Make no mistake: yes. September 23-25 in Glendale, AZ.

This event is “The ONLY true Asterisk Conference” originally founded by Sokol and Associates and acquired by Digium in July, 2007. Details forthcoming next week on www.astricon.net

To respond to the second most asked question every day, “Is there a Digium Asterisk World” in Boston this year? The answer is no, there is not due to the changes at Pulvermedia. Thus, Astricon is THE conference for your Asterisk needs. Developers. Integrators. Resellers. Distributors. Newbies. Partners.

So plan now for heading to Astricon, and watch for the announcement next week with details on registration and final dates and venue information.

See you soon!

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MYTH: Digium requires code contributors to give away their rights.

Contributors to any open source, GPL-licensed project willingly grant specific rights, while maintaining copyright on their contribution. Digium, as the sponsor of the Asterisk, has required from the inception of the project that contributors to Asterisk sign the contributors’ license agreement – a policy that is designed to ensure that Asterisk remains free of legal encumbrances. The purpose of this agreement is to clearly define the terms under which intellectual property has been contributed and thereby allow us to defend the project should there be a legal dispute regarding the software at some future time. While the Asterisk contributor’s license agreement does enable commercial licensing, all code contributed under this license agreement is available freely under the GPL. Digium’s commercial license revenues directly fund continued open source development. This is truly a dual licensing model, in which the use of one license does not diminish the other.

While there are those that take exception to this policy, there are precedents among other very successful open source projects that are in line with the Digium policy. For example, the Apache Software Foundation requires a signed Contributor License Agreement to be on file before an individual is given commit rights to an ASF project ( http://www.apache.org/licenses/icla.txt ). There are also precedents with more strident legal requirements such as the Free Software Foundation’s policy which requires copyright assignment or disclaimer to accept GNU contributions ( http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain/maintain.html#Legal-Matters ). Digium is not blazing a new trail here, just working to apply best practices to the Asterisk project.

OUTCOME: Busted. Contributors keep their copyrights

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Crowning a difficult written and practical examination, the dCAP Certification gives customers the confidence that they’re hiring proven talent. It says, “this individual has the chops to make Asterisk go beyond the typical PBX.” The certification is earned through hours of study and demonstrated ability; it cannot be won by simply cramming a study book or sleeping through a tradeshow seminar.

With an exclusive dCAP Group now on LinkedIn.com, it’s even easier to find one of these talented individuals. Just search for dCAP on LinkedIn and look for the distinctive logo shown in the resulting profiles.

LinkedIn is a professional networking site through which you can find potential clients, vendors, and business partners. It offers a great way to advertise your professional strengths and interests. (Here’s my own profile.) LinkedIn users can form and join groups to display their affiliations as part of their profile. Corporate, non-profit, professional, alumni, and conference groups are all common. And now, there’s one just for Digium-Certified Asterisk Professionals.

There’s no cost to join or use LinkedIn. They sell upgrades for special features, but the site works just fine without those upgrades. Digium receives no benefit for you joining LinkedIn, other than the fact that dCAPs are now easier than ever to find and research.

Why use LinkedIn?

• See “Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn,” a blog post by Guy Kawasaki, former Chief Evangelist at Apple and founder of Alltop and Truemors.
• Read the secrets that Matt Asay discovered using LinkedIn to find Alfresco open source users (and recruit SEs!)

Already a dCAP? Create a LinkedIn profile and then join the dCAP Group. Only those that have passed the exam are pre-approved for membership. Asserting your dCAP credential is a powerful way to show that you’re on the cutting edge of disruptive telephony technology.

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Here at Digium, we’re big fans of the Discovery channel’s hit series, MythBusters, and its dynamic duo of co hosts, Adam & Jamie. On any given day at Digium you can overhear geeks discussing a favorite myth or the latest episode. “Plane on a conveyor belt” lasted for weeks, and will still spark up a heated discussion if you troll it past the right people.

Since joining Digium I’ve read or come face-to-face with a number misunderstandings regarding open source. Some are very general in nature while some are related specifically to Asterisk or Digium’s role in the Asterisk project ( example http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/25408 ). Given that Asterisk and open source in general is now expanding into a user base beyond that of the open source early adopters, it seems as though it would be fun to explore some of these myths in the same form as the MythBusters, and along the way explain Digium’s philosophy on Asterisk and our role in the ecosystem. So, we’re kicking off what hopefully will become our own little series of MythBusters with this post. Unfortunately, there are no explosions involved in busting these myths, so they’re not likely to be included in any of the upcoming episodes of the real TV show.

