VoiceXML Platform Certification Program Launched

ChilliNuts writes "The VoiceXML Forum has announced the launch of its VoiceXML Platform Certification Program, in a bid to enforce cross-vendor conformance to VoiceXML 2.0, W3C's XML-based Voice Recognition language. Many Voice Recognition companies have been adopting VoiceXML in the past two years, and this is due to strengthened expectations that it will soon become industry standard. Good news for developers. Plus further proof that Open Standards work! Here's the Press Release"

Comments

This is great.. but

[Pengo]

When is VoiceXML going to get features like advanced call control. Right now you have to use vendor bolt-on's such as CCXML or use vendor proprietary tags that are in no way cross vendor compatible.

Re:This is great.. but

[jone1941]

VoiceXML and CCXML are complimentary open standards. I would guess that it is highly unlikely that you will see these features encorporated into VoiceXML, and sadly CCXML is pretty much a single vendor open standard. What should be done is to add CCXML support to one of the preexisting open source VXML projects that way vendors are encouraged to adopt it as a standard. Unfortunately Oktopus is really not a viable CCXML open source product, but it is a good start.

Re:This is great.. but

[Anonymous Coward]

Hopefully never! and whatever call control is there should be removed. Thats the idea of CCXML, to seperate the callcontrol processing from the media processing

Re:This is great.. but

[ChilliNuts]

CCXML is pretty much a single vendor open standard

Not true - many companies in the W3C Voice Browser Group have been working on the spec and are due to adopt it. CCXML is currently only a Working Draft, but its tightening up quickly

Re:This is great.. but

[jone1941]

sure it's a draft but name more than 2 vendors that support it...

Re:This is great.. but

[ChilliNuts]

Voxeo, Elix, Genesys, IBM, Voxpilot, Phonologies, and Nortel to name just some. Lots more are probably keeping it under the hood until the spec progresses beyond WD

Re:This is great.. but

[jone1941]

I would agree except that it only counts if they actually have something that works (and isn't a precompiler). Believe me, as someone knee deep in the industry most of them don't. Also, take a close look at the spec for CCXML there is 1 (and only 1) editor for the CCXML spec.

XML-Madness

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm looking forward to reading

* XML heals cancer
* XML found on Mars
* Aztecs used XML
* ...

Re:XML-Madness

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot one:

4. XML makes you Profit!

What comes to mind

[Tablizer]

I know I probably got it all wrong, but what comes to mind is somebody talking into a head-mike:

"Less-than symbol, tag name, which is 'dial', first attribute name is 'phonenumber', no spaces, and it's value is....."

Re:What comes to mind

[Anonymous Coward]

it's value is

"its".

VOIP

[Deliveranc3]

Don't suppose this is leading to standards in other voice technologies?

Why does voice recognition need standards anyway? It might be nice to have portable devices be able to easily pass it off to a central computer for the really intensive stuff but that doesn't really seem like something they need to collaborate on.

Outside program sends frequencies most useful for voice recognition, home base analyses all frequencies problem solved.

Re:VOIP

[hypnagogue]

Why does voice recognition need standards anyway?

Well, VoiceXML isn't really a voice recognition standard... it's an interactive voice response markup language. It's intended to fill exactly the same role as HTML, but in the telephony space. As such, there is a huge need for a standard... existing web-services infrastructure (and skills) can be used to address IVR problems, but only if there exists a "voice-browser" that can interact with the web-services platforms. Define the markup language and the implementation of the browser is left as an exercise for the student.

Companies with large web presence platforms and disparate IVR/Call Center investments can really benefit from this technology. Think: financial institutions, customer support organizations, etc.

It's also very cheap to implement.

Aztec XML

[boomgopher]

I'm looking forward to reading Aztecs used XML...

CHALCHIUHTLICUEML: The markup of running Water.

CHANTICOML: the markup of Hearth Fires and Volcanoes.

CHICOMECOATML: the markup of Corn and Fertility.

ITZPZPALOTML: the markup of Agriculture.

MACUILXOCHITLML: the markup of Music and Dance.

MICTLAML: the markup of the underworld and dead except warriors and women who died in labor.

MICTLANTECUHTLEML, the markup of the dead.