How to contribute to MMS code/functionality?

[katarina]

Hello all,

I have a general, directions question.

I would like to contribute to Android MMS functionality. Namely, I
have an idea on how to improve MMS (Multimedia Messaging)
functionality, so that MMS service becomes more useful. This idea I
submitted for a pattent recognition in my country.

It is a feature that would not change the current functionality of the
MMS but would rather add to it.

What is the way - if there is a way - to implement such an idea inside
the Android MMS functionality? Should I go to 3GPP forums first in
order to influence the standard for the MMS, so that it later gets
implemented for Android compatible and other devices - if Android MMS
functionality strictly follows the standards?

In my opinion this idea would really revolutionalize the MMS service,
would give it a new momentum and it is nothing major, a simple add to
the current functionality.

Could please someone point me in the rigth direction for this?

All the best,
Katarina

[Jean-Baptiste Queru]

The MMS ecosystem is strongly driven by standards, and by
interoperability (2-way client-server, 2-way server-server, and
end-to-end client-client). Most probably, if you want to see your
ideas deployed, you'll need to work with the relevant standards
organizations, which in this case might be OMA and not 3GPP.

On the flip side, you'll probably be able to better break a
chicken-and-egg issue if you implement your ideas in a private copy of
Android, and use this to demonstrate the feature and how it works
against existing MMSCs and interoperates with devices that don't have
your feature implemented. Seeing a feature in action always makes a
better impression than a simple theoretical description.

Looking much further in the future, if your improvements get
incorporated in the standard, you'll already have them implemented as
a prototype, so you'll have done the first step toward a
production-quality implementation (and you'll have an implementation
that other vendors can use to bootstrap interoperability testing).

JBQ

--
Jean-Baptiste M. "JBQ" Queru
Software Engineer, Android Open-Source Project, Google.

Questions sent directly to me that have no reason for being private
will likely get ignored or forwarded to a public forum with no further
warning.

[katarina]

Thanks very much for your advice,

Best regards,
Katarina