The Flat Planet and a Phone !

I am impressed. Danny Windham the Digium CEO has published a letter admitting that they made a mistake in their handling of the Google Adwords issue. I am impressed twice. Once, since not many CEOs will admit their mistakes openly and secondly that Digium has listened to the community’s voice and decided to rethink their policy.

The events of the past week prove that  the Asterisk phenomena is much bigger than Digium and while Digium will remain the trademark holder and chief developer, there is a large community (not only developers)  outside that they have to consider. If they take the narrow view of only working with those companies that directly resell Digium hardware and software they will make a mistake. Take our company as an example. While we do not generally resell Digium products, Asterisk is an important part of our system.

We do not hide this. In fact when asked we openly state that we use Asterisk as a component in our system. Our use of Asterisk benefits Digium. Why?  Simply put, the more that Asterisk is used for mainstream telephone services, the more Digium will sell their core products.

Therefore, while they should continue to protect their trademark, at the same time it will benefit them to support us and the many Voice 2.0 companies who use Asterisk to operate their service. Asterisk should become the “Frigidaire” of telephone systems. (For those who are too young to remember Frigidaire was one of the first manufacturers of refrigerators 90 years ago, and their name became synonymous with refrigerators). Working with the community in the broadest sense will ensure that.

I have one more suggestion for Digium. Form a Community Council. This council should include in addition to Digium resellers, people like myself, like Alec Saunders, Erik Lagerway and Andy Abramson. While we are not Digium resellers, we do have a vested interest in their success. If such a council had been consulted prior to the Adwords fiasco, it could have been prevented.

Meanwhile, I wish Danny, Mark and the whole Digium crew much success!