Hi,
I would like to hear suggestions about the best way to get info from an SMS onto a server so that the data from many SMS can be collaborated and analyzed. IE people submitting SMS would send info (perhaps comma separated values?) to a particular number which would transfer it to a server so the data could be collaborated and analyzed.<p>This is for a potential non-profit health data collaboration project amongst very poor and needy children and their communities.<p>The info will help to establish trends and issues so they can be addressed as soon as possible and effectively as possible.<p>I know very little about programming so if you are willing to submit your ideas/comments please keep it as noob-sensitive as possible ;).<p>Thanks in advance
Most (if not all) cell providers that allow SMS to other phones will also allow SMS to e-mail addresses. Back in the day I wrote a news/movies app (before Google released their GOOG SMS service) that received an email with a query, parsed through the mail spool and sent off a reply. Worked pretty well.
in first world countries Cloudvox/Twilio/Tropo can all receive inbound SMS and post the contents to your endpoint. Outside of the first world the costs increase significantly, and I believe both Orange and Clickatel become options to consider.<p>Cheapest option? You get an unlimited SMS plan on a cellphone that you can download SMS onto a computer from, keep the phone cabled to the computer and process the inbound SMS that what.<p>That's what we did (basically) before we had HTTP/SIP/SMPP SMS gateways in the cloud.