[Foundation-l] Re: Access Wikipedia through SMS

Sat Jul 2 01:35:01 UTC 2005

On 7/1/05, Stephan Walter <stephan at walter.name> wrote:

> This is a great idea, and with a slight modification you wouldn't even
> have to worry about callback costs. Simply let the user call your
> number, then they type the keyword on their phone, you detect the beeps
> and immediately read the article.

I like the idea about encouraging the listener to economize on time
spent listening; less load on the servers for those "Origins of the
American Civil War" -length articles.

> You could get a toll number and start grubbing money for the Wikimedia
> servers ;-)

"Call to hear our lovely readers read DIRECTLY TO YOU!  Only $0.99 a minute..."

This would certainly be a lovely project; particularly the "would you
like to record one?" part.   On the other hand, the trick will most
often be finding ways to search for related information when a close
title-match is not found.

-- 
++SJ