Lypp Welcomes Oren Michels to the Lypp Advisory Board

Vancouver – June 18, 2008: We are happy to announce that Oren Michels, CEO of Mashery has joined the Lypp Advisory board.

“Oren brings significant experience relating to business development, startup management & growth and strategic funding methodologies”, commented Erik Lagerway, CEO “We needed a mentor that understood the value in our API business and someone who could help use grow that business. Oren not only understands how to grow that style of business but has done it successfully in the past and is doing it today via his own startup – Mashery.”

Oren joins the existing members of the Lypp Advisory Board:

Oren Michels, CEO & Founder Mashery
Oren’s LinkedIn Profile

Oren Michels brings more than 15 years of experience to his job as CEO of Mashery. Michels has a proven track record with experience across multiple industries. Previously, Michels was vice president of business development at Feedster, where he negotiated partnerships with AOL, Real Networks and Mitsui, and oversaw the company’s activities in China. Prior to Feedster, Michels was president of Colt HR, a leading provider of outsourced benefits administration software and services to the mid market. He also co-founded WiFinder, an international provider of directory services for wi-fi public access hotspots; served as president of winebid.com, where he managed the company’s growth and helped establish it as a leading online wine auction market; served as COO of two manufacturing companies; and as CEO of The Groundlings, an entertainment production company in Hollywood.

Michels began his career as a software designer for Hughes Aircraft and has been a consultant to companies in the management, financial, marketing and information technology industries. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from MIT and an MBA in finance and entrepreneurial studies from UCLA’s Anderson School.

Oren joins the existing members of the Lypp Advisory Board:

Daniel Gibbons, CEO Carrie & Danielle
Dan’s LinkedIn Profile

Daniel is an experienced technology entrepreneur and marketing and social media expert. He co-founded and served as VP of Marketing for Gaboogie, which under the Lypp brand delivers quick and reliable conference call services and provides developers with the simplest and most flexible VoIP API for integrating telephony into existing applications and web services. Daniel is also the Publisher and Executive Creative Director for Shine Media Inc., publisher of the multi-award winning Orange Life Magazine, and earlier founded and later sold sandglassair Inc., which provided online campaign management and analytics software to clients including Mercedes-Benz USA, Sprint, the Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority and the Alberta Government.

Daniel currently serves as a Director of Gaboogie Canada Inc. and was recently appointed as CEO for a Vancouver-based stealth startup, Carrie & Danielle a social media application for the LOHAS market.

Bruce Livingstone, EVP Getty Images, CEO & Founder iStockphoto.com, Chairman Paperthinwalls.com, Chairmain Evolvs.com
Bruce’s LinkedIn Profile

Bruce Livingstone has spent his career in the graphic design/marketing and photography industries for over 10 years. The last seven years he has acted as his own entrepreneurial incubator as the ex-President and now CEO of iStockphoto.com, iStockpro.com, Webcorelabs.com and Evolvs.com. In the past decade he worked for Image Club Graphics, Aldus Corp., Adobe Inc. and a handful of advertising agencies and pre-press facilities. Bruce founded his first media company, Frequency Labs Inc. in 1997 (now Evolvs Media Inc.). He spends most of his days in the marketing, editorial and application development departments.

Danny Robinson, Founder & Chairman Peerflix
Danny’s LinkedIn Profile

Danny has served as Chairman since the inception of Peerflix in 2004. Danny provides strategic and technical vision for Peerflix. Danny is a serial entrepreneur with several years of experience in retail distribution, information technology and executive management. Prior to Peerflix, he was co-Founder of iFind Media Systems, makers of large-format, interactive, way-finding and advertising technology for public places. Previously, he was Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Spinway, Inc., a pioneer technology company that developed e-commerce and private-label ISP solutions for leading brick and mortar retailers. Under Danny’s stewardship, Spinway grew to 8 million registered users in less than one year, before being acquired by Kmart’s (NYSE:KM) BlueLight.com in 2000. Spinway investors included Mobius (then SoftBANK), Spectrum Equity, and Deutche Banc Alex Brown.

37signals + Lypp Mashup Canceled

Due to the fact that there are not nearly enough active applicants to constitute a fair contest we are canceling the 37signals + Lypp mashup contest.

For those of you who did put in an honest effort (you know who you are) we are prepared to give you some  minutes on the Lypp service once we see your functioning application.

The lack of interest could be attributed to a few things but we think it’s most likely that this mashup was too advanced for the average hobbyist coder to dive into. If you have any suggestions, we would love to hear them.

37signals & Lypp VoIP Mashup Expanded

I have been talking with the guys at 37signals and we have decided to open up the Lypp + Highrise Mashup contest to include all of the 37signals APIs. This means that developers can integrate Lypp with Campfire, Basecamp, Backpack, Writeboards et al!

