Conversa: Uniting Mobile Video with a Community-Based Web Service

Social applications appeal to users because they satisfy a basic human desire to connect and interact with people. While Email and Internet discussion groups support the sharing of text and photos, usage has shifted to include video. In this paper, we share the results of a research project at HP on a prototype system to simplify the process of creating and sharing video in a mobile community context. Conversa uses an enhanced IMS Media Resource Function (MRF) and a J2EE web infrastructure to allow users to participate in video conversations within trusted communities in a variety of ways including video cell phones, PCs, and web browsers. We discuss what we learned from this effort, including the technical challenges involved with bridging the web domain with the telecom domain.