VozMobCMS

This page is part of the VozMob project.

Table of content :

Project tools

• wiki: https://docs.indymedia.org/edit/Global/VozMobCMS
• devel site: http://vozmob.virishi.net/
• git repository: http://github.com/mfb/vozmob/tree/master
• irc: irc.freenode.net #vozmob

CMS specs

One-Line Summary: Community Mobile Blogging with Drupal.

The idea is we are training groups of low-wage immigrant workers in LA, starting with day laborers, via partnerships with community based organizations to do digital storytelling using mobile phones (and computers). We're aiming for maximum ease of use.

requirements:

• anonymous publishing of text, photo, audio (video less crucial at this stage, but we should make it possible anyway) from mobile phones to a newswire.

• planned so that it's as easy as possible for mobile phone users with a wide range of models and service providers to publish (ie, probably most people would send items via SMS or MMS, but maybe via email would work best)

• ability for mobile phone user to simply dial a number, and leave an audio clip that gets converted (to ogg?) and published to the newswire.

• Reasonably easy to use system to allow an editorial collective to create or promote features out of newswire articles, with thumbnail images for each feature. This part (editing and publishing features) can be done via the web.

• Also, FYI There is a team of programming students working to write java applications for phones that allow 3rd party apps. They are trying to make apps so that, for example, the end user can publish a geotagged photo to the site with just a couple of button presses. So the developers will have to coordinate with this team.

• The initial group of users may be getting Motorala iDen phones with these apps installed, so it definitely should work with them. However, we obviously don't want to lock the CMS in with one particular phone/plan, but make it useable by as many models/plans as possible, with an initial emphasis on those that are most used by first generation immigrants in LA. We're doing a survey to find that out, over the next couple months.

Functionality Shortlist

• Phone call --> Audio file posted to newswire. Solutions: Australia IMC has one working solution: http://melbourne.indymedia.org/pimp.php._ _See Dyne.org solution: http://lab.dyne.org/Phone2Podcast. __Research existing phone->Drupal modules. _Solution: asterisk integration. But what is best solution for getting audio files posted as nodes?_
• Call-in interface ("Marca 1 para Español. Press 2 for English." etc.) Then, add metadata. Solution: asterisk
• SMS or email from phone --> text post to newswire solution: mailhandler. But will users send SMS to an email addy? Or to a phone number (will require gateway sms->email)
  • requires mailhandler to recognize emails sent from phones via sms. email format from the main US carriers we are dealing with include: @vtext.com, @txt.att.net, @myboostmobile.com, @vmobl.com, @messaging.nextel.com, @messaging.sprintpcs.com, @tmomail.net, @message.alltel.com, @mymetropcs.com. generic format is NNN@vtextSTOPSPAM.com, etc. where NNN is the 10-digit phone number. A more extensive list can be found at http://www.notepage.net/smtp.htm
• Cellphone photo --> image post to newswire solution: attach to email (if phone can do this)-->mailhandler. If not, MMS? but expensive. So some users may be moving photos from phone to computer first, then upload.
  • as with sms, requires mailhandler to recognize carrier addresses. Most carriers seem to format MMS addresses just like SMS, but there are exceptions. for example AT&T, which uses: NNN@mms.attSTOPSPAM.net. someone has put together a list at http://modmyifone.com/wiki/index.php/MMS_Email_Addresses

Functionality Dreamlist

• Browse all content via mobile phone
• Cellphone video --> video post to newswire
• Browse content via audio, numerical keypresses, even voice recognition. ("Press 1 or say 'New' to hear the most recent story. Press 2 or say 'Publish' to post a story." etc.)

Possible solutions

For text:

• a) text posts from phones via email (with mailhandler)
• b) text posts from phones via browser (opera for mobile, config theme to be friendly to this)
• c) text posts from phones via chat or irc. (for example, gchat has free j2me app for many phones. but privacy concerns.)
• d) text posts from phone via dedicated J2ME app (pro: if done right, most user friendly. con: only works for people w/app installed on handset. we have some people working on handset apps, so need to coordinate w/them in any case)
• e) use third party commercial mobile sms service (like twitter. But privacy and content licensing concerns).
• f) use third party speech-to-text conversion (Jott, http://drupal.org/project/jott. But english only, and privacy concerns).

