Later today my family will be celebrating the marriage of my son, a computer engineer and medical doctor, to his fiancé, a materials engineer and MBA by training, and now employed in the financial division of a resources company. Talk about how to win over the heart of her future father-in-law -- she recently traveled to the Kyrgyzstan (also known as the Kyrgyz Republic) in central Asia. She has a story to tell about how she downloaded her Blackberry email in Krygyzstan, where Rogers has no roaming agreement.. So the steps are:

• Be employed by a company with a mining operations at a 13,000 foot (4,000 meter) elevation.
• Drive up to the mine over a mining development road from the 1,500 foot elevation of the main plain (and I'm told it's a very scenic drive from the capital city, Bishkek, to where the mining road starts, along the shore of Krygyzstan's largest lake.)
• Get out and look north; pull out the Blackberry and search for a network.
• Check a few minutes later and you'll find your email updated.

The secret: a few miles/kilometers north of the mine is Kazakhstan where Rogers does have a roaming agreement. At a 13,000 foot elevation there is enough residual signal from the Kazakhstan operator's towers to do a download. I have not asked about the resulting roaming data charges...??

But it speaks volumes about the sensitivity of the rf engineering in the Blackberry where even weak signals can be picked up and carry the data stream. For those who ask, it was a Blackberry Curve.

Now off to the wedding celebrations; I'll be back next week.

Tags: Blackberry, Kyrgyzstan, Rogers, Kasakhstan

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Feedback from my recent post on the Unlimited Calling Plans: turns out that somewhere - unannounced - in a recent version upgrade release, Skype for Windows will now support up to 25 participants on a Skype Conference Call. While the host must be on Skype for Windows, participants can be on any version of Skype or be on a PSTN connection via SkypeOut.

What is the impact for VAPPS' HiDef Conferencing? HiDef Conferencing continues to have the following features:

• Complete business grade conferencing hosted on a VAPPS server rather than being reliant on the configuration and connection of the host's PC.
• HiDef Conference calls may be scheduled.
• Calls can be recorded and archived
• Host requires minimum broadband upload speeds (< 300 kbps) for at his/her Internet connection
• Lecture Mode provides host with more control over participants' level of participation (muting/unmuting, hand raising, etc.)
• Telephone dial pad commands (for SkypeOut participants and/or use via Skype's dialpad tab)

Skype's Conference Call feature is more appropriate for ad hoc or spontaneous, informal multi-party calls such as family calls. It's still a long way advanced from the "three party call" feature I previously had on my Bell Canada PSTN line. But when it's mission critical for business, HiDef Conferencing is much more robust, feature rich and transparent to the meeting agenda.

Skype for Mac and Skype for Linux continue to support hosting of ten participant conference calls. In practice, when you start a conference call, the conference call tab will state the maximum number of participants it will support.

Tags: Skype, Skype Conference Call, HiDef Conferencing, VAPPS

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 01:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

Back in April we talked about Skype's new Unlimited Calling Plans. Just a heads-up that Skype's introductory offer expires this weekend (June 1). They offer 3 months for the price of two or twelve months for the price of eight. For a review here are the basics:

What's Free (world wide):

• Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls
• Instant Messaging
• File Transfer
• Skype Conference calls (up to 10 25 participants, all on Skype)

• free calls to any designated phone within the designated territory for the plan
  • no connection fee
  • landline and mobile for Canada, U.S., China, Hong Kong, Singapore
  • landline only for other 29 countries
  • subject to a fair use policy of 10,000 minutes/month
• free call transfer from/to SkypeIn/SkypeOut numbers
• Skype voice mail
• up to ten 25 party conference calling to a combination of Skype contacts worldwide and SkypeOut contacts within the geographical region of the respective plans

North American Plans:

• Unlimited US and Canada: $2.95 per month
  • 50% discount off one SkypeIn (online) number
• Unlimited Mexico: $5.95 per month
  • Unlimited US and Canada plus:
  • unlimited to landlines in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey
  • discounted rates to other locations and mobile phones in Mexico
• Unlimited Worldwide: $9.95 per month
  • Unlimited Mexico plus:
  • unlimited to 32 worldwide countries
  • 50% discount off three SkypeIn (online) numbers
• Sign up here

• Unlimited Country: €2.95 or £1.95 per month
  • landline calls within "local" country
  • one free SkypeIn (online) number
• Unlimited Europe: €3.95 or £2.95 per month
  • landline calls within 20 European countries
  • one free SkypeIn (online) number
• Unlimited Worldwide: €8.95 or £6.95 per month
  • landline calls to 34 countries plus to cell phones in US, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore
  • three free SkypeIn (online) numbers
• Sign up here (Euros, GBP)

• Unlimited Country: Chose a single destination country independent of originating country

• Brazil 400 limited to 400 minutes within Brazil

• Unlimited Country: Chose a single destination country independent of originating country

Tags: Skype, Skype Calling Plans, SkypeOut

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Our choice of PC's and the associated applications are becoming a factor in the definition of our personality: Windows or Mac? IBM or Dell? Our smartphone choices are becoming a factor in the definition of our personality: Blackberry, iPhone or, Nokia?

