Thanks, Dean. I was able to listen to that conference live. Digium's current licensing server has some limitations that make it unsuitable for general use. We are investigating options to improve the licensing platform, but have nothing to announce today. Even if we did, it would be only one missing component to a one-stop Asterisk software store.
We'd also need a universal packaging format. AsteriskNOW (currently on CentOS 5.5) is happy with yum-installable RPM packages. It would be clean and simple for everyone to develop on that uniform image, but there is a lot of variety out there. The initial release of AsteriskNOW was on rPath Linux, which is marvelous for building software appliances, but unfamiliar to, well, everyone. Unlike a strictly controlled iPhone environment, there is no one solution that would work well for Asterisk developers. It would also be useful to have a ton of end-user information like iTMS gathered for years before the launch of the App Store. Part of the genius is that the transactional barrier is so low: millions have trusted Apple with payment details for music purchases, and need only tap "Install" to charge another payment for an iPad app. There must be hundred of thousands of installed Asterisk systems, but we only know the ones that become Digium customers. Also, there are a number of ways to build something marketable with Asterisk. Custom channels or resources, clever dialplan, AGI scripts, AMI-speaking services... it's often easier to incorporate Asterisk as a dependency into a purpose-built software appliance than to assume that Asterisk is at the center of the application's world. We cannot be all things to all people, especially when so many ecosystem partners are providing a service rather than a software product. Last but not least, Asterisk-based apps are not high-volume consumer content. I just don't see many telephony apps selling at a pace similar to music, movies, and games. Then I look to the RHX example I mentioned earlier, in which our friends at RedHat (and Novell before them) tried to become a hub of commerce around their flagship platform. And they failed. Customers didn't want a middleman. Customers wanted to be introduced to great products and services, and to do business directly with those third-party vendors. That's why AsteriskExchange is more a directory than a storefront. As a product manager, I can dream up a situation that imagines Digium as the all-controlling Apple of the Asterisk world, and conjures a ridiculously lucrative App Store that hauls in cash for talented and lucky developers that align with us. I even have a couple of black turtlenecks. But I am not convinced that more than a few want to use our current licensing mechanism. I am not convinced that the market wants Digium to be a central transaction point. I am not convinced that Digium should aspire (or stoop?) to that level of control. I am, however, convinced that ecosystem partners want to be visible to the Asterisk community. As Digium balances our goals of being a good sponsor of Asterisk and a profitable company, we tread very carefully on Asterisk.org. Perhaps keeping the goals apart is not as important as we make it out to be. It clearly has its negatives: keeping AsteriskExchange separate from Asterisk.org also separates it from the heavier visitor traffic. Does anyone reading this have an opinion on whether commercial listings for complementary products and services should appear directly on Asterisk.org? rm -- Rod Montgomery Digium, Inc. | Product Manager 445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville, AL 35806 - USA direct: +1 256 428 6267 fax: +1 256 864 0464 Check us out at: http://digium.com & http://asterisk.org -- _____________________________________________________________________ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
