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Imaneed Wins Twilio Location-based App Contest

Imaneed is a service that provides a way for people to find neighbors who can help them out quickly. It is also the winner of the Twilio location-based app netbook contest! Congratulations to Matt Lally, your netbook is on the way!

To use the service, a person looking for help sends in a text request to 954-876-4128 telling Imaneed their location and what they're looking for. Copies of the request are then sent to the ten nearest people who are listening for the keywords used in the message. The recipients are then given the option to connect to the requester via a voice call to finalize the arrangements.

For example, if someone is looking for work painting houses, they can be alerted when someone requests their services and call them back to do business. It's kind of like an SMS-and-voice-based, real-time version of Craigslist.

You can learn more about the service and try it for yourself at Imaneed.com. Matt also put together these screencasts showing how Imaneed works:

We interviewed Matt to learn about his experiences building Imaneed with Twilio:

How did you get started building Imaneed?

Matt: Imaneed was started around August of last year and we originally used only the voice features from Twilio with a shared short code for the SMS component. When Twilio SMS came out, we switched over in about a day.

It was started as a free lead generation service focusing on getting people what they need within a short time. We have had decent amounts of activity due to coverage in blogs and on TV. Currently trying to build up a paid service.

What technologies are you using to build/support it?

Matt: The site is built in Ruby on Rails from top to bottom. All SMS and voice components are done using Twilio.

How did you get started developing with Twilio?

Matt: I think I saw Twilio on one of the major tech blogs a few years ago. I kept the bookmark and when building the application it seemed like a natural fit.

How was the experience of integrating Twilio with your chosen tools and technologies?

Matt: Very easy. As I said, I switched out the shortcode I previously used for Twilio's service in one day. The actual development time was probably no more than four hours. Voice took a little longer, but no big deal.

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Want to win a prize of your own? This week's category revolves around the new API released this week. Head on over to the contests page to learn more.

Announcing the New Twilio API Version 2010-04-01

Today we're excited to announce the launch the first major revision to the Twilio APIs, incorporating over 100 improvements requested by thousands of members of the Twilio developer community.

In the coming days and weeks, we'll be writing about new features and improvements, and you can take a look at the full list of changes in the changelog.

Favorite New Changes

Check out some of the features we think make this new API version particularly exciting:

• Search for phone numbers by geography or number pattern
• New and improved text-to-speech in the <Say> verb
• Ability to <Reject> incoming calls using Twilio Markup Language
• Hangup Queued and In-Progress calls
• REST API now has "more better" JSON
• REST API now returns hypermedia links

This Week's Contest: Explore the New API

In celebration of this week's release, the theme for this week's developer contest will be focused on taking advantage of the improvements in the new API.  Any application that uses the 2010-04-01 API version is fair game, but preference will be given to those apps that take advantage of new functionality.

Do you have a Twilio app you've been wanting to improve on, or need some motivation to upgrade to the new API?  You could win $200 in Twilio credit and a sweet gadget!  Submissions are due by midnight (Pacific Time) on Monday, September 6th.  Make the most of your holiday weekend and build something awesome.

Getting Starting with Version 2010-04-01

To start using the new API, replace '2008-08-01' with '2010-04-01' in your REST URIs, or set the API version on a per-phone number basis using the phone numbers interface in your account portal. Setting the API version to '2010-04-01' on an incoming phone number means all incoming calls or SMS messages to that phone number will execute TwiML under the 2010-04-01 API revision. Similarly, by specifying '2010-04-01' in a REST API URI, all outgoing calls or SMS messages will execute under the 2010-04-01 API revision. There is no way to change the API version of a specific call or SMS once it has started.

Continued Support for Version 2008-08-01

Existing applications running on the old 2008-08-01 API version will continue to operate without any changes and Twilio will continue to support API version 2008-08-01. If you do nothing, your application will continue to operate normally. If you opt to upgrade your application, it will require a few small tweaks to make it compatible and take advantage of the new features.  Check out our upgrade guide for a rundown of what you'll need to update.

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We're excited to get this release in your hands.  Thank you to the hundreds of Twilio developers who were part of our private beta and provided feedback, suggestions, and helped us to test.  Feel free to contact us at help@twilio.com if you have any questions or suggestions of your own.

Ben Morris wins Twilio/MongoDB Contest with PhoneTap!

Ben Morris' brother is a journalist who conducts a lot of phone interviews. Needing a simpler way to record the calls than holding a microphone up to the phone, Ben was inspired to build PhoneTap, the winner of our Twilio and MongoDB netbook contest.

PhoneTap enables you to record a phone call and then download a MP3 recording when the call is completed. To use PhoneTap you input your number and the number you'd like to call. When you pick up they'll dial your requested number, record the call and when the call is over, send you an email with a link to the download.

Ben originally developed PhoneTap in 48 hours, using Google AppEngine, as part of DjangoDash. After hearing about the Twilio developer contest he ripped out all of the AppEngine dependencies and updated it to run on a small Rackspace CloudServer with MongoDB as the datastore.

We asked Ben about his experiences building PhoneTap with Twilio and MongoDB:

What technologies are running behind PhoneTap?

Ben: PhoneTap is written using Python using Django, jQuery, TwilioSimple, django-twilio-utils and a few jQuery plugins.

It originally depended on AppEngine and the Google DataStore but when I heard about the Twilio and MongoDB contest I spent a few hours and ported it over to run on the Rackspace Cloud and Mongo with MongoEngine for Python.

How did you get started developing with Twilio?

