[asterisk-biz] Suggestion for an Asterisk Product / Service Database

[Steve Totaro]

Gmail - PC wrote:
> I’ve been following this group for a while. I joined because I believe that
> Asterisk, and the development community, needs to develop a detailed
> understanding of the customer and their needs if it is going to deliver on
> the full promise of open-source telephony. It is deep customer understanding
> that drives proprietary vendors success – and we all need to develop that
> (without access to marketing team that number in the hundreds) if we are
> going to compete over the long term.
>
> It reminds me of the early days of Computer Telephony when lots of small
> companies were doing innovative applications. Those companies proved the
> market for some applications – and they were bought or their applications
> copied by the proprietary vendors. Asterisk risks the same fate as the IP
> era will be another era of experimentation followed by consolidation.
>
> I see people using the list to announce products or to promote their
> products/services. It might be in all of our interests to suggest Digium set
> up a product database so that anyone can list an Asterisk product or service
> (or note an upgrade) and developers have a single place to search for all
> things Asterisk. Heck there could even be some aggregated rating on a
> variety of factors (installation, service etc) to help in the selection
> process. A weekly update could alert people to new additions – to guide
> their thinking and discussions with their customers.
>
> This suggestion might cut down on the amount of email while assuring
> developers that their product can be promoted, found, and used by the
> Asterisk community.
>
> I apologize if this has been tried and rejected – My object is to somehow
> highlight or open source our customer insights rather than see them lost in
> the discussion that might be better directed to a database query.
>
> Peter
>
>   
Posting a product to the biz list is mostly futile unless it is 
termination or something unique. I view it as a press release to the 
Asterisk community and then I think the wiki should and does handle the 
rest. Google is good for due dillegence as well.

Things get consolidated such as TrixBox but any opensource product will 
fork at that point if it is active.

Thanks,
Steve Totaro