May 2012 Summaries

Join Twilio and Microsoft at Meet Windows Azure Microsoft and Twilio have partnered to make it easy for developers to power their Windows Azure apps with Twilio's voice and messaging API, following a series of educational blog posts about Twilio for .NET. The partnership aims to facilitate innovation by inviting developers to an exclusive event in San Francisco where they can learn about the latest updates to Windows Azure and participate in live coding action with Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson. Microsoft's Scott Guthrie will share what's new in Windows Azure, while attendees will have access to a range of resources including API reference documentation, SDKs, and tutorials to help them build communications and digital engagement experiences.

WeatherGram, an app inspired by the Weather Underground API, took top prize in the Twilio Developer Contest. The app, built by William Cheung from Canada, uses a Thor theme to provide Canadian travelers with forecasts of impending bad weather. Canadian Thor was a crowd favorite and won second place. PIG-WTHR, another app, took third place for its creative use of Pig Latin to display local weather conditions. Other notable mentions included the Overly Cautious Password Generator and teemBOT, an event management app that incorporates weather forecasts and SMS updates. The winners received prizes including a personal weather station and a Kindle with a $100 gift card.

ThatsUs.com has successfully integrated Twilio into its LotVantage app, adding call tracking, single click lead distribution, and intelligent call recording features, allowing customers to create listings with disposable phone numbers that route calls directly to salespeople. The integration with Twilio provides ThatsUs.com with a reliable and scalable communications solution, enabling the company to offer fast and efficient lead distribution services to its customers. With this new feature, ThatsUs.com aims to differentiate itself in the market and set a new standard for affordable applications that level the playing field for small businesses. The partnership with Twilio has enabled the company to achieve significant ROI in a short period of time, six months after implementation.

The Earthquakes Monitor app for Windows Phone is a tool that reports nearby earthquake activity directly to users' phones by checking the USGS RSS feed every two minutes. The application was initially started as a case study in 2011 and has since evolved to include multiple data sources, maps, localization, and push notifications functionality. Developed by George Spyrou, a software engineer with over 10 years of experience, the app is designed to provide users with real-time information on earthquakes, including magnitude, location, and elapsed time from event occurrence. The future plans for the product include versions for Windows 8 Metro and iOS, as well as integration with Twilio's services, which George uses to power the app's push notifications.

Beyond the Sandbox With Twilio and Syracuse University The Student Sandbox is a twelve week program that provides student entrepreneurs with access to funding, workspace, mentors, and resources to accelerate their startups. The program has been successful, leading Syracuse University to increase its efforts to cultivate entrepreneurship on campus through the IDEA program, which takes a hybrid approach to teaching entrepreneurship by supplementing courses with external resources. The IDEA program connects students from any discipline and provides them with access to the Sandbox, technical tools, and mentorship from local startup community members. The programs aim to provide students with a real-world understanding of building a successful enterprise while creating their own companies. Twilio is supporting these initiatives through partnerships and mentorship, providing credit and resources to help students succeed.

Jonathan Ozeran, a seasoned expert in mobile app development for the enterprise, highlighted several key challenges faced by Fortune 1000 companies when joining the mobile revolution. These challenges include hesitation, lack of clear vision, and IT blockades due to murky mobile device management plans/approaches. Services like Twilio can help organizations quickly demonstrate the power of connectivity paired with enterprise data in well-thought-out contexts, experiences, workflows, and applications. Ozeran emphasized the importance of focusing on user needs, workflows, and experience design, rather than just adding features for the sake of it. He also noted that API preparedness was low, both technically and from a business perspective, which can slow down progress in deploying new data-driven mobile solutions. Organizations typically sought to improve training/collaboration/data collection processes, streamline logistical flows, deliver time- and rule-based notifications, and make legacy data available on-the-go. Ozeran believes Twilio can play a role in increasing mobile app security through multi-factor authentication and serving as an extension to existing MDM solutions. He also highlighted the typical expectations around mobile app development, including cost, effort, time, and complexity, as well as assumptions about team members' ability to ramp up on mobile technology quickly. To help organizations cross the communications chasm, Ozeran employed approaches such as prototyping, live demonstrations, consistent design, phased project implementation, sharing of anecdotes, and speaking engagements across the United States.

Twilio Office Hours Streaming Live Now` The Twilio office hours are now over, but their replay is available on Spreecast for viewing. The event provided an opportunity for the community to ask questions and receive direct feedback on their Twilio-related queries. During the session, attendees were encouraged to share their favorite hacks, discuss desired features, or simply engage in conversation about Star Wars. This event was part of Twilio's efforts to support its developer community by providing valuable resources, including API documentation, SDKs, sample apps, and more.

