A list of my 329,001 fellow IBM employees.

Alphabetically.

By first name.

"How do we scale up the number of quality human relationships one person can sustain by many orders of magnitude? In an increasingly connected world, how does one person interact with a hundred thousand, a million or even a billion people?"

Adrian Scott on Edge.org

Useful? No.

(Just an example, folks; I don't work at IBM. I used to work for Adecco, which employed 3.5 million people. You should have seen Adecco's employee directory around the year 2000, but that's another story.)

Let me clarify Skype's opportunity.

Overload.

Being true to "It just works" even when there's too much.

• Too many names in the cloud. Which Gupta do you mean? When there a billion profiles in the cloud, every query will turn up too many results.
  
• Too much information about each person in the cloud. Our profiles will expand to look more like CVs/resumes and biographies than business cards.
  
• Too many conversational media and styles. Not just phone calls, but phone+text, text+video, video+game+text, voice+blog+irc, voice+desktopsharing, stressanalyzer+voice, etc. How should I contact Bill about his article at this time of day?
  
• Too many inquiries or calls in a day. Can Skype help me be Oprah popular without being rude? Can I avoid distractions gracefully? Can Skype help me prioritize whom I should call?
  
• Too many changes to the profiles of the people in my contacts list. As my contact list grows by a hundred or more each month, people already in my list are changing where they live, where they work, what they look like, whom they know, what they do for fun, what they care about, what they've said and done lately.
  
• Too many contacts. How can I make sense of the 50,000 people in my address book? Can I find someone based on something said in a conversation we had? How are my contacts related to me and to each other? What should I do to keep our relationships current?
  
• Too many and too rich an archive of prior call attempts and conversation records. I text, talk, or vid with Stuart a few times a day. When did we first mention video when talking about Skype? When I've had Skype for 10 years, I'll easily have gigabytes of archives (after SkypeVideo, maybe by year end). How do I find those conversations? those urls mentioned or people quoted?

I have just two eyes, two ears, and 24 hours in a day.

Skype, please help me manage today's and tomorrow's ever accellerating information overload.

The more I live in Skype,

• the more I bring my work, family, social, and civic life into Skype,
• the more I depend on Skype across my mobile phone and laptop and TiVo and Xbox360,
• the more my memories are stored in Skype's logs and archives than my email or my brain...

Skype, please help me:

• Spend my precious time wisely.
• Find relevance.
• Discover and create meaning.
• Lubricate and propel my relationships.
• Hold more efficient and effective meetings.
• Help others do likewise.

Thanks.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 08:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype $3 billion dollar sellout? Is there a real story here? Robert X. Cringely adds to the rumor mill by reporting that Skype was almost sold last week for $3 billion to Rupert Murdoch who just bought MySpace for an extraordinary sum. Was that the reason for Tim's exuberant chatter at AlwaysOn?

Some facts and figures in this piece are clearly wrong to Skype watchers. Some numbers, e.g. the value of the "customers," suggest a possible valuation method. I do agree with part of his conclusion that Skype should partner with an independent mobile carrier. (T-Mobile? in the US) Still his assumption: no IPO in Skype's future; with a buyout nearly certain. The creative speculation appears shrewd and informed. So the questions?

• Is Skype worth $3 billion? 30 billion?
• Does Skype's M&A rumors affect partner plans and willingness to commit?
• Which buyers are more acceptable to Skypers? To Skype's business ecosystem?
• The money from an acquisition goes to the current owners (founders, some employees, investors). If you buy Skype for billions, how much more money would you want to invest and where would you put your money? If you and raised billions where would you spend the cash you raised?

What do you think? Can you substantiate? Read his blog Skyped.

Google is a perfect example of this latter effect, entering the market years after Alta Vista and Excite. And the Google of VoIP looks like it might be Skype, which was almost sold last week to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for $3 billion. PBS | I, Cringely . July 28, 2005 - Skyped

Others that are talking Skype sell stories...
Om Malik
Newswireless
Mark Evans
Loic on Murdoch
Andrew Hansen
Jim Courtney: A Skype Investment Primer
Robert Scoble
Carlos N Velez: "Let's start a new rumor... Google is in serious merger discussions with Skype. The new company, to be called GooSky...."
Carlo at TechDirt
Jeremy Wagstaff: "I suppose we should steel ourselves for the possibility that it doesn't last, at least in its present format."
Michael Parekh: It's all Rope-a-dope
OnoTech: "Wrong, wrong, wrong"

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (1)

Had a late night call (late for me, anyway) with Jan Geirnaert, an entrepreneurial sysadmin who blogs about Skype from Malaysia. Jan is helping companies deploy Skype internally. Once upon a time he'd ask, what's your fax bill? Then sell email. Now he asks: what's your phone bill? Skype follows naturally.

Torie created a wall mural over three days. For the three hours she painted the mural plan, she was on Skype with a friend. Skype as intercom helping artists to flourish.

Jan also tipped me to Malaysia's TMnet e-voice, an Internet softphone. Are we at the point that every ISP must offer a Skype competitor?

Eamonn Sullivan wrote a great tutorial on using Skype to stay in touch with family. Four of a series on keeping your family together over the Internet.

On another blog, Andrew tries various ways to call Sherry transatlantically, finally settling on SkypeOut on a PowerBook with a Bluetooth headset. Experiments in telecom.

Vincent Oberle: Going to work at Skype! and his two-week update.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 05:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype, hype and smiles...

From somewhere off the Internet or maybe from CNN...

After digging to a depth of 100 meters last year, Russian scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 1000 years, and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network one thousand years ago.

So, not to be outdone, in the weeks that followed, American scientists dug 200 meters and headlines in the US papers read: "US scientists have found traces of 2000 year old optical fibers, and have concluded that their ancestors already had advanced high-tech digital telephone 1000 years earlier than the Russians."

One week later, the Israeli newspapers reported the following: "After digging as deep as 5000 meters, Israeli scientists have found absolutely nothing. They have concluded that 5000 years ago, their ancestors were already using wireless technology."

I'll bet Uri's ancestors were Skypers.

Can Gizmo beat this?

Posted by Bill Campbell at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

"How the hell can you make money with a system that is for free?" , asks Skype Forum member, tropicaljantie, the real-life Belgian Jan Geirnaert, residing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

That's a good question Jan. The big travesty in the growing Skype Ecosystem, Skype Developers Program, and the API is the lack of thought by Skype staff about how developers will make money.

We have had some feedback in the Skype Journal...

Here is a comment to Stuart's post Skype Developer Ecosystem Gets a "D-". Jason Terando, the developer of the Skype API COM Wrapper, had this to say:

"One unfortunate trend seems to be Skype adding functionality without regard to what has already been developed. One example is voice mail. A few parties went to great trouble to build voicemail apps, only to have Skype include it as an included feature (albeit not for free). Likewise, Skype has committed to an API/web-based mechanism for retrieving on-line status, which a couple of parties have already worked hard on developing, only to see the rug pulled out from under them."

In an interview about Spontania's Video4IM, CEO Enrique Dominguez talked briefly about his business model.

"As you say, Skype is free, but out of the free version comes premium services. We follow the same strategy. We are a private owned profitable company, and obviously we need to generate revenue to keep these black figures ongoing."

"Regarding Spontania Video4IM, in some weeks we will announce some cool premium features; among others, videoconferencing between PC users and 2.5 and 3G mobile devices. This would drive Skype-Out minutes and open the door for new subscription models."

Niklas Zennström created a market of 45M users who want just about everything for free. Niklas makes millions and soon billions by nickel, diming and Euroing his captive Skype Users with valuable services, while members of the Skype Ecosystem get economically pummeled.

Jan, let's hear how our readers might answer your question, "How the hell can you make money with a system that is for free?"

Posted by Bill Campbell at 01:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

We have Podcasting, Skypecasting and perhaps this community variant is buddycasting. While you can't have it today this mock-up from Uri Levanon displays the kind of thinking required to take the IM client to the next level. It also enables behavior similiar to what's seen on Live Journal, Xanga, MySpace etc.

Here is Uri's example. Everyone would have the opportunity to share the topic of their latest mini-cast.

Here's something I'd really like to have in Skype.

An option to share a single short voice message with my contacts list.

Gogelmogel

How would this work in Skype? Why is it such a neat idea?

1. Voice Messaging. Uses the current voice messaging system in a slightly different way. The recording stays resident unless requested by one of your buddies. When requested it is simply uploaded and delivered as a voice message.

2. Enhancements. We already need a topic name for voice mails. This illustrates how topics could add value to a voice message. Additionally, pinging a minicast server for "public" rather than "Buddy" only mini casts would enable this effectively to be a podcast distributed by Skype. It would be good for low volumes. With the topic enhancement you could tag for conversations.

3. Reply enables buddies to jump into a multi-chat for that mini-cast. The behavior is then very similar the high number of comments we see on Xanga, or MySpaces. Quit the multi-chat and you just left a comment. Close it and it will pop back up with the next comment etc. A simple way to network with your buddies buddies. Add a number of of replies counter and it becomes even more interesting. You may even want to sort your buddylist on most active mini-casts.

4. Format. This doesn't need to be audio. It could be video or even just a text message. It's a blog and not a blog. It's certainly social and enables people to find out more about others. Similarly the multi-chat reply means people can comment and leave the thread or stay and get the updates from others. Thus opt-in to multi-chats. Each mini-cast has it own-multichat. The records could be added to profiles etc.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 06:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (1)

Now anyone can make free international calls using SkypeOut even if they don't have SkypeOut as an added value service!

Free SkypeOut was announced by Jaanus Kase an hour ago in the Share Skype blog.

This is for calling typically toll free numbers such as 800, 866, 888. My Skype reporter in Gdansk, Poland, Tomasz Tybulewicz, and I tested out this service by calling +48800656666 a toll free Polish phone number. The sound quality was excellent; the price was right on: FREE.

Tomasz has one question for you to ponder, "Is this a beta test before the introduction of emergency numbers like 911?"

That's a good question Tomasz!

Posted by Bill Campbell at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (1)

"Since July, the 27th Skype Global Rate will also cover Poland, China, Greece, Taiwan, Hong-Kong and Switzerland. Other prices are also being lowered, although not to the SkypeOut Global Rate, in the Czech Republic (mobiles), Bulgaria, Slovakia, Croatia and Finland."

"27th July is the first anniversary of SkypeOut. This is a reason to lower the price to 0.017 Euro per minute."

This is my rough translation of news from Dziennik Internautów, Internauts Daily, reported to Skype Journal by Tomasz Tybulewicz, Gdansk, Poland: "Since tomorrow evening SkypeOut users will be able to make cheaper calls to Poland. Poland will be covered by SkypeOut global rate at last. Prices to Polish mobiles also will be a little lowered."

Posted by Bill Campbell at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

by John Sjolund, Cape Town South Africa

Having been a very early user of Skype I have tirelessly crusaded to get my friends onboard to what I consider a telecommunications revolution. Having grown up in two countries, having two brothers in two continents Skype has needless to say been great for me. However, getting friends to switch from other instant messaging programs has been difficult and at times frustrating. This has now changed.

Since moving to Cape Town, South Africa from my native country of Sweden Skype has taken a new leap in my life. From being a high quality messaging program it has now developed into my exclusive communication tool for friends and family at home, more than 7000 km away. Equipped with the Olympia Dualphone and a SkypeIn number in Sweden, when I am home in Cape Town, it feels like being in Stockholm (a bit warmer winters aside). It is seldom I become lyrical about a new tech product, but this combination is incredible. With the Olympia Dualphone hooked to the USB port of my computer, friends and family call a local telephone number in Stockholm via SkypeIn, and it rings on my cordless phone down here like any normal phone. I am no longer bound to run to my pc, put on my headset, and sit stationary at my computer. I have a normal phone that works perfectly with Skype, SkypeIn and SkypeOut. I can easily keep in touch with friends at home, and it costs almost nothing. Imagine, working in Africa and having daily contact with my friends at home for almost no cost. By the way, it works as a normal cordless phone with normal landlines as well.

This combination just works, simple as that. It’s so seldom you buy a new gadget and it outperforms your expectations. It happened this time for me!

I choose the Olympia Dualphone ahead of other similar products because of its competitive price, its ability to work in different countries, and the fact that the company seems to regularly update the firmware. The phone has a good solid feel and is easy to use. The interface, though not perfect (doesn’t sort online/offline contacts well) is easy to navigate and built logically. Within about 15 minutes from opening the box of my new phone I had it synced with my Skype Contacts, and ready to go. Sound quality is great. Being that the phone DECT standard, it has the ability to transfer calls between headsets, I have yet to try this feature however.

The Good
• Simple to use
• Phone conveniently peeps when contacts come online
• Caller ID on SkypIN works perfectly
• Quick menu system
• DECT standard
• Upgradable
• Comes with many telephone adapters to match most countries outlets.

The Bad:
• Currently not available in North America
• Boring ringtones

Summary: The combination of this phone and Skype really is incredible. I highly recommend it!!!

Posted by Guest Blogger at 08:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

From China Tech News:

China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) reiterated that it still has not formulated guidelines concerning VoIP businesses and that many current VoIP businesses could potentially be illegal.

Companies like Netease (NTES), Tom Online (TOMO), Skype, and Tencent have all started VoIP services in China. And the 263 Group and HL95 have also recently entered the sector.

The VoIP sector offers great financial rewards for companies because voice communications on the network can be as much as ten times cheaper than traditional fixed-line phones.

MII says that it is still testing VoIP and forbids illegal "phone cafes" from opening in China. It also offered no clear date on when it will issue guidelines for businesses to operate legally.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm really unhappy with the information architectures we adopt to display presence information. Many of you will be familiar with the work of Edward Tufte and his innovative displays of multidimensional and fluid data on 2-dimensional static paper.

We need to do better with presence data, because that data is going be become a lot richer. So, inspired by Tufte, let's see what we can do. I'd like to introduce to you my little pet Tod the Tadpole. As you'll see, I was diagnosed with disgraphia horiffica and have the drawing age of a 3 year old. Never mind.

(A friendly wag suggested this should be Simon the Sperm, but as a family blog I'll demur…)

What this does is adds some more dimensions to our presence display. The most obvious one is a temporal history of our availability. In the example, when the tadpole tail is high, you're available, when it's low you're not. The time scale is squeezed up as a log scale; the last minute and last hour might have the same pixel-width; the far end of the tail might be summarising whether you where around at all last week in just a few pixels.

This history is useful. If someone has just got back from vacation, you want to see that. If someone's online all the time, there's no rush to grab them; conversely, if they're rarely online and you see them come on, call them now!

The up-down movement of the tail is smoothed by adding some inertia; coming online doesn't make it zoom straight to the top, but applies a point force that accelerates it in that direction. (I guess some user testing would tell us whether "y", "dy/dx", or "d2y/dx2" is the right vertical scale.)

Day and night are shown too. This is important when buddies might be spread around the world and very mobile. I've drawn it really badly, but twilight and dawn would be light grey, whereas the middle of the night would be a jet black background. Tod is approaching sleepy time. Naturally, the lengths of the day and night phases would reflect your actual daylight at your current latitude.

You might even choose to colour the daytimes with weather-related information from the locale of the person, such as temperature hues or a pattern of raindrops.

The tail might also encode data about the nature of the presence, beyond being online or offline. For example, the red parts could indicate "busy" — i.e. typing, talking or dragging. (Just clicking in a browser might be regarded as the equivalent of being idle!).

Episodes of mobility, where such data is available from the user device or a network operator, could also be displayed, such as by using a dotted line.

