System information

is not familiar to the telecom industry, and very well might not be until open source
products such as Asterisk begin to transform the fundamental nature of the industry.
This is a revolution similar to the one Linux and the Internet willingly started over 10
years ago (and IBM unwittingly started with the PC, 15 years before that). What is this
revolution? The commoditization of telephony hardware and software, enabling a pro-
liferation of tailor-made telecommunications systems.
Paradigm Shift
In his article “Paradigm Shift” (http://tim.oreilly.com/articles/paradigmshift_0504
.html), Tim O’Reilly talks about a paradigm shift that is occurring in the way technology
(both hardware and software) is delivered.
§
O’Reilly identifies three trends: the com-
moditization of software, network-enabled collaboration, and software customizability
(software as a service). These three concepts provide evidence to suggest that open
source telephony is an idea whose time has come.
The Promise of Open Source Telephony
Every good work of software starts by scratching a developer’s personal itch.
—Eric S. Raymond, The Cathedral and the Bazaar
In his book The Cathedral and the Bazaar (O’Reilly), Eric S. Raymond explains that
“Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.” The reason open source software de-
velopment produces such consistent quality is simple: crap can’t hide.
The Itch That Asterisk Scratches
In this era of custom database and website development, people are not only tired of
hearing that their telephone system “can’t do that,” but quite frankly just don’t believe
it. The creative needs of the customers, coupled with the limitations of the technology,
have spawned a type of creativity born of necessity: telecom engineers are like contest-
ants in an episode of Junkyard Wars, trying to create functional devices out of a pile of
mismatched components.
The development methodology of a proprietary telephone system dictates that it will
have a huge number of features, and that the number of features will in large part
determine the price. Manufacturers will tell you that their products give you hundreds
of features, but if you only need five of them, who cares? Worse, if there’s one missing
feature you really can’t do without, the value of that system will be diluted by the fact
that it can’t completely address your needs.
§ Much of the following section is merely our interpretation of O’Reilly’s article. To get the full gist of these
ideas, the full read is highly recommended.
580 | Chapter 27: Asterisk: A Future for Telephony