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What Is PhoneBlogger?

PhoneBlogger is a tool for publishing to a blog via a phone call.

PhoneBlogger is an automated voice application that first asks you for info about which pre-configured blog you wish to post to. After collecting the necessary information, PhoneBlogger records your audio message. Finally, it posts a blog entry that links to the recorded audio.

In a little more technical detail, PhoneBlogger is a VoiceXML application. It uses speech recognition and text to speech to collect information from you over the phone concerning the blog to which you want to post. A couple Python CGI scripts and some other programs are used to save the audio and convert it to an audio file format that can be easily played in a web browser. An XML-RPC call is used to post a blog entry linking to the audio file. Additional technical info is here.

How Do You Use It?

Sample Call for My Configuration

This sample call assumes you are using my configuration of PhoneBlogger with TellMe as the voice server. If you had your own configuration that also used TellMe as the voice server, you would need to replace 99999 below with your TellMe developer ID, WombatNation with your blog name, and Robert with your username.

The things you need to say or enter in the following dialog are in bold.

You: Dial 1-800-555-8965. On a phone keypad, 8965 = VXML.
TellMe: "Tell Me... Studio. Developer ID?"
You:Enter or say 99999.
TellMe: "PIN?"
You:Enter or say your PIN.
TellMe: "Welcome to PhoneBlogger. Please say the name of your blog."
You: Wombat Nation.
TellMe: "What is your username on the ... blog?"
You: Robert.
TellMe: "Please enter or speak your numeric password."
You: Enter or say your password as a series of digits on your phone.
TellMe: "I heard [reads back the password]. Is that correct?"
You: Yes
TellMe: "At the tone, please record your blog entry. When you're done, either press pound or pause for several seconds."
You: Speak whatever you want to have recorded. Press # when you are finished.
TellMe: Tells you the size of your recording as a WAV file. The MP3 file will typically be about eight times smaller.
TellMe: Plays back your recording. Asks you whether or not to save it.
You: Yes
TellMe: Potentially long delay while audio file is saved to the blog website and converted to an MP3 file.
TellMe: Short delay while a new entry that references the audio file is posted to the blog.
TellMe: If successful, you will hear a confirmation message that includes the ID that was generated for your new post.
You: Goodbye

More Than Normal Humans Want to Know about PhoneBlogger

Additional info is available in the PhoneBlogger category on my weblog and on the SourceForge project site.