Video Action Keeps Expanding: In addition to service launches on the video communications front, (Skype, SightSpeed), it was a week when we learned where Skype's founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Jaanus Friis, may be spending some of their eBay-generated wealth.  (Keep in mind that Niklas and Jaanus had VC partners with whom they shared probably a significant portion of that $2.6B sale price.) Phil has commented on their Venice Project, a forthcoming video play first revealed in a Business Week story. Om thinks it does not bode well from an eBay investor's point of view:

"Whatever the case might be, this doesn't look good from an eBay investor's perspective.They spent $2.6 billion (and change) on Skype, and the two main guys are busy doing other projects."

My take, having worked with many technology-based enterprises transitioning from startup to a sustainable expanding business, is that eBay has let Niklas and Jaanus go back to doing what they are best at - entrepreneurship - and have let their more operationally experienced managers take responsibility for growing Skype from an emerging ~$100 million annual revenue enterprise to the multi-billion per year revenues required to justify a $2.6 billion purchase price. As long as Niklas and Jaanus can input their suggestions and viewpoints into management decisions and do not go to a competitor, I would not lose any sweat as an investor over this situation.

Will Niklas Now Visit The U.S.? Towards the end of the week we learn that Niklas and Jaanus have "reached into their own pockets to help settle a lawsuit brought by the music and movie industries." Om speculates on a link between settling the lawsuit and getting the Venice Project launched; No further word on the Streamcast or Net2Phone lawsuits. Will be interesting to see if Jeff Pulver can now convince Niklas to attend his Fall VON show; to date Niklas' only North American appearances have been at VON Canada.

WiFi Phone for Skype - Who Are The Real Players Going To Be?: While SMC announced availability of their forthcoming WiFi Phone for Skype at a MSRP of $199, Om uncovers a report saying that the launch of the NetGear version "has been pushed out again and because of the delays, NETGEAR has now lost its exclusive partnership with Skype." If I understand the Certification Program correctly, it sets bars for Skype Certification; however, I have never heard that "exclusive partnerships" are available with Skype. But NETGEAR certainly generated high expectations since their big press launch at CES in January. From the recent Skype press release, it seems like Skype has been working with four hardware partners on WiFi Phones for Skype.

Skype Toolbars Update: Skype finally issued a press release for the complete range of Skype Toolbars; we reported on them when the new releases actually became available at the beginning of July. A hotfix release of the Skype Office Toolbar this week has added support for Visio, Access and Project; the beauty of this particular Toolbar is the ability to transfer the file you are actually working on via Skype's File Transfer in a single step while the file remains open.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 09:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

BlogHer starts today, perhaps the live blogger event with the least recycled blatfarb and the most human context. In honor of women bloggers everywhere, here's a guest post by Matt responding to our SkypeMe Eve post by Dina Mehta. 

You know, I haven't really given much thought to what it would be like for a woman in skypeme mode, but for myself I put it on when I just want to talk to someone and all my friends are busy. I don't often think of speaking with someone intimately that I don't know in real life, so the idea of meeting someone on skype, or anywhere else on the internet on intimate terms is kind of disconcerting to me, but what I have been thinking about is that the internet has slowly been taking the place of other social avenues.

At one point in time, people looking to find 'true love' as well as people looking to find 'a quick lay' would converge in physical establishments such as bars and clubs, and by being there it was like they were announcing themselves to be open to society (that is to talking with strangers). In such situations the people there would have to gauge what others were after by various signs that the person would make, as an example, if there was a woman sitting in a booth alone quietly, I would assume she wanted to remain that way, however if she were at the bar, I would assume she would be open to company at the bar.

What the internet has done, or so it seems, is to create a new avenue, where individuals have more open and apparent signs about what they are seeking, but at the same time, it has made this internet society be more fake, that is, the internet society can put up false faces very easily and become the person that they want to on that particular day. This means there is a vast separation between 'IRL' and 'IRC' so to speak. People online think less about what sort of person they appear to be, because tomorrow, they can be someone else and no one will know the difference. Perhaps when a woman puts herself in skypeme mode, men viewing that figure they can be completely rude, and have no fear, because even if she doesn't much like it, they can be someone else tomorrow. This is unfortunately a dim outlook for women, but also dim for men, because if society has allowed men to get too the point that they can have those attitudes then where else will society go?

Sorry for the long drawn out comment, but I read your article and gave it quite a bit of thought, something as I stated before that I haven't much done. I am fairly new to the internet, and yet I have already seen some rather crazy things online. I don't know if the internet is where I will choose to find society, and yet with my experiences chatting with people in skypeme mode, I have found many women that I enjoyed conversations with, and few men. Most men I try skyping are either all about the latest videogame, or only in SkypeMe because they are hoping for women to skype them for the reasons which you mentioned above. It seems most women I try skyping are rather nervous that I will simply want to talk about sex or other intimate things, so as far as I can tell this is a real problem.

Perhaps one solution would be a skype rating system, something where you can post a review of someone whom you have had a skype conversation with. A place to mention who is looking for a relaxing conversation and who is looking for phone sex.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 09:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

We reported last week Skype's been experimenting with radio spots. Here is one spot that played in New York on hip hop station Hot 97.

"With Skype the whole world can talk for free. Skype is a free piece of software that you download at skype dot com. Skype now lets you make calls from your computer to any phone number including cell phones and land lines in the U.S. and Canada for free until the end of the year. That's right, talk as much as you want for free. Skype also lets you make free video and voice calls with other Skype users anywhere in the world. Go to Skype dot come and join over a hundred million people using Skype worldwide. Go to s-k-y-p-e dot com now."

Audio courtesy of Skype's P.R. department.

Let's do the word count: Skype: 8. Free: 5.

Who is Skype reaching on WQHT FM? "50% male - 50% female and primarily 18-34 years old" in the New York tri-state area. "HOT 97 weekly Arbitron audience: 2 Million."

Posted by Phil Wolff at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Many of graphics and images that you see in Skype Journal  (including the ones in this post) have been captured using TechSmith's Snag-It. Snag-It has been a core utility for my Windows computing over the past five or six years.  Need to capture an object on your Windows desktop (or your entire desktop)? Snag-It does it and allows you to output it in many ways, including several graphics formats such as jpg, gif and png.

Today I received their monthly newsletter announcing the availability of three Skype profiles:

If you share images during Skype conversations, you know the process involves taking and saving the screen capture, then browsing for, opening, attaching and sending the image file over Skype.

Now, SnagIt has a set of profiles for Skype that allow you to take screen captures and send them immediately to the person you're talking to over Skype - or to any of your other Skype contacts.

More information and the free Skype Profiles download; there is also a video demonstration showing the entire process, including the ability to edit the captured image prior to sending it via Skype's File Transfer.

One more partner in the Skype ecosystem...

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 02:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Since its introduction at the final Fall Comdex in 2003, I have been following the SightSpeed video communications service as it has evolved into one of the more highly respected personal video calling services. Today they are releasing a new version 5.0; last week I spent an hour talking with Peter Csathey, CEO of SightSpeed, about SightSpeed, its direction and their forthcoming new version.

Peter, who has been CEO since last December, has SightSpeed focused on offering "best-in-class" personal video services. These services are envisioned to come in the form of

• Communications: private, secure video and voice calling communications;
• Community/Content with the introduction of a public directory, video blogging and other user generated content and SightSpeedTV
• Commerce: video-enabled e-commerce,  video mail marketing; "click-to-call" video sales and support.

Previous versions of SightSpeed, a cross-platform service running on both Macs and Windows PC's, have included video calling (with up to four in a conference), video mail messaging, video blogging support, chat and, recently, a beta outbound PSTN service. SightSpeed operates using direct (node-free) peer-to-peer connectivity for 1:1 video and audio calls. Multi-party video conferencing with its additional processing demands passes through a server.

SightSpeed 5.0 fleshes out what Peter calls "a complete personal video services suite", offering several new capabilities;

• New video codec for sharper, crisper video in both 1:1 calls and n:1 (where N<=4) video conferences
• Over 90% dual firewall negotiation (no relays)
• A free PC to PC voice-only calling service (independent from the video service)
• Enhanced Mac support and adoption; their goal is to make the Mac experience be on par with the PC experience.
• Extends video blogging to two minute recording time.
• The outbound PSTN service will come out of beta; they will be adding inbound PSTN calling with DID numbers.
• Usability improvements
• My SightSpeed "click-to-call" buttons launching SightSpeed directly from a website.
• First beta release of SightSpeedTV; allowing viewing of analog TV channels, sourced from a Windows Media PC or TV tuner/video capture card.

One interesting feature of SightSpeed is its ability to adjust to "local user" network conditions. Normally video requires about 384 kbps bandwidth for a clear picture; however, if it determines the local user's situation has degraded it automatically switches to a protocol that works down to 128 kbps. The picture quality degrades slightly in this situation but a viable video and voice conversation can continue; the user does get notification of the change.

SightSpeedTV in its current state is limited to handling live, analog channels; it includes a simple remote control for stepping up and down channels. It is anticipated that it will support digital TV and PVR devices in future releases associated with the release of Windows Vista.

Our discussion then turned to marketing and building a user base. SightSpeed is relying on viral marketing and market partner agreements to build awareness leading to direct sales. In order to encourage experience with their services, the Basic Plan which includes unlimited two party video and voice calling and unlimited 30 second video mail messages is free.

Winning several awards has facilitated the viral aspect; channel partners include hardware vendors (Creative Labs webcams), software vendors (Sonic Roxio) and cable partners such as Telewest and the U.K.'s Virgin Mobile. And, of course, the viral Mac community makes sure that awareness of SightSpeed is generated amongst Mac owners.

I asked Peter if he had any concern about regulatory issues. SightSpeed is tracking the regulatory environment closely; at the moment they are doing the same as Skype in stating they are "not a telephony replacement service and cannot be used to dial 911 or other emergency phone numbers".

While Skype has had a lot of "regulatory visibility" since it is primarily a voice communications service, it is interesting to note that, since SightSpeed's primary focus is on video, their entry into Internet voice calling has gone "below the radar" with respect to regulatory issues. SightSpeed's use of VoIP-based services as an additional feature for its primary service is an ideal example of voice communication serving as an accessory application to another service and not a "phone system replacement".

I closed out my interview by asking Peter about future developments for SightSpeed. Beyond the evolution of SightSpeedTV to support PVR's and digital cable boxes, the most demanded feature is a session recording capability. And some day they hope to offer a SightSpeed client running on mobile devices such as Windows Mobile and Blackberries.

How good is SightSpeed's video? Here's a new (somewhat subjective) test for video quality. Yesterday, to check out Mac performance, I had my daughter install SightSpeed on her MacBook Pro (in a remote city); towards the end of our session she asked to see our dog. While positioning the dog so he could be seen by my webcam, the dog saw her on my laptop screen and tore off into the next room (behind the screen) where my wife reported that he was somewhat agitated and looking around the room for several minutes. Best we can figure out is that he was looking for our daughter, having seen her on the screen. (He does generate a lot of noise whenever he sees animals on our regular TV.)

From a more practical viewpoint, the video quality coming from the MacBook again was crisp with well defined images. My other test is to try it out full screen on my 1650 x 1080 screen; again while not quite as crisp it was certainly viewable without any problems.

Since its launch three years ago SightSpeed has set the bar for video-over-the-net performance; until the actual 5.0 release this evening we cannot do a full comparison with Skype's video on Windows platforms. Being cross-platform, it has attracted a significant base of Mac users; Skype just yesterday released a "preview" ("it's definitely not at beta stage yet"?) release of Skype for Mac that incorporates video.

The launch of SightSpeedTV introduces a new element into the place-shifting game. SlingBox uses a dedicated hardware platform that sits between the TV and cable box and/or PVR to bring personalized cable video to the Internet. SightSpeedTV relies on Windows applications to act as the source from a multi-tasking Windows Media Center PC or TV-tuner equipped Windows platform. In its current configuration SlingBox works with digital cable boxes and PVR's providing access to a wider range of programming (in my case NHL Center Ice and MLB Extra Innings, for instance); also SlingBox allows the remote setting of PVR recording setups. Finally SlingBox provides a full emulation of my specific model of Scientific Atlanta remote control. SightSpeedTV is a "nice-to-have" accessory if you have the appropriate hardware but SightSpeed primarily excels with personal video services and user generated content.

Jeff Pulver refers to 2006 as the Year of Video on the Net; he's even added a second VON show, Video on the Net, to be held at the same time as the Fall VON show in Boston. Skype and SightSpeed will be two of the major players in the personal video communications services space; we are entering interesting times as we watch the evolution of this space. In the meantime, let the SightSpeed Guy have his say.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Expanding Skype's user base beyond "geeks who use softphone clients" is key to Skype's ongoing growth that would justify eBay's $2.6B purchase price.  But the non-geek world is much more familiar with another user interface for its voice communications, namely, the 12-button TouchTone telephone keypad. This interface is associated with that large installed based of traditional telephone handsets incorporating the keypad. So when a device comes along that can effectively connect those phone sets into Skype such that users can dial in a familiar manner but take advantage of SkypeOut in appropriate situations, such as long distance calling,  they deserve an in-depth look. Once they are using Skype for familiar applications, they can learn and experience other applications -- even something as straightforward as "chat".

