I was interested in participating but receive no reply at all about how to be on the call. Nor was Jeff Pulver on Facebook or responding to Twitter.
And I paid for my membership thinking that I'd give it a year and see what happened. Michael On Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:16:09 -0400, Steve Totaro wrote: >FYI > >It looks like FWD is looking for value added service ideas for free as >a volunteer. > >I think it will fail but we shall see. I really don't get the nerve >of them (Free World Dialup has changed it's name to FWD) to ask for >free ideas and development on a non-free service. > >Maybe if they can come up with a killer app and people will adopt it, >then it might work, but then again, people still cling to their analog >FAX machines.... > >Thanks, >Steve Totaro > > >---------- Forwarded message ---------- >From: Daniel Berninger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Date: Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 10:39 AM >Subject: more on Free World Dialup groups and FWDLive >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >Hello, > >We are looking for group leaders and topic ideas for the FWD voice >analog of Yahoo!Groups -> FWDLive. > >The exact approach to FWDLive remains a work in progress. > >We know FWDLive should offer SIP enabled group conversations along the >lines of an open protocol version of Talkshoe. > >We may end up limiting the size and access to groups to avoid the sort >of disruptive participants that led to the demise of Skypecasts. > >A prototype of process for creating groups will get posted to FWDWiki: >1) pick a topic and write short summary >2) pick a time to run the call, post to the schedule, request conference code >3) dial into the group at the appointed time > >Jeff Pulver will host a call today at 2:00 ET to discuss FWDLive topic ideas. > >Reply to this note if your are interested in joining the call with >Jeff or volunteering as a group leader. > >I also attached a VoIP Planet article below that provides more details >on why FWD moved to paid membership. > >Best regards, > >Dan > >................................... >Daniel Berninger >CEO, FWD >fwd: 12908 >v: +1.202.250.3838 >e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >w: www.freeworlddialup.com > >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> > >http://www.voipplanet.com/news/article.php/3767266 > >Free World Dialup No Longer Free > >August 22, 2008 > >By Jeff Goldman > >FWD, formerly known as Free World Dialup, will next month start >charging a mandatory subscription fee of $30 per year, as part of a >larger plan to reinvent itself as what the company calls a >'Communication ISP.' This follows FWD's introduction a year ago of an >optional $30-a-year membership plan. > >According to FWD CEO Daniel Berninger, the mandatory fee was simply a >logical next step. "The voluntary one gave us the confidence to do the >required one... it was pretty successful, so what we ended up figuring >out over the year was that we wanted to be able to fund ourselves >enough so that we wouldn't have to do any kind of PSTN funding, like >selling DIDs," he says. > >And that, Berninger says, is really the point. "After a decade, VoIP >hasn't reached its potentialit basically is an on-ramp to the >telephone network, and doesn't do anything else," he says. "People >have experimented with things, but for the most part, all the revenue >models of [companies like] Skype and JAJAH... have something to do >with extracting money based on usage charges and giving people access >to the telephone network." > >Instead, Berninger wants to turn FWD into a Communication ISP, an idea >he introduced in a blog post earlier this month in which he argued >that "Interconnection with the telephone network shuts out the >possibility of creativity... Content is limited to those uses >justified in the context of the per minute cost of telephone service." > >And so the Communication ISP is intended to be a pure SIP offering, >free of the PSTN and its inherent restrictions. "For your regular ISP, >you pay them a monthly fee and they attach your computer to the >Internet... we want to be the same thing, in that you buy a >communication device, a SIP VoIP device, and you go to a Communication >ISP and get the thing on the Internet... and from there, you build >applications and create new value," he says. "So we're thinking about >this like an entire ecosystem." > >To compete with the dominance of the PSTN, Berninger says, VoIP needs >to differentiate itself better, not only with things like video and >wideband audio, but also with a whole new range of as-yet-unknown >applications. "The hard part of the argument is this bootstrap >problemin other words, how do we get from where we are, not knowing >what the applications are and not having anybody with capable devices, >to scale?" he says. > >The parallel, of course, would be the early days of the Internet. >"When it started, there was a very small audience and very limited >content, but it did have global termination for the same price... and >it created the virtuous cycle of content attracting more audience and >audience attracting more contentand the next thing you know, the >thing's growing tenfold a year," he says. > >To begin with, Berninger says, the FWD site will soon be redesigned, >largely to make it simpler and more user-friendly: you'll be able to >get your SIP credentials for free with one click, but that credential >will die in 30 days unless you're a paid member. He admits that'll >allow people to simply get a new one for free every 30 daysand he >notes that, similarly, every paid account can carry an unlimited >amount of FWD SIP credentials. "You could pay once and create a >thousand... so we're not clamping down super hard," he says. > >One key benefit of the new paid model, Berninger says, should be >improved service. "Over the years, a million people have registered, >so it's been very hard for us to provide good service... what we found >was that by asking people to pay a voluntary fee, it allowed us to >focus on the people that actually care, and create a much better >dialogue," he says. "And so we think, with the paid model, it'll be a >much smaller group of people, but it'll allow us to focus on people >that care." > >Berninger also says FWD's new paid model should be a boon to other >providers. "As long as Free World Dialup was still free, then nobody >else in the SIP registration business could create a paid model," he >says. "With us going to paid, that gives people more options. Most of >the people right now are doing SIP registration as a way to extract >some kind of PSTN on-ramp usage fee, but if we're now paid, then that >gives other people more optionsdifferent business models that they >can try." > >And that gets back to the main task: separating VoIP from the PSTN. >"We're trying to get people to start from scratch, to think about >what's possible, and to break out of this idea that everything has to >tie into the telephone network," Berninger says. "A lot of the >feedback we got was, 'Why don't you just charge money for 'FWDout' or >something like what Skype does?' Well, that's precisely what we don't >want to do, because it really blocks the possibilities... and so far, >the response has been great, so we're not turning back now." > >Click here to unsubscribe. > >115 Broadhollow Road, Suite 225, Melville, NY 11747 > >_______________________________________________ >-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- > >AstriCon 2008 - September 22 - 25 Phoenix, Arizona >Register Now: http://www.astricon.net > >asterisk-users mailing list >To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > -- Michael Graves mgraves<at>mstvp.com http://blog.mgraves.org o713-861-4005 c713-201-1262 sip:[EMAIL PROTECTED] skype mjgraves fwd 54245 _______________________________________________ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- AstriCon 2008 - September 22 - 25 Phoenix, Arizona Register Now: http://www.astricon.net asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
