You may have seen this screenshot of Joost in the Skype Journal banner art for the last few weeks. I love the juxtaposition of someone interviewing Beyonce in a video (a stream of a stored conversation), channel chat where I share my presence with others also watching this show, and Gtalk IM.

The channel chat context is very focused:

Compared to Channel Chat, Gtalk only signals one of the four elements (vector connectedness). But Gtalk is still valuable in this context. It is great for going outside the circle of this Channel Chat and bringing your friends from other contexts into this conversation. Gtalk is also good for opening a voice channel so you can either report out to someone who isn't watching, or talk in sync about the same show.

Too many discussion of presence conflates these ideas. I'm sure we can decompose it further.

Technorati tags: skype, skypejournal, presence, joost, context, gtalk, channel, channelchat, beyonce, im, messaging, messenger

Posted by Phil Wolff at 04:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Earlier this week iotum's Alec Saunders brought to our attention, in a post appropriately entitled "Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself", to a benchmark list of ten essential attributes of mobile presence complied by Jared Benson in the idlemode blog, Voices for a Better Mobile Experience. Jared aptly articulates the customer pain as:

My mobile lets me reach others and be reached anywhere I go. But I’m not satisfied. I want to know whether the people I’m trying to reach are reachable. I want to let people know when I’m not reachable, and what form of communication I prefer when they’re trying to reach me.

Tying them into my previous posts on presence (An Interruption 2.0 Manifesto and Getting Presence Right) where I talked about the power of combining iotum's Talk Now with Blackberry Messenger:

1. Presence should not be interruptive. The Blackberry Messenger/Talk Now combination is largely passive in that you have to view your Talk Now screen, at your discretion, to see the latest state of your Talk Now Contacts in context. In effect, you control your interruptions by determining when you will view the screen and identifying those particular events for which you want to receive audio notifications. (For an experience with overwhelming interruptions check out my post on Fring and its "Fringing pinging".Late update: Andy has just given up on Sitofono because he suffered from overbearing "disruptus interruptus" .)

2. Users must set/maintain their own presence information. Already discussed in the Interruption 2.0 Manifesto. And the presence information needs to be used not only for voice but also for IM/text chat sessions. The fact that Blackberry Messenger requires a correspondent's PIN number puts a "permission-based" limit on the number of IM contacts you will interact with and messages you will receive. If integrated into Talk Now's back end this could be fully managed.

3. Setting presence should be quick, simple, and easy. The UI needs to be intuitive and a no-brainer to garner rapid adoption. Simply look at how "ease-of-implementation" and "ease-of-use" has been a major factor in driving Skype adoption.

4. Presence should accommodate for a contact’s different phones. The biggest challenge here going forward will be how to combine mobile and VoIP phone services (such as Skype) such that they all have synchronized information. I want mobile for geographical flexibility but Skype for all the auxiliary real time conversation services it provides.

5. Presence should allow users to display different statuses to different groups. Self-evident truth that needed to be brought out; iotum's Relevance Engine understands groups and communities -- in context.

6. Mobile presence should include communication preference. Will that be GSM (wireless), Skype/VoIP (wireless or braodband) or fixed (PSTN or Skype PC Free) landline? Will it be voice or text chat?

7. Presence should include a universal visual/icon system for quick reference. Try Talk Now to experience this concept in action.

8. Presence should allow connections to other mobile services. Linking Talk Now to Blackberry Messenger would be a start. But, as mentioned above, how can this also be linked to forthcoming location based services or even any forthcoming mobile Skype infrastructure.

9. Presence information should be seen anywhere a contact is referenced in the mobile UI. Talk Now needs to extend its presence information into the Blackberry's Address book and also the contacts available on Blackberry Messenger. But not only referenced in the mobile UI; reference should also be extended to availability in my Skype Contacts on my PC (or other web-based IM services with contacts).

10. Presence should be maintained by a non-carrier third party. iotum has the architecture, databases and server infrastructure required to make this a carrier independent service.

One of the issues not addressed here is how do you extend presence information when your laptop PC is not connected to the Internet or your mobile wireless device is not connected to the wireless network (GSM or WiFi)? We all drive into underground garages or tunnels without radio connections at some time. (There was definitely no GSM or WiFi when I went through the Chunnel last week.) So a "last known status" "off-the-air" indicator is also needed.

And finally, the productivity benefit of getting presence right: we will all know that we have got presence right when there is no need to make speculative phone calls that go unanswered and to leave voice mails with their perfunctory but etiquettely correct introductions and all the access time involved in both leaving and retrieving voice mails. Blackberrry Messenger, Talk Now and mobile email à la Blackberry should resolve these issues for both synchronous and asynchronous real time communications. Recall Alec's post, What is the Real Impact of New Presence?, on the financial and ARPU implications of having 82% of all business calls end up in voice mail demonstrating, for example, that "an increase of 7% in connection probability represents an increase of 10% in minutes used".

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 09:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

Over the past several years I have used TechSmith's SnagIt to capture images from my desktop, insert them into my Office documents or even send them to Skype correspondents incorporating a two-click process. We have also seen the number of methods for File Transfer within Skype increase beyond eight.

With the release of SnagIt's Skype Output plug-in for Skype, Skype now gets Toolbar Icon status on a peer level with Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Flickr. The one catch is that you need to upgrade to SnagIt 8.2.2 (free for anyone already licensed for any version 8).. Capture your image, single click on the Skype icon, select the Skype Contacts to whom you wish to send it (full instructions here) and a jpg (or other pre-designated graphics file type) is on its way.

You do need to install the Skype Output accessory once you have installed SnagIt 8.2.2. Just click on the icon on the left to go to the web page to locate and install it. Then when you have captured a new image, simply click on the Skype icon to continue as described above.

SnagIt has added a second output mode that basically allows you to place your SnagIt captures as Sticky Notes on your desktop; You can then minimize, edit, enter a title, hide/restore these notes via a System Tray icon. Amazing for capturing those items you need temporarily on your desktop; works especially well for setups with dual screens where the Sticky (aka Post-It) Notes can be placed on the second (extended) screen.

And, with this upgrade to SnagIt, Skype has one more small, but nifty feature associated with my daily PC and real time communications activities.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

As indicated in previous posts (here and here) I recently completed a ten day European trip to Hanover, Germany for CeBit and returned via London where I visited the Skype offices. But Skype was not the only communications play I explored and employed during this trip. There are other players out there having their own successes. Besides using Skype for many calls back home and to others amongst my contacts, I also had the opportunity to try out other technologies and services using my Blackberry 8700, my Nokia N80i, my SlingBox Pro, a rental car GPS system and high speed European trains.

First the most underpromoted feature of the Blackberry has to be Blackberry Messenger. This is basically an Instant Messaging service that operates, not via the standard GSM data channel and Internet, but rather via a direct (PIN to PIN) messaging channel that instantaneously transmits messages to other Blackberry Messenger contacts. As a result there is no latency between sending and receiving a message. It allowed me to keep in tight contact with the person who accompanied me on this trip but had a different agenda of meetings at CeBit. It also allowed me to keep in instantaneous contact with a key contact back in Canada re some business issues. It has become a most valuable tool for text chat with those I work most closely with, letting them know of say, delays as we link up for a meeting or just getting simple answers to short but important questions. I have written more about the power of combining Blackberry Messenger and iotum's Talk Now in my Getting Presence Right post last week. (For communicating with my German hosts who had Sony Ericsson phones I found myself using SMS messaging more than I would in North America but there are charges associated with SMS messages.)

One evening after the show one member of our group had to make a call back to her family in Canada. She had attempted to make a call via one of our host's wireless GSM phones but the battery died after a few minutes. Since I had packed up my laptop for the day, I checked on my Nokia N80i and found there was an open WiFi connection available. I ran the Truphone wizard, entered her home phone number into the N80i Contacts directory and called via Truphone. She had an excellent quality, uninterrupted call with her family that lasted well over 20 minutes -- much better quality than she had been experiencing with a wireless phone. And, at this point in time, at no cost.

Beyond the call quality, another feature I like about Truphone is its integration into the Nokia Contacts directory: select a name and the phone number you want to call -- you then have the option to make a Voice (GSM) or Internet (Truphone) call. (Never encountered an opportunity to try out the Video call feature!)

Full circle television is defined as when you are watching Deutsche Welle in Germany or BBC World in London on your laptop but using your home cable box in Canada as your video source. (These services are included in my cable subscription but talk about a bandwidth waster!) My SlingBox Pro came through with marvelous quality video even when full screen on my 1680 x 1050 display. Friday morning I was able to provide some hockey coverage to my hosts at Skype; we were watching my neighbour's son play in a Minnesota Wild - St Louis Blues game for which I had set up recording on the PVR in my cable box via SlingBox Pro the previous evening. Hockey, with its inherent speed, has to be one of the best tests for the SlingBox quality and it came through with flying colours. Both while in California the previous week and during my European trip I was able to take advantage of my NHL Centre Ice cable TV subscription. The ultimate test is that you are watching a game full screen on the laptop and get into the game to the point where you forget about the technology involved.

As a further test after the CeBit show had closed on Saturday, I hooked up the S-Video output on my laptop into a 42" LCD TV display used in my host's booth and connected back to my SlingBox Pro in Canada. Turns out Canadian TV network CBC was broadcasting a curling championship in high definition; had it going live and full screen in the CeBit show's digital lifestyle booth. I have to admit that it did stretch the quality issue a bit; you probably would not have wanted to watch it for very long on this size of display but it still came up quite clearly with no pixelating in full motion.

Talking about viewing television on laptops, my host, Dick, showed me his way of bringing German (Digital) TV to his laptop. With smply a USB dongle and a short (<20cm) antenna.he is able to pick up all the German channels via German television's digital technology and a player on the laptop. Can we look forward to such a compact technology in North America when US/Canadian television goes all digital in February, 2009. This concept only works when physically in Germany and complements but by no means replaces the functionality of SlingBox.

As mentioned in a previous post, we used a GPS system in a rental car to locate two excellent, yet inexpensive, restaurants near the Hanover Messe site for our evening meals. (Check out 'restaurants' in "Hanover" on SkypeFind.) I also got to use one in the rental car I had for a day; however, the user interface needs some work for simplicity of operation. It did, however, eventually get me back to the Hanover rail station early one morning. But the associated technology I did appreciate is that Sixt gave me a new BMW Z4 Cabrero when I had ordered a VW Passat - at no extra charge. Unfortunately I did not have enough time to try it on the Autobahn.

Finally my trip from Hannover to London involved three European high speed trains. While the German ICE train was the slowest (maxed out at 160 km/h according to the display screen at the end of each car), it had actually provided the most onboard services: internal display screens telling you about speed, location, upcoming stops, etc; full airline type audio system, food and beverage service at your seat, etc. I took a Thalys TGV train from Cologne to Brussels - while they were still building the high speed road bed between Cologne and Liège, Belgium the ride at 300km/h between Liège and Brussels was something else - smooth, no sway, no clickety-clack, just a Nike swoosh! My final train, Brussels to London, was the Eurostar through the Chunnel to London Waterloo. A most interesting day experiencing advanced European rail technology and engineering. One key recommendation for anyone from North America contemplating European rail travel: buy your tickets in advance at the Rail Europe North American sites (US, Canada) and effectively get first class seating at second class pricing. My one disappointment: no WiFi on the trains such as Via Rail provides between Toronto and Ottawa/Montreal.

In fact, talking about WiFi, the one major disappointment on this trip was the unreliability of getting WiFi connections to my PC, to my Dell Axim and to my N80i. Not a case of their availability but rather their connectibility. Some worked, some did not but never in a manner such that I could always count on as a business critical service. Even attempts to use T-Mobile as a commercial service faltered. This standardization and ease-of-connection issues must be resolved if services such as Truphone are to succeed in the business and/or consumer marketplace. When it works, it's great but.....

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Clear consumer labeling by June 2007. That's the latest directive to UK VoIP providers from the Office of Communications. The announcement and the directive. High points:

• whether or not the service includes access to emergency services;
• the extent to which the service depends on the user's home power supply;
• whether directory assistance, directory listings, access to the operator or the itemisation of calls are available; and
• whether consumers will be able to keep their telephone number if they choose to switch providers at a later date.

Seems like a great idea. Not clear whether Skype softphones or Skype-embedded phones will be subject to such a requirement.

Next, Ofcom is considering, at the request of "a number of stakeholders," whether to require emergency services. I wonder how they' are influenced by their own Communications - The Next Decade book.

Full text of the announcement below...

Regulation of Voice over IP services

Ofcom today announced a new regulatory code for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service providers that will ensure that consumers have access to important information about the capabilities of their service. All VoIP providers will be required to comply with the code from June 2007.

VoIP services offer consumers the prospect of cheaper calls - especially for calls from one VoIP service to another - and valuable new services such as call handling and unified messaging.

Over the last twelve months a range of new VoIP services have been launched and demand continues to grow. Industry forecasts predict that there could be as many as three million users in the UK by the end of this year.

Following public consultation in 2006, Ofcom has decided to put in place measures to ensure that consumers have access to information which helps them make informed purchasing decisions. The new code of practice requires VoIP providers to make clear:

• whether or not the service includes access to emergency services;
• the extent to which the service depends on the user's home power supply;
• whether directory assistance, directory listings, access to the operator or the itemisation of calls are available; and
• whether consumers will be able to keep their telephone number if they choose to switch providers at a later date.

If consumers choose to take up a service that does not offer access to emergency services or which depends on an external power supply, the code also requires VoIP providers to:

• secure the customer's positive acknowledgement of this at point of sale (by ticking a box, for example);
• label the capability of the service, either in the form of a physical label for equipment or via information on the computer screen; and
• play an announcement each time a call to emergency services is attempted, reminding the caller that access is unavailable.

As usage in the UK continues to grow, and the market develops further, Ofcom will continue to review and develop its approach to regulation to ensure that consumers gain the full benefits of VoIP services.

A number of respondents to Ofcom’s consultation expressed concern that a lack of access to emergency services via VoIP services might result in consumer detriment.

For that reason, Ofcom intends to consult later this year on whether, and if so how, certain VoIP services might be required to offer access to emergency services.

The document can be found at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/voipregulation/voipstatement/

Ends.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 07:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

First Look

The people from Ipevo were so friendly to provide me with proper samples for their new Ipevo Free.2 phones. It's one of the few modern companies in this arena of usb-device that has a high cute factor and keeps coming back with new steady releases.

