For me, it all started in the spring of 2004, sitting at my desk in the technical support department of the telecom company I'd worked at for nearly fifteen years. With no challenges to properly exercise the skills I had developed, I spent my time trying to figure out what the rest of my career was going to look like. The telecommunications industry had fallen from the pedestal of being a darling of investors to being a joke known to even the most uninformed. I was supposed to feel fortunate to be one of the few who still had work; but what thankless, purposeless work it was. We knew why our industry had collapsed: the products we sold could not hope to deliver the solutions our customers required—even though the industry promised that they could. They lacked flexibility, and were priced totally out of step with the functionality they were delivering (or, more to the point, were failing to deliver). Nowhere in the industry were there any signs this was going to change any time soon.

I had been dreaming of an open-source PBX for many long years, but I really didn't know how such a thing could ever come to be—I'd given up on the idea several years before. I knew that to be successful, an open source PBX would need to effectively bridge the worlds of legacy and network-based telecom. I always failed to find anything that seemed ready.

Then, one fine day in spring, I half-heartedly seeded a Google search with the phrase "open source telephony," and discovered a bright new future for telecom: Asterisk, the Open Source Linux PBX^[2].

There it was: the very thing I'd been dreaming of for so many years. I had no idea how I was going to contribute, but I knew this: open-source telephony was going to cause a necessary and beneficial revolution in the telecom industry; and one way or another, I was going to be a part of it.

For me, more of a systems integrator than developer, I needed a way to contribute to the community. There didn't seem to be a shortage of developers, but there sure was a shortage of documentation. This sounded like something I could do. I knew how to write, I knew PBXs, and I desperately needed to talk about this phenomenon that suddenly made telecom fun again.

If I contribute only one thing to this book, I hope you will catch some of my enthusiasm for the subject of open-source telephony. This is an incredible gift we have been given, but also an incredible responsibility. What a wonderful challenge. What a cosmic opportunity. What delicious fun!

First of all, I need to thank Leif and Jared for inviting me to join the Asterisk Documentation Project. I have immensely enjoyed working with both of you, and I am constantly amazed at how well our personalities and skills complement each other. A truly balanced team, are we. Also, thanks goes to Figment for all the typing.

To my wife Killi, and my children Kaara, Joonas, and Joosep (who always remember to visit me when I disappear into my underground lair for too long): you are a source of inspiration to me. Your love is the fuel that feeds my fire, and I thank you.

Obviously, I need to thank my parents Jack and Martiny, for always believing in me, no matter how many rules I broke. In a few years, I'll have my own teenagers, and it'll be your turn to laugh!

To Mark Spencer: thanks for all the things that everybody else thanks you for, but also, personally, thanks for giving generously of your time to the Asterisk community. The Toronto Asterisk Users' Group (http://www.taug.ca) made a quantum leap forward as a result of your taking the time to speak to us, and that event will forever form a part of our history. Oh yeah, and thanks for the beers, too. :-)

Finally, thanks to the Asterisk Community. This book is our gift to you. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we've enjoyed writing it.