Startup WebcamTelecom. A look at future communications
Is it possible to noticeably squeeze the world market of operators of expensive telephone communications, having slightly changed the way people organize communications on the Internet? Now it’s hard even to imagine, despite the development of VoIP, the increase in the number of services that allow you to call phones from a browser, make free video calls, etc.
We make our modest contribution and offer to test our vision of the development of human voice communications.
Based on the fact that the schemes and principles of constructing telephone networks are morally obsolete, we see a future in which the cloud, in which all outgoing and SMS messages are free, is replaced by expensive complex infrastructure and strict regulations that form high prices for telephone services. A computer, tablet, smartphone, TV and other digital devices connected to the Internet will enable a person to use all the individual services of the “telephone” cloud, often without using expensive voice communication channels. The concepts of long-distance, international communication and roaming in the cloud will lose their meaning, and the simplicity, comprehensibility and familiarity of client applications will allow any user who does not have any knowledge in the field of telecommunications and communications to organize, for example,
Having sent the necessary applications to FIPS (Russian Patent Office), we present to your attention the prototype of the WebcamTelecom cloud project , which, by providing video-audio-chat communications through the browser, is intended to replace the use of telephony, while retaining the usual concepts, functionality and capabilities of landline and mobile communications, introducing with new user options.
Each registered WebcamTelecom user receives a unique nine-digit digital number. With this number, he can become a Webcam-subscriber and receive incoming calls. Any user who clicks on a link like http://webcamtelecom.com/100000001 from any website on the network (or directly) calls a Webcam subscriber with the number 100000001 in one click. A user who knows the e-mail address of a Webcam subscriber can initiate a call by clicking on the link, specifying the subscriber’s email address instead of the number.
The caller can formulate the topic of the upcoming conversation (or ask his own question) before making the call. This information will be visible to the Webcam subscriber and will help him correctly process the incoming call.
Outgoing calls from unregistered users on WebcamTelecom (or those who did not authenticate) are acceptable, but have functional limitations. For example, an anonymous user cannot enable broadcast from his webcam during a video conversation.
A subscriber needs to authenticate and be on the WebcamTelecom website to receive calls online. Incoming calls during the absence of the Webcam subscriber on the site can be transferred offline (in the form of SMS with a specified conversation topic) for subsequent processing or recorded as missed. Once again accessing the site, the Webcam subscriber will see information about incoming SMS and missed calls, can call them back in response (reset the SMS reply), provided that the author of the SMS or missed incoming call is also a Webcam subscriber.
Incoming calls can queue. For each incoming online call of the queue, the Webcam subscriber can write a response or refuse to accept the call without going into the video call mode. You can only enter the video call mode with the first caller in the queue. A written response, a denial of a conversation, or a video conversation session completes the call.
For collective / corporate reception and processing of incoming calls, Webcam services are used. They can be compared with the work of virtual office PBXs and even Call centers (simultaneous reception of a large number of members of a single "multi-channel" number by an arbitrary number of company employees, transferring calls between company employees, etc.).
Webcam services have text identifiers. For example, clicking on the link http://webcamtelecom.com/Name initiates a call to the PBX “Name”. Any Webcam operator of the Name webcam service can accept such a call .
The owner / customer of the Webcam service can be a legal entity or an arbitrary community of individuals who have an account in the system.
Any WebcamTelecom user can independently register an arbitrary number of Customers, create and configure an arbitrary number of Webcam services for them. Each Webcam service should have one Customer, but each Customer can have an arbitrary number of Webcam services.
By entering e-mail addresses (as account identifiers), you can create an individual group of Webcam operators for each Webcam service.
From users who tried to call after hours or when there are no Webcam operators in the network, Webcam services also allow you to receive SMS messages. Any Webcam-operator with a missed call will be able to call back only to the Webcam-subscriber or Webcam-operator from whom the call was missed or SMS was received.
Any registered WebcamTelecom user can be a Webcam operator of any number of Webcam services. Thus, a Webcam user can receive incoming calls on his digital device at the same time: personal, work, home, related to hobbies, part-time work, social activities of the real or virtual world, etc.
When a Webcam user is working in several Webcam services at once as a Webcam operator, his incoming call queue is formed by calls from all virtual PBXs to which he is currently connected.
With the simultaneous operation of several Webcam operators of one Webcam service, each operator sees a single formed service queue and can process incoming calls.
For Webcam subscribers, all available functionality is provided for free. Webcam services (virtual office PBXs) have advanced functionality and are provided for a fee, according to tariff plans.
Tariff plans are developed separately for collective and corporate use.
In case of collective use by individuals, payment for the service can be made by a user who is a member of the management team of the Customer. At the time of publication, electronic money and the Robokassa payment acceptance system are supported for payment.
The provision of services to legal entities by bank transfer is carried out so far only in the territory of the Russian Federation, with the preparation of the necessary documentation, issuing invoices, etc.
All outgoing calls and SMS messages inside the WebcamTelecom service are always free. Roaming, long-distance and international calls within WebcamTelecom are free. Inbox is free only for Webcam subscribers.
The tariff plans of Webcam services are organized on the basis of a monthly fee, excluding the number and actual total duration of incoming calls. Rates are formed depending on the mode of the Webcam service, the maximum number of online operators and the selected maximum duration of the video call.
For Webcam services, there is a trial period during which you can test the functionality of WebcamTelecom for free, implementing it on collective / corporate Internet resources.
For commercial and non-profit organizations to provide online consulting for visitors to a corporate website in the format of video / audio / chat conversations, for use in place of telephone communications, for organizing sales, technical support, etc.
Budget organizations providing services to the population and organizations. In addition to the telephone “for inquiries”, it is possible to organize a “multichannel” online help desk, with automatic distribution of calls to the relevant departments.
Authorities and law enforcement agencies are invited to use the Webcam service for implementation in the form of:
- "Online Reception". The assistant is the first to receive incoming calls, some of them are forwarded to specialists and managers of the organization, according to the subject of the caller’s request.
- “Hot line”. On acute topics, you can provide advice to a large number of people.
- “Helpline”, when it is required to receive public signals about illegal actions or inaction, including the reception of anonymous appeals.
To public people, active bloggers, forum users, etc. to quickly receive “live” feedback from fans, opponents, subscribers, followers and even random users of social networks, (micro) blogs and online forums.
Social network users for free personal conversations with friends and acquaintances directly in the browser. To receive calls, just specify your Webcam subscriber number in the form of a link in the contact information and log in to Webcamtelecom.
Communities of people in social networks and real life. You can organize the opportunity to "call the group." Any of the leaders, administrators, moderators or even ordinary members of the social network group will be able to receive an incoming call.
To organizers of conferences, seminars, master classes, lectures, etc. You can temporarily join with participants in such events, giving everyone the opportunity to resolve issues before and after the event. For example, a registered participant in a seminar on the basics of investing will be able, without knowing personal data, to contact the facilitator in advance and ask them to pay attention to aggressive investment strategies at the seminar. At the end of the seminar, participants will be able to continue the discussion, communicate with the facilitator and organizers, having left for different cities and countries.
In our opinion, the service can be useful to all people and organizations that have high-quality Internet access and are interested in operational and affordable communications.
1. Widget on the customer’s website. The owner of the Webcam service can install widgets on the pages of the corporate website that allow visitors to initiate calls to the required departments of the organization. Widget parameters can be easily configured by the owner of the Webcam service. The widget’s shortcut can be located on the right or left of the browser tab; its color indicates the presence of Webcam operators on the network.
2. Transfer call. The owner of several virtual exchanges has the ability to transfer calls between Webcam operators of Webcam services. For example, a call to the Webcam-service "Reception" on the timing of delivery of goods may first be redirected to the Webcam-service "Accounting" to verify the payment, then redirected to the Webcam-service "shipping department". At each stage, video-audio-chat communications with the caller can be carried out.
3. Forwarding 8-800-online. For the associative perception of just a free call, you can use the forwarding service http://8-800-online.ru/Name . Those following this link will be automatically transferred to http://webcamtelecom.com/Name , the required call is initiated.
4. The mode of operation. For each Webcam service, you can configure an operating mode that will help service call attempts during the absence of Webcam operators during non-working hours, at night or on weekends.
5. Inbox options. You can enable / disable incoming calls in one click, you can enable / disable incoming calls from anonymous (not authenticated) users. If one-click calling is prohibited, the caller must first indicate the topic of the upcoming conversation or ask his own question. Anonymous users enter “captcha” when making a one-click call, if anonymous calls and one-click calls are simultaneously allowed by the subscriber’s settings.
6. Tags. Implemented the ability to pre-set call parameters: the topic of the upcoming conversation, individual options for receiving anonymous calls and calls in one click. Tags have a name and expiration date. Usage example. Webcam-subscriber with the number 100000001 needs to give out extra kittens to kind people, he starts the “Kitty” label, sets the text of the subject of the conversation “On the announcement of the kitten”. Then he publishes on the electronic bulletin board the text: “I'll give the kitten in good hands”, indicates “call the link http://webcamtelecom.com/100000001/Kitty ” as the contact information". The person following the link initiates an outgoing call to the Webcam subscriber in one click, with the subject of the upcoming conversation “On the announcement of a kitten”. The relevance term will allow you to automatically weed out calls years after the publication of the announcement, when the kittens have long grown in good hands found.
0. The most visible improvements required, of course, high-quality design and a decent multilingual interface.
1. The ability to make outgoing calls to non-authenticated users using their social network accounts. If necessary, link the user account to personal accounts on social networks to simplify authentication.
2. Contacts. Each user will be able to enter any contacts into the notebook, and it will be possible to distinguish between personal and collective service contacts, as well as thematically group contacts (for example, "Family", "Work", "School", "University", etc.). You may need the Friends option to receive personal incoming calls only from friends.
