ouvid.us - Twilio Experiment

Last Monday I had an idea for an useful web based service that could be built using Twilio. A purely web based call center service, with queue management, alerts, easy to install on a website.
On my spare time at night this week, I manage to build an early version of the product hacking some PHP and jQuery. It turns out to be very productive and straight forward. (I hit some bumps, but Twilio Support and Documentation was very helpful)

ouvid.us is already live and although limited amount of features, it is fully functional!
You can create an account for free, create queues, add other users to attend to your queues, add a Call link to your website/blog etc...

The problem this project solves is: Small and Medium business would have high costs on maintaining a Call Center system. ouvid.us solves the problem, by enabling a pure web based Call Center Service.
Please try it out and let me know what do you think.

Twilio Evaluation:

• Pros:
• I'm a fan of simplicity, and Twilio got it right
• Easy to setup, debug and release
• Great Documentation and Examples
• Good Support
• Cons:
• Lack of support for SIP, XMPP and Jingle
• Sometimes the FlashPlugin Crashes and needs to be killed manually
• No Paypal support

Internet 10 Commandments

The thing is, on Internet...

1. you don't choose your users. The users chooses you.
2. you can't sell fake for long. The Collective intelligence prevents that.
3. the success of the company is proportional to the talent of the people that works on it.
4. your product needs to be good, regardless if it is free. Actually, it needs to be good specially if it is free. As more people will talk about it.
5. what you call user base is nothing but a bucket of thin air. Email address doesn't mean anything. You have active users or you are fading away.
6. companies must know that good ideas and feedbacks can and will came from all levels of the company. You ignore it, you miss the point.
7. user expectation is an everyday task. You miss it, they migrate. Yes, your competitor is only one click away.
8. to succeed you need to know how to "count cards". There is no meaning-less statistics.
9. developers are artists. They need inspiration, motivation and freedom.
10. this post might be totally WRONG! Or not...

Skype Client XMPP Support for Facebook

Skype released a beta version for Windows with support for Facebook Chat. They are doing it through XMPP directly from Skype BETA Client.

Packet Trace with the proof that Skype Client now connects to Facebook using XMPP.

Once again XMPP moves forward in becoming the universal bus for 'realtime' communications.
Companies that are not understanding the importance of being 'realtime' will soon realize that their time is gone.

Hopefully in the future we also have support for other open alternatives for Audio/Video Communications on Skype like Jingle and Jingle Nodes. Like Google did adopting the Standard Jingle.