But just as important is how these associations are also playing a role in how IT departments are losing control over our IT platforms. I recall a story when the first IBM PC's came out where a major Canadian bank Vice-President chastised an employee for having a modem connection -- insecurity written all over his face and the modem ordered removed! My first cell phone required both a rather large handset device that was screwed into my dashboard and connected to a black box stored in the luggage compartment of my station wagon. And those external cell phone aerials attached to a rear window were a status symbol that you were "connected" anytime, anywhere. But the employer would usually define what you would have (@$3,600 for my first cell phone in 1986, you bet!). CFO's wrestled with the expense, wondering why anyone would want to talk while driving.

Jonathan Christensen, Skype's GM for Audio and Video, in two recent guest posts on Saunderslog.com talks about how IT is becoming personal. In the first post he talks about how "The Web is My IT"

But, we have more freedom when it comes to the applications we download and run. I use Skype for *all* of my telephony that is not mobile. I use Google Reader as an info clipping service. I use Gmail to manage my online subscriptions and travel arrangements. I use Twitter to stay up to date. With the myriad of great choices available, users are finding ways to make “personal technology” work for them. None of these are IT-sanctioned applications, but they are enormously helpful in my work (and personal) life… and I am saving my company real money on telecom and infrastructure costs.

Slowly, this shift is happening at the hardware level too. Our machines are reflections of our personal styles and tastes. At Skype, we are in two camps: the Lenovo loyalist and the Mac fan club. Apple has a reputation for inspiring fanatical loyalty, but ThinkPad users are every bit as rabid as the MacBook fans. They know every model number past and present. They reminisce about great machines they have retired and passionately compare notes about DIMMs, hard drives and battery configurations (I carry a MacBook Air – and thank goodness that Apple makes these decisions for me).

He starts off his concluding paragraph with "The long-term effect when users migrate to personal technology is that the IT-approved applications slowly lose traction." Coming from a former employee of Microsoft whose revenue depends highly on IT-sponsored implementations of its server-based applications, it's a powerful statement with lots of implications for the challenges ahead at Microsoft.

In his second post "IT Gets Personal - Mobility and the Desktop", Jonathan talks about how, while Blackberry, with its Blackberry Enterprise Server, still controls authentication and authorization policies, RIM is broadening its market approach to encompass the prosumer and even consumers. He talks about the iPhone "thumbing its nose at IT managers":

However, aside from the Blackberry/Exchange relationship, the IT department has had little to do with our mobile technology choices. My mobile is MY business, thank you. I use it primarily for work, but it is not an IT-approved device. Oh, by the way, thanks for picking up the airtime charges.

Certainly a noticeable trend lately is how, when someone leaves an employer, the two constants in his/her contact information are the mobile phone number and, if they have one, the SkypeID.

Jonathan goes on to talk about the decreasing role of the PBX, becoming identified with your personal mobile number and the adoption of desktop communications applications in the workplace, especially IM.

There is more rich interaction in these sessions. People are sending links, copying and pasting text and sharing files in real time. Today’s knowledge worker roams seamlessly between Mobile calls, SMS, IM, Blackberry email and PC calling. Nearly 30 percent of Skype users are using it for business and 28 percent of Skype-to-Skype calls include video. The old desktop phone just can’t keep up.

His bottom line:

Users are taking control of their communications channels. They are innovating, making personal mashups with the new tools, and they are creating a new namespace to go with it (e.g., Gmail address + Mobile phone number + Twitter ID + Skype ID). And all of this is happening outside the IT department’s “walled garden.” It’s good news for users and productivity, but what does this loss of control mean for the IT department and the organization? What does it mean for PBX vendors? And, if the users are happy, does it really matter?

Interesting perspectives from someone who has been integrally involved with the rise of IP-based communications and the extension of voice messaging to incorporate text chat, video and mobility over the past one-and-a-half decades.

The PC is transitioning to the lightweight laptop (many of my acquaintances have a MacBook Air); smartphones fit in the shirt pocket or purse or hang from a belt clip. The IT department is becoming more ethereal as in "figures light and aeriform come unlooked for and melt away". Both posts (once again here and here) are well worth the read.

(And did anyone notice that, while RIM tried to distinguish consumer and business markets by having a camera in the Pearl and Curve but not in the 88x0 series, the about-to-be-released Blackberry Bold has everything - camera, new media player with iTunes support, GPS: all-in-one - and addresses both markets.)

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Statistics was probably my major failing as a second year engineering student; perhaps because all I can remember was a prof who gave the lectures lying across a very long lecturer's desk. A second attempt while later earning my business degree only went mildly better but I did learn about statistics associated with avocado marketing (or something along those lines). Hey, maybe statisticians are academic theorists, who knows? But if you've had one of those "How did we do?" query windows pop up after a SkypeOut call and you responded, you have contributed to the collection of call quality information that helps to build a database for statistical analysis.

So, if you've got experience working with packages such as SAS, SPSS and/or Matlab Stats and how to use them for data mining with some feeling for IP communications technology, Skype's Audio/Video team is seeking a statistical analyst, based in Tallinn. Responsibilities:

• Root cause analysis for good and poor Skype calls, including suggesting changes to the development team
• Modeling the technical call data for quality metrics.
• Visualizing data and creating reports for different purposes
• Performing special statistical studies of data
• Develop statistical analyzing and reporting methods for Skype use
• Taking part to external co-operations on Call statistics

This team is also looking into "end point" configurations to determine what is required for the best call quality robustness and researching hardware issues such as sound cards, headsets and Skype phone hardware. Skype can provide the best audio codecs but if your headset, sound card and/or Skypephone hardware does not have the audio bandwidth and other properties to support HD voice, it all goes for naught. Performing statistical analysis will provide some insight into the impact of the quasi-quantum physics-like randomness of IP packet transmission.and its role in the overall call quality picture.

Probably a graduate of the University of Waterloo's Faculty of Mathematics, which nieghbours one of North America's top engineering schools (my son is a graduate, what can I say?) would represent the ideal candidate. Now back to that root mean square standard deviation calculation.

Tags: Skype, Skype Audio/Video, SAS, SPSS, Statistical Analyst

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 06:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The ecosystem upgrades...

PrettyMay Call Center for Skype just released version 3.0 for Windows. $150 for five operators, $500 for unlimited. Up to 30 simultaneous calls. Auto-attendant, IVR, Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), call recording, and voicemail. Free trial.

Extralabs Skype Recorder updated to 2.0.

Review of the VoSKY Web Click-to-Call application by VoIP-News' Robert Poe. Good writeup VoSKY Exchange is not just for phone switches any more.

Skype for Mac with Quicksilver trick still works. via Walkah.

People in motion...

Skype's Audio/Video team is hiring a statistical analyst in Tallinn to help Skype understand real and perceived call quality. There are 42 more published openings at Skype: 27 in Tallinn, 8 in London, 5 in Prague, 5 in Stockholm, 2 in Luxembourg. None in the Americas or Asia/Pacific.

Tokoni story sharing service launched by former Skype president, Alex Kazim

Skype Nomad arrived in New York City this morning.

The human factor drives technology...

Take Your Team to India, says Stuart Henshall. You will learn about the future of mobility in the slums and malls of Mumbai. He also finds iPhone lust is global.

Long DataPortability.org thread on data portability for banking. When you move from one bank to another, should you be able to bring your entire history with you, so third-party analytics (Mint, Intuit) can help you better manage your money? What can we learn from this use case? Bank customers place high premiums on privacy, detailed data, auditability, completeness.

Report on Malaysian Internet use. "77% of IM users communicate on MSN/Windows Live Messenger and 57% on Yahoo! Messenger. Yahoo! Messenger is also significantly more popular amongst Malay internet users with a 56% reach." Meanwhile Yahoo! puts off its annual meeting until July.

While the dark side continues to creep...

Yet more evidence that pseudonymous blogger a1gjv knows nothing about software development yet opines about Skype's.

Astaro promotes fear-of-Skype to sell its network security appliance.

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

New service provides format- and platform-agnostic meeting scheduling and co-ordination across the web.

To date groupware's ability to perform meeting scheduling and coordination was limited to within an enterprise's groupware community of users -- i.e. - the employees and perhaps closely connected business associates. And everyone had to be using a common calendaring system running under a common operating system. Yet, studies show that over 60% of meetings will involve invitees who are not within this "enterprise cloud". Half of those "non-cloud" invitees do have a "good" relationship with the enterprise; the other half are those with whom employees would have "sporadic" meetings.

Tungle is an Internet-based service that provides the ability to share availability and manage meeting scheduling across the web. Currently the designated organizer of the meeting (who does not have to be an attendee) must be using Microsoft Outlook; however, the invitees can be running on any platform, whether Windows, Mac or even Blackberry; they simply need a web browser. And they can be using any calendaring application whether Outlook Calendar, Google Calendar, Mac's iCal, or within groupware such as Lotus Notes.

The Tungle client for meeting organizers has a single-click install as an Outlook plug-in. Upon installation it then searches your Outlook for both Contacts and your availability according to your Outlook Calendar. If it finds other Contacts who also have installed Tungle it marks them with an identifier "T" logo. You may then invite individual contacts to "share" their availability; those are the ones identified with the "T" logo on a solid purple background. Select one of those contacts and you will see in the Calendar screen that contact's availability.

The other section of the Tungle client comprises a Calendar which initially shows your own availability for the current (5-day or 7-day) week. This Calendar section is where you initiate the coordination of a meeting - selecting contacts, entering a subject and designating the time slots you (or the primary "chair" of the meeting) would have available for potential meeting times. You can also designate whether or not you will be attending the meeting - a feature that is ideal for executive administrators.

