Last week, Jeff Pulver described an email which suggested that one of Gandhi’s quote could be equally applicable to Jeff as well. The quote is: “At first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." In that light it might be instructive to further analyze and draw parallels to Gandhi’s movement.
Of course Gandhi is well known for developing the tools of non-cooperation for fighting against injustice. The term he selected for this was sathyagraha, with an emphasis on sathya – truth. One time he explained that being true to one’s beliefs is important; for him “means” is as important as “end”. When some of his fellow freedom fighters used “non” non-violent actions, he was willing to forgo the whole movement. After his death, in independent India, many two-bit politicians misappropriated his technique to achieve their short-term, personal political goals. If had lived to see this surely he would have been sadden, more than how he felt about the partition. Why is this relevant to VoIP?
VON, as in voice over packet network is not as radical as it is being portrayed. As a transport technique packet voice has been used as far back as late 80s in Frame Relay networks. In this application it is only a transmission technology with no scope of changing the business model. But IP communications is different. The revolutionary aspect of VoIP, nay IP, is that it facilitates any-to-any communication. In the ultimate, the end-users do not necessarily require any mediating service providers, but can communicate between themselves directly. (Talk about self-reliance.) Any architecture or protocol that hinders or disables this aspect is to be resisted. Given the regulatory arbitrage benefits, many service providers are jumping on the bandwagon, without allowing for this freedom. So let us not lose sight of the fundamental objective – swaraj.
