HUNTSVILLE, AL — (January 30, 2006) — Digium Inc., original creator of Asterisk and pioneer of open source telephony, announced today that President Mark Spencer has been named one of Network World Magazine’s 50 Most Powerful People in Networking. The annual list featured in The Power Issue of Network World’s Signature Series takes a look at the people, companies, technologies and ideas that are transforming the networking industry. The Power People list profiles 50 of the most aggressive, competitive, masterful and thought-provoking individuals of 2005.
“At 27, Spencer has the youth and momentum to set the network industry spinning. He became famous in 2005, as the industry took notice of Asterisk, the open source PBX system he created, and of his continued pioneering work in open source telephony. Not only is Asterisk an intriguing open source option for VoIP, but as an open source hardware product it has become the proving ground for the entire open source movement. Spencer has been as admired for his marketing skill as for his technical abilities,” stated the article in Network World.
The publication chose the recipients based on nominations submitted by its editorial staff, columnists, newsletter writers, Lab Alliance members and external sources. Unsolicited nominations were not accepted for consideration and decisions were based on criteria that include revenue, market share, customer service, leadership and industry influence.
“Being mentioned along side of Gates, Chambers, Ellison, and McNealy is pretty cool, but it really is the entire Asterisk community that has made the platform what it is today,” said Mark Spencer. “Asterisk has long left the garage and is being fostered by talented developers around the world, many of which work at the networking and telecom powerhouses. Its use is more widespread within those communities than people realize, so piquing the interest of large networking vendors is really just a natural progression.”
About Network World
Network World, Inc., the Leader in Network Knowledge, empowers Network IT Executives through education, information and community. Network World, an IDG company, is the leading provider of news, analysis, reviews, events and education on information technology. Network World publishes the leading newsweekly, Network World, hosts the most active online community (www.networkworld.com), and produces educational seminars and events worldwide. Network World’s portfolio of strategic marketing programs provides marketing and agency professionals with the tools to generate high-quality leads, optimize marketing campaigns, and create new revenue opportunities.
About Digium
Digium is the original creator and primary developer of Asterisk, the industry’s first open source PBX and Asterisk Business Edition, the professional-grade version of Asterisk. Used in combination with Digium’s PCI telephony interface cards, Asterisk offers a strategic, highly cost-effective approach to voice and data transport over IP, TDM, switched and Ethernet architectures.
Digium provides quality hardware and software products that enable telephony applications including legacy PBX, IVR, auto attendant, next generation gateways, media servers and application servers. Digium also offers a full range of professional services including consulting, technical support and customer software development services.
About Asterisk
Code for Asterisk, originally written by Mark Spencer of Digium Inc., has been contributed to from open source software engineers around the world. It supports a wide range of TDM protocols for the handling and transmission of voice over traditional telephony interfaces, and VoIP packet protocols such as IAX, SIP and H.323. It supports US and European standard signaling types used in business phone systems, allowing it to bridge between next-generation voice-data integrated networks and existing infrastructure.
The Digium logo, Digium, Asterisk and the Asterisk logo are trademarks of Digium, Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respected owners.
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