An invitation from Omar Shaikh and Abdul Mutaal, Techistan reporters and DIDX marketing team members, is the at the heart of this video … to Cluecon August 3-5, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois at the Trump Hotel.

More information:

1. Sign up at http://www.cluecon.com
2. Listen to related podcasts:
Yossi, freeSwitch and open source developer and entrepreneur
Brian West and Anthony Minessale
Cluecon 2009
3. Watch Cluecon-related videos
4. 2010 Cluecon speakers including BBC R&D enginner Yasmeen Rasul

5. Garner new respect among IP communications and open source telephony by sponsoring Cluecon

An interview between Suzanne Bowen, VP of DIDX and Techistan with Anthony Minessale II, lead developer and creator of freeSWITCH, an open source soft-switch and application media server!

Results?  A history of Cluecon, past, present and future. Readers can make plans to participate in Cluecon Aug. 3-5, 2010 at the Trump Hotel, Chicago, Illinois.

Suzanne Bowen: Remember our last talks were at Cluecon 2009 and then the DIDX podcast interview. So, would you compare the first Cluecon with the one scheduled for 2010 this year?

Anthony Minessale II: There is a drastic difference between the first ClueCon and ClueCon MMX (2010). The first ClueCon was in an obscure hotel near one of the airports very far from downtown. There were several people in attendance who were intrigued by the idea of an open source developers’ conference. There was no FreeSWITCH at that time. It was only an idea brewing in my head. One major difference is that it’s the only time Mark Spencer attended, giving a presentation on Asterisk. Today, after 5 years of ClueCon, we are in downtown Chicago (have been since 2006) and this year we are at the luxurious Trump Hotel and we expect the biggest and best ClueCon ever!

Suzanne Bowen: John Todd of Digium gave an interesting presentation about the job outlook for open source developers. I liked how he used Craigslist to hire graphics artists for his PPT. I attended the 2007 and 2009 Cluecon conferences and have some great memories like West in pajamas and his big, friendly smile and leadership, the announcement of Barracuda Networks investment, the hot but friendly debates in Q&A sessions that I have recorded on Youtube, playing basketball with everyone, meeting a BBC correspondent, learning from Kamailio, openSIPs, freeSWITCH, Opal, Asterisk and other open source developers and entrepreneurs. Would you share a hilarious story about a past Cluecon, Anthony?

Anthony Minessale II: In 2008, we had a night where after the presentation we had beer and pizza in the conference hall. At 8pm they told us we had to clear the room for the night and we were stuck with 2 half-barrels on a luggage cart. With nowhere else to turn, we went to someone’s room where we hung out and played some instruments. The next day we realized it was on Youtube.

We still carry the tradition to this day to bring instruments to the conference for the night time.

Suzanne Bowen: I play the piano, Anthony. Can I bring it this year? I remember you guys taking us in 2007 to the DIDX-sponsored Cluecon party in a limousine, about 20 of us. The parties are just as creative and memorable as the conference itself. So, share a story about one of the best business developments from a Cluecon conference.

Anthony Minessale II: The number one best business development we have ever had from ClueCon is our relationship with Sangoma Technologies. They have been a proud sponsor of the conference every single year since the first. This year they will be announcing their commitment to the FreeSWITCH project by adopting the maintenance of our TDM abstraction layer FreeTDM (formerly OpenZAP) We are happy to have them in attendance and we can’t wait to see our friends!

Suzanne Bowen: Sangoma is wonderful. I met their CEO David Mandelstam last year at CommunicAsia. We spent a lot of time brainstorming business development ideas and ways to better enable more of the IP communications industry to Sangoma, DIDX and open source telephony applications like freeSWITCH. Give us a tiny blurb, plug-in about voip phone numbers and how DIDX just might happen to be a good service to jumpstart and grow one’s freeSWITCH or other open source telephony application and IP communications consulting and business. What do you think? I don’t mind some suggestions and critique, too.

Anthony Minessale II: FreeSWITCH lends itself well to services like DIDX. With a simple configuration tweak, calls can be routed in and out of FreeSWITCH instances all over the world allowing anyone to gateway the PSTN into VoIP space and to many FreeSWITCH services like conferencing , voicemail etc.

Suzanne Bowen: Let me tell you. Many DIDXchange members, readers of our media channels like the TMCnet DID/DDI channel, our blogs, and our new online magazine Techistan can’t wait to get together with you guys. Tell the venue, date, place, and how to sign up to sponsor, present, and participate in any way again please.

Anthony Minessale II: ClueCon will be held at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago, IL +1 (312) 588-8000. The Trump is located at 401 N. Wabash Avenue Chicago, IL 60611. When contacting the hotel to book rooms, please call +1 877-45-TRUMP (87867) and refer to booking number 4347 (FreeSWITCH Solutions or ClueCon).

We are giving away some great prizes including 2 Ipads and a MacBook PRO engraved with the attached image.

Sponsors and anyone interested in attending can contact us at 1.877.742.CLUE (+18777423583) or on the web at http://www.cluecon.com/ or http://www.cluecon.com/sponsor.

Be among the movers and shakers in open source telephony as Cluecon sponsors and partners:

Sponsors – FreeSWITCH Solutions, Sangoma, CudaTel, bandwidth.com, iCall, broadvox, tropo, *#StarPound, Illinois Institute of Technology VoIP Conference & Expo, Voip88, Voip Providers List, TMCNet, VoipSupply, meraki, Voip-info.org, polycom, Modern Tailor, BayScribe, Dialogic, Paetec, NACT, VoipX, WCGS, DIDXchange, and Voice Networking.

Have you heard of Asterisk? Mark Spencer? (Wish him happy birthday on April 8.)  Digium? They and the world of developers and entrepreneurs leveraging Asterisk are responsible for millions of small businesses and other organizations, students, families, friends and other types of consumers to be able to make and receive calls over the Internet. Asterisk is an open source telephony switching and private branch exchange service. In other words, it is a protocol that lets people and organizations to talk to each other over the Internet inexpensively and with feature-rich flexibility. It is the reason that many loved ones talk more on the “phone” today. More business is developed among companies. More parents stay in touch with their children (students, ex-pats, and more). Check out AsterConference, a conference where you can learn about this technology.

AsterConference is in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia May 18-19, 2010 where the brightest  minds in the global Asterisk community    will  converge. The speaker line-up is sharp:   Dr. Daniel Ali Aman Kranhenbuhl of Intuit Innovations; Reza Mosaddeque of Toronto,   Canada; Mark Spencer, Greg Vance, and David Duffet of Digium; Anton Raharja, author   of VoIP Cookbook: Building Your Own Telecommunication Infrastructure,   and Doug Vilim of Sangoma Technologies. Sponsors and media partners are a world-  renowned collection: Digium, JCMEX VoIP Distribution, Sangoma,  Polycom, intuit,   OpenVox, Xorcom, Chinese Elastix Community, DIDXchange, and briker. Sign up your   company as sponsor, too, at AsterConference website.

Sign up at http://www.asterconference.com to sponsor or participate in any way. Be a part of the pre, during and post networking areas on Facebook and Linkedin, too.

VoIP over data connections (3G, Edge) are now authorized on the Apple AppStore finally! Check for example, VoIPSWITCH’s Vippie for IPhone/IPod. Other voip applications (not an all-inclusive list) on AppStore include Sipphone’s Gizmo (now with Google), pjsip, Skype, and Truphone.

Until very recently the Apple Store allowed only for SIP client applications which were limited to WIFI. The policy has changed and now Voipswitch customers can download the softphone that supports, in addition to WIFI, 3G and Edge data connection. Download and test their new version of Vippie softphone. Search for the Vippie or VoIPSWITCH name on the Appstore. The dialer works with their demo server www.callto.net.  To receive a free test account please contact sales at voipswitch dot com.

Another reason to meet up with wireless experts, developers, entrepreneurs, exhibitors, presenters, and sponsors of CTIA Wireless International in Las Vegas, NV Mar. 23 – 25, 2010. VoIPSwitch will be at booth 6574 in North Hall 1.

Written by Allison smith. Edited by Omar Shaikh.

Ever since I blogged last Fall about getting started in voice-over, I heard from many voice talent wanting advice about how to specifically get into voicing IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems — my area of specialty.

Like any niche that one find themselves in, I can’t say that I mapped out a plan that placed me exactly where I am today; I worked hard voicing the first telephony projects which came my way, establishing a “voice” or “persona”  which made me identifiable (and recognizable) with certain systems, and to this day I enjoy a lot of repeat business because the voice becomes attached to the product. Rather than a “how-to” blog about getting started in voicing IVR, I’ve outlined the aspects of the job — what makes it unique from other voice-over projects — which will hopefully determine if your traits dovetail with that kind of work.

1. If  You Are Set In Your Ways, This Job Is For You

Consistency, stability, and a certain adherence to samness are the cornerstones of voicing IVR well. Sound files which have big fluctuations — either in actual audio levels, levels of energy, variance of enthusiasm, or inconsistency in pace, are of absolutely no use to your clients — especially those who hire you for the long-term and need these files — which you are voicing in March — to match those recorded last June. If you get a special thrill out of the “Zen” of voicing perfectly modulated numbers or letters — which you know will flow seamlessly when concatenated together in the system — you will go far in this genre. If you are not easily frustrated by the “sameness” of the nature of the prompts that come your way (I’ve discussed this before: there’s typically a sea of standard prompts, occasionally interrupted by oddball prompts which make your jaw drop), you are undeniably well suited to this job. I always make the comparison of IVR voicing to my other great love: yoga. I don’t think: “Downward Dog…AGAIN! Can’t they come up with new poses..?” These poses — or asanas — have been done for thousands of years because they are a discipline in and of themselves. I need to continually discover new aspects to doing Downward Dog — which I will be doing until I die; and for as long as I will be voicing, there will be new number sequences to voice. Naturally, with the same old numbers.

