On Day 1 after lunch we ran 3 streams in parallel. This weblog reviews the work stream “Telcos Making a Difference”.  We have presentations from Sascha Wolter, Senior Manager Connected Home, Deutsche Telekom; Sebastian Schumann, Service Platform Development Expert, T-Mobile Slovakia; Grzegorz Sikora Service Platform Expert T-Mobile Poland; and Vinay Kumar, Strategic Business Capabilities, TELUS Communications.

Sascha from Deutsche Telekom presented on  “Ditch constraints and finally start (connecting YOUR world of things)!” M2M, Industry 4.0, Smart Home, Smart City, Wearables, and Ambient Assisted Living: However you like to name it, the Internet of Things is everywhere!

But it’s not just about generating business value, it’s not about the latest technology in the first place. It’s much more about creativity and finding or creating new needs. It’s about innovating with value. But how can one innovate with all these complexity, concerns, constraints, and regulations? How can one release the various fears of colleagues and customers?

Sascha inspired with a bunch of odd and sometimes uncanny samples while introducing you to a playful way of hacking your very own connected (and hopefully smart) world that matters.

Sebastian Schumann, T-Mobile Slovakia, presented on “My Experiences of TADHack as a Telekom Employee.” Every telecom employee should take part in TADHack, not only because TADHack is for everyone. Rather how we create new services has changed so dramatically, the only way to understand how easy its become is to experience it firsthand. In April I created in 24 hours a service that would cost millions and take over one year to create using the old methods. We have to change, and TADHack is your fast-track route to understanding the power of new technology in telecoms.

Grzegorz Sikora from T-Mobile Poland presented on “A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a Successful Local Developer Ecosystem.” Building a community of developers can take many forms. At T-Mobile Poland we have created a small and focused community, I will quantify the business impact of this community, and explain the tools and people required to make it work.

Vinay Kumar, Telus, presented on “Experiences in building a Successful API Platform.” Telus has one of the most successful API programs for a converged service provider in a developed market. Vinay will share their their successes and failures in building the Telus SCF. Providing insider information on where to focus to achieve success.