Lenn came to Skype from Microsoft to build up Skype's developer relations program, a program so troubled Skype Journal gave it a nearly failing grade last July. All of the issues have been addressed, most of them dramatically improved under Lenn's stewardship. That's impressive given Skype's internal changes, the eBay buyout, and the relocation from Seattle to London.

Lenn blogged he will move to California to work on eBay's mobile commerce. Expecting great things (especially if Skype mobile reaches the US market). See you at Mobile Monday, Lenn. And welcome home to all the Pryors.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's not news that Skype reports outages and problems. Those reports, scattered through its many blogs and forums, were hard to find. Bill Campbell wrote earlier about Skype's new Heartbeat page. Bringing announcements and status together on one page is excellent for users and for Skype's partners. Good job!

It isn't nearly enough, though. Here's what else I'd like to see:

Alerts of outages and problems. Push your news to people who ask for it. Let us subscribe via via email, RSS and SMS.

Status the clients. You're reporting on the infrastructure, but the software itself should get the same treatment. Perhaps you can share measures of health like:

• customer trouble tickets per capita over the last 14 days (trending up or down)
  
• number of known severe bugs in the latest release
  
• pie chart showing estimated number of active users for all versions and platforms
• days since last release and the official latest release number for each platform
• upgrade importance rating for each release - nice to have, get it if you have problems, drop everything and upgrade now
  

External Threat Warnings. Skype runs on an Internet that is sometimes broken, congested, intermittent, lossy, obstructed, slow or otherwise imperfect. Report the "Internet weather" by region. My favorite presentation is the Internet Traffic Report.

Hostile Territory Warnings. Many countries issue warnings before you travel to an epidemic or a war zone. Skype should list governments, ISPs and telcos blocking Skype.com or downgrading Skype traffic. Give Skypers a single place to look and clarity about their situation. The reported institutions might be offered the opportunity to comment and share their official positions, communicating with Skypers they serve, and a venue for hearing from their customers.

Internal Stress Factors. The Skype cloud (how all of us find each other) depends on having enough supernodes (Skype clients outside a firewall that help the cloud do its job) in the right place at the right time on systems powerful enough to do a supernode's job. It shouldn't be hard to map places where supernode service is in short supply at this hour, resulting in slower propagation of IM, longer connect times, etc. It might correct user expectations at bad times. Don't just report a system is healthy or dead; show the causal factors, history and your near term predictions so members of the Skype ecosystem can pitch in to improve things. For example, if the country of Skypestan was experiencing a shortage, a local company using Skype might choose to float twenty instances of Skype outside their firewall.

Nitpicks:

Nit 1. I'd love a legend explaining the various hearts, their messages. For example, what does "working normally" mean for Peer-to-peer network core? What is the p2p network core?

Nit 2. Provide links near the top of the page where people can take action: the appropriate Skype forum to discuss a situation, email or skype numbers for reporting new issues, the bugbase, help ticket form, etc.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 06:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I guess when the fourth person contacts you for your reaction to the week's network neutrality voting in the US, it's time to say something about it.

For newcomers, my reasoning why Network Neutrality is a last resort at fighting duopoly rent seeking can be found here. I won't repeat it.

Let me re-iterate something I said back in 2004:

Over time, the architecture of the telecom system will resemble the political system around it.

The AT&T (as opposed to at&t) years reflected the military-industrial era. A "commanding height" of the Cold War was the flow of information, and just like the interstate highways. AT&T was as much a creature of the government as rational free-market economics. The break-up of AT&T as well as the 1996 act both chose to cleave the industry across the connectivity grain rather than with it. The current situation was 30 years in the making. As I rather undiplomatically stated, it's a uniquely American mess that can only be solved by a uniquely American solution.

But it's really much deeper than that. From my shallow knowledge of American history, and short exposure to American culure, I've come to the following (probably widely unwelcome and possibly wildy wrong) conclusions. Network Neutrality is just a digital-era manifestation of much longer-running sores within the American political system and psyche.

• The outcome of the Civil War was that everyone lost. No winners, not even a draw. One side lost its soul, and the other its honour. It set the stage for a fundamental change from the United States to the United State.
• The Seventeenth Amendment upset the carefully-crafted balance of power between the public, states, federal government (executive), legislature and judiciary. The US is a four-legged constitutional stool that the public is sat upon. (This may explain why it is one of -- debatably, the -- longest continuously established democracy). But it's now an uncomfortably wobbly stool.
• This set the stage for an immediate assault on personal freedom, which continues today in other forms. Competing jurisdictions would have ensured the migration of ethanolics and psychedelics to happier places.
• The same over-reaching federal state also encroached into a whole bunch of other areas it would best have been kept away from, notably communications policy.
• The rest, as they say, is history.

I can't but help enjoy the irony of the often statist/corporatist/collectivist European Union being a paragon of devolved government, competing regulatory regimes and voluntary cross-border cooperation compared to the centrally planned US communications economy.

