The Techistan staff asked for contributions through social media such as Twitter, fring, Skype, Linkedin, and Facebook for what to talk with Mark about. Fred Posner of TeamForrest in USA, Steven Cayona of DIDX in Florida, Max Glucksmann of Comtel-Networksin Florida, Brough Turner (respected blogger and previously CTO of NMS Communications) in Boston, Alessandro Morelli ofMorel.li in Italy, Allison Smith of IVRvoice.com in Alberta, Canada, Syed Osman of Hatc Corporation in Malaysia and Sean Fairchild of KokuaTraffic.com in Hawaii contributed the topics and questions to interview Mark Spencer. Mark is one of the most well-known open source developers in the world, the CTO ofDigium, an avid flyer, and a great dancer, too.

Question 1: Would you share one or two of the most innovative uses of Asterisk? (Suggested by Suzanne Bowen)

Question 2. A lot of the code asterisk uses was written a long time ago… and with the moving of PBX telephony to SIP, and the incredible movement there, such as new codecs … what is Asterisk doing to keep up with these new technologies? (Suggested by Fred Posner)

Question 3. When mobile extension? Right now, only landline device like voip phone or PC. (Suggested by Alessandro Morelli)

Question 4. Suggested by Allison Smith… voice of Asterisk asks: Did he have any inkling whatsoever that Asterisk be as huge and empowering as it is today? Word is that you developed it as a way of not paying a high price for a VoIP system.

Question 5. Sean Fairchild suggested: Can he share about his airplane?

Questioin 6. Brough Turner’s first question: Let’s talk about market share. I believe all open source PBXs (of which Mark’s is the largest) now account for 20% of all PBX lines in North America. I assume open source PBXs cost less per line than Nortel, Avaya, etc. So, you’re hollowing out a once large business that others took for granted before Asterisk came along. Share some facts and figures please.

Question 7. Brough Turner’s second question for Mark: When will Asterisk support wideband audio between HD voice handsets like those from Polycom and Skype. Many want to understand your wideband audio plans. (Truth, Brough never said, “I’m not your ‘bro.’ He’s much nicer than that. My apologies for that statement. I do not know where it came from. His name is pronounced like “broth.”

Question 8. Syed Osman of Hatc Corporation in Malaysia asks: How can you make Asterisk to be a media station which can produce radio and video to phone as you dial extensions?

Question 9. Steve Cayona, network analyst of Super Technologies and DIDX asks: What was he thinking when he wroteCheops, that fine hacking, oops I mean network discovery tool?

Question 10. What are other ideas, plans, advice and more would you like to share with the listeners, Mark?

A full transcript completed by M.S. Bowen - http://www.if-i-were-your-coach.blogspot.com:

Part One:
Today we have Mark Spencer. He is known all over the world as the inventor of Asterisk, one of the most famous open source developers. He is always modest, friendly, fun and a good dancer.

Suzanne Bowen: Hello Mark.

Mark Spencer: You’ve kind of set the bar pretty high for me. I hope I can live up to all that.

Suzanne Bowen: We sent the word out through LinkedIn, Facebook, Ning, and Twitter to Asterisk enthusiasts and developers to ask you questions, promising to give credit to them. Max and I wanted first crack, though.

Max Glucksmann (Comptel Networks, DIDX integrator, VOIP solution developer): Would you share one or two of the most innovative uses of Asterisk?

Mark Spencer: I am always impressed with projects done by NYU in their interactive telecommunications lab. They have so many different projects that are creative applications, like Big Games – you can play in the movie theater using mobile phones as controllers. Another is IPlateU – you can leave a meassage based on the license plate. Those are really creative. The most interesting thing to me about the NYU program is these were not originated from the engineering department but the art department. These are artists using asterisk as a medium to express themselves. I think that says a lot about how easy it is to develop applications for Asterisk even before you take into account all of the cool projects that even make it better.

Suzanne Bowen: I remember IPlateU winning one of the innovative awards that year. I wondered whether people had to log in to a site to enter their number and be part of the network.

