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Open Voice #80: DIY open source assistant, Talpa's Jeroen de Bakker as Voicecast guest, Marc Andreessen and Kevin Kelly talk Voice, 10 mln users of Bank of America assistant, Donald Duck goes Voice and 220 mln speakers doing calls in 4 years

Open Voice #80: DIY open source assistant, Talpa's Jeroen de Bakker as Voicecast guest, Marc Andreessen and Kevin Kelly talk Voice, 10 mln users of Bank of America assistant, Donald Duck goes Voice and 220 mln speakers doing calls in 4 years
By Maarten Lens-FitzGerald • Issue #80 • View online
Hi {{first_name}},
Every week we collect the developments in the Voice domain into a single list of things you don’t want to missed. But before we dive into the news, here’s more on the other channels we work on.

🎧 Podcasts
Doing the recording at the IAB event
Doing the recording at the IAB event
Voicecast Special: Jeroen de Baker from Talpa
A first: this show is recorded live (as in, with a live audience) at an IAB event. We invited Jeroen de Bakker from Talpa to join for this experiment. We talk Salesforce, Snips and Pew research plus a dive into Talpa’s Voice activities.
Maarten on the Podcast Show of Voicebot 
“Privacy and security issues associated with voice assistants have been the biggest stories in the industry so far in 2019. Joining host Bret Kinsella are Rani Molla, the lead data reporter for Recode, Todd Mozer, CEO of Sensory, and Maarten Lens-FitzGerald of Open Voice and several other voice-related projects. Molla offers the media perspective, Mozer a 25 year veteran of the industry with in-depth knowledge of privacy and security issues offers some unique insights and Lens-FitzGerald tackles the questions from a European viewpoint. It’s a holiday season discussion focused on whether consumers actually care about the intersection of voice assistants, privacy, and security and where we are headed.”
Spacerace living room session - photo by Anja de Castro
Spacerace living room session - photo by Anja de Castro
🚀 Spacerace with Sophie Kleber
Last week Sam visited Berlin for multiple recordings of the Spacerace. One of those recordings is now live, and brings back the first (public) guest of the Voicecast: Sophie Kleber. Together with Anja de Castro (Conversational Designer, Ambassador for Women in Voice Netherlands) We interviewed her on the relation between us and our assistants. Very few people have such a clear vision of the future and how we should think of our technologies. 30 minutes well spent.
🔗 News
Wooha, now this is handy: A one stop overview of all that has been released for Google Assistant for November. From My Story time, to buying movie tickets, joining hang outs, managing your calendar and more.
medium.com  •  Share
Two of our favorite Visionary's talk Voice...
Two of our favorite Visionary's talk Voice...
Want an open-source alternative to Amazon’s Alexa or the Google Assistant? Here you go! (Bye bye Snips)
www.pcmag.com  •  Share
More than 90 minutes if Audio drama from Finland (in English): The Dead Are Speaking is a voice-controlled, non-linear audio drama for Google Home smart speakers. In the game, the player takes a role of a newspaper journalist in Helsinki of the 30s, asked to investigate a notorious Tattarisuo body part mystery. The story is inspired by a real life events, but also by juicy rumors around the event.
yle.fi  •  Share
A thought provoking post in what may be the next model for voice and the pillars that will define the ecosystem to help you understand where to meet users and make the most with voice.
bespoken.io  •  Share
220 mln speakers used for calling in 4 years...
220 mln speakers used for calling in 4 years...
Bank of America’s virtual assistant Erica is on track to complete 100 million voice requests. It is built independent of the Google and Amazon platforms.
www.forbes.com  •  Share
Some how this wasn’t in the round up mentioned earlier. This is useful though: “It’s been a long time coming, but Google Keep Notes finally works with Assistant. Here’s how to set up the long-awaited integration.”
9to5google.com  •  Share
Want! “Google Assistant can now interpret up to 44 different languages on supported iOS and Android smartphones, Google announced. ”
venturebeat.com  •  Share
Of course they try.. but really.. adds in Voice and then also a IVR experience? “Pandora has begun to test a new type of advertising format that allows listeners to respond to the ad by speaking aloud. In the new ads, listeners are prompted to say “yes” after the ad asks a question and a tone plays. The ads will then offer more information about the product or brand.”
techcrunch.com  •  Share
Customers can now stream over 800,000 shows available on Apple Podcasts by simply asking Alexa to play their favorite podcast.
blog.aboutamazon.com  •  Share
Dutch kids magazine Donald Duck gets a Voice too
Dutch kids magazine Donald Duck gets a Voice too
That’s it for this week. We’ll catch you next week with the latest updates on Voice.
Cheers,
— Maarten & Sam
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Maarten Lens-FitzGerald

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