If the FCC were tossed onto the scrap heap, and those powers returned to the states, my American friends would find that the Network Neutrality issue would rapidly cease to have any political significance. By making the prizes of Federal Telecom Lotto so big, the temptation to fiddle with the rules of the game has become overwhelming.

Anyone fancy some salty tea?

PS - Next overtly political Telepocalypse post: March 2009. I promise to keep my libertarian ways quiet until then. (Note that does mean I don't fit into US Dem/Rep political stereotypes.)
PPS - I'll probably offend lots of people, but the short version is "Nice country, great people, shame about the government." (For the UK, it's "Nice people, great country, shame about the government", and Italy is "Great people, great country, what government?" Only kidding! Calm down!)
PPPS - Comments are open ;) Set status to "published" and be damned...

UPDATE: Something many readers won't be aware of is the different ways the US and EU constitutions work. As I understand it, the commerce clause of the US constitution means that if it relates to interstate commerce (and practically everything in a networked globalised economy does), then it "goes federal" by default. In Europe, it's different. The subsidiarity principle means everything should (in theory) be done at the lowest possible level of government. Just because something has an international dimension, it doesn't mean that the EU gets full power over it. And even where the EU legislates, it merely sets out the general requirements and objectives, and each nation translates that into local law. Again, scope is retained for competing implementations and jurisdictions. I'm no fan of the eurocracy, but it's illuminating nonetheless to see the practical consequences of different constitutional frameworks.

UPDATE: That means the EU constitution is "edge-based", and the US one doesn't scale. Oops. Hey, just skip a generation and move straight to anarchism: peer-to-peer contracts, and a state whose only function is to enforce them.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 01:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It is called Heartbeat. Make a short cut. Whenever you have a Skype problem go check out Heartbeat. It will help you diagnose whether the problem is local or global. Very important information to keep your blood pressure normal.

Read more about Heartbeat from Jaanus here.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 07:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Platform neutrality isn't easy or even wise. PayPal achieved its success with eBay buyers and sellers in no small measure because eBay enforced it as the only alternative to cash or credit cards. The market power from that lock-in is one reason Yahoo! was forced to adopt PayPal for its own payment system.

Google Checkout's launch today brings that question to the front again. Is infrastructure lock-in good for eBay The Corporation or for eBay's Community of sellers and buyers? Should eBay let sellers offer the payment systems of their choice?

A developer at the eBay DevCon asked about open architecture. Now that eBay is letting sellers put Skype Me links in their auctions and profiles, shouldn't they also encourage use of rival tools? If eBay's point is to open communication with and sell to Skype's 100 million users, shouldn't they also reach out to those other large communities using the tools those users prefer? The combined users bases of Yahoo! Messenger, AOL, Google Talk, QQ, MSN, and Live Messenger dwarf Skype and would assure nearly every member of the eBay Community would get and receive customer service using their chosen tools. If you promote dialog to support your market, why not go all the way? Wouldn't this be better for both buyers and sellers?

Or does Skype's success with The Community hinge on eBay locking its customers to the company phone system? 

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Jaanus from the Share Skype blog warns about a two month old test version of Skype for Macintosh with video floating around. Buggy as all get out, hurtful, dangerous to your data, etc. Don't touch it and get your Skype software from Skype.com. Hat tip to John Maas.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A long sought after utility. "A Must Have Utility", says the author of Skype Me. Now you can switch between a USB Device and a Audio card or even multiple USB devices. Even in a call. A smple doble-click with your mouse or a short-cut key.

Neil Lindsey, is my Skype beta tester friend in Vancouver, Here is Neil's take:

"Bill, it installs in a blink of an eye. Every Skype user can use this product, and it is free!"

Download it here.

Thank you WiSPA!

Posted by Bill Campbell at 02:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype made a liar of me. It wasn't that I was "Not Available"; I was. Just not to you.

Skype and other IM presence is a broadcast tool, telling the universe how approachable I want you to think I am. But that doesn't work if I have more than one kind of person in my world. I may be available to my family, but not to that pariah of a cousin who I don't speak with at all. I'm available at work, but my chain of command comes first, my team comes second, except that my mentor can get through at any time.

So presence is a blunt tool and I wind up lying, saying I'm not available when I really am, just to fend off strangers for an hour or two of writing. I know I'm not alone.

Lying devalues presence. If we don't trust it, we'll ignore it. and it ceases to inform my choice to call now.

So what can you do about it?

• Lie less. Or at least less often. Hope that colleagues, acquaintances, friends, and strangers guess well.
  
• Fragment your networks. Keep your family on Microsoft Live Messenger and your work on Skype, for example, so your presence is tailored to each group. 
  
• Knock before calling. Start with a "Can you talk" chat. It's polite, and also a presence check. This is like texting someone before chewing up their mobile minutes.
  

