VCONIC TADHack: The Open Source MCP Server
Sharing the first session recorded last week for VCONIC TADHack, which explains the open-source MCP server.
Event Overview: VCONIC Challenge
New this year is the VCON MCP server challenge. Check out the details at conserver.io or mcp.conserver.io.
Dates: March 7-8 (Saturday / Sunday)
Prize Pot: $5,000
Location: Virtual Event
Registration: Send an email to
info@tadhack.comwith your name and email.Submission Process: Details and timing are explained in the original article.
Upcoming Training Sessions
We have planned a series of live and recorded training sessions leading up to the hackathon. (Note: If you’ve already registered for TADHack, you will receive calendar invites to these sessions).
The VCON MCP Server Thomas McCarty-Howe | Fri, Jan 30 & Fri, Mar 6 @ Noon
AI Coding for Beginners Rob Pickering | Tue, Feb 10 @ Noon |
Consent and Lifecycle Thomas McCarty-Howe | Fri, Feb 13 @ Noon |
Spec-Driven Development Jason Goecke | Tue, Feb 17 @ Noon |
VCON + UNS (Manufacturing) | Matthew Smith | Tue, Feb 24 @ Noon |
The VCON App Store Audrey Hayn | Fri, Feb 27 @ Noon |
Understanding the Technology
The Problem: Conversations Happen Everywhere
Most businesses have conversations scattered across phone calls, video meetings, chat messages, and emails. Because each system stores data in its own format, it is incredibly difficult to search, analyze patterns, share data between tools, work with AI assistants, and maintain compliance standards. Getting a complete picture takes entirely too much time and effort.
The Solution: The VCON MCP Server
MCP stands for Model Context Protocol. It allows AI assistants (like Claude) to securely access your live data and external tools, rather than relying solely on their training data. Think of MCP as giving an AI assistant access to your toolbox.
By connecting the vCon MCP Server to an AI assistant, it can:
Read data from your databases.
Perform actions using your tools.
Access real-time information.
Maintain context about your active tasks.
What Can The VCON MCP Server Do?
Store conversations: Saves conversations in vCon format, matching the IETF standard perfectly.
Search conversations: Offers basic filtering, keyword search, semantic search (by meaning), and hybrid search.
Organize with tags: Add label-like tags to conversations for fast organization and filtering.
Analyze and monitor: Provides analytics showing growth trends, content patterns, and database health metrics.
Manage components: Update parts of a conversation (like adding analysis results or attaching files) without recreating the whole record.
Use templates: Speeds up the creation of new records for common conversation types.
Extend with plugins: Add custom functionality like privacy controls or compliance features.
Stretch Objective: SIP Extension for MCP
How do you discover a new MCP? This Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) extension advertises support for, negotiates, and carries the Model Context Protocol. It defines a new SIP option-tag (`mcp`), new header fields, capability parameters, and the application/mcp+json media type. [Read the draft here](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-howe-sipcore-mcp-extension/).
Deep Dive: Session Details & Resources
The VCON MCP Server
Speaker:Thomas McCarty-Howe
AI Coding for Beginners
Speaker: Rob Pickering (Coding CEO)
A pragmatic approach covering which solutions and tools work reliably, areas that lack maturity, and the future direction of AI-assisted development. Highly relevant for students. Links to follow shortly. (See Rob's previous TADSummit session)
Consent and Lifecycle
Speaker: Thomas McCarty-Howe, CTO VCONIC
Consent has evolved from simple TCPA compliance into dynamic, term-limited "consent for purpose" (e.g., AI training, data mining), aligning better with GDPR and modern privacy laws. The new consent extension paired with media provides cryptographic proof, granular permissions, and temporal validity.
Spec-Driven Development (SDD)
Speaker: Jason Goecke (Coding CEO)
AI without specifications results in fast, expensive chaos. SDD uses executable specifications as the single source of truth defining what to build, why, and how to prove it. Specifications MUST be measurable (performance), testable (security), verifiable (reliability), and auditable (compliance).
The VCON App Store
Speaker: Audrey Hayn, Co-founder MindMaking
MindMaking is building a vCon App Store tailored for SMBs. They provide a marketplace, integrated billing, developer ecosystem, and vCon-compliant infrastructure distributed through ITSPs and Managed Service Providers. Email apply@mindmaking.com to get involved and monetize your hackathon skills.
VCON + UNS for Manufacturing / Process Industries
Speaker: Matthew Smith
(Note: Date previously shifted due to travel).
Unified Name Space (UNS), MQTT, and VCON are critical for modern manufacturing. vCon ensures factory floor conversations are captured, making the chain of human decisions on the production line transparent and integrated with Operations Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT).