Oct. 18--Pehr Anderson went to a telecommunications software conference in Chicago to learn more about FreeSwitch, a cutting-edge software used in his voice technology company's research labs.

What he didn't expect to learn was that the mastermind behind FreeSwitch -- a free program that helps developers build Internet-based phone systems -- was operating out of the basement of a Brookfield home.

From his desk next to a vintage 1980s "High Speed" pinball machine, FreeSwitch mastermind Anthony Minessale II works with customers and fellow programmers in far-flung places such as Africa, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and Silicon Valley.

A University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee dropout -- the curriculum was too "Old World," he says -- Minessale is the primary author of the popular software program that could help change the way voice communications are transmitted and how much it costs to transmit them.

Software developers are using FreeSwitch to build new ways for moving voice communications over the Internet as easily as they move through conventional telephone wires.

"He's got a global community of people using and feeding solutions into this nexus. This is the coming core infrastructure for how carriers route voice traffic in the future," said Anderson, vice president of platform technology at harQen LLC, a Milwaukee voice-to-Web audio company. Anderson also was a co-founder of NBX Corp., an early developer of network-based phone systems acquired by 3Com Corp. for $90 million in 1999.

The advanced voice services built on FreeSwitch get handled by servers as a routine piece of Internet traffic, Anderson said.

Big telephone companies have closely guarded telephone technology for years. But open source projects -- where developers publicly collaborate to create the software -- like FreeSwitch and its competitor, Asterisk, are breaking through those secrets, Minessale said.

Unlimited calling plans show the phone industry's weakening clout, he said. And that's just the beginning.

"We're going to empower all these people to come up with crazy ideas," said Minessale, 39. "It empowers a new market."

FreeSwitch has wide appeal because it helps create voice systems that can do things like tell which line a colleague is using or allow a user to park a call so a co-worker can pick it up. FreeSwitch developers can work in any computer language and link to any network, said Kristian Kielhofner, co-founder of Star2Star Communications, a Sarasota, Fla., company that provides Internet phone service.