[asterisk-biz] FW: Asterisk 3rd party developed commercialsoftware sales licensing platform

Mon May 5 07:59:30 CDT 2008

Thanks for your input Steve, look forward to you being involved in the
call.

Cheers,
Dean 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: asterisk-biz-bounces at lists.digium.com [mailto:asterisk-biz-
> bounces at lists.digium.com] 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 <Dean at cognation.net>
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/... at 66.212.134.192, 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
> >  dean at cognation.net
> >  Cognation Limited
> >  +1-212-203-4357
> >  +61-2-9016-4652 (Sydney indial)
> > _______________________________________________
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