NYC LOCAL: Thursday 16 October 2008 UNIGROUP: Paul Charles Leddy on the Asterisk Open Source PBX/Telephony System

[secretary]

<blockquote
  what="official UNIGROUP announcement"
  note="This meeting is at Cooper Union."
  entrance-fee="$20, $5 for students, $50 for full year membership"
  fee-schedule="http://www.unigroup.org/unigroup-fees.html";
  rsvp="requested, see below"
  note="There will be a full demonstration of Asterisk."
  edits="material removed to fit in mailboxen">

 Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 07:03:10 -0400 (EDT)
 From: Unigroup_of_NY <unilist@unigroup.org>
 Subject: UNIGROUP Meeting 16-OCT-2008 (Thu): Asterisk Open Source 
PBX/Telephony System

 NOTE: Unigroup's October 2008 meeting is next Thursday.

 ====================================================================
 UNIGROUP OF NEW YORK - UNIX USERS GROUP - OCTOBER 2008 ANNOUNCEMENTS
 ====================================================================

    --------------------------------------
 1. UNIGROUP'S OCTOBER 2008 MEETING NOTICE
    --------------------------------------

       When:  THURSDAY, October 16th, 2008    (** 3rd Thursday **)

      Where:  ** New Location **
              The Cooper Union  <http://www.cooper.edu>
              School of Engineering
              51 Astor Place  (8th Street, between 3rd and 4th Ave)
              East Village, Manhattan
              New York City
              Meeting Room: The Driscoll Room: 136E (1st Floor)
              ** Please RSVP **

       Time:  6:15 PM - 6:25 PM  Registration
              6:25 PM - 6:45 PM  Ask the Wizard, Questions,
                                 Answers and Current Events
              6:45 PM - 7:00 PM  Unigroup Business and Announcements
              7:00 PM - 9:30 PM  Main Presentation

              --------------------------------------
      Topic:  The Asterisk Open Source PBX/Telephony System:
              From The Ground Up!
              --------------------------------------

    Speaker:  Paul Charles Leddy

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    INTRODUCTION:
    -------------

    The Asterisk web site says: Asterisk is the world's leading open
    source telephony engine and tool kit.  This month, our speaker
    will give us a hands-on demonstration of setting up a free PBX
    (Phone System) and IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system,
    using VoIP (Voice over IP) phones and a VoIP provider (Internet
    Phone Service).

    Previously (back in the year 2000), Unigroup had presented
    the "Bayonne" Open Source Telephony Project.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS:
    ---------------------

    To REGISTER for this event, please RSVP by using the Unigroup
    Registration Page:
          http://www.unigroup.org/unigroup-rsvp.html

    This will allow us to automate the registration process.
    (Registration will also add you to our mailing list.)
    Please avoid emailed RSVPs.

    Please continue to check the Unigroup web site and meeting page,
    for any last minute updates concerning this meeting.  If you
    registered for this meeting, please check your email for any last
    minute announcements as the meeting approaches.  Also make sure
    any anti-spam white-lists are updated to _ALLOW_ Unigroup traffic!
    If you block Unigroup Emails, your address will be dropped from
    our mailing list.

    Please RSVP as soon as possible, preferably at least 2-3 days
    prior to the meeting date, so we can plan the food order.
    RSVP deadline is usually the night before the meeting day.

    Note: RSVP is requested for this location to make sure the guard
          will let you into the building.  RSVP also helps us to
          properly plan the meeting (food, drinks, handouts,
          seating, etc.) and speed up your sign-in at the meeting.
          If you forget to RSVP prior to the meeting day, you may
          still be able to show up and attend our meeting, however,
          we cannot guarantee what building security will do if
          you are "not on the list".

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    MAIN PRESENTATION
    -----------------

    Topic: The Asterisk Open Source PBX/Telephony System:
           From The Ground Up!

    We'll compile the code and start up the asterisk server.  Then
    hook up a couple of phones so we can make an internal PBX call.
    From there, we'll register with a VoIP provider and make
    a real call to someone in the audience.  Last, we can also build
    a basic voice response system to make a virtual "haunted house"
    for this coming October 31st.

    Outline for the Talk:

     - About The Asterisk Project
     - Getting the code and compiling it
     - Basic configuration
     - Setting up phone extensions
     - Registering a SIP phone
     - Making an internal call
     - Registering with a VoIP service
     - Calling an outside line, receiving a call from an outside line
     - Basic call routing and IVR (Interactive Voice Response)
     - (Helping people get a system up and running on their laptops)


    Web Resources:
    --------------

    Asterisk
      http://www.asterisk.org/

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    Speaker Biography:
    ------------------

    Paul Charles Leddy has been a Linux Systems Administrator for about
    10 years.  The story of how he got involved with computer telephony
    is: "Dreaming of voice over the Internet since circa '96, when
    Paul heard about Mark Spencer's Asterisk, he just had to get it up
    and running.  He downloaded the code onto his Mac laptop and had a
    dial tone within minutes: Wow!  Since then, he has gone on to
    implement a few phone extensions, Interactive Voice Response
    playhouses, hooked up to a real live VoIP service or two, like
    Junction Networks and VoipJet, and helped friends and family
    discover the wonderful world of cheap talk, walking the walk."

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    Company Biography:
    ------------------

    Paul Charles Leddy is available for help and consultations.

    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    Giveaways:
    ----------

    Addison-Wesley Professional/Prentice Hall PTR has been kind
    enough to provide us with some of their books, which we will
    continue to raffle off as giveaways at our meetings.

    O'Reilly has been kind enough to provide us with some of their
    books, which we will continue to raffle off as giveaways at our
    meetings.

    Unigroup would like to thank both companies for the support
    provided by their User Group programs.

    Note: The chances tend to be about 1 in 5, that any attendee of
    our meeting will walk away with a fairly valuable giveaway
    (ie. most books are valued between $30 and $60)!

    As always, all of the books will be available for review at the
    start of the meeting.

 < ... />

    Directions:
    -----------

       The Cooper Union  <http://www.cooper.edu>
       School of Engineering
       51 Astor Place  (8th Street, between 3rd and 4th Ave)
       East Village, Manhattan
       New York City
       Room: The Driscoll Room: 136E (1st Floor)

    Located on the North side of Astor Place (8th Street), between
      3rd & 4th Avenues.

    Building lobby sign-in is required at the guard's desk.
    Enter the building, check in with the guard at the lobby for
      directions to The Driscoll Room (1st Floor)...  From the
      main entrance, keep going straight beyond the guard till the
      end of the hall, make a left, pass the elevators (on your
      left), keep going, and Room 136E will be on your right.

    Nearest mass transit stations are:
      '6'           to Astor Place (stops right at The Cooper Union).
      'R'           to 8th Street, then walk about 2 blocks East.
      '4/5/6/R/N/Q' to Union Square, then walk South and East.
      'B/D/F/V'     to Broadway-Lafayette, then walk North and East.

    We believe free street parking becomes available at 6pm.

    -----

    Please mark this meeting on your calendar and join us!
    Please tell your friends about Unigroup!

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 < ... />

    =========================================================================
    = For Unigroup Information, Events and Meeting Announcements be sure to =
    = visit our World Wide Web Home Page:                                   =
    =       http://www.unigroup.org                                         =
    =========================================================================

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    organization and we need your assistance!  Please let us know if you
    can help!

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 -Rob Weiner
  Unigroup Executive Director
  unilist (-a_t-) unigroup.org
  http://www.unigroup.org

</blockquote>

Distributed poC TINC:

Jay Sulzberger <secretary@lxny.org>
Corresponding Secretary LXNY
LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization.
http://www.lxny.org