3. Speed dial. To conveniently make frequently used calls, it is planned to implement a speed-dialing service, which will allow you to make a one-click call from a personal or service service to the desired subscriber, even located within a virtual telephone exchange of another customer. That is, make a call as a system administrator Ivanov I.I. company A to the technical support service of company B to engineer Petrov P.P.
4. Call back. An attempt to connect when the called party is temporarily unavailable can be completed with a mark on the need to call back the caller. When the called subscriber appears online, he will be able to call back on a missed call in one click.
5. Office calls, sms. A convenient opportunity to see all the operators in the zone of connected services of one customer and make a business call or send SMS. For example, it is easy to call within the framework of one company from the Webcam service of the Logistics department to the Webcam service of the Accountancy directly to the right specialist.
6. Paid calls. For the remote provision of paid consulting services, after a free preliminary consultation, it will be possible to conduct an online consultation on an advance payment agreed by the parties.
7. A widget on the customer’s website, which gently appears and invites the website visitor to call a free Webcam operator with one click, depending on the context of the pages being viewed.
8. An information panel in the user's browser, which will inform about the presence of incoming calls and the presence of unprocessed SMS without the need to have an open Webcamtelecom tab.
9. Sending files along with SMS text to the addressee, possibly an analogue of MMS.
10. If there is a expressed need for Webcam subscribers, it is planned to implement a free opportunity to receive incoming calls on behalf of your Twitter account. That is, instead of using a 9-digit number, you can call the Webcam subscriber using a link like http://webcamtelecom.com/@TwiName. This will allow you to switch to a private mode of communication (SMS or conversation) instead of continuing open correspondence on Twitter itself.
It should be noted that these improvements are related specifically to the prototype and are not at all the finishing touches of the project itself.
Our startup opens access in beta testing mode. We offer to test the capabilities of the service for personal use, for the collective or corporate needs of your daily life, for the communication needs of your friends, partners, customers, customers, etc.
Now we are presenting a concept to a greater extent in order to assess the potential and prospects of the chosen direction, therefore we apologize in advance for the unprofessional design, possible errors and malfunctions, problems of speed and serviceability of the service under loads, communication quality, and functional flaws. We will be sincerely grateful for the feedback with a constructive indication of the discovered shortcomings, which we will try to eliminate in an adequate time frame.
In the event of a successful launch, in order to move from a prototype to a fully-functional international cloud service, we will need professional combat associates who will become part of a single highly motivated team.
It will be necessary to solve problems: design, construction and administration of a highly loaded architecture, multilingual support, high-quality modern design, Flash programming, development and provision of reliable audio-video communication schemes, including conferences, preparation of mobile applications, application programming for different operating systems, integration projects with VoIP networks and services, with mobile and landline public telephone networks.
In addition, the project will require experienced international IT CEOs. It requires knowledge and experience in building a global company, forming and implementing a strategy for its development, taking into account the peculiarities of local markets, as well as qualified services of an international lawyer in the field of IT.
A list of team building criteria has not yet been compiled. It is important that the ambitions of the project are always higher than the personal ambitions of the candidate, and the applicant clearly sees his role in the team under construction and can objectively and formally evaluate his possible contribution.
Information on the start of work on team building, requirements and criteria will be posted on the main page of the Webcamtelecom website.
We know a large number of existing and developing related services that provide various technologies for effective and inexpensive user communications on the Internet with free video-audio conversations or access to public communication networks. Due to the fact that our project involves and can provide a load for any engineering solutions for video-audio-communications, we are ready to discuss schemes for mutually beneficial cooperation with such projects.
<Offtop> There is no error. Well, I do not like the word crowdsourcing (Eng. Crowdsourcing, crowd - "crowd" and sourcing - "use of resources"). It is proposed to introduce (it seems, no one has yet given such a definition) and use the term Cloudsourcing, at least for IT.
Focusing on the main functionality of the prototype, we do not have time to pay due attention to the "design" and we invite interested specialists to take part in this.
For example, we propose to implement simple applications that will brighten up the waiting time for a response for the calling user, but will not distract him from the upcoming conversation. At the moment, for the demonstration, we have downloaded several free games, you can play them while dialing or waiting for a call.
It is necessary to take into account the preferences of various groups of people making outgoing calls, so this is not only about games.
Applications or additional functionality that have passed expert selection can be available for use on our resource, with a mandatory link to the developer, at least.
The use of CloudSoursing schemes is not limited to “waiting for dialing” applications. Without imposing your vision on other useful options, we are ready to consider your suggestions.
Some readers of this article, with commercial intuition and entrepreneurial streak, probably already feel the ways of making money on our service. We will publish the simplest areas for commercial activity that do not require excessive interaction with the developers of the Webcamtelecom project.
We are committed to ensuring that Webcam services belong to the owners of websites of the same name on the Internet and / or to owners of registered trademarks, so that, at http://webcamtelecom.com/brandname, you can call the company that owns the * .brandname. * Or trademarked BrandName.
Customers are allowed to use any valid names that are not used in our system for Webcam services, but if a site of the same name is registered on the network or a registered trademark, a small additional fee is charged from the Customer.
You can “stake out” beautiful, popular, well-known names for yourself, demonstrate to interested individuals and organizations the ability to receive video calls through a browser in order to profitably sell them a Webcam service with an important BrandName for them.
Technically, the algorithm is not complicated. The user creates an arbitrary customer service (s). Webcam service is ordered with the required brandname. As Webcam operators, you can enter the email addresses of the brandname owners. Even without your participation, the interested party will be able to test the service, assess the need for acquisition.
As a result of negotiations, you can independently re-register the service to another customer.
This opens up scope for the individual activities of cybersquatters. A small fee for using the brand name should stimulate the promotion of our project, since without payment the brand name is freed up and any other user can take it. It’s not at all unprofitable for the brand owner to pay a small amount for owning the Webcam service of the same name, and it is not profitable for a cybersquatter to keep hundreds and thousands of beautiful names without moving for a long time.
For potential users of the Webcamtelecom project who absolutely do not want to understand the essence of the service, but are willing to pay for its installation and use, as well as for legal entities registered outside the Russian Federation, it is possible to offer Webcamtelecom services with an arbitrary personal extra charge. Create Owners / Customers in the system, arrange services for them as you like, accept payments from any people and organizations in any currencies and any forms convenient for you. Transfer the amounts in rubles required for the operation of the services to our ruble bank account, monitor the parameters and availability of the Webcam services of your clients.
Cloud-based Internet services targeted at small and medium-sized businesses can include a call receiving service in their package.
For example, an online store customer can happily order the option “Receive calls from store pages”, and an online store provider can set individual operation parameters for each ordered virtual telephone exchange.
Around each of us there are many offline organizations that try to be present on the Internet, are interested in attracting new customers through the network around the clock, but they themselves have neither the organizational capacity nor the human resources to organize the work of even their own virtual PBX. It may be interesting for some to pay for the services of a third-party company for receiving and primary processing of driving calls on the Internet.
Considering also that Webcam calls arriving at the organization’s website will require preliminary filtering and forwarding to specific specialists, you can offer the Virtual Secretary service.
The ability to receive calls addressed to different Webcam services by one Webcam-operator allows one "Virtual Secretary" to process the flow of incoming calls of several organizations at once. It is enough to include the “Virtual Secretary” e-mail in the Webcam-operators of the required services.
It is easy to assume that the more organizations a single “Virtual Secretary” manages to service, the higher the profitability of such a service.
Our service claims to several segments of the existing communications services market at once, and each of them has competitors, often more than serious ones. On each segment, our startup has differences from competitors in the services offered, it has its own strengths and weaknesses, advantages and, of course, disadvantages.
1. The largest segment is world telephony. The tidbit of this segment is the customers provided with high-speed Internet access. Without physically taking subscribers from the operators of fixed and mobile voice communications, part of their communication traffic is supposed to be directed to Webcamtelecom. Our main advantage is free outgoing and SMS.
2. Services of free (video) conversations over the Internet with paid access to public communication networks in the form of separate software or applications of social networks. These services are excellent for communicating with friends and a narrow circle of interlocutors. Our service is more focused on convenient reception and processing of a large number of calls from an indefinite circle of persons simultaneously by several employees of the organization.
3. Services that offer online communication in the browser of a site visitor with the organization’s specialists. These are services of chat consultations, VoIP-calls from the site to the organization’s phone, services for one-time video chats and video conferences. Most of these services carry out one-time communication sessions in a single way. Our difference is not only in the variety of communication methods between users, the project has the ideology of forming a social network for voice and video communication.
4. Other segments of the communication services market that are less interesting from the point of view of monetization than the above.
We are interested in investment cooperation. We intend to focus primarily on strategic investment relationships with professionals from IT, Telecom, and VoIP markets who are ready to compete aggressively and unconventionally with large international corporations.
It is very important for us to find out a qualified public assessment of the prospects of our startup, its strengths and weaknesses, to hear suggestions for implementing additional important / convenient functionality, schemes for mutually beneficial cooperation, opinions on development directions for a full-scale international project.
The author of the article and the head of the project, has a Read-Only account, thanks Igor Sharafutdinov for his help in publishing the article.
It is not permissible to write comments and answer questions from readers of RO accounts, so we publish contact details for contacting developers: http://webcamtelecom.com/reception
Successful development of the project will allow us to send the geographic location of phone numbers, office telephone equipment and wiring, missed customers due to missed calls to a landline phone, visitors who left the site, were unable to find the content they need and much more.
We do not know whether our or a similar concept will become a killer of telephone communication technologies in the future, but we hope that soon many users will stop paying for their communications twice: for the phone and for the Internet.
Do you want more free outgoing calls in your life? Recommend our service to all whom you usually call, and sell it to those whom it may be useful for receiving calls on the Internet!
We make our modest contribution and offer to test our vision of the development of human voice communications.
