Just like the first days of finding out about BBSes and those neat days when I found out there were such things as Gopher, FTP, and later Web Servers, I found out about a neat technology and couldn't help screwing with it.

The Concept is VXML, which stands for "Voice eXtensible Markup Language". I'm not going to go too much into the technology except to say that it makes it very easy to use a telephone as an information navigation device.

"So?" you say. "I've been able to dial a 1-800 number and get a phone tree for years and years." And that's very true, indeed. But now there's a scripting language available so that adding a new site and making it flexible is really, really (relatively) easy.

Anyway, to try my hand at this, I've created the TEXTFILES.COM Phone Information Center, a little developer project hanging off of the Tellme Networks main demonstration line. The Phone Center is essentially a collection of phone boxing "philes" read by a professional voice and allowing you to try it out. For example, you say the words "Red Box" into the phone, and you start hearing about red boxes! Or you press a key on your keypad (like the 3 key) and the voice tells you what frequencies the DTMF for that key represents.

To check this out, do the following:

1. Call 1-800-555-TELL.
2. Wade through an Ad, wait for "Main Menu".
3. Press 1-26937 (BOXES)
4. Enjoy!

I'm not getting money for this, it's just a lark, check it out, hope you like it.

Jason Scott
TEXTFILES.COM