Specifications

• Fully integrated with Skype
• USB Plug and Play technology
• High resolution LCD with white LED
• Audio recording format: WAV
• Multi-language LCD Display
• Size: 165x38x18mm (LxWxH)
• Weight: 110g
• Cable length: 250cm

Requires:

• Microsoft Windows XP, Mac OS X 10.4 up
• 400 MHz Pentium II or higher, 128MB free RAM an d40MB free hard disk space
• Broadband internet connection
• Available USB port
• CD-ROM drive

I have been playing with it. It works well. Of all the Skype enabled USB-phones I find this one most complete. I don't see anything wrong with it and they really listen to customer feedback it seems.

Excellent sound quality, good echo cancellation, high cute factor, highly marketable lifestyle device.

Hands On

Here are the mugshots of the reality. Like I said; what you see advertised on the website of Ipevo is exactly what you get. They even added the little holder for the phone to the package. Great stuff. at least the phone is not laying around in a sloppy way on your desk. Everybody can see it. It comes in a nice package too. See the video...

I installed the device Ipevo Free.2 (there is really nothing to it, simple), I got an update for the software, the drivers loaded in Windows XP home and XP pro properly. No problems at all. The way it should be.

It's nice that it comes with a recording button and software too. The software records conversation in .WAV format. Maybe in the next version they can add mp3 format. And it is so simple. Far the simplest recorder in the whole Skype business.

Contents of the package:

• device
• cdrom
• holder for the phone (hang or stand)
• sticker
• data cd with drivers and software
• manual
• quick installation guide.

And they even do online support at Ipevo, via Skype and via email. These people really believe in their product, which is exactly why they will still be around years from now and others not. Quality, not only quantity. Nobody wants to buy a bad device or talk to bad people and Ipevo is exactly the opposite. Buy one before they run out of stock.

Here are the marketing mugshots. I like that they reflect reality. Judge for yourself:

Disclaimer: Ipevo advertises on Jan Geirnaert's Skype-Watch site.

Posted by Jan Geirnaert at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

When Skype Vice President Stefan Oberg spoke at VON Canada last year his theme was how Skype's goal was to be "Better Than a Phone". To make his point he mentioned how even the simple task of plugging in a headset (often on the rear of a desktop PC or in a laptop docking station) still frustrated Skype product managers and engineers as an "ease of use" issue. Otherwise background noise and echo effects made conversation difficult at best, if not impossible, when using the basic speakers and microphone supplied with a PC.

Today, with the release of Skype 3.2 beta, you no longer need to have that headset (or handset) to achieve top-notch voice quality in your Skype voice conversations. You can make excellent quality Skype calls using your basic PC speakers and microphone.

While not mentioned in the Skype Beta blog post, if you look at the Release Notes for Skype 3.2 beta 53, you will find:

• feature: Skype's own audio codec

• feature: Skype improved conference mixer

• feature: Skype Jitter Buffer and concealment

• feature: Skype audio preprocessing components

What this all adds up to is a new standard for voice quality in VoIP calls. Skype has internally developed its own codecs, based, I suspect, on the Camino Networks technology Skype acquired last April, such that calls to/from a Skype 3.2 client can be made simply using the microphone and speakers that come with any laptop or desktop PC. Echo cancellation and noise cancellation capabilities in these codecs make your Skype calls sound like a call with headsets or phone handset but without the hardware.

As a result you can have handsfree operation of your Skype calling while not cluttering up your physical desktop with additional hardware. The sole reason for using traditional USB handsets will be privacy; speaker phones may still have some application in board room environments. PC Free phones will continue to have their role in getting Skype available throughout the home or small office.

I first heard about this new capability from a beta tester a couple of weeks ago. He had to make a call from a booth conference room on the floor at CeBit 2007. While surrounded by four walls, with no ceiling, sound from the conference came in over the top. Yet, using the Skype 3.2 client he successfully made a business critical call using Skype back to parties in North America simply using the mic and speakers inherent to his laptop.

This morning I tested out the Skype 3.2 client using simply my laptop (actually my Altec Lansing USB speakers to enhance sound power that could create echoes) and the microphone from my headset. (Need to call Dell for a service call on my laptop's built-in microphone.) I placed the mic about midway between the speakers and made five different calls -- four using Skype at the other end while the fifth was on a mobile phone via SkypeOut. All four Skype parties found the call quality superb while the call to the mobile phone had poorer but quite acceptable quality -- probably due to the terminating mobile phone infrastructure. One of the called Skype parties found it "eerie" that this all worked when he thought about the consequences; he said it was the biggest feature to come out since the release of Skype itself.

Find out for yourself, download the Skype 3.2 beta, install it and call your friends and colleagues without any headset or handset. Put your feedback into the comments.

Bottom line: the new Skype codecs set a new baseline for call quality on any VoIP service. Skype appears to have built a significant differentiator with these new codecs; with them Skype becomes significantly "Better Than a Phone", especially when combined with all of Skype's other real time conversation features.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBacks (0)

New in Skype for Windows 3.2 is an account control panel. Let's step through it.

First, open it up either from the new Account menu...

or from the account bar above the tabs.

Either of these will open up the control panel's Overview tab.

Overview

SkypeOut, SkypeIn, and Skype Voicemail status. And links to further action.

Missing: Skype Prime and SkypeFind tabs.

Note the advertising at the bottom of the page.

The Calls and SMS panel

Lists your paid calls with some call detail. If you forward Skype calls to your mobile or landline phone number, here's where you'll see the cost of each call.

Missing: Summary data by period (e.g. number of calls, minutes, money spent this month/week/year). Might also be nice to break out what might otherwise be "local", "long distance" and "international" calls. Bonus points for comparing my savings vs. another carrier.

The Purchases Tab

Ooh, forgot I bought a Klonie.

The Settings tab

Settings for your account and payments.

Missing: You cannot be a member of more than one "Skype for Business" account group. You cannot have multiple or alternate email addresses.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 07:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype for Windows 3.2 lets you send money to another Skype user with via PayPal.

The recipient should have Skype 3.2 or higher too. If they don't, Send Money will offer to route the money via email address, something PayPal has done for years.

You launch the Send Money wizard from the Tools menu or by right-clicking on a contact name or profile.

This will launch a wizard. It may take a few moments to load.  

When it comes up, it explains the three steps of sending money to your Skype contacts.

1. Set up your PayPal account.
2. Send money.
3. Your contact is notified in Skype.

Setting up PayPal

Click the "Get Started" button.

New to PayPal? Create a PayPal account here.

If you've already created one that Skype knows of, you'll have a chance to log in to PayPal here.

Fill out the form.

Payment may only be in one of Skype's currencies. At the moment they are:

• U.S. Dollars
• Australian Dollars
• Canadian Dollars
• Czech Koruna
• Danish Kroner
• Euros
• Hong Kong Dollars
• Hungarian Forint
• New Zealand Dollars
• Norwegian Kroner
• Polish Zlotych
• Pounds Sterling
• Singapore Dollars
• Swedish Kronor
• Swiss Francs
• Yen

Fill out the form...

and press the Next button...

This previews your transaction. The payment methods are from your PayPal account: bank or credit card accounts.

Press the Send Money Now button.

And see your confirmation screen. The transaction is over, so press the "Done" button.

Missing: A "Send Money to Another Person" button.

What happens when someone sends you money?

You're alerted with a "Payment received (pending)" message.

You'll sign in to Skype and PayPal and finish your transaction on the PayPal web site.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 07:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Congrats! It's been a year of innovation, experimentation, and growth. Here's Markus Rumler and Stephan Skrobar Jajah's sponsor presentation at the Blogtalk conference in Wien from October 2006.

Two demos in under six minutes.

Just to be clear, the technology is pretty straightforward for a VoIP geek. Jajah's innovation is in great user experience, simple embedding into web sites, and making it very easy for businesses to manage multiple accounts. Lots of extensions in one year: plug-ins for Outlook, Plaxo, OS X address book, Firefox, Google homepage, and mobile devices.

Jajah can do this quickly with lightweight code because all of the telecom stuff is centralized, running on servers. Skype must deliver lots of plumbing (p2p directory, audio and video, messaging, etc.) to each user. Jajah, on the other hand, just needs to get your phone number and the number of the person you're calling; their servers do the rest and the call goes over your regular phones.

Happy Birthday, Jajah!

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

As mentioned in a previous post I spent three days last week visiting Skype's London office meeting with both Skype managers and a Skype partner. Out of all these meetings there was one overriding theme I came away with: Skype is "Open for Business".

Recall Andy's VoIP Watch post last week where he questioned voice's place within portals; he goes into some detail describing how Yahoo, AT&T, AOL and, yes, even Microsoft are struggling with how to derive a business model that works using voice and presence.

.... What’s funny is the IM players know all about presence, but one has to wonder who is Present and Accounted for when the decisions on how to make money are being discussed by those portal players. Surely no cash is being rung up that matters.

Rest assured there is no wondering about who is present and accounted for at Skype when the decisions on how to make money are being discussed. It was obvious to me that one of the outcomes of last fall's reorganization is that every sales, marketing and business development manager at Skype has become very focused on meeting revenue and expense goals while accomplishing a defined mission such as to build a portfolio of business critical partnerships.

Partially based on my own past experience as a member of a management team executing the restructuring of a NASDAQ-listed company, I have the distinct feeling that, setting aside any future performance bonus for the Skype's founders, Skype management's immediate goal is simply to become a profit contributor to eBay. As my interim CEO of that past (and successful) experience would repeatedly state: "the bleeding has to stop now" if we wanted to have a sustainable, ongoing business.

Fundamentally in the foreseeable future we will see four Skype revenue streams:

• Telecom Services: SkypeIn, SkypeOut and extensions of traditional telephony interconnections.
• Extras Gallery: where Skype and the publishers of Skype Extras share revenues while each have defined responsibilities with respect to the marketing and promotion of Skype Extras.
• e-Commerce: built around engines such as Skype Find and Skype Prime
• Hardware: royalties on Skype hardware that meets Skype's Certification standards.