The example on the left shows the sharing of availability across an organizer and three other contacts, shown by the different colors, who are also on Tungle. (Were the organizer not attending the purple slots would go away.) The organizer would then "paint" in blank potential time slots for the proposed meeting. Upon completion of this information, click on the "Create Space" button and another window pops up where you can see a summary of the invitees and proposed time slots and as well as enter more detailed information about the potential meeting such as an agenda. Click on the "Send" button and an email, from the meeting organizer, about the prospective meeting goes out to each invitee, incorporating a link.

The link is to a "Tungle Space" which is a dynamic web page, viewable in any web browser, that shows all the meeting information and allows invitees to select which of the proposed time slots s/he prefers. If the invitee reads the email on a Blackberry, the Tungle Space is reformatted for appropriate display on the Blackberry. Note that, until a final meeting time is set, the Tungle Space is updated with any changes in availability of those who have a Tungle client installed.

There are two ways a final meeting time can be set:

• The organizer can visit the Tungle Space at any time and designate a meeting time regardless whether or not all invitees have responded, or
• Once the last invitee has visited the Tungle Space to select her/his available meeting times, Tungle will then automatically select a meeting time.

Once a meeting time is selected an email goes out to all invitees announcing the meeting time. Those invitees who are also on Tungle will have their Outlook Calendars appropriately populated. But here is one of the key features: the other invitees can click on a link that inserts the meeting time into their respective calendaring program regardless of whether whether they use Google Calendar, iCal, Lotus Notes or any other popular Calendaring program.

In an interview with Tungle CEO Marc Gingras he pointed out:

• ease-of- user was a key design criteria; this is an offering that has been over a year in the development.
• recognizing which Calendar format an invitee had was another major technical challenge
• Tungle will be adding clients for users of Google Calendar and iCal (you can sign up on the website for notification)
• the team is still working on additional features incorporating feedback from the current beta phase.

The entire structure is set up to ensure adequate privacy; only information you agree to share is shared. In fact, as with Skype, while users' email addresses are registered by Tungle and used to determine who amongst your Contacts is on Tungle, this information is never give out at any point. There is even a double opt-in process for ensuring that you are, in fact, the owner of any email address that you register with Tungle.

Personally I have used Tungle over the past week with great success. It's simple to install and eliminates lots of non-productive time exchanging emails with various meeting time slot proposals (or even making voice calls to finalize details). . In fact, Tungle appears to be one of those rare productivity applications whose value is quickly appreciated the first time you use it.

Going forward I have suggested API's that could link Tungle as a front end for hosts organizing VAPPS HiDef Conferencing sessions (or even Skype Conference call sessions); I can also foresee where deeper direct integration into Blackberry Calendar or CRM applications, such as Salesforce.com, would be useful. And it's ideal for Skylook users who already are archiving their Skype conversations into Outlook. Tungle does have plans for making this an integral web-based "social networking" tool that is "just there" when you have to organize a meeting.

So, if you are an Outlook user, download Tungle here and get organizing!

Tags: Tungle, Marc Gingras, Outlook, Google Calendars, Lotus Notes, iCal

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Single click access to PamConsult's PamFax to be integrated into Skype's Toolbars for Firefox and Internet Explorer.

I have previously blogged about Skype's Toolbars for Firefox and Internet Explorer. At this point, these toolbars create a click-to-call from any number identified on a web page; they are optional with an installation of the Skype for Windows client. I use them quite often in my daily activities; simply click on the created Skype button, confirm that you are making a SkypeOut call and launch the call.

I have also previously blogged about PamFax, which effectively creates a Windows printer for sending documents (whether scanned in or in one of several Windows document formats) to any fax machine worldwide. Five or six clicks to send a fax.

Today I learned that PamConsult and the Skype Toolbar team have been working together to develop a click-to-fax extension to the Skype browser toolbars. While still in beta, you can download either of them here. For Firefox it becomes another plug-in that is an extension of the Skype Toolbar for Firefox.

Simply click on the link and, if you have previously installed PamFax, it launches with the fax number "pre-inserted". You can then scan in, or select, a document for faxing to the destination fax machine. Eventually this feature will be an option during installation of the Skype for Windows client. If you have not previously installed PamFax you will be taken to the PamFax download site.

PamConsult has also performed some service upgrades and announced a new referral-to-a-friend incentive program as outlined on this PamNews blog post.

Tags: PamFax, Skype, Skype Toolbar for Firefox, Skype Toolbar for Internet Explorer, Skype for Windows

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 02:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Rebecca is in Alice Springs (via Dopplr) but leaving today and has planned trips to:

• Katherine on May 20th
• Darwin on May 21st
• Sydney on May 21st
• San Francisco on May 21st

Can Skype Nomad Ground Control help me meet Rebecca in San Francisco? +1-510-206-1138 or Skype me.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 07:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Recently I reported on plans for VAPPS to rebrand its business grade conference calling service as HiDefConferencing. Well last week it happened. And the plans have been renamed to Pay-As-You-Go, HiDef 10/25/50/100 and HiDef Ultra for 500 participant calls. Each plan has Unlimited minutes for those accessing the call via Skype. A new plan, High Def Toll Free can support a call of up to 500 participants @$0.07 per minute per user but with no Skype access.

