A quick snapshot always helps to see whats going on at any moment. There are some statistics we can run through historical data also. If you have any cool ideas, run them by me. Here is one that I really liked = Earthquake Heat Map for USGS.

Some common uses for this:

1. For fun, yell at all your friends all at once!
2. For work, send all your clients a message: “Hi this is Al Bundy, we have new extra wide stilettos on sale!”
3. Last minute plan changes. Party switched to a new place? Send a Friendcast out.
4. At your work, make sure everyone hears you.

Were thinking of lots of new features for this app, so keep it updated!

I’ve been working on the API documentation for many of the services but here are a few that can be usefull: Click-To-Call API, Dialer API, Phone call API, Telephone API, Call center API and Voice broadcast API.

How Voice 2.0 has affected the industry

The telecom market has already seen massive changes in how it works. If you were watching things happen over the last 5 years, you would have seen that almost all phone systems work on the same Cat-5 cable that your data comes over. Wiring offices just became easier for everyone. What was the impact of this? Well, now we have to share bandwidth on the wire, and our network switches need to move more packets. At data centers, large VoIP systems can route traffic and handle media without expensive hardware to terminate T1 lines.

As networks get faster, it’s easier to start implementing Voice 2.0 services. Just look at the old days of choppy Yahoo and MSN Messenger calls, to today’s (somewhat better) Skype and Google Talk services! As things get faster, we’ll be adding video to the mix too!

How to use Voice 2.0

As a consumer, it’s easy. Just download Google Talk or Skype, use your cell phone, do what you always do – it’s already being implemented for you in the back end.

As a developer, it’s a bit harder. That’s what we’re going to start showing on this site! Take a look at this Voice Broadcast API. This is a quick way to start sending out voice messages. I’ll start posting some code soon so you can start using it in your applications. There are some more advanced topics, like mobilizing a distributed workforce, and the problems are becoming easier to solve! I’ve worked on a team that allowed 400 volunteers from all over the U.S. to call thousands of voters, just using their web browsers!

So, coming back to Voice 2.0, we’re ready to start the process. VoIP is probably in a better place than video right now. Here are some quick links while you are in the mood:

Voice XML
Voice Broadcast API
Distributed Telephony Architecture