Looking into the future, the background might indicate someone's predicted presence status. If their calendar has a meeting shown, add a border for "busy". If they're due to catch a plane, add a border for "away".

The "head" of the tadpole is also presence-enriched. If you're listening to music, a set of headphone appear on your head. Hey, the little sound-marks coming out of your ears could even beat to the music! Roll the mouse over, see what they're listening to. If you're on a phone call, it looks like you're wearing a headset. And so on.

Of course, the head icons would be personalisable for more immediate recognition. After all, they're your avatar. A great service would be one where you could feed in a normal digital photo of yourself, and it would do all the pattern and colour recognition to churn out a race, age and facially structure look-alike (assuming that's what you want!)

Facial expression could also come into it. A huge chunk of our brain is given over to watching faces, and it's not used much in today's presence and telephony. Don't show a clock icon when someone is away — make them look like they're dozing!

Ideally the head would have a contextually appropriate background, such as a stylised version of "home", "office", "car", "out and about" and "abroad". Tricky with a small icon, but possible if you allow a little more screen real estate.

Which brings me to my last point. Take a look at this miniaturised screenshot of Skype.

Yes, it's weeny. This protects the privacy of those careless enough to become my buddies. But more importantly, it lets you see the overall structure rather than the detail.

What do you see? A ton of white space! Is this vertical scrolled list the best possible information architecture for presence data? I think not. Now, I'm not sure what the right one is. You need predictability of location so you can find folks. You need to properly group and sort according to current presence status as well as tribal affiliation (different work, family and friend groups). There's a lot of variables, and an unconstrained space on which to display them. Other people get PhDs doing this stuff.

Why is better presentation of presence data so important? Because the toughest part of a phone call is the rendezvous. We often miss each other, play phone tag, have hurried "can I call you backs" (and don't). We often simply don't make some social calls for fear of calling at a bad time, and eventually relationships with old friends dissolve. Anyone who thinks telephony is just about creating a duplex audio stream isn't looking at the whole problem.

Anyhow, I eagerly await for someone to rise to the challenge. In the meantime, remember Tod the Tadpole next time you accidentally call someone at 4am — who isn't there anyway.

via Telepocolypse

Posted by Martin Geddes at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Have you Skyped because Skype is more private than most IMs and telephones?

Are you Skype-enabling your web site?

Are you using Skype in your curriculum?

If you answer Yes to any of these questions, please share your story with me for articles on Skype Journal and other publications. Confidences respected. Skype Phil Wolff at evanwolf.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 04:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here is my pick of five SkypeAPI enabled products that can really change how Skype works for you. Better call answering, new call forwarding and video solutions. Plus enhanced collaborative desktop sharing and a way to silence your iTunes.

I apologize in advance to Mac users. This really is a Windows list.

Five Software Winners:

1. Pamela-Systems Pro

This is the Swiss Army Knife for Skype. From answer machine to call recorder and automatic podcasting this solution provides a range of ways to personalize how you answer callers, what messages people get when you are away, etc. It is a great complement to an always-on Skype PC. Even for just a few of the features you can hardly quibble about the price. Cost: Euro 17.50.

2. Video4IM

Spontania's solution, still in beta, hasn't yet always provided me with an unpixelated cam image. The most important aspect is how this program makes video calling easy. You can even set it so it connects as soon as a Skype call from another Spontania user comes in. Provide the personalization functionality like Pamela has and Id have auto video calls with my favorite buddies. At the moment no one makes it easier or faster to launch a video call. Thats going to be a behavior changer. Cost: Free

3. Jyve Web Tools

Two big things. Forward calls you don't want to miss (Skype is working on this now) and the solution for making all your directory listings come to life. Yep are you online or off-line. It the world in which wikis and blogs share your presence info. More importantly, Jyve's created a standard to enabling chat messages off any website. If you have Jyve installed then you can text them on Skype directly from their blog or profile on a dating site.

4. Jybe Collaboration Tool

I know it sounds like Jyve but they are completely different. Jybe enables sharing everything quick and easily. Share word documents, PowerPoint, hey simply share MS Office online. Thats cools that brings accelerated desktop sharing to work while in chat video and voice calls on Skype. I only have one reservation at the moment. The beta version is not encrypted. Thus use your head. I am sure an encrypted version is in the works. Cost: Free.

5. MiTunes

Who can Skype and not want automated muting of their iTunes? I know some would like it in the call to. Still when a call comes in muting iTunes helps when you do not have a separate USB headset or second sound card. Its just a simple program. Not very elegant when you first boot it. Then it runs in the background. If you like iTunes, and Skype you should get it. Cost: Free.

There are other software solutions and other options. Few integrate with the SkypeAPI like these do. It's not surprising that software solutions really begin to use and extend concepts for the API. However, Skype's original purpose was to create a range of "hardware" solutions and collect a royalty. Phone, handsets and devices that would plug-into Skype. The best executions of those are the Olympia Dualphone and CyberPhoneK. While devices like the Actiontec work, they don't really harness the power of the SkypeAPI.

These are the fruits of small developer teams that lead the way to Skype's future. They are the "software" offspring from the initial Skype API products not envisaged by Skype. They've helped generate discussion, user interest and have helped define Skype changing developer direction. Downloads range from a few thousand to 100's of thousands. For some to work, both you and your buddies must have them. So share the news and use them.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 06:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (2)

I can recommend this short but thought-provoking article over at The Mobile Technology weblog.

In essence, it critiques mobile J2ME and BREW because they're denied access to the communications-centric functions of the mobile handset.

I've long thought the same thing. What I'd like to see is these environments deploy "opaque objects." This means that they would be able to query and manipulate things like your address book, but without actually seeing the data. Only the phone OS would see the data itself; the program would just hold an object handle. Functions like iteration through the address book, comparison, and set operations, would all be offerred. A number of user interface components would be offered native to the device to perform standard operations like the selection of one or more contacts, or the addition of new entries.

This would help to reduce the danger of privacy and security lapses. A progam that can't see your actual address book data can do less harm to your privacy.

I also believe that the provisioning of access permissions of applications could be substantially improved. When I download a J2ME application, and it wants to access the network, I'm forced to go through a handset-mediated screen asking every session if I want to accept once, repeatedly (but just for the session - not forever), or not at all. This is a gross inconvenience. We don't pop up a "do you really want to make this phone call" confirmation when you press the green button.

What I'd rather see is the permissions get set at install or purchase time. The install-time part is fairly self-explanatory - you set the access parameters to resources like profile, address book and network. The purchase-time one is more subtle, and really refers to the wired Web. The download app would come with a digitally signed set of permissions from the retail environment, where you have provisioned your access preferences. When you buy a certain networked game, you just tick a box saying "I understand that this game will be given access to my address book, and may access the network incurring packet charges." The appropriate permissions are then tagged on, and you are never asked again on the handset.

Some of these could be parameter-driven. For example, my email application may be allowed to transfer up to 1Mb a day without asking, but above that I should be asked to give my consent. Waiting until the app is on the phone is too late to start provisioning this kind of thing.

This would possibly give network operators' in-house mobile portals a large advantage, as third party sites may not have access to this signing facility and their user experience will suffer. Users downloading from third party sites would have to deal with more intrusive access screens on the handset.

Naturally, a balance is to be struck between privacy and convenience. You can ask too many authorisation questions and put people off. But today's model of simply not allowing some highly valuable functions to be accessed by handset applications is decidedly not convenient, either. There are many low-level functions in the phone which could contribute to an enhanced application experience, if only the operators and handset makers weren't so scared of exposing then.

This model also extends to Windows applications. We won't see it, because Microsoft has gotten lost in the wilderness, but here's what I'd like Windows to do when I install a new app. I should be presented with a human-digestible list of the key permissions it is requesting: "Access the web site 'foo.com'", "Modify files in the 'My Documents' folder", etc. (By default, it should only have access to its own preferences directory. And I should be able to increase or decrease permissions - not just "take it or leave it".)

Just because an app gets a buffer overflow or has a control logic bug shouldn't mean it gets to trash my whole hard drive and access the whole Net. All those worms that download via browser bugs would have a hard time, because being able to execute arbitraty code wouldn't automatically enable access to all OS functions. If you go to hax0rs.com by accident, and get a pup-up from the Windows OS asking if you want to authorise access to your address book, you should be deeply suspicious.

(As an aside, the security model of Windows is very broken, and will stay that way, because actions are done on behalf of users, and not applications. Just because I downloaded and installed an application doesn't mean it should be trusted as if it were me. The user model doesn't match the trust model. Unix/Linux is barely any better, but at least you can fake it by creating a different user for each app and constraining its actions accordingly. Ideally you'd have a file system where any haywire application could be terminated and the changes it had made simply undone. Windows also doesn't make it easy to distinguish pop-ups that have come from the OS itself from those generated by the application. Another security headache.)

I hope you've managed to follow this rather abstract stuff, but really it's very simple. If you're going to give applications access to data and facilities that could harm the user, you need to put in appropriate controls, and make the provisioning of them simple. It may be just my ignorance of current developments in 3GPP standards etc., but it seems we are lacking on all three fronts.

via Telepocolypse

Posted by Martin Geddes at 04:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Taiwan market: Skype subscriptions exceed the two million mark in July. Subscriptions for the PChome-Skype peer-to-peer (P2P) voice over IP (VoIP) application surpassed two million earlier this month. In addition, the number of paid user subscriptions for the SkypeOut service is close to 150,000.

[DigiTimes]

Posted by Phil Wolff at 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

How good is good? Whose opinion is best? When is bad simply due to poor lighting, a cheap camera, or a camera that is not adjusted correctly?

In the Tim and Niklas Fireside Chat presentation shown at AlwaysOn conference showing off the new Skype Video Application (watch it here ) was the wash out of Niklas due to his wearing a white shirt (that’s a big no, no) or poor colour rendition by the Skype Application (maybe Tim Draper’s tie settled this point)?

I don’t wear a tie anymore, and I certainly couldn’t get my fellow beta testers like Carlo and Peter to wear a tie, let alone a tie like Tim Draper’s . (grin) So we are designing some test tools and scenarios to evaluate and compare video applications. I thought I would share some of those tests with you today.

To eliminate the effects of lighting, camera and camera setup we use a Virtual Camera ( discussed here )to feed three pictures directly into the video application we are testing. The three pics test resolution and colour rendition.

Here are three sample tests using Spontania’s Video4IM Client:

Simple; effective.

