SAN FRANCISCO & WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In a swift demonstration of the power of Twilio, CallForTheDream.com was built in less than 24 hours as a resource for Americans to locate their Congressional representatives and place a phone call to Congress, directly from their Web browser.
Using Twilio’s self-service IP voice communications product, which launched on Tuesday, Rebuild the Dream teamed up with Nathan Woodhull, creator of some of the political world’s most innovative technology products, to build CallForTheDream.com, a Web application that enables click-to-talk calling to representatives of Congress.
In a prime-time address Monday night, President Obama encouraged Americans to let their member of Congress know their thoughts about the debt-ceiling impasse that threatens to send the country into default if no deal is reached by August 2nd.
“I’ve been involved with Congressional advocacy campaigns before; but never has it been so easy to set up a call-to-action product such as this,” said Nathan Woodhull, co-founder of Rewire Labs and creator of the Call for the Dream app. “I saw that Twilio had released the Client tool on Tuesday and thought about what we could build quickly using their VoIP API. On Wednesday, I contacted Natalie Foster at Rebuild the Dream, and by the end of the day we had built this product.”
Woodhull previously led the team that created Web and mobile innovations for BarackObama.com during his tenure at the Democratic National Committee.
“American people are not being heard in Washington DC, and that's very evident during the fight around the debt ceiling and proposed cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, Pell Grants and Social Security. At Rebuild the Dream, we're all about making it easier for the average American to weigh in on politics,” said Foster, CEO of Rebuild The Dream. “I am a fan of Twilio and impressed with their services, and I'm glad there are people like Nathan who can translate new technology into apps for democracy.”
The American Dream Movement is a growing movement inspired by protests in Wisconsin and fueled by brutal right-wing attacks on the middle class and the poor. Many organizations, including Rebuild the Dream, have joined the American Dream Movement to ensure that Americans have the opportunity to find a decent job, afford to go to college, and secure a future for children and communities.
"I love how the Call for the Dream app was built quickly in response to current events, just a day after Twilio Client launched," said Twilio founder and CEO Jeff Lawson. "It's truly exciting to empower developers and see the amazing things that can be done when it's fast, easy and cost effective to build apps that communicate."
Over 40,000 developers use Twilio for applications that interact with traditional mobile and landline telephones via the public telephone network. Twilio Client now allows those applications to interact directly with end-users, bypassing the public telephone network and completely reinventing the way developers enable communication, without the constraints of traditional telephones.
About Rebuild the Dream
Rebuild the Dream Innovation Fund, co-founded by former White House advisor Van Jones, is an engine to drive a 21st century movement to save the American Dream. Rebuild the Dream promotes a positive economic agenda to protect and expand America’s middle class. Rebuild the Dream harnesses the power of media and technology to mobilize, organize and broaden the base of people committed to economic solutions that will work for the middle class, and all who aspire to belong to it. Rebuild the Dream is helping to build a unifying, open-source “meta-brand” and dynamic network: the American Dream Movement.
About Twilio Inc.
Twilio, the cloud communications company, is reinventing telecom by merging the worlds of cloud computing, web services and telecommunications. Twilio hosts a telephony infrastructure web service in the cloud, allowing web developers to integrate phone calls, text messages, and IP voice communications into their web, mobile, and traditional phone applications. For more information visit www.twilio.com.