So why would you use HiDef/10 when you can have ten participant conference calls within Skype. It's about who is hosting the conference. With Skype Conference Calling, the host's PC is hosting the call and subject to interference arising from a range of issues from connection speed and quality to PC configuration (especially processor and RAM) to giving way to Outlook downloads. With HiDef Conferencing, VAPPS is hosting the call on one of its servers which is solely dedicated to managing the call. For $25 per month you can ensure VAPPS' business grade conferencing for up to ten participant calls.

A ten day free trial for a HiDef/25 account is available.

And recall that the reason for the HiDef rebranding is due to the service's support of HD Voice (wideband audio) for all participants who access a call via Skype. Fewer misunderstood words, inflections and accents as well as a high quality listening experience.

Tags: HiDef Conferencing, High Speed Conferencing, VAPPS Inc., Skype, Conference Calling

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Two bloggers in the IP communications space who should be congratulated:

Andy Abramson, through his VoIP Watch, has been recognized on the Industry Standard's Top 25 B-to-Z List Blogs for his ongoing and often in-depth coverage. From the citation:

VoIP Watch

As the title suggests, Internet telephony is the name of the game here, but Andy Abramson also touches on the uses of voice over IP, such as telecommuting and how people access the Internet for voice calls, such as public Wi-Fi.

Highlights

-- Skype's Silverman---Umm, Not Exactly: "How much of a genius does one need to be to realize that the reason many eBay sellers are on eBay is that they DON'T want to talk with their customers?"

-- Can You Hear Me Clearly?: "Audio conferencing is clearly changing from where it was a few years ago ... old-school conference companies should take notice and be getting scared."

Ken Camp and Sheryl Breuker have acquired moving disease (or moving mania?). They just moved to a new home in Olympia, WA where Ken has been a IT manager for the State of Washington for several years. Last week arose an opportunity for Ken to architect and lead the IP network integration of a business activity that has been carried on since Adam Beck led the effort that resulted in Ontario's first hydroelectric power generating station at Niagara Falls over a hundred years ago. And, in creating what become Ontario Hydro, Sir Adam (Canadians could be granted knighthood in those days) used a slogan that could be a rallying cry for today's net neutrality debate:

"Power at Cost" and in Latin, "dona naturae pro populo sunt" ("the gifts of nature are for the public")

Congratulations, Ken, and we look forward to your contribution to the convergence of the Internet with a long standing public utility business process. Let us know what it's like to move every three weeks!

Full disclosure: the author attended a high school that was the closest neighbor of, and arch-sports rival to, Sir Adam Beck Collegiate referenced in the Wiki article. And this is my first use of Latin since studying it in high school decades ago.

Tags: Andy Abramson, VoIP Watch, Industry Standard, Ken Camp, Sheryl Breuker, Adam Beck

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

The American Pavilion at the annual Cannes Film Festival provides a communications and hospitality center for the thousands of Americans in Cannes participating in the Festival. For the duration of the festival, the American Pavilion provides both a supportive business environment and an opportunity to mingle in comfortable surroundings. While in the past Pavilion visitors could use the pavilion's Internet facilities to make Skype calls, this year Skype has become an official sponsor, responsible for not only providing the voice communications services but also support for using Skype's High Quality Video to allow Americans who cannot travel to Cannes to participate in panel sessions hosted by the Pavilion.

I had the opportunity to speak with Julie Sisk, Founder and Director of the American Pavilion on a rather busy day setting up just before the Festival's opening yesterday (May 14). She talked about how Skype will allow participation in panel discussions by directors, such as Titanic's James Cameron, whose production schedule precludes making the time commitment required to be physically in Cannes as well as writers and journalists whose budgets preclude making the trip. Of course it presents new logistics challenges, given the 9-hour time difference between Cannes and Los Angeles, but schedules for their "In Conversation" and "Industry in Focus" series have been altered to accommodate. Skype is ensuring the relevant phones, webcams and other hardware is available at both ends of the link. I also asked about how they ensured sufficient bandwidth at the Pavilion for all this communications activity, especially with the adoption of video; apparently Intel is responsible for providing the WiFi and associated connectivity infrastructure. Julie stated that the Pavilion is reputed to have, amongst journalists and photographers, one of the best Internet connections at the Festival.

From the press release:

Movie stars, directors and other Hollywood royalty that don’t make it to Cannes can make their video calling connection via Skype to the American Pavilion, the business and hospitality center for the press, filmmakers, stars and others attending the famed festival running from May 14 to May 25.

Titanic director James Cameron and cinematographer Vincent Pace, executive producer of this year’s Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour and other luminaries will be linked via Skype video calls into discussions hosted by the American Pavilion.

The American Pavilion will use Skype video calling in its “In Conversation” and “Industry In Focus” series, in which respected filmmakers and industry insiders offer audiences opinions and insights, in moderated panel discussions. The discussions happen nearly daily during the festival.

Discussion participants who are joining via Skype will be seen and heard live on computer screens and speakers set up on the panel. They will be able to see and hear the activity in the Pavilion—and speak to the audience and other panelists —through computers equipped with Web cams, microphones, speakers and Skype software from their location.

