[DMCA-Activists] Bellster: A new Social Communication Network

[Seth Johnson]

-----Original Message----- 
From: Free World Dialup - The Future of Dialing on behalf of Jeff
Pulver 
Sent: Sat 22/01/2005 8:42 AM 
To: address@hidden 
Subject: [FWD] A new Social Communication Network: Bellster



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
Bellster.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 Bellster. 

Bellster 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 Bellster 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 Bellster spreads, my hope is that our  network will be
able to deliver calls to the PSTN all around the world. 

Bellster 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 Bellster Social Communication Network,
please feel free  to visit www.bellster.net for more information
and sign up today. 

Best regards, 

 Jeff 

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