2. It’s a Good Thing If You’re Timid About Changing Your Audio Settings

Like most voice talent, I’m talent first and engineer second. The technical aspects of recording are ones which I have picked up slowly along the way, and I am anything but expert at the technical features of recording. In fact, between you and me: they scare the bejesus out of me. I’m not alone in this — most voice talent I know (with the exception of some, who have fully embraced the geekdom and learned everthing they can about sound recording) have enough working knowledge of their gear to record their voice; occasionally mix in the odd music track or sound effect for on-hold productions, and upload their files on FTP sites. And that’s OK — especially if your goal is to voice IVR sound files. Again, we come back to that truism of consistency being king: it’s important to pre-set your audio levels to their optimal range (for you), and — this is the hard part — keep your hands off the knobs. Once they’re preset, and creating the best-sounding and consistent sound files for your clients — leave well enough alone. Most audio interfaces come with far too many bells and whistles which most voice talent as a whole will never use in their day-to-day projects; nowhere is that more true than with IVR voicing. Nobody has ever asked for IVR prompts that sound like they were recorded in a stalactite cave. They want no-frills, straight-up prompts which match seamlessly with ones you’ve already done. Plain and simple.

3. Be Prepared For Regular Work!

I know other voice talent who enjoy regular, steady, recurring work in radio commercials, on-hold, streaming audio – they seem to have a steady stable of clients who have an on-going need to have a consistent “sound” to carry through all of their projects. But even those genres — especially broadcast, which is very influenced by trends, change, and is notoriously fickle) — are prone to arbitrarily switching their voice talent. Nowhere is there greater “job security” than in IVR, where, not only is it important for companies to have the same voice do updates, changes, and revisions to their systems, but if you’re as fortunate as I am to have a project akin to my history with Asterisk — the stock prompts of which are pre-installed on every Asterisk box purchased — there is an exponential need for customized prompts for almost everyone who purchases an Asterisk system. And for every port they purchase. There are still other systems which I have voiced and which have either been either re-sold, re-distributed, or open-sourced out, which have led to much on-going work (and I used to fret about my prompts being freely distributed without remuneration, until it really dawned on me how almost all of the entities which make use of those prompts will actually require customization, fine-tuning, and updating.)

4. Sexism Abounds in IVR Voicing — And It’s Good News If You’re Female

There are some men who have a strong presence in IVR…one of my favorites does a great job with the United Airlines automated system. Men working in the industry are few and far between. IVR is still an area where a calm, reassuring female voice still reigns, even for telephone prompts in “male-heavy” industries like construction and automotive.

Next blog, I’ll address a recent New Yorks Times article enitled: “Will Carriers Offer a Better Way to Get Voice Mail?” — sent to me by a client whom I’ve voiced IVR for years — and who is referenced in the article (and because I voice for him; I’m indirectly “implicated!”)

Related websites:
www.theivrvoice.com
www.theasteriskvoice.com
voicegal.wordpress.com
Written by Allison Smith. Edited by Omar Shaikh.

With the success of 4G Wireless Evolution co-located with ITEXPO East 2010 in Miami Beach and CTIA Wireless conference and expo scheduled for March 23-25, 2010 in Las Vegas, an interview with wireless expert Brough Turner seemed the obvious plan.

Brough Turner is founder of Ashtonbrooke Corporation. Most recently he was a consultant to Dialogic on corporate strategy and new market development. Brough has more than 25 years of experience in the communications industry. He was the co-founder and CTO of Natural MicroSystems and NMS Communications, which was sold in parts in 2009. Brough blogs at http://blogs.broughturner.com/ on technology, economic and social issues of communications at the intersection of telecom, mobility and the Internet. He holds a BS degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a highly sought after speaker for conferences such as eComm, ITEXPO, and World Technology Summit.”

The podcast interview with Brough is in two parts. A complete transcript follows between Suzanne Bowen, VP Marketing of Super Technologies, Inc., DIDX and Techistan with Brough Turner.

Part 1:

Suzanne Bowen: Welcome to the DIDX media channel where we bring you the expertise of IP communications industry leaders from around the world. Today we have Brough Turner in part one of two podcasts .

We met at a VON conference in our shared interest in IP communications and a love of dance. Remember Jeff Pulver’s parties?

People may remember Brough Turner as one of the owners of NMS Communications. They sold it in pieces in December 2008, where one of the largest parts (traditional part) was sold to Dialogic. For the next six months, Brough was doing some consulting. Much has changed since then.

Brough Turner: No occasion to go dancing recently but …

Suzanne Bowen: I know. Come on Jeff, come back and give a party.

ITEXPO 2010 speakers received a list of questions to answer. One is about trends and changes in the industry. There is supposedly an economic crisis. Things do look a little bit better right now in December 2009. What do you think might enable new businesses in spawning new business activities?

