The TMF's Content Encounter Catalyst aims to break conventional business models and showcase a new service delivery framework.

While the opportunities of Web 2.0 technology ultimately could enable monetization of user-generated content and collaborative e-commerce applications, a slew of issues plague stakeholders in the delivery of content. Even rudimentary convergence for IPTV and video-on-demand offerings have led to the creation of more operational silos, as carriers repurpose content for PCs, TVs and mobile environments.

The solution seems to be some sort of ubiquitous, open framework that ingests different types of content into a standardized format. Having a central place to normalize differences among content formats could open the door to unprecedented blends of location-based, presence-based and social networking services that would drive personalization.

Service providers that can offer higher degrees of personalization will enhance their stickiness and improve the chances of procuring premiums for personal- and enterprise-oriented service blends.

Telcos have a choice of whether to concede defeat to portal, search and entertainment heavyweights or realize they themselves possess an infrastructure sophisticated enough for activation and provisioning, authorization and authentication, charging, billing, customer care, and multiparty settlement.

Entertainment and media companies, cable quadruple-play providers and even juggernauts such as Google and Yahoo! lack comparable infrastructure. This presents a huge opportunity for carriers to open existing infrastructure to third parties looking for new content distribution channels and ways to offer content in device-agnostic ways.

AT&T is eager to lead the charge for telecom to become the central storefront for convergent, personalized services and has already taken the initiative to spearhead a project through the TeleManagement Forum that could redefine the service delivery framework.

“It's no longer optimal to acquire content from many different content providers in different formats. Operationally, we need standard interfaces so we can more readily aggregate content,” said Rich Bennett, executive director of architecture and planning for AT&T. He said that the sheer number of components necessary for repurposing and delivering content is too large for one company to conquer. For that reason, AT&T approached the TM Forum to assist in the standardization of frameworks, management standards and processes for all converged services stakeholders.

AT&T and the TMF want to explore different ways customers can purchase assets according to their profiles, boundaries, locations and preferences on various sites. So far, three major interface points have been targeted for initial standardization: the point of ingestion of content by the service provider; the publication of content in a storefront; and the delivery of content to the end user.

With normalization of processes, naming conventions and formats in these interface points, the TMF hopes to attract other stakeholders hungry for standardization of processes from ingestion to content delivery. It must now include standardization of tools and processes not only in telecom, but in an unfamiliar world of movie producers, recording studios, and Internet and search players.

To reach out to those unconventional partners, the TMF has expanded its Converged Service Showcase Catalyst into a broader initiative called Content Encounter Catalyst, which will be an ongoing initiative for weaving content into services.

November's Catalyst in Dallas will reflect the first attempt to reach out to content providers. TMF members will demonstrate a service delivery framework they hope will show the potential for location-based, presence-based and social networking services that transcend all devices, networks and browsers.

“We hope Dallas will attract stakeholders inside and outside telecom, as well as spawn many working groups,” says Joe Clark, vice president and operations manager for Cognizant's business unit. He hopes Encounter would create a central marketplace where volumes of storefronts are represented in a standardized manner. At the core will be a service delivery framework that ingests content from many sources for integration into service providers' catalogs, making telcos the central aggregation point.

As a means to that end, a spec draft has already been created by the TMF participants, with integration testing taking place before the Dallas Catalyst. The members involved in that spec include Alcatel-Lucent, Cognizant, Leapstone, Microsoft, Motorola and content provider Westwood One. The TMF also hopes to engage studios from Burbank, Calif., by November.

The concepts and specs created by these companies will be presented in “Forumville,” a dedicated pavilion designed to encompass all segments of the content delivery value chain. It will show content repurposed for multiple devices and network types in virtually any conceivable venue.

After registering and establishing preferences in an entry portal, users will be led through “parlors” representing different phases in the life cycles of content. To allow content to flow seamlessly from one environment to the next, TMF members will demonstrate how metadata can be converged and repurposed as it is received from aggregators or content owners in different formats.

In order to repurpose metadata so that it can be reconfigured for different devices and audiences (for example, an audio clip that seamlessly becomes a ringtone), IBM has incorporated the MPEG-21 ISO standard into its MediaHub framework. “Because MPEG-21 provides a meta-definition standard for mapping to each device, we can drastically reduce the manual coding and reformatting process necessary for each contracted partner in the value chain,” said Mike Alexander, global telecom industry architect for service delivery platforms for IBM. He notes that today, most contracts exist in hard copy or as Microsoft Word documents, as opposed to a digital embedding of requirements and characteristics. At this point, most studios have endorsed MPEG-21, but IBM hopes Encounter will convince them to standardize content using MPEG-21.

Currently, MediaHub sits between Leapstone content management functions in order to normalize the differences in formats as content comes in from different sources. This is done through MPEG-21 documentation that transports the content to Leapstone for downstream executions, which ensures the incoming content is converted to a format readable for each device.

If studio content is standardized on MPEG-21, there could be commonality in how all parties characterize variables such as frames per second or surround sound, or in establishing rights such as making movie trailers for advertising.

“MPEG-21 could give us the ability to filter content according to its origins, which will greatly increase stakeholders' ability to see and control content and target services,” said Frank Korinek, director of the technology portfolio for Leapstone's Content Manager.

By adding location and time-of-day preferences, carriers could offer screening and do-not-disturb services at home, or voicemail and find-me services for work. Embedding characteristics in a standardized digital format, as opposed to paper contracts, also would enhance digital rights management.

“By leveraging the architecture of telecom networks, someone like an AT&T could become the central storefront for digital assets owned by the studios,” said Cognizant's Clark. “Rather than send an actual MP3 to a customer or a VOD file for download, the content could be provided without actually sending a copy of the digital asset. Instead, the studios would leverage the telco's architecture.”

In that vein, Alcatel-Lucent is currently tweaking a commercial application in which enterprises would register their businesses to more actively engage with users. As people dial the phone numbers of registered companies, they will automatically be prompted with directions to the venue. Additionally, coupons and vouchers can be issued to users.

As TMF members look to break today's model of tightly integrating applications with devices, they agree success will depend on a mindset change among stakeholders. All involved must be willing to share data about customer history and preferences around content, devices, advertisements and promotions. As that mindset change occurs, service blends will more frequently incorporate targeted location, time of day and other preferences.

In ensuing phases, the TMF will work on functionality around presence and social networking to enable consumers and enterprises to interact in an anywhere/anytime manner.

“The ongoing work will bring with it unprecedented levels of flexibility, so that all stakeholders can personalize services and gain more control over content as it flows among partners,” said Lee Chow, director of video product management for AT&T. “We are excited about working with content creators to develop standards around each of the business processes used in the acquisition, coordination and distribution of content and goods.”