Spreading the Word, not just the Code
markster September 6th, 2007
You know, I didn’t really start out on a mission to change the world, but more just seemed to stumble into it. When I started Digium (Linux Support Services at the time), it was just me. The mission was really about seeing what I could do. Then you start to add some people and it’s about what “we” can do. Before you know it though, there are so many people involved and then this whole world of people who have become involved with Asterisk both in terms of using it and developing for it and even businesses springing up all over the place to try to commercialize it. There’s a point at which it started to dawn on me just how much bigger than me all of this had become, and that my role is really to do whatever it takes to ensure the success of Asterisk, and hopefully that of Digium as well! Today, the future of Asterisk is not just about code, it’s about the audience. As the Asterisk developer team at Digium continues to grow, my mission is really two fold — one part technology roadmap, and one part advocation, and it may be surprising how those two can often intersect. When I go to trade shows like IT Expo, Astricon, and Digium/Asterisk World, each one plays a different role in that process.
As we enter each of these shows, it’s probably worth commenting a little about why the show is important, and then perhaps have a follow up from each. So lets start with IT Expo, since it’s the first one, starting just next week. There I’ll be trying to tell an audience who largely is used to traditional voice products (even “traditional VoIP” products you might say) and teaching them how they can translate this “Asterisk” buzzword they hear all the time into revenue generating business for them. In that process, it’s important not only to cover how Digium has packaged Asterisk to make it easier for them, but to learn what things we need to keep doing to make it even easier, and to learn what both the customers and the channel need.
About the Author
Mark Spencer founded Digium¬Æ, Inc., in 1999 as Linux Support Systems while still a computer engineering student at Auburn University. When faced with the high cost of buying a PBX for the company, Spencer simply used his Linux PC and knowledge of C code to develop his own PBX. This was the beginning of the worldwide open source phenomenon known … more about markster
