A look at the BlueVia Developer Platform »

BlueVia, a global developer platform initiative of Telefonica, has partnered with Apigee to provide the BlueVia API console for developers to explore and test their APIs.

So we asked them to sit down with us to tell us a little about BlueVia. In this video, BlueVia's Dan Appelquist and Jose Valles discuss the BlueVia Platform with Jeremy Perlman of Apigee.

Tune in to learn what BlueVia is, how the platform provides access to Telefonica's assets and helps developers take apps, web services, and ideas to market.

And it's BlueVia's first birthday and they're celebrating by giving developers a chance to win a MacBook Air and Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Check the BlueVia blog for details.

BlueVia Developer Platform

Mobile Location-Based Services - don’t forget the Telcos »

TechCrunch recently posted on a Juniper report on “Mobile Location Based Services"  This report taps on the potential for this new wave of powerful apps – like letting your phone geotag the video you just took and posting it to Facebook with a Google Maps link;  one-button dial to a nearby restaurant discovered through your social network; or dynamically billing for high-value media content via the operator.  

Companies like Google, Foursquare, and Nokia are mentioned as on the forefront of many of these services.

But don't forget the Telcos - they have rich location based services with network data and a huge customer base.  Exposing APIs and working with third party content and service providers is critical for telcos and network operators. 

But Telco APIs can be complex.  Our view is that the Telcos that focus on making these APIs as simple and accessible as those from consumer Web players can be winners in MLBS.  We talk about these and other issues in detail in our new Telco 2.0 Whitepaper.

Telco API Management whitepaper with Alan Quayle »

Why aren't Web developers adopting Telco APIs?

We recently teamed up with Alan Quayle on a new Telco API Management whitepaper that discusses issues around API management adoption issues specific to telcos.  

As Alan points out, APIs have been fundamental to telcos for a long time- even the first switch in 1878 exposed an interface for people to make requests to set up telephone calls. 

But because Telco APIs aren't usually presented in a web-centric way, developers have been slow to adopt them vs. some of the other Web APIs.  Telcos need to adapt by making their APIs, tools and processes simpler and more suited to serving much larger numbers of web developers than before.    

We'd love your feedback, you can download the whitepaper here.