For the time being to test frame rate we use the elephant movie I discussed yesterday here.

The best frame rate test is an Italian contact like Carlo. Italian's are very animated. So if you are in a video conference with an Italian and there is no pixilation you just know you have high frame rate! (Grin)

Posted by Bill Campbell at 01:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Wow first time I've been called a "Skype Head" and now I have my very own technorati tag. Thanks to Stowe who again confronts the which IM sytems should I be on challenge from a Mac users perspective. He asks if there's "An End In Skype"?

.....one outcome of that battle is likely to be consolidation of the fragmented instant messaging world. If and when someone wins that battle I believe it will be like Betamax/VHS, and the standard will become ubiquitous. It's early to call a winner, but Microsoft's flabby innovation these days when contrasted with iPod's market dominance in digital music makes me nod toward Apple. And if Skype wins big as a result, thats cool with me. I just want one buddylist, and if the government isn't going to force interoperability, like they should, then I am rooting for an instant messaging monopoly. And please, God, don't let it be Microsoft. Corante > Get Real >

Good post which highlights that we need the Mac SkypeAPI quickly. Plus I just learned I need to create some new tags for some special people. PhilWolff, BillCampbell, MartinGeddes, DinaMehta. We've been experimenting with Tags on the back end of this blog. I'll see how this goes.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Frustrated by not being able to share your online presence at your favorite social networking site? Want to add your Skype presence information and contact details to Typepad or Yahoo360 (not on Yahoo360!)? Perhaps even a business or calling card to your website or blog. Or include your contact information and online status as part of your signature in a forum or on an email.

About a year ago I wrote about a Jyve Card and have used it ever since on my personal website. When you click on the Skype Card button up pops a new window with my contact details, my online status and various ways to get in contact with me. A business card and mini profile all in one.

Click to open my Skype Card.
Which scaled down looks like this:

To get your own Skype Card, just do the following.

1)Download and Install Jyve WebTools Skype plug-in
2)After Download Jyve will start.
3)Follow this link to http://plugin.jyve.com/skypecard/
4)Fill in the form. Your current Skype profile information will already be included. You may change this if you wish.
5)Press save and copy the html at the bottom of the page onto your blog or webpage. Save. View your card. Make amendments.
6)As long as your Jyve-Skype plug-in is running your presence information will be updated on the card and on any website you choose to leave it on. For example it's on my RYZE page. Add it to a flexible platform like a wiki (sometimes you need to change the code), perhaps MSN spaces... whereever want to share your presence.
7.Manage your online Jyve presence status. Options include "in a call" disclosure and a independent status control.

The very observant will note there is a change from the first system that enabled easy and quick call back information. Messages are no longer sent to a central server. You must have Skype n Jyve installed to use the calling features.

It may have been a coincidence however yesterday I received a note from Richard Moross the founder of something called PleasureCards. I played around quickly on the site. What intigued me was the business model to get card printed. I liked less the highly structured control of the information. Still combine PleasureCards with a Jyve WebTools and some interesting new opportunities would emerge. What I'd really like for the Jyve - Skype Card is a format for creating it that mimics Google's personal page in beta. See this. http://www.google.com/ig The flexiblity to move elements around is what will really make products like these take off.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 04:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

What made my video buddy Michael speechless for the second time in one video call? It was the ability to deliver content; not the exchange of lip-sync perfect mug shots. Check out this screenshot...

This screenshot is a short movie clip of an elephant playing soccer delivered via the Spontania Video4IM Client.

Skype Video Apps Video chats are cool. Based on the approximately 500,000 downloads in the first month experienced by Video4IM and vSkype video apps are an obviously hot item. (links)

Another cool example of this new Skype video medium is the ability to deliver TV content as demonstrated by Skype beta tester Peter Henning and I a couple of weeks back in this article and shown again here:

Peter was broadcasting a local TV show in Romania to me via Spontania’s Video4IM. He used an ATI all-in-wonder 9600

For my elephant demo I used a software application Virtual Camera beta 0.9.0.0 It allows you to stream video clips like avi files into a 3rd party Skype Video Application or a sequence of photos.

You can switch between your webcam and the Virtual Camera in the middle of a call using the Video Device Setup tab in Video4IM as shown here:

Content delivery using these apps is pretty crude right now, but these demos give us a look into the short-term future. The Skype video channel will deliver up a whole new era of fun and business opportunities.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm at Always-On Tim Draper and Niklas are beaming in via Skype's new video client. This is the first public demonstration. The interviewers are Bambi Francisco MarketWatch and Tony Perkins of AlwaysOn. Tim and Niklas are in Estonia. The talk content has not been memorable. Surprisingly the commentators never asked one question about the SkypeVideo delivery how it worked or when the launch date is. So how good is Skype video? It's very very good! (I expect that the "connection and bandwidth had no limitations and was well tested).

Skype Video:

What did we learn about the Skype Video? What can we now tell you? What will it be called? I like the idea of SkypeSee. This looks like another killer app that will add a new dimension to communication and behavior.

1. New Functionality: Skype's version will bring new functionality to using video cams on PC's. When you make a SkypeSee call and it rings at the other end the video connects as you answer the call. Within seconds what was once a photo of me smiling is now a live video picture. Thus no need to open a video window or wait for it to connect. Calls in the default mode don't need to wait to escalate to video. It's there straight away. That's likely to be revolutionary from a behavior perspective. (You can bet that the auto video answer etc. can be turned off or limited.) This makes the video integration seamless. It will also open up new opportunities for sharing presence to buddies at certain times.