Based on the fact that the schemes and principles of constructing telephone networks are morally obsolete, we see a future in which the cloud, in which all outgoing and SMS messages are free, is replaced by expensive complex infrastructure and strict regulations that form high prices for telephone services. A computer, tablet, smartphone, TV and other digital devices connected to the Internet will enable a person to use all the individual services of the “telephone” cloud, often without using expensive voice communication channels. The concepts of long-distance, international communication and roaming in the cloud will lose their meaning, and the simplicity, comprehensibility and familiarity of client applications will allow any user who does not have any knowledge in the field of telecommunications and communications to organize, for example,
Having sent the necessary applications to FIPS (Russian Patent Office), we present to your attention the prototype of the WebcamTelecom cloud project , which, by providing video-audio-chat communications through the browser, is intended to replace the use of telephony, while retaining the usual concepts, functionality and capabilities of landline and mobile communications, introducing with new user options.
Basic principles. Webcam subscribers.
Each registered WebcamTelecom user receives a unique nine-digit digital number. With this number, he can become a Webcam-subscriber and receive incoming calls. Any user who clicks on a link like http://webcamtelecom.com/100000001 from any website on the network (or directly) calls a Webcam subscriber with the number 100000001 in one click. A user who knows the e-mail address of a Webcam subscriber can initiate a call by clicking on the link, specifying the subscriber’s email address instead of the number.
The caller can formulate the topic of the upcoming conversation (or ask his own question) before making the call. This information will be visible to the Webcam subscriber and will help him correctly process the incoming call.
Outgoing calls from unregistered users on WebcamTelecom (or those who did not authenticate) are acceptable, but have functional limitations. For example, an anonymous user cannot enable broadcast from his webcam during a video conversation.
A subscriber needs to authenticate and be on the WebcamTelecom website to receive calls online. Incoming calls during the absence of the Webcam subscriber on the site can be transferred offline (in the form of SMS with a specified conversation topic) for subsequent processing or recorded as missed. Once again accessing the site, the Webcam subscriber will see information about incoming SMS and missed calls, can call them back in response (reset the SMS reply), provided that the author of the SMS or missed incoming call is also a Webcam subscriber.
Incoming calls can queue. For each incoming online call of the queue, the Webcam subscriber can write a response or refuse to accept the call without going into the video call mode. You can only enter the video call mode with the first caller in the queue. A written response, a denial of a conversation, or a video conversation session completes the call.
Virtual office PBX or Webcam services.
For collective / corporate reception and processing of incoming calls, Webcam services are used. They can be compared with the work of virtual office PBXs and even Call centers (simultaneous reception of a large number of members of a single "multi-channel" number by an arbitrary number of company employees, transferring calls between company employees, etc.).
Webcam services have text identifiers. For example, clicking on the link http://webcamtelecom.com/Name initiates a call to the PBX “Name”. Any Webcam operator of the Name webcam service can accept such a call .
The owner / customer of the Webcam service can be a legal entity or an arbitrary community of individuals who have an account in the system.
Any WebcamTelecom user can independently register an arbitrary number of Customers, create and configure an arbitrary number of Webcam services for them. Each Webcam service should have one Customer, but each Customer can have an arbitrary number of Webcam services.
By entering e-mail addresses (as account identifiers), you can create an individual group of Webcam operators for each Webcam service.
From users who tried to call after hours or when there are no Webcam operators in the network, Webcam services also allow you to receive SMS messages. Any Webcam-operator with a missed call will be able to call back only to the Webcam-subscriber or Webcam-operator from whom the call was missed or SMS was received.
Any registered WebcamTelecom user can be a Webcam operator of any number of Webcam services. Thus, a Webcam user can receive incoming calls on his digital device at the same time: personal, work, home, related to hobbies, part-time work, social activities of the real or virtual world, etc.
When a Webcam user is working in several Webcam services at once as a Webcam operator, his incoming call queue is formed by calls from all virtual PBXs to which he is currently connected.
With the simultaneous operation of several Webcam operators of one Webcam service, each operator sees a single formed service queue and can process incoming calls.
Monetization
For Webcam subscribers, all available functionality is provided for free. Webcam services (virtual office PBXs) have advanced functionality and are provided for a fee, according to tariff plans.
Tariff plans are developed separately for collective and corporate use.
In case of collective use by individuals, payment for the service can be made by a user who is a member of the management team of the Customer. At the time of publication, electronic money and the Robokassa payment acceptance system are supported for payment.
The provision of services to legal entities by bank transfer is carried out so far only in the territory of the Russian Federation, with the preparation of the necessary documentation, issuing invoices, etc.
All outgoing calls and SMS messages inside the WebcamTelecom service are always free. Roaming, long-distance and international calls within WebcamTelecom are free. Inbox is free only for Webcam subscribers.
The tariff plans of Webcam services are organized on the basis of a monthly fee, excluding the number and actual total duration of incoming calls. Rates are formed depending on the mode of the Webcam service, the maximum number of online operators and the selected maximum duration of the video call.