No surprises here in that all these programs are described within the Skype website. (Of course, Skype's viral driver, free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls worldwide, will not change.)

The real challenge here for each member of the Skype Management team is to become a visionary and "super salesperson" who can encourage partner innovation while articulating clearly what Skype is providing in return for these various revenue streams. The partnerships behind these revenue streams are critical to Skype's success; assessing risk vs reward in establishing business partnerships will become a major management skill required to ensure achievement of their respective goals.

On the other hand they recognize that the partner's business success itself is also critical to their success. To this end, partners must be entrepreneurs who do more than simply provide some "cool" technology. Accompanying the technology is the need to define a customer pain that the technology can address. This leads into building a full business plan, incorporating a marketing and business development strategy built around how the technology results in a value-added service for their prospective customers. And the business itself needs to have a potential to quickly ramp up to six figure annual revenue numbers.

I make these comments because, in my business planning and business development consulting work over the past 15 years, I have seen many marvelous technologies. But, in many cases, I have seen many of them falter because the entrepreneur did not recognize the need for, and role of, marketing and business development activity to achieve market awareness and business success. As I said in my presentation to Skype personnel last week:

Skype needs to:

• build Skype brand awareness
• provide marketing infrastructure which can contribute to the partner's marketing activities
• define both Skype's responsibilities and their partner's expected responsibilities
• build case studies of success stories

Skype's partners need to:

• define the customer pain they address and the resulting vertical markets
• define the market size to ensure they can build, over time, a reasonable size business
• build and critique a business plan - even if it only initially covers the first year's evolution
• view marketing as an activity where not only Skype can contribute to building product or service awareness but also the entrepreneur can find additional avenues to promote there business and address their chosen market.

It will be an interesting ride to follow how the Skype ecosystem evolves. More detailed commentary to follow in subsequent posts.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Happy

• Gus is pleased with the AIM 6.1 Beta 3 (Version 6.1.31.1) release. Bug fixes, full screen video. The net installer, the full installer.

Integrated

• The Microsoft Open Communication Server 2007 beta is now available for general download. via Irwin Lazar. 

Surprised

• The VoIP Girl hears back from Skype customer service after two weeks and is surprised. "Better late than never I guess. Honestly, whenever I fill in one of those web forms, I'm sure I'm sending my question into a black hole. I didn't expect Skype to get back to me, but they did. So, if you're not in any kind of hurry, go ahead and ask away." Skype is just part of Leanne Tremblay's VoIP toolkit.

Curious

• Johannes Ernst: Call for Papers for the November 2007 ACM CCS2007 Workshop on Digital Identity Management: "Usability Issues for Identity Management." The questions raised should make for a great workshop.  

Experienced

• Chad Danylko asks Does Instant Messaging Really Keep Us in Touch? Loving the small stuff of life with close friends; not so much for mere acquaintances and strangers. Good thing Chad hasn't tried twitter. via the great iMessenger blog.

Worldly

• Globalization - the Killer App for VoIP. "The ability to facilitate an easier transition to a coherent global telephony environment may be one of the hidden benefits of VoIP that makes a real difference to companies." on TelecomVistas 

Annoyed

• Alec Saunders doesn't like interruptions to his flow state, despite Stowe Boyd's defense of continuous partial attention. I'll have to get back to reading that sometime, but first... Alec also argues for one world price for software. Not even a sliding scale for developing countries?

Activated

• Ken Camp calls for Americans to join Free Conferencing Corp's class action suit against big telcos. "If you're concerned about your carrier dictating to whom you may place calls, in essence censoring your ability to use the PSTN, I encourage you to follow the link and get more information"

Tired

• Jon Arnold gives 8 reasons VoIP has peaked. And he's not speaking of Skype.

Cute

• Jon also walks through DiamondWare's 3D audio. I'm less sure their spatialization (placing sounds around the user to match up with a virtual world) will scale well given the complex acoustics and number of rapidly changing sources in gamespaces. The proof will be in the gameware and alliances.

Cuter

• Bluedude shows the Shotcode demo that embeds an url into a picture. Snap the pic with your mobile camera and it takes you to the site.

Cutest

• James Seng defines an IM Phone product spec. Email is to Blackberry as IM is to... A phone designed for VoIM would have more heat, but would cost more.

Confused

• FierceVoIP: Skype/PayPal tie-up a recipe for disaster.

  "My gut reaction to this news is that it's something bad just waiting to blow up, but I can't honestly say why. ... I'm not sure that being able to send quantities of money to points unknown with a single mouse click--let alone from an online account with links to my credit cards and bank accounts--is a good thing. And with the terrible reputation for arrogant and non-responsive customer service that eBay, Skype, and PayPal have all earned, I've got to believe that linking Skype and PayPal accounts is like putting a match to a dangerous fuse."

Sellable

• Rich Tehrani on the Asterisk Appliance. I'm pretty sure this is the kind of thing Jan Geirnaert wants from Skype. Something tangible, simple to understand, with enough margins that local resellers can both rep it and support it.

Paranoid

• Skype's current Extras Manager, used to download, licence, launch, and update Skype Extras, can use more than 20MB of memory. Skype licensed it from a third party, so you not only trust Skype, you trust its licenser and each plug-in developer. At this time, Skype only warrants that its own software is free of viruses, spyware, and malware; not the extras in its gallery. If this freaks you out (it doesn't keep me up at night) what can you do?
  
  Skype loads the Extras Manager automatically, but you can always turn off its skypePM.exe process in Windows' Task Manager. If that's too hard, Jan Geirnaert's friend wrote a utility to kill the Extras Manager process. Then again, who knows if that utility has viruses, spyware or malware?

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

First, past deliverables: 

2003

• Skype launched

2004

• Skype Out launched

2005

• Skype In
• Central Buddy List
• Import contact wizard
• Voicemail to anyone
• Call Forwarding
• Ring-tones, avatars
• Web & E-mail Toolbars

2006

• Skype Extras
• Click to call SO from any website
• Public chats
• Enterprise compatibility
• Skype Video
• Web Presence
• Mood messages
• Contacts: Import, Tag, Quick Filtering
• Redesigned UI
• PayPal Auto Top-up
• 14 local currencies
• Bank transfers in 50 countries
• Online & offline payment methods
• Administer multiple accounts
• 10-Way Conference Call
• Pocket PC Client
• Wi-Fi phones
• Various Bluetooth, cordless, USB devices
• SMS messages
• Shared Groups
• Skypecasts

Skype's points are (a) they've been doing more over time, (b) there's more to come.

Our expectations are enormous. What's on your Skype wishlist?

Nine from mine:

1. Simultaneous release. Mac, Linux and Mobile software released within 30 days of the Windows versions. So those users don't feel like abandoned stepchildren.

2. Multiparty video conferencing. Look at the work of the Open University on creating a palette of live video thumbnails that bring the people talking to the fore, to the center. Let's make it easy to:
   • support 10 or 1000 people in a video conference call
   • save the collective and individual video streams.
   • annotate video (turn text chat into closed captions) 
3. Video/Audio Mixing and Editing. Live and in post production. The better to blog/podcast/vlog your conversations.

4. Smooth transitions. One click to shift a p2p voice conference (10 people in a conference call) to a live hosted conference bridge (like Skypecasts). One click to launch from text or voice group chats into a group video chat. One click to launch a text-chat backchannel to a voice or video conference.

5. Spatialized audio. 3-D and stereo. Improving the usability of conference calls (keeping voices distinct, matching voices to visuals). And the better to navigate World of Warcraft.

6. Searchable chat, voice, video archives. So Google desktop can find that cute girl's Skype name.

7. IM machine language interpreting. You type in Thai, I read in English. Bridging communication gaps, opening new markets.

8. Carterfone for Skype.
   • So anyone can connect any software or device to the Skype network without licensing Skype products so long as they don't harm the network.
   • Web services to access the Skype cloud for calling, IM, profiles and presence, voice messaging, account information.
   • Web services for SkypeFind, Prime, Send Money, Skype for Business Control Panel.
9. Rich Digital ID.
   • Multiple personas and identities per person. Fundamental to keeping people using Skype at work. So their job identity can belong to their employer, staying when they change jobs and leave the company, while personal identity and their social relationships belong to them.
   • Open authentication and profile enhancement by third-parties. So people can know that I'm the same person they know from my blogs, eBay, and my LinkedIn and Ecademy accounts. So I share my Skype profile with my contacts and, selectively, my profiles from other services.
   • Authentication to other services. So I can use my Skype name and password to log in to other services. Perhaps OpenID?

What's on your wishlist? 

Acknowledgements: Thanks to alpha blawger Denise Howell for the snapshot. The table text is from a generic chart Niklas Zennstrom used at Spring VON 2007. 

Posted by Phil Wolff at 02:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Communications Workers of America is a labor union representing 700,000 people, mostly working for the largest US telcos. The CWA Legislative and Political Conference starts today in Washington, D.C. CWA has open platforms on Telecommunications Reform, Speed Matters (ubiquitous very high speed access for all) and a Consumers Right to Know in addition to the usual union issues.

Democrats bidding for CWA support (endorsements, votes, money, and volunteers) include:

• Senator and Presidential Candidate Joseph Biden (D-Del.)
• Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean  
• Representative and Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio)
• Senator Sherrod Brown
• Senator and Presidential Candidate Barack Obama (D-Ill.)
• Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.)
• Representative George Miller (D-Calif.)
• Representative Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-Mich.), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus
• Presidential Candidate John Edwards
• Representative and House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC)
• Senator and Presidential Candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi  

No Republicans, apparently.

If you're live blogging, shooting video, or recording, please drop a link. The next president of the US may actually promise something interesting! 