2. Intimacy Gradient: Video is not restricted to being viewed inside the Skype call window. Tony and Bambi opened a large window that effectively filled the screen. Thus there is a secondary mode that enables you to focus on a very personal exchange where video and voice will dominate your desktop and immerse you more intimately in the conversation. The intimacy factor is helped because in this demo the lip synch was almost perfect. It was close to TV quality on the screen. That will be good enough to change perceptions of the product.

3. Benchmarks: The comparison that you should make on Skype's video setup is with phone approaches like Packet8's where phone to phone video is active. Thus that solution is simply brought to the desktop. The behavior that it creates will help the hardware market as well. I don't have a Packet8 phone to compare the quality. I'd expect it to be comparable and yet in the full SkypeSee screen mode you of course get a much larger picture. The investment to go to SkypeVideo is less than adopting Packet8 across two households. Thus Skype is opening up a new "integrated" handset for broadband customers. I just wonder when Comcast will provide a Skype phone like the Boingo Wi-Fi deal equivalent.

4.Release Date: It's not clear how long or when SkypeSee will be released. When Skype? When can we officially have a beta test version?

Now the whole expereince of using Skype Video as a conference exchange is pretty new. It's worth looking at how it stacked up. we can't ask the participants, however we can learn from the audience. Upfront at AlwaysOn are two screens. One contains the back chat channel and the other has Niklas and Tim's video picture.

Learning from a Video Conference to large audience

This exchange lasted an hour in front of a video camera. Niklas and Tim sat side by side. It looked good to us. I doubt it looked good to them. For in their case they had Bambi and Tony on their video cam, they didn't have the audience. So it was clear that Tim in particular became increasingly disconnected with the audience. Without visual feedback or apparent access to the chat channel he missed the "audience" turning on his arrogant and offhand statements. The learning is you must set up and use the technology so you can see the audience at the same time. Skype worked on the setup, they should have enabled additional cam's so they had some sense of the space.

Second when you have a product that is reasonably well known and uses new technology you should demand that the interviewers have really used it. Bambi's questions shed no light on Skype and where it is going. The questions weren't new. I would have loved to have done this interview. There are few questions that Bambi or Tony asked that I would have pursued. Unfortunately, to learn new things you really have to get interviewers that follow these topics. There were good stories that could have emerged.

Important content?

Plenty of quotes. Nothing really new. The summary at the end by Tony was "Tim is over the top!". That summed it up for me. Skype has no need to be arrogant and unfortunately that was my takeaway. A review of the chat session would prove I was not alone.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 09:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (1)

Boeing shows off their Connexion capability by putting Bloggers in the Stratosphere. I Skyped with Buzz this afternoon while he was flying over Washington state. Robert and Eric were up there too. Cost for PR one flight, few drinks by the sound of it and lots n lots of Wi-Fi.

Oh the connection. It was clear. Quality was better on Skype to Skype than SkypeOut to Vonage. More latency on the SkypeOut call. Skype to Skype was very good.

I'm still waiting to hear about the first "head in the clouds" conference call between five different in-flight planes.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 05:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last night Michael and I shared "an ultimate Skype video experience." He was on his laptop; in a hotel; a 1000 miles from home. A Yank in the land of "eh?" (Canada.) He is on a consulting gig and staying at The Calgary Marriott. Michael was speechless. You've got to know Michael to know just how big an event this must have been. (grin)

Michael contacted me as soon as he arrived in the Calgary to set up a time to test Spontania’s new Video4IM beta. He had previously tested the earlier release and was disappointed. Not only is he a talker, Michael is a serious tester of anything that will play video with Skype; even some that don’t. I covered his passion in a previous Skype Journal story.

To Michael, the measure of an 'ultimate Skype video experience' is: "can his daughter and ex-wife make it work?" "Can I see my daughter's missing tooth?" High frame rate, good colour rendition, high resolution; "well those are just nice to haves." During our test Michael got it all. One click and we were connected with voice and video.

Everyone measures the elements of an "ultimate Skype video experience" with different weights. The purpose of this series of articles is to discuss these elements and help you best manage those elements so you don’t have to give up your "nice to haves." To leave you speechless.

Most video applications suck up a lot of your Internet bandwidth. In fact most video applications are bandwidth hogs. The more animated you are the more bandwidth you consume and the more pixilated or blurry you will appear to your viewer. To get the most out of your video app you will want to know:

1. How to measure bandwidth
2. How much bandwidth you have
3. How much bandwidth your applications are consuming

The ultimate Skype Video experience requires a broadband connection. Most home broadband Internet connections are asymmetrical. This is a legacy idea from the dark ages of the Internet when most users were concerned about maximizing download speeds and greedy ISP with maximizing revenue. Thus many users have 128 kilobits/second (Kbs) upload and 256 download speeds. An upload speed of 128 Kbs may result in adequate or even good performance, but not the ultimate video performance. If you have 128 kbs of upload speed you will be using about 32 kbs for voice. That leaves a measly 96 kbs for video. Less actually, because nothing ever works at 100 percent and some bandwidth is always used for some housekeeping duties.