MYTH: Open Source means free software (as in beer)

Many are surprised to learn that open source software is actually distributed under a license agreement. Open source software is computer software for which the human-readable source code is made available under a copyright license (or arrangement such as the public domain) that meets the Open Source Definition. This permits users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form. It is often developed in a public, collaborative manner.

In order to qualify as open source according to the Debian Free Software Guidelines, a software license must meet the following 10 requirements;

1. Free Redistribution: the software can be freely given away or sold. (This was intended to encourage sharing and use of the software on a legal basis.)
2. Source Code: the source code must either be included or freely obtainable. (Without source code, making changes or modifications can be impossible.)
3. Derived Works: redistribution of modifications must be allowed. (To allow legal sharing and to permit new features or repairs.)
4. Integrity of The Author’s Source Code: licenses may require that modifications are redistributed only as patches.
5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups: no one can be locked out.
6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor: commercial users cannot be excluded.
7. Distribution of License: The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.
8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product: the program cannot be licensed only as part of a larger distribution.
9. License Must Not Restrict Other Software: the license cannot insist that any other software it is distributed with must also be open source.
10. License Must Be Technology-Neutral: no click-wrap licenses or other medium-specific ways of accepting the license must be required.

So, right off the bat we dispel the myth that Open Source software has to be free (as in beer) but is actually free (as in speech). In the case of Asterisk, there is now and will always be a version of the code that is open source and can be downloaded for free (as in beer). However, Digium does license the code under two distinct and separate license agreements. The first is the GNU Public License version 2 (GPL v2). The second is a Digium Commercial End User License Agreement. This ‘dual licensing’ model is is utilized by a number of open source companies. More about that in a future episode.

OUTCOME: Busted. Open Source software is free (as in speech), and may be free (as in beer), but does not have to be free (as in beer) in order to be free (as in speech).

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The Digium team enjoyed working with the Pulvermedia team and wish them all the best. Digium, however, will move forward by growing AstriCon, the original and only dedicated Asterisk Open Source Telephony Conference. We hope that those who of you supported and were excited by the DAW event strategy will join us at AstriCon in Glendale, AZ in September of 2008.

Last year, we had a successful event in spite of the last minute venue changes forced by the new hotel not being ready in time. Those challenges moved us to the outskirts of the city. This year we are committed to the event and to make it better than ever! The venue is completed and committed to working with Digium to deliver a world class event. It is a great new hotel!

Dates: September 22 - 25, 2008

Venue, check it out:

Renaissance Glendale Hotel & Spa
9495 W. Coyotes Boulevard
Glendale, AZ 85305
Phone: 623-937-3700
Toll free: 1-800-Marriott

This event is open to all those companies in the Asterisk ecosystem. Because this event is designed for Asterisk community and Asterisk enthusiasts, we are expanding it to add a business track as well. As Asterisk moves mainstream, expect the usual technical track, Asterisk 101, business track, code zone for developers, resellers and integrators, and a world class slate of speakers and workshops.

Digium will sponsor and manage the event and we will encourage booth space and sponsorships to help grow the event! Our goal is to educate more people about Asterisk, advance people’s knowledge who are already using Asterisk, and share everything from best practices in open source to end user experiences.

Check out www.astricon.net next week to follow the changes which will start to occur frequently. Stay tuned. for more information on Astricon, check out the web site - give us a few days to get this work completed.

We look forward to seeing you all this year at Astricon in AZ!

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Our commitment to our customers and resellers is to always provide factual and accurate information in support of making informed purchasing decisions. Yesterday afternoon, we received an e-mail from a reseller who themselves were the recipient of commentary, from a competitor, about our products. Given the level of misinformation in the original document, we felt compelled to set the record straight.

The points raised in the original document are in bold italics. Our responses to these points are in-line.

“The Switchvox support model has changed”

Correct, the Switchvox support model has changed. Now, customers can choose from e-mail only support, business hours phone-based support (5am-7pm PST), or 24×7 support. We think it’s a good thing that our support hours are expanded and that you now have the freedom to choose how much, or how little support you want.

