[asterisk-biz] Re: Verizon Interconnection

[alex at pilosoft.com]

On Mon, 11 Jun 2007, Nick Seraphin wrote:

> Who determines who has "enough clue", and what "enough clue" is?
Generally, everyone will watch and decide. It is a fairly small world out 
there. I'm replying to you because you generally don't fit the mold of 
clueless people. Anyone who's been reading the list will form their own 
opinions, though.

> For example, I believe I know what I'm doing for the most part, and I
> know when I need to ask for help from others.  But I certainly don't
> know as much as some people do, and I wouldn't try, for example, to
> write a book on the subject.  My experience and expertise is stronger in
> some areas, and weaker in others.  There are some things where I know I
> need to ask for help, and yet in other areas I know enough to help other
> people fix their problems... and these are not "dumb people" either.
> It's quite impossible for anyone to know everything about everything,
> even in just one subject like VOIP.  And anyone who claims to know
> everything should raise a red flag for us to realize they're not being
> realistic to say the least.
I don't claim to know everything. But if I say something on-list, I expect 
this to haunt me for the rest of my life (and it probably will), so I 
better make sure the statements I make are correct. If I don't know, I 
will either keep my mouth closed or admit that I don't know.

If I ask for help, I will show that I've done my homework - and that I'm 
not looking for a free hand-out, but trying to bridge the gaps in the 
information I've been able to glean online.

> It always shocked me (and still does, to a certain extent) when I came
> across very intelligent people working in the computer industry who
> didn't understand basic concepts of IP networking, or for example didn't
> know basics about T1 circuits and the hardware required, etc.  But then
> I realized that these people had never been in a position to need to
> learn these things.  No matter how brilliant you are, if you don't have
> practical experience with a subject, and you haven't researched it
> yourself, you're simply not going to understand it automatically.  As an
> ISP back in the 90's I was dealing with things that seemed very basic to
> me, yet were bleeding edge technology to non-internet-savvy computer
> experts who at the time could run circles around me with other topics.  
> It seemed unusual, for example, that Fortune 500 company computer guru's
> who knew a lot of esoteric knowledge of mainframes and (outdated)
> programming languages were asking ME questions about networking,
> internet, telecom, etc.  But I dealt with these topics every day, and
> they didn't... so even though they had been in the industry far longer
> than I had, I was the expert in these areas and they were the newbies.
Here's the thing: If you are entrepreneur, you are *expected* to know the
basics of *every* technology used in your business. Because VoIP touches
so many things (IP networking, telco stuff/tdm, voip-specific stuff,
general security, application development, billing, etc), this can be
daunting. However, that also means that ones who *do* get all of those
things have a leg up on the competition. All is fair.

> I agree that a service provider should at least have a general level of
> competance in the technology he/she uses.  But if everyone waited until
> they knew everything they might possibly need to know, there would be no
> new startup companies at all, and a lot more people on unemployment or
> welfare.  A firm grasp of the basics is very important, yes.  But the
> complexities of various VPN technologies and implementations is not
> really a "basic" unless your company is selling that technology.  From
> what I gather, this topic came up because ONE vendor this company deals
> with required it.  I know of many VOIP companies that don't use VPN's
> for anything and yet are quite competant, so that's not a prerequisite.  
> It's like saying that some VOIP companies do business in China, so if
> you don't know all the various technical and legal challenges of doing
> business in China, you shouldn't be running a VOIP company in the US
> because there's the vague possibility that one day you might do business
> in China too.
Yeah, but before putting foot into mouth (...public ips are not to be used 
behind firewall, ...ipsec designed to connect networks) one would be well 
advised to read underlying documents. 

To go with your example, if you don't know various things about China, you
should kindly refrain from posting until you learn. 

In other words, 'LURK MOAR'.

-alex