The significance of new giant solid-state hard drives is probably higher than many readers imagine.

I used to work at Oracle from ‘97 to ‘01 as a server technology specialist, mostly poking around high availability and very big transaction systems. Databases like Oracle perform two main functions:

- They manage concurrent access to data from contending users.
- They ration out I/O, and abstract that process away from users.

The rest is just features, as they say.

The end of the spinning hard drive will be disruptive, as it undermines ones of the two central pillars of our information storage tools. I wouldn’t rush out and short Oracle stock right away, though — they’ve diversified into apps and this is a slow process unfolding over a decade or more.

But it will cause seismic change — an equivalent of the invention of optical networking, say. Whilst CPU, transmission and storage have become cheap, I/O itself has been relaively expensive. Many disk arrays attached to Oracle databases are mostly empty. They’re being bought for multiple spindles, not storage area. Order-of-magnitude shifts in the relative costs cause structural industry changes.

The telecom angle is that faster I/O means we’ve got an even greater ability to soak up connectivity. Your kids will laugh that you called a 1 megabit connection “broadband”, and even had to pay for such meagre resources. Roll out that fibre, folks! You’re gonna need it.

Spin some Geddes at Telepocalypse.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Awesome comes to mind. Exceptional. Professional. Skype opened a new site on March 29th. It is a new place for the Skype Developer Ecosystem to find out what's happening. Go there now.

Well done Skype!

Posted by Bill Campbell at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm looking for the Skype world record holder. The person that has amassed the most Skype buddies on his buddylist. I know of one person that has more than 1000 and more than a few with 300 to 500. However I'm looking for you if you have more than 1000. I'd like to hear your stories about your buddylist and how it came into being. I'm not looking for a solution that is a "Skype corporate client" eg a client everyone in the company has added as a buddy. I would be interested in any of these "server" applications as a separate category. Thus if anyone has registered more than 1000's of people on a Skype client I want to talk to you too. Sort of the biggest Skype corporate ecosystem. Now who has that?

Why? I bet there are some good stories in it. Separately, I know that this is a core group of exceptional Skype users. The buddylist is long enough to test any new API or Wi-Fi phone that comes along. You have tested Skype in more ways than most people at Skype. I'm also interested in user profiles. I have a little hypothesis that says... Skypers are breaking the rules that existed on other buddylists (orginally most only allowed 100 buddies). There may be no correlation between number of buddies and usage. Still I'm interested to learn more about thresholds. If you have a 1000 buddies and me just over 300... what's the expected impact on time, calls, number of messages etc. In other words I want to know more about your Skype life. Please comment or call me and share. Thanks.

If you hold the world record and don't want publicity please still introduce yourself. I'll respect your privacy. If you want to boast. Leave a comment and a link to your profile. Example skype:stuart_henshall?userinfo

Thanks!

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Buddylist NDA. I've always thought that what I shared via my buddylist "presence" "mood messages" was between me and my buddies. Now that is not always the case. There's an "unofficial" Skype Plug-in that's getting a little testing on the side. A couple of my favorite Skypers are involved. Kevin Delaney and Jaanus Kase. Moodgeist is their project and sets a dangerous precedent. To my knowledge this is the first time the idea of a "buddylist NDA" has been breached in the use of a plug-in.

The description for Moodgeist is below. An example of how my "mood" was exported is in the picture. Note it is anonymous. My mood at the top of the list. However, they probably have my name on the export as they are capturing mood information across different users. The problem is not these two guys and their neat little program. It's a great experiment and I'm sure there is nothing nefarious in the code. The problem is. I can't trust others and what they put on their PC's. They may even mistakenly put something on their PC.

Then we have bots harvesting names, capturing and exporting data and exchanges. The only way to stop on accessing your info drop is to drop all your buddies. Now clearly that doesn't work.

The problem remains. There is no trust level control in adding buddies. I wrote on this before when Skype first launched their API, and again when Skype launched SkypeWeb pointing out that it was all or nothing. That same behavior and set of beliefs appears to flow into the API. It's wrong. we need a minimum of two levels. level one is presence and mood sharing etc however "no exporting" of our information via the API. Unfortunately that will impact negatively on some API applications.

We need a better solution. I'm inclined to believe that presence (unless enabled for skypeweb), mood messages and avators, location in the future, all represents data that a "colleague" may not access via the API but can see in the Skype client. By contrast a buddy may access them all via the API. Take this a step further and buddies should be able to see and exchange information on which plug-ins they are each using, as approved, banned, and currently active. From a developer point of view that would help the "viral" spread of new API applications.

The fact remains that you can't limit text. Plus if someone wanted to export it / copy it then they will anyways. In that sense it is no different to making an audio recording. The distinction is the application that goes beyond manipulating your data and exchanges with others to actively exporting it for other benefits. An example would be a well written Market Research API application.

Skype appear blind to this. Youthful and perhaps naively they say.. hey you can do this on MSN etc in no time flat. What's the big deal? The big deal is security. The problem is also users aren't smart enough to get this until burned. Thus Skype's responsibility is to take a lead on it. This is a hard problem that needs solving.

What is Moodgeist?

Moodgeist is an experiment to show what’s currently happening in the “Skype Land” and what’s the Skype community’s collective state of mind.
How can I use Moodgeist?

You can use Moodgeist in two ways.

* if you just want to browse the data, then you can do so right on moodgeist.com front page, or use the API if you need some other feeds.
* it would be great if you also pinged Moodgeist with data for your own contacts. This helps us all to get a more complete “big picture”. For this, please install the Pinger program and just leave it running — there’s nothing more you need to do. You will then see data from your own contacts showing up in the “collective state of mind”.

How does Moodgeist work?

Moodgeist consists of two parts.

* “pinger” is the program that sits in the computers of the users who have chosen to install it, and “pings” over the data from their Skype contact lists to the Moodgeist server. Read more about the pinger and Ping protocol.
* “server” is moodgeist.com — it collects and stores the pinged data and publishes it for everyone to see and use.

Are there any privacy or security concerns around Moodgeist?

The “mood messages” concept is quite new and part of Moodgeist’s objective is to test out how people feel about this kind of thing. See this discussion for more.
Moodgeist Description

The SkypeAPI provides the opportunity for all sorts of things. The question remains. Do you trust your buddies and are you happy about having everything you do exported.even when your buddy may not be aware. That's what happens in Moodgeist. I want to share my mood more broadly. Cool I add the plug-in. However, I'm sharing the moods now for many of my pals too. This could easily be worked into something neat. Example: Think about "collective polling" of moods and mood changes. You could easily program it to do a reminder: your mood hasn't changed in 3 days... is everything ok? It would create new chats or potential for chats.

Currently you cannot access the "avatar" info via the API like you can "moods". Thus avatars are not exportable. Updates to the Avatar and the Moods cannot currently be synched either. If they were I'd expect many to put up their own personal ad servers. A simple API app would serve them up to all multi-chats and to the buddylist whenever you weren't in a call. At other times.. it could provide other details. There are other opportunities that aren't yet available. For example Could I share mood messages differently with different groups of buddies? Currently no. If I could I might use the mood message to share who I'm in a call with. Note you could share the mood "In a Call" with all your buddies now if the plug in was done correctly. This example also highlights the dilemma in Moodgeist. If one of my buddies installs a plug in to share "in a call" info with his work buddies... My action of using Moodgeist may share who he is in a call with the whole world. That's a security breach in. There are benefits to both.. but be careful what gets compromised.

Skype should look more seriously at concepts that may help users to federate and accelerate the exchange of certain information. Trading information is smart when it is for my benefit. I won't mind rewarding the agent. Are we going to go in that direction? That remains unclear to me.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

SkypeAttendant is a test program that demonstrates a simple IVR system for Skype. Like many companies you can request an extention and then be directed there. This demo is important for it shows the power that will exist on your desktop when Skype finally enables "call transfer" in the API. It's a wait-listed API item. We still don't know when it is coming. When it does, it is a game changer.

SkypeAttendant is a bilingual(Chinese/English) auto-attendant system for Skype. It can be used in a company, or just for a group of friends that would like to share a common representative skype account.

A demo scenario (skype:delta.com.tw?call) is listed below.

From this example, you call to delta.com.tw, and would like to speak to a person whose Skype account name is “Skype sound test”.

System: “Welcome to SkypeAttendant system. 歡迎使用自動總機.
國語請按1, for English service please press 2.” (if you do not press any key, the system default is Chinese)
Caller: (press 2) System: “Please say the name that you want to speak to.”
Caller: “Skype sound test”
System: “Skype sound test. OK, cancel, retry?”
Caller: “OK”
System: “Transferring call, wait a moment please.”
(connecting to echo123… connected)
echo123:”Hello, welcome to Skype call testing service…”Skype Attendant

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

I thought Lycos was a search engine. Now it seems they are in the phone business. In a deal that has been structured with Globe7 the Lycos Phone Beta is now available. What's intriguing about this deal is the opportunity to "earn" free talk time through partner offers. Then one look at them put me off. Overall we have another clumsy VoIP client. Sound quality is narrow band, and the usual SIP issues like authenticating your buddies and poor presence information just mimic other "telco" productions. For a Skyper it is a good illustration that UI's (user interface) matter. It also reinforces that all sorts of new content and value creation opportunities are coming to theIM/Voice/Video client.

Lycos is redefining a new path by delivering unlimited entertainment across the globe to your lap. Now you need not browse other websites for information as information will be tunneled directly to you. Watch Globe7 TV in full screen by just double-clicking on the screen.Globe7 TV

So a multimodal media experience is here which includes a telephone. Is there any difference to adding IM and PSTN to MSN Media Player" or "Quicktime"? Integrating the "video" channel is the future. "Dialing" or clicking for content is easy. BTW.. .why can't I add channels already to Skype? Oh that's right it is proprietary! Maybe a deal with Apple is in the works.

Overall, Lycos Phone is beta so I should be light handed with criticism that is easy to dish out until you have to create one of these monsters yourself. As a voice client, it doesn't do it. It's twice the size of Skype to download. Why? Does it contain a desktop snooping agent? I have no idea. Maybe because it is executed in Java? Next, getting it logged in and running was too hard. I managed to make a regular phone call before I made a PC to PC call. The beta came with $1.00 credit. 100 free minutes to the US for those that want it... and the hassle. I'd say it isn't worth it. Money won't buy you happiness in this instance.

Did it work?

Sort of. I couldn't click to call my added buddy. The calls from Bill came in as a "number" rather than name. Maybe it was how I added him to my contacts. The video connected at each end... eg we could see ourselves but no video was exchanged etc.

Your PC is your Phone Download Lycos Phone and start using your PC to call landlines and mobile phones. Get 100 free minutes to US, then earn free talk time through partner offers. All you need to start is a headset or microphone and speakers. Learn More � Lycos Phone Beta

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 09:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

Two related bits of pundutry out there that illustrate my belief that success in network operation comes from innovation in funding and pricing models.

First, the prolific Mr Frankston:

Instead of having the strange phenomenon of carriers spending billions and then arguing that they deserve to be paid we’d have them bidding on contracts to install and/or maintain connectivity to a marketplace that is buying capacity and making it available so value can be created without having to be captured within the network and thus taken out of the economy.

To achieve this we need a different “unbundling” regime. Maybe call it the “secession” regime. I don’t believe the natural unit of purchase of connectivity is the household; the costs of marketing, billing and support are too high. Imagine that everyone connected to a central office exchange could vote to leave their “service provider” and collectively choose someone else to operate all the equipment in the switching centre. There are a number of possible fiscal models, such as absolute buy-out of the local loop assets, or rental and maintenance payments.

Here’s the other bit of related “who owns what resources” news from Techdirt on unlicensed spectrum:

Last year, we were intrigued by the new spectrum allocation plan in the UK that would create a much more open market for spectrum. The idea was that rather than (as the FCC does) setting exactly what the spectrum must be used for and who can use it, the market is allowed to decide. That is, anyone can purchase the exclusive rights to the spectrum, but then, they can do with it as they want — whether that’s selling it to others, or making use of the spectrum.

Here’s my idea. Some philanthropist with deep pockets wanting to make a lasting impact on society should just go buy up chunks of “private” spectrum, and then open it to the public in a managed way. In fact, we’ve got a great model for this already with physical cultural and landscape assets over here: the National Trust. (Hey, dig that commie tagline: for ever, for everyone.)

The good news is that there are enough tech billionaires out there who can pay as well as understand the benefit. I’m sure we can figure out a licensing scheme that immortalises your name onto every device operating in that spectrum band…

The bad news is I’m not one of them.

Read up on Martin Geddes telepocalypsecession.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 06:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thoughts for the day:

- In physical transport (atoms), we found that there was a complex business called “logistics” which is where the profit is; “trucking” is just a small function of logistics. With data networks (bits), it’s the exact opposite; there once was a complex “bit management” industry called telecom. This is slowly, painfully fading away. It’ll get replaced by a simpler industry that just teleports bits over geographic distance. We don’t have a name for it yet.

- Telecom is just another utility delivering stuff through pipes. In fact, it’s just like a water utility — except you don’t have the glamour of sewage disposal.

More of Martin's meteoric metaphors at Telepocalypse.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My Polish Skype buddy Andrew sends me a text message from his laptop. Embedded in his chat message, “Is this legal? Am I stealing WiFi from this hotel?” This was last summer. Andrew is sitting on a park bench, in the dark, beside a hotel somewhere in the middle of UK. He had landed a summer job in the UK.

The brilliant, but untrained lawyer inside me spoke very authoritatively of the possible tort. “Quit worrying Andrew it is not a problem!”

A few days later Andrew sent me a news media piece about someone being arrested for using an unprotected Wi-Fi access point.

I must have thought the article was from a blogger and thus disregarded it.

This morning this link is sent to me:

Illinois Man Fined For Piggybacking On Wi-Fi Service

Further searching gives me this:

Florida man charged with felony for wardriving

Also see this.

Is this legal nonsense US centric?

Will this legal FUD make it more difficult or ease the adoption of FON? I love this idea. Sharing is good.

Read more about Skype Journal editors say about Wi-Fi sharing here, here, and here.

This site will make Free Wi-Fi less threatening for some. However, look for my name in the news as I will continue to access unsecured Wi-Fi where ever I find it, including in Illinois and the king making state of Florida.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 06:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Promise you won’t tell? Really?

It’s been quite nice being away from family duty on a business trip to Paris and London for two nights.

Ssssshh. It’s just a secret between you and me, OK? I’ve always wanted to try out the Eurostar train from Paris to London, and it’s certainly quick. Although someone needs to buy them a few sponges to clean the windows a bit.

Anyhow, I passed through London’s Kings Cross station today on my way back up to Edinburgh. Here’s a few vignettes from around the station I’d like to share with you.

Firstly, here’s the automated ticket machines and an economics lesson for telcos.

Now, I’ve got an APEX ticket that only is valid on this 2pm service from London, and I collected my ticket from one of these machines. But I got to the station at 1pm, and there was a 1.30pm departure I could in principle have taken. The train operator, GNER, missed a chance at an up-sell here; they could have offered me (for a price) to go on the earlier service. There’s always a price at which they won’t undermine the price-discriminating effect of the original APEX ticket. It’s free money! Likewise, they could try to do impulse up-sell to first class. This train is also one of the older 125mph diesel ones, as it carries on from Edinburgh to Aberdeen. The earlier (all-electric) service probably had Wi-Fi on board, so they’ve also missed an opportunity to see me connectivity.

I’ve been putting in my client reports some examples of how telcos fail to manage up-sell, cross-sell and impulse buys. For instance:

• You can normally call someone back from an SMS by just pressing the green call button; so why not at the bottom of each SMS draw a horizonal bar, and then say “To call Bob back press [green button icon]”?
• The phone and network knows who I SMS and MMS the most. Where’s the one-click impulse “Send this message to Jane’s mobile” menu option? Amazon don’t own a patent on all impulse buying, you know!

Next up, here’s a fuzzy O2 advert up above the entrance to the newsagents:

And the message, in close-up:

This is an iMode promo with a a picture of a field and the slogan “bid on eBay from here”. Now, I’m sure there were some good expensed lunches for the biz dev teams, but this model is ye olde school “Look mama! I’ve got a link on their portal!”. Will you be able to register your mobile number on eBay and have a seamless federated identity experience? Probably not. And even if you can, it’s not enough. Because eBay is only one of many, many services with which you probably want to interact. If the mobile industry is going to have a future doing anything apart from bit pipes, it can’t be this. Other people are better at portals, and can integrate more media properties together and scale their partnerships better. But if O2 offered a more open platform with a bunch of APIs, and don’t put up hurdles, then there’s a real chance that the public will find lots of services that have their mobile number automagically become easier to use on O2. And not just the few that they do deals with. Gatekeepers, burn your gates!

Next is this snippet from another illuminated advert.

The track infrastructure in the UK is operated by a nationalised body, Network Rail. (There was a literally catastrophic period when it was privatised; another telco infrastructure funding lesson for another day.) The trains are operated by various private companies. In some places, there’s competition on parts of routes where the franchises of multiple train operators overlap. (The original rail infrastructure in the 19th century had multiple vertically integrated operators competing with different routes to the north and west!)

This ad is telling commuters from distant Peterborough that by putting up with the slower stopping service that regional operator WAGN offers, they can save £1000 a year (about US$1750) over the long-distance GNER service.

Competition works.

This brings me back to my old bug bear of network neutrality. This tries to get the outputs of competition without the inputs on, um, multiple competing services. Unsurprisingly, it’s a dud. Suppose you pass such a law, and outlaw all “packet discrimination”. You enforce it. Success? No banana, babe.