We think this presents a unique opportunity to create some very exciting telephony features for the 37signals group of applications. Some examples might include:

* Dynamic calling via Campfire for one-to-one or one-to-many calls. Imagine chatting with your colleagues and at the click of a button have a Toll Free number and PIN presented where everyone could call in and be in a conference call. Going 1 step further we could present a link that everyone could click on where everyone who clicked on that link is presented with a dialog that requests their email and telephone. They are called by the system and all are soon in a one-to-one or a conference call.

* Using the Backpack + Lypp API could really open up a new channel for communication within Backpack. Imagine scheduling a weekly call where the entire team is called wherever they are with the call being recorded and added to the assets/files when the call is done.

* Basecamp is another huge opportunity for collaboration. Projects calls could be managed with greater efficiency and again the Campfire ad hoc calling concept could play a roll here as well.

* Writeboards would have hot linked phone numbers that could be clicked and called.

* Emails could have hot links that could invite users into a call or allow them to call the phone number in the signature with one click.

These are just a few examples as to how to use the various 37signals APIs with the Lypp API to create a new and exciting mashup!

The contest will be extended to May 25 so get your applications in before that!

Best app:

• $3000 Apple gift certificate
• 20,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $1800)
• 12 months subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $1800)

Runner-up:

• $1500 Apple gift certificate
• 10,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $900)
• 6 months subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $900)

2nd Runner-up:

• $500 Apple gift certificate
• 5,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $450)
• 3 month subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $450

Here’s how to enter:

1. Fill out the Lypp partner sign-up form.
2. You will receive your Lypp API credentials soon thereafter.
3. Authentication for the various 37signals APIs requires that you have an existing user account.
4. Start Mashing!

Here’s how to win:

1. Make it useful.
2. Make it functional.
3. Make it simple.

Lypp Developer API Quick Start

1.) You have signed up and received your developer account information for our partner/developer environment.

2.) You have given our API documentation a good read.

3.) Your still not sure where to start?

The following example is about the steps to make your first call using the API so I will use curl to keep things language agnostic.

Confirm that your account information works and that your information is correctly entered.


curl \
-u username:password \
https://lypp.com/users/user_id.xml


Create your conference.

curl \
  -u username:password \
  -H 'Accept: application/xml' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/xml' \
  -d '

        Development Team Meeting
        2008-08-24T20:19:34Z
      ' \
  -X POST \
  https://lypp.com/users/user_id/conferences

On that last curl call your conference will have been created and and you should now have the id of the conference ({conference_id} to reference when adding attendees. Lets take a look at the return for that call before we start adding our attendees.

  {conference_id}
  2008-04-23T22:18:56Z
  2008-04-23T22:18:57Z
  1
  pending
  2008-08-24T14:19:34-06:00

  false
  Development Team Meeting
  false
  false
  false

  0000000
  000000000

All the boolean values you see returned there are also optional arguments that can be passed in while creating the conference or changed after conference creation, including while a call in in-progress. Now all we need to do is add our other attendees to the call.


curl \
-u username:password \
-H 'Accept: application/xml' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/xml' \
-d '

Mom
555-555-5555
‘ \
-X POST \
https://lypp.com/users/user_id/conferences/conference_id/attendees

Mom likes to check in my Development meetings 🙂

37signals VoIP Mashup with Lypp

The mashup doors are officially open. Come get some!

We are less than one day away from opening the doors to the 37signals VoIP Mashup with Lypp. Tomorrow at noon (Pacific) the contest starts.

Developers, build a mashup application or mashup your existing application using both the Highrise API and the Lypp API and win stuff. This is a great way to show off your Ruby-fu and win some great prizes.

Best app:

• $3000 Apple gift certificate
• 20,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $1800)
• 12 months subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $1800)

Runner-up:

• $1500 Apple gift certificate
• 10,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $900)
• 6 months subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $900)

2nd Runner-up:

• $500 Apple gift certificate
• 5,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $450)
• 3 month subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $450

Here’s how to enter:

1. Fill out the Lypp partner sign-up form.
2. You will receive your Lypp API credentials soon thereafter.
3. Authentication for the Highrise API requires that you have an existing Highrise user account.
4. Start Mashing!

Here’s how to win:

1. Make it useful.
2. Make it functional.
3. Make it simple.

Submissions will be accepted up until May 10th. Winners will be posted here 3rd week in May. We will also try to interview the winners and post the recording here as well.

For assistance with the Lypp API please post your comments below. If you have any comments/problems/issues with the Highrise API you can post them on the 37signals API Forum.