Brough Turner:  One thing is in the Wi-Fi space… I’m known for lecturing on 3G and 4G wireless technology. For example, take Carl Ford’s 4G Wireless Evolution conference … I’ve spent more time this year on Wi-Fi. I have always used Wi-Fi, have been aware of it, but never participated in IEEE standards activity. Wi-Fi technology has been ahead of the cellular industry. It has been typically been focused on embedding wireless LANs, but the technology and modulation that is used since 802.11a back years ago. It’s the technology the4G guys are just beginning to use with WiMAX and LTE. “4G” technology has been in service within the Wi-Fi community for 8 or 9 years. The thing that is significant for the next 2-5 years is the combination of multiple antennas (MIMO) multiple input multiple output and software beam forming, that is antennas that are highly directional but can be shifted around in software. MIMO is already being shipped in Wi-Fi consumer products costing less than 100 bucks with two separate antennas. Four by four MIMO, that’s four separate antennas will be a consumer product in the first half of 2010. The reason this is interesting is eventual (RF stuff) but basically it makes the 5 gigahertz spectrum as useful or more useful than the 2.4 gigahertz spectrum.

There are so many accepted rules of thumb. Low frequencies are better. TV white spaces are beachfront spectrum. 2.4 GHz is short range, and 5 GHz is very short range, almost worthless. That’s true in terms of the technology for the last 100 years, but it’s not true in terms of electromagnetic… well, it’s true for a technologist, but not true for a physicist. What’s changing now with MIMO and multiple input multiple output antennas is it’s actually possible to send high capacity stuff at 5 gigahertz over distances that are equivalent to what you can do at 2.4 gigahertz. And BTW, there are either 24 separate 20 megahertz channels or 11 separate 30 megahertz channels up at 5 gigahertz. Compare that to only three 20 megahertz channels down to 2.4, so there’s a vast amount of additional spectrum that is available with 5 gigahertz which virtually no one has been using that is about to become very effective.

Early experiments with 11n radios (802.11n) in Wi-Fi products are showing that 5 gigahertz can be just as useful as 2.4 GHz. You can get dramatic performance improvements over anything that’s come before.

The second thing (beamforming is not available at consumer prices yet, but it’s beginning to show up at professional prices … like $10,000 and up and at enterprise prices like $800 – $1000 per access point. It will be a consumer technology within the next 2-3 years. That is directional antennas steered in software.

A typical Wi-Fi base station today broadcasts in all directions. That means when you add one, the next one down the hall is going to interfere with the one you just installed unless you run them in separate frequencies.

If you can make highly directional antennas and steer them in software, then you can dynamically connect to each individual client on a milli-second by milli-second basis. You’re talking to one client which is completely separate from talking to any other client and with a high directional beam, you can go a lot further.

What is about to happen is the performance of Wi-Fi mesh networks is about to go up by a factor of 100 over what was possible last year (2008). That will reach consumer prices over the next 2-4 years. When you see factor of a 100 change in performance,that’s interesting. There has got to be some market problems that this technology can solve.

Suzanne Bowen: So, a business would have the potential to access of a larger WiFi footprint. In the long run, they would save money.

Brough Turner: There are a bunch of companies going after “how can I cover a building with fewer access points?” The question is what else could I use this technology for if I wanted to do something radically different? Some companies have attempted to build mesh networks in order to fill in areas where they cannot run wires. That has not worked very well in the past because Wi-Fi doesn’t go very far.

In the past, if you wanted to build an urban network without running wires everywhere, you could build a mesh network. There are companies doing that. They are lucky if they end up getting 1 or 2 MBs per second delivered after they have gone through 4 or 5 hops. That’s the thing that is about to change. 3 or 4 years from now, you’ll be able to cover a city with consumer-priced stuff in a wireless mesh with very few … obviously the point of the mesh is to minimize the number of wires you need. You need wires to gateway back to the Internet at certain points. It’s an advantage if you don’t have to run wires to every access point, especially in an urban environment, where you do not own the “right of way” …

You’re inside your office building, you lease the whole space. You can run wires anywhere you want. You go outdoors and suddenly you can’t run wires everywhere. So, that’s certainly an area… one of the observations that I’ve made … I was talking to a friend who’s opening a business in downtown.

(There is a moment of silence here where I was in a tunnel and lost my Internet. Really wish we could have heard what his friend wanted to do. I lost my train of thought which did not help me start back where I needed to.

Brough Turner:  I’m looking for applications that fill market gaps; where this technology could be applied. One of them I am investigating (not a slam-dunk) is that, in dense urban areas, the cost for getting Internet connectivity can vary by a factor of 20 or 50 even a block apart.

(Ah, here we go.)

A friend of mine is consulting with investment types on technology issues. It’s actually a practice with 4 or 5 guys who have opened an office in Boston. Their new office is on the 7th floor of an office building one block away from the largest Internet exchange point in New England (at One Summer Street in Boston). There are about 20 different carriers there. If you’re inside that building, you can buy Internet transit service in small quantities for less than $10 per MB per second per month and large quantities for less $4 per month.