Say I’m a small business customer, and I don’t care too much about how fast my connection is. I even don’t care too much if I have to pay a bit more to get a “VoIP-compatible” jitter-free unblocked connection. But I really care if the service goes down for more than a few hours. A domestic DSL contract promises a fix to a service outage within a “reasonable” period, where “reasonable” is defined by the telco. They offer a “business-class” service that is functionally identical at five times the price with a sensible SLA. I’m not happy, but I have no choice. Network neutrality merely entrenched the single-supplier structure, delivered benefits I cared little about, and didn’t give me the outcome I wanted.

There are many facets to a connectivity service, and different people place varing values on each of those facets. Picking one of them, application price discrimination, and artificially mandating an outcome in that one facet, is a pale shadow of what competition or alternative network ownership structures might deliver. “Positive discrimination” policies have been a spectacular failure for people; why should we think they’ll align behaviour and incentives for technology any better?

PS - This train has a super-cool feature. Look!

Someone at GNER understands they’re in intermodal competition with the planes, and the plane folk don’t get it. Push home your advantage, whatever it is!

Posted by Martin Geddes at 02:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Whilst I'm neatly balanced between flu and pharmaceuticals and enjoying some fading lucidity, one parting thought for today.

I can't name my accomplice, 'cos it busts his girl's privacy without her permission. But he tells me that his tweenage daughter has taken to a new form of social communications media (reproduced with permission, though):

one little strange thing my daughter and her friends do with skype is they put their best friend's picture instead of their own in the profile, strange huh? It seems that part of their identity is their best friend and they advertise who this is to each other.

Wowee. Cool! The users will always re-invent your products in unexpected ways.

Funnily enough, some telcos did great with "family plan" products. Some even managed minor product innovation as well as billing changes. But none seem to have produced group-centric products. You don't have to be a business genius to see that the social group dominates the life of tweens and teens. Admittedly, it's a back-office nightmare with current systems to build such products, because identity management isn't up to scratch. (Lots of dirty telco secrets, but it takes good wine to extract them.) Then again, that isn't a problem for those aiming to win the whole schebang from scratch.

Martin reinvents everything at Telepocalypse.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The adage, “Use your own products”, may be followed by USRobotics. A couple of weeks ago (March 15) USR introduced the USR9620 ATA (Analog Phone Adapter) at CEBit in Germany.

Today they announced something more impressive: the ability for a USRobotics’ customers to call Customer Support via Skype instead of a landline telephones or SkypeOut. This is the USR Support page:

My guess is USRobotics used their USR9620 ATA to link Skype to their PBX in the same way Jeremy at Z-Tech did as explained in this article. When you click the “Call with Skype Icon” a lovely recorded voice greets you and you are placed in the call queue with background music.

Using ATA’s as a Gateway between the office phone system and the Skype network is a great idea with many dividends for organizations, customers, employees and suppliers.

This is a hot market led by vendors like ZipCom and VoSKY.

"Support through Skype gives our customers one more way to get in touch with our technical support agents. Customer and technical support is now offered via the phone, through email, and now via Skype," says Mary Galbavy, Director of Customer Support. "We are constantly looking for ways to improve our customers' experience and this is another way we've found to do that within our support organization. The satisfaction of our customers is key to our service delivery choices."

The Skype theme for 2006 is Skype for small and medium business. USRobotics seems fits squarely in the middle of the demographics for this sector─

A global company, USRobotics’ operates from offices in the United States and United Kingdom, as well as satellite offices in seven other countries. Today, more than 125 employees worldwide support the millions of users of USRobotics modems, routers, and security devices.
http://www.usr.com/press/pr-backgrounder.asp

Posted by Bill Campbell at 06:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

Here is the proof. Thanks to Jean Mercier in Belgium who is GMT+2. The event happened 30 minutes later on my screen. "You are always late in Canada", says Jean.

Five million was passed Jan 20, 2006. And four million on October 20, 2005. The cycle time was about 90 days. Now it is 66 days as pointed out by a reader aaytch. Thanks! That is a dramatic increase in growth.

Will we be at 7 Million on June 1 and at 10 Million before year end?

Thanks to Jean in Belgium and John Richards in Manila for the heads up on this event.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 06:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

• Andy: Skype, Zennstrom, Friis Et Al Sued for RICO Violations. These laws are commonly used by law enforcement to seize cars, houses, cash and other profits from illegal activity. Could this be why Niklas Zennstrom never travels to the USA?
  
• TechCrunch previews SKY-click call center for Skype.
• N-Yoshi points out that Skype just crossed the 276 million downloads mark today (chart) and we may have missed moment when the Skype network had 6 million simultaneous users online. (This a great Japanese Skype blog, even through Google or Babelfish machine translation.)
  

Posted by Phil Wolff at 08:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

What have people typed in their Skype mood indicator lately? Ask Moodgeist:

Anchor Porter vs. Guiness 3 hours, 29 minutes ago
eBay research labs in San Jose 3 hours, 35 minutes ago
totally board 3 hours, 35 minutes ago
How can my speech be free is yours is so expensive? 3 hours, 35 minutes ago
Mehed, aitab tööst ! Hakkame laulma ! 3 hours, 35 minutes ago
Parik 3 hours, 35 minutes ago
WFH 17 hours, 36 minutes ago
- Tallinn 17 hours, 37 minutes ago
اسمك في هو...
17 hours, 37 minutes ago
spring is comming 17 hours, 37 minutes ago

[off topic: I will take up the stout vs. porter debate any time. -phil]

Popular keywords: London, Tallinn, your, home, Skype, back, vacation, March

Even though nobody discusses Skype in the same breath as MySpace or LinkedIn, it really is a large and dynamic social network. I love that the guys are probing into its human nature.

Maybe it's time for Skype to adopt Google's R&D policy that mandates 10% of every developer's time (around four hours per week) be spent on personal projects. Innovation booster. The other good practice is to set up a laboratory site for hosting and featuring interesting projects that aren't ready for the everyday user. Nurture the team's adventurous spirit, and reap the benefits in-house.

The Moodgeist blog, the restful API and feeds.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 06:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Three things about the new Yahoo messenger beta that’s desperately struggling to reach parity with Skype by adding PSTN in and out services and the same wideband GIPS codec for PC-to-PC use. Two bad, one good.

Number one. Telling me my ordinary, standard Firefox-on-XP setup doesn’t meet your all-Microsoft standards doesn’t endear you to anyone:

Secondly, putting the address book in a handy accessible tab with all the contact methods visible is good. This isn’t a new feature, but it’s still good. I’m not convinced anyone has really yet got the right model for buddies, acquaintances and contacts. My Skype buddy list grows and grows, despite many of those interactions being one-off or temporary. The tool isn’t mirroring the real social relationships I have. The dissolution of a “buddy” relationship is too socially fraught. Yahoo’s model isn’t perfect either, but a tighter buddy list with a separate contact space is probably somewhat closer. The difference is minor, though.

Now for the big’un. I think Yahoo is making a terrible strategic blunder and is failing to leverage its own advantage in community. Yahoo is about the triumvirate of media, community and communications. They’re all supposed to benefit from each other.

I’m a member of several Yahoo groups. In particular, there’s one for my younger daughter’s rare medical condition. (Her business, not yours. Don’t ask.) But the new client doesn’t integrate these communities. There’s no “there” there in which we can meet. The electronic world gives me the opportunity to be in multiple places at once. One place I want to sometimes be is “hanging out” in the virtual meeting space of people concerned with this medical condition. But there’s nothing like “3 members of XYZ Group are online”, and then invite me to enter that space and negotiate the privacy and permission stuff.

Yahoo’s job is to broker great conversations. Adding radio into the IM client isn’t nearly as powerful as bringing disparate folks across the world with a common interest.

PS - When I click on “What is Yahoo! 360?” I shouldn’t get a blank web page. And when I try to log in to Yahoo! 360, I’m not supposed to get this either.

Skype is successful because (a) it works, (b) everyone has access, not just Americans. If you’re looking to build some complementary good like a Wi-Fi phone, Skype’s still the more attractive option.

Martin Geddes posts on his Telepocalooooopse blog.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I had the pleasure in January of briefly visiting Seattle to see my old friend and mentor, David Anderson. On the Saturday I went with him and his elder daughter for a toddle around the canal locks in Ballard, followed by a coffee (what else?) at a local cafe. As David pointed out, this cafe specialises in cupcakes, thus differentiating itself from the ubiquitous Starbucks and Tullys — a “plus one” marketing concept.

Being January, and Seattle, it wasn’t exactly tropical outdoors. When we got in to the cafe there was quite a long queue, and all the seats were taken or reserved. (This latter practise of bagging a seat which stays empty whilst those ahead in the queue are then forced to stand and drink is not my idea of good manners.)

Anyhow, it occurred to me that the queue itself was part of the experience. You get to longingly gaze into the cabinet of cupcakes, discuss with your friends which type you want to guzzle. You’re in the warm, out of the chilly wind. You can smell the aroma of the drinks being prepared; there’s a sense of anticipation in the palate. You watch groovy Ballardites doing their Saturday thing. You aren’t too hurried and flustered in selecting a drink and encoding your order in the local coffee dialect — “A ventissimo ne plus ultra grande sucrified milky-milky cocoa beverage, please.” (Handy hint: theobromine is a better mood-altering drug than caffeine.)

I believe I once read of studies of how much people’s enjoyment of Disneyland rides varied with how long they queued. The result? Zero queue was not the best! Even the newer fast ticket bypass system still makes you wait in anticipation for your allotted time on the big ride, just without the pain of standing in line.

The lesson from all this is that value in the eyes of the customer is not some simple end-product of an industrial process. Indeed, it can be hidden and subtle. The activity is not the same as the user’s goal. At the extreme, what appears to detract value may be an intrinsic part of the experience; and adding more features and capabilities in fact decreases value.

With various consulting clients, I’ve been unpicking the value proposition of messaging and telephony. You can read about some of the results in my ETel ketnote. But here’s an example that doesn’t appear in any of my client reports of how value is created and destroyed. (Disclosure: I think I got the insipration for this one from an article I read once, but I’ve lost all references.)

When you send an SMS to someone, you have almost total certainty that it will be consumed on a mobile handset. Furthermore, that handset is a personal device used by one person alone; and there is a social taboo of messing with other people’s handsets and checking their messages. So there is a strong privacy value element to SMS, because the sender can make assumptions about how the message will be received and consumed.

Now, imagine for some moment that an overexcited telco doing some triple/quadrouple/whatever play bundle decides it would be a great idea to integrate messaging and telephony. Now, if your TV is on then your text messages also are displayed there in a little scrolly box at the bottom of the screen.

Does this new feature create or destroy user value? My belief is that it destroys more privacy value than it creates in distribution value. No longer can senders be sure that messages will be consumed on a small, personal, private 1.5-inch screen; rather, they may be broadcast to the whole household or visitors. The “feature” has net-negative value. But the only way you’ll work this out is by going through the intellectual exercise of decomposing the activities involved in the product and reverse-engineering out the underlying value to the user.

Sadly, my experience in telcoland tells me you’re liable to be labelled a freak for even trying.

Martin waits in line at Telepocalypse.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 06:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The CEBit trade show is possibly the largest consumer electronics trade show in the world. This year it was attended by 450,000 people. You would think Skype would be there, wouldn't you? There were lots of Skype posters, Skype devices, and the Skype application was loaded on all the PC’s in the visitors lounge. BUT NO SKYPE! NO SKYPE STAFF.

It took me three-days to visit ‘Hall 12’ and ‘Hall 13’. This was space for the big Telco’s, Cellular, Providers and TV/radio stations: Lot of IP-telephony, VoIP and Wireless, Cordless, VoWiFI (Voice over WiFi), SIP on WLAN, Voice on SIP, IP communication, some video systems. But then Cebit is so big!

The best thing was when you needed to rest CEBit had great resting places...

That's me wearing the blue-checkered table cloth. I am with the RTX USB DualPhone product manager Carsten Helmuth.

Lots of DECT phones for SIP or Skype with color display most being both PSTN and VoIP. None of the Skype ones being standalone, but a few of them being cordless connected to the PC by a USB dongle.

View image of the Avaya booth <<>> Telecommunication Systems by Avaya

New was a Bluetooth device for hands free mobile operation combined with Skype connectivity via a USB cable, allowing using your mobile phone for Skype calls. And a Bluetooth integrated DECT base making calls via the mobile phone possible, VoIP/Bluetooth Mobile/PSTN in on system.

None promised or announced better Skype integration than already seen. So still on the horizon a standalone Skype device and devices with even better Skype integration than already; chat, search, entering Skype names, contact info, etc. Will it be weeks or months?

Several SIP DECT gateways. One is the impressive multi equipped Gateway from AVM - FT 7150 D Cordless DECT VoIP integrated with WLAN router and DSL modem. It is competing with the RTX made LAN Cordless DUALphone and both is meant for providers and OEM-customers.

AVM is also making a series of multi feature integrated LAN gateways capable of connecting both POTS and ISDN phones to ADSL and or POTS/ISDN combined with a USB host, firewall VoIP and more. A hell of a device to build a Skype gateway into! Though AVM seems to be heading down the SIP road only.

Corporate use of Skype: A Platform independent CRM (in German), purely web based also for any mobile device with a browser, a customer’s management system, using MS ATAPI but now on the move to integrate SkypeWeb. Or SkypeNet?

Wimax is warming up – a company is ready to supply a wimax based corporate VoIP solution (in German), that makes your PBX obsolete, Cordless phones surplus and use your cellular/smartphone without the SIM card, Simless Calling (in English too).

I hope to get back to some of these items and some others, promising real potential, with further information or reviews.

The Plantronics booth was offering a massage thereby both being felt and heard.

I Tried the Netgear Skype Wi-Fi phone prototype, ever so shortly:

Trying to get just an appointment to hold and have it demonstrated was quite a job that took several visits. But visiting a few minutes after opening Monday I was lucky, Karsten being a busy man took the time to find a charged device. Thank you Karsten!

I think it is going to be a LITTLE great Skype phone. Holding it in your hand it is an impressively small, well designed, device when you think of the 3-4 hours talk time and 50 hours standby. The screen was clear and crisp seemed adequate as I tried moving through menus. It even accessed Skype Shortly while connecting to a Wi-Fi spot and we did receive a mysterious call attempt ;) which I tried to get to in wane. There wasn’t time for real hands on experience, browsing the Skype menu structure (also it was explained as not possible while being offline?). But using the device feels good, the mechanical side and tactile feeling was excellent, the layout being compact, but easy. (Again it was a few minutes, short test – Why? Not having enough charged devices?)

The battery was a prismatic cell that seems to be fairly standard. The price is expecting to be 200+ € /240+ USD.
Release date is expected to be late may or at least in June (will we see it outside at café’s and restaurants this summer?).

A promissed firmware update is going to fix payee access, which I consider a must. (Being without a browser, entering userid and password on hotspot web pages is not possible now)
Where will we use such a device; at home, travelling, browsing the city life? On the move will you bring your cellular too? At home will other standalone Skype devices offer more features at same or better price? On the move will it support charging without a USB cable connected to PC? Will we see a (3rd party?) cradle, so it can display its very nice design standing?

While also making a Wi-Fi phone for Skype ASUS has shosen a slightly different solution.

Skype Phone – Free talk anywhere with mini audio speakers

The handy wireless Skype phone leverages 802.11g standards to deliver free talk anytime and anywhere. Working as a remote, the Skype phone can also be used to control Windows Media Player for playback options. The Skype phone also delivers terrific sound quality and doubles as mini audio system.

ASUS Strides Forward Realizing the Dream of Digital Home
Wi-Fi Skype goodness from Asus spotted at CEBit, by MobileMag

Another device I interviewed, was attracting more attention I think, one device one booth just beautifull 'KISS', the Imcosys Smartphone with embedded Linux running on a 200MHz TI OMAP 730 (a dual core/processor chip) it comes with a SIP client and a impressive array of bands; quad GSM/GRPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS I am not sure about GPS SW (Maps) but it should come with an SD card holding that. It has almost an all touch screen user interface with only a navi button and a few keys (one being an emergency call button). Something completely new is the add-on, in German: Skinplex NFC (Near Field Communication) feature, allowing your presence to influence access control or as corporate Fleet device automatically load you as user when you grip it.

How about developing a Skype for embedded Linux on it I asked, Oscar Daniello seem confident it will be able to run Skype, because being Linux it has more free resources than other OMAP devices using MS (Others might beg to differ). I told him if not already doing so get working on it. Boots in a few second, 125 x 64 x 18 mm, 135 grams, more pictures, data sheet.
The smart phone will sell for 298 €/355 USD and hit the market June/July.

“He wants a Linux smart phone because with an open-source operating system….”

Introduction into the Skinplex NFC technology, popup: Ident Diagram
In German but yet instructive: Skinplex video, sunroof 1:58 and lawnmower security 2:23 at 496Kbit/s.

Posted by Torben Nyhuus at 06:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Put this on your "must read" list: "An Experimental Study of the Skype Peer-to-Peer VoIP System " if you ever wondered about supernodes.

Abstract:

Despite its popularity, relatively little is known about the traffic characteristics of the Skype VoIP system and how they differ from other P2P systems. We describe an experimental study of Skype VoIP traffic conducted over a five month period, where over 82 million datapoints were collected regarding the population of online clients, the number of supernodes, and their traffic characteristics. This data was collected from September 1, 2005 to January 14, 2006. Experiments on this data were done in a black-box manner, i.e., without knowing the internals or specifics of the Skype system or messages, as Skype encrypts all user traffic and signaling traffic payloads. The results indicate that although the structure of the Skype system appears to be similar to other P2P systems, particularly KaZaA, there are several significant differences in traffic. The number of active clients shows diurnal and work-week behavior, correlating with normal working hours regardless of geography. The population of supernodes in the system tends to be relatively stable; thus node churn, a significant concern in other systems, seems less problematic in Skype. The typical bandwidth load on a supernode is relatively low, even if the supernode is relaying VoIP traffic.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Bob Frankston writes on "Skype as the Future of the Connectivity". He links to a paper ("Silver Needle in the Skype") that is going round from another set of researchers who try to figure out how it all works.

