Submissions for speaker opportunities can be made at www.astricon.net.

Digium typically makes a Big Announcement at AstriCon.  The two I’ve liked have been the purchase of Switchvox way back [...]]]>

Digium (www.digium.com) has announced AstriCon 2011 today.  The event will be held from October 26 through 28, at the Westin Westminster in Denver, Colorado.

Submissions for speaker opportunities can be made at www.astricon.net.

Digium typically makes a Big Announcement at AstriCon.  The two I’ve liked have been the purchase of Switchvox way back when (Hi Tristan!) and last year’s announcement of the Asterisk Scalable Communications Framework (SCF) to fix all the things developers b****ed about when they tried to scale Asterisk or try to make it do things it wasn’t intended to do, like work with video.

(On the other hand, partnership announcements with Skype and IBM did not turn out all that marvy, alas).

If you are looking to brief, email me.  Or look for me in the loud, er, expressive [...]]]>

I’ll be running around at AstriCon 2010 (www.astricon.net) on Wednesday, October 27 and Thursday, October 28.   Don’t know if I’ll be tweeting on site; the last time I was at the Gaylord, wireless connectivity was hit-or-miss.

If you are looking to brief, email me.  Or look for me in the loud, er, expressive pink shirt.

Perhaps the big clue is Digium’s Kevin Fleming giving Wednesday morning’s keynote. From [...]]]>

The Digium Astricon (www.astricon.net) show has become Digium’s annual event to announce Big News.  Three years ago, the acquisition of Switchvox took place.  Two years ago, it was the Skype/Digium interop agreement, while last year it was an IBM/Digium agreement. 

Perhaps the big clue is Digium’s Kevin Fleming giving Wednesday morning’s keynote. From the description of his keynote on the AstriCon website–

“The Future of Open Source Communications
Asterisk has been an industry-changing open source project that has grown with the support of an active and thriving community. The news that Kevin Fleming will be sharing at AstriCon will further the disruption of the communications industry, as Asterisk did with its original release, and demonstrate Digium’s commitment to taking open source communications in an exciting direction for the Asterisk Community. “

Soooo… what does this mean, exactly? A deep embrace of Unified Communications (UC)? An overhaul of Asterisk code with lots of shiny bells and whistles?  Something else completely?

A lot of the sessions this year seem to be built around the theme of “Asterisk is Scalable, Asterisk is Enterprise-quality,” with presentations from Orbitz, Gemeinschaft bragging about 10,000 phones with an Asterisk cluster, how to compete with Cisco and Avaya in Enterprise, mission-critical Asterisk implementations in Brazil and the energy industry, and a bunch of VoIP security stuff ladled on top.

Hopefully, this year’s announcement will be on the level of goodness that the Switchvox acquisition brought to the company.   It took almost a year for Digium to work out the bugs with the Skype/SIP gateway and now Skype is Best Buds with Avaya.  I’ve also been told that IBM has ditched their marketplace scheme, so Asterisk won’t be distributed through that channel.

Digium should also try to address some grumbling among some of its partners that the company has become too “ADTRAN-like” in its processes and slow to respond to requests for new feature adds to Asterisk and opportunities for working with the company.

Already, COMPTEL PLUS is winding up at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville. Next week, VoiceCon Orlando will take place at the Gaylord [...]]]>

COMPTEL PLUS 2010 – If you haven’t been to a Gaylord Hotel and Conference center yet, it is likely you will be for some sort of IP communications show this year.

Already, COMPTEL PLUS is winding up at the Gaylord Opryland in Nashville. Next week, VoiceCon Orlando will take place at the Gaylord Orlando.

Looking forward, Metaswitch is having its users conference at the Gaylord Opryland. Fall COMPTEL PLUS is taking place at the Gaylord Dallas.  And to round off the Gaylord tour, AstriCon 2010 will take place at the Gaylord Washington at National Harbor, MD.

If you’ve never been to a Gaylord Hotel and Conference Center, the best way to describe is in one of two ways: (Identities of the telecom editors discussing the merits of the Gaylord withheld for obvious reasons)

1) “It’s like a big Las Vegas hotel. There’s no windows to the outside world and you never have to leave the property.”  To this sound bite I would add a) Quieter both acoustically and visually – no loud rattle-rattle-rattle-whoop of a gazillion slot machines, no loud colors or garish displays of flesh, but b) Yes, there is a buffet, and c) The Gaylords have more internal “green” going on inside their large atrium areas, meaning plenty of plants, water – the Gaylord Opryland has its own canal and boats – and indoor wildlife, with ducks, fish, and in one hotel, gators.

2) “If the end of the world comes, they can seal it off from the rest of the world, like Biosphere 2.”  The big atriums that are the centerpiece of the Gaylord Hotels with plant and animal life tend lend themselves to the description.

