The TM Forum has been creating artifacts for years, decades even (heavens to Murgatroyd). I've never been comfortable with this word choice, artifacts, but who am I to argue? The forum uses the term correctly -- it is an object produced by human craft, often used as a tool -- but I always felt it was tinged, perhaps through the forum's association with telephone companies, with the archaeological or historical part of the definition. After all, service providers are still fighting the dinosaur reputation.

These artifacts are the backbone of this organization. And somehow, the forum and its members are going to have to communicate their importance to new players in the communications value chain. Either that or be left out of it.

However, these artifacts won't be enough. The TM Forum knows this. Its members know this. So to its credit, the forum has launched important initiatives over the last two years to address this. The first is a benchmarking program that helps vendors know where their performance stacks up against the marketplace. At first sight, the resulting reports may seem esoteric, but they were illuminated this week (made more generally consumable) with a report update by OSS Observer and the TMF's Tonia Graham. The forum also has formed a cable interest group to address the needs and concerns of its new cable provider members. It spawned a group to develop a common service delivery framework -- the lack of which spells doom for the industry.

This week it announced a program to develop standards and/or practices around user device management -- a real must if service providers wish to maintain their presence inside the home and with it their brand strength.

Perhaps most important is the telecom media convergence group that was formed last year and whose relevance could be seen this week in a showcase called Content Encounter sponsored by AT&T. The intersection of telecom with media and content (including over-the-top Internet) companies will create the single most important opportunity for success that service providers have seen in a century. It also could create the single most important opportunity for failure.

The historic drama that is about to unfold will be played out right here in the back office where every vendor member of the TM Forum, and even those vendors who don't belong, earn their livings. OSS/BSS will have center stage for the next five to ten years.

That's why I had to shake my head this week as I heard, over and over quotes like these:

"Yeah, it's not a bad idea, but the TMF is probably reaching too far."

"It's probably a good idea, but I don't know what will come of it."

"Those media companies don't care about what's going on here."

This sounds very much like it is coming from what should be an artifact: an archaic telephone company mindset -- Bellhead even. Heavens to Murgatroyd.

E-mail me at tmcelligott@telephonyonline.com.