We agree devices represent the key to change as demonstrated in the case of cellular (e.g. iPhone, Android, etc). The question remains what we do while waiting for interesting SIP devices. I believe there exists opportunity on the plumbing side of the equation to enable cool apps that do not necessarily require the SIP iPhone equivalent. The elimination of telephone numbers represents one idea of where we might find these cool apps.

Your post is interesting, but I’d love to hear some specifics. What apps today currently enable hypercomms? Please shoot me an e-mail and maybe we can set up time for a call today.

Why? Facebook’s ToS states that accessing your Facebook account is a “privilege” that Facebook can revoke arbitrarily at any time, without any sort of “due” process concept. Also Facebook, et.al. maintain what is entered is “theirs” to do with what they want.

Without this kind of protection, how many intelligent users will really trust social networks with all the knowledge of how to access their friends?

Right now you might not bother to remember your friends’ phone number because your phone does. Even if your carrier cuts off your service you still have your friends’ contact information.

What happens if Facebook does the same?

Even if you believe in the “I am too small to be noticed and affected” principle… would you / should you take the risk?

Not me….

The other disconnect is with your conclusion that we have to wait for all of us to agree on banning telephone numbers. I think if we make available devices like I mentioned previously, then those that want to avoid using phone numbers can go ahead with the help of such devices. The whole world will follow in due course. We all love Internet; one unique characteristic of Internet is that people did “The” way in a corner and if it is a good way, it slowly got adopted universally. Why can’t we try that for voice? Why do we start to think differently?

The IP address and telephone numbers work fine to identify hardware, but they do not belong in the UI flow.

Click-to-call sets up a call one leg at a time and bridges the two legs. Your device rings and you pick it up. No need to dial anything (assuming you are sitting in front of a computer.)

Absent a computer, I imagine a voice recognition implementation of the old operator mode. Pick up - “Call Tom” …Tom’s phone rings. Social networks help in this regard by providing a finite set of names the voice recognition must identify.

People can devise more interesting ideas, but the prospect for change seems limited until we agree on a goal of banning telephone numbers.

Can you give us a hint on the architecture that will get rid of telephone numbers? After all the IP network architecture hasn’t gotten rid of IP addresses and MAC addresses. Aren’t they comparable?

On another tack, GC provides click-to-call capability. There is an architecture that allows users to avoid phone numbers if they agree to give up on the 12 button phone. You keep teasing us about this particular point and I am waiting for you to openly implore the industry to adopt capable (dare I say “intelligent”) end-points. Better yet an announcement that FWD will utilize is architecture. I hope some day soon I will read such a post uner Here comes Trouble banner.

GrandCentral does offer click-to-call from the address book, but it still needs to create more distance from telephone numbers. The whole premise still revolves around a telephone number albeit a single telephone number. The world needs an architecture that makes the telephone number disappear.

GigaOm may have decided that it was not worth writing about this, but slowly and surely we will be noticed. :-)