We made some really good progress last week on the CCXML Implementation Report. It looks like we have our test harness template built out and most of the assertions are complete. With luck we should be able to publish the report soon and wrap up the last call.
Wow, what a week! This was a great year for us at SpeechTek. Our booth was kept very full with customer and partner meetings and everyone wanted the Vespa that we were giving away ;-) Of course the first comment out of most people was “Wow! My (wife|husband) would KILL me! I want it!”
The poker game we had with a few partners and customers at the W Times Square was a blast and kept me up WAY too late last night. I only hope the students in my class this morning did not notice my lack of sleep. All I can say is thank god I don’t drink otherwise I would have really been in trouble ;-)
Tomorrow I am going to be in a W3C CCXML face to face meeting all day as we continue to move CCXML to the Candidate Recommendation stage. I am torn between getting a bunch of prep work for the meeting done tonight and being a$$ tired in the morning or going to bed early and being fully rested… I think I might take the sleep this time around.
As I promised in my sessions this week here are copies of all the presentations that I have given at SpeechTek this week:
Monday:
1PM-5PM - Telephony Meets the Web - pdf - powerpoint
Wednesday:
10AM-12PM - Speech Applications, Languages and Techniques - pdf
1PM-3PM - Latest Languages for Developing Speech Applications - pdf
As announced on the W3C front page and news page, the Voice Browser Working Group just released an updated version of the CCXML specification as a second Last Call Working Draft! This update addresses a number of the comments that came in during the last review period and should be a really solid release.
The working group is currently hard at work defining the the implementation report assertions and tests and we plan to be able to move forward toward Candidate Recommendation in the next few months!
Today the W3C published a new working draft of VoiceXML 2.1. This draft addresses a number of the comments that have been received to data and a fair amount of clarifications. Sadly there is not a detailed public change document or list but what can you do? ;-)
One of the major changes to this draft that I ended up pushing very hard for is an overhaul of the 2.1 <data> element security model. The new version now allows developers to set both allow and deny access control instructions and modifies the behavior of what to do when there is no access control instruction. Before it would always deny access if you did not have the ACL specified. The new version makes this dependent on the execution environment. The reason that you need to have this dependent on the environment is that the correct default setting really depends on where you are running the browser and what sort of data feeds you are accessing. These changes to the model make it much more like the Java or IE security models and will allow for much easer access to existing data feeds in deployment models where this makes sense.
Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) has made it another step along the way to becoming a full W3C recommendation. Today it was published as a Proposed Recommendation and is now up to vote by the W3C advisory board. With any luck it should hit full recommendation status in the next few weeks!
I came across a link to this cool use of pen based input that may have some interesting applications in the multi-model space. Pick-and-Drop is a concept where you are able to more or less do Drag-And-Drop between computers with a pen and it would behind the scenes being transfered between the computers. Still very much in a research state right now but it could be very interesting to see if anyone can bring something like this to market. There is also an article from the BBC on this technology.
The W3C Call Control Subgroup is pleased to announce that Call Control XML (CCXML) has reached Last Call Working Draft. The updated specification is available at http://www.w3.org/TR/ccxml. The working group is accepting comments on the specification until May 28th so please send any feedback by then! Feedback can be submitted to the www-voice@w3.org mailing list.
This release includes updates to the following sections:
The Voice Browser Working Group just released the first working draft of VoiceXML 2.1 today. This standardizes some of the common extensions that people have been adding to the 2.0 spec. Please direct comments to the W3C mailing list.
It’s finally happened. The W3C just send out a press release announcing that VoiceXML 2.0 and SRGS have hit Recommendation status.
The members of the Voice Browser Working Group have spent many years working to get to this point and it’s great to see it finally make it. Now the team can focus in on the specifications ahead. I know this will keep us busy for a long time.
I just got back last night from a great week long meeting with the W3C’s Voice Browser Working Group. Overall I feel it was one of our better meetings and I for one am excited on the progress that was made both in my call control subgroup and in the main dialog sub group. I sadly can’t share the details of the meeting because they are W3C member confidential but I can say that you should see a number of exciting things in the weeks to come.
While at dinner I snagged a few pictures at the Tech Plenary dinner party. Some of the folks saw me coming but others were caught unaware. Always fear a geek with a camera and a WiFi connection ;-)
I also grabbed a few more pictures from the sunrise this morning. I know these are the shots that everyone has been taking but the view is just so nice that I was unable to help myself.
What happens when you leave a bunch of geeks unattended in a piano bar after a long day of meetings? You get band going of course. I hear the record companies are lining up to sign the new group ;-)
Hard to complain about life too much when you are meeting at a location as beautiful as Cannes. Enjoy these pictures from the meeting. Now off to start some real work with the CCXML meeting!
Today I am off to France for the W3C meeting. Tuesday will be the CCXML group’s face to face meeting and we hope to make some good progress on getting the Last Call Working Draft ready for public consumption.
I hope my battery lasts on the flight so I can finish up the giant list of editing that need to be done. I really should have flown on American instead of United as they are now offering power ports in most of the cheap seats. United only seems to be offering it in business and first class and I have been told at checkin that my chance of being upgraded is about the same as winning the lottery ;-)
It’s amazing the amount of small changes a spec like this needs before it gets published. I hope to be able to meet up with some of the other editors at the W3C meeting to see what tactics they use to manage a spec like this. Keeping track of all the changes from everyone ad getting everything merged cleanly is quite a task.
It looks like IBM is joining the growing list of companies that offer CCXML platforms.
Voxeo of course has supported CCXML from the very first working draft and has run millions and millions of calls on our platform as it’s been the core of our Voice Center for the last 3 years. We also support integration with several VoiceXML browsers.
The VoiceXML Forum just announced the release of the X+V 1.2 specification for developing multi-modal applications with VoiceXML.
X+V is the VoiceXML Forum’s proposal for supporting multi-modal applications by embedding the VoiceXML 2.0 language inside XHTML allowing web developers to take advantage of the existing web standards.
The W3C’s multi-modal working group is looking at X+V as the basis for their upcoming standards for multi-modal applications. Additionally Microsoft and the SALT Forum have proposed Speech Application Language Tags (SALT) and an alternative.
As a member of the W3C working group I am glad to be able to announce that after many years
VoiceXML has finally hit “Proposed Recommendation” status. Assuming it passes the AC vote (there is no reason it should not) it will become a full Recommendation in the next month or so. The press release has all the details so check it out!
I will be moderating a panel on SIP and the Media Server at the Spring VON show this year. There has been a lot of progress in the last few years here and I think it should be exciting to hear from several companies and experts talk about the different products and standards that are now available.
It looks like there is going to be a great turnout this year and the exhibit hall has sold out for the first time in a few years. While Voxeo will not have a booth there this year I should be cruzing around the show so be sure to say hi if you are there.
RJ Auburn * IVR * VoiceXML Hosting
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