News Page - What's New?

Web Changes	Standards Activities
Latest Press Releases	Industry Conferences
Late Breaking Standards News	Latest HC Publications
Current HC Activities

Web Changes

This is where we'll announce most recent additions to our web site. If you've visited us before and want to know what's changed, take a look here first.

Human Communications Establishes Enhanced Web Site: See the press release for more details.

Latest Press Releases

These are the press releases we've issued over the past two years.

October 12, 1999 - Human Communications Initiates Standards Briefings by Teleconference - First Conference on ITU-T Study Group 8 Fax Standards Slated for October 28, 1999
December 20, 1998 - Human Communications Establishes Enhanced Web Site - See the press release for more details.
December 8, 1997 - Human Communications Plans to Release Supplementary Report on Fax Routing, including via Internet Fax
March 7, 1997 -- Awarded "Best of Fax Report" by AFAHC Fax Routing Report
December 9, 1996 -- Human Communications Releases Report On Fax Standards Routing and Practice

Late Breaking Standards News

James updated his renowned Fax Glossary and Fax Resource pages on this site with updated links and some additional material.

James wrote a provocative article on the differences between the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and Peer to Peer for Voice over IP for Internet Telephony.

James wrote an article for Internet Telephony in early 2004 on one of his favorite topics, real time Fax over IP. Click here for the article.

James wrote an article for Embedded Control Europe on the Status Quo and Outlook for Voice over IP in Fall, 2003. It was reprinted in the Brooktrout Upstream newsletter, which you can find here.

The ITU-T has completed an up-to-date version of T.38 for real-time IP fax in 2002 which includes Annexes D and E on T.38 via SIP and Megaco. James was a key contributor to these annexes. The ITU-T is also in the process of approving the V.150 series on Modem over IP communications. See articles for a related article written by James.

James has written an article for Network World tech update on the Megaco (Media Gateway Control Protocol) from the ITU and IETF. Click here to read the article.

James will be contributing IP Telephony standards related items and other articles to the Brooktrout developer eNewsletter called Upstream. For information on the eNewsletter, jump to this link.

James is quoted extensively in an article in the September 1999 issue of CTI magazine that provides an excellent introduction to Internet fax and reviews the quality of services benefits for customers that should become available in the next generation of standards based Internet Fax products and services! Click here to link to the article.

James has written a series of articles for Messaging Magazine, published by the EMA, on aspects of messaging integration especially involving the Internet. The series covers the following topics:

July-August (1997): Status of standards efforts to integrate voice, fax, and Internet mail
September-October (1997): Status of standards work on conducting real-time voice and fax communications via the Internet
November-December (1997): An overview of efforts by the IETF Drums working group to explain and refine the core Internet Mail standards
January-February (1998): A review of four customer messaging problems that can be addressed by emerging standards

Click here to go to the on-line verson of EMA's Messaging Magazine.

The July 1998 issue of BTA Solutions from the Business Technology Association has an article on Internet Fax 101, where James and other industry leaders are quoted on the state of standards and related products.
The January 1998 issue of Inc.has an article on an Internet fax service where James is quoted on what it will take for Internet fax to be useful for small businesses. (Take me to the article Online!)

Standards Activities

In 1999-2000, James is active in the Megaco working group of the IETF and in related work in ITU-T Study Group 16 on the development of H.248/Megaco "packages" for Call Discrimination, IP Fax and Fax. See articles for a related article written in 2002.
James has written an article in Network World on this work in August 2000. . Click here to read the article.
Check out the IETF Internet fax web site for links to the Internet fax RFCs - RFCs 2301-2306 and RFCs 2530-2532, RFC 3302
See our information on this site for the latest developments in Internet Fax Standards

Industry Conferences

Brooktrout Developer Conference - James will present at the June 2004 Developer Conference in Boston on two topics: Media Processing for IP/PSTN Networks and on Fax over IP. Click for Details.
VON (James presents regularly at the Von Conferences on various topics related to Voice over IP. For details on upcoming VON conference, click here.
Fax Directions 2000(see the presentations!)
Internet Fax Technology Class
Converging Digital Peripherals/Integrated Office Conference ‘99 (Oct 25-27, 1999)
Human Communications Standards Teleconference (Oct 28, 1999)

Latest HC Publications

We had established an email mailing list which we used to keep our business contacts up to date on HC and telecommunications industry news. Our messages, which were sent out about once a month, are called HC News and Notes. (no longer active) To read the current and previous editions, go here!
We have now begun publication of HCD On the Web. Check it out here!
Check out the latest HCD cover stories in our Front Page archive!
The Lead Story in the September 1999 issue of Human Communications Digest is on the approval of an updated recommendation for Binary File Transfer within the International Telecommunications Union. We also have extensive coverage on other recent ITU-T fax and IETF Unified Messaging standards activities.
The first edition of the Human Communications Standards Update on Fax Routing, has been well received in the industry and is still available. We believe it is still the definitive study on Fax Routing from both a customer and vendor perspective.
For this report, we have now included excerpts from the Executive Summary for those readers who would like to know more about standards-based fax routing and get a preview of the report's contents and conclusions.

Latest HC Activities

On December 16, 1999, James Rafferty joined Brooktrout Technology and suspended active operations of Human Communications. We continue to maintain the HC web site as a public service to those people on the Internet who need information on the advanced Internet and Telecommunications technologies which were our speciality. There are also links to the current work that James Rafferty is doing for Brooktrout Technology as Senior Product Manager, for IP Telephony. For information on the Brooktrout TR2020 Voice over Packet board which is managed by James, follow this link. For information on the full Brooktrout product line, including the award winning TRxStream(r) TR1000 Media Resource board (also formerly managed by James), see the products pages.
We held our first Standards Teleconference on October 28, 1999. James Rafferty briefed listeners on the key results from the ITU-T Study Group 8 meeting held in September 1999. There were several important developments and you will hear all about them on the teleconference. You may want to read the related press release.

We participated in the Fax Connect II interworking event for Internet fax in May, 1999, where numerous companies tested prototype products and services based on the T.37 and RFC 2301-2305 standards.
We were quite busy during five years(1997-2001) in Internet Fax standardization, extending the Group 3 fax protocol, Internet messaging integration and much, much more. Please see our 1997 roundup to check it out and find related links!