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Drupal Wishlist #2: SMS import/export for Drupal

Submitted by admin on Tue, 11/23/2004 - 15:30

Outside of North America people use SMS (short messaging service) like crazy! In many parts of the world this cell-phone based text-messaging system is the only one that's readily available. There's no question that there's a long list of real world applications just waiting to be developed based on importing and exporting SMS messages to and from cellphones and websites.

I think that Drupal is very well placed to take advantage of this opportunity as a result of both its increasing use in and among advocacy and community-building circles, and the modular nature of the code.

It has long been possible to automate web-to-SMS messaging and people have already created web sites displaying these messages.

As it stands, we can't even imagine all the potential applications that could grow out of this overlap between the accessibility and ubiquity of cell phones and cell phones coverage on the one hand, and the power of dynamic content management systems on the other.

These applications range from coordinating people involved in democratic campaings and actions, to fighting farmer exploitation by providing regionally and nationally updated market data.

I know for a fact that this would be useful. I have extensive oveseas experience and have been approached in the past about the possibility of building web portals that would bridge the gap between SMS and the web.

Moreover, it seems to me that this souldn't be too hard to do in Drupal either. For outgoing messages, the module would take advantage of existing web2sms services, allowing the user to enter or select the service provider of their choice. The incoming messages could take advantage of sms2mail (often provided by cellphone carriers) and mail2node (provided by the mail modules already available for Drupal) funcitonality.

But I can't and won't undertake this project all by myself. Is there anybody out there who feels like lending a hand?

All my categories: