25 Jul 2005
Shirky – Customer-owned Networks and ZapMail provides some detailed insights into how this may all play out. After reading the post about ZapMail I’m a bit more apprehensive about trusting what the Verizon account managers present. I’m also not sure yet about the network consultants that are selling the server based PBX’s and VOIP service.
Here are some of my questions:
- how many of the existing phone contacts are accessible? long distance?
- how much of the existing PBX equipment needs to be replaced? how many handsets?
- does Asterisk factor into the decision for a business at this point in time. Asterisk is an Open Source (read – no license fees) PBX
- how about Skype?
- because VOIP service is not tied to the telecom provider (ie Verizon) what are the other options? cable Internet? broadband over powerlines? Vonnage?
Here are some I.T. specific questions:
- how much bandwidth is necessary?
- how are all the business’s Internet services going to compete if it is all piped over the same line; T1, DSL, etc.? The services will include VOIP phone, web browsing, email, etc. Is this a traffic jam in the making?
- how long before voice spam becomes a problem? how will it manifest itself? what steps to deal with it?
- how will the VOIP server be firewalled?
It really looks like there are good cost savings with this technology. But it is diligent to map out the pitfalls before proceeding.
11 Jul 2005
ActiveGrid is an rapid development application server built atop Open Source tools. It appears to be similiar to the Java application servers but more approachable. Some of the cool things about it:
- Straight forward
- Easy to maintain
- Right language for the task–you’re not stuck with using only Java
- Built from proven components
This looks like it deserves some attention.
11 Jul 2005
Behaviour : Using CSS selectors to apply Javascript behaviours
In the background you can hear the experienced web designers groan over the the JavaScript code sprinkled throughout the html markup…hard to maintain…inelegant. It’s kinda suprising because one of the larger groups using AJAX–the Rails folks–have a very elegant framework. Here is a solution to separate the code from the design.
The Ajax Tools Wiki…uses SOAP rather than XMLHttpRequest as the data transport… It looks like a maturing of AJAX.
…from a different perspective–this is a good illustration of what a little excitement can do. A lot of very smart folks have been attracted to solve stuff that needed solved 🙂
11 Jul 2005
script.aculo.us – web 2.0 javascript is a good site for js recipes with the new AJAX ingredients 😉
It is a pretty good resource to go along with Rails programming…
10 Jul 2005
VOIP faces threats from spam and offshoring, but how bad?
VOIP will be an attractive target for spam and other advertisers. It is not there yet because the technology is not pervasive enough to lower the cost for these denizens.
But because VOIP is such a cost effective communications tool it will grow in use. And it will reach that saturation level where spam can exist. It’s only a matter of time.
Linda Stone’s ideas on continuous partial attention will apply here. And hopefully technology will rise to help us manage the flood of noise from this channel.