Bob writes:

Skype’s encrypted communications is vital because it allows connectivity without having to trust intermediaries and, even better — it frustrates attempts to block the traffic even if some corporate IT managers view that as a deficiency.

Encrypting the code itself is less important. It serves mainly to prevent third parties from vetting the code for simple bugs or maliciousness. Perhaps the real value is in the four billion dollars eBay paid. But biggest value to eBay may not be in the voice business but in creating a trust community that frustrates phishing and local gatekeepers. The basic concepts should work fine even with the code fully exposed – that’s a basic tenet of secure communications.

The Skype approach doesn’t solve all problems of edge relationships. For example, how do you know the JohnSmith you are trying to reach is the one you think it is? Of course you have the same problem in the real world in recognizing friend vs foe so we must tolerate surprises.

The authors of the paper focused on the crypto aspects. The real importance is in helping others understand how to create communities that operate at the edge of the network independent.

Read his whole post on SATN.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm with you, Doc. Dave Winer changed my life. It was a type of leadership by example. His blogging, his design principles, the extended conversation and subtle experiments that led to innovation; all in public. He took abstractions about conversation and personal publishing and made them real. He shared tools that let others experiment along with him and share that trip.

There have been warning signs for two years. The whole "we'll explain blogging to you" consulting and conference business. Blogging For Dummies. Blogging becoming a mainstream verb. Dave becoming more popular than he knew what to do with. The halt to new vocabulary related to blogging, and the retirement of old terms.

Chasms crossed, the technology and behavior of blogging will evolve naturally. New forces of natural selection are at play: commerce, political, and cultural. They'll be incremental for the most part, that's how it usually works. I'm looking for the mutations that lead to very different things. Like podcasting's logical leap from blogging/syndication to something all its own. Like p2p's jump from bootlegging to telephony. Maybe structured/adaptive blogging will take off. I'm convinced that the slow social net (blogs, podcasts, wikis, del.icio.us, flickr) will continue to blend with the fast mobile-social net (voip, chat, writely, sms, irc) keeping the next two or three years a time of behavioral ferment for Conversation 3.0. And opportunity.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 03:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I’ve long described the Net as a “consumer suplus engine” to anyone who’ll listen. It takes previously bundled billable services like voice telephony, strips out the service from the connectivity components, and stops you being over-charged for the service because of lack of competition on the connectivity.

Anyhow, here’s the verbatim quote from Paul Kedrosky, who has found an academic paper that puts the numbers to what’s obvious to everyone:

Only about 0.2% of consumer spending in the U.S. … went for Internet access in 2004 yet time use data indicates that people spend around 10% of their entire leisure time going online… Based on expenditure and time use data and our elasticity estimate, we calculate that consumer surplus from the Internet may be around 2% of full-income, or several thousand dollars per user.

Wow, that’s pretty awsome, isn’t it? You’re only paying for about 10% of the value you get from your Internet connection. That other 90% becomes a budget for other, exciting services and activities. Who knows, your non-telco job may be funded by the consumer suplus of the Net!

Personally, I suspect that this report will under-estimate the real value, because it only considers monetised value, and users as consumers of content and service. How can you put a price on the value of open, democratic discussion, for instance?

PS - I haven’t got time to read the paper; anyone who wants to write a guest blog post on it, feel free to pitch me!

Martin's surplus lives here.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm always interested in how profiles and data will converge and who they will benefit. Is this the darker side of eBay vendors enabled with Skype? Many of you may have seen it. If you haven't it is really very funny. Click to Play




So how close to the truth is it?

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

Marc Canter has an unmissable statistic:

Did you know that 45% of all of eBay’s listings come in through their APIs?

As you might remember, at Sprint we were trying to open up the wireless side into an open technology and business platform. It failed, mostly for lack of a cultural imperative to drive in that direction.

Ebay’s business comprises two stages: someone lists an item (eBay gets paid for this), and someone buys the item (eBay gets paid for this too). They’ve taken all the friction out of the first half of their business. No human necessary! Only the actual purchase still requires a human click, and it can’t be too long until the shop-bots start to change that too. (Although we’re part-way there already.)

Now think about the traditional telephony business. I have to dial, you may have to answer. Voicemail part-automates the answering, generating more metered minutes. But you have to ask yourself: is it really the best you can do? Is it impossible to broaden the business model — temporary buddies, address book access, directory, etc.? Can’t you deepen it too, and automate previously manual business transactions via APIs?

If I were a telco investor, one of my key criteria of comparing the various “voice nets” (PSTN, mobile, Skype, open SIP, etc.) would be the existence, quality, adoption and economics of the APIs.

UPDATE: You can bet that a lot more than 45% of eBay’s margins come from these transactions. And note how their business model has no upper bounds imposed by human action; an automated voicemail answer still requires a human-initiated phone call. Now, start to imagine your voicemail box (with a sensible UI) as your “RSS feed of the most important stuff” like customer service messages from your bank. Et voila! You have a platform business.

Martin keeps his mo here.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I still can't believe there isn't a completely open market for Skype customization. The local futbol team should be able to distribute logos and the team song from their site, and it should either be one-click-free-instant-installation or one-click-buy-it-now-instant-installation to get it. It would make skype so much more fun and social. Every ten year old should be making their own and giving it to their friends.

There's more value in activating users as producers than in tapping them as a market. Once you start with Skype customization it's only a short leap to other forms of commerce, collaboration, and community of the type you associate with the blogosphere and wikis. The power is at the edge, and the value is in helping the edge do its thing.

Tags: wishlist, skype, skypejournal, ludacris, futbol, customization, personalization, glocalization, edge, community, commerce, collaboration, km, ringtones, skypetones

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

“A quantum leap… unprecedented Skype integration to Outlook”, are just some of the radical claims made by skylook’s web site. Are these claims true? I had no idea. So I spoke to Jeremy Hague last night, “Jeremy will it record a conference call?” (The previous version didn't even though they claimed it did.) Jeremy answered, "yes". I uninstalled the previous trail version I had been tested, installed the new 1.5 version, found and clicked the skylook tools icon in order to set up the Options my:

Five minutes later I placed a conference call with Jeremy in Australia and my Skype buddy Bill in California.

A flashing icon tells me skylook is recording each voice; however I have been fooled by that icon before! Jeremy ranted for 5 minutes before he said, “Well Bill C. you better hang up and check to see if you have recorded a conference call.” I hung up and sure enough a perfect recording.
Well done Jeremy! As far as I am concerned you can use the words “quantum” and “unprecedented”.
I interview people for a living. A Skype Call Recorder is a must-have tool for me. I have tried them all and uninstalled them all, including every version of skylook until 1.5. I have gone from “hate” to “love in 9 months!
skylook records calls. Seamlessly; in the background. The quality? Excellent. If you want to record Skype conversations test drive skylook! I can’t comment on any other of the gazillion functions in this product. I have every skylook option turned off. Although I am a user; I hate Outlook (I disabled it from receiving mail. All Outlook can do is aggregate my call recordings.) Grin

For my purposes skylook 1.5 is a "quantum leap".

Posted by Bill Campbell at 09:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

So I'm at lunch today and talking about PayPal and Skype. As a result I wrote a Million Minutes earlier today. Now I check my newsreader to find PayPal mobile has launched and MobileCrunch is all over it and it's been noticed by Alec, Russell etc.

Two ways to send money: * Call 1-800-4PAYPAL (1-800-472-9725) and follow the instructions. * Send a text message with the amount and recipient’s phone number to 729725 (PAYPAL). Example: send 10.50 to 4150001234 You will be called back by PayPal to review and confirm the payment by entering your PIN.

Drag and drop payments on the web are now one step closer. From the point of view of Skype competitors, PayPal is about to lock up a strategic asset. They now have my mobile number registered and soon will have millions more. They are going to have huge leverage if they do this right.

Ultimately, will I use it in this form? I'm not sure yet. I will just have to try it out a few times. However, it will get easier. Alec provides a good illustration. Add his payment button to Skype and before Christmas and you will be buying your Pizza's that way. I'm just wondering if it is going to get my kids to open PayPal accounts. Probably before too long. Beaming allowance to my kids would be useful. Hey Dad, I'm in this store, I need money can you send $ now to.... Yep it is happening!

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

What would Skype's response be to someone wanting to give away a "Million" Skype minutes? That's just the sort of question I get asked from time to time. Now a million minutes is quite a number and yet at 2 cents per minute represents only K$20. While this promotion could be all sorts... from "lifetime" of free Skype calling, to providing "rewards" or minute points for participation the key question for this reader was can it be done? Or can they do it via an affiliate program?

It did get me thinking about reward programs and how a Skype client might in the future be leveraged to "disperse" the wealth. In fact Skype just becomes a wallet.

At the moment there is no way to go online and buy a million minutes. There is also no simple automated way to distribute them. To obtain them by making lots of purchases would fail, for Skype payments would stop you adding the largest $ amount and repeating at roughly minute intervals. .

Second you need a way to send minutes. Although minutes are really cash. What we all secretly want is the capability to drag and drop dollars. Actually just being able to send money or view my PayPal account balance in Skype will be quite a step forward. Enable me to drag and drop and we are one step closer to handling those clumsy lunch bills. Particuarly when Skype is on a Mobile. It even then works for stores!

Then this is where it could get interesting for developers. For if I have that money in my account and I can allocate it then the question is... can I access it via the API? So for our friend above who wants a reward program could he then connect the program to a Skype client? Connected with the API he now has a payment system. We just have to hope that his programming is not flawed. Otherwise someone will clean out his online wallet.

Can it be so simple... allocating dollars and accessing the capability via the API. Nobody wants to download a program that will take over their bank account. And yet wtih spending limits etc is the risk any greater or different to losing an ATM card? Surely Paypal can factor that into service charges? The future of drag and drop money is near! What icon will be used? Skype bucks?

Finally for the weird thoughts and twisting logic of this post.
I'd note the above is just a variation on charging for a call capabilities. However the opportunity Skype has to combine PayPal, and Skype ID's will also provide an opportunity to register phone numbers with Paypal. Thus I could even send money to another phone number. Skype then collects on SkypeOut and a commission on the transfer. The Skyper would know whether or not they are a "verified" number. Paypal already does this for bank accounts. This same system would enable me to send a payment as part of a three way real-time conversation. Eg my buddy and the storekeeper.

Nothing like paying for someone else's groceries over Skype. Right?

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 03:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

By guest blogger Hudson Barton, New York, United States

Net Neutrality proponents sometime make an analogy to a highway with a UPS truck and a Wal-Mart truck where the UPS truck is serving a public purpose while the Walmart truck is serving a private purpose. Unfortunately, the analogy is not helpful at all. It presupposes a world where there are just a few trucks and one highway, and I maintain it is exactly the world that the proponents of "net neutrality" hope will develop. It is a world of scarcity, controlled by a few big telecoms, cablecos and ISPs. "Net neutrality" is just a cover for the market protection that these big companies will receive in exchange for their commitment to a certain fairness doctrine. As a result, Internet service will look increasingly like a public utility. It does not take a big company to be an Internet carrier any more than it does to provide Internet content. The current debate reveals the real intent of "net neutrality" lobbyists... to destroy the very competition that it purports to protect, to reward the mediocre at the expense of the excellent.

So what are the practical implications of being against "net neutrality" when a carrier discriminates between content providers? Since this is a VOIP related forum, let's imagine an example of an entrepreneur that wants to create a carrier optimized for VOIP. He decides to craft an environment with low latency, equal bandwidth for upload and download. It's a wireless configuration and largely unsuitable for "normal" Internet traffic. In the course of developing his business, he approaches one or more VOIP companies, like Skype, and convinces them to enter into revenue sharing agreements. He might share some of his subscription revenue with the VOIP carriers, or they might share some of their VOIP revenue with him (eg. SkypeIN/OUT). His business may fail, but if it doesn't then the public interest will be served by a better or cheaper VOIP than can be obtained through consumer-grade carriers that are optimized for web traffic.

An imperfect technology exists to block content and slow it down (or speed it up). If it is ever used successfully, and that's a big if, it will be because the public interest is being served, not thwarted. Fear of the technology destroying entrepreneurship among content providers is overblown. We all want more content with greater diversity, faster delivery, a more favorable spam/spit ratio, lower prices for connectivity, and more responsive Internet based services. Sure, there may be a carrier out there who thinks he has a private purpose that trumps the public good, but his thinking may be flawed, or the impact of his private network may be suitably small. In general the carriers have an incentive to deliver content without preference, and that's what will happen.

See also:

• Doc Searls: Net Neutrality vs. Net Neutering
• Eli Pariser: Net Neutrality: Time to Act
• Wikipedia dueling entries: Network neutrality and Net neutrality
• Coming Events:
  • Freedom to Connect (April 3-4, Washington D.C.) - discount code SKYF2C
  • Personal Democracy Forum (May 15, New York City)

Tags: ftc, freedom, regulation, monopoly, netneutrality, networkneutrality, skype, skypein, skypeout, ups, wal-mart, telecom, policy, skypejournal

Posted by Guest Blogger at 02:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

Zoom for the full size image. From Philippe Biondi's and Fabrice Desclaux's Silver Needle in the Skype presentation at Black Hat Europe. (Acrobat pdf file) The 20,000 supernodes serve about 90 million users, about 4000 to 5000 peers per supernode.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

A Skype spokesperson wrote:

The headline could perhaps be misunderstood – it is true that paid-for computer to telephone calls are not currently available in China. And Skype does not offer its computer to telephone product (called SkypeOut) in China. However Skype’s other products are available in China, through the Tom partnership, and include Skype to Skype voice and video calling, instant messaging and some personalized products like ringtones. There is no change to the availability of these Skype offerings.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 08:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Yahoo! Selects Global IP Sound to Optimize Consumer Voice Solutions. Announced here.

If I was Niklas Z. I wouldn't worry. Not with a billion dollars in my jeans. But if I was Meg Whitman CEO of eBay I would be worried sick. Voice quality was the hallmark asset of the Skype Client. Smartly, many other Skype copycats have chosen GIPS Voice Engine, however no major player the size of Yahoo has. This is a very real threat.

San Francisco, CA – March 22, 2006 –Global IP Sound (GIPS), the leading provider of embedded voice and video-processing solutions for the Voice over IP (VoIP) market, today announced that Yahoo! Inc., a leading global Internet company, has selected GIPS VoiceEngine Multimedia to deliver market-defining voice in its Yahoo! Messenger® with Voice IM client.

Yahoo is no longer just an IM Client. And the Yahoo 1.5 beta is more than just a better voice engine. It features SkypeOut calling features at competitive rates; even text to mobile phone. And an API is likely to come.

Will it attract users away from Skype? Not a hope. But is is a great move to protect their customer base from erosion and to keep it growing. This is a smart move for Yahoo particularly in Asia. I wonder if Yahoo will cut a deal on the GIPS video engine? That would put some extra pressure on Skype.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 08:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I've loaded up Yahoo Messenger beta 7.5. Before even trying it out I know it is going to be better. They've tossed out the old audio codec and upgraded to GIPS. I'll have to do some testing to be sure. Still I expect the audio quality to now be very competitive. You probably have Yahoo on your desktop anyways. Go and download it now.

On the download there is the usual frustrating (make Yahoo my homepage, install toolbars (only for IE) etc.) Then you get a screen promoting Yahoo! Music Unlimited. It feels attractive... a seven day trial is available. There are minor tweaks to the GUI and some bugs too. Example: Buddy on SMS. You want to leave a Voice Message (Voice mail) you select "call computer", instead you only get a chat window. Finding how to make a real phone call is still buried. There is no obvious dialpad. However when you click "Call a phone number" a window opens up allowing you to add dollars to your voice account. This aspect feels like just another add-on that isn't integrated effectively yet. It would be easy to add the dialpad to the top tabs. Similarly it is not very obvious how you obtain Yahoo In. I found it.The numbers are limited currently. New York, San Francisco, London and Paris.

Oh I failed to mention the rates. Yahoo rates are significantly below Skype for many markets. Surprisingly it is cheaper to call England 1cent than it is to call in the US 2cents. I'd recommend that Yahoo provide a "trial" Yahoo-Out experience for $1.00. There are some ways to craft this type of offer to frustrate fraud. Yahoo also provides SMS messaging for free (something Skype plans to charge for) and has a great mobile client now Yahoo!Mobile.

So.... what comes next. The GIPS codec will make conference calls possible in time. So I'm sure that is coming. The balance of the Yahoo client is rapidly developing to provide a powerful integration with social networking and media services. I don't think I saw any call forwarding function, etc. It's is bound to come as well.

So now we are at a point where the IM clients are increasingly competive as a "voice substitute" for phones and we will continue to see huge increases in usage. Skype still has the upper hand for ease of use.

Skype still has some features which the others aren't yet matching.

Justine Lau wrote the China 'to block VoIP calls for two years' Financial Times story. I'd like confirmation from a government source and from the four big Chinese telcos. Skype has already twisted the product comply with strange requests (IM censorship, five minute limits on voice calls). Is this an administrative choice or is it just a gambit in international trade talks?

The fallout according to Skype Journal:

1. The two year ban won't survive consumer pressure.
2. If it does, QQ wins. The ban buys a two year window to consolidate their lead and become irreversibly dominant. Already 3-4 times more people use QQ IM than Skype. Unlike Skype's userbase, they all read and write Chinese.
3. More pressure on US and Indian Skype staff and partners.
4. eBay was hoping for a boost from Skype's growth in China. Maybe less so.
5. Fearmongers thrive. Companies that monitor, filter or otherwise block Skype will get a small kick out of this; bigger if they have contracts with Chinese authorities. Check out how Verso (NASDAQ:VRSO) and SurfControl (LSS:SRF.L) stock prices perform.

