[kwlug-disc] voip questions

[Insurance Squared Inc.]

Woah!  all this organizational stuff sounds like Paul's job :).

I do think this is a big job, both organizationally and presentation 
wise, which is why I'd suggested a Saturday rather than an evening.

My knee jerk reaction would be to something like the following:
10pm Home VOIP presentation, start to finish.  Show both DIY solutions 
and prepackaged.
11pm-12pm workshop with vendors/lug members to help people with setup
1pm smallbusiness voip presentation, start to finish.  SHow both DIY 
solutions and prepackaged.
3pm workshop with vendors/lug members to assist with setup.

I'm just making up the hours.  But to do it to the point where people 
thinking about voip can walk in and walk out with a solution is probably 
more than an evening presentation.

We'd need to organize space and presentations so that people and 
businesses who've been thinking about it can walk out having made a 
buying choice.  We'd have to organize:
- space
- presenters (including topics)
- refreshments
- vendors, because I think one could have some sort of booth/vendor area 
as well.
- promotion i.e press releases/flyers.

This is both a large job and only potentially only peripherally related 
to KWLUG (which is why I'd also mentioned that it may or may not be 
something the group is interested in).  It'd need to be done both 
cheap/free and yet properly so that it advances linux/voip.

I am prepared to invest some amount of time organizing this, but would 
be reluctant to do anything without the backing of some organization and 
other folks.

g.


On 11/02/11 10:52 AM, unsolicited at swiz.ca wrote:
> On Fri, 11 Feb 2011 09:50:30 -0500 (EST), John Van Ostrand
> <john at netdirect.ca>  wrote:
>    
>> So does a presentation that only just brushes on ATA and telephony card
>> but spends more time inside Asterisk and FreePBX work? That should be
>> generic enough for Ubuntu, Fedora and Trixbox users. The target
>> configuration would be a SIP ITSP line as a trunk and home phones as a
>> single extension. If there is time we might be able to set up a SIP soft
>> phone.
>>      
> Quick answer: Include ATA's, including SPA3102. Not necessarily deep
> configuration (per Raul's 3 step implementation), but people can see it,
> touch it, it's familiar. (Pick it up and you get dial tone. Dial an
> extension and you can talk, with the same sort of beasties I have at home,
> already. Bonus points, I suppose, if those attending with laptops have a
> softphone which can register with a test asterisk box on site, and start
> [video?] calling each other during the presentation. )
> - it is probably fair to say that beyond an ATA or 3102, you're into a
> more complex situation, get help if you're intimidated. BUT - everything
> else they are about to learn forms the basis upon which this hardware sits,
> so pay attention.
>
> - this could be presented regularly, multiple venues.
> - should this be less a presentation and more a workshop? kwartzlab?
>
> There are multiple problems with these ideas, which is not to say that
> something is better than nothing (as we have seen?), but only to say that
> it is hard to effectively address the wide variety of audiences that VoIP
> potentially addresses.
>
> - I guess I'm speaking here beyond kwlug, to something that kwlug may only
> form the core base of.
> - advertise 'Home Automation', 'Asterisk', or 'Get Rid of Bell!', seems to
> put different spins on things.
> - to Kiwi's point, the first step seems to be "What do you want to do?"
> Which leads to the no endpoint situation of "What can be done?" Somewhere
> between the two, people's eyes glaze over.
> - the idea of 'taking over for Bell' as your home communications
> distributor is intimidating.
> - people want fire and forget. Do this, problem solved. However, phones
> are 'bet your business' 'essential services' and they mistrust their
> ability to play or migrate to it, in their casual time available. (Thus the
> 3102 above - plug this in, see, everything still works. Acquire a DID, see,
> still works. Have their number ported, see still works. Turn off Bell ...)
> - but if they see its viable, and can get someone to come in and make it
> happen for them, for free ...
> - So, since things quickly get beyond fire and forget, how to hold people
> through 'all this technical stuff' (which is really nothing more than there
> are a lot of little pieces in the mix, be it sip, provider, ata, moh, call
> forwarding, wi-fi) so they come out the other side saying "Yes, I want to
> do this!"
>
> I'm thinking there are 3 aspects here: concepts, how to, and see it /
> touch it, it's real. Not sure this can be done in a one or two hour
> session. (Am sure this could be done every week for a year, and you'd still
> have new people signing up to attend.) Let alone by one person - although
> John has sure tried. (Thank you John.)
>
> It does seem that this is all more workshop than presentation.
>
> Is it possible we're actually talking about a 'k-w voip' group, here? And
> since we are now viewing phones (voip) as but a part of larger context
> (convergence?), something rather more than that?
>
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