Category: Asterisk
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Video and Slides Now Available For My AstriCon 2015 Keynote: Open Source and The Global Disruption of Telecom
Continue Reading: Video and Slides Now Available For My AstriCon 2015 Keynote: Open Source and The Global Disruption of TelecomIf you’re interested in what I said last month at AstriCon 2015 in my keynote on “Open Source And The Global Disruption of Telecom: What Choices Will We Make?“, the video and slides are both available.As I wrote about previously, the context for this discussion was to talk about the changes that are happening all around us in terms of the ways in which we communicate. Here was the abstract:
There is a battle raging for the global future of telecommunications and the Internet. Taking place in networks, board rooms and legislatures, the battle will determine how we all communicate and what opportunities will exist. Will telecom support innovation? Will it be accessible to all? Will it give us the level of security and privacy we need to have the open, trusted Internet? Or will it be restricted and limited by corporate or government gatekeepers?
The rise of voice-over-IP has fundamentally disrupted the massive global telecommunications industry, infrastructure and policies. Open source software such as Asterisk has been a huge driver of that disruption and innovation.. but now what? What role do platforms such as Asterisk play in this space? And what can be their role in a telecom…
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Keynote at AstriCon on Oct 14: Open Source And The Global Disruption Of Telecom – What Choices Will We Make?
Continue Reading: Keynote at AstriCon on Oct 14: Open Source And The Global Disruption Of Telecom – What Choices Will We Make?Two weeks from today I’ll be in Orlando giving the opening keynote address at AstriCon 2015. The abstract of the session is:
Open Source And The Global Disruption Of Telecom – What Choices Will We Make?
Wednesday, October 14th, 2015 – 9:00 am to 9:45 am – Pacifica Ballroom 7
There is a battle raging for the global future of telecommunications and the Internet. Taking place in networks, board rooms and legislatures, the battle will determine how we all communicate and what opportunities will exist. Will telecom support innovation? Will it be accessible to all? Will it give us the level of security and privacy we need to have the open, trusted Internet? Or will it be restricted and limited by corporate or government gatekeepers?
The rise of voice-over-IP has fundamentally disrupted the massive global telecommunications industry, infrastructure and policies. Open source software such as Asterisk has been a huge driver of that disruption and innovation.. but now what? What role do platforms such as Asterisk play in this space? And what can be their role in a telecom infrastructure that is now mobile, increasingly embedded (Internet of Things) and more and more using proprietary walled gardens of communication?
Join…
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Are They Crazy? Digium Enters The Phone Game With Asterisk IP Phones
Continue Reading: Are They Crazy? Digium Enters The Phone Game With Asterisk IP PhonesWhen I first saw the news today, my immediate reaction was:Seriously? Digium is coming out with phones???
In a rather fascinating move in an already extremely crowded market, Digium announced today that they will be producing “Digium Phones“, a new line of IP phones specifically targeted at users of Asterisk and Switchvox (both Digium products). They tout among the benefits:- Crystal clear HD Voice
- Simple setup and installation
- Tightest integration with Asterisk
- Built-in & custom applications
- A built-in “app engine” JavaScript API
There will be three models available:
- D40—An entry-level HD IP phone with 2-line keys. Priced at $149.
- D50—A mid-level HD IP phone with 4-line keys and 10 quick dial/BLF keys with paper labels. Priced at $179.
- D70—An executive-level HD IP phone with 6-line keys and 10 quick dial/BLF keys on an additional LCD screen. Priced at $279
The news release indicates they will be available in April and are currently on display at ITEXPO this week down in Miami. A datasheet is available
Application Platform
What is perhaps most interesting to me is the “app engine” included in the phone. From the news release:
Digium phones include an app engine with a simple yet powerful JavaScript API…
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Skype Issues Official Statement About The End Of Skype For Asterisk
Continue Reading: Skype Issues Official Statement About The End Of Skype For AsteriskBefore writing my story yesterday about Skype killing off Skype For Asterisk, I had reached out to Skype’s PR agency to see if there was any statement from Skype. There wasn’t at the time, but today they sent over this statement from Jennifer Caukin, a spokeswoman for Skype:Skype made the decision to retire Skype for Asterisk several months ago, as we have prioritized our focus around implementing the IETF SIP standard in our Skype Connect solution. SIP enjoys the broadest support of any of the available signaling alternatives by business communications equipment vendors, including Digium. By supporting SIP in favor of alternatives, we maximize our resources and continue to reinforce our commitment to delivering Skype on key platforms where we can meet the broadest customer demand.
Being a huge advocate of open standards, I of course applaud Skype’s commitment to supporting SIP. However, as I noted two years ago in my detailed review of what was then “Skype For SIP” (and is now “Skype Connect”) the fundamental difference between Skype For Asterisk and Skype’s SIP offering is this:
Skype For Asterisk is/was two-way – you can make outbound calls TO Skype users.
You can’t do that with Skype Connect.…
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Skype Kills Off “Skype For Asterisk” – A Sign of the New Microsoft Era?
Continue Reading: Skype Kills Off “Skype For Asterisk” – A Sign of the New Microsoft Era?UPDATE: Skype has issued an official statement about the end of Skype For Asterisk. Word breaking out right now from multiple sources is that Skype has killed off the Skype for Asterisk product developed in conjunction with Digium. In an email sent by Digium product management that was subsequently posted on web sites (including Digium’s), the company says (my emphasis added):Skype for Asterisk was developed by Digium in cooperation with Skype. It includes proprietary software from Skype that allows Asterisk to join the Skype network as a native client. Skype has decided not to renew the agreement that permits us to package this proprietary software. Therefore Skype for Asterisk sales and activations will cease on July 26, 2011.