For Webcam services, there is a trial period during which you can test the functionality of WebcamTelecom for free, implementing it on collective / corporate Internet resources.
Webcamtelecom may be needed:
For commercial and non-profit organizations to provide online consulting for visitors to a corporate website in the format of video / audio / chat conversations, for use in place of telephone communications, for organizing sales, technical support, etc.
Budget organizations providing services to the population and organizations. In addition to the telephone “for inquiries”, it is possible to organize a “multichannel” online help desk, with automatic distribution of calls to the relevant departments.
Authorities and law enforcement agencies are invited to use the Webcam service for implementation in the form of:
- "Online Reception". The assistant is the first to receive incoming calls, some of them are forwarded to specialists and managers of the organization, according to the subject of the caller’s request.
- “Hot line”. On acute topics, you can provide advice to a large number of people.
- “Helpline”, when it is required to receive public signals about illegal actions or inaction, including the reception of anonymous appeals.
To public people, active bloggers, forum users, etc. to quickly receive “live” feedback from fans, opponents, subscribers, followers and even random users of social networks, (micro) blogs and online forums.
Social network users for free personal conversations with friends and acquaintances directly in the browser. To receive calls, just specify your Webcam subscriber number in the form of a link in the contact information and log in to Webcamtelecom.
Communities of people in social networks and real life. You can organize the opportunity to "call the group." Any of the leaders, administrators, moderators or even ordinary members of the social network group will be able to receive an incoming call.
To organizers of conferences, seminars, master classes, lectures, etc. You can temporarily join with participants in such events, giving everyone the opportunity to resolve issues before and after the event. For example, a registered participant in a seminar on the basics of investing will be able, without knowing personal data, to contact the facilitator in advance and ask them to pay attention to aggressive investment strategies at the seminar. At the end of the seminar, participants will be able to continue the discussion, communicate with the facilitator and organizers, having left for different cities and countries.
In our opinion, the service can be useful to all people and organizations that have high-quality Internet access and are interested in operational and affordable communications.
Some implemented functionality and user options.
1. Widget on the customer’s website. The owner of the Webcam service can install widgets on the pages of the corporate website that allow visitors to initiate calls to the required departments of the organization. Widget parameters can be easily configured by the owner of the Webcam service. The widget’s shortcut can be located on the right or left of the browser tab; its color indicates the presence of Webcam operators on the network.
2. Transfer call. The owner of several virtual exchanges has the ability to transfer calls between Webcam operators of Webcam services. For example, a call to the Webcam-service "Reception" on the timing of delivery of goods may first be redirected to the Webcam-service "Accounting" to verify the payment, then redirected to the Webcam-service "shipping department". At each stage, video-audio-chat communications with the caller can be carried out.
3. Forwarding 8-800-online. For the associative perception of just a free call, you can use the forwarding service http://8-800-online.ru/Name . Those following this link will be automatically transferred to http://webcamtelecom.com/Name , the required call is initiated.
4. The mode of operation. For each Webcam service, you can configure an operating mode that will help service call attempts during the absence of Webcam operators during non-working hours, at night or on weekends.
5. Inbox options. You can enable / disable incoming calls in one click, you can enable / disable incoming calls from anonymous (not authenticated) users. If one-click calling is prohibited, the caller must first indicate the topic of the upcoming conversation or ask his own question. Anonymous users enter “captcha” when making a one-click call, if anonymous calls and one-click calls are simultaneously allowed by the subscriber’s settings.
6. Tags. Implemented the ability to pre-set call parameters: the topic of the upcoming conversation, individual options for receiving anonymous calls and calls in one click. Tags have a name and expiration date. Usage example. Webcam-subscriber with the number 100000001 needs to give out extra kittens to kind people, he starts the “Kitty” label, sets the text of the subject of the conversation “On the announcement of the kitten”. Then he publishes on the electronic bulletin board the text: “I'll give the kitten in good hands”, indicates “call the link http://webcamtelecom.com/100000001/Kitty ” as the contact information". The person following the link initiates an outgoing call to the Webcam subscriber in one click, with the subject of the upcoming conversation “On the announcement of a kitten”. The relevance term will allow you to automatically weed out calls years after the publication of the announcement, when the kittens have long grown in good hands found.
Planned improvements to the prototype
0. The most visible improvements required, of course, high-quality design and a decent multilingual interface.
1. The ability to make outgoing calls to non-authenticated users using their social network accounts. If necessary, link the user account to personal accounts on social networks to simplify authentication.
2. Contacts. Each user will be able to enter any contacts into the notebook, and it will be possible to distinguish between personal and collective service contacts, as well as thematically group contacts (for example, "Family", "Work", "School", "University", etc.). You may need the Friends option to receive personal incoming calls only from friends.
3. Speed dial. To conveniently make frequently used calls, it is planned to implement a speed-dialing service, which will allow you to make a one-click call from a personal or service service to the desired subscriber, even located within a virtual telephone exchange of another customer. That is, make a call as a system administrator Ivanov I.I. company A to the technical support service of company B to engineer Petrov P.P.
