[asterisk-biz] SER/Asterisk interworking mailing list.

[Alex Balashov]

Greetings,

As a developer and consultant who spends considerable time on projects 
involving the fusion of Asterisk and products derived from the SER 
ecosystem (OpenSER, Kamailio, OpenSIPS, the new SIP-Router), I have 
found that there is a great volume of interest in this topic on the 
mailing lists associated with all communities involved, but a 
comparative lack of focus that results in duplicated effort and lack of 
specialised response.

This is mainly due, I think, to the fact that detailed Asterisk 
experience - while common - is not a prerequisite for working with the 
SER products, while for Asterisk people SER can often be a next step in 
scalability and VoIP service delivery platform enhancement that they are 
just getting into.  And so on.  There's pollution in the respective 
discursive spaces;  a lot of Asterisk people posting to the SER lists 
ask a lot of Asterisk-specific questions in addition to any they may 
have about SER which can be construed as potentially off-topic by some 
members, and the opposite is true on the Asterisk lists when detailed, 
involved discussion about SER occurs.

We need to capture that discussion that exists at the overlap and is 
specifically concerned with making these two systems work together, 
requiring somewhat detailed and esoteric understanding of both and a 
community of user support and knowledge that focuses on both of these 
conceptual and product universes.

Toward that end, I am hosting a new mailing list with this succinct 
purpose, if slightly unwieldy name, and encourage all interested to 
join.  It is called 'SER-Asterisk-Interwork' and can be accessed for 
subscription here:

http://lists.evaristesys.com/mailman/listinfo/ser-asterisk-interwork

The archives are available here:

http://lists.evaristesys.com/pipermail/ser-asterisk-interwork/

You can post to the list at:

ser-asterisk-interwork at lists.evaristesys.com

It's the same GNU Mailman stuff you are already used to.

While it could be argued that this cross-product discussion is valuable 
to retain in both communities, I think there is considerable benefit to 
creating a specialised mailing list that focuses specifically on this 
integration path and the unique interoperation and configuration issues 
it creates.  I think it would be good to get some of this discussion off 
of the SER and Asterisk-specific mailing lists where it has somewhat 
marginal relevance at times and refocus it.  If you agree and are 
interested in this topic, you are invited to join the list.

One last note:  The SER/OpenSER community has been in a state of flux 
recently, with OpenSER undergoing a name change to Kamailio and 
subsequently seeing a fork.  The incumbent Kamailio project is now
in the process of merging with the original SER project.  The choice of 
nomenclature for list is not meant to imply an endorsement of or 
affinity for the IPTel SER project per se.  It is just that right now it 
serves the aim of terseness to use a common denominator, to refer to 
this family of projects as the "SER ecosystem."  Whether you are a SER, 
OpenSER, Kamailio, or OpenSIPS user, you are part of that "SER 
ecosystem."  That is why the list is named what it is.

Thank you,

-- Alex

-- 
Alex Balashov
Evariste Systems
Web    : http://www.evaristesys.com/
Tel    : (+1) (678) 954-0670
Direct : (+1) (678) 954-0671
Mobile : (+1) (706) 338-8599