The first part of Lau's article:

China will not allow paid-for calls between computers and conventional telephones for at least two years, according to the head of Tom Online, the Chinese internet portal which has a joint venture with Skype, the internet telephony company.

In the clearest indication so far of when charged telephone services based on the "voice over internet protocol" system will be launched in China, Wang Leilei, Tom Online's chief executive said the government "is not going to issue VoIP licences until 2008".

The news will be a disappointment to Skype, which told the Financial Times in November that it was in talks with Chinese telecoms operators which it hoped would clear the way for the launch of its computer-to-telephone service, dubbed SkypeOut.

Chinese fixed-line operators are concerned that SkypeOut, which allows users to make calls from computers via the internet to fixed-line or mobile telephones at lower rates, could undermine their core business.

Skype currently offers a free computer-to-computer telephony service to its 9m users in China, although calls are limited to five minutes. It also launched a free computer-to-telephone service about a month ago, which has signed up 10,000 users a day.

Mr Wang said that Tom Online, which claims to have more than 70m users, was not disappointed that it could not launch SkypeOut commercially.

"For Tom Online, our strategy is to grow our user base. With a big user base, there is a lot you can do. Revenue [from SkypeOut] is not important to us because we have not put in a lot of cost," said Mr Wang.

Tags: life, business, skype, skypejournal, ebay inc, vrso, srf.l, surfcontrol, verso, blocking, freedom, china, tomonline, tom, tom-skype, qq, ft, voip

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

[Editor: I'm reproducing this post in whole from Livejournal.]

Monaliza_princess_bmx69 (princess_bmx69) wrote,
@ 2006-03-21 00:07:00

Fade Away Mr.Skype
I think its good for the best Mr.Skype decided to end me on he's life. Which no more Skype and no more phone calls, no more story no more live journal. My life will change for ever without him and it hurts to think about it. so, I've also decided to just move on. never turn back on. see if I'm meant to be with him without rules no boundery or anything just let it go. Goodbye Mr.Skype wish you the best in life.

When everything that once was right in wrong

And every little ray of hope is gone.

When you feel a bit more lost than you feel found.

Lay your weary body down

When you wake up and you're miles away from home

And you go to sleep a little more alone

Caught between the heavens and the ground

Lay your weary body down

Next to mine

When you're sick in love and crazy with regret

Can't find enough to drink til you forget

A love you know will never come back round

Lay your weary body down,

Posted by Phil Wolff at 05:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm going to the Freedom to Connect conference, April 3 -4 in Silver Springs, MD. The priority code SKYF2C will save you $400 off the $895 price before March 31st. The topics on the table are intense. New monopolies want to charge users twice. Some forces are fighting to make privacy optional. Our own Martin Geddes is keynoting against net neutrality, the nutter. This has a feeling like America's constitutional convention, or the rabblerousing leading up to the Boston Tea Party. To paraphrase V,

The people should not be afraid of the telcos.

The telcos should be afraid of the people.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 09:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

When Sachi and Lee LeFever set out on a year round tour of the world, they knew they'd miss Amos who will turn 12 this year, the most. While they get to hear from their friends and family through email and comments at their travel blog, Amos just goes bowwow. Before leaving, they set up a Dog Videocam via Skype 2.0. Sachi's brother Mark is looking after Amos and this is how he set it up :

"It's quite simple really... i bought a regular webcam (Logitech QuickCam) and plugged it into a spare laptop that I wasn't using. Download Skype 2.0 (it's has video-chat capabilities) and create a profile in Skype. I have it auto-answer since the dog can't click the button to answer the call. Next just point the camera to what you want and whenever you want to see/hear what's going on, just use Skype to call the laptop. It's that simple. Happy spying!"

Here they are, looking in on Amos from my living room in Mumbai, India !

Posted by Dina Mehta at 08:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yahoo! research put together a list of popular search expressions related to Skype. They sorted this list by "buzz score." "The buzz score of SKYPE is the number of times these buzz words are searched for on Yahoo! Search over the previous seven days, as a percentage of all the stocks in the VOIP2 market." Oh, yeah. Did I forget to mention the Yahoo! market in search terms? You place your bets on which topics will get attention.

When you search Skypeland, what are you looking for? What keywords are low but coming up fast?

1. skype
2. skype out ("better to give than to receive")
3. skype download
4. skype technologies
5. skype phone (the dominant metaphor, vs. chat or video)
6. skype technologies sa (about the company)
7. free skype
8. skype windows
9. skype internet phone
10. skype video
11. skype voip
12. skype usb phone (add-ons)
13. skype software
14. skype review
15. skype messenger
16. skype free download
17. share skype
18. skype answering machine (add-ons)
19. skype forum
20. skype chat
21. skype stock (NASDAQ:EBAY)
22. skype for pocket pc
23. pchome skype (international Skype partner showing up in English listings)
24. skype beta
25. skype spyware
26. skype headset
27. skype windows 98 (didn't see that one coming. backward compatibility)
28. skype plugins (add-ons)
29. skype call
30. skype linux
31. my skype pictures
32. skype webcam (add-ons)
33. www skype
34. skype ip phone (add-ons)
35. skype problems
36. skype community
37. skype users
38. telecharger skype (international)
39. skype accessories (add-ons)
40. how to use skype
41. skype bluetooth
42. skype tech
43. skype telefon (international)
44. skype voucher
45. skype program
46. skype yahoo
47. skype sms
48. skype voicemail
49. skype security
50. skype gateway
51. skype france
52. skype firewall
53. skype symbian
54. skype addon
55. skype journal (ego boost! except we're beat out by symbian)
56. tom skype (international)
57. wireless skype phones
58. skype 1.1 (gotta update those third-party download sites)
59. skype pocketpc
60. skype rates
61. skype hardware (add-ons)
62. voip handset skype wireless
63. skype setup
64. skype pda (add-ons)
65. skype ringtones (I'm flabbergasted)
66. skype cordless phone (add-ons)
67. skype range check error (scary!)
68. skype video conference (add-ons)

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

David Greenfield wrote a piece for CMP's Networking Pipeline called "The Six Gotchas Of Skype For Business" in response to Skype's new small business marketing buzz and their renaming of the Skype for Business Control Panel.

I won't say that Skype is a fully formed enterprise system. It isn't. It's raw, cheap, different, and disruptive. And Skype is merely the first of its kind to take off. If your business doesn't have pilot Skype deployments in place, you're missing out on key learnings. It is so much more conducive to conversation than legacy phones that you'll be discovering new relationships with customers, reinforcement of your informal organization structures, and fewer mistakes due to poor communication. You're asking the wrong question, David. Not "Why?", but "How soon?"

From his column with my comments.

But Skype for Business still comes up short in six areas:

1. Skype for Business still doesn't provide centralized reporting, so business won't be able to monitor how users spend Skype credits. There's no way to monitor or prevent, for example, users from calling 900 numbers and the like.

You can add features to Skype by having other programs talk to it through its published programming specifications. The API knows just about everything the Skype client does, in more granular detail than most phone systems. The data is there for you if you want to get it.

Skype is like your telephone station, a phone and dialer, not a multiphone telephone switch. Expecting multi-user reporting and analysis from a single-user device is like expecting a car to report a fleet's gas mileage.

To my knowledge, you cannot call 900 numbers with Skype; it can't pay extra bills and tariffs. So Mr. Greenfield is factually incorrect now, but may change in the future. In fact, as Conversation 3.0 picks up more transactional power, like exchanging money for talk or money for file exchanges, you may expect people to pay for services and even eBay items from their Skype accounts.

2. Skype for Business doesn't provide hunt groups where multiple extensions ring when a phone is dialed. Skype was expected to deliver that function in this release.

Other companies are meeting this need. Third party solutions integrate Skype with telephone switches (PBXs) and offer hunting, among other features. For example, Zipcom's SkypePBX

3. Call transfers still aren't provided.

Forwarding, yes. Transfers, no.

Not much engineering effort to leap from forwarding to transfer. First, the forwarder needs to leave the call completely, and the other parties just see each other. Second, this must be allowed before accepting a call, when your Skype is ringing, and during a call. Third, it should work for conference calls too. Fourth, by adding forwarding to the programmers' API, you enable distributed, emergent call centers.

I agree this is an important feature for end users and the workplace. Even more, it opens up Skype We'll see when Skype pushes this into the development queue.

Must you wait for call transfer before adopting Skype at all? That's up to you. It's probably not stopping your competition.

4. There's no attendant [software that helps callers find and reach the right extension] or IVR function [interactive voice response, providing menus that interact with business applications like online banking], which would redirect calls to other Skype numbers based on user selection. Many IVR functions can be provided through a Web page, but that won't help users who might be calling in from the PSTN.

Again, confusing Apples for Oranges and missing the point. It's not the phone's job to do those things. Skype has a partner program to help companies build voice applications. The first automated attendant and IVR products shipping today from third parties.

5. Calls are still encrypted, preventing businesses from ensuring that employees aren't passing information that might violate regulatory restrictions.

To the contrary, encryption, where applied, is an asset appreciated by customers. This higher level of security protect clients from third party eavesdropping, more than other VoIP or POTS solutions. If you want to assure information integrity, start right there.

If you're relying on snooping to prevent bad behavior, then you're in trouble. Invasive systems never prevent bad behavior, just catch it. There's a higher ROI from treating staff well, and have great people, processes, training, and morale.

Mr. Greenfield misstates things again. Calls are only encrypted if they are PC-to-PC and Skype-to-Skype. So SkypeIn and SkypeOut calls aren't encrypted. If you want recordings of calls, and it is legal for you to do so, then there is plenty of off the shelf software to let you do that. (Skype Journal's own guide to the Skype Plug-In Architecture will step a programmer how to write their own answering machine in an hour.) If you want a supervisor to listen during a call, use Skype conferencing; it works.

6. Forget about E-911 compliance. There is none.

Skype isn't subject to E-911 regulations, or similar rules in the hundreds of other countries where people use Skype. In the future, Skype may partner with e911 providers so customers may opt-in, the way Vonage customers do right now. But for now, your phone switch should be routing emergency calls through your local phone system to your local emergency response service. (P.S. If you're worried about 911 compliance, try auditing your mobile carriers.)

Without those capabilities, don't expect Skype for Business to replace your telephony system any time soon.

Bottom line: Assess Skype on its own merits and you'll be pleasantly surprised. Can your phone system work from another location an hour after your building burns down? Does it help your workforce signal presence, saving time? Does it offer your partners and colleagues strong encryption against corporate spies and identity thieves? Will your phone system make video and audio conferencing so easy that everyone does it?

Tags: e911, 911, strategy, skype, skypejournal, callcenter, pbx, asterisk

Posted by Phil Wolff at 04:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

My response to Shel Israel's observations on CEO blogging. Blogging is writing in a specific form, like poetry or résumés or grant applications. The rules call for writing in the first person, expressing your point of view, writing regularly, and being more or less authentic.

Not everyone can do this, and I think that was Shel's point.

But communication is more a prerequisite to leadership than ever. You can't execute the greatest strategy without effective communication, and boards of directors know this.

That's not say that you must blog to be a great communicator. This is just one channel. Blogging may not be your medium. Maybe you're better off vlogging, wandering the plant with a webcam and sharing your customer visits. Or podcasting roundtables of your leadership team and staff. Or a weekly memo posted on an intranet bulletin board. Or a call-in show ("Mike from Sales on line 2. Mike you're on the air."). I keep hoping for CEO interpretive dance ("This is our pas de deux for the 3rd quarter joint venture results").

The benefits of blogging don't flow to those who blog poorly. An exception to this: bloggers who treat their blogging as a craft, learning and becoming better writers and communicators over time, through practice and feedback and introspection. I had the great pleasure of learning to blog with fairly low visibility. You learn more if you're free to make mistakes and being at the helm of a large organization probably doesn't feel that way. That's why one good practice is to start your blogging in private and gradually extend the circle of readers as your confidence grows.

Forcing someone to blog is as effective as requiring they communicate in mime. It may work once in a while, but don't count on it.

Shel, is it your guess that bloggers will be promoted more than non-bloggers? Can you see a blogging track record being the difference between getting the nod for a Fortune 3000 CEO job, or getting passed over?

Posted by Phil Wolff at 02:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

TOM Online Inc.

At the end of February, the Company had more than 9 mn registered TOM-Skype users, up from over 5.2 mn registered users at the end of October 2005. Mainland China is now Skype’s second largest market after the United States. The Company continues to work with Skype to co-develop more local features and services for the mainland China market as well as premium services over the TOM-Skype platform. It is hoped that some of the services will be commercially launched in the later part of 2006.

This may be the fastest growing sector for Skype around the world.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

A San Francisco talk show on public radio station KQED had a program on net neutrality yesterday. I heard the first half of What is "Net Neutrality"? It was the first time I've heard this debate in close to plain English, and certainly over the airwaves.

Best metaphor: UPS and Wal-Mart trucks carrying goods down the highway. UPS carrying other people's goods, Wal-Mart carrying their own. That's fine, Wal-Mart should be able to carry their own stuff. But what happens when Wal-Mart owns the road? Won't they try to get their products to market faster? Carve off lanes for their own trucks? Change the speed limit for themselves to create a competitive advantage that pays off the investment in the highway?

• Michael Krasny, Host:
• Dave McClure, president and CEO of the U.S. Internet Industry Association
• Eric Hernaez, CEO of Solegy, a company that provides voice over IP and other next generation services
• Glenn Woroch, professor of economics and executive director of the Center for Research on Telecommunications Policy at UC-Berkeley's Haas School of Business
• John Sumpter, vice president of Pac-West

Available in RealPlayer format: Listen (entire program).

Tags: michaelkrasny, kqed, forum, netneutrality, policy, publicpolicy, skype, voip, f2c, freedom, freedomtoconnect, internet, publicradio, solegy, woroch, sumpter, mcclure, debate, fcc

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Bill Cobb, President, eBay North America, presented to investors (Windows Media Player video) at the JP Morgan Global Internet Conference, March 14, 2006. Bullets about Skype from the presentation (pdf file):

• Communications
• 75M accounts in 2005
•  ~$200M+ revenue in 2006
•  Adding 190K+ users / day
•  5.2M concurrent users
• Presence in 255 countries
• Skype is a verb
• Thriving ecosystem, ~1,500 developers
• Great synergies with eBay and PayPal

Let’s look at these one by one.

75M accounts in 2005
This is a cumulative number. It includes accounts abandoned by users and duplicate accounts per user (e.g. test account, home account, work account). It does not tell you:

1. How many were used in the last 30 days?
2. How many are running a version of the software updated in the last year?
3. How many have used a fee service?

~$200M+ revenue in 2006
How much of this is expected to come from user fees, cash float (user fees are prepaid), portal partners, and licensees? Doubling the active user base from 2005 should double the fees and cash float from $60 million to $120. Where will the other $80 million come from? At 5% of wholesale, this require the sale of 60 million $50 Skype co-branded headsets.

Adding 190K+ users / day
At this rate, Skype will pick up another 69 million users. We’re not clear if these are downloads, accounts, or people. Definitions aside, this is no longer exponential growth. They were adding 150k users per day in April 2005. This suggests that the cost of customer acquisition is about to go up. Skype must discover and overcome barriers to further virality.

Presence in 255 countries
The UN has 191 member countries, so I suppose this includes smaller or undefined territories and protectorates not commonly thought of as nations. Skype's global nature is both a strength and a challenge. Diversification can encourage innovation among users and developers, but exploiting the business opportunities and supporting these users is resource intensive. 

Skype is a verb
True. Skype’s advantage this year is that Skype-powered conversations are qualitatively different from mobile or landline phone calls, not just cheaper. Around Skype Journal “Skype me” connotes presence (so you’re better able to negotiate when and how to talk), flexibility (able to fit the mode (text, voice, video, conferencing) to the task), reliability (“it just works”), and quality (“it sounds better than a regular phone”).

Thriving ecosystem, ~1,500 developers
Not sure if these are developer companies or people. Just for contrast, tiny little Asterisk has 4500 developers talking on its discussion mailing list. The Bureau of Labor Statistics showed 2.8 million programmers, analysts, etc. working in the US in 2004. eBay ended 2005 with 25,000 outside developers, according to Cobb. So if all of Skype’s developers were in the US, Skype is claiming to have attracted 1 in 1889 of them to the Skype platform, or 0.05% US mind share.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm

Great synergies with eBay and PayPal.
Enormous promise, pilots started, but results are pending.

Almost like being there.

Tags: skype, skypejournal, ebay, ecosystem, paypal, statistics, investors, jpmorgan, finance

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Ultimately a Nokia N70 is a brilliant phone. Still I lament the loss of my Nokia N90 for events like VON. I don't use the N70 for videos or in an interview format. The N90 was very compelling in that format. The N70 takes a great picture, the N90 a better one. I'll have to talk to Andy! In anycase I'm still clicking more pictures and having a blast with the Nokia Lifeblog and Flickr where I'm now a pro member.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

John Maas says: Skype on your ipod http://forums.makezine.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=252

Phil Wolff says: Thats... just... wrong.

Phil Wolff says: I don't know why.

Phil Wolff says: It just feels that way.

John Maas says: for windows. what can i say

Phil Wolff says: Sadly, nothing this creative in the VON exhibit hall

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Does Skype care about VON? Why is Skype not here? Why are there only rumours of a couple of attendees from Skype? I sighted one and heard about another but if they are travelling here then they are in stealth mode. This is a shame. I've had seven solid conversations with developers active in building Skype applications. Together they could easily fuel the "innovation message" for the next six months. All of them are having a hard time connecting. All would have benefitted from a 1-2 hour roundtable discussion. Some members of this group have pioneered and promoted Skype hardware from the very beginning. Others have new software that will add to the overall Skype experience. From what I see, Skype remains the only IM system that is really bridging the IM/VoIP/Voice world with a platform potential that can lead the market. Not appearing makes them seem both less interested and perhaps too inwardly focused on what they are wrestling with. That's not good news.

