[Asterisk-Users] - ACAN - the Asterisk Comprehensive ArchiveNetwork (was RE: GPL thoughts)

[Jim Van Meggelen]

asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com wrote:
> On Wed, 2004-10-27 at 13:37, Jim Van Meggelen wrote:
>> People will want to pay for your expertise because you wrote (or at
>> least contributed to) the base platform, or language, or
>> what-have-you. The more one contributes, the more their credibility
>> is established -- their services gain value. This holds true not
>> only for individuals, but for companies as well.
>> 
>> Rather than people trying to lock their "brilliance" away so only
>> they can use it, I'd rather like to envision something such as the
>> Perl folks have; ACAN, the Asterisk Comprehensive Archive Network
>> (we need a better acronym, but I digress).
>> 
>> Folks would contribute all kinds of interesting dialplan functions,
>> which can tyhen be downloaded (and improved!) by the community. Some
>> of them are junk; the crucible that is open-source will either weed
>> them out, or fix them. The best in class will rise to the top, and
>> become the standard way of solving a particular challenge. There will
>> always be choice.
> 
> I did try to setup something along those lines. A couple of
> times I tried to encourage people to use the repository I
> setup, AFAIK, it has never been used, not that I've really
> worried/worked on it since it was never used...

Now that Asterisk has an official release, the interest level should
change dramatically.

Also, a community-driven site like that needs to be promoted. Initially,
you can't expect it to grow on it's own. It'll need nurture for the
first few months. As more people contribute, more people will take an
interest in it. 

> See http://www.websitemanagers.com.au/asterisk/

So far so good, but where's the content? Don't tell me that you're
waiting for people to deliver it. You're right, but not yet. First,
you've got to get a few things in there that people will want. Generate
enthusiasm; generate interest -- give us something new every week that
people will want to try. Make us want to check it out on a regular basis
to see what's new.

> I have run/maintained www.deadcat.net for a long time (6 or
> more years I
> think) which is basically the same sort of thing for Big
> Brother (cross platform monitoring/alarming system). Many,
> many people who have asked the usual questions "Which is
> better BB or xyz?", are always told that the library of
> add-ons/patches/etc available on the deadcat website make it
> the better choice by far.

So what were the keys to its success?

> So, it would be nice to have people saying the same things
> when comparing some cisco CM solution to asterisk, etc... ie,
> look at <blah> because it has loads of AGI scripts to do
> almost anything you want, dialplan samples, patches, etc...

Totally.

> Of course, most patches belong on the bug tracker, but some
> don't (if they will never be accepted into the cvs for example)...

No no. We're not talking about patches. We're talking about add-on
stuff. Scripts, databases, odd little hacks that'd never make sense as
part of the core, such as an interface to alarm systems, or maybe some
cool X-10 stuff.

> Anyway, all of this is just my own opinion, yours may vary.

> If people have comments regarding the website, or how it
> could be made more useful (apart from actually having some content),
> please let me know. 

LOL! Well, I already opened my mouth with respect to the content thing.

> Finally, just because you haven't authored something, doesn't
> stop you from uploading it to the website (as long as you
> have the right to re-distribute the work, which the GPL allows).

Good advice.