Open Telephone Training Seminar Rescheduled.

FreePBX team has announced a date change on the upcoming Open Telephone Training Seminar. When I published the above article, it was scheduled for August.

The FreePBX team has received numerous requests from possible participants to postpone the date because of vacations and other summer time activities in August. After verifying with those who have already signed up for the event, the team has set the following dates for the training seminar;

Where: Digium Headquarters, Huntsville, AL
When: October 7-10th, 2008

For a limited time, until the End of July, we will also provide an early bird discount of 15%, a $375 savings, but register early to get that discount.

Tags: Open Telephone Training Seminar, OTTS, FreePBX, Digium, IP PBX, PBX, VoIP Training

SIP / SIMPLE-XMPP Developer Workshop 2008

SIP/SIMPLE and XMPP share a lot of concepts but at the same time they differ in many aspects. At the same time, both these protocols are the leading medium for voice, video, IM and Universal convergence. The unified Communication that many are touting today is the interconnection between these mediums of communications and creating a medium bringing users together via many a paths.
There have been many a workshops for SIP and XMPP but most of the time they were held separately and the users needed to bring the knowledge together as needed. But you have a chance see both these protocols, SIP/SIMPLE and XMPP at a single workshop. The workshop aims to bring together people with large expertise in both protocols, interested in development, testing and deployment of IP/SIMPLE-XMPP solutions. Innovation, being the top mantra, the participants will be able to learn test and innovate and finally bring open source projects to private or public enterprises.

The SIP / SIMPLE-XMPP Developer Workshop 2008

Date: September 2-5, 2008
Place: INRIA, Paris, France

Main organizers:
- Philippe Sultan, INRIA - contributor to the XMPP/Jingle support in Asterisk, member of XMPP Standards Foundation
- Olle E. Johansson, Edvina - main SIP developer of Asterisk
- Daniel-Constantin Mierla. Asipto - co-founder Openser, developer of XMPP/Jabber gateway

Goal:
- kick up simple-xmpp interoperability

Agenda guidelines:
- identify common issues of simple-xmpp interoperability
- define best-practice solutions and workarounds of delicate issues
- coding sessions in existing applications such as Asterisk, Openser, Jabberd, Freeswitch, eJabberd, libraries, client applications, etc.
- testing sessions
- reports about past experiences and results of the workshop

Target participants:
- developers of simple-xmpp products
- people interested in testing simple-xmpp products
- people interested in building simple-xmpp communication environments

Cost:
- free registration (everybody pays for its traveling and accommodation)

Registration:
- via e-mail at simple-xmpp@asipto.com
- please write the motivation to participate and add bullets into agenda if you like to approach new subjects. The organizers reserve the right to select a group of people that will contribute most as this is mainly a workshop to approach issues, test interoperability and design new solutions.
- updates about the event are posted at: http://www.asipto.com/index.php/simple-xmpp-developer-workshop-2008/

Size:
- up to 20 people

As of Jul 15, 2008, participating companies are:
- INRIA - http://www.inria.fr - SIP-XMPP interoperability in Asterisk (http://www.asterisk.org)
- Edvina - http://www.edvina.net - SIP-XMPP interoperability in Asterisk (http://www.asterisk.org)
- AG Projects - http://www.ag-projects.com - MSRP-XMPP Interoperability (http://www.msrprelay.org)
- Asipto - http://www.asipto.com - SIP-XMPP interoperability in Openser (http://www.openser.org)

Tags: VoIP Training, Unified Communications, SIP/SIMPLE and XMPP Workshop, Universal convergence, SIP-XMPP interoperability in Asterisk, SIP-XMPP interoperability in Openser

Open Telephony Seminar, FreePBX training, Asterisk and Linux Knowledge Enhancement

Where:	Historic Charleston, SC
When:	February 27-29th, 2008 (and evening reception February 26th)

FreePBX has organized a Training Seminar the seem to be as good as their open source IP PBX software FreePBX. This training seminar will teach advanced topics to market, sell, deploy, troubleshoot, customize and administer Asterisk/FreePBX solutions. The seminar starts by providing an advanced foundation in FreePBX and Asterisk, presented by Philippe Lindheimer, the FreePBX project lead and primary developer.
If you belong to any of the following, you are a good candidate for the seminar;

• Persons/organizations selling, provisioning, and deploying open source PBXs
• IT professionals deploying PBXs in their own organization
• Telephony professionals and carriers exploring the world of open-source Asterisk-based PBXs

Follow the links find course details, information about the organizers or to view a pdf brochure.


tag: FreePBX, VoIP Training, VoIP Seminar, VoIP technology, VoIP Solutions, Asterisk

Get Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) training at TMC University,At ITEXPO East 2008

NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) announced today that their TMC University division will offer a Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) training course at INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO East 2008 in Miami, Florida. The daylong course, which includes a 30-minute certification exam, will be held Wednesday, January 23rd, day one of the three-day conference.

Titled, ‘Introduction to Microsoft OCS’, this TMC University course offers an initial training session teaching users how to integrate Microsoft’s new platform into their existing infrastructure.

According to TMC President and conference chairman, Rich Tehrani, TMC University is the only independent program of its kind. And this new OCS certification course is an overdue addition to the series.

“Since Bill Gates’ unveiling of Microsoft OCS in October, enterprises have scrambled to determine the most effective way to integrate its considerable advantages into their organizations. This new course gives the necessary background for enterprise telecom and IT managers to make smart recommendations about what’s best for their companies,” said TMC president Rich Tehrani.

The program will be taught by Thomas Cross – CEO TECHtionary.com, an innovative communications advisor with considerable expertise in market planning and development, hardware/software design and development, project management, intellectual property in telecommunications, information technology, conferencing, teletraining, telecommuting, groupware, networks, call centers, internet, artificial intelligence and other fields.

Cross commented, “OCS is the most profound innovation in telephony since digital PBX systems.” “It is very likely OCS will be a ‘must-have’ for business communications. By adding this training course to the Miami program, attendees can attend a one-day class that prepares them to make recommendations to their companies about an OCS strategy,” Cross added.

The TMC University Microsoft OCS Course consists of sessions covering the following topics:

Introduction and Overview

OCS business communications scenarios:

* Instant messaging
* On-premise Web conferencing
* On-premise audio/video conferencing
* Telephony

OCS-PBX Interoperability

This session explores and explains SIP-Session Initiation Protocol and how SIP is used to provide internet telephony functions in an OCS enterprise telephony solution. This session will explain:

* SIP and versions of SIP used in OCS
* SIP-to-PBX interoperability
* SIP-to-IP-PBX interoperability
* OCS and IP-PSTN gateway integration
* Remote office telephony integration

OCS Servers

In this session, we will explore the various types of servers used in an OCS environment which include:

* Mediation
* Front End
* Active Directory

Call Flow Scenarios

The following call flow scenarios supported by OCS will be covered in-depth:

* Telephony users can connect to other telephony users by using OCS
* Internal telephony users can also communicate with PSTN and PBX users
* Outgoing calls
* Incoming calls

Configuration and Planning

This session is designed to provide the student with an overview of key requirements for planning and implementing OCS.

Registration for the course and the entire conference is now open. Anyone interested may register by visiting http://www.itexpo.com. Limited booth space is still available as well. Vendors interested in exhibiting at the show should contact Dave Rodriguez at 1-203-852-6800, ext. 146.

For information about additional Microsoft OCS training courses, and the new TMC OCS newsletter, Could be obtained here.

Tags: TMC, OCS, PSTN, PBX, SIP-to-IP-PBX, IP-PSTN gateway, SIP, Microsoft OCS, telecommunications, information technology, conferencing, teletraining, telecommuting, groupware, networks, call centers, internet, artificial intelligence, enterprise telecom, TMC University, ITEXPO, ITEXPO East 2008, Introduction to Microsoft OCS

VoIP Education and Training Needed for Sales People

I know you can get training on Asterisk at Digium, where education material and courses are provided for technicians, developers and self learners like me. But I could not find any sales training. Perhaps I did not look hard enough.
Shoretel gives training across the board and also sales training for channel partners. This trend goes to most of the companies that provide VoIP services and hardware. But does it applies to all companies? Do these companies like Vonage, Skype understand the value of educated sales people? I guess not. Although not something I really think about, a post by one my favorite bloggers got me thinking. Yes, a lot of people are ignorant when it comes to VoIP.
Russell Shaw at ZDNet has put it out interestingly...
"I have my own theory as to why this is. There’s plenty of vendor-supplied training and support from the H-P’s of the world. But to my knowledge, there aren’t alot of Vonage, Skype, Packet8, etc. support types offering sales clinics to Frys, MicroCenter, CompUSA or BestBuy types."

I believe a lot in education. So much that My best motto is "Educate yourself, Never Graduate" (the never graduate is not really true, but I remained at the university.)

So People, get your heads together teach those who does your selling.

Tags: VoIP Training, VoIP sales force, Asterisk, Digium, Shoretel, Vonage, Skype, Packet8