I believe that Asterisk is at a crossroads and has been for some time. Asterisk stands on the Path of Life for applications and ponders a fork clearly visible: Free or Commercial? Champions of the Cause of Asterisk on either side of the path cheer for one of the two forks. Which choice will the application make? Do the creators, contributors, designers, and dreamers really have a say in the matter? Is everyone making noise for nothing?

Let me play Devil’s Advocate for a bit. Almost everywhere you look these days, IT professionals are hawking VoIP to business and residential consumers alike. The ILECs are in, the Cable companies are in, and VoIP providers spring up almost over night to provide ever lower per minute charges on phone calls. The benefits of VoIP center around cost, extending existing infrastructure, and extending the fabric of the nebulous Internet. All of these advantages entice unsuspecting business owners and IT professionals alike to jump on the bandwagon of $avings! But this panacea for the ails of America’s aging telephony infrastructure hide a nasty side-effect – a complete and total lack of oversight and standards.