What can Skype do about it? Lots, but that's another post.

Technorati Tags: skype, skypejournal, presence, ebay, truth, digitalid, netiquette

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Time for a brief break from our voice communications obsession. As with any blogger, when writing for Skype Journal, I continually seek out tools that facilitate the blogging experience.  Ideally the entry of content, with graphics, should be transparent to the writer. However, while blogging tools make the experience somewhat more transparent, they still have some user interface issues to address. But I diverge.

Our blogging is done via a Moveable Type platform which is well suited to managing and publishing blogs with multiple authors. However, the inherent editor is minimal and requires recalling somewhat more than the basic HTML code experience, especially for inserting graphics. (MT has TypePad for those who want to author at a more transparent level of blog entry) Introduced to Qumana at the Toronto mesh 2006 conference in mid-May, I have found it a very useful aid in providing both a WYSIWYG window as well as a more complete for graphics placement capability. It even does spell checking as you type (à la MS Word). It allows you to build a post offline and save drafts; its Qumana Manager window provides an offline record of all your posts.  Works with all the major blogging tools. Certainly a productivity enhancer; now if they would add a dictionary to the spell checker, I could add "Skype"!

The second tool facilitates web browsing but is especially useful when looking at a page of search results. Browster is an "add-on" for both Internet Explorer and Firefox that lets you preview the page at a link. So I can quickly go through the links on a search result page and get a "snapshot" glimpse at any result without having to open multiple browser windows. Speeds up your search activity and keeps down screen clutter. I never have had a problem with spyware. Now if they could just get it to work in FeedDemon (RSS Reader), it would allow me to more readily keep up with ALL of Scoble's profusion of post links!

Check them out.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last week Microsoft cranked up the hype machine and had lots of people wondering if their announcement today would be something approaching earth shaking.  In the end it turned out to be about the consolidation of several communications related servers, such as Exchange and Live Communications Server, onto on Office Communications Server, available in Q2 2007. It was announced today so that IT and communications managers can start to plan architectures, hardware requirements and budgets for its implementation shortly after availability. Fundamentally it is a server product with clients that could potentially replace PBX's. But at what cost in revamping resources, redefining business processes and defocusing an enterprise's primary business strategy.

Two good posts I have come across:

Alec Saunders has an indepth perspective as both a former Microsoft product manager and a potential competitor to iotum's Relevance Engine. But, as Alec says:

When the announcement came, it was a damp squib. Microsoft will rename Exchange as Communications Server, and add telephony features to Communicator, and other products. It's an integration announcement, as opposed to a dramatic new direction -- a reprise of the 1993 announcement that created Microsoft Office out of Word, Powerpoint, and Excel. Interestingly, this tactic may backfire for them this time around. Today there's much more focus on open standards. The idea that you must buy all of your infrastructure from a single vendor just isn't palatable for many companies today. Certainly, that is the view expressed by TMC's Tom Keating in his coverage of today's announcements.

Tom Keating points out that it is definitely not a consumer play. It is about installing servers into enterprises to serve as the core engine of communications services, provisioning and management. This is reinforced by Allstream's announcement of communications services built around the LCS/Office Communicator System platform.

Consequences for Skype: Skype can continue to proceed to service their 100 million plus users with similar services provided on an open system platform with easy access to selection of services and no IT overhead. (Isn't peer-to-peer technology, eliminating servers, what the future is about?) Skype's Toolbars and API's certainly allow the evolution of the Skype ecosystem in a more spontaneous manner without tying its users to any tight set of business processes. Skype will provide relevant ad hoc access to its voice and chat services in context from within any of several applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint as well as Skype for Outlook and other utility products. Its inherent ease-of-use, flexibility and "have it your way" user interface are much better suited to an amorphous consumer set who likes the freedom to "have it my way".

Recalls the days of introducing PC's into enterprise - where employees would slip PC's into their "personal" business activities, bypassing IBM mainframes except for "corporate" functions. Will Skype be the "stealth" communications carrier in the OCS-activated enterprise?

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 08:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Using Bubbleshare (well, you're all tired of Flickr, right? and it's a local product coming out of the Toronto area), I have finally organized my pics from the eBay/PayPal/Skype Developer's Conference two weeks ago.

Double click on any picture for a larger version and the slide show in a separate window. Enjoy!

This album is powered by BubbleShare

Aplogies for not taking full advantage of BubbleShare and putting words in people's mouths...;-)

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

By Evgeny Gorbarsky Moscow, Russian Federation. Manager of the Russian Skype Forum.

It is always nice to be the first to try out a new product. Recently I tested the Plantronics Voyager 510-USB. The Voyager ™ 510-USB is positioned as the first Bluetooth headset system optimized for VoIP that provides instant wireless connectivity to softphones. Per se, this first Bluetooth solution which does not demand the additional equipment.

