Friday afternoon, here in Dallas, I was sitting in the final session of the Astricon show. Nine folks from the Digium engineering team were crammed on stage and answering questions from probably 100 of the hardcore faithful, ranging from basic technical questions to futures to investments.
It was awesome. Sessions like this are where the good stuff comes out. For instance, we heard that there is an SS7 stack in the works, which is something that a lot of people have been asking for..
Astricon has been three days of frenetic activity. Between the meetings, sessions, and my talk, the whole thing has been a bit of a blur. Most gratifying, however, has been the recognition and response to iotum. People understand the need, especially those thinking about presence, and are responding with enthusiasm and interest.
The show had about 700 attendees. The format was a small exhibit hall and a lot of talks. Coupled with plenty of networking opportunities, it made for a great opportunity to get some serious networking done.
I didn’t see many of the talks, unfortunately. Caught part of Ed Guy and James Body’s talk on Truphone, which was excellent. Not only did we learn about their RAAMPS (redundant array of asterisk media processors) architecture, we also learned that Truphone is now available for the Nokia N91. I’ll be installing it posthaste.
The impression I was left with at the end of the show was simply that here is a community passionate about this technology, and ready todo business.
Kudos to the Sokol team for having put on such a great event.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
