The Astmasters Zeroconf Project has posted asking for people to help spread the word on the project:

Maybe it was Memorial Day, or maybe it's because the French rejected the EU constitution. Whatever it was, we are disappointed that almost nobody picked up on the news that we've added Bonjour/Zeroconf support to Asterisk, SineApps and SIP Center being the notable exceptions reporting it.

The marriage of Zeroconf with open standard VoIP protocols is the biggest news in VoIP so far this year. Seriously!

Yet both the traditional media and the blogging scene appear to be in a frenzy talking about silly game consoles this week, stuff which represents absolutely no value whatsoever to the human species, and by doing so they only aid the marketing efforts of mega corporations who could easily pay for the advertising.

Our project, which solves a very serious problem of VoIP today, could really use a little more promotion and we deserve it, too. And here is why ...

Just about any VoIP device and service out there is a total disaster when it comes to setting it up and making it work. Yet, people are used to plugging in a telephone set to the outlet in the wall knowing that it will just work. VoIP will have to deliver the same ease of use or it will be doomed to failure. The only two systems which have reached that level are iChat and Skype.

And by the way, both iChat and Skype use Bonjour/Zeroconf.

Do those analysts and bloggers not realize that adding Zeroconf to systems like Asterisk and user agents like SFLphone will make true plug-n-play-works-out-of-the-box VoIP devices and services possible for non-proprietary open standard based systems as well?

 

We need more developers to start other projects, we need more mind share, we need sponsorships. To get there we need publicity. We make free software, so it's only fair enough that we should get free publicity in return. You get to use free software, so it's probably only fair enough that we ask for your help to claim free publicity to further our cause.

So please spread the word, bother the people you know could be of help. Bother the Mac sites, the VoIP sites, the news sites. They may ignore three or four or five mail messages, but they won't ignore 30, 40 or 50. There are about 250 people on this list right now, if everybody sends one message to a news editor nearby, it should have an effect.

Mind you, Henry Sinnreich, who is the Linus Torvalds of SIP, found our project interesting enough to kindly respond to an email we had sent him - not that we expected any response - god bless him! If he finds what we're doing is interesting enough to be worth his valuable time, then perhaps so should other, lesser important people in the VoIP/SIP world ;-)

thank you for your patronage and support