex's and what not).

Thanks for your thoughts and feedback. We hadn't posted the privacy information in the original post, but I've outlined some of the mechanics above.

To take it a bit further, I think .tel is the ultimate privacy protection. Typically, I'm a very private person and would not publish any of my information publicly, but I really believe in this thing and so I leave my details out there for illustration purposes.

But let's say I want to disappear off the grid altogether. I can post lane.tel all over the place, which gives people a way to contact me. But now I make all my contact information private and change my email address, phone number, cell, etc. OK, this is extreme and a bit of a pain, but I'm trying to illustrate a point. Now no one can contact me unless they're in my friends list. Once they're in my friends list, I can change my phone number weekly if I want to and it won't make any difference to my friends as the simply Call Matt, Email Matt, etc.

I don't believe this a realistic scenario (or even desirable) unless there are infrastructure changes with the telcos and email technology would need a re-write, but its not science fiction either. Effectively telephone numbers become disposable or dynamic and start to take on more of an IP address role as 'physical' connectors, rather than the pointer role of the domain name.

In this scenario, getting rid of an ex couldn't be easier. You remove them as a 'friend', cycle your number(s) and the only person that's out of the loop is your ex. The rest of your 'friends' are automatically updated with your new coordinates.

To take this further, I could take my White Pages listing and replace my address and phone number with "lane.tel" (and perhaps some non-specific info like my city). Instead of going ex-directory, I keep a visible presence but now I control who sees what information. I might even be able to get rid of the telemarketers altogether!

I can see how it might be useful for business, but then again how often do they change addresses, numbers, etc?

This morning I was behind a local plumber's van. The vehicle signage was a bit of a mess. Company name, web site, local number, cell. I don't think email was there, but it might have been. Replacing the whole lot with BobsPlumbing.tel would have enabled me to key that in and Bob's your uncle (or plumber) - all the data's there in my bb. Forever. From the companies perspective that's go to be a good thing. From my perspective it took me 3 seconds and its a good thing too.

My company is a bit bigger than Bob's. We have a number of departments and several ways to contact us in each department. By offering a .tel, we give clients the choice of how to contact us, an easy way to quickly find the right person in our company to speak with. We give them a mobile optimized, address book oriented way to do that. If they're in front of their pc, sure, do it through the website (I would), but if they're not, I still want customers to be able to contact us as easily as possible. At the very least, its another point of presence to drive traffic.

The average person is going to make sure if they change their number the right people will know it - at least thats the way I see it.

80% of my communications are with 20% (or less) of my contacts. I don't network, I'm not normally involved in sales or business development, but somehow I've managed to accumulate about 500 contacts in my address book. A lot of people I know have well over 1000 or even 2000 contacts with some kind of annual contact.

For at least 40% of the people in my address book, I'd feel presumptuous sending them my new cell phone number - effectively asking them to dedicate time to updating their address books for me. I'm also too lazy to make updates inbound from 200 or so peripheral contacts.

If everyone had a .tel though, I'd be happy to have 2000 contacts, whether I know them well or not. I have up to date, complete data, no maintenance and the convenience of reaching them if I ever need to.

I see on the website you list for lost and found... so little Billy and Kimmy ride their bikes marked with their .tel to the park and a child predator rights down their .tel and now knows where they live, phone, and probably parents names, maybe even where they work... blah blah blah.

I'm not trying to be harsh or mean, please do not think so, I just see a lot of flaws with the process of this...

I'm not a big fan of the above example, so I won't speak to that one. I think this comes down to the privacy question. I will say that I did get .tel's for my kids (they're teenagers) but that all of the data is private. I also got .tels for my nieces who are 6 and 8. I got them because I wanted them to have good .tel names when they get older. For the moment, they just link to their mom's .tel and all her data is private too. In her case, she might give her .tel to PAC/PTA members. People that she may contact once or twice or in some cases never.

And no offense taken. You make excellent points!

Is there a verification process to make sure the contact info entered on these pages is valid? What's to stop someone from claiming to be Joe Schmoe with x company then entering in Joe Schmoe's competitor contact information? Or my ex buys my name.tel and lists a contact number to something ridiculous? List goes on...

Because .tel is a top level domain name, there is a lot of established law as well as a well defined dispute resolution policy. Reputable registrars have terms of use that would preclude this type of activity.

Sure, it could happen, but someone could take out an ad in the paper to the same ends. Personally, I'd rate the risk levels around this as pretty low.

Yet another long response I'm afraid, but I hope some of this helps.

[si_chindo]

I think this may work for younger tech savy ppl as opposed to older ppl that wouldn't know tech.
Also can u clear something up for me...how do I access the data? Is it kind of like a website so I would enter for example...www.si_chindo.tel?

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[mattlane]

I think this may work for younger tech savy ppl as opposed to older ppl that wouldn't know tech.
Also can u clear something up for me...how do I access the data? Is it kind of like a website so I would enter for example...(removed - I can't yet post links)

Interestingly, the original demographic studies and our empirical experience to date suggests that .tel has strongest appeal to the older, less tech-savvy market. In the original poll twice the percentage of 45-54 year olds found the concept "very appealing" than the 18-24 year old age band.

Generally speaking, a lot of tech savvy people perceive similarities to other technologies, while the younger market believes that Facebook achieves their goals. By contrast every sales professional over 35 I've spoken to is ready to get a .tel after about 3 minutes! That said, there's a healthy amount of interest from most age groups and technical skill levels. Hard core techies are largely concerned with ways to monetize .tel or create apps for it.

Data is stored in the DNS but can be accessed by any browser (mobile and desktop). Have a look at the following in your mobile and desktop browsers lane.tel, webnames.tel, representatives.tel, lindadias.tel, removals.tel, bryanoflondon.tel, telnic.tel. Try a search at google for "* site:.tel" for an extensive list. There are a few early .tel specific search engines. Try jepaa.com for example.

For me .tel in a desktop browser has limited value. It's handy sometimes, but with the bandwidth and rich media available, the .com (or whatever) website would be my first choice. Its in the mobile environment and address book apps that .tel shines, in my opinion.

Several apps and plugins have also been written and can be found at dev.telnic.org. And of course, the bb app we'd like feedback on can be found at hornet.tel and downloaded over the air.

Hope this helps.


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lane.tel

[si_chindo]

Ur right...I can see that being pretty useful for mobile usage. Like when ur on the go, and u need a phone number u can look it up. I know the web can do it now too but if .tel uses less data and its faster, ppl may like that more.

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[mattlane]

Excellent point si_chindo. Typically the size of the data in a .tel is about 1/100 that of a average home page (around 200-300 bytes). Additionally, the data is returned directly from the DNS. With a web page, a request is made to the DNS to resolve the host IP, then a request is sent to the web server to retreat the data. More information about .tel and how it uses the DNS can be found at [default prefix]webnames.ca/downloads/Tel_Technology.pdf