Changed 2/2/05 to reflect name change. - ed guy
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 08:42:28 -0500 (EST)
From: Jeff Pulver <jeff@pulver.com>
To: Free World Dialup - The Future of Dialing <FWD@LISTSERV.PULVER.COM>
Subject: A new Social Communication Network: [fwdOUT]

Hi All,

Back in the Fall of 1995, with the help of some friends, Free World Dialup
(FWD) version 1.0 happened. The original concept was to setup a computer,
modem and let a friend (or a stranger) place a call over the internet via
your computer. This was done on an experimental, non-commercial, voluntary
basis and we had quite a number of people who contributed their own time,
effort and energy to make it work. FWD was the world's first internet
telephony network and was a pioneer in the field of PC to Phone
communication services.

Back in November 2000 I once again looked at re-creating the spirit of the
original FWD project but this time we tried to do it using the broadband
internet. After several months of work we were able to get the underlying
software to work pretty good, but our project became challenged once the
hardware devices we optimized the software for, the Cisco ATA-182 were
discontinued. We were live in beta in April 2001 when CNET ran the story:
Can a peer-to-peer phone network fly? (see:
<http://news.com.com/2100-1033-253297.html?legacy=cnet>).

Fast forward to January, 2005 and with the beta launch of [fwdOUT].net we
are finally able to offer a peer-to-peer network where members of the
network can share their PSTN access with each other. This "network" will
only become a network once there is a critical mass number of people who
are contributing to the success of [fwdOUT].

[fwdOUT] is based on a couple of underlying philosophies:

(1) "If you Build it They will Come" -- Field of Dreams
(2) "The Love you Take is equal to the Love you Make" -- Beatles, "The
End"

The [fwdOUT] challenge for 2005 is to find out whether or not there are
still people in the world who would let total strangers place
non-commercial phone calls for free in exchange for the ability to do the
same thing themselves. At the moment we have a handful of active nodes
around the world, and as the word of [fwdOUT]  spreads, my hope is that our
network will be able to deliver calls to the PSTN all around the world.

[fwdOUT] is based on Asterisk and operates as an IAX exchange.

If you are interested in experimenting with Asterisk and would like to
contribute to the [fwdOUT] Social Communication Network, please feel free
to visit www.[fwdOUT].net for more information and sign up today.

Best regards,

 Jeff