Brian McConnell

Biography

Brian McConnell is an inventor, author, and serial telecom entrepreneur. He has founded three telecom startups since moving to California. The most recent, Open Communication Systems, designs cutting-edge telecom applications based on open standards telephony technology.

Books

Beyond Contact (Hard Cover)
by Brian McConnell
March 2001
$24.95 USD

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Articles

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The Worldwide Lexicon: Adding Collaborative Translation to Your Site
Publish Date: Sep. 28, 2007The Worldwide Lexicon is an open source project that has recently published a suite of collaborative translation tools that enable readers to create, edit and share translations to and from almost any human language. This article explains how you can use WWL to make your site or content accessible in many languages. Why I Stopped Coding and Why I'd Start Again
Publish Date: Jan. 18, 2007What happens when programming stops being fun? What do you do when juggling dependencies and worrying about installation issues takes all of the joy out of writing code for other people? You can stop coding... or you can try to address the underlying problems. Brian McConnell postulates an enhancement of the Python language to make programming as fun as it was in the BASIC-in-ROM minicomputer days. Subspace Networks: Hiding Circuit Switched Networks in a Packet Switched Network
Publish Date: Nov. 14, 2006Brian McConnell describes a trick that he calls "subspace networking," which can be used to embed circuit switched networking within packet switched LAN hardware, while applications are unaware that this is going on behind the scenes. Building Advanced Telecom Apps on a Shoestring
Publish Date: Sep. 12, 2006With the development of open standards telephony, VoIP, and hosted, on-demand computing services, it is finally possible to use a low-cost development track to create next-generation telecom services. For SARS Press 1, for Bird Flu Press 2...
Publish Date: May. 2, 2006One of the key things we can do during a pandemic is to move in-person congregations and meetings online, creating electronic surrogates for daily social activities such as classes, business meetings, and social outings. Brian McConnell examines how organizations can use the latest telecom technology to help keep society functioning and diminish the spread of disease if this kind of a disaster takes place. What Is Asterisk
Publish Date: Sep. 30, 2005Asterisk is an open source PBX (private branch exchange) that provides all the functionality of high-end business telephone systems, and much more. Brian McConnell explains how Asterisk works and where to get it, and provides an overview of its feature set and its platform capabilities. The PBX Is Dead; Long Live VoIP
Publish Date: Jun. 23, 2005The private branch exchange has been the reference standard for business telephone systems for decades, but the technology is on the verge of obsolescence, thanks in large part to open source VoIP technology. Brian McConnell delves into Asterisk, a Linux-based open source softswitch, and why it may herald the end of PBX. Revitalizing the Pay-Per-Call System
Publish Date: Apr. 19, 2005The 900 number, long associated with porn and psychics, is a technology that was ahead of its time. Despite its reputation, pay-per-call service is a proven and practical way to collect micropayments and create a competitive marketplace for information services. Brian McConnell suggests that third-party wireless providers use pay-per-call as a means to build and profit from voice and data services. RSDP: A Really Simple Proposal
Publish Date: Apr. 11, 2005Anybody who has written software knows that communicating with databases is a nettlesome task because of difficulties with installing and configuring them. Brian McConnell proposes a Really Simple Database Protocol (RSDP) that would provide developers with a way to prototype and build database-driven applications that are more independent of back-end systems. Weigh in with your thoughts on his proposal via the Talkback section at the end of the article. Renewable Energy - The Next Opportunity for Silicon Valley
Publish Date: Dec. 10, 2004There are striking parallels between the renewable energy industry today and the personal computing industry circa 1980. Brian McConnell argues that the same basic dynamics that fueled the PC boom in Silicon Valley apply to renewable energy, and this represents an important opportunity, especially as the computing industry matures and becomes a commoditized consumer product business. Hacking Your Way Off The Utility Grid
Publish Date: Dec. 3, 2004Brian McConnell describes how he retrofitted his home to generate its own energy and significantly reduce its energy footprint. Learn how he installed a grid-intertied solar electric system, as well as solar water heating and solar forced air heaters. Collecting E-Commerce Taxes Door-to-Door
Publish Date: Aug. 5, 2004For about a decade, web stores have been exempt from collecting local sales and use taxes for deliveries outside their local jurisdictions. For most web stores, especially those based in sparsely populated states, this amounts to de facto tax-free status when shipping to most of the country. While online stores get a free pass from many taxes, storefront operations are universally expected to collect local taxes at the point of sale. This article discusses one possible solution to the e-commerce taxation problem: simply requiring couriers to collect local taxes at the point of delivery. What if SETI@home Gets Lucky?
Publish Date: Mar. 19, 2003Brian McConnell, author of Beyond Contact, looks at the latest developments in SETI@home and describes what will happen if a meaningful signal is found. Smart Phones: Finally, Computer Integration Is Real
Publish Date: Sep. 19, 2002Instead of tying a computer to a telephone, which was the original vision of computer telephony, the telephone has become a computer. Brian McConnell provides an update on this convergence of technologies and highlights the Treo Communicator that uses the Sprint PCS new voice/data network. Building a Worldwide Lexicon
Publish Date: May. 10, 2002Brian McConnell proposes an open source, peer-to-peer system for making connections among online dictionaries via a SOAP interface.

Blog

Worldwide Lexicon : Adding Collaborative Translation To Your Site

September 16 2007

The Worldwide Lexicon, an open source project I have led for several years, recently published a suite of collaborative translation tools that enable you or your readers to create, edit and share translations to and from almost any human language.... read more

Review: T-Mobile Hotspot@Home (Thumbs Up)

August 15 2007

I have been a T-Mobile customer for several years, and while I have had issues with their customer service (like all phone companies, it’s trying) I have been happy with their phone service. As phone companies go, they are an innovative company, and have done a great job carving a… read more

iPhone : What is AT&T Thinking?

June 26 2007

The iPhone may well be the most innovative mobile communication product since the Blackberry, but as with nearly every product, the carriers will do anything they can to kill it. Apple’s Achilles’ Heel in this case, brain damaged pricing from AT&T Wireless. Word is out that for $60/month, you’ll get 450… read more

Flappy The Dolphin Reviews The Latest Smartphones (The Onion)

May 19 2007

Spotted this in The Onion this week and got a good laugh. Flappy the Dolphin reviews the latest smartphones. read more

ETel In Your Language Via The Worldwide Lexicon

April 20 2007

The Worldwide Lexicon Project (www.worldwidelexicon.org) is an open source translation project I’ve worked on for many years. We’re pleased to announce that ETel is one of our first testers. WWL is an experiment in collaborative translation. If you speak other languages, you can help make ETel and other sites accessible… read more

Massacre at My Alma Mater

April 16 2007

I was shocked to learn today that my alma mater, Virginia Tech, is now known as the site of the worst mass murder in US history. Tech is a great school, but will be forever marked because of this evil coward, whoever he is. I don’t know what else to… read more

Pranks - Expect It When You Least Expect It

April 01 2007

I love a good prank, especially at a time and place when it’s not expected, and especially if they draw in people who you’d think had better radar. I don’t have a good one this year, but here’s a pointer to a hoax I was involved in a few years… read more

ETel Coverage: IVR That Reads Your Mind

February 27 2007

I am giving a talk titled “Building A Telecom Business Without Selling Your Soul” Tuesday morning at ETel. The talk is about how to bootstrap a business without taking on millions of dollars of other people’s money (I funded all three of my businesses with less than $250,000 in investment).… read more

Gadget Pr0n At Flickr

February 13 2007

I’ll be posting pictures from 3GSM and Barcelona in general on my Flickr site throughout the week (also be sure to check out the set Mary Mary So Contrary) read more

Startup Party At 3GSM

February 12 2007

(Name Redacted) of (Company Name Redacted) and I are inviting startups at 3GSM to join us at our “penthouse” apartment later this Thursday after the show closes (630 or 7). If you’re a mobile startup or know someone who is, pass the word on. We’re in the middle of the… read more

Meet Me At 3GSM

February 07 2007

I will be covering 3GSM for ETel this year. My schedule is still fairly open, so if you’d like to meet up, drop me a line (email hint: first name at last name dot net). read more

An Open Letter to Google SMS Product Managers

February 01 2007

I use Google’s SMS service a lot, especially for directory assistance. It works great most of the time, but it could be even better by turning this into a location aware service. You can do this with two pieces of information and a simple rule. First, you already know the… read more

A Poor Man's Hack For Improving Mobile Voicemail

January 24 2007

Reading the recent post about the poor state of voice mail, I realized that this is a perfect example of how bad the carriers are at innovation. This problem can be solved quite easily, without requiring a major overhaul of either voice mail systems or handsets. The solution works, more… read more

Coining A Phrase? Spot Dialing

December 04 2006

I’ve been testing the Nokia N80i (Internet Edition) for the past month or so. As I write this, I am at cafe in Buenos Aires. I have been trying to come up with a shorthand way to describe making a VoIP call from a wifi hotspot. Voice over WiFi is… read more

How-To: Using Voxbone To Get Local Numbers In 40+ Countries

November 29 2006

I split my time between the Bay Area and Argentina, and so to cut down on my telecom costs, I use VoIP (Gizmo in particular) quite heavily. In this short how-to, I share a trick you can use to get local DIDs (direct dial numbers) in some 50 countries worldwide.… read more

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