Thanks for your input Steve, look forward to you being involved in the call.
Cheers, Dean > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:asterisk-biz- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Steve Totaro > Sent: Monday, 5 May 2008 8:10 AM > To: Commercial and Business-Oriented Asterisk Discussion > Subject: Re: [asterisk-biz] FW: Asterisk 3rd party developed commercialsoftware > sales licensing platform > > I think if you build it, they will come. Just look at Aheeva. > Switchvox prior to the buyout. Fonality. The list goes on. > > I do not think Digium makes much off the sales of a G729 license and > it probably costs them after supporting it. I think they do it to > provide a much needed component to Asterisk. I do not really see > other 3rd party applications providing a "Licensed VoIP Standard" that > is so widespread in VoIP devices. > > I am all for cutting out the middle man. If something works well, > there will be buzz on the lists and community at large. > > Thanks, > Steve Totaro > > On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 7:24 AM, Dean Collins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > Hi Randy, > > > > > > > > As discussed on Friday the 9th of May I would like to host this weeks Voip > > Users Conference Call. > > > > > > > > The purpose of this call is to discuss the community's feelings about an > > Asterisk 3rd party developed commercial software sales licensing platform. > > > > > > > > The plan is that some form of documented published schema be implemented > > that will allow for 3rd party software developers to sell their software > > applications using a common licensing model similar to the way G729 licenses > > are sold by Digium. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Basically this discussion came about for a 3rd party ecosystem question a > > few weeks ago when Cory Andrews from VoIP supply was on the Voip-Users > > conference call. > > > > I asked the question - how much of VoIP Supply revenue is product hardware > > versus applications - he said we don't sell any services such as ITSP hosted > > Asterisk so I replied that wasn't what I was thinking of and gave the > > example of Snap Dialer which is a low cost (I paid $20 for it) application > > which allows me to dial names from Outlook. > > > > > > > > He said they didn't sell any applications like this at all but would > > consider selling them if this was an opportunity presented to him. > > > > I then talked about some of the consulting I did for Salesforce.com and how > > they have built an entire ecosystem of third party applications all built by > > other people apart from salesforce.com but utilizing the documented API's > > and application security /licensing etc. > > > > My comments were that although Asterisk should always remain a free open > > source application that developers need to eat and pay rent as well. > > > > If there was some common marketplace that developers could sell small - low > > cost third party applications to the Asterisk community that Digium had some > > type of overview/management control over who listed etc that this would > > deliver a stream of revenue that would encourage further application > > development. > > > > The question I then posed to the group was if anyone knew how Digium > > managed the sale and licensing of the G729 codes. > > And if this was an open published standard that could it be used as the > > basis for the Asterisk ecosystem license model. > > > > Now I know it's not perfect and can be hacked but everything can be hacked. > > The idea is to build apps cheap enough that it's not worth the effort of > > hacking. If anyone has some alternative suggestions on how apps should be > > licensed we'd like to hear them this Friday. > > > > I know there were discussions in the early days of the Mexuar launch about > > how they could license a single channel of the Mexuar Corraleta application > > rather than the entire server license for $2000. The issue always came down > > to how we could license it to 1/ a single channel license. 2/ tied to a > > single machine and not transferable (currently the Mexuar license is hard > > coded in the application to the servers IP address). > > > > > > > > I know for me personally although I have donated to numerous bounty requests > > (I even tried to get one developed for video conferencing a few years ago > > that was around the $10,000 range) I haven't seen the ongoing continual > > development that would benefit the Asterisk community. > > > > > > > > I personally would be more than happy to pay for 'the next generation of > > FOP', it was a great application when launched but there is a lot more it > > could be offering. > > > > > > > > I'd also like to implement a far smarter 'user dashboard' similar to what > > Druid are developing. > > > > > > > > Now I no longer work for Mexuar and don't have access to it anymore I'd also > > like to pay for a single channel Mexuar license rather than using 'lesser > > quality' experiences by other solutions. > > > > > > > > Drawing on my own now defunct project - is the Asterisk user community now > > ready for centrally provided services such as the 'off-deck processing' like > > the Tellme Speech Recognition Service > > http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Tellme . As demonstrated by Amazon EC2 / > > S3 web services I'm a huge fan of cloud computing off-deck processing, > > Should these style services also be able to take advantage of an Asterisk > > 3rd party ecosystem licensing model. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > So the suggested topics to cover this Friday (9th of May at 12pm est usa) is > > this; > > > > > > > > 1/ Should commercial software applications like SNAP Dialer even be > > encouraged for the Asterisk community - or is this the slippery slope? > > > > > > > > 2/ Should this license schema model be centrally managed by Digium - what > > are the alternatives? > > > > > > > > 3/ Is a centrally managed approval process like Salesforce.com/ i-tunes > > appropriate for the Asterisk user community or should it just be a > > 'published document schema' but all sales are handled by each individual > > company (separate sales is my preference but it should be at least > > discussed). > > > > > > > > 4/ Is the G729 model an appropriate solution (my understanding is it is tied > > to NIC addresses) - are there alternatives that should be considered > > instead, what are the limitations of NIC licensing over server IP address > > etc, how does this affect client applications running on 'client' machines. > > Hopefully someone from Digium will join us on the call to explain how the > > G729 license system works. > > > > > > > > 5/ What type of applications would you like to see licensed via this 3rd > > party ecosystem model. > > > > > > > > 6/ What do we do from here? > > Is this something Digium should be developing internally and present to the > > Asterisk community as a 'suggested working model'? > > > > Is this something that can be developed by the community and presented to > > Digium for their approval and adoption? > > > > Who on this call wants to be involved and what do you want to do from here? > > > > > > > > > > > > Please understand that I'm interested in initiating these discussions just > > as an Asterisk user. Neither I nor Cognation Pty Ltd have any commercial > > interests in 1/ running this ecosystem 2/ consulting to or making any > > commercial benefit in driving this project forward. It's really come about > > as I as an Asterisk end user would like to see more funds being made > > available for Asterisk application developers so we can continue to build > > the greatest voip technology in the world and while it's pretty cool now I > > feel that ongoing application development isn't occurring as fast as it > > should be. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > This call will begin at 12pm est usa time - for those of you who have not > > dialed in before the details are below. > > > > > > > > Talkshoe Web page details: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/22622 > > > > PSTN: (724) 444-7444 Call ID: 22622 > > > > SIP: exten => 1234, 1,Dial(SIP/[EMAIL PROTECTED], 60, D(22622# ${MY_PIN} > > #) ) > > If you have no PIN use 1# instead. (remove any spaces in the line above) > > > > IRC: Follow chatter or ask questions on IRC on Freenode.net > > #voip-users-conference > > RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AstUser > > > > INFO: > > http://www.VoipUsersConference.org > > http://food4wine.ning.com > > > > > > > > For those of you who have never participated before make this your chance to > > get involved, download the talkshoe chat application in advance or even > > better go and listen to some of the previous 80 calls archived in mp3 format > > here http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/22622 > > > > > > > > > > > > Regards, > > > > Dean Collins > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Cognation Limited > > +1-212-203-4357 > > +61-2-9016-4652 (Sydney indial) > > _______________________________________________ > > --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- > > > > asterisk-biz mailing list > > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz > > > > _______________________________________________ > --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- > > asterisk-biz mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz _______________________________________________ --Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com-- asterisk-biz mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz
