Skype 3.x allows conferencing for up to ten participants whether on Skype or SkypeOut; of course for SkypeOut participants there is the standard SkypeOut charge. Actually, you need one of the newer Intel Core 2 Duo processors to get to ten, otherwise the limit reduces to five. And you can set up conference calls directly within Skype's client or via the Skype for Email Outlook Toolbar.

But what about those Monday morning company sales meetings where you have 23 sales reps in the field or the important financial reporting presentation to, say, 120 investors. If you're all on Skype, then Vapps LLC's HighSpeedConferencing.com service offers a no charge solution; for those Participants who come in via a PSTN line they simply pay their relevant long distance charges. If the Host would like to supply an 800 number, the charge is 10 cents per Participant per minute - a significant reduction from the $0.30 to $0.55 per minute paid previously to legacy telcos.

Speaking with Vapps CEO Ben Lilienthal late last week, I heard another success story for Skype's Extras Gallery program. With over 20,000 downloads of their plug-in since mid-December - triggered by the official launch of the Extras Gallery at that time, they have built their activity to handling over 100,000 minutes per day and accumulated over 2 million minutes of usage over the past three weeks. In the same period they have garnered over 1,000 subscriptions for their Premium service, a monthly offering the provides recording and hand raising for $4.50 per month.

While one can create an ad hoc conference (called simply High Speed), there is a very limited feature set. With the High Speed Plus service (free for Skype-based hosts and participants) a Host can register at their website and take advantage of an extensive range of Web Controls, including the ability to schedule conference calls and send out email invitations. Or, a plug-in available via the Extras Gallery has all the web controls baked into it. It lets you schedule a call via IM or email with the other participants and then manage the session directly from the plug-in without having to go to the HighSpeedConferencing.com web site.

A host for a conference call can initiate a conference either via the HighSpeed Conferencing plug-in client or by creating and calling a designated "High Speed Conference" "Hosting" Skype Contact (via their website) or by calling a designated phone number (long distance charges apply). Enter an assigned conference room number. Skype-based Participants enter via a Participant Skype Contact link while PSTN Participants are provided long distance phone numbers which do incur long distance charges. The host also has an option to provide an 800 number; this is where the $0.10 per participant per minute charge arises.

The Host can moderate the conference by controlling who has access, who speaks, mike muting and other features required to ensure a disciplined, uninterrupted meeting. With the Premium Service ($4.50 per month) the host can also record the conference call and allow participants to "raise a hand" when they want to speak.

Vapps' goal is to offer a high availability (99.999% or "5 nines"), high quality service, merging PSTN (TDM) and VoIP connections through one central server, Currently they are working on voice quality issues to get the PSTN connection voice quality up to the standards set by the Skype connections. At this time they see about 50% of participants coming in via Skype while the other 50% come from PSTN lines. The maximum number of users they have seen in a real life conference is just over 250.

Ben has encountered some non-traditional uses of the service, including personal and religious counseling services and charter school sessions where students become virtual classmates. With the low cost alternatives offered by HighSpeedConferencing.com I'm sure we'll see significant growth in many affiliate group conferencing minutes.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Antivirus firm f-secure reports a hostile bot (bot farm?) uses Skype's client API to send potentially dangerous messages to unsuspecting users.   

We have two reports of people receiving links to a Warezov-infected file via Skype.

Now, some older Warezov variants have used other Instant Messaging client in a similar fashion, but not Skype.

The messages looked like this:

We detect the binary at that download location as Warezov.ly.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Janahan Vivekanandan of SayNow told me about their startup. They're helping creatives (musicians, comics, bloggers) with thousands of fans to create a two-way conversation. A voice conversation. Sure it's been done for years with email, but their service supports phone calls, SMS, and web interfaces.

Broadcast to your subscribers by calling from a phone or uploading an mp3 to the web. Your fans get a phone call, text or email with your message, and options to do more, like surveys or buy stuff. They can leave you a personal message, an intimate communication. As the star in your world, you may also talk back to individuals if you like.

While they've been targeting creative talent, SayNow could be in for Meetup-style growth in the 2008 US election cycle.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sony uses TrollTech's platform inside its Mylo, the handheld device that runs Skype. Skype builds on TrollTech too. Here's a three minute interview with Benoit Schillings, their chief technology officer, on the importance of VoIP and Wi-Fi.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 06:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Last week was one of the biggest news weeks at Skype Journal in a while.

Skype took on the entire US mobile carrier industry. Chris Libertelli, Skype's government affairs counsel, filed with the Federal Communications Commission to open wireless networks to anyone's device so long as it doesn't hurt the network. Unlocked mobile phones, anyone? Phones that can pick and choose which carrier to use for which call? MobileCos competing without shiny new phones on rates, quality and service alone? This could be great for consumers, fantastic for independent business and technology innovators, and uncomfortable for carrier marketers.

Skype 3.1 for Windows launched in Beta with the people's SkypeFind business directory as its biggest feature. Coverage included an exclusive interview with the Skype executive heading up SkypeFind (thanks, Sten), a comprehensive walkthrough and analysis (thanks Dan), a look at SkypeFind's branding, and a painful moan from a vulnerable Skype partner trampled by SkypeFind. Business directories are a first step toward commerce conversations and markets for conversation.

Jim Courtney's Interruption 2.0 Manifesto dove deep into managing your presence and attention, asserting your right to define and control. An important corollary to the Cluetrain, Attention, and New Presence manifestoes.  

The SkypePro bundle went live in most of Western Europe. Strategic pricing and bundling that makes Skype look great compared to most landline services.

Skype crossed the half-billion download mark. And Skypers didn't even throw a press release, let alone a party.

Last week's banner image was of Vonage's "Free Phone Call" phone booths at the Consumer Electronics Show. Popular, convenient, and reinforcing the lie that Internet telephony is just plain old telephone service.

The banner of the week before was of the stylish Ipevo free.2 USB phone. I'm trying out a working prototype. So far it's very small, nice and fun to use. "Cute." Ipevo brings desperately needed sophistication to the design of Skype gear. Fashion and design are part of mainstreaming new technologies. More from Ipevo soon.

Elsewhere:

iMessengr: 13 All-in-One Web-Based Messengers to Chat at Work or School. None of them support Skype; no Skype server software or Skype-hosted web services with cloud access. Maybe in March? April?

Gus Verdun: Ten new features of AIM 6.1.16.1 Beta. Small stuff.  

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

A public letter from Bulent Yildirim, CEO of KonuSh. KonuSh is a long time Skype developer and the first to operate a Skype business directory, KonuSh.net.

Dear Skype:

The day the first Skype Beta was launched (August 2003), we believed that Skype would be the killer application in the telecommunications world. And we shared this idea with our colleagues. At the beginning even if Skype management was only focused on the consumer market, we believed that most of the people will use Skype for business purposes so that we have to establish a Skype Business Directory. This was our starting point, and we shared the idea with the Skype Team, and we got very good feedback that time.

During that period, we gave more support to the Skype Team to understand the Turkish Market, and we translated Skype web pages to Turkish (we were the first who translated the Skype web pages into Turkish). When we launched our Skype Business Directory Services portal, KonuSh, in 2004, Skype gave us permission to use their logo on our web site because they really liked our concept (creation of the first and only Business Directory for Skype business users).

Three years after our launch of KonuSh, as you already noticed, Skype saw the potential and focused to the Business Market. They saw that the main revenue stream could be generated from the business market.

Since 2004 we couldn't grow fast because we could not invest for marketing, and it stayed just an amatorial project. Also, we could not get support from Skype team to promote KonuSh even if the business market started to use Skype heavily and use their Skype names on their business cards, etc.

Finally in 2006, we decided to set up a private company, KonuSh, with a vision of: to be the biggest and most valuable business directory services provider of Skype and to promote Skype usage among businesses. Then we prepared our business plan and started to have meetings with investors in order to provide value added Business Directory Services to Skype business users. We started to write KonuSh J2ME client for handsets, renew the KonuSh portal with a target of 1 million subscribers in 3 years.

Believing in Skype's preference to support and promote its partners for extras and value added services, at 12.12.2006 we sent an email to Skype management mentioning the latest developments about KonuSh and asking them to support KonuSh in order to achieve our goals; to add Konush's link to the Skype client, and to give extra Skype minutes to the new subscribers. But unfortunately we never received any reply.

Two months later, they announced SkypeFind which explains why they have not replied to our request.

We want to ask to Skype's top management: "Do you plan and start to compete with your committed partners?"

Since 2004, we spent time, effort and money in order to promote Skype usage for the business market; but we are in such a state that we have to close KonuSh or compete with Skype.

Creativity and vision are very important and valuable concepts which we assumed Skype understand and support this. Since the beginning, we believe in the Skype concept and we will continue to support Skype. But we also believe that Skype has to think once more about its partner strategy and relations.

Bulent Yildirim
Skype : bulent.yildirim
SkypeIn: +1(202) 580-8446
Mobile : +905322319784
E-mail : bulent.yildirim@konush.net

Short Story of KonuSh

05.26.2004 : Beginning of Skype relationship. To promote Skype usage in Turkey we initiated a Skype community for Turkish Skype users and then the Skype Business Directory for Turkish SMEs with the vision of creating a fully focused Global Skype Business Directory.

Konush.net featured in a 2004 PCWorld.com.tr article.

06.07.2004 : We share our idea with Skype top management via e-mail.

09.24.2004 : We got feedback from Skype top management. What Niklas said to KonuSh:

"Thanks for the mail. That sounds like a great idea. I have copied Mark Asseily, Business Development Director, on this mail. Mark will contact you.

Best regards,

Niklas"

During this period, we translated Skype web pages into Turkish and supplied as much feedback as possible about the Skype client.

November 2005 : "Skype directories like Konush.net vs. Skype's profile cloud," Skype Journal

November 2006 : KonuSh project became a private company named KonuSh, and Registered Trade Mark in US and TR. We found an investor.

13.12.2006 : We contacted with Skype team in order to have a KonuSh Plug-in in the Skype Client.

02.21.2007 : Skype announced SkypeFind!

Posted by Phil Wolff at 06:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I interviewed Sten Tamkivi last Thursday morning, Tallinn time, the day after the Skype for Windows 3.1 beta launch. Sten is Skype's Estonia general manager and now heads up the eCommerce team that created SkypeFind. SkypeFind is a user populated business directory. Sten is also a serial entrepreneur, spokesperson for Skype, and a blogger. This is a rough, lightly-edited transcript.

SJ. What does eCommerce have to do with SkypeFind?

Sten Tamkivi: eCommerce is a unit inside Skype that deals with this kind of purchase, like SkypeFind, that has activities outside of the telecom-like services space. SkypeFind is one of the first big launches for us. It is a business listings system that enables users to share the businesses they call and what they think about those businesses. If you search for a haircut in London and don't find what you need, you can use SkypeFind also to ask from your contact if they have any good suggestions.

SJ. It looks like "asking your friends" means putting a note into your mood presence.

That's right.

SJ. Why do you think people want a SkypeFind kind of a feature?

We see it as a very natural building block on top of Skype as a communication app. If you use Skype for calling, especially SkypeOut for calling, you have to store your phone numbers somewhere. Why not share that with the rest of the contact list? Why not share it with the 171 million registered Skype users? We see it very much like a missing piece in the whole picture.

Because we are doing it very tightly inside the Skype client, that adds to the usability and the likelihood that people will input.

There is a very interesting social aspect we added to this. For example, if you are searching for a sushi place in Tallinn, and you have me on your contact list, then places I've suggested or rated well bubble up in the search results. So in the search results you get listings that are suggested or rated well by the people in your contact list that you already trust. So this is something that differentiates us as well.

SJ. So there is actual value in having friends that contribute to the network.

Exactly.

SJ. This is very wiki in flavor. Has this been influenced by Skype's internal wiki?

I think philosophically there is an overlap with wiki. With any wiki, not just our internal wiki. Yes, people can edit any listing they see, with small exceptions. You can't change the phone number of a listing that has been entered by someone else and you can't change other people's comments. But if you see a typo in a company name or you know the address, you can add these things, even if you didn't create the listing.

SJ. What are your business goals for SkypeFind?

Yet to be worked on. Right now SkypeFind is a pure and unmonitized service. So all the content is user generated, there is no advertising model involved, and there are no business listings. We are looking in this space as well. However, we have decided that in case we bring in commercial content to SkypeFind, then we definitely will separate it visually and mark it clearly as something different from the user generated or social content.

For now, we decided to start with a zero record database and see how it picks up with our user base. We strongly believe in that content getting there.

There was Forrester research quite recently about consumer behavior on the Internet. It said a whole quarter of U.S. consumers have used a commenting service or rating service or participated in discussion boards around the businesses they use. So I think people have a drive to share their experience and share their ratings and bash somebody who has been bad and praise somebody who has been good to them. If we give them a very simple and integrated user interface to do so, they will.

SJ. Right now, the directory is just of businesses. Have you looked to expand to cover other things?

Around Skype there are a number of directories already, if you think about things like Skypecasts - a directory of events. We might do something with bringing other types of listings together, but for now SkypeFind is focused on businesses and we try to do that part very well.

SJ. Are there any features you wanted in this first release that you didn't have time to get in?

Not really. We wanted to get a very simple neat version out there and listen to user feedback, and see where we can improve. So we are all ears right now.

If you look at the Internet phone or IM applications, no one has done something similar before. It's a learning process for us as well.

SJ. eBay integration. Right now in SkypeFind I have to identify a business by a unique phone number. In the worlds of eBay or Amazon, the vendor is just a user ID in a specific context.

Right now SkypeFind is intentionally focused on phone numbers, as you can see the logical connection with SkypeOut. We are planning to add Skype user IDs to make people happy or support people who have brought Skype into their business as a communication tool. You are aware of Pay-Per-Lead, something we are doing with eBay and other partners. Even though SkypeFind and Pay-Per-Lead are different products, we can see them coming together sometime in the future.

Some of the SkypeFind Community Guidelines language is vague. For example:

"You should not submit comments or keywords or any information that is unlawful, offensive, abusive, indecent, obscene, racist, discriminatory or menacing or which does, or is intended to, cause annoyance, inconvenience or worry, or which is fraudulent or defamatory"

I'm sure lawyers got involved, but the concern is that the definitions of these terms vary by locale. So it is difficult to enforce and to be fair. There are some things that are broad about it. For example, if I say a restaurant's service sucks, and it costs them business that would be annoying and inconvenient to them and might worry them about lost business. So would literally violate your terms.

This is not really my area. But the right direction to think about this is the Wikipedia space. There are many parallels. So if someone bashes your restaurant on a wiki you can go and correct it, it can go back and forth for a while, then you can report the concern to Skype which is a functionality we have included. There should be enough layers of protection.

I only saw western languages in the system. Will you be supporting non-western languages as well?

Character set wise, we' re ok right now. As anything we do in Skype, we localizing.

Are you doing anything to expand the statistics, the metadata generated by the system? For instance, indicating popular tags or popular searches or hot spots in the world, and exposing that back to the users?

We have that data coming from the system but no decisions about exposing that.

Is there some way for me to have some link on a web page to my entry in the directory? Or a review-my-site link?

Right now there are no permalinks you can launch.

Where does the data live?

It is a server based solution, as opposed to peer-to-peer.

Are there any plans for a web version of this?

Technologically it is quite simple, however as you can see the social part, or the relevance brought in by your contact list is a big part of the value here. So taking it to the web and making it anonymous would lose that part.

What are your plans for an API (programming interface)?

I know we have some plans. The keyword "API" is on our roadmap but I haven't looked at that functionality yet.

What do you hope to learn in the next thirty days?

Probably a lot about people's activity. Is there a growth in listings in a way we expected? Does it disperse somewhere geographically? Do people add new content or review what other people have already added? And naturally all the other business statistics behind that, like how many clicks on the call link we get.

I think that's the start. Probably we'll see comments on blogs and coming directly to Skype in our discussion forums. I think we're quite open to see what happens and what users think.

Who came up with the magnifying-glass flower icon?

Our designers, our creative folks.

How are you spreading the word on SkypeFind? Is having the tab enough?

Yes, I think it is, for the searching reason. It will be integrated into other places in the Skype client. For example, if you have a SkypeOut contact on your contact list, then you can add it to become a SkypeFind listing. Also we can embed it, for example, when you finish a call with a business, we can immediately ask if this call is to a business and do you want to rate what happened on that call.

How often will that tab be updated?

Due to very early beta, we don't automatically update it. It updates when you change the country or if you right-click on the tab. Statistics on the bottom will update as well.

(trying an update...) Alex is in Hawaii. It also shows he added a place near me in the Bay Area. That's information I didn't think about from before.

Your default country - the "where" field - is derived from your profile. It defaults to your local stuff. I travel into London a lot so I've been checking what kinds of good restaurants are in London.

Where are you based?

I'm from Estonia.

How long have you been with Skype?

I've been with Skype since summer 2005, about one and a half years. I started off as the general manager of Estonia, then I took over global operations for Skype, and since late last year I've worked more closely with product. I've dealt a bit with devices and about two weeks ago I joined the eCommerce team and took the GM role here.

Does eCommerce include the Skype store and the partnerships that go with that?

The devices and hardware stores are a separate topic. The eCommerce team deals with Skype extras and personalized stuff.

Between the extras and SkypeFind, we're seeing more things being built into or bolted onto the client. What other things would you like to see added to the client if you had all the time and money in the world?

Client real estate is something we think is very precious. Because one of the main drivers behind the success of Skype has been the simplicity of the user interface and the ease of use. So we consider very very carefully what we do in the client and what we don't want to do.

It's very tough to throw something out there. Think about Skypecasts. That big, colorful directory of Skypecasts is something we're keeping on the web. It turns into a client part only when you're participating in a Skypecast and the listings appear as in a conference call.

Probably that's a good example of what we want to do with the client. To be very sensible and see that we don't bloat it with different types of new features but keep it usable.

I was looking for tapas and realized I wasn't getting listings for Spain and France, just for Spain. Same thing for companies wanting to list in more than one country. Have you looked at a country called the Internet?

Not the Internet, but yes, the discussion is going on around if and how we execute on this for businesses that have a Skype name but no physical address.  

Posted by Phil Wolff at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

"We will guarantee next business day response and three business days resolution -- or your request will be handled free of charge. You will also be able to place your premium support requests confidentially."

• Paid support issues are top priority: your issue will be resolved before work is started on unpaid issues. 
• It's pricey, € 300 per incident, half that if you pre-pay for ten.
• It's only through Skype's issue tracker system. No live support.
• And it's just for software developers.

See also:

• Start your trouble ticket 
• Peeter P. Mõtsküla's announcement
• Skype DevZone wiki entry 
• STS - Skype Technical Services 

Posted by Phil Wolff at 07:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Skype spokesperson passed on this note from the designers about the SkypeFind logo:

"The daisy-in-the-magnifying-glass icon was chosen to reflect the importance of user reviews to the success and credibility of business listings on SkypeFind. So where's the connection? Back when we were young(er), quite a few of us pulled daisy petals one by one, wondering if s/he likes me... or likes me not. The daisy theme is meant as a lighthearted visual play on that theme -- in the context of Skype users 'liking' or 'not liking' a business listed in Skype Find."

SkypeFind also uses the daisy for a please-wait-while-I-do-something message (visual animation of adding petals to the flower) and warnings. I've only seen the warning when SkypeFind had difficulty connecting to its server.

Tip: Right-click on Skype's daisy tab. You get a menu option to "Reload" the tab. This will get a fresh list of your friends' entries and comments. 

Posted by Phil Wolff at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In a previous post I presented an Interruptions 2.0 Manifesto, outlining issues that need to be considered in the course of real time communications activity in an AlwaysOn world which, in turn, exposes us as users to being Always Available. And it's not simply a matter of exchanging bits and bytes to manage interruptions; higher level consideration needs to be given to incorporating workflow paradigms, social etiquette, and management policies in building a sustainable business model.

Specifically I wrote about the need for a protocol to make it possible to know when it is appropriate to make a (ad hoc) communications connection and how one can deliver intelligent availability in a real time context to facilitate more effective and more productive real time ad hoc interpersonal communications. iotum's Alec Saunders calls this New Presence:

New Presence is a user-centric view of presence. Instead of merely reflecting the crude, device specific "availability awareness" of today, New Presence systems understand our context, relationships, wants and desires. The New Presence model reflects the integrated conversation web we live in today.

iotum's Talk-Now application for the Blackberry is a technology preview platform which has provided an opportunity to work with the New Presence concept in practice. Talk-Now is built around iotum's Relevance Engine technology which understands the user's preferences and behavior to change the way people communicate. To give a practical example:

A recent study done at Cap Gemini points out that 82% of all phone calls end up in voice mail. Lots of wasted time leaving voice mail messages; lots of lost productivity as two parties attempt to make an initial voice contact. With Talk-Now I can simply look at my Talk-Now client and see who is currently available to take a Call; based on preview user feedback a future build will also allow me to set a flag to notify me when an currently unavailable contact becomes available. And I avoid making the average 3.15 calls prior to establishing real time voice communication with my contacts. Definitely a productivity enhancer.

Sounds simplistic but behind Talk-Now's availability status lies iotum's Relevance Engine that computes your availability based not on a single preset status but on your previously designated contact preferences (VIP, family, friend, customer, etc.), your previous communications with that party, your current Calendar activity and even your future calendared activity. In other words your New Presence is delivered in the context of what you have done (your history), your relationship with each individual contact, what you are currently doing and what you intend to do. Conversely your various contacts' New Presence reflects their individual uniqueness when combining his/her history, relationship and current/future activity. The following logic diagram, provided at a recent briefing by iotum executives Alec Saunders and Howard Thaw, puts iotum's implementation of New Presence in perspective:

Talk-Now's real value is delivered through its ability to help me make contact in real time -- without voice mail or any other "third party" proxy call redirector. Talk-Now provides insight into how we may go down the path of bringing back control of your real time communications in an AlwaysOn world.

Its value is enhanced through its email notification process that sends a Blackberry-originated email to a currently unavailable contact not only indicating that your desire to talk to the contact but also when you are available for a call. And this process works not only with your Talk-Now contacts but also with any of your Blackberry contacts. In a subtle way this feature drives Talk-Now adoption virally.

The challenge for Talk-Now (or any other service purporting to deliver New Presence) is to (i) to refine the service to reflect a readily acceptable etiquette and user-intuitive protocol for establishing a voice connection and (ii) to extend its capability beyond voice to include other forms of real time communication such as text chat, SMS messaging and, with the introduction of GPS on mobile platforms, location-based services. For instance, while I may want to follow several chat sessions concurrently on a mobile device, I may only want to be notified of activity for those sessions with designated "mission critical" contacts.

If you want to experience Talk-Now and provide your own feedback go to iotum's sign-up site. It does require that you have a Blackberry Pearl, 870x or, as of today, 8800 or are running Blackberry OS 4.1 or later..Or, for a preview of the Talk-Now experience, watch Alec's demonstration video.

In my upcoming post on experience with the Skype PC-Free phones I will mention why a variation on Talk Now but still using the iotum Relevance Engine is needed to manage the multiple accounts that will be needed to manage, say, the Skype account duality required to keep "home" Skype calls separated from "business" Skype calls. Just as in the legacy phone world, one Skype account will no longer suffice.

{Note for those wishing to produce their own demo videos: check out Alec's experience producing and mounting this video here and here.)

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:34 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Just over a year ago I brought a SlingBox into Canada, prior to its Canadian launch, in order to be able to watch the Turino Winter Olympics on the CBC while I was working on an assignment in California with no CBC stations - even on cable. The Canadian networks provide over 16 hours a day coverage -- mostly live -- as opposed to NBC's spartan three hour nightly snapshot of events whose results are already well known. In fact I reported on it here and here. SlingBox had its Canadian launch a couple of months later in April, 2006.

One of the major questions that arose as SlingBox made its market entry was how it was going to build sustainable revenues for a business that, to date, has had $53 million of venture capital investment but really only had a "one time" hardware appliance revenue stream.. Today I had the opportunity to meet with Gregg Wilkes, Sling Media's VP of Sales and newly anointed Manager of Online Communications David Zatz, of Zatz Not Funny fame. While they went over their new product line's Canadian launch (for which I will provide a review later after getting some experience with the new SlingBox Pro), the more significant story is their other development activities and how it will extend their business. Basically Sling Media has two major strategies:

• Extend the Digital Home by providing add-ons to current home entertainment devices, and
• Build a sustainable advertising and partnering revenue stream through licensing, advertising and content syndication activities.

So how is this going to play out? Through product and service offerings that will be introduced over the spring and summer.

Before discussing the new products, let me paraphrase Greg's explanation of Sling Media's mission to put their product road map in perspective. Sling Media's goal is to build the digital home lifestyle by taking basic home entertainment devices such as the television, cable box, DVD player, and even, as explained below, the PC.and extend their access both around the home and around the world.. So the original SlingBox allowed me to watch my family room TV not only in my home office but also in a Starbucks in Palm Springs, California or a hotel in Cancun, Mexico. A good analogy would be the huge parts aftermarket that has developed for the "cool" Honda Civic.

The new products are designed to expand on these "access" offerings. SlingPlayers for mobile devices and additional operating systems, new and faster multi-port Powerline Ethernet Adapters and Sling Catcher (announced at CES last month). So we will see:

• SlingPlayers for Symbian, Palm, Macs and Windows Vista are all in beta testing now. SlingPlayer for Windows Vista will let you watch multiple SlingBoxes concurrently, thereby increasing the potential for additional SlingBox sales.
• SlingCatcher: It is common for us to cook and eat in the kitchen while leaving the family room TV on. A primary inhibition to putting a small "monitoring" TV in the kitchen is the requirement to obtain another cable box with all the ancillary wiring and ongoing costs, not to mention countertop real estate occupied. Instead a smaller SllingCatcher can be attached to that "monitoring" TV; the SlingCatcher is attached via powerline Ethernet to the cable TV box in the family room and simulcasts the TV program onto the kitchen TV. As a second application SlingCatcher is also being designed to take the PC graphics display from my home office and put the image onto my family room TV.

This is a classic case where both customer feedback and market experience have built the case for extending the primary business through new accessory product introductions. With the goal of providing enhancements to the digital home lifestyle I can see a time when there would be flat panel displays in every room of the house but maybe only two cable TV boxes. As you enter a room you select which cable box you want to watch while in that room. And when those displays are not showing a TV program they can become digital picture frames -- even changing over time through a slide show algorithm.

And how does the sustainable content and advertising revenue stream arise? Sling Media is developing a new service called "Clip 'n Sling" where you can take snippets of a TV program, put it up on a server managed by Sling Media, and then send an email to a friend or business colleague that includes a link to the "Clip". So a buffer will store, say, the previous five minutes of content during a hockey game. When my neighbor's son scores a goal for the Boston Bruins (sorry UCLA fans) St. Louis Blues, I can then lock in that segment, and edit it to show only the actual scoring play. Then it is put up on Sling's content server and I send an email out to all my friends whom I know are interested in Brad's accomplishments. But when the clip comes up, there can also be advertising and promotions for, say, the network's other related shows such as a schedule of future BruinsBlues games.

Sling Media is currently in negotiations with networks and other content providers such as major league sports. Suffice it to say even Major League Baseball, who raised some concerns last summer about Sling's model, is looking at how Sling Media services can be used enhance their marketing and revenues.

But more importantly, look at how this email-based service will drive Sling's awareness virally. Those emails can got out to anyone; no SlingPlayer or SlingBox is needed to view the video "Clips". Subtle but very targeted promotion of SlingBoxes to build much broader awareness of its capabilities and to pull hardware sales.

With respect to copyright and other content legal issues, keep in mind that only one SlingPlayer can be taking content from a SlingBox at any one time. Sling Media is still examining whether they can and should allow more than one TV to be able to view a cable box via SlingCatcher.

Bottom line is that Sling Media is demonstrating that they know how to take a vision and expand on the vision to build sustainable revenue streams through both hardware innovation and services deployment.

Mark Evans has also posted on his visit with Sling Media today. While he talks about the syndication, licensing and advertising deals as the route to driving sales beyond hardware, I think their hardware and software developments themselves are at least equally, if not more, important for Sling Media's foreseeable future.

Now if Sling Media would just figure out how to add that Skype accessory such that two geographically separated viewers of the same program can converse. Meantime back to watching the Bruins Blues on my NHL Center Ice subscription via my SlingBox.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 08:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Dan York is the Best Practices Chair for the VoIP Security Alliance and analyzes emerging technology for Mitel Corporation. His writing can be found at Disruptive Telephony.

Skype today released a new "3.1" beta for Windows (you can get it here) with a number of minor tweaks - and a brand new component called "SkypeFind". As you can see in the picture to the right, there's a new tab added... and is the entrance of Skype into the game already being played by GoogleMaps, Yahoo!Local and Microsoft's Windows Live Local... namely... providing an easily searchable directory of businesses.

It's not stated, but it's pretty clear the ultimate goal is to control the directory you use to initiate calls. Think about it, Google is aiming to do this with their "click-to-call" in Google Maps. Find an entry (in the US, anyway) and simply click "call" and your regular phone rings. It's simple and easy. Google controls the directory and the initiation of calls. It's even more logical for Skype to do this. Find a business in the directory, click the phone number and you're dialling away using Skype/SkypeOut...

Of course, Skype aims to be more than simply yet another business directory. As the Skype blog entry states:

SkypeFind is one of the most interesting features that we've done in quite a while now. We call it "Local businesses you like", and that's what it is - a collection of businesses, with reviews and comments, built by everyone using Skype.

So it's really a mashup of a business directory, a ratings service... and a social networking service. The other interesting aspect is that the directory is basically empty! It started out this morning basically with only a few entries. Tonight it's now up to "318 listings in 49 countries by 83 people". (Of course, you'd have to find out about the beta and then have the time to experiment. I actually learned of it because I've stayed logged into the Skype Journal public chat and conversation popped up there this morning.) Now I find it interesting that Skype didn't work with someone else to pre-load the database, but: a) this is still in beta; and b) the major local databases are in the hands of Skype competitors who have very little reason to work with Skype.

As you can see in the image on the left (click image for larger view), when you go into the SkypeFind tab, you wind up being able to search within a country, region, etc. There's also recommendations from people in your contact list shown on the bottom of the panel. You can switch to a different region.

Since Burlington, VT, had no entries and I didn't feel like entering any, I switched to the UK and figured searching for "pub" in "London" ought to generate some listings. It did, of course, and if you click on the image to the right to get the larger view, you'll see entries with reviews and ratings. Skype is using a cute motif of a flower with petals being removed as the rating goes lower. Note also the choices in the dropbox in the upper right corner:

• Most relevant
• Most called
• Highest rating
• A-Z

Most called? Well, of course, if you are Skype you would have knowledge of how many times Skype users call that number. Just an interesting twist that you wouldn't find, of course, in the other directories (although you would wonder if Google could add it with their click-to-call).

Another interesting twist is the "Ask your friends" for recommendations button seen at the bottom of the listing. I've not played with this yet, but per the Skype blog entry, it will change your advisory/mood message to be a question and provide a link to a public chat where Skype-using friends can then join you (presumably with Skype 3.0 or later) and answer your questions (or at least chat with you).

Going into an entry shows the ratings and reviews and gives you the ability to add your own review. But also notice the little link at the top? It says:

Edit this listing

Yep... you can just click on it and go in and change the name, address, web site... basically any info except for the phone number and country which per the SkypeFind guide, Skype uses as a unique identifier. Now being a security guy, I immediately wonder about this... I can put in any URL. What's to prevent a spammer from going through all these pubs and entering the URL for some spam site? Or a competitor from changing the names around? Or someone just making mischief? Nothing, really. Phil Wolff called it a "wiki" in the Skype Journal chat today and that is what it's like. You can view the editing history, so you can see who made the changes (or at least the SkypeID of who made the change)... but the changes have in fact been made. It will be curious to see how much abuse this does or does not get.

So will SkypeFind ever have ads or premium listings? It would seem to be the obvious thing to do (like Google's sponsored results) and Paul Kapustka writing over at Om Malik's GigaOm site has a review of SkypeFind that quotes Skype General Manager of E-Commerce Sten Tamkivi as saying that SkypeFind may include ads in the future. The article also talks again about how recommendations from friends will help listings "bubble up"... we'll see... first there need to be listings before they can bubble up! (I know, I know, it hasn't even been out for 24 hours....)

One curious omission, that I have to credit Phil Wolff for pointing out. If you look at the larger view of the "Add a listing" screen to the right, you'll notice something fairly basic is missing... a place to enter a Skype ID! It seems that for a business to be listed you must have a PSTN number. Given that it's Skype, you might have thought there would be a way to enter the Skype ID and call the business over Skype!

Ah, well, it's still in beta... and only available on Windows, so Mac and Linux users have to wait to play.

Beyond SkypeFind, the release did have some other minor tweaks. There is now a "Chats" menu on the menu bar that gives you easy access to your public and private chats. And the "eye candy" of this release is the cute way Skype finally provided the notification that the other user is typing. Where AIM and MSN/WLM have text that says something like "User-so-and-so is typing...", Skype has a pencil icon that writes... and then in a cute move erases when you are deleting what you wrote. You can see it in this screen shot (upper right by the woman's picture) from Skype's blog. It also shows up in chat windows (including public chats). It's a cute way to meet and exceed what the other services have had for quite some time.

All in all an interesting evolutionary step for the Skype client... will be interesting to see how successful SkypeFind becomes as the directory becomes populated. Given that Skype accounts are free, the security side of me just sees it as something wide open for abuse... but hopefully for Skype users I am wrong. What do you all think?

P.S. Many thanks to the Skype Journal for continuing to run their public chat which countinues to be a source of great info about Skype...

Posted by Guest Blogger at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Jeff Pulver yesterday brought to our attention a petition by Skype to the FCC "making the eminently reasonable request that the FCC ensure that its (and, by extension, all) users of mobile devices and networks have the freedom to communicate over wireless networks." Jeff goes on to comment:

I think this petition should have important ramifications for all those that wish to attach devices or provide Internet-based voice and video applications over wireless networks. As things stand now, users are beholden to the wireless gatekeepers who unilaterally determine what devices, what functions, what applications may attach or ride or be accessed from the wireless networks.

One specific request - to start a rulemaking proceeding to determine the legality of the carriers' restrictions on subscribers' full access to Internet-based applications - has significant implications for encouraging application innovation in a Voice 2.0 world. I'm sure developers such as OnState with their recently announced OnState ACD for Skype would want to ensure that their call distribution algorithms can reach out to all wireless devices.

Jeff ends with "I ask our friends who care about innovation in the wireless space, edge devices and Internet applications to take this petition seriously, shine a spotlight on the issue and help move the FCC in the right direction" He plans to post a link to the petition when it becomes available and has more specific information for those who want to follow this story to its conclusion.

Update Feb. 25: Jaanus has posted more detailed information on this petition and make the petition itself available>

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Download the beta of Skype for Windows 3.1. Changes in the 21.02.2007 version 3.1.0.112 BETA change log:  

• New features:
  • Skype Find (more on this later)
  • Account Panel redesign
  • Alerts Platform
  • Typing indicator (Tools > Options > Advanced > Chat > "Show When I'm Typing")

• New features for programmers:

  • possible to get contact's avatar and get and set own avatar
  • GET CONTACTS_FOCUSED
  • SET RINGTONE <id> STATUS ON|OFF
  • GET PREDICTIVE_DIALER_COUNTRY
  • CALL property TARGET_IDENTITY

• bugfix:

  • API: after joining calls to conference VIDEO_(SEND|RECEIVE)_STATUS RUNNING was erroneously sent
  • API: ongoing call was not put on hold while answering another incoming call
  • API: notification of clicking MENU_ITEM in Tools returned user_id

• Known issue:

• SkypePM.exe may show a 'DLL Initialization Failed' error message on shutting down Windows.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

[Editor: Skype Journal friend and blogger, Jan Geirnaert, went to the International Telecommunications Fair in December 2006. We'd planned to run his coverage but it conflicted with some of our down time. Here is Jan's second installment.]

My personal impressions on the ITU fair. Flat F(r)ee or pay per minute to the ostriches in the walled garden, wondering why the dumb pipe is drying up.

When I came back from the ITU fair in Hong Kong last week one sentence kept popping up in my mind. It sounded a bit like "the telecoms and their powerful lobby-groups are like ostriches living in a walled garden, wondering why their dumb (cash-flow) pipes are not delivering as much water into their water-buckets. And instead of leaving their walled garden, they stick their head in the sand to wait till more water comes in."

I also realized the huge power and presence of the global telecoms. But still I am trying to get out of the behavior that we all learned to accept: "give coin for dial-tone." I think it will take a while before that changes, if it ever does. Your technology can be very good (in this case disruptive) but you will have to establish a new balance and fight resistance on all levels. Again: my personal impression. For the record.

Besides this, the ITU fair is a huge illuminating summary of the current status of telecom related technology. It really gave me a wake-up and was a great eye-opener. After all, the information you get during the forums is the result of probably six months of preparation by the experts. If you are looking for a good summary, well don't miss out on this event. I loved it.

I also had the distinct impression that WiFi and WIMAX were looked upon as inferior technology, that could be neglected in the over-all landscape of how to get connected. This gave me a strange feeling since (speaking for myself here) I was constantly looking for a WiFi-solution that allowed me to use Skype at an affordable flat fee. I could not find any connection. Maybe I was not close enough to city center. Anyways. Many of my questions on the effect of disruptive technology (during the very interesting forums sessions on ITU) on the revenue were received with some -- well how would I say -- well they did not like that type of question. Maybe they were more interested in devices that could cause some latency on the foreign VoIP signals floating on their network.

