Author: Dan York
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Astricon… way too much to write about…
Continue Reading: Astricon… way too much to write about…Great sessions out here at AstriCon… way too much to write about – my head is exploding a good bit! It’s been a bit frustrating to try to blog from the conference rooms, though. The hotel WiFi is struggling a good bit under the strain of all the people here with laptops.
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AstriCon kicks off with “Developer 101” and “Asterisk 101” pre-conference sessions
Continue Reading: AstriCon kicks off with “Developer 101” and “Asterisk 101” pre-conference sessionsHere in Phoenix, Arizona, AstriCon has kicked off with two pre-conference sessions that run all day. “Asterisk 101” is running next door and providing a basic introduction to Asterisk. I’m sitting in the “Developer 101” session (pictured) where there are about 100 people gathered in the room. It turns out that this is about developing with the Asterisk code base, i.e. “how to become an Asterisk developer” versus what I was personally thinking it was, which was “how to develop apps that work with Asterisk”… although that is really just an extension of the first. So far, an hour into the session, lead developer Kevin Fleming has been discussing the various tools you need to use in order to work with the Asterisk code base (ex. subversion, makefiles, etc.). Right now he’s been dealing with the fun subject of licensing code, the GPL, and the requirement of developers to sign a disclaimer over to Digium that: a) asserts that the developer can contribute the code (i.e. it is original), that it is not patent-encumbered, etc. and b) gives Digium the right to redistribute the developer’s code under a different license.
One interesting note – Kevin stated very definitively that Digium…
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Digium launches their “Inside the Asterisk” group weblog
Continue Reading: Digium launches their “Inside the Asterisk” group weblogEarlier this month, the folks at Digium rolled out their own group weblog, “Inside the Asterisk“, which gives a view of activities inside Digium. A true group weblog, there are posts from a number of different people, including Digium CEO Danny Windham (ex. talking about his first days) and many others on staff.
Technorati Tags: asterisk, digium, opensource, blogs
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Telephony is disrupted because voice no longer matters… (as much)
Continue Reading: Telephony is disrupted because voice no longer matters… (as much)Does “voice” communication really matter as much today in business communications?
Think about it. When you need to reach someone today, what do you do? Do you call them on the phone? Or do you send them email? Or a text message? or IM?
I know personally that my normal communication flow usually goes something like this:
- Instant Messaging – I check first to see if I can reach the person on some form of IM. For me, I usually use Skype, GoogleTalk or WLM/MSN, although I do have accounts on other services as well. I use IM because I can see the presence of the other person. If they are online and available, I’ll shoot them a message. Sometimes the question may be dealt with entirely within an IM exchange. Other times I use the IM chat as the precursor to initiating a voice call, i.e. “Ping… do you have time for a call?”
- SMS – If the matter is relatively important and I want to talk to someone, I might send an SMS next to their cell phone, again often to see
- E-mail/Facebook/Twitter/other – Unless the matter is really urgent, the next mode I’ll use is some…
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Facebook group created for ETel conference… please join if you think you might go to ETel!
Continue Reading: Facebook group created for ETel conference… please join if you think you might go to ETel!For those of you using Facebook, we have created a Facebook group for O’Reilly’s Emerging Telephony Conference (ETel) coming up in March 2008. Please feel free to join the group if you are planning to go to ETel – or at least thinking about it. We’re hoping to use it to connect people to each other in advance of ETel. We’re not entirely sure exactly how we’ll use it… it’s all part of the grand experiment in social networking. Please join us in that experiment!
Technorati Tags: etel, facebook, conferences
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Heading out to Astricon 2007 next week to talk on VoIP security…
Continue Reading: Heading out to Astricon 2007 next week to talk on VoIP security…Well, I just confirmed my travel schedule – I’m going to go have a bit of fun out at AstriCon 2007. AstriCon, for those who aren’t aware, is pretty much the premiere event for Asterisk developers. I’m scheduled to speak on Thursday about (surprise!) VoIP security. My talk is an “industry perspective” in my capacity as a board member of the VOIP Security Alliance and won’t be specifically Asterisk-focused, although I will include a few pieces about what you need to think about with Asterisk and the holes that Asterisk still needs to fill (like, oh, SRTP, which I know is coming). I know Mark Spencer and a good bit of the Digium crowd, so it will be fun to hang out with them (especially given my new independent status).
If any of you reading will be out there, please do feel free to drop me a line so that we can connect.
P.S. After AstriCon, I’ll be heading over to the Podcast and New Media Expo in Ontario, CA. If any of you will be there, please do drop a note as well.
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Heading up to Ottawa tomorrow…
Continue Reading: Heading up to Ottawa tomorrow…I’m Ottawa-bound early tomorrow morning for two days of closing off my activities with Mitel. Heading back to Vermont on Thursday. If anyone reading this wants to connect with me in Ottawa, please do drop an email, contact me on Skype (“danyork”) or leave a comment here. Will be staying out in the Kanata area.
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Skype Mashup Contest: And the European winner is……
Continue Reading: Skype Mashup Contest: And the European winner is……The first result of the Skype Mashup contest was announced yesterday at the Skype developer event in Prague, and the winner is….
Yes… a fax application! As Jim Courtney writes over on Skype Journal (he was also one of the judges):
The PamConsult team created PamFax to solve the problem of providing a very simple process (especially relative to the somewhat cumbersome WinFax) of using the Internet to easily fax an MS Office document anywhere worldwide. The primary Skype feature here has nothing to do with voice; they used the Skype Extras publishing platform not only to install the application but also as a transaction processor for collecting revenues for the service using Skype credits. Skype Chat is used to send notifications re a fax’s delivery. In addition they developed a web-based portal to manage and archive your use of the service. The application can be launched from the Skype Extras menu or from within MS Excel or MS Word. A link to Google Maps will also show roughly where the fax is being sent (to within an Area Code).
The interesting aspect to me is how it uses Skype’s micro-payment infrastructure. No need for credit cards or…
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FWD rolls out a "Voicemail" Facebook app… with the promise of calls to the *external* FWD client going to FB voicemail soon (i.e. FB becomes voicemail for SIP connections)
Continue Reading: FWD rolls out a "Voicemail" Facebook app… with the promise of calls to the *external* FWD client going to FB voicemail soon (i.e. FB becomes voicemail for SIP connections)Another new “voice” application for Facebook come out today, this one from the 12-year-old FWD (the service formerly known as “Free World Dialup” and backed by Jeff Pulver, who recently teamed with Daniel Berninger to relaunch FWD – read Daniel’s perspective here and also Jeff’s post about FWD’s beta of a tunneling service )
This first Facebook app, called simply “Voicemail“, was announced to members of the FWD group inside of Facebook with a message from Daniel Berninger providing the URL and stating this:
We are particularly interested in novel uses enabled by the several differences with traditional telephone voicemail.
1) CD quality audio
2) Messages public or private
3) Ability to re-record message without sending
4) Sent messages remain accessible
A direct integration with FWD will be available shortly allow you to pickup and leave Facebook voicemail via FWD.My initial response was admittedly a bit of a yawn. Back in June, I had written about the existence of several Facebook apps that allowed FB users to leave each other voicemail messages. The last sentence, though, was enough to intrigue me:
…A direct integration with FWD will be available shortly allow you to pickup and leave Facebook voicemail via FWD.
