Talkathon

Return to forever

nospam@example.com (Randolph R) — 2008-09-02T08:30:40Z

Back from vacation in California. After a few days, I suddenly received a huge credit from Kiva which I re-invested, of course. I don't really know where the credit came from, but a friend mentioned that they are now crediting partial payments of borrowers to allow us to pump more into the system. Fine with me!

Talkshoe Decides to Stop All Payments Retroactively

nospam@example.com (Randolph R) — 2008-05-31T17:46:16Z

Talkshoe is a company I've always admired tremendously for several reasons. Oh, they always had a few things I didn't care for like the design of the site and their spammy emails, but all in all, they built a community of folks that really helped each other. A lot of them have dropped by the wayside since the "old days" of September 2006, but still it's a fun place.

On around May 29th, the statistics counters that show downloads and participants stopped moving and someone posted this to the forum. The response was a real surprise. I paraphrase Dave Nelsen, Talkshoe's amiable home-winemaking CEO here:

We decided to stop paying out and that decision is retroactive beginning May 1st.

Although it was never actually announced, the reasoning behind it was posted in their blog.

Fair enough, but there was absolutely no mention of this which makes it look like the server bills can't be paid or something. Dave has promised to reveal nothing on his "sharing" show next Thursday, but the show will certainly go through the roof in participants. Too bad he won't be paid for it!

More here

Note: there have been comments on this post, but comments are disabled, and I'm truly sorry about that. This isn't a real blog (gee... really?) and comment maintenance is a huge time sink with zillions of spammers out there. If you feel compelled to weigh in on this thread, click on "More here" above.

Asterisk Tag Photos

nospam@example.com (Randolph R) — 2008-05-30T06:04:15Z

Thanks to Stefan Wintermeyer for sending these.

The disco bar!

My presentation

(clockwise) Olle, me, Kevin and Michelle

Asterisk Tag

nospam@example.com (Randolph R) — 2008-05-28T13:31:54Z

First, it was over too quickly. I originally was going to be able to remain calm and have fun, but a travel conflict with my partner's trip to the USA, incidentally ruined by DHL France losing the box of books she was to take over with her, made we really want to get back before she left.

Sunday evening, I was able to spend some time with a community pillar, Olle, the Godfather of chan_sip (or something like that). There's a huge difference between these things:
1) Reading messages on the asterisk-users mailing list
2) Waiting for oej on #asterisk IRC channel
3) hearing Olle on http://voipusersconference.org
4) seeing 1 minute Olle's presentation on http://asterisktv.com (domain name will change RSN)
and
5) Having dinner with Olle, talking about SIP, asterisk, Digium, life and family and the relationship between these different galaxies.

Which is better?

Answer: 5 if you have decent wine.

Day One was well-organized by Stefan Wintermeyer with a nice pace. Beginning with his own intro, and he has a great sense of humor, then Mark Spencer's keynote, several other presenters not the least of which Kevin Fleming, Michelle Petrone-Fleming and the one and only Olle but wait - there's more - ending with an encrypted video phone call between Phil "PGP" Zimmermann in California and the 100+ audience in Berlin.

Even Stefan repeatedly telling Phil the cocktails were waiting for us in the other room didn't stop Phil from doing his "Columbo imitation", "oh, wait look, here's another thing, hit the 'clear' button and show what it looks like to start and stop encryption". More on why you care about encryption here.

On to the drinks. But here are a bunch of people standing in front of the bar and nothing happening in spite of the two bartenders standing behind it. It only became obvious when some disco music started and the barmen started juggling and tossing around cocktail shakers what was happening. It was a great ice-breaker (pun intended) and we all know what goes on in the hall is more important than what goes on at the conference. Also a terrific way to limit both over drinking and the costs since each drink took like 15 minutes to make and serve

Tuesday was hectic, my own presentation sucked because I love to improvise and I did not update my slides. Too bad since there were two cute photos of iJustine in them and I know that would have woken up a few of the snorers. What does iJustine have to do with all this? It was they way she managed to master the Internet rather than the Internet using her. At the time, I had something coherent to say, now I'm too tired from the trip home to say it as well. Anyway, the point is, what didn't kill me, I learned from.

See you next year in Berlin for an event with a new name, a new randulo and full live and on demand video.

Almost 100 loans!

nospam@example.com (Randolph R) — 2008-05-28T13:21:38Z

I've been on this case for about 15 months and so far, 92 individuals or groups have been given the chance to see their dream come true. At this rate, I'll reach my goal of 100 before our summer trip to California.
Every podcast we produce and everything we do at Talkathon.org is for one purpose: to help restore dignity to hard-working entrepreneurs in the third world.

Here's the Talkathon Lender Page

Here's why we use Talkshoe as our platform.

Friday May 9th with Dean Collins

nospam@example.com (Randolph R) — 2008-05-09T10:00:00Z

Dean Collins hosts this week's VOIP Users Conference. The purpose of this call is to discuss the communityâ€™s feelings about an Asterisk 3rd party developed commercial software sales licensing platform.

The plan is that some form of documented published schema be implemented that will allow for 3rd party software developers to sell their software applications using a common licensing model similar to the way G729 licenses are sold by Digium.

Get details on how to join the group any Friday at 12 Noon or to listen to archive recordings at the

VoIP Users Conference

IRC: Freenode.net on #voip-users-conference

Social Network: Forums, blogs

VoIP Users Conference

nospam@example.com (Randolph R) — 2008-05-05T17:22:00Z

The New Wine Consumer: Wine Brands

nospam@example.com (Randolph R) — 2008-05-04T17:24:00Z

New live conference call coming soon.

Allison Smith Returns to the VUC

nospam@example.com (Randolph R) — 2008-02-08T16:37:00Z

We welcome Allison Smith, "Voice of Asterisk" who will join us again on February 8th, 2008 to talk about her world. Allison probably has seen more of asterisk history than a lot of us hardcore enthusiasts.
Join or listen to the conference at VoIP Users Conference.

Allison is pictured above at Astricon 2007 Phoenix with Asterisk creator Mark Spencer. She's wearing the now famous "Asterisk Dress".

Gina, Dave, Chris and me: Ning and Social Networking for 2088

nospam@example.com (Randolph R) — 2007-12-28T08:21:48Z

It was fun to sit around the fire and chat about Ning, Talkshoe, Utterz and the price of fish. Here's where you can listen to Tail of the Whale:

http://randulo.com/tw

Social Networking in 2008 with Gina Bianchini

nospam@example.com (Randolph R) — 2007-12-25T15:45:58Z

On Thursday December 27th, Ning CEO Gina Bianchini will be the guest of
Tail of the Whale, a live, interactive podcast about Ning and its sometimes hidden potential.

In late 2004, Bianchini and Marc Andreesen founded Ning.com to give everyone the opportunity to easily create social networks. Now on the eve of 2008, Ning powers well over 130,000 social networks on the Internet.

Ning is a clear web platform choice for individuals, clubs and companies to leverage the latest web technology for social networking. Unlike the "walled garden" models available before Ning, users can interact with members in ways that were not possible without huge development costs. A Ning network can be set up and opened in just a few minutes.

Joining the live discussion Thursday is simple:

At 12 Noon EST (9 AM PST) phone (724) 444-7444
and enter the digits 43023# 1#

We also hope to have people from Talkshoe, Utterz and other forward looking companies with us that day.

"Tail of the Whale" is hosted by Randulo, who also hosts and produces
"WineLoversPage.com Talkshoe" and "VOIP Users Conference", both weekly.

All revenues generated from all Talkathon productions are paid into the kiva.org loan fund for third world entrepreneurs.

Back from Paradise

nospam@example.com (Randolph R) — 2007-10-04T10:00:26Z

Reality is beautiful.

Vacation was paradise, a total break from most daily concerns, although we kept up the Talkshoe interactive podcasts (see http://randulo.com for a list) and so were able to continue support for my pet project, Kiva.org. We now have 38 people using the Kiva funds to start or improve their businesses.

The Voip Users Conference is going well with an average of 30 live core members and thousands of monthly downloads. The group, formerly Asterisk Users Conference, has changed names to avoid trademark issues.

Wine Lovers is also doing well, mostly as a downloaded podcast.

Talkshoe has improved all of the facilities provided by their platform whichis the best around in my view.

KivaTV.org may inspire new lenders!

nospam@example.com (Randolph R) — 2007-07-12T11:56:19Z

The kind folks at Mogulus have allowed me to test a lot of new tv channels and what more fitting one that kivaTV.org ?

Please go check out the great things we can accomplish with a modest investment through Kiva.org We now need to find ways to go live on this channel and use the Internet for one of the things it does best: help others worldwide to help themselves.

Asterisk: Mark Spencer Live Video Simulcast

nospam@example.com (Randolph R) — 2007-07-06T12:30:00Z

Mark thought he was on vacation, but we managed to grab him for an hour of the Asterisk Users Conference and we were able to do a one hour conference with a live video stream at the same time. The recorded video will be available on the weekend of July 7th on Asterisk TV.

WATCH Asterisk TV Now!

See VoipUsersConference.org for the information about how to call in to join the conference.

The Wine Channel

nospam@example.com (Randolph R) — 2007-06-26T17:37:38Z

Starting soon, all wine all the time! The people, places and things that make up great wine!

Continue reading "The Wine Channel"