The development of Twilio Client for Android poses unique challenges due to the device's potential millions of users and varying operating system versions. The API design is driven by a desire to hide complex telecom details from application developers, while also accommodating different naming conventions and implementation requirements compared to iOS. To address these challenges, Twilio Client implements a service under the hood to process incoming and outgoing audio at all times during a call, and utilizes Android's Intent concept to abstractly encapsulate actions that need to be performed. The API provides a flexible interface for setting up an incoming call handler, allowing developers to handle calls in various ways while ensuring the SDK handles even the worst-case scenario of Android application lifecycle.

Lyle Pratt launched BuildANumber, a virtual phone system that uses Twilio services, aiming to make phone systems more flexible and accessible to everyone, regardless of technical knowledge or coding skills. The product is initially designed for Real Estate Agents with BetterVoicemail.com, but its back-end code will power the latter's additional features on a case-by-case basis. BuildANumber provides an easy-to-use interface for creating custom call templates, integrating Twilio technologies such as TwiML and REST API, and offers features like SMS templates, mobile apps for accessing missed calls and voicemails, and increased organization support.

We are kicking off a series of developer office hours on the Twilio Spreecast Channel this coming Thursday, May 17th at 4pm PST/7pm EST where you can grab instant answers and direct feedback on your Twilio questions. We invite our community to ask questions, talk about their favorite hacks, share ideas for new features or just discuss Star Wars. Join us for the first online developer office hours starting Thursday, May 17th at 4pm PST/7pm EST. This is a great opportunity to get instant answers and direct feedback on your Twilio questions. We are inspired by Dwolla Evangelist Michael Schonfeld's recent Google+ office hours and now offering it to our community as well.

Twilio is visiting Chicago with a series of events starting on May 15th, including a workshop at Code Academy and a demo at the Chicago Node.js Meetup. Devin Rader will be speaking at Chicago Code Camp on May 19th, covering topics such as mobile development, Test Driven Development, and REST APIs using ASP.NET Web API Stack. Meanwhile, Keith Casey will be facilitating the Hackathon and Unconference at php|tek from May 22nd-25th, involving project leaders from the open source community who build daily-used apps.

The Longboard Store implemented a system to send in-stock reminders to customers via SMS using Twilio's SMS API, offering an additional way to engage with customers on mobile devices. The system allows customers to sign up for notifications when their desired items are back in stock through email or SMS, and provides a confirmation process to ensure the customer is informed. After launching the system for three months, the company analyzed the results and found that it led to higher conversion rates compared to traditional email-based reminders, with an 11.75% conversion rate from sign-ups, significantly above their overall conversion rate. The success of this system has made it a growing part of their strategy to connect with customers on mobile devices.

This past weekend Startup Weekend launched its GOV initiative in Seattle, connecting communities and governments with innovative people to solve persistent problems. The event was attended by over 100 developers, designers, and entrepreneurs who were challenged to use data effectively, particularly from companies like Socrata. Teams proposed various ideas, including an app that makes finding the right bus safer and easier for public transit users in Seattle. The initiative aims to improve community quality through technology and is being supported by government representatives and mentors from both the public and private sectors. The event was a success, with dozens of ideas narrowed down to 10 teams presenting their proposals to a judging panel consisting of government officials and industry experts.

Twilio has expanded its Voice-Enabled Numbers to four new European countries, Belgium, Finland, Netherlands, and Sweden, starting at $1 per month for a single number. This expansion follows the January addition of five more countries, with international capabilities aimed at supporting global business growth. New users can get started with Twilio Voice by signing up for a free trial and accessing various resources, including quickstart guides, tutorials, and API documentation. As Twilio continues to grow its services globally, it invites developers to join the European Voice Beta Program and provide feedback on international capabilities.

The Imagine Cup is a global competition that challenges students to use technology to solve the world’s toughest problems, with 358,000 students from 183 countries participating last year. The competition drew two primary categories: Software Design and Game Design, with judges evaluating submissions based on their creativity, technical skill, and potential impact. One team developed an app connecting Indian healthcare providers and patients via SMS to improve patient attendance at doctor's appointments, while another created a Windows Phone game that utilizes augmented reality technology to educate players about germs. The winner of the Software Design category was a team from Arizona State University who built Flash Food, a mobile application connecting surplus food with those in need, and will represent their country in the global competition in July.