Just one block away, it cost twenty times that. Equivalent services have to come via T1 lines. It’s an incredible inflated price. If you look at any other form of Internet connectivity whether it is business DSL and shared access and compare it with the underlying cost of what is happening, there is about a 20X or occasionally 50X gap there. 

If you could literally supply a mesh that involved a bunch of people in office buildings up and down that one city block between One Summer Street and my friend’s office, there’s an opportunity to do something interesting. How do you do it? That’s a whole separate issue. This may be an opportunity for a premium-based business. Offer free services and also offer premium services with guaranteed bandwidth. If you want to participate, you have to buy your own access point and hang it in your window.

Who knows? The point is that there is a very interesting technology revolution that is going to happen. It could be shaped in a number of directions.

Now, the question is where else are there market gaps that this technology can be useful for?

 There is a set of technology issues. There are 8 or 10 companies selling wireless mesh networking nodes today. The market is not very large, and the technology hasn’t been very good. If that improves by 20 times or 100 times, possibly over the next 3 years, it changes where the technology can be applied.

Suzanne Bowen: From what I’ve heard about mesh networking, the technology has been a “save the day” solution. Think hurricanes Ivan and Katrina. I remember our office was destroyed in Pensacola. It was worse in New Orleans. Some companies and individuals got together and set up mesh networking which kept some critical services and businesses alive, so disaster recovery could take place. This is not just to save money, or make money, stop the digital divide but also disaster recovery.

Brough Turner:  The technology is real. The point is if the available speed or throughput goes up two orders of magnitude over a period of just a few years, what does that enable? It’s a viable technology and at least ten companies are playing in this field.

It potentially enables some different business models because you can think of a lot of different organizations coming together with different pieces of equipment and connecting things together. Dare I call it an intranet?

It doesn’t have to be as organized as cellular mobile telephony system which is incredibly complex and centrally administered.

* Meraki, Tropos, Belair Networks, Strix (provided what Jeff Pulver used when first starting up Wi-Fi conference coverage), SkyPilot, Aruba Networks, Mesh Dynamics, FireTide, Packet Hop, and mesh networking nodes available from Motorola, Nortel, and Cisco … There’s an IEEE standard for mesh networking that was just completed in the last year called 802.11S.

How can you get in touch with Brough Turner?

Visit http://www.broughturner.com. On this page, you can find Brough on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. Type “brough,” “3G tutorial,” or “4G tutorial” into Google or your favorite search engine, and you’ll find many links to Brough Turner.

Part 2:

Brough Turner:  Another thing is the one laptop per child, the Negroponte … little green machines. They use the mesh network protocol, a precursor, that became 802.11s.  It is all open sourced and high performance because the radios are the lowest cost possible you can build into these PCs. It’s functional. You can get a bunch of kids in a schoolroom so they can communicate with each other.

Suzanne Bowen: What a great learning experience. Have you heard of Inveneo?

Brough Turner: I don’t know.

Suzanne Bowen: I’m following them on Twitter and have been paying attention to them for quite a while. They do mesh networking and are involved in nonprofit activities. Have you heard of their peddling to power laptops? They are headquartered in San Francisco.

Brough Turner: I’ll check it out. I’m an engineer in origin, but I’m also an entrepreneur. I’m looking for ways to do something on a commercial basis. Even if I want to change the world, I’d like to have it be break even or net positive as opposed to being a community effort. Community efforts are dependent upon a few charismatic people in specific locations.

Suzanne Bowen: Right, like we have people in developer groups who are involved in open source and also evangelists full of zeal. One particular open source software can be like a religion. So an entrepreneur comes along and monetizes it. There can be a “war” between both groups.  Innovation is excellent. Community efforts are, too. But people do have to pay bills and have families to take care of. I have a blog on TMCnet.com called “Monetizing IP Communications,” and I am not ashamed of it.

Brough Turner:  In the first part of the year, I was investigating some other things, like is there a way that I can have a dramatic effect on the US broadband access gap? Like how to bypass the duopoly and getting fiber through the middle mile. But fiber requires right of way, so it remains too political. I’m an entrepreneur, not a politician. I don’t enjoy having to work with legislators to influence public policy.

If I had to pick a model, it would be commercial… look at all the revolutions in recent years such as Google. They stumbled accidentally into this advertising thing. Who would have thought there was room for another search engine?

Suzanne Bowen: Look what was around: Netscape…

Brough Turner: I used to use Altavista.

Suzanne Bowen: Babelfish was my favorite for translation and now that falls under Yahoo!

Brough Turner: Think of things like Craig’s List, a “freemium” business model. It’s free but he charges money for commercial real estate listings in certain cities like New York. He has found a new model that is dramatically less expensive. He has turned what was a multi-billion dollar business into a one hundred million dollar business.

Just like the Google free search, there is something in back of it that is funding. There’s a Wired article about it and with just thirty employees. He’s profitable and reinvests in growth.

Suzanne Bowen: It bypassed red tape.

