Digium Announces Keynote Speakers for AstriCon 2017, the Annual Asterisk User Conference & EXPO

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Aug. 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Digium®, Inc., the Asterisk® Company, today announced the keynote presenters for the AstriCon Open Source User Conference and Exhibition to be held October 3 - 5, 2017 at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate.  Keynote speakers include technology industry analyst, Dean Bubley and longtime advocate for Open Source, Brian Capouch.

Celebrating its 14th year, AstriCon remains the longest-running conference devoted to Asterisk, the most widely used open source communications platform in the world. AstriCon brings together the world's open source enthusiasts – from code developers and Asterisk integrators, to service providers and enterprise IT professionals – who all share an interest in Asterisk.

Bubley's presentation, "What the future holds for Asterisk (and what's overhyped)" will take place on Wednesday, October 4, at 9 a.m. ET.  The Community is familiar with IoT, AI, Blockchain, Robots, 3D-printing and other technologies on the list of "next big things" promised by futurists. But what do any of these mean for communications and IP telephony? This session explores the possible intersection-points between IP communications platforms, and emerging technologies and trends. Can blockchain be used for "data integrity protection," to ensure anti-tamper controls on call records or even voice recordings? How can AI improve voice? Is it just about speaking home or mobile "assistants," or can it be applied in contact centers, or sales team applications? And what about IoT? Focusing on where machines or sensors can trigger actual human interaction, whether by voice or video, and the fact that all of this has to set against the real world of deployment – skills, costs, and regulation. What might happen when all these intersections bring contradictions, for example, when lawful intercept of calls clashes with medical confidentiality (and device certification) for telemedicine?

Capouch will present "Asterisk and Me: A Telephony Love Story" on Thursday, October 5, at 9 a.m. ET. He will discuss his use of Asterisk on his personal projects and those projects in his classroom at Saint Joseph's College. He retired in 2016, as Chair of the Computer Science Department at Saint Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana, after 34 years of teaching there.  Saint Joseph's became one of the first colleges with a full-time Internet connection in 1988, and began offering a for-credit course in VoIP in 2002.  He has been a longtime advocate for Open Source software, participated in the process of developing the MIME standard, and was a co-author of RFC 5456, which formalizes the IAX protocol. His current interests focus on the future of the browser as a universal application container, and the technologies used to implement progressive web applications.  He has developed a great fondness for modern JavaScript, Node, and React.

The AstriCon conference contains multiple tracks with more than 55 sessions, offering attendees a variety of options during the three-day event. Topics include security, Asterisk-based distributions, Asterisk tutorials, Asterisk case studies, as well as sessions on WebRTC, speech technology, how to build scalable and resilient solutions, and IoT. Sessions also include a focus on other related open source projects, such as Kamailio, FreeSWITCH, Homer, CGRates, and OpenSIPS.

"I am delighted that we have managed to secure two such remarkable keynoters this year," said David Duffett, Worldwide Community Director for the Asterisk Open Source project. "Dean will help us look at the place that Asterisk might hold in the communications systems of tomorrow, from a technical perspective; and Brian will reflect on the amazing sense of community that has brought the Asterisk project so far, while casting a look toward the way Asterisk will interact with the programming environments of the future."

AstriCon 2017 is sponsored by Digium as well as Platinum Sponsors BICOM Systems, Yealink and Telnyx; and by Gold Sponsors Grandstream and Inteliquent. Additional sponsors include Algo, CallCabinet, Cepstral, Greenfield Tech, KHOMP, Loway, Lumenvox, NETXUSA, Obihai, OpenVox, OrecX, Sangoma, Simwood, Teledynamics and Teli.

About AstriCon
AstriCon is the longest-running event devoted to all things Asterisk, a free and open source framework for building communications applications that is downloaded nearly 2 million times per year. AstriCon's mission is to expand awareness and knowledge of Asterisk. Attendees will learn about trends in Asterisk use, the growing Asterisk ecosystem, the newest applications and a wide range of in-depth technical topics from Asterisk developers, users and entrepreneurs. AstriCon will be held October 3 - 5, 2017 at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate. Registration is open at www.astricon.net.

About Digium
Digium®, Inc. provides Asterisk® software, telephony hardware, and on-premises and hosted Switchvox business phone systems that deliver enterprise-class Unified Communications (UC) and UC as a Service (UCaaS) solutions at an affordable price. Digium is the creator, primary developer and sponsor of the Asterisk project; the world's most widely used open source communications software. Asterisk turns an ordinary computer into a feature-rich communications server. A community of more than 80,000 developers and users worldwide uses Asterisk to create VoIP communication solutions in more than 170 countries. Since 1999, Digium has empowered developers to create innovative communications solutions based on open standards and open source software, providing an alternative to proprietary phone systems. Digium Switchvox Cloud and other cloud-based products and services are offered through Digium Cloud Services, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Digium, Inc. Digium's business communications products are sold through a worldwide network of reseller partners. More information is available at www.digium.com and www.asterisk.org.

The Digium logo, Digium, Asterisk, Asterisk SCF, Switchvox, Asterisk Business Edition, AsteriskNOW, Asterisk Appliance and the Asterisk logo are trademarks of Digium, Inc. Apple is a trademark of Apple Inc.  All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Digium, Inc.

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