Voice Blogging with Twilio & Wordpress

Jeff came across this blog post, talking about using Twilio to build a voice blogging system that integrates with Wordpress, and as a Wordpress fanatic (yes, I know we use Typepad here) I was excited to give it a try and find out exactly how it works.

The source code is open sourced, so you can download it or visit the github repository.  All you'll need to run it is a serve with php, and a free Twilio account.

As the author of "Blogs Are Wrong" says:

I thought it would be cool to make a system that lets me blog from my cell phone.  And so I started stitching it together.  Seven hours later, the sun was up, and I had worked out a system where I call a special phone number and I get a prompt.  I speak into the phone, just like I’m leaving a message, and the system records my speech as a sound file and then processes it to turn the speech into text.  It then puts together a post to my blog with a link to the sound file and the transcription below.  It’s not a substitute for carefully written essays, but if you want to record and share a quick (I limit it to 2 1/2 minutes) thought with the world, it’s a pretty easy way to go about it.

Getting Started with Twilio for Wordpress

Not into scouring README files to understand what it will take to get code up and running?  That's okay.  Here's a rundown of how to get started:

• * make sure you have a server that runs PHP
• * create a Twilio account - the free trial gives you a $30 credit
• * upload the code to your server, and put it in a directory that's accessible online (so Twilio can reach it)
• * edit remotePost.class.php - Change the $wpURL variable to the URL of your wordpress blog, but keep the 'xmlrpc.php' ending.
• * edit remotePost.class.php - Change the $uname variable to the name of a user for your  blog, and the $pass variable to that user's password.
• * this is optional, but you can change the the image displayed on your blog for voice posts by opening up voicepost.php and replacing the image URL in the following line

$body .= "\"><img class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2538/4082861842_cd8c3f7bfb_m.jpg\"></a></p>";

Configuring Your Twilio Account

That's it! There's just one last thing you need to do:
Log in to twilio.com and, on the account dashboard page, scroll about
halfway down. There's a box labeled 'Your Trial Sandbox,' and in that
box, there's a phone number, a PIN, and a field labeled 'USES URL'
In that field, put the web address of the directory you placed these
files in, with 'makerecording.php' tacked on to the end (i.e.
http://www.myserver.com/mydirectory/makerecording.php)
 
sweet! Now just call the phone numbe on your account page (it's
probably 866.853.6913) and enter the PIN code from your account page.
The software will prompt you to talk. Hang up whenever you're done,
and the blog post will appear in a minute or two on your site.
Hooray!

Get Your App on the Twilio Blog

Building something with Twilio that you'd like us to share with the world?  Drop us a line at help@twilio.com so we can get your creation on our blog. 

Photo credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4everyoung/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Comments

[Life Insurance Quote]

I honestly cannot see voice blogging taking off like normal blogging. I might be wrong.

[silagra]

The source code is open sourced, so you can download it or visit the github repository. All you'll need to run it is a serve with php, and a free Twilio account.

[Jason the life insurance marketing guru]

Everything that seems like it won't catch on (Twitter, Blog, the Internet) usually does...be the first to monetize voice blogging and you'll be happy!