For photos:

• a) Photo posts from phones via email (with mailhandler)
• b) photo posts from phones via browser (opera for mobile, config theme to be friendly to this)
• c) photo posts from phone via dedicated J2ME app (pro: if done right, most user friendly. con: only works for people w/app installed on handset. we have some people working on handset apps, so need to coordinate w/them in any case)
• d) use third party commercial mobile photo service (but privacy and content licensing concerns).

For Audio:

• use asterisk, make it work w/drupal
• use a third party commercial service (like odeo. but privacy and content licensing concerns.)

Near-Term Spikes

• Workplan and timeline
• Decision on solutions for mobile posting (what combination of drupal modules / other server side packages / third party services / handset apps)
• Setup vserver (should start ASAP - expect 24-48 hour delay from "go" if by Koumbit)
• Asterisk: "Call into a node" (within 2 weeks)
• Asterisk: "Read from nodes" (next 2 weeks)
• theme mockup and approval. Based on graphic at http://mobilevoices.net. Needs theme for web viewing and for mobile devices (some of this work can be done in parallel with the rest)
• Clean Drupal Install
• install dependencies (flowplayer? asterisk? ffmpeg? etc.)
• create appropriate roles (anon viewers, registered posters, editors, administrators)
• Necessary modules install and testing (running list here: iL8N. Views?)
• successful text post from phone to site
• successful photo post from phone to site
• successful audio post from phone to site

Mobile Browsing

This section is for notes about browsing mobilevoices using a mobile phone

Accesskey Assignments / Menus

The table below is a first draft of assignment recommendations for using the numerical keypad to navigate the site on a mobile phone.

Key	menu item	description
1	HOME / LANGUAGE SELECT	Home page / start page / language select (?)
2	PUBLISH	Publish content
3	FEATURES	Browse featured content (most recent feature first?)
4	NEWSWIRE	Browse newswire content
5	SEARCH	Search mobilevoices site
6	TERMS	Terms and conditions, copyright, disclaimer
7	CONTACT	contact us
8	ABOUT	description of the project
9	HELP	instructions

0	TOP	return to top menu or go back one page

Notes

• Working POTS to Asterisk interface with various functionality already implemented: Blasterisk - https://wiki.blagblagblag.org/BLASTERISK
• SMS to IRC gateway?
• SMS to email gateway for drupal: http://drupal.org/project/smsemail
• Mobile Indymedia: Working system for viewing IMC pages via mobilephone: https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/MobileIndymedia
• Working call in audio files to newswire. But old code, Perl. http://melbourne.indymedia.org/pimp.php
• Tactical Tech mobile wiki: http://wiki.mobiles.tacticaltech.org/index.php/Main_Page
• Indytel mailing list: https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/indytel
• IMC UK phone services notes: http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcUkPhoneServices
• persistent phone numbers for day laborers with voice mailbox and forwarding to their current phone?

Drupal

• Question: Drupal 5 or 6? (looks like we go with 6)
• Media Mover module: http://drupal.org/project/media_mover. "Media Mover can take a file emailed to an email account, turn a file attachment into an FLV file, create a new node with the file data, and then save the file on an external file storage like Amazon's S3 all at once..." (currently listing 5.x-0.3-6... i.e. no d6 version)
• Mailhandler: http://drupal.org/project/mailhandler (currently lists 5.x-1.2... i.e. no d6 version)
• Mailhandler migration to D6: http://drupal.org/node/192197
• Tutorial on how to configure Drupal to receive posts via email: http://www.venturacottage.com/adding-content-site-email
• Mailhandler module. Lets you post using email, including attachments: http://drupal.org/project/mailhandler
• Possible audio solution: call in to asterisk, create audio file, email to mailhandler. or already working drupal/asterisk integration?
• drupal/asterisk: http://drupal.org/project/asterisk (currently only 6.x-1.x-dev release is available)
• Question re: mobile browsing can the phones play audio files in the webbrowser?
• Mobile Media Blog module: http://drupal.org/project/mmb (currently lists 5.x-1.x-dev... i.e. no d6 version)
• Drupal mobi theme: http://drupal.org/project/mobi (currently lists 5.x-1.1... i.e. no d6 version)
• another mobile theme: http://drupal.org/project/mobile (currently lists 5.x-1.x-dev... i.e. no d6 version)
• 'using mobile devices w/drupal:' http://www.drupalatlanta.com/node/44
• Drupal and Moblogs: http://www.hyperionreactor.net/node/88
• Drupal accessibility module, serve multiple versions of site based on device detection: http://www.skiffie.com/mobile/guides/overview
• SMS to email gateway for drupal: http://drupal.org/project/smsemail
• phoneblogz: http://drupal.org/project/phoneblogz
• talking stick: http://www.ithou.org/talkingstick
• blog sms: http://drupal.org/project/blogsms
• bluemobi theme for drupal 6 serves pages as either WAP or XHTML depending on what the client accepts. Not compatible with drupal cache as WAP pages are cached and served to non-WAP browsers.
• Review IMC modules list: https://docs.indymedia.org/view/Devel/ImcDrupalDevModules
• Question: Can we avoid WAP in favour of XHTML with accesskeys?
• Question: Is registration required to post? A: Yes
• Question: How will users register? By visiting registration page? By sending a text message/e-mail? A: Register via SMS is ideal.

