Compliant, half pregnant?
So here we go again. I just read some of the details on the "The Motorola VoxGateway", available at http://www.motlabs.com/voicexml/. So the very first line reads "The VoxGateway is Motorola's highly compliant implementation of the W3C VoiceXML 2.0 voice markup language. "
What does "highly compliant" mean? Isn't this like saying I'm half pregnant. When will these people realize you are either compliant or you are not! I'm just sick to death of coding around the non-compliant pieces. Why can't we have a compliant browser, here's a hint, visit http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/. The standard is there, although as a work mate tells me you have to put on your lawyer hat to decipher it.
What does "highly compliant" mean? Isn't this like saying I'm half pregnant. When will these people realize you are either compliant or you are not! I'm just sick to death of coding around the non-compliant pieces. Why can't we have a compliant browser, here's a hint, visit http://www.w3.org/TR/voicexml20/. The standard is there, although as a work mate tells me you have to put on your lawyer hat to decipher it.
posted by Brian OConnor at 8:30 PM
5 Comments:
Actually Motorola is being fairly modest here. Motorola formally submitted an implementation report to the W3C that had one of the highest pass rates reported. Since then, Voxeo's platform (integrates Motorola VoxGateway) has been formally certified by the VoiceXML Forum. (Forum's tests are based on the W3C IR test suite.)
To a certain extent, your frustration is understandable. VoiceXML is a cutting edge technology. The industry is in the process of transitioning from implementations that are "inspired" by the specification to implementations that "conform" to the specification. The VoiceXML Forum's Platform Certification Program is the best measure of the latter, at least at the moment. http://www.voicexml.org/platform_certification/certified_platforms.html
However, if the rawness of new emerging technologies intimidate or annoy you as a developer, perhaps you should stick with technologies that have been around a while and work, and let others blaze the trails.
Good comment there, but I have to agree with Brian. While Motorola has without doubt produced a good product (although I must admit I've never used it),it must still be realized that it's not 100% compliant (or at least to my knowledge). There is a standard, it should be met. Otherwise we end up with code that is platform dependent. This is the whole point of standards. I'm not denying that extensions can be created and in that case it would be upto the developer to choose whether they want platform dependent code or not.
Also compliancy is binary. One cannot say nearly compliant, highly compliant, so-so compliant. You are or you aren't.
New technologies tend to lead standards. This is not the case with VXML. Don't forget the headaches caused by IE when they decided to "blur the standard".
To gain certification with the VoiceXML Forum a platform must pass all *required* tests. There are many optional tests covering such features as transfer that many vendors to not implement. (However, if a vendor does implement an optional feature, it must function according to the standard).
That's why a customer should review a vendor's Certification Test Report on the VoiceXML Forum's website for specific details of a particular product version.
Ken
Top 'o to the mornin to you Brian. How successful do you think the answering machine detection algorithm is that Voxeo is offering. Any hard stats on success rates?
Voxeo uses an advance CPA for machine detection. It is almost impossible to indicate a hard and fast number on how accurate it. Factors such as member populations play largely into the picture. Consider the case where you are supplying outbound calls to a corporation that all use the same phone system.
In saying all this, I have it on good authority that the Voxeo solution is one of the best out there.
They also supply a huge amount of knobs that can increase (or decrease) the detection rate.
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