Greg Galitzine : Greg Galitzine's VoIP Authority Blog
Greg Galitzine

Open Source

Early Open Source Action at ITEXPO!

January 22, 2008

PIKA Technologies Inc., announced that its PIKA for Asterisk family of analog and digital boards is now compatible with Fonality’s trixbox CE.   This announcement comes in advance of PIKA’s participation in Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO’s Open Source Pavilion in Miami, Florida, which begins tomorrow.   The PIKA for Asterisk suite comprises a range of hardware and software designed to support applications built on the open-source Asterisk platform. These building blocks are designed to provide cost-effective, reliable network connectivity to bridge between legacy networks and Asterisk-based IP telephony applications.   So come on down to ITEXPO’s exhibit hall, which is set to open at 6pm tomorrow evening (that’s Wednesday January 23rd) and check out the Open Source Pavilion, located at the front end of aisles 700–900.   I look forward to seeing you there!  

Digium Hits Milestone

December 19, 2007

Digium Offers SMBs A Free Edition of Switchvox

October 31, 2007

Fonality's FtOCC Certification Hits the Road!

September 28, 2007

  Ok, while I don’t imagine I’ll ever be voted “most likely to install an open source PBX for his cousin’s small business” I do have at least a basic appreciation of why being certified to do so might be a worthwhile endeavor.   Fresh off the heels of a successful stint at ITEXPO, Fonality is talking their trixbox training to the people. With three distinct certification tracks (administrator, engineer, and technician) under the Fonality trixbox Open Communication Certification (FtOCC) banner, there is something for everyone.   The FtOCC (pronounced “F-talk”) road show will be traveling to the following cities around the world: London, England; Boston, MA; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Toronto, Ontario; Los Angeles, CA; Miami, FL; Dallas, TX; Atlanta, GA.   To see a list of when FtOCC will be visiting a city near you, click here.   The best part is, I’m happy to offer the readers of my blog a special $50 discountif they sign up for the FtOCC training course.   So if you want to learn the ins and outs of trixbox Pro and CE, and save 50 bucks while you are at it, be sure to follow this link to register! And if anyone asks, tell them the VoIP Authority sent ya!     Here’s some more info on the FtOCC training:   FtOCC Administrator (trixbox CE & Pro) FtOCC Administrator is a three-day course designed to teach the basics of trixbox installation and administration. Taught by Kerry Garrison, trixbox Community Director, with support from Andrew Gillis, trixbox Founder, FtOCC Admin is a great opportunity to roll up your sleeves and learn the ins and outs of trixbox Pro and CE.

Digium Nabs Switchvox

September 27, 2007

Tom Keating reports on Digium’s acquisition of Switchvox and highlights Mark Spencer’s comments that Digium plans to take some of the proprietary SwitchVox code and offer it back out to the community.   I was on the call with Tom when Spencer and Bill Miller shared the news. I see this news as underscoring Digium’s stated mission to make Asterisk easy to use and expand the company’s reach to new customers across the globe through a growing channel.   SwitchVox brings to Digium over 1,400 existing customers. These customers absolutely love the Switchvox GUI and the ability it gives them to manage their own phone systems. Switchvox, which was founded in 2003, offers a rich feature set for the SMB market or for enterprises with distributed offices.   Said Miller, “Open source is taking over the SMB world.”   Certainly with this announcement, Digium is doing their part to bring simple, functional open source telephony solutions to that market.   Financial terms were not disclosed.    

Digium's Mark Spencer on Growing Up

September 11, 2007

Mark Spencer is founder of Digium and creator of Asterisk.   Spencer delivered a keynote speech last night entitled, Mysterious Keynote, in which he spoke about the changes at Digium, and how Digium is growing up.   He cited major changes such as new management team, a new facility, and a new focus on broader customers and increasing the channel.   Of course, Spencer being Spencer, he quickly dismissed Digium’s transition to “adulthood” with an “Okay. But not completely.”   Truth be told, Spencer did come across as a more serious, more mature business leader than the quirky offbeat open source evangelist that he’s better known as.   He spoke about Unified Communications as a hot trend.   “Amazingly,” he said “it seems that people think it’s all new, but as most people understand it, UC has been around for a long time.”   Spencer believes UC encompasses how one could use communication to change people’s business process.   Spencer cited an interesting example of an outfit called Botanicalls. This NYU project essentially devised a system whereby your plants can call you when they need water or if they’ve been over watered, etc… He mentioned an initiative called QueueGames, which is essentially a trivia game callers can play while on hold. The point Spencer was driving home is that even silly concepts such as these serve to get people thinking about the possibilities of communications. Initiatives such as this serve to expand the definition of UC.   He mentioned the evolution in the open source world, where things have gone from a simple “good versus evil” debate (open source vs.
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