I was lucky enough to live in Europe for about 8 months, and while I was there, I came to love the BBC, Le Monde, and Der Spiegel. In terms of news, all three outlets top anything we have stateside by leaps and bounds. Additionally, I like to read the New York Times and listen to NPR, but it is often times hard to catch news on the go, especially when you aren’t in your car driving. How can consumers get information from reputable news outlets instantaneously when they are out and about? An interactive voice response system could go far in giving people accessibility to news on the go. The system could be used in myriad ways. First, users could subscribe to this system, configure their preferences based on the newscasts they want to listen to, and then call in on their phones to actually hear the news they chose to consume, from any phone, anywhere. Instead of having to sit in front of a television or a computer, users could get international news from around the world via a simple phone call. The system could also be programmed to make outbound IVR calls based on preconfigured alert preferences. Instead of being a newsreader, with TTS engines reading the news, the IVR could synthesize with news agency, so that users could hear the actual news read by BBC or NPR reporters, as if they were watching or listening to it on their computers. In this way, people could have access to international news 24/7, and get immediate updates on issues of pressing importance, keeping them always in the loop!
