🚀 go-pugleaf

Proposal : Create discussion forums related to WAP (Wireless Application
Protocol) technology and products.


What ?

Wireless Application Protocol is an open specification that "empowers mobile
users with wireless devices to easily access and interact with information
and services instantly".
These specs are defined by the WAP Forum; that is, "an industry association
comprising more than 200 members that has developed the de-facto world
standard for wireless information and telephony services on digital mobile
phones and other wireless terminals. WAP Forum members represent over 95% of
the global handset market, carriers with more than 100 million subscribers,
leading infrastructure providers, software developers and other
organisations providing solutions to the wireless industry . "

WAP is currently being endorsed by the European Telecommunications Standards
Institute (http://www.etsi.org/press/wap.htm), the
W3C(http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-WAP) and is foreseen to run on top of the
upcoming Bluetooth technology (http://www.bluetooth.com).

WAP-enabled products from handset/palmtop suppliers are just being
commercialized (e.g. Nokia 7110, Ericsson R380). Of course, several Public
Land Mobile Networks or Content Providers also began offering WAP-based
services.


How much current internet traffic ?

Mailing lists :

CTIA Daily News (www.wow.com)
Total Telecom (www.totaltele.com)
(about a fifth of the articles from these is related to WAP)

Internet sites :

www.wapforum.org
www.etsi.org
http://cellular.co.za
www.gsmdata.com
http://www.gsm.org/technology/wap.html
www.pcsdata.com
www.wap.net
http://dev.forum.nokia.com/wapboard/wapboard.html

(Altavista reports 58420 pages related to WAP)

Usenet :

Daily Dejanews statistics for Nov 1999, search criteria "WAP", number of
postings :

01/11/99 89
02/11/99 78
03/11/99 126
04/11/99 89
05/11/99 95
06/11/99 64
07/11/99 59
08/11/99 84
09/11/99 94
10/11/99 98
11/11/99 77
12/11/99 86
13/11/99 63
14/11/99 56
15/11/99 97
16/11/99 103
17/11/99 112
18/11/99 120
19/11/99 99
20/11/99 79
21/11/99 82
22/11/99 160
23/11/99 204
24/11/99 128
25/11/99 166
26/11/99 154
27/11/99 77
28/11/99 92
29/11/99 136
30/11/99 136

Which means an average daily amount of 103. These articles were posted in
several NG, mainly :

***** it.tlc.cellulari
** sfnet.viestinta.matkapuhelimet
** alt.cellular.nokia
** de.comm.mobil.geraete.nokia
** nl.telecom
* de.comm.mobil.geraete.misc
* fr.reseaux.telecoms.mobiles
* uk.telecom.mobile
* uk.jobs.offered
* tw.bbs.rec.mobilecomm
* no.it.telekom.mobil
* it.tlc.cellulari.omnitel
* pl.misc.telefonia.gsm
* de.comm.mobil.geraete.siemens
* alt.cellular.sprintpcs
* dk.teknik.telefoni.mobil
* de.comm.mobil.netze


Why an appart discussion group ?

The WAP has a worldwide impact, complies with several wireless cellular
technologies, and is developed by a lot of hardware and software
manufacturers.
Currently, the current discussion groups used by WAP-interested people are
either land-specific telecom ones (it,de,uk,tw,no,pl,dk), brand-specific
(Nokia,Siemens) or bearer specific (GSM,PCS).
This, from one part, isolate people discussing about WAP in a confined
group; and from a second part, induces less efficient cross-postings.


What forum name ?

I need some help here. I've read out several documents about how to name a
new discussion forum but I'm unsure whether my ideas are correct. Here are
they :

1. Intended that the first WAP applications will run on cellular wireless
networks (digital or analog), the alt.cellular family seems a reasonable
choice.

2. From my previous experience using telecom-related NG, I remark there are
3 kinds of postings :
- General, user question and remarks over price, features and availability
of products
- Hacking messages (illegal software copies, unlocking phones, hidden menus
...)
- Technology messages related to product and software development,
professional info exchange.
These groups are not necessary interested by each other's messages.

So I think about alt.cellular.wap, with eventually, if the activity grows
up, two additional subgroups like alt.cellular.wap.hack and
alt.cellular.wap.tech


Thanks in advance for your feedback and suggestions.


Dimitri Pochet - Pacmosh Industries (B)

DPOCHET@HOTMAIL.COM