The DOers of TwilioCon
Time to read: 3 minutes
October 24, 2013
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At this year’s TwilioCon and TwilioCon Europe we recognized a few DOers who are changing lives for the better with communication technologies. Some DOers are using art to teach lessons in resource management. Some are tracking medicine shipments via SMS. Some are even making inanimate objects come to life with Twilio. We are amazed by what these DOers built, and the impact of their work. Here are the list of DOers from this year’s TwilioCon(s).
Roger Stringer wrote the Twilio Cookbook, empowering any developer to get building fast with Twilio. His book breaks down simple Twilio use cases and recipes.
Aaron Foss answered the FTC’s Challenge to fight robocalling with Nomorobo. His Twilio-powered app snuffs out robocallers before they can reach customers by using simultaneous ringing. For his efforts, Aaron won $25,000 from the FTC.
Courtney Powell was fed up with her cable provider’s awful customer service and knew she couldn’t be the only one. She built Publik Demand as a platform to give any and all consumers a voice for their complaints. Using Twilio SMS, and Twilio Voice Publik Demand customers can leverage the power of their community to get a response from big businesses.
During a trip abroad to the Egypt, Daniel Yu was inspired to found Project SAM, a medicine tracking network for health clinics in developing countries. Project SAM allows health clinics to confirm shipments, update patients and talk with medicine distributors via SMS. This new infrastructure has saved lives in Peru and many other countries.
William Meyer wanted to make science fun and interactive. As New Media Director of The Exploratorium, he put together a new suite of interactive features teaching museum-goers about the Science of Sharing. William worked with Twilio to help develop TextFish, a game that teaches users about resource management while fishing via SMS.
The IDEO.org team Robin Bigio, Molly Norris, John Won believe human centered design can change lives for the better. They put this belief into action in Kumasi, Ghana. Robin, Molly and John worked to solve a public sanitation problem using communications technology and design specs. Using Twilio, they were able to build open lines of communication and information sharing for the community which drastically improved their lives.
Nicolas Pottier and Eric Newcomer (pictured above)built TextIt to allow anyone to build SMS apps easily. Their service lets you build visually, without having to worry about code. Based in Rwanda, Nicolas and Eric have helped farmers, community members and friends share vital information about water management, agriculture and more through TextIt.
With a few lines of code, Brandon Stafford unlocked Boston’s Light Blades and made them interactive. Brandon built a hardware hack with Twilio SMS that allows Bostonians to send a text and change the color of the massive structures, built to look like the sails of a ship.
The Hello Lamp Post team Sam Hill, Tom Armitage, Gyorgyi Galik made inanimate objects come to life via text. Their project lets Bristol residents text mailboxes, stop signs, lamp posts and more, encouraging residents to interact with their city and learn from its culture.
Emily Schiffer used the power of photography to help revitalize Chicago’s South Side. Emily launched SEE Potential, a campaign to raise awareness and raise funds for Chicago’s community centers, music halls and gardens. Using Twilio SMS, Emily polls the community and presents the results to contractors and developers.
Tim Rogers built Nodephone for direct debit provider GoCardless, using Twilio. Nodephone helps GoCardless cut down on their customer support response time and helps their sales team track leads. Using Twilio, the team is able to make any changes to Nodephone they like with only a few lines of code.
Zac Witte and Rose Broome used Twilio SMS to build a new way to donate money to the homeless. HandUp allows users to donate money safely, and securely to homeless via SMS.
Michael Fitzgerald founded OnePageCRM to create a better client management and empower businesses to grow their customers. OnePageCRM won Twilio Fund Europe and is currently working on new Twilio integrations.
Ross Penman used Twilio to build Developer Portal Alert Centre, an SMS alert app to keep his fellow developers updated when Apple’s System Status Page was back online. At only 14-years old, Ross is building apps and website at a remarkable speed. We can’t wait to see what he builds next.
Max Little used Twilio Voice to develop a new way of diagnosing Parkinson’s Disease — through speech. His team gathered over 10,000 calls and are now analyzing the data from those calls to help diagnose Parkinson’s.
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