When it comes to thought leadership and early innovation in VoIP services, Jeff Pulver's been a leader for years, His Free World Dialup effort is the oldest global IP communications enterprise in the world. For many of us, FWD provided the architecture for early experimentation and development of what VoIP networks could become.

Jeff's funded the effort himself for 12 years now. FWD has been quiet, and below the radar for awhile, but I got this email from Jeff this morning laying out some plans to revitalize things.

Hi,

I wanted to invite you back to participate in the relaunch of Free World Dialup.

FWD (freeworlddialup.com) at 12 is the longest running IP Communications enterprise in the world.

We hope to get input on priorities for the next 12 months from active and not so active users.

The next phase includes a premium membership option to fund expanded and more reliable service. FWD'ers registering for paid membership by COB Friday 20th will receive the coveted FWD Pioneer coffee mug (see link at below).

I attached a copy of my relaunch blog post along with an unsubscribe link if you don't want to receive additional updates.

Best regards

Jeff

CEO, pulver.com and founder, FWD

BTW, your FWD # remains active.

Participatory Communications: FWD summer 2007 relaunch project
An important summer project this year involves giving FWD (formerly, Free World Dialup), my 12 year experiment in participatory communications, new life as a standalone self-sustaining membership organization. Nearly one million people participated in FWD activities over the years as the project evolved from tinkering with firmware on PC sound cards to provisioning 700,000 SIP accounts. FWD initiatives include the first VoIP-PSTN interconnect (1995), H.323 interoperability (1998), SIP registration services (2002), SIP Peering (2003), FCC's Pulver Order (2004), pulver.Communicator with video (2005), and prior art for VoIP patents (2007).

FWD represents yet another example of the Internet disrupting the status quo by inserting "participatory" in front of a word like communication or democracy, journalism, and culture. The communication options offered by telephone companies in 1995 started and ended with plain old telephone service (POTS). POTS remains the primary business of the telephone company in 2007, but a long and expanding list of Internet enabled communication options exist for anyone motivated enough to make them work. FWD provides a participatory platform in finding ways to make Internet communications a viable option.

The work of FWD puts it at odds with the telephone company, because telco profits depend on controlling the availability of communication. The desire of people to communicate that makes the telephone companies so profitable comes from the same human need preventing people from accepting limitations to their communication options. Communication serves to build human relationships not to mention provides an essential input to economic activity. People join FWD projects because the telephone company scarcity business model conflicts with the need for six billion people on Earth to communicate.

Existing FWD services will remain free, but implementing a membership model will allow us to fund new services and make FWD self-sustaining. My funding of FWD over the last 12 years departed from any investment logic long ago. The membership fees will not provide a return for the investment, by I hope they remove the limitation my resources have on FWD reaching its potential. Support and maintenance needs of existing FWD services people tell me want can be liberated from my interest in spending on new services. The membership idea represents an experiment in itself in testing whether people will contribute a nominal amount ($30/yr individuals, $300/year business) as the price for communication freedom.

I asked Daniel Berninger (dan@danielberninger.com, fwd-12908, pstn-+1.202.250.3838) to lead the next phase in the life of FWD. Dan participated on the founding FWD technical team while still at Bell Labs (I was an IT manager on Wall Street) in 1995. Participatory Communications looks likely to keep the telco's on the defensive judging from the people that have already joined as paid members. One new member runs an Asterisk TrixBox 2.2, a MV-370 Portech gateway to GSM cellular networks, and several Atcom AG-168V single line POTS gateways provisioned to FWD. Suzanne Bowen, VP Super Technologies, Inc and DIDx joined as a business member. Suzanne understands her rapidly growing businss exists as a part of a new communication ecosystem that FWD's participatory communications platform helps evangelize and expand.

Join as a paid member here and become a card carrying member of the IP Communications revolution.