This year’s event will take place at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, just outside of Washington D.C., on October 26-28, 2010. 

FYIs on getting to the Gaylord from local hubs

Please note travelers take my advice at their own [...]]]>

Digium (www.digium.com) has formally announced dates and places for AstriCon 2010. (www.astricon.net).

This year’s event will take place at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, just outside of Washington D.C., on October 26-28, 2010. 

FYIs on getting to the Gaylord from local hubs

Please note travelers take my advice at their own risk – my day job is not concierge –

Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)

GOOD NEWS – This is the closest airport to the Gaylord and I believe is a 30-40 minute cab ride directly from the airport, assuming no rush-hour traffic (Yes, DC natives are now laughing). 

Travelers selecting this option may want to land at Reagan, take a Metro (Yellow or Blue, doesn’t matter) down to King Street station and grab a cab there over to the Gaylord. 

Yellow line stops at Eisenhower Avenue and Huntington with a transfer to a cab will also work, but I cannot vouch for the availability of cab service at Eisenhower.  If arriving at Huntington, go to the lower level, walk out, and there should be cabs available – the station is an “end-node,” so there’s always 4-6 cabs around to take people places. 

More adventuresome travelers with light luggage could take the free King Street Trolley (http://alexandriava.gov/Trolley) from the King Street Metro down to the Potomac River Waterfront.  From there, one could pick up a Water Taxi (http://www.potomacriverboatco.com/national-harbor-schedule.php) from the Alexandria Marina directly to the Gaylord.  One way tickets are $8.00 and be advised that taxis leave every hour and 10 minutes or so, with the dock-to-dock time about half an hour. CHECK the website for the most up-to-date schedule.

BAD NEWS – Being a smaller airport, there aren’t that many cross-country direct flights into DCA. East Coasters from Boston and the South might want to look at US Airways, one of the primary carriers there. United frequent-fliers may be able to hub through Chicago or Denver to get to IAD, but don’t expect a cheap ticket.

Washington Dulles International (IAD)

BAD NEWS – If you’re coming from the West Coast, the “Washington” part of Dulles is anywhere from 40 minutes (if you’re really really lucky) to an hour and 20 minutes away from the Gaylord. 

Look at taking a Super Shuttle or renting a car. I think there’s also a way to take a bus ride from Dulles to the closest Orange Line stop, but it’s going to be a long bus ride and then you have to navigate to switching from Orange to Blue lines so it might not be worth the cost in aspirin.

GOOD NEWS – If you have time to kill and like airplanes (Hi Mark! Hi Danny!), the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Center (http://www.nasm.si.edu/UdvarHazy/) is available, and there’s a shuttle bus available.

Baltimore Washington International (BWI)

GOOD NEWS – While just about the same distance (46 minutes in traffic, up to 1 hr 20 min … or more in traffic) as IAD, plane fares into BWI tend to be cheaper. 

BAD NEWS – The most direct way from BWI to the Gaylord is still a car or Super Shuttle. 

An alternatively creative route would be to take the train into DC to Union Station, then Metro to King Street.  Amtrak or MARC both have routes and there’s a free shuttle bus between the airport and the close-by rail station.

Once at Union Station, you can take the Red Line metro over to the Green/Yellow line, and then Yellow Line to King street. Or just take a cab.

Amtrak Union Station

If you’re traveling from New York, Philadelphia, or points in between, taking the train to D.C. (Union Station) is not a bad idea. You could metro from Union Station to King Street, or simply take a cab.

An alternative route might be taking the train from points north to New Carrollton Metro stop and then getting a cab (30-40 minutes?) to the Gaylord.   

IBM CTO Mike Smith talks all about Digium’s role as an ISV on IBM’s Smart Cube program.  Companies with Smart Cube can pull down Asterisk from IBM’s online  Smart Business marketplace.

Digium CEO Danny Windham recapping 2009 in terms [...]]]>

Glendale, AZ & Washington DC – Pictures from Thursday’s keynotes at AstriCon 2009.

IBM CTO Mike Smith talks all about Digium’s role as an ISV on IBM’s Smart Cube program.  Companies with Smart Cube can pull down Asterisk from IBM’s online  Smart Business marketplace.

Digium CEO Danny Windham recapping 2009 in terms of challenges and opportunities.  Windham said that in the budget squeezes of the past year, companies have looked to open source as a more economical and cost-effective means of doing business — good stuff for Asterisk and other open source companies.

And what’s AstriCon without Steve Sokol? Steve founded AstriCon 6 years ago and got the shows — and himself — bought by Digium.

Keynote audience at AstriCon 2009

It was a full ballroom for both days of keynotes.