I will never forget the visionary projection of one of the keynote speakers during a forum-session: "in the future you will have a cell-phone that will project a hologram of the person you are calling." That is very possible, but it is also likely that revenues of the telecoms will be a hologram if the business-model is not changed drastically. I believe that that pay per minute for telephony is going to be a dead concept. But not yet. Maybe in 2 years from now. Who knows?

The role of the regulators is a major factor in this process. If regulators allow the telecom to stop or slowdown the fast evolution and progress of all kinds of foreign VoIP-systems (that not necessarily create a revenue for the country itself), then things will go slow. Think about the different countries and environments that are already blocking or capping Skype and the likes of Skype.

I just wonder what will happen when the handset-makers are going to put WiFi-chip-sets in the more powerful range of WiFi-enabled cell-phones. Surely people would love to put Skype on their cell-phones, or the likes of Skype, and honestly the GPRS-data (which will increase the ARPU / revenue stream of data-services) will not work with Skype. Maybe for chat, yes.

My point is that the flat-fee data-channels will have to be more affordable and available than the occasional (free) or hotspot WiFi. But again, I believe that if you are in the business of selling telephony-minutes that this will be very tough. There is always somebody cheaper, and lately I have been using my IPAQ PDA-phone with Skype Mobile in it to do unlimited chats (cheaper than SMS), send affordable global SMS and even do Voice Over IP. In this type of scenario, I used a free WiFi service. It worked fine and telecom wasn't touched. I don't like and I don't have to pay for telephony per minute any more. I want flat f(r)ee and I got it.

I also don't like the feeling of being milked like a cash-cow, which exactly explains why I love WiFi so much. And honestly if I need to make a phone to the outside world, I will just go to Starbucks, drink a coffee and do my VoIP phone-call. Much cheaper than the expensive Vodafone.

In that perspective I am looking forward to hear more on the business-deal between www.iskoot.com, www.three.co.uk and www.skype.com. I have seen some videos of a presentation in London whereby a cell-phone (Ericsson and Motorola type) had an "embedded Skype."

But being an MS Windows user, I did go for an IPAQ with a sim-card. It is still more computer than phone in my world, but due to the built-in WiFi I don't have to carry a brick (laptop) in my backpack anymore on short trips that just need a communications device.

For typing and working the laptop is still needed - at least in my world.

Posted by Jan Geirnaert at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Taking back control of your real time communications in the AlwaysOn world.

When reporting on my visit last summer to an Alexander Graham Bell museum near his summer home, I discovered an interesting facet to his lifestyle:

In all his homes he had a separate office/laboratory room where he could be a night owl geek writing, experimenting and thinking. But he never had a telephone installed in any of his offices/labs.

Dr. Bell did not want his experimentation activities interrupted during his time in his home offices. Local folklore (I live less than an hour from RIM's headquarters) has it that when Jim Balsillie, CEO of Blackberry manufacturer Research In Motion, enters his home, his family has asked him to leave his Blackberry at the door. And for years we have been searching for solutions to the dinner-time interruptions of those persistent telemarketers. In the Skype world we have those who seem to think a simple "Hi" in a chat window is sufficient introduction to start a conversation with a total stranger from the other side of the world. The potential for interruptions has become prolific with the introduction of each new technology and/or service, especially those that are "AlwaysOn". In turn these AlwaysOn services expose us, as users, to being "Always Available".

Yet we build our lives around communication with friends, lifestyle service providers and business colleagues who need to communicate at an appropriate time and in an appropriate manner. In today's AlwaysOn world, made possible through both broadband Internet connectivity and mobile phones, there has arisen a crying need to manage our interruptions based on our interpersonal relationships and the real time context of our current activities. We want to ensure our communications efforts and time are spent more effectively with friends and family and spent more productively with the lifestyle service providers, business colleagues and clientele with whom we need to converse to carry on both our personal life and business activities. But such a demand requires a more intelligent algorithm for providing presence and availability information.

Over the past few weeks I have had the opportunity to evaluate many real time communications modes on new platforms such as the Blackberry 8700, Nokia N80i (selected since it runs on both WiFi and all four GSM bands) and a couple of models of the newly released "PC-Free" Skype phones. As a result I have had the opportunity to experience many modes of interruption of my activities and many modes of generating interruptions of my Contacts' activities. They all have an element of providing basic presence information prior to making a phone call and, in some cases, also provide an ability to Chat through an IM client. And through these devices we also have new modes of real time communication: SMS messaging, email, and, with the arrival of embedded GPS, location-based services. More AlwaysOn services that simply increase the potential to be "Always Available".

• While at CES, I used Blackberry Messenger to communicate directly (PIN to PIN) with key business contacts as I toured the exhibition floor and as we approached the time for key meetings. This "direct" channel was instantaneous and improved our "conference" productivity in a very crowded and noisy environment where voice communications was not only relatively expensive but also almost physically impossible due to background noise. Through its "Open Conversation" mode, one has an element of presence (Available/Not Available//Online/Offline) of user-designated remote contacts.
• Truphone on the N80i allows me to make calls from any WiFi hotspot (provided I have or can readily obtain authentication) but has no ability to tell me if my remote contact is readily available for a real time conversation.
• Fring (also on the Nokia N80i) provides both traditional presence and chat capability with my Skype, Gmail and/or MSN Messenger contacts but its "fringing ringing" with every chat session entry becomes overbearing and very annoying, especially once when I was in five concurrent chat sessions.
• "PC-Free" Skype phones provide Skype's basic presence but no chat capability. So on