Call for Startups: StartupCamp Telephony #sct

"Ready, Set, Pitch" your startup at StartupCamp Telephony Edition (#SCT)Thursday, January 21, 2010 from 5:30 PM - 10:00 PM, Miami Beach, Florida. "Five startups will be selected to give brief 5-minute “pitch” presentations following which the panel and audience will ask questions, and provide 5-10 minutes of valuable feedback. Early stage companies wishing to be included in the pitch roster should [apply to present]." Participation is free.

This first SCT will be held in conjunction with Rich Tehrani's Internet Telephony Expo East 2010 (ITEXPO), Thomas Howe's Cloud Communications Summit, 4G Wireless Evolution Conference, Digium Asterisk World, and Machine-to-Machine: Transformers on the Net Internet telemetry conference. The audience will be a great fit for entrepreneurs seeking partnerships, press, or a corporate investor.

Deadline: Apply to pitch by Tuesday, 5 January, end of day.

tags: startupcamp, startupcamptelephony, telephonystartupcamp, #sct, pitchcamp, startups, voip, telephony, communications, itexpo

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
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Intercontinental Exorcism via Skype Video Call

An Israeli rabbi tries to dispossess a Brazilian student, according to The Jewish Chronicle. Over Skype. I'm not making this up. A video of Rabbi Batzri and his backup team on the Skype call.

“After it was determined that it would be extremely difficult to bring the student to Israel, arrangements were made to remove the dybbuk using Skype and a computer, permitting the rabbi and the student to see each other,” kikar.net said.

Aside from avoiding possession-by-dybbuk, this story shows how small communities in diaspora continue to strengthen ties to each other over the Internet.

People now ask if you can do the work over a Skype video call before buying airplane tickets. Skype's free in-network calling also means you can take all the time your exorcism needs; hours in this case.

Another proof point that Skype disintermediates international telephone companies and airlines.

tags: skype, religion, dybbuk, dybuk, brazil, israel, video, exorcism, judaism, hebrew

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
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Phil Wolff's 67 Reckless Predictions for 2010

In 2010...