Brough Turner: And it’s a profitable business. It you have a business that is doing better than break even, then you have a chance of scaling it indefinitely. Just a community network is difficult to scale if they are free. I wouldn’t mind changing the world and being the Craig Newmark of Internet access.

Suzanne Bowen: Makes me think of the relationship of this topic to my own company. When you come up with a new way to do things and change the way things are, this upsets some people. It’s better to get involved and collaborate. They would actually start making money among the changemaking, disruptive idea such as our DIDX. Type in my name and “Asterisk-Biz List.” Look at the earliest mentions of DIDX. It was total “dissing.” Like to them, I was the clone of Rehan, or an alias. There was no such thing as Suzanne.

Brough Turner: I certainly … you have to get out there and try different things for sure.

Suzanne Bowen: If people don’t learn anything else from this podcast, if you have an idea that may change things for the better, and you can make money on it… don’t be afraid. I’ve always said, “Collaborate with your competitor because in the long run, you both win.”

Brough Turner: My money is a result of the computer revolution through the 90s. That was literally a case of changing the way people built voice mail and first round telephony services.  To do that, we had all sorts of industry groups. To do the first digital T1 connected stuff in PCs, I helped creat a multi-vendor protocol that eventually had over 300 different companies  leveraging a digital TDM bus inside PC. That lasted about six years. Everything is completely obsolete now, but recently I was talking with Eric Giler, the founder of Brooktrout, a fax company in the 90s through 2005. We were head to head competitors at that time. We were partners at different points. Friends the whole time.

Suzanne Bowen: Would you share with us the milestones in your life and in the industry? Maybe you started with two cups and a wire connecting them?

Brough Turner: I always said you have to get me intoxicated to tell the phone hacking stories from college as an MIT undergraduate.

Suzanne Bowen: People would forgive you now.

Brough Turner: Then, when I graduated I worked for a little while with analytical instruments, doing Fourier transforms and other mathematical software.  In ‘83, I started a company with a couple other guys that eventually became Natural Microsystems and later NMS Communications. So I jumped into telephony professionally in ‘83. That’s where I’ve been ever since.

We had a consumer products company for the first few years. We raised VC money. Never could get the business beyond 2 million per year. Very disappointing for the investors. We turned into a consulting business to keep alive. Perhaps we should have walked away from it at that point and started over. That might have made the co-founders more money, but we had some responsibility to the investors. We managed to keep 22-25 employees during a lean period. We did large company contracting … anything to keep the doors open. Repositioned into computer-telephony … we went public in 1994 and boomed until Dec, 2000.

When the bubble burst, we scrambled and went into other businesses like within NMS optimizing backhaul from cellular towers. Another guy also within NMS started a business in mobile applications. We turned that into ringback tones in 2004… absolutely you can’t stand still. It’s fun when you are forced into a position where you have to learn a bunch of new things.

Suzanne Bowen: I agree. I was a teacher in my first real career. I accidentally stumbled into IP communications. That was a big mind shift, but I’m learning. I saw as a teacher that the Internet could transform what people are able to do.

Brough Turner: The impact in emerging markets is … I spent a lot of time selling in India and China… the backhaul optimization stuff was being used in Africa. You spend a lot of time in many parts of the world, too, Suzanne. Emerging markets first benefited from the spread of mobile phones and then Internet.

Suzanne Bowen: The infrastructure that we take for granted in the USA is almost not there in some emerging areas. We’ve noticed in our DIDX stats an increase in mobile companies and Asian, African and Middle Eastern providers.

Well, next time I see you we’ll have to have a real or virtual cocktail so we can get some more information out of you.

Written by Allison smith. Edited by Omar shaikh

Without a doubt, being ill — even with something as routine as the common cold or a basic case of the flu — is a serious setback in productivity and makes even the simplest tasks difficult. Feeling the pressures of work and the need to keep soldiering forward despite feeling misreable is common to almost everyone regardless of occupation; but for singers, newscasters, and those of us who make our living recording our own voice, having stuffed sinuses or a gravelly throat which alters our “sound” renders us absolutely unable to work.

So recognizable is my “voiceprint” — and the importance of my voice today to match my voice of a year ago — that as much as I might *feel* well enough to stand in front of the mic and knock a few sound files off — it’s wasted time if a cold or congestion has altered the way I sound. Many websites geared to voice talent have numerous sponsors in the cold elixir industry, all of them proclaiming to have the remedy to buy voice professionals extra time in front of the mic…..the reality remains: if a cold or flu has your name on it, take care of yourself and let it run its course. (And don’t try to sneak back to work before it’s completely gone; I have long-term clients who know me well who have said to me when I’ve tried to shorten my recovery: “Nope. We can still hear it. You’re 90% there, but not quite.”)

Even something as simple as a teeth cleaning or minor dental procedure which might require freezing of the mouth — and might create an annoyance for an accountant returning to work and worrying about lop-sided face and drool issues — puts someone like myself out of work for half a day, easily.

