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FreeSWITCH之父:我和云以及它如何塑造了沟通

2018-09-19 11:09:17   作者:   来源:转自FreeSWITCH中文社区(微信号:FreeSWITCH-CN)   评论:0  点击:


  本文是FreeSWITCH之父Anthony Minessale发表在Linked In上的文章,FreeSWITCH中文社区试着翻译了一下,保留了英文原文。
  The year 1996 was a significant one for me.  My daughter, Abbi, was born, Brett Favre and the Green Bay Packers won the superbowl (for the first time in forever) and I started a journey into modern technology that has never seen a dull moment since.  I had just started working for a company doing web hosting. What’s that you ask? Well you already know, but back then you probably would have asked.  A crazy notion that you could take some unix shell accounts, use some server software to line up a directory in that shell account with something you can reach with a Web Browser, a fancy new software application promising to “Visualize” the Internet.  The Internet, you know, that place we lovingly refer to daily as The Cloud.
  1996年对我来说是有意义的一年。我的女儿Abbi出生了,Brett Favre和Green Bay Packer赢得了超级碗冠军(这是有史以来的第一次),我开始了一场进军现代科技的旅程,从那时起,我从未感受到任何乏味的时刻。我刚开始在一家公司做网络托管的工作。您问那是什么?好吧,现在您已经知道了,但那时您可能会问。您可以使用一些unix shell帐户,使用一些服务器软件在该shell帐户中排列目录实现使用Web浏览器访问,实现“可视化”互联网,这可是一个疯狂的想法。互联网,如你所知,我们日常称其为云端。
  Obviously Today we say “Duh, I have a web browser on everything I own.” and “Of course, we love the cloud, we can make anything possible by harnessing the power of the cloud with all its mighty synergy and data driven yada yada!” Back in 1996, that was not so evident to everyone but I remember those early days vividly.  I must admit I’ve been caught a few times folding my arms saying. “The cloud? You mean the Internet…..?”。
  很明显,今天我们会说:“啊,我所有的东西都有一个网络浏览器。当然,我们喜欢云,我们可以通过利用云的强大协同作用和数据驱动的Yada yada来实现任何事情!“早在1996年,这一点对每个人来说都不是那么明显,但我清楚地记得那些早期的日子。我必须承认我曾几次交叉双臂说。“云端?你是说互联网….“。
  In 1992-1993, I was already interested in computers but not yet fully woke to the wonders of the Internet. My experiences were limited to what I did with my university shell account which included: FTP-ing files from ftp.funet.fi on an IBM-3151 UNIX terminal and playing on muds (real time text-based multi-user gaming).  While I was still trying to figure out this thing called C that let me say “hello” to the whole world, the first idea of a web browser was emerging in something known as Mosaic, a software that could let you visit Gopher, NNTP and Web Pages, a fancy new visual document you could connect to with a special address called a URL.  The idea was, if everyone got a $3,000.00 machine called a personal computer in their house and used up some of their precious real-estate in their living room, they could sit at this contraption and “browse” by connecting this machine to a phone line in your house and try to find your way online at a blazing 9600 bits per second of information.
  在1992-1993年,我已经对计算机感兴趣了,但还没有完全意识到互联网的奇妙之处。我的经验仅限于我对shell帐户所做的工作,其中包括:IBM-3151 UNIX终端上ftp.funet.fi中的FTP-ing文件,以及在muds(基于实时文本的多用户游戏)上播放的文件。当我还在试图找出一个叫做C的东西,让我向全世界说“你好”的时候,网络浏览器的第一个想法出现在一种被称为Mosonic的软件中,这个软件可以让你访问Gopher,NNTP和网页,一个奇特的新可视文档,您可以使用URL的特殊地址链接到该文档。这个想法是,如果每个人在他们的房子里都有一台价值3,000.00美元的机器叫做个人电脑,并在他们的起居室中占用掉了一些宝贵的空间,他们可以坐在这个设备旁,通过这台机器连接到家里的电话线来“浏览”,并尝试以9600 bit/s的速度在线找到您的消息。
  In 1994, we were introduced to Netscape, the first Web Browser typical people might actually use.  (By typical people, I mean not crazy tech nuts like myself who would try to translate a port mapping from the university mainframe over dialup meant for telnet access and get a TCP/IP stack running so I can see Mosaic run and connect to a real page, if but for a minute) In 1995 we saw the coming of Internet Explorer Microsoft’s acknowledgement this might be a fun game.  Also in 1995, we saw Mysql and Apache spring to life.  Mysql was a freely available open source server-side database and Apache was an open source web server derived from the one developed at NCSA http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/ , an amazing project then and now that popularized many key components on the Internet including the web server and its browser.
