May 2007

Dear Readers,

If the remainder of 2007 is as eventful as the first four months, we are in for a very exciting and busy year in the speech industry!  In recent weeks we’ve witnessed a number of notable events ranging from significant industry consolidations to numerous publications from the W3C Voice Browser Working Group.  Here at the VoiceXML Forum we’ve also had the privilege of marking our organization’s 8th anniversary!  While in a certain way it seems like just yesterday that a few technical folks from IBM, Lucent, and Motorola gathered together in Naperville, IL to put the finishing touches on a then obscure markup language called VoiceXML 1.0, when we reflect on the tremendous progress of VoiceXML and all that has happened since then, it suddenly seems like a lifetime ago!

The VoiceXML Forum’s Technical Council knows very well that things don’t stand still in our industry.  In order to keep abreast of the needs of our member companies and the industry at large, and calibrate the Forum’s activities and services accordingly, the Technical Council periodically conducts online surveys.  In this issue of the VoiceXML Review Mark Eichten and Jim Ferrans present a summary and analysis of the findings of the survey that was taken in the latter part of 2006. We do thank our readers for their participation in the survey and trust that the findings reported here not only help you understand the future direction of the Forum, but also serve as an encouragement for you to get involved.

We are also pleased to bring you an update on multimodal standards, from Deborah Dahl, W3C’s Multimodal Interaction Working Group chair. We would encourage Forum members who are also members of the W3C to get involved in and contribute to the MMIWG as they continue to break ground in this new and exciting technology.

Matt Oshry (Tellme) continues to address our readers’ questions in our regular “Speak and Listen” column.  In this issue, Matt demonstrates how the VoiceXML <link> and <catch> elements combined with a healthy dose of ECMAScript  and Perl can be used to cleanly create a link grammar customized per individual user profile, and available globally throughout the application call flow.

In the previous issue of this e-zine, our regular First Words columnist Rob Marchand (Genesys) introduced Call Control XML (CCXML) and described how it is used in conjunction with VoiceXML.  In this issue, Rob begins the first of a series of installments that will explore the CCXML language, its capabilities, and how it interrelates and interfaces with other markup languages and protocols commonly found in the call center.  This particular article begins with a basic introduction to CCXML nomenclature essential for readers who are new to the technology and want to establish a good conceptual understanding of it.

In our regular field report column, Manish Sharma, chair of the Marketing Committee, details the activities of the various VoiceXML Forum working committees since our last report.  Along with each committee update, you will also find contact information for each committee chair in the report.  If you would like to get more involved in the VoiceXML Forum we would encourage you to contact the appropriate chair person.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Engelsma
Editor-in-Chief
VoiceXML Review

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