If anyone is listening, I thought I’d go back to putting a little summary of meetings up here. If I get a chance, I’ll also post some other notes on various projects. And if anyone wants post things on this blog, let me know and I’ll set you up with a username.
The November presentation was by Andrew Latham. Andrew is a consult and the owner and principal of TuxTone, Inc, in Warsaw, and he has enormous experience in digital telephony. He is a co-author or O’Reilly’s VoIP Hacks and the coming Asterisk Cookbook. He’s also a great Linux/FLOSS advocate, to the point that I’ve never seen him not wearing a polo shirt with Tux on it. 
Andrew started with a quick run through the history of telephony and the development of VoIP. Following that he discussed some of the current phones and equipment (he brought literally buckets of toys) and discussed the options one might have in experimenting with VoIP at home.
Andrew suggested that beginners should start out creating a digital answering machine, which gives an opportunity to experiment with managing calls, etc. He also mentioned services like grandcentral.com, which offer ways to connect and manage phone accounts without necessarily going through a phone company.
Andrew also walked through a simple (and amazingly easy) install and set-up of Asterisk, and then discussed various questions.
Thanks to Andrew for a hugely informative session. His notes on Asterisk are at http://tuxtone.com/index.php?title=OSS:Asterisk
