Adhearsion

I've been spending a fair amount of time working with the open source PBX system called Asterisk. Calling it powerful in the world of telecommunication doesn't do it justice. It's what I would call a "disruptive technology" that in coming years is going to shake up and open the way that we develop application that interact between our phone and internet. It's a solution to problems that haven't even been thought of yet and the best part that I'm finding is that it's FUN to develop applications in this space!

Well let me re-phrase that... It's FUN when you use Adhearsion! With Asterisk, as it is with other PBX systems for the system to be of any use there must be routing logic on phone calls that are coming in. Asterisk has it's own macro language you can use, but it also provides a way to call out to another process to perform the tasks. This is where Adhearsion steps in. Using Ruby, you are able to create some very neat and sophisticated applications and abstract yourself away from the internals of Asterisk. On top of that, you can easily integrate in Ruby on Rails to provide the functionality of using the internet for your application.

As I mentioned in previous post, I heard Justin Gehtland speak at No Fluff Just Stuff and he talked about contributing to open source and sometimes just reporting a bug or two or working on documentation can provide a great help to a project. Well, a few weeks ago I realized that I have found my project. The Adhearsion project is an open source project lead by Jay Phillips who has written some extremely beautiful Ruby code. Looking over the code is inspiring in itself and I have learned so much in the way of the Ruby language just by reviewing the source. I therefore decided to take it on myself and contribute to the documentation WIKI. I submitted an article on how to combine Adhearsion with Rails and create what I call the "Quiz Show" application. It's my first attempt at writing documentation so it's got some rough edges, but it shows just how powerful and fun working in Adhearsion and Rails can be. Check out the documentation here.

I am also working with JRuby and am planning to contribute to the documentation a section on Adhearsion and JRuby as well. I'm planning in the coming months to do a few a different presentation about Adhearsion at the local Twin Cities Asterisk and Ruby Users of Minnesota Groups. I hope people get as excited about this project as I am. It's going to be really interesting in the coming years to see how open source PBX like Asterisk and open source frameworks like Adhearsion bring the barrier of entry to telecom applications down to a point where a small company like Localtone Interactive can provide competitive solutions for business and integration with other products and services.

Localtone Radio Redesign Launched

After many hours of work and help from Mykl Roventine, Localtone Radio has a spiffy new look and some exciting new features.

• We now have a blog and started doing podcasts.
• We have merchandise for sale.
• We have a flicker photo group.
• Many other features in the spread the word page.
  

Check out the new look and sign up if you haven't already done so. Localtone Interactive is very proud to be the only technology company to build and internet radio station where the listeners contribute and vote on the music that is to be played. It's a fresh and new idea in media consumption. Please feel free to contact us if you have any needs like this in your organization.

Sun Midwest Java Technology Day

Sun had their Midwest Java Technology Day on Tuesday to tout a number of the new technologies they are introducing to the market. I'm excited the Sun has an interest in promoting dynamic languages in the JVM and the keynote by Tim Bray was no exception. He talked about how right now is a perfect time to start you own company. The barriers to entry are the lowest they have ever been in terms of open source software and if you have an idea and are willing to do hard work, you can do it. It was very inspirational for an entrepreneur myself. In not so many words he said, "Leave your boring day job and work in technologies that interest you!". Great advice. I've been in business for myself for over a year now and have absolutely loved it. He also had a number of slides discussing the great advantages of using a Ruby on Rails for your next web application (or start up).

The remainder of the conference was pretty typical with EJB 3.0, Glassfish and the new features in JDK7. I does seem that Sun is getting the message of a more light and agile stack in the frameworks and creating web services in NetBeans running Glassfish is pretty neat. However, the fact that the head technology evangelist at Sun is talking Ruby to CEO's at companies makes me feel good that this Ruby thing might be more than just a fad. I know I've found some great productivity gains when working in Rails and once the managers see the benifits in terms of cost, the services Localtone Interactive provides will be very much in need.

Open Source Project - Walk The Walk

While at the No Fluff Just Stuff Conference, Justin Gehtland had an excellent talk on JRuby and Open Source. He went though some of the really cool features of JRuby and for someone like me know has been doing Java for 10+ years and would like to leverage some of the libraries I know in Java from Ruby, JRuby is very exciting.

What I also found excellent about Justin's talk was that he went though how one contributes to an open source project. From checking out the code from SVN, to using a bug tracking tool, to submitting a patch. He used the JRuby project as an example, but really the process is the same with others. He also at the end encouraged people to put aside say, 4 hours a week to work on an Open source project. At his company, Friday afternoons from 12-4 are considered "open source time" where everyone in the company spends their time working on open source.

What a great idea! I use open source software everyday, from Open Office, to Firefox, to Ruby on Rails to countless number of libraries in my projects. Why not create this rule in my company? Why not create something similar in your company? I've already found a project that I'm going to download and look at working on. I challenge you to do the same. Find a project that you find interesting and contact the owner and see how you can help. It doesn't have to be code. Documentation, testing and even at times, donations of money can go a long way to improving a project. Sourceforge and Codehaus are two places that host some great open source projects. Have fun!

No Fluff, Just Stuff

I attended the No Fluff Just Stuff conference this past weekend in Bloomington, MN. I'm not sure if the conference itself was sold out, but it seemed to be very well attended. It started on Friday at noon and concluded on Sunday evening around 6:00. I had a great time seeing some familiar faces and catching up with a few people that I hadn't seen in a number of years. A few things that I took away from the conference.

• Dynamic languages are hot and are only going to get hotter. Frameworks like Ruby on Rails and Grails are going to continue to grow in popularity, even for larger organizations. This was a great reality check for me. Working in Rails and Grails is where I have been focusing my business efforts for this past year. It's good to see that I am somewhat ahead of the curve on thee awesome technologies.

• There were a great number of people who are managers at this conference - read: the people who make the decisions on the software to use. The fact that there were so many sessions on groovy and grails and the people that actually make the decisions on the software technology to use in their organization were there and were listening, means that we will most likely see tangible projects and needs from business asking for people with Groovy and Grails skills.
  

Overall I'd recommend checking out the No Fluff Just Stuff Conference when it comes to your town. It usually comes through Minneapolis every 6 months or so. While I wouldn't go every time it comes through, probably one a year to 18 months is worth the cost for admission.

User Contributed Radio

Earlier this week Justin Grammens presented to the Ruby Users of Minnesota Group (RUM) a demo of the latest service Localtone Interactive just launched called Localtone Radio. It's a new type of streaming internet radio station that allows the listeners to upload their content into the station and vote on what songs should be played. No large corporations that control the airwaves dictating what songs people hear. It's the community of listeners that have a direct impact on what people hear by their contributions and votes! It's a fresh new idea ( User Contributed Radio we like to call it ) in media distribution and one that we see more and more media outlets moving toward to as social networks continue to grow on the internet.

A PDF of the slides from the presentation if you are interested can be found here.

Localtone Radio has also been getting a few interesting press pieces both mentioned in the Rake Magazine on the secrets of the day and on MNSpeak. We are hopeful that as the word gets out to others artists in the Twin Cities people will be come excited in using this type of medium to promote themselves.

Having been in a number of bands in the Twin Cities Area, we here at Localtone know what it's like to be ignored by the corporate control of radio. It's really sad that money controls so much of the media we consume. Localtone Radio is out to change that. Visit the site, contribute audio and vote on what audio you like!