This makes me think again about how there’s surely a way for an open source project (like Open PBX) to enable local, server-based mp3 recording via phone calls.

I wonder if Gcast or Gabcast are considering licensing their technology? I could see a school or university purchasing a server which offers this type of functionality, and projects like COV.

Additionally, the subscription usage will be limited to 2 hours in any 90 day period. ”

Thought you would like to know.
Andy

In fact, on a bigger picture note, I tend to see a lot of complaining about “web 2.0″ services not being free enough or not giving away enough. One has to ask… who are the people whose livelihood is behind building these applications or, more importantly, businesses that need a profit to survive? It is just way too easy to come across some website and feel that whatever they’re doing can be offered for free without actually considering the true cost of owning, operating, and maintaining a unique or highly desired product.

Flyin’Ryan said…
To everyone,

There are many ways to connect for free. Take SIP Broker for instance. They have phone access numbers all around the world. See http://sipbroker.com/sipbroker/action/pstnNumbers

Call any SIP Broker number and enter *652422# . You’ll be connected to Gabcast, for free.

Please see the Gabcast FAQ for this and other ways to connect via VoIP: http://gabcast.com/index.php?a=faq#HowCanICall

@Gillian Lord Ward, with an implementation as large as your’s, you might want to consider a FreePBX install. With this you can use your own local phone lines to call into Gabcast. More information is in our FAQ and at http://www.freepbx.org.

I have not tried sipbroker but will certainly give this a go. There are more than a few upset educators “out there” who understand Gabcast’s need to charge, but felt the timing was really poor in the middle of the term/semester, especially without warning. Also, the model Gabcast is adopting seems pretty limited.

I went ahead and bought 250 minutes for $25 for the pilot project I’ve been working on with a local instructor at UCO, who is having her students audio-record lecture summaries. I think the idea of having a local recording option is really intriguing. If this is possible (and I’m not sure freepbx.org supports this idea, but it made me think of it) then I could see a university purchasing a system which would permit this sort of local phone-based audio recording.

The technology functionality is clearly “here” to do this sort of thing. We need an enterprising vendor to create a system which can be hosted locally, with local access lines, and permits users to call in and audio-record to the web. This would be PERFECT for a lecture summary podcasting project like the one I’m helping facilitate/pilot this term at UCO.

Does anyone know of an open source project that involves phone recording to audio/mp3 format? We need this functionality added to an open source project like Podcast generator.