If you can afford to stay in the Calgary Marriott you can probably afford to buy the Internet if you could only find out who owns it. This Marriott provides a suburb in-room wired connection. We were both uploading 160 kbs for video and 32 kbs for a total of 192 kbs. Not only did Michael get his one click, "mom can use it simplicity," but the high bandwidth allowed us to move our heads from side to side about once per second and not get pixilation or a blurred image. And Michael noted that I have all my teeth.

I measure the bandwidth consumed by any application using NetPeeker. It is a shareware product available from www.net-peeker.com (if you miss the dash between ‘net’ and ‘peeker’ you will end up at a porn site).

I love this product. Been using it for over 18 months. Sent them my $25 two-days after I first downloaded it. A word of caution, keep your life simple turn off all the options. Just say no to firewalls, popup killers, and bandwidth throttles.

This screenshot shows my Skype Audio bandwidth during a test call. My upload bandwidth is shown as about 4 kilobytes per second or 32 kilobits per second (1 byte = 8 bits). If I was in call with Spontania’s Video4IM the product name will be listed alphabetically along with the corresponding upload and download bandwidth.
To find out your upload bandwidth visit my favourite measuring hole, PCPitstop.

Maybe you looked at your bandwidth as you read this story and I've left you kind of depressed. Don't be. Video apps are getting more sophisticated with each month that passes. Developers are using better bandwidth managing techniques, better codecs are emerging to compress more picture into a smaller bandwidth and users are getting smarter in managing lighting and buying better webcams. So the picture is getting brighter.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 03:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

A picture can do what a 1000 words can not. Re-thinking teleconomics a self-described brain fart by Martin Geddes. Read his post.

The quickest way to create more value is to enable more successful conversations. Presence helps curtail playing phone-tag and voicemail ping-pong. Vendors and operators who fail to align their products with what the customers value are less likely to prosper.

Telepocalypse

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 02:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

These are examples of Jyve's new website tags. Jyve Tags enable you to add all sorts of new contact methods to your web and blog pages. For example you can only get IM messages off your blog pages. Similarly you could enable a Voice Message function. Thus anyone that has Skype and Jyve installed can send an IM or VM that is launched just by clicking on the page. This functionality even extends to conference calls and multi-chats. To use tags like these you need to download Jyve

These are some tags that work with my Skype ID.

Call to:

Profile:

Chat Message to me:

Leave a Voice Mail:

Visitors reaching a site with Jyve Tags that don't have Skype or Jyve installed will get a mouse over reminder that the feature is only available when both programs are installed. At the moment Jyve is only available for Windows.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Ever miss an important Skype call? Want to forward your inbound Skype Calls to your mobile phone and are willing to spend a few SkypeOut minutes to do it? Jyve offers a quick and easy solution to make it happen. More importantly you can forward calls from specified buddies or anyone.

To add call forwarding for your Skype.

1. Download Jyve Web Tools
2. Activate the "Advanced ON"
3. Select Call Forwarding
4. Point Jyve to your phone number or the Skype name you want to forward calls to.
5. Make sure you have a paid up SkypeOut balance. You pay for calls forwarded.

Note the same feature will also act as a ringer. Ringing your home phone and letting you know that your PC has a Skype caller.

How does it work?
When Jyve Skype Forwarding is active, your calls will be forwarded to the number or Skype name you have specified. Jyve enables call forwarding by sending the caller a text message (well not yet on SkypeIn) that the call is being forwarded. Then Jyve creates a conference call, muting the mic and speakers on your PC and connecting the Skype call to your mobile or another telephone or Skype client. It's a simple solution. When the callers hang up the conference bridge ends. Jyve is then ready to forward the next call.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Broadcast your online presence. Forward Skype calls. Share web pages and more. Jyve reinvented is ready for download. Jyve's a small Skype plug-in program that enables you to enhance your Skype experience. It's the first really effective personal presence server for Skype. It allows you to share your "presence" status (online, away, offline etc.) on your blog, in corporate directories, on a forum etc.

For a few this might seem like Jyve returns. When the Jyve community launched last year they were first to match Skype presence with online profiles. It garnered lots of interest amongst Skype affilitates and even at Skype themselves. They also introduced Jyve - cards further demonstrated value creation opportunities for sharing real-time presence. The problem was the original solution didn't scale. It was based on using a Skype client as the server. Just as it was beginning it was swamped by a community who wanted to Skype and share.

Since then Jyve has worked to create a scalable solution. I've had many conversations with Charles Carleton the founder of Jyve who locked himself away to build from scratch a scalable Skype Personal Presence Server. He's now done it and the beta release will get you up and running. While I'm already looking forward to version 2.0 Charles and co will create a customised server solution for your business.

Some things to know about the Jyve presence server. The Jyve - Skype plug-in collects your presence information and pings changes in your online status to the Jyve database. The program also enables you some control over how your online presence is displayed. Thus your status on webpages and directories may be different to what you share on your buddylist. Similarly you don't need to broadcast to the whole world that you are "in a call".

Example Jyve Card:

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 08:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Jyve relaunched over the weekend with a new set of WebTools to create the first really interactive Skype enabled websites. Jyve WebTools is a free program that partners with Skype to do things you could never do before. From call forwarding to online "presence" data. You can download it here.

When Skype provided the