VoxOx

VoxOx is a “Universal Communicator service” that manages cross-media communication and was created by TelCentris, Inc., a telephony company located in San Diego, California. VoxOx, which is currently in beta, unifies key communication channels — voice, video, Instant Messaging (IM), text (SMS), social media, e-mail, file and content sharing — into one interface. VoxOx offers users a combination of mobile features, interoperable IM, social networking aggregation, and other e-mail, Web and mobile services within one service. It currently supports contact aggregation for communicating through Twitter and Facebook.

A free downloadable software application and service, VoxOx runs on Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating systems and its telephony services are provided via the Internet.

Platform

In order to offer VoxOx for free to users, parent company TelCentris engineered and deployed a proprietary service delivery platform called the “Unified Communications Engine.” The Unified Communications Engine does not have per-seat licensing fees typically charged by competitive solutions.

Although the Unified Communications Engine was built specifically to enable VoxOx, TelCentris is currently generating revenue by utilizing the same infrastructure technology to power small telephone companies, as well as to deliver hosted phone services to small-to-medium sized businesses. TelCentris’ Unified Communications Engine won the Internet Telephony Product of the Year Award in 2007 and 2008.

Features

VoxOx’s “meta address book” of contacts includes e-mail, IM, social networking, landline and mobile phone address books. Users have visibility into the presence of each contact, showing whether they are online, offline or busy, in order to determine how to reach each contact. VoxOx’s open standard architecture creates a personal communications Uniform Resource Identifier (URI). Once a username is chosen, VoxOx accepts IMs, texts, e-mails and incoming phone calls from any device or endpoint speaking a compatible protocol (XMPP and other public IM protocols, SMS, SMTP, SIP, etc.) The “any-to-any” communication capability allows an incoming IM, for example, to be routed to a user as an e-mail or an SMS. A call from an MSN user can be bridged to call the user’s mobile phone.

Currently, VoxOx integrates with major social networks, including Facebook and Twitter, and enables flexibility for integrating existing and future applications due to its open standards platform. Currently, AIM, MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo, ICQ and other XMPP based networks can be accessed via VoxOx.

Phone

VoxOx provides users with a telephone number and two hours of talk time free of charge with two additional free hours for each referred friend who signs up for the service. A key VoxOx phone service feature is the “One-Number Follow-Me” service, in which incoming calls are routed to the appropriate phone (home, office, mobile, etc.) at different times of day and are able to take a message, which can be retrieved from within the VoxOx software, from the my.voxox.com web portal or by sending a voicemail file to e-mail. Unwanted callers can be redirected to a busy signal or be set up to receive a canned message, such as: “We’re sorry, this number has been disconnected.” In addition to enabling domestic and international voice and video calls to be made via the computer, users can switch calls to be directed to their cell phone. In the future, VoxOx users will be able to opt-in to receive advertisements on their user interface, which will enable them to earn additional free calling credit.

Supported protocols

VoxOx supports the following protocols:

• .NET Messenger Service (Windows Live Messenger, commonly known as MSN)
• AIM
• ICQ
• XMPP (also known as Jabber) including Google Talk, jabber.org and LiveJournal services
• Yahoo Messenger

External links

• http://www.voxox.com/
• http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9126838&source=rss_news
• http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090101/work-play.html
• http://voip.about.com/b/2008/12/18/voxox-unifies-all-your-communication-channels.htm
• http://www.killerstartups.com/Comm/voxox-com-integrating-multiple-technologies-together
• http://www.bizsandiego.com/index.php?option=com_bizbuz&Itemid=25&task=show&action=view&id=1128&Itemid=25
• http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,74642-order,6-page,1/description.html
• http://www.sdbj.com/industry_article.asp?aID=77447205.6237299.1705067.4976269.53066.904&aID2=131150%22,,0,0
• http://www.themactips.com/freeware-download/communication-channels-voice-video-im-text-social-media/
• http://www.forbes.com/2008/11/07/telepresence-cisco-costs-tech-enter-cx_ag_1107telepresence_slide.html?thisSpeed=15000
• http://www.forbes.com/cionetwork/2008/11/06/telepresence-cisco-costs-tech-enter-cx_ag_1107telepresence.html
• http://www.xconomy.com/san-diego/2008/11/05/telcentris-unlox-product-box-with-voxox/
• http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20081105-9999-1b5vox.html
• http://www.techshout.com/software/2008/05/voxox-the-first-universal-communicator-service-in-the-world/
• http://blog.toptenreviews.com/?p=756
• http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10009680o-2000498448b,00.htm
• http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081104-voxox-wants-to-unify-voice-e-mail-social-networking.html
• http://www.xchangemag.com/hotnews/voxox-goes-after-skype.html
• http://andyabramson.blogs.com/voipwatch/2008/11/two-new-players-in-the-voip-and-video-game.html
• http://www.fiercevoip.com/story/voxox-launches-free-universal-communicator/2008-11-03
• http://mashable.com/2008/11/03/voxox-communicator/
• http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/11/voxox-launches.html