I unpacked the box, I found the Voyager ™ 510 earpiece, a small USB adapter and installation CD.

Installation of the adapter takes only seconds. It is plug-and-play also does not demand additional drivers. The Voyager 510-USB PerSono Call Application connects to Skype throught the Skype API. Now it is possible to call. Not bad, I am up and running in less than two minutes.

Quality of a call: a sound clean and well-defined. I think, a user will not distinguish it from wired headset. I could move all around my big room and even walk on some meters down the hall. Toatal distance is about 10 meters from my computer. I really liked the feature of having a notification of an incoming call and being able to answer or end calls remotely via the headset . It is important, when you are not near to a computer.

After making a few test calls, I connected the Voyager to my mobile cell phone. Now I can switch between my mobile phone and Skype by simply pressing a button. It is perfect.

The Voyager 510-USB has a manufacturer suggested retail price of US $199 and will be available in June 2006 through Plantronics' authorized resellers, major e-commerce sites, and www.plantronics.com. The product will also be available in retail stores in early fall.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 07:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

For those of you who only visit Skype Journal via RSS, we've been listing a few other places to read and write about Skype. There's always been Skype's own official forum in English. Two German language sites are very active: Forum - Deutsches and meinSkype.de. For Chinese readers, you must see the 9Skype blog's active comments, SkypeBBS, and SkypeU.com. New this week: the Russian SkypeClub.ru forum. 

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Hasan writes:

Skype Journal claims US-based Skype users can call anywhere in the world free for 30 minutes. Also, keeping with the American obsession with their military, servicemen are being equipped with skype starter paks. Personally, I find this obsession with war sickening, but I am certain that they find my taste in sport equally sickening.

It's a smart move on a few points.

• It's timed just before an American holiday, the U.S. Independence Day, (4 July) when patriotic feelings are stirred up. Hear the marching band as Skype comes to the rescue.
• It's not just for servicemen, but for their families too. Can't you see the families reunited? Heartwarming calls? Kids waving hello to their mothers via Skype video?
• It's a market worth seeding. The military is a vibrant subculture, highly motivated to sustain family connections at distance and concerned about cost. The chance for Skype adoption is high, the cost of a trial is cheap ($100k?). A delightful side effect Skype must hope for: consumer products often find their way into field and office work, especially during wartime.
• One of the interesting things about the design of this promotion is its focus on using human bridges between two social networks, home and field. The home front is highly connected in small, dense networks of family, friends, veterans, and spouse support groups; localized. So best practices spread naturally within a local community. The field mixes people from multiple home-locations. They share news and new skills from home, spreading knowledge that finds its way back to other home-front locations.
• The U.S. Federal government directly employs about two million civilians, excluding the postal system. The number of people who work indirectly is estimated at 20 million. So this promotion is just a foot in the door.
• This promotion supports Skype's distribution channel by bringing 40,000 new customers into Radio Shack.

Sharing knowledge by word of mouth is a survival trait among military dependents. If Skype finds any uptake, even a little, it could well go viral.

Marketing to military families is not only a U.S. thing; if it works there, the same human drives could make it work in military subcultures around the globe.

Press contacts

Deanna Zemke, Kaplow Communications for Skype, 212.221.1713, skype@kaplowpr.com

SKYPE WORKING WITH RADIOSHACK AND THE VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS TO HELP CONNECT MILITARY FAMILIES

(June 21, 2006, SAN JOSE, Calif.) -- Skype®, the global Internet communications company, announced today that it is working with both RadioShack Corporation and the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States to provide U.S. servicemembers and their families with Skype™ starter packs, so they can make voice calls at no charge from one Skype account to another, anywhere in the world where computers have broadband Internet connections.

From June 18 through July 1, 2006, military personnel and their family members who purchase Skype starter packs at participating neighborhood RadioShack stores, or online at RadioShack.com, are eligible for full purchase-price refunds after both instant and mail-in rebates with proof of their military status. Complete terms and conditions of the offer are available in stores or online.

In addition, 40,000 U.S. servicemembers across the nation as well as those stationed in Korea and Germany will receive free Skype starter packs via a distribution program administered by the Veterans of Foreign Wars beginning in June 2006.

"We recognize how critical it is for military families to have a cost-efficient, convenient way to stay in touch with loved ones," said Henry Gomez, Skype's North America general manager. "We've heard from military families who use Skype, and we're pleased to help even more families connect."

Skype starter packs include microphone-enabled computer headsets that allow people with Skype software on their computers to communicate via broadband Internet connections. Calls between Skype users are always free. Calls from Skype users to traditional phone lines overseas incur low global rates, as little as two cents a minute. The starter packs include free 30-minute calling cards to fund such calls.

Anyone can download Skype software at no charge from Skype.com.

"Communication is the best morale booster for anyone who has ever been deployed," said Jim Mueller, VFW national commander. "It is fantastic that Skype is helping expand the VFW's ability to provide connection time to deployed servicemen and women."

