ISPCON Keynote: John Todd

This was the open source keynote at ISPCON.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [November 20, 2008]

John Todd is the open source community director for Digium | Asterisk, and he was at ISPCON to talk about the status of open source and about the Asterisk project.

Todd said that ISPCON attendees have a significant advantage over most VoIP providers: control of the network. Those ISPs that have built their own facilities can use them to ensure that VoIP calls get through and have an acceptable quality of service.

The applications of the future are mashups that take apparently banal technology to new places. Many critique the self-referential nature of Twitter, for example. But combine it with Ruby and Asterisk and you can build the Twitter Vote Report, a useful and innovative application for election day.

Todd said that over 200 known service providers use Asterisk, but said that some choose not to advertise the fact. They're afraid that customers will try to duplicate the service themselves if it's open source. The open source anti-virus project Clam AV suffers the same fate: it is present in some devices and security services whose manufacturers and providers do not advertise the fact.

"Convince your marketing folks to sell the fact that you're using open source," he advocated.

The Asterisk project is growing naturally. Todd pointed to the following positive signs: four books on Asterisk, two IRC channels, two conferences, and a massive number of results if you Google "Asterisk configuration example."

Services
Billing, Todd noted, "is a subject that is near and dear to people's hearts but is also boring and tedious." On the billing front, open source projects like Asterisk are working to build APIs for billing systems. Todd recommended that ISPs learn about the Open Settlement Protocol.

Todd added that ISPs that are enthusiastic about open source and interested in using it to provide value-added services should get to know the Amanda Open Source Backup project.

Todd warned ISPs that the one market they're locked out of is one of the fastest growing: mobile. He said he's hoping to see Android become a valid competitor. "You need to have a strategy to counter the mobile phone threat," he said. "Either tell your customers that you're better or offer mobile yourself. But VoIP does not work today over mobile networks."

He touted the OpenBTS project, a GSM base station which, he said, was used at Burning Man to provide mobile phone services. "People's phones showed a different ID, but the service worked."

ISPs need to determine what niche they serve and how they will compete. "I expect a nuclear winter in the economy," Todd said. "Assuring a revenue stream is as important as growth."

The question and answer session was brief, and the most interesting question was about handling faxes. An ISP said that at one customer location, they could hear two faxes trying—and failing—to connect. Todd said that fax machines require low latency and zero packet loss.

In conclusion, Todd invited ISPs to participate in open source software. The ecosystem, he said, makes projects like Asterisk cost effective, and also enables them to compete with proprietary software.

— End