Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 9:50 am Post subject: [Asterisk-doc] As promised, some internals docs
Wow! I like what I'm seeing! Thanks, critch! Before too long,
Asterisk will be the best-documented program in the history of the open-
source revolution!
-Jared
On Sat, 2005-02-05 at 11:07 -0600, Steven Critchfield wrote:
Quote:
Made 2 commits today. One was the initial outline from Nick Bachmann.
The second was my format section.
As a first run, please give feedback on style and all as I feel it may
need more direction.
Made 2 commits today. One was the initial outline from Nick
Bachmann. The second was my format section.
As a first run, please give feedback on style and all as I
feel it may need more direction.
This looks like the foundation of the perfect evolution of the work
begun in Volume I. I guess this'll be Volume II in the libarary (do we
want to get this on the website?).
One of the things we found when we began Volume I was that the problem
with trying to document Asterisk was simply too huge. What we did was
define some potential audiences for Asterisk documentation (newbies,
technicians, developers, hobbyists, etc.) and select the audience that
we felt was most in need. The next step was to develop a reasonable goal
for our audience to achieve by reading our book, and focus exclusively
on that.
We decided that Volume I (which still needs a title, really) would be
addressed to newbs. More specifically, the audience for Volume I was
someone with Linux know-how, but almost no Asterisk experience, and the
goal was to walk the reader through the creation of an Asterisk system
with FXO, FXS, IAX and SIP interfaces. The document would deliver a
basic, working Asterisk system, with the reader having experienced a
rudimentary walkthrough of key steps in the process of building an
Asterisk PBX.
For Volume I, we always found it so much easier to perform editorial
tasks because the most wonderful stuff would sometimes be removed simply
because it did not fit the audience or goals. This would usually end up
getting dumped in the Hitchhiker's Guide, so that someone later on might
find a way to make use of it, but volume one would always have clearly
defined prameters that we could refer to when deciding what belonged,
and what did not.
In the same vein, I imagine that Volume II: Asterisk Internals needs to
have a specific audience and a specific goal that will have been
achieved when the reader has finished the book. Is this to be a
reference guide? Or a more in-depth continuation of Volume I? Either
goal would be valuable (many others come to mind as well), but the kind
of scope-creep that made the Hitchhiker's Guide so cumbersome will be a
constant danger here as well, unless the audience and goals are defined
right from the beginning.
Jared, Leif and I have had numerous conversations about the goals of the
documentation project, and we are delighted to see that the dream of a
library is taking shape with efforts such as yours. What we envision is
an environment where future contributors can quickly decide where to
submit work that they are creating. If the goals and audience for each
document are clearly stated, an author can then determine whether what
they want to do would best be added to an existing work, or whether a
new volume is needed.
Quote:
From the layout I've seen so far, the audience for Volume II might be
someone who is interested in understanding the development of Asterisk,
and wants to know how to contribute. Almost a -dev newbie as opposed to
a -user newbie. The goal might be to provide an understanding of the
technologies in use in Asterisk, the cultural environment of each
component (everybody loves IAX - many (most?) hate H.323 - nobody
understands Sphinx), and perhaps suggestions as to where contributions
are most needed. A discussion about STABLE vs. HEAD from a developer's
perspective (perhaps mentioning the Asterisk Mainenance Crew) might fit
in somehow as well. I betcha a discussion on licensing would be fun for
somebody ;-P
I don't want to say that this *should* be the goal - I'm just
brainstorming here. Personally, I feel that the Author needs to the
final authority on the goal, as it's the passion for the subject that
drives the effort. With multiple authors, the goal is simply decided as
a team. If agreement cannot be reached, that might be a good thing, as
possibly what we have are the seeds of two books!
Anyhow, this is fantastic stuff, and looks poised to take AsteriskDocs
to the next level!
Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 2:04 pm Post subject: [Asterisk-doc] As promised, some internals docs
On Sat, 5 Feb 2005 14:13:14 -0500, Jim Van Meggelen <jim@vanmeggelen.ca> wrote:
Quote:
asterisk-doc-bounces@lists.digium.com wrote:
> Made 2 commits today. One was the initial outline from Nick
> Bachmann. The second was my format section.
>
> As a first run, please give feedback on style and all as I
> feel it may need more direction.
This looks like the foundation of the perfect evolution of the work
begun in Volume I. I guess this'll be Volume II in the libarary (do we
want to get this on the website?).
[snip]
I think Jim's points truly express the vision the Asterisk Docs
project hopes to achieve. I just compiled my first copy of it and will
read it either tonight or tomorrow morning, my comments will follow
once I get that chance.
I've sent Greg a message regarding the automatic compiling so that I
can post it on the website. There is a file I need to change to allow
commits to the directory to be posted to the mailing list
automatically as well.