1. A hot stranger will IM something inappropriate to you.
2. Skype's SilverLakeification will be complete, with a very short leash on strategy and operations at first.
3. Skype will serve 125 billion minutes of calls.
4. Second Life will serve 20 billion minutes of calls.
5. Oprah's television show will end as scheduled in 2011; lots of Skype calls in 2010 leading to the finale as former guests make cameo appearances, holding out for a spot on Oprah's last (highest-rated-ever) episode.
6. "The Tyra Banks Show" will end as scheduled in 2010. Nobody will Skype in.
7. UK police will allege terrorists use Skype (like everyone else). Parliament will demand the PM bring Skype under control.
8. Skype 5.x will offer multiparty video.
9. Skype 5.x will offer team features.
10. Someone will attend a family funeral via Skype video. And forget they are on camera.
11. Skype will release a "naked Skype" public beta. This Skype engine, no user interface, will be free/cheap. Hardware developers will like it; web developers won't.
12. Skypecasts will still be offline.
13. Facebook will add voice to chat.
14. Skype for Business will account for ten percent of Skype sales.
15. Nortel changes its name to Avaya. Or avice aversa.
16. The world economy will continue to suck. An American commercial real estate crisis will reinvigorate the Great Recession. Good news for Skype as more people work from home.
17. 24's eighth season will feature Cisco's new midrange video conferencing.
18. Skype won't offer a "Login with Skype" service.
19. Vampires still won't Skype.
20. Tencent will buy ICQ for its non-China userbase. Skype won't.
21. Google Talk will add multiparty video with On2 inside, and become a standard part of the Google office suite.
22. Skypers post thousands of videos of Skype calls on YouTube, thanks to recording software. Jeremy Hague's Vodburner outpaces Pamela as the bestselling Skype add in.
23. The US student loan crisis ($700 billion outstanding) strains consumer lending.
24. Skype starts a post-SIP standards discussion about communications protocols for the 21st century.
25. Avaya will make Skype for SIP the default setting for new switches they sell.
26. Skype manages to get a television commercial on the air.
27. China's troubled economy will boost Skype usage when families can't afford to travel home for the Lunar New Year.
28. A team will talk for 200 hours in an uninterrupted Skype-to-Skype call.
29. Wi-Fi phones will ship with Skype SILK inside.
30. Six former Skype employees will become CxOs.
31. Someone dies, unable to Skype for emergency help.
32. You'll be able to make iSkype voice calls on Verizon 3G before AT&T 3G.
33. 100 handsets will run on Google's Android.
34. Skype will release their homemade COTTON video codec, so they don't have to use the ones from Google's On2. Higher quality. Easy, free license. Independence.
35. Skype.com still won't let you log in with OpenID.
36. Windows Live Messenger gets a huge boost in new user signups from Bing, Office2010, Office Live, and Windows 7. Microsoft will rock in 2010.
37. LG ships a television with Skype inside.
38. Mobiletelco 3 ships its third generation Skypephone.
39. An angry entertainer tweets to a million followers her PC crashed and lost all her Skype history. So she's switching to...
40. Skype opens a mobile research lab in India.
41. Gizmo5 features migrate to Google's plumbing and Google Voice.
42. A Harvard Business Review case will feature a Skype-related issue.
43. A Fortune 500 company (not eBay) will provide Skype for Windows for their employees.
44. Volunteers phonebank using Skype on behalf of a national EU political candidate's campaign's.
45. A lobbyist slips a Skype-hostile measure into a US law on behalf of incumbent telcos before Skype can muster opposition.
46. The Skype store will sell a netbook with Skype preinstalled.
47. The BigTelco industry pressures Nokia, so it never preinstalls Skype on its Series 60 line for the US market.
48. Skype relaunches its software platform developer program mid-year.
49. Skype's unreasonable Broadcast Terms of Service keeps it off new dramatic television programs and out of movies all year.
50. A court will find Skype guilty in a class action suit related to collecting small sums of money from customers but not offering service or prompt refunds.
51. Skype will offer to buy Tokbox for its browser-based video.
52. Skype revenue per minute called will continue rising from $0.06 as Skype trunking starts to contribute.
53. Skype will top $900 million in revenue.
54. Skype will sell small businesses pricing plans making it easy to budget and buy.
55. An IETF working group publishes avatar portability protocols.
56. 23 million people will log in to Skype at the same time.
57. 180 million new Skype accounts, about 500k daily.
58. Someone Skypes from a Virgin Galactic space flight.
59. Skype loses juicy US government contracts over the TOM-Skype security compromises. You don't know when someone you're talking with is using a TOM-Skype client with monitoring software from Chinese security agencies. An audit will show Skype on 500K federal employee computers anyway.
60. Skype relaunches Skype for Android. Android Skypers have more dialtone per user than the iPhone or Skype Lite.
61. Zombies become the new Vampires.
62. Tom Green Show's corps of Skyping fans will continue to Skype into the show while he is on the road with his new Standup Comedy Tour.
63. Skype-like features become generic, included in every communications and collaboration product shown at Demo, TechCrunch50, Telephony Startup Camp and similar product launchpads.
64. BT/Ribbit adds video support to its platform for programmers.
65. Voicemail to email transcription becomes a standard feature in most markets for mobile and home phone service.
66. United Nations rescue and recovery teams standardize on Skype.
67. Skype sponsors a Festivus site for the public "airing of grievances" and videos of your "Feats of Strength."

Hudson Barton predicts a 2010 peak of 27,695,335 Skype users online, Total "real users" will be 67,596,505.

What are your predictions? Can you do better? Prior years' predictions: Phil Wolff's 26 incriminating 2009 Skype Predictions, Phil Wolff's 37 Sketchy 2008 Skype Predictions, Predictions? Wish List? What's In Store for 2008 (Jim Courtney).

tags: skype, future, predictions

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

2009: The Year even Clooney lost out to Video Communications.

Guest post by Larry Lisser, the man behind the Telephony2Market blog, instigator of the first Startup Camp Telephony Edition (21 January 2010, Miami), and an Emerging Communications Conference alum. He's the go-to consultant for helping emerging communications startups position, package and get to market growth.

Recently, I made the obligatory trip to George Clooney's latest movie, 'Up in the Air.' Predictable results followed: Clooney played the same guy he often does and my wife was just happy to have watched his pretty face on the big screen for two hours. What I didn't expect was to see how central video communications was to the story line. This got me thinking.

There can be little debate that the year 2009 was the best yet for video communications. After years of false starts (i.e. before widespread broadband) and then a somewhat remarkably slow start even once its quality issues were no longer, video found its legs this year. Indicators of video's accelerating market momentum were everywhere, coming at us in the forms of mainstream media coverage, viral user base growth and of course M&A activity.

The acquisition roster proved to be the strongest evidence yet. By the time the year was done, we counted three buyers and four deals with bets aimed squarely on the future of video over IP communications. Grand total: in excess of $6B. No small bets by the buyers of Tandberg, Skype, LifeSize and SightSpeed (in order of transaction size).

