tajapa was the logical progression from the development of cellcast.

Now that we knew how to handle VOIP calls and had a partner to do the interconnection business with the big carriers, we decided we wanted a least cost routing system.

The name tajapa was designed to be typeable on a mobile device, an idea almost antiquated by now ;-}.

On a simple website the user could, after registration, enter phone-numbers and tajapa would provide her with local phonenumbers to call. So everyone could call a cheap local number and then be connected to otherwise expensive numbers elsewhere in the world.

The service was used in private beta for about 6 months before we closed it due to overwhelming competition through

http://jahjah.com
http://rebtel.com
http://grandcentral.com

In spring 2006 i started playing around with Asterisk the Open Source PBX. I connected it to one of the unused ISDN lines at the office and in the evening i had a quick and dirty first version of a podcast via phone production system.
In order to provide multiple concurrent lines we partnered with effringo, a SIP provider enabling company.

In the days to follow i refined that to a service that i called cellcast. The first ever cellcast was recorded on Montmartre on the night the Brazilians kicked the French out of the soccer world championships.

Once it was live, we sent out a press release via hundertelf and the response was overwhelming. I especially remember one morning when i came to work and i found an email from a big german VC in my inbox with only two sentences: "I heard about you. Do you need money?"
We didn't.

The german hockey-federation adopted the service very quickly and started reporting from every game through all leagues.

In 2008 i added an open API and during the barcamp at burda i showcased the API by developing a twitter/cellcast mashup.

http://cellcast.de
http://effringo.de
http://tweetalk.com
http://xsoo.org

In fall 2003, just after i had founded hundertelf, we won the pitch for creating a social network/platform for the german ministery of family affairs.

It was supposed to be targeted at people between 10 and 16 years and its purpose was to create a safe environment in which the users could explore the use of platforms like this without the risk of harassment of data theft and the like.

On the project managers list was about everything you find on facebook these days.

In order to start small and slowly evolve into a full fledged social network, we decided to develop a framework on the LAMP -Stack and release it as an open source product once we were done with the initial development. At the time MVC frameworks were rare. Today we would have chosen ZEND, RAILS or SPRING, depending on the language of preference.

OOS is the result of this effort.

http://xsoo.org
http://netzcheckers.de
http://hundertelf.com

I've read it in articles covering Irans current demonstrations against vote manipulation as well as heard it from members of management in companies of all sizes in Germany:
twitter is not important. We want to talk to the masses, not to a few.

Wake up.

twitter is a collection of supernodes, a idea mass-multiplication-hub.

Let's say, you have 10 followers.
Each of your followers has 10 friends they speak to on a regular basis. NOT on twitter! Somewhere else out there in the real world.
Let's say, there is a 20% overlap in the friends of your followers

If you call one of your followers on the phone to tell them something, you will reach 11 people.
If you send that same message via twitter you will reach 90 people.

hmmmm.

Now that the 3G doves have been set free by regulators, questions
abound on what 3G really means and might bring to the market. Will it
change the life of users? Will it make billions for operators? Will it
save content providers? We provided some ideas on what marketers can
expect from 3G in China in a recent interview for AdAge and got asked
last week by CNN.com what it might do for the Chinese people: more
convenience? better rural development?

The most developed 3G markets remain Korea and Japan and are fairly
good indicators on what the future might bring. Japan has over 85%
penetration of 3G and does not sell 2G any more… they are actually on
their way to 4G, while still figuring out what to do with 3G. More
interestingly, as we showed in our “Dogs and Demons” presentations at
the China Mobility International Summit in Beijing last November and
Mobile Monday Global Summit in Kuala Lumpur last May:

• Users don’t understand what is 3G. They probably don’t need to if
the operator is able to show what people can actually DO with it. The
use of “3G” in marketing is largely a confession that a telco has not
much more to say.
• Nobody uses videophones. There are probably 50 million videophone-
enabled handsets in Japan but hardly anyone uses this function.
Reasons are the same there as everywhere: higher cost than voice, too
invasive, (perceived) lack of counterparts, sucks up battery, need of
headset. Just think how often you need video for a Skype call.
• 3G takes years. Have a good network coverage, battery life and
pricing then we can talk.
•
Services make 3G valuable. Unfortunately, outside Japan’s i-mode and
Apple’s iPhone, no carrier has properly developed a mobile ecosystem.

As for technologies:

• China has a “third mover advantage” for W-CDMA deployment after
Japan and US/Europe. Coming third means proven tech, cheaper
procurement for network and devices and loads of best practices to
draw from for services. Also, it helps avoiding the various marketing/
service/device mistakes done by other carriers.
• “Second-and-a-half mover advantage” for CDMA after Korea (who is
now switching to W-CDMA), KDDI in Japan and US.
• Unfortunately, China Mobile is a “first mover” for TD-SCDMA and the
first runner gets all the wind. By the time the TD network will be
more or less working with decent handsets, Japan will be full speed in
4G (planned for 2010). Maybe better luck with LTE after TD?
http://www.plus8star.com/?p=180