[asterisk-users] SIPit 26 in Sweden - organized by Edvina

[Olle E. Johansson]

Friends,

SIPit is the main interoperability event for all things SIP. It's organized by the SIP Forum and creates good
feedback to the IETF. Asterisk has been participating in SIPit during many years and in many variants 
- videocaps, Marc Blanchet's IPv6 branch and the standard Digium releases. 

All these tests has lead to a large amount of improvements for Asterisk and have helped us to build a
network with other developers in the business, a network which helps when we have bugs that involve
interoperability with these devices or servers. SIPit is important for Asterisk, and thus it is important for 
everyone in the Asterisk community. Now, when we are working on the next  long-term release (1.8) we 
really need to test and make sure that we interoperate. New stuff, like Terry's SRTP branch and the
call completion and caller ID update work needs testing.

* Interoperability drives the TCP/IP business

What drives the TCP/IP business is simply stated in one word - "INTEROPERABILITY". Without open
network standards, the VoIP business would not be as large as it is today. Without working and tested
standards, it would not work at all. Asterisk, as an Open Source platform is in the middle of this business. 
We simply have to interoperate with all kinds of phones, servers and services out there. 

* SIPit 26 - organized by Edvina

SIPit is organized by the SIP Forum and every SIPit - two per year - is hosted by a company. During
good times, the large vendors has taken care of this. In the current climate, it's hard to get the needed
resources - time and money - from these vendors. SIPit 25, yes the 25th in a successful series, was
organized by the Interoperability Labs at University of New Hampshire in September 2009. Digium helped
out by providing the PBX infrastructure for the event. The next one, SIPit 26, will be in Stockholm, Sweden 
- hosted by myself with support from Tandberg and sponsored by a set of companies.

* SIP interoperability is a requirement - for you, your customers, your business

So why I am doing this? The business needs it, Asterisk needs it and I need it. Without SIPit, you will not
get good products that work together. Without SIPit, tests will be limited to certification of a very limited set
of functions by different vendors. I believe that this will lead to unhealthy market domination in the 
implementations, something that does not benefit the customers. 
And besides, after creating Astricon in the US and a series of other conferences in Sweden, I have 
experience of organizing events. I am crazy enough to step forward and take the risk, since I really
strongly believe that we all benefit from this.

Now I need your support too.

* Additions to your already filled-up TODO-list:

- If you develop SIP software, make sure you register and attend.
- If you buy SIP devices or software, ask the vendors if they attend SIPit and encourage them to participate
- If you have collegues that work with SIP development, please forward this mail to them!

Short facts:
- Date: May 17-21 2010 (very beautiful season in Sweden!)
- Location: Kista, Stockholm, Sweden
- Host: Edvina and Tandberg
- Sponsors: Ingate, Intertex, .se, Telio, Snom

We are currently working to set the price and to be able open for registration. SIPit 26 has a Facebook 
event page at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=340634688354 and a Twitter 
stream: http://twitter.com/sipit26 where you will get updates and be able to find links to the host web 
site when it opens. The main web site for  SIPit is http://www.sipit.net - a site that explains what will 
happen during this week and why you should attend as a developer.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Thanks for your support!

Regards,
/Olle