Now back to Clooney. He played a hired grinch; someone who traveled the world every week to deliver pink slip news on behalf of his firm's corporate clients. Early in the plot, an upstart member of his own head office team tried to re-write his playbook though - and eliminate travel expenses - by introducing video as a means to fire people from afar.

Clooney pushed back (charmingly, of course), professing that what he did for a living required in-person communications and could not be done as effectively by camera. I'll let you discover the rest at the movies, but suffice to say that I came away with a few year-end revelations about video:

1. What we once thought to be the obvious and pervasive applications for video (i.e. travel replacement), may not end up being the ones that spur exponential growth. Think video as a component of a process and not just as an advanced form of communications.
2. The video enabled call center is coming. Actually, it's already here but few of us have experienced it real-time. Imagine for a moment the difference in empathy you and an agent might exchange during a heated customer service conversation about a canceled flight - if you were looking at each other.
3. I'm shifting terminology from 'Video-Conferencing' to 'Visual Communications'. The former has become too limiting. Conferencing implies just that, while visual communications can and will mean so much more.

So the year ends with bankers, end-users, the media and now Hollywood having told us that 2010 and beyond hold much more than just promise for video communications. As Andy Abramson put properly into context for us this week, if VoIP was the industry of the decade, the next ten year will belong to video over IP. Or Visual Communications, if you prefer.

tags: skype, video, trends, 2009, upintheairmovie, termination, firing

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Gifts for the Skype crowd

Gear: The Better to Hear and See All Year Long

Cute 3-D Webcam from Minoru. For the friend who wants even more than Skype's High Quality and considers 3D glasses the height of fashion. Cheerful, stereoscopic, and works wonderfully with Skype. Minoru videos on YouTube (and wear your 3D specs). Review. Amazon. $89/£50/€80.

Point 2 View (P2V) USB camera. Skype in-focus close-ups in your video call. You show the grandkids your stamp collection, they show you the bugs they found in the back yard. Armature stand included. Review, Overview, Gallery, FAQ, Tech specs, Downloads. Ipevo Store. Amazon.

Touch Screen Videophone from ASUS. The ASUS SV1TS gets the PC out of the way of Skype video. You drop it in the kitchen or living room, plug in the power cord, connect the Wi-Fi, touch the screen, and talk. Large, clear picture. Amazon. $230.

MXL AC-405 USB personal computer speakerphone. Absolutely the best audio quality anywhere near this price from Maxell, world experts in microphone engineering. The AC-405 shares technology with their high-end music and television studio microphones. Amazon. $55.

Freetalk Wireless Stereo Headset. Still one of the best for looks, quality, comfort and ruggedness. More than five hours of talk time and even then it works while recharging. I use it daily without tripping over cables. Review. Amazon. Skype store. $80.

Software: To Record and Share

Vodburner records Skype video calls on Windows. The Vodburner Beta includes easy editing software (see screenshot below) that automatically switches the shot between the two of you depending on who is speaking. Publish meetings, interviews, and training sessions on the web. A subscription runs $9.95 (USD) monthly.

Pamela Professional Edition, the Skype Assistant. Proven software with built in voice mail, birthday reminders, and in-call sound effects. Like Vodburner, it records calls but without an audio or video editor. An all around utility kit for Windows Skype users. I've been using Pamela for many years. PamSoft. €19,95.

Skype Journal Video Grooming Kit:

Teeth: Rembrandt 2-Hour Whitening Kit. Whiter teeth take years off. Feel free to smile.

Hair: Kent White Bristle Hair Brush for those stray hairs. (Ah, I remember the days when I had hair on the top of my head worth brushing.)

Inspection: Jerdon First Class Mirror so you know you look good and bounce a little light your way. See yourself the way others see you.

Skin: Avon mark Cheat Sheet Shine-Blotters to remove oils from your face that shine in the light. (I always thought it was a reflection off my eyeglasses that blinded viewers, but it was the glare from my forehead. )

Wardrobe: Everyone looks better on camera in a clean, dark blue shirt: Soffe Men's Base Layer Long Sleeve Crew Tee. White clothing creates glare and throws off your camera's sensors. Keep a clean, dark and solid top by your desk for the unexpected Skype call.

Lights: Natural light makes you look marvelous. I use the Verilux Original Natural Spectrum Deluxe Desk Lamp, so the camera can see my face. (Despite requests to turn it off.)

