Score one for the good guys.

Alec Saunders, CEO of iotum and the guy who helped me gain industry wide exposure, will be launching the much anticipated Calliflower conference calling service based on his wildly popular Free Conference Calls Facebook application on Wednesday.

The Calliflower conference call service is slick.

Featuring a well designed web interface that acts as an interactive dashboard that makes organizing and participating in multi-party calls simple and engaging, Calliflower  extends beyond traditional calling by providing unique, comprehensive and easy-to-use tools at no extra cost. Some of these tools include:

• Caller visualization: See names, pictures and caller status in real time as everyone joins, participates and leaves the call. Callers are identified as they join the call, with their names and (if desired) pictures. The status of their lines (mike open, closed, hand raised to ask a question) is also visible to everyone.
• Intuitive conference controls: Participants can access conference controls, the live wall and more from a simple Web interface.
• Interactive chat: Participants can engage in a group chat before, after and during the call to share information without interrupting the flow of conversation. From sharing a link or an image to asking a relevant question, the multiparty IM opens a second channel for participants to have richer and more engaging calls.
• Call archives: Handouts, agendas and links to files can remain accessible to the right people, long after the call is over.
• Invitations and reminders: Receive call invitations and reminders by e-mail or SMS with all the information moderators and participants need.
• Easy calendar integration: Manage call invitations, updates and RSVPs with an attached iCal that integrates with any major calendar solution.
• PINless connectivity: The participating caller’s phone number becomes the personal PIN, which seamlessly connects callers to every call from anywhere.
• MP3 recordings: Moderators can record any call from the Web interface or from the phone. Recordings are available to every participant as MP3 files seconds after the conference is over or the recording is stopped.

I have had the opportunity to use this system, via Facebook numerous times. There is not really anything like it on the market and it was the only Facebook application I proactively used.  As someone who is on conference calls all day long, this is certainly a service that would improve the overall productivity of these calls. The only thing that can make this better would be the ability to private label or co-brand for more extensive corporate use.

So, if you are looking for “conference calls 2.0″, take a look at Calliflower when it launches on Wednesday.

This is good news for the industry. According to Information Week, legislators passed the New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act (H.R. 3403). The act states that 911 networks operators must give VoIP providers customers access to 911 services.

It is pretty hard to think that the traditional teleco’s were actually blocking access to these networks; ones designed to help those in need of assistance.

The New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act also has a plan for a national IP-enabled emergency network for citizen-activated emergencies. It is refreshing to the see the ultimate dinosaur, the federal government, getting involved to make sure other dinosaurs don’t go extinct, but evolve with the times.

Seems VoIP providers are not the only ones having trouble providing 911 service.

I caught this story on DSL Reports earlier today about the troubles of Fair Point Communications. It seems the company recently purchased Verizon’s DSL and landline subscribers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont and are having trouble providing these customers with 911 services. Not just a day or two, but they have been having trouble for the last few months.

And to think all of those traditional teleco’s were laughing when VoIP providers couldn’t get 911 right.

Pretty funny, huh?

I hate the word SIP Trunking. I don’t even like the term “virtual trunking.”

Regardless of my disdain for industry “marketing” terms, Packet8 announced today a new digital phone line over IP product. Due to a busy work schedule, I was unable to speak with their VP of Sales and Marketing Huw Rees (so I am unsure if this product is SIP based or not), however this move into the pure digital business phone line space is a natural progression and certainly bolsters (as well as compliments) Packet8’s current offerings as it will allow them to move “upstream” and target larger sized businesses. Implementation of the service is achieved through installation of an Integrated Access Device (IAD) on the customer’s premise by a professional Packet8 installation team that will allow for management of IP based connectivity.

Packet8 should be able to effectively target the 5 to 15 voice line customer (which is typically a 15 to 75 person company depending on calling needs), a space which I suspect has previously been troublesome for them, since their hosted model loses luster (due to per seat costs) after 5 - 10 users. The service will also open up their ability to partner with a variety of PBX and IP PBX manufacturers and their VAR to provide some powerful bundled offerings to small medium enterprises.

I have previously written about how a similar offering for Vonage (VonagePro) could be just the type of offering to reignite the companies subscriber growth and I believe that this new offering from Packet8 will prove to be a great source for new revenues and could really put a dent into the business of many of the smaller SIP Trunking providers given Packet8’s size and marketing prowess. This is definitely one service to watch.

A few weeks ago I came up with an idea to document the various uses for Asterisk after becoming frustrated at the near-sightedness of many within the open source community who view the platform as nothing more than a phone system.

The result of this idea was a contest launched yesterday on the VoIP Insider, entitled 101 Things You can Do With Asterisk.

The premise was simple.

As the open source community to contribute to a post what they (or someone they know) has done with Asterisk. After we reached 101 uses, we would pick a winner (at random) and give them a $1,500 shopping spree at VoIP Supply.

What proceed absolutely floored me. Within the first two hours we had already received 101 uses and in less than a day have well over 200 different uses for Asterisk.

The contest and corresponding post is a testament to the creativity and spirit of the open source community. To all of you who contributed to the contest, congratulations; you get it.

Yesterday pal Cory Andrews and I were invited on Alec Saunders Squawk Box show to discuss Craigslist’s widespread banning of VoIP and cellular numbers due to their use by spammers who abuse the Craiglist classifieds system. I had taken part in a couple of Squawkbox’s previously, but never as a “special invited guest.” Honestly, it was well worth my time as the conversation was as engaging as Andy Abramson’s famous bloggers dinners. If you are in any way involved with VoIP, IP or web based communications, you need to take the very least stop in once to see what it is all about…you will not be disappointed.

If your interested in hearing more about what is going on over at Craigslist, you can listen to a recording of the show here.

VoIP resellers are finding today’s market to be a boon.

Coming off the heels of my post about the confusion as to whether the market was growing or slowing (it is doing both), I was interviewed for a CRN story about the growing VoIP reseller market.

As I stated in the article, the industry has hit a second wave of adopter of VoIP and that second wave seems a little more cautious about VoIP and therefore they are requiring more education which is causing deals are taking a bit longer to complete, pushing out sales cycles.

Due to this, many a VAR has had to change how they sell their solutions and due to this, there has been a bit of a dip as they reload.

You can read the entire piece here.