I was also faced with an interesting challenge earlier this year, when I became one of the several thousand adults per year who are fitted with braces to correct a bite-alignment issue — so worried was I about them affecting my diction that I did some work with a speech pathologist to make sure they didn’t pose a problem with my work….so far, they haven’t proved to be an issue. (I did pass on a procedure which they wanted to do before the braces were installed: my orthodontist reccomended that I be fitted with a spacer which would expand my upper palate — and he even went so far as to make me a “practice spacer” which just snapped in to test out the idea. Even after extensive practice, I managed to work up to sounding like I’d had only a *mild* stroke. The idea was scrapped, and I give my orthodontist credit for fully understanding the whole interlocking economy of: “Can’t work/can’t pay orthdontic bill”.

The last aspect of the human factors in voice care is not allowing the voice to be subjected to extreme strain — this is not to say that in-between takes I lie around the house in Celine-Dion-Style-Voice-Arrest, with a cashmere Pashmina wrapped around my throat,  sipping lemon tea, with houseboys using palm fronds to coax the humidifier steam towards me — although, an enchanting idea. No, it’s more about not allowing the voice to sustain injury: I was told by an old and wise DJ years ago to never try to speak above a crowd, never out-shout anyone, and resist roller coasters if they make you scream. Ever notice how deep, sulty, and Demi-Moore-ish your voice can sound the day after a simple night out in a crowded pub, where you’ve been forced to converse at a loud volume? That would be useful if I were auditioning the next day for a Demi-Moore-sounding radio spot (and that’s actually a frequent character description on radio copy specs.) Otherwise: it’s a sign of minor vocal cord strain, and should be avoided if your “sound” is your product.

Voice professionals: let me know if there are any other aspects to this issue I’ve missed — do you notice big differences in your voice at various times of the day? Seasonally? And what’s the wackiest “voice elixir” you’ve tried?

I’ll be taking a break from blogging during the Christmas Vacation — have a wonderful and safe Holiday Season, and be back blogging the first week of January, where I’ll open the year with an article about things which are commonly in telephone prompts which are so basic….so painfully obvious…they cause me to sometimes exclaim: “Do we really need to SAY That?!”

Related websites:
www.theivrvoice.com
www.theasteriskvoice.com
voicegal.wordpress.com
Written by Allison Smith. Edited by Omar shaikh.

]]> http://www.techistan.com/2010/01/12/human-factors-in-announcing/feed/ 0 http://www.techistan.com/2009/12/17/recomienda-techistan-itexpo-vocati-y-comunicaciones/ http://www.techistan.com/2009/12/17/recomienda-techistan-itexpo-vocati-y-comunicaciones/#comments Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:34:44 +0000 omar shaikh http://www.techistan.com/?p=1436

One World and Joe on the Move with Vocati Communications

   (Grabé este durante el uso de wifi Panera de conveniencia. La calidad de la voz era efectivamente en diversos momentos a pocos.) Andrés Acero, director de operaciones de todo el mundo y es fundador de una de las más respetadas compañías de comunicaciones IP de Comunicaciones Vocati. Escucha el podcast.
Bienvenidos a DIDX Podcasts Media Channel donde les traemos la experiencia de lideres en comunicaciones IP de alrededor del mundo. Su presentadora Suzanne Bowen, tenemos la suerte de tener con nosotros a Mr.Acero de Vocati Comunicaciones. Me siento con suerte de practicar mi segunda lengua Español.

Sr. Acero se especializa en el desarrollo y la consulta sobre los clientes más rentables, pero la calidad de los productos y servicios que la VoIP y servicios de telecomunicaciones que ofrece, además de contribuir también a la comunidad de código abierto a través de asesorar el desarrollo y depuración de software. Además, el Sr. Acero es un importante participante y de guía en Vocati “One World” Programa y organización a un organismo independiente establecido que ofrece llamadas telefónicas gratuitas a los soldados activos en el exterior, JoeOnTheMove.com.

Preguntas: Suzanne Bowen / Respuestas: Mr. Acero

1. ¿Podría hablarnos de la historia de su empresa Vocati Comunicaciones?
Vocati Comunicaciones es una empresa multinacional operando desde USA. Lleva en el mercado aproximadamente 22 anos, comenzamos originalmente como una empresa consultora de sistemas y en los últimos 10 anos como una empresa parte dentro de la comunidad de Voip. Tenemos mas de 5 centros de datos en USA y mundialmente, más de 150 servidores, oficinas internacionales principalmente en Bogota, Colombia y en USA, con servicio técnico al cliente los 7 días de la semana.

2. Describa por favor sus servicios.
Nuestro servicio lo podemos clasificar de A a la Z como instalaciones de servidores, desarrollo e instalaciones de programas, servicio técnico, capacitación técnica, DID que proveemos por parte de DIDX de USA y de otras partes a nuestros clientes mundialmente, programación en base de asterisk y en trickbox. Como mi socio es un genio en instalaciones y capacitación técnica de servidores, nos podemos clasificar como una empresa de servicios de A a la Z.

