MetaSwitch Innovators Community Targets Open Source Application Development

MetaSwitch Forum 2009, Las Vegas, NV: April 8, 2009. MetaSwitch, the leader in reliable, high-quality carrier IP communications solutions, today announced the formation of the MetaSwitch Innovators Community, a collaborative online social business networking group focused on the creation of third party software-based applications for the MetaSwitch product line. Formed to foster the exchange of ideas among MetaSwitch's large group of active and energetic customers and partners, as well as third party developers, the MetaSwitch Innovators Community is designed to spark true innovation in terms of how new applications are developed. MetaSwitch launched the MetaSwitch Innovators Community at the 6th annual MetaSwitch Forum 2009 being held this week at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

The MetaSwitch Innovators Community, innovators.metaswitch.com, is open to all MetaSwitch customers and partners and is an online portal which provides sample code, open source projects, API help and documentation, a sandbox test environment, discussion groups, blogs, and the ability to communicate and network with other innovators.

"Over the past five years, we have been very active in developing tools and applications to work with our MetaSwitch, many of which we have shared with other MetaSwitch customers," said Stephen Olesen, CTO for ThinkTel Communications (www.thinktel.ca). "We are very excited by the advent of the MetaSwitch Innovators Community and see it as a great environment to develop and share new applications. We look forward to playing an active role in fostering a strong and innovative community."

To kick off the community efforts, MetaSwitch is contributing its CommPortal Widgets for Google, Vista and Mac environments, delivered as part of its V7.0 release this month, under an open source license. The site also includes resources for branding and re-using the features of CommPortal, MetaSwitch's powerful web UI, along with help on the existing JSON interface and new JavaScript samples. Utility tools on the portal will include a billing file formatting tool and a tool for converting exported user data to Excel format.

MetaSwitch engineers and third-party developers will also participate as active members of the community. Contributing members can tap into MetaSwitch's world-renowned development team through the community to seek advice and suggestions as they create end-user, web-based and widget user interfaces, additional utility tools, and management applications such as provisioning and monitoring applications.

"MetaSwitch has a broad and diverse customer base that spans from rural IOCs, cable operators, CLECs, Tier 1 incumbents to municipal networks and ISPs, and we know that one size, or one application, does not fit all," said Neil Collins, director of the MetaSwitch Innovators Community. "Through the MetaSwitch Innovators Community, our customers and partners will be able to create applications based on their networks and their customers' specific needs, providing an unprecedented degree of flexibility and originality in how applications are developed."

"By creating the MetaSwitch Innovators Community, we are building a different kind of online forum focused on innovation, collaboration and interaction among our customers and partners, rather than building a mere marketplace for third party developers who are not part of that community," said John Lazar, CEO for MetaSwitch. "This forum will give our customers and partners the freedom to participate in community-driven application development, adding a unique value to the MetaSwitch product line."

About MetaSwitch

MetaSwitch is a leading provider of carrier systems and software solutions that are powering the migration of communications networks to open, packet-based architectures. Hundreds of network operators worldwide depend on its Carrier Division for reliable, scalable session control, media gateway and application/feature server solutions to enable compelling revenue-generating services. Its Network Protocols Division, marketed under the Data Connection brand (www.dataconnection.com), develops high performance, portable software components that are integrated into the products of the world's leading communications equipment manufacturers. For more information, please visit www.metaswitch.com.