Editor's Letter: Welcome to the Dialogue

Some of you are reading this from the Billing & OSS World Conference & Expo taking place along the glittering southern shore of Lake Michigan in the incomparable City of Chicago. If you’re one of them, welcome and thank you for participating.

Some of you are reading this from an office in Boston or Falls Church or Mitchell or Plano or San Francisco. Whippany maybe, or Dublin. If you’re one of them, welcome and thank you for participating.

If you’re reading from Tel Aviv or Sao Paolo or Halifax or Mexico City, welcome and thank you for participating.

Participation is the state of being related to a larger whole. I like that. I suspect you do too.

One of my favorite writers, and thinkers, is David Brin. And Brin reminds us every once in a while to consider the following acronym and what it stands for, and occasionally to say it aloud: IAAMOAC. It stands for, “I am a member of a civilization.” I like that, too. And I suspect, though cannot prove, that when we internalize that message, we tend to participate more.

Even if we are not sure of the role we play in the larger whole or how much influence we have in it, it is good to be part of the dialogue, to be a member of a civilization.

Civilization refers to the cultural characteristics of a particular time or place. And for the portion of ourselves we devote to work (a very large portion from what I see of this industry), this is our time. This is our place. And BSS/OSS is the dialogue we are having. Welcome and thank you for participating.

In the May/June issue of Billing & OSS World are dialogues around the issues of mobile banking and multivendor element management. There also are dialogues, closer to soliloquies really, on understanding the enterprise opportunity and the concept of a Revenue Operations Center. And IDC analyst Shira Levine waxes philosophic on the meaning of Telco 2.0.

Reading about these topics is part of the dialogue. Responding to them is another. We welcome that. We don’t know for sure the role we play or the influence we have as a part of a larger whole — no one really does — but we sure like being part of the dialogue.

In Chicago this week the dialogue turns to cacophony. We’ll be processing all the messages we hear at Billing & OSS World and responding over the coming days, weeks and months to help keep the dialogue going. To be a part of that, you’re welcome to join us at www.billingworld.com.

Thank you for participating.

Sincerely,

Tim McElligott

Editor in Chief