About Skype

Skype is the world's fastest-growing Internet communication offering, allowing people everywhere to make unlimited voice and video communication for free between the users of Skype software. Skype is available in 27 languages and is used in almost every country around the world. Skype generates revenue through its premium offerings such as making and receiving calls to and from landline and mobile phones, voicemail, call forwarding and personalization including ringtones and avatars. Skype also has relationships with a growing network of hardware and software providers.

Skype is an eBay company (Nasdaq: EBAY). To learn more visit skype.com.

Skype is not a replacement for your ordinary telephone and cannot be used for emergency calling.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 04:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype on your razr?
incompatible today.
SoonR might do it.

Net neutrality
astroturfed, lobbied and shelved
telcos win again

fcc taxes Vonage
maybe SkypeOut too
Save the Internet!

pick friends well, Yahoo!
AT&T messenger
now with NSA

Supernova word:
people Curate their passions
a new meme rises

Calls in US free
June promo: call the world free.
Skype teases America

Censor carefully:
Global Online Freedom Act.
Do you read Chinese?

Packard-Bell laptop
push keyboard to call
or answer the phone

Phishing in Skypeland
Suckers waiting to be fleeced
Study the handbook

Posted by Phil Wolff at 08:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

Technorati Tags: politics, activism, netneutrality, askaninja, ninja, rights, ebay, skype, skypejournal, freedom, access

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The xing conference phone features four-way surround sound microphones. It is compatible with either a PC or Mac picking up voice from 5 meter (15 foot) radius. So you can walk around the room, work with a white board or a PowerPoint. In comfort; unconstrained.

Price point is $149.99 with an IPEVO online special at $129.99.

It comes bundled with with Convenos Meeting Center and a free 14-day trial offer of this web-based conferencing and collaboration software. Ships next week.

I will be testing this product in our labs, so check back in a few days to find out how fast it goes. I suspect it will match the usual supurb quality of the other IPEVO products. I see that it uses 16 KHz audio sampling so it will match Skype byte for byte on sound quality.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 08:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Seems like there are several Skype-related stories out this week:

Andy at VoIP Watch, in a post entitled Skype Giving More Away, has commented on the SkypeOut Internationl calling promotion that Bill brought to our attention yesterday.

In my view this Skype is acting more and more like a real phone company, using promotions such as this, which is clearly sampling. In many ways this is much like the old MCI or Sprint switch campaigns that did battle with AT&T in the pre-divestiture and post divestiture era of the 1980's.

PC Magazine has a report on security threats in 15 of the most popular software applications, including Skype. Bottom line: keep your software updated and you'll minimize these threats. Many, such as Windows and Smyantec's Norton products, incorporate an automatic update feature. While Skype has improved their update process in Skype 2.5, it is still not an "automatic". Given they are going after a broader consumer market, let's hope they get there in a future release. (Bill advised getting this upgrade a month ago in a post immediately after its release.)

Skype for Couch Potatoes? Om dug out Skype, Now on Your TV, commenting on Oregon Networks' settop media browser "which allows information such as Skype's in-coming caller ID and message alerts to be displayed on the television screen ". Looks like a feature that should be into TiVo as an option.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose! (The more things change, the more they stay the same.) Andy's post, We Too, We Also, We Copy, brings back memories of my days with a formerly major utility software company where we always had to be super-careful about discussing new products with Microsoft personnel. Hopefully Scoble's legacy of humanizing the people behind Microsoft and, by implication, putting out a more favorable public perception of Microsoft, has not withered away just as he is departing for a new venture. Only time will tell if Microsoft's new offering competes with or complements iotum's Relevance Engine. (And congratulations to iotum on winning another award.)

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 02:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Over the years your Skype contacts list will grow and grow. Mine is over 500 now. And that's after constant pruning. A long list of contacts makes it difficult and frustrating to scroll to find a contact. Even if you use Grouping (I gave up on Grouping Contacts).

If you happen to be one of the ten million Skype Users who are red-green colour-blind (like I am) you will find this function absolutely invaluable.

Now I just use the Search function. Works like this--

I need to find Sharon's SkypeOut number.

In the "Flag Field" at the bottom of the Skype Client I start typing in, "Shar... " a "Looking for... Shar" tab opens up (see the top arrow in the screen shot) It lists all contacts with the contiguous letters "shar". I double click the entry I want and Sharon's landline rings.

It is a nice feature, but you need to turn it on. Here is how--

Go to Skype>Tools>Options>Advanced

Tick the box for "Enable Contact List and History quick filtering"

Notice quick filtering for History is also included in this feature. Go play with it. You will love it.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 07:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The eBay Live press room computers featured a version of Skype just for eBay users, release 2.0.41.107, no beta version yet. Its eBay tab is new, and points to the same kind of eBay-via-browser-in-rich-client experience you can find in Windows Live Messenger, Google Desktop, and AT&T Yahoo! Messenger with Voice Beta (version 8). This Skype client for Windows is just available from the eBay site, not yet part of the standard distribution.

