Let me clarify what is Wybecom TALK.
It’s a very recent project. It’s a web based CTI middleware, platform
independant (compliant with Cisco, Aastra, Asterisk (Asterisk Connector will be available next week) and almost any manufacturer).
As Steve says, none of proprietary vendors provide support for CTI as a standard feature, TALK is designed to fill this gap.
As you said, it’s builded with blood and sweat.
Some customers are interested in this approach, and I hope there will be
more!

Cheers,
Yohann BARRE

Let me clarify what is Wybecom TALK.
It’s a very recent project. It’s a web based CTI middleware, platform
independant (compliant with Cisco, Aastra, Asterisk (Asterisk Connector will be available next week) and almost any manufacturer).
As Steve says, none of proprietary vendors provide support for CTI as a standard feature, TALK is designed to fill this gap.
As you said, it’s builded with blood and sweat.
Some customers are interested in this approach, and I hope there will be
more!

Cheers,
Yohann BARRE

Disclosure: I’m the marketing director for Asterisk at Digium.

Thank you very much for covering this issue. I will concede that the proprietary vendors have, to some degree, adopted open standards. However, that does not mean that their solutions are “open” in any real sense. All of them charge a license fee for each SIP trunk or phone connected to their PBX. All of them charge license fees for each instance of each feature enabled. None of them include source code. None of them allow deep customization. None of them provide support for programmatic (CTI) interaction as a standard feature.

Worse, many proprietary systems approach open standards with the Microsoft “embrace and extend” philosophy. Open standards overlayed with proprietary extensions are hardly open.

Open source solutions like Asterisk don’t gouge customers on a per-chassis, per-user or per-feature basis. They don’t “embrace and extend” open standards (though they do frequently offer support for “embraced and extended” gear from proprietary vendors). Most importantly, users always have the freedom to implement, maintain and grow their system as they wish. No strings attached.

Open source is the great equalizer of the digital age. I suspect that eventually open source will overcome overpriced, limited and closed vendors, even those who pay lip service to open standards.

Cheers,

-S

Disclosure: I’m the marketing director for Asterisk at Digium.

Thank you very much for covering this issue. I will concede that the proprietary vendors have, to some degree, adopted open standards. However, that does not mean that their solutions are “open” in any real sense. All of them charge a license fee for each SIP trunk or phone connected to their PBX. All of them charge license fees for each instance of each feature enabled. None of them include source code. None of them allow deep customization. None of them provide support for programmatic (CTI) interaction as a standard feature.

Worse, many proprietary systems approach open standards with the Microsoft “embrace and extend” philosophy. Open standards overlayed with proprietary extensions are hardly open.

Open source solutions like Asterisk don’t gouge customers on a per-chassis, per-user or per-feature basis. They don’t “embrace and extend” open standards (though they do frequently offer support for “embraced and extended” gear from proprietary vendors). Most importantly, users always have the freedom to implement, maintain and grow their system as they wish. No strings attached.

Open source is the great equalizer of the digital age. I suspect that eventually open source will overcome overpriced, limited and closed vendors, even those who pay lip service to open standards.

Cheers,

-S