Mark Spencer: You either call to check or leave a message based on the license plate number. It used Lumenvox to do spech recognition since you didn’t want people typing on their phones.

Fred Posner (teamforrest.com): A lot of the code Asterisk uses was written a long time ago… and with the moving of PBX telephony to SIP, and the incredible movement there, such as new codecs … what is Asterisk doing to keep up with these new technologies?

Mark Spencer: A lot of the code is still very reusable because a surprising amount of the telecommunications has stayed common and there is still a need to interact with a lot of the old PSTN system. A lot of the effort we are putting forth with Asterisk today is with the wideband codex, trying to do more with video, IPB6 and other things. The biggest thing is to have a project that allows people to incrementally contribute things in a way that is flexible. To a great degree that what we have been successful in doing with Asterisk.

When we make changes we try hard to not do small hacks to the code or make things that will be difficult to maintain forward. We have a team of people who take contributions and try to make things compatible with a long term architecture for the project. We definitely are working on things like new codex, new SIP features and occasionally new protocols, the same kind of general architecture that we have with improvements as necessary.

Alessandro Morelli (“MVNO passionista”): When will there be a mobile extension? Right now, only landline device like VOIP phone or PC.

Mark Spencer: Asterisk doesn’t differentiate that much between cell and landline phone. One of the things we have been waiting for is the smart phone, and particular like Android, an open source operating system for the phone. That really is opening up doors for people who want to make apps with a data connection in the back that connects Asterisk to the handset and an audio connection can exist on whatever protocol exists. So you can think about extending the PBX feature onto a hand held or a smart phone on your desk using Android in particular. I think you going to see activity from digium potentially in terms of working with existing handsets, enabling and controlling PBX and in the long term integrate more tightly with the PBX.

Allison Smith (“Voice of Asterisk”): Did he have any inkling whatsoever that Asterisk be as huge and empowering as it is today? Word is that you developed it as a way of not paying a high price for a VoIP system.

Mark Spencer: I wish I could say I had a vision for it. I really did create Asterisk as a way to make a system less expensively than going out and buying one. Even when I named it I hoped it would be the everything of telecommunications. I didn’t recognize the impact of what it was going to be on the whole. Similarly, the fact Asterisk was open source was because I’m an open source guy. It wasn’t until later it was important that Asterisk be open source. I made the right decisions, but I made them not necessarily knowing they were right at the time. It just worked out that way.

Part Two:

Suzanne Bowen: I know personally, at DIDx I listen to people every day talk about a new VOIP company they are starting, or getting into IP communications. Almost 50 percent of them are using Asterisk. You would not believe the remote areas of the world they come from, how they got started, the tools they are using and the real empowerment that comes through Asterisk. It is amazing to think you are looking to lower the price and using open source. Look what happens, helping people all over the world to make money and take care of their families.

Sean Fairchild, in Hawaii, works with a CLEC there. He’s a big fan of flying. I always when I was young used to dream of flying, like a bird. Not in an airplane, but like a bird. Can you share a little bit about your flying and your airplanes?

Mark Spencer: It something that started when I hired Dean Windham to come be CEO of Digium. He was a pilot. I always kind of had an interest in airplanes but Danny and Steve Harvey, our VPSLs, are both pilots. I had gone on a couple of trips with them in small aircraft. It’s one of those things when you experience that usually most people either you love it or hate it. The vast majority of people I have gone with have absolutely loved it after a couple of trips; you don’t have to stand in line, you don’t have to go through security. You leave when you want to leave; you come back when you want to come back. It was just like, ‘wow, this is something I have to learn to do.’ It started to some degree more out of an interest in going from point A to point B. I have since developed an addiction to aviation to where I spend as much time as I can; probably about twice a week, searching for excuses to go fly.

Suzanne Bowen: So you really had a practical reason in the beginning, now it’s something you enjoy. You probably cannot imagine a life without flying.

