Getting Alexa To Read The News
You probably don’t stop to think about it often, but technology has dramatically changed the way people access news. At one time, families gathered around the TV to watch the news together, and before that, they gathered around radios and told stories around the fireplace. So, from printed newspapers to radios, to the recently emerging voice technology, news has really come a long way. Looking at how voice tech is catching up, anybody can tell how voice is going to play an increasingly important part in this over the coming years and how it could well be the new mobile. Being aware of this new trend we were approached by the client to deliver the Go-To digital platform for aggregating top relevant headlines and publishing blogs (Video and Audio) impacting Veterans, Active Duty and Military Spouses in the USA. As a part of the solution, we first made the website and then customized Alexa skills for the same.
Client
The Client is a start-up with a background in military, cybersecurity, risk management, and digital transformation. Being part of an Air Force Family and having worked as a Senior Executive at the Department of Homeland Security, the client wanted to launch a site focused on Veterans.
Business Goal
The client approached us with a need to create a platform for US veterans to read news focused on their interests. They later wanted us to provide a facility for them to listen to the news via skills for devices that use Amazon’s Alexa personal assistant.
Nuage Solution
As per the client’s need, we first developed a site for the client using WordPress. This site pulls news from various sites of interest or for manual creation. For this, we have developed a dynamic homepage based on categories of interest. We also linked the website with You Tube’s API for video uploading on the as the client needed a site that supports vlogs hosted on YouTube for which the team developed a customized plugin for the client’s requirement.
Knowing well about the role social media has in sharing news these days, our team integrated the site with social and professional platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for daily auto headline share. For this, we developed plugins that can upload five news reports daily from each category. Our team them worked on integrating the website with Mailchimp so that end-users could keep themselves updated with news through mailers.
Being satisfied with our solution, the client approached us again. This time, the client wanted us to develop Alexa skills and integrate it with their website. For this, we created an Alexa skill and published the skill to allow for users to listen to the headlines on Alexa compatible devices.
Our Challenges
The team faced some challenges in social media integration of the site. For this, the team had to customize the plugins as the client needed one news item from each category available.
Another issue was of Alexa integration as the skills were being rejected by Amazon owing to its rigid standards of passing any skills. To overcome this challenge, the team first created a library of objectionable words that were likely to be rejected Amazon and applied auto filters.
Technology Stack
Frontend: HTML, CSS, PHP, WordPress, jQuery
Backend: Lambda Function, API, Alexa Skills Development
Database: MySQL
Business Outcomes
Our solution lets people go behind the headlines and check out news related with Military, Veteran and Military Spouse entrepreneurs of the US Government, influencers and business leaders as they discuss business topics impacting their Community. Our platform helps the client provide aggregated, topical information and links to other websites to inform the users of events that may be of interest to them.