BT shutters Web21C dev platform in favor of Ribbit

BT had touted the Web21C SDKs as its platform for enabling the creation of communications-enabled applications. But even members of the SDK team recently admitted to Telephony that the platform had yet to take off as BT had hoped. The Web21C SDK team was even working on converting its own APIs to more Web-based REST interfaces, work that now seems to have moved over to the Ribbit group.

BT tried to spin the move to Ribbit in a positive way, noting in the blog post that Web21C developers could sign up for a Ribbit developer account and access comprehensive documentation and code samples “to Ribbitize your applications.” Ribbit’s platform is best known for enabling a slick application that embeds telephony capabilities into the Salesforce.com CRM platform. Ribbit has also shown sample soft-client and click-to-call applications running on its platform.

Web21C SDK developers, however, were less than thrilled with the move, including the short notice on which the migration plan was announced (read the entire forum response to the decision here).

“Why would anyone trust you come December?” wrote one developer with the user name Loki177. “People spent time effort and money building and marketing tools around the Web2a SDK and you have given us fifteen days notice of intent to close down the service. I understand that your [terms and conditions] say that you can, but just because you can do it doesn’t make it right.”

The developer asked BT on the forum for a less jarring transition to the new platform, including support for the Web21C APIs after October 10, ending: “It’s sad because the SDK was useful but if you have the constant worry that next month it might not be there why would you even begin to use it?”

Said another developer, jagdial: “I am sure about one thing. This is definitely going to invite a negative impression on BT and the upcoming Ribbit APIs in the developer communities.”