The Skype video call integration is the first such use of video calling technology at Cannes, a seminal movie-industry event that attracts approximately 30,000 industry insiders and media to the French Riviera each May.

Julie Sisk, Founder and Director of The American Pavilion, said, “Skype video calling ensures our discussion audiences benefit from as broad a range of industry expertise as possible, by allowing us to include motion-picture professionals regardless of their locations. The film community is increasingly global, and Skype helps make certain that the Festival is as inclusive as possible of that entire community.”

Certainly another publicity coup for Skype, adding to the awareness being generated by Oprah, who has extended her use of Skype beyond the "New Earth" seminars into remote live interviews during her daily show, and CNN. Having worked several years ago, for 20 months, in the Los Angeles area where the media and entertainment cloud infuses into your bloodstream no matter how remote you are from the actual production activities, this will generate significant opportunities for Skype.

Pictures were taken the first day of this year's festival and supplied by Skype PR.

Tags: Cannes Film Festival, American Pavilion, Skype, High Qualtiy Video, Julie Sisk, James Cameron, Cannes 2008

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Rebtel just announced free calls to China and Burma due to the recent earthquake. Cool. http://www.rebtel.com/callforhelp

twitted by Robert Sanzalone  @ 1.25km from Nagoya, , Japan - 16 minutes ago.

Warms the heart.

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

My first connection to the communications market came through a VON Canada event in 2004 in the Greater Toronto Area; at that time I was working with a collaboration product and wanted to see if there was a role for it in the overall communications space. One year later, at VON Canada 2005, a meeting with Stuart Henshall was my first contact with Skype Journal. (My VoIP interest started with a VoIP offering that my last employer, Quarterdeck, put on the market in early 1996, so it was not a new concept for me by any means.) And it was at the final VON Canada in 2006 that I first reported on behalf of Skype Journal as none of the Skype Journal editors of the day could make it to Toronto.

Since then I have attended several Fall VON's in Boston and this year's Spring VON in San Jose. But over the past eight weeks stories have been flowing about the demise of VON; Thomas Howe, who was an adviser to Pulver Media, provides the most comprehensive eulogy for VON as a result of developments over the past week. And Andy has pointed out that VON's investors of 2007 have been able to recover about $1.7 million for VON's assets; there was something of value to someone there.

However, as Tom so eloquently points out, the VoIP innovation community remains and lives on; we just have to find a new "venue" for meeting. Can Lee Dryburgh turn eComm into a commercially successful event? In the interim maybe it's the daily SquawkBox call hosted by Alec Saunders. But Andy needs to figure out a way to continue his VoIP blogger dinners which had become a staple of the VON ecosystem. And we wish the best to Jeff Pulver, Carl Ford and their colleagues as they begin Life 3.0.

Tags: VON, PulverMedia, Stuart Henshall, Skype Journal, Thomas Howe, Andy Abramson, VoIP Watch, Lee Dryburgh, eComm 2008, SquawkBox, Alec Saunders, Jeff Pulver, Carl Ford

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 06:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Andy Abramson at VoIP Watch has attempted to respond to last week's two stories that created a lot of buzz:

• The Skype Killer to which I responded: Much Ado About Nothing and, subsequently, The Chickens Come Home to Roost - the IP Communications Saga Continues, and
• The Clearwire/Sprint/Google/Intel story about a WiMax carrier partnership.

Andy, in his post, What's Next In IP Communications? Here's An Idea To Look At, is simply that -- an idea that, in business practice, just won't happen.

Instead of simply being another voice play to battle Skype or the mobile operators, the WiMax companies and the cable operators, and heck, even Ma Telco may all may find that they may be better off looking in another direction.

That direction is real-time video communications bundled up along with other IP related services like voice and text, all in one neat little package.

Why video when selling voice to their already installed user base is already there for the cable guys?

Because it is different.

In essence video is the next level of real-time communications to be nurtured and embraced, not only because its ready now, but because it also gives the WiMax, Telco and cable players a very different value proposition to offer and lead off with.

Too many players, too many egos, too many "ifs" and too much agreement required. And video communications really has no proprietary technology beyond normal technology licensing. Rogers launched the first North American video calling plan last week with its Rogers Vision package (which can be bundled up with voice and text) along with its launch for support of the Nokia N95 8GB. It's about who has access to the customer base; who can handle the billing readily. (I could almost see another Vonage scenario where Sprint/Clearwire would have to go out and find a critical mass of customers, incurring huge marketing costs.)

Alec Saunders says, Me Different, Not Really:

No, to really really change the game would require a leap of imagination that I don’t think Clearwire / Sprint possesses. WiMax is symmetrical high speed. Imagine a pure peer sharing network instead. Something like the TerraNet system — Skype style p2p for communications, and bittorrent style p2p for content distribution. Mesh it so you don’t have to build out a massive infrastructure. Price the whole thing at a flat rate for access only, and sit back and watch the destruction of 125 years of legacy telecom.

