Network World Magazine Names Mark Spencer of Digium Among 50 Most Powerful People in Networking

The original creator of Asterisk and pioneer of open source telephony, announced today that President Mark Spencer has been named one of Network World Magazine's 50 Most Powerful People in Networking. The annual list featured in The Power Issue of Network World's Signature Series takes a look at the people, companies, technologies and ideas that are transforming the networking industry. The Power People list profiles 50 of the most aggressive, competitive, masterful and thought-provoking individuals of 2005.

"At 27, Spencer has the youth and momentum to set the network industry spinning. He became famous in 2005, as the industry took notice of Asterisk, the open source PBX system he created, and of his continued pioneering work in open source telephony. Not only is Asterisk an intriguing open source option for VoIP, but as an open source hardware product it has become the proving ground for the entire open source movement. Spencer has been as admired for his marketing skill as for his technical abilities," stated the article in Network World.

The publication chose the recipients based on nominations submitted by its editorial staff, columnists, newsletter writers, Lab Alliance members and external sources. Unsolicited nominations were not accepted for consideration and decisions were based on criteria that include revenue, market share, customer service, leadership and industry influence.

"Being mentioned along side of Gates, Chambers, Ellison, and McNealy is pretty cool, but it really is the entire Asterisk community that has made the platform what it is today," said Mark Spencer. "Asterisk has long left the garage and is being fostered by talented developers around the world, many of which work at the networking and telecom powerhouses. Its use is more widespread within those communities than people realize, so piquing the interest of large networking vendors is really just a natural progression."

Click Here for the Full Article