3. ¿Cuál es su mercado típico y su base de clientes actuales?
Nuestros clientes actuales son multinacionales mundialmente como compañías de Francia, de USA, de Venezuela, Brasil y de Oriente. Lo interesante por decir es que no tenemos un mercado típico, tratamos a cada persona con detalle, mayormente mayoristas, donde a cada cliente y su compañía lo tratamos con un sentido especial tratando de cumplir sus necesidades personales y de la compañía. A diferencia de otras compañías, nuestros ejecutivos tratan de tener contacto directo con los clientes refiriéndolos a la persona asesora indicada del problema específico dentro de la compañía. Por lo cual no tenemos un mercado típico, sino cada persona que le podamos ofrecer un servicio.

4. ¿Quisieran compartir con nosotros algo nuevo acerca de su empresa?
Nuestra empresa esta en un sentido de crecimiento aproximadamente un 80% en los últimos dos anos en las áreas de desarrollo de programas de caridad para el pueblo, tenemos una responsabilidad con la comunidad como una compañía telefónica; por ejemplo en el Caribe y en Colombia.

5. ¿Cuáles son las ventajas de las empresas mayoristas al utilizar DIDXnet?
Una nueva asociación que se ha dado con DIDX, nos permite agrandar nuestro mercado con un servicio de números DID no muy conocido de todas partes del mundo, permitiendo a familias comunicarse, por ejemplo un numero de Hong Kong, a un costo mas bajo.

6. ¿Cómo las personas pueden contactar su compañía?
Por medio del Telf. desde USA 212-9374774, o por nuestra pagina Web ww.vocaticomunications.com, donde pueden conseguir otros números telefónicos o por el correo info@vocaticomunications.com.

7. ¿Les gustaría compartir con nosotros un mensaje de consejo final?
Por parte de la compañía y de mi persona un consejo para cada persona es que se informe y se eduque en tecnología, donde se convirtió en algo cotidiano, y se asesoren con personas dentro del mercado. Le doy las gracias a Suzanne Bowen por la entrevista, le deseo unas felices fiestas, y para los que desean contactar a DIDX, lo pueden hacer por medio de www.didx.net o por medio de www.vocaticomunications.com.

8. Me puedes comentar sobre las organizaciones de caridad que Vocati esparte de?
One World en ingles o Solo un Mundo en español, donde cada quien tiene una cierta responsabilidad con nuestro prójimo. Como empresa tenemos una responsabilidad en el desarrollo de programas de caridad, por ejemplo en el caribe donde proveemos ropa, comidas, y etc. También nuestro ex vice presidente ejecutivo fue a África para centros de vacunación. Nuestras organizaciones no son tanto caridad sino cívicas, por ejemplo “Joe on The Move”, donde se provee llamadas telefónicas a soldados ubicados en diferentes partes del mundo, y para sus familia poder dejar un mensaje de apoyo, de voz, de orgullo, de amor y de ayuda a cada soldado, todo por medio del enlace www.joeonthemove.com .

Muchas gracias a Alan Pesatty para la transcripción en español. En contacto con él en Facebook o Linkedin para la transcripción Español e Inglés a español y viceversa.

Related websites:
http://www.joeonthemove.com
http://www.vocaticommunications.com
http://www.didx.net
http://www.itexpo.com Meet with Latin American IP communications companies at ITEXPO in Miami Beach, Florida Jan. 20-22, 2009.

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November 28th, 2008

Previously I had compressed this the wrong way with a result of chipmunk voices.

Corrected and pretty cool! Frognet started in 1996 as a dial-up ISP company. The availability of open source telephony software is only one part of the business operation equation. Other real costs to manage an ISP business include price of equipment acquisition, human capital, training, data conversion and integration. More importantly, finding and hiring motivated CS talent must be factored into this equation.

In a frank conversation with Chip Swanson, CEO, and David Broeckelman-Post from Frognet, and IPiFony’s Matthew Hardeman, the three discuss the other costs for internet service providers. Digium’s Asterisk open source software helps new internet service providers bring soft switch applications including VOIP and other telephony services to the marketplace. DIDX was a media sponsor for ISPCon 2008. Brian Coburn and Anne Tredway recorded this discussion at the San Jose Conference Center in November.

I asked Brian and Anthony who is the CEO and they said, “It’s not like that.” FreeSWITCH™ emphasis is on quality, honesty, communication consolidation, and collaboration even among formerly-perceived competitors. The door is open.

They think about outside the technical arena such as in the recognition that everyone has a unique learning style. An important goal of FreeSWITCH™ is to make their documentation easier to understand, keeping in mind these different learning styles.

Anthony shares talk about the new interop completions, wideband high definition conferencing, a couple ways to connect with Skype, the new SIP peering, OSTAG™ and goals of FreeSWITCH™ such as their nonprofit efforts.

Visit www.freeswitch.org, www.cluecon.com, and http://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/Main_Page. Look for more indepth information about FreeSWITCH™ and Cluecon in future podcast interviews.