A plethora of devices is coming onto the scene for using my 12-year old Nortel M9417 dual line phone as the primary telephone handset on my office desktop (wood version). They continue to provide access to my PSTN services in the normal manner yet accessing Skype is as simple as picking up the handset and dialing 00. One such device that makes this possible is the newly released Skype Certified Multi-Link TeleVoIP Stick.

Key criteria for this review are:

• Ease of installation
• Ease of accessing either PSTN or Skype
• Access to Skype features, especially the Skype client
• Ability to run other audio programs (Windows Media Player, iTunes, SlingBox, etc.) while on a Skype call
• Duplication of standard telephone user interface features
  • telephone keypad, dialtone access

The Package comprises:

• the TeleVoIP Stick module (pictured below)
• a 12 VAC Power Supply,
• two audio cables;
• a telephone cord (RJ-11 connector to the Nortel M9417) and
• a CD-ROM with the TeleVoIP Stick software.

Other requirements:

• Installation of the Skype client on a Windows XP PC
• A broadband Internet connection
• A telephone handset that supports DTMF
• A working PSTN line for making standard telephone calls.

Installation is a five-step process:

• Insert the TeleVoIP Stick into the PSTN telephone line using the existing line cord and the supplied telephone cord
• (Remove any existing connection to the headphone/speaker jacks on the PC)
• Connect the TeleVoIP Stick to the headphone/speaker jacks on the PC using the two supplied audio cables
• Connect the headset or mic/speaker combination into the MicOut and SpeakerOut jacks on the TeleVoIP Stick
• Attach the power supply
• Install the TeleVoIP Stick software from the CD-ROM.

The software installation results in a client which sets up speed dial numbers, Call Forwarding and a Settings tab for parameters associated with the user's local calling environment.

Note that, while this setup appears to be physically at the Skype PC location, the actual TeleVoIP Stick hardware can be placed at the PSTN demarcation point in your house or home office. As a result any phone set beyond the demarcation point can work as a "PSTN" phone set for the TeleVoIP Stick installation. In this way as many phone sets as can be powered by the PSTN phone line can use Skype or SkypeOut from a single Skype installation. More on this aspect of TeleVoIP Stick later.

Setup:

Upon completion of the TeleVoIP software installation you will find a new Multi-Link "IP Voice Interface" icon in your System Tray. Right click on it and select Options:

• Restore brings up the TeleVoIP Stick client
• "Toggle PSTN-Skype Bridge" toggles the Call Forwarding feature (described below) On/Off.
• [There is also a Skype Forwarding tab but this feature is now overidden by Skype 2.x's inherent Skype forwarding capability.]

On the client's Call Fowarding tab the user can forward PSTN-originated calls to either a PSTN number or a Skype User. This is a feature that allows someone calling your PSTN phone number to reach you anywhere in the world where you have access to a Skype client whether on your own laptop at a WiFi Hotspot, on a Windows Mobile device or using a U3-enabled Smart Drive in an Internet café/

On the client's Settings Tab the user can:

• Set the number of digits used in local calls (for instance, the Toronto area requires ten digit dialing to access the four "local" area codes)
• Set the emergency number (default is 911)
• Set any digits required to get an outside line from a PBX
• Set a code for accessing all Skype functions using the PSTN phone set as the default audio device (default is 00)
• Set a land line access code (to access the PSTN line for making long distance calls on the user's PSTN plan; default is *9).

You are now ready to start using your PSTN phone handset to make calls on both your PSTN service and Skype.

Operation:

• To call a regular (local) PSTN number pick up the phone and dial in the normal manner (7- or 10-digits, as appropriate); the call will go out over your PSTN line.
• To call 911, pick up the phone and dial 911.
• To dial a North American long distance number, dial 1 plus the ten digit number; the call will automatically go out over SkypeOut. At least until the end of 2006 SkypeOut credits are not needed.
• To call a phone outside North America dial "00" + country code + local number (removing the leading "0" from any area code). For example to call someone on a land line in London, UK dial 004420-nnnn-nnnn. (SkypeOut credits required.)
• To call someone on your Speed Dial list, dial the speed dial number plus "#", such as 24#. To create a conference call with multiple parties who are set up on your Speed Dial, dial nn*nn*nn*nn# where nn is a speed dial number.
• To use the phone set as the speaker/mic for traditional Skype calls, pick up the phone set, dial 00 and then click on the appropriate Skype icon to launch a call (either in the Skype client or via one of the Skype Toolbars).
• On receiving Skype calls, pick up the handset and start talking (or use the headset or speaker/mic combination).
• On receiving PSTN-originated calls, one answers in the normal manner.
• During a call, whether outbound via Skype or SkypeOut or inbound from Skype, there is a button in the TeleVoIP Stick client that allows you to switch between the phone set as the audio device or any speaker/mic/ headset that is connected to the Skype hosting PC during the call.

Comments:

• The TeleVoIP Stick incorporates the ability to transmit the PSTN power appropriately when connected to multiple phone sets at the demarcation point;.
• It also transmits appropriate ringing codes such that when a Skype call comes in all phones in the home and/or home office ring.
• Only if a phone set is located at the PC can one take advantage of operations requiring the use of Skype services such as File Transfer and Chat or access the Skype Toolbars.

Positioning:

• TeleVoIP Stick is ideally suited for setting up the traditional home phone system to be able to
  • take advantage of the reduced cost of SkypeOut calls from any phone set in the home/office
  • accept Skype calls at any phone in the home/office.
  • send Skype calls out to the Internet to be picked up at a remote Skype client
• TeleVoIP Stick provides a familiar telephone touchtone keypad and handset user interface to Skype that does not tie up additional desktop real estate.
• As the TeleVoIP Stick involves incorporation into the home telephone infrastructure, it is best suited for connection to Skype via a desktop PC permanently located in the home.

Conclusions:

• Pros:
  • A device that merges PSTN phone line requirements with access to Skype/SkypeOut calling features
  • Maintains access to 911 and alarm services
  • Forward incoming PSTN calls to anywhere in the world where you have access to a Skype client.
  • Keep the same phone number available for receiving calls.
  • Takes up minimal additional desktop real estate to access Skype calling features via a traditional keypad interface.
  • Relatively simple five-step installation
  • No drivers to install (uses the host PC's sound card)
  • Delivers very high quality audio
• Cons:
  • Only those Skype Contacts who are entered into TeleVoIP Stick's Speed Dial tab can be called from phones located away from the Skype hosting PC.
  • TeleVoIP Stick provides a proxy dialtone on the PSTN phone that is different from the standard dialtone to identify that one is using a Skype-connected phone service. However, the proxy dialtone sound file should be selectable from a set of sound files. I think many would find the dialtone I heard to be objectionable.
  • While you can continue to listen to audio-enabled applications, such as Windows Media Player ("WMP") and SlingBox, while on a Skype call, you would probably want to mute the player's audio while talking on the call. An "auto-mute" feature would be helpful.

In summary, TeleVoIP Stick uses Skype as a PC-based complement to your home/home office phone system that allows you to reduce costs by both directing long distance calls to SkypeOut and by accepting Skype calls at any home/home office phone set. For the road warrior user, the TeleVoIP Stick allows callers to your PSTN phone to reach you wherever you may have Skype access on the Internet. For a phone set located at the Skype hosting PC, TeleVoIP Stick offers additional capabilities such as File Transfer, Presence and Chat without changing your legacy phone number and without disrupting access to essential services such as 911 and alarm systems.

Disclosure: Skype Journal would like to acknowledge the assistance of Multi-Link, Inc. in supporting our travel expenses to attend last month's eBay Developers Conference and eBay Live.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 06:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Recently a couple of posts discussing VoIP Quality:

Om Malik reports on a Brix Networks study, based on data collected on Acceptable Call Quality via their TestYourVoIP.com site.  Note that Brix also announces the availability of this service as a Google Gadget (for Google Desktop) providing ongoing measurement of the quality of your connection for voice and video activities. The study reports an ongoing decline in VoIP Acceptable Call Quality from 84% to about 80% over the period December 2004 to May 2006.

Andy at VoIP Watch found  MyVoIPSpeed Internet Connection Test and was using it as a tool to measure the connection speeds and QoS at the hotel he was staying at. I checked out my own home office connection and got this report:

Om talks in his post about degrading quality of calls received from callers using Vonage. I have been a Packet8 subscriber for almost three years and have found the quality to consistently improve over time to the point where I have minimal problems. I also find I am getting a high quality level with my Skype and SkypeOut calling with one exception: SkypeOut calls to some wireless phone services.  Too much compression/decomprssion going on? first via VoIP, then at the wireless end?

I also ran the Brix TestYourVoIP and got a MOS score of 4.2, close to the MyVoIPSpeed result shown above of 4.0. The tests appear to have some level of consistency across the tests and do appear to reflect the quality of calls that I am experiencing.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

See the Mac 1.5 Beta announcement. BETA release: 1.5.0.48. Also: Interface refresh, import contacts from Apple's Address book or Entourage, more languages (French, Spanish, German, traditional Chinese, Italian, Portuguese and Dutch), support for presence and SkypeMe buttons, and Mac starter packs. For OS X v10.3.9 Panther or newer. The last minor update was May 11, and the last major update (1.4) was in January 2006. Download the Mac 1.5 beta.

Correction: (Thanks, Ryan) Video calling is only in version 1.5.0.47. 47 is the same as 48, but it has the only-modestly-tested video component added. Read about the video preview or download the preview. Known video issues from the Change Log:

• CPU load is very high when in a video call
• Skype has to be restarted in order to detect a new camera
• Problems when video preferences are opened during a video call
• Delays when enabling video, and when video call is resumed
• Pausing a call in full-screen mode closes the full-screen window
• If video is stopped while in a call with a Windows user, the call has to be restarted for the video to work properly

Posted by Phil Wolff at 06:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

BusinessWeek broke the story of Skype's founders launching a TV net distribution biz as a venture separate from Skype. Not known if it will be in the eBay family, but Zennstrom and Friis will remain 100% and 80% at Skype, respectively. It is code named "The Venice Project," not likely related to a 1999 time travel movie about the arts of that name (Lauren Bacall, Dennis Hopper, and a large cast split between modern Venice, California, and an earlier Venice, Italy.) Om Malik says "we told you so." So do we. Skype Journal wrote in January that Skype's ringtone relationships would lead to music, television, and movie distribution. Then with Warner Music, now with EMI Music Publishing.

This isn't good for eBay. The way they are organizing The Venice Project, as a separate venture, may conflict with eBay's strategy to use Skype as a platform to make markets for intangibles. We live in a service economy but eBay makes its living making markets for atoms. One SkypeBayPal vision extends their community and market-making excellence to paid live and time-shifted conversation. Not just video files and streams, but one-to-one education, consulting, information services, and entertainment. And eBay's budding alliance with Hollywood loving Yahoo! could easily fuel an eBay entertainment distribution channel with alliances and content. While the Venice Project could build on Skype and eBay, it doesn't look like there will be direct business or technical connections to the mother ship. eBay's loss.

Meg won the fight for Skype's soul: Skype will be an eBay enabler (as opposed to revolutionizing conversation, work, and entertainment as we know it). Skype's new management is building Skype's community and eBay's sales in 2006 and 2007. Given that direction, could The Venice Project be an outlet for the founders' broader vision? Or just a simple thrust at a gobsmackingly huge market? Either way, it's almost always faster to build your skunkworks outside the behemoth.

Rafat Ali says N & J should talk with Masayoshi Son about his plans in this space. Ars Technica's Anders Bylund points to the founders' bizdev power as key to partnering with TV studios and producers. Mathew Ingram thinks TV execs must be ready to dive in since they are living with industry disruption. Not to mention the worst ratings ever.

Two years's from now? Imagine TVP launches in January, gets 100 million people in 2007 who want to watch TV on their PCs and mobiles. Brings a little long-tail to the game, so you can always find something to watch and an audience for nearly anything. Restores social elements to watching television on your PC (think Skypecasts for sporting events). If effective, it could easily add one more nail into advertising-based TV's ratings, stealing attention from cable and satellite delivered television. Who loses? Other television distribution channels, like cable and satellite. What kind of content and viewer lock-in can TVP secure against the Comcasts who will surely copy TVP's business models? 

Posted by Phil Wolff at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What does the Internet mean to you? How will you celebrate it on Friday, 22 September 2006? Join me and many others in sharing the web with friends, family, neighbors and strangers on One Web Day.

For this year's OWD, I want to share the joy of internet calling, so I need a One Web Day project. Would it be cool to pledge to skype 22 strangers to say hello, introduce myself, and wish them a happy One Web Day? Or maybe going to a local school and teaching the IT person about Skype and setting up a language lab with Skype and headsets? Or scheduling greetings with my mayor and city council to express my enthusiasm for net neutrality and protecting the Internet? I'll make up my mind by month end, so please speak up now.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The gambling and telecom industries are both very effective at lobbying the American congress to raise barriers protecting their cash cows and starving innovative startups. Mike at Techdirt writes about the new U.S. ban on online gambling. All it will do is drive online gamblers underground, virtual casinos offshore, and the whole industry out of the reach of regulators, taxation, consumer affairs and law enforcement.

Who benefits? Offline gambling.

Doesn't this smell just like the incumbent-protecting legislation pushed by the telecom and cable lobbies?