4. Call back. An attempt to connect when the called party is temporarily unavailable can be completed with a mark on the need to call back the caller. When the called subscriber appears online, he will be able to call back on a missed call in one click.
5. Office calls, sms. A convenient opportunity to see all the operators in the zone of connected services of one customer and make a business call or send SMS. For example, it is easy to call within the framework of one company from the Webcam service of the Logistics department to the Webcam service of the Accountancy directly to the right specialist.
6. Paid calls. For the remote provision of paid consulting services, after a free preliminary consultation, it will be possible to conduct an online consultation on an advance payment agreed by the parties.
7. A widget on the customer’s website, which gently appears and invites the website visitor to call a free Webcam operator with one click, depending on the context of the pages being viewed.
8. An information panel in the user's browser, which will inform about the presence of incoming calls and the presence of unprocessed SMS without the need to have an open Webcamtelecom tab.
9. Sending files along with SMS text to the addressee, possibly an analogue of MMS.
10. If there is a expressed need for Webcam subscribers, it is planned to implement a free opportunity to receive incoming calls on behalf of your Twitter account. That is, instead of using a 9-digit number, you can call the Webcam subscriber using a link like http://webcamtelecom.com/@TwiName. This will allow you to switch to a private mode of communication (SMS or conversation) instead of continuing open correspondence on Twitter itself.
It should be noted that these improvements are related specifically to the prototype and are not at all the finishing touches of the project itself.
Testing.
Our startup opens access in beta testing mode. We offer to test the capabilities of the service for personal use, for the collective or corporate needs of your daily life, for the communication needs of your friends, partners, customers, customers, etc.
Now we are presenting a concept to a greater extent in order to assess the potential and prospects of the chosen direction, therefore we apologize in advance for the unprofessional design, possible errors and malfunctions, problems of speed and serviceability of the service under loads, communication quality, and functional flaws. We will be sincerely grateful for the feedback with a constructive indication of the discovered shortcomings, which we will try to eliminate in an adequate time frame.
Project development.
Team building.
In the event of a successful launch, in order to move from a prototype to a fully-functional international cloud service, we will need professional combat associates who will become part of a single highly motivated team.
It will be necessary to solve problems: design, construction and administration of a highly loaded architecture, multilingual support, high-quality modern design, Flash programming, development and provision of reliable audio-video communication schemes, including conferences, preparation of mobile applications, application programming for different operating systems, integration projects with VoIP networks and services, with mobile and landline public telephone networks.
In addition, the project will require experienced international IT CEOs. It requires knowledge and experience in building a global company, forming and implementing a strategy for its development, taking into account the peculiarities of local markets, as well as qualified services of an international lawyer in the field of IT.
A list of team building criteria has not yet been compiled. It is important that the ambitions of the project are always higher than the personal ambitions of the candidate, and the applicant clearly sees his role in the team under construction and can objectively and formally evaluate his possible contribution.
Information on the start of work on team building, requirements and criteria will be posted on the main page of the Webcamtelecom website.
Cooperation
We know a large number of existing and developing related services that provide various technologies for effective and inexpensive user communications on the Internet with free video-audio conversations or access to public communication networks. Due to the fact that our project involves and can provide a load for any engineering solutions for video-audio-communications, we are ready to discuss schemes for mutually beneficial cooperation with such projects.
Cloud Sourcing.
<Offtop> There is no error. Well, I do not like the word crowdsourcing (Eng. Crowdsourcing, crowd - "crowd" and sourcing - "use of resources"). It is proposed to introduce (it seems, no one has yet given such a definition) and use the term Cloudsourcing, at least for IT.
Focusing on the main functionality of the prototype, we do not have time to pay due attention to the "design" and we invite interested specialists to take part in this.
For example, we propose to implement simple applications that will brighten up the waiting time for a response for the calling user, but will not distract him from the upcoming conversation. At the moment, for the demonstration, we have downloaded several free games, you can play them while dialing or waiting for a call.
It is necessary to take into account the preferences of various groups of people making outgoing calls, so this is not only about games.
Applications or additional functionality that have passed expert selection can be available for use on our resource, with a mandatory link to the developer, at least.
The use of CloudSoursing schemes is not limited to “waiting for dialing” applications. Without imposing your vision on other useful options, we are ready to consider your suggestions.
Entrepreneurial note.
Some readers of this article, with commercial intuition and entrepreneurial streak, probably already feel the ways of making money on our service. We will publish the simplest areas for commercial activity that do not require excessive interaction with the developers of the Webcamtelecom project.
1. Cybersquatting.
We are committed to ensuring that Webcam services belong to the owners of websites of the same name on the Internet and / or to owners of registered trademarks, so that, at http://webcamtelecom.com/brandname, you can call the company that owns the * .brandname. * Or trademarked BrandName.
Customers are allowed to use any valid names that are not used in our system for Webcam services, but if a site of the same name is registered on the network or a registered trademark, a small additional fee is charged from the Customer.