Technorati tags: skype, skypejournal, cwa, politics, policy, usa, unitedstates, communicationsworkersofamerica, dnc, dean, howardean, denniskucinich, sherrodbrown, barackobama, barack, obama, clairemccaskill, mccaskill, georgemiller, carolynkilpatrick, johnedwards, edwards, jamesclyburn, clyburn, hillary, clinton, hillaryrodhamclinton, nancy, pelosi, nancypelosi

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Contactivity. Technology helping you to be a social animal while on the move. Staying connected to your existing relationships and being able to spot the opportunities for new ones. Who is near you, in your proximity, who is in your general location, and how can I share with them and my relationships at home and elsewhere. Plazes and Imity are examples of aspects of this. Contactivity is social connectivity. It needs technological connectivity but is a totally different beast.

by KM expert Ton Zijlstra in his Reboot 8 Themes V: Relationships, Visualization, Contactivity post.

The location, geopresence aspect of social capital.

While the desktop editions of Skype let you "hardwire" your time zone in your user profile, this is less helpful to laptop users and no help to mobile users. Wouldn't it be lovely if:

• Your mobile phone's GPS shares lat/long data with selected Skype contacts?
• Skype alerted you when some contacts are newly near you?

This might show up as services or features like:

• Contact groups sorted by distance
  • Who is near?

• Contact group of people far away from their home base (e.g. more than 100km)
  • Who is traveling?

• Contacts newly near you (location changed) that you haven't spoken with in a long time.
  • Which relationships should I renew over lunch or coffee?

• SkypeFind lists visited by contacts (even if they never post or comment)
  • Voting with your feet, even if you never use SkypeFind

• SkypeFind auto-prompt for reviews
  • What do you think of the 10 places you visited this week? Just rate them, please.

• Public Chat Directory
  • Most public chats won't have a geographic focus, but some will. Neighborhood chats. Apartment building chats. Local businesses, city offices, clubs and associations. Find and join them.

• First Life Event Lists
  • Blend your Skypecast directory with offline events. Bring in geocoded listings from Eventful and Upcoming or other iCalendar and hCalendar services. Music, lectures, business meetings, conferences, parties. Discover, call and go.

Technorati tags: skype, contactivity, plazes, gps, geocoding, skypecast, skypecasts, proximity, mobile, imity, tonzijlstra, ton, reboot8, geopresence

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Just read about China's new Property Law, adopted 16 March by the People's Congress and going into effect 1 October 2007. Does anyone know if its definitions of ownership, use, and security rights extends to virtual/intellectual property, names (like Skype names, domain names, or trademarks), or artifacts of conversation (like chat archives or audio/video recordings)?

Articles 50 and 52 say radio spectrum and telecommunications infrastructure belong to the state. How does the Internet fit?

How long does it takes new law to percolate into common practice?

• Text of the law (Simplified Chinese) on Law Lib.
• UPDATE: Text of the law (English, pdf), translation courtesy of the law firm of Lehman, Lee, and Xu, a PRC law firm. Thanks to Will Fung for the tip.
• Xinhua: President Hu stresses importance of property law in protecting people's interests.
• Adam Wolfe on Property Rites affecting coastal cities first.
• TCS Daily's Philip Levy sees this as formalizing property rights already informally applied.

Technorati tags: skypevideo, skypejournal, skype, property, law, china, regulation

Posted by Phil Wolff at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I have had the fortunate opportunity to stop over in London on my return from CeBit 2007 and spend a few days meeting various Skype personnel especially in the Skype Development Program group. Paul Amery, Director (center) and Lester Madden (left), responsible for Partner and Developer Relations, have been great hosts, helping to arrange various meetings and providing me with an Internet connection (where the local hotel wanted £15 per 24 hours for high speed Internet).

On my arrival Wednesday I was provided with an opportunity to make a lunch hour presentation on "An External View of the Skype World" to about 50 or 60 staff members in the Chill-Out Lounge; lots of interest, good questions and, based on feedback, I definitely hit some hot spots. I will follow up with more detailed reports on some of the follow up meetings in separate posts.

I also had the good fortune to be here when Skype Developer Program Partner Jeremy Hague of Netralia was visiting; he made a presentation to Skype staff Thursday on Skylook 2.0 -- an Outlook extension that has become one of the Skype Extras Gallery success stories.

But the most interesting story about visiting Skype London is the people I have had the opportunity to meet. First it is truly an international company; within one department of about 20 employees, eleven countries are represented, from as far away as Australia. Yet they have figured out a way to all work together, overcoming any potential cultural and language barriers, to build what is truly becoming the international "Uber-Telecom" company. The enthusiasm, positive attitude and high energy level they bring is a key to Skype's success. I thank them all for making my visit not only a success but thoroughly enjoyable.

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Would you like people to call you with a job offer? Thousands of people? One of the projects I proposed when I was at Adecco was a personal career availability broker, so you could signal your career presence.

Let's filter this so only certain kinds of employers, recruiters, or jobs find me. Maybe my family or my boss don't need to know I'm looking. And maybe I only want jobs that pay more than I make now or that will cover a health benefit. And maybe I'm not available for the