SIP in higher education

[(Dennis Baron)]

SIP.edu Conference Call August 11, 2005

*Attendees*

Dennis Baron, MIT
Bob Bownes, Tello
Candace Holman, Harvard
Jeff Kuure, Internet 2
Stephen Kingham, AARnet
Ricard Machida, University of Alaska
Megan Pengelly, Columbia
Bill Reid, Manitoba Research Network
John Steir, Stony Brook University
Ben Teitelbaum, Internet 2
John Todd, Tello
Chris Trown, University of Oregon
Mike Van Norman, UCLA
Doug Walston, Cisco
Garrett Yoshimi, University of Hawaii

*Discussion*

Today's call begins with Dennis discussing the workshop held
in conjunction with the recent Joint Techs conference. Some call
participants voiced their disappointment regarding the emphasis on Blue
Lava's configuration software as well as a lack of shell access for more
hands-on exploration. Overall, the presentation was considered valuable,
but participants expressed frustration with the Blue Lava errors - they
would have preferred to spend more time with SIP proxy/gateway
configuration and less dealing with configuration tools.

Candace mentions that she will investigate SER Web as an alternate
front end for SER configuration. Richard has it running, but says that
it suffers from limited functionality.

Dennis mentions that Blue Lava has some specific SIP.edu functions,
such as the ability for users to configure their own accounts. SER Web
apparently has this as well - iptel.org has SER Web running, and provides
access and information to users.

The remainder of the call focuses on discussion of the SIP.edu by Numbers
debate. Discussion on the SIP.edu email list has questioned the benefits
of setting up a new system to allow SIP calling by 12-key phones as
well as how number dialing fits in with the goals of SIP.edu. Opinion
is split between developing a centralized system (like the previously
discussed ISN) and keeping number dialing as a matter for local dial
plan configuration.

Dennis believes that the ISN as interim solution, while not perfect,
may be fine. In fact, a "not perfect" system might be better as it would
encourage the transition to URI dialing in the future.

Development cost is another issue - setting up a numbers-only solution
which will work everywhere will require a lot of effort, meaning less
incentive for an interim solution. Others question if users will  support
a third dialing scheme, and having separate dial plans at different
universities makes it hard to adapt between organizations.

Dennis again states his goal of connecting to people, not devices. His
conclusions are that other areas, such as voice response, should still
be explored. Additionally, the collective influence of the SIP.edu
group should be used to advocate solutions to 12-key dialing problems
with regards to vendors. Finally, Dennis says that MIT is interested
in trying the ISN system, and would like to use it to see what kind of
problems are encountered.

Ben worries that if a fraction of the community attempts an ISN trial,
another fraction may consider it a waste of time and not participate,
limiting the overall usefulness. Any trial might simply be a matter of a
small group trying it out, knowing that a large number of institutions
won't be involved. Bill sees ISN as a good step, as it is close to an
email-like model where organizations are in control of the numbers,

Stephen is interested in an ISN trial, as is Bill. John Todd will send
out an FAQ and recipe book for ITAD number requests.  Three people so
far have applied for ITADs, and MIT will soon.

The next call will be August 25th.