Skype will apparently continue to support the SFA software for an additional two years until July 26, 2013.
The Promise…
Skype For Asterisk was announced with great fanfare back at Astricon in 2008. I wrote about how it might tear down some of the walls of Skype’s proprietary walled garden and posted multiple follow-up posts, including a detailed dive into Asterisk interconnection and how Skype could help with that.
The beautiful part was that Skype For Asterisk allowed two-way communication into…
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Calling All Asterisk Users! Can you help proofread Asterisk:The Definitive Guide?
Continue Reading: Calling All Asterisk Users! Can you help proofread Asterisk:The Definitive Guide?Do you use Asterisk as a PBX? Are you an administrator of an Asterisk system? Do you have a product based on Asterisk? Or that connects to Asterisk?If so, the authors of the forthcoming book “Asterisk: The Definitive Guide” are looking for your help as they enter into the final production stage of the book. Now, the cool part about the book is that, like the first two versions, it will be released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States license and made available online for free usage and download. You also can naturally purchase it from O’Reilly… but the key item is that the content of the book will become part of the available body of online Asterisk documentation.
So it’s in all of our interest that it is as accurate as possible!
If you have even just a few minutes to browse a section or two and provide feedback, the book is up in O’Reilly’s “Open Feedback Publishing System” at:
http://ofps.oreilly.com/titles/9780596517342/index.html
You need to have a account on O’Reilly’s system in order to comment… but those accounts are free and if you have ever bought anything from O’Reilly odds are that you already have…
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Tim Panton: Contrasting Digium and Skype’s Developer Programs and Outreach
Continue Reading: Tim Panton: Contrasting Digium and Skype’s Developer Programs and OutreachLongtime telephony developer Tim Panton wrote a great story this morning contrasting recent developer outreach from Digium with that of Skype:
The way to create a new product or service when you already have one.
I do agree with Tim that Digium did a great job in reaching out to the community in developing the Asterisk SCF… and I do unfortunately agree with Tim that this continues to be an area where Skype struggles. Skype is now on perhaps its 5th or 6th iteration of a “developer program”… maybe more… I’ve lost track, quite honestly, over all these years… still working on finding a program that builds a strong ecosystem of developers around Skype. They’ve hired some great people at Skype… and I’m hopeful that their newer work with SkypeKit will be positive… but we’ll have to see.
[In full disclosure, my employer Voxeo has been involved with Skype’s developer programs for a long time, dating back to the first “Voice Services” program back in 2005/2006 (which was later discontinued) and continues to be involved in Skype programs. However, I’ve not been directly involved in those programs on Voxeo’s behalf.]
Tim also pointed to this great TechCrunch guest post…
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Video: AstriCon Keynote Demonstrating Asterisk Scalable Communications Framework (SCF)
Continue Reading: Video: AstriCon Keynote Demonstrating Asterisk Scalable Communications Framework (SCF)Want to learn more about the Asterisk Scalable Communications Framework (SCF)? While I wrote about Asterisk SCF last week, Digium has now posted the video of the keynote session. It starts with Digium CEO Danny Windham and then at about the 5:45 mark Kevin Fleming takes the stage. At about 10 minutes Kevin starts bringing some community members on stage to tell some stories… all building up to the actual SCF announcement about 33 minutes in 🙂
Regardless of the long buildup, it’s worth watching if you want to understand where Asterisk is going… the demo is pretty cool, too!
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Asterisk SCF: Scalability, Extensibility, Performance
Continue Reading: Asterisk SCF: Scalability, Extensibility, PerformanceThe big news coming out of Astricon last week in DC was the “Asterisk Scalable Communications Framework“, a.k.a. “Asterisk SCF“. The main goals of the project are to bring to the Asterisk platform:
- Scalability (and high availability)
- Extensibility
- Performance
As a long-time fan of Asterisk (and user/administrator at various points of time), I can agree that all of these are areas where the base Asterisk IP-PBX can use some help.
Asterisk SCF is NOT a replacement for Asterisk. Instead it is essentially a framework for extending Asterisk and adding new functionality. As the executive summary outlines:
Asterisk SCF is designed as a distributed system of components that can be deployed in clusters on a single system or on many systems, transparently. Implementing Asterisk SCF as a cluster of small components allows it to naturally take advantage of the ever-wider multi-core CPUs being produced today as well as the movement to off-site or cloud-based computing. In addition, all operational data elements required by Asterisk SCF’s components are themselves managed by their own Asterisk SCF components, allowing for active/passive failover models with no disruption of service. The design also ensures active/active failover and load-sharing models can be supported. These design elements…
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Calling all Ruby telephony developers -> AdhearsionConf 2010 starts this weekend in SF!
Continue Reading: Calling all Ruby telephony developers -> AdhearsionConf 2010 starts this weekend in SF!Just one day left until AdhearsionConf 2010 opens in San Francisco tomorrow. The schedule looks outstanding and I know that the Voxeo Labs team is already on site getting everything ready. I’ve seen via Twitter that some hardcore Ruby telephony developers are already enroute…. should be a great time!
Sadly, my schedule doesn’t allow me to be there, but the good news is that if you are unable to get there in person, you can follow along on the UStream channel:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/adhearsionconf
If you are in the SF area, or can get there, check out more info about the conference at:
http://adhearsionconf.eventbrite.com/
Great to see an event like this happening!
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