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype for Outlook Toolbar has become one of my key tools in day-to-day communications. In fact, I am at the point where I seldom actually "dial" a phone number; just look it up in Outlook Contacts, click on the Toolbar and click on the relevant "phone" number to launch a Skype or SkypeOut call..In his post on GizmoProject's All Calls Free offering, Alec Saunders says: "At iotum, Steve Lecomte and Julien Raynal, who spend lots of time on the phone, are using Skype for business calls.  Integrated with the Outlook Toolbar, it's a natural, since most of our calls are North American."

Peter Kalmström, Skype's Toolbar Program Manager, has written an informative post on how to launch conference calls across both Skype and SkypeOut using the Skype for Outlook Toolbar in any of three scenarios:

1. Select any meeting - you will see a conference button on it

2. From an email - starting an ad-hoc conference call with all the cc:s etc of an email

3. By selecting more than one Outlook contact in your contacts folder

Also works with the Toolbars for Outlook Express and Thunderbird.

The best part about using Skype for conference calling is not receiving a $200 bill from a legacy telco for a five person one hour conference call as recently as four or five years ago! The biggest challenge for Skype is getting a significant base of their users to realize they can easily do multi-party conference calling at little or no cost.

Note that there are Hotfix releases of each Toolbar put out this past week to fix some minor issues.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A few items this week:

Cynthia Blumfield an analyst blogger at IP & Democracy, demonstrates how Skype is on the path to $200 million in revenue in 2006 when revenue per registered user increases by $0.02 per quarter for the remainder of the year. (Hat tip to Andy.)

In response to an email from one of his readers that starts out with "Why are so many people in the VoIP sphere excited by business models with negative gross margin.....", Jon Arnold asks where is the business model with GizmoProject's All Calls Free "offering":; he makes a point of not calling it a plan or program. (When I was in the software business in the early 90's, I recall that competition would be so intense amongst dealers such that many dealers would respond to large volume RFP's with "zero margin" pricing on popular software such as MS Office suites. They made their profit on the marketing development funds ["MDF's"] provided by the software publisher. Key here is to understand that dealers would buy from distributors but get the MDF's from the software publisher. However, in the telecomm wholesale business, there is no up-channel "buffer" business entity paying out MDF's.)

Janko Roettgers at P2P Blog comments on how Cringely doesn't get Skype since he makes incorrect assumptions about the roles of supernodes and "online Skype nodes. (Cringley's original post on Skype's scalability: The Skype is Falling.) Janko concludes: "I don't know how scalable Skype really is. But if it does break one day, it definitely won't be because of overwhelmed supernodes that can't handle all those chatty users."

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 06:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I came across this recipe in the bottom of a drawer...

Bittersweet mashed telco business model compote -- Serves 6 billion

Ingredients:

1. Legacy telco 800 number business.
2. Parasitical Internet payment subsidiary.
3. Large e-commerce hub.
4. Merchant base looking to increase revenues.
5. Rapidly growing private voice network.

Directions:

• Create new intermediary 800 number, 1-800-VIA-EBAY.
• Create namespace for extensions, e.g. "PLUMBER" is 7586347 on your phone keypad.
• Get users to register their phone numbers; send SMS or callback to verify and enter activation code.
• Get users to register bank and credit card payment details with your payment subsidiary.
• Ask users to fill in profile details such as demographics, address, etc.
• Encourage users to set up a PIN.
• Incentivise advertisers to use your 800 number system.
• Simply forward calls from unknown/anonymous callers straight to the merchant at no charge.
• Mediate calls from known numbers. Offer a "merchant edition" call receiving suite. Make exchange of profile data and transactions instant, anonymous and secure. Request user PIN where appropriate.
• Charge merchants for higher close-out rate, better personalisation of product targeting, transaction fees etc.
• Use PC telephony subsidiary to enable higher-quality multi-modal alternative access mechanism.

Scoop out telco revenue, place in serving dishes, share among yourselves.

Martin cooks at TelepocalypticKitchen.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the challenges of entering the VoIP consumer space is to simply sign up users; so how do you match up the fact that Skype has over 100 million registered users (even if only max 7 million, and climbing, are on Skype at any given time)?

A lot of posts yesterday about Gizmo Project's newly announced "All Calls Free" program whereby registered GizmoProject users can make free calls from GizmoProject to  either VoIP or PSTN phones, provided both parties are registered GizmoProject users. At the right is the resulting right click menu for individual contacts.

The genius in this program is the attempt to drive market awareness virally by getting all your (PC- and headset-equipped) friends and family to sign up for GizmoProject and experiment with it. You then have the option of calling them at no charge; they can receive the call on either the GizmoProject softphone or their legacy PSTN phones. However as Mark Evans states in his post, "Telco Hell":

"The idea of free calls will no doubt appeal to the bleeding and leading edge who have no concerns about using software and computers rather than traditional telephones. For the mainstream, the Gizmo Project is probably difficult to grasp."

Alec Saunders, in his post, Gizmo "Friends and Family" concludes:

"If you primarily call North American numbers, for now Skype is a better offering. It's really free. It may not always be, since free calling is supposed to be a promotion. If you make lots of calls overseas, depending on where you call, Gizmo may be a better offering (if you can get your friends and family to sign up for it)."

Om Malik, in "Voice Now Nearly Free", speculates on the business model: "

"This free voice movement had me thinking - what kind of a loss is acceptable to these companies? Though it is hard to get a straight answer, Jajah officials say they can make up all the losses in premium services such as scheduled conference calling, or other such services."

The limitation for GizmoProject's "All Calls Free", as Mark implies, is that the party initiating the call needs to be using a PC with a headset (or equivalent USB audio device). This highlights the thinking behind Skype's decision to launch a hardware certification program which has resulted in devices that let a much broader user base of non-geek users effectively "add" Skype to their current phone services. Devices such as VoIPvoice's Cyberphone and UConnect or Multi-Link's TeleVoIP Stick.that provide links between traditional telephone keypads and Skype, And, of course, the forthcoming Skype for WiFi phones eliminate the need for a PC.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

If you have ever used Google Language tools to help understand or communicate in another language then with this Skype Add-on is for you.

Sadly, the product's name, (makes me sound like a robot or someone speaking with a mouth full of marbles ULRTMT v2.6 (Beta) - Universal Language Real-Time Message Translator), does a great disservice to this very useful utility. It is simply marvelous.

I certainly could have used this last week while I was in Buenos Aires. I had only one Spanish word in my vocabulary, which turned out to be more than most Argentineans had in English. Did I ever feel lost!
If you get that same lost feeling in some Skype Chats you will want to have this tool as a short cut on your desktop.

ULRTMT is a beta product, a politically correct term in Skypeland to describe shit. But there were no obvious bugs during my trials. The install needs to be simplified. If you try to install it without studying the instructions (yes study, don't just read and click) you will be embarrassed like I was. The user interface is cluttered and non-intuitive. None the less, it is worth the pain.

A simple use case
Let's look at a simple use. There are many different Use Cases from one on one, multi-languages in a multi-chat, to translating old chats.

1. Start by deciding the language you want for the Skype Chat window. I chose English.
2. In my test scenario I took the role of a Spanish speaker, while ZOverLord (the developer) took the role of an English speaker. So for this scenario I set the translation language field to "English to Spanish".
3. I selected the current Skype Chat that I wanted to participate in, i.e. translate my Spanish into English.
4. I typed my Spanish text into the lower left Window below the instruction bar says: "Type Spanish only below, and press the Enter key to send"

All my Spanish text (Hola Bill, ¿puedes traducir esto?) was translated into English and appeared in the Skype Chat Window as English. Sweet.

Language pairs:

English to Arabic BETA
English to Chinese (Simplified) BETA
English to Chinese Traditional
English to Dutch
English to French
English to German
English to Greek
English to Italian
English to Japanese BETA
English to Korean BETA
English to Portuguese
English to Russion
English to Spanish

Don, the developer prefers his Skype Forum name, ZOverlord. He hails from Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is a retired Tandem Computers consultant.

Great product concept Don! Thank you. Please go polish it off before starting your next project of creating a version for Skype SMS.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 03:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (2)

In a press release issued today, Skype announced "collaboration with [four] hardware partners to deliver the first WiFi phones for Skype(TM) software, making Internet calling on the move a reality". Basically these devices will eliminate the need for a PC to make Skype calls in a "authorization-free" WiFi-enabled environment. Sounds like we may finally see the mildly overdue offering from NETGEAR but they will have some competition.

Andy at VoIP Watch comments: "Unfortunately, the phones remain only useful with open hotspots and do not provide the ability to be used on services supplied by T-Mobile, Boingo or The Cloud." I can add Bell Mobility (who provide service at Starbucks' Canadian locations) and Rogers Hotspots in Canada to the list.

The easy to use devices come with everything built-in to connect to Skype via any personal, business or free public WiFi access point that does not require browser authentication. The phones are extremely easy to set-up and use with automatic synchronization to a Skype account and contacts. The devices support common WiFi encryption protocols including WEP, WPA, and WPA2 with PSK support.

So while at home or visiting friends, businesses and Internet cafés with freely accessible (but hopefully encrypted) WiFi, these could be useful devices.  But, with the browser-based authentication required by most hotels, I'll still be using my PC to make Skype calls to bypass hotel switchboards while on the road.

We look forward to the chance to evaluate these units when available in the fall.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 02:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype announced four WiFi phones today. Mobility for Skype user got a real boost with this news. And just maybe this will be the spark that will wake up the Skype Market in the US.

We saw these at CeBit show, but now they are real. All four come preloaded with Skype.

Belkin WiFi Phone for Skype (F1PP000GN-SK)

Edge-Core WiFi Phone for Skype (WM4201)

NETGEAR WiFi Phone for Skype (SPH101)

SMC Wi-Fi Phone for Skype (WSKP100)

Check out the Skype store for more info. Maybe even buy one. I will.

Posted by Bill Campbell at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype ran a few radio commercials in the San Francisco Bay Area in the last few weeks. So far I've confirmed KFOG, easy listening, and KQED, a public radio station. I've only heard the fifteen second KQED spot, a simple description of skyping.

Meanwhile, Skype's U.S. channel partners need marketing help now for their fall advertising. In interviews they're telling us, and presumably Skype, they need previews of marketing messages, design themes, audio/video/flash elements, research, planned media placement, and anything else to help them sell Skype-related goods in their back-to-school and Christmas campaigns. At least one mentioned wanting to piggy-back their own ads to run at the same stations and time slots as Skype's ads. It's not clear if Skype will budget co-operative or co-branded advertising funds.

Skype makes money by licensing their "Skype Certified" logo to selected hardware sellers.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 06:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

From today's Form 10-K:

"Communications net revenues totaled $44 million in Q2-06, representing a 26% increase from the $35 million reported in Q1-06."

The trend: large but linear. Skype's net transaction revenues six months' ago were $24.8 million (q4-2005). Linear growth means Skype's viral spread is offset by switching to a rival or people just dropping out.

The number of Skype accounts is growing slower than revenue.

Registered Users -- Communications had a cumulative total of 113 million registered users at the end of Q2-06, representing a 20% increase from the 95 million in Q1-06. Communications registered users represent the number of unique user accounts created on Skype.

So Skype is picking up about 6 million accounts monthly, worldwide. Now any other new softphone would kill and get VC money for numbers like this. But Skype is shooting for 200 million accounts by year end. At this rate they'll only make 149 million.

How about U.S. growth? 86% of Skype's revenue remained international, down a hair from 87%. This just means that Skype's growth in the United States, the great untapped market, is matched elsewhere. Let's assume 86% of the new accounts are international, just like the revenue. This means Skype's been picking up 840,000 new US users per month. Big in absolute terms but small as a percent of all US people online or even eBay customers. The U.S. market will need a promotional shove to grow faster and catch up.

Do you think the North American challenge may have factored in promoting Henry Gomez, former eBay Chief Marketing Officer, to be Skype's CMO? Or in offering the promotion of free SkypeOut in Canada and the States until year end?

Technorati Tags: skype, ebayinc, ebay inc, financials, statistics

Posted by Phil Wolff at 04:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

I had a quick conversation earlier today with a vendor who was sitting in the departure lounge at SFO airport waiting for a flight. He is based in the UK, and this is roaming on a US network.

Here's how the sequence of interactions went.

1. He calls my SkypeIn number.
2. I get an incoming call from a UK cellular number. Assume a UK-based caller.
3. I don't have my headset plugged in, or Skype set up to use my USB headset instead of default Windows settings. Scabble around to retrieve headset, plug in, configure.
4. I call his number back, it goes to voicemail. He hasn't answered me.
5. A minute later, I've got a new voicemail in Skype from him. He gives his context and contact details.
6. I call him back, he answers.

There are lots of places here where the telephony user experience broke.

Firstly, Skype's device management is a total mess. I need to be able to tell Skype my #1 preference is for my USB headset, second choice is the USB handset I'm trying out. I want to set the PC built-in microphone to "never", as I don't have any such device; and my laptop doesn't have a built-in microphone.

I should be able to take the call in Skype and then plug in my headset. In the meantime, Skype can play a message that says "The person you have called doesn't have a headset plugged in, but has answered the call. Please hold." The message would also be played in other appropriate languages to the country of the caller/callee. Elaborate as necessary to create ultimate experience.

Next, the voicemail I was left had a caller ID, but not a name or company. We need next-gen caller ID.

Furthermore, the contact details he dictated were rather hard to understand; he's calling from a cell phone, and has a name that's not exactly "Bob Smith". And that's from someone with the same southern English accent as myself, let alone something harder to decode. So we need a "calling card" system, too.