Sorry, Andy ... it's not a play that's going to be executed. Just look at Novell's failed attempt to create a standard UNIX consortium back in the mid-90's. Somehow a virally adopted operating system called Linux got in the way -- and it did not need "big players" to sow the seeds. Yet today Linux (and Open Source software) has become one of IBM's key resources for many of its offerings. Think of Skype's technology and ecosystem as the "Linux" of the real time communications world.

Update: Jon Arnold has just piped in with his: Skype-O Killer... que'st que c'est... He starts off with:

I can't seem to face up to the facts,
I'm tense and nervous and I can't relax...

Recognize the lyrics? Of course you do. But if you don't, it's from Psycho Killer, an early tune from one of my fave bands, the Talking Heads.

Like the title of my post? Clever, huh? Starts making even more sense when you start with the lyrics (did you pick up that other subtle Heads innuendo?). Those first two lines say it all for me when it comes to this Skype-killer storyline that started early last week with Om Malik's post.

Sorry, Jon. ... As for SIP as the common denominator for the telcos to make a play, just keep in mind that Skype is one of the world's largest users of SIP -- for its SkypeIn and SkypeOut services. They understand the technology, the protocol and where it can play a role; they can turn up the "volume" when it's appropriate in a "real time conversation" market context. Just because the technology and protocols are there does not a business make. (Skype's GM for Audio and Video was involved in the early evolution of SIP during five years spent at Microsoft. He recalls what the dream was and what today's reality is for SIP.)

Tags: Andy Abramson, VoIP Watch, Rogers Vision, WiMax, Alec Saunders. SaundersLog, UNIX, Linux, Novell

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Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

With RIM's annual WES event starting later today we started to see announcements Monday about a new Blackberry and a new VC fund for mobile applications.

Blackberry Bold is definitely a major smartphone enhancement from the current Pearl, Curve and, most notably, 88x0 lines. Reading through the new specs, the Blackberry Bold addresses several issues that have been of concern in the past:

• triband 3G support extends support to GPRS/EDGE/HDSPA networks
• "push button" WiFI setup to readily access "protected" WiFi access points
• significantly improved multimedia support - overall (streaming) video performance, iTunes synchronization, new media player, improved display
• and, while they're still working on it prior to the Blackberry Bold's summer release, a new web browser.

Amongst the new specs:

• faster processor (@ 624 MHz, the fastest Blackberry)
• 128MB internal Flash memory but also 1GB on-board storage memory
  • expandable to 16GB via MicroSD/SDHC slot
• 2 megapixel camera
• GPS with Blackberry MapsBlackberry MediaSync to transfer media from iTunes
• half-VGA "ultra-bright" display (480 x 320)
• higher capacity battery:

Of particular note; it maintains the traditional QWERTY keyboard with ergonomic improvements - a key Blackberry defining feature relative to iPhone -- and is its "trackball ergonomics" their response to iPhone's touch screen?

With its newly enhanced, high performance browser and high-resolution, ultra-bright display, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone gives users an on-the-go web browsing experience with desktop-style depiction. The trackball mimics a mouse, making it easy to navigate sites in "Page View" or "Column View" or to zoom in on specific parts of a web page, while various emulation settings allow users to choose between the full desktop-style HTML content and layout or the mobile version. Attachments can also now be downloaded from within the browser and there is support for watching streaming videos (RTSP – real-time streaming protocol).

While the official press release talks about it as a "business" smartphone, Crackberry.com reports from the WES preview day:

Target Market? There's been a lot of talk about the target market for the 9000/BlackBerry Bold. The basic confusion to date is that it looks a bit "enterprisey", but has a camera built-in which historically screams consumer device. What it comes down to is that RIM didn't have an enterprise/consumer target in mind with the BlackBerry Bold. The real goal here was to build a high-end device that was the ultimate BlackBerry to date... the BlackBerry on Juice (err..Steroids)... putting WiFi/GPS/3G into one unit with a Speeeedy Processor and some More Memory. So there's no target market per se, but there is an Appeal...and the BlackBerry Bold is going to Appeal to BOTH Enterprise and Consumers. It'll appeal to the Business Executive and it will appeal to us Gadgetholics who just HAVE to have the best device on the market.

In addition it appears that iPhone is not the only smartphone getting VC funding support for applications. Yesterday RBC Financial, Thomson Reuters and RIM announced the Blackberry Partners Fund - $150 million "to invest in mobile applications and services for the BlackBerry® platform and other mobile platforms". Toronto's JLA Ventures, who have been involved in startups for over ten years, is a co-manager of the fund along with RBC Financial. Long time personal acquaintance Rick Segal of JLA talks about the fund and JLA's role; also Rick is interviewed by VentureBeat. Rick emphasizes that mobile applications only make business sense if they run on multiple mobile platforms, including Blackberry, and that only JLA and RBC Financial will make the funding decisions with no role for RIM.

Looking forward to using iSkoot and IM+ for Skype on the Blackberry Bold. While the Blackberry Bold represents advances in device resource issues, there are still thecarrier issues of network capacity, mobile VoIP call quality and unlimited data plan availability to be addressed before we see a reliable mobile VoIP client running on a smartphone.

