In his article "Paradigm Shift" (http://tim.oreilly.com/articles/paradigmshift_0504.html),
Tim O'Reilly talks about a paradigm shift that is occurring in the way technology (both hardware and
software) is delivered.[166] O'Reilly identifies three trends: the
commoditization of software, network-enabled
collaboration, and software customizability (software
as a service). These three concepts provide evidence to suggest
that open source telephony is an idea whose time has come.
[166] Much of the following section is merely our interpretation of O'Reilly's article. To get the full gist of these ideas, the full read is highly recommended.