So this would have been the perfect place to broker a roundtable or even smooze together as a mini group for a small breakfast. Even more so as VON Spring is held on eBay's doorstep. It forces me to ask what is Skype conference strategy? Last year it was clear that Niklas was increasingly faced with picking and choosing which conferences he must go to. It's impossible for a company and a presenter to be at every conference. Still picking and choosing the right ones is important. There was a communications opportunity both here and recently missed at ETEL. Both are "opportunistic" spaces for increasing the Skype developer pool. They are also important for visibility. From this blogger's perspective if Skype is going to win in the US it must have a conferencing and PR / story strategy around it.

That's one area where Skype communication has slipped. Last year the link between conferences and releases was obvious. This year the only thing we have on the horizon is eBayLive and we know Skype is going to be there. Problem is Skype may have quite a challenge getting enough developers there. I'm planning to go. I think it remains an opportunity. I'm not sure if 50% of those I've talked to will make the trip.

There's another dimension to my question.

Last year Niklas was the keynote presenter at VON Spring via video conference and last year's VON and VoIP rock star. Jeff gave these guys a heap of support. Out of all the big conferences with this one on their doorstep it certainly appears to be a snub.

From Skype's perspective it may be a hard position to sustain whoever is presenting from Skype. Still there remains a public agenda and one that Skype helped to fuel in relation to "free telephony". This appears to be even more apparent as I listen to the Windows Live presentation today. I've just clicked the slide for the fact that video minutes on MSN just exceeded Voice MInutes. That's an interesting chart in itself.

Only 9% of their users use Video today.

Finally, my general impression is the presentations this year have not really supported Jeff's opening passion and recognition that "broadcast" / video is the next framing opportunity. In fact I've found the presentation I've just walked into generally lacking in imagination. That's ultimately the challenge here. The exhibitors are here to sell and learning is a long way off second. The floor is buzzing with space up +40% versus year ago.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 05:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I like supporting a good cause and what goes down at Freedom to Connect could well affect the future of the Internet and have broad implications for how we communicate. I sat down with host David Isenberg yesterday for lunch after hearing him beating the drum for the movement. I wish I was going to be able to be there. Unfortunately it falls during our kids school holidays. Who wants to go for Skype Journal? Let me know.

The future of telecommunications starts now; there's a new U.S. Telecom Bill in the works, there's unbundling in Europe, fast fiber in Asia, wireless across Africa and networks a-building in cities and villages around the world. Join the discussion. Shape the debate. Assert your F2C:Freedom to Connect.

The need to communicate is primary, like the need to breathe, eat, sleep, reproduce, socialize and learn. Better connections make for better communication. Better connections drive economic growth through better access to suppliers, customers and ideas. Better connections provide for development and testing of ideas in science and the arts. Better connections improve the quality of everyday life. Better connections build stronger democracies. Strong democracies build strong networks.

F2C:Freedom to Connect begins with two assumptions. First, if some connectivity is good, then more connectivity is better. Second, if a connection that does one thing is good, then a connection that can do many things is better.

F2C:Freedom to Connect belongs with Freedom of Speech, Press, Religion and Assembly. Each of these freedoms is related to the others and depends on the others, but stands distinct. Freedom to Connect, too, depends on the other four but carries its own meaning. Unlike the others, it does not yet have a body of law and practice surrounding it. There is no Digital Bill of Rights. Freedom to Connect is the place to start.

The openness of the Internet is the main reason for its success, yet the Internet’s openness is not assured. The most viable bill before the U.S. Congress would require even the smallest wireless hotspot provider to register with the U.S Government. In addition, the FCC is imposing requirements to provide Internet emergency dialing and law enforcement assistance in ways that only the biggest, least innovative connection providers can hope to meet.

Too often the discussion of telecommunications policy turns on phrases like "overregulation," and "investment incentives." These are critical issues, to be sure, but like the term "last mile," such phrases frame the issues in network-centric terms. As more and more intelligence migrates to the edge of the network, users of the network need to be part of the policy debate. Let's put the user back into the picture. F2C:Freedom to Connect provides the frame.

It is written that Freedom of the Press is only for those with presses. But F2C:Freedom to Connect is potentially available to everybody; the main economic limit is the need for sustainable networks that will improve as new technology becomes available. How can we best do this? Who will build, operate and govern these networks? Who will decide how we use them? Who will pay? Who will gain? Aha! Let's discuss it at F2C:Freedom to Connect.

There's no time for small meetings and isolated efforts, so F2C:Freedom to Connect is produced by isen.com and pulvermedia, in partnership with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, Tropos Networks, O’Reilly Media, Public Knowledge, OneWebDay, Broadband Properties, Voxeo, LavaLife, firstmile.us, Atlantech, and other sponsors to produce F2C:Freedom to Connect on April 3 & 4, 2006 at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, MD. F2C:Freedom to Connect will bring Internet innovators, entrepreneurs, investors and visionaries to meet with advocates and policy makers shaping the next generation of Internet law and policy.

Connect with F2C:Freedom to Connect on Monday and Tuesday, April 3-4, 2006 at the AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring, MD, a mere five Red Line stops from Union Station.

The goal of F2C:Freedom to Connect is to bring a wide range of thought leaders to Washington, DC to share experience, insight and wisdom with policy makers, and to develop a better, more complete understanding of how technology and policy might evolve together in a virtuous cycle of economic growth and freedom. F2C:Freedom to Connect is unlike any other event, bringing new voices and a new range of perspectives to evolving Internet policy.

Connect with F2C:Freedom to Connect on Monday and Tuesday, April 3-4, 2006 at the AFI Silver Theater in Silver Spring, MD.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 05:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I met up with David Beckemeyer again yesterday and he demonstrated yet another form of convergence between the home phone and the mobile. Simple. Neat. Worth paying attention to.

This little demo app is an application of real-world convergence in the here (hear?) and now. I can use my mobile to access and control my home phone, to make calls using my PhoneGnome Internet plans, and to do stuff like send a voice message (click a contact, my phone rings, and record a message into the phone and PhoneGnome sends it to that contact as a WAV attachment in an email). That way I can send a long message, say even when driving, without getting into an accident trying to enter it into the phone keyboard.

There is a new 'Set Click-to-Dial Destination' feature on the My PhoneGnome PhoneBoook (contacts list) that allows
one to set a remote destination for click-to-dial initiated from the website. So if using the website from a remote location, set the number of the remote location, and when you use the My PhoneGnome click-to-dial or voice messaging, that remote location will be used rather than the phone connected to PhoneGnome.

Basically, plugging PhoneGnome in "opens up" your landline, giving it an API, enabling various kinds of convergence
applications. Applications can control the home landline, query call records, use the on-line phonebook (enabling a shared, single phonebook, or sync the PhoneGnome phonebook with some other phonebook), all kinds of things your landline provider, and even today's VoIP providers are not giving us.

This feature is also adjustable via the APIs: http://my.phonegnome.com/api/index.html

See Phonegnome It all sounds a little geeky. Yet it points to putting more control in the hands of the user.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 04:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm ready for the kickoff of VON which will happen in a few minutes. If a quick visit to the VON press room means anything then the show will be a lot bigger than last year. How's that for arranging first impressions. I hear 8000 people will be here.

The buzz leading up to VON has a different tone this year. Last year was the year where the market became Skype aware. By the time of the eBay purchase of Skype, the $'s had put the deal on everyone's mind. I don't see Skype on the presentation agenda and that I believe is symtomatic of a real change in perspective. The disruption in VoIP today increasingly looks likely to come from new entrants and players. Video is hot this year. Concurrently the undercurrent and issues around regulation are building.

Generally I believe the big players here are more aware of the shift. VoIP is finally going mainstream. Concurrently, I expect that the next wave of "voice" implications won't be discussed here. It's an industry conference. I still think the mental models are stuck with yesterday. I doubt convergence of emergent social media (the social web) and VoIP will get much exposure here. Similarly, the identity issues and access to my attention will get brushed over in a few Presence sessions. Yet context and content is becoming ever more important.

I'm now listening to Jeff's presentation. Titled "The Eve of Disruption". His take and thrust is Video. The disruption is to broadcasting. This is a welcome shift and smartly positions the VON conferences for the future. Jeff's passion and interest built from HAM radio days is on display.

Jeff's telling a great story about Slingbox. It's gained lots of media traction and yet the story is much more. Jeff's talking about the disruptive power of Slingbox and shares his experience while in London in a hotel. He skips the hotel movies and logs into his SlingBox back in the Hamptons. As he's clicking though channels he gets a call from his wife. "Jeff can you please stop changing the channels!". His perspective is thus you can now use the internet as a substitute and replacement for broadcast. His reflection and call to action ... try these technologies out. He says "If you thought Skype was cool on planes... now watch your own TV!".

It's a nice story and message. It's time for Madison avenue to join the VON learning party. Lots of new models emerging.

He concludes with reminders on "net neutrality" and "emergency preparedness". Still the key thought is as interesting as the voice side is and the opportunities have never seemed to be brighter to go out and attack video / broadcasting.

I agree start experimenting!

What am I looking for here? I want to learn some more about directory and access systems. I think the content explosion will crash if we --- you and I --- cannot manage our access points and attention more effectively.

A refreshing presentation. Pressing forward in a new direction.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 08:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Surfing around:

• Sexy Skypenomics. VerbDate - "Where People Speak Before they Meet!" is Skype powered. Escalation of intimacy, from profile, to chat, to voice, to video. To real life. via A Zulu In Silicon Valley.
• Skypenomics ROI. Geoff Moore says Skype's job is to increase the value of eBay by more than 4% in Paper or Plastic? It Really Matters When Your Are Buying a Company.
• SkypeBay 1. Om catalogs eBay's pilots of SkypeMe buttons in different selling situations.
• SkypeBay 2. Rogelio Choy from eBay's Developers Program explains how Skype's recent entry to the SMB market is the first step towards a much larger revenue stream. I'm adding Rogelio to my feedreader.
• Gadget Envy: BigBerries drools over the BenQ P51 Treo killer. GPS, WiFi and Windows Mobile and ready for Skype.
• Potential Security Exploit: Two researchers from EADS Corporate Research Center (Philippe Biond and Fabrice Desclaux) gave a Black Hat Europe 2006 talk about Skype. Read their presentation in Acrobat. Gracie, Exploit blog.
• When in Ontario. Here's hoping Febeke Okafor runs into Bill Campbell while Bill's in Ottawa this week.  I like his new VoIP Technology blog.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

Bill Campbell is in Ottawa this week. Phil Wolff and Stuart Henshall are at VON San Jose, mostly. Skype us for drinks, meals, interviews. I chuckled when I saw the Skyptopus but the isolatr beta gave me a belly laugh.

True or False: Skype is to Telcos as Craigslist is to Newspapers. The huge US Knight-Ridder newspaper publisher, starving and in debt, sells its papers to a smaller chain. A mature industry nibbles away at fixed costs and while disruptive services steal or obsolete revenue sources.

Skype's Geoffery Prentice goes to Taiwan. How long until Skype opens up component certification in Taipei? As long as we're talking Taiwan, PChome Online released their version of Skype v2.0. Also with SkypeRing for customization, "Skype phone yellow pages" (shades of eBay?), interactive voice response (TellMe?) and business solutions (Skype.biz or more?). PChome is exactly the type of active partner Skype needs, stretching Skype's business programs to meet user needs.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Looks like the Netgear WiFi phone for Skype is real. I did a short test at the NetGear Booth.

The bad news? We still have a couple of months to wait! Damn. It felt so good. I just wanted to take it home!

Posted by Torben Nyhuus at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Q. What is a Skypepotomus?

Posted by Phil Wolff at 06:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Nice job RTX! We thought this USB phone was feature rich before. Now it is awe inspiring. Isn't CEBit great? We get all this neat stuff.

Get the User Manual here.

Thanks to Torben who contributed to this story. Torben Nyhuus, is Skype Journal’s Associate European Editor, a Super User on the Skype Forum and also user of the RTX DualPhone.

The new DualPhone is a software upgrade!

The upgrade is a simple, safe three step process. The base station gets done in about 15 seconds. Patience is required for the next step... the handset must be placed into the base station. After a 10 minute wait to ensure the batteries are changed sufficiently the software will then be uploaded to the handset.

The features we liked best:

1. Support for Skype voice mail

2. Skype chat notification

3. Support for Skype call waiting

But there is a lot more....

Users will love the menu feature:

No wonder Tom's Hardware gave DualPhone "The Reader's Choice Award"

Here is the complete story from HQ...

RTX Introduces New USB Cordless DUALphone Firmware Update with Enhanced Skype 2.0 Support
RTX Upgrades the Award-Winning USB DUALphone with New Features

Noerresundby, Denmark, March 9, 2006 – Today RTX , a world leader in wireless product development, announced a free USB DUALphone firmware update. The USB DUALphone can now check Skype™ voicemail, receive incoming chat alerts and perform other Skype functions, all from the DUALphone’s sleek, cordless handset. The update adds to a long list of existing features, such as wideband audio and Skype online presence.

The USB DUALphone is a Skype Certified hybrid phone that allows consumers to combine the benefits of traditional phone lines with the advanced Skype Internet calling capabilities using a single cordless phone. When placing a traditional call, consumers dial as usual using the telephone button or they press the PC button to dial using Skype. In addition, the USB DUALphone’s cordless handset gives an audible “beep” when a Skype contact’s online status changes, and allows users to play and delete Skype voice messages all without having to be near a computer.

“This USB DUALphone upgrade shows how Skype is moving beyond the PC and integrating into the lives of consumers,” said James Bilefield, Skype Europe general manager. “Skype works with partners like RTX to provide our customers with as many device options as possible, making Skype a convenient mobile offering.”

The USB DUALphone recently won Tom's Hardware's Readers' Choice Award 2005 for “Best VoIP Product” category and is the only Skype Certified cordless phone that offers wideband audio, the ability to toggle between Skype calls, Skype chat notification and accessibility to Skype features such as voicemail and online status, without being in front of a computer.

“This update further eliminates the need to sit in front of a PC to benefit from Skype,” said Jorgen Elbaek, President & CEO of RTX. “At RTX we developed the USB DUALphone to be the best option for people who want to have convenient access to the advanced capabilities of Skype without having to change their regular phone line and calling habits.”

The included USB DUALphone charging station simultaneously connects to a traditional telephone socket and to a PC via USB. The USB DUALphone fully supports Skype to Skype, Skype to landline, landline to Skype and landline to landline calls.

USB DUALphone Features:
• Support for Skype voicemail (new)
• Skype chat notification (new)
• Support for Skype call waiting (new)
• Ability to toggle between Skype calls (new)
• Selection of which online-status to display in handset (new)
• Skype/landline hybrid phone functionality
• Wideband audio for superior sound quality
• Skype certification
• Skype contact list and online status displayed on handset
• DECT cordless technology (WiFi-friendly)
• Rechargeable and replaceable battery
• Backlit LCD display
• Standard headset connector
• Multiple handset capacity
• Upgradeable firmware
• Range: Indoor 150 feet/Outdoor 1000 feet
• Distinctive ring indicating landline or Skype calls

Pricing and Availability
The USB DUALphone update is available as a free download on the Web at www.dualphone.net. The USB DUALphone is available online at the Skype Store at www.skype.com and at selected retail outlets. Suggested retail price for the USB DUALphone is 119 Euro.

About RTX
RTX Telecom A/S is an international group specializing in the development and manufacturing of wireless communication solutions and OEM products. Its portfolio covers every aspect of the wireless technology industry, ranging from DECT, WLL, DPRS, VoIP, IEEE 802.11a/b/g, 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz to GSM, GPRS, TD-SCDMA and Bluetooth. The company, which is listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, has 250 staff and generated sales of DKK 317 millions (€42 millions) in FY2004/2005.

###

Contact:
RTX Telecom
Jorgen Elbaek, CEO
Tel. +45 96 32 23 00
je@rtx.dk or press@rtx.dk

RTX Telecom
Jens Kofoed, Marketing Manager
Tel. +45 96 32 23 00. Mobile: +45 22 40 72 77
jko@rtx.dk or press@rtx.dk

Posted by Bill Campbell at 05:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The One Web Day dinner last night started something important for me.  Susan Crawford asked important questions. Why do I love the Internet? What has it done for me? What have I done for it? What can I do to leave it better than I found it?

I first used ARPAnet in 1979 to pass my project's logistics data to modelers at the Naval Postgraduate School. I was used to terminal based computing, even modem access to timesharing systems, but this was different. This was our computers talking to theirs, peers becoming a network, if only for a little while. It changed our work, slashed time from our project, gave us access to distant talent.

And it became the Internet.  

We're starting now, in cafes and schools and hospitals and offices, around the world. We're seeding activities "to create, maintain, advance, and promote a global day to celebrate online life: September 22, 2006." One Web Day, an international holiday. How will you mark One Web Day this year? Add your project idea to the wiki. 

Tags: events, onewebday, onewebday06, onewebday2006, skype

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

“Experts give mixed review,” says James S. Granelli, Times Staff Writer in his LA TImes article on Skype CEBit announcements unveiling its small business solution. . “no home runs” says Jeff Pulver… “ha ha!”, says I.

Many of the home runs are from third parties and possibly the best examples are the Skype adapters to PBX (the technology behind most office phone systems). Listed in the Skype press release under Skype Certified Business Hardware is one of those home runs,

“Actiontec: VoSKY Exchange allows company PBX systems to connect with up to four Skype callers.”

Here is a line up of Skype2PBX big hitters at CEBit.

