My post Why Choose Tropo over Twilio caused quite a stir on Hacker News last week.  The resulting comment storm still hasn’t quieted completely.  The debate continued on to the VOIP Users Conference Podcast, where I was a guest along with Twilio CTO Evan Cooke in a podcast called When Clouds Collide.

Personally, I was inspired by the discussion, and put together this short animation to help explain some of the finer points:

Before everyone goes crazy:

Here’s the article where Dave McClure was quoted as saying “Open is for losers“.  And here’s where he was quoted saying “Fuck that noise” in response to Twilio criticism (or if that link goes away…here’s a nice Fuck That Noise screencap)

If you have trouble viewing the YouTube version, you can always go to the source:  Tropo vs. Twilio

Drew is Back with Diggz to talk about the Ahhz reunion, DJ Baby Anne, DJ Magic Mike, and Baby Grands Dueling Pianos. Plus a call from the Sexy Savannah.

Here’s the Ustream version: (scroll down for the higher-quality MP3 Audio version)

MP3 Audio Only (higher quality audio than UStream):

Drew Show 80: Dont Forget the Napkins Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A few weeks ago I was in Portland at the CivicWebs Hackathon talking with Amber Case and Aaron Pareki when Amber asked me why Tropo is better than Twilio.  She acknowledged that while she and Aaron love Tropo and built their GeoLoqi app on Tropo’s API, a lot of other people seem to like Twilio.   “So why is Tropo better?” she asked.

I responded with all the certainty, aloofness and charm I could muster: “Because we are!”

For most normal people, that answer might suffice, but Amber Case is a Cyborg Anthropologist.  It’s hard to win her over with just charm.  So I started laying out some of the reasons why Tropo is just plain better, and I figured rather than just keep them between me and Amber and Aaron, I’d share…

1) Features – Twilio for pranks, Tropo for business

This is where Tropo really blows Twilio away, and even Twilio’s own people acknowledge it.  At an API vendor shootout session at Internet Telephony Expo earlier this year, Danielle Morrill, Twilio’s head of marketing, said that Twilio would never be able to keep up with Tropo on features.

Twilio is great for making prank phone calls

Tropo offers a ton of advanced features that Twilio just can’t match: Voice recognition, SIP connections (critical for integration with other VoIP systems), Skype integration, instant messaging, short codes, hosting, numbers in 41 countries, speech in multiple languages, and a host of other things.

Furthermore, Tropo is a unified API. The days of needing one app for voice calls, another for SMS and a third for conferencing are over.  The same code you use to say something over the phone can also respond via SMS, IM, and Twitter.

2) Tropo’s Extreme Support

Twilio works on a credit system that requires developers to pay to play.   Tropo is and always will be 100% free for developers.  No credits, no limits on minutes, no ads played to you or your callers.  Every developer gets 24×7 support from engineers that know how to write code.  Paying customers measure their response times in minutes.  Our support team is consistently ranked the highest in customer service and satisfaction, at the top of not only our industry, but above all other software and telephony companies.

3) Scalability, Reliability and Portability

Twilio’s service is based on Asterisk, a free and open source telephony framework and runs on Amazon’s EC2 network.

Tropo runs on Voxeo’s SIP Cloud, the largest worldwide voice application host. Voxeo has been running phone+web applications for 10 years.  Because Voxeo’s been doing this stuff for so long they know that business customers demand security and reliability, which is why Voxeo manages their own datacenters that connect directly to major carriers and delivers tens of millions of voice minutes a day for the largest companies in the world, including half the Fortune 100.

Portability is another factor.   If someone develops an app on Twilio, they’re pretty much locked in to Twilio.  Hopefully it will be a happy marriage, but what happens if they want to switch providers?   Tropo, on the other hand, can be run in your own network.   You can even run Tropo on Amazon EC2 (if you want to).

If you haven’t tried out Tropo, you should give it a whirl. Here’s a great tutorial to help you get started: How to build a Twitter Bot using Tropo and JavaScript

Related Post:  Twilio vs. Tropo AKA A little more noise for Dave McClure

Mark Silverberg wrote a WordPress plugin that lets you add a “Call Me” widget right into your WordPress sidebar.   It’s insanely easy to set up and is built around the Phono SDK JQuery architecture.  In about 5 minutes I had mine calling my Google Voice number, but you can configure it to call any 10-digit US number, or SIP address, Skype account or Tropo application.

Here’s how to get it ringing:

First you have to download the plugin and put it in your WordPress Plugins folder.  You can download the latest version here:  WordPhone WordPress Widget

Unzip the file into you plugins directory in a folder called “WordPhone”.  Presently there are two files in the package:  jquery.phono.js (the javascript) and wordphone-widget.php.

After that, you’ll need to log into your WordPress dashboard.  Go to your list of plugins and activate the WordPhone plugin.

Next, while still in your WordPress Dashboard, go to your widgets page.  You should now see the WordPhone Widget among the available widgets.  Drag that puppy over to your sidebar.

You can configure your the plugin by pressing the down arrow.  The main thing you want to configure is the number being called.  I picked my Google Voice number, but with PhonoSDK, you can call any 10 digit US phone number, or SIP number or even a Tropo application.

You’ll also need to sign up for Phono to get a Phono API key.  To get one, visit Phono.com and create a free account.   Save your changes and your new widget should now appear in your sidebar!

Now, when visitors to your WordPress site want to call you, all they have to do is click the button and they can make a call right from their browser!

A few important things to note:

• Your WordPress theme must support widgets (you *can* hack your way around this)
• This plugin requires that the caller has a computer with microphone and speakers enabled.  In this version, it’s also required they have Adobe Flash installed (although it’s rumored that future versions may eliminate the Flash requirement).
• I’ve personally tested this with WordPress 3.0 and I’ve been told it works with other versions as well.
• More info can be found on the Github wiki:  http://github.com/marks/WordPhone/wiki
• More info about how PhonoSDK works can be found here:  http://blog.phono.com/2010/10/25/behind-the-phone/

Marya Murphy was kind enough to hold my iPhone and record this.  As far as I know…the sole recording of this performance.   The video is crappy, The audience was gracious.  It starts off with me explaining how I ended up coming to the first 140 Character Conference.  Jeff Pulver rocks.

Adam Kalsey from Tropo.com sponsors Chris Pirillo’s chest at Gnomedex 2010…

This is a peek at what happened this weekend at the First Gnomedex Tinkerstorm.

YouTube – Gnomedex Tinkerstorm.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to present Geeks Without Borders at Gnomedex in Seattle.

More about:

Geeks Without Borders
The Karaoke King
Tropo
Tweet3PO

The most comprehensive list I’ve found so far on Twitter accounts for our Federal Level government officials…from the President down to each member of the House of Representatives.  Here are a few examples…

National Science Foundation: NSF
Environmental Protection Agency: EPA
Department of State: America.gov
Department of Health & Human Services: Food & Drug Administration: FDA Recalls
Department of Agriculture: Food Safety Information Center
U.S. Geological Survey: Earthquake & Tsunami Warning

For the whole list, visit:  http://twitter.pbworks.com/USGovernment