[asterisk-users] Sangoma vs Digium: (was Re: ping too)

[Stephen Bosch]

Hi, all:

I think everybody is entitled to their biases, and I have to say that -- 
far from seeing this as a flame-war or otherwise tedious -- I think it's 
great that we're having this discussion and getting open and honest 
input from Digium staffers. We want to hear your thoughts and feelings 
on the issue, because the rumour mill has been going full-blast, and 
honesty helps public perception and keeps the speculation to a minimum.

I appreciate the difficulty of Digium's position as both the keeper of 
the flame and manufacturer of hardware. Open source business models 
aren't obvious or easy.

So -- now that we acknowledge that running a business is tough stuff, 
let's be fair and say that Sangoma faces many of the same challenges. 
Honestly, if Sangoma had to depend purely on Asterisk for its bread and 
butter, it wouldn't be around, so calling it a "parasite" is off the 
mark. The arrival of Asterisk has certainly been a good thing for 
Sangoma, but they are a hardware manufacturer and always have been. 
That's a different heritage than Digium's. Different history, different 
worldview, different approach.

My bias is purely this: I like quality. I like stuff to work. I'll give 
everything a chance. If Digium has made strides in improving their 
product (and anecdotal evidence suggests this to be the case -- 
personally I haven't run any of the newer hardware yet) then that's 
great and I'd absolutely be willing to give it another go.

Digium should be (and some of the guys there seem to be) grateful that 
there is this kind of competition. You can argue that competing 
manufacturers have benefited from the open source Asterisk, but it would 
be disingenous to suggest -- code contributions or not -- that the 
reverse is not also true. The bar got raised. Certain flaws were made 
obvious. And let's not forget one last thing:

Asterisk's utility depends on reliable hardware. We are not in a 
competitive vacuum here -- if Asterisk doesn't work well because the 
only hardware available for it is flakey, then Asterisk, the Asterisk 
community, and Digium all lose. Don't miss where the competition is -- 
it's not the other card manufacturers. It's Cisco. It's Nortel. It's 
Avaya, and on some planets, 3Com/Panasonic/NEC/Toshiba ;) .

This is a business *ecosystem* we're in here.

If I could make a couple of suggestions to Digium, right in the open 
sunshine, they would be these:

1. Embrace your competitors. I realize you're already doing this to some 
extent -- but there's a lot of rhubarb going on about what will happen 
to Astricon now that Digium has bought Sokol and Associates. Make sure 
the other guys are still welcome to come to the dance, and let them 
speak, too. Everybody wants to see this thing succeed, and there's lots 
of room on the dance floor for everybody.

2. Communicate. I realize it's a challenge when you're busy, but I can 
make it simpler for you. The most important thing is responsiveness. 
People have to know that their input has registered, or they're going to 
feel ignored, they'll lose their trust and go elsewhere (this has been 
improving at Digium in the last 6 months, so credit to them).

3. Remember that there is a big world outside the United States. Some 
Asterisk users in other countries have been getting the feeling that 
Digium cares very little about their specific circumstances and 
implementation challenges. (I think Digium's figuring this out too -- 
the BRI card is the evidence -- but there's nothing wrong with 
reinforcing it. Things were not so good before).

Those are my 102 cents. Again - I'm glad we're talking about this. It 
can only help.

Cheers,

-Stephen-