devoted to Asterisk-based IP PBX solutions, and plenty of other IP PBX and IP Centrex vendors in evidence, it’s difficult to believe that PBX (owned or hosted) is dead or even doomed. Bill didn’t turn up to explain, but surprisingly he had support on the floor. Apparently, what he really meant is that those big old hardware PBXs are no more, and the PBX has moved to software that can run on a generic hardware platform. No controversy there, Bill. You should have sent someone to VON in 1999.

While the PBX is clearly not dead (yet), there could be a useful discussion around the notion that all useful PBX functionality can reside in software anywhere – in a wide range of edge devices, and perhaps distributed securely over many devices. That brings us to the topic of peer-to-peer SIP.

Peer-to-peer technology, based on distributed hash tables (DHT), is undoubtedly cool. Everyone knows that kids use it to download content and irritate the RIAA and copyright holders. However millions use P2P quite legitimately - to make phone calls, send messages, transfer files, to distribute software. People are also building P2PSIP applications that provide the equivalent of PBX functionality without a centralized server. Proponents claim that P2 SIP can lower the barrier to entry for innovative new services, reduce costs, enhance personal privacy, and demolish traditional business models. P2PSIP networking is moving in to the mainstream, with the development of IETF standards. The concept of “mainstream” is relative. The big carriers found plain SIP-based VoIP difficult to embrace; no one is predicting that AT&T will adopt Skype-like technology and business models anytime soon.

It’s difficult to attend any event without someone finding a way to bring in the latest hot topic – social networking. Jeff Pulver has found Facebook and is having fun. But he also makes a serious point; in his keynote address Jeff used the example of the power and popularity of Facebook and other Internet-based networking applications to remind carriers out there that people really don’t need carriers to invent these new services for them; but they do need carriers to carry the bits. “As long as we can get to a world where carriers provide us with connectivity, and they’re very polite and proper bit-bucket providers … it’s all good.”

over-protective corporate attitudes.

Jeff must surely be wondering if VON is still the sort of event he needs to further his agenda. IP and SIP are part of the establishment scenery, and can be made to fit nicely into a range of walled garden scenarios that don’t exactly gel with the Pulver worldview. At this VON, AT&T rented a booth and presented sessions. And AT&T is very welcome, because AT&T carries lots of bits, and I’ve generally found AT&T people to be polite and proper so they clearly win Pulver approval. But where were Skype and Facebook? Or Sightspeed, Second Life, Disney, Vonage and Google? These are the types of companies that are creating the services that will define communications in the future.

VON started life as a forum that reflected the extraordinary changes in the industry at that time. Something extraordinary is still going on out there in the world of telecommunications, but VON is starting to feel like just another telecom show, because yesterday’s leading edge is today’s ordinary. Fortunately, Jeff Pulver is still smart and energetic, and his keynote talk shows that he gets all this. Perhaps a reinvention of VON is not far ahead, to reflect this next generation of extraordinariness. We await developments with interest.