Slide deck describing VoIP Drupal and its applications

1. Creating Voice, Text and
Web Portals with
VoIP Drupal
Leo Burd, PhD
Research Associate, MIT Center for Civic Media
Research Scientist, MIT Center for Mobile Learning
December 9, 2013

3. 3
Photo: Leo Burd (2005)

4. http://kpcb.com/insights/internet-trends-2011 slide 14
http://heidicohen.com/mobile-marketing-research-chart/

5. The future of the web rests on voice-enabled
apps accessible even from regular phones (1)
(1) http://www.fastcompany.com/1719453/tim-berners-lees-voice-enabled-internet-quest-in-africa

6. VoIP Drupal
modules

9. What’s Up
South Wood County, Wisconsin

10. Potential Outreach
Population
45,803
200 community
organizations

11. How does it work?

13. Signs located at:
Walmart
Job Center
Food Pantry

14. PDF Bulletins:
Buyers Guide
Job Center
Food Pantry

16. Community Hotline
715-952-9020

20. How things work

21. VoIP Drupal
modules

22. Dialplan scripting commands
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–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Dial number
Say text or audio file
Record audio from phone
GetInput from keypad
JoinConference
RejectCall
Hangup
SendText number, message
RunIvrMenu options
– Goto label
– GotoIf label, condition
– Gosub script name

23. Hello world
$script = new VoipScript('hello_world');
$script->addSay('hello world');
$script->addHangup();

24. $script = new VoipScript('voipscript_small_office_ivr');
$script->addSay(t('Welcome to our office hotline.’));
Office hotline
$script->addLabel(‘office_menu’);
$options_menu = t(‘For sales, dial 1. For customer support, dial 2. For hours of operation, dial 3. To hang up, dial
the star key.’);
$input_options = array(
‘1’ => ‘sales’,
‘2’ => ‘customer support’,
‘3’ => ‘hours’,
‘*’ => ‘hang up’,
‘I’ => ‘hang up’,
‘t’ => ‘hang up’
);
$invalid_msg = t(‘Invalid option selected.’);
$script->addRunIvrMenu($options_menu, $input_options, $invalid_msg);
$script->addGoto(‘%ivr_option_selected’);
$script->addLabel(‘sales’);
$script->addSay(‘Sales department’);
$script->addGoto(‘hang up’);
$script->addLabel(‘customer support’);
$script->addSay(t(‘Customer support department’));
$script->addGoto(‘hang up’);
$script->addLabel(‘hours’);
$script->addSay(t(‘Our office is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm.’));
$script->addGoto(‘office_menu’);
$script->addLabel(‘hang up’);
$script->addSay(t(‘Thanks so much for calling our office. Bye bye.'));
$script->addHangup();

26. Visual VoIP Drupal

27. Potential VoIP Drupal applications
•
•
•
•
•
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Go Out to Vote campaigns
2-1-1 and 3-1-1 community hotlines
Call centers
eCommerce lines
Phone- and SMS-based surveys
Group communication
Story recording / playback
Audio speed dating services
Language training
Audio tours
Adventure games
• Interactive community radio programs
• Emergency announcements
• And much more!

28. Key benefits of the platform
• Facilitates the construction of unified communications systems
integrating SMS, email, web, and voice
• Makes Drupal accessible from any phone – no data plan
required!
• Enables the expansion of “community plumbing” beyond the
web
• Is open source and free – you are in control

29. Benefits for administrators
• Easy installation and configuration – no programming required
• Fully customizable – enable only the features you need
• Run as part of the Drupal system itself
– Enable access to VoIP Drupal features using roles and permissions
– Assign Rules, Actions and Triggers
• Enhance user interaction with ready-to-use audio blogs, clickto-call fields, phone recorders, audio announcements, etc.

30. Benefits for software developers
• Well defined API that can be extended to other VoIP services
• 20+ sample scripts that can be customized
• 30+ modules that already implement common functionality –
no need to reinvent the wheel
• Simple, yet powerful PHP-like scripting language with a short
learning curve
• Visual programming language for novice developers and fast
prototyping

31. Benefits for development practitioners
• Provides a common web, SMS and phone platform for the
implementation of participatory and inclusive community
outreach initiatives of all kinds
• Facilitates data gathering via multi-channel surveys and
comprehensive “community analytics” collection
• Adds “life” to traditional mapping initiatives
• Enables the development of local n:n communication
infrastructure for all
• Facilitates the creation of “voice and text” apps that are
accessible from the simplest phones
• Is free and open source

32. Future directions
• Keep developing civically empowering web, text and voicebased apps
• Finish porting VoIP Drupal to Drupal 7
• Integration with widely adopted frameworks such as
Drupal COD, Drupal Commons, CiviCRM, and others
• Expand beyond MIT

34. For additional information
leoburd@media.mit.edu
http://groups.drupal.org/voip-drupal
http://linkd.in/vIewAW
Special thanks to