  在1994年,我们被介绍到网景,这可能是真正使用的Web浏览器的第一批典型人物。(所谓典型人物,我指的不是像我这样疯狂的技术疯子,他们会试图把大学主机上的端口映射转换为用于telnet访问的拨号,并让TCP/IP堆栈运行,这样我就可以看到Mosaic运行并连接到一个真正的页面,如果只是一会儿的话)在1995年,我们看到了Internet资源管理器的出现,微软承认这可能是一个有趣的游戏。也是在1995年,我们看到MySQL和Apache栩栩如生。MySQL是一个免费提供的开源服务器端数据库,Apache是一个开源web服务器,源于NCSA开发的。http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/,这是一个令人惊叹的项目,它在Internet上推广了许多关键组件,包括Web服务器及其浏览器。
  So here I am in 1996.  Brand new toys and they are basically free and a fancy new idea to put them all together like some kind of communication puzzle.  We have a web server, we know anyone with a home pc and emerging internet access will be able to visit this web site, so, what now?  Maybe we can make online brochures for everyone! Wait? We also have a free database. We can store information and retrieve it and we can also run programs on the other side of that web browser that look like web pages to everyone else but its really running my program every time someone visits a new link. Mwa ha ha!  I bet we can do something interesting with that beyond printing static words and pictures. In fact, you can run programs IN THE BROWSER TOO? Wait? I could write programs on my web server that write more programs that are downloaded and run. This is getting interesting. I know, what if I made free email where you used this web browser thing to read it? Nah, that sounds stupid but hey you never know! What if I made a site where you can build more web sites while you were at the site? Site Inception! *shrug* Maybe, I could make a customer relationship thing where all your customer data and communications with support is saved into a db and you can manage all of your communications with them from a browser!
  所以我在1996年。全新的玩具,他们基本上是免费的并且是一个奇特的新想法,把他们放在一起,就像某种沟通难题一样。我们有一个网络服务器,我们知道任何一个家庭PC和新兴的互联网接入将能够访问这个网站,那么,现在呢?也许我们可以为每个人制作在线宣传册!我们还有一个免费的数据库。我们可以存储和检索信息,我们也可以在Web浏览器的另一边运行程序,这像再看其他人的网页,但每次有人访问新链接时,它都会运行我的程序。哈哈!我敢打赌,除了打印静态文字和图片外,我们还可以做一些有趣的事情。实际上,你也可以在浏览器中运行程序吗?我可以在我的Web服务器上编写程序,编写更多可下载运行的程序。越来越有趣了。我知道,如果我使用这个网络浏览器阅读它的免费电子邮件怎么办?不,听起来很蠢,但嘿,你永远也不知道!如果我建立了一个网站,您也可以在网站上建立更多的网站!*耸耸肩*也许,我可以做一个客户关系的管理,您所有的客户数据和支持下的通信都被保存到数据库中,您可以通过浏览器管理您与他们的所有通信!”。
  Some of these ideas were had by many and yes I did try to make all of those things myself using the prehistoric tools I had back then and yes, some of them became a thing we know today and it wasn’t my version but one thing was consistent.  The spark that ignited back then has continued to burn into an ever-increasing potential for communication. Every year since, more doors are opened by faster Internet connectivity, smaller and faster computers and new and amazing advancements on how to leverage the tools that first appeared in the late 90’s.  Since that time we’ve had a bubble burst from too much too soon and economic setbacks and horrible catastrophes shape the way we communicate.
