Open Source + Voice
“In open source, we feel strongly that to really do something well, you have to get a lot of people involved.” — Linus Torvalds
Open Source is the bedrock of voice. It is the foundation of most public and private companies. Whether you use Linux, Tensorflow, Apache, Docker, Bootstrap, Kubernetes, npm, and the millions of other open source projects. Voice would not be possible without the massive decentralized community of Open Source developers. Open source accelerates the growth of technology by increasing engagement and deceasing cost to entry. Jovo, the open-source framework for voice app development, is accelerating the growth of Voice.
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Open-source does not always start open-source. Twitter renamed Blueprint to Bootstrap in 2011 and released it as an open-source project. Bootstrap drove the standardization of mobile-responsive web development. It encouraged consistency across internal tools. Before Bootstrap, various libraries were used for interface development, which led to inconsistencies and a high maintenance burden. Bootstrap replaced complexity with consistency. Back in 2013, Bootstrap ran on only 1.6% of the top million sites. Today, Bootstrap is run on ~20% of websites. Jovo was co-founded by Jan König in April 2017. It encouraged consistency in voice such as visual output, speech building, and state management. Before Jovo, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa had various, customized, tools for voice app development. Jovo has built cross-platform tools. Now we can disseminate these tools to the biggest communities in voice: driving adoption similar to Bootstrap.
Open-source does not mean nobody profits. Red Hat makes open source technologies for the enterprise. In 2018, IBM acquired Red Hat for $34 billion. Before the acquisition, Red Hat had $3.4 billion in revenue for 2018. But, how did they do it? How did Red Hat make so much money selling something available for free? Red Hat remixed technologies like Linux and Docker. Hosting + Open Source. Automation Solutions + Open Source. Mobile Apps + Open Source. By remixing open-source technologies, and creating solutions, Red Hat has thrived. Jovo has created a similar opportunity. Voice Agencies and App Developers can take Hosting + Jovo. Automated Solutions + Jovo. Facebook Chatbots + Jovo, etc. By remixing Jovo with other technologies, any company can profit in voice.
At our company (Voice First), Jovo gives us tools to accelerate our growth with voice. We use Jovo in nearly all of our projects. Jovo’s visual builder creates rich visuals for Echo Show and Google Nest Hub. Jovo’s cloud audio converter made sonic branding easy. Jovo’s Transactions tutorials made Google Transactions and Alexa In-Skill Purchasing (ISP) simple. We can spend less time building, more time innovating.
Jovo is driving the standardization of context-responsive voice-first experiences. It has everything from monetization, visual output, speech building, state management, etc. Voice would not be possible without the massive decentralized community of Open Source developers. We just need to continue drive adoption. Get a lot of people involved. Help drive the unification of voice. Use open-source. Use Jovo. (https://jovo.tech)
