[p2p-hackers] P2P SIP tangent: phone numbers vs. user@host

[Wes Felter]

ENUM is interesting, but I think it's a waste of time for 
computer-to-computer calls (not to mention terrible usability). I think 
numbers should be used for dialing only when they're *real* E.164 phone 
numbers (issued by NANPA or some international equivalent). For 
computer-to-computer VoIP, let's just use user at host, like email, Jabber, 
etc. This also eliminates the "walled garden" problem, because user at host 
is a context-free, explicitly hierarchical namespace. Fake "phone 
numbers" are a mess, because you have to remember to "dial" *279603722 
before a FWD number, and #9586739205 before a Gizmo number, etc.

Wes Felter - wesley at felter.org