From 2000 to 2005 I had participated in an effort by the American Foundation for the Blind to enable e-government services by telephony enabling Daisy XML talking book documents. This particular project was originally started by me in the Republic of Macedonia. A pilot project was deployed by the U.S. Social Security administration. I believe this particular presentation on the project was delivered in Trinidad as part of the FLOSS/Caribbean conference.

1. GNU Alexandria
(http://www.gnu.org/software/alexandria)
Project Mission: GNU Alexandria is Free Software for enabling access by the visually
impaired to both existing and future electronic content and services by using the public
telephone network and voice enabled browsing. Our initial focus is in enabling
accessibility for e­government services to better help governments provide universal
electronic accessibility for all citizens on an equal basis.
GNU Alexandria is part of the GNU Project: GNU Alexandria will be a free software
package to deploy and use with existing GNU/Linux (or xBSD) servers running GNU
Bayonne.
Principle Sponsors: The GNU Project, FS Macedonia, Open Source Development Lab,
The American Foundation for the Blind.
American Foundation for the Blind
(http://www.afb.org)
"The GNU Project"
(http://www.gnu.org)
Open Source Development Lab
(http://www.osdl.org)

2. Why Free Software?
Software development is science.
Shared innovation is better innovation.
Public accountability and auditing of public sector software.
Public access to and ownership of public sector software.
Development of local industry and talent.
To achieve wide and cost effective deployment of universal accessibility.
Consistent with government procurement goals of enabling open bidding and multiple
vendors rather than lock­in to single vendor solutions.

3. Making e-gov content
Accessible
Use of XML document and publishing standards on e­government sites so that machine
based browsing systems as well as humans may interact directly with content.
Providing source documents in or enabling transformation of XML content into
accessible dialects and formats, such as “DAISY”.
Adhering to published and accepted international standards such as available through
W3C, and avoiding the use of proprietary extensions, protocols, or document formats
which may be license encumbered.
e­government services don't need “sexing up” with shockwave, flash, or other
proprietary or non­transformable content, but must be used to provide effective access
to content on an equal basis to all citizens.

4. So what is DAISY?
Originally developed as a proprietary industry specification for digital talking books in
Sweden, it has become a free and open standard in recent years to enable wide use.
Daisy “3” has evolved into a new XML dialect for publishing electronic (digital) talking
books and other structured multi­media content.
Use of standardized structures and XML tags to represent navigatable elements of
book­like documents, such as chapters, sections, indexes, etc.
Use of multiple document files including media content (such as speech content),
optional markup for original text source document with timing control, and XML
navigational control for structured content.
DAISY supported by separate worldwide consortium (see www.daisy.org), by the
national library service for the blind/U.S. Library of congress, and many other
institutions.
DAISY “3” reference implementation first demonstrated on free software!

5. Goals of GNU Alexandria
Daisy book reader ­ to provide access to and navigation of electronically publishable
audio books and documents that follow the daisy xml standard (see
http://www.daisy.org).
Voice rendering existing web content ­ to parse and render existing common and W3C
standard's compliant web site content (.html, .xhtml) in voice. To enable voice and
touch tone navigation for such existing sites.
Browsing voice enabled web sites ­ providing telephone access and navigation to
standard markup formats, such as W3C approved VXML.
Providing voice access for connected users ­ with a browser and a simple Java applet,
it will be possible to access IP delivered voice representations for sites currently
browsed.

6. Methods
Public Telephone Network (GNU Bayonne)
* access to automated or specialized e­government services should not be for a
privileged minority with computer access.
* wide deployment of phone services even in underdeveloped nations
* ready availability for use by the visually impaired community
IP voice content delivery (GNU Bayonne with IP voice, proposed)
* Client web browser companion applet to receive IP voice; both platform neutral and
requires no modified browser software to be written.
* Allows server to deliver voice rendered content on demand for those that may need it.
* Allows server and those responsible for creating service to control voice and offer or
substitute alternate voice enabled content for the user.

7. What is GNU Bayonne?
"Telephony Application Services" platform for the Public Telephone Network ­ Voice
Mail, Automated Governmental Services, Customer Relationship Management (CRM),
custom interactive voice response applications.
Standard service creation environment thru scripting.
Easy system administration; "Web Server" like concepts.
Abstract hardware interface for analog (PSTN), digital (ISDN, SS7, etc), and IP (SIP,
H323) based telephone networks; write applications once, use anywhere.
"High Availability" telephony application services platform.
Integration with Web Services thru XML scripting and XMLRPC.
Telephony enabling enterprise free software applications; GNU Enterprise and phpGro
upWare.

8. Who uses GNU Bayonne
today?
State Governments and e­gov initiaves; State of Maine division of motor vehicles.
Companies looking to conduct "v­commerce" to compliment e­commerce.
The Free Software Foundation.
Cellular carriers.
Smaller inter­exchange carriers for prepaid calling services.
Customer service phone lines.
"Audio­text" services...
Cre dit card clearing over the phone.

9. Telephone Enabled Web
Services
GNU Bayonne + GNU
Alexandria
●daisy parser
●x/html voice parser
●vxml parser
●voice synth
●voice recognition
voice
Apache
●web content
●daisy content
●vxml content
●web services
●other e­gov
applications
Telephone User &
Home or Work:
●voice content
●touch tone and voice
navigation
http:

10. Voice Enabled Web Services
GNU Bayonne + GNU
Alexandria
●daisy parser
●x/html voice parser
●vxml parser
●voice synth
rtp: & sip:
Apache
●web content
●daisy content
●vxml content
●web services
●other e-gov
applications
Telephone User
●voice content
●touch tone and
voice navigation
http:voice applet:
* companion to
browser/navigation aware
* provides voice for current
page
web browser

11. Project Status & Events
October 2002 Project founding in Skopje with FS Macedonia
March 2003 Initial public discussions during "openweekend" (Prague)
May 2003 AFB demonstrates first GNU Bayonne Daisy reader deployed to enable
voice access to U.S. Government Medicare program documents for the blind.
January 2004, Initial acceptance of GNU Alexandria related proposal for complete
content authoring and delivery system for e­government document services for the
blind through NSF funded grant under sponsorship of AFB and DevIS.
?? FS Macedonia Soros matching grant, maybe soon?

12. Other FS Accessibility
ProjectsEmacspeak (http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net)
Gnome Accessibility Project (http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gap)

13. How you can help?
Not all jobs we need help with are purely coding:
Recording of additional voice libraries; recording of new voice vocabularies for different
languages. We currently need German language voices!
Help with making www.gnu.org/software/alexandria fully accessible to all users.
Help with testing and documentation.
Further input and guidance from the visually impaired community.

14. And finally...
Happy Hacking!