Using Drupal for Social Inclusion and Civic

Empowerment

Leo Burd MIT Center for Civic Media

Drupal Camp Toronto - 2011.11.13

3Photo: Leo Burd (2005)

“Why wait until everyone has broadband and computers, and

why wait until everyone is literate to empower people through

information that could be available on the web?”(1)

The future of the Web lies on voice-enabled apps accessible

even from regular phones (2)

(1) http://mashable.com/2011/02/04/web-developing-world/ (2) http://www.fastcompany.com/1719453/tim-berners-lees-voice-enabled-internet-quest-in-africa

VoIP Drupal is…

A software platform that facilitates the construction of Drupal

sites that literally pick-up the phone, make calls, record

messages, send and receive text messages, run voice polls,

and more.

VoIP Drupal modules

VoIP Call attributes• Call id• Caller id• Destination number• Call status• Duration• Direction• Call script• Text script• Channel• Network• “Answered by”• Other…

Dialplan scripting commands– Dial <number>– Say <prompt, voice, language>– Record– GetInput – JoinConference– RejectCall– Hangup– SendText <number, message>– RunIvrMenu

– Goto <label>– GotoIf <label, condition>– Gosub <script name>– SetVar<var name, expression>

$script = new VoipScript('weather report');

$script->addLabel('start');$script->addGetInput('Local weather by phone. Please type your 5-digit zip code.');

$script->addSet("forecast_result", "^_voipscriptsamples_get_forecast(%input_digits)");$script->addLabel('forecast');$script->addSay("%forecast_result");

$script->addGetInput('To repeat this report, press the star key. To restart, press the pound key.');$script->addGotoIf('forecast', "^%input_digits == '*'");$script->addGotoIf('start', "^%input_digits == '#'");

$script->addSay('Thanks for calling');$script->addHangup();

(617) 652.0978

Potential VoIP Drupal applications• Go Out to Vote campaigns• 2-1-1 and 3-1-1 hotlines• Phone-based community surveys• PTA and other meeting reminders• Story recording / playback• Group voicemail• Audio speed dating services• Language training• Audio tours• Adventure games

• Interactive community radio programs

• Emergency announcements

• And much more!

Ongoing collaborations

Future directions

• VoIP Drupal 1.0

• What’s Up and other apps

• Visual VoIP Drupal

Visual scripting language

http://scratch.mit.edu/

Next steps

• Play with the sandbox

• Create new modules

• Join the VoIP Drupal hackaton (11/19 at MIT)

• Vote for our sessions at Drupal Con Denver 2012• “Hello, Drupal? Building Drupal sites that make and receive phone calls”

– http://tinyurl.com/voipdrupal-1

• “Using Drupal for civic action and social empowerment”– http://tinyurl.com/voipdrupal-2

Leo Burd

leoburd@media.mit.edu

http://drupal/project/voipdrupal

http://www.voipdrupal.org

For additional information

Special thanks to