The UK number failed to convey the actual context of the caller and the time zone he is in.

The whole sequence around me interrupting someone who is trying to leave a voicemail to myself is a farce. In this case, Skype was in a position to fix it. When I call a number of someone who is already leaving me a voicemail, it should immediately give me the option to connect to that person directly.

Naturally, if he'd got on the plane before I called back and turned his mobile off, I'd want to know that before having a pointless interaction with his voicemail system. In-person, or nothing at all, please.

One final observation. In the world of IMS [Editor: a software platform for telephone companies], his roaming would probably mean that the US telco would have to be involved in supporting a whole bunch of these advanced features. My prognosis: ain't gonna happen. A few hundred lines of code in a software client over the Internet, or a few billion dollars of network kit to add QoS? Any guesses where the future lies? Answers on the back of a large denomination note to the usual address, please.

UPDATE: One last thought. If voicemail was just a mailbox with an API and a bunch of ID/authentication, then it'd make far more sense for his message to be recorded locally on the handset with a quality audio codec and then uploaded at leisure over the network without jitter and QoS issues than pretending "everything's a circuit".

Posted by Martin Geddes at 01:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Over the past week there were a couple of news items about video communications services:

• Out of Japan, Novac has released a product, Skype TV, that lets you stream your TV across Skype video. More commentary from Gizmodo.
• Last Monday came news about the forthcoming SightSpeedTV, a new feature to be included in SightSpeed's next release at the end of the month.

But moving beyond the place-shifting domain, last week I had a demonstration of Tele3DWorld from Mellanium, a 3D design and modeling studio. Using 3D texture rendering CAD software with output via a video capture card, they have Skype or SightSpeed recognize it as a webcam for video.

One of the people behind this has already used it on a sales call for the remote dynamic 3D presentation of a new anode metal refining furnace where different types of refractory brick are used within the furnace depending on the high temperature profiles.. Using this tool, Joe was able to walk his customer through the interior of the proposed furnace, zeroing in on critical heat sensitive areas and showing how they have addressed issues related to the different types of brick. In another demonstration, he walked me through a tour of a proposed palliative care unit; a third demonstration is a walk around tour of a WWII Spitfire bomber, initially drawn up in AutoCAD.

In the course of my experience with desktop sharing or web conferencing services, one frustration has been the inability of web conferencing products to do 3D CAD viewing in real time within the desktop sharing tool sets due to the intense real time graphics demands. With video configurations such as demonstrated by Mellanium perhaps we can see this methodology become the standard for this business requirement.

Bottom line: Personal video services, such as Skype's video and SightSpeed will eventually deliver more than basic video calling. They will require either special hardware (Novac) or TV-tuner-equipped PC's, such as Windows Media PC's (Mellanium and SightSpeed) as the video source. Obviously the creative juices are flowing in developing webcam emulations that can flow video through Skype and SightSpeed.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

by: Julian Bond.

Julian is CTO of Ecademy, an online network "connecting business people." He Skype-enabled the Ecademy website to facilitate communications amongst members. The following is a post he made on the Ecademy Skype Directory Club forum in a discussion of the "code cracking" news.

Here's some ways to think about this. The first point is to understand what interop means. There are 3 ways of linking IM/Audio/Video networks.

1. At the network level. Transparently route chat, voice and video by linking the networks. Skype can't do that because there is no central network. MSN, YM! and AIM have a big centrally controlled part of the system even though a lot of the communication is P2P so they can link, at the cost of running that big central system.
2. At the server level. This is what some Jabber servers do. Because all communications go partly through a server they can be switched. It's the same as 1) except that anyone can run a Jabber server.
3. At the client. GAIM, Trillian and others let you have one client that speaks multiple protocols. You need an official account with any system you want to talk to but it blurs the differences between them.

So if there's a library that can be built into client code that duplicates the Skype protocols, 3) can be built. And 2) can be built where it's appropriate (eg Asterisk PBX).

Then look at two conversations that are happening on the Skype forums already: (i) Building audio/video stream access into the Skype API and (ii) release of a Naked Skype which is a library that provides the API without having to have the Client.

So if you can reverse engineer the protocol, there's no point in trying to build a better Skype client when Skype is shipping a new one every 2 months. You're just getting involved in a code race. If you can produce a Naked Skype API library with more capability, you can fill in the holes that Skype can't address. This might be something like a Linux version or a Nokia Series 60/80 version or a Skype that runs on a Linksys WiFi router. But again you're up against a potential code race. By producing something, you'll identify a market for Skype who will then produce it or bolt your new capability into their next release.

So we can begin to see that Skype doesn't need to open the protocol. What they do need to do is to make that protocol widely available in forms people want. Which means a Naked Skype library with full access to chat, voice and video. And a friendly licensing regime to go with it. Then we can have Skype in GAIM/Trillian, 3rd party Skype-SIP gateways, Skype on weird platforms and so on.

A note about Security. If Skype have built their encryption properly (and I believe they have), then exposing the code and protocol will make *NO* difference to the strength of the encryption. Which means that if the USA/UK require backdoors for government access they're out of luck. If Skype puts a backdoor in, the 3rd parties will produce a version with no backdoor. So I think this announcement of reverse engineering the protocol will keep Skype honest and keep the governments out. At least for Skype-to-Skype conversations even though Skype-to-POTS will still be at risk because you can always tap the POTS interconnection.

So all-in-all I see this as doing nothing more than providing a spur to Skype to keep writing code, building innovation and shipping it. As long as they keep doing that, there's no stopping them, and no downside for the users. And the fact that the protocol is reverse engineered will make no difference.

Now look at that idea of a naked API library. This is exactly the unfulfilled promise of LibJingle. Skype have had 9 months now to replicate it. I think they'll ship something before there's any use of LibJingle outside the official GTalk client.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (1)

After Charlie Paglee reported a Chinese team had "cracked" Skype's network last week, Fu Shiguang (時光) talked and emailed with those researchers and posted excerpts. They clarify and correct some parts of the story. Aside from being huge Skype fans and having met with Skype people, the take away is this bit:

We have no interest in cracking, replicating, reverse engineering or pirating Skype's software. We just want to invent a better one. Having learned from and inspired by Skype, we are going to create a P2P Internet platform where all social groups can enjoy efficient, secure and free communication. This network platform will be better than SkypeNet that we are using today.

The story isn't over.

Technorati Tags: skype, ebay, skypejournal, voip, p2p, china, skypenet

Posted by Phil Wolff at 09:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1)

It's been a whole lot of midnight oil, but I'm ready to announce something new and good: The Telco 2.0 initiative.

I'm working with my colleagues at STL Partners, who presently publish IMS Insider newsletter and IMS Insider blog (a.k.a IMS Skeptics' Weekly). We are creating a new consulting business, primarily aimed at network operators and suppliers hitting the telecom menopause and needing some business model hormone therapy. Together, we've got a depth of insight, experience and passion for the area I don't think anyone else can match. My personal goal/mantra: Deliver the sector-specific advice that McKinsey can't give you.

As you might expect, we've got a blog, inventively named Telco 2.0. It's a group blog, written Economist style without individual attribution. If I ever get time, I'll tell the story of how hard it is to put together a commercial blog using off-the-shelf tools, and integrate email marketing, change management, branding, security, privacy policy, operational information, feedback management, contact management, etc. In a word: horrendous. None of the out-of-the-box solutions came close to meeting my requirements, so I integrated it myself. Heaven help anyone with a business bent who doesn't have a technical background but wishes to go beyond basic "message & link" blogging. There are still some rough edges, please be patient as we work through them.

We've also launched a Manifesto for Telco 2.0. We believe that there is a need to succinctly describe the issues and solutions in a format that is accessible to an operator and vendor audience. Most people don't read blogs (sadly -- their loss) and need a simple link that can be mailed around between people and isn't tied up with the blog mechanics. I really must slap on that Creative Commons license some time... another to-do.

I look forward to getting your feedback -- one of the many to-do items is to make comments and updates for the manifesto easier and add trackbacks/search engine backlinks.

Naturally, we're aiming to make a living, so there's an overtly revenue-based bit. We've got a reassuringly expensive report based on oodles of research and insight. And a Telco 2.0 Industry Brainstorm event in October. Not quite a traditional conference, too structured to be an unconference. Target audience is senior execs concerned their business model has a "best before" date printed in fuzzy letters on the underside.

Why "Telco 2.0"? Is this stepping on a tired Bandwagon 2.0? I think not, and here's why:

• Web 1.0 was about enabling a Internet user interface on pre-Internet systems and business models. Web 2.0 is an Internet native. Likewise Telco 2.0 is about an all-IP world.
• Web 1.0 was about systems, transactions and technology like brosers. Web 2.0 is people and relationships. Likewise Telco 2.0 is about connecting people in new ways.
• Web 1.0 disrupted a few information-centric industries quickly, whereas Web 2.0 is about a deeper change to patterns of data exchange and interaction -- beyond the hyperlink. Likewise, Telco 2.0 means finding new value networks.
• Web 1.0 was built on narrowband and relatively puny computers, whereas Web 2.0 assumes everything comes in abundance. Likewise, Telco 2.0 is about ending the 1950s rationing and scarcity mentality.

I could probably go on finding more and weaker analogies, but I think you get the idea. The "2.0" buzzwords like social media are equally applicable to telcos with their massive installed telephony base (like it or not) and forays into the world's favourite narcotic, television.

So, what about this baby, Telepocalypse? Four kids: two girls, two blogs. I think I deserve a bigger family tax break. Telepocalypse most definitely carries on: much of what I want to write about is too speculative, controversial, personal or off-topic for Telco 2.0. Plus I like the clean separation of my personal passions from my commercial ones. Telepocalypse isn't here to sell you anything. Telco 2.0, most pleasingly, is.

I think you can fit another subscription into your news reader, don't you?

Get sector specific with Martin at Telepocalypse.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 04:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Five Reasons the team making a Skype-compatible Windows client is Good For Skype:

1. Proof Skype is worth the effort. You rob banks because they keep the money there. You get around Club Skypenet's bouncers for the juicy social network inside. Now everyone will want their client to talk Skype.
   
2. Diversity of clients strengthens a network. Do you think one design fits all? Heck, no! Skype should be recruiting developers to build a thousand clients, to build better clients than the next gal, to innovate like mad. Clients for the blind, for traveling salesmen, for tweens, for milbloggers, for religious evangelists, for podcasting seniors, for mahjong players, for Manchester United hooligans, for hospitalized patients and sex workers. Reframe the question from "join the Skype network or not?" to "which Skype client should I use?"
   
3. Remind Skype they're not Ma Bell. The first time someone plugged their own phone into the wall, they defied a phone company monopoly. Now everyone does it. The Skype network isn't the client; Skype is the protocol stack that let clients join the network and talk to each other. It's a protocol world, Baby, and you're in the driver's seat. Innovate them protocols, explode what developers can build into their clients. Lead the ecosystem.
   
4. Force rivals to speed their own open architectures. Light peering arrangements between Microsoft, Yahoo!, and AOL, are nice. But their messaging platforms are far from open or complete. More innovation in APIs and protocols will help Skype's architects distinguish baseline features vs. differentiators. And set the bar higher for powerful telcos to compete. Remember it's AT&T with the Death Star, not Google.
   
5. Pressure Skype to add contextual value. VoIP is so last month. Strategic power is in the edge of the network, where devices connect, and the edge of conversation, where people connect. Skypecasting pioneers bringing strangers together for voice conversations. Skype must continue to make markets for conversation, the way eBay auctions and forums makes conversation into markets. As Skype continues to drive metered call prices to zero, surround threads of conversation with Skypey Goodness.   
   

As Ecademist Skypecaster Julian Bond says, "Skype's best reaction to this is to keep innovating and shipping code."

Posted by Phil Wolff at 04:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (2)

It's been a busy week:

• The previously announced (eight months ago) MSN/Yahoo IM federation became real. Yawn.
• Phil Wolff and Alec Saunders have commented on the Skype code cracking by a Chinese engineering team.
• Ken Camp has linked both the U3 Skype/SanDisk announcement and any potential Skype code cracking to corporate security policy implications.

I tend to be more pragmatic in terms of looking at how can I use Skype more effectively as a business and personal communications tool as opposed to worrying about all the implications of any Skype protocol publication.  For instance, I have been evaluating a couple of the new Nokia N-series personal communications accessories; they are much more than just a wireless phone! And certainly represent an excellent platform for personal accessory convergence; I have found a wealth of uses for them.

However, since they are based on the Symbian S60 Series operating system, there is currently no opportunity to use Skype for Mobile. The one aspect I miss much more than the voice communications is the absence of any Instant Messaging with my Skype contacts. I mention this only as background to how important Instant Messaging has become to those who have incorporated any version of Instant Messaging into their daily activities.

Today Alec has published one of his insightful benchmark posts, Detente in IM's Cold War, on the opportunities that could arise from the (currently theoretical) public availability of certain Skype protocols (whether directly from Skype or via "cracked code"). He sees where, with the right approach to publication of the appropriate Skype protocols, Skype could set the leadership standard for the federation of Instant Messaging. In particular :he views Skype from its potential as a platform and from its business model that is significantly differentiated from that of the MSN/Yahoo/AOL portal models:

Today, unlike Google Talk, Skype has brand, momentum, a large customer base, and an active ecosystem of partners.  These are the ingredients for a successful platform play.  Unlike the dominant players, Skype makes their money from traffic across network bridges, from applications partnerships (like TellMe), and from downloadable add-on's to the application.  They are much less dependent on monetizing eyeballs than AOL, MSN, or Yahoo.  There wouldn't be the tension between their existing business model and a platform model which AOL, MSN, and Yahoo have to contend with.  As the incumbents, AOL, MSN and Yahoo would be victims of the Innovators Dilemma.  Skype would be the disruptor.

And challenges Skype management to take the leadership role in IM federation. Punt to Niklas (and Alex).

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 02:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Worth thinking about:

Frucall. Call up from a store, type in a product bar code, get comparison pricing. Like Google's Froogle via mobile. I want this in Skype.

Dandelife's data visualization and navigation. Could this timeline be a useful way to see your Skype conversation history? See threads and connections. Drill down, zoom in, pan across time, see contacts or topics with more activity with greater prominence.

HotCaptcha. Prove you are human. Nope, try again. Which brings me to Skype authentication. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a routine way to tell if a Skype call or IM coming to you was being initiated by a human?

ArsTechnica. Fighting for cafe culture by turning off WiFi. As coffee shops turn into quiet office lounges, nobody dares socialize. Some barristas schedule offline times to foster introductions, smiling, and the happy noises of conversation. 

Jeneane Sessum argues for Relevant Spam™ and the joy of accidental community. The desire for serendipity, of happy accidents, is one of the reasons people check the SkypeMe box and use StumbleUpon. Thanks to Jon Husband for messing up to such nice effect.

Avoid watching:

Soliloquy for Skype on a Summer Sunset. Almost nine excruciating minutes of my winging on the meaning of life and Skype and civilization as I point a webcam around San Francisco Bay and catch the setting sun. Horrible camera work, a few seconds of wind, and oy, the ego on this guy. Proof you should never tell anyone about your first vlog. 

Consider:

Bubblegeneration: Laws of the Post-Network Economy: Strategy is a Commodity. When everyone is a strategist, advantage goes to the creative. Part of my consulting work is as a strategist. In fact my second blog was called Phil Wolff's Journal of Extrapreneurial Strategy and Technology. My comment:

Strategy is about gameplay, viewing the world as scenarios to win, then picking your best moves. If I understand you, you're suggesting not only that everyone is playing chess, but that everyone is reaching grand master status. Of course mastery begins to look like art.

100 years' ago, the ability to use a phone was rare, and conferred comparative advantage in business. Now that everyone has it, everyone has those same advantages and you must do more than be able to dial and answer the phone.

50 years' ago, typing was a rare skill. As it's become comoditized, you'd think those who'd type fastest would be better with computers.

25 years' ago, the tools of strategic analysis were restricted to military officers and a few MBA professors. Today millions of people consider their goals in the context of what other players will do. SWOT analysis is taught in high schools. Risk analysis is an everyday mindset in the online poker culture. And business is a spectator sport.

I'm not sure strategy is completely fungible; not all experts play from the same handbook, carry them with the same personality and soft skills, or share the same insights that frame strategic thought. Perhaps minor league strategy is a commodity, covering the 20% of strategic tools that yield 80% of the value. Mastery could mean applying the other tools well or being able to make new tools when none of the existing ones fit your situation.

It comes down to what you mean by creativity. Strategy driving innovation? Innovation driving strategy? Or sparking the one in a billion shot that creates entirely new ways of seeing the world and kicking over the table?

Coming up next week:

• Webcast of eBay Inc. Q2 2006 Earnings Release. Jul 19, 2006 at 2:00pm PT. 
• Pamela goes from 2.0 to 2.5. First look.
  
• PrettyMay for Skype 1.5 goes into beta. First look.
• WebMessenger Mobile for Skype. First look.
• Skype research week in the U.S. What should Skype learn now?
  

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

A Skype spokesperson IM'd me this response to yesterday's story:

"Skype is aware of the claim made by a small group of Chinese engineers that they have reverse engineered Skype software. We have no evidence to suggest that this is true. Even if it was possible to do this, the software code would lack the feature set and reliability of Skype which is enjoyed by over 100m users today. Moreover, no amount of reverse engineering would threaten Skype's cryptographic security or integrity."

Posted by Phil Wolff at 08:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The VoIPWiki Blog reports a Chinese firm reverse engineered Skype's communications protocol. It allows Skype-to-compatible softphone calls.This is credible; I've talked with a member of the team that built a Skype-compatible softphone. They hope to go public by month end. We're eager to discover if they will publish the protocols, offer Skype-compatible consumer software, offer Skype-compatible engineering products to other developers, sell their firm to a bigger company, or simply offer consulting services.

I've also used a demo version of software that crawls the Skype cloud, downloading profile data. From another group. This is not "the Skype database" but the natural white-page listing that all users put in their public profile. Skype's servers, and the financial data kept there, are not touched by this system. Screenshots:

Both systems build on detailed knowledge of Skype network parts not on Skype's servers.To build a Skype-compatible client, they had to figure out:

• how to see and navigate through the Skype cloud, to find a Skype client.
• publish their own client's profile into the Skype cloud, so a Skype client could find them
• negotiate starting the call session, including encryption and

Publishing the Skype calling protocol would create new opportunities for products and developers:

1. Third parties can build Skype connectivity into their own software, no longer requiring an official Skype client.
2. It may open up creation of Skype-compatible server software. So your salesforce system could IM you.
3. It could open up Skype to PBX integration. So you might preserve Skype identity, authentication, encryption, and presence while routed through an Asterisk server.

The profile probe is a slightly different issue. In this case, software that mines the Skype cloud for profile data is working with "dirty data." The collection is unverified, often clearly faked (an unbelievable number of people live in Antarctica), old, and incomplete. It does have some gems. Correction: The cloud has email addresses, hidden in the Skype user interface but used to locate friends. The cloud has email addresses, but they are hashed and not human readable. 

I'm not sitting at the management table, but Skype has several choices.

Open. They're already on the path to opening up more of their apps at the API level. Skype could embrace this at the protocol level too. This is the hardest thing to do, but may pay off in the long run. Exposing these protocols is the only way for the Skype network to become an industry standard. And it would put Skype in a position of leadership the way Microsoft is for dot net, Sun is for Java, and Adobe is for Flash.

Switch. Skype could change the protocols, breaking the new software. This is a costly and temporary solution; tricky but doable. Replacing Skype clients for updates is hard enough; getting everyone to migrate could kill the brand love. It won't be long until the Chinese engineers figure out how to get in again.

Quash. Skype might try to blow out the startup's fire. eBay has a powerful combination of PR, lobbyists, litigators, and business allies. Even in China. Skype could try to accuse the startup of piracy. My guess is Skype will tread litely. These tactics rarely work in China and often tarnish the reputation of the outsider applying the pressure.

Ignore. Skype has enough to do. Wait and see.

Invest. Buy the team, put them to work. 

Jim Courtney says technology does not a brand make. It takes quality control, aesthetics, user experience, customer services, an ecosystem of ancillary products, and integration with other systems. Skype's and eBay's marketing are a higher barrier to entry than technology.

Skype personnel were not available for comment. Hat tips to 9Skype, Jan Geirnaert in Malaysia and Lee Dryburgh in Austria.

Technorati Tags: skype, ebay, skypejournal, security, privacy, compatibility, ecosystem

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (8)

Providing an outline and overview of the full Skype Certification program in action, including both the technology and business aspects, was the goal of Tiit Paananen's presentation at the eBay/Skype Developer Conference last month. The full slide presentation is here but I will add some comments that came out of the session.

From the Skype perspective, the certification process can become a "chicken-and-egg" problem in that both parties (Skype and the partner) must have a common visualization of what the end user product is and how it can bring value-add to the Skype ecosystem. As a result Skype has established a multi-phase process that facilitates preparation and communication while minimizing the number of steps to achieve Skype certification. Establishing this process involved:

• gathering requirements for the program
• establishing Skype's criteria for acceptance
• determining the pre-certification activity required to prepare for testing
• facilitating iterative listing of products as they change once certified.

The business objectives of Skype certification are:

• help sales of partners' products
• ensure a positive user experience
• establish quality control criteria and processes
• avoid technical issues once a product comes to market

To date Skype has the most experience with hardware certification (33 categories and counting) while they are still learning the processes and criteria required for software certification where they are still defining categories. A complete set of certification documentation (by category) is available on the website. As general guidance for software they look for:

• Solutions that make Skype better (Pamela)
• Solutions that Skype makes better (Salesforce.com)

Certification is a geographically distributed activity with most testing performed in Talinn complemented by a second test facility in Beijing while business development is managed out of London. This can create triage issues when determining the priorities for testing various submissions as partner proposals are evaluated also against Skype's ongoing business goals.

Tiit then reviewed the certification process as highlighted in the attached slide. Some of his comments:

• The submission process does not only include the product itself but also proposed packaging and documentation.
• In working through the review criteria they find:
  • a new hardware category is created monthly
  • with software each case is unique and forms an individual category
  • the toughest question to resolve is "does the solution add value?"
• Certification fees for hardware are $800 per test round or $8,000 for a one year subscription to test. Currently there are no fees for software testing but this may change once additional experience has been developed. These fees are due prior to commencement of review and testing.

Going forward Skype is developing a "harmonized" test environment incorporating Windows, Linx and Mac OS X platforms. While there is a degree of subjectivity to some of their criteria, one goal of the new environment is to introduce more objectivity into their testing activity. In support of this goal Skype is also opening a complete audio/video laboratory which will facilitate testing of the full solution being offered:

• Documentation
• Packaging
• Installation
• Ergonomics
• Functionality.

Final comments and questions:

• Certification is version specific; individual versions of each solution must be certified
• Only 40% of devices submitted to date have passed; where minor modifications are required there is a fail/troubleshoot/pass process.
• Allow up to six weeks for testing once a submission meeting all the basic requirements have been met.
• Skype version changes must be backward compatible to certified products. (At the time there were some version 2.5 beta issues being resolved but 2.5 went "gold" immediately after the conference)
• Some certifications may expire as time passes depending on the nature of the product
• Sound device issues have now been elevated to becoming a priority 1 issue such that products cannot arbitrarily conflict with other audio applications such as Windows Media Player and SlingBox as well as with other Skype solutions
• A significant portion of failures relate to ease-of-use issues
• The number of solutions in a category is market driven

Certification has become one of the key differentiators of Skype from other VoIP communications products and services. We are starting to see hardware, such as VoIPvoice's Cyberphone series of handsets and Multi-Link's TeleVoIP Stick, that provide the user with a familiar user interface - i.e. a keypad-based handset - to access Skype services (sometimes transparently). The certification process is a key infrastructure component to driving mass consumer adoption of Skype as an enhanced communications service. Tiit's presentation brought a lot of the mystique associated with Skype certification out into the open and hopefully can serve as guidance to partners considering participating in the Skype ecosystem.

And, while I will not name any names, I can attest to the fact that several uncertified products have significant ease-of-use issues. Appropriately managed and enforced Skype's process has the potential to filter out "proof-of-concept" technology from true value-added products such that:

• Installation is smooth and straight forward; introduces no conflicts with users' prior configurations, especially Windows Audio Devices
• The user interface is user friendly to the non-technical consumer, consistent with legacy telephony operation where feasible and intuitive in learning.
• Documentation provides clear and adequate guidance in (i) the use of the hardware and/or (ii) installation, configuration and operation of the software.
• Packaging provides both a clear overview of the product's functionality and uses Skype' certification branding appropriately.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday Phil referenced the Skype/SanDisk press release announcing that Skype 2.0, featuring Internet video calling, would be preloaded on all SanDisk U3-enabled Smart Drives such that a user could access and use Skype from any Windows computer, such as at an Internet café.  But there is a caveat; from the Help for U3:

A U3 program is a special version of an application that has been created to run from flash drives. Once you install a U3 program on your device, you can run it from any Windows computer. The U3 environment ensures that the application data and settings are stored on the device. The environment also caters for multiple applications running simultaneously from the device and for the possible situation in which the device is ejected or removed from the computer while applications are still running.

I had picked up a SanDisk Cruzer Micro last month as a result of a warranty exchange (the faulty memory stick would not reformat). The replacement included the U3 technology, including Skype version 2.0.14.80; if you go to the SanDisk download page you will find the latest version is 2.0.14.85. Instinctively one might want to replace it with a version 2.5 downloaded from the Skype website. However, the default Windows Skype version is not suitable for use as a "portable" program executed from a flash drive. From an email response from a Skype product manager:

We do in fact have a special U3 build and don't officially support running the normal version of Skype on any memory stick. The reason for this is that the U3 version handles certain situations more gracefully - a great example of this is what's known as "Yank & Go". If you were running the normal version of Skype on a flash drive and you removed it without shutting down Skype, you could potentially corrupt some data files, this may result in losing contacts or chat messages. On the U3-specific version we do an elegant tear-down of the Skype application so this doesn't happen.

Not to overlook that there are also registry issues associated with a program running from a memory stick/flash drive. Apparently the Skype 2.5 "Yank & Go" U3 version is forthcoming; in the meantime stick to the special 2.0.14.8x version if you want to use portable "On-the-Go" Skype.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

My proposal for a session at Mashup Camp:

Phreak 2.0 - Mashups with live communication

So here's the notion. As the phone moves onto IP, and the new phone companies (Microsoft, eBay/Skype, Yahoo!) give us APIs, we are being encouraged to mashup conversation, coordination, collaboration and communication tools.

Mash with what?

We're already seeing some interesting stuff. A job site for multilingual interpreters can now add staff to your Skype chat or call for live translations. A 3D modeling firm is piping live, interactive flythroughs of virtual worlds through Skype video for client consultations. A company will tweak how your voice sounds before you speak for gender bending or to make you sound older or younger.

What resources can trigger a conversation? Augment one? Help you discover interesting people to talk with about a subject right now? Move phone calls from just buddy lists to social capital?

Personal goals aside, these kinds of mashups will be important in electoral and issue campaigning, online social marketing, and in web site interaction design. Think about:

• Job boards launch interviews, right now, from the UI, live.
• Dating sites launch you into a speed-dating round robin, including feedback.
• Investment sites grab you and interested strangers into a conference call when market conditions or news about a security on your watchlist meet the right criteria.
• In-flight party lines ("ok, we're all going to push the attendant button on the count of three. one, two... ").

Posted by Phil Wolff at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jon Prank Calling A Liquor Store On Skype
   

Skype "Peter Griffin" prank call
   

Isn't it great that Skype restors the sense of fun that automatic dial-back cost us? Have you received a prank call via Skype yet?

Posted by Phil Wolff at 12:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Using Skype and Unlocking your T-Mobile SDA. tutorial by Ken Keiter.
  
• Skype: Free SkypeOut from US and Canada to United Kingdom (July 15-16), Mexico (July 22-23) and Japan (July 29-30) during three 'Skype Days of Summer' weekends. Starting 12:01 a.m. EDT.
• I bought a SanDisk Cruzer USB drive today at a local Office Depot. 4GB with U3 and Skype on it. Prices are falling quickly. Nice that all Skype's settings and archives are configured to stay on the thumb drive, not on the hard drive. If you wait a few months, for the same money you should be able to get an MP3 player, batteries charged via usb, and audio in/out jacks. Skype news release.
  
• Virtual conventions. Board gamers play online, talk on Skype. "Best of all, you can go to the con without ever getting out of your pyjamas."
• The Dawn of Call Center 2.0. This 1 May 2006 CIO Today article is still being bookmarked. The vision is a linear projection of current trends, covering many bases. Most useful and a good read.
  
• eCamm Call Recorder for Skype on the Mac updated to  1.0.3. Makes QuickTime movies of your calls.
  

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Your primary sources should be the Mumbai Help blog (for sequential reports) and the Mumbai Help wiki (for organized information). Kudos to the World Wide Help group. an organization of online volunteers who've been responding to crises since the great South East Asian Earthquake And Tsunami.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 05:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the enhancements of Skype 2.5 was to simplify the upgrade process. Instead of the tedious download/save/install process that involved saving a file somewhere and then finding it to do the install, one simply need click on "Help | Check for Update" and the entire process is automated. No need to close and/or uninstall the previous version. At one point you will receive a screen asking to confirm acceptance of the Skype End User License Agreement and the Skype Privacy Statement:

Click on the acceptance check box and the Install button.  From this point the new version is downloaded and installed; you are then logged back into Skype and ready to continue Skyping.

Feature additions in Skype 2.5.0.122 released at the end of June (change log):

• Adds a "Send SMS" button to the main Toolbar
• Updated translations, including install translations

and 17 minor bug fixes that result in smoother and more intuitive operation. (Note: no security issues in this hotfix.)

So, click on "Help | Check for Update" to ensure you have the latest bug fixes.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the key challenges for Skype market penetration will be providing the ability for consumers to make voice calls over Skype in a manner that is totally transparent and seamless to the average consumer. In a recent interview with Ron Sladon, President and CEO of Multi-Link, Inc. he explained how their Skype strategy has become an extension of Multi-Link's overall business mission: Providing cost saving telephony.

In executing on their mission, Multi-Link has several guidelines:

• Provide a seamless experience to the end user
• Maintain a <0.02% failure rate for their devices
• Support Skype as their platform for VoIP offerings

Multi-Link was founded in 1984 by several engineers who had developed devices that would recognize various DTMF tones to allow for line sharing across multiple functions such as voice, fax, alarm systems and, modems used for applications such as credit card/debit card transaction authorization. With over a million units installed, Multi-Link's most prevalent product is a line sharing device known as "The Stick":

The Stick® is a state-of-the art telephone line sharing device that screens and automatically routes all voice, fax, and modem calls to the right equipment every time - eliminating the need for costly dedicated phone lines.

Multi-Link also offers products designed for industrial applications including remote access power switches. For example, their IPS can be used for remote rebooting of computers via telephone, heartbeat software and/or web browser when a problem or interrupt occurs.

As part of their channel strategy for market penetration, Multi-Link has developed a network of telephony distributors and resellers with over 1200 locations supported across the U.S. In addition to reselling Multi-Link's hardware, these resellers employ installers and service personnel who go into the home or business to provide a total voice communications solution to their customers.

A couple of years ago Multi-Link started to look at VoIP products and picked out Skype specifically as the VoIP platform to support. Having sold their Board on this strategy, Multi-Link has spent over a year going through the appropriate design and Skype Certification process. Their product criteria included:

• Must be Skype Certified
• Seamless access to local and 911 services
• Seamless access to Skype/SkypeOut for long distance calls
• Where relevant, pass through necessary traditional legacy phone signaling such as ring tones and power support

Multi-Link introduced its first VoIP products last month at eBay Live. They include:

• TeleVoIP Stick: to provide seamless access to Skype from any home phone
• Perfectel Handset: a "Travel Phone" that is small enough to put in a brief case and use as a Skype Phone instead of a headset when on the road
• TeleVoIP Phone: a telephone set which simply connects to the PC's sound card and does not need any additional drivers. As a result when a Skype (or any VoIP client) call comes in, the phone set rings and, on picking up the handset, the VoIP application takes over the sound card (from, say, a Windows Media player or SlingBox).

In addition to their traditional channel of telephony resellers who provide full service solutions, Multi-Link is developing a new consumer channel for distribution of their Skype products, building relationships with retail distribution partners; these relationships will be announced over the next few weeks.

Multi-Link is also a member of the VON Coalition, founded by VoIP pioneer Jeff Pulver to build awareness of VoIP-related issues within the Washington regulatory environment. This often involves a commitment of time to meet and communicate with both FCC commissioners and politicians on various issues such as the Universal Service Fund.

In summary Multi-Link sees their VoIP strategy as an extension of their ongoing business of providing low profile, but essential, infrastructure hardware that builds business opportunities for their value-added reseller partners who, in turn, can deliver "cost saving telephony" solutions to end users.

Disclosure: Skype Journal would like to acknowledge the assistance of Multi-Link, Inc. in facilitating our attendance at last month's eBay Developers Conference and eBay Live.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 08:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

It Happened to Jane (1959) with Doris Day, Jack Lemmon, and Ernie Kovacs. A tycoon buys the only railroad going through a small Maine town. A local widow (Day) tries to get her live lobsters to market, but the railroad downgrades her shipments, letting lobsters die before they get to their customers.

Despite the railroad's dozens of high powered lawyers, Doris Day wins in small claims court. When the railroad won't pay, she seizes a train, and starts a PR campaign against them that includes radio, television game shows, newspaper reports, and the like. The railroad retaliates by cutting off passenger and cargo service to their small town. The townspeople try to use the seized railcar to haul their goods, including the lobsters, to New York. But the tycoon routes the train all over New England to delay it. They intentionally congest those routes with other rail cars, start construction at chokepoints, and deny water for the steam engine to further slow down the lobsters. Will they make it to the Bronx in time for the dinner time rush?

In the end, the mean tycoon's heart softens when he meets Day and her cute kids, and everyone lives happily ever after.

Sound like the network neutrality issue?

Big telecom incumbents abusing power. Playing favorites with routing. Delivering less than they're paid for, stopping innovation, and spending money on lawyers instead of upgrades.

Unlike the movie, we don't have a Doris Day to charm "the meanest man in the world." So it comes down to congress and the FCC in the United States, and similar government organs in your country. Grassroots activism seems the only course since it's nigh on impossible to out-lobby phone and cable companies.

So:

• What will you do for the Internet this week?
  
• How will you defend your right to call unimpeded? And in private?
  
• Who will you call?
  

Posted by Phil Wolff at 04:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Declan McCullagh breaks down the FBI's new Net-tapping push. Requiring manufacturers of VoIP systems (including Skype) and IM (like Skype) be as tappable as your plain old telephone system. I suppose it comes down to trust, your world view, and how you balance risks with freedoms.

Law enforcement, for example, keeps pressure on legislatures to widen authority, at the expense of citizen privacy, in the name of being efficient and effective. They form an organized lobby putting safety over liberty. Do you know of lobbies that push back the other way?

Laws makers are aware that the threats are personal. For example, this bit from the official site of Ohio Senator Mike "Coingate" DeWine (R-Ohio):

NOTE: Due to heightened security restrictions in the Senate office buildings and elsewhere on the Capitol complex, mail addressed to members of Congress continues to be significantly delayed. Mail addressed to my office must now be sent off-site for irradiation treatment and other preventative measures to ensure safety.

Those wishing to quickly contact my office are encouraged to correspond by telephone or fax. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Senator DeWine will introduce the FBI's bill. If you're a U.S. citizen, Skype him to say the new CALEA extensions are over-the-top and intrusive. Or that you don't mind being spied on. Here are his public phone numbers. If you click them, you'll dial straight from Skype, free in the US:

• D.C. Office: (202) 224-2315
• Xenia, Ohio: (937) 376-3080
• Cincinnati, Ohio: (513) 763-8260
• Cleveland, Ohio: (216) 522-7272
• Columbus, Ohio: (614) 469-5186
• Marietta, Ohio: (740) 373-2317
• Toledo, Ohio: (419) 259-7536

This is an election year for DeWine. He is running for reelection against blogging Congressman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). If you think privacy and freedom should be a campaign issue, Skype Brown's campaign office at 440-282-3314 or his congressional offices: Lorain County (440) 245-5350, (440) 365-5877; Summit County (330) 865-8450; and his Washington Office (202) 225-3401.

Does making phone numbers clickable (click once to call) make you more likely to call, just for the convenience?

Posted by Phil Wolff at 07:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Skypers should be very interested in event syndication, the technology behind sharing event information over the Internet.Yahoo! Upcoming and Google Calendar are Skype rivals' strong tools. I use the venture-funded Eventful every week (great API). I'd be using iCal If I was on a Mac. How might this fit into Skypeland?

• Event discovery. How can I find Skypecasts I want to join, meetings to attend/avoid, conferences to cover, parties to plan? How do I help others find them? All these services make it fast and easy to post an event to yourself, your  friends or the public. Some of them, like Google, make it simple to publish the data on your blog or another web site, or to subscribe to an event feed in your browser or feedreader.
• Calendaring. These data formats let me add found events to my personal calendars. They also make it simple to invite others (part of what makes event data sharing such a social medium).
• Alerting. Skype is mostly about real-time talk. I love it when an alarm rings telling me it's three minutes until my next call. Alerts and reminders help me change my own behavior, help me manage my time and keep my commitments.

What might eBay and Skype do in the next 90 days?

1. Publish open Skypecasts.
2. Publish eBay Auctions in iCalendar and related formats.
3. Publish eBay investor events (analyst days, conference calls, etc.)
4. Publish Skype business events. You have lots to share, like gift days, conferences where Skype participates, job fairs, focus groups, etc.
5. Support consuming calendar feeds in a Skype account. For instance, let me subscribe to the list of Spanish language casts using the word "futbol". And let me get my Outlook and Yahoo! events (including scheduled phone calls) too. Subscribing to the public calendars of my family, friends, customers, and work colleagues reinforces Skype as an instrument for managing my relationships.
6. Show my updated event feeds in a Skype tab. Right in the client.
7. Alert me to upcoming events. Trigger phone calls, conference calls, tuning in to auctions, joining multichats. Prod me to wind up my active call so I can be on time for the next one.
8. Publish my call/chat history as a calendar feed. So I can see whom I talked with, when and for how long right in the same Google/Yahoo!/Outlook calendar I use to manage my time. With access controls, of course.

Just playing around with here's a calendar of public Skype events, as I know them. You can click on the big button to add it to your own Google calendar. So far I've added the published SkypeOut Gift Days for July and the three U.S. Skype research days. Google makes available three links for subscribing or viewing a public calendar: , , and . I'll show a calendar below.

Is this kind of data Skype Journal should keep up to date?

Posted by Phil Wolff at 03:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

• DesktopLinux - New version of Skype for Linux arrives. This is a great hands-on review of the 1.3 version which came out last month.
• ClearOne Chat 50 speakerphone takes some pride in being less tuned to Skype with more versatile connections. The proof will be in the sound check.
• As AOL looks at bundling email with broadband, should Skype bundle free email with your Skype account? A move toward unified messaging...
• After eBay bars Google Checkout, lots of feedback. Combonman gets the prize for best analogy:

  "The problem is, eBay is not like a retail store, when you shop on eBay you are not actually buying anything from eBay; the individual sellers on eBay are like retail stores. They should be able to accept or not accept whatever form of payment they want (and other than Google checkout, they can; not all eBay sellers accept Paypal, and many accept it but prefer money orders/bank transfers/etc, even offering discounts for other methods of payment). A better analogy would be the owner of a shopping mall saying no stores in the mall can accept American Express but they are free to accept or deny any other form of payment they wish."

• Taipei Easy Call aims to make wireless VoIP the primary phone system for the city. No mention of Skype, though. Skype would need to cut deals with the Easy Call hardware partners to become the VoIP service of choice.
• Coming up at the OSCON open source convention: "Free Calls, Free Software" session by David Bitton of Wengo. Exactly how many communication tools will the market support? And will consumers pick marketing over over technology?

  "Online telephony is still in its infancy, with incompatible proprietary systems owning a major marketshare. Meanwhile, free and open source software is gaining ground on the server and desktop. This talk will cover how Wengo used low-level GPL components to build a compelling free alternative to Skype. Also covered are Open Standards, IM interoperability, experiments with XUL, and cross-platform bliss."

• Did you miss fellow blogger M.C. Hammer's Skypecasts this week? Monday was "What Happened To Our Hood? We will be discussing the rampant violence and death in the inner city and what we can do to help." Tuesday's topic was "Look3X digital project that was released on Itunes today including the new social networks (communities) built for the album." Wednesday's roundup of "Revver, Skype, Orkut, Look3X digital album and the Look Communties." Voice-to-voices live, a human way to connect with your fans and critics. 

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

On the way back from London Zoo today with the family to my parents' house, I was pondering the nature of the journey. Most of the "express" route between London Waterloo and Staines grinds laboriously through the city and suburbs. (Yes, there's a place called Staines. It's where I was born. Stop tittering down the back of the class, please.)

Between Feltham and Staines the track is pretty straight and there are some large gaps in the contiguous concrete of the metropolis. Yet the train doesn't break 70mph lest terrible things happen to the physical being of those trapped inside. The fastest timetabled journey has actually got longer in my lifetime. Much like the journey between Edinburgh and Glasgow, I suspect that it has also got slower since the days of steam. (No, I'm not making this up. Fastest train between the two main Scottish cities was about 2 minutes quicker a century ago, according to a Edinburgh Evening News story I read recently.)

Naturally, I'm going to start drawing parallels between the infrastructure and services on the train track and those of telecom. But my aim isn't to try to provide a metaphor that neatly maps across, but rather to show some of the effects of economic and political incentives.

For a good while, the whole system was nationalised. The London bit was separately run and operated as Network Southeast. There was relatively little investment in capacity of track or trains. Punctuality was poor. They still practiced price discrimination (e.g. peak and off peak) as well as offering a Network Card which you could pay a modest sum for and get a 1/3 discount from off-peak fares.

Those demanding high quality invest in private transport (exiting the system) or buffer the unreliability with time.

The telco equivalent would be a vertical muni net which also included services like TV, phone, corporate VPN access, etc. The network suffers high congestion and jitter.

The next part of the story was that the track and trains were separated into different private companies with complex contractual agreements between them. The heavily subsidised track was floated on the stock market. The train services were franchised out, again with complex contracts and a variety of subsidies. The lawyers made a killing. The employees carried on running strikes much like in the days of nationalisation. Fares rose fast. Investment in the track infrastructure wilted. Service improvements were marginal. Marketing of the rail system went backwards as nobody had an incentive to cooperate with anyone else beyond the barest contractual obligations.

Worst of all, Railtrack plc changed the approach to inspection and replacement of rails to minimise cost. Result? Lots of dead passengers smeared along the fastest express line. A political pain threshold was crossed.

Now, I told you that we weren't going to map all this back to telecom. So we won't, apart from noting that changes between public and private ownership alone don't necessarily create the results you desire; neither does structural separation.

In a controversial (i.e. just technically legal) move, the government effectively backrupted the private track company. Now we have a nationalised track company with private train operators. Investment is picking up, as are taxes. Punctuality seems to be improving a little. Rolling stock is also being renewed.

Still, there are problems. Because of the franchise process, train operators tend to have views of the future where time ends with the next "sudden death" tendering process.

So, what incentives would make my journey faster than it was for the Victorians?

One solution would be to increase the amount of "layer 0" access and rights of way to enable scheduling of non-stop services that don't have to wait behind stopping services. Telecom conduits are expensive. Railway ones that aren't bequeathed by our long-dead ancestors are verging on the impossible: the Channel Tunnel link spent a decade marooned in the courts. To some degree (in caricature) this is the "throw more capacity at it" argument for telecom. Fine if you've already got a fibre from A to B, bad luck if not.

We could change the pricing structure so that competing operators of fast trains could charge a premium price. But that would create its own problems. Much like the network neutrality debate, there would be political outcry. A limited choice of train operators on a finite network capacity would mean users of Operator A may have a smaller choice of trains without buying the "roaming" option onto Operator B. Would consumer welfare really be enhaced?

We could tax the bejeezus out of the public and splurge it on infrastructure. The Japanese tried it and wasted most of the money on white elephants. The UK government is doing the first bit, and spending it all on wages for existing and new public servants. I don't trust a politician to spend my money any better than I can.

The only alternative I can think of is, as usual, new (untested, novel, risky) ways of aligning customer and owner interests. Perhaps buying a season ticket also comes with a 10-year non-transferable debenture or junior class of stock. The crankiness of your imagination is the limit.

The take-aways? We want to create incentives to built abundant infrastructure, support freedom of speech or movement, and simultaneously make sure a socially acceptable and fiscally sensible pricing structure exists. Anyone proffering simple solutions almost certainly has got it wrong. Tackling piece parts of the problem (errr, "Network Neutrality" anyone?) doesn't work. And if you're a taxpayer, hold on to your wallet as tight as you can.

Martin gets out of neutral at Telepocalypse.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 04:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

eBay announces senior management changes for Skype. Niklas Z. is still there! But he has new reports.

1. Alex Kazim, currently Vice President of Products for Skype, will assume the role of President of Skype, reporting to Zennström. A seven-year veteran of eBay. He replaces Rajiv Dutta who is moving to head up PayPal.

2. Henry Gomez, currently General Manager of Skype North America, will become Chief Marketing Officer and Director of Country Operations Worldwide for Skype, a newly created role in which he will be responsible for worldwide marketing and local business activities around the world. Gomez is a 6-year eBay veteran.

Congratulations Alex and Henry. Good luck. You have a huge job ahead of you.

Read more...

eBay Announces Senior Management Changes

San Jose, Calif., July 6, 2006 - eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) today announced several changes in the company's senior management, including the planned departure of PayPal President Jeff Jordan and the elevation of several company leaders into new positions. The changes will help the company leverage the expertise of top executives and further eBay's efforts to build synergies among its brands.

Jordan, who joined the company in 1999, plans to leave his position in the fall to spend more time with his family. Jordan led eBay North America from 2000 through 2004 and helped it become the premier ecommerce franchise in North America. He was named President of PayPal in December 2004, and under his tenure PayPal continued to expand on the eBay marketplace and successfully built a thriving business among online merchants outside of eBay. In 2005, PayPal reached $1 billion in revenue for the first time in its history. Since Q3 2004, the last full quarter before Jordan became President of PayPal, total payment volume increased by 89 percent to $8.8 billion, and the number of user accounts jumped 85 percent to 105 million.

"Jeff has had a long and successful career at PayPal and eBay, building two of the most powerful ecommerce and payment brands on the Internet," said Meg Whitman, President & CEO, eBay Inc. "Jeff's been a valued colleague and close friend, and while I'm sorry to see him go, I wish him the very best."

Long-time eBay executive Rajiv Dutta will replace Jordan as President of PayPal. Dutta has been with eBay since 1998, serving in a variety of finance and operating roles. Dutta was eBay's Chief Financial Officer and head of eBay strategy from 2001 through 2005 during a period of rapid growth and global expansion. Dutta was also closely involved in several major acquisitions, including the acquisition of PayPal in 2002. In early 2006, Dutta was named President of Skype where he has worked closely with Skype CEO and founder Niklas Zennström on managing Skype's growth and integration with eBay.

Alex Kazim, currently Vice President of Products for Skype, will assume the role of President of Skype, reporting to Zennström. A seven-year veteran of eBay, Alex has held leadership positions in all of eBay's businesses, including vice president of eBay's classifieds businesses and platform solutions group, and vice president of marketing and business operations for PayPal. Working with Zennström, Kazim will be responsible for continuing the growth of the business.

Skype now has more than 100 million users, and those people used Skype for 6.9 billion minutes in the first quarter of 2006, a 31% increase over the previous quarter.

In addition, Henry Gomez, currently General Manager of Skype North America, will become Chief Marketing Officer and Director of Country Operations Worldwide for Skype, a newly created role in which he will be responsible for worldwide marketing and local business activities around the world. Gomez is a 6-year eBay veteran who ran eBay's marketing PR, corporate communications and government relations operations prior to joining Skype last November. Gomez will also report directly to Zennström. Don Albert, Director of Business Development for Skype North America, will replace Gomez as General Manager of Skype North America.

eBay also named Lorrie Norrington President of eBay International effective immediately. Norrington, who had been President and CEO of Shopping.com, will now be responsible for all of eBay's international marketplaces, as well as Shopping.com. Norrington replaces Matt Bannick who, as previously announced, will spearhead eBay's initiatives in corporate philanthropy and the developing world. Norrington joined Shopping.com as president and CEO in June 2005 after four years as an officer of Intuit, Inc. and 20 years of leadership in several global businesses at General Electric, where she gained valuable experience in managing and growing large operational functions.

Josh Silverman will assume day-to-day operations at Shopping.com. Silverman, who will take the title of General Manager, most recently served as Vice President of Products for Shopping.com. Prior to that, Silverman held a variety of management positions at eBay, including Vice President for eBay Netherlands and Marktplaats.nl. Before joining eBay, Silverman was a co-founder and CEO of Evite.

"We have the leading brands in ecommerce, online payments, and online communications. Transferring leadership across those businesses allows us to better innovate and collaborate throughout the company," said Whitman. "Rajiv and Lorrie bring proven leadership abilities to their new positions, and Alex, Henry, Don and Josh demonstrate the range and depth of our next generation of leaders."

About eBay Inc.

Founded in 1995, eBay pioneers communities built on commerce, sustained by trust, and inspired by opportunity. eBay enables ecommerce on a local, national and international basis with an array of websites - including the eBay Marketplaces, PayPal, Skype, Kijiji, Rent.com and Shopping.com - that bring together millions of buyers and sellers every day.

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Posted by Bill Campbell at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In case you've ever wondered if there's any scope for innovation in telephony (geddit?), here's some points to ponder.

First, check out this post by Douglas Galbi, in particular:

Good sensory design of communication services requires understanding behavioral goals. Consider, for example, voice quality. High voice quality might mean transmitting the full audible range of a person's voice, and nothing else (no "noise"). Research indicates, however, that persons are able to identify locations based on their acoustic qualities. If the goal of a voice conversation is to transmit specific information in speech, then ambient sound is "noise". But if the goal of a voice conversation is to make sense of the other's circumstances, then ambient sound might enhance communication, particularly for a mobile device.

So, what about the pre-call context exchange?

When someone calls me on Skype, I get to see their picture, if they've added one to their profile. If isn't hard to imagine extending this system to show me more of their context; call me from your home desktop PC and I see a backdrop of 'home'; from a Pocket PC and I see a 'cafe' as the default 3rd place; from a Skype Zones wi-fi hotspot, and it tells me where you are calling from, maybe. Once you get the idea that context is an equal player with content, the possibilities start to explode. How might you modify the UI of a mobile handset to create and display context data? How does the 2nd screen on a clamshell play into this? Douglas is talking about the in-call experience, but the "next-gen caller ID" could turn out to be big business.

In Skype, what's sometimes notable is how little innovation has taken place rather than how much. For example, the directory lets me specify my country and time zone. But it doesn't smooth the way by letting me specify what languages I speak/understand (my older daughter can sing unintelligible nonsense rhymes in at least 17 languages).

Here's another example of why I believe telephony need not be an innovation-free zone. I have a PhoneGnome at home [disclosure: am paid advisor]. It lets me control how long the phone rings before it goes to voicemail. I've already set it 5 seconds beyond the default, because in a house with young kids and foot-injuring obstacles spread everywhere the sprint time to the phone is rather extended. We missed a call recently, and whoever was dumped into voicemail didn't leave a message.

Now, with PhoneGnome we could have a different experience if we so chose. The call could auto-answer and announce ("Ringing home phone. 15 seconds until voicemail activation. 10 seconds. 5 seconds. The callee didn't answer, please leave your name, number and message after the tone...")

(Alert readers will already be wondering how to eliminate the "name" and "number" meta-data exchange above.)

We also get a number of calls for a pizza take-away which has the same number as us, but with the last 2 digits transposed. "Hi, do you do deliveries?" "Yes, we've got two young girls on offer this evening, only slightly screamy, good price. Can I bring them round straight away?" A simple way to announce who they're through to whilst the ringing is going on would probably let them self-screen the calls.

Posted by Martin Geddes at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Users of Skype in German and English VoIP forums have been complaining about the automatic withdrawal of their Skype credit after inactivity in their account. Now a German court rules: Prepaid account withdrawal based on inactivity must stop! Up till now Skype tells users to call your Mum at least every 179 days or you will lose your SkypeOut credit balance! Spending two cents twice a year can be important.

Those who occasionally use O2 to get airtime in Germany may breathe easier in the future! Germany's fourth largest mobile company gets the red card from the High Regional Court of Munich. Several prepaid clauses are declared invalid.

