One of the biggest developments in the wider field of collaboration software has to be Web-based real time communications (WebRTC). The technology that allows users—even small groups' worth of users—to contact each other quickly and easily over a Web browser is a huge boost for the field. But Tata Communications is eager to find other tools to back up collaboration, and is putting up $75,000 in prizes in a hackathon to design “the future of collaboration.”
With this move, Tata Communications becomes the biggest sponsor in the first ever simultaneous hackathon that uses collaboration tools to link over 200 developers in Bangalore and Silicon Valley in a two-day hackathon event to run July 12 – 13, 2013. The event in question is designed to not only create the next round of collaboration tools, but to use open standards and open application programming interfaces (APIs)—particularly WebRTC—to build same.
With collaboration technologies making major inroads with CIOs—a Gartner report pegged collaboration as one of the top five priorities for CIOs in 2013—having the ability to rapidly and readily confer with co-workers, no matter their current physical location in relation to each other, is looking to be an important new step for businesses. With businesses clearly interested in the thought of getting employees collaborating, that's leaving other businesses to look in the direction of providing the necessary tools to help get employees collaborating.
Bringing together developers from both Silicon Valley and Bangalore—said to be the first time such a thing has happened in such an organized fashion—represents not only a major step for Tata Communications, according to word from the company, but also for the larger communications industry as a whole. Since Tata Communications commonly uses an open ecosystem approach to its voice and mobility solutions, helping to yield the next generation of such products will likely prove valuable for Tata in the end, as well as for all those users looking for a way to keep remote workers on hand and producing. Since Tata Communications also has an undersea cable network which accounts for about 20 percent of the world's Internet routes, looking for Web-based solutions to collaboration issues like WebRTC would also be a likely step for the company.
Since WebRTC is a great way to bring small groups together regardless of the platform said users may be involved with at the time, looking in this direction for the next great batch of collaboration tools is a smart idea. Granted, the hackathon won't just be about WebRTC, but rather about all sorts of different APIS. Still, when it comes to an easy way to make a connection between two people, or just a small group, WebRTC can make such a connection simple thanks to its ability to work with several Web browsers, as well as its ability to make use of the tools at hand.
Those wanting to see similar tools in action can, meanwhile, head on down to Atlanta, Georgia's Cobb Galleria June 25 – 27 as the WebRTC Conference and Expo hits the site, showing off a variety of current innovations in the field and also offering up several keynote addresses in the field of WebRTC and its related advances.
By comparison, the results of the Silicon Valley/Bangalore hackathon won't be seen for some time, but the end results should be not only good for companies looking to get employees together more often, but also for employees hoping for a bit more flexibility in a work day.
Edited by
Alisen Downey
