StrikeIron announced the first ever Telephony Mashup Contest to take place during the O’Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference. This new contest provides a stage for developers to demonstrate their creative skills using emerging telephony technologies such as VoiceXML, SIP phones, VoIP, hosted PBX & IVR services, and Web Services. In addition to StrikeIron and O’Reilly, Tellme Networks, Inc. and Sylantro are sponsoring this contest with $3,000 of prizes to winning entries. For more on this contest, please visit www.strikeiron.com/developers/contest.aspx.

A telephony mashup is a voice, Web, or mobile application (VoiceXML, PBX, IVR, VOIP, SMS, Text Messaging, etc.) that combines content from more than one source to create a new user experience. Qualifying entries must demonstrate how an application can use one or more sources of content in an inventive way to benefit users. Any application that combines content with telephony services (ex: VOIP, SMS, Text Messaging, PBX, IVR) to create a mashup is qualified for submission.

The first round of the contest is open to all developers. To enter the contest, go to www.strikeiron.com/developers/contest.aspx; research the tools, services and APIs; come up with an idea and build your telephony mashup. Next, submit your mashup to developer@strikeiron.com by February 21, 2007 at 5 pm PST. The top three finalists will demonstrate their mashups to ETel conference attendees on the last day of the conference, March 1, 2007. Attendees will choose the winning mashup immediately following the presentations.

“We’re excited to empower developers to create new applications for the telephony market,” said Bob Brauer, president and CEO of StrikeIron. “By tapping into the vast marketplace of content and services leveraging our online data distribution platform, developers can help empower a new set of services for users. We look forward to seeing some really extraordinary applications.”

For more information about ETel, visit: http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etel2007/.

Contest Prizes:

• 1st $1,500
• 2nd $1,000
• 3rd $500