Hopefully this new court ruling will be a wake up call to Skype about this inappropriate business practice of closing out the account balance after 180 days.

Posted by Torben Nyhuus at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

"Skype is currently not doing business in Korea, nor does it have a telecoms operation in Korea. Should Skype begin to conduct business in Korea, either directly or with a local partner, all applicable laws will of course be followed." This on Monday from DongChol Beh, Skype Market Manager for Korea. Parsing carefully, this means you cannot buy Skype credits if you are in South Korea (or is it if Skype believes you are in South Korea? or you can't buy it with a South Korean credit card?). You can spend Skype credits if you have them on SkypeOut to South Korea land lines.

It's in response to headlines like:

• ZDNet Korea: Skype, new memberships halted!
• VoIP news: Skype in trouble with South Korea government
• The Korea Times: Skype Probed for Unregistered Marketing
• 21talks: Skype accused (again) of illegal practices
• Strategy Page: South Korea Puts the Screws to U.S. Troops
• Jan in Malaysia: South Korean government held off on its plan to ban the use of VOIP

Hmmm.

• Auction & Skype's Korean site.
• Launch announcement from last month with disclaimers about SkypeIn and SkypeOut.
• Notice from Skype about the continuing problem.

It's a story of growing pains, of Skype moving in to a country, running into an obstacle, and backing off to re-enter correctly.

It's also about large local phone companies lobbying hard with government regulators to restrict competition from VoIP. (Sound familiar?)

Follow-up questions unanswered by press time.

• Was Skype doing business in Korea before?
• When, for which products, and in what manner?
• When and why did Skype stop?

If Skype or its partners are subject to fines for infractions, then we may not get answers for a while.

Skype clearly plans to serve the South Korean market with SkypeIn and SkypeOut. What about PayPal? At the moment, PayPal only lets South Koreans withdraw money, not send money. This must be tough for eBay since South Korea is eBay's fourth largest market, after the United States, Germany, and the UK. More than 34 million Koreans use the Internet, about 70% of the population.

The regulatory embarassment, customer inconvenience, and deferred cash flow must be difficult for Skype's portal partner, Auction. It's unclear if Auction-Skype is a joint venture, an Auction project, a Skype project, or a Skype subsidiary. UPDATE: It is an Auction project, working on behalf of Skype, its sister company.

A translation from ZDNet Korea:

Skype, new memberships halted!

by Hyang-Seon Lee (ZDNet Korea), June 28th, 2006

Internet phone company 'Skype' ordered by MIC to stop receiving new memberships to its 'Skype Out' services due to violating domestic Korean e-communications business codes.

On June 23rd, South Korea's MIC (Ministry of information and communications) said the Skype has not met the e-business codes 19 (special business license) and 59.2 (international connection) for internet phone service (VoIP) and was ordered to stop offering new memberships immediately.

Skype offers unlimited free phone calls between PC to PC service 'Skype' and wire/wireless phone accessible 'Skype Out' and regular phone line service 'Skype In' as the main business products since last February.

The violations were with failing to register for special communications business (code 2) and starting the business (international phone services) without the approval from MIC's director. Especially requiring consumers to prepay for the services were in questions for the violations too.

To comply with the MIC's new order, Skype must submit its subsequent corrective actions to the MIC. In order for the Skype to continue with regular 'Skype out' operations, it must first register to meet the special business code 2 and obtain approvals from the director of MIC to operate international phone services.

Because of these new orders, Skype plans to sublease Wintel's '070' (code class 1 license) number to continue the operations.

Auction-Skype operations director Dong-Chul Bae said, "At this time, we are discussing the current situation with MIC to satisfy all their regulation codes.We will proceed with new memberships as soon as the all the regulations are in accord with the MIC."

An affiliate from MIC commented, "Domestic Skype subsidiaries auction now have registered with special code 2 and putting effort to meet all the regulations and subsequent penalties or fines should get waived."

This resulted because foreign firm started the business without checking with the domestic authorities beforehand.

Meanwhile, Skype had to postpone services to 'Skype In' early February due to the regulations. It's ready for regular service presently but the company announced it will begin the services from this July.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 02:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jaanus has put up a post on the Skype Blog announcing the much anticipated Skype for Mac with Video; however, it is not a release announcement -- not even any dates for release. He has put this announcement up because there is a so-called unreleased beta version out on the web but attempting to use this version can cause significant damage to your Skype installation.

What you need to know about this version is that it is an internal unstable development version, and thus it is extremely buggy. It may and will destroy your contacts and other data. It is completely unsupported and if you experience problems due to using this version, you're on your own.

Looking forward to being able to communicate with our Mac Skype Contacts using an "official" version.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last Wednesday Skype released five new toolbars - two are entirely new while three are significant upgrades of previous versions. They incorporate several features reported in my interview with Peter Kalmstrom at the Skype Developers Conference. This brings to six the number of Toolbars released in June; when you you look at the feature list you can see the impact of Peter's having a much larger developer team as a result of the eBay acquisition.

At this time I will point you to them; as I am on vacation, reviews will be forthcoming during July:

• Skype Toolbar for Internet Explorer , version 2.1.0.10
• Skype Toolbar for Firebox, version 2.1.0.11
• Change Log for Web Toolbars
• New: Skype Office Toolbar, version 1.0.0.22; this toolbar was released just prior to the Skype Developer Conference.
• Skype Email Toolbars
  • for Outlook, version 1.0.0.43
  • New: for Outlook Express, version 1.0.0.43
  • New: for Thunderbird, version 1.0.0.38
  • Change Log for Email Toolbars

Skype Email Toolbar for Outlook now incorporates:

• An iconic link to PayPal
• Initiation of conference calls, via both Skype and SkypeOut, by simply selecting multiple Outlook contacts and clicking on the Conference button
• Attachment file transfer: directly send a file from an email attachment to any Skype contact
• Use of the Phone Number Recognition algorithm designed for the web Toolbar and also available as an API to simplify the recognition of phone numbers both in Outlook Contacts and email content.
• Many other improvements to be discussed in a more detailed subsequent review.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When I look for user studies, Yahoo!'s flickr photo sharing site is great. A week in Skype life, for example:

• Susie, Mami talking with Daddy  via Skype video. A cute family portrait but Daddy is a hot pink. 
• Max with the Skype 2.0 beta for the Mac. low rez and very pink, but not from the sun.
• Katie vs. Technology (action blur) , the night they got Internet and Skype. Visualize frustration.
  
• Green is the new cool. Moldarin looks at all the green icons in his system tray. LimeWire, iTunes, Windows Live Messenger, Skype, Norman Virus
  
• Ragnhildaas series of photos of showing a Skype video call with her two older parents
  
• A MAKE project to convert bluetooth stereo headphones. USB dongle means it can use Skype.
  
• Gnomedex conference panel brings Hugh McLeod in via Skype. Yay, Gillmor Gang!
  
• A Londoner in Noo Joisey. Skype moody.
  
• VTech USB7100 is a Skype and regular cordless phone that can support 4 handsets. Nice shots of packaging.
  
• On the importance of Ninjas to beer. Yay, Beer!
  
• Ramzi's bachelor party via Skype Video.
  
• Calling up a random stranger and talking for 02:29:56 to improve your English and make a friend. Yay, free!
  
• Nicola treating Skype Video like paparazzi. Are you ready for your closeup?
  
• Yahoo! Messenger for Mac looks elegant.
  
• My Chaos Room featuring a frape Ubuntu and a Linksys cordless phone for Skype. vs. this Linksys user's ultra tidy desk.
  
• USB phones on a Tainan store wall.
  
• Packard Bell EasyNote 'Skype Edition' Laptop in use.
  
• SparkPR party in San Francisco. One of Skype's media relations firms. Yay, Sparkgirls!
  

We're still at the stage of surprise and delight at being able to connect. How jaded will we be this time next year? How far and in what ways will our routine, ordinary, daily expectations rise?

Posted by Phil Wolff at 04:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Somehow Skype PR forgot to notify the Skype Journal gang of their hardware showcase last Thursday for bloggers and media (there's a difference?). Please point us to your event blog posts, articles, pictures, videos, etc. We'd have been happy to have a correspondent cover the event but, well, there you have it.

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

Gizmodo bails on Skypecasts: quality issues. "Sorry listeners! There was a little bit of audio difficulty, as those of you who tuned in may have heard. We won't be using that service again."

Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing collects comments about Google Checkout's predatory pricing (below cost, subsidized by advertising) and content policies (more restrictive than eBay, tending toward "evil").

Real-Time Guardian blocks Skype, including Skype 2.5. Networking Pipeline tested it on a university campus. Detects supernodes too.

Lessons from the Collaborative Technology Conference:

1. Everything is coming from the bottom up.
2. Harness the collective intelligence of your organization or the Internet.
3. Let everything grow organically.
4. Let a few people lead and pull in everyone else along with them.
5. Move fast enough or else users will use free Internet services and bypass the IT department.

John Locke's tutorial: The EasyUbuntu installer puts Skype on your Ubuntu Linux desktop.

Yahoo!: more like human activity and less like software. What happens when you embrace opening wide your business and systems and embrace long tail of customer behavior.

Daniel Aleksandersen's tutorial: more Skype presence formatting ideas for web designers.

Hip Telecom offers a net2phone based softphone, giving Brazil's two million Skypers a choice, says one blogger.

WaPo reviews the wireless DUALphone. Pick up the handset and dial via POTS or Skype, your choice. Are Skype's partners reshaping it as a telephony replacement service? IP Democracy: "Isn't it only a matter of time when new developments, such as this dual-mode Skype phone, make customers rethink their cable or even plain-old-telephone voice packages to pay only 1/12 the annual expense for phone service?"

Jeff Pulver on the US FCC's USF tax for VoIP order. How a regulatory body screws with the new guys at the behest of legacy telcos. Sure to hurt many VoIP customers. Read the Order (pdf, 150 pages) for details.

Some of the top search terms leading to Skype Journal: emoticons, video, sip, record, symbian, voipbuster.

Google All goes live.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

As Baidu launches its massive blogging site, will Skype be ready with simplified and tradtional Chinese language blog integration? The minimum:

• Personal presence in multiple layouts. Make sure what you return has css style classes so they may be formatted using style sheets in keeping with a blog's design theme.
  
• Parameterized Skypecast listings. Search by full text, languages, time frame, and skypename.

Bonus points for...

1. Automatically generating neverending Skypecasts for each blog post permalink,
   
2. Showing a Skypecast's presence for each blog post (number of people in the conference room),
   
3. Creating a neverending Skypecast for each blog/Space,
   

1. Making it easy to record calls and post them to a Baidu Space for podcasting,
   
2. Same for video calls and vlogging,
   
3. Chat-archive-to-blog extension

1. Sync a Baidu Space's blogrolls (that list of people a blogger reads) with Skype contact groups (that list of people a Skyper talks to). 
   
2. Integrate a social feedreader into the Skype client that focuses on your contacts' email messages and blog posts. So you keep up on your relationships. Prioritize based on my reading behavior (Outlook Toolbar), surfing (browser toolbar) and conversation (Skype history). Exploit that Skype knows who your friends are and use the power of social proximity to help people spend more good time in Skype. P.S. As eBayers start blogging and become my buddies, make it easy for them to include their blogs' home pages in their Skype profiles, and for me to add them to my blogrolls and feedreader.
   
3. Build a contextual feedreader into the chat window. Look at PubSub. Then grab unusual terms from a chat's topic and from the body of the chat, pass it to a PubSub filter, and show the real time results in a sidebar. The effect is your seeing what other people are posting to the blogosphere about what you are saying within your chat as you type it. Augment conversation.
   

Posted by Phil Wolff at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As a follow up to my post earlier this week and Phil's post on presence, Alec Saunders continues the discussion on presence and relevance issues with two posts:

First is a post triggered by an email response from Kyle Marsh, Microsoft's UC evangelist, to Alec's initial commentary on Microsoft's Unified Communications "Strategy" announcement last Monday. It is most interesting to read Kyle's email itself (included in the post):

"....For example, when someone sees an email they may want to respond with an IM or voice or video conversation instead...." You can see this concept in action now: Skype for Outlook Toolbar already allows one to trigger a Chat session with the subject line from the email subject; at the same time the ability to call the "Sender" from a single click, whether via Skype or SkypeOut is also available via the Skype for Outlook Toolbar. Or, as Phil says in the post referenced above: "Knock before calling. ... It's polite, and also a presence check.".

Kyle also notes a correction to Alec's original post whereby Exchange Server is not being absorbed into Communicator but rather will complement it. But read the entire email to get some flavor of where unified communications may be going. And note the invitation to Alec to participate in the upcoming Microsoft developer lab to be held later this month.

In the second post Alec comments on Bryan Richards article in VoIP Magazine on Microsoft's Unified Communications Strategy. Alec gets to the heart of presence vs relevance with his comment:

It's the intersection of the fundamentals of presence and business processes that will provide the value that customers are looking for. That intersection will happen in three phases:

1. implementation of presence infrastructure - the servers, etc that are capable of managing presence information.

2. automation of presence setting - relieving human beings of the necessity to set and review presence status. If this step doesn't happen, nobody will use presence.
3. new applications dependent on presence.

Food for thought as both the Skype with its philosophy of contextual integration via toolbars and Microsoft's Unified Communications ecosystems evolve. Could we even contemplate Skype and Microsoft "federating" to bring truly unified communications?

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)