Thanks for starting this volume guys! A formal announcement on the
front page will follow once I've got the above stuff ready and posted
to the website.
Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 2:42 pm Post subject: [Asterisk-doc] As promised, some internals docs
On Sat, 2005-02-05 at 17:04 -0500, Leif Madsen wrote:
Quote:
On Sat, 5 Feb 2005 14:13:14 -0500, Jim Van Meggelen <jim@vanmeggelen.ca> wrote:
> asterisk-doc-bounces@lists.digium.com wrote:
> > Made 2 commits today. One was the initial outline from Nick
> > Bachmann. The second was my format section.
> >
> > As a first run, please give feedback on style and all as I
> > feel it may need more direction.
>
> This looks like the foundation of the perfect evolution of the work
> begun in Volume I. I guess this'll be Volume II in the libarary (do we
> want to get this on the website?).
[snip]
I think Jim's points truly express the vision the Asterisk Docs
project hopes to achieve. I just compiled my first copy of it and will
read it either tonight or tomorrow morning, my comments will follow
once I get that chance.
I've sent Greg a message regarding the automatic compiling so that I
can post it on the website. There is a file I need to change to allow
commits to the directory to be posted to the mailing list
automatically as well.
Thanks for starting this volume guys! A formal announcement on the
front page will follow once I've got the above stuff ready and posted
to the website.
Hey watch laying on the guilt here. I guess I need to think about
sitting down and writing another section tonight.
Maybe I need to put a place for people to donate to my wine consumption
so I can write more. Luckily my wine choices aren't too expensive.
--
Steven Critchfield <critch@basesys.com>
Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 3:09 pm Post subject: [Asterisk-doc] As promised, some internals docs
Guy,
I am trying to setup my own VoIP telco like Vonage, but do not have the structured plan or step by
step on how to start. CAN ANYBODY PLEASE HELP OR EVEN POINT ME TO A SITE TO READ/COPY THE
INFORMATION?
Thanks
-Charles
--- Steven Critchfield <critch@basesys.com> wrote:
Quote:
On Sat, 2005-02-05 at 17:04 -0500, Leif Madsen wrote:
> On Sat, 5 Feb 2005 14:13:14 -0500, Jim Van Meggelen <jim@vanmeggelen.ca> wrote:
> > asterisk-doc-bounces@lists.digium.com wrote:
> > > Made 2 commits today. One was the initial outline from Nick
> > > Bachmann. The second was my format section.
> > >
> > > As a first run, please give feedback on style and all as I
> > > feel it may need more direction.
> >
> > This looks like the foundation of the perfect evolution of the work
> > begun in Volume I. I guess this'll be Volume II in the libarary (do we
> > want to get this on the website?).
> [snip]
>
> I think Jim's points truly express the vision the Asterisk Docs
> project hopes to achieve. I just compiled my first copy of it and will
> read it either tonight or tomorrow morning, my comments will follow
> once I get that chance.
>
> I've sent Greg a message regarding the automatic compiling so that I
> can post it on the website. There is a file I need to change to allow
> commits to the directory to be posted to the mailing list
> automatically as well.
>
> Thanks for starting this volume guys! A formal announcement on the
> front page will follow once I've got the above stuff ready and posted
> to the website.
Hey watch laying on the guilt here. I guess I need to think about
sitting down and writing another section tonight.
Maybe I need to put a place for people to donate to my wine consumption
so I can write more. Luckily my wine choices aren't too expensive.
--
Steven Critchfield <critch@basesys.com>
Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 3:36 pm Post subject: [Asterisk-doc] As promised, some internals docs
On Sat, 2005-02-05 at 15:09 -0800, Chief Charles Ugo. Eke wrote:
Quote:
I am trying to setup my own VoIP telco like Vonage, but do not have the structured plan or step by
step on how to start. CAN ANYBODY PLEASE HELP OR EVEN POINT ME TO A SITE TO READ/COPY THE
INFORMATION?
Welcome to the Asterisk Documentation Project mailing list!
While there's a fair amount of Asterisk documentation out there right
now (see www.asteriskdocs.org and www.voip-info.org) and we're working
hard on getting better documentation, it's all geared toward "Here's how
to setup an Asterisk server", not "Here's how to run your own VoIP
telco". If you want to learn to setup an Asterisk server, I suggest you
read everything you can find on the two sites I mentioned above, and
spend the next couple of months becoming an Asterisk guru.
As for step-by-step instructions or a structured plan on how to start
your own VoIP company, I doubt anything like that exists. The only way
to build a truly successful VoIP telco business is through sweat, blood,
and tears. It honestly takes a lot of effort and experience to do that
sort of thing. And most people who do have that kind of experience are
aren't eager to give away their secrets.
So, as I said before, dig into what documentation you can find, and get
yourself some good experience with Asterisk. Along the way, if you find
things that are poorly documented and you can help out, please help
contribute to our documentation project.
Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 3:54 pm Post subject: [Asterisk-doc] As promised, some internals docs
Gee that was one heck of encouragement, thanks
--- Jared Smith <jaredsmith@jaredsmith.net> wrote:
Quote:
On Sat, 2005-02-05 at 15:09 -0800, Chief Charles Ugo. Eke wrote:
> I am trying to setup my own VoIP telco like Vonage, but do not have the structured plan or
step by
> step on how to start. CAN ANYBODY PLEASE HELP OR EVEN POINT ME TO A SITE TO READ/COPY THE
> INFORMATION?
Welcome to the Asterisk Documentation Project mailing list!
While there's a fair amount of Asterisk documentation out there right
now (see www.asteriskdocs.org and www.voip-info.org) and we're working
hard on getting better documentation, it's all geared toward "Here's how
to setup an Asterisk server", not "Here's how to run your own VoIP
telco". If you want to learn to setup an Asterisk server, I suggest you
read everything you can find on the two sites I mentioned above, and
spend the next couple of months becoming an Asterisk guru.
As for step-by-step instructions or a structured plan on how to start
your own VoIP company, I doubt anything like that exists. The only way
to build a truly successful VoIP telco business is through sweat, blood,
and tears. It honestly takes a lot of effort and experience to do that
sort of thing. And most people who do have that kind of experience are
aren't eager to give away their secrets.
So, as I said before, dig into what documentation you can find, and get
yourself some good experience with Asterisk. Along the way, if you find
things that are poorly documented and you can help out, please help
contribute to our documentation project.
Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 4:19 pm Post subject: [Asterisk-doc] As promised, some internals docs
On Sat, 2005-02-05 at 15:54 -0800, Chief Charles Ugo. Eke wrote:
Quote:
Gee that was one heck of encouragement, thanks
I'm sorry if I came off as cold or rude -- that wasn't my intention.
But from the way you worded your email, it sounded like you wanted us to
give you step-by-step on how to build a telco.
There are a lot of guides to getting Asterisk up and running, many of
them even include the exacts steps you'll need. But I guess the point
I'm trying to make is that there's a huge chasm between getting an
Asterisk server running for the first time, and being able to run a
telco on Asterisk.
Now don't get me wrong -- I love Asterisk to death, and it's very
powerful and absolutely amazing in the things it can do. Unfortunately,
it's very hard to learn all about Asterisk in a short amount of time.
It's a very complex piece of software. I won't lie to you -- it's very
hard to get telco-class service out of Asterisk. While Asterisk will
certainly handle it (and does, for lots of people), it's getting the
Asterisk *experience* that's difficult. I would dare say that you
probably need at least three to six months of *solid* Asterisk
experience before you can expect to run a telco on Asterisk. I know
that seems like a huge investment of time (and you probably think I'm
exaggerating), but Asterisk isn't something you can learn over a weekend
and deploy overnight. It's just not that easy. There's a lot of things
you'll probably need to learn about telecom, and a lot of Asterisk
quirks you'll need to learn about.
So, that's why Leif and I started this documentation project -- to make
the first piece (the "Hey, I've got Asterisk up and taking calls" piece)
as easy as possible for new beginners. And we're constantly working on
getting better documentation. But in my wildest dreams I can't think
we'll ever document all the knowledge that is required to run an
Asterisk-based telco. There's just too much to be able to document it
all!
In short, I hope I haven't scared you off -- I promise that if you take
the time and learn Asterisk, you'll be amazed with what it can do. That
being said, I want to make sure you understand that the road ahead is
not an easy or necessarily documented (yet!) one.
I am trying to setup my own VoIP telco like Vonage, but do
not have the structured plan or step by step on how to start.
CAN ANYBODY PLEASE HELP OR EVEN POINT ME TO A SITE TO READ/COPY THE
INFORMATION?
You're kidding, right?
--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.5 - Release Date: 03/02/2005
Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:29 pm Post subject: [Asterisk-doc] As promised, some internals docs
Imagine my finger. Now imagine it pointing at the asterisk-users mailing
list.
Sorry to be blunt, but this is for the documentation project, not "how
to get rich quick using VoIP".
I've often wondered about setting up a volunteers line, manned by people
such as us, getting a decent support line openm for non-commercial usage
(just hobbyists etc) but I know it'd be abused... and that's sad...
Matthew Walster
On Sat, 2005-02-05 at 19:40 -0500, Jim Van Meggelen wrote:
Quote:
asterisk-doc-bounces@lists.digium.com wrote:
> Guy,
>
> I am trying to setup my own VoIP telco like Vonage, but do
> not have the structured plan or step by step on how to start.
> CAN ANYBODY PLEASE HELP OR EVEN POINT ME TO A SITE TO READ/COPY THE
> INFORMATION?
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