Mark Spencer: In the U.S. it is a lot easier for people to learn to fly than it is in a lot of other countries, just because it is so accessible, especially with some of the new licenses, the light sport licenses. People can fly themselves a lot less expensively, than they think that it may cost, especially for recreation.

Brough Turner: Let’s talk about market share. I believe all open source PBXs (of which Mark’s is the largest) now account for 20% of all PBX lines in North America. I assume open source PBXs cost less per line than Nortel, Avaya, etc. So, you’re hollowing out a once large business that others took for granted before Asterisk came along. Share some facts and figures please.

Mark Spencer: I remember Brough at the Pulver parties, He was always out front and he made it through a lot longer than I did, especially dancing; kudos to him on that fromt. Maybe we’ll start a club of dancing CTOS.

Nortel, it turns out, was number one in terms of VOIP ports deployed in terms of individual companies. Asterisk was actually number two behind Nortel and only by a little bit. In fact, if you combine Asterisk and the other open source projects; keep in mind asterisk is 90 percent of the open suurce market, even if you add the remaining ten percent it was bigger than Nortel in terms of VOIP ports deployed according to the Eastern Management Group study. So, Asterisk is making an enormous dent, that puts it ahead of cisco avaya and others. That counts all of Asterisk, not just the people who buy it from Digium.

Part Three:
Brough Turner: When will Asterisk support wideband audio between HD voice handsets like those from Polycom and Skype? Many want to understand your wideband audio plans.

Mark Spencer: We do support Polycom’s codec, we will be supporting Skype codec shortly. There are some architectural changes in Asterisk that have to take place to make it seamless with conferencing and stuff like that. I cannot tell you a specific date; its not a trivial change, but something we are actively working on right now.

Suzanne Bowen: I’ve always been of the belief that when you roll something out you want it to be the best possible and not just throw something out there because peole are asking for it.

Mark Spencer: You have a balance between getting something out there for peole to work with. You have to be careful because it is so integral and an important feature, you want to do it in the right way so it is not a maintenance headache where you regret it in the near future.

Syed Osman (CEO, HATC.com): How can you make Asterisk to be a media station which can produce radio and video to phone as you dial extensions?

Mark Spencer: Asterisk already can play back audio files, and it can play back video files if they are recorded through the video voice mail capability. you can also connect streaming servers like icecasts through mpeg-1/2/3 to be able to stream into an audio conference bridge. We don’t have a good way to stream a live video because our conferencing doesn’t have video support. There are some existing patches some people have developed that functionality. It is something we are looking to integrate into Asterisk as well.

Max Glucksmann: That will be live video?

Mark Spencer: Live video as opposed to video voice mail.

Steve Cayona (Super Technologies/DIDX): What were you thinking when you wrote Cheops, that fine hacking, oops, I mean “network discovery” tool?

Mark Spencer: I intended Cheops as a way to discover resources on the network and make them more accessible; combining things like Queso and INMAP, which could identify operating systems, port scan, trace route and some DNS stuff. You could type a domain name or an IP address range and it would discover all of the computers there and show how they were connected. It was handy before firewalls. In 1997 people really didn’t think about firewalls then the way they do now; it was incredibly powerful in terms of what it could show you on the network and how to access things on the network.

A lot of people know i started Game the instant messaging program which is now called Pigeon. i worked on it for about two to three months before I handed it off. Cheops was the next project, and I thought it would be so much bigger than Game ever was. It seemed like such a core thing, but I never got anyone who was able to take Cheops over like they did Game. It is an excellent example in an open source project where not only do people use it but participate in the use of the program. I think Cheops could have been cool if it had been maintained, or I could have found someone to maintain it.

Max Glucksmann: Besides the network development tool, which can be helpful for security and network projects, is there any type of ability for alerts?

Mark Spencer: At the time I made it it had some basic SNMP support, it could also alert when it stopped responding to pings or when services went away. That was about all in there. Nobody’s maintained it in a very long time. It was a projected to become a next generation version but i don’t know where that sits right now. If there is someone using the project and would like to revive it i would love to help them out any way i can, even though it’s been missed the last ten years i would like to see it get another life.

