The aim of the WP8 case study “BT Web21c Futures” is to investigate creating the future of BTs Web21c/Ribbit infrastructure based on SOA4All technology.

Web21c is the name of a programme launched by BT to provide a set of software based services that allow 3rd parties to use BTs network as a platform for delivery of their services. In 2007 BT launched the Web21c SDK, a set of web APIs providing a number of Voice and Telco related services

Following the interest in BT’s Web21C SDK launch, BT has acquired Ribbit, a US-based voice-oriented web company. This has resulted in the porting of all further development from Web21C SDK to Ribbit. The services that are exposed at the moment include voice calls, call routing, call management, 3rd party call control, voice and text messaging, Speech-to-Text, VOIP and contact management, with more to come in the near future.

As the Ribbit platform is important part in BT’s transformation from a traditional telecommunications company to a converged software and services firm, this case study is focused around it. Currently the Ribbit services require detailed technical knowledge of programming languages and understanding of voice protocols to be able to utilize the services effectively.

The BT Web21c case study will provide semantically enhanced and expanded version of Ribbit, where the process of discovering, integrating, using and sharing Ribbits’ services can be done much more effectively. This will be achieved by utilizing the technology developed in the various core research areas of the project – in particular Web 2.0 concepts, semantically enabled improvements in provisioning, consumption and monitoring tools and context adaptation mechanisms. SOA4All will provide the technology to deliver the vision of an ‘Open service web platform’, where services from BT and 3rd parties can easily be combined to create new and innovative applications.

Some of the benefits that SOA4All technology will provide include:

• Facilitate the creation and management of new composed services/applications, in a lightweight manner, with a low barrier to entry.
• Encourage users to work together to create new and innovative uses for BT services by providing an appropriate Web 2.0 community environment.
• Provide facilities for the user to share information about services and applications and allow users to tag, rate and comment on services for improved service discovery.