The goal of the ChiliPLoP Hot Topic, "Patterns In Telecommunications", or "TelePLoP", is to explore the possibilities and issues related to developing a telecommunications pattern movement, patterned after (all possible puns intended) the general software pattern movement that was started by the Hillside Group, but focused on telecommunications. The ChiliPLoP workshop will provide an opportunity for a dedicated group of telecommunications pattern experts to discuss issues unique to telecommunications patterns, with the goal of fostering the identification, development, collection, and application of the patterns of telecommunications.

This hot topic continues the work begun at the first TelePLoP workshop held at OOPSLA'96. The OOPSLA group had fun, reviewed a number of telecommunications patterns using the writers' workshop format, and discussed a number of issues, including an attempt to articulate "what makes a pattern a telecommunications pattern." Definitions discussed at the workshop included the following:

* anything that we in telecommunications have been doing for a long time that others are starting to wish that they knew more about
* anything relevant to telecommunications

Unfortunately, neither of these definitions is particularly precise or compelling, so one of the key tasks for the hot topic workshop will be to refine the definition of telecommunication patterns. For a telecommunications patterns movement to have meaning, it must have a clearly identified scope. While the focus on telecommunications deliberately narrows the scope, the topic area of telecommunications is still extremely broad.

From programming details to systems design to network architecture, a wide variety of things might qualify as a telecommunications pattern. To address this issue, a major focus of the workshop will be to partition this pattern space into categories by relevance or scope, essentially defining an "architecture of the telecommunications pattern space." We believe this would be useful to the diverse collection of pattern users, from programmers to architects, and would clarify the definition of telecommunications patterns.

The final objective of the workshop will be to identify and plan future activities to develop and promote the telecommunications pattern movement within the telecommunications industry, including future workshops and potential book publication plans.