Good Luck to all!

by erik | http://blog.lypp.com

Highrise + Lypp Mashup: April 15th

+

We have had some great early  feedback on this mashup which has motivated us to make a few updates to the API prior to opening the mashup doors . We are improving upon a few things, including…

– Better user creation and management
– Updating conferences with single REST call with multiple variables, instead of multiple REST calls

Due to these and other updates we are pushing back the entry date for the 37 Signals Highrise and Gaboogie Lypp Mashup to April 15th. We will be posting another announcement here on that day inviting everyone who wants a piece of the action to sign up.

In the meantime, go check out the APIs: Highrise, Lypp
The original post.

Build a VoIP-based Click-to-Call, Click-to-Talk or Click-to-Conference application in under 7 Days

Building a click-to-call or click-to-talk “call button” application is not hard. In fact, it’s so easy it would likely take you less than a day to build it using the Lypp API but I am saying 7 days, I too can be a lazy-ass.

If you want to go head-to-head with the likes of Google, Jajah, Jaxtr, Jangl, Skype, eStara or anyone else in this game you can literally do it overnight using the Lypp API.

Below is a description of these elements:

scheduled-to-start-at
The time the conference should start at. Can be in many different forms, below are some examples:
Relative Times

* now
* thursday
* november
* friday 13:00
* mon 2:35
* 4pm
* 6 in the morning
* friday 1pm
* sat 7 in the evening
* today
* tomorrow
* this tuesday
* next month
* this morning
* this second
* tomorrow at 6:45pm

If you saw the reference to “conferences” above you will likely have guessed that our API can handle not just click-to -call for a one-to-one callback scenario but could easily serve as a click-to-conference call button. This could be used for weekly team meetings where the same people are in the call all the time but the time for the meetings vary.

Get coding already!

37signals and Gaboogie Mashup Contest

+

We have been exchanging some ideas with the guys at 37signals and we have come up with what we think is a very cool mashup contest. Here is what we came up with…

Developers, build a mashup application or mashup your existing application using both the Highrise API and the Lypp API and win stuff.

Best app:

• $3000 Apple gift certificate
• 20,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $1800)
• 12 months subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $1800)

Runner-up:

• $1500 Apple gift certificate
• 10,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $900)
• 6 months subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $900)

2nd Runner-up:

• $500 Apple gift certificate
• 5,000 minutes of call time from Lypp (approx value: $450)
• 3 month subscription for a Highrise MAX account (approx value: $450)

Application for entries: April 1 to May 1
Winners announced: May 15

We are giving you plenty of time to think about what you want to create using the Lypp and Highrise APIs. Some examples might be; Integrated Conference Calling within Highrise, Scheduled Calls, Click to Call Contacts in Highrise, Call-back Task links, just to name a few.

We will be posting more information about the contest in the next couple of weeks but that shouldn’t stop you from taking a look at the APIs right away. If you have any preliminary questions or comments please send them over: mashup@lypp.com or post them below.

37signals’ New Backpack

The new Backpack has been unveiled and it’s a pretty significant step up. We use Backpack and Highrise here on a daily basis, these new Backpack features are already having a positive impact on our business.

Now if only someone would integrate Lypp into Highrise I wouldn’t have to swivel chair to make a quick call or create a conference call with my prospects and clients.

Telephony API and Rails Plugin

We are gearing up for Rails Conf 08  and we are getting pretty excited. Not only about attending but also about showing off version 2.0 of our Lypp Telephony and Conferencing API + Rails Plugin. 

Here is a snippet of our new Natural Language Call Scheduling feature that allows users to quickly and easily schedule their calls using natural language. Remember, our telephony service (hosted on Level3) does not require embedded softphones, it calls all attendees at the time of the call. We support up to 150 people at a time.

Below is a description of these elements:

scheduled-to-start-at
    The time the conference should start at. Can be in many different forms, below are some examples:
    Relative Times

        * now
        * thursday
        * november
        * friday 13:00
        * mon 2:35
        * 4pm
        * 6 in the morning
        * friday 1pm
        * sat 7 in the evening
        * today
        * tomorrow
        * this tuesday
        * next month
        * this morning
        * this second
        * tomorrow at 6:45pm

    Complex Times

        * 7 days from now
        * 1 week hence
        * in 3 hours
        * 7 hours before tomorrow at noon
        * 3rd wednesday in november
        * 3rd month next year
        * 3rd thursday this september
        * 4th day last week

    Specific Dates

        * January 5
        * dec 25
        * may 27th
        * October 2006
        * oct 06
        * jan 3 2010
        * 3 jan 2000
        * 17 april 85
        * 5/27/1979
        * 27/5/1979
        * 05/06
        * 1979-05-27
        * Friday

    Specific Times

        * 5
        * 4:00
        * 17:00
        * 0800
        * January 5 at 7pm
        * 1979-05-27 05:00