Posts Tagged ‘37signals

08
May

37signals & Lypp VoIP Mashup Expanded

By Erik Lagerway 3 Comments
Categories: Ruby on Rails, VoIP Mashup and voip api
Tags: , , , , , ,

I have been talking with the guys at 37signals and we have decided to open up the Lypp + Highrise Mashup contest to include all of the 37signals APIs. This means that developers can integrate Lypp with Campfire, Basecamp, Backpack, Writeboards et al!

We think this presents a unique opportunity to create some very exciting telephony features for the 37signals group of applications. Some examples might include:

* Dynamic calling via Campfire for one-to-one or one-to-many calls. Imagine chatting with your colleagues and at the click of a button have a Toll Free number and PIN presented where everyone could call in and be in a conference call. Going 1 step further we could present a link that everyone could click on where everyone who clicked on that link is presented with a dialog that requests their email and telephone. They are called by the system and all are soon in a one-to-one or a conference call.

* Using the Backpack + Lypp API could really open up a new channel for communication within Backpack. Imagine scheduling a weekly call where the entire team is called wherever they are with the call being recorded and added to the assets/files when the call is done.

* Basecamp is another huge opportunity for collaboration. Projects calls could be managed with greater efficiency and again the Campfire ad hoc calling concept could play a roll here as well.

* Writeboards would have hot linked phone numbers that could be clicked and called.

* Emails could have hot links that could invite users into a call or allow them to call the phone number in the signature with one click.

These are just a few examples as to how to use the various 37signals APIs with the Lypp API to create a new and exciting mashup!

The contest will be extended to May 25 so get your applications in before that!

Best app:

  • $3000 Apple gift certificate
  • 20,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $1800)
  • 12 months subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $1800)

Runner-up:

  • $1500 Apple gift certificate
  • 10,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $900)
  • 6 months subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $900)

2nd Runner-up:

  • $500 Apple gift certificate
  • 5,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $450)
  • 3 month subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $450

Here’s how to enter:

  1. Fill out the Lypp partner sign-up form.
  2. You will receive your Lypp API credentials soon thereafter.
  3. Authentication for the various 37signals APIs requires that you have an existing user account.
  4. Start Mashing!

Here’s how to win:

  1. Make it useful.
  2. Make it functional.
  3. Make it simple.
25
Apr

Lypp Developer API Quick Start

By mdeering 0 Comments
Categories: Lypp, Ruby on Rails, VoIP, VoIP Mashup, lypp.com and voip api
Tags: , , ,

1.) You have signed up and received your developer account information for our partner/developer environment.

2.) You have given our API documentation a good read.

3.) Your still not sure where to start?

The following example is about the steps to make your first call using the API so I will use curl to keep things language agnostic.

Confirm that your account information works and that your information is correctly entered.


curl \
-u username:password \
https://lypp.com/users/{user_id}.xml

Create your conference.


curl \
  -u username:password \
  -H 'Accept: application/xml' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/xml' \
  -d '

        Development Team Meeting
        2008-08-24T20:19:34Z
      ' \
  -X POST \
  https://lypp.com/users/{user_id}/conferences

On that last curl call your conference will have been created and and you should now have the id of the conference ({conference_id} to reference when adding attendees. Lets take a look at the return for that call before we start adding our attendees.



  {conference_id}
  2008-04-23T22:18:56Z
  2008-04-23T22:18:57Z
  1
  pending
  2008-08-24T14:19:34-06:00

  false
  Development Team Meeting
  false
  false
  false

  0000000
  000000000

All the boolean values you see returned there are also optional arguments that can be passed in while creating the conference or changed after conference creation, including while a call in in-progress. Now all we need to do is add our other attendees to the call.


curl \
-u username:password \
-H ‘Accept: application/xml’ \
-H ‘Content-Type: application/xml’ \
-d ‘

Mom
555-555-5555
‘ \
-X POST \
https://lypp.com/users/{user_id}/conferences/{conference_id}/attendees

Mom likes to check in my Development meetings :)

14
Apr

37signals VoIP Mashup with Lypp

By Erik Lagerway 6 Comments
Categories: Conference Call, Gaboogie, Lypp, Ruby on Rails, VoIP, VoIP Mashup, conference calling, lypp.com and voip api
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

The mashup doors are officially open. Come get some!

We are less than one day away from opening the doors to the 37signals VoIP Mashup with Lypp. Tomorrow at noon (Pacific) the contest starts.

Developers, build a mashup application or mashup your existing application using both the Highrise API and the Lypp API and win stuff. This is a great way to show off your Ruby-fu and win some great prizes.

