At last we have a 100% project within the community and for the community, the species that do not evolve, they disappear and we have evolved ourselves to a new project, this is not the end, it is the beginning and in Issabel.

We have an improved and optimized project, this new project will bring us together even more as a community and the integrators and customers so that they can be sure that they will have outstanding support and stability. Now let us continue, because we are just starting!

I am delighted to welcome the Issabel project to the Open Source Communications Community. Building on work by the Elastix and FreePBX teams, and therefore (of course) the Asterisk team, I wish Issabel every success as a FLOSS project.

Looking forward to see this new direction take shape, and to meeting old friends and new at AstriCon.

Worldwide Community Director, the Asterisk open source project

The world and the changes in it do not stop; for the Unified Communications and VoIP market, this is not the exception, in 1800 with the invention of Telephone and the analogue communication, in 1995 with the beginnings of VOIP, in 1999, among other important changes;

The emergence of an open source telephony platform “Asterisk” came to the path, becoming in a short period of time as the reference for IP Telephony. Asterisk allowed the creation of a large and committed community, which today it has united again, with very clear objectives and safe steps:

Creating a platform that fulfills the mission of an open source; for the community and by the community, as well as maintaining, improving and growing the developments of the platforms installed with clarity and security towards the future. Welcome to ISSABEL and to keep adding.

Due to the occurred events of public knowledge, the main entrepreneurs, developers, and integrators of the Open Source world joined together for giving birth to Issabel … We invite all interested parties to participate in this new initiative.

Issabel is the natural outcome for what happened, looking ahead, do not stop on the complaint. Over the years a strong, expert community with a great human value has been formed. From this foundation, it will be built a new path to continue providing the best unified communications service.The installed base is huge, and it’s our turn, the community, to be enough responsible so that the whole park would not be adrift.

The open source community today became stronger, because the news which arrived by many sources has caused the collaboration of the most important characters of this community, as well as the union of the companies which represent the open code in each region of the world.

With union, experience, knowledge and creativity, ISSABEL, it will be the frontage and support to the installed entire base, who will give force, continuity and strength to the VOIP and Unified Communications. The Issabel team is proud of the new creation.

Issabel is a song to life from the Open Source. In the last hours, it was wanted to bury a project that involved for many years, thousands of customers, professionals and enthusiasts of VoIP.

For those who want to sing a Requiem, Issabel responds with a newborn cry, with all the renewal, enthusiasm and freshness which this means.

Behind Issabel there is a team of professionals who support the project, because it was them who contributed in the previous one; at the moment they work tirelessly so that those who work in the VoIP and who are worried today, can find security and enjoy the updates that will come.Issabel, a support to VoIP of Open Source.

The sale of Elastix hit me like a bucket of cold water. Despite not yet using Elastix in my consulting work, I have had contact with this great community for years and I understand the disorientation that the sale of Elastix to the binomial 3CX/Sangoma has caused to them.

I think of the regional distributors of Elastix who have broken their chest by promoting a product and brand that has suddenly ceased to exist and I get angry myself. I also think that in the free software world the projects live and die, but above all they are forked.

This is the opportunity to build another Elastix, Issabel, that is in the hands of those who live and invest in it and ensuring that what it has happened, it will never happen again.

Issabel was born for a whole active community the same as the free software for UC, we want to give them the peace of mind that they will be able to count on a better platform, maintained by a large group of companies with great expertise on the matter and it comes to stay for a long time, long Life to Issabel!

We support Issabel because we are happy to know that the thousands of devices that work with Elastix today will continue to work with free software. We are also pleased to hear that the people who contributed to the success of Elastix are now involved in the Issabel project and will continue to maintain the source and spirit of the project.

The announcement as such, took us all by surprise; the way it was showed it – as if it were good news, as if the platform were going to improve, as if we did not really know what it was – it seemed out of place, especially taking into account that those who support this effort, are professionals in the field and we know what it really means. I do not consider myself a programmer, but all my ability as promoter, broadcaster, translator, interpreter and Community Manager for Elastix is available to this new project. They have my support.

After a storm the sun always comes out. A new project based on ISSABEL Free Software was born. The initial objective is to give continuity to the already installed platforms so that companies, integrators and clients do not be interrupted their commercial or operative works. We look forward to your cooperation. Welcome ISABEL! Welcome Community!

For a long time I had been going strongly on Elastix making contributions to the community and creating addons. I saw the Elastix sale closely and it made me rethink many things which would not have to happen again with free software. I support 100% to Issabel and I invite to all of you to be in charge of the project, keeping the Open Source spirit and respecting the GNU license.

As a member of the Elastix community for over 7 years, I became an active part of the project, watching it growing and getting mature. I witnessed of its difficult times but also of its glorious times.

In the company of all the members who are today part of this team, we were attentive to support the project with both our knowledge and experience, as well as economic contributions when required to carry out an idea or improvement in the product, however by a decision that we do not share, Elastix was sold to a monopoly that only tries to finish with the Open Source but they did not count on meeting with altruistic warriors to whom the first thing that concerns us are the interests of our Clients and the Community in general and that is why in a marathonic way we were able to rebuild from the ashes the little that they left us and to give life to ISSABEL.

A true Distro OpenSource which is not sold, nor it it exchanged or given away for coins because it belongs to the whole community.

Issabel was born from the cornerstone of an open source project: Your Community. Driven by a strong team of role models in voip and associated companies, focused on providing continuity and support to hundreds of servers in production, new implementations and unified communications projects, providing a solid, scalable and mainly free platform… Avanti Issabel!

The Elastix fiasco had happened before to other projects, and might happen again. What is important is the opportunity that FLOSS communities have to move on with the freedom to choose what to do with their project. This is why I welcome that before the dust settles, the open source community is already up and ready. The last few days I have read several of the original contributors get excited alongside the newcomers. The open source community that grew around the Elastix project isn’t gone. Welcome Issabel.org!

Any change is an opportunity to keep improving, that’s what Issabel is all about. The idea of improvement revolves around converting to Communitary, a free software project hitherto held by a company.

The idea of improvement revolves around sharing, collaborating and working among friends from multiple places of the planet, for the common benefit of all integrators and users.

The idea of improvement revolves around claiming a philosophy of life which from the software we put into practice and propose to extrapolate to other spheres of the society. Businesses are bought and sold, but never freedom … that’s what Issabel is all about.

The disappearance of Elastix, as a brand and a Free Software community, it is a hard blow for all those who have invested time and resources in its promotion, distribution and maintenance.

Although brands and names are ephemeral, the needs and concerns of people, both personally and professionally, are not so.

This is the opportunity to rebuild and to group an entire community around a new project which excites and would be profitable for everyone, a project governed by the people.

There is desire, there are people and there is knowledge. What can fail? See you at IssabelWorld 🙂

The sale of Elastix has become a betrayal of the community. Hundreds of people dedicated themselves for many years to make Elastix better: from developers, partners, integrators and, above all, users. A project without users is irrelevant and Elastix was not. It is therefore the time to rejoin together and create a new project, with the wisdom of hindsight. A new project with a new governance model. A project above any company. A project by and for all. That project is Issabel. We are legion. Wait for us.

Since 2008 I have been involved with the Elastix project, either through the generation of documentation or organizing the certification program.

The disappearance of Elastix as we know it was an unpleasant surprise throwing away years of commitment and work. Issabel emerges as the natural heir for those who bet on the development line of Elastix and worked so closely with the project.

This is also how the obvious alternative results for all certified professionals who were trained to implement Elastix. It is inspiring to see how so many developers, integrators and hardware manufacturers come together to support this new initiative, Welcome Issabel!