Lens: Keep your webcam lens clear with the Nikon Complete Lens Cleaner Kit or the LensPEN Lens Cleaning System. (This doesn't seem to help me: I always turn out smudged no matter how clean the webcam.)

UK broadband miles behind its counterparts

Guest post by Shahul Hameed, broadband analyst at VAC Media. Shahul reports on UK broadband provider performance, technologies, and markets for VAC's Broadband Suppliers site.

Will instant downloads ever happen here? Can we play online and watch videos without interruption? We have been expecting these changes with our UK broadband services a long time.

A recent study by Broadband Suppliers states our international peers, especially South Korea and Japan, are miles a head of the United Kingdom. Even though the UK ranks among the top thirty richest nations, the UK's telecommunication infrastructure is worse than rest of Europe and most of the countries in the world.

South Korea, for example, is the first country in the world to bring fiber optic cable connections to every school nationwide. Online games are a national event.

The maximum broadband speed offered in UK is 50 Mbps while the average monthly bill shoots up to 10 times higher than other countries. Expert analysis claims houses in most part of the country still connect to exchanges using old BT copper wires. Copper wires do not have better data carrying capacity compared to fiber optic cables. Moreover, the longer the wires are from the exchange, the slower the speed will be. The fiber optic cables have been laid in major cities while other parts of the country still wait for network expansion.

The Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) recently announced that the UK is worse on broadband penetration by standard measures. They also reported that one in every five users (21%) express dissatisfaction with broadband speeds. 16% are dissatisfied with the price of the plan and 13% with the reliability and performance of the connection. Almost 26% of customers say broadband providers set a wrong expectation about connection speed.

Some of the major factors affecting speeds include:

1. Line capacity of the ISP's
2. Cable quality
3. Distance between the residents and exchange

Awareness about the speed of the broadband is mixed. Many people are well informed about the factors affecting speed and choose the fastest ISP, while almost 40% are unaware of the head line speed. Broadband suppliers continue to mislead the public regarding download speeds and tag customers with higher prices. This was also reported and criticized by Ofcom this year.

The UK Government should speed up the process of laying fiber optic cables and increase the coverage of wireless networks. Else we will remain in the 26th position or fall further when it comes to the quality of broadband service in the world, while competitors like Japan and South Korea are future ready.

tags: uk, broadband, rok, southkorea

Free Speech Activists Use Skype Data Channel To Bypass Government Censorship

Skype Journal is blocked by China's government. Millions work around censorship and monitoring with networking tools like GTunnel. The GTunnel proxy on your PC connects to GTunnel servers. The client connects directly, through the TOR network, or through the Skype network. Connecting through Skype assures your packets are encrypted from beginning to end. This hides your IP address from servers. This also circumvents blockades of target servers like mine.

GTunnel is run by Garden Networks for Freedom of Information, a member of the Global Information Freedom Consortium. When you combine GTunnel with UltraSurf, FreeGate, FirePhoenix, GPass, and Ranking you get a complete suite for surviving online censorship and monitoring.

Caution for Chinese users: Skype cannot assure what you download from TOM-Skype does not include spyware. So download the international version from the Skype.com site or another independent source.

tags: security, censorship, iran, china, gfw, encryption, anonymity, gtunnel, anti-jamming system, jamming, blocking, blocks, blocked, globalinformationfreedom, gift

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Collaboration Lego Style

Creating a shared vision, talking through it until it becomes a plan they both understand, then dividing up work between them, troubleshooting together and adjusting the plan, until it's done. Collaboration builds relationships, not just houses.

tags: lego, collaboration, family, commercial, house

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

More M&A: Should Skype buy ICQ from AOL?

What would Skype pay to add 42 million active users in 2010? The $300 million AOL seems to be asking for ICQ may be steep. According to AOL, 1.1 billion messages are sent and received in the five hours per day the average 13-29 year old ICQ user is connected. ICQ is bigger than Skype in Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and Israel.

On the other hand, Skype added 40.3 million new users in 2009q3. Ninety days of growth and an established community would be nice.

Maybe. You could lose half the ICQ users at first switch.

ICQ's proven centralized services were appealing when Skype was desperately seeking alternatives to Joltid's p2p technology. That compelling interest is over.

Techcrunch says South Africa's Naspers (JNB:NPN), a big investor in China's Tencent, expressed interest. Tencent's QQ was inspired by ICQ.

I'm sure AOL values ICQ based on its advertising revenue. Skype is unlikely to

It might be cheaper to hire the Israeli Mirabilis team directly.

tags: skype, aol, aim, icq, is, israel, mirabilis, tencent, naspers, china, russia

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.