VoIP is the New Black - Adventures with Open-Source SIP

In late 2003, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to attempt
to implement Voice over IP in Python. Shtoom (shtoom.divmod.org) was the
result. This is an implementation of SIP that includes a software phone
(on Mac, Windows, Linux) with a variety of GUI frontends (7, as of early
2005) and different audio interfaces. It also includes a server side
component to make it easier to write useful voice applications in a sane
way.

I've deliberately not over-promoted this project, and even so, the
response has been extraordinary. There's a whole lot of people out
there who want to work on and with VoIP, and would prefer to avoid the
C++/Java route. There's also a huge number of people out there who are
fascinated by almost anything to do with VoIP. It truly is this year's
black.

In this talk, I'm going to look at what I've learned about VoIP so
far, where I want to take the shtoom project, and also touch on where
open-source VoIP can help us do some seriously neat stuff. In addition,
I'll try and demonstrate how and where you can use VoIP in day-to-day
use - it's not just about cheap phonecalls!

(A previous talk on Shtoom was presented at PyCon 2004 and OSDC 2004, 
and is available at http://www.interlink.com.au/anthony/tech/talks/PyCon2004/. 
This is a new talk.)