Can you tell who put out this blurb?

eBay Plug-In: The eBay plug-in gives people direct and timely access to the eBay marketplace. It provides the ability to track watched eBay listings, monitor bidding activity, and view items recently won. People can effortlessly stay on top of all their eBay activity from within [insert downloaded software here]. The eBay plug-in was developed using eBay's open APIs through the eBay Developers Program.

From a Yahoo! news release, but it describes pretty much what everyone else is doing. Mashups across sites, using multiple APIs to deliver services through rich clients. So Web 2.0.

You know the difference between Skype and all the rest? The rest have open plug-in architectures including support for web apps and web protocols. And Skype doesn't. It's almost a year since Skype promised such support, so we take renewals of those vows with a huge grain of salt.

eBay likes to deploy in small, measured steps, adjusting along the way. Let us know what you think.

Technorati Tags: skype, skypejournal, api, plugins, plugin, technology, architecture, tab, tabs, ebay, paypal

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype made waves around the world last month with a free offer to North Americans. Free SkypeOut calls intracontinental. Now this:

Skype is offering its U.S.-based users one hour of free international calling to landline phones in 30 countries around the world. Until June 30, 2006, U.S.-based Skype users new to SkypeOut™, can make up to 60 minutes of free calls to landline phones in countries including Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

And that free offer was backed by yet another:

Skype is working with both RadioShack Corporation and the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States to provide U.S. service members and their families with Skype™ starter packs, so they can make voice calls at no charge from one Skype account to another, anywhere in the world where computers have broadband Internet connections.

Do you believe this free stuff will turn America's crank? Will the richest country in the world get excited over a $1.20?

News release:

U.S. Skype Users New to SkypeOut Can Make One-Hour Free International Phone Calls to 30 Countries Worldwide

21.06.2006 12:00:00

Skype(R), the global Internet communications company, isoffering its U.S.-based users one hour of free international callingto landline phones in 30 countries around the world. Until June 30,2006, U.S.-based Skype users new to SkypeOut(TM), a product thatallows Skype users to make calls from their PCs to any external phoneline, can make up to 60 minutes of free calls to landline phones incountries including Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexicoand the United Kingdom.

The offer comes one month after the company announced that U.S.and Canadian-based Skype customers can make free SkypeOut calls to anylandline or mobile phones in the U.S. or Canada until the end of theyear. Previously, Skype users in both countries were required to payfor Skype calls from their PCs to traditional telephones.

"With free calling within the United States and Canada until theend of the year, and one hour of free international calling until theend of the month, we are making it incredibly convenient for our U.S.Skype users to keep in touch with friends, family and businessassociates," said Henry Gomez, general manager, Skype North America.

As part of the company's activities to solidify Skype's positionas the Internet's voice communication tool of choice, Skype has planslater this summer to offer its U.S.-based users free internationalcalling periods to select countries.

As of today, all existing U.S.-based users who are new to SkypeOutand opt-in to receive Skype emails will receive an email when they logonto Skype. The email contains a link that users click to redeem 60minutes of free international calling using SkypeOut. Users can thenstart making free international calls to 30 countries immediately.

The full list of countries included in the promotion:

1. Argentina

2. Australia

3. Austria

4. Belgium

5. Canada

6. Chile

7. China

8. Denmark

9. Estonia

10. France

11. Germany

12. Greece

13. Hong-Kong

14. Ireland

15. Italy

16. Korea

17. Mexico

18. Netherlands

19. New Zealand

20. Norway

21. Poland

22. Portugal

23. Russia

24. Singapore

25. Spain

26. Sweden

27. Switzerland

28. Taiwan

29. United States

30. United Kingdom

Skype users will also now have the chance to benefit from Skype'spremium products and online calling capabilities. Some of theseproducts include sending SMS messages to mobile phones, purchasingring tones or buying a picture to personalize their Skype profile.

About Skype

Skype is the world's fastest-growing Internet communicationoffering, allowing people everywhere to make unlimited voice and videocommunication for free between the users of Skype software. Skype isavailable in 27 languages and is used in almost every country aroundthe world. Skype generates revenue through its premium offerings suchas making and receiving calls to and from landline and mobile phones,as well as voicemail and call forwarding. Skype also has relationshipswith a growing network of hardware and software providers. Skype is aneBay company (Nasdaq:EBAY). To learn more visit skype.com.

Skype is not a replacement for your ordinary telephone and cannot be used for emergency calling.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 11:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (1)

When my daughter started up her new MacBook Pro a couple of months ago, the most impressive feature was the embedded iSight webcam. When you first create user profiles, capturing a picture of the user is one of the first questions that pops up. I have said previously that Skype is not fully supportive of the Mac line until they come out with a version 2.x of Skype for Mac OS X with full video support; they are currently at version 1.4.0.49.

Well, it should be no surprise that a second Wintel PC vendor has finally come out with a webcam-embedded laptop.  However, in order to ensure full communications functionality combined with hardware simplicity, the newly announced Packard Bell EasyNote Skype Edition incorporates a one-touch Skype calling button located next to the integrated webcam..  From the press release:

The Skype calling button is located next to the integrated webcam on the upper bevel of the 14-inch widescreen display. By pressing the button the user can answer incoming calls or open the Skype application to make a call. The notebook was also designed to be optimized with Intel dual-core processors. The EasyNote Skype Edition features built-in broadband and wireless connectivity, and an original Packard Bell design. Pre-loaded Skype software and the Skype button are just a couple of the many features available on this innovative notebook.

Availability in European retailers will commence in August and vary on a country-by-country basis.

An interesting development. Can a similar Dell laptop be in the future, given the recent announcement of a Dell-Skype partnership to load Skype software onto two new Dell laptop models with an integrated webcam? Will your laptop become your (portable) desktop phone of the future?

In the meantime, it's "Lights, Packard Bell EasyNote, Skype, Action"!

Update June 22: Added Skype button picture above. Janus has provided more pictures here.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Peter Kalmström, Program Manager for Skype Toolbars, demonstrated several new (and forthcoming) features in the Skype Toolbar Suite to me during an interview at the eBay DevCon. The Skype Toolbar Suite includes Skype Email Toolbar; Skype Web Toolbar (Internet Explorer, Firefox) and the recently released Skype Office Toolbar.

As an overall philosophy in designing toolbars, Peter says their objective is to "make toolbars contextual". For instance, make it easy to initiate any Skype-related action from any phone number recognized in Outlook (Contacts and Email Messages), websites or Office documents. Several other examples, including contextual PayPal integration, came out in the course of the interview. Alec Saunders commented today on the importance of context awareness:

... I believe that context awareness is a critical element of producing truly useful software, and true context awareness is difficult to achieve in all cases.  Take presence, for instance.  Most implementations require you to set a specific presence status.  Some can anticipate some kinds of presence ...

Peter brings several years of experience developing Outlook Plug-ins for business applications where he had a business with over 1,000 customers -- a challenge in that Outlook was not developed as a particularly robust platform for "extensions", yet many third party plug-ins have become available over time. From a starting point a year ago where he was the only Toolbar developer prior to the eBay acquisition last fall, Peter has now built a team of ten developers and is in the process of hiring several testers to enhance the quality control of both beta and released products.

His first product at Skype was the October, 2005 release of Skype Toolbar for Outlook, bringing Skype/SkypeOut access to every Contact in your Outlook Address Book whether they have a Skype or legacy PSTN. Future releases of this Toolbar (no release dates available at this time) will include:

• a PayPal button to launch a money transfer from within Outlook
• a conference call setup feature whereby selecting all the Contacts participating in conference call will create a "launch pad" for a multi-party conference call

(Disclosure: The Skype Toolbar for Outlook has become a staple of my Outlook configuration -- along with the third party SkyLook plug-in for Outlook which has a different feature set.)

Skype Web Toolbar "recognizes phone numbers and Skype Names on webpages, so that you can call with one click, through Skype". It has a unique ability to sense which country code should be associated with a web page and, more importantly, with individual phone numbers within the web page. For instance, it can usually differentiate between U.S. and Canadian phone numbers even though they both use the country code "+1". The phone number recognition algorithm has also been made available as a Skype API such that Skype Partners can embed phone number recognition into third party applications.

Skype Office Toolbar, released two weeks ago just prior to the eBay DevCon, provides:

• ability to use Skype File Transfer to send the currently open document to a Skype Contact
• recognition of phone numbers within documents and ability to launch a call or to send an SMS message to the number (provided the recipient's phone is equipped to handle SMS).

Skype Office Toolbar works with Word, Excel and PowerPoint in Office 2000, Office XP and Office 2003; future releases will add Access, Visio and Project. A more complete review of Skype Office Toolbar will follow soon.

Peter also lead the Skype Active X presentation at eBay DevCon and directed a couple of the (well attended) Skype Lab sessions related to using Skype API's.

Skype Journal would like to acknowledge the assistance of Multi-Link, Inc. in facilitating our attendance at eBay Live.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:39 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

On reviewing my notes from last week's eBay DevCon and eBay Live, some interesting numbers came out in the various sessions:

• eBay: last year sold a "Gross Merchandise Value" of $44B, representing 14% of all ecommerce on the Net.
• PayPal's highest growth is in "off-Ebay" commerce. Last quarter (Q1-06) "Off-eBay" transactions grew by 59% while overall PayPal growth grew by 43% to $8.8 billion of transactions. On PayPal $1.5 billion of stored value is turned over every three weeks.
• Skype, in Q1 of 2006, provided infrastructure for 6.9 billion minutes of long distance calling; representing 7% of all long distance call minutes worldwide.