Sourcecode

• imobile code from the SVN repository on autistici.org (http://code.autistici.org/project/imobile). There is an online SVN browser here http://code.autistici.org/trac/imobile/browser/trunk and there is a wiki for tech notes etc here https://code.autistici.org/trac/imobile/wiki/WikiStart
• vozmob drupal at github (temporarily?): http://github.com/mfb/vozmob/tree/master

Workplan

team: mfb, omar, schock, joshhaglund

Estimated hours: 50 hours

TASKS

setup

• 1hr Setup hosting environment, code repository

dependencies

• asterisk setup and config
• asterisk voice navigation: design, record audio clips, upload, and test

hardware

• phone or gsm modem connected to the asterisk machine? What number will users call / how we route it to asterisk?

module installs and config, in order of priority

• Drupal/asterisk: install, config, test, new functionality? http://drupal.org/project/asterisk
• Integrate and test mailhandler for receiving emails (via SMS) and attachments: http://drupal.org/project/mailhandler
• SMS framework: Needs port to d6, install, config, test. http://drupal.org/project/smsframework
• need module to allow easy upload & addition of images in posts via web interface (imagehandler?)
• Move to future functionality: 6hr Develop module to receive geotagged photos from java ME app (note: don't think this is necessary. The java app can just send email to mailhandler.)

configuration

• roles & permissions (admin, editor, registered user, anonymous user

theming

• 10-20hr Develop custom theme (XHTML, accesskey navigation) (time estimate depends to a large degree on how iterative the process will be)

graphic design

• logo (done, by schock remix rini templeton)
• buttons

Hosting/Setup

• setup vserver & asterisk - 3 hours
• vserver hosting (Koumbit: $50/month)
• payment for minutes (depends on the package used... e.g. $0.005/min)

Call-in interface

• dial in and leave a message - 1 hours
• media mover / cron job - 6 hours

CallerID^? meta/Login

• CallerID^? as metadata for mediamover: 4 hours
• Login: R&D for authentication against Drupal/other user database: 10 hours

Browse content through asterisk

• via numerical keypresses. ("Bienvenios a vozmob. Marca 1 para publicar su noticia. Marca 2 para oir la noticia mas reciente. etc. Press 1 or say 'New' to hear the most recent story. Press 2 or say 'Publish' to post a story." etc.): 10 hours? (No voice recognition for the moment.)

Documentation

• 4 hours

Notes

* The existing "asterisk integration" module (http://drupal.org/project/asterisk) does not seem to be what we want (at least as a first step) since all features are initiated through the web interface. We will have to add new functionality.

* one idea was: user sends sms to vozmob. vozmob calls user. In countries where calling party pays, this would allow us to make publishing a voice story free for the user. In the US, it would be an easy way to keep track of and reimburse people for their talk time when they leave stories. Downside: more complicated than just calling in directly.

Bug reports

• FIXED: (9/1/08) photos sent via MMS through AT&T do not get posted (only the subject is posted http://vozmob.virishi.net/en/node/387). Mark says: "looks like it might be a bug in mailsave not handling the particular headers used in the mime message structure, in this case AT&T is specifying filename as the Content-Location header." http://drupal.org/node/304720
• IN PROGRESS: (9/1/08) SMS sent from AT&T doesn't get posted, even though [mynumber]@txt.att.net has a blogger account. http://github.com/mfb/vozmob/commit/ceb637ebc4995d9e59bfa60e6d6a3ebfd1a3547f

Contacts

• contact Tachanka: https://tachanka.org/contact/

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