<html><head><style type='text/css'>p { margin: 0; }</style></head><body><div style='font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: #000000'><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; "><div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">It's amazing what you can learn in a few days...</div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Having just found out that Queen Elizabeth has a great sense of humor, it has now emerged that Kevin Fleming - a man who (both with and without his moustache) has been an amazing contributor and influencer in the Asterisk project is set to move on to a new challenge outside the project - but still within the realms of Open Source.<br><br>Kevin has been involved with Asterisk for 7+ years, and has been both a thought leader and a powerful voice in the Asterisk world during that time. I first met Kevin at a TMC event called VoIP Developer in California (old school, well before the days of IT Expo), where he was speaking about Asterisk as well as helping to man the Digium booth at the event.</div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I've also followed Kevin around Berlin looking for great gelato during the AstriCon Europe 2006 tour - and it was well worth it, that man knows his gelato!</div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">I'd like to take this opportunity to say thanks to Kevin for his enormous contribution to the Asterisk Project. Without his efforts, Asterisk would not be the success it is <span class="Object" id="OBJ_PREFIX_DWT1420_com_zimbra_date" style="text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; ">today</span>... <font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000">Anyway, back to main theme - when someone in a senior role like Kevin moves on, it is important that </font>others are there to pick up his responsibilities and move the project forward.</div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">As it turns out, we've already been working on this, and have some very talented people that will be taking up the key responsibilities of the project going forward. </div></div></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; ">Some of them have been involved with Asterisk for several years, and some are recent additions, but together they form a great team to lead Asterisk into the future.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div><div style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Matt Jordan has assumed the project leader role for Asterisk, and is responsible for managing the releases of Asterisk, as well as all of the development efforts within Digium.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Mark Michelson is serving as the Technical Lead for the project, responsible for architecture and design direction.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">We have also recently created the role of Community Support Manager, which Rusty Newton has filled. Rusty is a long time Digium employee with many years supporting Asterisk and Digium products, and will be the day to day interface for community technical issues.</div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">As you know, I recently joined Digium to look after the interests of the worldwide Open Source Asterisk community and I will therefore also be working alongside the good people identified above, especially Rusty.</div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">So while we wish Kevin all the best as he moves on, we are also confident that the good work he and the rest of the team have done continues to be in the best hands going forwards.</div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">To the future...</div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">David</div></div></div></span><br><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; "><img alt="Digium logo" width="288" height="50" src="http://www.digium.com/images/graphics/digium_RGB_signature.gif"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; "><br></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: medium; "><font color="#000000" face="Calibri, Helvetica, Arial, Sans"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 12px; "><b><span class="fullname">David Duffett</span></b></span><br><span style="font-size: 11px; ">Digium, Inc. · <span class="title">Director, Worldwide Asterisk Community</span><br><span class="address">6 Landscape Close, Weston on the Green</span> · <span class="citystatezip">Bicester, Oxfordshire OX25 3SX</span> · <span class="country">UK</span><br><span class="phone1type">direct/fax:</span> <span class="phone1">+1 256 428 6119</span><span class="phone2type"> · mobile:</span> <span class="phone2">+44 7722 442236</span><br><span class="socials"><span class="social1type">twitter: </span><span class="social1">dduffett</span> <span class="social2type">· linkedin: </span><span class="social2">www.linkedin.com/in/davidduffett</span> <span class="social3type"></span><span class="social3"></span><br></span><span class="tagline_html">Check us out at: <a href="http://digium.com/" target="_blank">http://digium.com</a> · <a href="http://www.asterisk.org/" target="_blank">http://asterisk.org</a> </span></span></font></span>
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