Tags: RIM, Blackberry, Blackberry Bold, Blackberry Partners Fund, Rick Segal, JLA Ventures, RBC Financial, iSkoot, IM+ for Skype

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

Guest post by Kent E. Soulé, San Francisco, California

It used to be possible to import GMail contacts into Skype (actually, Skype would search my GMail contacts, and identify the ones with Skype accounts).  Very helpful ... particularly when I have over 900 GMail contacts.

In November or December 2007, this feature ceased to be functional (though you wouldn't know it from the Skype website).  Instead, when I now try to import contacts from GMail, I receive a message that "Skype could not find any contacts from your address books" ... and offering to "Click here to add people to your contact list manually" .... riiiight!!  See the attached image.

The loss of functionality appeared to occur coincident with the late 2007 GMail interface upgrade (which I don't use) ... though the two aren't necessarily related.

I wrote Skype tech support, and received the advice to remove and reinstall Skype.  Sure. What I didn't tell them is that I am experiencing this behavior on three different machines: two that are XP (one of which is at the office, and maintained by the IT Department) and 1 that is Vista. 

Hard to believe that "reinstall Skype" is the solution (it wasn't). I've searched the Skype forums, and others have experienced the same problem (the nasty workaround is to export your contacts from GMail to Outlook, and then do an import from there).

Each time there is a new version of Skype, I keep hoping that the problem will be fixed.  Nope.

Posted by Guest Blogger at 06:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Rebecca before 33 days on the road for Skype

Skype Nomad's a nice mix of reality programming, travel porn, product field test, and marketing stunt. Rebecca Campbell, 26, is in motion for 33 days, going around the world Eastward from London. She's blogging her journey and posting updates flickr (you gotta see her photos), facebook, twitter (via Nokia N95), Dopplr and MySpace.

Skype had a smaller role in last summer's Blue Planet Run, a multi-country athletic event.

Titles worse than Skype Nomad: "Trolling for Outlets", "Bandwidth Tourism", "Around the World 47 Days Faster Than Phileas Fogg", "Eat, Pray, Skype", "Realtime Travel Voyeurism", "Exercises in Sleep Deprivation". 

This is a simple, direct, promotion. It brings Skype into the real world, away from desks and offices.

So far Rebecca's been to Singapore, Beijing, Yi Chang, Chongqing. (Did you know China has more Skype users than any other country?) Coming up:

• Guangzhou on May 12th
• Hong Kong from May 12th to 13th
• Perth on May 14th
• Kalgoorlie on May 15th

More points in Australia. Then California and Alaska. England, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Sweden, ending in Estonia.

I've been resisting this because, after all, it's a corporate publicity gimmick. And I'm no sucker, right?

Right. But this must be what they mean by PR 2.0.

It was very low key. Nobody pitched me. Nomad Ground Control built Skype Nomad's social media persona across multiple networks. Buzz reaches me naturally, through people I know, in contexts I trust.

Because it engages with the real world, the outcomes are unpredictable, so there's suspense, and news. It builds to a climax at the end: will she be able to finish? On time?

The stream of updates lets people identify with Rebecca and meet other fans. This 800-hour-long event also builds up critical mass, as word of mouth spreads.

I've been sucked in to the experience. Ducking security at an airport. Taking a boat up the Yangtze River. Food Porn. People watching. Trouble squatting on a train. It's fun, tiring, gritty, with a host who's ready for the challenge.

See also:

Jan Geirnaert on Rebecca's confused Skypephone presence.

Jim Courtney on Connecting and Enabling the Global Nomad.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

The German appeals court almost ruled against Skype today in Skype vs. GPL before Skype withdrew the appeal of its July 2007 conviction. Skype was convicted of not following the software license that comes with Linux. Skype used Linux in PC-free Wi-Fi phones.

No news release from Skype on this. No word from Skype on what they, their suppliers, and their distributors will do to comply with the GPL, or when.

Harald Welte's post:

Victory: Skype withdraws appeals case, judgement from lower court accepted

The court hearing in the "Welte vs. Skype Technologies SA" case went pretty well. Initially the court again suggested that the two parties might reach some form of amicable agreement. We indicated that this has been discussed before and we're not interested in settling for anything less than full GPL compliance.

The various arguments by Skype supporting their claim that the GPL is violating German anti-trust legislation as well as further claims aiming at the GPL being invalid or incompatible with German legislation were not further analyzed by the court. The court stated that there was not enough arguments and material brought forward by Skype to support such a claim. And even if there was some truth to that, then Skype would not be able to still claim usage rights under that very same license.

The lawyer representing Skype still continued to argue for a bit into that direction, which resulted one of the judges making up an interesting analogy of something like: "If a publisher wants to publish a book of an author that wants his book only to be published in a green envelope, then that might seem odd to you, but still you will have to do it as long as you want to publish the book and have no other agreement in place".

In the end, the court hinted twice that if it was to judge about the case, Skype would not ha