Thursday, November 22, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving

This is a terrific opportunity to reflect over the past for all of us. As I review the past two years, I think about how I came to Digium. Internal debates at 3Com about Asterisk, open source, 3Com's voice products (NBX, VCX, and their own SIP phones) and how we might be better positioned in the future. A team of three people in the convergence business unit did some heavy lifting and voila - "hell day" presentation on 3Com and how Asterisk might be well suited for the future voice business. Then new management changes at 3Com led to my leaving along with some other key folks and in a matter of weeks meeting Mark Spencer, David Skok (the Matrix Partners investor), the rest of Digium's small team, and the rest as they say is history. Today, I give thanks for the sequence of events that brought me here.

I am challenged daily by the balance of open source vs. commercial business. A growing company, a young founder and his friends, a more traditional planning process and budgeting process, and a continued balance of "free" vs. "commercial" across products. This makes the career move here much more interesting!

Check out our free small business Switchvox at www.switchvox.com or www.digium.com; check our free Asterisk - pure code for geeks at www.asterisk.org and for the slightly less technically inclined, a distribution at www.asterisknow.org (release 1.0 replacing beta 6 very soon).

Here is the type of thing we work with daily: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ozEo3FOKCS8)
if that link fails, try this: http://youtube.com/results?search_query=mark+spencer+jeep&search=Search

You tell me how you balance this with traditional strategic and operations planning as well as integration of two acquisitions. Yes, this is quite a period of life that I give thanks for today.

Moving to one last thing I'd like to mention that crosses my mind every Thanksgiving: High School Football. I will watch Pro football today as substitute for my younger days when I attended Needham High School in MA. The rivalry with Wellesley (yes, same town that Hillary attended college) has a history - the oldest in the nation for public schools. In checking out www.boston.com I found this today which made me smile. Check this out: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/11/22/holiday_spirit/

Reading this reminded me of the spirited rallys and pranks the week before this football game back in the 60's. I think my class was ahead of its time. Anyway, I give thanks today for many things but in this blog today wanted to share Digium and Needham stories. I am sure you have yours!

Happy Thanksgiving to all and enjoy your day!

No comments: