We’re pondering a new extension to VoiceXML for our IVR platform: conferencing. We currently have it working in the lab and it works on a single server quite well. Our approach to this problem is, we believe, quite clever. We’ve introduced a new tag: <conf>. Simply specify a conference name and you’ll be connected to that conference. Anyone else who selects that same name will, in turn, be connected to the same conference. Behind the scenes, the IVR is actually doing a 32-bit hash on the name in order to come up with a unique ID with which to identify the conference. With a <conf> tag, you can blend conferencing into any call flow at any time, freely and naturally. Plus, it can be enhanced with additional audio control attributes that alter input and output volume (thus allowing you to create virtual townhall meetings) as well as timing controls to limit conference length.
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