Cool demo: Google Wave + Skype + Asterisk + Ibook

He's in a wave. Adds a gadget. Passes a Skype name to a gadget. Browser-to-Skype call starts.

They talk. As each person talks for a bit, their bit is encoded and linked-to.

So you have a play-by-play record of a call.

Inside a Google wave.

Under the covers: Jason Goecke said "it is a Google Wave Gadget with his PhoneFromHere.com IAX2 Java softphone as the client. Then, the IAX2 Java phone connects to Asterisk with Skype for Asterisk installed. Then, there is a server-side element, Ibook, that is breaking apart utterances into individual files. So that as each person speaks, it captures it into its own file. Then, as that happens, a text frame is sent from Asterisk to the softphone with the file details. The gadget then uses some Javascript to embed a link. IAX2 supports text frames."

This is cool (like I really had to tell you).

First, it shows what it's like to build Skype calls into other applications. Without a Skype client running. (Pardon my drooling.)

Second, it deconstructs a long talk into directly referenceable snippets. (Still needs permalinks in addition to the playable links). This means you can annotate live calls with transcripts, pictures, etc. So the call's Binary Large Object becomes binary tiny objects.

Third, because the snippets are referred to by a wave, other gadgets and bots can enhance the archive. Add or remove background noise. Translate and provide voiceovers in your language. Highlight statistically improbable phrases. Detect stress in a voice. Visualize the data in a timeline or a relationship scorecard (who talked more?). Add tags to help you find this wave again.

Fourth, no phone numbers were called in the making of this demo. Phone companies weren't bothered. Internet all the way.

Fifth, because this is within the context of a wave, it should be possible to use wave member data to lookup Skype names and bring people into an open conference room.

Am I overstating it?

tags: skype, asterisk, astricon, googlewave, wave, ibook, digium, phonefromhere, demo, video

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