Suzanne Bowen: Kind of like a baby that didn’t get to grow up.

Mark Spencer: Something like that; it’s been in stasis for a long time.

Part four:

Suzanne Bowen: Mark I know you always have new ideas. Your mind is spinning with in different directions of things you want do whether they are Digium related or your own interest. I was just wondering if you share some thoughts about your future or history.

Mark Spencer: Well, sure. Let me start with just one thing. In building Digium I was really fortunate that I had other entrepreneurs and mentors that helped me with the project. I mean with building my company and they provided advice. Now, I am fortunately in a position that I have been able to try help other entrepreneurs get started. I want to really encourage people that want to be entrepreneurs to make a run for it and to try it out. Try to build your business as long as you are building it for right reasons because it’s something you are passionate about. If you just trying to build it with the idea that you want to be your own boss, that’s probably not going to be a very good way of building a business. If you are building it with the idea that you have service that’s going to make a difference, absolutely go for it. building a business is not just about what you know but believe it or not, I think a lot of it is about what you don’t know. One of the reasons why Asterisk was so successful is because it was so different from other PBXs. I didn’t know anything about how to build a PBX. Don’t feel like you need to know everything about a subject before you start. Picture it and do it. I certainly did it that way.

Suzanne Bowen: I like how you put that, and I know that there are definitely kind of many entrepreneurs with ideas who are going be listening to this discussion. I want to add one thing to do if you don’t mind. It’s like how you said, “It’s also about what you don’t know It’s also about what your idea can do for people, and not only for those you are providing the service to, but how it helps those surrounding those you are providing the service to. People cannot imagine the positive Domino effect that this will have and it all starts with something like an innovative use of open source of telephony like Asterisk and a niche that you can serve to help solve a problem
or to make new opportunities available. Go ahead!

Mark Spencer: It’s been really rewarding when I see people that come for training for example at Digium. I can’t really emphasize this enough through lot of people that still I don’t know whether they think this way or logically in their mind. They think that’s some how you know I single-handedly made Asterisk and honestly that is no way the case. There are so many people that participated in Asterisk, but I still get people particularly come for their training that are just so appreciative of our existence.

Suzanne Bowen: Yeah it’s a fact.

Mark Spencer: Based on the many companies that have started with Asterisk, others can build their own success stories around it. That’s very rewarding for sure.

Suzanne Bowen: It’s one way to kick the butt of what is called a recession and actually things are improving and not only that, but here is a way to get into some business as long you have a market niche, targeting or making plans the right way. So.. the Asterisk boot camps they take place in US, and also in Europe. I also heard also in Malaysia, Pakistan and other areas.

Mark Spencer: People can go to the website of Digium to the training schedules there. The ones in Huntsville are the ones obviously give the most access to the people at Digium. I tried to meet with as many of the classes as I can if I am in town. It’s good to say hello kind of meet of some people and hear what they are doing with Asterisk.

Suzanne Bowen: Huntsville is not too far from Pensacola where DIDX is headquartered. As always just like I said in the beginning you are friendly, a lot of fun be around, very modest. People can listen to the language that you use throughout this podcast interview to understand what I mean. We do appreciate you and also we do appreciate the thousands of developers around the world and those end-users who help to take something like this forward, working through any glitches. It’s exciting to share the new opportunities it provides, so thank you, Mark, and I want to thank you Max who are among the integrators and developers and also the marketers like me. It’s been great talking with you, Mark.

Mark Spencer: Well, thank you. I want to thank the developers and contributors. They encourage people to continue to contribute forward.

Suzanne Bowen: All right I guess you are going to fly out some where this afternoon.

Mark Spencer: Yeah. I’m heading to Paris in just a little bit. When we finish this call.

Suzanne Bowen: Bon voyage.

Mark Spencer: Merci.

Murtaza Saleem gets the credit for the audio editing. He also does call center project and product management as well as web development.

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