My first connection to the communications market came through a VON Canada event in 2004 in the Greater Toronto Area; at that time I was working with a collaboration product and wanted to see if there was a role for it in the overall communications space. One year later, at VON Canada 2005, a meeting with Stuart Henshall was my first contact with Skype Journal. (My VoIP interest started with a VoIP offering that my last employer, Quarterdeck, put on the market in early 1996, so it was not a new concept for me by any means.) And it was at the final VON Canada in 2006 that I first reported on behalf of Skype Journal as none of the Skype Journal editors of the day could make it to Toronto.

Since then I have attended several Fall VON's in Boston and this year's Spring VON in San Jose. But over the past eight weeks stories have been flowing about the demise of VON; Thomas Howe, who was an adviser to Pulver Media, provides the most comprehensive eulogy for VON as a result of developments over the past week. And Andy has pointed out that VON's investors of 2007 have been able to recover about $1.7 million for VON's assets; there was something of value to someone there.

However, as Tom so eloquently points out, the VoIP innovation community remains and lives on; we just have to find a new "venue" for meeting. Can Lee Dryburgh turn eComm into a commercially successful event? In the interim maybe it's the daily SquawkBox call hosted by Alec Saunders. But Andy needs to figure out a way to continue his VoIP blogger dinners which had become a staple of the VON ecosystem. And we wish the best to Jeff Pulver, Carl Ford and their colleagues as they begin Life 3.0.

Tags: VON, PulverMedia, Stuart Henshall, Skype Journal, Thomas Howe, Andy Abramson, VoIP Watch, Lee Dryburgh, eComm 2008, SquawkBox, Alec Saunders, Jeff Pulver, Carl Ford

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