Is The Open Source Cold War Coming to An End?

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Pal and trixbox community manager Kerry Garrison just sent me an email to inform me that Jason Parker of Digium will be guest speaking at the upcoming trixbox FTOCC training at IT EXPO September 16 - 18th in Los Angeles, California.

According to the official news on the trixbox site,

“Jason’s expertise with Asterisk is virtually unparalleled and having him cover the topic of Asterisk troubleshooting in the FtOCC class is sure to be priceless for the FtoCC attendees. Since Asterisk is the engine under the hood of trixbox, it is quite an honor to have someone of Jason’s caliber participating in the curriculum.”

Now, if you have spent any time in this industry you know that Digium and Fonality haven’t exactly been “friendly” the last few years. To be honest, the situation between Digium and Fonality has always reminded me of the old cold war days between the US and Russia with each company competiting, racing, innovating and even conducting a little back and forth banter about one another of the last few years.

Is Jason’s presence at the upcoming FTOCC the “olive branch” that will lead to better relations between the two companies? I sure hope so. Each of these companies have so many smart folks that it is almost scary to think what could come out of greater collaboration between these two companies.

This move could also signal the beginnings of Digium embracing the “platform” nature of Asterisk. I have written numerous times that most view Asterisk as just an “open source phone system” when in reality it is actually a “open source telephony platform” from which hundreds of solutions can be created. Since Asterisk the engine upon which trixbox was built, it makes sense for Digium to work with trixbox as it in many ways validates the entire “open source telephony platform” mantra.

Regardless of what is to come from this, it looks like a win-win for both companies and certainly adds some additional spice to the FTOCC training at the IT EXPO.