ssokol February 26th, 2010

Back in the 1970s when I was a little tyke, my mother belonged to an organization called “The Welcome Wagon”.  They didn’t actually have a wagon (unless you counted our ugly green station wagon) but they did a heck of a good job of welcoming people into the neighborhood.  Almost as soon as the moving van pulled away, a flock of ladies with casseroles, cookies and daiquiris would descend upon the weary neighborhood neophytes, doling out food, drink and a spirit of welcome.

Flash forward a quarter of a century.  It is 2003 and I’ve just stumbled across this incredible concept: open source telephony.  I read through the minimalist web site for the Asterisk project, google around for “getting started” hints and begin re-learning Linux after five years in the Windows world.  After 36 hours of bleary-eyed compiling, scripting, editing and cursing I finally hear Allison Smith’s beautiful voice welcoming me to Asterisk.  That, my friends, was all the welcome wagon we had back in them days.

My first interaction with an actual human being (no offense Allison) came a few days later when I posted to the user’s mailing list asking about additional documentation.  The response was virtually instantaneous: “Read the source.”  That was it.  That was pretty much the answer to all questions.  “Read the source.”  Sounds like something from Star Wars: “Read the Source, Luke…”  Not tremendously welcoming, especially to somebody who’s C language skills were extremely rusty.  A long, long way from daiquiris on the driveway.

So now jump forward another seven years.  It is 2010.  Asterisk has reasonably good documentation.  (Even better docs are in the works.  I’ll tell you more about that in another post.)  There are books and samples and training classes.  The wild west of the mailing lists has morphed into something of a friendly frontier civilization.  People are rarely told to “Read the source.”  But as yet, there is no welcome wagon, dropping by with a heaping helping of green bean casserole and a jug of Carlo Rossi’s finest.  Well, today that changes.  Today we take one more bold step towards civilization.

Starting on Thursday, March 4 and continuing until the end of time, Digium will be hosting a weekly live introductory webinar entitled, “Say Hello To Asterisk”.  Our goal is to offer new users an opportunity to find the answers to the most common questions:

• What is Asterisk?
• What can Asterisk do for me?
• What do I need to know to succeed?
• Which version of Asterisk do I need?
• What does open source mean to me?
• Where can I go for help?
• How do I get started?

The idea is to give new users a bit of insight into the power of Asterisk and show them how to quickly get up to speed.  The presentation takes about 40 minutes, which gives us 20 minutes for questions and answers.  If you are new to Asterisk and would like a brief introduction to the project, please join us.  If you know a new user who could use a bit of orientation, please send them along.  We may not have potato salad or fruity drinks, but we’ll do our best to welcome everyone into the Asterisk neighborhood.

Register Now

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About the Author

ssokol

Steven Sokol is the Asterisk Marketing Director at Digium. He joined the firm in the summer of 2007 when his company, Sokol & Associates, was acquired. While at Sokol & Associates he developed and marketed the Asterisk Bootcamp, a highly successful training program for Asterisk users and administrators and managed a staff of Asterisk consul… more about ssokol