  其中一些想法已被许多人所接受,是的,我确实尝试使用我当时所拥有的史前工具来制作所有这些东西,是的,它们中的一些成为了我们今天所知道的东西,这不是我的版本,但有一件事是一致的。那个时候点燃的火花一直在燃烧,成为一种不断增长的交流潜力。自那以后,更快的互联网连接、更小更快的计算机和如何利用90年代后期首次出现的新工具以惊人的进步打开了更多的大门。从那时起,我们就经历了一个泡沫的破灭,经济的挫折和可怕的灾难影响了我们沟通的方式。
  In the early 2000’s my web hosting company had evolved into touching more verticals like domain hosting and registration, outsourced technical support and dial-up Internet provider.  Suddenly I had a need to involve making phone calls into the mix.  We had e-mail and a CRM (I actually made it with… guess what? a web server and a database!) but we wanted to be able to take lots of calls and see who was calling from the web and allow the agents to be anywhere and still be able to be part of the system.  This is when I met Asterisk!
  在2000年初,我的网络托管公司已经拓展了更多的垂直领域,比如域名托管和注册, 外包技术支助和拨号互联网提供商。突然间,我需要和拨打电话混为一谈。我们收到了e-mail和CRM(我实际上是用…做的,你猜怎么着?一个Web服务器和一个数据库!)但是我们希望能够接听大量的电话,看看是谁从网络上打来的,并且允许代理商在任何地方,仍然能够成为系统的一部分。这就是我遇到Asteris的时候。
  Asterisk was an open source PBX that allowed physical phone lines to be plugged into a PC running linux and do stuff with the calls inside your computer.  It had application services for things like call queues and it seemed a perfect friend for my database, web server and other tools it even supported some new fangled Internet based communication protocols that were emerging.  The wonders of the magical Cloud strike again.
  Asterisk是一个开源的PBX,它允许物理电话线插入到运行Linux的PC上,并在您的计算机内进行通话。它有像呼叫队列这样的应用程序服务,它似乎是我的数据库、Web服务器和其他工具的完美朋友,它甚至支持一些新的基于互联网的通信协议。云的奇迹再次袭来。
  A problem soon surfaced with this idea, however.  Asterisk “did what it did” and that did not always line up with what I wanted it to do.  It was open source so, no problem! This was the beginning of when I learned how hard it is to make telecommunications work.  Not just the software, the phone lines, or the phone service and the physical equipment needed and having all the moving parts work together.  Soon I found myself under the hood of Asterisk nearly every day. It was actually kind of fun (but not always). I put a whole bunch of effort trying to take some of my visions and impart them into the design of the software as a whole, guided by the things I wanted to be able to do to make the ideas I had possible.  One day, after realizing that while I enjoyed working on Asterisk, I might have ideas for it beyond its scope and maybe I was doing it more harm than good, I just opened a new empty file and started typing what would end up being my own fluffy contribution to the cloud, FreeSWITCH.
  然而,这个想法很快就出现了一个问题。Asterisk“做了它所做的”,而这并不总是符合我的要求。它是开源的,所以,没问题!这是我学习电信工作困难的开始。不仅仅是软件、电话线、电话服务和所需的物理设备,而且所有的移动部件都可以协同工作。很快,我发现自己几乎每天都被Asterisk遮住。这实际上是一种乐趣(但并不总是如此)。我花了大量的精力,试图把我的一些想法,并把他们作为一个整体的软件设计,指导我想要做的事情,使我有可能实现这些想法。有一天,当我意识到我喜欢使用Asterisk的时候,我可能会超出它的范围,也许我做的是弊大于利,于是我打开了一个新的空文件,开始输入最终会成为我自己对云贡献的东西,FreeSWITCH。
  FreeSWITCH is my own vision on what a communications platform should be.  I was heavily influenced by my past experiences and all of the great things I really liked about server-side software platforms like Apache and Postgres and UNIX in general.  I started writing code in 2005 and today in 2018 its still growing. Throughout this 15 year stint in software development I have tried to empower developers with a similar path to have a path forward in building communications tools.   We have modular interfaces and plug-ins and the ability to add new communications protocols and use an event-bus to get metadata about calls and many other things.
  FreeSWITCH是我自己关于通信平台应该是什么样子的愿景。我深受我过去的经历和所有我真正喜欢的服务器端软件平台(如Apache、Postgres和UNIX)的影响。我从2005年开始编写代码,到2018年我开始编写代码,现在它还在增长。在这15年的软件开发生涯中,我一直试图使开发人员能够在构建通信工具方面取得进展。我们有模块化的接口和插件,能够添加新的通信协议,并使用事件总线获取有关呼叫和许多其他事情的元数据。
  Today, not only have I developed software that runs in the “Cloud”, I have found a way to connect it back with my beloved web browser.  Somewhere in the timeline, (2013-ish IIRC), we suddenly have WebRTC, The ability to make voice and video connections from a modern web browser.  Holy crap, I can work with this! I developed a prototype protocol called Verto for connecting FreeSWITCH to a browser and making calls and all kinds of fun stuff. Too bad I can’t go back in time and give these tools to myself in 1996.  Great Scott!
  今天,我不仅开发了运行在“云”中运行的软件,还找到了一种将它与我心爱的网络浏览器连接起来的方法。在时间轴的某个地方,(2013- Ish IIRC),我们突然拥有WebRTC,即在现代网络浏览器上建立语音和视频连接的能力。天哪,我可以用这个!我开发了一个名为Verto的原型协议,用于将FreeSWITCH连接到浏览器,并拨打电话和各种有趣的东西。可惜我不能回到过去,把这些工具给1996年的自己。Great Scott!
  Still despite all this work, a lot of complexity remains and many developers feel a barrier-to-entry trying to get up to speed.  All the while I’ve been inspired by that same spark back in 1996. This is why as I look to the future I only saw one possibility. Developers are emerging faster and need a lower learning curve to leverage communications. We need a way to provide them with the tools they need and access to this magnificent Internet (*cough* cloud) that  i’ve been fascinated with for 20 years. In order to do this right I needed to pull together my entire rolodex of developers and bring our technology to the mainstream. Just like the good old days of getting computers and visual internet into the hands of the people, we need to bring communications to the people with the help of the developers of the world.
  尽管做了这些工作,但仍然存在许多复杂的问题,许多开发人员都感觉到了难以加速进入。我一直受到1996年同样激励。这就是为什么当我展望未来时,我只看到了一种可能性。开发人员出现得更快,需要一个较低的学习曲线来利用通信。我们需要一种方法,为他们提供他们所需要的工具,并访问这个我已经着迷了20年的宏伟的互联网(*咳嗽*云)。为了正确地做到这一点,我需要整合开发人员的整个rolodex,并将我们的技术带入主流。就像过去把电脑和可视互联网交到人们手中的美好时光一样,我们需要在世界各地的开发者的帮助下把通讯带给人们。
  I founded SignalWire in late 2017 because I can’t stop looking for ways to advance how we use the Internet for new and amazing things.  We are a cloud company but it’s not just a buzzword to us though I still do get triggered by its overuse sometimes ;) We want to push the limits of communications as far as we can, so one day, in 2038, we can write another article about how silly things were back when we had to convince people we can give them a magical socket that unlocked everything they needed to build any infrastructure and applications they ever dreamed of and connect the tiny computers in their pockets to machine learning and artificial intelligence platforms using only their voice to interact.  We can reminisce about Creating video conferences inside a virtual or augmented reality interface or remember how there used to be this thing called a phone company who was in charge of all the phone calls you made and limited who and where you could communicate.
  在2017年末我创立了SignalWire,因为我无法停止寻找方法来推进我们如何使用互联网获取新的和令人惊奇的东西。我们是一家云计算公司,但对我们来说,这不仅仅是一个时髦的词,虽然有时还是会被过度使用,触发我们想尽可能地扩大交流的范围,所以有一天,在2038年,我们可以写另一篇文章,讲述当我们不得不说服人们,我们可以给他们一个神奇的东西,建立他们梦寐以求的任何基础设施和应用程序,并将微型计算机连接到机器学习和人工智能平台仅用他们的声音互动。我们可以回忆一下在虚拟或增强现实界面中创建视频会议,或者记得曾经有过一个叫做电话的东西,他负责你打的所有电话,并限制你能在哪里和谁沟通。
  I invite you all to learn more about SignalWire and FreeSWITCH and to join us on the next chapter of the cloud and see where that original spark takes us and live by our motto:  Develop. Deploy. Disrupt!
  我诚挚邀请您加入我们,更多地了解SignalWire和FreeSWITCH,一起探索关于云的下一个篇章。不忘初心,继续前进。我们的座右铭是——开发、部署、破坏!
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