Spintronics

Speed Dragon Multimedia

ZipCOM See SkyPBX at Suncomm's booth, number is 13 E85 (4b), the product called ST 1004

This group of manufactures reminds me of Babe Ruth… all he could do is hit! This group is a lineup that will give small and medium businesses the opportunity to make many home runs.

1. Infrastructure. You do not need to throw out the phones on everyone’s desk and replace them with $300 to $500 IP phones.

2. It works everywhere all the time. Hotels, client’s offices, and Starbucks. SIP systems for the most part fail to navigate firewalls.

3. Customers and suppliers can have free local access to our office phone system via SkypeIn numbers set up around the world.

4. SkypeOut. Every phone in your business will have access to using SkypeOut without needing a computer.

5. Skype Business Control Panel (formally Skype Groups) gives you central control and financial reporting for your communication costs.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 02:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype.biz 30% use Skype at work.
— Skyperedirects to Skype's landing page of Skype.com/business. They've upgraded the "Skype Control Panel" service, formerly Skype Groups, with automatic topping up of employee accounts. Beyond that, Skype.biz quietly pimps Skype certified software, software and services.

This is a toe in the business waters, not a plunge, but it starts the marketing conversation. The full release is below the fold...

Posted by Phil Wolff at 09:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

Skype2PBX? Here is a first hand story from Jeremy a very happy Skyper in the UK. Cambridge, UK to be more precise. Jeremy, the Technical Director of Z-Tech, leads a real cool group of experts in industrial process control.

Jeremy: “Our Office Phone System is a Panasonic TDA30 PBX (it has VOIP capabilities but we are not using them) with 3 analogue telephone lines in, and 7 extensions. We used a Skype to PSTN Adapter from Actiontec to link it to Skype.

“Jeremy how big a deal was it to set up the PBX to accept a line from Skype?"

"Adding the extra line to the hunt group was just a matter of marking the port as 'in service' and then adding it to the list so that the handsets know the line is available. The PBX is programmed via some windows View image">friendly software via USB it's not a chore! It took about 2 minutes to set up the PBX."

"Mind you it's a bit Heath Robinson at the moment due to the extra PC involved that isn't rack mounted like the rest of the kit and of course there are wires everywhere. But the system does work, and work very well so far!”

Bill: “Why did you connect Skype to your PBX?”

Jeremy: “We intend to move all our lines to VoIP when we believe it is viable - this is the first step. We can try it out cheaply.

And, yes Bill, we now have a Call Transfer function. But we like better is that it gives us an extra line out - 4 lines instead of 3. If we asked BT (British Telecom) for another line they want £100 setup, plus £50 per quarter plus VAT... Skype has no setup fees and lower call rates than BT too.
We have 70 employees and about 30 of them have their own PCs. I am not sure of the cost savings but the VoSKY Internet Telephone Wizard cost us £40 then there is the cost of the PC."

Bill: "What are the advantages for your customers?"

We tell people that they can call us for free using Skype they love it, we've done something for them, made it easier for people to get in touch! Employees, potential employees and of course, customers.

However - we are not cutting our BT lines just yet - Skype has got to prove itself and prove itself in the medium/longer term - we don’t know if it will continue or how it will be in a year’s time.

"Our Contact Us page on our Web Site View image
is creating excitement with customers because they can call our switchboard via Skype."

"Also some of our staff are from overseas, Czech republic, Australia, etc - and they like it as they can now call home for free - and are spreading the Skype VoIP word at the same time."

Thanks Jeremy for sharing your story with our readers.

After spending a few hours over a couple of days with Z-Tech I found they are what their web site touts them to be, "A YOUNG BUSINESS and, like all youngsters, we’re full of energy.” Very creative energy at that.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From AndresS Skype Staff

In order to improve reliability and stability of our central contact list we have had to disable the list for all versions of Skype for Windows from 1.4.0.84 to 2.0.0.73 inclusive.

To continue using the central contact list without problems please make sure that all your Skype versions are updated to the latest release (Version 2.0.0.90) available here: http://www.skype.com/download/

What happens if I am currently using a version which falls in this version range and is affected?

The client continues to work normally, but the contact list will not be synchronised with the contact server. If you make any changes in your contact list, these will not be visible in any other computers where you are using this Skype Name.

Why has the central contact list been disabled for older versions?

We have had an abnormally large increase in traffic to our server that controls the central contact list which was causing a number of users to lose their contacts when upgrading Skype or logging in at a different computer. We have investigated this increase in traffic and discovered a problem within a number of older releases of Skype which is causing additional, unnecessary, traffic to be sent to the server.

Can I backup my contacts?

You can manually backup your contacts on your computer so they have a record of them that can be used at any time.

Regards,
The Skype Team

In order to backup your contacts go to Tools -> Archive Contacts -> Back up Contacts to file to create an archive file that can be used later if needed.

To restore contacts from file go to Tools -> Archive Contacts -> Restore Contacts from file.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've had a few pointers today to AIM opening up their API. Apparently they are not going to play with multi-headed clients. Then who can blame them when nobody else seems to either.

Where it is interesting is the opportunity for monetising AIM. My perception is AIM will want to start charging for commercial message flow. Eample, putting videos into in boxes in real time. AIM has a built in throttle on such communications. As IM and SMS systems converge the route to message me is no longer just email. Add in all the extra context. Lots of opportunity.

Note none of these other messenger systems with the exception of Skype Multi-chat handle a distributed no servers group messaging format effectively.

On the Skype score. A clear SIP strategy is becoming more important. Skype is probably the only company currently that can charge customers for SIP accounts and offer them an immediate benefit. Concurrently opening their chat client (the headless one wev'e heard about) to XMPP would further add value. Then it is time to add in SMS functionality.

Wonders in the Walled Garden never cease; AOL announced this morning that it was releasing an AOL AIM API that would support open development of AIM plug-ins, AIM user interface applications and the integration of AIM presence information into other sites and applications. Open AIM has Web site at http://developer.aim.com/, with tools and documentation; can't wait to see what the first mash-up is. Susan Mernit's Blog

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 03:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

VoiFi is simply another amateur hour. In one blog post I read that VoiFi technology corporation has been working on the technology for the last 18 months. In another Mr Bhatia is asked why it's simply just so shoddy.

I tested it too on Friday. I checked the blogs for any other review that went further than just repeating that the founder of Hotmail has a new startup in the VoIP space. I probably have a reputation for being scathing about new VoIP clients; particulatly those that don't match up to Skype. And I'd point out so far none do. Some provide some promise. Others remain a mystery. Tello is one. The beta (which I'm a member of is so closed I can't find another contact to make a call.) Still this was first about VoiFi.

If you can get VoiFi logged on you will have call quality that doesn't even compare with the worst cellphone call. Thus failing rull number one. You must at least match Skype on voice quality. (At this time I can think of 1/2 dozen clients that do.) At this stage in the maturation of this space I could spec out a better client in no time flat. So why such mediocrity is being launched I have absolutely no idea. The founder apparently has some money to burn. Still there are many better clients out there that have launched with much less fanfare and are more deserving. I've also raved about clones before and what it takes.

Reaching the blogwaves at the same time is the info that TelTel and Gizmo Project (passes the voice test) have received nice rounds of additional funding. So I did another test on TelTel. Last time I tried it the voice quality was at best PSTN standard. Maybe for their target market that is good enough. My tests again confirmed that TelTel's voice quality was inferior to Skype. Not on a large sample I'll admit. Still if you want me raving about it it better be at least on par with the first call.

What's the lesson?

Jean Mercier, Belgium Guest Blogger

I was trying to see if my friend Max (fictitious name) was online. And suddenly I had a big smile …
His status was offline with call forwarding enabled! And he has a Webcam!
So I told him, through the chat: “Hey Max, I know you are online, don’t pretend you aren’t”!
He asked worried: “How do you know?”.

Then I saw another friend, also offline (without call forwarding, the little grey symbol with the white cross) and … the webcam symbol visible, and asked her (it is a French woman) the same question. She was shocked!

Normally when you log off, the webcam symbol becomes unavailable. It is only shown when you want to show it, AND when you are online!

And here both did put their status in “invisible”, with webcam connected! And the webcam symbol appears. IT SHOULDN’T!!!! 

Clearly a bug in Skype, or to say it friendlier: this was overlooked by Skype Programmers!

Posted by Guest Blogger at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

For family or business one PC handling 4 Skype Calls makes sense and can save a lot of dollars.

I have been doing some intensive testing the Skype2PBX or Skype to Office Phone Systems with my Skype buddies Neil Lindsey Skype ID neillindsey and Torben Nyhuus Skype ID torbennyhuus. The two most important tests:

1. How stable is is the architecture of running 4 concurrent Skype Clients on one PC?

2. Can four users with USB handsets or headsets speak concurrently with four different callers?

It turns out that our testing setup is a very useful setup for a micro or very small business or for families.

Lots of flexibility:
Skype Clients can be all the same user ID or all different or a mix somewhere in between.
Skype Groups will allow you to distribute SkypeOut credit and purchase SkypeIn numbers.
Add a VoSKY Internet Phone Wizard to replace one of the USB Handsets with Cordless phone interconnected to a regular telephone line. This gives you backup access to the public telephone network if SkypeOut fails or for 911 calls and fax.

Stable? In over three weeks of 24/7 use on both Intel P4 and AMD xp3000+ we never experienced a glitch running 4 or 5 Skype Clients on one PC.

Concurrent use of 4 USB handsets? No problem. Each must be from a different manufacturer or the USB system will have difficult (impossible) time identifying one device from another.

To have multiple Skype Clients running set up separate user accounts in Windows. You can do this in Control Panel. Give each account Computer Administrator rights and a password. Boot up Skype in each account using the "Run as.." command (Right click on the Skype short cut icon and select "Run as..")

Soon you will experience "Sharing is good"!

Posted by Bill Campbell at 03:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Jean Mercier, Belgium

One of the crazy things I do is following up the Skype Purchase Order numbers since the beginning of SkypeOut. Skype used a sequential numbering system. This has allowed me to make some wild guesses about the sales numbers of Skype.

Some days ago my wife made a purchase, and inputting the data to update my graph, I noticed a strange jump. Some friends (Bill, Adam, Luc and Matthew – thanks) provided me more data, and I could somehow conclude the jump was about 2.8 million “sudden” purchase orders somewhere between February 12 and February 18. See the “red portion” on the graph below:

So, what happened?

• Some testing of Skype Staff to see if their servers or software can handle huge amounts of purchases?
  
• A counting bug in the order number generation?
  
• Some hacker tried “something” around February 15?
  
• Something else?

To be honest, I have no explanation why. Skype staff probably knows what happened. If somebody made Skype purchases between February 12 and 18, I would be interested to receive their order number and date of purchase, thanks.

Some more comments about “Skype Orders” … the following list is a non-exclusive enumeration of “actions” that are counted as a Skype Order:

• SkypeOut credit purchases
  
• SkypeIn
  
• Skype VoiceMail
  
• Vouchers
  
• Aborted orders
  
• Allocation for Skype Groups
  
• Gift Certificates
  
• Free SkypeOut minutes
  
• Free testing of Skype Voicemail (in the past)

As we can see, orders like “aborted orders” or “free SkypeOut minutes” are not generating income, the last one is even “destroying” some income for Skype.

Good for Skype, orders seem to increase still exponentially!

Posted by Guest Blogger at 02:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Mr Marketing2.0, aka Johnnie Moore, has an interview with the “peer-to-peer banking” outfit Zopa. Their business model is, um, to put lenders and borrowers in touch. Just in a more “banking 2.0” manner, where people are treated as people and not account numbers.

These two notes quotes struck me as interesting:

4 40 Dave: Messaging has been important, so borrowers can leave a message for those who are lending to them. Some lenders love to get messages from borrowers, why they’re borrowing and how they’re using the money. Understanding the people behind the user name has been really interesting, a real talking point for our members.

5 47 Johnnie asks about the role of telephone sales people. Dave: Value of the role of talking to people on the phone, it’s been reassuring to members, they’ve made a real difference. Hearing a voice on the end of the phone has made a difference to people.

Today, your bank doesn’t appear in your IM client buddy list. I’d suggest that ten years from now, any bank that hasn’t figured out how to be there is going to be heading for the great debt collector in the sky. Getting access to people’s social and transactional network, even for short periods, is going to be big business. Anyone who captures a “hub” role here is going to make Google’s meteoric impact look minor.

Also, corporations clearly need to get personal and transparent. How about this for a first step. When you’ve got someone on hold, why not tell them “Why not go to phone.foo.com and see a webcam of our busy call centre? You can also enter your number and see where you are in the queue.” It’s the first step in adding “real presence” to the experience.

Next step: you’ll be able to see the person you get put through to. Suddenly, you really are the face of Citicorp or whoever. Being a customer service rep should be a rewarding, interpersonal high-contact job which tests your social skills. Today, we’ve got those people acting as transcription agents papering over the technology gaps between telephony, the Web and our inadequate public digital identity infrastructure.

We bank on Martin Geddes' Telepocalypse blog.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 01:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• The Skype life...
• Today was a Free Skype Day in the US and UK. Log in to your Skype.com account.
• Skype-a-celeb: bid on 10-minutes personal calls to Penelope Cruz, Melissa Etheridge,Matthew McConaughey, Maria Bello and others. While the auction, which ended tonight, is nothing new in fundraising, it's interesting that the only people who can bid are eBay users and the penalty is to install software before you can claim your prize. via 21talks, Jaanus.
• You know the Skype data API is mainstream when... [caution: mild adult content]
• The "Skype crouch" for laptops with built-in microphones
• Skype on FOX8 TV - Greensboro, North Carolina. Consumer awareness is the foundation for consumer activism.
• minor update to Skype for Windows : version 2.0.0.90. (SJ's sympathies to the Mac users still at 1.4)
• Sign up for an email alert for the Netgear Skype wifi phone's release.
• TellmeSkype is an unofficial blog for voice app developers.
• Voice 3.0 Politics:
• "Senator wants to ban 'fast lane' for Web." Call Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) to say Thank You. Wyden's Net Neutrality Bill (pdf).
• Comcast as pick pocket. Thread examined by Russell Shaw.
• AMD stuff:
• The Maxxuss hack, completely unofficial, of Skype's 5 person conference call limit. Yet again, this seems to be Skype Marketing listening to strategic partners instead of end users, evidence that it is intensely difficult to listen deeply to the final arbiters of your product's success when business is going so well.
• On Skype's being exclusive with Intel: "Excuse me while I look out for any flying pigs."
• The complete AMD Skype subpoena, a Russell Shaw exclusive.
• Not sure if I read things right, but has Skype ever said it will only support Intel dual-core processors in the future? It's one thing for Skype's marketing to announce a product; a long term policy is something else. 

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I wouldn't normally blog on Skype staff changes, however Andy broke the news and I realised I had a couple of slides that telll a story and reflect the work that Kelly certainly was a key part of framing. As slides only date now seems like a good time to just put them out there. They simply tie back to every PR announcement made up to the time eBay purchased Skype. The data remains here on the Skype site.

Kelly Larabee, the PR queen who over the past few years did a incredible job building up Skype with the media, analysts and bloggers has left Skype as of today. VoIP Watch

Other startups would do well to take some learnings from the Skype example. I won't spell out all the learning here.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I have a great new add-in for weekend Skype experimenters. It will create a multiparty conference call with webcam images. Plus you can take it further and animate your Skype avatar for all your buddies with what ever video content you choose - live or prerecorded. I'm now waiting to be part of the first animated avatars multichat with 50 people. I'm also waiting to see it used for advertising videos and self promotion!. Lester similarly highlights it on his developers blog.

Time to play.

The first add-in you wil need to download is AVACON described here with video shots below. The second is SplitCam which will enable you to put whatever video content you want through the AVACON system. Here is the illustration of my Skype avatar live with a short video shot while walking with a Nokia N90. It's a boring video and changes every two seconds approx.

It works by changing the Skype™ AVATAR with captured video images of you. It is that simple. AVACON™ allows you to broadcast your captured video all the time, or use the privacy features that allows you to limit broadcasting to active calls only or you can just disable broadcasting totally. AVACON™ also come with a resizable Preview Window that allows you to view yourself during your setup. So Download the FREE Trial Version and have fun. Avacon

So how well does it work.
It does what I've suggested many times in the past. It utilizes the Skype profile picture to pass content to either buddies on your list or active callers only. Frankly it's pretty cool.

Immediate feedback on the product.

I had a question today. It seems simple enough. "Can you help me? I want to delete my first username because I have now a new one.I dont want two usernames" . So I bashed out the two minute reply. Here it is...

Hi,

Skype doesn't enable you to delete a name or account. Once created it is there forever; as far as I know. Still you don't need to worry about it. Just use the name you have now chosen and add your buddies to it and never log in again to the old one. The other one will be effectively forgotten. You could take some additional actions to "LOSE IT" so to speak.

If you have...
- buddies on it you could delete them.
- skypeout minutes on it you probably want to use them up as you can't transfer them from one buddy to another.
- if the profile is filled in you may want to delete all info..
- And if you are really wanting to try and lose it then change the email address on it to something that no one would ever find searching for you... unknown@hotmail.com probably works.
- then change your password to something completely random forget it and you will never be able to access any of it again.

That should do it.
..........................

Now the problem is many more people have created accounts and names on many of these systems that they would like back. However they created the name without a valid email account and forgot the password. Unfortunately they then tend to be gone forever.

In the choosing your "name" I'm a fan of real names. It may be hard if you are John Smith, still presenting your "real name" in the Full Name field in Skype just seems polite to me. Just remember that adding in a company name might later mean you want to change it all.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 03:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBacks (0)

iSkoot: leaves me with many causes for worry. My recommendation is be very careful if you use this product. My conclusion is drawn after trying to contact iSkoot for followups and similarly trying to contact Skype security. I haven't received answers. from either party. This summarizes the last question I posed to Jacob Guedalia, CEO of iSkoot.