Best app:

  • $3000 Apple gift certificate
  • 20,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $1800)
  • 12 months subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $1800)

Runner-up:

  • $1500 Apple gift certificate
  • 10,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $900)
  • 6 months subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $900)

2nd Runner-up:

  • $500 Apple gift certificate
  • 5,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $450)
  • 3 month subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $450

Here’s how to enter:

  1. Fill out the Lypp partner sign-up form.
  2. You will receive your Lypp API credentials soon thereafter.
  3. Authentication for the Highrise API requires that you have an existing Highrise user account.
  4. Start Mashing!

Here’s how to win:

  1. Make it useful.
  2. Make it functional.
  3. Make it simple.

Submissions will be accepted up until May 10th. Winners will be posted here 3rd week in May. We will also try to interview the winners and post the recording here as well.

For assistance with the Lypp API please post your comments below. If you have any comments/problems/issues with the Highrise API you can post them on the 37signals API Forum.

Good Luck to all!

by erik | http://blog.lypp.com

26
Feb

37signals and Gaboogie Mashup Contest

By Erik Lagerway 9 Comments
Categories: 37signals, Conference Call, Gaboogie, Lypp, Ruby on Rails, VoIP Mashup, api, conference calling and highrise
Tags: , , , , , ,

+

We have been exchanging some ideas with the guys at 37signals and we have come up with what we think is a very cool mashup contest. Here is what we came up with…

Developers, build a mashup application or mashup your existing application using both the Highrise API and the Lypp API and win stuff.

Best app:

  • $3000 Apple gift certificate
  • 20,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $1800)
  • 12 months subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $1800)

Runner-up:

  • $1500 Apple gift certificate
  • 10,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $900)
  • 6 months subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $900)

2nd Runner-up:

  • $500 Apple gift certificate
  • 5,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $450)
  • 3 month subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $450)

Application for entries: April 1 to May 1
Winners announced: May 15

We are giving you plenty of time to think about what you want to create using the Lypp and Highrise APIs. Some examples might be; Integrated Conference Calling within Highrise, Scheduled Calls, Click to Call Contacts in Highrise, Call-back Task links, just to name a few.

We will be posting more information about the contest in the next couple of weeks but that shouldn’t stop you from taking a look at the APIs right away. If you have any preliminary questions or comments please send them over: mashup@lypp.com or post them below.

25
Feb

37signals’ New Backpack

By Erik Lagerway 0 Comments
Categories: 37signals, Conference Call, Lypp, Ruby on Rails, VoIP Mashup, backpack and highrise
Tags: , , , ,

The new Backpack has been unveiled and it’s a pretty significant step up. We use Backpack and Highrise here on a daily basis, these new Backpack features are already having a positive impact on our business.

Now if only someone would integrate Lypp into Highrise I wouldn’t have to swivel chair to make a quick call or create a conference call with my prospects and clients.

01
Apr

For customer support, informal is better.

By Erik Lagerway 0 Comments
Categories: Conference Call
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Getting customer support right is probably the single hardest thing for any company, but oddly enough I think it's easier and better for the customer the less formalized and structured the process.

I spent an hour or so on the phone with Apple this morning because my macbook is giving me the spinning multi-coloured wheel of death whenever I so much as try to scroll a window. The support rep was very polite, but as is often the case he took me through a bunch of redundant steps before determining that I'd have to take it into my local mac dealer.

 
I don't have time for this tomorrow. 

 

It's Sunday, which means I'm out of luck until tomorrow. So I tried the forum for Macbook issues on the Apple site (which, by the way, probably has the least intuitive navigation of any support portal). No luck, I got an error bringing up the forum (although it's working now).

Anyway, my support woes got me thinking that all of the positive support experiences I've had recently have been on well-organized user forums (fora?), with questions answered by other users, not by the support staff of the company with which I'm having issues. I'd rather find out as quickly as possible whether my problem is common or unusual; whether it's simple to fix or not; whether I can fix it myself or it requires intervention from an admin, or a service visit if it's a piece of hardware.

Some people might cry foul that diverting support requests to a user forum is shirking the responsibility and cost of dealing with customer problems, and in certain cases that's true. It's definitely true in the case of Apple, since they make it quite difficult to contact them directly, even though I paid extra for the AppleCare extended warranty.

No pun intended, but I know it's not comparing Apples to apples to talk about community-based sites and their models for user support, but there are definitely some lessons to be learned, and Apple more than almost any other company prides itself on the cult-like passion of its users. Flickr does a pretty good job with their user forum, with threads marked [Official Topic] being the ones initiated proactively by staff. But then it should, given that its premise is sharing and interaction among users.

But companies that really understand the power of the user forum can be best identified by the tone of the posts. I've written before about 37signals, and I don't mean to make this blog a love-fest for everything they do. But the simple fact that the partners post on the forums and answer user questions directly, often right away, creates an environment in which average joe users like me feel like the company really cares about making the products right. In this environment, users will accept the inevitable bugs and glitches in exchange for feeling like their ideas and suggestions are really taken into account and respected. Much less frustrating than what we're used to.