“Digium now offers 24×7 emergency support, but it costs $4995/year.”

We’re offering something a little bit different. We’re offering 24×7 support for whatever you want; emergency or not. With our Platinum service level, customers get 5 non-business hours incidents per year. If you’re coming up on the end of your annual support services and you want to call us at 3am because your phone system is down, that’s fine. If it’s 3:01 am and you just want to ask us about the weather in San Diego, that’s fine, too. It’s just an incident; customers can use them for whatever they want.

A complete Switchvox SMB system with Platinum Supports starts at $3890 MSRP, not $4995.

Note though, that our online store, where an AA60 with SMB and 10 Platinum users is $4295, sells above MSRP to encourage customers to buy from resellers if at all possible.

“Besides costing $4995, customers are charged $100 for every non-business hours call they make for Switchvox support.”

That’s incorrect. Our support is incident based, so if a customer chooses Platinum level users, then they can open those 5 incidents for whatever they like.

“Digium’s Switchvox SMB offering costs $7490 for a tower server and no phones.”

Digium ceased offering the tower as an option for Switchvox on March 30th. Beginning on the 31st of March, Digium began offering the AA60, a small form-factor appliance. Referencing our previous comment above, the AA60 with SMB starts at $3390, not $7490.

For $7300, you could buy a Switchvox system, with phones, and have it covered by software updates and support for Five (5) years. Why not use the $190 you save to buy a fancy dinner, 191 tracks from iTunes, or some carbon credits?

“Switchvox has a terrible IVR builder.”We are concerned that anyone would think our builder is abysmal. Without clarification, it makes a response difficult. Here’s a screenshot of our default IVR menu that’s provided with every Switchvox as an example for users to learn with.

In the IVR Tree section builder, you can see the steps in a top-to-bottom ordering, with the keystroke options below that. To the right, you’ll see the menu details. In the menu details, the first option controls the name and description of the IVR menu - and allows you to delete the menu. The “Actions” section shows you what steps are taken - with the option to Modify them. The “Options” section defines what happens when various DTMF keystrokes are used.

We think it’s fairly intuitive.

“Having the help messages for options pop up in new windows is a bad idea.”

Yes, we’ve chosen to use popup mini-windows with help information. This way, users aren’t faced with the trouble of a help balloon that they need to read accidentally covering the text of another option they need to reference. By putting the help text in a new mini-window, we’re allowing the user to move it around to a convenient space on their desktop.

“Switchvox does not offer AGI (Asterisk Gateway Interface) scripting capabilities.”

Correct, the integration of Switchvox with other systems occurs across a web accessible API. That means it’s incredibly easy to interact with anything else that’s web enabled. Examples of this are our Google maps, Salesforce.com, and SugarCRM panels inside of our web-based Switchboard user/operator real-time interactive call control panel.

Switchboard has a couple of advantages over other operator panels that aren’t web based:

1. Updating to a new version doesn’t require an administrator to load new software on users’ PCs. Instead, users can get Switchboard updates by simply reloading the web-app.
2. It’s multi-platform. Rather than maintaining version for Windows, Mac, Linux, etc., Switchboard is one application that runs in any OS’ web browser. Everyone gets the same features, regardless of their OS.

“Switchvox doesn’t have a concept of Groups. So, you can’t do permissions, or intercom, or paging.”

All of these capabilities are found in Switchvox SMB.

“Switchvox does not provide users with root-level access to the system.”

Correct, Switchvox though it is running on the GNU/Linux operating system, does not provide root-level access. Why do we do that?

We want to provide the customer a supportable product. If the customer is configuring the system using one interface, the GUI, then no one has to worry that they’re going to do something so wrong that they can’t be helped. For a reseller, this is great - it means your customers aren’t deciding to open the hood and install additional products that they ask you to support.

“Switchvox doesn’t have the capability to archive call recordings.”

Yes it does.

To backup call recordings in Switchvox, one needs to use the GUI to simply input the address of a storage server that can be reached across ftp, with username and password, and Switchvox will deposit the call recordings there upon the completion of each call. Like our IVR builder, we think this is pretty straight forward.

“Switchvox doesn’t give users access to raw configuration files.”