Allworx founder Jeff Szczepanski at AstriCon 2009

You run into a lot of interesting people in the hallways of AstriCon — like [...]]]>

Glendale, AZ & Washington DC – Pictures from AstriCon 2009 on Wednesday October 14, 2009.

Keynote audience at AstriCon 2009

It was a full ballroom for both days of keynotes.

Allworx founder Jeff Szczepanski at AstriCon 2009

You run into a lot of interesting people in the hallways of AstriCon — like the founder of Allworx.

Google Chris DiBona keynote at AstriCon 2009

Chris DiBona delivers the Wednesday morning keynote, talking up all kinds of goodness about open source software.  You need stats on open source downloads and popularity? He’s got ‘em.

Digium's John Todd showing off his shirt at AstriCon 2009

John Todd shows off his newest tie-dye shirt. He gets them custom made, only going to show there’s no accounting for taste.

Smith, brought in to [...]]]>

Glendale AZ & Washington DC – As Digium celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Asterisk IP telephony platform this week at the AstriCon developer’s conference with cake and funny hats, this year’s keynote presentation by IBM CTO Mike Smith drifted into the mundane and dull — a very good thing.

Smith, brought in to talk about Digium’s role as an ISV (independent software vendor) in IBM’s Smart Cube platform/Smart Business program, put up a series of slides and descriptions for IBM’s ISV certification process to warm the heart of any nervous SMB IT work thinking about purchasing Asterisk for a Smart Cube server through IBM’s online applications store.

Since IBM services as the single point of contact or — as Smith described it – “the single throat to choke” — for technical support on the Smart Cube, Digium had to adjust and code and jump through  a number of hoops so a commercial version of Asterisk would be available through Big Blue.

Net-net of the qualification process is a product that IBM is comfortable offering.  It may be dull, but this is a good thing since IBM’s process and attention to detail is the sort of thing that will give warm fuzzies to anyone prone to buy IBM servers for their business — fuzzies that extend to the purchase of Asterisk as an IP PBX solution loaded on the Smart Cube Server.

This is a Good Thing. It isn’t PR sexy like the whole Skype for Asterisk announcement last year (and BTW, we know where those Skype folks are these days), but it is another solid step in moving Asterisk into the corporate mainstream.

IBM is also providing another channel for Digium to distribute Asterisk and channel partners who sell the Smart Cube solution now get a chance to provide a PBX along with a data server — plus making some money in providing handsets and configuring a phone system for their customers.  Again, contrast the potential here for Digium to grow its business through (dull but trusted) IBM and its channel partners verses last year’s talk from Skype to A) Develop a business strategy B) Find and train channel partners and C) Ultimately make money by recurring revenue on SkypeOut minutes sold…

(FYI, Skype was talking up love of channels and the Skype partner program about a month ago in Miami, but that’s what they were talking about last year at AstriCon 2008 and at CES 2009… so what’s the hold up?)

Net-net: IBM may not be exciting and flashy, but for most buyers, this is a Very Good Thing indeed.

Bottom line: You have to look REALLY hard [...]]]>

You’ll find three (3) pieces about HD voice from AstriCon over at the HD Connect Now website (www.hdconnectnow.org)–

• AstriCon 2009: It is all HD voice (handsets)
• AstriCon 2009 – Dialogic talks HD voice media server
• From AstriCon: Rumors of AT&T running HD voice in San Antonio

Bottom line: You have to look REALLY hard to find a VoIP handset that doesn’t have support for the G.722 wideband codec these days.  Even Cisco’s $130 cheap-end VoIP phone has G.722 built in… and yes, I’m sure people are going to start nit-picking about mic quality, speaker quality, does the gear really sample at 16 KHz, etc… we’ll see.

Also very interesting that AT&T is quietly trialing HD voice in its back yard. No details yet on exactly what is going on; I’m hoping the company will be as forthcoming as Verizon Business, but then again, AT&T never rolled out Casabi after playing with it nearly a decade ago..

Digium head hoo-hoo, er Community development guy John Todd has asked me to be a Master of Ceremonies (MC) for two of the AstriCon tracks on Wednesday and Thursday. Which means I get to herd cats, [...]]]>

I’m going to be at Digium’s AstriCon conference, the Asterisk developer’s conference, on October 13-15 in Glendale, AZ.

Digium head hoo-hoo, er Community development guy John Todd has asked me to be a Master of Ceremonies (MC) for two of the AstriCon tracks on Wednesday and Thursday. Which means I get to herd cats, er developers to sessions, make sure tracks keep rolling along and generally try to keep everything moving.  Probably wash John’s tie-dye shirts in the evening…

Asterisk is part and parcel of a LOT of IP Telephony projects these days these days, ranging from ooma’s handsets to high-end workings with HD.