You can “stake out” beautiful, popular, well-known names for yourself, demonstrate to interested individuals and organizations the ability to receive video calls through a browser in order to profitably sell them a Webcam service with an important BrandName for them.
Technically, the algorithm is not complicated. The user creates an arbitrary customer service (s). Webcam service is ordered with the required brandname. As Webcam operators, you can enter the email addresses of the brandname owners. Even without your participation, the interested party will be able to test the service, assess the need for acquisition.
As a result of negotiations, you can independently re-register the service to another customer.
This opens up scope for the individual activities of cybersquatters. A small fee for using the brand name should stimulate the promotion of our project, since without payment the brand name is freed up and any other user can take it. It’s not at all unprofitable for the brand owner to pay a small amount for owning the Webcam service of the same name, and it is not profitable for a cybersquatter to keep hundreds and thousands of beautiful names without moving for a long time.
2. Intermediary services.
For potential users of the Webcamtelecom project who absolutely do not want to understand the essence of the service, but are willing to pay for its installation and use, as well as for legal entities registered outside the Russian Federation, it is possible to offer Webcamtelecom services with an arbitrary personal extra charge. Create Owners / Customers in the system, arrange services for them as you like, accept payments from any people and organizations in any currencies and any forms convenient for you. Transfer the amounts in rubles required for the operation of the services to our ruble bank account, monitor the parameters and availability of the Webcam services of your clients.
Cloud-based Internet services targeted at small and medium-sized businesses can include a call receiving service in their package.
For example, an online store customer can happily order the option “Receive calls from store pages”, and an online store provider can set individual operation parameters for each ordered virtual telephone exchange.
3. Outsourcing.
Around each of us there are many offline organizations that try to be present on the Internet, are interested in attracting new customers through the network around the clock, but they themselves have neither the organizational capacity nor the human resources to organize the work of even their own virtual PBX. It may be interesting for some to pay for the services of a third-party company for receiving and primary processing of driving calls on the Internet.
Considering also that Webcam calls arriving at the organization’s website will require preliminary filtering and forwarding to specific specialists, you can offer the Virtual Secretary service.
The ability to receive calls addressed to different Webcam services by one Webcam-operator allows one "Virtual Secretary" to process the flow of incoming calls of several organizations at once. It is enough to include the “Virtual Secretary” e-mail in the Webcam-operators of the required services.
It is easy to assume that the more organizations a single “Virtual Secretary” manages to service, the higher the profitability of such a service.
Market and competitors.
Our service claims to several segments of the existing communications services market at once, and each of them has competitors, often more than serious ones. On each segment, our startup has differences from competitors in the services offered, it has its own strengths and weaknesses, advantages and, of course, disadvantages.
1. The largest segment is world telephony. The tidbit of this segment is the customers provided with high-speed Internet access. Without physically taking subscribers from the operators of fixed and mobile voice communications, part of their communication traffic is supposed to be directed to Webcamtelecom. Our main advantage is free outgoing and SMS.
2. Services of free (video) conversations over the Internet with paid access to public communication networks in the form of separate software or applications of social networks. These services are excellent for communicating with friends and a narrow circle of interlocutors. Our service is more focused on convenient reception and processing of a large number of calls from an indefinite circle of persons simultaneously by several employees of the organization.
3. Services that offer online communication in the browser of a site visitor with the organization’s specialists. These are services of chat consultations, VoIP-calls from the site to the organization’s phone, services for one-time video chats and video conferences. Most of these services carry out one-time communication sessions in a single way. Our difference is not only in the variety of communication methods between users, the project has the ideology of forming a social network for voice and video communication.
4. Other segments of the communication services market that are less interesting from the point of view of monetization than the above.
Investments.
We are interested in investment cooperation. We intend to focus primarily on strategic investment relationships with professionals from IT, Telecom, and VoIP markets who are ready to compete aggressively and unconventionally with large international corporations.
Feedback. Contacts.
It is very important for us to find out a qualified public assessment of the prospects of our startup, its strengths and weaknesses, to hear suggestions for implementing additional important / convenient functionality, schemes for mutually beneficial cooperation, opinions on development directions for a full-scale international project.
The author of the article and the head of the project, has a Read-Only account, thanks Igor Sharafutdinov for his help in publishing the article.
It is not permissible to write comments and answer questions from readers of RO accounts, so we publish contact details for contacting developers: http://webcamtelecom.com/reception
Conclusion
Successful development of the project will allow us to send the geographic location of phone numbers, office telephone equipment and wiring, missed customers due to missed calls to a landline phone, visitors who left the site, were unable to find the content they need and much more.
We do not know whether our or a similar concept will become a killer of telephone communication technologies in the future, but we hope that soon many users will stop paying for their communications twice: for the phone and for the Internet.
Do you want more free outgoing calls in your life? Recommend our service to all whom you usually call, and sell it to those whom it may be useful for receiving calls on the Internet!