Irwin Lazar's "Real-Time" Blog

Cheers for Adium

Thanks to Andy Abramson for posting in his blog about Adium, the multi-service IM client for Mac. I've recently installed it and found it to be a worthwhile addition to my Mac software collection. Adium supports most public IM networks including Yahoo, MSN, GoogleTalk, ICQ, .Mac, and AOL as well as services based on Jabber/XMPP, Sametime, and even Gadu-Gadu.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to get the Gizmo Project plug-in to work, it crashes the Adium client whenever it tries to connect to the Gizmo server. Hopefully the next release of the plug-in will fix the bug. It would also be nice to have the ability to do voice & video as well for services that support it. And of course, I'm anxiously awaiting a Skype plug-in so I can get rid of the Skype client on my desktop.

"SIP: Beyond VoIP"

My copy of "SIP: Beyond VoIP" arrived this morning and I'm anxious to begin reading it. Written by SIP gurus Henny Sinnreich of Pulver (and before that, MCI), Alan Johnston of Tello (also an MCI vet), and Robert Sparks of Xten. Alan, and Robert are co-authors of RFC 3261, the current version of the SIP specification.

This book is intended to go beyond the "what is SIP?" topic and instead explore applications of SIP for services such as location and emergency services, presence, and real-time collaboration. It also covers topics including security, P2P, mobility as well as access to SIP-based services for disabled people.

The challenge of course will be finding time to read this in between nightly fixes of "FoodTV" programming.

The Age of Real-Time Communication, Presence and Collaboration is Here!

Om Malik reports in his blog on the announcement of "Tello", which is a service designed to bridge the gap between various forms of communication (IM, voice, mobile) by enabling the sharing of presence information between systems. Tello is the brain child of Jeff Pulver and is backed by an all-star team of individuals including Craig McCaw and John Scully.

Using Tello, I could tell if someone was available via cell, IM, desktop telephone before I tried to call them. The vision for the product will also include integration with web conferencing technologies.

This is an important announcement, it represents a public service that aims to provide the exact same kind of function that Microsoft is building around Live Communications Server, e.g. the integration of real-time communications, presence and collaboration. I'm told that at Lotusphere today, IBM is making significant announcements that will bring the same sorts of capabilities into Sametime. I'd expect further announcements in the next few weeks as we work through the first round of major VoIP-related trade shows (see previous post).

For the last year or so I've been preaching to whoever will listen that the time when VoIP is simply part of a larger enterprise communications infrastructure that also includes IM, video, and real-time collaboration unified by presence is coming. With the Tello announcement, and others like it, that time is here.

VoIP Conference Season

The VoIP conference season kicks into silly season next week with TMC's Internet Telephony Conference & Expo in Fort Lauderdale, FL, while O'Reilly's Emerging Telephony Conference takes place at the same time in San Francisco, CA. In March, we have VoiceCon in Orlando and Spring VON in San Jose.

For me, VoiceCon is still the "must attend" event since it is so tightly focused on the enterprise IP communications space (and I'm speaking at two sessions on SIP on Wednesday, March 8th).

Gary Audin: The Latest Enterprise PBX Opinions

Gary Audin comments on VoIP Loop about a recent study by The Telecom Manager's Voice Report on enterprise PBX trends. The trends cited by Gary back up what I've seen in the enterprise space as well - enterprises consider migration to VoIP to be something they'll do gradually as opposed to wholesale fork-lift cut-overs.

Also, while you are on VoIP Loop, check out my recent post on open source IP-PBX alternatives.

Dayton Presentation

Below is a link to a presentation on VoIP that I gave to the Greater Dayton IT Alliance yesterday. It provides an overview of the trends in VoIP as well as enterprise implementation experiences.

Download Dayton-Jan06.ppt

Paul Thurrott: How to know if you are protected from the WMF vulnerability

This is priceless.

Peter O'Kelly, via his blog, provides a pointer to the Security Curve blog which is attempting to cut through the hype surrounding the WMF flaw.

SIP Foundry Releases Updated SIP-based IP PBX

Message Pipeline reports that SIPfoundry has released version 3 of it's open-source IP-PBX platform. This comes a few weeks after Digium released the latest version of the open source Asterisk platform.

I think 2006 is going to be a much bigger year for open source IP communications solutions, the capabilities are nearing a match with commercial offerings, and the price is just too good to ignore.

Mark Evans: Ascalade-Skype Do A Deal

Mark Evans writes in his blog about Skype's announcement with Ascalade to build Skype-enabled products, with the first one being a cordless phone with a built-in Skype client.

As Skype is built into more and more devices that look just like traditional telephones, how do they continue to plead their case to the FCC that they are an "enhancement" service and aren't subject to the same E.911 requirements as Vonage/CallVantage/Lingo/etc.?

See Skype's web site for announcements about other partnerships, including a neat offering with Kodak to enable the use of Skype for photo sharing.

Speaking in Dayton, OH next week

I'll be presenting at a seminar on VoIP hosted by the Greater Dayton IT Alliance on January 11th. Details are at http://www.gdita.org/events.php?cm=1&cd=11&cy=2006&id=18.

The presentation will focus on the current state of the enterprise VoIP market, and some of the trends expected to shape it in the next year or so. I'll post my slides to the blog afterwards.