Ben: I heard about it on a blog post maybe 6 months ago and had my first app built less than an hour later. Twilio’s $30 in free developer credit and good documentation makes it incredibly easy to get started.

How did you get started developing with MongoDB?

Ben: This contest was actually my first experience with MongoDB. I had always heard good things though.

How was the experience working with Twilio and MongoDB?

Ben: Mongo was great. Following a few tutorials I was able to get it installed and my app ported from AppEngine in just a couple hours.

Twilio is so easy to use I only had to spend maybe 5-10% of my 48 hours working with it. It let me get back to what was really important quickly. That sort of speed is important in regular development and doubly so in a competition like DjangoDash.

Anything else you'd like to share?

Ben: The entire app and libraries can be found up on my GitHub if anybody would like to have a look at it.

TwilioSimple is a Python wrapper for the official Twilio API that I used to create PhoneTap. It’s also available online at GitHub and could use some fleshing out if anybody is interested in forking it.

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Stay tuned for more contest announcements including the winner of last week's location-based app contest and the category for this week's contest.

Twilio Wants to See YOU at an Upcoming Event

I've had a great time traveling around to meetups, StartupWeekends, conferences and other events meeting developers, startups and our awesome customers. Since this is a busy time of year for tech and startup events, and I want to meet as many of you as possible, here's a rundown of the upcoming events I will be representing Twilio at. Hopefully see you at one!

Twilio Meetup/OpenVBX Hackathon - Denver, CO (Stapleton)
Tonight - August 24th

Come hang out and talk Twilio and hack on OpenVBX with some of the best OpenVBX hackers around. Kyle and his crew at Isidorey have some impressive technology to play with so it's going to a fun and educational night.

Twilio Meetup Austin
August 25

Attending Lonestar Ruby Conf or just in the Austin area and want to come hang out? We're having a meetup at the Hyatt Place Arboretum. Be there!

Lonestar Ruby Conference - Austin, TX
August 26-28

I'll be in attendance at my first Ruby conference and I'm looking forward to immersing myself in a new (to me) technology and community. Twilio will also be co-hosting the attendee party with Engine Yard.

Startup Weekend Austin
September 10-12

I'm heading back to Austin for some more Startup Weekend awesomeness. Tickets are on sale now.

Startup Weekend Twin Cities - St. Paul, MN
September 17-19

My home town! The first Twin Cities Startup Weekend has generated a lot of buzz and tickets are going fast. I can't wait for this one!

John and John in San Francisco

John Britton and myself will be hanging out in San Fran the week of September 20th. Know any events going on Twilio should be at? Want come hang out at Twilio HQ? Get in touch!

Twilio Meetup Minneapolis
September 28th

The location hasn't been finalized, but if you're going to come RSVP so we know how big a place we'll need.

Minnesota Developers Conference - Bloomington, MN
September 29th

I'll be giving a talk called "The State of REST in .NET" at MDC10. The talk is an hour long and will cover what's currently available for producing and consuming RESTful APIs in .NET. MDC sold out last year so be sure to buy your tickets soon.

Strange Loop 2010 - St. Louis, MO
October 14-15

I've only heard good things about Strange Loops past so I'm looping forward to my first time. Strange Loop 2010 has a killer speaker lineup covering a wide spectrum of topics. From the web site: "Of particular interest are new directions in data storage, alternative languages, concurrent and distributed systems, front-end web, semantic web, and mobile apps."

Startup Weekend Denver
October 15-17

I'll be hanging out Saturday and Sunday as Startup Weekend returns to Denver for another go round.

CloudCamp Reno @ SPLASH
October 17

CloudCamps are a great event to get together and learn from others about what's working in cloud computing. I've learned something new at every one I've been too and met a lot of great people.

SPLASH 2010 - Reno, NV
October 17-21

Formerly known as OOPSLA, SPLASH exists "to bring together practitioners and researchers who are passionate about software, programming, design, and software engineering to explore the frontiers of software and software practice."

Microsoft PDC - Redmond, WA
October 28-29

One of Microsoft's big developer conferences, this year's PDC will focus on cloud and mobile, two topics near and dear to Twilio. PDC10 recently sold out, but they'll be livestreaming all the keynotes AND sessions.

See you there!

If you'll be at one of these events, feel free to drop me a note so we can connect ahead of time. I love meeting Twilio customers, so don't be shy!

What am I missing?

Any other events we should be at? Let me know!

Twilio in Space! Powers HacDC Space Blimp Tracking

This is probably one of the coolest and most unique use cases for Twilio I've ever seen. HacDC, a hacker space in Washington D.C., is using Twilio as part of their tracking and recovery system for a balloon/blimp they sent up to take pictures of the curvature of the Earth, with a black space backdrop on August 21st.

This is part of the Hackerspaces in Space project.  The image to the right is one of the first taken by the blimp!  See more images in this Flickr set

How HacDC is Using Twilio in Space

As explained in an email from Todd Fine earlier this week:

"Our package sends messages through APRS radio, https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Automatic_Packet_Reporting_System, which are then grabbed from a website and distributed to our recovery team through Twilio voice and SMS."

During the launch and flight, participants could call (202) 559-1100 to follow along with the progress of the blimp and get live lat/long coordinates.  As explained in this blog post:

"By calling this number during the day, people will have the opportunity to listen to the current data about the blimp's status and location and to receive SMS messages with the same information, including direct links to Google Maps. The flight team will also have the option of recording updates into the phone menu system."

It sounds like the launch was a success, and the pictures are great.  Congratulations to the team, and thank you for using Twilio as part of your project.