"I'd like to get some more information from you. I'm still worried about the security implications. As far as I can see you are logging me into a Skype client. I presume you are bridging the call with a SIP-to-Skype bridge. Thus a ping from my cellphone results in my ID being logged in while the phone also dials iSkoot's SIP (probably Asterisk) server. My inbound number identifies me and ties me in with my Skype account, which is bridged and now calling my requested buddy.

As of yesterday I had an IM from Jacob that said "the tech team is working on a response." How hard is the response? Are you logging me into a Skype client or not? Without additional information, my view is the passwords are a problem. If you have used iSkoot, change your Skype password. To complete the story...

I reported on iSkoot when they relaunched. Last Friday, Jacob Guedalia, CEO of iSkoot, called me and confirmed that your passwords are secure. I'd be happier if I had a security certification from Kurt Sauer head of Skype security. Still I thought I'd try it again. So I had it running on the background on my phone for a couple of days. It failed during this testing to provide any complete presence or buddylist information although it does allow you to quickly start making SkypeOut calls from your mobile. I continued experimenting by calling offline buddies, etc., with voicemail. While working, I've become increasingly uneasy and I believe so should you be if you have been trying it out.

I have no information from iSkoot to refute the following:

I believe iSkoot has created a database and is periodically refreshing your presence list by activating a Skype client temporarily ( by logging you in with your password) to refresh their database for you. Then when you make a call are you being logged into a Skype client to make that call. Thus in a call situation, the mobile application pings iskoot and initates a call to the iSkoot PBX. While the mobile is connecting to their PBX the PBX is being setup to connect to a Skype client they log in on your behalf. The delay is such that I believe this is likely. There is no desktop sofltware or application involved. Only a simple and nicely executed java client for your mobile. Thus, there is no requirment for you to be logged in on your PC for iSkoot to work. Unless Skype provides information that iSkoot has a deal to interconnect with their network (and what a deal that would be!) the above is the only way to connect to Skype.

If so I have the following questions.

• How do I know that the bridge from my cellphone to my Skype Client is secure?
• Is this a secure voice call?
• How do I know my buddylist is secure?
• How might iSkoot use my buddylist in the future?
• How do I know that iSkoot won't try to market itself using my ID? Example. Sends a chat message to my Skype buddy who I'm trying to call saying "Stuart Henshall is trying to connect with you from his mobile using iSkoot!"

• WHAT HAPPENS TO VOICE MAILS WHEN THEY LOG THIS CLIENT ON? A client downloads them whenever it is logged on.

• WHAT HAPPENS TO IM MESSAGES AND MULTICHATS? If they are using the client all those chats that should have got to you.. potentially went to iSkoot when it logged in. Will you ever get them?

Alternatively, has Skype enabled iSkoot to access the Skype network in a side deal? If so there are a number of us standing in line with some neat solutions. Providing this service is not hard under conditions where a switch can bridge to the Skype network. So I'm left wondering what the story is. Is Skype security involved? Does it need to be? In the meantime forget iSkoot and try out EQO which doesn't raise any of the questions posed here.

See also: iSkoot's End User License Agreement, Privacy Statement

terms from iskoot as at 022506

IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

Before reading the articles below, please review the following preliminary terms, which use some of the definitions as specified in Article 1 below.
Entering into this Agreement: This Beta End User License Agreement constitutes a valid and binding agreement between iSkoot and You, as a user, for the use of the iSkoot Software. You must enter into this Agreement by clicking on the ACCEPT button in order to be able to install and use the iSkoot Software. Furthermore, by installing and (continuously) using the iSkoot Software, You agree to be bound by the terms of this Agreement and any new versions hereof.
Electronic Signatures and Agreement(s): You acknowledge and agree that by clicking on the ACCEPT button or similar buttons or links as may be designated by iSkoot to show Your approval of this Agreement and/or to download and install the iSkoot Software, You are entering into a legal binding contract. You hereby agree to the use of electronic communication in order to enter into contracts, place orders and other records and to the electronic delivery of notices, policies and records of transactions initiated or completed through the iSkoot Software. Furthermore, You hereby waive any rights or requirements under any laws or regulations in any jurisdiction which require an original (non-electronic) signature or delivery or retention of non-electronic records, to the extent permitted under applicable mandatory law.
Beta Testing: You acknowledge that iSkoot is conducting beta testing for the iSkoot Software and You hereby agree to participate in such testing and to provide feedback, as may be appropriate, to iSkoot using the iSkoot Mobile Beta Testing Survey that is located on the iSkoot Website.
Internet Telephony and Data Services: You acknowledge and agree that the iSkoot Software alone will not enable You to initiate or maintain a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) or other wireless, wired or internet-based telephone connection and that You are solely responsible for maintaining and adhering to all license terms with respect to (i) internet telephony and data services and related services with a company whose internet telephony and data services is supported at such time by iSkoot and (ii) mobile telephony service.
No Emergency Calls: By entering into this Agreement You acknowledge and agree that the iSkoot Software does not and does not intend to support or carry emergency calls. Please also see Article 7 below.
Jurisdiction’s Restrictions: If You are residing in a jurisdiction which restricts the use of Internet-based applications according to age, or which restricts the ability to enter into agreements such as this agreement according to age and You are under such a jurisdiction and under such age limit, You may not enter into this Agreement and download, install or use the iSkoot Software. Furthermore, if You are residing in a jurisdiction where it is forbidden by law to offer or use software for internet telephony, You may not enter into this Agreement and You may not download, install or use the iSkoot Software. By entering into this Agreement and using the iSkoot Software, You explicitly represent and warrant that You have verified that Your use of the iSkoot Software is allowed in Your own jurisdiction and You shall stop using the iSkoot Software in such jurisdiction if such use becomes illegal in such jurisdiction during the term.
ARTICLE 1. DEFINITIONS
In this Agreement the following capitalized definitions are being used, singular as well as plural.
1.1 Affiliate: any corporation, company or other entity that directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with, iSkoot. For the purpose of this definition, the word “control” shall mean the direct or indirect ownership of more than fifty percent (50%) of the outstanding voting stock of the corporation, company, or other entity.
1.2 Agreement: this Beta End User License Agreement, as may be renewed, modified and/or amended from time to time.
1.3 Documentation: any online or otherwise enclosed documentation provided by iSkoot.
1.4 Effective Date: the date on which this Agreement is entered into by clicking on the ACCEPT button as stated above.
1.5 IP Rights: any and all intellectual property rights, including but not limited to copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and patents, as well as know how contained in or relating to the iSkoot Software, the Documentation or the iSkoot Website.
1.6 iSkoot: iSkoot Inc. a Delaware corporation.
1.7 iSkoot Software: the software distributed by iSkoot for internet telephony applications, which is currently in beta form, including without limitation the iSkoot UI and Documentation, as well as any future programming fixes, updates and upgrades thereof.
1.8 iSkoot Staff: means the directors, officers, employees, agents, and contractors of iSkoot and its Affiliates.
1.9 iSkoot Website and WAP sites: the website accessible at the following URL http://www.iSkoot.com; the wap site accessible at the following URLs: go.iskoot.com and wap.iskoot.com or a successor address, from which site the iSkoot Software can be downloaded.
1.10 UI: the user interface of the iSkoot Software.
1.11 You: you, the end user of the iSkoot Software, also used in the form “Your” where applicable.
1.12 Internet telephony and data services: Any third party internet telephony and data services developed or distributed by a vendor of internet telephony and data connection services, such as Skype.
ARTICLE 2. LICENSE AND RESTRICTIONS
2.1 License. Subject to the terms of this Agreement, iSkoot hereby grants You a limited, personal, non-commercial (at home or at work), non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, non-assignable license to download, install and use the iSkoot Software on Your computer, mobile phone or PDA, for the sole purpose of personally using the internet telephony applications provided by iSkoot and any other applications that may be explicitly provided by iSkoot.
2.2 No Granting of Rights to Third Parties. You will not sell, assign, rent, lease, distribute, export, import, act as an intermediary or provider, or otherwise grant rights to third parties with regard to the iSkoot Software or any part thereof. 2.3 No Modifications. You will not undertake, cause, permit or authorize the modification, creation of derivative works, translation, reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling or hacking of the iSkoot Software or any part thereof.
2.4 Third Parties. You acknowledge and agree that the iSkoot Software may incorporate software and other technology owned and controlled by third parties. iSkoot emphasizes that it will only incorporate such third party software or technology for the purpose of (a) adding new or additional functionality or (b) improving the technical performance of the iSkoot Software. Any such third party software or technology that is incorporated in the iSkoot Software falls under the scope of this Agreement. Any and all other third party software or technology that may be distributed together with the iSkoot Software will be subject to You explicitly accepting a license agreement with that third party. You acknowledge and agree that You will not enter into a contractual relationship with iSkoot or its Affiliates regarding such third party software or technology and You will look solely to the applicable third party and not to iSkoot or its Affiliates to enforce any of Your rights.
2.5 New Versions of the iSkoot Software. iSkoot, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to add additional features or functions, or to provide programming fixes, updates and upgrades, to the iSkoot Software. You acknowledge and agree that iSkoot has no obligation to make available to You any subsequent versions of the iSkoot Software. You also agree that You may have to enter into a renewed version of this Agreement, in the event You want to download, install or use a new version of the iSkoot Software, including without limitation any production version of the iSkoot Software currently offered in a beta version. Furthermore, You acknowledge and agree that iSkoot, in its sole discretion, may modify or discontinue or suspend Your ability to use any version of the iSkoot Software, or terminate any license hereunder, at any time, with immediate effect and without recourse to the courts. iSkoot also may suspend or terminate any license hereunder and disable any iSkoot Software You may already have accessed or installed without prior notice at any time with immediate effect and without recourse to the courts. iSkoot will not accept, and hereby disclaims, any liability in relation to the direct or indirect damages caused by (1) the release and/or the absence of release of new versions of the iSkoot Software and (2) by the suspension or termination of this Agreement by iSkoot and/or by You.
2.6 Paid Services. This Agreement applies to downloading, installing and using the iSkoot Software. The use of any paid services which may be offered by iSkoot or its Affiliates is subject to the additional Terms of Service that may be published from time to time on the iSkoot Website.
2.7 No Distribution/Incorporation of iSkoot Software. You are not allowed to distribute the iSkoot Software under this Agreement. You shall not incorporate the iSkoot Software in any product designed, developed, marketed, shared, sold or licensed by You or any third party, whether or not for any consideration.
2.8 Any other Exceptions. If You are interested in doing anything else with the iSkoot Software or Documentation other than is expressly permitted under this Agreement, You will have to obtain iSkoot’s previous written consent and explicitly agree upon any further (commercial) terms.
ARTICLE 3. PERMISSION TO UTILIZE YOUR COMPUTER, YOUR MOBILE PHONE AND YOUR SOFTWARE
3.1 Permission to Utilize Your Computer, Your Mobile Phone and Your Software. In order to receive the benefits provided by the iSkoot Software and for the limited purpose of facilitating the mobile wireless communication between You and Your Internet telephony and data services, You hereby grant permission to iSkoot to use the iSkoot Software to (i) utilize Your mobile phone or other device to which You have downloaded the iSkoot Software, and (ii) utilize Your Internet telephony and data services and Internet Telephony Account and account information.
3.2 Protection of Your Computer and Mobile Phone Data. You understand that iSkoot will use its reasonable efforts to protect the privacy and integrity of data, software and other resources stored on Your computer,Your mobile phone or other device to which You have downloaded the iSkoot Software; however, You acknowledge and agree that iSkoot cannot and does not give any warranties in this respect.
ARTICLE 4. ISKOOT'S CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION 4.1 iSkoot’s Confidential Information. You agree to take all reasonable steps at all times to protect and maintain as strictly confidential and not to use or disclose without iSkoot’s permission any confidential information regarding iSkoot, its Affiliates, the iSkoot Software and the IP Rights.
4.2 Your Confidential Information and Your Privacy. iSkoot is committed to respecting Your privacy and the confidentiality of Your personal data. The “Privacy Policy” that is published on the iSkoot Website applies to the use of Your personal data, the traffic data as well as the content contained in Your communication(s).
ARTICLE 5. BETA TESTING
5.1 Evaluation. In exchange for the license granted herein, You agree that You will not receive any additional consideration or compensation, nor shall You retain any proprietary claim, as a result of Your evaluation of the iSkoot Software or for Your completion of the iSkoot Mobile Beta Testing Survey. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE MAY CONTAIN VARIOUS DISABLEMENT AND OR TIME-OUT FEATURES THAT MAY BE ACTIVATED BY ISKOOT AT ANY TIME.
ARTICLE 6. IP RIGHTS
6.1 Exclusive Ownership. You acknowledge and agree that any and all IP Rights to or arising from the iSkoot Software are and shall remain the exclusive property of iSkoot and/or its licensors. Nothing in this Agreement intends to transfer any such IP Rights to, or to vest any such IP Rights in, You. You are only entitled to the limited use of the IP Rights granted to You in this Agreement. You will not take any action to jeopardize, limit or interfere with the IP Rights. You acknowledge and agree that any unauthorized use of the IP Rights is a violation of this Agreement as well as a violation of intellectual property laws, which may include without limitation copyright laws and trademark laws.
6.2 Feedback. Feedback consists of any of Your suggestions, comments or other feedback whether it is required or provided on a voluntary basis, relating to the iSkoot Software (“Feedback”). If you provide iSkoot with any Feedback, as required or on a voluntary basis, as part of the Beta Test for the iSkoot Software, You agree that: (a) iSkoot may freely use, disclose, reproduce, license, distribute and other commercialize the Feedback in any iSkoot product, specifications, or other documentation; (b) You also grant third parties, without charge, only those patent rights necessary to enable their products to use or interface with any specific parts of a iSkoot product that incorporate the Feedback; and (c) You will not give iSkoot any Feedback (1) that You have reason to believe is subject to any patent, copyright, or other intellectual property claim or right of any third party; or (2) that is subject to license terms that seek to require any iSkoot product incorporating or derived from any Feedback, or other iSkoot intellectual property, to be licensed to or otherwise shared with any third party.
6.3 No Removal of Notices. You agree that You will not remove, obscure, make illegible or alter any notices or indications of the IP Rights and/or iSkoot’s rights and ownership thereof, whether such notice or indications are affixed on, contained in or otherwise connected to such materials.
ARTICLE 7. COMMUNICATION AND YOUR USE OF THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE
7.1 Communication. Installing iSkoot Software is designed to enable You to communicate with supported Internet telephony and data services on Your mobile phone. iSkoot will maintain and update from time to time on the iSkoot Website a list of supported Internet telephony and data services.
7.2 Disruptions, Delays and Interruptions. iSkoot cannot guarantee that You will always be able to communicate with Your Internet telephony and data services or other Internet telephony and data services users, nor can iSkoot guarantee that You can communicate without disruptions, delays or other communication-related flaws. iSkoot will not be liable and hereby disclaims all liability for any such disruptions, delays or other omissions in any communication experienced when using iSkoot Software.
7.3 No Control. You acknowledge and understand that iSkoot does not control, or have any knowledge of, the content of any communication(s) spread by the use of the iSkoot Software. The content of the communication is entirely the responsibility of the person from whom such content originated. You, therefore, may be exposed to content that is offensive, indecent or otherwise objectionable. iSkoot will not be liable and hereby disclaims all liability for any type of communication spread by means of the iSkoot Software.
7.4 No Emergency Services. You expressly agree and understand that the iSkoot Software is not intended to support or carry emergency calls to any type of hospital, law enforcement agency, medical care unit or any other kind of emergency service. iSkoot, its Affiliates or iSkoot Staff are in no way liable and hereby disclaim all liability for such emergency calls.
7.5 Lawful Purposes. You acknowledge and agree to use the iSkoot Software solely for lawful purposes. In this respect You may not, without limitation (a) intercept or monitor, damage or modify any communication which is not intended for You, (b) use any type of spider, virus, worm, trojan-horse, time bomb or any other codes or instructions that are designed to distort, delete, damage or disassemble the iSkoot Software or the communication, or (c) send any unsolicited commercial communication not permitted by applicable law.
ARTICLE 8. TERM AND (CONSEQUENCES OF) TERMINATION
8.1 Term. This Agreement will be effective as of the Effective Date and will remain effective until terminated by either iSkoot or You as set forth below.
8.2 Termination by iSkoot. iSkoot may terminate this Agreement with immediate effect at any time, with or without cause and without recourse to courts, by providing notice to You and/or by preventing Your access to the iSkoot Software, as set forth in Article 2.5 above.
8.3 Termination by You. You may terminate this Agreement with immediate effect at any time, with or without cause and without recourse to the courts, provided that You meet with the conditions as set forth in Article 8.4 below.
8.4 Consequences of Termination. Upon termination of this Agreement, You (a) acknowledge and agree that all licenses and rights to use the iSkoot Software shall terminate, and (b) will cease any and all use of the iSkoot Software, and (c) will remove the iSkoot Software from all hard drives, networks, mobile phone and other storage media and destroy all copies of the iSkoot Software in Your possession or under Your control.
8.5 No Liability. iSkoot will not be liable in relation to, and hereby disclaims all liability for, any direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damage caused by the termination of this Agreement.
ARTICLE 9. YOUR REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES; INDEMNIFICATION OF ISKOOT 9.1 Representations. You represent and warrant that You are authorized to enter into this Agreement and comply with its terms. Furthermore, You represent and warrant that You will at any and all times comply with Your obligations hereunder, as well as any and all laws, regulations and policies that may apply to the use of the iSkoot Software. 9.2 Indemnification. You agree to indemnify, defend and hold iSkoot, its Affiliates and the iSkoot Staff harmless from and against any and all liability and costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees incurred by said parties, in connection with or arising out of Your (a) violation or breach of any term of this Agreement or any applicable law, regulation, policy or guideline, whether or not referenced herein, or (b) violation of any rights of any third party, or (c) use or misuse of the iSkoot Software, or (d) communication spread by means of the iSkoot Software.
ARTICLE 10. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
10.1 No Warranties. THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITH NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER AND ISKOOT DOES NOT MAKE ANY WARRANTIES, CLAIMS OR REPRESENTATIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE EITHER EXPRESSED, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR USE OR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. ISKOOT FURTHER DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE WILL ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE, ACCESSIBLE, UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, ACCURATE, COMPLETE AND ERROR/BUG-FREE OR WILL OPERATE WITHOUT PACKET LOSS, NOR DOES ISKOOT WARRANT ANY CONNECTION TO OR TRANSMISSION FROM ANY WIRELESS NETWORK OR THE INTERNET, OR ANY QUALITY OF CALLS MADE THROUGH THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE.
10.2 Your Own Risk. You acknowledge that the iSkoot Software is a beta product and has not been tested in the public market and may contain bugs or defects. You further acknowledge and agree that the entire risk arising out of the use or performance of the iSkoot Software remains with You, to the maximum extent permitted by law. You shall have the sole responsibility for adequate protection and back-up of any data used, created, received, or transmitted in connection with the testing of the iSkoot Software.
10.3 Jurisdiction’s Limitations. As some jurisdictions do not allow some of the exclusions or limitations as set forth above, some of these exclusions or limitations may not apply to You.
ARTICLE 11. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
11.1 No Liability. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT ISKOOT, ITS AFFILIATES AND THE ISKOOT STAFF WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY IN CONNECTION WITH OR ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE. IN NO EVENT SHALL ISKOOT, ITS AFFILIATES OR THE ISKOOT STAFF BE LIABLE, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, WARRANTY, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), PRODUCT LIABILITY OR ANY OTHER FORM OF LIABILITY, FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY LOSS OF DATA, INTERRUPTION, COMPUTER FAILURE OR PECUNIARY LOSS) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE, WHETHER OR NOT FORESEEABLE, EVEN IF ISKOOT, ITS AFFILIATES OR THE ISKOOT STAFF HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
11.2 Remedy. YOUR ONLY RIGHT OR REMEDY WITH RESPECT TO ANY PROBLEMS OR DISSATISFACTION WITH THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE IS TO DEINSTALL AND CEASE USE OF SUCH ISKOOT SOFTWARE.
11.3 Jurisdiction’s Limitations. As some jurisdictions do not allow some of the exclusions or limitations as set forth above, some of these exclusions or limitations may not apply to You.
ARTICLE 12. GENERAL PROVISIONS
12.1 Survival. Articles 2.2, 2.3, 2.7, 4, 6, 8.4, 8.5, 9, 10, 11 and 12 shall survive termination or expiration of this Agreement.
12.2 New Versions of the Agreement. iSkoot reserves the right to modify this Agreement at any time by providing such revised Agreement to You or by publishing the revised Agreement on the iSkoot Website. Your continued use of the iSkoot Software shall constitute Your acceptance to be bound by the terms and conditions of the revised Agreement.
12.3 Entire Agreement. The terms and conditions of this Agreement constitute the entire agreement between You and iSkoot with respect to the subject matter hereof and will supersede and replace all prior understandings and agreements, in whatever form, regarding the subject matter.
12.4 Partial Invalidity. Should any term or provision hereof be deemed invalid, void or enforceable either in its entirety or in a particular application, the remainder of this Agreement shall nonetheless remain in full force and effect.
12.5 No Waiver. The failure of iSkoot at any time or times to require performance of any provisions hereof shall in no manner affect its right at a later time to enforce the same unless the same is explicitly waived in writing and signed by iSkoot.
12.6 No Assignment by You. You are not allowed to assign this Agreement or any rights hereunder.
12.7 Assignment by iSkoot. iSkoot is allowed to at its sole discretion assign this Agreement or any rights hereunder to any third party, without giving prior notice.
12.8 Applicable Law. This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, U.S.A. without giving effect to the conflict of laws provisions thereof, regardless of Your actual state or country of residence.
12.9 Competent Court. Any legal proceedings arising out of or relating to this Agreement will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, U.S.A.

YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT AND UNDERSTAND THE RIGHTS, OBLIGATIONS, TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET FORTH HEREIN. BY CLICKING ON THE ACCEPT BUTTON AND/OR CONTINUING TO INSTALL THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE, YOU EXPRESSLY CONSENT TO BE BOUND BY THE FOREGOING TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND GRANT TO ISKOOT THE RIGHTS SET FORTH HEREIN.
© 2006 iSkoot Inc.

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 03:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Timbuktu by Netopia is one of the real serious professional IT manager’s friends. It allows them to remotely access PC’s and Mac’s (cross-platform) around the world, fix them, upgrade them etc. Still sometimes it would be nice it you didn’t need all that “tunneling and firewall management” that scares off the less technically inclined. Particularly in remote locations and where you need an easy way to set it up.

Timbuktu saw Skype and asked themselves if they could simplify remote access between users PC’s. At the same time could they actually add to the security already inherent in the product and get something more. They have found 1) an added security angle, and 2) simplifying integrated communications with Skype, 3) adding presence info to a remote management app.

Richard Baker and Evan Robertson took me through an online demo. It was the security factor when used with Skype that really impressed me with this version of Timbuktu Pro. Then the ability for it to work across platform is a big plus for many IT managers. Then if you are required to keep people up and running around the world what system can you use that doesn’t go via some central server (eg Go to My PC.)?

Timbuktu Pro on my desktop with Skype Tab.  Link to their info page.

Timbuktu Pro enables you to share desktops, enable remote access, exchange files etc. If you have it on your home machine and work machines then you can remotely access your PC and even ensure that the screen stays blank and the keyboard is locked while you do it. Note this does require it to be installed on both PC’s.

So how do they use Skype in the mix?

Thus this is one of the first Skype Ap2Ap solutions I’ve seen that is really using the benefits of connecting via Skype. Timbuktu connects via Skype API and then manages the data connection the same way that Skype manages File transfers. Thus all encrypted.

This is a key point for an IT manager is there is no man in the middle. I had just this query the other day when a reader who was looking at installing Skype was interested in Unyte as a potential remote management solution. From his perspective the screen sharing and remote control capability wasn’t secure enough. It might be okay to get someone up and running but they were interested in something much more secure.

With Skype and then Timbuktu installed it then immediately loaded my buddies and I right clicked on my new Timbuktu buddy Richard to start sharing. The screen loaded, not instantaneously, with a slight delay. He was on a Wi-Fi connection while mine is a cable modem. I watched him load presentation etc. .I also watched him remotely access his other PC which I got a look at too. 

Richard's desktop with blurring added to the screen capture.

Thus it passed the initial tests. I plan on testing it further with Bill and we may make some comparisons with some of the other sharing apps on synch speeds.

There is also a wonderful viral Marketing lesson in this too for Timbuktu sucks in all your contacts and identifies which one already have Timbuktu. Thus there is power in the network. Skype could learn from this in terms of developing their plug-in architecture. It is certainly important for programs that become more valuable as others install it. Plus if  you are designing a gaming Ap2Ap solution then you should pay some attention to this solution.

Summary, so what do I see? I see a great way to access my home PC from my laptop when on the road. I’m not the IT manager despite what my kids think. You must log in with different Skype accounts to make the connection. However then it is ready to go. That’s my next line of testing and it will give me the opportunity to see what it is like to work with over time.

While clearly a professional grade product which I’m sure many IT managers already use the addition of Skype provides increased functionality and a new option for securely managing a network.  I think it may also provide some IT managers with an incentive to rethink their policies on Skype. Certainly gives them a new way to test it out and add some remote management features.

Great work Timbuktu!

While this product is not Skype certified I don’t see that as a problem. In fact many products will emerge like this that simply aren’t presented for certification. Timbuktu certainly won’t want to start paying a royalty on all their products.

I’d also suggest this product could spur Netopia on to a range of products that till now were perhaps out of the question and not part of their market focus. These might include:

1) A Skype product that strips out some of the features, Just basic set for Skype only use.

2) What they’ve begun to master in the Skype contact list management and the secure Ap2Ap utilization could extent to other applications. Web conferencing would be but one example.

Thanks Netopia for adding to my list of Skype case studies and examples on why every company should be thinking about both their VoIP and Skype strategies.

 See the full PR Release

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)

Intel and Skype in hot water?
AMD is also curious about this and has now subpoenaed Skype as part of their ongoing anti-trust case against Intel. AMD claims that there's no reason Skype's software shouldn't be fully featured on its own chips and says Intel is using its monopoly position to hinder competition. But what's the reason for Skype/eBay? Reader Simon suggests that that "despite their celebrated number of downloads, perhaps growth isn't what they expected, and they are desperate to claw back some of that huge price tag in the form of Intel marketing dollars." Intel denies that there was any financial incentives at all. Either way, when you find out that a simple chat program needs dual-core chips, it makes you wonder just what is going on under the covers. Techdirt

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 04:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Apple's "digital living room" follows the money of passive media consumption (iPods and iTunes) instead of Apple's traditional role of enabling expression through content creation. We spend more time reading than writing, listening to radio than podcasting, watching TV than shooting and producing video. So Apple's just following human behavior, and the money.

I'm disappointed, though. I've always prized the culture of the Mac for emphasizing creativity, artistry, action and collaboration, at work, school, public service and the arts. That spirit attracted me to blogging in 1998 and to Skype in 2003. Giving people tools to express themselves and to connect with one another ennobles us all. It decentralizes power and makes our world civilization less fragile.

As Apple conditions the channel surfing reflexes of iPodders, are we losing something?

Posted by Phil Wolff at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm a fan of the Get Human consumer movement. You should be too. Should computers answer your company's support lines? Get Human advocates returning the choice about whether to talk to a person or a machine back in the hands of your customers. Power is more decentralized in our support economy and enterprise telecom planners can help call centers ride that wave.

One way is to support the many channels people use (prefer, choose) to converse. Skype is one way. Are you able to take customer sales and customer service calls from Skype users?

A quick FAQ:

Q. Are enough people using consumer VoIP to make this worthwhile?

A. About 70 million Skypers use Skype for voice calls, according to the company. This number is concentrated among those with access to broadband and all of them are regular computer users. Watch this number grow in the United States and Canada as eBay introduces Skype to its largely North American customers. (19 billion minutes served)

Q. I have my phone system integrated with call center software. Will Skype work with it?

A. I haven't looked at your system, but there's every reason to believe it could. Skype's desktop API tells programmers how to do things like tell Skype to answer a call, make one, record it, lookup a contact, pass caller-ID to another program, etc. Because Skype is multimodal (chat, voice, video) Skype has excellent logs.

Q. We're a financial institution and are nuts about security. Can we Skype?

A. So is Skype, and every conversation is encrypted end-to-end. That's more than you can say for regular phones, email, fax or any other system you use now to talk with your customers. And it is automatic, in the background, and painless.  

Q. Can many people answer one Skype number?

A. Yes, but it can be a little tricky. Until Skype introduces their business products you'll have to engineer to make it work.  

Q. Skypeskypeskypeskype. What about all the other products out there?

A. Skype is not just best of breed today, it is the one with the largest number of voice users (the driving factor) and the most sophisticated tools for programmers (the necessary condition). That may change: Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, and AOL have strong product teams working hard to catch up. Today, you can't beat Skype for customer-facing applications.   

Q. How will people know to call our Skype number? 

A. Tell them.

• People can click from your web page into a call to the right department using Skype html tags and web buttons.
• Describe your customer service office in your Skype profile, so people find you when they search the Skype directory.
• Put your customer service Skype name in your marketing collateral just the way you added email addresses and web sites in the 1990s.
• Create a Skype download page for your customers, supporting their ability to talk with you and each other. 

Millions of small business people use Skype to stay in touch with customers, clients, colleagues, and other partners. It's simple.

Bigger teams will want the corporate IT touch. Professional call center integration will include identity management, enterprise directory integration, access control, presence syndication, user provisioning, automation of SkypeIn and SkypeOut credit procurement, call accounting and log analysis, software configuration, not to mention validating new capabilities against your corporate HR, security, privacy, and other compliance policies.

Despite the potential complexities, I've seen a team deploy a SkypeIn number, roll-out the software, write simple procedures, and staff it 24/7 in one day. Your milage may vary.

That the Conversation 3.0 and the Get Human revolutions are happening at the same time is no coincidence. Both empower individuals to take control of their conversations, their relationships, their time, and their money. I can't think of a better time to step up to a pilot project.   

Note: this is an area where the Skype Journal consulting team provides professional services. The tone came off as more salesy and evangelical than I intended, but it's on point, I think.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBacks (0)

Ether closed beta launched today with the promise that you can earn money selling what you say. Ether provides a phone number from which you can set your availablity and only rings when people are prepared to talk to you. From $ and cents per minute up to hourly rates. The detailed "How it works!" spells out the important details like commissions (10% beta, 15% planned). The same payment system lets you charge for other content or advice by email.

Where will Ether turn up? Reading the pages of their new website I think they are hoping on blogs and around other professional services. Perhaps we will see it on Craigslist or even eBay? What's missing? I think both a community and the ability to tag your experiences. There is no profiling capability here. I can see an easy RSS set of feeds that could be created based on tags that highlight who is available and topic. Every new flash of availablity would update the RSS feed.

The Ether Founders are actually Ingenio, (about) which has successfully run the Keen site for many years. I've copied Scott Farber's vision in below. Probably worth reading his story. Go to Ether to find out more.

Ether's vision as written by Scott Farber:

The Past Ten Years: Empowered Individuals A decade ago something amazing happened: ordinary people were handed tools that allowed them to "bypass the middleman" and go into business for themselves online. Ten years and one e-commerce revolution later, more than a half-million people now make their living by selling "things" on the web – everything from baseball cards to diamond rings to that rusty trumpet in the attic. For the first time in human history, a carpet weaver in Honduras can now sell her wares directly to a home-owner in New Hampshire.

So why can't a business accountant in New Hampshire sell his knowledge directly to that newly prosperous Honduran carpet weaver? What about the things we have to say; the wisdom, advice, and insights all of us have accumulated over a lifetime? The surge of blogging over the past few years – over 50 million blogs, a new one created every second – has revealed a vast pool of expression and knowledge that for the most part has yet to find a proper commercial outlet. The sale of insights and expertise – the service economy – is actually bigger than the physical-goods market. So why haven't we yet seen it blossom online?

The answer is that the tools to sell services online are more complex than the tools to sell things. To deliver computer help, tax advice, diet tips or wine recommendations, you have to talk with your customers, which still isn't so easy over the Web. You could put your phone number online, but then you'd get calls at all hours from all kinds of people, some with no intention of paying you, and you'd lack the ability to easily collect payment even from real customers. Ideally there'd be a way to only receive calls from paying customers during the hours you choose, with a billing system that automatically collects payment for the time you spend talking.
Enter Ether
Ether is the key to the next step in online commerce. Using a seamless combination of the web and the telephone, we enable anyone with something valuable to say to sell their services online. Most importantly, Ether provides a phone number with a rate you can set for people to pay to talk to you. Your phone only rings when you're earning money, and only during the hours you choose. Ether also provides all the online tools you need to sell your digital content – written documents, photographs, tax returns, videos, podcasts. Anyone can now sell what they have to say – on their website, blog, business card, radio show, or wherever customers for their services may be found.
The Next Ten Years: Alive and Aloud
What will the online services economy look like? If the past is any guide, people will use our tools to sell pretty much everything. Geeks will sell computer help from their dorm rooms for $20 per phone call. Specialty bloggers will sell in-depth reports for $50 per document. Nutritionists will counsel distant clients for $80 per 50-minute phone session. The web will come alive and aloud, with anyone who has something valuable to say able to sell it to the person in the world who most needs it right now.

And since, unlike physical goods, services can be transmitted digitally, knowledge can and will be bought and sold by buyers and sellers on opposite sides of the world. A Manhattan therapist working in the morning will counsel an Australian housewife who's having an anxiety attack in the middle of the night. A Bangladeshi math major will tutor a London schoolchild. And yes, that New Hampshire accountant will help balance the books of that newly prosperous Honduran carpet-weaver – though they might need to conference in a Spanish-English translator for 25 cents per minute.

And Ether's current offerings are just the first step – the tools we offer to sell what you say will only get better. Soon you'll have video tools to offer face-to-face conversations. You'll even be able to service many people at a time. A motivational speaker could offer a lecture to 100 people at once. A tour guide in China could take Chicago schoolkids on a video tour of the Great Wall, and they could direct him where to walk: "Look up to the left and zoom in on that tower." Who wants to give a one-minute pep talk to that Red Sox pitcher between the eighth and ninth innings? Announce it before the commercial break and hold an instant online charity auction to determine which superfan's phone will ring.
It's About Time
In this emerging world of online services, the key drivers become intellectual capital – what you have to say – and time. At the end of the day, time seems to be the most valuable "thing" of them all. Finally there's a way to value it – literally. You can sell it when you want and any which way you want: one-to-one, one-to-many, one-to-the-highest-bidder, even in recorded form. Where you're from or who you know won't matter – just what you know. A master carpenter retired in Florida will be able to monetize decades of wisdom by offering house-building advice whenever the phone rings – and do so from his fishing boat in Key Biscayne. You can be a parent at home with three kids and still offer what you have to say. And it'll be judged not by your boss but by your customers, because you'll be, after all, your own boss.

So what do you say? Offer it out into the ether.

Scott Faber
Creator, Ether

Posted by Stuart Henshall at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)