Developers:

• eBay - 30,000 whose work contributes to 25% of all eBay transactions
• PayPal - 2,500 supporting 350,000 web integrators
• Skype - 3,500 delivering 350 applications and over 400 hardware devices

As mentioned previously, eBay developers and Skype developers have two totally differentiated motivations: eBay developers serve as micro-IT departments to eBay resellers producing customized Seller websites while Skype developers produce Skype-embedded applications for resale to the general public.

User numbers:

• eBay answers 22 billion SQL queries per day across 2 Terabytes of data storage.
• Last weekend eBay passed 200 million registered members (only four nations have larger populations: China, India, U.S. & Indonesia)
• 1.3 million eBay sellers rely on their eBay activity as their primary or secondary source of income
• 15,000 eBay Sellers registered for eBay Live; this was the first time it was sold out (and two weeks before the event at that).
• PayPal services 105 million accounts in 50 countries; PayPal provides the payment mechanism for 67% of eBay transactions. (PayPal has more accounts that Amex and Discover combined.)
• Shopping.com has 40 million products in their "catalog"
• Skype (as we can see every morning around 11 a.m. Eastern Time), now supports over 6.5 million concurrent users on its peer-to-peer backbone.

Internationalization:

• To support the conversation on localization triggered by Nicole Simon (with comments by Scoble and Segal) on what it takes to build international markets for products, 72% of Skype users use one of the 26 non-English versions of Skype. (Nicole, can we assume you are a heavy Skype user?)
• PayPal currently supports seven currencies in 50 countries with a goal to support 20 currencies in 100 countries within the next six months.
• 15% of all eBay transactions are across international borders.

Implications for Skype:

• It was readily apparent that eBay resellers have little or no knowledge of Skype. In fact, recruiting eBay resellers would be a good test of Skype's ability to appeal to a non-technical consumer market. Apparently Meg Whitman's speech Tuesday evening generated lots of interest at the Skype eBay Live booth for the next couple of days.
• eBay Sellers and Buyers also provide potential customers for Skype Partner products such as Skylook, Unyte's web conferencing or any of the USB phone hardware. Will be interesting to see if, for instance, eBay Resellers develop Power Point (or equivalent) presentations to complement their Skype communications activity with desktop sharing. (More to support one-on-one conversations with prospective premium product customers as opposed to doing webinars.)
• As a two way payment mechanism, Skype has the potential to provide communications support for the PayPal trust network for monetizing any transaction activity whether it be loyalty programs, contextual advertising placement and response, expert services (such as JyvePro) or exchanging real value for a virtual currency (as is currently available with Second Life).

Skype Journal would like to acknowledge the assistance of Multi-Link, Inc. in facilitating our attendance at eBay Live.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 06:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The official release of Skype verion 2.5 became available as of today; download it here. Change Log.

New features:

• Can stop Import Contact search at any time.
• Flag Emoticons: no graphic to click for flag but rather enter "(flag:cc)" where "cc" is the two character country code. You need to include the brackets.
• SMS API and a couple of other new API's
• Lots of bug fixes

Still no right click menu item for PayPal. And they still need to address the "+1" issue for setting up SMS logisitics. When we will have waving flag emoticons? to give them "emotion"?!

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

Alec Saunders has posted his impressions from afar of information coming out of the eBay/Skype Developers Conference. Some observations:

The conference definitely set a baseline for what to expect from Skype in terms of API evolution, eBay and PayPal integration and developer partner support. And it represented a major milestone in the value eBay is bringing in terms of both management and marketing resources.

Alec referenced a PayPal integration into the Skype menu; however, I also saw a preview of the next version of the Skype for Outlook Toolbar where the PayPal icon will trigger a monetary transfer to any of your Outlook Contacts, not just Skype Contacts. A report on my interview with Peter Kalmström about Toolbars is forthcoming.

Then he talks about the 30,000 eBay developers and anticipates a major eBay ecosystem. However, in speaking with Scott Miller of The Usual Suspects Radio Show, he pointed out a major differentiation of eBay developers from Skype developers that came out of his informal discussions during the eBay DevCon. In particular, whereas Skype developers are attempting to develop products embedding Skype resulting in commercial products for resale, the 30,000 eBay developers tend to serve as micro-"IT departments" for individual eBay resellers, especially the 250,000 resellers with eBay stores. They are customizing eBay stores and Power Seller sites but with no expectation to actually resell product. The Skype expectation requires additional Developer Program resources on Skype's part in order to facilitate promotion of their developer partners' offerings. This was reinforced in my interview with Lenn Pryor.

And Mathew Ingram agrees with my impression that there was a lot of hype created for what amounted to the pilot activity of a long expected integration with eBay auctions.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |