There is No Hype Around WebRTCThere is No Hype Around WebRTC

Just think about it--how many VoIP developers are there, compared with Web developers?

Where is WebRTC on the hype cycle anyway? It is nowhere to be seen. At least I couldn't find it. To tell you the truth, I don't think it really fits there anyway. Between things like 3D bioprinting, human augmentation and quantum computing, WebRTC is a blip on the screen. Statistical error. White noise.

But still, people maintain there's a lot of hype around it.

I am traveling this week to Atlanta, for the WebRTC Conference & Expo--the biggest event around WebRTC. With over 500 attendees, it looks big. But it is smaller than Strata Conference about Big Data by an order of magnitude. It is going to be a rather cozy event for something that is said to be overhyped.

People in the VoIP market either place a lot of expectations on the thin shoulders of WebRTC (thin because it is still a newborn) while others? They ignore or ridicule its significance.

In a recent comment-spree I had with Randy Resnick, he made the most obvious observation that I somehow missed:

It is just more people:

"As I told a few people earlier in passing, WebRTC has one big advantage over something like SIP: it has somehow managed to get a lot of people interested in talking about it, which is rarely true of the older technologies.

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Agreed, therefore it gets more attention. Everyone wants that, so it's not hype IMO, just a larger audience."

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Agreed, therefore it gets more attention. Everyone wants that, so it's not hype IMO, just a larger audience.

WebRTC comes from a broader pedigree than VoIP. Just think about it--how many VoIP developers are there? 100,000? A million? If you look at web developers, there's anywhere between 6 to 12 million in some estimates. That's 10 times more? 100 times more? With so many people in the room the noise gets louder.

But it isn't the noise of hype that you hear – it is the noise of more ideas. Significantly more. I am talking today at the WebRTC Conference & Expo about WebRTC and disruption. VoIP and UC are going to be a small part of it--as they should. It is high time that real-time communication leaves the ivory towers of VoIP companies and find its way to so many more scenarios.

The hype that you see? These are web developers drooling around this new tool they were just given. And they will toy and tinker around with it more than any of us VoIP geezers ever had.

Maybe this year Gartner will add WebRTC to their hype cycle publications. Maybe they won't. either way, it is a trendy technology that is here to change everything (no hype intended).