Welcome to the Post-Telephony World

Recently, I was on the phone with the marketing VP at Digium. He was explaining how the new version of Asterisk included a wide-band media engine that was more suited to a "post-telephony world." As hard as I tried to pay attention to the rest of the briefing, my brain fixated on the phrase "post-telephony world." Though defensible, it sounded to me so final, so apocalyptic.

I would not necessarily classify myself as a "glass is half full" kind of person, but I can honestly say that I never thought about new technologies as an ending for the old ones. There are no burned-out telco closets or discarded analog systems littering city streets shadowed by an appropriately somber skyline in my communications future. This probably was naive.

Any revolution, even a digital one, claims casualties. The question is whether those losses will be limited to technologies or extended to livelihoods. Sadly, I fear those who can't see past the sepia-colored ruins of a post-telephony world may be lost to it.

But there is hope for those who gaze in childlike wonder at an HD, 3-D future that includes wide-band engines, open source technology, mobile computing, video collaboration, unified communications, cloud services, etc., etc.  (And by etc., I don't just mean all the other things we know of that are changing the landscape today, but all the things we don't know of that certainly will to delight and surprise us in the future.)

I don't mean to be a Pollyanna. Those who make their living in the telecom and IT space certainly face some uncomfortable change on their way to this future. That's what this issue is about: Transformation — what it means, how to do it, who has done it. Look through the December issue of Channel Partners and you'll notice we have "penciled" in some of the graphs and charts. No, our art department didn't take a hiatus and leave the editors to their own devices. It's just another way to show that transforming an industry and your business should be considered "work in progress."

As you take on (or continue) this effort in your own business, we hope that you will be inspired or validated by the industry predictions, expert strategies and the experiences of Digital Management Solutions and New Vision Partners that we've shared.

Good luck!