That is correct. Switchvox is managed entirely from the GUI. Because it’s managed from the GUI, users do not have the capability to edit or delete an important configuration file that might cause the system to become inoperable.

“I am not a Linux neophyte.”

Many of our Switchvox customers are Linux neophytes. They want an advanced and easy to use phone system that doesn’t require them to understand Linux or computer programming. For our customers that aren’t Linux neophytes, we offer a number of other solutions that are better suited to them.

…

We hope that our responses to the points are of use to our existing customers and to those of you that we’d like to convince to be our customers.

Cheers.

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A large sampling of responses were taken from their audience to decide the winners of each category. In a quote from the folks at SearchNetworking, “This is great recognition for Digium and it’s apparent that our members think very highly of your product, so much so that you ranked higher than Avaya. Congratulations again! ”

Other awards won this year include:

Asterisk: Technology of the year - Best IP PBX (Infoworld)

Switchvox SMB: Unified Communications Product of the Year (TMC)

Asterisk and Switchvox SMB: Best of Show, Best of Open Source (TMC)

Other recognition:

Digium Founder and original Asterisk author Mark Spencer voted in the top 100 most influential people in IT by eWeek

Linux Magazine’s top 20 Companies to watch in 2008

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“Is it possible to upgrade from the tower system that the AA60 replaced without losing anything or spending a lot of time and hassle.”

So I thought I’d lay out the simple procedure here for transitioning from another server to the AA60 Appliance. It’s so easy, even I can do it!

1. Take a backup of the original server. (Machine Admin –> Backups)
2. If you have any Digium cards inside the old server, take them out of the original server and install them into the AA60 Appliance.
3. Install the Switchvox software in the AA60 from the CD that came with your Switchvox. You’ll need an external USB CD-ROM drive for this, there’s no drive built into the AA60.
4. Complete the product registration process. (Machine Admin –> Product Registrations)
5. Apply any updates to the AA60 to get it up to the same version as the backup you’ve taken of the old server. You can find the version in the filename of the backup. (Machine Admin –> Updates)
6. Upload the backup into the Appliance. (Machine Admin –> Backups)

If you want, now’s a good time to upgrade to the latest software version (Machine Admin –> Updates) if there’s one available and to make sure you’re set up to have Switchvox running your nightly backup.

And you’re done!  And so painless, too.

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Let’s play question and answer.

“Malcolm, the Digium website page for the AA50 used to say that it was only available in the United States and Canada.  Now, it says it’s available worldwide.  What the dilly, yo?”

You’re correct, the page has changed and now says worldwide.  That means that we’ve completed two things:

1) Our certifications for the use of the AA50 in the United States, Canada, the European Union, and Australia.  Safety, Emissions/Immunity and Telecom are covered for all of the aforementioned.

2) We released software 1.1.0.1, and then the 1.1.0.2 bug and security fix, so that users could manipulate the electrical characteristics of their analog trunks and stations.  Prior to that, users had to go outside of the GUI and fiddle around with the CLI and configuration files - something that renders them unsupportable.  Now, users can make those modifications in a supportable fashion.

So, the dilly is that the AA50 is now approved for use in a number of countries and is available to resellers via our worldwide network of Distribution partners.

Cheers.

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I’m back, with an update from the AA50 software front.  This time, it’s just a minor bug-fix update, release 1.1.0.2, that’s now available for download on the BE portal:

https://be.digium.com

What are the changes?

We’ve implemented fixes to cover three security advisories:

AST-2008-002 - Two buffer overflows in RTP Codec Payload Handling

AST-2008-003 - Unauthenticated calls allowed from SIP channel driver

AST-2008-005 - HTTP Manager ID is predictable

We also:

• Changed the Bandwidth.com IP address, so setup of the provider via the GUI handles their recent change in IP. 
• Fixed a uninitialized variable bug in the DTMF generation that would occasionally corrupt tone generation.
• Changed the behavior of the WAN-side Polycom provisioning so that, when WAN-side provisioning is enabled, the LAN-side DHCP server continues to operate
• The DTMF Mode on the Users tab in the GUI is now a drop-down box
• And , we fixed a bug where the ‘disallow all’ checkbox on the VoIP Providers menu disallowed all codecs, even when some were allowed

So, nothing too fancy on the new features front, but three important security fixes.

Cheers.

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