Subject: Voice Communications Operating Plan
To: Subhana
Cc: swinehart
Could you do the Bravization of this for me? I'll help find the form if you don't know where it is already. The Distributed computing one is also on its way.

Thanks,
Lame duck boss
OperatingPlan.form
Copyright © 1985 by Xerox Corporation. All rights reserved.
Rick Beach, August 22, 1985 9:57:33 am PDT
###. Voice Communications Project (Dan Swinehart)
Brief Description
The Voice Communications Project is an effort to define an architecture that will support both telephony and recorded voice applications, controlled by workstations in a Xerox network environment. The methodology is to produce working, extensible prototypes, based on Cedar and the existing Etherphone system, that demonstrate the present state of the architecture and that can serve as an experimental base for improving it.
Why This is Important to Xerox
Voice is and will remain a vital form of interpersonal communication in the office. As a non-interactive medium (in messages and as annotations to text documents) it has yet to be fully assessed, but it appears to have considerable value. The appearance of integrated voice capabilities in Xerox products is overdue. An architecture for voice would define the capabilities available to for workstation applications, and would define the role both for Xerox products and for the products of other vendors that are needed to support our products.
Technical Objectives
Develop comprehensive set of Etherphone voice capabilities
o Package of tools: programming interface, not user interface
o Extend present Cedar version, produce Mesa, Interlisp, Smalltalk versions
o Telephone control
o White pages database
o Managing recorded voice (voice ropes)
o Other services (e.g., meeting broadcasts, text-to-speech synthesis)
Develop prototype applications to test and demonstrate the Etherphone capabilities
o Individual telephone management, call filtering, voice editing, annotation, voice messages
o Group communication applications (e.g., enhancing Portland/PARC linkages)
o Secretarial and switchboard-attendant configurations
Produce a first-cut Intervoice architectural description
o Analogous to Interscript, XNS architectures
o Lower levels define required transmission, switching, storage (Etherphone or other)
o Higher levels define range integrated voice communications capabilities
1986 Objectives
1Q 86: Programming interface available, demonstrated
2Q 86: Initial Intervoice architectural design
4Q 86: In use by SCL, possibly ISL, for their voice-related research applications
Customers
??? CSO (Corporate Strategy Office), Generic advanced technology, Kurz??, OS, SIS, AI (SCL, ISL?)
Transfer Potential for 0-2 Year
No transfer potential before 1988? (Have not obtained recent specific understandings outside PARC)
When this Project will be Completed
Completion of packages and implementations that support voice applications (analogous to XNS implementation) provides logical end-point for project.
Planned Staffing
1985: 3 1986: 1.5?